PUB WISDOM
Rock the RockBig West MVP = Kyle Austin? Axe somebody
MVP? Make it so.
I know that most folks are just sinking their teeth into the college football season, but college hoops is right around the corner. And it looks like the editors over at Athlon noticed Kyle Austin’s junior effort last season. I know that pre-season hype is basically worthless, but any longtime Highlander fans have got to enjoy this nonetheless. Athlon is projecting Austin as the Big West MVP. Nice. Bring on the double and triple teams. Drive and dish.
Also cool, Athlon picked the Highlanders to finish fourth in the Big West. Fourth place cool? Considering that the Highlanders have been picked dead last in just about every preseason poll going in the past few seasons, this is a nice bit of well earned respect.
Is this the year UCR punches its ticket to the Big Dance?
Highlander Hoops Release Schedule
"Where the hell is Berry College?!?"
Click here for a look at the 09-10 UC Riverside mens’ basketball schedule.
While it looks like the pendulum has swung back slightly, which will hopefully get the Highlanders’ SOS rating below 300, it appears Jim Wooldridge is still easing his squad into the nation’s top tier based on the competition he’s booked. There’s USC, which is legit on anyone’s schedule. But no other PAC10 teams? Really?
I, for one, am in the camp that believes that Wooldridge’s marked softening of UCR’s schedule last year was genius, letting the players get used to what it feels like to win. I figure we’re seeing a continuation of that strategy, which I find hard to fault.
Still, Pub Wisdom reckons there are others who are chomping for UCR to test it’s new-found success on some proven competition. Would’ve been nice to see a surprise or two on the schedule, especially since the USC date was pre-announced. Well, there was one surprise. Where is Berry College and how did they end up on the Highlanders’ schedule? Now that was a surprise, though without researching it at all, it wouldn’t be a surprise if I learned that Berry College is in the midwest somewhere and coached by one of Wooldridge’s buddies.
In the end, it all comes down to conference play, the goal being to reduce the number of games you need to win in the conference tourney to get that auto-bid to the dance.
See you at the Echo Chamber…
Celtic Draws Gunners
Celtic showed mettle getting the job done with two goals on the away leg against Dynamo Moscow after looking somewhat nonplussed on the first leg, like the Bhoys aren’t used to having to scrap their way into the group stages of the Champions League.
This go-round it’s the Light Blues slotted automatically into the group stages, and Celtic’s road, if it wants to join Rangers there, just got a lot sportier now that it’s drawn Arsenal in the playoff. Pub Wisdom wishes the best of luck to the Eastsiders.
Rangers Unimpressed by Spendthrift Man City
Man City's money's no good at Ibrox.
Yeah, yeah, I know… it’s meaningless, just a friendly. You know what? I’ll take the Rangers 3-2 Manchester City result, meaningless or not. Read about the match here.
Pub Wisdom reckons that while Premiership sides that come North for friendlies will find a modicum of comfort in that alleged meaninglessness, the game was taken seriously on the pitch as no self-respecting English side wants to lose to a lowly Scots side, even if it is the reigning champs.
Goals by Nacho Novo and Kenny Miller set up late theatrics provided by wizened old Dave Weir. Must say, the juices are flowing for the campaign to start in earnest.
Patented Late Kick Extends Brenda Martinez’s European Roll
BMART’s three for three in her quest for European domination. Watch the video of her latest conquest, at the Flander’s Cup, here.
Brenda Martinez Hearts Europe
BMART rolls through Europe.
UC Riverside track phenom Brenda Martinez is two-for-two so far in her six-meet Europe swing, taking the 1500 title in Ghent, Belgium, blowing away her previous PR by four seconds. Click here to check out footage of the race.
Austin Graham Sacks Up, Knocks it Down to Capture SCGA Title
Pride of the Pacific Golf Club, er, I mean, Bella Collina Towne & Golf Club.
You may remember a few years back when former San Clemente Triton golfer Austin Graham made mince meat of the South Coast League and was a serious CIF threat. Let’s just say he didn’t peak in high school.
Coming off a highly successful sophomore campaign at UC Davis, Graham is continuing his winning ways this summer, nabbing the Long Beach City Championship — including a career-best round of 62 – and on Sunday the prestigious 110th SCGA title. Yeah, the same trophy won by a certain young Mr. Woods several years ago.
After bogeying 16 in final round, he rolled in a clutch 30-foot birdie on 17 at the Wilshire Country Club to give him a one-shot lead. He finished with a 6-under 278, going 69-69-70-70.
Brenda Martinez Works the Europ-a-dopa
Ali-inspired?
After finishing 8th in the NCAAs, UC Riverside’s half-mile miracle, junior Brenda Martinez, took her act to Europe for a six-meet tour of the continent. However, Pub Wisdom reckons Martinez got a hold of some footage shot on a different continent, of the Ali-Foreman fight in Zaire, for inspiration prior to her first 800 meter event in Belgium.
Fresh off the plane in the final of her first meet, Martinez employed Ali’s classic rope-a-dope, hanging well back and letting others think they might have a shot, but with perhaps 300 meters left, she straight blew past the field, briefly settled into third, then put on the afterburners for a precisely timed move at the last second that gave her the win and a personal record. The field included the two runners that have claimed the last three NCAA 800 titles. Yep, she’s the real deal.
Watch the race it here. It’s worth the click. She’s got the white singlet on.
The Nation’s Hottest Runner?
Poetry in motion, coconut lotion...
Marry Me, Mixu
Mixu's Hibs: Double the drama.
A week ago, I would’ve probably stuck him with a shiv if I saw him in the street. Today, I’d french kiss him and ask for his hand in marriage, so freely does my adoration flow… I’m talking about my main man Mixu Paatelainen, Hibernian manager and restorer of balance in the universe.
With Rangers just clear of the East Enders after their recent Old Firm win, Mixu’s men held the Light Blues to a 1-1 draw, allowing Celtic to retake tops in the SPL table and delivering a crushing blow to Gers fans who remember last season’s stinging goal-differential disappointment. But just when it seemed all was lost, Mixu’s Hibs flipt da script again, holding the other half of the Old Firm to a goal-less draw on the following matchday, thus catapulting Rangers tidily into the lead once more with one game to go.
And a stern test it will be at Tannadice as Levein’s Dundee United side has had pretty impressive form of late and will itself be stinging after three-nil humiliation at Tynecastle. But Rangers’ form has been tight of late as well, so it should be a fun one.
The Hoops will also have their hands full with visiting Hearts looking to make a statement on the last day of their impressive campaign.
Four in a row? Hell no!
