Happy New Year’s Eve to all, for starters.  2006 has been great to my family and I, but, more importantly, a handful of shit to the Hawks and GT.  So, here’s to hoping to a much more suckcessful 2007 for all our teams.  I also hope for my posts to be more prolific in 2007, since I am the most talented pure writer here with a log-in. 

Enough of resolutions in this post - also on my agenda is the Hawks. Not even sure how the Spurs game went (well, wait a minute… I would bet they embarrassed this city again, looking listless and lost by double digits), but in any case my frustration with the franchise is really high.  It isn’t even with how bad they look on the floor of late - I keep reflecting on Billy Knight, his moves and what I perceive as his arrogance about it.  I see other franchises dismantle and rebuild (Jazz, Chicago off the top of my head) while we still rot away in last place year after year, with diminishing hopes for the future.  If only Lenny hadn’t traded Dominique when we were in first place for that homo Danny Manning…  I truly believe (and this is some vodka tonic talking) the only real positives with the franchise are big beers in the food court and the wheel in the fan plaza at Philips.  I like Joe Johnson, Za Za and Josh Smith, but I don’t think they are nearly enough to get us into the playoffs anytime soon.  Anyone else have near term hope?

Last on the agenda, and I’ll abbreviate it because I need to go prepare New Year’s Eve dinner, is GT.  Tomorrow the program plays WVU in the Gator Bowl.  While I am excited about seeing us play, I am nervous for what the outcome bodes for us fans.  If we win, will we contine to doubt Gailey for not turning to Bennett sooner (and sticking with Ball), rather than enjoy the victory?  In other words, what could have been this year, and for 5 more years with this poor judge of talent?  If we lose, will we lose recruiting momentum and face dark prospects for next season?  I fear it is a no-win game for us, but am hopeful something good cums out of it. 

Happy New Year everyone!

While in Chicago for the Christmas Holidays, Janet, Ismail and I made it to three games.

1. UIC vs. Illinois State at the UIC Pavilion

2. Blackhawks vs. Dallas Stars

3. Bulls vs. Heat

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Game 1 - UIC vs. Illinois State: A friend of mine from college named Luis still works at UIC and has a connection with the ticket guy, so we ended up getting free tickets for the game. The Pavilion is essentially the same as when I attended, except for some exterior changes and some restructuring of the entrance. The game itself sucked; the team looks very unorganized and undisciplined. They were losing by 13 points late in the 2nd half, but were able to actually pull ahead by a point with 4 minutes to go, but they had nothing left down the stretch and ended up losing by 9 points. The strangest thing about this game is that Jimmy Collins, UIC’s coach, was absent from the sidelines. We found out later that he has taken a leave of absence, but no reason has been given as to why except for “personal reasons”.

Game #2- Blackhawks vs. Dallas Stars: Tickets for this game only cost 10 bucks and were easy to get; attendance these days at the United Center (UC) for ‘Hawks games is low. Another friend from college, Edgar, met the three of us at the game. While I had been to the UC to see the ‘Hawks before, this was Janet and Ismail’s first time. Ismail was really excited about the game and was asking every day when we’d be going. He was also happy  to see the Stars as he remembered them from our trip to Dallas last Spring. The game was really close throughout and the Blackhawks ended up winning 2-1 on two goals from Akhripov. The biggest thing I noticed about the game is that the atmosphere sucked. At the old Stadium, it was incredibly loud and the fans were rowdy. However, the 14 K in attendance were not very loud even though the ‘Hawks have been playing really well since Denis Savard took over as coach. I think the UC is partially to blame for not being a good venue atmosphere-wise, but also I think that years of mediocrity and bad ownership have driven a lot of support away.

Game #3- Bulls vs. Heat: My friend Luis has a friend with Bulls Season tickets, so he contacted him about selling the tickets to us for the game. He sold them to us at face value- $50 a pop for upper level seats! Pricey as hell but none of us had ever been to a Bulls game at the UC, so I went ahead and bought them. Plus, I had just received an X-Mas bonus of $100 cash from school, so it covered it. For Ismail, we had to buy a $25 standing room seat as this was all that was left. The tickets go from $10 (very limited amount) to $50 and above. No tickets in the 20-30 dollar range, except for standing room. And I thought that the Hawks’ prices were a ripoff! This guy that I got the tickets from pays over $2000 a seat for a location that’s farther away from the floor than our $200 seats. However, the seats turned out to be pretty good in relationship with the action; first row of the upper deck on the baseline.

The game itself was really good; the Bulls had a huge lead, but blew it and the 4th quarter was action-packed. The Heat played without Shaq and lost Dwayne Wade for the second half to a wrist injury. The Bulls ended up winning 109-103 with Ben Gordon dropping 40 points. Jason Williams led the Heat with 28 points. This guy must be working on his shot in the off-season as this is the second time i’ve seen him light it up this year. I remember when he first started he couldn’t shoot for shit.

One of the scariest moments of the game was when James Posey took out Luol Deng on a breakaway, apparently a Riley-ordered stunt in retaliation for Wade getting injured by Hinrich in the first half. The next day, there were all sorts of allegations from both teams about rough play and cheap shots.

The atmosphere for this game was much better than the ‘Hawks game. The place was completely sold out and the crowd was really into it. The famous introduction featuring the Allan Parsons Project song got everyone pumped up  and pretty much everyone was vocal throughout the duration of the game. I still think that the UC is sort of a noise killer and not as raucous as the old Chicago Stadium, but the place can still get loud when it’s full.

In attendance: Dave, Quin, Mike, Matt, Ismail, Todd ( My dad got us tickets in the 100 level from his work)
The Spin: Hawks Mouse Pad; Mike and Dave-Thrashers Tickets Vouchers;  Matt-The dreaded Enter to Win
The Report: No one has written a summary for this game and I was staying away from it myself out of disgust. The Hawks blew a 21 point lead in the 4th Quarter to lose the game. The Hawks scored 39 points in the 3rd Quarter and could simply do wrong. They followed this with the worst Quarter i’ve ever witnessed. Keep in mind- I saw the Hawks last week vs. the Nuggets go from leading by 17 points at the half to losing by 16 points with 8 minutes left in the 4th quarter. This was even worse as the Hawks had this game wrapped up and threw it away in grand fashion. There was a multitude of reasons why we folded, but I largely blame two people- Coach Woodson for his horrible in-game management and Josh Smith for just being the new Josh. He had a great 3rd Quarter and played within his limitations. He played good defense, got rebounds, didn’t force shots and let the guards handle the ball. The 4th Quarter saw the new and “improved” 2006-7 Josh forcing shots, not boxing out, playing poor face-to-face defense and trying to dribble the length of the court ever time he touched the ball. Why Woodie lets him do this is beyond me.
After the game, I was thoroughly disgusted as were most Hawks fans that stayed through to the bitter end to boo the Hawks. I’m sick of going to games already and it’s only December. I’ve seen four games where they lost the game after either holding a lead in the 4^th Quarter or making it to OT. I thought that they were showing improvement at the beginning of the season, but now i’m not so sure. This is like the 2nd half of the season all over again-losing games down the stretch when it was theirs to win. Ugh..

The Score: Caps 3, ATL 2 in OT

In Attendance: Janet, Ismail, my friend Roberto, a friend of Roberto’s, myself

Tickets: 200 Level seats again courtesy of my dad’s job (PPC)

The Spin: A Voucher for two $50 Hawks tickets ( I went ahead and got two tickets for the Hawks-Mavs game on 3/25)

The Game: Very frustrating game for Thrashers fans. Ovetchkin scored in the first period to make it 1-0. The Thrashers scored on the Power Play in the middle of the second period on a great pass from Kovy to a cutting Sim. With less than 6 mnutes to go in the third, JP Vigier picked up a puck in the neutral zone and skated down the right side on a 1-on-1; he ripped a shot across the GK’s shoulder into the net. It was an impossible shot, but somehow he found the space. With less than a minute left, Vigier was trying to clear the puck and put it into the stands. This meant that he had to serve a penalty and since the Caps pulled the goalie, it was a 6 v. 4. Ovetchkin would score his second with 40 seconds left and the game would go to OT. On the face off, the Caps win the puck, pass to Ovetchkin and he skates down the right side and scores the game winner and gets the hat-trick. So, within a minute, the Thrashers went from winning 2-1 to losing 3-2. Yes, they picked up a point, but they could’ve put more distance between themselves and Washington had they held on and not picked up that costly penalty in the last minute of the game.

Those in Attendance: Janet, Ismail and I

The Spin: I won the two Thrasher tickets voucher- a $110 value!

The Game: For the 2nd night in a row, I was at Philips, courtesy of free tickets that my dad received from his work. Tonight promised to be a great game as the Thrashers, first in the SE, faced the Ducks, the team with the best record in the NHL. It was a great game with superb goaltending from both Lehtonen and Giguere. The Ducks opened up the scoring in the later part of the 2nd period with a goal from Teemu Selanne. The Thrashers would get a goal from Niko Kapanen off a sweet feed from Kovalchuk midway through the 3rd Period to tie it up. However, only a minute later, Selanne would score again and the game would finish 2-1. The Thrashers had 35 shots on goal, but Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped 34 shots to win his ninth straight start for the Ducks.

The Ducks are for real; they have all the tools to win the Cup. The Thrashers aren’t quite there yet, but they’re definitely on the right track and are playoff-worthy.

I have tickets again for Friday vs. Washington, so I hope to report that the Thrashers tore up the lowly Capitals like they’ve done all season (4-0-0 so far)

Hawks vs. Nuggets-The game sucked. A good first half from the JJ-less Hawks saw us leading 54-43 at the half. What would ensue was the worst 2nd half of a basketball game that I have ever seen. The Hawks blew their 11 pt lead in the 3rd Quarter and were down 1 at the end of it. Four minutes into the 4th Quarter, they were down 17 points. What a collapse. At that point, we left in disgust.

Steve, Dave, Ismail, Janet and I went to the game. I received four free tickets from my dad’s work. Janet and I spun the wheel and both won the “Mystery Prize”-25 dollar gift certificates to one of those Brazilian Steakhouses.

Nothing else very newsworthy from this night. Get well soon Joe!

Last time I posted something positive about the Hawks, they suffered a skid — just like Steve’s tighty whities, or is it whitey tighties…I always forget. So, I’m not going to get too excited about them taking 2 out of 3 games so far in their West Coast trip; in fact, they got pretty lucky to escape with a victory against the Nuggets. When Earl Boykins takes you to the hole, it’s time to step up the team defense. I mean, look at this guy. Should he be making shots inside?

That’s one thing I’ve noticed in some of the Hawks recent losses — a complete lack of help defense. Once a Hawk gets beat to the basket, it’s rare that someone else steps up. Josh Smith is a good shotblocker, but his blocks usually come from chasing down fastbreaks. He’s not a jump-straight-up-under-the-basket kind of shotblocker. Was Shelden brought on to block shots? If so, I haven’t seen it.

I’ve also noticed (and this goes hand-in-hand with a lack of shotblocking because it speaks to a lack of inside toughness) is that opposing teams rebound all over the Hawks. Seattle outrebounded them 44-28.

That said, I was really impressed that they were able to come back from 17 points down in the fourth quarter to beat Denver. And despite the rebounding and defensive issues, the fact is that they are still 2-1 on this West Coast trip. And that’s without Marvin Williams, Childress, Speedy Claxton, and Zaza (for Denver), and I’m sure I’m missing someone else. If they can take the Lakers tonight, that’ll put them back at .500 on the season.

For better or worse, The ACC has always been a Carolina-centric league. I know with expansion, the powers that be saw a Miami - FSU showdown in Jacksonville every year, but that hasn’t worked. If FSU were good, their fans would travel anywhere. Miami fans don’t travel well anywhere anyway. For the other 83% of the league, Charlotte is a much better option.

The Game: I won’t dwell to much on the game. If you saw just the score, you know it was ugly. Just in case you had the misperception that it was an old-fashioned defensive slugfest, let me clear that up. The Jacket’s D played well, but their efforts were once again wasted by the Jacket’s O. Everything about it sucked (except Tashard): The playcalling, Reggie, James Johnson aka ‘I hear footsteps’, even Calvin had some big drops, one into the hands of a Wake defender. I quess the suckiness is wearing off on him. Tashard was the only one fighting for yards. He seemed to be getting 6-7 on every touch, but for some reason he got the ball less and less as the game went on. Dave and I were in the Wake section. We felt right at home because we were surrounded by nerds. The only difference was these nerds didn’t have much of a grasp of football. It’s as if this is the first year they’ve cared.

As we were leaving the game (thankfully, he Wake fans stayed in the stands to celebrate) Tech fans we’d pass would say “Thank God Reggie’s gone after this year.” How sad is it that a guy that’s started all but one game for 4 years at a school will not be missed, except at UGA. 4 year starters are celebrated at schools. They get standing ovations when they come back for Homecomings. Not Reggie. Good riddance. Now Chan’s hinting that Reggie may not start the bowl game. What’s the point now. Let the kid finish his career. It is the kind of Game Reggie flourishes in: a psuedo-big game with no real championship implications.

The weekend: Despite the game, we had a good weekend. It was a fun rosdtrip. We had nice house across the street from the beach on Amelia Island. Quin had fun playing with our dog, Slyder. Christina was digusted by Dave peeing with the bathroom door open. I was surprised he was actually peeing indoors.

This post is acting screwy, so I posted it on SLAMonline, too because it works there…

http://slamonline.com/online/2006/12/barack-obama-and-the-rock/

Those in Attendance: Myself, Janet, Ismail  

Game Report: What could’ve been an epic night for the Hawks- reaching the .500 mark in December, was instead the weakest home performance of the year from the Hawks. Dressed in “Pac-Man” 80s throwbacks for Hardwood Classics Night, the Hawks played nothing like the 86-87 Central Division Champs. The Hawks once again started slow out of the gates and really only played one good quarter-the 3rd. LeBron scored 10 pts in the first 8 minutes and would finish with 31 overall. This was my 1st chance to see him play live and I was really impressed with his speed to the hole. Coupled with his strength, it’s easy to see why he’s already averaging 28 pts a game at such an early point in his career.

Other good performances from the Cavs came from Drew Gooden who was all over the place and seemed to get every board out there. Also, Anderson Varejao, aka Sideshow Bob, had a good game and grabbed a lot of boards.

The Hawks gave up 62 pts in the first half (score 62-52) and played no defense, but were able to tie it up in the 3rd to make the game close. However, in the 4th, the Hawks ran out of gas and no one stepped up for the Hawks.

JJ played well the 1st 3 qtrs, but disappeared in the 4th. Zaza had a good game with 20p 11 rbs, but got called for some BS fouls down the stretch that limited his playing time. T-Lue continues to shine with 17. Speedy continues to throw the ball away and look like a total bust. J-Smooth got hit in the eye and had to leave the game; this called for increased PT from Matt Frieje. The Albino did everything he could to give the Cavs the game, including giving up two 3 pt plays, throwing the ball away, missing serveral shots (0-6) and missing a dunk. I think that his scoreline of 0 pts, 0 rebs, 0 Asts, 4 Fouls in 21 minutes tells the story quite well.

Tonight was Dominique Statue night; I tried to scavenge for extra statues to give out to the rest of our Season Ticket Holders, but it seemed that everyone was keeping a tight hold on their statues.

Wheel Spin: Enter to Win for the second time in a row. My luck has not been good. Janet won a “Mystery Prize”, which was nothing more than a cheap-ass Hawks T-Shirt which we gave away to a kid.

Celebrity sightings: Emmanuel Lewis aka Webster was the guest House MC for the evening; that guy blew up! He’s literally like two feet from stomach to back; almost as round as tall.

Cecil Fielder was in attendance, as was ATL’s resident queen- Usher.

Morris Day and The Time played after the game, but Ismail was tired, so we took off.

Overall, it was disappointing that with the fourth sellout of the year, the Hawks couldn’t put on a better show. It would’ve been nice to show all of those LeBronites that the Hawks have something to offer, but I doubt they came away with much of a different attitude than when they came to the game.