Sports Fodder: Drinking the Pack Kool-Aid

Sports fodder for a Friday morning . . .

Now that Javale McGee, Matt LaGrone, DeMarshay Johnson, Marcelus Kemp, David Ellis and, yes, Curry Lynch, are gone, where does that leave the Wolf Pack men's basketball team? Well, without any proven rebounders or shot blockers, to name two areas of concern. And, oh yeah, they'll be shorter and younger. Depressed, Pack fans? Don't be. How does another 20-plus win season, accompanied by a fifth trip to the NCAA Tournament in the last six years sound?

---

Yes, we're drinking the Wolf Pack basketball Kool-Aid. But why not? We know that the Pack has lost four players 6-foot-8 or taller. But, hey, none of them were named Fazekas. We know that the Pack will return just one senior. And we're well aware that coach Mark Fox needs to find three new starters. So what? Fox found four new starters last year and one of the guys he had to replace was named Fazekas. Last year's team returned players with a combined 38 starts, 3,077 minutes played and 967 points scored from the year (2006-07) before. This year's team returns players with 67 starts, 3,034 minutes and 988 points scored from a year ago. Toss in five talented freshmen and players like Malik Cooke, Ray Kraemer, Lyndale Burleson and Richie Phillips who are ready to explode and, well, pass the silver and blue Kool-Aid.

---

It might take a year to blossom, but the tandem of Armon Johnson and Luke Babbitt has the potential to become the best one-two combination in Pack basketball history. Fox is not going to turn his team over to a sophomore and a freshman right away. But it won't take long. Johnson came from Chicago and Babbitt migrated from Cincinnati and the two became arguably the best two players in Northern Nevada boys high school basketball history. The two already have amazing chemistry together, having played together in pick-up games since early in their prep careers. The triple-double is going to become a part of every Pack fan's vocabulary as Johnson and Babbitt pile up the points, rebounds and assists the next three and four years. That Cool-Aid is tasting better and better.

. . .

It's about time the rest of the country starts to give Western Athletic Conference baseball the respect it deserves. Fresno State, one of the great underdog stories in NCAA history, won the College World Series this week and immediately gave the entire conference a much-needed boost in national respect. And when we talk respect, we're talking at least two regional bids. That means you, Wolf Pack baseball team. The Pack has clearly been the second best team in the conference the last two years. A regional bid is there for the taking.

. . .

Now that Fresno State has won the College World Series, you have to rate the weekend of April 25-27 at Peccole Park as one of the greatest in Pack baseball history. The Pack whipped the eventual College World Series champs in three of four games that weekend, capped off by a dramatic three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning by catcher Travis Simas for a 12-11 victory on Sunday. The three victories over Fresno were the first by a Pack team over the College World Series champs of the same year since the Pack beat Rice twice in 2003. The only other time the Pack beat the College World Series champs of the same year was in 1995, when it beat Cal State Fullerton twice.

. . .

College baseball simply does not get the attention it deserves on a national scale by fans or the media. The Pack baseball program has sent more athletes into the national spotlight in recent years than any other Wolf Pack sports program. There are no less than eight former Pack players currently in the major leagues right now with another " Chris Singleton " working on ESPN's Baseball Tonight. But who outside of Northern Nevada has noticed? Men's basketball needs just one player involved in the NBA draft to give it more national attention in one night than baseball can muster in a year.

. . .

Why, exactly, is a college guy (Mike Krzyzewski) going to coach the United States Olympic men's basketball team, a team made up of NBA players? The Olympic team got rid of college players almost two decades ago. It's time it also gets rid of college coaches. NBA teams (smart ones, at least) don't hire college coaches to coach their teams so why should a team made up of NBA All-Stars be coached by a college coach?

. . .

Are you ready for a Cubs-Red Sox World Series? Well, ready or not, it's coming. Talk about media coverage. It will be unbearable. As a White Sox fan, I am already making plans to rent out my house in October, head to some Nevada ghost town that hasn't been touched by television, radio, newspapers or telephones in over a century and hide out for three weeks.

. . .

Why, exactly, do basketball players high-five each other after missing free throws? Offensive linemen don't high-five running backs after fumbles. Managers don't high-five batters who just struck out. Hockey players don't high-five goalies after that goalie just allowed a goal. The radio show producer doesn't high-five Don Imus after Imus says something stupid.

. . .

Sports Cliche We Hate: Coaches and managers who declare after every loss, "Well, we just didn't execute." Execute who? The opposing team's quarterback or that moron fan who sits three rows behind the bench and won't shut up? When a coach talks about execution he is really saying, "Well, don't blame me. If my players had just done what I told them to do, we would have won."

. . .

Barry Bonds' agent says his client will not sign with a minor league team to prove he can still play. I guess that rules out any return to the Giants, huh?