two in a row?

after another ugly road loss on thursday at purdue, the iu men's basketball team heads to michigan today to take on the wolverines. the hoosiers soundly defeated michigan in bloomington in march, but that has been no indicator as to how this team will play on the road.

the odds are against the hoosiers saturday as junior lance stemler and earl calloway will both be out of the lineup. stemler suffered a sprained ankle in practice on tuesday and calloway took a nice lick to his shoulder coming off of a screen during the loss in west lafayette.

look for the hoosiers to continue their road slide on saturday at 4pm at crisler.

hoosiers lose 71-69.

visual: lance stemler puts up a shot during the iu victory over purdue in january. he will miss saturday's game with an ankle injury. (credit: gm)

reward.

so what's gonna be the award for winning 2007 pick em championship? i think dinner at a fast food joint of preference, and some form of trophy? maybe there could be an interesting bet laid down.

ideas?

we pick 'em.

the contestants.

Trevor Sager

Drew Owen

Geoffrey Miller


here's the challenge, pick the winner of each nascar nextel cup series event this season. win the season championship by scoring the most points. if your driver wins? you score 20 points. if no one's driver wins? the closest person's driver earns 10 points. regardless, the second place person's driver earns 5 points and the third place earns 0. confused? i dont care. just play along.

here are your picks for the 2007 DAYTONA 500.

Geoffrey Miller - #88 Ricky Rudd (starting 2nd)
"i'd have a different opinion if that 24 was starting up front"

Drew Owen - #38 David Gilliland (starting 1st)
"pullin for Jr. but Gilliand to win it"

Trevor Sager - #2 Kurt Busch (starting 4th)
"of course ive gotta pull from matt the brat kenseth but im thinkin this is Kurt Busch's year."

happy racing, boys. we'll check the points on monday.

sweet move.

8:39pm UPDATE: NASCAR has determined jeff gordon's winning car was just under an inch too low at the rear quarter panels due to a "part failure" that was "likely unintentional". despite this lack of intent, nascar will still move the 24 to the back of the field for the start of the 49th running of the daytona 500 on sunday. he will start 42nd. i realize nascar is trying to make a statement, but this is going over the line. when the director of competition calls it a "part failire", where is the penalty? this precedent set by nascar is very dangerous for their credibility in my book. it'd be nice if these violations could be traced to a black and white rule book, not just a gray area.

--

how bout dem apples? jeff gordon used an incredible move, with a little help from matt kenseth's favorite person (david stremme), to get by kurt busch on the last lap of the 2nd duel at daytona today for the win. gordon will now start 4th in sunday's daytona 500.

gordon ran behind juan montoya for the first 25 laps of the race before montoya broke a wheel hub and brought out the first caution. brian vickers later cut a tire and hit the wall, ruining red bull racing's chance at making the great american race, and bringing out a caution. gordon decided to come in and take two tires and came out 13th with less than ten laps to go. he marched through the field to himself in position at the white flag to grab the checkers.

in the first race, tony stewart won the race as michael waltrip and boris said both raced their way in to the field. waltrip has had quite a roller coaster ride in the past 24 hours after the discrepancies with this engine from qualifying on sunday.

tomorrow, the craftsman truck series takes on the high banks of daytona for their first race of the season under the lights and the busch series starts their season on saturday on espn2.

as for now? we'll celebrate the win and a good start to the season and hope for the best in the 500.

go 24.

that one hurt.

on the eve of the gatorade duels at daytona, michael waltrip learned of the repercussions his team will face after failing inspection before qualifying last sunday. waltrip will docked 100 driver points, his crew chief suspended indefinitely, his team manager ejected from the grounds of daytona, his primary car impounded by nascar, and a loss of 50 owner points before attempting to qualify for nascar's biggest race of the year. the penalty? probably the largest nascar has ever given out. but it came at a time when nascar is trying to build its integrity, so the ramifactions were that much more drastic. i have a feeling waltrip won't ever get caught with "jet fuel" or some other substance in his engine for a little performance again.

said waltrip later, "This was an independent act done without consent or authorization from me or any of my executive management team. As an owner, I realize I am ultimately held responsible for the actions of my employees. Therefore, I accept the penalties issued tonight by NASCAR. I respect NASCAR’s rules, its people and the sport’s integrity, which is why I am so sad and embarrassed."

waltrip will need to move swiftly and with an iron fist in finding who did this in his organization, or his credbility as a driver and owner will be long gone.

tomorrow, we race.

9:40pm UPDATE: according to espn's david newton, michael waltrip racing has fired michael waltrip's crew chief david hyder for the rules infractions at daytona.


visual: michael waltrip at the brickyard 400 during qualifying for the 2006 edition. credit: gm.

a little break.

well, the snow and ice and rain turned into a little more sleep today for everyone at the IU campus. classes didn't start until noon, and i've gotta say it was a nice break.

enjoy the visuals.

the result.

the valentine's day game between IU and PURDUE has been postponed to Thursday, thus rendering my services unavailable, and losing my opportunity to visit south street bbq. talk about a tragedy.

that brisket has me crying inside.

thanks, purdue for your terrible snow removal efforts. who cares if you got a foot and a half of snow. i thought you all were engineers.

btfd.

snow for everyone else.

well according to the local news, the world is ending due to the frozen concoction we call sleet, snow, and freezing rain.

not in bloomington. we've had an inch of snow and about a quarter inch of ice since last night, and it seems to be pretty much another day in btown. further north, though, sheridan has gotten 16 inches of snow and its continuing to fall and drift.

it just leaves you with one question -- where was this snow when i was in high school?

before the green flag on 2007.

nascar has indeed reached a point of crossroads. they have a new car, but they are alienating fans. they are punishing cheaters, but they are still racing. they are driving for diversity, but only drivers with diverse portfolios behind them are driving. the sport is getting richer, but its fathers poorer.

thatsracin.com's and the charlotte observer's david poole discussed the issues today on his SIRIUS radio show, and it was later transcribed to the web site. his "state of the sport" address, coming before the politcally correct and nothing address of the same variety by nascar head brian france, covered nearly everything that fans are seeing as crucial today that nascar has yet to cover.

his main concerns: less year-round emphasis on the championship, if you cheat you're out for a week, no more "winner's circle" type programs to reward teams -- just pay them for racing, make winning a bigger priority with higher race purses and more points, take care of the drivers from the 50's, 60's, 70's who got the sport to where it is, and make it easier for fans to go to races.

at what point is brian france going to take notice? when he is going to realize that fans are going to start leaving in droves when the price of a nascar weekend continues to rise and the access to drivers declines? the blatant disregard for what got him that job in favor of running an entertainment complex will evantually destroy this sport.

hopefully, he'll listen.

on the road again.

i've been all over the country lately. i got to see how iowa city is nothing short of being a city in iowa. it's a great town to get out of. especially after the hoosiers fell in a disappointing game.

last weekend i headed out to virginia to see that "one girl". what a great time, enjoying bojangles 3 times and also plenty of time just simply hanging out and doing nothing with her. i have to do this (man law) -- happy valentine's day kari!

this weekend is, of course, the mecca of my racing-filled life. the daytona 500 is sunday at 2pm on Fox, and let's just say i'll be skipping anything that comes in that time slot. i hope to celebrate a victory by the #24 car. before that, i'll be at the beautiful crisler arena in ann arbor for the IU/Michigan contest. it's a game the Hoosiers should win, but that has been no gimme for the hoosiers.

basically, in the past two weeks i've been to indiana, illinois, iowa, ohio, virginia, kentucky, and tennessee, and i'll add michigan on saturday. not bad. and i'll see purdue on wednesday for game 2 of the in-state series.

visuals: grabbin some digs at bojangles, and then checkin out bristol motor speedway with my girl.

what this is.

i'm gonna post what i want. whenever i want. how i want.

gotta love my rugged individualism, right?

this site will serve as a place to contain some of my favorite photos that got printed or didn't, some funny shots, rants on whatever i please, celebratory cheer concerning nascar, and just a general place to go when you have the question "hey, i wonder what geoff is doing?".

thanks for listening, i look forward to sharing my face for the radio.

props to dierks bentley for the title, go see him at IU on march 3.