Another crazy weekend of action. This is just the rough draft. Hard, hard ballot. Lots of teams that did and even a couple deserving to fall out. Problem, what team to put in there instead.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	—
2	Ohio State	2
3	California	—
4	South Florida	1
5	Boston College	1
6	Oklahoma	4
7	South Carolina	6
8	Florida	—
9	Southern Cal	7
10	Cincinnati	6
11	Missouri	7
12	West Virginia	—
13	Wisconsin	6
14	Hawaii	—
15	Oregon	—
16	Florida State	6
17	Kentucky	6
18	Arizona State	2
19	Kansas	6
20	Illinois	6
21	Auburn	5
22	Maryland	4
23	Virginia Tech	3
24	Georgia	15
25	Texas	8

Standing By/Wait-listed: Colorado, UConn, Boise St., Indiana, Tennessee
Dennis offered his thoughts on his initial rankings that I tweaked for the draft ballot. Comments from me are in italics.

(more…)

Okay, a bit more tweaking from the initial draft. Thanks as always to Dennis for starting it and everyone who offered thoughts on it.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	1
2	Southern Cal	1
3	California	3
4	Ohio State	5
5	South Florida	8
6	Boston College	4
7	Wisconsin	4
8	Florida	4
9	Georgia	3
10	Oklahoma	7
11	Kentucky	6
12	West Virginia	7
13	South Carolina	6
14	Hawaii	2
15	Oregon	1
16	Cincinnati	5
17	Texas	10
18	Missouri	—
19	Rutgers	11
20	Arizona State	3
21	Nebraska	1
22	Florida State	4
23	Miami (Florida)	1
24	Purdue	2
25	Kansas	1

Most of the tweaking came in the second half of the ballot.

Virginia Tech was always shaky and the more I thought about what I saw in the UNC game, the less comfortable I was with keeping them in it. Kansas takes the spot instead. They may not have actually beaten anyone either, but at least they are doing it with a comfortable margin.

Texas and Rutgers ended up taking a bigger tumble the more I thought it through. Oregon less of one.

I gave South Carolina more of a boost, but no they are still behind Georgia.

The full Blogpoll is here and as always, you can look here for individual ballots.

Okay, after LSU and USC everybody sucks. Or is at least so severely flawed that you just can’t count on them.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	1
2	Southern Cal	1
3	California	3
4	Ohio State	5
5	South Florida	8
6	Boston College	4
7	Wisconsin	4
8	Florida	4
9	Georgia	3
10	Oklahoma	7
11	Kentucky	6
12	West Virginia	7
13	Hawaii	3
14	South Carolina	5
15	Texas	8
16	Rutgers	8
17	Missouri	1
18	Cincinnati	3
19	Oregon	5
20	Arizona State	3
21	Nebraska	1
22	Miami (Florida)	2
23	Virginia Tech	2
24	Purdue	2
25	Florida State	1

Standing by/Wait Listed: Hell if I know anymore.

LSU is just too impressive. I finally had to flip them with USC. USC has struggled with Washington, but LSU hasn’t slipped yet.

Purdue didn’t really deserve to move into the rankings after that performance against ND, but someone had to go in at #25.

Florida and Oklahoma had off games as much as anything else. Things just seemed freaky in those.

Wisconsin is winning but is continually shaky doing so. When they finally lose, expect everyone to plummet them with their votes. Right now, though, there’s no one else to really put in front of them.

South Carolina struggled until late against Miss. St. yet moved up way too much. I’ll have to adjust that. I don’t care that they beat Georgia head-to-head. I see no reason to move them ahead of the Bulldogs at this point.

If the upper-teams keep losing, then Hawaii might actually creep into the BCS poll.

Beautiful stream of consciousness IMing between Peter Bean of Burnt Orange Nation and Orson Swindle of EDSBS to discuss the weekend’s upcoming CFB action. Key excerpt:

OS: I’m backtracking. But I can’t believe that Al Groh and Dave Wannstedt are coaching against each other and being paid to do so.

Peter: The midfield pregame handshake should be fun. Dave: “You prepare much for this?” Al: “A little. You?” Dave: “A little.” Al: You okay with a tie?” Dave: “I’m okay with a tie.”

OS: Al: “I’m gonna call a fake punt in the late second.” Dave: “Me, too.”

OS: Al: “Can we call them at the same time?” Dave: “I dunno. Lemme check the rule book.”
Al: “That would be boss, Dave.”

PB: “I always pass deep on 2nd and short.” “Ok. Me too.” “Meet for a drink after the game?” “Definitely. Cranberry juice okay?” “Ideal.”

OS: “No surprises, ok?” “No surprises. I hate those.” “Me, too.”

PB: “The fans hate surprises.”

OS: “All eight of ‘em that showed up.”

PB: “They are here. Let us give them what they expect.” “3 and out?” “Alwaays”

Moving on.

It was apparently LeSean McCoy’s media day. Especially since Pat Bostick is still off-limits to the media (can have him start on the road on semi-national TV (ESPNU), but no talking to the media folk). Articles from Zeise and Gorman. The focus on him starting over LaRod Stephens-Howling and how modest and mature he is about the whole thing.

Over to their online content. A good response in the Zeise Q&A that about sums up fan feelings with the issue of “progress.”

Q: Several times you have mentioned that this football program needs to make progress this season. But does progress necessarily constitute victories? Personally, I feel that with everything that has happened, a positive step forward would be to actually be competitive on both sides of the ball. What is your opinion?

Zeise: To a degree, yes, but at some point you have to start winning games. That’s the goal. There is no reason this team shouldn’t have gone to a bowl game the past two years and, frankly, had it done that, people would be more inclined to give a pass for this season, given everything that has gone wrong. The team needs to play better but it also needs to reverse a few negative trends that go deeper than personnel issues, like not being able to upset anyone, like never coming from behind at the half to win, like not being competitive for more than a half against the best team on the schedule — these are things that need to start happening and if they do, then yes, it would be a sign of progress.

[Emphasis added.]

Objectively you could make the argument that this season was toast with all of the injuries. Losing the starting QB, WR and DT in the first few games. Depth taking a hit with plenty of other injuries (Jacobson, Matha, Lindsey, Pinkston, etc.). The suspension of Fields.

The fact is, Wannstedt used up a lot of good will simply by losing a game each of the past two years that there was no excuse to lose — Ohio and UConn. Even Al Groh could get Virginia to minor bowls. So, it’s not going to be enough to talk about all the injuries. There’s a disillusioned feeling in the fanbase that even with everyone healthy, Pitt would still find ways to lose one too many games.

Gorman’s blog post has a bunch of things, from more McCoy to the QB-Center exchange, to the, um, upside to injuries to key players.

The other side of the coin for those who play as true freshman is that they have a redshirt year available in case of injury, ineligibility or suspension. Wannstedt mentioned senior receiver Derek Kinder, junior defensive tackle Gus Mustakas and sophomore safety Elijah Fields as three players who are benefiting from that scenario.

“It would be a crying shame if this was Derek Kinder’s last year. It may cost him an NFL career, I don’t know,” Wannstedt said. “That’s what I talked to Dom about: there’s two sides to this thing: You don’t know how it’s going to play out. We’re doing what we have to do to win, but we’re also being very sensitive to each player. They’ve just got to trust me on that.”

Er, yeah.

Well, Pitt didn’t get Eloy Vargas as most already know. He got hot over the summer and Florida came calling. Bummer. Still not sure who Pitt would have encouraged to look elsewhere for a school to free-up the scholarship for him, but maybe we’ll find out since Pitt still has the goal of adding one more player.

The upside for basketball recruiting knowledge, is that Chris Dokish will occasionally be contributing to the Big East Basketball Blog. I know I’ve pointed this one out to everyone before, so it’s probably redundant, but the BEB is the best blog for following news in the entire Big East in basketball. One stop shopping. Brilliant.

Back to Dokish, he has a full report on the Vargas stuff along with plenty of other Pitt targets for 2009 and a few potential ones for 2008. Not to mention a bit of news about the players presently on the team. Good news for those still missing his blog.

Not a huge amount of tweaking, but a couple little things from the draft.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	—
2	LSU	—
3	Oklahoma	—
4	Florida	—
5	West Virginia	—
6	California	—
7	Texas	—
8	Rutgers	1
9	Ohio State	1
10	Boston College	2
11	Wisconsin	3
12	Georgia	1
13	South Florida	1
14	Oregon	3
15	Clemson	1
16	Hawaii	4
17	Kentucky	9
18	Missouri	3
19	South Carolina	1
20	Penn State	9
21	Cincinnati	4
22	Nebraska	1
23	Arizona State	3
24	Miami (Florida)	2
25	Virginia Tech	1

Under Consideration/Wait Listed: Purdue, Michigan State, Kansas, Michigan and UConn.
The total voting results can be found here and here are individual ballots for all blogpollers.

I did swap Miami and VT after rethinking. Not sure the Hokies really are deserving but even that shellacking from LSU was more than could be said for anyone else to go in ahead of them.

I appreciated Sean pointing out that Nebraska somehow moved up. That, was just crazy talk. But, no way am I considering UCLA until they prove they can win a real game.

I don’t think Wisconsin is very good, but I just couldn’t put anyone else higher. They aren’t impressive, but they keep winning. Dropping them out of the top-ten seemed like enough for now.

Seriously, I’m beginning to wish that it was only a top-10 poll. It’s just a jumbled mess of teams that all seem ridiculously overrated but nothing else is in front of them.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	—
2	LSU	—
3	Oklahoma	—
4	Florida	—
5	West Virginia	—
6	California	—
7	Texas	—
8	Rutgers	1
9	Ohio State	1
10	Boston College	2
11	Wisconsin	3
12	Georgia	1
13	South Florida	1
14	Oregon	3
15	Clemson	1
16	Hawaii	4
17	Missouri	4
18	Kentucky	8
19	Nebraska	4
20	Penn State	9
21	Cincinnati	4
22	South Carolina	4
23	Arizona State	3
24	Virginia Tech	2
25	Miami (Florida)	1

Under Consideration/Wait Listed: Purdue, Michigan State, Kansas, Michigan and (god help me) UConn.

Here’s the draft ballot. Dennis did the heavy lifting. I tweaked initially. Feedback will be considered for the final ballot due Wednesday morning.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	—
2	LSU	—
3	Oklahoma	—
4	Florida	3
5	West Virginia	1
6	California	—
7	Texas	2
8	Wisconsin	1
9	Rutgers	1
10	Ohio State	1
11	Penn State	1
12	Boston College	6
13	Georgia	1
14	South Florida	2
15	Texas A&M	5
16	Clemson	3
17	Oregon	6
18	South Carolina	3
19	Louisville	11
20	Hawaii	2
21	Missouri	3
22	Georgia Tech	5
23	Nebraska	8
24	Alabama	2
25	Cincinnati	1

Considered/Waiting for an opening: Kentucky, Purdue, Texas Tech, Air Force
I can already tell you that Texas A&M will have to go down. Again, the problem isn’t finding teams that are too high. It’s finding teams that are better/should/deserve to be ranked ahead of them. Clemson is a team I can’t buy into, but don’t know what to do with them.
WVU ended up dropping a spot on the strength of a dominating Florida team that looks damn impressive. Yeah, I think it’s safe to say that more than a few ND fans are wondering “what if” with Urban Meyer.

Have to admit, that BC looks damn good this season with a more opened up offense.

Can’t help but think that Kentucky should be ranked.

Okay, here’s how the Pitt Blather ballot finally went.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	—
2	LSU	—
3	Oklahoma	2
4	West Virginia	1
5	Texas	5
6	California	1
7	Florida	1
8	Louisville	4
9	Wisconsin	3
10	Rutgers	3
11	Ohio State	1
12	Penn State	3
13	UCLA	1
14	Georgia	5
15	Nebraska	1
16	South Florida	9
17	Georgia Tech	6
18	Boston College	4
19	Clemson	5
20	Texas A&M	—
21	South Carolina	5
22	Hawaii	5
23	Oregon	3
24	Missouri	2
25	Auburn	7

On the Cusp/Watching: Washington, Cinci, Alabama, Tennessee, VT

Washington and Cinci just missed making my poll. I did move Missouri in, while dropping VT from the draft ballot.

You can see what the full ballot results look like, here. Every blogpoller’s ballot can be viewed here.
There are plenty of teams that I wanted to rank lower, but the problem was that there was a lack of teams that I could justify putting ahead of them without thinking how overrated that would make those teams. That was the one factor that mitigated against fully embracing some of the comments.
Keep in mind that several teams still moved up simply by virtue of other teams being knocked way down or out of the poll.
Did teams like Cal, Florida, Ohio State and UCLA really deserve to rise in the polls even one spot after this past week? Not really but Louisville, Wisconsin, VT and Georgia all deserved to fall further — which is how the others moved up.

Here’s what the draft of the ballot this week looks like. It’s a little different this season with Dennis putting a draft version and then I come in and tweak a little. After that, it’s open for comments and I have time to change it a little more before the due time.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	—
2	LSU	—
3	Oklahoma	2
4	West Virginia	1
5	Texas	5
6	California	1
7	Florida	1
8	Louisville	4
9	Wisconsin	3
10	Ohio State	2
11	Rutgers	2
12	UCLA	2
13	Penn State	2
14	Georgia	5
15	Nebraska	1
16	South Florida	9
17	Georgia Tech	6
18	Boston College	4
19	Texas A&M	1
20	Hawaii	3
21	Clemson	3
22	Oregon	4
23	South Carolina	3
24	Virginia Tech	13
25	Auburn	7

Considered/getting close: Cinci, Missouri, Tennessee, Washington, Alabama

Dennis dropped USC down to #3 on their bye week, but as good as LSU has looked, I’m not totally convinced on them yet. They have faced two teams that are offensively challenged, with horrible QBs. I am very impressed by their defense and this time they came out fired up on offense. I just want to see a little more — that and Les Miles doesn’t scare me as a coach.Oklahoma looked fantastic to move past WVU and the concerns about the ‘Eers defense appear legit.

Texas moved up more than maybe they should, but a couple other teams slipped to give them a bigger boost then I actually feel about them.

Like Louisville (again no defense) and Wisconsin (no offense). By all rights Cal shouldn’t have moved up a spot for their weak win, but really there feels like a huge gap in who to put in the second half of the top-ten and where.

That gap is what kept Georgia from slipping further, though I’m still considering putting them lower.

Right now Rutgers and USF look like legit BE contenders because they can play defense. Of course, USF is going to have to hold open tryouts for a kicker.
The last 8 or 9 spots on the poll are just a mess.

GT shouldn’t have moved that high, but no place else seemed quite right either. Texas A&M even moving up a spot is inexplicable even as I look at the blogpoll. Expect them to drop when I think about it a little more.

Dennis completely dropped the Hokies from the poll, but I had to leave them back in. If beating the Hokies that badly was such a statement by LSU that they deserve #1 consideration, then there has to be a belief that VT is at least a top-25 team.

Auburn hangs in by a thread because their defense is excellent, as are special teams and even their running game — yet another reason why Tuberville is so conservative. That will get them some quality wins in the SEC even when they shouldn’t. The QB, on the other hand…

I know, I skipped the preseason (week 1) ballot.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	25
2	LSU	24
3	West Virginia	23
4	Louisville	22
5	Oklahoma	21
6	Wisconsin	20
7	California	19
8	Florida	18
9	Georgia	17
10	Texas	16
11	Virginia Tech	15
12	Ohio State	14
13	Rutgers	13
14	UCLA	12
15	Penn State	11
16	Nebraska	10
17	Hawaii	9
18	Auburn	8
19	TCU	7
20	Texas A&M	6
21	Boise State	5
22	Boston College	4
23	Georgia Tech	3
24	Clemson	2
25	South Florida	1

Considered/Keeping in Mind (no particular order): Tennessee, Miami (FL), South Carolina, Missouri, Kent St. (no, not really), Oregon, Arkansas, Oregon St., BYU, Alabama.

The poll is due by 10 am tomorrow. Go ahead and explain with some logic why I’m an idiot (for this) and I still have time to revise. Hopefully in the future, the draft ballot will be up sooner for more debate.

Things have been continually hectic. Part of that is because FanHouse is doing conference previews and starting yesterday we are rolling out Big East previews. Matt Glaude (‘Cuse), John Radcliff (WVU) and I are handling the previews and Big East posting all season long. More Posts coming today through Saturday. You should be able to key in on just the Big East previews by going here.

Absolutely no connection, but worth looking at: Beer Pong Tables of the Big East.

Dennis covered the depth chart, and beat writers in Pittsburgh can rejoice that they don’t have to deal with Nick Saban berating them for even speculating on such a thing.

Zeise put down the Harris-Wannstedt player divide rumor started on FoxSports/CollegeFootballNews.com/Scout.com. What makes it really ridiculous is that the numbers don’t work for a real divide. There are only 24 Seniors, fifth year seniros and redshirt juniors according to the ’07 Pitt Media Guide, p. 107. Just a quick eyeball takes out at least 3 who are transfers or JUCOs. That brings the total number of players who had even 1 year of being coached by or had regular contact with Walt Harris to maybe 21. Only a quarter of the locker room. Even if you pretended that all of them had some resentment to Wannstedt percolating under the surface, it just doesn’t work.
Yes, several juniors and redshirt sophomores were recruited by Harris, but they still signed LOIs with Wannstedt already hired and have only been coached by him. That story may have been believable in 2005 or even last year to some extent, but  not at the start of year 3.

Coach Wannstedt is also not phased by the things that have happened over the summer and training camp.

Wannstedt said most of those problems have been resolved and the ones that haven’t, such as the loss of Fields and Kinder, are the same kinds of things every program is dealing with. He said the players have rallied around each other and have not missed a beat.

“I’ve been doing this for 33 years and I’ve learned a lot of lessons along the way, some easy some I had to learn the hard way,” Wannstedt said. “When you have adversity, you have to understand the adversity you are dealing with at the present time doesn’t impact your life, or in our case your team, nearly as much as how you respond to it. That’s a real key principle for us.

“Good football teams overcome adversity, not by dwelling on it but by figuring out how to use it as a positive. If you have a solid foundation, and we have a great foundation with the backbone being our coaches and support system provided by the university and athletic department, then you won’t waver or falter when adversity hits.”

The angst and freaking out should be left to the fans. We have much more practice at freaking out over these things.

It’s been way too serious here, the last couple of days. That has to stop.

If you aren’t reading Every Day Should Be Saturday, at this point, I don’t know what to tell you. This, though, is the must read as the ladies from Ladies Dot Dot Dot help choose appropriate drinks before watching your favorite team. Orson offered up the Morellitini for Penn State, but here’s the Pitt entry.

Clare – Imp ‘n’ Arn (Pitt)
No Pitt Panther tailgate is complete without three things: 1) Portable beer pong table, 2) ‘DVE blasting from your car speakers, and 3) Imp ‘n’ Arn. The Imp ‘n’ Arn, in its classical form, is a shot of Imperial whiskey chased with a pint of Iron City, but the gameday Imp ‘n’ Arn doesn’t stand on ceremony. It’s a slug of warm rotgut whiskey from the plastic 750 ml bottle your buddy’s been carrying around for three hours in his pants pocket and a red Solo cup of whatever macrobrew you’ve got in the keg. It doesn’t taste good, but it gets you riled up for THE WANNSTACHE.

Friendly: 2
Fiesty: 7
Compliant: 5

Here’s the lead-in for the Hoopies:

OK, Mountaineers fans, let’s clear the carburetor off the kitchen table and start making drinks. We’ll limit the ingredients to things you probably have around the house: grain alcohol, buckshot, a handful of Sudafed, and a block of Velveeta.

Today’s must read.

Two days ago the Des Moines Register published an article about Big Ten commish Jim Delany talking about possible expansion from 11 to 12 teams (link via USA Today). Since then it’s been a strong point of discussion on TV, in newspapers, and on blogs.

The expansion talks come with the upcoming release of the Big Ten Network. The network, which is scheduled to launch Aug. 30, could use another big-name university in a large television market to gain more exposure for the network and its sponsors.

So who could be that extra team? Obviously the first team that the conference will give significant attention to will be Notre Dame, but it’s more than likely that ND will quickly turn down the offer. A national TV deal, the ability to schedule whoever they want, and the fact that they can take the Big East’s bowl bids. As long as the Big East is getting a BCS bid then ND will gladly take it. Might as well cross the Irish off of the list of possibilities right now.

Then next tier of possible teams include Syracuse and Rutgers. Syracuse first: they allow the conference’s reach to extend to upstate New York. It’s a decent media market but wouldn’t get the attention of NYC residents. Plus they’re primarily a hoops school and the Big East, while not one of the top two or three football conferences, is one of the best for basketball.

What about Rutgers? They might feel as though if they add Rutgers they will gain a hold on New York City, the #1 US market, but that’s hardly true. Piscataway is over 40 miles from NYC and even after the RU football team has picked up a ton of hype, the NYC market barely notices. NYC is a pro sports town dominated by the Yankees, Mets, Knicks, and both NFL teams — not much room left for a college team, located a half hour away no less, to get attention.

The last tier of possibilities likely includes the following teams: Louisville, Missouri, your Pittsburgh Panthers, and maybe a handful of others. Louisville is a program that as a whole is on the rise…but they’re TV market isn’t all that appealing. It’s no secret that Missouri wants to join the Big Ten and adding them opens up the state of Missouri including possibly St. Louis. But what about Pitt? Well, what are the current B10 members saying about Pitt? One of the best college football bloggers (Brian Cook) on one of the best CFB blogs (MGoBlog) has this to say about the Panthers:

PROs: Geographic and academic fit. Also provides natural rival for Penn State. Football program has rich history; basketball program would be a fine addition.

CONs: Michigan and OSU are already raiding the hell out of the WPIAL. Adding Pitt opens no new recruiting grounds and only marginally raises interest in the Pittsburgh market. Their football fanbase would be amongst the worst in the conference.

Verdict: I guess. I would rather take a chance on Rutgers, personally.

Black Shoe Diaries has this to say…

2. Pitt – This isn’t the smartest choice for the Big Ten, but then this is my wish list. For all the crap I give Pitt around here, I want to see this rivalry played every year. Everyone does. Adding Pitt makes that happen.

But this doesn’t jive with Delany’s wish to expand the market for his new network. If it’s true he has an eye on the New York market, Pitt isn’t going to work.

Basically it comes down to this — the pros vs. the cons. We’re here in Pennsylvania, so we’re close enough for consideration. We have a long traditional rivalry going with PSU. As Brian says, we have a football program with a strong history and I don’t think things are going to be much worse than last season — things can really only go up. Our basketball team has been one of the best in the nation over the last 5 years and it doesn’t look like it’s going backwards any time soon. Pitt is also more than a two sport school. Many of our other sports are doing well, including a women’s hoops team on the rise. We have great facilities for football, basketball, and swimming, and with the planned renovations, the “Olympic sports” will have upgraded facilities as well.

That’s the good stuff…so what about the bad? Firstly, adding us doesn’t exactly open up a whole new market. Whether we like it or not, there’s a large contingent of Penn State folks here in Pittsburgh, so the Big Ten already has a portion of the city’s attention. We’re not in a recruiting area that hasn’t already been tapped into by Big Ten teams like they might get from a team like Missouri.

So what are the actual chances that we’d ever get seriously considered/invited? If I had to guess, I’d say the list looks like so (remember this is not who the B10 WANT, but the chance of it actually HAPPENING):

1. Rutgers
2. Missouri
3. Pitt

MGoBlog has the same three but instead has Pitt at #2 and Mizzou at #3. Black Shoe Diaries has Pitt at #2.

Say next year we do, in fact, have an offer extended to us. What’s our answer? Do we stay put in the Big East or take it? Personally I don’t know what I want us to do. Maybe we’ll just have to wait and cross that bridge when it comes, but the fact that we’re even in the consideration is interesting enough.

Panther Rants was formerly Dokish’s recruiting blog but it’s been taken over by guys with a bit of a more sarcastic style. In an “interview” with new RMU head coach Mike Rice, they were able to humorously recap the past basketball season.

PR: Alright enough of that. Do you think the team lived up to its expectations before the season?

MR: Well we got to the Sweet Sixteen didn’t we? What else were you expecting?

PR: Well Uh…

MR: Do the math, pal. We finished tied second in the Big East, runners up in the Big East Tournament, a pre-season Top Ten, favorites to win the conference, and expected to go Sweet 16 or better. We got the Top Ten finish and the Sweet 16. We also won 29 games. We did all this with a 7 foot center that has a hard time dunking, and can’t stop fumbling his cars keys or missing the trash can when he throws away his bottle of Gatorade. We did it with a three point specialist who can only hit threes when he’s not covered. We did it with our best athlete who also scored points, but was a turnover machine. Finally, we did it with a player named Levon with a Vanilla Ice haircut. I’d do the same if my parents named me that. Who in the hell names their kid Levon anyway?

There’s also a rather funny Keith Benjamin joke in there — read it.