Sorry, there’s nothing too special on tap for WBE today. There’s a couple of quality posts on the horizon that will take time and effort, but it’s a Friday, and I’m still just coming down from the high of watching my Dutch beat Brazil this a.m., so you’re getting a lazy smattering of links instead. Apologies, but I’ll make it up next week. Enjoy:
— No real major developments on the ‘krootin’ front this week, but there’s several profiles out there of players who Auburn is seriously in the mix for: Xzavier Dickson (though the Tide lead), Kevin McReynolds (who has Auburn in a “soft top 12”), Ray Drew. Drew characterized Auburn’s “family” focus as a kind of sales pitch in a recent discussion about Georgia’s “Dream Team” scheme, but he does clarify here that Chizik and Co. mean what they say:
Is Auburn a player for his services? “I like Auburn. Coach Rock is the man. He’s a Lombardi Winner, and if you want to be great, you gotta be coached by coaches who were great. They’ve got the whole indoor facility coming, and they have a lot of plans in the works with expansion and stuff. Family is a word that’s overused in college football, but Auburn shows it, and you can tell that they really mean it.”
Another development to keep an eye on is the surge from Homewood running back Ameer Abdullah, who’s put together a tremendous month of camp performances and speaks to Auburn Eagle here. It sounds as if Abdullah, a longtime Auburn fan, would commit on the spot if offered–which may be why Chizik and Co. haven’t just yet. Since offering would be tantamount to immediately putting Abdullah on the roster, they’ll have to absolutely sure his spot wouldn’t be better used on a different RB or CB … so Abdullah may have to wait.
— PPL’s Kevin catches you up on the makeup of Auburn’s baseball roster in the wake of the MLB draft. The news isn’t very good, unfortunately, as Kevin Patterson, Brian Fletcher, and maybe even Brad Hendrix could be on their way out. Kevin rounds up various other Tiger-related tidbits here and here.
— Ron Franklin’s not retiring after all. Now if we can just get him to broadcast second-rate SEC games instead of second-rate Big 12 games, we’ll be in business.
— Two Razorback-related links for you: first, Ryan Mallett’s foot may not, in fact, be perfectly fine (Ruh roh, Shaggy!), and Acid has a quick trip down the Tigers vs. Hogs memory lane. Wherever you are, Reid McMilion, we salute you.
— As a part-time Atlanta Hawks fan, I can’t even describe to you how mind-blowingly stupid management’s decision to offer Joe Johnson a maximum $119 million dollar contract is … although seeing one prominent NBA blogger call it “the worst contract we’ve ever seen” starts to cover it. There are times when the fans are wrong and coaches/management are right, but as Bob Bradley and now the Hawks are proving, there’s also a ton of times when the wisdom of crowds is far, far more accurate. Sigh.
— I’m not going to discuss how I wound up at the Wikipedia page for the short-lived early-’90s people-in-rubber-dinosaur-suits ABC sitcom Dinosaurs, but dude, did you know that this is how they chose to end the series? What?!?I think I’m going to have to see this somehow.
— And a random 10, leading off with a song about losing to Alabama:
1. “All the Umbrellas in London,” the Magnetic Fields
2. “Swallow My Pride,” the Ramones
3. “Move On,” the Rentals
4. “Bridge over Troubled Water,” Simon and Garfunkel
5. “Death Valley Queen,” Flogging Molly
6. “Crab,” Weezer
7. “Jackie,” the New Pornographers
8. “Maternity Ward,” Art Brut
9. “Move Along,” the All-American Rejects
10. “Now My Heart is Full,” Morrissey
you even spelled Reid McMilion’s name right. Kudos to you, Jerry! Who can forget the snow game in ’93?
“Move On” by The Rentals is one of the most depressing songs I’ve ever witnessed.
Without even looking it up, Drew, I’m proud to say. I don’t know anyone who could forget it … definitely one of the more memorable games of an extremely memorable season.
Justin, yeah. One of the great things about the Rentals was (is?) their ability to mix their natural synthy/melodic peppiness with depressing topics.
Jerry, I’m disappointed. I thought the Dutch were pretty nasty when our boys played them in (Amsterdam?). Didn’t Sneijder break Holden’s leg, among other unwarranted shittyndisplays of sportsmanship?
I guess I’m pulling for Spain the rest of the way, although they may already be out of the tourney (I’m avoiding Saturdays results so I can enjoy the DVR when I get home tomorrow).
TnT, that was De Jong who broke Holden’s ankle, yeah, and there were a couple of dives here and there in that match. But it’s a family thing for me–grandparents, great-uncles, etc. are Dutch. They’ve been my second team as long as I’ve followed soccer. This is pretty much my least favorite iteration of the Dutch–Robben was disgraceful the other day with his diving and faking, De Jong’s a thug, they don’t have the snap in their attack they had at Euros just two years ago–but they’re still the Netherlands.
not the mama!!!
Reid is still in Selma, Al. Comes to a few games a year still. Terry Bowden thanks him for that Chimney Rock jump……
That Chimney Rock story remains a classic.
Jerry,
I too root for the Hawks since I live in Atlanta now…. I too think the Johnson contract is too much, although they really backed themselves into a corner with that from the very start of the season.
Too make it worse, they want to add Shaq…. who says he might come.
Between the Johnson signing and the interest in Shaq, I’m forced to conclude the Hawks management is more interested in creating headlines than actually, you know, winning basketball games.