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JoePa, Rudy & A Baseball Breakfast - Mar 25, 2008
posted by: Josh
• I woke up this morning to catch a couple of innings of the Major League Baseball season opener, which is being played between Boston and Oakland in Japan. I truly enjoyed waking up with a live sporting event. Many NCAA institutions have departed from traditional scheduling to get some time on television, could morning competition be the wave of the future?
• We had a good discussion yesterday about Memphis' prospects in the basketball tournament, given that the Tigers struggle at the free-throw line. Greg Johnson was a worthy adversary, but I remain unconvinced that Memphis can win the national championship. • When teams make it to the NCAA basketball tournaments, more than just the student-athletes receive the thrill of a lifetime. Because cheerleaders, band members, team managers and other students are often integral members of the programs, they travel with the teams on their tournament runs. How sweet is it to be a trumpet player in the Davidson band right now? • How about an example of the positive relationship between higher education and athletics? The Penn State communications department is offering a course titled "Joe Paterno, Communications and the Media." Another focus of the class is the evolution of sports journalism in a new media world. • Entering yesterday's competitions, the Big 12 women's teams were a perfect 8-0 in postseason play (NCAA and WNIT tournaments). Iowa State and Baylor went down last night to end the perfection, but Oklahoma State and Texas A&M advanced to the Sweet 16. Texas and Nebraska will play second-round games tonight while Texas Tech and Colorado are still alive in the WNIT. • First and second-round games of the NCAA's Men's Basketball Championship were played in Birmingham this past weekend, and as George Vescey points out in yesterday's New York Times story, the action we watched looked much different than it would have 50 years ago. Jeff Capel led Oklahoma to the second round in Birmingham, and the historical significance of the location was not lost on the Sooners' coach, who is African-American. • Actor Sean Astin will join Chelsea Clinton at an event hosted by the IUPUI College Democrats this afternoon on the Indianapolis campus. If you don't know the name Sean Astin, you might recognize him as the actor who made "Rudy" famous. Could Rudy make you vote for Hillary Clinton? • The LeTourneau men's soccer and softball teams spent their spring breaks overseas, making an impact on less fortunate communities. The soccer program took a group of 16 to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where the student-athletes played soccer and shared gospel and personal testimonies with opponents. The softball team went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic, where it visited villages and local orphanages. • Did anyone participate in International Pillow Fight Day? It looks like it was a lot of fun, albeit a bit dangerous. 
CommentsWe always hear about how mid majors don't get in to the NCAA tourney for the men but what about the women? The Big 12 got 8 teams into the field and 2 are sub .500 in their league. How could they possibly be the best teams to get in? The big ten in a down year still got in 4 teams that went 1-3 in the first round. The Big East also gets in 8 teams. There were only 5 schools to receive an at large that did not play for one of the 6 BCS conferences. Do teams that are .500 or lower in conference play deserve to be in a national tournament? They are getting strong RPI's and SOS because of losses. There has to be some success against the stronger schedule, anyone can go out and schedule tough and lose. There has to be a balance. Rudy and Samwise combined don't have enough cache to make me vote for Hillary. Maybe Elijah Wood will stomp for Obama. Seriously though, educated voters shouldn't give credence to celebrities (and athletes) that endorse a candidate. Decide for yourself who is the best person for the job, not who has the most high-profile friends. I'm going to vote for Obama because I feel he's the person to lead our country out of this morass created by the Bush administration, but please come to that conclusion yourself. Could morning competition be the wave of the future? Who the heck on the west coast wants to get up at 3 a.m. to watch a game? Also, most people have to get to work and class and can't spend their mornings watching TV. Besides that, I would guess that most of the crews are union, which means they would likely get paid extra for weird hours (like 3 a.m.). The better solution for those schools that want to get more exposure: streaming games. It's a much cheaper solution and you can get around the finite constraints of airtime. Post a Comment |
  
Sox-Yankees happens 18 times a year; this is Figgy's second major league start in four years. Always take the chance to see something you've never seen before.
- Adam
   
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