The Captain and Shaquille

Divide And Conquer

2004-10-16T22:05:00.000-04:00

The Captain and Shaquille are sailing off to brighter shores. A very enticing offer (possibly even including money!) has caused me to begin a different site, and revive and old one. So, for intensive Miami Heat coverage, please go to my new home, Crazy From The Heat. But if you're interested in commentary on all sports, amusing anecdotes about my day, occasional attacks on public figures, and even a curse word or two, go to my original site Eisenberg Sports. See you there!

Heat vs Rockets

2004-10-11T20:30:00.000-04:00

Who cares who wins an exhibition game? But it was fun to see Shaq out there, and hey, there were winners and losers. Let's get to it!

Power Forward - The need for Christian Laettner became clear right away, as Udonis Haslem and Malik Allen took 18 shots in 39 minutes. Allen had more luck, going 4 for 7 and showing a nice mid-range jumper, while Haslem went 3 for 11. Of course, Haslem outrebounded Allen 5 to 1. The Heat made a nice first have run with Allen in the lineup though, so we'll give the nod to him.

Small Forward - Rasual Butler put up some nice numbers - 3 for 5 with 5 rebounds and 5 assists in 22 minutes - but continued to be less than impressive defensively. Wesley Person shot only 1 for 4 but had 5 rebounds.

The Rookies - Yikes! Between them, Dorell Wright and Matt Freije played 16 minutes, grabbed 2 rebounds, missed 5 shots, and committed 3 fouls. Not to be outdone by the kids, Eddie Jones didn't hit a shot in 25 minutes, and Wang Zhi Zhi went scoreless in 9.

College Football Weekend Preview

2004-10-09T06:46:00.000-04:00

Here's the current standings:

Unscathed Teams Who Have Beaten a Top Ten Team (1)
Auburn*!

All Other Unscathed Teams (17)
ASU, Boise St, Cal, Col, Georgia, Louisville, Minn, Oklahoma, Ok St, Navy, Purdue, S Miss, Texas, USC, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin

Teams With Half-Acceptable Losses (5)
Florida, FSU, Maryland, Miami*, Ohio St

Teams With 1 Acceptable Loss (7)
BC, Colorado, Fresno St, Memphis, Michigan, Missouri, Wake Forest

Teams With 1.5 Acceptable Losses (1)
WV

Teams With 2 Acceptable Losses (2)
N Illinois, Tex Tech

Teams With Unacceptable Losses Protected By The Three Weeks Rule (7)
Nebraska, South Carolina, Stanford, Texas A&M, UAB, UCLA, Wash St

There's a change at the top this week. Auburn moves to the top due to their undefeated status and their victory over a top ten team (deserving or not), Tennessee. I had mistakenly had Miami in this bracket, forgetting that they had to go to overtime to beat FSU.

Only forty teams are left now. Let's take a look at this weekend's big matchups, the playoff games (that's right, I said playoff games), and the implications for the Captain's College Football Championship (CCF).

Playoff Games
Oklahoma vs. Texas
Any game on a neutral field is a must win in the CCF. Someone big goes down today, and until the Longhorns actually win this game again, you have to like Oklahoma.

Nebraska at Texas Tech
Texas Tech is a 7-point favorite. A loss by either team will be cause for elimination.

The following are all games in which unscathed road teams are playing championship contenders who need to win:
Minnesota at Michigan

The Little Brown Jug is not all that is at stake. Michigan is a 3.5-point favorite.

Wisconsin at Ohio State
Ohio State is minus 4.

Cal at USC
USC's is a 7-point favorite. Cal can knock them out of the race for the first time in two years with a big win right here, but I like the Trojans.

Oklahoma State at Colorado
The Buffaloes are on the ropes as a 6.5-point underdog at home.

So it's a key weekend in both Big 12 and Big Ten. Lucky for me, the Red Sox wrapped up the first round last night,

freeing me for some serious clicking. Let's see what happens.

No News Is Not Necessarily Good News

2004-10-07T19:50:00.000-04:00

With the major South Florida papers reporting nothing about the opening of Heat training camp except that it's really hard to guard Shaq (there's a news flash), there is this one tidbit: Christian Laettner is already hurt, and missing time with a bad back. This does not bode well for any kind of significant contribution this year, but we'll see.

We will have a college football weekend preview, probably Friday night or Saturday morning. In the meantime, enjoy the playoffs.

Heat Updates

2004-09-29T22:19:00.000-04:00

Amazingly, all three South Florida newspapers had Heat stories today, and all on different topics, so I thought I would just leave those links here.

Gold Medal -
The Sun-Sentinel's Ira Winderman has an interview with Dwyane Wade
Heat guard Wade measures success one step at a time

Also, The Sun-Sentinel beat the other two papers to the Kobe-Shaq sex story, but that's all I want to say about that.

Silver Medal - Chris Perkins has this column in the Palm Beach Post. The title doesn't do it justice. It should say No Chance. Jordan Comeback? Wishful Thinking

Bronze Medal - The Miami Herald has a story about how the Heat are Maimi's best chance for a winner. You have to be a member to view the whole story, so I'm not linking it. You can find the paper on the right, though.

That's it. Back to the pennant races.

College Football Weekend Update

2004-09-28T19:43:00.000-04:00

It took three years for it to happen, but this last week produced two scenarios that were not considered by The Captain's College Football Manifesto(over on the right):

1. The SEC admitted to Florida officials that the referees of the Florida-Tennessee game had made a mistake.

2. Pittsburgh went to overtime to beat a team from a lower division at home.

Let's take the Gators-Vols situation first. Originally I had said that I would stick with the official score, if only because I could not possibly know about every perceived injustice in college football, and so I would not rule on any. But it does seem like I can know about every league apology. I mean, that just doesn't happen every week. So from now on, any game that is followed by an apology from the conference will be open to interpretation. I've decided to give neither side credit for the victory, and to give both teams credit for a half-Acceptable Loss. This is the same scoring that would have happened if the home team, Tennessee, had won in overtime. It's not perfect, but it's certainly better than calling it a straight Tennessee victory, because everyone watching knows they lose that game without referee interference.

The Pitt situation kind of solves itself because they already had an Unacceptable Loss, and so going to OT at home to beat anybody would have eliminated them. But Furman? If it's a half-Acceptable Loss to beat a Division 1 team at home, then a home win in OT against a lower-division team must be worse, so we'll call it an Acceptable Loss.

Here's this week's standings. Teams that have beaten a Top Ten team have a * next to them.

Unscathed Teams Who Have Beaten a Top Ten Team (1)
Miami*

All Other Unscathed Teams (20)
ASU, Auburn, Boise St, Cal, Col, Fresno St, Georgia, Louisville, Minn, Oklahoma, Ohio St, Ok St, Navy, Purdue, S Miss, Texas, USC, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin,

Teams With Half-Acceptable Losses (6)
Florida, FSU, Maryland, Tennessee, Wake Forest, WV

Teams With Acceptable Losses (9)
BC, Florida, Iowa St, Memphis, Michigan, Missouri, Notre Dame*, SD St, Tex Tech

Teams With 1.5 Acceptable Losses (1)
LSU

Teams With 2 Acceptable Losses (1)
N Illinois

Teams With Unacceptable Losses Protected By The Three Weeks Rule (16)
Arkansas, Baylor, GT, KSU, Nebraska, NC St, Rice, Rutgers, South Carolina, Stanford, Texas A&M, UAB, UCLA, USF, Wash St, Wyoming

Hurricane Shudders - Part 2

2004-09-27T14:41:00.000-04:00

This is we're I've been:

1. Worked a 7:00 am to 8:00 pm shift on Thursday.
2. Got home from work at 4 on Friday, which gave me just two hours to hang my hurricane shutters . . .

(not me, but you get the idea) and clear out enough room in my garage to get both cars in before I
3. Fasted for Yom Kippur, and
4. Hurricane Jeanne came.

Got more water just like with Frances, and had the same tree knocked down again. Then I got internet service back up just long enough to drop fifty dollars on the Lions.

So yes, I'm thrilled to have power, and hopefully I have more time off of work. If I do, there'll be blogging for sure. But regardless, expect the College Football Weekend Review at least, and any Heat news that breaks.

Jordan Joining The Heat?

2004-09-22T20:30:00.000-04:00

So far, I've done a pretty good job of ducking the rumor mill. Stories of possible deals for another mediocre small forward just don't interest me a lot in August. But how can I let this one pass by?

"The loose talk around the league is Michael Jordan has been working out like a demon, testing the possibility of joining forces with Shaquille O'Neal in Miami, according to Vandeweghe."

Are you kidding me? This comes courtesy of the Denver Post, via HoopsHype. I don't know if it's true or not, and the man is 40 years old, but it sure is fun to think about.

College Football Weekend Update

2004-09-20T16:46:00.000-04:00

I know, I know. It doesn't add up to a 117 teams. And I'm sure there's a couple of mistakes, but here's the updated standings. If you can resolve any of these things please let me know, and if you don't know what any of this means, please read the Manifesto at the right.

I decided to include the Florida-Tennessee game by it's actual result, because I realize that teams must get screwed all of the time (although not that blatantly), and I can't possibly keep up with all of it.

Teams Already Eliminated (43)
Akron, Arizona, Arkansas St, Army, Ball St, , Buffalo, BYU, C Michigan, Cincinnati, Clemson, CSU, Duke, ECU, E Michigan, Hawaii, Houston, Idaho, LA - Laf, LA-Monroe, Marshall, Miami (OH), Michigan St, Mississippi, Miss St, New Mexico, NM St, North Texas, Northwestern, Ohio, Oregon,, Oregon St, , SMU, TCU, Temple, Toledo, Tulsa, UCF, UNLV, UTEP, Utah St, Vanderbilt, Washington, W Michigan

Teams With Unacceptable Losses Protected By The Three Weeks Rule (3O)
Air Force, Arkansas, Baylor, BYU, GT, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, KSU, Kentucky, Kent St, La Tech, MTSU, Nebraska, Nevada, NC, NC St, Pitt, Rutgers, SJ St, South Carolina, Syracuse, Texas A&M, Tulane, UAB, UConn, UCLA, USF, Wash St, Wyoming

Teams With 2 Acceptable Losses (1)
N Illinois

Teams With 1.5 Acceptable Losses (1)
LSU

Teams With Acceptable Losses (12)
Bowling Green, Florida, Iowa St, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Notre Dame*,Penn St, SD St, Tex Tech, Troy St, Va Tech

Teams With Half-Acceptable Losses (4)
FSU, Maryland, Wake Forest, WV

Unscathed Teams Who Have Beaten a Top Ten Team (3)
Miami*, Tennessee*

All Other Unscathed Teams (27)
Alabama, ASU, Auburn, BC, Boise St, Cal, Col, Fresno St, Georgia, Louisville, Memphis, Minn, Oklahoma, Ohio St, Ok St, Navy, Purdue, Rice, S Miss, Stanford, Texas, Tex Tech, UCLA, USC, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin

ESPN

2004-09-19T01:03:00.000-04:00

I just heard Mark May and Trev Alberts say the game should be petitioned. It comes down to this - if the referee, who's staring directly at BOTH PLAYERS, calls offsetting personal fouls as he should have, I believe the play is run over. In this scenario, Florida calls another running play, the clock runs down to about 10 seconds, then the Gators punt, giving the Vols about five seconds to score. If I'm wrong, and the penalties were called after the play, then the clock would have stopped, but the 15 yards wouldn't have been assessed, and the Vols would have needed one more successful play to get within field goal position, highly suspect with that much time left.

For me, I have to decide if the final result should be counted as official in the Captain's College Football Championship Series. It's a tough decision. This is the worst I've felt since Grady "My Brain Is Extremely" Little cost the Red Sox a trip to the World Series.

Fixed

2004-09-18T23:40:00.000-04:00

If you were watching the Florida-Tennessee football game, you just saw the worst call of your life. With 55 seconds left and the clock winding down on fourth down, the ref, staring directly at a Gator and Volunteer, watches the Volunteer slap the Gator, then watches the Gator slap him back, and calls a personal foul on the Gators, costing them fifteen yards and stopping the clock. I can not fathom for the life of me how that call could be made, and if that guy doesn't lose his job, there's really something wrong. He must have had a motive. There's no other possible explanation. It's beyond incompetency, and tonight the whole game is disgraced.

Christian Laettner

2004-09-17T06:35:00.000-04:00

This is how we all remember the guy, right?

That's Christian Laettner, hitting the shot to beat Kentucky in the 1992 Eastern Regional Final (I like this camera angle. On TV, you always see the shot from the back). He's certainly an interesting name to add to the Heat's roster. Forever part of college basketball folklore and a former lottery pick, everyone has heard of the guy. But what kind of player are the Heat getting today? Let's take a closer look.

- He turned 35 last month.
- He played in only 48 games last year.
- He hasn't been in a playoff series the last four seasons.
- He hasn't played in the playoffs and won a series since he was 27.
- In the time he was on the floor last season, his team (the Wizards) outscored their opponents 13 times. They were outscored 34 times. This percentage is less than the team's overall winning percentage.
- For every 48 minutes Laettner was on the court last season, his team was outscored by 8.2 points. None of his teammates who played as many or more minutes had a worse percentage.
- His Efficiency Rating (Efficiency is a new stat the NBA developed in 2002. It is calculated using the following formula: ((pts + reb + stls + asts + blk) - ((fga - fgm) + (fta - ftm) + to))/g) was his lowest since he was 29, when he played in only 16 games.

Now some good news. Laettner ranked 4th out of 115 power forwards (as listed by ESPN))in assist/turnover ratio. He was pretty average in everything else.

Laettner played 20.5 minutes a game last year. On a team with only Udonis Haslem and Malik Allen at the power forward position, it's safe to say that he could get near that total again. But what we have here is a player on the tail-end of his career, who didn't even play well enough to help the Wizards. He might look good in a half-court set, either feeding the ball in to Shaq or kicking it outside for a three, but you have to be concerned about his overall effectiveness on the floor. We'll see.

College Football Weekend Wrapup

2004-09-14T20:02:00.000-04:00

Really, would you rather read about the upcoming Laettner signing? There will be plenty of time for that when it happens. Same with Albert Miralles staying overseas. We'll get to it. But college football is full steam ahead, and the Captain's College Football Championship Race must be addressed. Below are the current standings. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, scroll down to The Captain's College Football Manifesto, written last week. Team with an asterisk have already beaten a Top Ten team.

Teams Already Eliminated (24)
Houston, Mississippi, C Michigan, UNLV, CSU, Arkansas St, Clemson, Idaho, SMU, Toledo, Miami (OH), Tulsa, North Texas, NM St, ECU, Oregon St, Northwestern, UCF, Marshall, Ball St, Akron, Temple, Duke, Buffalo

Teams With Unacceptable Losses Protected By The Three Weeks Rule (35)
Air Force, Arizona, Arkansas, Army, Baylor, BYU, Cincinnati, E Michigan, Hawaii, Illinois, KSU, Kentucky, Kent St, LA-Monroe, Miss St, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, NC, Ohio, Oregon, Rutgers, SJ St, South Carolina, Syracuse, Texas A&M, Tulane, UCLA, UTEP, Utah St, Vanderbilt, Washington, Wash St, W Michigan, Wyoming

Teams With Acceptable Losses (11)
Bowling Green, Iowa St, LA - Laf, Michigan, Michigan St, Missouri, N Illinois, Notre Dame*,Penn St, Tex Tech, Va Tech

Teams With Half-Acceptable Losses (4)
FSU, LSU, TCU, Wake Forest

Unscathed Teams Who Have Beaten a Top Ten Team (1)
Miami*

All Other Unscathed Teams - Would you believe only 42?

Tune in later this week for the College Football Weekend Preview, and stories on Laettner and Miralles.

The Captain's College Football Manifesto

2004-09-10T21:59:00.000-04:00

I know it's late, but anyone who visits here on even a semi-regular basis knows why. For the same reason, the examples given are from the 2002 season. It made more sense to get this out quickly than to hold off to write new examples. The Manifesto is largely copied from last year's system (if you've followed me here from my old site) with a few very minor new wrinkles. Enjoy.

Voting to decide the championship of any team sporting endeavor is a ridiculous idea. Yet those of us who are College Football fans have had to endure that very thing, having our Champions traditionally decided by two polls. One was a vote of the coaches, who knew everything about only three teams - the one they played last week, the one they play this week, and their own. The other is a vote of sportswriters, who know nothing about everything. Letting those two groups (or any group, really) choose who the Champion was, especially when bowl games did not even necessarily match the best teams, robbed College Football of what is basic to sports, a chance to settle things on the field of play.

The Bowl Championship Series was an incredibly feeble attempt to rectify the situation. Stirring together polls, computer models, and strength of schedule formulas into one giant vat of Predictor's Stew, all the BCS wanted to do was make sure that the perceived Top Two teams met in a Bowl game. While this seems like a simple enough goal, it dodges the obvious problem: It is just as hard to figure out who the top two teams are as it is to figure out who the top one team is, maybe even harder.

A tournament is needed. Every other level of every other team sport in America has some sort of playoff, and 1-A college football should be no different. Of course, there's a better chance of Shaq naming his next child Kobe than there is of there being a 1-A tournament. So what to do in the meantime? The Captain has come up with an answer.

The idea is to figure out all of the things we expect a Champion to do, and all of the things we expect them not to do, and then hold each team accountable. There are certain acts that all of us would probably agree on. Should a Champion go undefeated? Well, it would be nice, but the best team might have stumbled along the way. So are all losses acceptable? Of course not. Should a Champion win their Bowl game? Absolutely.

But then there are other things that are less clear. Is it fair or wise to declare only one Champion without a tournament? Should a bad loss at the beginning of the season count as much as one at the end? What kind of loss is acceptable, and what kind isn't?

What I’ve has tried to do is set up a list of rules that teams need to follow in order to end up one of The Captain's College Football (CCF) Champions. In general, we have leaned towards being more inclusive than exclusive, so that there can be little doubt that a non-CCF Champion is deserving. We do this because without a tournament, there really is no way of knowing for certain who the best team is. Also with CCF, every single one of the 117 Division 1-A teams has a chance to be an CCF Champion.

Every week this football season, The Captain and Shaquille will have updates about who is eliminated from CCF Championship contention, and who is still alive. We will have previews of key CCF matchups of the upcoming weekend, and forecasts as to team's chances of becoming an CCF Champion.

Below are the CCF Championship Rules, and examples of how it worked last season.

THE CAPTAIN’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP RULES

1. The Three Weeks Rule - Cap and Shaq recognizes that some excellent teams will trip up very early in the year. Any loss of any kind in the first three weeks of the season will not be cause for elimination from CCF Championship contention provided that they are perfect - no losses, Acceptable or Unacceptable - the rest of the season.

2. Acceptable and Unacceptable Losses - This is a key component of the CCF Championship. Unlike the polls, not all losses are equal here. If you have a road game at Oklahoma and you lose, that doesn't mean that you aren't the best team in the country. EVERY team would be an underdog in Oklahoma, just like Oklahoma would be an underdog in a half-dozen other cities. That has to be accounted for in some way, and we try to do that here.

A. Definition of Unacceptable Losses - An Unacceptable Loss immediately eliminates you from CCF Championship contention. This is what constitutes an Unacceptable Loss:

- 1. Any loss on your home field, in regulation or in overtime.
- 2. Any loss in regulation on a neutral field.
- 3. Any loss by 17 or more points on the road.
- 4. Any loss to a non-Division 1A opponent.

These are things that should never happen to a team of Championship caliber.

B. Definition of the Acceptable Losses - Acceptable Losses do not automatically eliminate you from ECF Championship contention. These losses include:

- 1. Losses on the road by 16 or fewer points.
- 2. Overtime losses on a neutral field.

Some have questioned the 16-point marker. This is set for two reasons. First, the goal was to stay inclusive. A 10-point road loss is sometimes a very close game, and not always a true indicator of who would be favored in a rematch. Second, 16 was settled upon because it is inclusive, but also because it works better than most numbers. For instance, if you’re down 19 and kick a field goal, it makes at least a little strategic sense, in that it has brought you within two scores of the other team. However, if the number were changed just one to 17, there could be trouble in that a team could be down 20, kick a field goal to be down 17, and move from an Unacceptable Loss to an Acceptable one, even though the field goal in that scenario is illogical, because you still need three scores to win. The Captain does not want CCF rules to affect field decisions in any way.

3. The Overtime Rule - Cap and Shaq considers the current overtime rule of the NCAA to be ridiculous, but we'll use it. However, we'd like to tinker with it a little.

a. An OT win by the home team is considered a tie, half win - half Acceptable Loss, for both teams. If a home team can not prove they are the better team in regulation, than they aren't.

b. An OT win by the road team is considered to be a win for the road team, and an Unacceptable Loss for the home team.

c. An OT win on a neutral field will be a tie, half win - half-Acceptable Loss for the OT winner, and an Acceptable Loss for the loser.

4. Accumulation of Acceptable Losses - At some point, Acceptable Losses become unacceptable. Most teams are allowed to accumulate only 1.5 Acceptable Losses throughout the regular season. Because teams that have played in and won a conference championship game have in essence won a second Bowl Game, we allow them to accumulate 2.0 Acceptable Losses throughout the regular season. Any amount of Acceptable Losses beyond these numbers - 2.0 for conference champion winners, 1.5 for everyone else - will eliminate a team from contention in the CCF Championship.

5. Conference Championship Games - All teams that play in a conference championship game must win it, either in regulation or overtime.

6. Bowl Games - If two CCF-eligible teams are playing in the same bowl game, then the winner, either in regulation or in overtime, will be declared one of our CCF Champions. Any CCF-eligible team facing a non-CCF-eligible team in a bowl game must beat them in regulation time to be declared one of our CCF Champions, unless there are no other teams that qualify for the championship. Failure to appear in a bowl game will be cause for elimination.

7. The Top Ten Rule - Teams must beat another team that is in the Top Ten in either Poll when they play, or in the Top Ten later in the season. This is to insure that strength of schedule is considered, and gives our poll-loving fans something to do.

8. The Everyone is Eliminated Rule - If by some chance, after the bowl games, all 117 teams have been eliminated, there will still be at least one CCF Champion. The way the CCF Champion is then chosen is by the following rules:

a. Only bowl game winners are considered.
b. The first game of every team is eliminated.
c. If any team or teams would now qualify for the Championship, they would be declared the CCF Champions.
d. If no team qualifies, then the second game of every team would be eliminated. If there is anyone would qualify, they would now be considered the Champions.
e. If no team qualifies, weeks from the beginning of the season will continue to be eliminated until we have a winner.

Examples of the Rules from 2002:

1. Iowa - Iowa lost at home to Iowa State, an Unacceptable Loss. However, because it was in only their third game of the season, it was protected by Rule 1, The Three Weeks Rule. If Iowa had been perfect the rest of the way, with no Acceptable or Unacceptable Losses, they could have still been an CCF Champion. They won from then on until they lost to USC in the Orange Bowl.

2. TCU - TCU lost their opening game at Cincinnati in overtime, a half-Acceptable Loss. They then won eight in a row before losing at East Carolina, 31-28, an Acceptable Loss. With only 1.5 Acceptable Losses, TCU would have been an CCF Champion after beating Colorado State in their bowl game. However, they violated Rule 7, having never beaten a Top Ten team the entire season, and were eliminated.

3. Georgia - Georgia was 8-0 going into its game with Florida, known as The World's Largest Cocktail Party. The Bulldogs had been routinely thrashed by Spurrier's Gators, and the entire state of Georgia was salivating over the chance to make amends against Ron Zook's less than stellar squad. It was not to be though, as Georgia fell to Florida once again, 20-13. This was an Unacceptable Loss, a violation of Rule 2A-2, which states that you can not lose games in regulation on a neutral field. The Florida game eliminated Georgia.

4. USC - USC lost at Kansas State 27-20, an Acceptable Loss, and then again two weeks later at Washington State 30-27 in overtime, a half-Acceptable Loss. With only 1.5 Acceptable Losses for the season, USC was alive for a share of the CCF Championship entering the Orange Bowl game with Iowa (Rule 4). They trounced Iowa 38-17 to become an CCF Champion.

5. Oklahoma - Oklahoma was 8-0 when they lost at Texas A&M 30-26, an Acceptable Loss, and they were 10-1 when they suffered another Acceptable Loss, 38-28 at Oklahoma State. Fortunately for Oklahoma, they still qualified for their conference championship game, because they would need that win to overcome the two Acceptable Losses(Rule 4). Oklahoma crushed Colorado 29-7, and then Washington State in the Rose Bowl 34-14, to become an CCF Champion.

6. Miami and Ohio State - Both teams went through the season perfectly, so what was known as their BCS Fiesta Bowl matchup was also a game for a share of the CCF Championship. Ohio State won 31-24 in overtime to become an CCF Champion.

In 2002, the season finished with three CCF Champions. All three teams had incredible years, staying within the CCF Rules, and to try to choose who would win between them is folly. Those three teams were Ohio State, Oklahoma, and USC. Last season there were many, many upsets, and the only team to survive and be crowned Champion was USC. This year, USC goes for a share of it’s third CCF Championship in a row. Tune in every week for updates and analysis. If you have any questions about the format, please email me.

Shelter From The Storm

2004-09-09T15:10:00.000-04:00

Survived Hurricane Frances, and just got back online. Hurrican Ivan is now headed towards me, so this blog may be halted again. But we fight on. From my bunker, expect to read about the following things in the days ahead, weather permitting:

1. Hurricane Ivan - It's hard not to talk about something that could kill you next week.

2. The 2008 Olympic basketball team - I've already picked the point guards, so you'll be seeing stories about the rest of the roster.

3. College Football - Not a prime topic of Cap and Shaq, but I swear, I have the best damn system for determining the college football championship that you've ever seen. It's logical and fun and based on performance. I'll have weekly updates throughout the season.

One More Cup Of Coffee

2004-09-04T07:35:00.000-04:00

Hurricane Francis is now exactly east of my home. If you ever want to learn the latitude and longitude of your dwelling, move to a hurricane zone, beacause I'm spending a lot of time hoping to see the bulk of the storm move beyond my coordinates. As it turns out, it now looks like its landing somewhere between Ft. Pierce and Stuart, which makes a big difference to me, because Stuart puts us just within reach of the eye of the storm.

The lights flickered a couple of times this morning, and that's when I realized, MAKE COFFEE! So I'm going to enjoy a cup of Joe, flashilight in pocket.

Hurricane Shudders

2004-09-03T21:43:00.000-04:00

Maybe the sun is shining
birds are winging or
rain is falling from a heavy sky -
What do you want me to do?
- Box of Rain, Grateful Dead

Blog it baby! 10 pm, Hurricane Francis down to a Category 2, and according to the security camera that televises over my cable system, everything's beautiful. The camera is vital, because with my windows covered completely with aluminum shutters, the peep hole in my front door is the only other view I have of the outside world.

This is a good time to write about how the naming process of Hurricanes pisses me off. I mean, it's a storm that's going to kill people, and scientists are naming them after there old girlfriends, or mothers, or something. Give a Hurricane something that's faceless and unemotional, like Hurricane 247. Or go the other route, and name them after public enemies like Hurricane Osama, or Hurricane Duvalier. I'd even settle for naming them after intimidating NBA players, like Hurricane Rasheed. The current process is just way too light-hearted for what's going on out there.

Beating The Deadline

2004-09-02T19:32:00.000-04:00

Got some guys to put up my hurrican shutters pretty cheap. True to the South, two of the three had Confederate Flags as part of their attire, one across his belt, the other on a T-Shirt that had the flag on one half of the back, and a portrait of a woman on the other half with the caption "Southern Tail Chaser" under it. Of course, the leader of the three had no such thing, and was in fact wearing big bulky shorts that could have come straight from the hood. They all worked hard though, and didn't take advantage of the crisis, so they're fine with me.

One interesting blog note: For many bloggers, the struggle is reaching your audience. I know there must be plenty of Floridians who would be interested in this site (not today obviously), but if you type in "Miami Heat" on any search engine there's something like 30,000 sites that come up before mine. But today, somebody found this site in Spanish typing in only "Shaquille". I tried in English and you know what? I'm on the first freakin page! Try it yourself.

Anyway, after my shutters were safely attached, I got to wondering . . . who's taking care of Shaq's house?

I mean, the picture doesn't really do it justice, but it's supposed to be almost 20,000 square feet. How many windows is that? Does it have the attached shutters that you just need to roll down? Does Shaq have to climb on the roof?

Shaq, if you're reading this, email the Captain, and let us know that all is cool.

Hunkering Down

2004-09-01T22:39:00.000-04:00

I'm smack in Palm Beach County, waiting for the Hurricane, so Cap and Shaq will be sporadic at best for the next few days. Tomorrow morning I have someone coming to hang the hurricane shutters (The Captain writes, but isn't good for much that's practical) and there are no more flights out of town, so it looks like we're staying at home. We've thought about a shelter, but how much safer could that be than our own house with the shutters? And it's certain to be more dismal.

We'll keep you posted.

Charles Barkley - The Story Continues

2004-08-31T16:04:00.000-04:00

ESPN is running a story about Charles Barkley being accused of assault at a nightclub in Jersey called 32 Degrees. While I have no real opinion of that, believing heavily in Innocent Until Proven Guilty (OK, maybe not with Kobe, but you get the idea), it does give me a chance to tell a story that I've passed on occasionally ever since, and that can now live forever on the World Wide Web. Yes it's true - I have my own Charles Barkley Experience.

Now don't hold me to all of this as fact, because it's a distant memory, kind of like all of these people trying to argue about Kerry's Rumble In The Jungle, as if we can all remember in great detail about an event we considered trivial forty years ago. But I swear this is how I remember it, truth be damned.

It was an exhibition game with the Celtics in Boston. I was in Oregon during the 1986 and 87 exhibitions, so I'm guessing it was the following season, 88-89. I had great seats as I always did, courtesy of my Dad, 7 rows from the Celtics bench, right behind the player's wives and Bob Cousy. Anyway, somewhere in the third quarter, something happened on the court that pissed Charles off, and the crowd got all over him for it. I don't know who said it or what was said, but someone did something to make Charles look up into the balcony, and give everyone the finger.

Well, that just sets the place ablaze, and Charles gets a technical foul. He's all upset, and I don't know if he leaves the game or not, but he never settles down. This where I come in.

I'm only seven rows from the court, for chrissakes. It's my RESPONSIBLITY to respond. I mean, he can't just get away with treating Celtics fans like that. And I was loaded with courage, and Bud, and whatever they'd been serving in Halftime and Charlie's Tap that night. I had to do something. A few minutes later, I got my chance.

There was a foul down the other end of the floor. Everyone lined up at the foul line down there, except for Barkley, who was the lone man back. He stood there with hands on his knees at the foul line, totally unsuspecting.

I knew this was my opportunity. He was standing right in front of me, and with the crowd silent due to the rather insignificant free throws, I rose from my seat. Then, in the largest voice I could summon, I yelled . . .

BARKLEY, YOU (favorite expletive here)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone sitting between me and Charles turned around to look to see who the big jerk was, and I could see Charles, hands still on knees, slowly turn his head, so that he was staring straight at me.

For a split second, anything was possible. Charles had that glare in his eyes,and that history of just going off, and there he was, all of the possibilities surging quickly through his mind, calculating the cost to him of charging into the crowd and pummeling me within an inch of my life.

In the end, he refrained. The crowd turned around, and Charles' head got back into the game. Not completely though, as on the next trip down the court, Barkley slammed into some Celtic on a rebound attempt, getting himself into serious enough foul trouble that he was pulled from the game to a chorus of boos. I laughed and laughed, knowing I had somehow contributed to this vital Celtics exhibition victory.

No, I don't come out of this looking so good either, but hey it's a good story. If I ever meet Charles, I'll buy him a beer and tell him about it, and maybe he'll laugh, too.

Discovering Japan - The Centers

2004-08-30T19:34:00.000-04:00

First of all, I'd like to thank Celtics Blog for bringing me so many visitors on a hot August night. As someone who attended everything from John Havlicek's last game to the Draft Night celebration that brought us Chauncey Billups and Ron Mercer, it's nice to get so many visitors from back home.

Alright, back to business. After coming to a decision on the point guards, I thought
I'd move to the centers, for it's here that the problem gets more interesting. Lots of the NBA's centers are from other places, and some others are getting older. Here's the list of NBA centers, from ESPN, by order of minutes played.

1. Dirk Nowitzki - He's from Germany.
2. Shaquille O'Neal - He'll be 36 for the 2008 Games.
3. Tim Duncan - Only 28, a shoo-in to go in 2008 if he wants to.
4. Brad Miller - Also 28, mentioned by many as someone who should have gone this year.
5. Rasheed Wallace - Just a shade under 30, attitude has scared Team USA off.
6. Cliff Robinson - Old, and not a true center.
7. Jamaal Magloire - Canadian.
8. Chris Bosh - Very Young. A great early candidate for 2012.
9. Yao Ming - China.
10. Nene - Brazil.
11. Erick Dampier - 30, and zero playoff experience.
12. Antonio Davis - See Cliff Robinson.
13. Kurt Thomas - 31, and not a true center.
14. Zydrunas Ilgauskas - Obviously, from somewhere else.
15. Theo Ratliff - 31. And 6-10.
16. Brian Grant - 32. And 6-9.
17. Marcus Camby - 30. And major league injury prone.

That's all of the players in the NBA that average 30 minutes a game and can say they play center without being laughed at. The next two in minutes played are Eddy Curry (another 2012 candidate)and Mark Blount, and I know that all of you Celtice fans out there wouldn't want to bet on Blount bringing home the Gold.

So unless Shaq decides to give it a go, you're looking at Duncan, Miller, and Wallace. That's actually a pretty damn good threesome considering that there is almost no one else to choose from. And you know, I think Shaq might go. Nearing the end of his career, it might have more appeal. Can't you just see Shaq retiring after four years, then going after the Gold knowing that he's not facing another NBA season? Also, I'm betting Wallace mellows a little in the next few years. So here are the choices:

Shaquille O'Neal
Tim Duncan
Rasheed Wallace
Alternate - Brad Miller.

Lord help us if Duncan decides he's had enough, Shaq quits, and Wallace flares.

Discovering Japan - The Point Guards

2004-08-29T21:59:00.000-04:00

When after all the urges
Some kind of truth emerges
- Graham Parker, Discovering Japan

Last week, I started working on who our Olympic Committee should have chosen for these Olympic Games, and it's only now that I realize how ass-backwards that is. For the challenge is to prepare for what is ahead, not for what has ... Yikes! I'm starting to sound like a Presidential candidate (pick either one). What I'm getting at is that although the next Olympics in China seems to be far off, the World Championships in Japan are only two years away. I would say that after this most recent experience, the time to start preparing is now. So let's lay some ground rules for the team we want to build.

1. The team picked for Japan should be, for the most part, the team that goes to China. If a player's career takes a serious downturn, then he may be replaced, but we're not kicking anyone off for the next Lebron. The strategy of rotating entire rosters needs to come to an end.

2. We don't want anyone in China to be over 33, setting the bar for selection now at 29. These numbers could be bent a bit if need be, but it's important to set some parameters to start with.

3. We want players with playoff experience, guys who have started on teams that have won a playoff series. Sure, guys who haven't won yet may do so in the next two years, but there's enough talent around that I don't feel the need to bet on it. We only get to pick 12, so the standards need to be high.

4. Understanding that the NBA level of defense is more intense than the rest of the world, we want our team to focus on shooting, protecting the ball, and rebounding.

Last week, trying to put together point guards for this year's Olympics with similar requirements, I wound up with Sam Cassell and Chauncey Billups, with Damon Stoudamire as an alternate and Baron Davis as the last cut. Obviously, Cassell and Stoudamire will be too old for China, so they're out. Billups we'll keep, but what about Davis? And who would be the alternate?

I'm not going to reopen the whole thing here (feel free to read the earlier entry), but Mike Bibby was eliminated because it was said he would refuse an invitation. But two years from now? Who knows? We'll assume someone can talk him into it, so he's a keeper. For the alternate spot (which may be a roster spot, depending on how the rest of the team plays out) Baron Davis still seems a step above the other candidates, even with his spotty three-point shooting record and poor assist-to-turnover ratio. So many of the young NBA point guards just don't have big game experience.

So there it is. The Point Guards will be Mike Bibby and Chauncey Billups, with Baron Davis as the alternate. Not a bad start, not bad at all.

Better Things

2004-08-28T22:38:00.000-04:00

I know you’ve got a lot of good things happening up ahead.
The past is gone it’s all been said.
So here’s to what the future brings,
I know tomorrow you’ll find better things.
- The Kinks

So now that Lebron has won Le Bronze, It's time to look ahead. Here's a quick look at what the Basketball Gods of America can do to fix our competitive dilemma. The only guideline used is that nothing can be proposed to seriously interfere with NBA profits, because it will never happen. OK, here we go.

1. Adopt international rules in their entirety, across all levels of play. It's time we start playing the same game as the rest of the world. American players always look confused and tentative in these events, and everyone always attributes it to a lack of desire, or the lack of familiarity with each other, without noting the differences in the game itself. I think this one change would make a dramatic difference. Can you imagine a team as physically gifted as the USA squad taking full advantage of the rule that allows you to touch rebounds over the cylinder?

2. Eliminate most of the exhibition schedule, and start the season earlier. This will cut two weeks off of the very long season, and allow you to begin practices for Team USA two weeks earlier.

3. Allow Olympic players to report to their NBA teams on December 1. The NBA grind is a whole lot worse than the Olympic experience, so this would probably entice more of the best NBA players to enlist. Also, Team USA members, having played all summer, would have less of a need for training camps. Finally, a December 1st return date would not greatly affect the playoff races, or attendance, and would allow for things like special recognition for Olympians. Can you imagine the applause for a returning conquering hero?

Notice that none of these suggestions has anything to do with roster selection. While Team USA cetainly has to get away from the Star Factor in selecting players, some of our problems are more systemic, and need to be addressed. Will it happen? I doubt it, but you need to have big ideas if you want to build a Dream Team.

Take Paradise, Put Up A Parking Lot

2004-08-25T16:25:00.000-04:00

Don't it always seem to go
You don't know what you got til its gone
- Joni Mitchell, 1970-something

I seem to have gotten a few hits the last few days, and I don't know how, because every time I tried to pull up this site it came up blank, pure parking lot gray, with just the new Blogger toolbar that killed my great Shaq photo up at the top. Maybe the hits of the blank site came up, which would suck. I'd hate to think people who were finding Cap and Shaq for the first time left with nothing. Anyway, I'm back in business, and will probably have something or other later this evening.

Wild World

2004-08-21T15:40:00.000-04:00

There are just so many possible titles for this entry. I thought about Consolation Prize, or The Pride of Tel Aviv, or Parallel Universe. After watching Sarunas Jasikevicius hit more threes than the average Team USA member has tattoos, I thought I would do some research. After all, Jazz Vicious (an Americanized nickname waiting to happen) has never set a foot on NBA pine. Just who the hell is this guy anyway?

Well. if you're a basketball fan in any other part of the world, you've heard of him. So you're probably thinking what I was, that he was a star of some European league in Spain, or Greece, or Turkey, or Germany, or Russia. In fact, he did conquer these places, but not from an expected locale. For Jazz Vicious was a star for the European Champions, Maccabi Tel Aviv.

That's right. As one of probably millions of Jewish South Florida basketball fans rooting for Team USA, I had no idea that I probably have distant relatives who were simultaneously rooting for him to kick some American tuchus (I don't know how to spell it in English, but for those Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Pagan, and Atheist fans of CapandShaq, I'll tell you it means the same thing as butt). I don't know just how popular Maccabi Tel Aviv is in Israel, but I would imagine that a team with that kind of success must have a fairly rabid following.
And this was no ordinary Championship run either, as Maccabi Tel Aviv beat Skipper Bologna (Mmmm, bologna) by a score of 118-74 back in May, the most points and largest point-differential in the almost 50-year history of European basketball Championships. Other Maccabi Tel Aviv members included David Bluthenthal, who recently signed with the Sacramento Kings, Anthony Parker, a first-round pick of New Jersey in the 97 NBA Draft, and Bruno Sundov and Maceo Boston, who both appeared in the NBA. In the Championship game, Jazz Vicious scored 18 points in 17 minutes.

So here's some more background on the man who would look great in a Heat uniform, Sarunas Jasikevicius. Included is the story about the championship win, and also an interview.

MACCABI IS CHAMPION, 118-74!!!

Interview: Sarunas Jasikevicius

Adonal Foyle

2004-08-20T20:46:00.000-04:00

The NBA being the league of stars that is, it's not surprising that many of the players have their own websites. I figure while things are slow, I'll plug a good one when I come across it. The first time for that is now, as I would like to share with you the site of Warrior Adonal Foyle. It's got a lot more than what you would expect from an athlete, including poetry, political commentary, and some amazing honesty, including this list of pros and cons about resigning with the Warriors:

Cons:
Do I feel comfortable with this Warriors team?
Do I feel confident that things will change?
Is the team good enough to compete?
Pros:
Mully looking to make majors changes
Great fans.
My home is here.
Sunny weather.
Many of my friends are here.
Politically conscious people in Berkeley.
I would like to be part of bringing the championship title to the Bay Area!

I can't remember an athlete admitting he wasn't confident that the team he just signed with could turn things around. For more, here's the link:

Adonal Foyle

My Olympic Team - The Point Guards

2004-08-18T20:40:00.000-04:00

This is not an effort to further criticize Team USA (that's been done more than enough already), but an attempt to approach the problem in a more positive way. Even if this year's model wins the gold medal, I think everyone would agree that the selection process was greatly flawed and filled with more self-delusion than anything since WMD. So that got me to thinking, what exactly should Team USA look like?

I'm starting today with the point guards, and I figured the best way to go about it is to set up some basic requirements for the position. Let's go through them, one by one.

1. I want point guards who play, and play a lot, the idea being that any player who isn't vital to his own team doesn't belong here. I set the cutoff at 34 minutes, with the next closest player being Rafer Alston. Under ESPN's list of point guards, 16 players are included. They are, ranked by number of minutes:

1 Steve Francis
2 Stephon Marbury
3 Baron Davis
4 LeBron James
5 Damon Stoudamire
6 Gilbert Arenas
7 Jason Terry
8 Jason Kidd
9 Mike Bibby
10 Eric Snow
11 Kirk Hinrich
12 Chauncey Billups
13 Sam Cassell
14 Dwyane Wade
15 Andre Miller
16 Gary Payton

Kidd rejected an invitation, and reports are that Bibby would have as well, so we'll eliminate them. Three of the other 14 will be finalists for our Team USA (we may cut down to two later, when we see the rest of the roster).

2. I want a player who has won a playoff series. This would seem like a simple requirement, right? We want a Court General that has proven he can win something. Amazingly, this cuts our field in half as Miller, Hinrich, James, Arenas, Terry, Francis, and would you believe it, Stephon Marbury, have never won a playoff series.
We are now down to Davis, Stoudamire, Snow, Billups, Cassell, Wade, and Payton.

3. I want a point guard who takes care of the ball. There were 42 point guards who qualified for the assist/turnover ratio championship. Here's where our candidates
ranked:

Snow 5th
Payton 6th
Stoudamire 15th
Cassell 20th
Billups 29th
Davis 30th
Wade 41st

41st out of 42 is too dangerous for me. Wade is eliminated.

4. I want a player who can shoot a three, knock one down with the shot clock running out. Here's their rank:

Cassell 3rd
Billups 7th
Stoudamire 15th
Payton 19th
Davis 22nd

That's out of 28 who qualified, one of whom wasn't Snow. He shot only 18 all year, and only hit two of them. Snow is eliminated. Meanwhile, Payton's .333 percentage, and Davis' .321 make me nervous. Combine Davis's poor assist/turnover ratio with this and you have to start thinking if he's the best man for the job on a team full of superstars. In a sure to be controversial move, we'll eliminate him. Payton might have survived, but his terrible NBA Finals is reason enough to think that the man wouldn't be ready to play again in August.

This leaves us with Sam Cassell, Chauncey Billups, and yes Damon Stoudamire, a surprise finisher. Little known Stoudamire fact - his career three-point percentage shoots up to .393 in playoff games, and he's a good rebounder for a little guy, too. So let's leave it at this:

Cap N Shaq Team USA members - Sam Cassell and Chauncey Billups
Cap N Shaq Team USA altenates - Damon Stoudamire

Tune in soon for the Shooting Guards

A Pathetic Performance

2004-08-15T19:48:00.000-04:00

There is no excuse for Team USA's performance today. Early news reports are pointing out our 3 for 24 effort from beyond the arc, nodding knowingly, but that was hardly the problem. Admittedly, I did not see the game, but I'm assuming that most of those threes were fired after we were already down 20 points. If you want to place blame, look at these numbers:

Puerto Rico had a .564 fg % for the game.
Puerto Rico hit 8 of 16 threes.

That's not a lot of defense, folks. And this Puerto Rico team is no mystery European team, filled with NBA and ought-to-be NBA talents. I mean, Jose Ortiz? Are you kidding me?

Team USA may not have many deep threats, but they do have a collection of amazing athletes, many of whom have succeeded because of their agressive style of play. Where is that here? Where is the defense? Team USA ought to be able to stop this band of Puerto Ricans from even crossing half-court, and yet we're making their enter I roster look like a Pack of Pejas. I don't get it, and I'm disgusted.

I'll finish with a post-game quote from Miami's own Dwyane Wade:

Dwyane Wade
On tonight's game:
They came out and wanted it more than us. I don't know why, but they did. They executed great in the beginning, we didn't and we dug ourselves into a hole that we weren't able to get out of tonight. We didn't make shots, but we had some great looks. I think we just came out flat, it happens, we have to learn how to come out more aggressive for the next game.

We lost today, but we have another game, we'll learn from this and we have to continue to compete. We can't worry about the practices we didn't have, or how long we've been together. Everything happens for a reason and so hopefully our reason is to learn from this and continue going forward.

We weren't really playing together as a team the way we should. Tonight we didn't utilize our big fella Tim Duncan as much as we should so therefore the ball was out on the perimeter too much and once you keep passing the ball back and forth, back and forth, something's liable to happen. Tonight something bad happened. We've been careless with the ball a lot and tonight it came back to bite us.

Disaster Relief Fund

2004-08-14T18:32:00.001-04:00

I'll let the Red Cross description speak for itself.

Disaster Relief Fund:
The scene is now mass devastation in Florida's Gulf coastal region. Hurricane Charley's death toll is rising, while hundreds are missing, and thousands are displaced. These disaster victims need your help! Help Hurricane Charley victims and the victims of thousands of disasters every year with a gift to the Disaster Relief Fund.

Disaster Relief Fund

I know this is a basketball blog, but if one more person gets help because I posted this, then its worth it.

Charley - The Day After

2004-08-14T10:21:00.000-04:00

With close to 2 million fellow Floridians without power, and emergency teams ordering body bags, blogging is certainly a luxury. Cap and Shaq will have some kind of emergency relief link posted as soon as I find one.

New Priorities

2004-08-13T18:27:00.000-04:00

I would like to announce that The Captain and Shaquille has declared itself the Official Basketball Blog of Hurricane Charley. And with that vast responsibility, I will be reporting on changes in weather as they occur out my window. So here's my first report:

Umm, it's getting kind of windy. Enough so that I have put my grill and beach chair that I never use in the garage. And I'm a little worried about my kid's playset blowing over. It looks kind of nasty on the TV though.

Hey, what did you expect? I ain't no weatherman.

Wesley Person

2004-08-11T19:27:00.000-04:00

Wesley Person signed with the Miami Heat today.

"Wesley has proven throughout his career that he is one of the best and most reliable shooters in this league," said Heat coach Stan Van Gundy. "Obviously with Shaquille O'Neal in the post and Dwyane Wade penetrating, people are going to want to compact their defenses against us. We feel shooting is at a premium for us and today we signed one of the best shooters in the league."

Well, ok. The Heat are going to need outside shooters, and Person's still pretty good at that. But my assumption was that the Heat would:

1. Play many minutes with Wade at the point, Eddie Jones at the two, and Rasual Butler at small forward.

2. Play many minutes with Damon Jones at the point, Wade at the two, and EJ or Butler at the three.

Adding Person means shared minutes for all of those guys, and maybe it will work. There are 144 minutes to split between those three positions. So let's check that out. How many did each man play last year?

Wade played 35 minutes per game.
EJ played 37.
Jones played 25.
Butler played 15.
Person played 18.

That's 130 minutes, so Wesley fits. Of course, we haven't mentioned Keyon Dooling, who played 20 minutes a game last year. And where does this leave Dorell Wright? My money has him going down with some kind of back strain, and missing the entire year.

But I guess in the end I feel pretty good about this, because its a playoff run kind of move. EJ gets more minutes at small forward instead of trusting them to Butler, and Person is another veteran presence that keeps you from having to play Dooling or Wright. All of the young players may in fact pan out, but you would hate to have to count on them, and now the Heat won't.

In the end, I'll give the signing a B. There's the Piston and the Pacers, but I don't think there's another Eastern team that can touch the Heat right now. That makes a conference semifinal the worst the Heat should do, the conference final a real possibility, and the NBA Finals within reach, and we saw what the Pistons did with that opportunity. It's amazing what one little signing can do for moral. Go Heat!

A Whole New View

2004-08-09T20:29:00.000-04:00

Bought these reading glasses today, because I'm going to get my Florida driver's license tomorrow, and without the glasses it was even money at best that my vision would meet with their approval. But I'm finding all of these other advantages as well, like pounding the keys without my face being six inches from the monitor.

Meanwhile, I checked the referrals on my hits today (a sick little habit of all bloggers), and I'm getting these hits from a place called Blogshares, where people - get this - buy fantasy shares of stock for blogs they think may have a future. It seems as though the success or failure of a blog is judged by the number of links it has, in an attempt to foster a giant, huggable, blog community. I'm not kidding.

Somebody recommended me for the Basketball Industry, where I am currently the 32nd ranked basketball blog in the universe, which is very flattering when you consider how long Cap and Shaq has been in business, but kind of insulting when you see the blogs ahead of me. Not that they're terrible, it's just that most of them are barely about basketball. Of course, this entry isn't either, and I don't believe in rigidity when it comes to blogs (or anything else, for that matter), but you get the idea.

So hey, I'll play along, especially seing my stock value has gone from 44 cents to $56.10 in the last nine hours. At the bottom of my links column there will now be links to anybody who shows enough faith to buy Cap and Shaq shares, and who's site isn't completely offensive. Sure they may have nothing to do with basketball, but Olympics aside, we're still eight weeks away from the first game, and variety is the spice of life. Check them out at your own risk, and enjoy.

Team USA - The Weekend

2004-08-08T19:59:00.000-04:00

Team USA had a nice weekend, relatively easy victories over Serbia + Montenegro, and Turkey. On Friday, I gave some things to look for in these games. Let's see how they did.

Shooting - I gave them a B after 3 games, because they were shooting over 50% from the field. This weekend they shot 50% vs. S+M (stop giggling), and .596 vs. Turkey. They also shot .833 from the line for the two games combined. Finally, they missed all six three-pointers today, but hit 4 of 9 vs. S+M. We'll keep the grade at a B. The threes won't matter if they take care of everything else.

Passing - Today was Team USA's best day, 23 assists vs. 14 turnovers. Against S&M they had 19 and 19. We'll choose to be optimistic, and with the last game always being the most important, upgrade Team USA from an F to a C.

Defense - Turkey shot only .315 from the floor and .306 from the arc. Also, they had only 10 assists to go with 14 turnovers. S+M had a .350 fg%, hit only 1 of 14 three-pointers, and had only 10 assists with 17 turnovers. Opponents for the full five exhibition games are now shooting only .391 from the field and .314 from the arc. If those numbers continue through the Olympics, Tim Duncan will be standing at that podium with a gold medal around his neck. We'll give them a B+, thinking there's still room for improvement.

One more point of interest - Allen Iverson is starting to take over. Against S+M he shot 50 % with 6 assists and only two turnovers. Today he shot 6 for 7 with 8 rebounds. If A.I.'s feeling it, then life is good.

Damon Jones!

2004-08-06T20:28:00.000-04:00

Early readers of TCAS (that's the new shorthand for the title) will remember my pushing for the Heat to sign Damon Jones. Later on I'll go into more detail about why this is so cool, but for now here's the original story, published on July 17th:

Damon Jones

Clown Time Is Over

2004-08-05T16:40:00.000-04:00

Team USA is currently 2-1 in exhibition games, beating Puerto Rico and Germany, and losing to Italy. In these games they have outscored their opponents by a grand total of 11 points. The general consensus is that Team USA can't shoot, pass, or defend at a level that can guarantee them a medal (It's funny how people only talk about the Gold Medal. Doesn't anyone remember the 2002 World Championships?). How much of this is true? Let's take a look.

Shooting - Team USA has shot .333 from three-point range, which would have ranked them 25th among last year's NBA teams. Of course, it's only a 45 shot sample, so if only one more had fallen, they would be 9th. The 15 shots and 5 made per game would be low average for the NBA, but it would dwarf the Champion Pistons 11.8 and 4.1, respectively. Also, keep in mind that the Olympic games are 8 minutes shorter, so I think it's fair to say that there's hope yet for their 3-point game. Their overall shooting percentage is an outstanding .525, which would have led the NBA by 63 points. However, they're shooting only .653 from the line, which would be last in the NBA by a wide margin. So what's their grade? At this point, you would have to think that their .525 field goal percentage would win them a lot of games, so even with those other issues, I'll say a B.

Passing - Originally, the point guards on this team were expected to be Allen Iverson, Stephon Marbury, and Dwyane Wade, with LeBron James and Lamar Odom helping out in a half-court set. But so far, A.I. has only 3 assists in 50 minutes, James has only 2 in 2 games, and Odom has zero. Wade has 14 assists, but he also has 11 turnovers. Marbury is the best at 17 and 9, but the only other player with positive numbers is Richard Jefferson, with 7 and 2. As a team, Team USA has 56 assists and a whopping 57 turnovers. Team Passing Grade - F.

Defense - Team USA's opponents are shooting .434 from the field, .368 on threes, and.771 from the line. It's the three-point number that stands out, as it would have placed third amongst NBA teams last year. Also, they're firing them at a great pace, one that would have placed second in the league. Actually, The Opponents' numbers look a lot like last year's Seattle team, but also keep in mind that they're playing 8 fewer minutes. They've turned the ball over 22 fewer times as well. Defense Grade - C.

So here's what I'd like to see going into tomorrow's tough match with Serbia-Montenegro:

1. A shortened lineup of guys ready to play. I'm thinking Duncan, Anthony, A.I. and Marbury have earned starting roles, and need to learn quickly how to play together, so let's give them 30 or more minutes a night. Jefferson, Carlos Boozer, and Shawn Marion can split power forward, and the others can share the remaining minutes, or pick up more during practice. If they don't like it, too bad. There's no time to worry about anyone's feelings.

2. Extend the defense. This means all players, all over their man, all of the time. We have the defensive weapons to pull this off, and we need to stop all of these shots from beyond the arc.

3. Protect the ball. Some of those turnovers is lack of familiarity, but some is just sloppiness. We're not good enough to get away with that.

Let's see what happens tomorrow.

He shoots...score!

2004-08-04T21:23:00.000-04:00

More of a hockey reference, but it's the sentiment that matters. Brendan of These Days informs me that you can get Team USA box scores at USA Basketball.com. These Days has a deeper analysis of today's game than I have here, and lots of other stuff, so check it out. I'll be back with any interesting info I can dig out of the boxscores tomorrow.

Our Olympians - By the Numbers?

2004-08-04T19:41:00.000-04:00

So the US Men's Olympic Basketball team won today, beating Germany on a last-second three by Allen Iverson, after which they celebrated like they had won, well, the Gold Medal. I guess it's good to see some emotion displayed by the players. I mean, when you get pummelled by Italy, and it's not a soccer match, there's a problem. I also saw the first half against Puerto Rico last weekend, in which they jumped out to a 10-0 lead, and at the half still lead by only ten points. There's really no reason to believe that this team is going to win the Gold Medal, but that's not what is bothering me. OK, that's wrong. It does bother me, but there's something else bugging me too, and that is the coverage of these games.

There isn't any place, anywhere, on the internet where I can find a box score for any game the USA has played so far. Now I know they are only exhibition games, but I have a feeling that this is going to carry right through the summer games, and that would be awful. Isn't analysis of these games the best way to:

1. Evaluate Foreign Talent. There's clearly some Italians who can play a little. Wouldn't you have loved to have seen shooting percentages, assist/turnover ratios, or rebound numbers for those guys?

2. Analyze the USA's strengths and weaknesses. It's not enough to say that they can't shoot and don't hustle.

3. Place blame for our failures, or credit for our successes. If Dwyane Wade throws six balls away in the first half, I want to know about it. If he has eight assists and one turnover, I want to know that, too.

If anyone finds any more info, let me know. In the meantime, I'm probably going to do more analysis of at least our team, because the Olympics is the most important thing going on in basketball right now. So if you're looking for some Olympic coverage, check back in soon.

Mama Said Knock You Out

2004-08-03T16:07:00.000-04:00

You know, I saw this story the other day just in passing, barely mentioned, and I hadn't heard anything since, so I think I just chose to disbelieve. But someone found my site today searching for "Shaquille O'Neal" and "boxing", and then it came back to me. I did some searching on my own, and damn if it isn't true.

Shaquille O'Neal is going to fight. And he's going to fight the Light Heavyweight Champion of The World.

Oh, they're calling it a charity event, but hey, we all saw that Rocky movie where Rocky got into this charity fight with a wrestler named Thunderlips (which gained an Oscar nomination for the stirring portrayal by Hulk Hogan), and we all know what happened: Rocky got his ass kicked. Now granted, this is a little different. Antonio Tarver is much smaller than the Big Diesel, and of course it's real life, but there's nothing Tarver could ever do to gain more notoriety than leaving Shaq bleeding and unconscious on the canvas. Not to mention, Shaq could trip and fall, he could break his hand, throw out his shoulder. A whole assortment of potential calamities await.

The event is scheduled for this Friday, in Orlando, to benefit the Odessa Chambliss Quality of Life Fund, which provides a scholarship for individuals seeking careers in nursing, but we know better. A closer look reveals that if you rearrange the letters in Odessa Chambliss Quality of Life, you're only an R,N, and G away from spelling Orlando Magic. And doesn't RN stand for Nurse? G must be for all of the Gs the Magic have lost since Shaq bolted the Orlando area. What a scam! We can't let the Magic and those nurses get away with it!

This must be stopped. And there's only one way.

Below is the link to win a ticket for the event (Obviously, they don't want the public there to witness the carnage). It's only good until midnight, and this site doesn't get many visitors, so we don't have much a chance. But if you come across this in time, please enter, so we can have someone in the audience who can maybe talk some sense into Shaq, or dive in front of one of Antonio's punches.

Shaq's Mama Said Knock You Out Event

Catching Some Heat - The New Schedule

2004-08-02T19:49:00.000-04:00

I started looking at the new Heat schedule, figuring I'd make a list of the Top Ten games of the season. As I started looking, it soon became Top 12, and then I realized just how many games there are that I'm excited to see. So let's just do November. There's plenty of great games there, and hey, the season is still three months away.

November
3rd - at New Jersey. The Nets are in complete disarray, but it's the Heat opener, so who cares?

4th - Cleveland. LeBron, the home opener, and the first Michael Doleac Special - back-to-back games for Shaquille O'Neal.

6th - At Washington. One you can skip. Might be interesting because it's a road test.

9th - Washington. Definitely boring if the Heat clobber the Wizards in the previous game.

11th - At Dallas. Always fun. May have Jason Kidd by then.

12th - At San Antonio. Shaq's old nemesis, and the first big test.

14th - Milwaukee. Bucks will be OK.

16th - At Minnesota. Another very tough road matchup, and the league MVP, Kevin Garnett.

17th - At Milwaukee. See the 14th.

19th - Utah. Quality Western conference team.

21st - Philadelphia - A.I., America's most ill-suited Olympian.

23rd - Portland - Always fun to see the Jailblazers. When I went to college out there, we called them the trailbozos. You decide which is worse.

24th - At Atlanta. Take a night off. Rest up for football and feast.

26th - At Detroit. The Biggie. View with Turkey sandwiches.

28th - Boston. You should skip it, but I'll be watching.

30th - Toronto. Will Vince Carter still be there?

And that's just November! 16 games in 28 nights. It should take time for the team to click, but it will be a lot of fun watching it happen.

One More Saturday Night

2004-07-31T23:13:00.000-04:00

This is my response at a Celtics blog to lots of posters saying mostly no to new uniforms, and absolutely NO! to cheerleaders:

I hate to break it anybody, but going to see the C's ain't what it used to be. I remember giving standing ovations through entire timeouts, but that can't happen now, because they run the freakin circus on the court every chance they get. Also, don't forget that next year's high school draftees will not have had the C's win a title in their entire lifetimes. So bring in the cheerleaders, change the uniforms,hell you can even change the name, just do whatever it takes to increase the chances that anyone might sign here, should the current owners ever sell to anyone who might want to spend some money.

I'll vote for something traditional, yet fashionable. How about the Boston Bullets? We'd sell a ton of shirts.

Terrorist Threat

2004-07-30T21:53:00.000-04:00

My sister didn't see the story in Boston, and I didn't see it on the national news (and I was watching a lot of it due to the convention), so here's a follow up story to the terrorist scare in Riviera Beach, which is in Palm Beach County. The Feds closed a port, diverted traffic, and evacuated buildings, including a Boys and Girls Club just over two miles from where I start work next week. It turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. Here it is:

Response in Port Incident "Appropriate",Foley says

Rasual Butler - Part 2

2004-07-30T10:43:00.000-04:00

Rasual Butler is being handed the starting small forward job with the Miami Heat. That raises the all important question: Can he handle it? Let's look at the numbers.

A first glance at Butler's statistics causes some concern. His points per game, assists, and rebounds all dropped from his previous rookie season. But the longer you look, the more you find some big positives in there. For as it turns out, the drop in Butler's numbers was caused by his loss in minutes, and during his time in the game, he was actually playing some damn good basketball.

Butler's minutes dropped from 21 per game to 15 a game, largely due to the influx of talent that caused the Heat's playoff run. But get a load of these shooting percentage increases:

02-03 field goal % .362
03-04 field goal % .476

02-03 3-pt % .292
03-04 3-pt % .463

02-03 free throw % .731
03-04 free throw % .762

Have you ever seen anything like that? Talk about improvement. I mean, 17% more 3-pointers? And .463 is no small number. As a matter of fact, guess how many small forwards (as listed by ESPN), with over 100 3-pointers attempted, finished with a higher percentage than Butler.

The answer is zero. That's right, Butler was the best of them all.

So it looks like the Heat may have a serious outside presence, IF Butler can keep shooting at similar rates while doubling his minutes. No guarantee for sure, but he is a young ballplayer, being handed a great opportunity, and with Shaquille O'Neal as the first option and Dwyane Wade as the second, he ought to be getting a lot of good looks. Further, having Butler, Wade, and Eddie Jones all on the floor with Shaq ought to open up some room for the Big Diesel.

I'm feeling good. Serious contenders the Heat seem to truly be.

What Butler Is Doing These Days

2004-07-29T17:00:00.000-04:00

Rasual Butler signed with the Heat some time last night. It had to be almost simultaneous with me wondering on the blog about what the hell was taking him so long. I'll write about that later tonight.

Also, I checked my hit counter and, amazingly, I have a few hits. This is mainly due to These Days, a basketball blog that gave me a plug. So thanks to Brendan over there, and if you're coming here today from that site, go read the earlier stuff. It's only 10 days old, and it's funnier.

If We Played Today . . .

2004-07-28T21:49:00.000-04:00

I'm doing this as much for myself as anyone. OK, we all know Shaq (and the Captain) have come to Miami. We also know that many others have left. So what does the Heat roster look like today?

Center - Shaq, Michael Doleac, Wang Zhi Zhi. Shaq and anybody pretty much makes this the best group of centers in the league. Doleac is serviceable, and will play a big role in the nights the Heat play back-to-back games. Zhi Zhi has proven a lot of nothing so far.

Forwards - Udonis Haslem, Malik Allen, Dorell Wright, Jerome Beasley, Matt Freije, Albert Miralles. Uh-oh. Miralles is from Spain and 6-11. Other than that I don't know anything about him. I like Haslem, but the only true small forward in ths group is 18 years old. And Karl Malone is supposed to solve that? Everyone talks about Rasual Butler coming back, but he's not exactly jumping at the opportunity, is he?

Guards - Dwyane Wade, Eddie Jones, Keyon Dooling. There's going to have to be at least one more player here, and he better be better than Dooling, who is a step down from Rafer Alston. Not that anyone in the South Florida press would mention that.

My prediction? Let's see how training camp plays out.

Not About Basketball - Proceed At Your Own Risk

2004-07-27T22:55:00.000-04:00

In South Florida and around the country there's all sorts of debate about the decision of Ricky Williams to retire. In the interest of full disclosure, though I am adopting this Miami Heat team with Shaq due to the absence of any real Celtic hopes, I will never, ever, like the Dolphins. I've hated them since they went undefeated,embarrassing the Patriots and beating the Redskins in the Super Bowl. Having said that, I want to say that although Ricky's timing was poor, if he doesn't want to play, he shouldn't. Football is like boxing, or racing, in that if your heart is not in it, you put yourself in serious danger. Ricky was facing another season in which he would be tackled more than any other player, and he knew it. Here's hoping he finds happiness in Asia, and wherever else his travels take him.

It's kind of hard to believe that there is a living person who has served in the US Navy, as Governor of his state, as President of our country, brokered the only lasting peace in the Middle East, and then in his spare time built homes for the poor, monitored elections in uncertain democracies, and fought disease throughout the world, causing him to win the Nobel Peace Prize. It's not a rule of thumb to compare any of our Presidential candidates to the ideals and accomplishments of Jimmy Carter, but it's also not a bad place to start.

Barack Obama, barring scandal, is going to be the first minority President of the United States. I figure 2016, or 2020, when he will still only be 59, but coming from an important electoral state, with his speaking abilities, he's going to be hard to beat. Maybe a more earnest, urban, Bill Clinton, but its that kind of oratory talent that we're talking about here. Good luck to him, and to us. I hope he makes it.

Dorell Wright - Part 2

2004-07-26T19:45:00.000-04:00

OK, let's take the few basic stats we have of Dorell and see if we can find anyone comparable. We're starting with a 6-7, 200-pound (splitting the difference), 18-year-old who was picked with the 19th pick in the draft. In the spirit of the upcoming Olympics, I'll rank them with medals. Here we go!

Gold - Travis Outlaw. Travis is 6-9, 210 pounds, and was taken with the 23rd pick by the Portland Trailblazers last year (Remember the joke? Why do the Blazers need another Outlaw?). He's a little taller than Wright, and taken a little later, but he came out of high school, so he's an excellent match. The bad news? Last season, Travis was on the court for 19 MINUTES of NBA ball.

Silver - Deshawn Stevenson. Out of high school, a little shorter at 6-5, and taken with the 23rd pick. He's turning into a pretty good player, with the most comparable at his current age (according to basketball reference.com) being Ricky Davis. Deshawn played only 293 minutes as a rookie.

Bronze - Al Harrington. Not a really good fit, because he's much bigger (2 inches and 30 pounds), and he was picked later, at 25th. He played 160 minutes his first year.

And now, how about some good news?

Runner-Up - Kobe Bryant. Bryant was taken with the 13th pick, the same 6 picks away from Wright's 19 spot as Harrington. He's also 6-6 and 220, right around Wright's size. Bryant had great success relative to the other's, playing over 1,100 minute and averaging 7.6 points per game. However,the reason why Kobe didn't medal here is because even though its only 6 picks difference between Kobe at 13 and Dorell at 19, I think there's generally a much bigger gap in talent between 13 and 19 than 19 and 25. Also, Kobe was drafted at 13 during a time when there had been no smaller players drafted coming out of high school, and I'm sure there were many teams that recognized his talent that were skittish about that.

So there you have it. Dorell Wright's ceiling is probably Kobe's 7.6 points per game, but I would have to say he's much more likely to be like those others before him, riding the pine the whole year. Having said that, it doesn't make Wright a bad draft pick. He has a world of talent, and more importantly, the Heat had no idea that they would be landing Shaquille O'Neil. Still, you have to wonder, if the draft were held today, would they have drafted Wright, or Jameer Nelson, the senior point guard from St. Joe's? Either way, it will be interesting to watch Wright's progress.

The X-Factor, and the Conspiracy

2004-07-24T20:51:00.000-04:00

Editor's Disclaimer - The quotes in this story are true and are not taken out of context, except for those by Pat Riley.

"He's the X-factor, no doubt. Dorell is a young guy with potential," Heat GM Randy Pfund said about the Heat's first round draft choice, 18-year-old Dorell Wright. OK, fine. We'd like to think that anyone drafted in the first round is a young guy with potential(Or a young woman. Someday, my friends). That doesn't really tell us much. So who else can we ask? I know - how about his agent?

"I think Wright's going to make an impact this season, quicker than people think," said Wright's agent, Calvin Andrews. "He's going to help the Heat this year."

That's certainly a lot of enthusiasm surrounding Dorell. But just how likely is that? I decided to check it out.

The Sun-Sentinel had Wright listed this morning as 6-7, and a "reed-thin" 193 pounds. So I figured if that you looked for players drafted out of high school, between 6-6 and 6-8, 183 and 203 pounds, and within 5 picks of Wright's #19 slot, you could get some kind of range of performances for which Wright should fall between. Right? Sure, except for one thing. There is a conspiracy going on about Dorell, and it involves his weight. That's right, Wright's weight.

I started checking for similar players at the ESPN website, and then I noticed that they had Dorell listed at 210 pounds. Well, there must be some mistake, I thought. How can there be a 17-pound difference in weights? Somebody must be wrong. So I went to NBA.com, and they also had Wright listed at 210 pounds. OK, it must be the Sun-Sentinel's mistake, right? Well, I don't know, because I then went to nbadraft.net, the best of draft websites, and guess what they had Wright at on draft day? 190 pounds!

So now we have a discrepancy of over 10% in Wright's body weight. How can this be? I mean, the Heat have invested millions of dollars in this kid, and nobody even bothered to weigh him? That can't be right.

Then, a cold feeling blew over me. It rattled my bones and shook me where I stood. What if, what if,...all of those weights are ...TRUE?!

What if nbadraft.net weighed Dorell during the season, the Heat weighed him a day before the draft, and ESPN got their number from the NBA this last week? That would mean that Wright has gained 20 pounds in exactly one month! How is that possible? Well, I shouldn't say that, I know how it's possible. But there doesn't seem to be anything in Dorell's past to suggest that he's going to the International House Of Pancakes at 2 in the morning, every morning (Do they call it French Toast in France?). And what does that say about his prospects for this coming season? At his current rate of weight gain, on Opening Night Dorell could weigh 270 pounds!

Gravely concerned, I immediately sought out Heat President Pat Riley. Here's how the conversation went between us.

Me: "Pat, Dorell seems to be moving far away from his playing weight, do you have any concerns about that?"

Riley: "I don't think he's as far away as people think."

Me: But he seems to have gained 20 pounds in one month! How can he get up and down the floor like that? Isn't this going to make his transition to the NBA difficult?

Riley: "He's smooth. He glides. The game is easy for him."

Me: "So you have no concerns about his sudden weight gain at all?"

Riley: "We're sort of enamored by that right now."

If Pat's fine with it, I guess I can live with it. Maybe they'll have Wright in a fat farm before camp opens. But if you should see Dorell anywhere, help the Heat to their first NBA title, and tell him to put down that donut.

Goin Down The Road Feelin Bad

2004-07-22T19:53:00.000-04:00

The Miami Heat signed former South Florida high school star Keyon Dooling today. So what has Dooling become since leaving the neighborhood?

"He's a guy who can score points and has a chance to develop into a very good player," said Heat coach Stan Van Gundy in this morning's Sun-Sentinel. First of all, Van Gundy implies what we all know - that "he has a chance to develop into a very good player" means that Keyon Dooling is not a very good player right now, and that he has a much greater chance of peaking somewhere between mediocre and awful. A guy who can score points? On the stats page for ESPN, they list 108 players as being "Shooting" Guards. Of these 108, Dooling ranked 100th in 3-pt field goal percentage. 100th.

But they didn't hire Dooley to be the Shooting Guard.

"I'm going to feed Shaq as much as possible until he can't take it anymore or tells me not to," Dooling said. Well, that's promising. At least Keyon knows who is supposed to get the ball, and that he is being hired to back up Dwyane Wade. So how good was Keyon at making decisions last year? His average of 2.0 assists to turnovers would have ranked him 57th out of 84 point guards. By the way, Wade ranked 74th. Damon Jones, who apparently was deemed to costly, ranked 2nd in all of basketball.

So what we've got on our hands here is a local kid who can't shoot and can't pass backing up our potential star kid. Wouldn't this be a great spot for a guy with a little experience and discipline? Don't the Heat know anything about replacement value? Dooling is NOT a substitute for the more expensive Jones or Mike James. He's a scrap heap, dime-a-dozen kind of guy, chosen to be the third guard on a team with a three-year window on winning a championship.

The Heat did absolutely the right thing in trading for Shaquille O'Neil. Finding the supporting actors to your Superstar is infinitely easier than actually getting the Superstar. Signing Michael Doleac is a great example of that. Signing Keyon Dooling isn't.

Jellyfish

2004-07-21T22:05:00.000-04:00

Now all I really want from life is to crawl back into bed
On account that my brain is just a jellyfish in the ocean of my head
- Jellyfish, by String Cheese Incident

Went to go test drive a couple of cars today. The dealership was about 45 minutes from my house, which wouldn't be so bad except that I didn't get a lot sleep last night, and the idea of driving that distance, test driving cars, and driving back wasn't real appealing. And of course, Mapquest gives me the wrong turn off of 95, going west into Delray Beach instead of east, setting me back about another hour. It's somewhere during this time that I hear Jellyfish on the radio, matching my feelings perfectly. To top this off, I hit one hellacious rain storm on the way home. For someone from the northeast, Florida rain is surreal. The clouds so completely cover everything, shutting out all light, like having a pillow over your head.

The Miami Herald had it that Damon Jones may be looking for too much money (which is bad), as is Mike James (which is good. He likes to shoot too much). Robert Horry seems to be very much in the mix. We'll see.

Sitting Here in Limbo

2004-07-19T18:41:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, we went furniture shopping. Nothing much exciting about that. Afterwards, we went out for dinner. Nothing much exciting about that either, except that we went to this place down the road called (I believe) the Palm Beach Ale House and Oyster Bar.

We get out of the car, and you can hear steel drums coming from the patio, and out in front in the parking lot, there's two guys grilling large racks of ribs. Inside, they've got Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on tap (I have great nervousness about being able to find good beer down here) and the Red Sox on the TV. As rain beats down on the slanted horizontal blinds, they tie balloons to my son's chair, the bar's chanting "Let's Go, Red Sox", and the steel drum player is playing Jimmy Cliff's "Sitting Here In Limbo". Not bad.

Meanwhile, At Alonzo Mourning's "Zo' Summer Groove" basketball game, The Captain's favorite low-budget free agent Damon Jones was putting on quite a performance, hitting six three-pointers. He also had time to discuss Sitting in Limbo with the Sun-Sentinel:

"I'm enjoying the process," he lied. The Heat is a great organization. What has Shaq done for everybody he's played with? He takes their game to another level."

Bring him to the Ale House, and sign him up.

Damon Jones

2004-07-17T13:00:00.000-04:00

The Sun-Sentinel has Pat Riley in pursuit of Damon Jones this morning. Jones, a 27-year-old point guard for the Milwaukee Bucks, is an unrestricted free agent, and appears to be exactly what the newly-constituted Heat might want. Ask yourself this: What exactly should the Heat be looking for in a point guard?

"Well, you might say to yourself,"I want an unselfish player who knows how to feed the ball to Shaq, doesn't turn the ball over, allows Wade time at the 2, hits some threes to take pressure off the inside, and plays some D."

Damon's the answer.

Damon Jones ranked 14th in assists last season, playing in only 24.6 minutes per game. He also ranked 4th in ALL OF BASKETBALL in assists per 48 minutes, behind only Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, and Earl Watson.

Damon Jones ranked 2nd in ALL OF BASKETBALL in assist-to-turnover ratio, behind only Antonio Daniels.

Damon Jones shot a very respectable . 359 from Three Point Land, 51st in the league.

Not only that, but Jones got more minutes in the playoffs in a five-game series with the Pistons, and played even better.

Sign him up Pat. He's perfect.

The Race Is On

2004-07-16T18:28:00.000-04:00

One of the benefits of living in Florida as compared to Massachusetts is that our Presidential votes will actually matter. So of course, any kind of news that has to deal with the more sordid side of the Florida electoral process I pay great attention to, as maybe everyone should. Here's a great column by Elisa Cramer in today's Palm Beach Post:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/auto/epaper/editions/friday/opinion_047f7006a30630281060.html

The Arrival

2004-07-15T16:18:00.000-04:00

So we've been in town since July 2nd, first staying in Singer Island until our furniture and car showed up. It has mostly been a high stress time, waiting for a week to get started, then having my pregnant wife fly out of town the day after the movers dropped everything off. At the same time, my computer was down, my 18-month old son was crawling everywhere, and let's just say that with all of the exciting things going on, life was basically a drag.

But now, Shaquille O'Neal is coming to Miami. And everything has changed.

Don't believe me? Do you think it's just coincidence that my son finally, FINALLY, started walking on the day the deal was finalized? Do you think it was just a coincidence that little neighborhood kids started hanging around our house, distracting my son long enough for me to start a new blog, on the very same day? A coincidence that I showed up at my new job to get a head start on things and they sent me home, telling me not to worry until August? Hardly.

I've had an amazing sports year. I root for the New England Patriots, and they won the Super Bowl, and the Tampa Bay Lightning, and they won the Stanley Cup. The Red Sox traded for Curt Schilling, and now the Big Aristotle is following me to South Florida. I'm a Celtics fan at heart, but hey, a team that refuses to go over the salary cap doesn't deserve complete, undivided loyalty. So, what the hell? Go Heat!