The Starting Five

New York Jets coach Rex Ryan can be accused of a lot of things when it comes to his persona.
Being stupid isn’t one of them.
Ryan may have done one of the most masterful jobs of blowing a smokescreen in recent history this week leading up to the AFC Divisional Playoff game with the New England Patriots.
The Jets’ brash coach came out last Monday and made a number of outrageous statements to throw controversy to at the media and bait retaliatory reactions from the Patriots.
And like a couple of trout going after worm, both snapped up the bait.
Ryan came out and said the game would be a battle between New England coach Bill Belichick and himself. He took the total blame for the Jets’ blowout loss to the Patriots because of his coaching tactics. At the same time he called out New England quarterback Tom Brady with a few well measured comments.
Basically, he laid the smoke and mirrors to deflect all the real issues pending for this important game.
In essence, Ryan stole the strategy that has won many an election.
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The world is less than a better place without Nick Scallion.
With last week’s passing of the longtime South Hagerstown basketball coach and driver’s education teacher, a whole generation of former students and a number of his educational contemporaries felt the impact.
If you believe your local social media, Scallion’s death uncorked a flood of favorite memories and stories of a man’s man and a teacher’s teacher. Be it on the basketball court or in the passenger’s seat of a rolling classroom, he was stern, but funny and strict, but caring. He was a driven leader, while being a precise guide.
He said what he meant and meant what he said. People appreciated his lessons, respected him for his directness and remembered his words.
“Nick had a Marine background. There was no doubt that was in charge in the classroom. He had rules and regulations,” said Eugene “Yogi” Martin, who was supervised county athletics and driver’s education programs for the Washington County Board of Education during Scallion’s years.”Everyone knew where he came from and what he stood for and what he had in mind. There was never any doubt.” (continue reading…)

There doesn’t seem to be an event that gets Hagerstown excited.
Daytona has its 500, Washington has its Cherry Blossoms and Boston has its Marathon. Every one of them brings great anticipation.
There are a couple of events that makes Washington County steam up a mirror, proving the citizens are actually breathing, but nothing of magnitude.
It used to be that a Saturday in the middle of January was always circled, though. That was when Hagerstown Community College’s men’s basketball team would host Allegany College.
It was the battle of two competitive counties with the best junior college programs in the area. It was the battle between coaches Jim Brown and Bob Kirk, Western Maryland’s answer to Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.
It was a battle for civic pride between two teams and two counties that really don’t like each other. There was always a lot of sparing and raw emotion, and that was in the bleachers. You don’t need to talk about what was happening on the court.
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This entry isn’t all about sports, but in a way, it is about playing defense.
Thanks to today’s technology and short attention spans, there has been an ongoing death watch for the newspaper industry. We ink-stained wretches aren’t immediate enough and take too long to get the information out to today’s public, so they say.
Then, there is the other side of the coin.
One of my favorite shows is NCIS on Tuesday evenings. I love the cases, but I get a kick out of some of the background stories.
Last Tuesday, on the episode entitled Ignition, there was a two-minute lead-in about reading the morning news. I had to laugh.
Check it out here.
In the words of Monty Python, “We’re not dead yet.”

Here is just a thought to throw out there for consideration.

Do you think there is a whole new perspective when someone mentions the Washington Wizards’ shooting percentage?

It just goes to show that Gilbert Arenas is the wrong “caliber” of player to be the Wizards’ face of a franchise.

A couple of things to make you go, Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Time is something you will never get back.
Because of that, you need to spend it well.
That is why I sort of straddled the line when I tuned in for Friday’s Gator Bowl between Florida State and West Virginia.
On one side, I thought, it was a huge waste of time. It was another in a long line of bowl games that really just fill up the holiday television schedule. Outside of the old New Year’s Day games that are now spread out to what seems like June, none of them really matter. (continue reading…)

It’s been almost a month since Nick Adenhart was killed in the car crash in Fullerton, Calif. Many have done their best to get past the tragedy, but the memories still linger. In some ways, that is a good thing. The memory of Nick is a driving force behind a memorial fund that is being set up by his family to help keep some Little League organization alive across the country. Others have been motivated differently by Nick’s death. For players like Los Angeles Angels outfielder Torii Hunter, it has become a reminder of how fragile and quick life can be. Hunter, who has been one of the most vocal and ardent supporter of the Adenhart family in their grief, emotionally expressed some of his thoughts and feelings about Nick and his sudden death in his blog on the Angels website. Nick Adenhart touched many people in his short life. In this case, the rookie reminded the veteran an important lesson.

I should have trusted my first instincts.

The guys in the office were talking back in mid-January about the impending NCAA tournament. I made the statement that I thought there weren’t going to be any really big upsets. I said I thought there were a lot of good teams playing college basketball right now, but very few – probably only the top seeds – would only have a good chance to win the title.

Then, like most everyone else, I got swept up in the madness.

The college tournaments cropped up and the heavy hitters were going down in the early rounds of the conference quilting bees.

Maybe I was wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time that happened.

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  It is part of a great debate.

 Which college basketball league should be rated the best for the 2008-09 season. … The Atlantic Coast Conference or The Big East?

When it comes to the NCAA tournament, we will find out when the brackets are announced on Sunday. The prognosticators believe three Big East teams will earn No. 1 seeds compared to only one ACC team.

That might be fair. It sure makes it sound like the Big East is the tougher league.

Maybe that was proven on Saturday.

I found it interesting during the ACC semifinal between Maryland and Duke. The Terps were challenging to take down Duke well into the second half, but started to fall off the pace.

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The more things change, the more they stay the same.

In this new techno world of basketball – where speed, flow and movement are the most important facets – it’s amazing how a throwback philosophy has been popping up.

It’s called zone defense.

Teams nowadays run motion offenses and play man defense as regular-season games continue to evolve into a streetball mentality. Now that we have reached the part of the season when games have become more live and death with tournament play, zones are showing up again.

Examples?

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