An Industry that needs a bailout

This just in...from Fox News...

Police in Newark, 30 miles east of Columbus, said that when they responded to a report of a crash with injuries on March 4, they found a man who had wrecked a bar stool powered by a deconstructed lawn mower.

Kile Wygle, 28, was hospitalized for minor injuries. He was charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated after he told an officer at the hospital that he had consumed 15 beers, police said. Wygle told police his motorized bar stool can go up to 38 mph.

Wygle has pleaded not guilty and has requested a jury trial.

There are two signs of an apocalypse on this one...

1) They may be able to find a jury of his peers;

2) If you don't think you can build your own, you can buy one.

Baylor Bears stop shooting 3s

Been meaning to do this for awhile. The Baylor Bears are mowing down opponents toward the NIT championship. A buddy was complaining to me earlier this year that the team was infatuated with the three, and wouldn't take the ball to the hole.

Bill Simmons, aka the Sports Guy, goes on a minor rant about the three pointer, talking about how it doesn't give you a change to make an assist for a higher percentage shot, or to get the defender in foul trouble. All good points.

Well...
Baylor men's team record when shooting 22 3 pointers or less: 14-5
Record when shooting 23 3 pointers or more: 9-9

If you pull out the Paul Quinns and UT-Arlingtons from their schedule, the difference is even more.

22 or less: 10-5
23+: 4-9

It wouldn't surprise me if other teams had similar records, but I'm too tired to look it up.

That was depressing

The Sooners played so poorly Sunday I was too bummed to write about it afterwards. Blake outplayed the Italian League Rookie of the Year, but the Sooners had no answer to Denny Green, Ty Lawson, Bobby Frazor, Wayne Ellington and Deon Thompson.


Sooners couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a jumper, and the guards did a fabulous impression of the Feb 09 Baylor Bears, jacking threes with reckless abandon. The Sooners were 2-19 from behind the arc, and 22-35 from closer range. Toss out Blake's 9-12 effort, and the Sooners are still 13-23 on two point shots. Willie Warren had some success at one point in the first half of penetrating and getting shots, but didn't stick with it for long. Why they were so enamored with the three when it wasn't working just frustrates me. Someone needs to be able to penetrate/create their own shot.


I didn't really expect to win this game. I figured it would take a Crocker against Syracuse type of night from Warren, Crocker, or Davis, and it just didn't happen. The Sooner offense became really stagnant. A friend noticed it on Friday night even, the perimeter players aren't really moving, they're just waiting for Blake to dunk it or kick it back out to them. Substitute Kevin Bookout for Blake Griffin, and you have the 2004 Sooners, scoring 50 points per game. Kelvin Sampson woudl have been proud.


You have to give credit where credit is due, however, and that's to the Tarheels. They have better basketlball players, and more depth on their team. This is a team that made the Final Four last year, and all five starters played signficiant minutes during last year's tourney run.


The ILROY dominated Griffin - Taylor, that is - holding him to 4 points and two rebounds. Blake got his 23-16. Hansbrough tried a dunk over Griffin late in the game, but a throwdown over a 6-10 dude when you're 10 feet from the basket just doesn't work.

Next year will be interesting. From what I read, we have some good recruits coming in, so I'm looking forward to seeing how that pans out. Losing the Brothers Griffin is losing a LOT of production, and we're losing court general Austin Johnson.

Capel has some work ahead. If you go into the wayback machine, there was concern 24 years ago when Wayman Tisdale left a year early. However, Tubbs got more production the next year out of Darryl "Choo" Kennedy, Tim McCallister and David Johnson than you would have expected initially, and Ron Roberts and Stacey King got valuable playing time to be a force the following year.

With some development of Ryan Wright, Juan Patillo, and Orlando Wright on the inside, add a point guard (coming) and growth of Willie Warren, and the Sooners are poised to have an outstanding year.

Griffin to Return to Norman

by Rhett Bomar, Automotive Industry Reporter


Blake Griffin shocked Oklahoma Sooner fans today by announcing he would return to the Sooners for his junior year. Griffin did not hold a press conference, but issued a statement through the athletic department. Many were surprised by the move. Coach Jeff Capel said, "I'm as shocked as anyone. Blake was projected to be a top five pick in the NBA draft. He's going to earn millions of dollars in the NBA. But I'm thrilled he's returning."


In a move that many has many Big 12 fans crying foul, the Obama administration announced this afternoon that Tommy Griffin has been named CEO of General Motors. Rumors abound that OU President David Boren used his political connections in the Democratic Party to strong arm the administration into this appointment. Griffin will be able to telecommute from the Marc Heitz Auto Dealership near the Miracle Mile in Norman, Oklahoma. Obama's staff praised the move, "Griffin is a visionary. He's very sure of himself. You have to be to if you're African American and dye your hair red. He's never lost $10 billion dollars before. We think his fresh ideas and leadership will launch GM into uncharted territory."

Kansas State coach Frank Martin was appalled. I've never seen such blatant tactics in keeping compelling a student-athlete to stay at school. Plus, I wish we would have though of this for Michael Beasley. We coulda made him CEO of Boeing."

What do you read

Below you find the top viewed stories from the Daily Oklahoman earlier today. This is about 16 hours after the Sooners advanced to the Elite 8 in the NCAA tourney. Of course, what's driving the readership at NewsOk.com is 1) a football recuruit's arrest on an array of charges, 2) the overhyped weather; 3) finally an article about the Sooners defeat of the Saltine Warriors.

It's those little things that sometimes makes a coach's eyes wander...I'll never get the attention here that I could somewhere else, etc.

For example, if Capel goes to Virginia, how long before he's king of the athletic department and perhaps the state? 2-3 hours and he's light years ahead of Al Groh.

Hopefully Coach doesn't read this blog.

Tarheel Motivational Posters

Since Kommandant Obama has picked the Heels to win the tourney, I thought the UNC motivational posters should have an Obama slant. I didn't rotate them to the left, though.

Sooners Revenge Tour Continues

The Sooners finally got payback for a 2003 regional final dismantling by Carmelo Anthony’s national championship squad. The Sooners were impressive tonight. They never trailed in the game, and never led by less than 13 in the second half. The Sooners hit 9 of their first 18 three point shots, went 23-38 on two point FGs. The one weak spot was the 61% free throw shooting.

The vaunted Saltine Warrior zone defense lacked flavor against Crocker’s hot hand from outside and was unable to keep Blake Griffin from getting the ball in the lane. Griffin was 12-15 for the evening from the field. He made three dunks, three tip ins, and six layups while missing three layups. Griffin is now 37-47 from the field with 44 rebounds in the tourney.

The Crimson defense in the first half and first few minutes of the second half was stellar, as the Sooner guards contained Jonny Flynn and Eric Devendorf to below average shooting. On two separate occasions, Cuse guards lazily offered layups only to have them rejected by Tony Crocker and Austin Johnson. After that, I’m not sure if the Saltine Warriors found their stroke or if the Sooner D just put it in neutral – or both – the Cuse increased their offensive productivity after that.

Griffin ended up with another double-double, and had three outstanding dunks, including one from the baseline that resulted in Blake hitting his head on the side of the backboard. I’ve done that a couple of times myself, but only after lowering the goal to 7”.

I was very surprised that Crocker caught fire and posted a career high 28 points in this game. Most folks, me included, expected Willie Warren to assert himself in the game and be a premier contributor, but Crocker was on fire. At one point, Croker was 6-8 from outside the arc. He also added stellar defense on Rautins and Devendorf throughout the game.

I do have to tip my cap to Warren. For a kid that was an elite high school player just a year ago, he really does a good job of deferring to the hot hand and getting his shots in the flow of the game. As the game was winding down, Warren had the ball in semi-open floor on several occasions, but consistently slowed the tempo down and allowed some clock to wind down.

Capel did his normal outstanding job. He’s particularly good at getting Griffin maximum rest with minimal game time on the bench by maximizing the time around the TV timeouts. The Sooners more than held their own when the Terminator was getting his rest.

The one disappointing part for the game was the sideline coverage. During ESPN coverage throughout the year, the camera crews were overly fascinated with showing the Tommy and Gail Griffin, like they’d never seen an interracial couple before. Anyway, there was a gorgeous blond sitting behind Tommy tonight and the camera crew just didn’t seem to go there enough.
A curious point to me is the disappearance of Juan Patillo in the postseason. He’s played three minutes and scored zero points in the last two games, and Capel has seemed to “go small” with Blake not in the lineup.

Bring on the Tarheels. You have to go a little bit farther back for this revenge matchup, but I still recall the Sooners allowing Rick Fox to go baseline for the winning basket in 1990. The Heels were unranked, and the Sooners were top ranked but didn't make it to the Sweet 16 that year. The bitterness continued, as I had row 6 seats to the Regional finals and semi-finals in Dallas that year, and had to watch the Heels instead of my Sooners.