Danny Hope Speaks; Unclear if Anyone is Listening

Mike Cleff of WLFI in Lafayette got a one-on-one sit-down with the former don of Purdue football, Danny Hope. Part 1 aired last night and is available at WLFI's website. Part 2 airs tonight. I hope there isn't a cliffhanger ending... like Cleff asks him about what mustache comb he uses and then we fade to black, with Danny giving his crooked grin.

In the three-minute segment we're allowed to see (out of a purported hourlong interview -- I've asked WLFI if the complete hour will be available somewhere), Hope continues his rambling, sort of entertaining in the drunken uncle sort of way, about Purdue football and how unfairly he was treated.

Hope calls Morgan Burke out in the interview and says he should have "been a little more accountable." Not that I ever like to side with Morgan Burkce, but no, Danny, as head coach, you're actually the one accountable. The buck stops with you, as they say. For Morgan Burke, taking accountability means making the difficult decision to fire a man and to pay him his buyout. Let's not undervalue the fact that that is a big decision. (I did like the "behind the whistle" and "behind the necktie" analogies from the ever-quotable Hope. He kind of took the "behind the wheel" metaphor and applied his usual wire whisk.)

Hope also notes that the players wanted him to be there. That's all well and good, but they wanted him there because he let them run the asylum and get away with not even knowing their assignments on the field at times -- something that was apparent even to non-football experts like me. He and the coaching staff he champions were, quite simply, not at Big Ten level and were not getting the job done. This was made apparent  numerous times over the course of Coach Hope's time at the helm (or behind the whistle, if you will), as we have documented here at BS. Losing to lesser opponents, not rising to the occasion when it was absolutely critical, getting positively walloped by good teams.... all of these are signs of poor preparation and/or coaches who are just in over their heads.

Going back to Hope's comments, I love this one:

"We hoped we had done enough. But I knew it was close. We had a tough stretch there and didn't come through at a critical time of the season and, obviously, had lost the support of our administration, athletic administration, and fan base."

You knew you'd lost basically all support possible... and yet it was still "close"? Nope, it wasn't.

The amazing thing about this is that if Hope actually believes what he is saying here, then he still doesn't understand that it was basically a done deal after the Michigan and Wisconsin embarrassments. And even if you cling to some kind of delusion that it wasn't over then (like if you're, oh, I don't know...Kelly Kitchell), then the bed-wetting at Minnesota where a truly bad Gophers team relentlessly pummeled and listless and disinterested Boiler squad (one we wrote may have actually been the low point) was for sure the end for Hope.

This interview truly means nothing, which is probably why nobody else was scrambling to get this "scoop." Danny Hope is old news and he's really got no feathers in his cap (despite what he surely thinks) that will make many of us look back at his tenure with any sort of fond remembrance. His time in charge was a low-budget experiment by Morgan Burke -- Burke has essentially admitted as much -- that did not work out. He took a program that had clawed its way to respectability after many years of awfulness and in four years presided over them becoming a punchline again.

That's as succinct as I can put it.

Boilers Overtake Western Carolina In Second Half As BTN Embarrasses Selves

Not a good night for the BTN. Almost as bad a night for Purdue, as the Boilers struggled through an atrocious first half, shooting only 23%, to trail by eight at the break, 29-21. I had faith the Boilers could overcome this Western Carolina team with even a moderate improvement in the second half, and I turned out to be right, as Purdue rallied to win 65-60. Not that any of us got to see it, as the BTN lost their feed midway through the first half and never got it back. This was after those first ten minutes were intermittently littered with interruptions....

...and then returns to the action. But we'll get to all that.

So glad he's back

Rob Hummel led the Boilers with 19 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, a steal, and two blocks. I don't know about you, but I think Rob is more than comfortable in his role as the number 1 option, something that more than a few people raised as a concern before the season started. He looks comfortable out there, hustling as much as he always did, being a leader by example, and always seeming to be calm and in position.

Lewis Jackson had 15 big points, including 9 of 12 from the FT line. Lew also left the game with a limp (according to reports -- I didn't see it, remember) and officially logged 24 minutes.

Kelsey Barlow had a crazy stat line (I would have loved to see this game!), with 6 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, a block, 2 turnovers....and FIVE fouls. All in 27 minutes. Weird.

DJ Byrd again played single digit minutes. Hope he's back to strength soon.

Ryne Smith had a steady 9 points, all from beyond the arc, and also added 6 rebounds and 3 steals. Jacob Lawson continues to be a guy I like, as he turned in a six point performance, along with 3 blocks in 21 minutes. Yes, he fouls a lot. Yes, he's got to work on his free throws. But the raw talent and good composure for a freshman is very fun to watch.

Purdue continues to struggle in the post, however, and this is indeed becoming a major concern. If the Boilers shoot poorly, as they did in the first half tonight and in the second half against Xavier, they are going to lose more games than any of us are comfortable with. And this nonsense at the free throw line -- Purdue missed seventeen free throws tonight -- only makes things more irritating. They have some time to work these kinks out before conference play begins, but the issues are becoming epidemic and regular. Not a good sign.

Now, since I wasn't able to see much of the action, let's get back to talking about that abomination.

What made it even more keystone cops-ish was the fact that the BTN decided that while Purdue was (kinda) worthy to put on the network, they were only really sort of worthy. So the network that generated more than $220 million in ad revenue in 2010 elected to half-ass the broadcast tonight and have Eric Collins do the play-by-play with an analyst whom I cannot remember from the studio in Chicago while watching....

...the same troublesome feed we all were being subjected to. This led to me being somewhat amused when the feed was first lost (approximately 5 seconds into the game -- no, I am not kidding), because Collins sounded a bit distressed. And why not? When you're actually at the game you're calling, you simply continue calling the action and apologize for the technical issues and do your best to describe the action.

But Collins was not there. He was, presumably, in Chicago. Which also means that we'll never see this game replayed because, well, there is no commentary. Unless the BTN elects to have the commentary track recorded and added to the footage of the game (if it exists) and then air it as a replay. But think of the level of effort involved there. They can't even bother to send their broadcast team to West Lafayette -- why would anyone expect them to do something to remedy their problems?

Isn't this one of the reasons the BTN is headquartered in Chicago? To be right in the heart of Big Ten country?

And then, Mike Hall -- after being rather cheeky and goofy during the halftime report -- takes to Twitter and derides Purdue fans as "rude" because of the notes he's seeing on there:

Hey, sorry everyone! But back off! We're working on it! You serfs should be happy with the Bo Schembechler soul-crushingly boring Icons documentary we tossed on the screen!

I gently pointed out to Michael that ripping frustrated Purdue fans is probably not the best approach right now and that being the face of the BTN has its downs to go along with its many, I am sure, perks. Oh, and also? Welcome to Twitter, Mike. Sometimes people are mean. Time to grow up and put on your big boy pants.

Let's be clear here. Purdue fans had every right to be pissed off tonight and to take out their frustrations on the multimillion dollar network that is supposed to be a professional broadcasting entity. The BTN's primary focus -- far above all else -- should be broadcasting games. Not the Icons series, not what failed coaches like Gerry DiNardo or Glen Mason think, not clever Journey commercials...but games. And they failed miserably this evening. 

The Big Ten Network should be ashamed of themselves and should make it clear that they will never let this sort of joke happen on their airwaves again. But they won't, because they really don't care. You're not going anywhere. 

(Incidentally, if you do wish to contact the nice people at the BTN, their address is 600 W. Chicago Ave, Suite 875, Chicago, IL 60610. Their phone number is 312 665 0700 and their fax number is 312 665 0740. I encourage you to express your displeasure.)

Demtrius McCamey Spotted In a Different Court

He was in Judge Mathis' court, fool!

Hey, what would YOU do in Chicago?

Sports Phrases to Eliminate

I've been wanting to throw this feature out there for a while, so here we go.

Every year, there’s a Web site out there that cites the phrases and terms that just need to be retired from everyday use. Things like “bling” made it a few years ago, to give you an example. And this got me to thinking that we should come up with a list of sports-related terms and/or phrases that simply must be done away with. The list – for now – is below and is in no way exhaustive. We invite and encourage you to help us with this and share others we haven't thought of and some of your pet peeve, go-to, lazy broadcaster phrases.

“and oh, by the way…” – ESPN analysts use this one constantly. CONSTANTLY. One of the worst abusers is Mike Golic who puts it into any sentence no matter how non-worthy the subject matter is. He’ll tell you that the Lakers won and that, “andohbytheway, Kobe had 38 points.” No, Mike, no. No “andohbytheway” necessary. Just quit it.

“flat-out” – what does this even mean? As far as I can tell, this has one acceptable use and that’s when you’re describing someone or something’s top speed or something very similar to that. You can say, “Tony Stewart ran 195 MPH flat-out for the final four laps” or “Running flat-out, Tim is the fastest sprinter I’ve ever seen.” You cannot say, “Tom Brady can flat-out play.” It doesn’t make any sense. What does the “flat-out” add to that?

“take one game at a time” – I know people have made fun of this for years but still… shouldn’t that have been enough to get it retired? I mean, how else can you take games? Does Matt Painter ever sit in the Purdue locker room and advise the troops, “Okay, men, I know we’ve been playing well and we seem really focused, so let’s take our next four games and play them all at once on Saturday.”

“focus” – Okay, this one sort of has some sort of sense to it but can we all agree it’s wildly overused? Everything is about focus and not being focused or they were more focused than their opponent or we had to get away from home so we could focus or we had to get back home so we could focus… it’s exhausting all the focusing it seems teams and players are doing.

“Giving 110%” (or any variation) – Again, an old one. But still widely used. And not just by broadcasters; this is something Billy Packer will say during the NCAA Tournament every year. Percentages don’t work like this, mouth-breathers. No matter how hard you try, nothing can ever be more than 100%. 100% is maximum capacity.

“literally” – This one is overused all the time, too. You hear people actually say “literally” when something is actually happening figuratively or only in the broadcaster’s mind. “Vince Young literally plowed his way into the end zone!!” Really? He actually, physically, drove a truck with a snowplow on the front through the defensive linemen and into the end zone? I’m fairly certain that’s not allowed. I even heard someone on ESPN radio recently say that a pitcher was “literally melting down.” Wow, that had to be pretty traumatic for the other players to witness as he turned into a puddle of goop.

“the reality is…” – Everything that happens is reality. You don’t need to say this as though everything else we were discussing is fantasy.

Using “courage,” “hero,” or other such words to describe athletes – This includes “warrior” or "soldier," too. They’re athletes. They play sports for a living. Usually for tons of money. There’s nothing – NOTHING – courageous about them. I know saying someone is “great” or “incredible” gets boring, but let’s not anoint anyone as the next Marvel Comics superhero just because they can score 30 points in a half.

“We just have to make plays.” – No fricking sh-t. This is code for “I don’t know the answer to your question about our second half strategy.”

“He just knows how to win” or “He/they find(s) a way to win.” – Unless he loses. At which point you say this about the other guy.

“Just well enough to lose.” – What does this even mean? It’s a stupid cliché that makes no sense at all. To do this, one would have to know precisely what their team is going to do that day and then, play well but just slightly worse than the other team. Intentionally. Otherwise, I don’t see a scenario in which this makes any sense whatsoever.

“He knows how to play the game” or “He plays the game the right way” – I always hate this one because it’s pure laziness. A guy legs out a double and hustles the whole way and so we say he plays the game the right way. Yeah, I guess. But what’s the alternative? Holding the bat by the wrong end and facing the stands? A shortstop wearing a foam finger on his hand instead of a glove? A basketball player with his shoes on his hands?

“intangibles” – This one bothers me because it’s what a lazy analyst uses to cover his ass. I think the game will come down to scoring and defense… and, of course, intangibles. Meaning, the things I can’t think of because I’m a mouth-breathing moron. I’d venture to say that 90% of the people who use “intangibles” in analysis couldn’t possibly define it.

“He’s the X-factor” – You can’t define the x-factor, fools. That’s what it’s called the x-factor. If you say “Eli Manning’s ability to complete passes in the fourth quarter will be the x-factor,” then it’s not the x-factor. He just needs to complete those passes. An unexpected lightning storm that strikes Eli in the helmet would be an x-factor.

“He manages the game” (in reference to QBs) – In other words, I can’t think of anything good to say about this guy and I’m amazed he hasn’t lost every game he’s ever played because he sucks, so I’ll just say he manages the game.

Controlling one’s own destiny – You can’t “control” destiny. If you believe in such a thing, it’s already…destined. Get it? You can control your own outcome or situation or future…but not destiny.
“That’s a football player right there.” – Just in case we thought he was a jockey on his way to Churchill Downs.

“That is a golf shot.” – Don’t. Be. Lazy. Tell us something. Don’t say something one of my idiot buddies would say on the weekend at the muni.

“Shocked the world!” – No, you did not. Unless it’s the World Cup, nobody in Ghana cares what you just did.

Invoking religion and thanking God, but only for good things – Look, there’s nothing wrong with being religious. But I hear players credit Jesus as the reason they won a game, scored a winning touchdown, etc. Just once I’d love to hear someone say in their postgame interview, “Well, we were doing just fine until God made me fumble at the goal line.”

“long” to describe a player – Jay Bilas loves to say a player is “long.” Where, Jay? In the Johnson region? How about just saying he’s tall? Where did this long crap come from? He’s not an alligator.

“He'd like to have that one back.” – Broadcasters say this about pitchers (who also say it) all the time in baseball. “Yeah, the changeup that Pujols hit 500 feet in the 6th… that’s the one that Martinez would like to have back.” I don’t get where this came from. Of course he’d like to “have back” the pitch that got drilled. Doesn’t that go without saying? I mean, while we’re at it, wouldn’t every team like to “have back” every season that they haven’t won a championship? That’s so damn stupid. Stop saying it.

Others? Please share.

Coke Zero Wants To Put You On TV

I imagine we're not the only Big Ten blog to get this note today, but a gentleman from 360i.com contacted us this morning regarding Purdue fans maybe having a chance to get in a Coke commercial. I'm not usually one to respond to these kinds of things, but I know how creative you sexy BS readers are, so I'll let the note explain:

With the NCAA Tournament brackets finally set and the Boilermakers heading to the Big Dance against Northern Iowa this Thursday (after exciting Big Ten title win), I wanted to let you know you that Coke Zero is giving fans a chance to be in their new TV commercial airing before the championship game on April 6th. There are no video or photo entries for Purdue yet on the "March Madabase" -- http://www.tastethemadness.com -- so now is the chance for Boilermaker fans to put themselves in the spotlight as a Big Ten champs (there are entries for conference rivals like Illinois and OSU).

All Purdue fans have to do to enter is upload their most passionate videos/photos supporting their team, and they could be featured in a national Coke Zero TV ad on college basketball's biggest night. Check out this video for your fellow Big Ten team, the Fighting Illini, as an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyOVa1HZm_0

Head over to the official "Taste the Madness" site to submit entries and view videos/photos from colleges around the country: http://www.tastethemadness.com

Okay, I'll Ask

As stupid as this show clearly is.... and no, I don't plan to watch it.... but I just have to ask. Is there anyone who can honestly think they could traverse those giant red rubber bouncy balls while soaking wet and slathered in mud? I mean, seriously, it's not possible. What's the point? To see how many different angles at which people can hurtle into the swampy water below?



Also? People are wearing all sorts of protection (helmets, jackets, etc.) and are falling, at worst, into muddy water. Whoop-dee-freaking-doo. You can get the same level of entertainment watched children in a ball pit at Chuck E Cheese.

People are stupid.

No Math Majors Work In ESPN Graphics Dept

So I'm watching Sportscenter last night, mainly because I'll watch a good test pattern if it's in HD, and they're talking about the (snore) NBA and how dominant the Suns and Mavs are. (Oh, and on a side note, I am certain neither of them will win it all. I don't know why...I'm just feeling the Spurs and nobody is even acknowledging they exist.)


Anyway, the point is, I was watching them rave about the season-long rolls the Mavs and Suns are on and the graphic about the Suns caught my eye. I rolled back the DVR and I had to re-read it ten times to make sure I wasn't adding wrong. But take a look:

43-8 in their last 55 games, you say? If you can go 43-8 in 55 games, that's quite a team indeed since 43-8 can only be accomplished by mortal teams in a 51 game span, not 55. What happened to those other four games? Were they striken from the record for some reason? Was Mike D'Antoni's hair out of place? Were Steve Nash and Shawn Marion busy playing pickup hoops in an airplane hangar somewhere?

I know, I know, it's just a typo but still.

Boilers Reach 18-10 and Confuse Announcers

Despite Northwestern's comeback, largely fueled by stinky, white-man armpits, Purdue held on for another road win on Saturday to move to 18-10 on the season and doubling their win total from last season.

Towards the end of the game, Tarrance Crump went to the line. My parents were both at my house because we were doing some renovations and my mother suddenly says, "Why is he shooting a third free throw?"

I hadn't seen the play so I distractedly responded, "Maybe he was shooting a three."

"No, he wasn't shooting," mom replied.

"Maybe there was a lane violation," I immediately deduced.

This seemingly natural train of thought by an average college basketball fan like me shouldn't seem like much. But, apparently, it qualifies me to be a broadcaster for the ESPN Plus regional team. Take a look at this analysis from the broadcasting team of this game -- high comedy. Apparently, play-by-play man Wayne Larrivee just started making up rules.

Purdue now closes with home games against Minnesota and Northwestern, giving them a very legitimate chance to close the regular season with twenty wins heading into the Big Ten Tournament.

Boom Goes The Dynamite

One of the ideas for creating a sports blog of any sort is to share things with your readership, no matter how small, that amuse them. Well, I realized we'd never posted this video below here and you've no doubt seen it by now since it's been on YouTube for a long time. However, if you haven't seen it, you're in for a treat.

I don't care how many times I've watched this -- it's like a really bad car wreck that you just cannot look away from...only better, because nobody is potentially dead.

This clearly was Indianapolis news so maybe boilerdowd can clue us in to what the hell is going on here...was this an intern? A practical joke? Whatever it was, it's awfully painful to watch.

What's amazing is how easily flustered this kid is. I mean, I screw up all the time and there are probably more people watching me in my office than there are watching the news in Indiana! (Okay, come on, that was kind of funny. No? Okay.)

I'm not certain of my favorite part since there are so many to choose from, but I dare say it might be this amalgamation of lines, delivered as one at around the one minute mark:

"Hoosiers are on the four on...on the year... and they have won six of its last seven games tomorrow will be the game three at three PM."

Read that again slowly and understand that I transcribed it word-for-word. Wow, it's lik ehe's having a minor stroke and is trying to speak through it. Perhaps the best part is that he's talking about Ball State and says "Hoosiers." Or maybe it's that he transitions with, "Moving to Ball State men's tennis," as though he was just talking about women's tennis when it was, evidently, men's baseball.

You just know going into this he was excited to use his shiny, new catchphrase, "Boom goes the dynamite," and he manages to use it, although it's hard to tell if he's watching the same highlights we're seeing.

Good stuff and worth your time for the laughter you'll get.