The Stankoniforous Files

After some decisions, Stank-0 has decided to end this blog....and move to Wordpress.  For those that read on this blog, there were some IMG issues that couldn't be resolved and since Stank-0 didn't feel like going through the code and widgets to fix it...

It might be a few days before we can get the new space in gear.  Gotta pack up everything here, get the movers, take everything over there, unpack, and get things straightened before we can proceed.

Stank-0 will not delete this blog but all the action will be over here.

Stank-0 has made no bones about the fact that he wanted Boise State or TCU to make it to the National Championship game. Unfortunately, that will not happen this year.

Oregon ran their wind sprint fast break offense in a win over in-state rival Oregon State. Stank-0 didn't watch much of the game, but when he switched over to watch Oregon was up by double digits and never looked back. Their spot was assured. The only opening left for a non-AQ team to qualify would be for Auburn to stumble against South Carolina.

Stank-0 watched this game and it was amazing. Cam Newton is undeniably the best player in college football. Stank-0 has been trying to think of whom Newton compares to at this stage of his career. The closest comparison would be the late Steve "Air" McNair from his Alcorn State days.

Auburn (read: Newton) was simply too much for South Carolina.  Auburn laid a straight up beatdown. 

The SEC sends its fifth straight representative to the National Championship game.

Stank-0 doesn't want TCU nor Boise State to feel down about their seasons.  What they accomplished will be talked about for years to come.  Both of these teams ran over, through, and around ranked teams throughout this season.

TCU took matters into their own hands and joined an AQ conference so if they can run the table again, then there's a good chance that TCU will play for a title...next year.

Stank-0 will look at the national title matchup between Oregon and Auburn.

First of all, excuse Stank-0's extended absence.  First, Stank-0 went down to the homeplace with his lady, and then on the last day of the trip fell ill.  That put the blog game on time out, but now it's back on.

This Saturday is conference championship Saturday.  The game that le twitter has been goin on about is the SEC championship: Auburn vs S. Carolina.  Stank-0 would be lyin if he said he expected either of these teams to be here. That game rests on one issue: can you stop/slow down/limit Cam Newton?  That's it.  If Cam has a marginally good game, he needs to get his suit dry cleaned to accept his Heisman. Strike a pose!



The Big XII Championship is intriguing because Nebraska and Oklahoma have played in some legendary games (1971 Game of the Century which they want to honor in 2020-21 with a home-and-home series) and this is Nebraska's final game as a member of the XII.

In the NFL you have the Broncos going to division-leading KC and the Raiders going to San Diego.  These two games could go a long way towards deciding the division.  You also get ATL vs TB part II.  The Dirty Birds owned the first game so the Bucs will definitely want some get back.  The Steelers are going to Baltimore to face the Ravens in the Sunday Night game.  The Ravens won the previous match up so this game is very important for the AFC North.

To top it all off, you get Jets @ Patriots on Monday Night.  Gang Green is playing as well as anyone in the AFC if not the entire league. Can Tom Bieber Brady cool them off in Foxboro?

The NBA really has no game of value with two teams worth watching over the weekend, it's quite sad.

In college basketball, you have Butler @ Duke, but it doesn't excite. Then there's UK @ UNC.  Could be good but its all about the Wildcats at this point.  There are of course a plethora of college basketball games on this weekend. 

That about covers this weekend.  What will you be watching?

Didn't post this sooner but Stank-0 is on hiatus until the 30th.

What's the biggest story over the Thanksgiving weekend? Talk amongst yourself or hit me on le Twitter.

As Stank-0 said, he would find the BGriff dunk from tonight and here it is. 

Stank-0 knows we all remember the summer when the death of the Big XII was imminent, right? Well

Stank-0 got into an accidental conversation about how the Big XII (10) narrowly avoided death.  In this conversation, Stank-0 was informed that the true savior of the conference was not Texas' reluctance to being linked to the death of two conferences, but A&M. 

Stank-0 is sure you all remember that there were rumors that A&M was all set to join the SEC, right?  That is true but there's more to the story. 

Texas set off a chain of events when they held a secret meeting with the PAC-10 about a move to the conference.  Part of this move was to bring along the Texas schools: A&M, Baylor, and Tech.  The Pac-10 balked at including Baylor because it was a religious school and Tech for academic reasons. Then word got out about this move and that set the chain of events in motion. 

Stank-0 is saying the Big XII is dead because Don Beebe made some promises that can't be kept.

• He would get more money when the Big XII's contract comes up for renewal in 2012.  He's had since at least 2001 to get a better deal. 
• The rest of the conference made a promise to cover any deficit if the Texas contingent did not make $20M.

The other long term problem is that Texas has moved forward with its proposal of a Texas television channel.  That was part of the very problem from the beginning.

Stank-0 said it once and he'll say it again.  The only part of the Big XII that Stank-0 will miss is the KU-MU rivalry. It is the longest continuous rivalry west of the Mississippi.

The next post will be about the potential moves that are in the air. Surprisingly one of those moves involves Stank-0's alma mater, KU.

Nene banged out on the Knicks yesterday.  Here's the first one on Ronny Turiaf.  Still lookin for the other dunk.



Here's the other one on Gallinari.



Shout out to You got dunked on for helping with the 2nd dunk.

Also lookin for BGriff's dunk tonight.  Also post on deck for 10PM MST. 

Saw this live...didn't expect Rondo to coast to the cup like that.





Goodness!

There are media reports in from the Chicago Sun-Times that several unnamed sources (players) want Coach Childress fired.  The money quote:

We know that Coach Childress doesn't have our backs, so why should we have his?

That is the very definition of losing a locker room.  Stank-0 is sure you've heard the stories so there's no need to re-tread over them.

The primary question is simple, does Childress deserve to be canned?  Stank-0 would say not necessarily.  QB play has clearly regressed since last season.  The primary offensive weapon is out for most of the season, that will effect the offense. The defensive front four are not creating the type of pressure they did last season. Jared Allen got Samson'd after he cut his hair. 

The other side of the argument is that Childress has allowed the atmosphere in Minny to deteriorate into a circus.  Percy Miracles is comin at his neck, of all people. Then there's the question of what coach would want this job, but that's easy to answer.  You have a clear head coach in waiting in Leslie Frazier, defensive coordinator.

Since Frazier likely won't get the nod, then who is out there that will take the job? It's the same problem that the Cowboys face.

Should Childress get fired, what happens to the team? To Lorenzo Favre? So many questions, not enough answers. 

First I will need you, the reader, to suspend all disbelief, like watching WWE.  Ok, let's move on.

We all remember that Coach Shanahan benched Mac-5 in favor of Turnoversaurus Rex a few weeks ago. What if there's another reason for that?

I think Shanahan has his eyes on Jay Cutler.  Now hear me out.  Since the retirement of John Elway, Cutler is the QB with the best arm that Shanahan ever had.  Sometimes he relies on that arm too much, but he can easily make every NFL throw.  Now I think that Mac-5 > Cutler, but Shanahan doesn't have to re-teach the nuances of his system to Cutler.  They also have rapport and they know and are used to each other.

Cutler hasn't set the world on fire since he came to the City of Wind so a straight across trade isn't exactly impossible.  Highly improbable but not impossible.  Am I thinkin too much or can this happen?

Although he was not drafted, Sherron Collins, the Chi-town Killah, has found a home in Charlotte.  Is it any surprise that Larry Brown (a former KU coach) took a chance on Collins? Shaun Livingston, nauseating injury fame, is also thriving on the Bobcats. Stank-0 may have just caught a glimpse of Larry Hughes, can't call it.

The Bobcats are puttin a world of hurtin on the Spurs right now, but it's still early.  31-24 in the 2nd quarter. Building looks full too.

The Spurs have closed the game and trail by 3, 35-32. Liking what Stank-0 is seeing from the Bobcats.  They play defense and hustle, hallmarks of a Larry Brown-coached team. The lead is back to 7.

Let Stank-0 get this outta his system so the rest of the post can be written properly.  Congratulations to the Raiders, however, it's my belief that the Chiefs lost not so much that the Raiders won.  Not putting up TDs when necessary, offensive miscues, and defensive lapses cost KC a chance to win this game.

Al Davis' decision to draft Janikowski looks good now.  Stank-0 remembers when he was at FSU doing the same thing he does in Oakland, kick long field goals with ease and causing touchbacks on kickoffs.

The AFC West is now significantly tighter with the Chiefs holding a half game lead over the resurgent Raiders.  The Chargahs appear to be in their annual November uptick. The division could get very interesting.  KC's game at Denver next Sunday just became that much more important.  The Raiders can move into a tie while on their bye if the Chiefs should fall.


Lorenzo Favre showed some more late game heroics.  Just when you want to write post-mortems on Lorenzo, he tells us to fall back.  Percy Miracles is a resilent player.  He kept having ankle problems, would come out of the game, and then re-enter later.

A big problem is that the Vikings went away from AD.  He had a grand total of 11 carries in the game. 


Another team that lost a game they should have won was the Lions.  They lost their kicker to injury so they sent in Suh to kick the extra point, which he promptly missed.  Then it seems like Matthew Stafford re-injured his shoulder. He also looked a bit sluggish in his reads.  Their main offensive weapon, Megatron, was blanketed.

Defensively outside of the front four, there is much to be desired. 

To end on a positive note, is it just Stank-0 or were the Colts' unis kinda dope?


Ok guess it's just me. The Michael Vick Experience is back!  If Vick lost a step, not sure where.  He can hit the X button and leave a defender.  Coach Reid, it's pretty simple at this point.  Start Vick and save your job.


This week had three OT games, which is great until your team is in one of those games. Stank-0 will next look at the AFC West because things just got more interesting.
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 The person in question this time is no other than Cam Newton, the front runner and presumptive Heisman trophy winner. 

The word is that a man claiming to represent Newton said money had to exchange hands for Newton to consider their school, Mississippi State.  Stank-0 won't bore you with the particulars.  The "request" was passed up the food chain to the athletic director (AD), Greg Byrne, and that's as much as is known. 

This has to worry the Heisman group mainly because they just went through this with Reggie Bush just two months ago.  The NCAA must be concerned as well, unfortunately they've tied their own hands here.

The problem is that the NCAA refuses to acknowledge that collegiate athletics (namely football and basketball) is big business.  You are talking about young men on the verge of becoming multimillionaires overnight.  The prospect of landing one of these young men as a client is worth the risk for an agent or an athletic program.  One of these highly touted young men could take your team to the promised land or to a national title. 

They are not the same.  The promised land is the point when your school/program is the place everyone wants to play.  That usually results in a national title which makes your school/program the place everyone wants to play...a positive feedback loop ensues. Coaches get new salaries, new facilities, new perks.  Schools get new facilities, more money from boosters, more primetime games, and more money in general. The "student"-athletes get more exposure (read: TV time) which can raise their draft stock (read: they can make more money). 

The NCAA obviously doesn't take this serious because they have a grand total of 8 investigators.  As in more than 7 and less than 9 to cover collegiate sports. What exactly are they expected to find? 

Shout out to Music Snob for the heads up

D Rose bangin on fools. From the game going on right now against the Knicks in Chicago.



Someone got Dragic'd, fa real.

Eric Gordon (EG for short) dunkin with reckless abandon.




The other one is on Timmay



Po lil tink tink.



KG musta got tired of controversy over what he said to Villanueva and took it out on Bogut.

 Since Werd's post referencing last weekend's action, Randall Gene Moss was placed on waivers by the Vikings.  The reason is because of some remarks about some post-game meal catered by a mom-and-pop's place.

Moss had a profanity laced tirade about how he doesn't eat such food now that he's rich.  It did not go over well with the team. Stank-0 can see the anger that such remarks would garner, however, is that sufficient to cut a man that has since helped your stagnant offense get on track? Moss was drawing consistent over-the-top help even though he's 33 and has a history of lackluster effort.


In any case, fans of every team across the league imagined what life would be like with Moss on their offense.  When it came time to claim Moss off the waiver wire, 21 teams passed on him.  This is eerily similar to how the draft went for Moss.

Now the Titans have claimed Moss off waivers. Stank-0 has a feeling that this is Moss' last reasonable chance to play in the NFL. This is Moss' Buffalo.  He has to be a model citizen if he wants another chance on another team.  The spotlight is squarely on the Titans but Coach Fisher can manage Moss' personality if he was able to keep VY on task. Britt probably cannot wait to heal up and play on the other side of Moss.  It's possible that he could score 4 TDs the next time he takes the field.

In the postscript for this bewildering experience, the Vikings are taking shots at Moss. Percy Miracles is probably crying is his car right now.  Moss opened up alot of things for Percy.

Kye Allums is the NCAA Div 1's first openly transgendered player. This is quite an achievement, but it will raise some questions if this becomes widespread.  How does this affect scholarships, eligibility, etc.? That doesn't even speak on the misunderstandings amongst teammates and opponents. 

 In this case it is a trans man playing women's basketball. Stank-0 understands Allums identifies as a man but physiologically is Allums a woman or a man?  Fundamentally we have a man playing women's basketball.

At some point, questions will come as to whether Allums should be allowed to play on the women’s team. Losing his scholarship was a real concern for Allums just six months ago as the task of fully expressing himself while still playing basketball seemed overwhelming. As he’s educated himself, that fear has dissipated.

According to Royer, as long as Allums does not accept hormone treatments, he is eligible to participate in NCAA women’s sports.

This is fascinating. Stank-0 hopeful that more transgendered people decide to participate in Division 1 sports.

(h/t to Music Snob for the heads up)

There's a lot to cover this weekend. Let's begin with a simple fact: 6 of 8 division winners last year are in 3rd place in their division this year.  SD, Arizona, Indy (2nd), Cincy, Dallas, Minny,and NO.

Let's begin with some surprises.   The Bucs and the Chiefs are both 5-2.   This Sunday the Chiefs visit the Raiders in a game that could decide the division.  I'm not quite sure we aren't in an alternate reality, but I'm sure Stank-0 is thrilled.  The other surprise team, the Bucs will face off against the Falcons in a game that could decide the NFC South.  This season makes not a bit of sense. 

Favre got knocked out of a game, literally.  Which largely knocked out the Vikings chances of winning the game. Then Randall Gene Moss had some very frank comments during his post game conference.  There';s speculation that Moss could be released. This could ultimately cost Childress his job.  Due in large part to the owner being irate that after all he did to bring Moss in that Childress is letting him go.  This doesn't help Minnesota's season that is starting to spiral out of control.

The Cowboys are playing for draft position now after the Jags blew the doors off them.  Too talented to have one W thus far in the season. Romo is out 6-8 weeks, this season is a lost cause. The only way the Cowboys will be in the Super Bowl is on Madden '11.


Can we call the DROY for Suh right now?  His line was unreal.  He had 2 sacks on consecutive plays, 5 tackles, and a game winning fumble return for a TD. The kid is a meast. The Skins have their own controversy.  A certain Mac-5 was benched for Turnoversaurus Rex Grossman who promptly fumbled to Suh to end the game, on his first snap.

Switching gears, the Oregon Ducks offense is a 2 minute drill for 4 quarters.  That has to be tiring. That kinda pace just wears down defenses and SC was looking real gassed by the 3rd quarter.  Which may explain why the Ducks dropped 53 on 'em.  That's a low scoring basketball game not a football score.

Lastly the World Series is largely over with the Giants taking a commanding 3-1 lead in Game 4.  I only know this through Twitter because I was watching a highly entertaining Steelers @ Saints game.  That game had playoff intensity and it showed with the hits.  Folks were getting hit stick'd out there.

Stank-0 wanted to do posts on individual games, but life and other obligations got in the way.

For the Bulls @ Thunder game

• D Rose is faaaast (Asian man in the Adidas commercial voice) unfortunately, Stank-0 ain't see his j, like at all.
  
• The Bulls are still a jump shooting team when Rose can't get in the lane.  Hell they are when he does get in the lane but when he's not breaking down defenses those j's are contested.
  
• Booz is not a consistent low post threat in the East.
  
• The Thunder have the makings of being a great defensive team.  Bunch of young guys buying into the coach's defense first philosophy = trouble for other teams.
  
• The Thunder do not have a low post presence. They have scrappy guys but no one you can throw to in the high or low post and get a bucket.
  
• Russell Westbrooke and D Rose are basically two sides of the same coin. Each uses his quickness to do what he needs to do. Neither has a consistent j...yet. Each is still young and has plenty of time to develop into a top flight point guard. The main difference is that Rose has to shoulder more of the scoring load.
  

• The Rockets have a legitimate backcourt duo in Kev-Mart and Aaron Brooks.  Kev-Mart is the offensive shot in the arm the Rockets need. Pairing him with Brooks is a problem. Mysonne.  They took turns splashin treys from range. A bit undersized, but them boys can play.
  
• Not sure how far the Rockets can go with Yao Ming limited to 24 minutes a night.
  
• It says something when Brad Miller left millions on the table to play for Rick Adelman, again.  He fits in Adelman's offensive philosophy and he brings that toughness the Rockets need in the middle. 
• The Lake Show is still the Lake Show. 
  
• If LA doesn't go to the Finals, it's their own fault.  Sound familiar?
• Stank-0 is on record, it will be a rematch of last year's Finals. LOCK IT UP!
  
  

Rather than boring you with two more games you don't care about, let's skip to the rookies.

B Griff had a monster debut! 20 and 14.  He coupled that with some highlight reel dunks as well. Not ready to say he's back, but if he's not he's damned close.


Blake Griffin - "Stay Super Like The Son Of Jurel Mix"

As for the other rook, Wall went for 14 and 9. Not nearly as impressive granted, but he will improve.  Stank-0 will stand by his prediction of co-ROYs.