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The High Court |
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The Daily Verdict |
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December 16, 2005
Back at the start of college football season, The High Court’s favorite national writer, ESPN.com’s Pat Forde, wrote a clever column that provided select head coaches with their own personal pre-game song. Forde’s song choice for each coach was based on the expectations for that coach’s team in the upcoming season. It struck me as a creative and inspired way to kick off the college football season.
And with that in mind…on the eve of the battle for Bluegrass basketball supremacy, The High Court had its operatives working overtime trying to find out what was on Forde’s IPod this week. We have always suspected the former Courier-Journal writer had a secret crush on Rick Pitino, and we have also always suspected he secretly hoped for Kentucky’s demise. Our agents are almost positive this is what they heard Forde singing to himself this week with the headphones on…to the tune of Toni Basil’s 1982 hit, ‘Mickey’. Just call this one, ‘Ricky’.
(And it’s all in good fun, Pat…Merry Christmas from The Chief Justice)
Oh Ricky you’re so fine You’re so fine you blow my mind, hey Ricky, hey Ricky Oh Ricky you’re so fine You’re so fine you blow my mind, hey Ricky, hey Ricky Oh Ricky you’re so fine You’re so fine you blow my mind, Hey Ricky
Hey Ricky! You’ve been so great for years and that inspired this song You used to coach Kentucky and lovin’ you was wrong But now you are the Cards coach and call the ‘Ville home, Ricky
I didn’t think we’d get together when you took Boston’s green But Beantown’s fans didn’t understand you and acted really mean Bird and McHale never walked through the Celtics’ door And you didn’t even get to coach on the old Garden floor But that brought you back to the Commonwealth and me, Ricky
Oh Ricky what a pity, they can’t understand It’s perfectly natural to have a crush on you, man Oh Ricky you’re so pretty, can’t you understand It’s guys like you Ricky Oh what you do Ricky, do Ricky Don’t break my heart Ricky
Hey Ricky So come on and beat those Wildcats any way you can Any way you wanna do it, I’ll write it up like you’re the man Oh please, Ricky, please Ricky, let Dean beat UK with a jam, Ricky
Oh Ricky what a pity, they can’t understand It’s perfectly natural to have a crush on you, man Oh Ricky you’re so pretty, can’t you understand It’s guys like you Ricky Oh what you do Ricky, do Ricky Don’t break my heart Ricky
Oh Ricky you’re so fine You’re so fine you blow my mind, hey Ricky, hey Ricky Oh Ricky you’re so fine You’re so fine you blow my mind, hey Ricky, hey Ricky Oh Ricky you’re so fine You’re so fine you blow my mind, Hey Ricky
Our apologies to the writers of ‘Mickey’, Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. For all of you children of the 1980’s, you can find the lyrics to the most annoying of the 80’s classics here…
It won’t matter much on Saturday, but the University of Kentucky got good news yesterday when the NCAA reduced Randolph Morris’ season-long ban to 14 games. Based on new evidence included in the appeal of the one-year suspension, the NCAA found reason to believe that it had been Morris’ intent to retain his collegiate eligibility. The new evidence was the fax Morris sent to Tubby Smith on May 9, 2005 telling Coach Smith of his intent to enter the NBA draft. It also expressly stated that Morris had no intention of hiring an agent, providing him with the option of returning to the collegiate level. On this occasion I have to applaud the NCAA for using restraint and reason when determining a student-athlete’s punishment. The NCAA’s rules were enforced and Morris was punished fairly. Morris will be eligible to return to the Kentucky lineup for the SEC opener against Vanderbilt on January 10. The 14-game penalty is appropriate, and it does not mistreat Morris or the University of Kentucky. Now that wasn’t so hard was it, ladies and gentlemen of the NCAA? If you continue to act with such logic and reason, I just might have to become a fan. But I won’t hold my breath…
And there is the little matter of this friendly contest in Lexington on Saturday. Kentucky enters 6-3 on the season, and the record hides how bad the ‘Cats have been lately. Thoroughly outplayed in back-to-back Saturday losses to North Carolina and Indiana, it isn’t hard to imagine Tubby Smith holding 6 a.m. practices this week. Fifth-ranked Louisville enters the game 6-0, and it would appear they are serious favorites, even in Rupp Arena. They shouldn’t be. And Rick Pitino would be the first person to tell you that. U of L has lined up one tomato can after another to begin the season; the best team they have played so far is Akron (a team led by LeBron James high school teammates, Romeo Travis and Dru Joyce), and they pummeled the Zips 115-85 last Saturday. Pitino would have also much rather seen Kentucky whip Indiana, as opposed to seeing the ‘Cats suffer their worst loss since his first season in Lexington. No head coach likes to face an opponent coming off an embarrassing loss. Tubby will not have had any difficulty getting his club’s attention this week. Expect a much better effort from the Wildcats as the Cards come to town.
Taquan Dean is the name you know and stopping him will be important if UK hopes to come away a winner. But the key matchup will be an undersized and undermanned Kentucky frontcourt matching up against David Padgett, Juan Palacios, and talented freshmen Terrance Williams and Brian Johnson. Padgett, a transfer from Kansas, possesses a fabulous skill-set and is adept scoring both facing the basket and with his back to the hoop. Palacios has the all-around skills that have led Pitino to draw comparisons between his game and Jamal Mashburn’s, and Williams provides U of L with rebounding and offense from the wing. He is the Cards most accurate three-point shooter at nearly 48%. His classmate Johnson is seeing only ten minutes a game, but he may be the most explosive force on the Louisville front line. Johnson is a terrific offensive rebounder and athletic finisher around the basket.
Defending the three-point arc will be almost as important for the Wildcats as controlling the paint. Led by Dean and Williams, U of L is taking threes at a rate that will make Kentucky fans nostalgic. In their six contests so far, the Cardinals have taken 146 triples (better than 24 a game), led by Dean’s 66 attempts (11 per game). Dean is as dangerous as ever, making 25 threes (38 percent) on his way to 20.5 points a game. The perimeter matchups, however, which pit Rajon Rondo, Patrick Sparks, Ramel Bradley, and Joe Crawford against Dean, Williams, Brandon Jenkins, and Andre McGee provide the greatest opportunity for Kentucky to be successful. The Wildcats must take care of the basketball and control the tempo if they are to emerge victorious on Saturday.
It says here they will. I have no reason to believe so, especially based on Kentucky’s recent play. But I believe that it will be last Saturday’s putrid performance that will inspire the ‘Cats to their best effort of the season. UK will respond with the kind of defensive effort that we are used to seeing from Tubby Smith’s teams, Rajon Rondo and Patrick Sparks will be terrific, and Louisville’s talented squad will feel the effects of their first true test of the season. It should be a close one, but book it for Big Blue.
Last on our menu today is the troubling situation in Philadelphia concerning Donovan McNabb and the president of the Philadelphia NAACP, J. Whyatt Mondesire. Mondesire, who is also the publisher of the Philadelphia Sunday Sun, wrote a column on December 4 that was very critical of the Eagles quarterback. Now, I don’t have any particular problem with that, as I too, have been quite critical of McNabb in wake of the Terrell Owens debacle. But Mondesire went to lengths to criticize McNabb for many of the Eagles problems and suggested that by making himself more of a pocket passer McNabb was doing a disservice to his race. Bruce Gordon, the national head of the NAACP spoke out against Mondesire’s comments this week, noting that the organization had more important things to do than criticize a fine role model like Donovan McNabb.
And Gordon is right, of course. In defending himself, Mondesire stood by his comments and pointed out that he was not speaking in his capacity as the leader of a NAACP branch but as a fan providing his opinion. He has that right. I exercised it. So can Mondesire. What a person in his position has to recognize, though, is this…when speaking about matters of race, there is no way on earth that anybody is going to separate Mondesire form his connection to the NAACP. Mondesire has to realize that Rush Limbaugh lost a job at ESPN for making similar comments. Mondesire’s comments, as they related to McNabb’s style of play and race, were completely unfounded and irresponsible.
I have had problems with McNabb’s handling of the Terrell Owens nightmare in Philly. But I never held him responsible for it. Terrell Owens was the responsible party. McNabb was just one factor (along with Andy Reid and Eagles management) that allowed the situation to be worse than it should have been. Like Mondesire, I find McNabb to be overrated. But where Mondesire found McNabb to be ‘not that good’, I find him to be a good quarterback. Just not a great one. I find Donovan McNabb to be a good human being (based on what we know), and I agree with Gordon’s suggestion that McNabb is a good role model. I find McNabb to be a corporate and management suck-up, but he is most certainly not an Uncle Tom…and that is exactly what Mondesire was alluding to when he suggested that McNabb stopped being a running quarterback to get away from being a black quarterback. That is ludicrous and ridiculously unfair. McNabb has run less as he has become a better pocket passer, and he stopped running this year because he was playing with a sports hernia.
I haven’t been a Donovan McNabb fan or supporter, but I will have his back from now on (and I know he will be thrilled to hear that). Through little to no fault of his own, McNabb has become a subject of criticism, ridicule, and scorn that he does not deserve. I applaud the reaction of the national media and several well-known figures in the world of sports (including Charles Barkley) for coming to McNabb’s defense. Mondesire’s thoughtless words are proof that a difference in skin color is not a necessary requirement for racist ideology.
Did you miss Thursday’s Daily Verdict? You can read it here...
Contact The Chief at chiefjustice@thehighcourtofsports.com. |