UNDER DOGS, TOP CATS, TALL TALES, AND SHORT SOFTBALLERS
Just put my income tax in the mail and that means I am in the mood for more creative writing, another session of notes on my napkin.
The first item is underdog, as in George Mason who say they are an underdog with a capital U. That spirit of fighting the rich and famous used to be the motto around Long Beach State when I first came to town in 1975 but with selective success I fear that some LBSU teams feel that they are over-dogs, expecting others to clear the sidewalk when they walk down the street. It just ain’t so.
Niner baseball of course is off course enough that they need to find that old time grit and gristle that branded the team in the early 90’s. Seven losses in a row should make that easy to understand. I felt that women’s volleyball began its decline on a rainy Friday back in December 2001. The team was loaded, just beat Arizona in the NCAA semis, and had a chance on a Saturday to play the richest and most famous college in the land, Stanford. What happened between that Thursday win and Saturday’s Stanford sweep?
Well they have this volleyball association awards luncheon on the Friday between the semis and the finals and the Beach was knocked off their psyche sidewalk just missing the coach of the year and player of the year awards. Despite as talented a team as the Beach has ever had the program was in a funk, lost three straight that black Saturday afternoon and haven’t had a December to remember since. That’s IMHO as the web savvy say, in my humble opinion.
MIXED DUST—Our pal David Pylman swears that he wasn’t surprised that they had to evacuate the San Diego basketball palace when a bomb sniffing dog alerted, yes on a hot dog cart. He also connected with a former Niner assistant hoop coach Bill Nepfel who is at USF now and on the NCAA Basketball Rules Committee.
Niner softball keeps playing toughies themselves but the combination of Junior pitcher Michelle Turner and a pair of pint size toy cannons, Breezy Goad and Kourtnee Gervasi sure are fun to watch such as in Saturday’s upset of #16 Northwestern. Pete’s sweethearts of swat open Big West play at Northridge this weekend while the baseball bunch starts conference at home against Irvine.
More Mason notes. GMU that is the former employer of Joe Harrington who I feel had more to do with righting the Niner hoop ship than Seth Greenberg. The current Colonial’s coach Jim Larranaga said of his team. "They function like a family, they'll care about each other, they'll be close to each other, they'll come by my house.”
Wicked chatter from CSUF’s cyber guys who were bragging about all the Titan fans wearing Orange last weekend. “May I suggest that all Long Beach State fans NOT wear their orange jumpsuits to this weekend's games. “ Ouch. He goes on to characterize their “hot co-eds” who attend baseball games as "investors". “These are women who know CSUF has a great baseball program and if they hook up with a player at Fullerton and can stay with him and get married the potential of them "marrying a lottery ticket" is there”.
Back to ladies volleyball you can see the LB team at work for three hours per day afternoons in the Gold Mine. My sources say to expect some new talent from Europe and a couple of walk-ons from name schools to help out this Fall.
Closing quote from correspondent Randy who watched that Oakland Regional Final between UCLA and Memphis and came away with this gem, “It’s too bad somebody had to win.” –DR. DAN
The first item is underdog, as in George Mason who say they are an underdog with a capital U. That spirit of fighting the rich and famous used to be the motto around Long Beach State when I first came to town in 1975 but with selective success I fear that some LBSU teams feel that they are over-dogs, expecting others to clear the sidewalk when they walk down the street. It just ain’t so.
Niner baseball of course is off course enough that they need to find that old time grit and gristle that branded the team in the early 90’s. Seven losses in a row should make that easy to understand. I felt that women’s volleyball began its decline on a rainy Friday back in December 2001. The team was loaded, just beat Arizona in the NCAA semis, and had a chance on a Saturday to play the richest and most famous college in the land, Stanford. What happened between that Thursday win and Saturday’s Stanford sweep?
Well they have this volleyball association awards luncheon on the Friday between the semis and the finals and the Beach was knocked off their psyche sidewalk just missing the coach of the year and player of the year awards. Despite as talented a team as the Beach has ever had the program was in a funk, lost three straight that black Saturday afternoon and haven’t had a December to remember since. That’s IMHO as the web savvy say, in my humble opinion.
MIXED DUST—Our pal David Pylman swears that he wasn’t surprised that they had to evacuate the San Diego basketball palace when a bomb sniffing dog alerted, yes on a hot dog cart. He also connected with a former Niner assistant hoop coach Bill Nepfel who is at USF now and on the NCAA Basketball Rules Committee.
Niner softball keeps playing toughies themselves but the combination of Junior pitcher Michelle Turner and a pair of pint size toy cannons, Breezy Goad and Kourtnee Gervasi sure are fun to watch such as in Saturday’s upset of #16 Northwestern. Pete’s sweethearts of swat open Big West play at Northridge this weekend while the baseball bunch starts conference at home against Irvine.
More Mason notes. GMU that is the former employer of Joe Harrington who I feel had more to do with righting the Niner hoop ship than Seth Greenberg. The current Colonial’s coach Jim Larranaga said of his team. "They function like a family, they'll care about each other, they'll be close to each other, they'll come by my house.”
Wicked chatter from CSUF’s cyber guys who were bragging about all the Titan fans wearing Orange last weekend. “May I suggest that all Long Beach State fans NOT wear their orange jumpsuits to this weekend's games. “ Ouch. He goes on to characterize their “hot co-eds” who attend baseball games as "investors". “These are women who know CSUF has a great baseball program and if they hook up with a player at Fullerton and can stay with him and get married the potential of them "marrying a lottery ticket" is there”.
Back to ladies volleyball you can see the LB team at work for three hours per day afternoons in the Gold Mine. My sources say to expect some new talent from Europe and a couple of walk-ons from name schools to help out this Fall.
Closing quote from correspondent Randy who watched that Oakland Regional Final between UCLA and Memphis and came away with this gem, “It’s too bad somebody had to win.” –DR. DAN
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