New Sid-Column Day!

Ah, I love new Sid-Column Day. A bunch of tidbits that may or may not be entirely based on fact for us to wildly speculate.
He mentioned the University of Houston as a potential candidate to fill the September 5th, 2009, open date on our schedule for Gophers football. This seems to be a good opponent, as they have made it to 4 bowls in 5 years under Art Briles. The wildcard is they have a new coach, Kevin Sumlin, so who knows where this program will be in 09. Hopefully they are a solid, competitive team(that we beat easily, of course). Also, this allows us to go down and play in a fertile recruiting territory. Hopefully we'll have some Houston area recruits for 2010 that will come watch us play.

If Troy Calhoun and Jeff Tedford are still coaching their respective programs, then I'm thinking the 2009 non-conference schedule should be filled with some solid teams: @ Houston, Air Force, Cal, and, ugh, South Dakota State. Well, three out of four isn't bad.

In other "jottings":

• He erroneously lists March 25th as the date for the Gophers Football spring game. If you have access to an accurate calendar, you will see this falls on a Tuesday. The actual date is April 25th, a Friday night.



• In one simple sentence, he instructs us not to "be suprised if you see schools such as Alabama, Virginia Tech, LSU and Virginia on future Gophers men's basketball schedules." OK. I won't, but can I get a couple reasons why I shouldn't be suprised? Has there been talks with these schools' coaches or athletic directors? Have they mentioned possible home and away agreements or early season tournaments with these schools? No? OK. Is it OK if I just act suprised then?



• He also notes that the U has plans to install a new floor and baskets for Williams Arena in 2009. A poster on the GopherIllustrated.com message board suggested they sell pieces of the floor to obsessed fans and collectors of random sports-related crap. If this happens, I'm totally bidding on the piece of the floor that has the Cub Foods logo.

They'll be back...they always come back.

Shortly after the NBA All-Star break, Pat Reusse wrote a column lamenting about the lack of interest in the NBA amongst the fine residents of the Twin Cities. An article published a couple days later confirms his lament. I got to admit, I was a bit surprised:

TNT's coverage of the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday had a 0.8 rating in the
Twin Cities, placing this market last among the 56 metered markets in the United
States. That means 13,654 households in this area watched the game. By
comparison, last month's NHL All-Star contest on Versus had a 2.1 rating (35,841
households) in Minneapolis-St. Paul. That placed fifth out of the metered
markets.

Ouch. My fellow Minnesotans, this is not good. It's really hard to explain when the article goes on to say the Twin Cities also were ranked fifth when it came to TV ratings for both the MLB All-Star Game and the NFL Pro Bowl. The Pro Bowl?! Are you kidding me? Who the hell actually watches the Pro Bowl?

I'm not sure where we strayed. Obviously, the home team's current state has something to do with this. If your home team is losing, the casual fan is going to quit following them. If they're not following the T-Wolves, then they're likely not paying attention to the rest of the league.

Another point is the player dubbed as the "Big Ticket" is no longer with the team. Again, combine the losing record with the loss of some other main attraction, and the casual fan will find it hard to follow this team. I feel the only time this season you'll hear some NBA buzz in the Twin Cities will be April when the debate will rage about the ethics of intentionally tanking games to gain better draft position.

It's sad, too. I just got back from the game against Utah tonight. The crowd seemed to be decent (15,009) for a Tuesday night in February against the Jazz. Perhaps the tide is turning and Minnesotans are warming up to the NBA again. Then again, maybe the crowd was there because they received free vouchers to this game when they attend the game against the Celtics a few weeks ago. I know that's the reason I was there.

Regardless of how these fans got their tickets, they ended up seeing a pretty good game. The Wolves played extremely well balanced, with 4 players scoring 20+ points. Craig Smith had a sloppy but entertaining assist while leading a fast break. Kirk Snyder, the supposed scrub we received in exchange for Gerald Green, played a solid 23 minutes. I think I even saw that annoying Howl-o-meter redline for the first time this season. Finally the key ingredient to a successful evening: they won.

I believe the casual Timberwolve fan is just in an akward phase right now. Think of it like a bad heartbreak. It's like their lover for over a decade breaks up and leaves them for another partner. You are shattered. To help you forget, your friends set you up with a bunch of blind dates. You're pretty reluctant at first, but decide to give it a chance. After all, it's not as if they are bad people. You're just not sure if you're ready yet. One is kind of cute, another quite intelligent and saucy, and one you just know would be pretty fun for a one night stand. You begin to slowly forget just a little bit about the one who got away and become a tiny bit more interested in these new potential lovers with each passing day.

Just give it a chance, Timberwolves fans. You'll soon find someone that'll make you forget about that other guy.

Q: Are they not men? A: They are Bevo.

I just recently stumbled upon an article saying that a 2009 game between the University of Texas and the University of Arkansas is being postponed for another year. What the hell does this have to do with me? Well, the date of this game was scheduled for September 12, 2009. This happens to be the exact same day of the home opener for the Gophers at TCF Bank Stadium. With this fateful alignment of dates, one has to ask: Why not schedule UT for the new stadium opening date?

How cool would this be? Very.

How likely would this be? A little more complicated. Let's take a look:

• Tim Brewster has stated in the past that he wants to schedule more high profile non-conference opponents and has mentioned the Longhorns specifically. The University of Texas definitely carries a higher profile than Air Force.

• The linked article above also includes this little quip:
  
  One source said Texas will consider playing a different opponent in an away game with the promise of two home games in Austin down the road.

So there are a couple glimmers of hope. Here are some potential roadblocks:

• We already have a game scheduled with Air Force. These things are never set in stone, however (which is why Texas has the open date in the first place). Rescheduling or backing out of agreements is becoming common in college football, but it also involves a little bad PR.


• UT wants an exchange of two games in Austin for one game on the road. This can be good and bad. The good is we'll get to play UT 3 times in the coming years. The bad thing is that we'll have a brand spanking new stadium in which we'll want to schedule as many home games as possible. Hopefully we get compensated fairly for the extra road game we have to take to Austin.

Ultimately, I think this would be a good opportunity for the U. Often, big non-conference opponents like this need to be scheduled years in advance. If they can get UT now, it would be a huge step for our program.

I've heard some grumbling that this may look bad if we get blown out by a big school in our new stadium opener. To those people, I say look at our team from last year and then look at Air Force's team from last year. There's a good chance that they'll come in here and beat us, too. A loss is a loss, but I'd rather have one against top competition than to a smaller and supposedly weaker program.

*****

In similarly exciting news if you are like me and read too much into little things, Notre Dame is hosting a Junior Day this upcoming Sunday. This is a football recruiting event where prospects visit the campus and learn a little bit about the program. Why do I care? The list of recruits visiting do not include any Minnesotans. This is a good initial sign since they have plundered and pillaged our area for top recruits over the years.

It hurts so good

You remember the last time you saw something that just made you laugh uncontrolably for an extended period of time? I do. It was five minutes ago when I found this.

Thank you Fark.com.

Ted Roof, Ted Roof, Ted Roof is on fire

After the relatively unexpected departure of Gopher's defensive coordinator Everett Withers, it appears a replacement may be close to joining Tim Brewster's staff. There was an article posted earlier on the Strib's website saying that former Duke head coach Ted Roof was interviewed and is said to be the frontrunner for the job. As of now, I can no longer find the story on their website. This may indicate something else is in the works. Other rumors floating around point to former Iowa State head coach Dan McCarney or former Nebraska defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove.

The response on internet message boards is quite lukewarm. Obviously, people are looking at Ted's failing as a head coach at Duke. This is somewhat of an unfair assessment as lots of coaches walk into situations where they fail. It doesn't mean they are bad coaches. It was his first head coaching job and Duke doesn't look like an easy place to win. Looking at his bio, his experience as a defensive coordinator looks very encouraging.

My take is people need to relax. Ultimately, no matter how big of football fans we all think we are, we don't know really anything about coaching and tend to make pretty narrow sighted judgements. I read a good post regarding the defensive coordinator situation in Wisconsin that illustrates this perfectly. I hope this guy works out and gives Minnesota a defense to be proud of. After all, it's not like it can get any worse.

Stimulation Simulation

I typically don't argue or even pleasantly debate with others. Usually I debate the issues in my head and will end up finding proving myself wrong before I've even uttered a single word. It's a sad existence, really.

Last night was the exception, however. I was talking about the economic stimulus package being passed through Congress that includes a $600 rebate check to almost every taxpayer. I'm no expert in economics. I took two classes in college and had a professor who would demostrate opportunity cost and game theory by using Sesame Street and Reservoir Dogs characters. He was neat.

Based on my knowledge from these two 1000 level classes, I assumed these rebate checks may cause a temporary spike in activity that wouldn't last more than a few months. It would be a good move for Congress because the voting public generally loves "free money". Then the quarterly numbers would look great for the summer and a bunch of poor schmucks would get to keep their jobs for another three months until the next quarterly numbers come out lower than expected. Then everbody panics, gets laid off, and we finally end up back where we started. Ultimately, this package will do nothing in the long run.

My friend with even less economic knowledge than myself helped me see the light. Her insights were even more narrowminded than mine. She was raving about how this was a stupid idea because just about every manufactured product is made outside of the US anyway. If people went out and spent all of this money on Product XYZ, the "economic stimulus" would just go to all those damn Chinese commies who made Product XYZ.

Now because I had one opinion and she had another, the next logical step in this conversation is to prove her wrong and make her look stupid. I broke it down like this:

I decide to use my $600 to go purchase a new flat panel television. Of course, most of these TVs are not made in the US. Let's say my TV is made in Korea. Now the Korean manufacturer stands to benefit from my purchase, so she is right in the fact that it may help other countries' economies.

Keep in mind, I'm not alone in making this purchase. A rebate is being given to almost every US taxpayer, and I think that will include many more young, single males who like to purchase shiny new electronic products. With all of these people going out and buying new electronic products, there could be an increase in imported goods arriving at US ports. There will also be lots of trucks needed to get these electronics from the shipping ports inland to warehouses, distribution centers, and storefronts. Finally, there will be a bunch of eager people in stores like Best Buy and Circuit City itching to buy their new toys.

New jobs may be created because of this temporary spike in activity. This now creates a new wave of consumers. For example, think of all the pimply faced teenagers hired at Best Buy to help with this surge in demand. Some are working and earning wages for the very first time. They all live with their parents and have very little financial responsibility. Combine this with a sweet employee discount, and guess what happens? They start buying more iPods, Nintendo Wii's, and other electronics. This starts the cycle all over again, and may lead to more permanent jobs being created in retail, shipping, or even on the corporate, white-collar level. These jobs will hopefully be more permanent and lucrative, further jumpstarting the economy.

There you have it. In my attempt to belittle another's opinion and prove them wrong, I also realized the ignorance of my own initial opinion. The stimulus package may or may not work, but I now understand what they are trying to do. So what should I purchase with my $600? The answer is simple: 600 Powerball tickets, increasing my chance of winning the jackpot from 1: 146,107,962 to 1:243,513. I like those odds.

Return of the Boom Bap

I was on hand for the grand homecoming of KG last Friday night at the Target Center. Actually, I was late in getting to the arena and missed his Groundhog Day-like cameo. Word on the street is that he saw his shadow and quickly scurried back to the locker room.


Anyhow, I was more amused at the different reactions around town:

• Pat Reusse gives a detailed account of the limited interaction had with the media at the Target Center, then reminds fans that KG was at best the second greatest basketball player in MN hoops history.


• Jim Souhan attempts to persuade the hordes of casual fans out there that this trade was necessary and will be for the better in the long run. Then he follows it up with another column in an attempt to prove how ignorant and narrow sighted these casual fans are. He makes two good points out of thirteen.


• Britt Robson calls out all the homers who are overpraising our return on the KG trade
  

However, I think my favorite reaction comes from old Sid Hartman, mostly because it reminds me Grandpa Simpson's nonsensical rants everytime I read his column. Check out this "jotting":

Rest assured, the Twins will show a lot more appreciation for what Hunter did for the club when he returns in an Angels uniform than the Timberwolves did when Kevin Garnett returned with the Celtics on Friday night. Garnett was introduced, got a fantastic standing ovation and the scoreboard read "Thanks for the memories." Wolves owner Glen Taylor didn't think any more was necessary and that the club would honor KG when he retires. One other thing is for sure, the Wolves made a much better deal when they traded Garnett than the Twins did for Johan Santana.

After Torii Hunter's parting shots, I'm not so sure the Twins will be rolling out the red carpet for Torii when he returns. Now Sid has been around for a while and has quite the number of contacts in the local and national sporting community, but I sometimes feel he takes every canned, PR-approved statement or response way to literally. If I were his family, I would worry about him being scammed by telemarketers pretty easily. If I were a telemarketer, I'd be working hard to get his contact info.

Poopsicle

It really can happen.

Putting in the Steely McBeams

Construction on TCF Bank Stadium has been well under way for some time now. There have been many holes dug, holes refilled, and plenty of dirt piles pushed around. It was like a toddler with Tonka Trucks was the project manager. I had a friend openly pine about the immense amount of visible progress at the Twins ballpark site and little more than piles of dirt at the Gopher's stadium site.

Well, the end of January marked the beginning of a new phase on the project: the steel frame was about to be erected (heh). Fans like my friend now have visible evidence of the stadiums progress.

Being unemployed, I have plenty of time to obsessively check the webcams around these new ballparks. There's even a webcam near campus that gives close-up, streaming video of all the action. If you still have that Tonka Truck spirit within you from your distant childhood, than you'll get pretty excited watching all of this.

Also, a lengthy video animation was released yesterday giving fans a detailed view of TCF Bank Stadium. I recommend dimming the lights, cranking up the volume, and switching the video to full screen so it feels like you're really face-to-face with Bob, Joel, Tim, Adam, and the random band geek.