Continue reading »]]> After reading Rhett’s post lamenting the irritating nature of the BYU fans at the Mountain West tournament I was instantly sympathetic to his plight. However after some reflection I feel that it must be pointed out that all college basketball phenomena are at some level annoying to the hard-core fan. BYU fans are a bit goofier than most and carry their LDS persecution complex with them into athletics, however ignorance of the sport that they are infatuated with is not unique to the faithful in Provo.

Larger fan bases always have a fair amount of bandwagon fans who come along for the ride when times are good. This is amplified considerably when things are arguably as good as they have ever been. In the case of BYU this isn’t a team just making a run at a conference title, this is a team with the POY, top line seed credentials and national exposure unseen since Jim McMahon was playing QB for the football team in the mid 80′s. BYU basketball is a cultural event in LDS circles in the region and beyond. It is a genuine phenomenon. UNLV, New Mexico, Colorado State, etc… are simply basketball programs having seasons that will attract basketball fans of the school. There is no bandwagon effect and thus no bandwagon fans to become annoyed with.

At Ole Miss there are a few thousand hardcore fans that comprise the season ticket base. These fans are basically knowledgeable and restrained. During a mid week game in February against Auburn when there were less than 3,000 people in the stands, the crowd was respectful and uninspired. A few weeks earlier when Kentucky was in town with 3,000 fans of their own, the Ole Miss faithful were nowhere near respectful. They were boisterous, obnoxious, and overly vocal with the referees. The rarely full student section started the “bull shit,” chant over a pretty obvious traveling call and there were audible boos after nearly every unfriendly whistle.  After the win over Kentucky an editorial in the Daily Mississippian was dedicated to how much fun that game was compared to most others and musing that if fans showed up with that kind of energy every game the basketball team would be more successful.

Unless you have a basketball program with a 50+ year bandwagon like UCLA, Kentucky, North Carolina, or Kansas you are going to get free riders that come out only for the big time games when a program is successful to comprise the bulk of a following. When you have a basketball program experiencing a phenomenal once in a generation type run such as Georgetown in the early 80’s or UNLV in the early 90’s you are going to get non basketball fans and people unaffiliated with the University who identify culturally with what they think the program represents. This is healthy for the sport and helps us to look back with a greater appreciation for how special an era of college basketball was. After all crossover success in any genre is a metric of success.

In the case of the 2010-11 BYU Cougars you have a community, a fan base, and a faith all of which are a bit different than what most of us are used to becoming enthralled with the fortunes of a college basketball program. This is I’m sure annoying to be around if you don’t have any particular affinity for BYU. It is however ultimately better for the sport when there are people out there caring about it. Those goofy Mormon families at the Thomas & Mack are equivalent to the inner city kids wearing Georgetown vinyl jackets in 1982, or Gucci Row at the T&M during Tark’s era. They are a fleeting group of uber bandwagoners who are experiencing something memorable.  Deep down we all want our program to experience something like that.

Rhett’s post is exceptionally titled. The BYU fans that he was talking about don’t deserve Jimmer Fredette. We the hardcore fans of X program deserve this kind of thing to happen for us! Until it does all we can do is wait and hate and realize that when and if our time finally does come we are going to have a whole bunch of new friends in the building with us along for the ride. And trust me as a former season ticket holder at Eastern Michigan where you can watch a game with literally a few hundred of your closest friends and hardcore hoops fans, there is something electric about a full and rocking arena. Even if it is full of johnny come latelys and rocking with the noise of the confused.

Continue reading »]]> There is a certain code to live by that makes being a sports fan a meaningful experience. It can be a difficult code to follow in hard times because it involves making an emotional attachment to a program, and linking your fortunes with theirs. It is because of that attachment and because there is the potential to suffer with your team that makes the enjoyment of winning so much more intense when you are lucky enough to experience it. You have to suffer with something to truly be a fan of it. You have to be tested, and you have to remain loyal when the temptation of being one of the throngs who regardless of geography or alma mater flock to the most successful blue blood program  or worse to Kobe or Lebron. If you are ever to earn the right to celebrate a teams accomplishments with pride then you must experience more than just a championship run. You have to be there on cold February days when conference road games take their toll. You might have to sit through an NIT or even CBI game, you have to watch players leave the court in March in tears knowing that they gave you 4 great seasons and you will never get to watch them again. You have to experience all of the highs and the lows to earn a meaningful affiliation.

It occurred to me yesterday when I was sitting in the Convocation Center watching my two mid major alma maters battle it out in a game that would determine 3rd place in the MAC West that this game had more meaning to me than the previous weeks Duke/North Carolina game could have had to most of the chattering, blue clad masses in the Dean Smith Center or watching on ESPN, because I am vested. I spent three years of my life in Kalamazoo and watched the Broncos 10+ times a season since the day I set foot on that campus, I’ve spent the last 4 years in Ypsilanti going to every EMU home game I can. The highlights of rooting for middle of the road to bad mid major teams are not plentiful, but they are far more memorable than any Final Four could be for the team I might have arbitrarily chosen to root for.

This might strike some as a bitter rant. I certainly don’t mean for it to. I root for Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan, Georgetown and Michigan State. I have degrees from Eastern and Western, and followed Michigan State since an early age. I do not mean to imply that you must attend a school to root for the basketball team. I think it should be your first loyalty and I absolutely resent the notion that you should cast aside your personal affiliation just because the athletic program isn’t as high a profile as the larger state school. I do recognize that some people make an attachment early in life and it stays with them regardless of where they went to school. I absolutely get that and for the most part can respect it. The so called fans that I can’t abide by are the guys that root for the top team, top player, or top tradition and want to revel in that success. These are the parasites that latch on to the biggest thing they can find to try and share in their success.

Classic example is this clown who sat near us at last years championship game:

This guy was the most vocal person in our section. He was more animated in his support of the North Carolina Tarheel’s than Tyler Hansborough’s parents (I know this because as the game got more and more out of hand I kept an eye on both just to have something to take my mind off things). He didn’t even care enough about the team to ever buy a t-shirt. He did care enough to put on his best Carolina Blue Rocawear jacket and matching Carolina Blue Old English D hat, and try to taunt Spartan fans in our section. He liked to declare things over and jump out of his seat for dunks. I liked to yell “Go Rocawear” every time he did, because I have zero respect for guys like this. If he had an equally unaffiliated friend who was wearing green and white Fubu and had a green and white yankee hat it would be different. But this tool was trying to banter with real fans who were watching their team play for the highest stakes out there. It was completely inappropriate, and no matter how much he tried to pretend to celebrate afterwords it was clearly unauthentic and meaningless. He was out there watching a TV show, I was watching a team/program that I had been following since I was in 3rd grade, other people were watching a team/program that represented the school where they spent years of their lives, a place where they had chosen a career path, met a spouse, etc… it just wasn’t balanced.

My philosophy is simple and fair. There is nothing wrong with liking a team. You can like a team without being a true fan. I like Georgetown. I root for Georgetown, watch them when I can, know who their players and coaches are, and read about them. I like their tradition, I like that they win at an elite level without taking dirty BCS football money, and I just plain enjoy watching them play. I am a true fan of Western Michigan. This is because I can’t walk away when the program is down, or when we have a tough loss. If Georgetown starts a long slide it won’t bother me that much, I’ll just root for Seton Hall or something. If Western Michigan starts/continues to slide I’ll get pissed, want the coach fired, call Ball State cheaters, want to build a new arena, drink more, etc… I can’t walk away from “my team”. If you don’t have a team you can’t just pick one up overnight . You have to earn the right to call a team yours through time and energy expelled watching, hoping, and sometimes being disappointed. Until such time as you become a true fan of a team you should be respectful of true fans and never try to equate your loss affiliations with their real passions. If some tool at BW3s who grew up in the same town as I did, went to community college, grew up rooting for the Fab-5 and then Michigan State when Izzo became dominate, and has never lived outside of Metro Detroit, sits next to me to watch Kentucky play WMU in the tournament this March (I can dream), he better not pump his fist and try to talk shit to me if Kentucky is beating up on Western Michigan just because he really likes Wall, and Bledsoe. He doesn’t matter, his thoughts don’t matter, and his happiness is just a meaningless front, because to him, sports don’t matter. I’d rather watch a game with some crusty old Kentucky fan from the hill country who has a picture of Adolph Rupp in his rec room if he is a true fan of his team. Because at least that guy gets it.

Continue reading »]]> The MAC West looks like its going to CMU. The Chips have a 3 game lead as WMU and NIU have faded during cross divisional play. Eastern Michigan will probably have a sub .500 conference record as they continue to drop winnable home games, and I am quickly becoming frustrated with the prospects of the conference to crown a champion capable of winning an NCAA tournament game.

Michigan State played a terrible game and was thoroughly out classed by Wisconsin. Kalin Lucas rolls his ankle and might be out for the seasons most pivotal stretch (@Illinois, and Purdue). If they don’t win the Big Ten regular season after starting 9-0 then they should make Paul Davis an honorary captain during the Big Ten tournament, and probably shouldn’t be expecting a deep run in March. The notion that everything will be all right in March is an over estimate in East Lansing. State really hasn’t been playing good basketball for the last month, and I don’t believe Tom Izzo can just have them flip a switch. I really hope they don’t fade down the stretch because this is a likable collection of players, but after the debacle in Madison I have my concerns.

Rhett assures me that Lon Kruger will step up today and stop the Mormons from running away with the Mountain West. Let’s see if Jimmer can carry his sprite drinking, polygamist practicing, Orrin Hatch voting, door to door bothering, 25 year olds to victory in a hostile and sin filled environment.

I need wins by UNLV, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, and Michigan State today to feel good about the direction of this season. I’ll take 3-1 but anything less than that and my worries will continue. I’ll be at the Convo in a few hours cheering on EMU against Ohio U. Hope its worth it.

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The season is now in full swing as we move through December and mercifully no longer have to watch the brutal disappointment that was the 2009 college football season every week. I took in a couple of games in November to try and get a feel for how my teams were going to look this season and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised in both cases.

On November 15th we headed through the ruins of Old Detroit and took in the Western Michigan/Detroit Mercy game at Callahan Hall. This game holds special significance to the Broncos because their best low post player from last season LeMarcus Lowe was sitting on UDM’s bench as a recent transfer. This is the guy who wanted to be closer to his ailing mother who lives in Flint so he left Kalamazoo for Detroit. Either that or those degenerates gave him a fancy shirt with a tiger on it, some gold chains and a previously owned Ford Taurus. At any rate the Broncos had something to prove after a 10-21 season and a major off season defection, and even in defeat showed enough to leave room for optimism. They never let the game get away from them and held their own physically on the road. A far cry from their performance last season.

Down the road in Ypsilanti Eastern Michigan is in a pivotal year for their program. Charles Ramsey is in year 5 of a very disappointing tenure that has yet to produce a winning season, and with a healthy senior lead team that includes the return of All MAC point guard Carlos Medlock from the injured list it is now or never for C-Ram. I was able to check out EMU once in person already this season when they soundly beat a pretty average Cansisus team from the MAAC in front of a very sparse crowd last week. They then followed it up by being soundly trounced by 51 at Ohio State on Saturday, but all in all I feel like EMU has had a good start to the 09-10 campaign as they sit at 5-3 with a steady diet of cupcakes on deck before heading into MAC play. If they can shake off an embarrassing performance and keep rolling forward they should be decent this year. I would like to be all in on the EMU bandwagon but I have seen this team fall apart to many times under Ramsey and to many promising players fail to develop after good early season performances. I should have a better feel for them after I see them in a tough game against somewhat even competition (I’m giving them a pass in the Ohio State game for now because I think Evan Turner breaking his back really threw them off).

Right now I don’t see either of these programs as championship contenders even in a weak MAC, but there is reason to hope that they might develop into contending programs. We shall see.

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#7 Central Michigan vs. #10 Eastern Michigan:

This is really a tough game to figure out. Eastern is playing their best basketball all season right now winning 4 in a row (half of their win total) going in to this game. Central has been surging for the last month as well including a come from behind win over rival Western Michigan that earned them a share of the MAC West title. Having a share of the MAC West title is kind of like having a share of Citibank right now with the 3 co champions all well below .500 overall, but it still counts for something when your program has been down as long CMU’s.

Eastern won two very close games in the regular season this year against the Chips; one in double OT and the other with clutch free throw shooting in the last few seconds. It is difficult to see those two wins giving the Eagles an advantage in this one since the margin was so razor thin. If anything I feel like the emotional edge is with CMU since it is so difficult to beat a team 3 times in one season. I also like Marcus Vann CMU’s big PF a whole lot. This guy plays a very physical style in the post, one that Eagle forward Brandon Bowdry is often reluctant to play preferring to float on the perimeter and look for chances to fire up a three pointer which he rarely makes. Vann should dominate inside putting pressure on EMU’s inferior backcourt to score which should spell the end of Eastern’s season.  The only chance the Eagles have is if on again off again head case Justin Dobbins shows up and has a big game to counter Vann’s aggressiveness. I just don’t see it happening.

My Pick: Central Michigan

#6 Kent State vs. #11 Northern Illinois:

Kent State is another team that has been playing really well this last month of the season. The Golden Flashes are usually among the elite in this conference however thanks to a coaching change and slow start to the season they were passed up by most of their East division rivals early on and not quite able to recover in time falling one game out of a bye, and being forced to play an extra game this week. Kent also benefits from a sizeable home court advantage in this tournament. Most of their fans and alumni are in metropolitan Cleveland so they usually bring a nice contingent of folks to the Q.

Northern Illinois is just a plain lousy team. They do nothing particularly well, and have no sign of improvement from midnight madness through today. They are coached by Ricardo Patton a notorious hot head who provides the only drama in many of NIU’s games as anxious fans wonder if he will be ejected for lighting into an official. This game shouldn’t be close.

My Pick: Kent State

#8 Western Michigan vs. #9 Ohio

After chocking away a 14 point lead and the outright MAC West title (along with the #2 seed and bye into the quarterfinals)in the final 10 minutes of Sunday’s game against Central Michigan the Western Michigan Broncos now draw the only team from the East division that they were able to beat this season in cross divisional play and the only team in the conference playing as bad as they are. This is the only reason I would even entertain the notion of predicting a win for the worst rebounding and worst shooting team in the MAC.

David Kool has not been enough to carry this team this season despite some very impressive individual performances, and he won’t be able to carry them through this tournament.  Not with the horrific rebounding efforts they have been famous for this year. I don’t care who they are playing. I don’t care that Ohio got torched by BGSU on Sunday like a team that has quit on their season. I don’t care that WMU beat them by double digits at their place this season. I refuse to pick a team that is as poor on the glass as WMU. Rebounding is more about desire than talent. Western doesn’t have the desire, and that is why they lose.

My Pick: Ohio

#5 Akron vs. #12 Toledo

Along with Kent Akron brings the largest amount of fans into the Q every season which makes this a virtual home game for the Zips. They are going to need all the support they can get after a very emotional loss to Kent State that ended their regular season and cost them a share of the East division title and the #1 seed in this tournament.  They’ll square off against a Toledo team that has been overmatched for much of the season, competing with only a handful of scholarship players. Toledo doesn’t win much away from home either going 1–17 away from Savage Hall. Senior gurard Tyrone Kent can’t do everything although a big game from him might keep it close…for a while.

My Pick: Akron

Continue reading »]]>  Now that Michigan State has clinched a share of the Big Ten title like most Michigan State fans I have been overcome by a profound sense of relief. Not being able to close out the Big Ten in 03 and 04 to Wisconsin had given Spartan fans a sort of psychosis. It was reinforced last season in the Big Ten tournament when the last 10 minutes of that semi final game turned into a Wisconsin free throw parade. If Michigan State had failed to clinch on Sunday at Illinois (which is another place that they have had trouble winning in the past mostly because of Dee Brown) it would have been a very tense environment around that program.  That win should allow them to play Purdue on Sunday without the weight of the world on their shoulders, and go into the Big Ten tournament as the #1 seed relaxed and focused.

While Michigan State has been realigning the Big Ten and returning to their rightful place in the hierarchy of that conference the Western Michigan Broncos have fallen from the rank of contender in the MAC and are now on the list of also rans. The fall has been swift since big man Joe Reitz moved on to the Baltimore Ravens. His presence has been missed badly as Western’s frontcourt has deteriorated into a league wide joke. The lack of intensity in pursuing rebounds has become the calling card of this team.  They are dead last in the MAC in rebounding margin and field goal pct. That is a poisonous combination that has ensured defeats in many close games this season. All everything G David Kool has played very well at times this season, and is probably an all conference performer. However without any supporting cast his outstanding junior season has been a waste. If some of these Freshman bigs don’t grow up this off season the only Mr. Basketball ever to attend Western Michigan is going to graduate without a conference championship, or a post season appearance. That would be an incredible waste.

While things are looking bleak in Kalamazoo bronco fans can always take solace in the fact that their program is still in better shape than Eastern’s. Eastern Michigan is just flat out bad. The coaching staff is overmatched. There are some decent players on this team but one gets the feeling when watching them labor through countless anemic performances that they are better individually than they are collectively. This in my mind speaks to the inability of the coaching staff to put players in a position to be successful. It is my opinion that a change in the leadership of this program is necessary, but this a cash strapped University is barely able to finance its athletic programs as it is so a buyout is probably out of the question (especially since they just bought out the football coach in December).  My guess is that Charles Ramsey makes it back for one more season with a healthy Carlos Medlock available in what will be a make or break year for him. He might be able to squeeze out an above .500 season and save his job, but long term there is no way that he gets EMU back to the level Ben Braun had them at in the late 90’s.

Here is a list and brief synopsis of my February games that helped me to the above conclusions:

2/3 Akron @ Eastern Michigan: A late 3 pointer by Will Cooper helped get Eastern get above that oh so important 40 pt. mark in this  78-41 blowout of blowouts. The only mildly interesting thing about this contest was watching LeBron’s former high school coach Keith Dambrot stomp up and down the sidelines and yelling during free throw attempts. After the departure of Dan Dakich from Bowling Green and Jay Smith from Central Michigan I have been trying to determine who the biggest tool in the MAC is. Well congratulations Keith Dambrot you now hold that distinction.

2/15 Buffalo @ Eastern Michigan: EMU battled well in this game against the top team in the Mid American Conference but never seriously threatened. This spark of life they showed against the Bulls was lead by some tough defense by Tyler Jones and big post play by Brandon Bowdry who for one game at least resisted the urge to drift outside and take bad jumpers. Bowdry’s 11pt. 9 reb. day was nice but ultimately the offensively challenged Eagles had nowhere to go when they needed big bucket to cut into Buffalo’s comfortable lead and lost this one 58-49. The Convo was graced by the presence of Mr. Ed Hightower who stayed in town after the Michigan game to officiate this one. He was frequently out of position, used improper mechanics, and made some head scratching calls against both teams. He was slightly less animated without the TV cameras though.

2/21 Eastern Illinois @ Western Michigan:  As part of ESPN’s Bracketbuster weekend the Broncos hosted a bottom feeder from the OVC,  and gave one away on their home floor 59-57. It is a rare occurrence for the Broncos to actually outrebound an opponent, but on this day they did by a double digit margin (39-29) unfortunately they were only able to shoot 30% from the field and came up just short at the end of the game. Coach Hawkins was T’d up early in the second half allowing EIU to open up a 6 pt. lead once they made both free throws and scored on the ensuing possession. Nice going Hawk your T was the difference in this one.

2/25 Iowa @ Michigan State: This was my first trip to Breslin in awhile so I was just happy to be there and look the place over again.  It was a sleep walking performance for the Spartans who never got their transition game going in this 62-54 win. Delvon Roe had his best game as a Spartan with 16 hard earned points, and Korie Lucious set his career high as well with 12. These two freshmen showed a brief flash of what they are capable of, and it was enough on this night to beat a bad Iowa team. They are going to need more in March from everyone else if this is going to be a special season.

2/28 Western Michigan @ Toledo: Toledo gets a nice home crowd for a team that has only won 4 games this season…well make that five games as the nose dive that is WMU’s 08-09 season continues. Despite a furious late rally that saw them close a 10 point to lead to one with 4 seconds left the Broncos feel short in this one 63-62. They were not able to secure the rebound of a missed free throw attempt with 4.8 seconds remaining even though Toledo had no one but the shooter to compete for the board. Another frustrating loss in a frustrating season. The 9-19 Broncos close out the season with back to back home games against division rivals Ball State and Central Michigan at home, lets hope they play with some pride. Either way though this is going to be a 20 loss season for WMU.

Continue reading »]]> Okay so why go out on a cold Monday night to watch a 1-6 MAC bottom feeder take on an average D2 opponent? Because I was anxious to get this season going, and the humble beginning of two Southeast Michigan commuters schools playing a game in front of a few hundred fans on an icy December night seems poetic when considering the season will end for us at the final four watching two great teams clash in front of 70,000 fans and a television audience in the millions. I was also curious to see if I could diagnose what exactly is wrong with Eastern Michigan. This team was predicted by Blue Ribbon to win the MAC West this season, but before Monday’s game they had lost 6 in a row to Purdue and a less than impressive roster of teams: Georgia, St. Johns, Cornell, Brown and Detroit Mercy.

The game was what you would expect. There is just a world of talent difference between division 1 and division 2. Eastern held Wayne St. scoreless for a ten minute stretch in the second half, and were able to work 12 different players into the game. This was also the first game of the year for G Tyler Jones who was with the football team playing a pretty decent WR until this week. His presence should help over matched 5’10″ walk on sophomore LJ Frazier who has been handling the PG duties with pre season all MAC Carlos Medlock out for the season with a foot fracture.  PF Brandon Bowdry displayed some range knocking down two triples, he lead all scorers with 17pts on the night. All in all it was a pretty workman like effort for the core guys and a much needed 67-47 win.

Eastern was without head coach Charles Ramsey who is on a 3 day suspension from the University for an altercation with a fan after their game with Detroit Mercy. Apparently the coach used plenty of profanity, and had to be physicaly restrained. Oh and the fan was a student at….Eastern Michigan University…. and a roomate of reserve F Zane Gay. Apparently the kid confronted Ramsey on his way back to the locker room about Zane’s lack of playing time. Not a good situation at all. I think that this start and this encounter might be a sign that Ramsey is in over his head at EMU and might never get things going in the right direction. We’ll just have to wait and see. They have Michigan this Saturday at Crisler which means a 2-7 start is likely.