WAKING LIONS

 

WAKING LIONS

Greetings and salutations, people.  Thanks for coming aboard (the boat).

SIDE NOTE 1: If you still like my one liners on every subject in sports news, it still exists.  Just go on the site and click on the This And That dropdown.  One sentence, numbered, old school style with comments on just about everything in sports and not in sports…still is in play.

SIDE NOTE 2: I have a full time job, and the idea and some of this was written before the Jags-Pats game ended.  As you will read, that would have been PERFECT in timing.  Oh well.  Let’s turn and burn.

 

What is happening as I start embarking in 2018 on this focused idea only blog is that I get triggered, think of a theme, and then just go down that road.  I can’t stop thinking about it (usually I think of these things while swimming, which is where this one occurred also).  I figure I will have plenty of future blogs, but I guess I should clarify WHAT triggered me in this case.

TRIGGER 1:  My #1 workout song presently is Pop Evil-Waking Lions.  It has the brilliance of being heavy and raw, but having the uplifting part of the song that will get it airplay.  Anyway, I listen to this song a LOT while working out.  Take a listen if you want.  That’s also the scary guy in the pic below.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOhsP6F2RmQ

TRIGGER 2:  We had ex-Navy SEAL Brent Gleeson speak at our company meeting last Wednesday.  To say the least, it has inspired a few changes in how I operate in work and life.  I reached out to his site and commented, and the dude even texted me 1 hour later on a Saturday night thanking me and saying we could stay in touch.  Very cool.  Anyway, my workouts will be amped up starting tomorrow, as Brent stirred something in me also.  I wanted very badly to jump from being a Surface Warfare Officer in the Navy to being a SEAL, but having 20/140 vision didn’t help back in 1995.   Nevertheless, the lions stirred and the embers were lit.  Key takeaways:  the only easy day was yesterday, get comfortable being uncomfortable, and all in, all the time.

TRIGGER 3:  We are in the heart of conference play and approaching March quickly.  This blog won’t focus ONLY on college hoops, but since we have had some upsets, and since March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, I thought I would break that down a little also.

 

So, first off, let’s cut to my initial chase, which was seeing where we were at on the college hoops landscape, give updated Final Four picks, and maybe give some clueless bracket pickers some advice from a college hoops junkie who will STILL find some way to not place in any March Madness pool.

So, thought about going through this whole list of rankings and lists.  But, I will streamline that approach.  I will put them in groups.  When we get to this time of year, this is what I do.  I take the present rankings, the preseason rankings, the injury list, and make a mental flow chart of pretender, good on paper, WILL be good, and under the radar teams and why they can and can not win it all.  This is what I came up with in 20 minutes of research (my breakdown would be more complete if all I had to do was blog).

RADAR:

OVERACHIEVING/ JUST OUTSIDE:

• Clemson, Tennessee, Michigan, Rhode Island, Butler, Marquette, UCLA, Baylor, Maryland, Minnesota, Washington, Georgia, St. Bonaventure

TEAMS THAT I WOULDN’T BE SURPRISED SEEING A RUN FROM BUT CAN’T WIN IT ALL:

• Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Arizona State, Auburn, Ohio State, TCU, Miami, Florida State, St. Mary’s, Notre Dame, USC, Oklahoma State, Northwestern

CONTENDERS:

WILL BE DANGEROUS NO MATTER WHERE THEY ARE RANKED/ GOOD ON PAPER:

• Wichita State, Kansas, Xavier, Cincinnati, Gonzaga, Arizona, North Carolina, Kentucky, Seton Hall, Louisville, Florida, Texas A&M
• KU has no bench and just lost a future guy Preston, Zags is in between their danger years, Xavier has some injury problems, Cincinnati I have RIGHT on the brink, UNC has been inconsistent, UK looks bad sometimes, the Hall I think I am tired of treating them as a dark horse, UL would be a badly timed run after their saga, Florida is too inconsistent, and A&M has spent the year underachieving.

THE CREAM OF THE CROP:

• Villanova, UVA, Purdue, Duke, West Virginia, Michigan State
• I eliminate out of the last group:
  • UVA: No offensive talent like in years past, and someone will make them need to score in the six games.  Plus, to be honest, they have a couple tough games coming up and I am not sold on my school yet.
  • Purdue: If anyone in the top 4 drops, this is the team right now I would replace them with.  I have watched them play twice, and they are pretty complete both ways.
  • Duke: Too tight of rotation to my liking and if their young starting five gets fits from a mid-major experienced team with some bigger guys and shooters, they might get bumped early.
  • West Virginia: If they have good guard play and can make free throws, I like someone with ball handling, shooting (especially on the FT’s), and alternative rebounders to bump them in the mid rounds.

THE FILLERBUSTER FINAL FOUR:

• Villanova: This is the most complete team in the country, on offense AND defense.
• Michigan State: I am sticking to my guns with these guys.  My preseason pick, believe they are underachieving and learning, and believe they will be picking it up here shortly for the duration.  They will win it all.  Miles Bridges didn’t have to stay, he did, and he will walk out with a title.
• Arizona: I am sticking with Zona.  They have WAY too much talent still I believe to not make a run, and just started the season like my ’78 Thunderbird.
• Wichita State: Yes, two straight conference losses is odd and they may not even win their conference, but they are too good overall for me to dismiss fully yet.  Experienced, well coached, sharpshooters, have size…

The lyrics of the song Waking Lions don’t exactly split the atom.  But, if you are interested in running through an occasional wall, then maybe they are.

I wanna stand up, a hundred feet tall
‘Cause fear will never lead the way
I’m ready to run, a hundred miles strong
I will never be the same
Waking the lions in me

Or, you can just catch one of Brent Gleeson’s speeches.

So, I ALSO wanted to chat about rising above.  I wanted to take a look at 2017 and forever teams that had THEIR lions woken up.  I came up with some great memories.

2017:

• Jeff Horn will be a great trivia question someday, but note that HE beat Manny Pacquiao.
• Fiji beat New Zealand in the quarterfinals of the Rugby World Cup.
• Denis Istomin beat Djokovic at the Aussie last January, and he personally, most likely, made for a bad year for Djokovic. Denis was ranked #117 at the time and started a slippery slope.
• Sergio Garica won The Masters, taking himself off the best to never win a Major list.
• South Carolina beat Duke in March AFTER the #1 seed, Nova, had already bowed out and cleared the way.
• UCONN women lost to anyone (Miss. St. in this case).
• The Nashville Predators not only won against the postseason experienced Chicago Blackhawks, but SMOKED them 4-0.
• The Indians won 33 of their last 37 games and bowed out to the upstart, young, oddly underdog Yanks.
• College football. Syracuse beat Clemson.  Iowa SMOKED Ohio State at OSU by THIRTY ONE.  Iowa State beat Oklahoma IN Norman.
• The Vikings did THEIR thing with a journeyman QB who has TWO top priced free agents in his rear view mirror the WHOLE year.
• The Eagles did THEIR thing after losing NFL MVP candidate Carson Wentz. The defense basically reminded us “what about US?”
• The Pats…never mind.
• The Jags were considered a bad loss to teams early in the season, especially since Blake Bortles was at the helm. They grew on us.  They went to Heinz Field and beat DOWN the Steelers.  Then, they went to Foxboro and ALMOST (would have made this article brilliant timing) beat the Pats, up 20-10 late and allowing Tom Brady to happen.

EVER (not in any order and skipped some on purpose or accident):

• NC State hoops beat Houston and Valvano couldn’t even pick someone to hug.
• The Miracle on Ice had the hockey machine go down to the abrasive Americans.
• Villanova hoops shot 78.6%, allegedly might have coked up also, and still only beat the Ewing led Hoyas by two points.
• Buster Douglas was a 42-1 underdog to Mike Tyson, and knocked him OUT and not just out-pointed him.
• The 1997 Marlins won. It all.  Expansion boundaries out the window.
• YE Yang beat Tiger Woods in a playoff WHEN Tiger was leading going into the final round.
• VCU made the Final Four. George Mason made the Final Four.  Mason beat the unthinkable combo of Michigan State, UNC, Wichita State, and UCONN on THEIR way.  Kansas and that guy, Danny Manning, made an unthinkable run to a title as a #8 seed.
• Mine That Bird won the Kentucky Derby at 50-1 in 2009, and “Upset” beat the unbeatable Man o’War in 1919.
• John Daly smoked cigs and drank bourbon to the 1991 PGA Championship, where he was an ALTERNATE.
• Milan (161 students) beat Muncie (1600) and they made the greatest sports movie ever from that.
• Texas Western hoops beat UK and changed the way we think about race on the court forever.
• In 1982, Chaminade beat Ralph Sampson and his UVA friends.
• Leon Spinks jabbed Ali to a victory in 1978.
• The Red Sox broke their own curse in 2004, but being down 3-0 to the Yankees in a SERIES and still doing it is ridiculous.
• The Miracle Mets in 1969 earned their nickname as “Miracle.”
• In 1955, Jack Fleck beat Ben Hogan in the US Open. Jack had three total victories ever, and Ben Hogan was going for his TENTH MAJOR.
• In 2007, the Golden State Warriors beat the Mavs as an eighth seed, becoming the first 8 seed to win a 7 game series against the 1 seed (Knicks and Nuggets did it in 5 games, all).
• Joe Freaking Namath in 1969.
• Rulon Gardner beat the unbeaten Alexander Kerelin in wrestling in 2000.
• Just a few, all. I only have so much time.

It doesn’t matter what happens today, all.  The Vikings, Eagles, and Jags had some felines NOT wanting a nap any time soon.

I won’t bore you with motivational verbiage.  I will just say go wake up some of your own lions, and sure as hell to ENJOY when it happens in sports.

I had links to share that were fun, but mistakenly erased them when moving in between Google Doc sheets and blogs and other.  Sorry.  Next time, I will make sure to have some.

That’s it for today, all.  Hope you enjoyed or are at least more informed.  Will I blog again?  That is a CLOWN question, bro.  Peace.