Saturday, December 11, 2010

4 Quarters Radio: December 9 4th Quarter


The fourth-quarter curriculum for December 9:
--The Denver Broncos' coaching position comes available, and the usual suspects get consideration. Also, an unusual suspect is rumored to seek rehab for Tebow withdrawal.
--Los Guys deliberate on who should be the MVP, and Scott has a surprising dark-horse candidate, especially considering his feelings on the player's team.
--Scott gives respect to Bobby's Raiders and other teams that will decide division races other than their own.
--The guys also check in on Grampa and the Vikings, wondering if anything short of death will end The Streak.
--The Boxing Hall of Fame inductees get a look, from the dominant fighters like Tyson, Chavez, and Balboa to...wait, Balboa?
--In the Epic Fails, Bobby piles on a local icon and Scott piles on a national plague. You know, the usual.

Excised music: "Standing on the Verge of Getting It On" by Funkadelic.

4 Quarters Radio: December 9 3rd Quarter


The third-quarter curriculum for December 9:
--Scott unveils the NBA's most overpaid players, as well as the ones who deliver the most for the money. Some interesting names dot both lists. The guys also manage to come up with what should be a new Charlie Daniels song.
--Bobby attempts to clinch himself some free wings with his UFC 124 picks. (Hint: he likes GSP.) As an added bonus, a fighter literally tells some fans to kill themselves.

Excised music: "Act of God" by Prince. (Find it on Grooveshark.com for a listen)

4 Quarters Radio: December 9 2nd Quarter


The second-quarter curriculum for December 9:
--The guys stumble across some comedic goodness on Twitter, and share some wholly inappropriate names for horses and yachts.
--The guys check out some of the other bowl matchups, trying to find some good games to watch not involving Auburn and/or Oregon.
--Bobby's interested in the Outback Bowl, wondering how Urban "Leaving Again and This Time I Mean It" Meyer's team will respond going against Joe "I Handed Off to Methuselah" Paterno and Penn State.
--Scott and Bobby discuss whether or not the moral high-horse minority will be able to keep Cam Newton from winning the Heisman.
--The Florida coaching opening is drawing some interesting candidates. Scott ponders a few.
--Bobby shares a video game that he's playing more than he's studying, and delivers his highest recommendation.
--After minor technical glitches, Whodaman honors are handed out. Bobby sticks with a man who's killed one of his fantasy teams, while Scott decides to show mascot love once more, to a bird that you would not want to honk off.

Excised music: "40 Cups of Coffee" by Ella Mae Morse.

4 Quarters Radio: December 9 1st Quarter


The first-quarter curriculum for December 9:
--Scott and Bobby are joined by MTSU beat writer Adam Sparks for discussion of the Blue Raiders' GoDaddy.com Bowl matchup against Miami of Ohio.
--The 2010 team's legacy gets a premature examination, as does quarterback Dwight Dasher's.
--The Blue Raider basketball team is making adjustments, and the results thereof get looked at after two games.
--Many MTSU athletes get postseason love in football, soccer, and volleyball, so they get a little on-air recognition.

Excised music: "Steam" by Peter Gabriel.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

The NBA: Where Rivalries (Used To) Happen


LeBronageddon has come and gone. A Cleveland fan base that had spurred the Cavaliers to a surprising second place in NBA attendance has to feel like they’ve been sold out yet again. This time, though, instead of a player taking his talents to South Beach, the fans got the shaft from the players who’ll keep flaunting a lack of talent on the shore of Lake Erie.
               
I grew up a child of the 1980’s, cutting my basketball teeth on the NBA Finals battles between the Lakers and Celtics. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird shared a perceptible mutual respect, but each would rather set the other on fire than crack jokes or discuss what club they were headed to after the game. For that matter, the two teams didn’t get along all that well on the whole.

As an Indiana kid in the 1990’s, I was able to enjoy the long-bombing, swashbuckling, trash-talking style of Reggie Miller. Anyone who was watching basketball in 1994, or anyone who’s watched ESPN’s entire “30 for 30” series, has seen how much Reggie was able to tick off the entire city of New York. Miller talked noise so the rest of the Indiana Pacers could do their jobs in peace.

That brings me to Thursday night. The fans were heated up, ready to welcome LeBron with barely bridled rage and hostility. Security was heightened in fear of anyone making a move on the court after having too much liquid courage and not enough brains.

And as for the players? Anderson Varejao walked up and gave LeBron a pre-game hug. At that moment, the Miami Heat clinched victory.

For all the countless hype about their mediocre start to the NBA season and their ridiculously top-heavy roster, the Miami Heat still have a lot more talent than the Cleveland Cavaliers. The only hope for the Cavs to win that game was to establish a psychological edge, especially over LeBron.

Freeze him out during pre-game introductions. Leave him hanging if he goes for a high five or a handshake. Hammer him McHale-style when he drives to the basket. Do anything but shake his hand, hug him, and make him feel at home.

When he feels at home, he does things like score 24 points in a quarter and 38 for the game. The Cleveland players knew that, since they’d borne witness to it plenty of times over the years. They chose instead to laugh, slap fives, and do everything but pose for the pregame air pictures, just like the old days of...seven months ago.

The Cavs needed LeBron to shoot something like 2-for-17 from the floor. To do that, they needed to rattle him and remind him that Quicken Loans Arena is no longer his comfort zone. They did none of that, therefore they never had much chance to win.

NBA Commissioner David Stern won’t want to read this, but here goes. Reason number 311 that the NBA is losing visibility is that the rivalries are gone. Lakers/Celtics, Pistons/Bulls, Pacers/Knicks: those were the reasons the NBA got hot to begin with in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Now, free agency and salary-dumping trades mean that everyone will play with everyone else at some point, so there’s little to gain from on-court hostility.

Miami/Cleveland had a little potential to be the next huge basketball battle, but the players chose instead to embrace the enemy. Winning a game is your job, and the opponent’s goal is to stop you from doing said job. Varejao embracing LeBron was like a guy sending flowers to a girl who stole his wallet after a one-night stand. The fans were ready to be angry, but the players sold them out again.

Consolation for Cleveland fans: there’s always the Indians and Browns. (Wait...does Akron hate them by now, too?)

Friday, December 3, 2010

4 Quarters Radio: December 2 4th Quarter


The fourth-quarter curriculum for December 2:
--Stevie Johnson's Hail Mary drop and his damning tweet get examined, and one of the hosts is actually somewhat refreshed.
--Derek Anderson's chuckling on the sideline draws a little discussion from Scott, Bobby, and special guest star Magic Johnson.
--Even the show's Colts fan in residence displays little surprise about Peyton's struggles against the San Diego Chargers.
--Scott and Bobby discuss some NFL teams' December prospects, calling the segment Rank or Tank.
--Bobby's UFC 123 results get announced, and he's so close to free wings that he can almost taste it.
--In the Epic Fails, Bobby makes fun of a guy named Rusty. He'll admit that he likes shooting fish in a barrel. Scott has to marvel at how bad a particular college hoop tournament's invitees played.

Excised music: "I Don't Feel" by Aeroplane.

4 Quarters Radio: December 2 3rd Quarter


The third-quarter curriculum for December 2:
--LeBronageddon 2010 gets examined, with both Scott and Bobby harboring great expectations. (Never mind that the Cavs decided to remind everyone how badly they suck.) The game gets compared to a NASCAR race, in fact, and Scott shares some of the proposed chants that were planned.
--The Lakers' four-game losing streak gets analyzed, and the fellas wonder if Memphis and Indiana are actually legit, or if it's just the Lakers sleepwalking.
--Andre Johnson's highly respectable punch stats would have won him a match on Fight Night, but it didn't help him much in a football game. The lack of suspensions for him and Cortland Finnegan get examined, with Scott even comparing Finnegan to a particular breed of dog.

Excised music: "So Cool" by Chrisette Michele.

4 Quarters Radio: December 2 2nd Quarter


The second-quarter curriculum for December 2:
--Scott confesses something that's gotten him into a bit of hot water with the MTSU message-board denizens.
--Examinations of the final hurdle for the Auburn Tigers and the Score-Again Ducks, and Scott shares who he think may slip up. In the end, it may not matter anyway.
--Mike Leach's friends in high places may help him get a job.
--A noteworthy coach is on record as supporting a playoff...kinda.
--Scott has a moment of empathy for an embattled kicker. Maybe he's mellowing in his old age?
--An annual college hoop fixture is applauded as something college football needs to adopt.

Excised music: "Turn Around (5,4,3,2,1)" by Flo Rida.

4 Quarters Radio: December 2 1st Quarter


The first-quarter curriculum for December 2:
--All alone in the studio, Scott is free to wax rhapsodic about the MTSU football team's two-game winning streak.
--A look ahead to the season finale v. FIU reveals a surprising amount of Golden Panther talent for MTSU to deal with.
--The story of TCU moving to the Big East gets put under the microscope, and truly, it's an easier time for the Horned Frogs there than in the Mountain West. Scott examines why.
--The NCAA sets a dangerous precedent by letting Cam Newton skate in the face of proven misconduct by his dad. The Prof wonders how much cash fathers will be demanding for their five-star sons in the near future.

Excised music: "We Don't Need This Fascist Groove Thing" by Heaven 17.