Insert a thousand words here. No prose can capture the beauty of that picture. If Superman himself were to tea bag someone, that is what it would look like. It’s as if Danny Green had practiced his whole life for that one moment. Note the eerie similarity between Green’s pose during The Tea Bag (yes, this is officially The Tea Bag now) and the sweetest logo of all time.
Sometimes the universe aligns in just the right moment and gives us history. The Tea Bag is one of those moments.
Danny Green is quickly becoming one of my favorite players in college basketball. This is not wholly due to his authorship of The Tea Bag, but it’s part of it. Green is a pure gamer and I love watching him play. He can shoot (48% from the field, 85% from the line and 38% from deep this season), drive (The Tea Bag), run the floor, rebound (5.4 a game in 22 min off the bench) and defend (1.3 steals a game, 7 blocks against Duke). He is a stat stuffer and provides instant energy for a Tar Hell team that is already stock full of it. Green reminds me of The Matrix Shawn Marion with his versatility and athleticism. Green even has the cocky swagger that Marion does not. Needless to say, I am very excited to watch Green and the Tar Hell Co. over the next three weeks.
Speaking of tea bagging, I’m so relieved that there is at least one person in the media who is not lining up to service Brett Favre on his Peter King sponsored retirement tour. Glubiak forwarded me this link to a piece written by ESPN’s Sal “The Vowels in My Last Name Don’t Make Sense” Paolantonio. If you enjoyed the beginning of my last post you will enjoy this as well. Or if you just want the other side of the Favre bandwagon.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=paolantonio_sal&id=3281535&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab5pos1
In one final note about the Duke-Carolina game, Dicky V is quickly becoming one of the worst color commentators in the business. There is hardly a shred of any actual analysis anymore. All Vitale does is gush and scream about 1) the college atmosphere 2) the passion, heart and effort of the players, and 3) the omnipotence of the coaches. It is nice to expound on these virtues once a game, but Vitale went on a rant about these things every 3 minutes. I never once heard a interesting or poignant piece of analysis or any semblance of X’s and O’s. ESPN needs to sack up and tell Viatle to actually do his job or he’s canned, but of course this will never happen.
On the other hand, I was very impressed by the pre, mid and post game comments by UNC alum Hubert Davis and Duke grad Jay Bilas on ESPN about the best rivalry in sports. On Game Day, both gave props and respect to the other team while still strongly defending why they believed their respective alma maters would prevail. At halftime, both presented frank and unbiased analysis about what they had seen (Davis: “If North Carolina continues to play good defense, they will hold on for the win”. Bilas: “Duke must handle the ball better if they have any shot of coming back in this game”). Most impressive of all though was after the game when Davis didn’t gloat (like Boo-yah or Keyshawn would have done) and Bilas didn’t act like a sore loser (“Carolina played harder and deserved to win this game”). There was none of the contrived argument that ESPN loves to promote these days. Plus you had vanilla-but-effective Rece Davis moderating and Digger’s ridiculous hat as high comedy. Throw in one of the best play-by-play men in the biz right now (Dan Schulman) and the smoking hot Erin Andrews roaming the sidelines and you get some of the best coverage of a major sporting event that ESPN has done in a while. It’s just too bad Vitale brought them all down to a 2 from a 10 because of his incessant idolatry of college, its students, players and coaches.
I hope everyone got a chance to watch the UVA-Maryland game last night and the terrific end to Sean Singletary’s brilliant career. It was a satisfying ending to a disappointing regular season to beat the Terps by 15 at home on Senior Night with 44 leading the way while getting his jersey getting retired. Not only that, Singletary was just named to the All ACC First Team for the third year in a row. Singletary garnered Third Team All America status last season, the first time since Ralph Sampson that any Wahoo has earned that recognition. It looks bleak that he will repeat on that team with the way the season has gone, but we all need to recognize how good of a plyer we have watched in Charlottesville over the past 4 years.
Painfully corny note of the week. It hurts and saddens me that some loser UVA fan at the game last night got on TV at least 5 times with one of the worst signs in recent memory. “Thanks 44 the memories” it said. So stupid. So painful. If the number was just 4, it would have been alright because the play on words would have actually made sense and it would have earned a small smile. But since it’s 44, it doesn’t make sense and it sucked. Plus the dude was wearing a backwards cammo hat. F.
Let us all be thankful that Ryan Pettinella also played his last regular season game for the Cavs last night. If he had two more years left instead of having transferred from Penn I would weep every day for the next two seasons. Pett had a vintage game against Maryland for his standards. Unfortunately this means playing horribly, picking up 3 fouls with no other stats in 7 minutes. Horrific production. Pett finishes the regular season minus 15 points to fouls. Pett is really not good at playing basketball.
Well, that’s it for today folks. The college basketball scheduling gods have managed smiled on the Cavs in terms of the ACC Tournament. Be sure to tune in Thursday night at 7pm on ESPN2 as we take on a very beatable Georgia Tech team in the first round. Should the Hoos win, we play Dook the next night at 7. I am very grateful that I will be able to watch these game(s). Thank you college basketball gods. Be sure to look for an Eliminator update later this week. Until then my friends, stay safe, keep it real and curve your hats right.
1 comment:
Gutie here. All I can say about that terrific photo is YES. YES. That about sums up my feelings. It wouldn't have been nearly as perfect if it wasn't Paulus, either.
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