By Sam Kienzle
5. Love is Good: But the Minnesota Timberwolves are not. They are 16-50, and they also have Michael Beasley. On Wednesday, Kevin Love set the record for consecutive double-doubles (52 straight) with 16 points and 21 rebounds in a win against the Indiana Pacers. That is tremendous, but also goes to show that a team must have more than two reliable pieces to win games.
4. Duh, Winning: After winning the 2011 BCS National Championship, four Auburn football players are now dust in the wind following their arrests on charges of burglary. Not even Charlie Sheen and his demented arrogance can spin this one. Stupidity and arrests seem to follow many teams after winning the national crown, but I always wonder how foolish some of these guys are even before taking the big game. Perhaps seeing the crystal football lowers your I.Q. extensively. Duh, Auburn, you’re hardly invincible. Not winning!
3. Death of a Defenseman: On a completely serious note, Boston University announced recently that Bob Probert, who spent 16 years in the NHL—four years of which with the Detroit Redwings—suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). Probert suffered numerous concussions during his time as an NHL player, and this recent news—coupled with the recent suicide of Bears safety Dave Duerson—only deepens my concern about head injuries in major contact sports and their causality associated with dementia, depression, Parkinson’s, and other diseases later in life. Probert died of heart failure at the age of 45, but according to Boston University, his brain was on the downward slide in his later years. I’m a firm football enthusiast, but the more I hear about the unbearable price paid by some players down the road (both physically and mentally), the more it takes away from the game. Some NHL and NFL stars make big bucks; the irony is that they’ll need that money when they have serious medical issues down the road. For more information on CTE, google Alan Schwarz—a New York Times columnist who gave a lot of initial attention to NFL head injuries a few years ago.
2. Keno Out: Keno Davis came to Providence in 2008 after leading Iowa’s Drake University to a 28-5 record and being named AP Coach of the Year following the 2007-08 season. Now, after three years at Providence, he is fired. Davis had a mildly successful first year, followed by two losing seasons and a stinky last-year record in the Big East at 4-14. Disappointing, after he had such a tremendous year at Drake in 2008—but his results don’t lie. Hey, kind of reminds me of another coach: Coach of the Year, came from mid-major, had three awful seasons, and was then flushed.
1. Jim’s Brain Cramp: In the past week it was announced that Ohio State University football coach Jim Tressel knew about his five suspended players’ ineligibility as late as last April. Tressel received an e-mail from a former Buckeye player and current lawyer about an ongoing investigation into possible drug trafficking at the hands of the tattoo artist who provided ink works to the now-suspended Buckeyes, including starters DeVier Posey and Terrelle Pryor. Tressel sat on the information until this past week, and is now feeling heat from the media, but not his own administration. Tressel’s excuses—including claiming ignorance on who to turn to with the information and fear about blowing the lid off the investigation—stand on an uneasy foundation in my opinion. Tressel sat on his rotten egg because turning in his star players before actually having to would be too Boy Scout for the Boy Scout. Ohio State is a college sport conglomerate, and Jim Tressel’s stranglehold on the Big Ten won’t be going anywhere as long as he keeps his fists away from Clemson linebackers. That’s what it would take for Gordon Gee or Gene Smith, OSU’s President and Athletic Director, respectively, to pink slip Mr. Tressel.
What do you think about Jim Tressel, Keno, or Kevin Love? Leave us a comment and get in on the conversation.
