STARTING FIVE FOUR
1. Auguste, St. Joe County
Notre Dame basketball, off to its best start (16-2) since the peak years of Digger Phelps, may be without 6-10 center Zach Auguste for awhile. Auguste, the team’s most improved player who is averaging 14.3 points and 6.7 boards per game, missed last night’s game at Georgia Tech with “academic issues.”
It’s become more of an expected semester ritual at Notre Dame than an SYR.
Fall Semester, 2014: Frozen Five; Spring Semester, 2014: Jerian Grant and DaVaris Daniels; Fall Semester, 2013: Everett Golson.
Hey, this has happened before (Julius Jones, anyone), but rooting for the Irish, as one tweep said yesterday, is just like waiting to be punched in the nuts. I should amend that: rooting for the Irish men’s teams.
Anyway, sources tell the Chicago Tribune that Auguste did not commit an honor code violation, so it may be just a matter of making up work from last semester. That bodes well. Classes began on Tuesday in South Bend.
Without their only true post player, a junior from Marlborough, Mass., the Irish are at best a Sweet 16 team (and that’s being optimistic). With him, in a season such as this where Notre Dame may have already played the nation’s top team just this past weekend –losing to Virginia, 62-56–they could go as far as Digger ever took a team…to the Final Four. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, one web site tabbed Notre Dame football as the No. 2 “up and coming” team of next August. And left tackle Ronnie Stanley, who could be a first-team All-American in 2015, announced that he will return for a senior year (as will nose guard Sheldon “Lonesome” Day). However, it’s way too soon to know which Irish gridders will run afoul of the blue books and graduate student T.A.s this spring and summer.
2. “And I’m Freeeeeeeeee! Free Climbing!”
“But Tony, I brought the sandwiches” “Step off, George.”
Climbers Tommy Caldwell, 36, and Kevin Jorgeson, 30, took dead aim at Rule No. 1 (“Gravity Always Wins”) and lived to tell about it. The pair became the first men in history to free climb Yosemite’s 3,000-foot El Capitan, the world’s largest granite monolith, earlier this week.
Caldwell and Jorgeson’s euphoria was short-lived, however. When they reached the summit, they were beset by Jon Snow, Samwell Tarley and a host of other sworn members of the Night’s Watch, and quickly put in a cell.
For the record: The pair did have harnesses on in case they fell, but they did the entire climb with no outside assistance (i.e. ropes, carabiners, etc.). All arms, legs, core muscles, fingers and toes. That is officially cray-cray.
3. Oscar, Oscar, Oscar
I have yet to see or mention “Whiplash,” which I know a lot of people loved. My thought? They should’ve titled it “American Drummer.”
The New York Times posits, quite correctly, that the two films that are locks to be nominated for “Best Picture” are Birdman and Boyhood. My feeling: both are somewhat flawed and neither is as compelling or just plain good as Nightcrawler, which was completely ignored by the Hollywood Foreign Press at the Golden Globes.
I realize that I’m championing one film here, but as much as I LOVED a few scenes in Birdman, the last Edward Norton-free half hour is kind of a mess. Worked for some but not for me. Boyhood, as I’ve said before, just isn’t that great. We all get the conceit. Bravo! Doesn’t necessarily make it a Best Picture-level film.
Nightcrawler, though, is the kind of movie you can watch over and over.
Also, Eddie Redmayne, a relative unknown, may be the Best Actor favorite because he adhered to Robert Downey, Jr.’s, advice of “never go full retard” in his portrayal of Stephen Hawking. However, Jake Gyllenhaal is a world-class actor with an outstanding resume and here he just gave the best performance of his career (besides the one in which he pretended that he had sincere feelings for Taylor Swift for two months) as Lou Bloom.
The Times’ article advocates for Nightcrawler, as do I. Even more so, I hope Gyllenhaal wins Best Actor before I learn how to spell his surname without having to look it up.
Oh, and I don’t think The Interview will win Best Film or Best Foreign-Hacked Film.
Update: Nominations coming up as I type….So, you can forget most of what I just wrote as Nightcrawler and Gyllenhaal got screwed. Here’s the list of Oscar noms…
4. Bad Look for NFL (Again)
This, we assume, was not McNary’s one phone call he was allowed to make…
One of the four remaining teams in the NFL playoffs is the Indianapolis Colts, who just happened to have one of their linebackers, Josh McNary, charged with rape. McNary is a West Point alum who served two years in the United States Army. Could’ve been an inspirational story leading into Sunday’s game at New England; now, just another bad look for Roger Goodell’s league.
When police arrived at McNary’s door in relation to the December 1 incident, McNary reportedly told them, “I know why you’re here.”
McNary, a backup for the Colts, is Army’s all-time leader in Sacks (28) and Tackles for Loss (49).
Thought du Jour
Free speech is going to see Selma dressed in KKK garb. I’m just sayin’…
Remote Patrol
Cavaliers at Lakers
TNT 10:30 p.m.
“Who’s got a Harvard degree and made the cover of SI in consecutive weeks? THIS GUY!”
Two teams with losing records who just happen to have –arguably–two of the top ten players in NBA history on their rosters. Kobe. LeBron. But watch as Kryie Irving and Swaggy P. take over the show….
Why do you think there are so many “academic” problems for
student-athletes at ND the past few years? Well, as compared to previous eras? Did the school relax it’s entrance requirements for selected football & basketball payers so the school could continue to compete at the “top level” against schools that have been RELAXING (not the Aaron Rodgers version) their academic, cough, cough, “standards” for decades?
Honestly, every time I read about another “college athletic academic scandal” I bust out laughing. Is there ANY one in sports media or most college sports fans who truly believes even half of the football & male basketball players on scholarship at most of the big jock schools would actually qualify for entrance into those schools on “academics”? Let alone be able to keep up with the course work? This is true going back at LEAST to the 1960s, but with the huge amounts of money involved now, I think it’s escalated to the point of farce. And perhaps one of the reasons the colleges haven’t more vigorously protested the “one & done” rule in basketball is they are actually RELIEVED they don’t have to keep ‘secretly’ breaking rules to keep their top players eligible for more than 8 months?
I used to think there were some big schools “above” this breaking of academic rules for their foot/basket ball teams (such as ND, Stanford, Duke) &/or that players who could not begin to keep up with the academic requirements at those schools wouldn’t even want to attend. Now, I think they have succumbed. Their Waterloo was the gigantic TV money & they wanted/needed their share.
What do you think?
More questions today & I’d love if you would answer some/all, either down here in the riff-raff section or in a post.
I’ve been wanting to ask you about this for 2 years – in 2012, if you had lived in South Bend that Fall & covered the ND football team as you did back in 2006-2010, do you think YOU would have uncovered the “truth” about Manti Teo’s virtual girlfriend &/or the entire fraud perpetrated on him? AND would you, a proud ND grad, have written about it as the team was steamrolling towards an undefeated season, the #1 ranking, & culminating in the NCG? And, if you had written about it, let’s say in October-early November, would you have had to leave South Bend & the job? Would you have received threats? (Well, more & more vicious than what you probably got/get on a daily basis as a sports journalist). That was my 2nd year of full-season watching & rooting for ND football & it just seemed magical as the wins kept coming & anyone who dared to derail it would have been at some kind of peril, I think. Even at a non-SEC school. 😉
And if you had figured out some or all of what was happening, how would you have handled it? Would it have seemed a moral quandary to you, based on your love & allegiance to your alma mater & your allegiance to your profession?
Normally, I don’t waste too much time wondering on what someone “woulda” done, but based on your past (as alum & daily beat writer on ND football) AND as someone whose opinion I often seek AND whose writing I admire, I’ve been thinking about it for 24 months. Well, when I’m not watching/thinking about LeBron or how to MAKE & not lose money in the stock market. 😉
And in the Final Jeopardy round – what one thing have you written of which you are most proud &/or think is the best? (Ok, this could be 2 things). I’ll get you started – somewhere in my house, in a folder, I have the printed-out copy of the Beijing Olympics Games-concluding summary/highlights-lowlights/whatdoesitallmean wrap-up (of the afternoon coverage period I think) & even though you won’t believe it, when I heard it Live, through my tear-blurry eyes, thought immediately that YOU had written it, which you later confirmed on your NBC sports blog. Anyhoo, as you know, I watch almost every moment of Olympic TV coverage I can, & absolutely state that NO Olympics-summation has come close since.
Would you say Whiplash snared any key Oscar nominations?
I totally came here from the “hot take” tease on Twitter.
Your consistent praise of “Nightcrawler” is making it tempting. Jake isn’t even my favorite Gyllenhaal.
C’mon, Susie B., I’m workin’ here…
Not to exhaustively answer every question you pose, but I honestly don’t know if I’d have uncovered LennayGate. I have too much respect for guys who were on that beat (Tim Prister, Pete Sampson, Brian Hamilton, etc….) to think I would have done what they did not.
What I do know is that if I had uncovered it, I would have reported it in a nanosecond. Notre Dame the football program is completely divorced from Notre Dame The Experience I Had. No qualms whatsoever. That’s easy.
What am I proudest of writing? Probably my best tweets, that aforementioned Beijing summary, a piece on Wayne Estes that no longer exists on the web, two poems (one for SI On Campus and another “Twas ‘the Night Before Christmas parody on my blog) and, of course, the lyrics to Motley Crue’s “Girls, Girls, Girls.”
Thanks, jdubs.
I actually argued with a friend of mine 2 years ago whether you would have reported the story. He said you were too much of a “homer” (his words) & I said you had too much “journalistic integrity” (yeah, I phrased it just like that & knowing how I feel about your chosen profession these days, it makes me laugh) not to. However, I also said you would NOT have jumped to &/or written the same unproven (& later proven incorrect) conclusion of Deadspin.
As for ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’, er, please tell me your Mama has never heard/read this particular piece of work?
And I’m a bit disappointed, thought you’d finally confess to being the co-writer of your future wife’s mega hit ‘ We are Never EVER Getting Back Together’.
And finally, on par with the Beijing summary (in my humble opinion) is this site – we may not share all the same opinions (where would the fun be in that?) & I do sometimes skim over the baseball bits, but not a weekday goes by that I don’t either contemplate, smile, snicker, or outright guffaw at either the wordplay or content on this site. Thanks again.
Now, can maybe you write something nice about LeBron? 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx769zYAtdY
Boyhood stunk.
YES IT DID. I know the cheese stands alone on this–I cannot remember a time when I was this baffled by universal orgasms over a movie. Even the conceit is a yawn. As my niece pointed out, “You know where else you can watch a kid actor grow up in real time? Every sitcom ever. Put all the episodes of Fraiser together that featured Frederick and you’d have a better movie.” And Frederick was never in any of them–Oh snap.
Mom: “Hey Boyhood, we’re moving! It’s weird this is called Boyhood since your sister is in it just as much as you are, but it is. Get in the car!”
Boyhood bikes around. Daughter sulks. Dad shows up. Time passes and Boyhood is slightly taller. Mom marries a fat old drunk who creeped on her when he was her teacher.
Mean New Husband: “RAAWWWR I’M DRUNK!” Throws pickles at Boyhood. They move out.
Seven hours go by. I wake to find that mom is now a teacher herself, with a kicky new haircut–life is on the upswing. Her new husband is a vet and he drinks a lot of beer. Dad shows up again, and even though everyone else has aged 12 years, he’s now 70.
The end. And the Oscar goes to…Tammy.
This is a hill I’m willing to die on.