Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Erik Spoelstra - Dead Coach Walking

In a scenario extremely reminiscent of 2005, the spectre of Pat Riley looms over the Miami Heat bench. This time, caught in the crosshairs is young Erik Spoelstra, a young coach whose players are openly questioning and debating whether or not he should be on the bench of the Miami Heat.

Flashing back to 2005, Stan Van Gundy (who you may recognize as that Ron Jeremy look-alike wandering about NBA sidelines) was the head coach of the Miami Heat. In the previous season, he brought an injury ravaged team to the seventh game of the Eastern Conference Finals before losing to the eventual champion Detroit Pistons. In a situation widely thought to be orchestrated by Riley, Van Gundy abruptly resigned from his position as head coach on December 12, 2005, stating that he wanted to spend more time with his family. In response to the 'unforeseen' and 'unexpected' departure of the coach, Riley 'reluctantly' came down from his elevated position as president of the Heat, and promptly led the team to it's only championship.

Fast forward to 2008. Riley once again resigned as coach of the Heat, and elevated another assistant, Spoelstra, to the head coaching position. Once again, in his first two seasons, the coach brought the team into the playoffs. Following the same script, Riley brought in several players (Shaq in 2005, Lebron and Chris Bosh in 2010) in an attempt to win a championship. Continuing the parallel, the team has started off slowly (10-8 at the time of this post).

However, here is the difference: the players never questioned Van Gundy's ability. LeBron James has openly questioned Spoelstra's coaching acumen. When asked about his coach, Dwayne Wade stated “He’s a different person and I’m a different player than when we came in." Wade then continued, “So, I’m not going to say he’s my guy, but he’s my coach, you know. Right now, in my opinion, no one is doing a good job, we’re 9-8. We’re all in this together. Players not doing a good job; coaches not doing a good job. As a whole. When success comes, we win as a whole. We win four in a row, Coach is going to look great.” Nothing quite like having your coach's back, right? I wonder if those two took their directions right from Brutus's playbook as he stabbed Caesar.

James has repetitively stated that he is not 'having fun this year'. Perhaps I missed the point, but isn't professional sports supposed to be about winning championships or getting paid, based on your outlook? Didn't James state that the reason why he was 'bringing his talents to South Beach' was to win titles? So what if the coach is demanding that you stop goofing off and actually do something, for example - practice the plays and defense, at an actual practice? Last time I checked, LeBron, for all his talents, is not Allen Iverson in his prime and does not have nearly .0001% of the heart, guts, and determination Iverson had. LeBron is a spoiled child who is used to getting his way, and doesn't like that Spoelstra is calling him out for it.

As such, the Heat are literally on the brink of outright mutiny. Spoelstra is trying to put out all the fires he can, but that's hard to do when wearing gasoline pants in a flame filled room. Even though Riley states that he has no intention of coaching this team, don't be surprised if you see him at a Miami area orphanage looking for an infant to give Spoelstra so that he can 'spend more time with his family'. The inmates are running the asylum in South Beach, and it's a matter of time before they get the warden that are demanding.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Why is Joe Namath in the Football Hall of Fame?

With every hall of fame, regardless of the sport, there are certain players enshrined that do not make sense to be there. Either the player in question gains a reputation far beyond his actual abilities, there is a weak class of eligible players for that year, or the player gains entrance through the votes of his peers - a number of which may be on the voting committee (this is actually how 'High Pockets' Kelly made the baseball Hall of Fame, but I digress). In the case of Joe Namath, we have a classic case of the first way in, a player that made it in solely on reputation.

Looking at Namath's career stats, he should not be allowed in Canton even if he bought a ticket. What are his statistics? He had 173 touchdowns, against 220 interceptions. That is a difference of 47 more interceptions than touchdowns. Not good at all. For passing yards, he amassed 27,663 over a 13 year career, which averages out to just over 2100 per season. His per game average - 152. Again, not a good number. His career quarterback rating was a miserable 65.5. The highest quarterback rating he had in any season over his career was 74.3 in 1969. This career mark leaves him tied for 180th all time with Norm Snead. Who? Exactly. Some of the luminaries of the quarterback position that are ahead of him on the list are Eric Hipple (68.7), Joey Harrington (69.4), and Quincy Carter (71.7). Namath is barely ranked ahead of Rick Mirer (63.5) on this list. This is not exactly a list of all time greats that he is surrounded by.

So does this mean that Hipple, Harrington, Carter and Mirer should be enshrined? They are comparable, and in some cases better, than what Namath was in his career. Yet no one is rushing to give them a bust in Canton and the ugly mustard yellow blazer received upon induction.

Then there is the argument that Joe Namath was a winner. His career winning percentage was 48%. He was not even a .500 quarterback overall. All he had was one game when he predicted a victory in a major upset. The image of Joe Namath became clouded with that one boast, and the subsequent images of 'Broadway Joe' in fur jackets, wearing tights, and being the consummate ladies man - which is something Joe still thinks he has, just ask Suzy Kolber.

Stripped away of all the glitz and legend surrounding Joe Namath, he was nothing more than a below average quarterback. Unless there is a Hall of Fame for mediocrity, he should not be enshrined anywhere.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Man up Vince Young

On Sunday, another spectacle in the arena of sports immaturity occurred in Tennessee. Once again, the leader of this three ring fiasco was none other than Vince Young, whose inability to handle anything remotely resembling adversity is starting to achieve legendary status. This time, Young was upset about being removed from the game and not permitted to re-enter, despite the fact that he had severe problems gripping the football and did not mention to anyone that he wanted to play.

So VY reacted to this as only VY can. He took his jersey and shoulder pads and threw them into the crowd. Then he followed that up by walking out of the post game meeting. When his coach, Jeff Fisher, told him that he was walking out on the team, he replied with 'No, I'm walking out on you.' Absolutely classic line right there. And people were concerned about Randy Moss being a problem in the clubhouse.

Then on Monday, Young attempted to enter the team meeting as though nothing happened. Only now, Fisher placed VY on the IR, since his thumb is going to require surgery and he will not be recovered by the end of the season. As such, he is not required to attend these meetings. In order to drive that point home, Fisher had Young removed from the facility, and told him not to come back. To be honest, I think Young handled that part well, in that no one had to contact the suicide hotline or put out an APB to locate him afterwards.

Finally, it dawned on our wayward quarterback that he should apologize to his coach. So, how does he choice to accomplish this task? In a way that only Vince Young and other people that are too cowardly to do so in person would - he sent a text message. Now, I realize that I don't know Jeff Fisher personally, but based off the Tom Selleck mustache he has, I'm thinking that Fisher doesn't quite know how to text. In fact, to quote Coach Fisher: "I'm not a real big text guy. I'm not really into this new-age stuff," he said. "I don't Twitter or tweet. But I think face-to-face is a man thing, OK?" In fact, when he was asked if a text was better than no apology at all, Fisher said: "Someone could have grabbed his phone."

So Vince Young, man up. It would be the first time you did.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

NCAA recruiting volations and logic

On November 20th, the NCAA suspended Bruce Pearl of Tennessee for the first eight games of the SEC conference play. Until that point in time, he will be able to coach the team during games and lead practices. So, when is the beginning of the SEC season to cause the suspension to begin? Try January 8th.

In the meantime, Pearl will have plenty of time to teach his system, coach the players, and make certain that the assistants know exactly who to play when. Also, he gets to lead practices and implement game plans - he just can't lead practices on game days. This led to Bruce Pearl uttering the following quote: "I have been a very public advocate for playing by the rules," Pearl said Friday. "When you don't play by the rules, these are the things that can happen. So while these penalties that we've self-imposed and now the commissioner's imposing are unprecedentedly strong, it sets a very high standard and a high standard that I agreed to."

Let me get this straight: not being able to coach the team for a total of eight days in a span from January 8th until February 5th is a strict penalty? Especially when the coach can lead practice on every other day and see to it that the game plan he comes up with is implemented for the opponent? Seems to me that this is nothing more than a token slap on the wrist.  At first glance, this appears to be a strong punishment if one focuses strictly on the eight games. However, in reality, this is barely a punishment at all.

If the NCAA and the conferences were serious about cleaning up recruiting violations and improper benefits to 'student' athletes, they would suspend these coaches for entire seasons and put crippling sanctions on the programs they coach. Instead, typically the punishments are nothing more than something to appease the other schools while chiding the violators for being careless enough to get caught.

It is, in a way, pathetic that one can almost safely assume that every major school in the major college sports (football and basketball) is doing something underhanded in order to gain an edge. Seemingly each week, there are new reports and scandals.  This over-saturation of scandals and violations has done nothing more than to desensitize those that follow college sports. At this point, I would be shocked to find out that a major school in a major conference was running their program in a legitimate fashion.

College athletics is supposed to be about amateur players playing for a love for the game and trying to follow their dream of making it to the professional ranks. Instead, it is nothing more than a cash machine for their schools. And this is not going to change unless the NCAA gets serious about punishing any violations of the rules in place.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Derek Jeter gets another Gold Glove why?

The American League Gold Glove awards were announced the other day.  There were few surprises amongst those who received the awards (Ichiro getting his tenth in ten years, Mark Beuhrle getting his second, Franklin Gutierrez being recognized) and for the most part, there were few flaws with those who received this award.  However, that is unless one looks at the winner of the Gold Glove award for shortstop - the essentially immobile Derek Jeter.

Looking at the metric for defensive capability (Rfield - which measures the number of putouts, assists, and double plays made by each fielder, and comparing those totals to positional norms of other fielders to arrive at a figure above or below average. Each extra out made, or hit allowed, is worth X runs which leads to the FR figure) Jeter ranked dead last in the American League, and 27th of 28 shortstops in baseball that played a minimum of 100 games at that position (here is a link to the chart at baseballreference.com: http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/9067 ).  Now, this is taking nothing away from Jeter; he is a smart baseball player who knows almost exactly where to position himself with each hitter. If he is able to get to the ball, he typically makes the play, as exemplified by his six errors all season.  However, he simply does not have any range at this point in time in his career. He has major problems getting to a ball hit in the hole or behind second base unless he is already shaded in that direction.  Getting to a ground ball anywhere beyond two steps of his location either way is improbable at best.

The best choice for the AL Gold Glove award based on the chart would have been Jack Wilson. However, he plays in Seattle on a dismal ballclub and is not a 'name' for the fans. Let's face it, how many people out there care about Jack Wilson's baseball career outside of his family? Having the career that Jeter has had, and playing in pinstripes, definitely helped him get this award.