The Rivers Run Red . . .
Because believe it or not, I am actually back with a new post. Jeff over at Ramblin Racket has come up with a brilliant idea for the off season in the form of a Georgia Tech bloggers roundtable. Apparently you don't actually have to still be writing to be considered a blogger and thus I was invited. So without further adiue here are my answers to the first set of questions:
1. (Single obligatory basketball question) What do you make of the ACC's postseason in basketball? Was the conference overrated, or did the teams just get unlucky draws in the tourney?
As a basketball nut I still feel pretty strongly that the ACC was the best top to bottom conference in basketball this year. That mostly had to do with the middle and lower tier teams this season instead of the top tier teams (really team.) The ACC, and as much as I’m loath to admit it the SEC, were really the only two conferences where the conference leaders still needed to worry about the bottom feeders on a nightly basis. Even Miami beat Maryland at the end of the season and they were one of the hottest teams in the country. You can see the same thing in NC State’s performance in the ACC Tournament.
As for the flame out in the NCAA, while the ACC had the best top to bottom conference it was lacking in having the best top of the conference. Each team from the ACC that made the tourney this year had at least one easily exploitable weakness that kept them from truly moving on.
UNC – Relatively young team with a coach that is legendary for shaky big game coaching. You can disagree with that last sentence all you want, but in truth Roy was just smart enough to get out of the way of his national title team.
Virginia Tech – Only had one night in, night out consistent scorer in Dowdle.
Virginia – Stop Singletary or Reynolds and you stopped UVA.
Duke – Their big man should be made to wear a tutu during games and they were the youngest Duke team in like 40 years.
As a basketball nut I still feel pretty strongly that the ACC was the best top to bottom conference in basketball this year. That mostly had to do with the middle and lower tier teams this season instead of the top tier teams (really team.) The ACC, and as much as I’m loath to admit it the SEC, were really the only two conferences where the conference leaders still needed to worry about the bottom feeders on a nightly basis. Even Miami beat Maryland at the end of the season and they were one of the hottest teams in the country. You can see the same thing in NC State’s performance in the ACC Tournament.
As for the flame out in the NCAA, while the ACC had the best top to bottom conference it was lacking in having the best top of the conference. Each team from the ACC that made the tourney this year had at least one easily exploitable weakness that kept them from truly moving on.
UNC – Relatively young team with a coach that is legendary for shaky big game coaching. You can disagree with that last sentence all you want, but in truth Roy was just smart enough to get out of the way of his national title team.
Virginia Tech – Only had one night in, night out consistent scorer in Dowdle.
Virginia – Stop Singletary or Reynolds and you stopped UVA.
Duke – Their big man should be made to wear a tutu during games and they were the youngest Duke team in like 40 years.
Boston College – No interior game to speak of and a very weak bench after the starting 5.
Georgia Tech – We honestly were like UNC light from my criticisms above. On top of that UNC at least had Bobby Frasor and even Quentin Thomas to go to when Lawson was playing bad or tired. Tech just didn’t have a back-up PG option at all and it showed throughout the season whenever Crit was either in foul trouble or tired.
2. On to football! Where will Georgia Tech be ranked in the preseason polls, and where do you think the Jackets should be ranked?
I suspect we should be in the top 30 and in my opinion smart analysts would have us in the 20-25 range. I honestly believe that the loss of Reggie overcomes the loss of CJ. Yes, I believe that Reggie Ball was a worse player than CJ was a legendary player. Yes, this means that I believe Reggie Ball is in the legendarily bad player camp. It was like watching Ryan Leaf’s pro career, but in college.
I suspect we should be in the top 30 and in my opinion smart analysts would have us in the 20-25 range. I honestly believe that the loss of Reggie overcomes the loss of CJ. Yes, I believe that Reggie Ball was a worse player than CJ was a legendary player. Yes, this means that I believe Reggie Ball is in the legendarily bad player camp. It was like watching Ryan Leaf’s pro career, but in college.
3. All due credit to Tech's 2006 squad, but we benefited from Miami and other teams' lackluster seasons. Will the big-reputation programs like FSU and Miami be back in 2007?
FSU should be a very interesting program next year. If Bobby will keep his hands out of Jimbo Fisher’s cookie jar then FSU could be very scary. They always have talent on all sides of the ball, but they have been squandering their offensive talent under some of the most damaging nepotism to ever conceivably take place. The season did end for them on a degree of quarterback controversy and that’s never a good thing for a program. Out of the two of FSU and Miami, I would still pick FSU as the most likely to come back to full strength.
As for Miami, I just believe that the 2008 season is when they will really begin to get back in synch. Too much bad stuff has happened over the last two seasons for them to completely recover and be dominant this season. But like FSU they will have the talent to prove me wrong. Of course they have Nix now to make sure that Kyle Wright is put into some kind of sophomore stasis in his QB development.
FSU should be a very interesting program next year. If Bobby will keep his hands out of Jimbo Fisher’s cookie jar then FSU could be very scary. They always have talent on all sides of the ball, but they have been squandering their offensive talent under some of the most damaging nepotism to ever conceivably take place. The season did end for them on a degree of quarterback controversy and that’s never a good thing for a program. Out of the two of FSU and Miami, I would still pick FSU as the most likely to come back to full strength.
As for Miami, I just believe that the 2008 season is when they will really begin to get back in synch. Too much bad stuff has happened over the last two seasons for them to completely recover and be dominant this season. But like FSU they will have the talent to prove me wrong. Of course they have Nix now to make sure that Kyle Wright is put into some kind of sophomore stasis in his QB development.
4. Our out-of-conference schedule is exciting, with Notre Dame and Georgia bookending the season, and while Army is a cupcake, playing a military academy is kinda cool in my book. Which game are you more stoked about between ND and UGA? Also, what ACC games are you most excited about?
As far as I’m concerned we should pecker slap ND next year. They are replacing most of last year’s team and going up against a QB making his first ever collegiate start. Even if that QB is
Jimmy OMFG Clausen. They also replace most of their o-line starters, lose McKnight and Smardlkhstnsdfklue at WR, and Walker at RB.
As far as I’m concerned we should pecker slap ND next year. They are replacing most of last year’s team and going up against a QB making his first ever collegiate start. Even if that QB is
Jimmy OMFG Clausen. They also replace most of their o-line starters, lose McKnight and Smardlkhstnsdfklue at WR, and Walker at RB. (He's coming for you Jimmy!)
I’m excited about the concept of the pecker slapping, because beating ND is good for America. However, I just can’t get as fired up about that as I am about the UGA game. Both teams should be better this year than last and we have them at home. We’ve been completely pwned in recent years and I hope we’re do, but I just don’t make guarantees when it comes to the UGA game.
5. Lighting Round! (Cue "Eye of the Tiger") Name the first thing that comes to mind, as fast as you can:
Calvin Johnson: Freak of nature.
Tailgate Food: Pulled pork.
Beesball: Brought to you by Ambien (sorry I just really find college baseball boring)
Taylor Bennett: Throws to the middle.
6. How do you deal with the football offseason? Prayer? Hibernation? Blogging?
I actually cherish about half of the off-season. I am a very emotional fan and going from football to basketball leaves me pretty drained once the seasons are over (good or bad.) So for a few months I enjoy not being worked up over the game and fill the time with reading, videogames, and blogging.
Unfortunately, this really only lasts until about June and then I’ll be completely fired up for football with still far too long to wait for the games to return. At that point, I turn to my trusty friend Internet Pornography to get me through the rest of the summer.
I actually cherish about half of the off-season. I am a very emotional fan and going from football to basketball leaves me pretty drained once the seasons are over (good or bad.) So for a few months I enjoy not being worked up over the game and fill the time with reading, videogames, and blogging.
Unfortunately, this really only lasts until about June and then I’ll be completely fired up for football with still far too long to wait for the games to return. At that point, I turn to my trusty friend Internet Pornography to get me through the rest of the summer.
(Me and Neil Diamond deal with loneliness in the same way.)
posted by Dan at 6:15 PM
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