gameday at iu: senior night

the iu basketball preview makes a return tonight, the last game of the regular season for the indiana hoosiers. the northwestern preview was missing because -- well -- i think about 13.97 people actually cared about the game. if iu would have lost, it would have been a different story. is penn state at home any different? not really, but it is senior night.

tonight the hoosiers will effectively graduate four seniors from assembly hall -- errek suhr, earl calloway and roderick wilmont. each have had their impact on the program, mostly this year, in quite different ways.

suhr? the walk-on-who-got-a-scholarship-face-of-iu-who-the-crowd-loves guard from bloomington will decidedly get the most cheer tonight. he's been a "sparkplug" for the hoosiers this year, in the words of Coach K at Duke. the numbers? not too great. but he's a scrappy player who gives iu fans flashbacks of teams and players past.

calloway? he's had a tough end to the regular season with the painful separated shoulder injury suffered at purdue, but it seems as if he's ready to get back in the swing of things again after playing a little bit at northwestern. his career at iu has been decent since transferring from georgia perimeter college after his sophomore year. he averaged just 10 points a game this season, but made his deeper impact with court presence and ability to fly the ball up the court.

wilmont? roderick earned an iu record on wednesday against norhtwestern by connecting on 9 3-pointers en route to 31 points for the contest. wilmont has been at iu for five years and is a red shirt senior after sitting out his freshman season. this year he's averaged over 12 points a game and was 66-161 from 3-point range.

all of these guys will be missed next year, but in all reality, the team is in good shape. armon bassett fill in calloway's role, lance stemler and aj ratliff will be a heavy outside presence and dj white should be back. throw in eric gordon and a stellar recruiting class and the hoosiers will looks to be pretty stout in 2007-2008.

but for now, the focus lies on keeping an undefeated record at home against penn state tonight and advancing in the big ten tournament. all the nay-sayers who say iu isn't a lock in the tournament are dead wrong. the 3rd best team in the conference will get in. and it wouldn't shock this reporter to see the hoosiers playing on sunday in the big ten tournament -- they are the type of team that can and will shock some teams (wisconsin and ohio state) at a neutral venue.

tonight? the hoosiers roll. sampson lays down some pretty nice comments and a few jabs too. i can't be there, but i'll excited to see how it plays out.

give iu the nod. 82-62.

hearst photo contest.

i thought i'd just do a little self-promotion for a little bit, because well, this is my blog.

i shot the World's Toughest Rodeo in january at conseco fieldhouse in indy, and i entered a photo story about the event into a hearst photojournalism contest.

check out the entry at the indiana daily student website by clicking multimedia and then world's toughest rodeo.

thanks for enjoying.

out of left field: class coke.

Welcome to the newest and snazziest part of rough clarity. No, it's not a baseball feature. It doesn't have anything to do with a weekly writeup from my liberal point of view. And it certainly has nothing to do with my left hand. However, any of these things may become a part of left field at any time.

Left field is going to be a weekly shout-out to stupid, funny, crazy or ignorant. It's gonna be stories I hope you haven't heard that are going to make you say "haha!" or "no way!" or something similar. I hope you enjoy.

Today's illustrious human being comes to us from the 11th state to enter the union, New York. Nah, it's not some crazy protestor in Manhattan or a tourist at Niagara Falls. This person comes from the beautiful (or not so, I've never been there) Lewiston, New York, a city near Niagara Falls.
Joan Donatelli is a 59-year-old former first grade teacher that now apparently substitutes for fourth grade classes. And apparently, the woman has some ingenuity.
Last week as First Coast News reports, Donatelli was told on by a pair of girls in one of the classes. Apparently, Mrs. Donatelli had some white powder on her nose and the girls were worried. Who wouldn't be? Teacher could have anthrax!
Anyways, someone finally determinded this white powder was found to be cocaine. Straight Columbian blow. Mrs. Donatelli was gettin' high!
The police later reached Donatelli at home where she admitted to using the cocaine -- in front of the class. She gave up a small bag of blow and two pen caps. Yes, two pen caps.
Keep reading, this is where you'll laugh.
Apparently, Donatelli was taking the cocaine, laying it on the desk next to the apple and pencil sharpener, and then dipping the pen caps into the powder, and finally inhaling via shoving the pen cap up her nose.
Can't you imagine that situation?
"Hey class, we're having reading time, and I'm telling the whole story without a book! It's got President Bush, the Easter bunny, some cocoa puffs and rainbow world of pandas!"
According the Donatelli, "she had a problem, that she has an addiction, something she's been struggling with." Hmmm, getting high while teaching fourth graders, it's gotta happen more than you'd think.
The principal of this school later informed us that Mrs. Donatelli used to teach a very intensive drug-prevention program at the school for her first graders. Which leaves one question.
Was she the example?

auto club 500 monday race rewind.

Comin' at 'cha with some news and notes from a long day in Fontana, Calif. on Sunday.

The Story.
Winner: Matt Kenseth
How it was done: Held off Jeff Gordon after a late restart with 4 laps to go for his second victory of the weekend
Top 5: Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Burton, Mark Martin
Yellow Flags: 9 for 37 laps with 1 red flag (David Reutimann Turn 3 Crash)
Points Situation: 1.Mark Martin, 2.Jeff Burton (-5), 3. Jeff Gordon (-26)

News/Notes/Ramblings.
-Just Another Day - Once again, just another ho-hum day at California Speedway. Kenseth walked away from the field on the final restart, illustrating how much the "dirty air" behind the lead car hurts handling. The final stats will show 28 lead changes among 12 drivers, but you'll get that with 2 green-flag pit stops. According to David Poole the announced crowd was 87,000, however the stands should a story much below that. NASCAR, it is time to realize that boring racing doesn't bring in the glitzy fans that Brian France so dreams about. Rockingham, how we miss you.
-Hard Hit. David Reutimann provided some very dramatic television after he pounded the turn 3 wall after being wrecked by Greg Biffle with less than 10 laps to go Sunday. When FOX cut to his in-car, Reutimann was slumped over the steering wheel and the radio traffic from his pit was unable to make contact with him. Reutimann finally came to and dropped the window net. It'll be interesting to see if NASCAR releases the g-force count from that hit. Let's just say Mr. Reutimann walked away from that crash today, but 6 years ago, that would have been a different story.
- New Digs. In case you didn't notice, FOX sports unveiled a new "Hollywood Hotel" for the pre-race show and in-race updates with Jeff Hammond and Chris Myers. The new space appears to have windows in the background like the old version -- except now they are large plasma displays with a direct camera feed. The reason for ditching the windows? Now, the "Hotel" can be placed closer to drivers and the garage area for more interviews throughout the weekend because it doesn't need to have a scenic backdrop.
- Power Outage. - Two DEI cars suffered engine failures early in the race, leaving perennial championship favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. stuck in 41st in the points standings. Martin Truex, Jr. blew up first and Junior later reported trouble. The attempted to fix the 8 car, but once on the track the engine blew up big -- and for good. The oil leaving the engine spun Earnhardt's car around in turn 3 and he somehow kept the car off the wall. After getting out, Dale Jr. bowed -- fitting for his miraculous job of keeping the car off the wall. Give that guy an Oscar!
- Hendrick Surge. Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Kyle Busch got off to good starts for the intermediate tracks this season. All 3 finished in the top ten Sunday. Gordon overcame terrible handling early in the race by pitting early and often, and then racing his way back to the front. Johnson ran solidly in the top 10 all day and even led quite a bit. He was sidetracked, however, with 25 laps to go when one of NASCAR's mysterious debris cautions showed up again. Is anyone getting tired of NASCAR's consitent attempts at trying to make the race more exciting? They might as well just institute a mandatory caution with 20 laps to go in every race to get some credibility back.

Rank 'Em
(a new feature that I'll do on rewind to rank the top 10 drivers each week.)
1. Jeff Burton - How can you argue with a 3rd and 4th place to start the year?
2. Kevin Harvick - This team is on it right now, flat tire or not.
3. Jeff Gordon - Salvaged a top-ten at Daytona and came back yesterday. Solid.
4. Matt Kenseth - I'd make him higher if I got a full Arby's combo instead of fries. Matt, talk to your agent.
5. Jimmie Johnson - Has there been a champion that has been more under the radar than JJ?
6. Mark Martin - He'll move up if he stays consistent. And races at Bristol.
7. Tony Stewart - The team made a questionable call to put 4 tires on with just 4 laps to go. He has some points to make up.
8. Kyle Busch - He seemed a lot a bit too aggressive Sunday. Simmer, shrub.
9. Denny Hamlin - C'mon Denny, do more FedEx commercials. Like more donuts on a lown mower.
10. David Stremme - He's just getting a shout for being 10th in the points. Nice.

Next Race: The 3/11/07 UAW Daimer-Chrysler 400, Las Vegas Motor Speedway on FOX

pick' em round 2 champ: Trevor Sager

the standings.

after round 2 of 36

1. 20 points - trevor sager (1 pick 'em win)
2. 10 points - drew owen* (1 - Top 5, 1 - Top 10)
3. 10 points - geoffrey miller* (1 - Top 5)

* = standings were decided by tiebreaker rule.

Wow, boys, wow. Our three picks this week at California? They finished 1, 2, 3. Matt Kenseth (Trevor, scoring 20 points) took the win, Jeff Gordon (Geoffrey, scoring 5 points) took 2nd, and Jimmie Johnson (Drew, scoring 0 points) came home third.

On a side note, that really sucks for Drew not to get any points for a third place finish, but as NASCAR should be, winning matters. "That's just the way the cookie crumbles."

We do have a tie for second this week, so it's time to institute the rules for a tie, mainly in the case of an end-of-season tie. Also, I'm looking at splitting up the season into parts, maybe a halfway champion or a Chase of the Cup style format? Feedback is much appreciated. The tie-break rules will be at the bottom of the post, partly according to the NASCAR rulebook.

Excellent job this week, guys, see ya at Vegas in two weeks. And Trev, nice comeback after posting the goose egg at Daytona.

Official Tiebreak Rules for 2007 pick 'em

1. # of Pick 'Em Race Wins
2. # of Top Fives (by Drivers Chosen)
3. # of Top Tens (by Drivers Chosen)
4. Coin Toss

see y'all in vegas.

kenseth does it fontana.

I thought I'd just leave a quick wrap from today's Nascar race in Fontana.

Matt Kenseth grabbed his first win of the year in the Auto Club 500 with Jeff Gordon running second and Jimmie Johnson third. The race ended under a 4 lap shootout after David Reutimann pounded the wall. Oh, let me restate. SLAMMED the wall in turn 3 after contact from Greg Biffle. His hit brought out the red flag and gave some very dramatic TV time for Fox as Reutimann seemed a little unconcious after the hit. The in-car view was very compelling.

Maybe he was thinking about how to best thank Greg Biffle for that one.

Kevin Harvick likely would have won the race, but he cut a tire under the ensuing yellow flag and had to pit. Mark Martin leaves as the leader in the points despite not intending to run the full schedule.

That will change.

Look for Pick'em Standings to come out later, and the monday race rewind tomorrow (with new features!)