Press Conference

It's been a while since i posted a video of a press conference, so for this one i went straight to mother load of awesome press conferences: Bobby Knight. He's a veritable goldmine when it comes to outbursts and profanity-laced press conferences, which makes him perfect for this feature. Below is a press conference i actually had not seen before, from the NCAA Tournament a long time ago.



I love Bobby Knight.

On a side note, i had a buddy in college who worked on the video crew for the Iowa football team. One of their duties was to exchange tapes with other teams they were going to play during the season. One year the Indiana film crew gave my buddy a tape of a halftime speech Knight gave his players while at Indiana in a game they were losing badly. It was one of the filthiest, dirtiest, meanest things i've ever heard in my life. And i was dying laughing through the entire thing...

Where You Came From

Time for my weekly* feature: Where You Came From, in which i examine the different countries that people have visited this site from and the search terms that brought you here. Enjoy!

In the last (2) week(s) people have visited this site from: Korea, an undetermined Europe country, Slovakia (?), and Jordan. Not a lot of countries, but some different ones. That's always fun...

Anyway, here are the search terms that brought people here. As always, the search terms are reproduced here unedited, and i have added the number of times the search appeared and my commentary in parentheses.

1) deniss green blowing up
2) how many conference titles has shaq got
3) dennis green press conference (2)
4) will mcbride blogspot (no idea who this is...)
5) US men's soccer vs England
6) valleysports.blogspot
7) phoenix cardinals tryouts
8) nfl kicker open tryouts
9) dennis green they are who we thought they were video
10) usa 4x100 08/10/08 (Awesome)
11) arizona diamondbacks open tryouts
12) nfl open tryouts (What is with all these open tryout queries?)
13) Denny Green preseason

Overall, a pretty week last couple of weeks in terms of traffic and search terms. Doesn't help that my posting kinda dropped off a little. These Olympics are just so damn entertaining i find myself getting lost in them...

Steeplechase

Listen, i admitted going into the Olympics (here) that i was at best indifferent, with the exception of soccer. And so far, in that same article, my prediction is still holding up with the Men's soccer team eliminated and the Women in the quarterfinals. But that's neither here nor there.

After one week, i admit i am completely captivated by the Olympics. I have watched every one of Michal Phelps 17 swims and was jumping and screaming during his finals. I have rooted Men's water polo to victory against the heavily favored Croatians and into the Medal round with a defeat of Germany. I have watched the USA basketball team absolutely destroy any and all comers.

I watched Usain Bolt obliterate the 100m world record. I complained about the scoring system in boxing and watched China dominate the synchronized diving competitions. I cheered for Shawn Johnson (an Iowa girl) and Nastia Liukin to win all-around medals, and was disappointed when they finished 2nd in the team competition.

I've watched sports i've never seen before, and ones i've never even heard of. I watched a points race in bicycling, totally baffled at what was going on but enthralled. I knew archery was a competition but actually watched it this year. I didn't know you could get a medal for Trampoline, but i watched those finals as well. I watched some equestrian thing earlier. Hell, i'm watching synchronized swimming as i write.

But there is nothing, and i do mean NOTHING, as completely and utterly bizarre as the Steeplechase. I knew what the steeplechase was going in, have even watched a race or two in my day, but watching the final tonight... I mean, have you watched this? It's like they took the most random elements possible and combined them! It makes no sense!

It's a race around a track, with some hurdles. That i can handle. But then, inexplicably, there is another hurdle with a water hazard behind it. A water hazard! In the middle of a race!

I just can't for the life of me wrap my mind around the concept of where this race originated from. How did this come about? Who came up with it? How did it evolve? Who was the guy who said 'Let's make them run a hurdles race, but then once a lap put a pool of water behind one hurdle'? Did he make a fortune off this idea? He had to have, right? Right?!

It's just the most bizarre, random, inexplicable, crazy thing you could possibly imagine. And somehow you get an Olympic medal for it...

US 4x100 Freestyle

Yeah, so this was pretty much the most awesome clip of sport from a weekend that had a ton.

USA! USA! USA!

(H/T to With Leather for finding video that actually works...)

My Hero

This really has nothing to do with sports, but this is one of the most amazing things i've ever seen...



That kid is my hero.

(H/T to With Leather)

Where You Came From

Time for my weekly* feature: Where You Came From, in which i examine the different countries that people have visited this site from and the search terms that brought you here. Enjoy!

In the last week people have visited this site from: Canada, Japan, Taiwan, South Africa, a generic Europe, The Philippines, Republic of Moldova, Germany, and India. Wow, after complaining last week that my international audience was lacking, it came back strong this time. Republic of Moldova? I don't even know where that is...

Anyway, here are the search terms that brought people here. As always, the search terms are reproduced here unedited, and i have added the number of times the search appeared and my commentary in parentheses.

1) freddy adu
2) favre press conference 8 5
3) natasha kai (2) (Love the soccer searches!)
4) az cardinal open tryouts
5) bayern munich jersey unveiling (Apparently that fashoin show/trainwreck was popular)
6) site:valleysports.blogspot.com (2) (Someone knew exactly what they were looking for...)
7) fuck brett favre (5) (Ahh, it never gets old...)
8) dennis green they are who we thought they were vedio
9) fuck favre t shirt (2)
10) US men's soccer vs. england
11) afl open tryouts
12) hatred asu ua
13) manny dodgers press conference
14) dennis green post game conference
15) "Steve Nash
16) my opinion on the 2010 world cup
17) "bad day" dennis green
18) "espn 3" epl -nascar (Been seeing more and more things about ESPN 3. Interesting...)
19) most popular college football t-shirts
20) preseason records dennis green
21) 2010 world cup rumors moved to china (There is zero chance it's being moved to China...)
22) padres game 07/29/08
23) kevin seitzer

So there you go. An interesting list as always. Back to your regularly scheduled programming later today.

*Weekly, as usual, is a relative term...

The Olympics

With the Olympics just a few days away, i find myself mostly disinterested, with the exception of soccer (of course). Both the Men's and Women's US teams have things to prove here, albeit they are much different thing from each other.

Going into the tournament the US Women had to be considered a favorite right up to the point that Abby Wambach broke her leg. Without Wambach, the US career active scoring leader, the US could struggle to score goals. The defense will be good and this will be Hope Solo's chance to shine in goal after the last World Cup debacle in which she was replaced in the semifinals. The offense will be looking for someone to step up and fill the void left by Wambach. Their group is challenging but not too difficult, and they should be able to advance to the knock out rounds while finding their groove. Look for Natasha Kai to be the person who really steps up.

Still, even without Wambach the Americans still have to be considered a favorite for medal contention. I still see a bronze medal for them.

The US Men, however, find themselves in a wholly different situation, as this article explains. They have a talented team, one of, if not the most U-23 teams the US has put together, with a decent trio of overage players in Brian McBride, Michael Parkhurst, and Brad Guzan.

While the keeper situation with Guzan set, who should be solid, the defense is a tad suspect. It is pretty thin to begin with, and somewhat inexperienced on such a big international stage. Consider also that Maurice Edu will be starting on the back line, which is somewhat out of position for him.

The midfield, on the other hand, is loaded with too many players and not enough positions, something the Senior Team is already struggling with that will only get worse. Michael Bradley will be in the middle for sure. Other than that it gets murky. Sacha Klejstan? Should be in the middle, but also plays pretty well on either flank. Benny Feilhaber? Plays in the middle, though more of a defensive midfielder. What about Freddy Adu? He seems best suited in a central, attacking midfield role where he can use his creativity and skills to create chances.

You're left with Jozy Altidore and McBride up top of course, but Altidore could be moved to the right flank in midfield to allow more space for Adu. Though it's not his best position, and Altidore does better than any other player on this team what the team needs most: Finish. Putting him on the flank seems counter productive to that. McBride will most certainly be allowed to roam up front, looking to hook-up with service from the flanks where he is most effective.

The US team is put into the toughest draw of the Tourney with Holland, Nigeria, and Japan. They play Japan first and for all intents and purposes must win to have any chance to advance. Even if they were to advance, which if they did would most likely be as the second place finisher in the group, they would probably be facing Argentina in the knock-out stages. Argentina, in case you hadn't heard, is probably the best team in the Olympics and is LOADED.

At best, the Americans advance and fall in a close game to Argentina in the knock-out stage. At worst, the Americans finish third place in their group and don't advance. With the way the US struggled to score goals in their two Olympic tune-ups, i'm not expecting much out of this group. Look for them to indeed finish third in their group and not advance.