Whiskey Jim on Sports : CBSSports.com Blogs

Emergence and Heart: The Saints are the Real Deal

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:08:02 EST

The Saints put on a dazzling display of football on both sides of the ball on Monday night, helping the vaunted Patriot's offense look mediocre and their defense look positively inept. Mike McKensie stepped in to cover for a Saints team without one starting corner, and ended up with an interception and numerous key stops, including denying Moss a fourth and 2 pass that would have kept a drive alive in the Red Zone to bring the Patriots within a touchdown.

“I don't feel like I shut down (Patriots WR Randy Moss ) like that. It was just one of those things that the coaches did a tremendous job with the game plan." The statement is kind, but there was something else going on as well. Not every team has a game plan that allows a player to so immediately make an impact after not playing for a year.

A Storm is Brewing

Fri, 15 May 2009 1:19:06 EDT

Kentucky just hired John Calipari. The contract makes Calipari the highest paid college basketball coach by a hefty margin. It's quite a coup for a man who's resume does not include a national championship and only one Final Four. But he does garner some optimism for a Kentucky program that has struggled for the last few years, and a dynasty that is threatening to slip through their fingers. Calipari brings a couple of bold marks on his resume. First, he has somehow attracted the attention of World Wide Wes, who has an almost unnatural affect on superlative high school players who are looking for a safe haven for a year before moving on to the NBA. He's also a consummate salesman, and there's no doubt that Kentucky fans and boosters demand an ego capable of assuaging their endless appetites. Finally, while the final story on his coaching capabilities may need to wait for future years, he certainly has already displayed a knack for utilizing players talents and putting them in positions to win.

The Media and Sports

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:21:10 EST

Scientists know that an observer affects the outcome of an experiment. The media has a profound effect on sports in much the same manner. Golf is a fine example since tournament structure and coverage often resembles a celebrity event more than a sports competition.

The media affects salary structure: Pervasive national marketing and exposure tends to make the pinnacle of any sport top heavy. Media focus on big league baseball provides more dollars to the top while robbing farm leagues of viewers and attendees. In baseball Double 'A' games go unattended while potential fans watch the Yankees on TV. The resulting salary disparity between a Triple 'A' player and even a mediocre Big League player is enormous and growing. National coverage is the reason. Big media demands national stars that dominate public patronage.

Are the Heels tough enough to Win the NC?

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 9:48:00 EST

In another blog post on Toughness we talked about the kind of thinking that makes teams difficult to beat. This blog has also mentioned that winning is a state of mind, and that psychological preparation , especially visualization, plays an outlandish role in winning. It is very difficult to win, however that is defined, if the team is not convinced it can be done and the unconscious mind has not been given a chance to dwell on it. The 1993 Tarheel National Championship team developed a lot of toughness over the season. There are two facts here that are germaine to the 2009 Tarheels .

First, the role of positive imagery must be emphasized. In 1993 Dean Smith doctored a 1982 picture that said, 'Congratulations North Carolina, 1982 national champions' showing on the scoreboard at the end of the game. Smith says, "It dawned on me, let's put that in everybody's locker. We won't tell anybody, just our team. We changed the 1982 to 1993 and marked out Georgetown's name so the opponent wasn't visible and the players had that waiting for them when practice started." Those pictures were in each player's locker all season long. While many of the 2009 Tarheels have a very negative loss to Kansas to spur them on this year, I hope they have a very positive image which they have been working with throughout this year. A team's mental prowess does not recover lightly from such a loss.

Inconsistency in College basketball

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 17:05:01 EST

Part of what makes college basketball so fun to watch is the difficulty in choosing winners. Inevitably, top 10 teams lose to teams with mediocre records at best. March Madness structure feeds this excitement. There are arguably many factors:

PLAYER INCONSISTENCY: most college players' games vary widely in quality.

NATIONAL ATTENTION: it's difficult not to allow the lights to affect your play at this age.

HOME COURT ADVANTAGE: some courts are very difficult to play in on any given night.

Give West Virginia some Love

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 12:47:21 EST

There is no doubt that college basketball polls are sticky. Some teams are harder to get off the board, and some teams find it more difficult to get on it. Call it national expectation, an unconscious sense of team confidence, historical performance elasticity, group think, or whatever you wish, but some teams with arguable records perennially have a tough time in the polls. Coincidentally, many of these same teams have issues with TV ratings, and confidence. But which factor is causal?

West Virgina is a great example. With its dressing down of Georgetown on Thursday, one wonders why they haven't made the top 25 bubble. The team is strong, it's schedule hasn't been nearly as weak as some top 25 teams, and none of their losses have shamed them. Arguably a top 25 team shouldn't lose to Davidson, or even, for that matter, Kentucky. But then, everyone in college basketball loses unexpectedly sometime. It's part of what makes college hoops so fun to watch; we're not really sure who is going to show up, and we can count on our fingers the number of college coaches who can turn their teams around in real time when they are having a bad night. Most are spectators to their own losses.

The case of Ryan Clark

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:41:55 EST

The great Don Cherry, past coach of the Boston Bruins and said to be the best color commentator in all of sports, made the argument that hockey would be much safer if they recalled the mandatory helmet rule. Before helmets, players who got their sticks up above the shoulders could count on heavy physical harrassment on and off the ice from opposing players, and derision from their own team members. Having played ice hockey for 25 years, with and without a helmet, I can say there is an undeniable truth to Mr. Cherry's argument. We all have certain responsibilities to control our own behavior, on and off the sports field.

But back to football. My heart came up into my throat on Sunday, as I watched Willis McGahee lying on the field during the waning minutes of the AFC Championship. No one is saying that Ryan Clark's brutal hit was illegal, even though it easily could have ended in paralysis for either player. Similarly, neither was his hit on Wes Walker earlier in the year. It is possible to argue though, that he wouldn't have made such a flying, shoulder high 'tackle' if he wasn't wearing a helmet, effectively turning his body into a battering ram. After all, you don't see such hits in professional rugby.