Unprecedented

So how bout that Texas A&M-Byalor game on Wednesday? No, I’m not talking about the five overtimes, I’m talking about the comically large logo that the Aggies have plastered at the center of their home court. And it’s not just one image, it’s two. There is the outline of the state of Texas superimposed by an enormous red T with a star in the middle.


It seems to me that over the past couple of years, college basketball teams have been putting the biggest images they can find in the middle of their court, and I for one think it is freakin sweet. I think it looks really cool. The bigger the better. It really adds to the spectacle of watching a college basketball game on TV. I can only imagine its effect in person. As it turns out, the A&M court not only has this awesome image, it is made out of old school parquet wood. The basketball gods have indeed smiled on Reed Arena. Unfortunately for the Aggies, the bball deities have not smiled on the actual team, who have lost 3 straight after being ranked as high as number 9 in the country.

I don’t know who started this trend, but I feel like Kansas has been sporting the biggest Jayhawk I’ve ever seen in Allen Field House for quite a while now.


Look at that thing, its enormous. I think stamping your court with a ridiculously sized logo is a trend that should flow throughout the college basketball world. Many teams already have it in place, and I think it should become rampant. Texas also has the state of Texas outlined on their court, but of course with a Longhorn on top of it.


Even perennial SEC cellar dweallar Mississippi has gotten into the act, with a little twist. Their signature M at midcourt is not that preposterous, but they superceded it with the school’s name running from 3 point line to 3 point line.

Awesome. Just awesome. UVA should adopt this trend as soon as possible. Except in the middle of JPJ should be a snarling Cavman, not the V and Sabres. And I’m not talking about the face of the current, racially indistinguishable Cavman. We need to bring back the logo from the 80’s, like the one on the orange mesh hat I have. A dashing, frowning, Italian looking Cavman that looks like he wants to beat your ass. We should have one of those at half court, and as big as humanly possible. Littlepage, it’s in your hands now.

So sticking with college basketball, UVA is in free fall mode. We are now 1-3 in the ACC after the loss to Florida State on Wednesday night in Tallahassee. That’s good for last place in the conference. Not good. Unless we can put together a run and somehow get 9-10 wins in the ACC, there is no chance of making the Tourney. Sean Singletary had to be better against the Noles. We only lost by 2 but Singletary only had 11 points on 4-11 shooting. That’s not going to cut it.

The only positive thing that came out of the FSU game is updating the original Oceanliner feature about Ryan Pettinella’s season quest to have more fouls than points. It’s been three games since the last update, when Ryan stood dead even at 24 each. Against the Hokies, he boosted his stock with a 6 point, 4 foul performance. Then he stalled against Boston College, accumulating 4 and 4. And then he was awful against the Seminoles, picking up 4 fouls with only 2 points in 12 minutes. Hey at least he is consistent with his fouls. And now he’s at 36 apiece for the season! 12 games left for the big man, and I think it’s going to be a quite a heart pounding ending. Stay tuned.

So the UVA men’s tennis team is good, but I had no idea how unbelievably good they were until I checked the most recent rankings. They are the number 1 team in the nation, picking up 27 out of a possible 37 first place votes. Somdev Devaarman, the reigning NCAA singles champion, is ranked number 1 in the country individually. We also have the numbers 3 and 12 ranked players in the country in Singles. Plus Devaarman and Treat Huey are the number 1 ranked doubles team in the country. UVA returns 6 out of 7 starters from a team that reached the national semifinals as a team last year and finished ranked second in the country. In a word…stacked. Let’s hope the Hoos can bring home the title this year.

All of this tennis success can be attributed to the recruiting and coaching of head man Brian Boland. When he came to Charlottesville in 2002, the Cavs weren’t even ranked in the top 75 in the country as a team. Since then, he has turned the program a consistent top 10 power, won 3 ACC championships and produced 8 All-Americans. This includes 1 national semifinal appearance and 2 quarterfinal berths. In his five years at alma mater Indiana State, Boland had a 121-32 career record and led the Sycamores to the NCAA tournament 3 times. Dude straight up knows how to coach and how to recruit, and I’m glad he’s in Charlottesville.

For all of you Blind Side fans out there, Michael Oher has declared for the NFL draft and will forego his senior season at Ole Miss. The best of luck to him. For those of you who have not read The Blind Side, go buy it immediately. A must read. In short, it’s about a poor black kid in Memphis who basically doesn’t go to school until the 8^th grade, but has unbelievable football skills. It is written by Michael Lewis, the same author of Moneyball. Go read it now, it’s well worth it. It’s so good that Tyler, Gutie and Fish all managed to read the book during a 5-day span at Beach Week in between bouts of getting drunk. The Blind Side has the official Oceanliner stamp of approval.

So we all know by now about the lynching comment made by Golf Channel anchor Kelly Tilghman about Tiger Woods. Now the editor of Golfweek Magazine has been fired for putting a picture of a noose on the cover of it’s latest issue, and it reeks of PC bullshit. Here is what the editor had to say right after the issue’s release:

"Was it an arresting image? Yes, it was," Golfweek editor Dave Seanor told USA Today. "We chose it because it was an image we thought would draw attention to an issue we thought deserved some intelligent dialogue."

And then a couple of days later, Seanor gets fired. What an absolute crock. This is a guy who is thinking correctly about the situation. This issue damn sure needs some intelligent dialogue around it. Race is still a huge issue in the United Sates and in golf as well. But these PC freaks just want to shove it under a rug and pretend it never happened. This editor tries to shed some light on the issues and gets fired. The anchor who made the comment only got a 2 week suspension. This is the way the US is heading, and it sucks.

Finishing with more depressing news about UVA sports, quarterback Jameel Sewell has been suspended from the school for the spring semester for failing his classes. Three other players were also suspended, but none matter as much as Sewell. Way to go jackass. We don’t even know if Sewell will be eligible to come back in the fall, but even if he does he loses all of the practice time over the spring and summer which would have been vital to his development. Now we have to prepare for Southern Cal with Napoleon Dynamite as our quarterback. Oh well, it’s just UVA football.

Well, that concludes this week’s double dose of The Oceanliner folks. Hope you liked it, but don’t get used to it. I would like to wish Eschenroeder a very happy birthday; the young man turned 23 on Thursday. I think the plan is to celebrate on Friday evening out at various saloons in the District. Other than that, no big plans this weekend for moi. Hope everyone is doing well. Until next time then, stay safe, keep it real and remember to downshift.