Interesting stuff from the Volunteer sideline

What’s odd about this scene from the last few minutes of Tennessee’s upset of Kentucky over the weekend?  Let me count the things:

1. When he wants to, Bruce Pearl does a mean Danny Aiello impression.

2. This guy’s not afraid to let the world know that he’s a breast man and proud of it.

3, Am I imagining this, or is this Kentucky fan wearing a blue Lone Ranger mask? Who knows, maybe this is the new eyeliner style in Lexington.

The most boring thing EVER

I guess if you’re going to call yourself the NFL Network, then you’re going to cover all things NFL related. That includes sending Rich Eisen and the crew to Indianapolis to provide extensive coverage of the NFL Scouting Combine.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the Combine, it’s where prospective draft picks go to get poked and prodded (mentally as well as physically) by NFL teams. After having their measurements taken the players are sent onto Lucas Oil Field to jump, run and lift a bunch of stuff.

Of course, the faster a guy runs and the more he lifts will translate into a higher draft position, which in turn translates into more money. With that in mind it’s not overstating it to say that for the players participating it could very well be the most important day of their professional lives.

So I get it, it’s a big deal. However, I gotta say that any football fan who actually devotes time to watching the Combine is a giant douchebag, a loser of the highest order and a person who really needs to reconsider his or her station in life.

I tuned in for 15 minutes today, a day in which the combine happened to be concentrating on offensive linemen. It was literally big guys dressed in form fitting shorts and tank tops who were running the 40-yard dash and doing the vertical jump. That’s it. Seriously, it’s like watching really big dudes take the Presidential Physical Fitness Test.

For the scouting department of an NFL team, the Combine is like the Super Bowl. For the viewing public, the Combine is like the Arena Bowl.

Why would any fan care about this? To see how fast your favorite college team’s soon to be graduated left tackle can run the 40? Because from the perspective of an NFL fan, it’s an exercise in futility, the actual draft is still over a month away.

If you’re a Bears fan and you fall in love with Bruce Campbell’s vertical jump (pictured below), you still have no guarantee that they’ll have the opportunity to pick him. So why bother?

Don’t get me wrong, the information coming out of the Combine is still very interesting because it helps shape how the Draft will actually come together. But some things in life are better reported on in the newspaper and not broadcast with a jabbering Jamie Dukes droning on and on and on….

I thought those hosers liked us?

Man, our neighbors to the north are really giving us the what for at these Vancouver Olympics.  America cheers on their figure skater when her mom croaks at the Games, and in return they tell us to go f*** ourselves:

Heck, it’s gotten so bad that even our college football writers aren’t immune from this new wave of Canuck wrath. Check out this Twitter exchange from earlier today:

Oh well, maybe they’re just equal opportunity a-holes, after all they did make that Danish curling chick cry the other night.  Dammit, I am fired up now!  I’m gonna crank up my Charlie Daniels Band/Lee Greenwood mix tape, send this Canadian loser even more hate mail than I usually do and continue to not drink Molson.

Bad stats, bad stats, what you gonna do? (week ending 2/26)

Some of the worst of the week:

• The Centenary women’s basketball team is averaging 26.5 turnovers a game this season.

• Indiana’s shooting performance in a 78-46 loss to Wisconsin last night: 18-48 (38%) from the field, 0-5 from 3-point land and 10-for-20 (50%) from the charity stripe.

• Staying in the Hoosier State, Indiana State senior guard Rashad Reed had a night to forget on Wednesday against Illinois State: 1-10 from the field, 0-5 on 3’s with 2 assists against 7 turnovers.  His Sycamores lost by 17 to the surging Redbirds.

• Auburn’s shooting percentage from inside the 3-point arc against Ole Miss this past Wednesday: 9-31 (29%).  The Tigers squandered a 12-point halftime lead and lost by 10.

• Check out some of these free throw percentages from the DePaul roster: Devin Hill is 15-for-38 (39.5%), Mac Koshwal is 45-for-78 (57%), Eric Wallace is 24-for-68 (35%) and Tony Freeland is 16-for-41 (39%).  As a team, DePaul is shooting 58% from the free throw line.

• Staying on the subject of bad free throw shooting, Golden State Warriors center Andris Biedrins is 4-for-25 (16%) so far this season.  Here’s a rare sighting of him actually making one:

I know who won’t make the Runway to the Fashionable Four

East Carolina’s Mack McCarthy is a solid basketball coach, hell, the dude coached Terrell Owens at UTC, for that alone he deserves a gold medal for patience.

But judging from the suit he wore last night in ECU’s home loss to SMU, Mack’s not going to get a gold medal from GQ any time soon. Hell, I blame Mrs. McCarthy, how can she let him leave home in something as ill fitting as this thing? I was definitely getting a David Byrne vibe:

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