A 2012 Collegiate Men's Olympic Basketball Team Roster

With the Olympics coming up this summer and being in the wake of the NCAA Tournament, I got to thinking about who would be on the roster if the team was still made up of amateurs? I think the Coach would still be Coach K. Going on guesstimations, with using only college players I think it would have been Coack K in 1992, Rick Pitino in 1996, Coach K again in 2000, Roy Williams in 2004 and Ben Howland in 2008. As for the team?

Starters

• C Anthony Davis (Kentucky)
  
• PF Thomas Robinson (Kansas)
• SF Draymond Green (Michigan State)
  
• G Tyshawn Taylor (Kansas)
• PG Kendall Marshall (North Carolina)

Bench

• C Tyler Zeller (North Carolina)
• PF/C Mason Plumlee (Duke)
• PF Jared Sullinger (Ohio State)
• SF Robbie Hummel (Purdue)
  
• SF Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (Kentucky)
• SG Marcus Denmon (Missouri)
• SG Michael Snaer (Florida State)

The year in college basketball was ruled by the big men and this roster reflects that. Marshall and Taylor would be the only point guards and at times their probably would only be one guard on the floor. And as a Mizzou fan I'm of course biased in picking Marcus Denmon, but he's a sharp shooting senior as well as an All-American.

The big men are all self-explanatory, with the awards and accolades they've racked up this season. And with Coach K being the coach, one Duke player has to make the roster, though Ryan Kelly might be a stronger choice in a team setting, is why I have Plumlee on here.

Kidd-Gilchrist is a lock down defender and Hummel, along with Denmon, is a major shooting threat, at the small forward spots.

I might do the same for the other years since 1992, figuring out possible rosters. The hard part is that the bigger stars didn't always join the Olympic team (Alcindor, Walton) or get selected. But this is just part of the fun, of putting a roster together.

As Good As It Gets For Frank Haith?

Naturally, I'm still reeling from the loss to a 15th seed yesterday. This shit isn't supposed to happen. Especially to a senior laden team with a lot of talent(though with a lack of height). I'm just glad I had to work, otherwise I probably would have a broken tv or a hole in the wall...
But my mind is already looking to future, combined with this catastrophic disappointment. Is this as good as its going to get at Missouri for Frank Haith?

Haith came into the job inheriting a wealth of talent and seniors, Marcus Denmon, Phil Pressey, Michael Dixon, Kim English and Laurence Bowers. And when the latter had a season ending knee injury, leaving the team with little front court depth and little depth overall,with the fact of Rickey Kreklow transferring and that between Haith and Mike Anderson there were no recruits, all seemed lost for 2011-12.
But Haith did a masterful job of putting these guys in an actual system of offense and playing controlled defense, not the 40 minutes of Hell that Anderson played that likely wore out the team by March.
The 30-5 record in itself was astounding. Aside from Norfolk State, the loss at Oklahoma State was the only other "bad" loss on the season. And we should have beat Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse...

But now Marcus Denmon, Kim English, Ricardo Ratliffe, Matt Pressey and Steve Moore are gone. Coach Haith only has Michael Dixon and Phil Pressey coming back next season. This is where the question marks start...

In addition to having two great point guards coming back, is the return of Laurence Bowers. Granted there are questions if he can come back to his old self, but his return provides senior leadership as well and hopefully an athletic power forward with a good 12 foot shot...

But this is where I'm wondering if 2011-12 will be as good as it gets for Frank Haith. He put together a great regular season, won the conference tourney, but lost a chance to put an exclamation point on the season with a deep or at least decent tourney run.
Just thinking about from a national standpoint and a recruiting one, it hurts. The transfer of Kadeem Green earlier this season, gave Mizzou another scholarship opening. A good national showing might have piped some interest from a Mizzou-leaning recruit. Or even one not considering, realizing Mizzou won't have but a few returning players and at the right position and skill level could walk into a starting role...
Mizzou does have several high profile transfers, in addition to a big recruiting class, in Earnest Ross and Jabrari Brown that could help fill in some gaps. But they're all unknowns and young especially at the power forward/center spots.
With that I'm scared Coach Haith will try the four guard lineup again next year, which I think only worked this year, because of the personnel and experience we had. Next year we have height, we need to capitalize it...
And then there's the fandom/alumni happiness. The tendency of Mizzou fans is to easily think, 'here we go down this road again,' when things start rolling in the negative direction. How will Haith handle this aspect to a school that does have a decent basketball tradition certainly compared to Miami? And then there's still a few black clouds floating about from his purported ties to Nevin Shapiro, which hopefully will blow over...

When Mike Alden announced Frank Haith's hiring last Spring, I was somewhat dumbfounded, but after it set in, there was something about the hire that I liked or it just made sense. A middle of the road coach with no expectations comes to a school used to heartbreaks. His big draw was his ability to recruit, which hopefully comes to fruition. Heck if he could just start picking off one major talent out of St. Louis each year from going elsewhere(Bradley Beal, B.J. Young, etc.), he'd be ahead of every other coach Mizzou's had the past 30 years...
The only thing I've disliked about Coach Haith or his decisions, was that somehow with only eight scholarship players and a lack of depth down low, Kadeem Green, a Redshirt Freshman decided to transfer. Green is a 6'8 210 lb. athletic(purported) forward. Granted there was probably a lot of things behind the scenes and honestly probably some kind of attitude problem that we didn't know about. And if he was that good, Mike Anderson would have played him last year after getting healthy.
But Coach Haith used the excuse of only playing a seven man rotation, which seems bogus, as looking at box scores, it looked like he used eight or nine at Miami. And he said he liked/wanted to have big guys down low. As I said, just the lack of players and he can't find a role(defensive stopper against small forwards?) or way to get him experience for a few mins a game?

I'm rooting for Coach Haith. I"m just pessimistic to be optimistic. I don't want to see a continuous downward slide over the next three to four years. I don't want a return to the late/Post Quin Snyder era from 2004 to 2008. I want to see them return to the tourney next season, get the younger players experience and keep stocking up the bench with good and maybe even a few great recruits each season. MIZZOU-RAH!

I Never Saw Albert Pujols Play

It's been almost a month since Albert Pujols, brought the hatred of Cardinal fans upon him. Naturally I don't like him leaving for another team, but it is the free market; get as much as you can.

The only thing that makes me dislike him, is the attitude he carried. He made mention multiple times, it wasn't about the money. It was about wanting to be in St. Louis, playing for a winning/contending team, etc. There were more important things, he said. But if that was true he would have had a deal done two years ago. In the end, him and his wife can say what they want about a long-term deal and lack of respect, but it was about the money.

Good riddance, then. The Cardinals made the right decision, in not outbidding any other teams. Continue building and developing young players and St. Louis will continue to field decent teams. The Yankees did just fine after Babe Ruth....

But the only thing I got to thinking about the other day was I never got to see Pujols play. I mean I could still see him, but not in a Cardinal uniform, unless something drastic happens. I haven't been to a game in 11 years. Heck I only saw LaRussa manage one game and McGwire take one at bat in that game, but I can say I saw them in Cardinal uniforms. I was planning on going to a game this summer, but didn't want to go by myself.

Thinking about it, the only remedy is winning multiple championships in the coming years

I'll Never Date a Woman Who Pays $10 For Beer

As I talked about at the Bob Seger concert in the post below, people were buying multiple glasses of beer at $10 bucks a pop. And I just thought this to myself later, "there's no way I could date a girl who would pay that." I don't care if she drinks or not, it's just the principle behind it. How could I be with someone who could justify spending that? Maybe it's just a psychosis of my thought process or more likely my conservative nature, but it doesn't matter, we wouldn't be compatible.

The only loophole in this is if she is loaded financially.

The Real Rock and Roll Poet of the Working Class; 12/9 Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band concert review

Bob Seger is one of favorite artists and had been wanting to see him and he has rarely toured much the past 15 years save for couple of treks. He last toured in in 2006 behind his previous album. I didn't really pay attention and wasn't feeling the best at the time. Plus it was in December as well, but I was kicking myself for not going.
This Spring he kicked off another tour behind a potential new album(which turned out to be another Greatest Hits collection) and played KC. I dragged my feet again and only had nosebleeds left, plus there were open dates around it and I figured he'd be in St. Louis a day or two around then. No date and I was kicking myself again. But thankfully the rumors of a Fall tour turned out true and St. Louis got a date. I even joined his fan club to get presale access, which was a total fucking joke, for the most part they gave people shitty selections farther away. I screwed around and came back an hour later and got pretty good floor seats, 12 rows back on the right side. I knew Bob didn't use large video screens, so I knew I better get a good view.

Me and Dad got there before seven and they wouldn't let people in til then so we were freezing our asses off, in partially closed area. Finally they started lining us up a little, when it started getting crowded. They also started scanning tickets and then moving us around and only asking us later, if they were already scanned. Dad said, "I think if you planned it right you could have gotten in without a ticket."
The other part, people were already buying beer at ten bucks a pop. This was a nice common theme throughout the night. The people that wound up setting in front of us, a group of four made at least three trips for alcohol. How the hell do you people do this? I think I've made up my mind I couldn't date anyone stupid enough to pay that, unless of course they are totally loaded financially.
We made our way to our seats, waiting the hour before start time and saw the second drum kit, meaning there was an opening act. I guess with a hockey game the next night, they were keeping it colder, but it was freezing down there.
And the other part I've mentioned before, it's amazing with a metro area of 3 million or more? and probably with other people traveling for afar like us, how is it that in an audience of 15,000 all these idiots know one another? I guess it's just the 1% thing, maybe those occupier nut-jobs are on to something.

At 8PM Whitey Morgan and the 78's came out. The group is a country rock group(two Telecasters and a pedal steel, baby) from Flint, Michigan and they played 9 songs for 35 minutes or so. And overall they were enjoyable, they had a good sound. He gave a shout to St. Louis club venue Off-Broadway. "We love coming here. Everybody says that, but we're not bullshitting." He threw in some covers that were nice, Springsteen's I'm On Fire("This one's for the ladies...who I'm kidding, they're all for the ladies."), Merle's Workin' Man Blues, a snippet of John Prine's Paradise and closing with a song by Dale Watson, Where Do You Want It?

Set list I copied from the Philly set list, but think there's a song missing

Crapped Out Again
(Stay Away From) The Cocaine Train
Crazy
I'm On Fire
Another Round
Paradise (snippet)
Workin' Man Blues
Sinner
Where Do Ya Want It?

The set change was done fairly briskly and ready for a Nine o'clock start time, with an announcement that Bob would be on stage in five minutes, though it was a few minutes after. But the lights dimmed and the man appeared with his band.
On the opening number, Roll Me Away, I was a little worried as the sound sounded muddied and Bob's voice was hard to understand. It didn't help he kept getting the crowd to do the chorus. But by the second song, Tryin' To Live My Life Without You, it wasn't as bad. And overall it stood up during the nearly two hour, 22 song show.
But there were times his voice wasn't as strong. He was fighting a cold, coughing quite a bit and a continued smoking habit doesn't help. Overall it was fine, but to me his voice sounded best on the slower and softer numbers, like Mainstreet, Turn the Page and We've Got Tonight, which he introduced saying he was inspired by a scene in the movie The Sting.
It also didn't help, he had a wall of sound behind him. There were three female back-up singers, plus a group of four horn players augmenting his six man band. There's definitely the feel of a Motown influence, which Seger said himself that he loved the blues.
The band was polished and stellar, featuring long time members Chris Campbell and his version of Clarance Clemons, Alto Reed. Or maybe Clarance Clemons is Bruce Springsteen's version of Alto Reed, since Alto and Bob were together first. Plus Grand Funk Railroad members Don Brewer and Craig Frost were part of the band and Jamey Johnson producer Jim "Moose" Brown.
Set List

Roll Me Away
Tryin' to Live My Life Without You
The Fire Down Below
Mainstreet
Old Time Rock and Roll
Downtown Train
Ramblin' Gamblin' Man
Hey Hey Hey Hey (Going Back to Birmingham)
Travelin' Man/Beautiful Loser
We've Got Tonight
Nutbush City Limits
Come to Poppa
Her Strut
Real Mean Bottle
Turn the Page
Sunspot Baby
Katmandu
-----------------
Against the Wind
Hollywood Nights
---------------
Night Moves
Rock and Roll Never Forgets



Highlights for me, well seeing Bob Seger mainly and with his catalog of songs, he got most of the ones I wanted to hear. I knew full well after looking at previous set lists, that Like A Rock wouldn't get played. Of course that was the one my dad most wanted to hear. You'll Accomp'ny Me is probably my favorite of his that he didn't play.
But he played Sunspot Baby, the song I was waiting for, that I just love to hear over and over. Against the Wind, was probably the best song of the evening and he was still cutting the vocals lose with "Let the Cowboys Ride!" during the choruses at the end. Turn the Page was up there too, which he played at the piano, where he usually gave some insights into the songs. That one was written in a motel, not a hotel, in Wisconsin in 1971 and later recorded in Leon Russell's studio in Oklahoma. Her Strut was inspired by Jane Fonda. And usually featured some of his clearest vocals. And the whole band shined on the Travelin' Man/Beautiful Loser segue.
And of course, once that piano intro of Old Time Rock and Roll came, the whole place was wild.

The only minor complaint about the performance was that the banter seemed too automated, many times at the beginning he'd give the album and asked us, "If we remember this one?" I was more worried about him forgetting them. And his shout to St. Louis was just a prefunctionary mention of how he loved flying here and seeing the Arch.
I'm curious if he gets his lyrics fed to him through an ear piece, because during Tryin' To Live My Life Without You, he gave pretty much verbatim of the talking part of the live version on Nine Tonight.
Of course the other people at a concert are the worst part. And I think the older ones are the worst when they're drunk. Dancing around, falling on one another, raising their glasses trying to sing along. Sigh....

But overall it was great. It was pretty neat for most of the songs, everyone was singing along. I haven't been to many shows like that. True at times I wish Seger himself would have been heard more clearly, but still special. And at 66, he was still up there giving it his all. This is the real Rock and Roll poet of the American working class, not that guy from Jersey.

St. Louis Post Dispatch Review
Riverfront Times Review

The Singing Mailman Came to St. Louis; John Prine 12/3 Concert Review

Recently I've started listening to John Prine and his songs(mostly due to my dad playing one of his hilarious songs ad nausem, In Spite of Ourselves) and when I saw there was a date in St. Louis, I said, "Might as well check him out, I've got vacation days to use."
The concert was at the Touhill Performing Arts Center on the University of Missouri-St. Louis campus. Doors were supposed to be open at 7 PM for the 8:00 staring time, but they didn't open 'til 7:30 or a little later. Much to the chagrin of my dad, who used the time to splurge on the $5 sandwiches and soda. It was a pretty nice auditorium, mostly due to being pretty new.
When I ordered the tickets the only good seats together or showing up were 20 rows back, so I said heck with it and bought a couple with one seat a row in front of the other one.

Opening act Jason Isbell came on at 8 PM or pretty close. I was pretty sure he used to be in the Drive-By Truckers and was confirmed with the last song he sang, Outfit, which was the only one I was familiar with. Except for the last number, he was rather ho-hum for me. Not bad, but just seemed to run together a little too much. He joked around with the audience, especially about the sixth songs title, Goddamn Lonely Love, about how a producer or executive wanted him to change the title to 'gawl darn' or something similar. He played 8 songs for around 35 minutes.
His set list:

Daisy Mae
Alabama Pines
Tour of Duty
Streetlights
Dress Blues
Goddamn Lonely Love
Razor Town
Outfit

After around a 2o minute set change(more like dicking around there was nothing that should have needed to be changed, with a solo acoustic performer opening), the house lights dimmed and John Prine came onstage with his two backing musicians.
The opening two numbers were pretty rocking, and the second song Picture Show was an enjoyable song. His guitarist, Jason Wilber, is flat out talented. He played electric mandolin and harmonica, but when he was bending those Telecaster strings, he was on fire. There were multiple songs he was stand out on and got many applause's throughout the evening.

Set List

Spanish Pipedream
Picture Show
Humidity Built the Snowman
Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore
Six O'clock News
Souvenirs
Grandpa Was a Carpenter
Storm Windows
Christmas in Prison
Fish and Whistle
Crazy as a Loon
Glory of True Love
Angel From Montgomery
Sabu Visits the Twin Cities Alone
Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)
That's The Way That the World Goes 'Round
Dear Abby
Mexican Home
Sam Stone
Bear Creek Blues
Ain't Hurtin' Nobody
Hello in There
Lake Marie

---------------
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
Paradise

The earliest highlight was Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore, which he prefaced with claiming, "I forgot which war I wrote it about." Then one of the funniest moments happened during the next song, Six O'clock News, " which had a line about "Come On Baby Spend the night with me," and a child cried out audible for the whole audience to hear and brought a smile to Prine's face.
Another was hearing Souvenirs, a song he mentioned he played with Steve Goodman, who "had a finger picking style that made it sound like Prine was playing good."
Starting about 2/3's through the main set, the two other musicians left and Prine played solo for a few numbers before, they returned halfway through Sam Stone, adding beautiful accompaniments.
Prine, dealt with the audience members shouting out requests all night. Illegal Smile was the most prominent request. At one point Prine replied, "No, we're gonna do the next song," and later before starting a song, "You requested this one about an hour ago. Sorry it took so long to get your order....Would you like fries with that?"
One of his lines that also gave me a chuckle was in Dear Abby, when he got to the verse, "Dear Abby, Dear Abby, well I never though that me and my girlfriend would ever get caught. We were sittin' in the back seat just shootin' the breeze, with her hair up in curlers and her pants to her knees Signed Just Re-Married."

He did a nice job of mixing it up with his songs running the whole gamut of emotions, but maybe it was I was getting hungry and the heat in the auditorium, but found it starting to lull somewhat, waiting on more familiar songs. The only songs I wouldn't have minded hearing was The Late John Garfield Blues and Speed the Sound of Loneliness, were two he didn't play. No biggie though he played the other major ones.
And while he was in good spirits and clearly enjoyed being there, he didn't tell many stories or give many introductions to songs, he let the songs speak for themselves.

He ended up playing 25 total songs, coming back for an encore with a surprising I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus and with Isbell joining the band for the close Paradise, another highlight for the evening.
Overall it was a pretty good performance. I wasn't super familiar with a lot of Prine's material, though I had been listening to several of his albums and recognized more songs that I thought I would. Though I wish he would have had a female opening act so he would have played, In Spite of Ourselves...

The Riverfront Times review

Don't Know Why...

How did I get stuck again being around and having to listen to "educated" idiots and morons? Either this fall weather when constantly changing, does something to my body to make me fatigued and inhospitable, or I think it's time for a change of some kind...