What is happening to America?

One of my favorite blogs, zacheven-esh.com, recently posted an interestingly titled article regarding the current health of the youth of America.  In his article, he posted a video about about a 13 year old kid (from Detroit, I think) that got in trouble in school.

According to the video, the kid was running in the halls and slamming lockers.  He got caught and had the choice to either receive detention or do pushups.  The principle stated that he did approximately 60 pushes, completing 3 sets of 20.  His mother states that he did 100.  Either way, in my opinion, that's not a big deal.  Especially given the fact that he did 3 sets, not 60 straight.

After doing the pushups, apprently the kid started to experience pain in his arm and he was hospitalized with Rhabdomyolysis, or the breakdown of muscles due to over-exhaustion.  Sure, I feel bad that the kid is in the hospital, but this is ridiculous.  60 pushups and you end up in the hospital.  I am with Zach on this one, I think the youth of America is in serious trouble.

I do remember, towards the end of high school, gym slowly becoming a joke, with most of us seniors uninterested in getting sweaty during the day.  But I remember gym as a child being the best part of any day.  Dodgeball, pin dodge, running, floor hockey.  We never danced.  We did the Presidentail Fitness Test every year, sometimes embarassing, but we still did it. 

Today, kids don't throw balls at each other.  They don't play tag because someone got slapped to hard.  Parents are complaining that their children are tired from running in class.  Here's an idea:  Shut Off the PS3 and send the kids outside.

I bet half these kids don't even have "play clothes".  Remember those?

Watch this video: http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/region/detroit/13-year-old-boy-hospitalized-for-a-week-after-doing-push-ups-at-school-as-a-punishment and let me know what you think.

The mother is so upset by the fact that her son had to do this.  He's 13, he should be able to do pushups.  If not, guess what, it's your fault!!!

Little East?

Humble Pie Anyone??? All year long, I have believed that the Big East is, far and away, the best conference in college basketball today.  But after the first 2 rounds of the Big Dance, I am truly eating humble pie.  With 11 teams going into the Dance and only 2 going to the Sweet 16, I am left wondering if all season was "hype" or if the 9 (elimintated) teams ran into bad matchups???

At this point in the tourney, the Moutain West has just as many teams left as the Little East does.  Luckily, Marquette played Syracuse in the round of 32, or we could be looking at one Little East team left in the Sweet 16.  How could this happen?

Well let's look at some of the matchups.  First round, Nova vs. George Mason.  George Mason was a Cinderella team a few years ago, and hales from the Colonial Athletic Association, which features teams like VCU ('Rella team of this year?) and Old Dominion (bubble team).  Nova was tanking toward the end of the season (see post below) and seemed to be losing the steam that they had gained during great Big East regular season play.

West Virginia vs. Kentucky.  Ok, so Kentucky was a Final Four team last year (I know, WV was also) with a great coach in Calipari.  West Virginia was the 6th ranked BE team going in to the tourney at the Garden and they got a 4 seed in the tourney.  This was a great game, but I think everyone knew, going into this game, that Kentucky was the better team.

G'Town vs. VCU.  VCU is the 'Rella team this year, hands down.  The CAA is an overlooked conference that causes matchup problems, and most of the time, teams overlook these smaller, "inferior" schools.  George Mason, Old Dominion and, now, VCU would argue against that "inferior" lable.  VCU loses in the Elite 8 against a strong Kansas team and validates a great season.

UCONN vs. Cincy....Much like Cuse vs. Marquette, it's a good thing that 2 Big East teams played each other here, or we might be looking at 1 BE team in the Sweet 16.  Or could we?  More on that later.  Not much to say here.  UCONN was hot going in and Cincy was cold.  UCONN in the Final Four and could possibly upset Duke (hopefully) to get into the 'Ship.

Pitt vs. Butler.  Ok, Butler was one shot away from an OT session in the 'Ship last year.  Nough said.

St. John's vs. Zaga.  This one surprised me.  St. John's was playing great and everyone said that they would be a tough matchup.  But why, oh why, did I not see Zaga winning.  They always play great in the tourney.  Every year.  I guess I was blinded by the hype.

Louisville vs. Moorehead St.  To the Mountain West conference, congratulations are in order.  Moorehead St had one of the best big men in the tourney (by far the best rebounder) and you could see that in the Richmond game.  Faried had 12 points and 17  rebounds against 'Ville, giving Moorehead a 6 bound advantage, overall in that game.  A 1 point game with a 6 rebound advantage.  I'll take the rebounding edge all day to win.

Notre Dame vs. Florida State.  Another shocker, but a lot of people were saying, before the tourney, that Florida State was going to cause problems for a lot of teams.  St. shot 72%, 18-25, from the stripe and enjoyed a slight edge on the boards (3).  Pair that with 12-19 from the strip for ND and 30% shooting from the field and you can see that St. just outplayed ND.  Notre Dame also shot too much from the outside and was a putrid 23.3% from 3 point land.  Suprising?  Look at the stats.
 
Cuse vs. Marquette.  We let that one slip.  Jardine was non-existent, (weird) but so was Jackson.  That part shocked me.  Final game of a good career (I think he may get drafted in the 2nd round) and you aren't calling for the ball every possession in the second half?  Dion Waters played great.  But in order for us to take that next step, we need Triche to step up, Jardine to dish more and shoot less and Melo is going to have to come a long way before next year, because we are losing a very good big man in Jackson.  Oh well, another disappointment for Cuse fans this year.

What a great trip (Pun intended...)

Cuse 69/Nova 64....

What a great game.....what a great trip....

AJ and I traveled down to Philly a couple of weekends ago to watch Cuse play Nova on Big Monday on ESPN....We stayed with a buddy of mine for a couple of nights and had a blast.  The game was great.  Cuse lead most of the game and squeaked out a W with some clutch foul shooting and some big shots, even by Scoop Jardine, who I still dislike.  The best part about the game was watching Mike cringe as his alma mater lost another Big East game.  So much fun. 

Happy Cuse Fan

Sad Nova Fan!!!

So after the game, we all went out to a local place that was in the Philly sports complex to celebrate the victory.  That place was awesome.  And let me tell you, Cuse fans dominated it.  We were everywhere.  I got to chat with some guy that played cuse football with Donovan and Marvin Harrison, which was pretty cool.  Then the dance off started between Mike and Josh.  Best thing I have seen at the bar in a long time.  It was straight out of a movie.  The crowd circled around the two like it was "Step Up 4: The Battle for Big East Supremacy" with Josh repping Cuse and Mike repping Nova.  Cuse dominated that performance as well, considering Mike fell a few times, but you can't boo the effort.

Then the craziness started happening.  We left and tried finding a cab and it started snowing bad.  So we braved the weather and made our way to Chicken and Pete (or whatever it's called).  Cab company said it would take an hour due to the weather (grow up people).  Soooo we hoofed it to another place and I decided that waiting the hour would be fine.  Except I saw a cab coming down the road and decided to go out and get it. 

Oops...one little slip off the curb and broke my fibula and dislocated my ankle.  I mean really, it was sideways.  Like 90 degrees in the wrong direction. 

Yeah, my shin is straight in this pic, but as you can see, the foot is a little sideways. 

So after the doc reset the ankle and put a splint on, we went home.  AJ and I got up the next morning and went home and I scheduled an appointment to have an orthopedist look at my leg.

Surgery was the answer.  A plate and a couple of screws later and here I am.  Laid up for a couple of weeks before I get a walking boot and return to work.

What a great trip.  Would I do it again?  Without the broken leg I would in a heartbeat.   Still was a blast