Friday, March 23, 2007

Ballpark music

OK, so I just arrived at Plainsman Park for tonight’s Auburn-Florida game. And while the Gators are taking infield, the Plainsman Park speakers are BLASTING..."Ray of Light,” by Madonna. And I mean blasting. I can hardly hear myself think.

My question is, who decided “Ray of Light” was the perfect tune for an afternoon at the ballpark? Was “Like a Virgin” not available? Can’t we have some common-sense limits on what exactly is played during sporting events?

Note: We go from waaaay outside the box (Madonna) to the most cliche ballpark song ever: “Cheap Seats,” by Alabama. Good times.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Survive and advance

“Survive and advance” is the name of the game in the college basketball postseason. (In a related story, thanks a lot, Texas A&M Aggies. Jerks. Now my bracket is just a piece of decorative origami. But enough about me...)

“Survive and advance” is exactly what the Auburn women’s basketball team did tonight in Blacksburg, Va. The Tigers will be moving on to the quarterfinals of the WNIT, thanks to an 81-73 win against Virginia Tech.

Just looking at the boxscore, the most impressive thing about the game is the way Auburn was able to neutralize Tech center Nare Diawara. The 6-foot-6 senior is a big part of Virginia Tech’s offense and defense. But Auburn held her to 10 points and four rebounds—below her season averages of 12.3 points and 8.1 boards. That’s especially impressive considering KeKe Carrier, Auburn’s biggest player at 6-foot-7, only played nine minutes.

Forward Alexis Ogubie stepped up big tonight. Ogubie wasn’t a big part of Nell Fortner’s rotation during the regular season: She played double-digit minutes just five times in SEC play. But she played 21 minutes tonight, the most of any of Auburn’s post players. It’s nice to see a veteran—Ogubie’s the only player left from Nell’s first year at Auburn—step up in the clutch.

Another role player who played well was guard Tamela McCorvey, who’s been in a bit of a shooting slump. McCorvey (Montgomery advertiser press magnate Jay G. Tate and I call her “Run TMC,” and you can too) scored 17 and hit three of her four 3-pointers. Not bad.

Of course, DeWanna Bonner’s the big story tonight: She had 27 points and nine rebounds. Nell’s always saying that her sophomores—Bonner, Carrier, point guard Whitney Boddie and wing Sherell Hobbs—are the heart of the team and the future of the program. The sophs sure looked good tonight. Carrier didn’t make much of an impact (her recovery from a foot injury is still a work in progress), but Bonner and Boddie (15 points, seven assists, ZERO turnovers) came up big. Hobbs, who scored a lot in AU’s second-round win against UAB, didn’t do much tonight, but she didn’t need to.

All in all, a nice effort by the Tigers. They’ll play Kansas State in the WNIT quarters. K-State beat IIllinois on Thursday to advance. By the way, KSU drew more than 1,700 to each of its last two WNIT games, so Auburn will be on the road again in the next round.

Just because…

Sports editor Mike Szvetitz—whose Lazy Blog is a must-read—e-mailed me a link to this Associated Press story about Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick. Apparently Vick, who’s been out of the media spotlight since his embarassing run-in with airport police in Miami a while back, decided to break his silence today.

For those of you who have better things to do that keep up with the doings of spoiled, self-important excuse-making professional athletes, here’s a quick recap of Vick’s “BottleGate,” from the original AP story:

Vick reluctantly surrendered a water bottle to security at Miami International Airport that smelled like marijuana and contained a substance in a hidden compartment.

Two Transportation Security Administration screeners recognized the 6-foot, 215-pound Vick when he was reluctant to turn over his 20-ounce bottle.

The bottle was found to have a compartment that contained “a small amount of dark particulate and a pungent aroma closely associated with marijuana,” a Miami police report said. The compartment was hidden by the bottle’s label so that it appeared to be a full bottle of water when held upright, police said.

No charges were ever filed in the case, which hasn’t stopped pretty much anyone who follows pro football—myself included—from making about a million Vick jokes in the last month.

So, here’s Vick’s version of the incident. (While reading this explanation, it’s important to remember the phrase “a pungent aroma closely associated with marijuana.")

Michael Vick said Thursday that the water bottle seized two months ago by authorities at Miami International Airport was a jewelry box.

Vick came under scrutiny in January after police said the seized water bottle smelled of marijuana and had a secret compartment, but lab tests found no evidence of drugs. Speaking publicly for the first time since the incident, the Atlanta quarterback said the bottle was a hiding place for earrings and jewelry.

“I have had that bottle for years, for a long time,” Vick told reporters gathered for the Falcons’ announcement about the trade of Matt Schaub, Vick’s backup.

“If you had seen the bottle, you would have never known there was any jewelry in there,” he said. “I have had things stolen out of hotels. But I had never checked it through the airport.”

Apparently, Vick isn’t content with the Carmelo Anthony defense, which more or less boils down to: “This stuff ain’t mine!” Instead, he’s gone with the never-before-used “This is a jewelry box, not a weed stash” defense. It’s so crazy, it just might work!

Or something like that. Thanks for stopping by, Mike. Come back when you can come up with an excuse that doesn’t make me burst out laughing, OK?

Post-spring thoughts

I’ll have a story in Friday’s Opelika-Auburn News wrapping up spring practice and looking at what the team accomplished over the course of the 15 practices.

Practices may be over, but obviously the time for talking football never ends around these parts. I’ve pretty much covered everything I think of spring practice, both here and in the paper. As far as I’m concerned Brandon Cox the biggest story of spring practice. He proved to everyone—and maybe even to himself—that he can be a big-time playmaker when he’s healthy.

But spring football and fall football aren’t the same thing, as anyone who’s ever looked over the list of A-Day MVPs knows very well.

Cox will still have something to prove in the season opener against Kansas State, and in more or less every game after that. That’s a good thing: Anyone who’s followed Auburn football in the Tommy Tuberville era knows the Tigers play a lot better when they can convince themselves they’re the overlooked underdogs. Rest assured, Cox is anxious to prove everyone who doubted him wrong, even if it’s not in his nature to come right out and say it.

Wednesday’s scrimmage was fun to watch—anytime an offense scores 10 touchdowns, it’s fun to watch. But in the grand scheme of things, it meant more or less nothing, except as an exercise in confidence-building for the offense. The deck was stacked against the defense, with four starters out and plenty of walk-ons and scout-teamers playing a lot.

Still, what Mario Fannin did deserves some notice. I don’t care if you’re playing against Opelika Middle School, 206 yards and three TDs on 13 carries is pretty impressive. And though Tristan Davis didn’t have quite as many highlight runs as Fannin did on Wednesday, I thought he showed a lot of skill—especially for a guy who supposedly doesn’t have the hips to play tailback. I think Davis and Fannin will both play big roles on offense next season. But we’ll see.

On defense, Quentin Groves didn’t get a ton of work in Wednesday’s scrimmage after sitting out A-Day. But he had one of the day’s biggest hits, absolutely leveling Davis on a toss play near the sideline. Quentin has All-America talent...it remains to be seen if he’ll be able to put up All-America numbers, especially with opposing offenses sure to gameplan their pass protection around neutralizing him. He has to be praying that somebody—Michael Goggans, Octavius Balkcom, Darrell Roseman, Antonio Coleman, somebody—can step up as a legit pass-rusher on the other side of the line to take some pressure off him.

At safety, walk-on junior Jonathan Vickers, a former quarterback, looked good this spring, though he understandably had trouble keeping up with the likes of Fannin and Davis in the open field. But I think it’s clear to everyone that Vickers’ position as the second-team strong safety is a message to incoming freshman safety Michael McNeil: Playing time available here. It’ll be interesting to see how quickly McNeil can learn the defensive playbook and get himself onto the field. By all accounts, he has the talent to do it.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. There’ll be plenty of time to talk about fall football between now and July.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Clearing out the notebook…

Just a few quick hitters here before I head over to this afternoon’s half-scrimmage at Jordan-Hare Stadium:

First, our sister paper in Lynchburg, Va., is reporting that Auburn men’s basketball assistant John Cooper is interviewing for the vacant head coaching job at Liberty University. That’s high praise for Jeff Lebo’s program and for Coop, who’s a very good recruiter and in-game strategist.

Cooper, whose official title is “associate head coach,” has had some primo assistant jobs since he finished his playing career at Wichita State in 1991. He started with two years at Fayetteville (N.C.) State, a Division II school. He worked under head coahc Rick Duckett, now an assistant at South Carolina. The reason I mention this is because Duckett is also reportedly in the running for the Liberty job...I guess it’s a small world.

Cooper next spent six years at South Carolina under Eddie Fogler (who coached him at Wichita State). Jeff Lebo was also an assistant on that staff for three years. His last assistant job before joining Jeff at AU was at Oregon, where he was a part of the Ducks’ 2003 NCAA Tournament team.

So he’s got quite a resume. If he lands the Liberty job—and word out of Lynchburg is he’s one of about a half-dozen candidates—the Flames will have landed a good one.

In other basketball news, I’m writing a story on Auburn’s women’s hoops team for Thursday’s paper. The Tigers are heading to Blacksburg, Va., to play Virginia Tech in the quarterfinals of the WNIT. In her teleconference yesterday, Nell Fortner mentioned freshman guard Reneisha Hobbs will undergo surgery for compartment syndrome, a painful ailment that apparently feels like very bad shin splints. You can’t tell, but I’m wincing just writing that.

For some reason, the AU women have been plagued by compartment syndrome over the last couple years. Hobbs already had surgery on one of her legs last summer...it cost her the first 12 or so games of this season. That surgery seemed to work; now she’s going for the other leg.

But surgery’s no guarantee: Guard Chantelle Blakely has had at least two surgeries for her compartment syndrome, and she hasn’t played in a year. It’s a sad story.

I’m not sure what it is that makes these women so prone to this syndrome...any medical professionals out there with any ideas?