John L. Smith to Coach Arkansas - Meltdown Coming Shortly

By now you guys know how much we love it when sports figures melt down in post-game press conferences or other venues. We love these things more than Antonio Cromartie loves to make kids. So the news that Arkansas has hired John L. Smith to coach the Razorbacks after Ozark Chappaquiddick sent Bobby Petrino packing makes us smile.

Why you ask? Well, it's simple really. Coaching in the toughest semi-professional college football conference in the land is stressful - and stress leads to moments like this:




It's only a matter of time until he melts down again - and frankly we can't wait. Welcome back to big time college football Mr. Smith.

Meme of the Day

The following was brought to our attention by Brian at 900 Irving and comes courtesy of the Bearcat Nation. It speaks for itself - hilariously. Check out the entire series after you're done giggling - there's plenty more of these over there.

Ebay Items of the Week: Sean Williams Is Cleaning Out His Closet

Photo: AP

Are you wondering what former Orangemen 7-footer Sean Williams is up to lately?   Well neither are we.

However, after a brief glimpse into the world of  online sports memorabilia, it appears Sean is cleaning out his closet as someone is hawking the complete collection of his game worn Syracuse jerseys.  We're talking the home white, road orange, and blue alternate.  While we're at it, keep an eye on these additional beauties: the white warm up,  blue warm up, and practice jersey.

Craving some more Sean?   Let's give you four minutes of bad quality practice video of Sean with no sound:

West Virginia is Happy to be Free of the Big East

West Virginia just posted a ticket/promotional video on the inner tubes today celebrating the fact that Mountaineers will playing a Big 12 schedule next year. The video is actually very well done and not surprisingly features no clips from last year's beat-down the team suffered at the hands of the Syracuse Orange.

It remains to be seen how well Oliver Luck can play with his new conference mates and how Dana 'Skullet' Holgorsen's Mountaineers will fair against much better competition this upcoming year. What is not in question is how excited that program is to get the hell away from John Marinatto and his motley conglomeration of schools.




H/T - coaching search

Jose Canseco: Earth Scientist

100 years ago today the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic, and the event is being remembered by people all across the world. While it hardly seems like it, Jose Canseco, at least occasionally, is on this planet -- physically anyway. Well Jose  brought his own unique thought process to today's event, taking to Twitter recently to remark that global warming, yes global warming, could have saved the Titanic.

Somewhere Al Gore is shaking his head....in between bites of double cheeseburgers.

Ebay Items of the Week: Holmes on Domes

Photo: HGTV.com

Looking to add a nice hardwood floor to your humble abode?  Well you're in luck.  Ebay is offering up 4x8 sections of the old Carrier Dome floor at a reasonable $1350/pop.   You should recognize that old font that spelled out "Syracuse University."  A quick search found nine of these beauties.

Grave Digger, Fab, and Beantown: An Idiot's March

Quicker than Kris Humphries' marriage, the month of March has come and gone.  A month that started out w/ great promise, quickly turned into another disappointed one for Syracuse fans.  Here's a quick look back at this Idiot's month of March:

March 2nd:  Before a crowd of 33,205 the Orange beats Louisville on Senior Day, let by Brandon Triche's 18 points.  We can put an end to  the"Pitino has Boeheim's number" talk...at least for a moment.

March 8th:  Syracuse scores the hat trick against UConn beating them 58-55 in a terrible "high-noon on a workday" time slot game.  Beating UConn never gets old.

March 9th:  Losing in the Big East tournament is never fun, but if it means resting our players for the NCAA (see Arinze, 2009), I'm ok with it.  The Orange fall to Cincinnati Brawlers Bearcats, 71-68.  The good guys closed the gap late and had the game gone two more minutes they would have advanced.   An ever classy Bearcat Coach Mick Cronin makes a post-game comment questioning why any school would leave the Big East.  

March 10th:   I dove into the world of Monster Jam, by taking Little Champ to the show at the Dome.  This was my first time at one of these, which I would describe as the WWF meeting dirt track racing. 

  My observations:

• lots of camouflage in the audience
• Dome PA playlist: plenty of Toby Keith, AC/DC, and Lee Greenwood
• $15 Slushy in a Grave Digger commemorative mug...someone's making a buck off of this show
• Hmmmm....Grave Digger has the biggest entrance and somehow ends up "winning" the whole thing, reminded me of a little 1980's Hulk Hogan
• my 5yo son absolutely loved it, and that alone was worth the trip

March 11th:  Syracuse lands the #1 seed in the East.  The road to New Orleans goes through Pittsburgh and Boston.

March 13th:  That afternoon my phone blows up with text messages...all along the same line, "Fab out for tournament."  Ugh.  

March 15th:  The Orange avoid being the first #1 seed to lose in the opening round (yes CBS, you're reading this correctly, no matter how hard you try to force feed this down our throats the Round of 64 is not the 'second round').  

March 17th:  It's back to some (relative) sense of normalcy with a 75-59 win over Kansas State.  Frank Martin and Bo Ryan in back to back games...I'm still having nightmares, those guys are terrifying.

March 22nd:  Syracuse survives the Wisconsin 3 point barrage and advance to the Elite 8.  Immediately after the game I text my buddy Joe Verne, "Let's go to the Ohio State game."  In the span of 20 minutes I had printed off game tickets and booked our hotel.  Seriously, how did people travel before the internet?

March 23rd:  After work we roll out of CNY and hit the Thruway headed east to Beantown.  After checking in to our hotel we meet up with some friends, including the always elusive idiot, Boss at The Bell in Hand.   Being late arrivers, we definitely had some "catching up" to do as we enjoyed some cold beverages and led a "Let's Go Orange" chat while sharing the mic with a decent cover band that played that evening.

March 24th:  That morning it was off to Faneuil Hall for some shopping and lunch before the game.  Syracuse fans were everywhere, just a tremendous showing, including little-known Syracuse fan Red Auerbach.  We pre-gamed near the arena at a little watering hole that the Russianator and I stumbled into back in 2003, Hurricane O'Reilly's.   The bar was packed with 99% Orange fans.  A funny moment occurred when the "Hey Song" was played and the local bartenders were taken back by the Orange-colored lyrics that accompanied it.  

As for the game, well you know how that turned out, so we'll just end this post here.

How long 'til football season?

Congratulations Kansas Jayhawks- 2012 NCAA Basketball Champions*

* You heard it here first.. come 2014 when Kentucky's title is vacated

Photo: Sports Illustrated