Kent Robinson: March 2008 Archives

Is that right L.T.? If you are familiar with the new Nike commercial about spring training, you would know that LaDanian Tomlinson comes on first, in what looks like a press conference setting, and says the line in the title. They then show other athletes, including a couple kids, going through this type of training. You never see L.T. doing any of it though, but at the end of the commercial he says "Thank you for coming."

Well L.T., I have some news for you, and it's not great Geico news either. The Patriots have an answer for you. Their team is better than your team, and has been for two years in a row. You might want to have your teammates participate in the spring training with you, provided their shoe contracts will allow them it. Just a thought.

Oh man, how the mighty have fallen. I'm talking about the school with the illustrious program; the coach that's called to coach Olympic Basketball teams; the coach who is the NBA's best player's (Bean or Darth Kobe as R.L. would call him) favorite college coach. The Dukies from North Carolina have just been knocked off by Huggy Bear and his smallish team. By smallish, I mean Bobby played a lineup with three guards for almost the entire second half. WVA beat Duke 72-67, but it wasn't even that close for most of the game.

Now Huggy could potentially face a team he's gone round and round with during his UC days, that being Xavier University. Xavier is up against Purdue right now, and if they get by the Boilermakers, Huggins could be on his way to the Elite 8, where he hasn't been in a long time. I sure hope his ticker is ready for this.

Now let's do a little recap. So Huggins is at least in the Sweet 16, and maybe the Elite 8 by next Thursday night. And had O.J. Mayo followed Huggins to WVA, which is in his backyard, he'd be there too. Now where is USC again? Oh that's right, they are on Spring Break, from basketball and school, after losing to Bradley of all teams. So Nancy, are you still happy with your choice?

It has been reported that the baseball player's association may be looking into why no team is signing Barry Bonds, suspecting possible collusion. Okay I'm all for players' union sticking up for its players, but this may be going too far.

Of course, we've all been bombarded with the whole Barry Bonds career mess: home run king, allegedly shot up on 'roids and lied under oath about it; blah, blah, blah. The posters on ESPN had a field-day talking about how Barry should be out of baseball because of his character issues.

This is a part of my response to them: "You idiots know good-and-well you don't care about a player's personality as long as the team that player is on is winning.

"People didn't like Dennis Rodman's personality or Rasheed Wallace's, but they sure rooted for the team when they won an NBA championship, (Rodman with the old Pistons and the Bulls, Wallace with the new Pistons). Babe Ruth was no saint either (a heavy drinker, womanizer, and gluttoness eater from the looks of his body), but he is still honored as one of the best. Ty Cobb was a racist pig, but people are still talking about how great he was. The point is that players who are jerks come in all sizes, shapes, and colors. Most people don't care that they are jerks as long as they are winners!

The issue isn't really whether Bonds shouldn't play because of his character. It's whether any team wants to spend any money on a guy who is 43 and can't really run. Granted, he still may be a productive player, but there's only a handful of teams who have enough money to pay him, and they can spend their money a lot more wisely.

You would think Nancy Zempher, President of the University of Cincinnati, is kicking herself right about now. But that would assume that she is really interested in how the UC basketball program is doing. Zempher is the one who forced longtime head-coach Bob "I never met a drink I didn't like" Huggins out at Cincinnati, sending him packing to Manhattan Kansas.

Now "Huggy Bear" has ended up in his home state, West Virginia, where he is the coach of the Mountaineers. Yes, Huggy's team was beaten by the Bearcats this year, but, at 24-9, he's on the verge of participating in yet another March-Madness tournament.

On the other hand, the 13-18 Bearcats collapsed at the end of the season. They won't even be in the NIT. So Zempher, was it worth it to make a point and oust Huggins from your school only to give up tournament wins and dollars?

I am going on record to say Memphis will be a "paper-tiger" in the NCAA tournament this year. I don't think they will get past the second round.

Looking at their record, they have maybe 3 or 4 quality wins. They don't shoot free throws very well, which even their coach has said. And looking at the top 25, all of the teams on there have at least 20 + wins. Now some of those teams are in lesser conferences than Memphis, but C-USA is not a top conference itself, as we all know. Even though they'll get a number 1 seed based on their record alone, someone in their bracket will not them off before the Sweet Sixteen.

With Brett Favre retiring this week after a record-breaking 17 year career, there are only two great quarterbacks left in the league, and no more after that.

Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are the last of the last, and we won't see a great quarterback for a long time after they leave.

Let's look at the career stats. So far, Brady has 2,294 completions, 26,370 yards, and 197 TD's, while P. Manning has 3,468, 41,626, and 191 respectively. That's still way off from Favre's 5,377, 61,655, and 442.

No other quarterback in the league even comes close to those numbers, nor do they have the playoff and Super Bowl wins of Manning, let alone Brady.

Once these guys hang up the cleats, we will be watching some pretty good QB's, a bunch of decent QB's, and a lot fo bad QB's throwing the ball around.