One-And-Done Makes Joke Out Of College Life
Don’t call it college. It’s not college if you don’t even declare a major. It’s not college if you needn’t bother finishing your second semester. It’s not college if you spent most of your time in the gym, or on a plane, or being interviewed. It’s not college just because you wore a uniform with the school’s name on it.
We are hearing lately about all these freshman basketball stars – Kevin Love of UCLA, O.J. Mayo of Southern Cal, Derrick Rose of Memphis, Michael Beasley of Kansas State – leaving college to jump to the NBA. Leaving college? Please. They were never really there.
Homeschooled – By Familiar-Looking Team
“We’re gonna get back to playing the way we’re supposed to, or we’ll get our butts kicked by a young, hungry team.”
– Lindsey Hunter, after the Pistons’ 90-86 loss in their playoff opener
So here, in the final minute, was Jason Maxiell, stretched high as if on a rack. Remember, if Maxiell were a tube of toothpaste, he’d be squeezed from the bottom and all balled up near the top. Thick chested, broad shouldered, he is a mountain of a torso, and mountains are damn hard to move.
Shoot Till You Drop May Be Wings’ Credo
He had tried the slapshot. He had tried the rebound. He had tried the quick flick.
So when he came down the ice early in overtime, puck on his stick, crowd on its feet, Johan Franzen, with eight failed shots on the night, made a decision for No. 9.
“I was gonna try,” he said, “and deke him and go backhand.”
“Why that?” he was asked.
“Well, the other shots didn’t seem to work.”
Shoot Till You Drop Must Be Wings’ Credo
He had tried the slap shot. He had tried the rebound. He had tried the quick flick.
So when he came down the ice early in overtime, puck on his stick, crowd on its feet, Johan Franzen, with eight failed shots on the night, made a decision for No. 9.
“I was gonna try,” he said, “and deke him and go backhand.”
“Why that?” he was asked.
“Well, the other shots didn’t seem to work.”
THE NEED FOR ‘SHEED AS THE PLAYOFFS OPEN
So now we enter ‘Sheed’s world.
Looking for a ‘Ship.
He’ll collect his T’s. He’ll play his D.
He’ll grab his ‘bounds. Hit his 3’s.
He loves those W’s. He hates an L.
And you know he’ll ‘xplode.
But what the ‘ell?
It’s an apostrophe world, the Rasheed Wallace universe, where a ‘Ship for the ‘Stons is the ultimate goal. But there is no shortcutting this reality: The Pistons will go as far as Wallace takes ’em, and as far as he lets ’em.
The Commander Will Go, War Will Go On
The war in Iraq has been labeled many things: a mission, an occupation, a controversy, a black hole. But last week, it officially became something else. An inheritance. With President George W. Bush’s decision to leave troop levels where they are, he ensured...
McCarty Scores ‘Miracle’ in Return
He skated down the middle and the puck caromed his way, a gift from the goalie, a gift, some would say, from God above. Darren McCarty had only to put his stick out and bang it forward, a move a hockey player could do while under anesthesia. He did. The red light lit....
No Hero In Net – Let’S Keep It That Way
Are you in? That’s supposedly the Red Wings’ playoff slogan this year, but midway through the third period Thursday night, it already had become a desperate fan’s question. Are you in? That puck flying across the crease? Are you in? That shot that hit the post? Are you in? That Johan Franzen second chance? Are you in? That Pavel Datsyuk solo rush?
Depth Perception
He has come a long way in 20 years, when he was skating for a British hockey team while teaching at a local college.
“Did you ever come to class with a black eye?” I ask Mike Babcock.
“Probably,” he says.
You can’t get much more anonymous than the Whitley Warriors, near Newcastle upon Tyne, where Babcock, between classes, played hockey in “a barn that sat 5,000 people” and had a mesh screen instead of glass, so the puck bounced off it.
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