A Cinderella Story
The match up seemed hopeless on paper, and Kentucky appeared just as daunting when it took the floor before a Big Blue mass of 24,402 Saturday night.
But the Cinderella Vols believed they could win, and for 30 minutes the glass slipper fit in Rupp Arena.
Thats the way the story starts at govolsextra.com.
Its a given that Tennessee played a good game against the Cat’s and its a given that barring a complete collapse by the Vols and a few more arrests they will be playing come March Madness time.
I don’t mind giving credit where credit is due but calling them the Cinderella Vols is stretching the amount of credit I’m really able to extend them.
Don’t they know the story of Cinderella? For those of you who haven’t read it or at least heard of the story I will tell it to you.
Once upon a time there was a basketball team that lived in a conference call the SEC. They cried because they couldn’t win a national championship and a low and behold a fast talking coach magically appeared who promised them they could dance with the trophy.
Now there were a couple of problems for the coach to overcome before this could happen. They didn’t have any designer clothes but that was easily fixed by trips to the mall and the county clothing store. They didn’t have a ride to the big dance so he would turn a pumpkin into a shiny city car come time for the dance and low and behold their problems were solved.
Sadly their two wicked step sisters Kentucky and Vanderbilt wanted them to stay home the evening of the dance so they resorted to judicial magic to escape. The pumpkin changed into a beautiful car with pretty flashing lights and their rags turned into beautiful orange jump suits.
Of course we all know how the story turns out, one and done. It would be a sad story but they got to keep the beautiful orange jump suits.
I know I know its not that good a story but desperation forces a man to write something like this to compete with story like Cinderella Vols. Cornell advancing to the final four would be a Cinderella story but calling Tennessee a Cinderella is a sign or increasing desperation.
Show the Cats a little love
One of our fans, Catlanta, had a great idea on Facebook that you might love too: Let’s fax some love to our Cats directly. Here is the number and the address of the UK Athletics office to send your messages so the Cats will actually get them! :
Send the Cats some love via snail mail, so they will see how much the real Cats fan in the Big Blue Nation really feel about them. Will you please do this too? I am going to send mine right now to the UK Athletics office.
Here is the address:
Mailing Address UK Athletics
Joe Craft Center
338 Lexington Ave.
Lexington, KY 40506-0604
General Phone 257-8000
According to UK Athletics, the fax # is (859) 323-1071.
Please do this! Let them know the Cat fans are behind them. Thanks!!!
Merry Christmas
We here at BigBlueRules want to wish everyone in the BBN a Merry Christmas. If fate and the post office favors us our Christmas present will finally arrive some time in March.
Merry Christmas
Some good lovin for Jamele Hill
Heres a show just for Ms Shock Jock to show Jamele Hill that not only do we know basketball we know music and what Ms Shock Jock needs is a little Charlie to fulfill her wildest fantasy’s since there is a snowball in hells chance that UK would hire him as a coach.
Here’s Charlie Manson crooning just for her in a Sunrise Show
Happy Veterans Day
Another Veterans Day has come and men and women are still deployed to places totally foreign to their beliefs to defend American freedom. The loss of one man or woman who is willing to fight to defend our freedom is a steep price but these men and women are willing to pay that price. They are what secure our freedom to live and worship as we choose not drooling politicians who might once have been like them but now are like a bad smell in the outhouse you cant flush away.
Patrick Henry once said give me freedom or give me death. I say give me one illegal immigrant, one gay man or woman, one poor boy from the mountains, one poorly educated boy, one well educated girl who understand that without paying the price freedom in America wont endure.
The real wizard
It’s been a good week for the Cats. Men’s soccer clinched a post-season berth with a win Wednesday over SMU behind senior Tim Crone’s goal in the second half. It was his 3rd career goal all against SMU. His other two goals came in a 2-1 victory over #1 SMU in 2007.
The #11 womens volleyball team showed they are deserving of a top 10 ranking by defeating Alabama Friday night. The lady Cats (23-2, 13-1) got their 50th win at Memorial Coliseum in the last four years with the win.
Men’s basketball routed Clarion 117-52 with John Wall scoring 27 in his first game for the Cats. DeMarcus Cousins had 20 points, Patrick Patterson scored 14 and Ramon Harris, Darnell Dodson and Darius Miller had 11 points. It was a clean well played game with excellent play by everyone who touched a ball.
The football Cats won on Saturday with a 37-12 thumping of Eastern Kentucky behind two second half touchdown passes by Morgan Newton and all around good play by the team.
So what did we learn this week? In football Morgan Newton, LaRod King and Chris Matthews are going to be great next year. Donald Russell is probably going to see more playing time after his 79 yard run for a TD.
In volleyball the lady Cats can go deep in the NCAA tournament and with a little scheduling luck bring home a championship.
In mens soccer we learned that SMU probably looks forward to Tim Crone graduating.
In basketball we learned that the real wizard isn’t the the pretender from Westwood nor is he the fine dining coach from Louisville or the blue collar earth wizard from Michigan. He’s certainly not the dripping wizard from Tennessee who’s only claim to wizardry is his ability to cast a spell on the color orange or the cave dwelling wand waver from Connecticut. And lets not get started on the kettle stirring witches from Carolina or the seller of love potions from Kansas.
The real wizard is the Wizard of Lexington. The Wizard of Lexington is not just a wizard in coaching and recruiting. He’s also a wizard in the way he cast a spell that brought back our ability to laugh and enjoy ourselves during a basketball game.
Changing of the Guard
I, like many of you, remember a time when we only had three channels to watch and the TVs were black and white. And each night that we turned that huge box on, we were throughly entertained. Seriously, does it get any better than Andy Griffith or the Honeymooners? Today, we have 900 channels of HD crap and can usually expect to not find anything on worth watching unless, of course, Andy Griffith or the Honeymooners happen to be on. Yes, I am exaggerating a little here but you know exactly what I’m talking about.
The same goes for the media today. I remember a time when news outlets had to tell the truth and provide sources to back up those facts. Certainly, the media has always shaded things, but at least you knew there was some sort of goal toward providing the bad so we could make educated changes for the good. Our news sources were limited and those sources knew they had a captive audience. Fast forward to today, and its just like TV. We have 900 outlets of HD crap. When I hear the term, “un-named source” why don’t they simply say, “Rumor”? But the issue here is intent.
Jerry Tipton: It’s my opinion that he is the most vile “writer” ever. His obvious disdain for UK wreaks in every word he writes. Now, we find out, that he is resorting to lies. Just in the past two weeks he tried to paint Patrick Patterson, who may well be the best thing that has happened to UK since Rupp, as a cheater by insinuating, without knowing, that Patterson was driving a “new” truck. I’ll be honest in saying I did not read the article and my facts here are second hand, but I think all of you know this to be accurate. He has also quoted fictitious NCAA rules in saying UK should report fans for chanting names of players. The rule doesn’t exist and he even made up the code number. The fact is, UK can not advertise recruiting visits or stage anything that would be outside of a normal student athletes day on campus. They are not charged with isolating recruits from fan adoration. Fans bring signs of players to games and UK can not police fans from bringing signs of recruits to games when they visit. Why does he do this? To me, it is obviously to degrade UK any way he can. I don’t know why UK still issues him a media pass, but they do.
Local media in general: They still, for some reason, operate as if they have a monopoly when they obviously do not. It seems that both the Courier and the Lexington Herald Leader feel that their online content is worth paying for directly beyond the numerous pop up ads. Their sites are both turtle slow and their news is now well past prime when it finally comes out. Both are having deep financial trouble as I understand it, and its easy to see why. The consumer based market has always operated on the principle that customers will buy your product if it is what they want. No one wants what these two papers are putting out as far as sporting news and they can’t seem to grasp that. I will do a back flip the day that Tipton writes his final piece.
Blogs: So what do we resort to if the local papers can’t provide us what we want? Blogs!! Fan-run sites that get the news and give it to us each and every second. The two I will focus on are sites run by Mark Maggard and Matt Jones. The goal of these type sites is to provide information from a fan’s prospective and both do that. These two have also had a major war over fan support. Most of you reading this probably visit one or the other but not both since this war has taken place. Why the war? On one side, it was suppose to be about money. Mark runs a site with premium content. Matt’s site has operated on the premise that news is free and shouldn’t be charged for and has used that for his attack on Mark. And the fans? They rushed like little soldiers ants to defend their generals which I thought was hilarious. The problem today is, Matt is now stepping up to do premium content for Coachcal.com. Granted, I have no problem with anyone who pays at a site or who provides, “premium content” for a site. But in Matt’s case, he has bolstered his own following on the premise that he was totally against pay sites. He drew the line, not us. So it seems that his main goal is to step up in the “media world” and he doesn’t mind stepping on his little soldier ants to do it. Two faced? Yes, in my book. As further proof keep in mind that he also operates by having his little soldiers find any and all news links that he then takes for his own on his site. He does that, again, under the premise that information is free. But just last week he was upset because a National outlet borrowed from him. Never mind the fact that it was content he had borrowed from someone else! But he is a lawyer so no one should be surprised. What he risks, however, is his ability to provide recruiting in-site as he does today. Reading back to the NCAA rules, fans can talk about and post information on recruiters which is borderline when it comes to Matt’s and Mark’s site. Anyone affiliated with the university, which would be the case if Matt provides content at Coachcal.com, cannot.
So what is the solution? How about a whole lot more of Larry Vaught. You can find his blog at: http://vaughtsviews.com. Larry is both a certified journalist AND a fan. He is the absolute best of both worlds. Yes, we want to know the bad stuff, only so we can demand it be fixed. But we also want the good and there is a ton of good every day when kids go to school, play sports, and become better adults for it. The Courier and LHL need to pay real close attention to Vaught. They could certainly take back their share if they provided content on a moments notice in the form similar to Vaught.
Courier Journal Genius!
What is the biggest draw when it comes to news papers? There are two, actually, and neither have much to do with each other. One is the sports section and the other is coupons. Without those two things, most newspapers would have folded long ago. I made the executive decision several years ago to forgo the coupons and read the newspaper sports columns from the net. This is even with the most horrid load times of any site I visit and this is also with some of the worst pop ups and forced marketing there is.
Well, it seems the Courier Journal has decided that their sports columnists’ opinions are worth paying for even with the forced marketing and horrid opinions and will start charging you if you wish to read them on the day they are printed. So ladies and gentlemen, I signal to you the beginning of the end of local newspaper media as we know it. The local papers have done such a horrid job of keeping up with the news in a way that people want it that most have simply stopped buying the product. Why do these idiots think we want to buy their crap on the net if we don’t want to buy it from the stands? I would think most people would still be supporting the local printed media if they half way did their job.
Let me ask you an insanely absurd question.. Would you pay an on-line subscription to read Jerry Tipton? I can’t stand even reading what he says when they try to force it down my throat for free, assuming the adware they force on us is considered free!
I really do feel sorry for the support personnel at the Courier who will most certainly lose their jobs. They are already required to take a percentage of time off without pay every quarter to off set the companies inadequacies. Now they must rely on us, the consumer, paying good money to read the BS we already attempt to ignore as much as possible. Those articles have been nothing more than train wrecks for years! You know it’s gonna be ugly, but its free so you gotta look anyway. I’ve never known anyone that would actually pay to see a train wreck, and I doubt people would start now.
I would have to think the better option would have been to fire the holier than thou A holes that write for these rags and hire some people who could relate to their audience. It seems to me that is what the local on-line media does that actually has a following. All we can hope is that the LHL follows suit with the same plan as the Courier after they go belly up, or sooner. The local blogs have provided information in a much more entertaining way and at a much faster rate! What this means now is people will get the free version of the Courier BS a day later, which isn’t really that big of a deal other than I probably won’t visit so I won’t even get to enjoy their pop ups.
Some more thoughts on Florida
–1st of all, yes, UK can beat Florida. Yes, they really, really can. It will require a near perfect game, but, as Florida has shown through three games this season, they too make mistakes. It’s just that they haven’t played anyone capable of capitalizing on them.
–UK will be the best offense the Gators have faced, all year. UK’s offense is actually miles above UT’s and Hartline looks like a God compared to Crompton. UK has better wide outs, better tight ends, better backs (across the board. Hardesty is better individually) On defense, our Linebackers are about even, and we doo have a good secondary.
–Don’t be deceived by the secondary play against UL. It really wasn’t as bad as the numbers make it look. What killed the secondary was lack of pressure up front. Steve Brown refused to blitz (you could even hear the commentary make apologies for his lack of blitzing by describing it like “Steve Brown doesn’t like to blitz for nothing…” That’s player/coach speak for, “Steve Brown doesn’t use the blitz enough”), and the front four are just not good enough to generate pressure play in and play out without it. As a result, Burke was rarely pressured and was sacked a total number of times equal to exactly double the number of sacks we generated versus Miami. Umm… Gee Steve. Speaking of which…. we uh… we didn’t get any sacks against Miami. So,… that sort of means that… two times zero, equals… Zero.
–So, I’m going on record right now. I’m calling the entire season’s success is on Steve Brown and his chickenshilt play calling. Either blitz, or be the .500 team that some here expect. You either get a plan to make plays behind the enemey’s LOS or you will lose and lose in MISERABLE FASHION in the next two games.
Anwho, some things I noticed from Florida through two games. 1st of all, you are wasting your time running anything less than 9 in the box. Tim Tebow is a very vanilla passer and his wide outs are not play makers. Florida is a rushing team. Period.
Also, this is an interesting thing I noticed about their play calling. Florida uses the wildcat to extremely good effect because they are using standard defensive fundamentals against you. You see, if you watched the Florida game, you didn’t see a lot of pancake blocks. Instead, what Florida does is have their lineman engage you in a standing rush that is more like a pass block than a run block. Yes, they are moving forward, but their primary goal is to not to block the defender. Their primary goal is to keep both themselves AND the defender upright so that the defender’s body becomes an extra obstacle for the linebacker.
This is genius because, fundamentally, Florida is NOT consistently pulling lineman to make holes. So, the linebackers are not seeing the usual run seams that they might attack on the read when a guard or tackle pulls. Instead, the linebackers are watching the exchange in the backfield and are ’scraping’ laterally to get into the play. Which means…. The linebackers are being shielded by their own players, and so are only able to hit a guy like Tebow or back AFTER they cross the line of scrimmage. As a result, your safeties end up making a lot of tackles.
–Believe it or not, I’ve actually seen this before as a player. Yes, it’s a refection on the athleticism of the team that can do it, because it tells you that their lineman have great feet as well as size.
–BUT, there is a defense against this and it’s very effective, though highly unorthodox. I almost fell out when our coaches taught this one, because it was so out of it.
–You run a 5-3, with a strong safety coming up before the snap to mix up blocking assignments. On the snap, if your line perceives the run rush…..
You ready?
…tackle the lineman. Cut him. Hit his legs and take him out. Roll into their feet and let/make them fall over you. Typically this will apply to your mid three on the front line. You would be amazed to see what an impact this has on visibility for the backers. There’s no wall for the backs. No seams with bodies to shield you from up field attack by the linebackers. Yes, they would frequently get three yards, but that was anathema to the team we played. They wanted big bursts with lineman and tight ends running up field and providing cutback blocks for backs in the secondary. As result, the opposing coach (Just as Meyer did against UT) got frustrated and tried to pass (his weakness) to shock our coaches into fearing the deep threat and recovering our safeties. We didn’t buy it. He threw incompletion’s. Tebow threw a pick.
–This was probably a lot easier in high school than it would be in college, because you’ve had so many more seasons of ingrained fundamentals and technique. D lineman aren’t trained to tackle o lineman. They’re trained to hit the seam, get off blocks.
–If UK can train it’s inside three to just cut when they feel the rush, they can do damage to this Florida offense. Plus, if you stop trying to use your d-line as primary tacklers, then anytime they fall back to pass they can rush, and because they’re being reactive to the offense, they are less likely to over penetrate and give up the screen.
It’s a thought. I can’t say it’d be a game long philosophy, but if Steve Brown this kind og defensive scheme on 1st down, we might all be very surprised at how effective this would be.
PRP Coach Stinson has been found Not Guilty
Former PRP high school football coach David Jason Stinson
was found not guilty Thursday in the death of a player who collapsed at a practice where the team was put through a series of sprints on a hot summer day.
Coach David Jason Stinson, 37, was charged after 15-year-old Max Gilpin collapsed at an August 2008 practice as the team ran a series of sprints known as “gassers.” He died three days later at a Louisville hospital of heat stroke, sepsis and multiple organ failure. His temperature reached at least 107 degrees.
Although there were other factors involved what no one has really talked about on the national scene much is that Gilpin was taking the attention deficit disorder drug Adderall an
amphetamine.
Heres just a few of the effects of amphetamines on people. They all interact bad even excessive sweating with heat and physical exercise.
# increased heart rate
# increased breathing rate
# irregular heartbeat
# increased urine output
# increased temperature
# fainting
# sweating
# fever
# convulsions
The state should be talking about banning players who are taking ADD drugs like he was from playing sports unless the coaches, parents and the state can come to an agreement about what can happen and ways to keep it from happening again.
Its sad a young man had to die to bring this to the publics eye but as it stands now its to much like playing Russian roulette with young mens lives.
