Some Quick Thoughts...

I can’t wait for my new favorite college basketball team, Marquette, to match up with my long-time enemy, sparty. Even though Marquette was obviously f’ed in the seedings, Crean and the playas deserved at least a 5 seed. I would be more excited if 2nd team All Big East* Jerel McNeal wasn’t out with a wrist injury. Dominic James needs to play within himself and the Warriors should match–up nicely with the Spartans.

* 2nd team is pretty impressive until I realized there are 11 guys on the 1st team. I guess the Big East interprets “team” as the entire roster as opposed to a starting five. As a matter of fact all of the post-season Big East “teams” have an odd number of players (1st = 11, 2nd = 10, 7 honorable mentions, 11 All-Rookie). It seems like recognizing 39 players in the league kind of waters down the award(s) (there are 16 teams in the Big East). 2+ players/team seems like a pretty big pool of “exceptional” players.


· The Lions have totally screwed up the off-season and they are well on their way to making another colossal mistake in the draft. Since my last update they have allowed their starting DE, S, and G walk away with no compensation, and the guys they’ve signed are not as good as the ones they let walk away for nothing. Millen also traded away Dre’ Bly for the next washed up ex-Denver RB, Tatum Bell. Great. It looks like the Lions future backfield will be a combo of Tatum (I couldn’t beat out Mike) Bell, TJ (I play best when spartan Bob messes with the clock) Duckett and Kevin (I sucked before my injury, now what?) Jones, rather than Adrian Peterson, one of the 2 can’t miss impact prospects on the offensive side of the ball in this years draft*. The Lions seemed primed to take Joe Thomas, T, Wisconsin. An offensive lineman from a Badger program that has produced such dominant NFL road graders as Aaron Gibson and Chris McIntosh, that’s just what the Lions need. Brady Quinn, QB, notre dame, is also in the hunt to wear the Honolulu Blue. Although a QB that has a history of male modeling and losing big games might be a step up from the current assembly of turds (kitna, orlovsky, and that guy that plays wr), there is no way Brady Quinn turns the Lions around, hell, I’d rather have his brother-in-law. Uggh, the Gridiron Heroes are down right now, I’ve never seen it worse.

* The other one is WR Calvin Johnson, and if the Lions take him in the first round, for reasons obvious to any Lions fan, I’m done. My fandom will be officially up for grabs.


· Attention Cubs Fans: There is no way Ron Santo if a Hall of Famer strictly based on the fact that the Cubs already have 3 guys in the hall from his era* and that team didn’t win anything, no penants, no world series. It is my contention that if the hall is going to recognize 3 everyday players and a pitcher from a team, that team had better have won something, otherwise those players could not have been hall of famers. Meanwhile my hometown team, the Tigers, won a world series in 1984 and played for the pennant in 1987, and has yet to be recognized by Cooperstown. Shortstop Alan Trammell and his double play partner Sweet Lou Whitaker (check out the pic from their days in the minors), and the Tigers ace Jack Morris (winningest pitcher of the 80’s) need to be inducted before they let Santo get near the place.

* Billy Williams, Fergie Jenkins, Ernie Banks, and Santo played together from 1966 – 1971.

McStarbucks?

Starbucks big wig Howard Schultz recently penned a memo titled “The Commoditization of the Starbucks Experience”. The memo decried the massive expansion and dilution of the original mission of the corporate coffee house behemoth. I think ‘bucks crossed the tipping point from coffee shop to a virtual McDonalds some time ago. Just last week, I sat in the drive through, sandwiched in among a fleet of Nissan Armadas and Chevy Suburbans (the most aware suburban moms get the flexfuel model to make up for the 12 mpg guilt), when I finally made it up to the box that you shout your order into. I ordered a regular brewed coffee and then had to wait for the “barista” to try to upsell me into any number of different pastries and breakfast sandwiches, and I thought to myself, “is this really any different than the 'barista' at McDonalds asking if I ‘want fries with that’”? And the much lauded Starbucks experience has almost completely morphed into what I would classify as faux upscale fast food. Heck, McDonald’s coffee defeated Starbucks in a recent comparison completed by Consumer Reports. Schultzie does make a good point: Starbucks has diluted their brand by continuing to offer more and more products that aren’t coffee, and there is no turning back. It’s only a matter of time until you can walk into a Starbucks and hear a grill sizzling while the “baristas” are feverishly working the fryer. And trust me, running the fryer correctly requires the same amount of craftsmanship and skill as the automated espresso machine.

I'm Back...

It’s been awhile. I was thinking about taking the New Cuts down, but I decided it’s time for its resurgence. I’m going to leave the old postings up, but the new New Cuts is probably going to be a little different… different but the same.

Some quick updates:

· The Deeeeetroit Pistons are looking real good for the playoffs. Dwyane Wade’s shoulder injury makes the Stons a prohibitive favorite to return to the NBA finals. The addition of CWebb has improved the Pistons offensive efficiency and he seems to be moving much better than he was in Philly. The only team I’m really concerned about, now that Wade seems to be out for the year, is the Spurs. You read that right, that’s the ONLY team I think can beat the Stons in a seven game series. The Allas Mavericks and the Suns are offensive juggernauts, but they don’t play the D that’s necessary to win a NBA title. Side Note: I hope the Pistons get the opportunity to match up against the Bulls and their turncoat center, Ben-edict Arnold Wallace, preferably in the conference finals. Furthermore, I hope the Pistons foul the Bulls’ overpaid and underperforming, whiny center every time they touch the ball in the 3rd and 4th quarters of every game. It will be interesting to see how the Bulls evaluate their $60,000,000 signing of Mr. Wallace after he shoots 40% from the line and single handedly demolishes the Bulls chances of a title in the process.

· The University of Michigan had a very good football season that ended poorly. Lloyd Carr is an exceptional coach and his critics are simply demonstrating their football ignorance. The BCS title game was a little odd for me, I’ve never been rooting for a team to win and then, due to the game, thoroughly enjoy seeing them taken out to the proverbial woodshed. Especially that weasel in his fruity red sweater vest. As for basketball… frankly, it’s embarrassing to be a fan of any Wolverine hoops team right now. Tommy Amaker is a horrible, horrible coach. We’ve basically devolved to the point that we would be happy to simply make the tournament, and I’m

not talking about the NIT. We either need to start cheating again or simply give up, like Penn State. My brother went to Marquette and I’m solidly on their bandwagon now. Whenever I’ve asked him why he roots for Michigan football he always replies that his school doesn’t have a football team, and I think the once proud hoops program has been sufficiently devalued so that I can use the same reasoning to root for his squad. Go Warriors, er, Gold, er, Golden Eagles! I think it’s ridiculous that they dumped the Warriors as their mascot, but I back the move they made a few years ago to get rid of Willie Wampum, aka Chief Marquettewek. Ol’ Willie was a little over the top.

· To all the Sparty’s that rushed the floor after beating wisco in East Lansing the other night:
You should be ashamed of yourselves. That’s weak. Did the UofM students rush onto the turf at Michigan Stadium after beating Northwestern in 1997? No, of course not, Michigan football has a proud tradition of winning conference and national championships. We would never think beating a school that might have been playing ok for the last few years would be such a great accomplishment that it required rushing the field. If you really think you’re a premiere basketball program you should start acting like it.

· I went skiing last weekend with the crew. In addition to skiing we drank scotch, gambled and demolished a prime rib and seafood buffet at the Brookside Inn. A bunch of waitresses tried to throw some of their game at the 4 of us, but if we wanted to hang out with a bunch of women we would have stayed home. As an aside, c’mon up north dudes, if you’re ladies were willing to throw their game at this motley crew you need to seriously get your act together, seriously. The pilot project for the annual ski trip went pretty well, can’t wait ‘til next year when we add some more peeps to the mix.

· The Lions had a typical season and will be picking 2nd in the upcoming NFL draft. Picking anyone not named Adrian Peterson will be a monumental mistake, and making monumental mistakes is the Lions specialty.

Awesome Viewing Experience

This weeks MNF game was one of the most entertaining games I've ever seen. Urlacher took the game over in the 4th quarter and willed the Bears to a victory, not something you see very often from the defensive side of the ball. I haven't seen it since the greatest college defender of all time, #2. Now that I think about it the Wolverine D line was primarily responsible for the UofM victory at Penn State last Saturday night, so I guess I haven't seen it since Saturday, regardless, the game tonight was highly entertaining.

Segway's are for losers...

Great post over at Jotsheet regarding Segway’s. Man I hate those things, maybe the dumbest invention of the last 10 years. Does anyone else have any geek friends that were touting the Segway (or Dean Kamen’s "it" as it was previously known) as the most important invention this side of the wheel? Dummies.