Rivers Watch

Posted by on March 24th, 2015  •  0 Comments  • 

I never once believed the stories it would happen.  Of course I have never understood why they haven’t taken care of him yet.
 
‘They’ are the San Diego Chargers.  ‘He’ is quarterback Philip Rivers.  ‘It’ is the flurry of trade rumors that the New York Jets or Tennessee Titans would trade their high first round pick for the Bolts quarterback, to give San Diego an opportunity to draft Oregon rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota.
 
The timeline is simple.  It is March.  Rivers is headed to the walk year of his big money contract.  The franchise is threatening to move to LA.  The team has not yet opened contract extension talks with him.
 
You could connect the dots, and say lame-duck quarterback, and yes lame-duck franchise.  But it is way to early to even consider any of that.
 
History will show other great quarterbacks have left clubs.  Peyton Manning, with a Super Bowl ring, left the Colts and wound up in Denver.  Of course, John Elway spent his entire career wearing Orange and Blue.
 
But the Chargers have to be careful on this one, buyer beware.  If you move Rivers in any type of deal, are getting equal value if you trade the quarterback and your 17th pick in the first round, to get to the 2nd spot Tennessee owns, to draft Mariota?
 
And buyer beware too of the learning curve-developmental process a Marcus Mariota would have to go thru once he steps off the plane and onto an NFL training camp field.  Yes his (36-5) won-loss record at Oregon is superb.  And so are those record setting 134-touchdowns he piled up in rewriting the Pac 12-record book.
 
But understand this.  He has never taken a snap under center, instead running the warp-speed video game shotgun spread offense at Oregon.  There is a learning curve here.  Just ask the grizzled old journeyman veteran Michael Vick, or the trendy kid quarterbacks, Robert Griffin III, Cam Newton, Geno Smith or EJ Manuel.  It takes time.  Its takes getting sacked.  It takes picks.  It takes hits too.
 
Granted Rivers price tag on the next short deal he gets will be in the $18-20M a year range, but that is the going price for great quarterbacks, and he still is a great one.  Granted he hasn’t done what his running mates have done, Roethlisberger, Brees, and Brady, win Super Bowl rings, but that is more on the GM’s office on the second floor at the Fortress than at the guy under center.
 
But Chargers fans, who always have an opinion, also tend to have short memories.  Once Dan Fouts retired, San Diego signed on and went thru 17-quarterbacks before Stan Humphries arrived.  And when he left with a career ending concussion, it took 17-more quarterbacks walking thru the revolving doors, till the Brees-Rivers combo arrived.
 
Nobody knows in the secretive world of Tom Telesco, why the team hasn’t gotten a new contract done, especially when they needed cap space to get free agents, who could have put them over the top.  No extension, no restructuring, which could have been a step towards an extension.
 
Mariota may turn out great, but I also have flashbacks that the last phenom to come out of Oregon, was the flameout of Joey Harrington.  Great stats, but a product of the system, not the product of great raw talent.  Till Mariota shows he can do this, you always have doubts.
 
For every Andrew Luck, there is a Jake Locker.  When you think of Eli Manning, don’t forget Vince Young or J’Marcus Russell.  There is a Tony Romo, but there was also a Ryan Leaf.
 
Appreciate what you have, and make sure you Chargers fans never forget Billy Joe Tolliver, Mark Vlasic, Craig Whelihan, Bob Gagliano, Sean Salisbury, Tom Flick and David Archer.  That’s what happens when a Fouts leaves, a Humphries gets hurt, or a Mariota type bombs.
 
Don’t buy the Bolts trade rumors.  Don’t understand why Tom Telesco has not yet bought additional years with Rivers at quarterback.  Chargers, don’t let this guy get away.

Monday Aztecs Basketball – A Special Time

Posted by on March 23rd, 2015  •  0 Comments  • 

The season is over, I accept that.  A 27-win campaign, playing the likes of Arizona and Duke and Washington, and Cincinnati, was a pretty good run, especially for a team with suspect shooting and overall offensive issues.
But it was another great campaign, and a run down the streets of March Madness, even if ended with a bashing by basketball royalty, the (68-49) Duke Blue Devil beatdown.
Steve Fisher, the Aztecs coach, is such a joy to be around.  A man of integrity, experience, intelligence.  A proven commodity.
He put on a clinic in Philosophy 101 at the Media press conferences in Charlotte, explaining the life’s experiences he had, good and bad at Michigan, and what it meant to him upon arriving at San Diego State.
The man who delivered the Fab 5-to Ann Arbor, and then had his career sidetracked by that same group of kids, because of their involvement with a dirty booster, that cost him his job, holds no grudges.
In fact, he used the Fab 5-calling card to get into the homes of blue-chip recruits, the players and families, wanting to learn about the coach and how he built Michigan, and what he intended to do with their sons, if they became Aztecs.
It was fascinating to hear him talk about beginning on the recruiting road at SDSU, coming off that (0-14) first season, and how he went into homes and learned that a recruit wasn’t good enough to play for close friend Rick Majerus at Utah, but would consider SDSU.  Fisher’s response, “I want Majerus type players”, and he went out and got them.
Yes Duke out manned State in the 2nd round of the tourney yesterday.  NBA type recruits, like Jahlil Okufor and Justise Winston will do that to most any team team.  They went a combined (39P-23R) againgst an overwhelmed Aztecs team.  But think of what is up ahead for San Diego State.
You say good bye to a blue-collar guy like JJ O’Brien.  Dwayne Polee finishes his career with a good year and a half of excitement under his belt.  Aqeel Quinn, the Northridge transfer, proved what walk-ons could be if given coaching and the chance.
The Aztecs return 11-players off this team, all who played lots of minutes and lots of roles.  Sky Spencer and Angelo Chol.  Winston Shepard and Matt Shrigley.  The bench bunch led by Malik Pope, on the brink of stardom, and the well tested Trey Kell, each who have had a few shining moments.
Then you add those who sat and learned, sat and got healthy, guard Kevin Zabo and big forward Zylan Cheatem.  And the incoming recruits, guard-Jeremy Hensley and power forward Broderick Jones.
A ton of talent as next year probably begins next week for all those kids.
Though Duke marches on, after trampling State, think of where the Aztecs are now.  An annual rite of spring to play in March Madness.  Think of the roster now compared to back then.  Think of what Steve Fisher has accomplished from that 5-win first season and that winless conference record..
There are no Syracuse type academic scandals; no North Carolina type arrests, no St. John’s drug issues, no USC apathy..

Special coach, special man, making special kids out of these recruits in a very special basketball program each season.

Aztecs basketball, better today for what they learned yesterday.

 

Syracuse Basketball-Firing Shots

Posted by on March 20th, 2015  •  0 Comments  • 

***Programming Note – Join Lee Hamilton in his new TV segments (Sat-Sun) nights… 10:40pm on XETV-San Diego 6-News.***

Just the facts Jack, that’s all we need.
 
The NCAA Tourney tipped off Thursday morning around the country, and by the time we were done with the 16-opening day games, most all anyone wanted to talk about was the Pre Game Show.  
 
No, not the one on CBS-TV, but rather the one at Syracuse University’s Carrier Dome, where Orange veteran coach Jim Boeheim was firing 3-points shots from every location, in the direction of the NCAA.
 
Defiant from start to finish, defensive of his program, deliberate in ripping apart the 94-page volume of violations laid out, Boeheim put on great theatre.  He refuted time and again that he was a coach, the CEO of the program, who was responsible for all the wrong doing in a decade long run of excellence on the court, and a 10-year run of wrong doing off the court, to keep his players eligible.
 
He is going to appeal he says, the 9-game suspension he has incurred.  He is going to fight the 5-years probation, the stripping of 12-basketball scholarships, and harsh condemnation of what allowed SU to become a national power, ‘cheating’.
 
Boeheim talked and talked, admitting it was his program, and upwards of ten times, indicating, he takes responsibility for his program.  But in the process, he continued the public stance, he had no knowledge of what was happening in the basketball offices, with his staff, and his players, even though he was boss.
 
He laid out lots of people. His departed Basketball Operations director, who turned in work on behalf of a player, to get a grade changed, a year after the fact, took a hit from the head coach.
 
He beat up the national media for continuing to insinuate that academics were not important, despite the fact 4-Orange players had academic issues in a 10-year span, but thru appeals, stayed eligible.  He said recruiting ‘at risk’ academic players was allowable, because the university admitted them.  He said he was never part of the formation of the Syracuse drug testing program, of which a number of Orange players may have skated by while doing marijuana.  
 
Boeheim wondered aloud why basketball took the brunt of the NCAA hits, when Orange football had alot more academic issues with at least 3-players being caught in grade changing issues.  And he said he had no knowledge boosters were paying players and giving money to his office staff as part of a YMCA work program he had approved.
 
It was classic ‘woe is me’ considering he kept repeating I take responsibility for my program.  He said he will coach three more years, then retire, but did not want a Derek Jeter type farewell tour.  He played martyr too by indicating he’d donate his salary from the suspended games next year, to a charity.
 
There’s no doubt Boeheim has raised enormous amounts of money for a great academic institution.  He has carried the banner of the rebirth of Big East Conference basketball.  No doubt too, he became so powerful, that maybe he stopped paying attention.
 
But his Athletic Director, Daryl Gross, is gone now, by virtue of collateral damage from this; the 2nd in command in that program has left the school this week, but Boeheim remains, much to the surprise of the national media.  Of course his coaching friends will come to his defense.  Of course they don’t think he is a cheat.  But how do they really know all the facets of the Fab Melo-James Southerland fiascos, that seem to be the tip of the iceberg on that campus.
 
Boeheim will not win an appeal.  By the time the NCAA sanctions are up, and they have few scholarship players, Syracuse will be more like Colgate and Cornell than they will a Big East-ACC basketball power.  Move over Wake Forest, here comes the Orange down the chute to join you in the basketball basement.
 
On the opening day of the tourney, Jim Boeheim was balling, I mean bawling, crying about injustice.
 
I was awed at the theatrics by the coach.  The longer I watched this unfold and made notes, the more it seemed to bring back memories of another fallen leader, in defiance, in desperation.
 
Jim Boeheim sure sounded alot like Richard Nixon, and we know how all that worked out.

Maddening Problems – March Madness

Posted by on March 19th, 2015  •  0 Comments  • 

So the NCAA Tourney kicks into high gear around the country today.  Everybody shooting to knock off, knock out, and unseat, the unbeaten (34-0) Kentucky Wildcats.
 
The first weekend of the tourney is a sight to behold.  Which highly seeded team will step on a landmine and go down at the hands of some bottom ranked team?  Yes a David or two will slay a Goliath.  By the way, where is the Patriot League?.
 
For every big time quality team like UK-Villanova-Arizona, there will be stunning teams with a win representing a conference you know next to nothing about.
 
Probably in the next 48-hours we will be celebrating something like a Florida Gulf Coast, a George Mason, or a Harvard will accomplish.  But time and big teams will catch up to them, and by the Final Four weekend, we will be talking for the most part about the big names, and the big name players about to leave to go to the NBA.
 
And that’s the problem basketball really has.  The NBA has wrecked its own game, and the draft rules have wreaked havoc on college basketball.
 
Aside from the Dream Teams the NBA has allowed to be put together, the Cavaliers this year, the Miami Heat in the past, has free agency really been good for the league?  Salary caps, contract dumpings, and teams tanking have become the focal point of conversations now.  Does anybody really care for a Sacramento Kings-Milwaukee Bucks game in mid-week?  Does anybody know anyone playing on the Brooklyn Nets or Charlotte Hornets?
 
The NBA has become about five big money franchises, and virtually nothing else.  The rest of the teams and the games, mean little.  Of course bad management has managed to destroy the heritage franchises that used to be the Celtics, Lakers and Knicks.
 
But the college game is suffering too.  No one of the blue-chip recruits in college hoops plays more than 1-year.  1-and-Done has weakened the NBA product,and for the most part has taken away the quality of the college game too.  Oh of course the bluebloods like (34-0) Kentucky seem to reload not rebuild, but name me many other traditional powers who are what they used to be.  Google UCLA if you wish. 
 
Scoring is down, shooting is down, defense is down.  The conference season seems to have been cheapened.  The post season conference tourneys now have next to no meaning at all.
 
The phrase student-athlete seems fraudulent too.  Sign your letter of intent, sign up for 1-semester of classes in the fall, play the season, sign up for the NBA draft.  For every rookie sensation like Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans, there is a Jamal Franklin, the ex Aztec, who left early, playing somewhere now in China, with no degree and no NBA hopes anymore.
 
All that really matters is March Madness, and what happens beginning this morning at arenas nationwide.
 
The NBA is arguing about the age limit.  Push the limit to 20, make players stay in school two full years, to grow as talent, and grow as people.  Make the NBA-D-League more of an instructional league for those who don’t make opening night rosters, as an extension of college experiences.  
 
The college game rules need fixing.  Quality of play is falling off.  Too many TV timeouts and coaches time outs.  Adopt a better shot clock.  Keep players in school longer to polish their skills.
 
Alan Iverson would yell ‘it’s just practice man-practice’.  Shaquille O’Neal would lecture you ‘it’s all about the bling’.  And that is what’s wrong with college basketball now.  Not enough quality because of lack of practice, and inexperienced players.  Too much emphasis on much money for a chosen few.
 
March Madness may be fun to watch a Davidson upset, or a Butler buzzer beater, but the big picture of the game, is not a pretty picture at all, no matter how many games bleary eyed fans will watch between now and Sunday night.
 
March Madness may mean one thing on TV.  March madness should mean something more important about the state of the game.

Wednesday Bolt of Lightening Fee Agent

Posted by on March 18th, 2015  •  0 Comments  • 

I don’t know how good he is going to be, but it should be interested watching him, listening to him, covering him.
 
Stevie Johnson is the latest free agent acquisition of the San Diego Chargers.  He, like the offensive lineman they signed, Orlando Franklin of Denver, is at the peak of his career.  Age 27, no injury history,some good seasons behind him on his resume.
 
You catch the balls he caught playing in the cold and wind in Buffalo (76-79-82R) over a three year span, and you put up thousand yard seasons, three years in a row on a non playoff team, that’s an accomplishment.
 
But it is strange, he was dumped by the Bills, and then by San Francisco, as his production started to tail off.  Was it game day falloff, or was it because he was in the middle of a big contract, coming off those good seasons?
 
There’s more to this player than just numbers, his passion, his flamboyance, his attitude.  He’s been durable, and is a big 6’2, playing the inside slot position against smaller nickel backs and safeties.  He could cause matchup problems.
 
Of course there is the controversial side of Sir Stevie too.  He has been fined 4-times by the NFL for taunting and excessive end zone celebrations.  Of course he’s caught 31-TDs, most in Buffalo, so there should be reasons to get excited, no one else scored on that bad ballclub.
 
He also drew nationwide rebuke, when he went on twitter and mocked God-the-Almighty.  He dropped a sure TD pass in a game against Pittsburgh, that eventually cost the Bills a playoff spot, seems like they haven’t been to postseason since the 1800s, and promptly wrote on twitter “I praise you and you do this to me.  How am I ever to believe you again”.  
 
That’s different, and that got him in hot water with lots of people.  That and all the losing in Buffalo
 
Yes he drops passes, and yes he can be a knucklehead. But now he’s yours, a San Diego Charger.  We’ll see if he become a key pass catching component like Danarrio Alexander became for one season, when the Chargers took him off the Rams scrap pile, before injuries ended his career.  He should be equal to the departed Eddie Royal, who was good, but did get banged up.
 
Since San Diego has spent virtually all their money to add pieces to the offense, they will need his contributions, because their defense, the way the roster sits now, will give up lots of points this year.  
 
“Stevie Showboat” will be in the house this fall.  We’ll see if he can reclaim big plays on the field to match the big stuff he does off the field. He will be fun, hopefully he will be productive.
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