Why I voted for Barack Obama

1. Saying NO to Special Interests: Special Interests and Lobbyists have become too powerful. It has gotten so bad that lobbyists are now writing legislation for Congressmen to act as sponsors. Of course if your job relied on having enough money to be re-elected, it would be hard for you to turn that money down. Obama is the ONLY candidate not to take money from specials interests or lobbyists. Therefore he will be accountable to those who are funding his campaign - individual citizens!
2. Hope: Obama energizes younger and traditionally downtrodden people with his energy and optimistic outlook. I agree with Obama - this country can live closer to its ideals if ALL of us are part of it.
3. Judgment and Vision: Obama has the vision to see what can be and is courageous enough to stand up for what he believes. Today that is clear is his (correct) stand against the gas tax holiday, which will decrease prices for a few days, increase demand, and take the prices back up, with that additional revenue going to the oil companies, not to our roads in disrepair. But on a far more important issue Obama took a far less popular stand in 2002:
   

Kudos to Coach Crean!

"Our staff is going to ensure that anyone who attends this university and wears the Indiana uniform will make this privilege among their highest priorities and not treat the opportunity as an entitlement. We fully expect our student-athletes to accept the responsibilities academically, athletically, and socially that come with representing one of the top programs in college basketball history.

There was a culture of entitlement in this program. And that had to stop."

- Tom Crean

And stop it did. On Friday new IU basketball coach Tom Crean announced the dismissal of DeAndre Thomas and that Armon Bassett and Jamarcus Ellis would not be reinstated. This comes on the heels of Thursday's announcement that Eli Holman would also be transferring. Of course, on his way out he allegedly threw a potted plan in Crean's office, leading to campus police being called.

With the exception of Bassett, the other players were all Kelvin Sampson recruits. He sure knows how to pick them. Of the eight players he recruited to IU, two were kicked off the team, one threw a plant while informing the coach he was transferring, and one was suspended for 3 games during his only season. Only two of the eight will suit up for IU next year.

IU will be lousy next year, but I don't care. For the first time since the Knight era, I really feel like IU is doing everything the right way. From bringing in good kids, to playing by the rules, to going to class, to being well-coached on the floor, the IU basketball that I loved is on its way back.

Thanks Coach Crean!

Joe Flacco & the Ravens

The Ravens 2008 draft has received mixed reviews. Mel Kiper gave them a solid B while I've seen several other reviews give them a C or even a D. Of course, rating a draft a day afterward is absolutely ridiculous. You need at least 3 years to get a good read on its impact.

For the Ravens the success of this draft will ride predominantly on the success of first-round pick Joe Flacco. And I hate to admit this, but I REALLY like this pick. While I love his arm, three things have stuck out to me - his accuracy, his ability to learn quickly, and his seemingly unflappable demeanor. All three traits are vastly different from what Kyle Boller brings to the table. Add to that the fact that Cam Cameron will be mentoring him and the odds of Flacco succeeding just feel much higher than they did with Boller, who was a reach from the beginning.

As far as the rest of the draft, I don't think we'll see any immediate impacts. They drafted a couple more offensive linemen, which I like, but both will need to further develop before becoming starters. I like the pick of Tavares Gooden, a MLB from Miami, but he will be a backup next year. The pick of Tom Zbikowski, the safety from Notre Dame, was another good one but he will not start next year. The Ravens traded their 4th round pick for CB Fabian Washington, who was a bust in Oakland, so I don't feel that they've adequately addressed their CB situation.

Next year will be a very important year for some recent Ravens picks. It's time for Mark Clayton ('05), Adam Terry ('05), David Pittman ('06), PJ Daniels ('06) and Chris Chester ('06) to step up or step out. It's time for Demetrius Williams ('06), Antwan Barnes ('07), Prescott Burgess ('07), Troy Smith ('07) and Jared Gaither ('07) to make major progress. It will be important for Ben Grubbs ('07), Marshal Yanda ('07), and Yamon Figurs ('07) to continue their solid development. The Ravens are getting old very quickly. For the transition into (hopefully) the Joe Flacco era to be a smooth one, the younger Ravens must perform.

1st Place Baltimore Orioles!

The opportunity to say that has been so rare over the past 25 years that I couldn't resist the headline, even if it's only 7 games into the season. Since the O's won the 1983 World Series, there have only been 3 seasons - 1989, 1997, & 2005 - in which the O's spent a significant portion of the season in first place. And in two of those seasons - '89 & '05 - they fell short of the post-season.

Despite this week's fun, I fully expect the O's to finish in last place. But that's OK. For the first time since the early 90's, they actually have a logical philosophy in place. While it's still early in his reign, Andy McPhail has a sound strategy and appears to be executing it well. Already, five of the players acquired in the Erik Bedard and Miguel Tejada trades are on the roster and contributing. Adam Jones is off to a slow start but has already gotten some timely hits. Luke Scott is batting .500 and hit his first HR today. George Sherrill, Dennis Sarfate, and Matt Albers have combined for a 0.00 ERA and 4 saves out of the bullpen.

As we go through the season, here is what I'll be watching:

• Adam Jones: He may struggle early on. How will he handle it? What adjustments will he make? In 2006, his rookie season, Nick Markakis was hitting .200 in early June. He ended up near .300.
• Adam Loewen & Jeremy Guthrie: This is essentially their first full seasons as starters. How will they hold up? How will they adjust once the league has season them a few times? Can they develop into long-term members of the starting rotation?
• Dennis Sarfate, Randor Bierd, Greg Aquino, and Matt Albers: All 4 were acquired in the off-season and are in the bullpen. For years the O's bullpen has been a disaster. Are any of these guys long-term solutions? Will Albers be moved into the rotation?
• The Norfolk rotation: Triple-A Norfolk has 3 young pitchers with major-league potential - Garrett Olson, Radhammes Liz, & Hayden Penn. How will they perform at AAA? When will they get called up? If they are called up, will the O's start them out in the bullpen?
• Chris Tillman, Chorye Spoone, Jake Arrieta, Tim Bascom, Brandon Erbe: More young pitchers at the Single-A and Double-A levels. All have high ceilings. How will they develop?
• The Frederick Keys: This team has a ton of talent, including the O's past three #1 picks - 1B Brandon Snyder, 3B Billy Rowell, and C Matt Wieters. Their rotation includes Arrieta and Erbe.
  
• O's 2009 road uniforms: It's past time to put "Baltimore" back on the road jerseys! The deadline for changes is sometime in May.

While the O's are no threat to win the pennant, this should be a fun and interesting year, as long as Peter Angelos lets Andy McPhail do his job. And since I haven't said this in a while - SELL THE TEAM PETE!

Crean & Crimson!

IU introduced Tom Crean as its new mens' basketball coach today. After watching parts of his press conference all I can say is "Wow!"

Crean is the brother-in-law of new Ravens' head coach John Harbaugh. Both come across as great motivators and bring an incredible amount of passion and energy to situations that desperately need them. With the recent hires of Crean, Harbaugh, and Andy McPhail/Dave Trembley, all three of my teams are finally headed in the right direction.

There are two things I really like about Crean. First, he has a true respect for the tradition of Indiana basketball. He talked today about watching the '76 Hoosiers as a 10 year old in Michigan. He also talked about going to a Bob Knight clinic and being absolutely mesmerized. He understands and embraces some of our quirky traditions, like the candy-striped warm-ups.

The second thing I really like, and it is somewhat related to the first, is he strongly believes in doing things the right way. That means playing by the rules and graduating players. He said today that all 23 players he had at Marquette that stayed 4 years graduated. If I'm going to donote money to IU I want to know that the scholarships it funds are truly being used to gain an education.

The only thing he doesn't bring is the motion or Princeton offense. But if that's the only downside, I'm OK. It may take some time, but I am confident that IU FINALLY has found the man to lead IU basketball down the right path for years to come. After so long, I am again feeling good about the direction of IU basketball!

The future of IU basketball

With IU's basketball season ending in predictable fashion late Friday - a pathetic effort against a good, but not great Arkansas team - it is now time for IU to again hire a new coach. While I do not believe that Dan Dakich should be the new full-time coach, I think he outlined exactly what the new coach must bring to IU:

"This needs to be built with a foundation of discipline. This needs
to be built with a foundation of accountability. This needs to be built back to where there is a real pride among the people that know everything that is going on within the basketball program, where there are former players that come up and have pride with what is having with what is happening in the basketball program...
I am just telling you the culture right now lends itself to exactly what is going on here. To get this right for Indiana people, Indiana fans, the Indiana nation want it done right. Where there is no embarrassment. Where there is nothing but pride in all areas. That is something that has to happen at IU. Doesn't have to happen everywhere but it has to happen at Indiana University. That is just the way Indiana University conducts its business. Particularly in the basketball program. Criticize it, say it is right, say it is wrong, criticize individuals all you want. Certainly that is being part of an Indiana basketball coach or
Indiana basketball player but I am just telling you there is a pride and a way that is bigger than whether you win or lose games. That takes care of itself with IU but you have to do things in a certain way. You have to do them right, you have to do them with people that care. You have to bring in the former players, bring the whole environment of what made this great. Whether it was the 1940 national championship, the 1953 national championship, the 1976 national championship---it has got to be. This is one of the few programs where it absolutely has to be. It is not a program of maybe yes, maybe no. It has to be here at Indiana and that is what makes it great."

Amen, Brother! I guarantee that if the IU Administration had used the above as a guideline they would not have hired Mike Davis or Kelvin Sampson.

One thing that disturbs me about this search committee is that there are no former IU basketball players on it. I really believe there should be at least 2 - one from the Knight era and one from the McCracken era - as they truly understand the culture of IU basketball. Given that Dakich will be remaining at IU in some capacity next year, I hope his words have some influence.

One of the major challenges in abiding by what Dakich has outlined is that there really is no one in the "IU family" that has the record indicating that they understand the above AND that they can win. Dakich and Steve Alford come the closest but both of their coaching records fall well short of what IU demands.

Therefore I think IU will have to go outside of the "family." However, that doesn't mean they have to compromise their principles. My #1 candidate, Tony Bennett, actually does have some ties to IU (his sister Kathi was the IU women's coach from 2000-05). But more importantly, his own basketball background is grounded in a very similar philosophy. He grew up in the Midwest, the son of a coach who followed the same principles. He is young (38) and he has done an amazing job at a basketball afterthought in a tough conference. Yesterday I watched his team dominate a very good Notre Dame team by playing great defense and very disciplined offense. Growing up in the Midwest he certainly understands what IU basketball once stood for. Heck, his dad and Coach Knight are good friends.

I've heard some conjecture that he may not want to come to IU because he feels his sister may have been mistreated by Rick Greenspan. Perhaps there is truth in that, but at Kathi Bennett's resignation press conference this is what she had to say:

"This is a decision of mine. I made this decision and it wasn't anything else but that. I want to make sure people know that for me, Rick Greenspan taking this job was a godsend. My relationship with him was great and he supported me a great deal. I think he is going to do great things here. The short amount of time here with him has been wonderful."

Now that I've outlined what I think IU should do, do I think IU will actually do it? Of course not. Given that the administration has no former IU basketball players on the search committee indicates that they really don't care. They will hire the biggest name they can find, with a glitzy resume, regardless of what his principles are. Then they'll have a press conference where they pay lip service to the tradition of IU basketball and restoring IU back to those winning ways. The president will say a few words about the new coach being committed to playing by the rules and graduating players. Yada, yada, yada. (If you doubt me, see the transcript of Kelvin Sampson's introductory presser.) Heck, I've even heard an Internet rumor saying that a trustee has already confirmed that Rick Pitino will take the job and another rumor saying his wife was in Bloomington last week looking at houses. (Of course, I also heard that rumor in 2001.)

IU Administration - do the right thing!

The State of IU Basketball

I have to admit, I'm almost glad that IU's season is almost over. This season was ruined the moment the news broke about Kelvin Sampson's latest cheating in October. Other than DJ White and 2 games in February, this team has not been worth watching. They are extraordinarily talented...and extraordinarily selfish and undisciplined. I'm not a fan of Bob Kravitz, but he sums it up pretty well:

IU's Selfishness

In a way, I feel for Eric Gordon. He seems like a good kid and he is incredibly talented. But I don't enjoy watching him play. It seems that he is a victim of his talent and today's screwed-up system. He obviously has NBA-talent but he just doesn't seem to know how to play good basketball. He constantly takes bad shots and is extremely careless with the ball. To say he hasn't lived up to expectations would be an understatement.

I have developed my personal list of coaches I would like IU to consider:

1. Tony Bennett (Washington State): There are 3 things I like about Bennett - (a) he's young, (b) he has an excellent record at a program with little history, a poor location, and plays in a tough conference, and (c) he has learned under 2 outstanding coaches - his dad and Bo Ryan. I have to admit, I love his connection to Bo Ryan. I love what Ryan does at Wisconsin with teams that usually don't have the most talent. Bennett has done similar things in a very short stay at WSU.
2. Jamie Dixon (Pittsburgh): At first I though Dixon was just riding Ben Howland's coattails at Pittsburgh. Then I did some research and, much to my surprise, Dixon has been running that program for 5 full seasons now. In those five years they have played for the Big East tourney title 4 times, winning it last night. I've been impressed by 2 things - (a) the way he kept the team together despite a ton of injuries this year and (b) his ability to recruit New York. While I wasn't blown away by Pitt's style last night, I was very impressed with their intensity, especially given they were playing their 4th game in 4 nights.
3. Sean Miller (Xavier): Again to my surprise, Miller has already been at Xavier for 4 years, so he has had the opportunity to put his stamp on the program. They spent much of this year in the Top 15 and clearly out-classed Coach AT&T when Xavier blew out IU in November. Being in Cincinnati he has strong midwestern ties, unlike Dixon.

Despite my pessimism regarding IU's post-season hopes, I look forward to the NCAA tourney. At the very least, I'll have the opportunity to scout these coaches. :)