10 Observations from The USA's 0-0 game with Argentina
No offense, but did Argentina look completely uninterested in this game? Thank you.
If this is the best group of the USA's mostly European-based players, count me as unimpressed. If this is what playing in Europe gets Clint Dempsey, Eddie Johnson and DaMarcus Beasley--they could be in MLS and do no worse.
Tim Howard was outstanding--he deserves credit for that performance. BRAVO. Now, who else can we say that about for the Yanks?
Not to harp on the forwards, but when was the last USA attack on the enemy goal that you thought to yourself--"wow, this looks promising....?"
USA opponents need only to apply consistent pressure on the ball and the US will make a poor pass, a mistake, or get pickpocketed by the defense.
Sacha Kljestan's opportunity late in the game summarizes for me the extent of the Americans' lack of seasoning on a world stage. Sacha had a great chance that he just could not get off fast enough. That millisecond of hesitation is what elite countries have in abundance and we lack in similar abundance.
I'm not always in favor of a coaching change in the middle of World Cup qualifying, butI think it's time US Soccer realized its mistake and fires Bob Bradley. I LIKE THE GUY--but the USA needs the training and pressure of Europe and South America. They could have had Juergen Klinsmann when he was available...
The officiating was atrocious. CONCACAF is a joke.
Is the USA defense just letting the opposition have the ball on the wings unopposed? Argentina did that all night long, and there was nary a US defender in sight when the ball was played in.
I don't mean to sound the alarm--but WC qualifying is in jeopardy with play like that.
All ball....Argentina had way to many of these last night
Of course, there is no US media attention given the World Hockey Championships north of the border, but that did not stop the USA from defeating IIHF-lightweight Slovenia 5-1 tonight in Halifax, Nova Scotia (for those of you who don't know--it's a Canadian Province east of Maine).
Phil Kessel of the Boston Bruins notched a hat trick, and eleven other players scored a point. Kessel's fellow Bruin teammate Tim Thomas stopped 11 of 12 shots in goal for the Americans.
The US now faces a Canadian squad playing on home ice without that yearly distraction called the Stanley Cup Finals to worry about after the Montreal Canadiens lost in five games to the Philadelphia Flyers. Montreal was the last Canadian-based NHL franchise to win a Stanley Cup back in 1993, and The Habs lead all NHL teams with 24 Cups.
Looking Ahead to the Canucks: Canada always has an emotional edge when playing the Americans, and on their own ice with a crowd that expects no less than gold, the USA has its work cut out for them, even in a game that won't effect either team's entry to the second round. I look for Tortorella to rest Thomas in this game. How the USA responds to early adversity will tell the tale with this young team.
Most interesting Stat Line: Los Angeles Kings' Anze Kopitar, Slovenia's only NHL-er, scored a goal and was +1 for the game. Not too bad for a player that must have played a lot of different roles on a team losing by four goals.
Selfish thoughts on Game 1 of the Western Conference Semis:
1. The Spurs can run--those graybeards are fast. Bowen had a great first quarter, but I don't think he should play 34 minutes if that means Parker or Manu have to sit.
2. As advertised, Paul and West are the show. If they are playing well, the Hornets will always be in the thick of it. Horry, Oberto and Thomas looked like statues trying to guard West.
3. Paul reminded me of Baron Davis the way he drove to the hole. When his outside shot wasn't working, he drove and dished.
4. Parker is unbelievably good. Fast as lightning with a great outside shot. Manu is a great shooter in traffic.
5. Bowen should have been called for all the shoulders he put into Paul during the game.
6. Bonzi is a Spurs killer. If he can produce 10 points a game in twenty minutes, the Hornets will win. I would start him instead of Mo Pete. The fact that he can play both SG and SF gives Scott flexibility.
7. DON'T BLAME HUGO!! Blame the Hornets' organization and the New Orleans Arena staff.
8. I expect a big game from Duncan in game 2. I think he will be guarding West on the defensive end.
9. Chandler's ability as an offensive-zone rebounder was a key factor last night.
10. I was surprised to see the Spurs doing less complaining after each foul called against them.
USA Hockey is replacing gray with green at the IIHF World Hockey Championships in Halifax and Quebec City.
The Americans, with a roster filled with NHL players 25 and younger, beat a spirited Latvian crowd and team 4-0 in Halifax, Nova Scotia in each team's first game of the tournament. The annual World Championships are usually held in Europe, and this is the first time Canada has hosted the event.
Patrick Kane (Chicago Blackhawks), Dustin Brown and Patrick O'Sullivan (Los Angeles Kings) and Zach Parise (New Jersey Devils) scored for the US. Next up for the Americans is Slovenia, then a date with a Canada squad playing on home ice in the national sport.
The National Team Advisory Group of Don Waddell, David Poile, Ray Shero and Brian Burke went with a youth movement this time around, while American stars of the past like Keith Tkachuk (St. Louis Blues), Bill Guerin (New York Islanders), Mathieu Schneider and Doug Weight (Anaheim Ducks) all sat this one out.
Now, the Green Team is hoping to come away with gold. A medal is not out of the question, but gold may be. Americans have never won a tournament without strong goaltending. Can Tim Thomas be the difference?
Selfish thoughts and commentary: It's about time USA Hockey gave John Tortorella his due. I bet many NHL fans don't even realize he has more wins than any American-born coach in NHL history. He's got the fire and confrontational style of a Herb Brooks. I think he can coach like him as well.
In the midst of USA Hockey's necessary youth movement, it is great to see future Hall-of-Famers Mike Modano and Jeremy Roenick playing so well in the NHL playoffs. Both of them were the standard-bearers for USA Hockey for 20 years, and I believe these two 500-goal scorers finally put to rest the appaling idea that Americans could not score in the NHL.
I've seen it before, but it props to USA Hockey for the National Team Development Program. Most of the US roster has gone through the system and have trained and played together at various tournaments. No more all-star teams!!
Head-scratchers: Where were Brian Gionta, Jack Johnson, Erik Johnson and Ryan Kesler in Team USA's plans?
On a day when Canada's streak of consecutive victories ended at 20, the USA made a huge step towards a second U-20 World Junior Hockey Championship title with a 3-2 victory over Russia in the Czech Republic on Saturday.
The WJC lacks sufficient coverage here in the United States, while our Cousins in Canada can watch all the Maple Leaf games on live TV. It was no surprise the NHL Network had highlights of Canada's momentus loss but none of the US's victory.
And that is a shame. Just last year, Patrick Kane was lighting the lamp for the USA, not the Chicago Blackhawks. Two more future NHLers, James vanRiemsdyk (drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers) and Kyle Okposo (New York Islanders) were on that team last year, and are doing quite well this time around. Okposo also just signed with the Islanders, and will join them after the WJC is over.
USA Hockey is doing its part by having all of the American games via audiocast on the organization's web site, but that is cold comfort for holiday hockey fans like myself who have ached to see American WJC games on TV for twenty years.
Lost in the shuffle is Nashville Predators prospect goalie Jeremy Smith, who has allowed just 5 goals in the first three games. When the US gets good goaltending, anything can happen.
TV viewers in the US should demand that some regional network accessible to a majority of cable and satellite subscribers purchase access to these games. If I had a choice between endless (and largely meaningless) college bowl games and international hockey, I'll take the latter every time.
There are enough of these players who will play in the NHL (in big media markets) next year to make it work. There are enough players on College and Junior programs --like the Wisconsin Badgers and Minnesota Golden Gophers--right now to give more viewers a reason to watch, too.
Sometimes the past can haunt you, and some times it can bite you in the backside. Monte Towe may still be looking for a piece of his bottom on the floor of the RBC Center after Sunday night.
The visiting University of New Orleans Privateers pulled off a major upset last night, defeating the North Carolina State Wolfpack 65-63 in Raleigh, NC. The event was significant on its own—a lesser UNO team from a lesser conference (the Sun Belt), and on the road at the home of Jimmy Valvano, Norm Sloan, and oh yes, Monte Towe.
Towe, now an assistant coach under former NBA coach Sidney Lowe, coached the Privateers from 2001-2006. Towe left UNO after the 2005-06 season, presumably to go back home, where he led the Wolfpack to the 1974 NCAA Title.
However, given the time frame and the season from hell he endured because of Hurricane Katrina, one can wonder not too deeply to find reasons why an assistants’ job in tobacco road was more appealing than a head coaching gig in a rebuilding city--recovering from the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.
Quite a few of us evacuees went through what Towe must have been thinking: namely asking yourself if the chance in front of you trumps the reality you have in New Orleans going forward. I spent 10 months in Dallas myself after the storm--away from my house, my family and my life as I knew it. But I had to go back home. And I did.
So, this article is not about how a selfish Towe abandoned his team and his adopted city for greener pastures. He went home— and no one—least of all those of us that know true separation from the place you love, can deny him that choice.
But he did leave a UNO team that desperately needed a steady hand, a talented coach (which I believe Towe is), and a leader for the University of New Orleans in its time of need. You see, UNO Men’s basketball drives the athletic budget, pitifully small however it is. The Privateers’ home arena was flooded by Katrina and has yet to be repaired over two years later. UNO still plays its home games in what amounts to a high school gym, and will for the foreseeable future.
It is not surprising that Towe would leave under such circumstances. It’s like being the executive chef at Commanders Palace then after the storm being relegated to a short order cook at Waffle House in a FEMA trailer. Such Spartan conditions cost UNO Towe’s replacement, Buzz Williams, who left for an assistant coach position at Marquette after just one season with the Silver & Blue. Williams, too, is a talented coach with nothing but blue skies ahead of him.
The heavy task of coaching the Privateers was given to California assistant and relative youngster Joe Pasternack (right). At least Pasternack gives some emotional gravitas to the situation: he’s a New Orleans native and his parents, flooded out though they were, chose to stay in the New Orleans area. The youthful and energetic Pasternack may just be what UNO needs—passion, enthusiasm, and an upset here or there, to build up the recruiting base and get more people in the seats at the Human Performance Center.
Under then-coach Tim Floyd, UNO was the best basketball team in the state for a good half a decade in the late 80's-early 90's. To get anything near that in the next decade would be a major accomplishment, and just like the city it calls home, the Privateers will be rebuilt under the watchful eyes of one of its own.
Tulane may have lost the game 34-9 to No. 2 LSU on Saturday at the Superdome, but Tulane’s return from a near-death experience of Katrina may have just taken a turn for the better in a lop-sided but entertaining loss to the cross-state powerhouse Fightin’ Tigers.
Diminutive Tulane quarterback Anthony Scelfo led the Wave to a surprising 10-9 deficit at halftime, the Tulane offense confounding the LSU defense with trick plays and the occasional first down. The halfback passes, laterals and reverses effectively shut down the speedy LSU defensive line and kept the Tigers wondering what happened to a easy victory in an exciting first half.
In the second half, LSU asserted its dominance and literally ran over the Green Wave with 24 unanswered points. Another loss for the Wave? Certainly. A sign of better times on the horizon? Maybe, just maybe.
A lot will depend on Tulane football fans. The two previous games, both at home, had announced crowds well under 30,000, and likely no more than 10-15,000 people actually put “cheeks in the chairs.” Keep in mind as well that supporters of the University of Houston and Championship Division-member Southeastern Louisiana filled probably half of those seats.
Psst--It’s easy to get a good seat at the Dome for a Tulane football game. Simply buy the cheapest ticket you can and pick your favorite spot—because no one will be sitting in it.
Tulane has had a fan support problem that will seriously inhibit their ability to attract Division I-A talent if they continue to draw so poorly at the gate. An announced crowd of 58,789 saw the LSU-Tulane game on Saturday—good enough to boost Tulane’s average attendance but well below Superdome capacity (69,000). The Tulane Athletic Department had as many as 3,000 tickets remaining as of Friday. This, above all the Post-K challenges for the Green Wave, must change if Tulane football is to have a future.
Many fans may have stayed away because of the early start time (11:00 am) and because they could see it on ESPN2. LSU fans, which travel extremely well, hate early start times because they ruin the tailgating routine of watching all the daytime games before heading to Tiger Stadium.
Not only must Tulane’s fans buy tickets, they must make wearing Olive and Blue a constant reminder to college football fans that D-I football lives in New Orleans. Wear it with a pride that comes only through adversity. Tulane’s coaches and players deserve the show of support.
After spending an entire season on the road, being forced from their home in Katrina’s wake, the Green Wave faced adversity hardly ever seen in the annals of NCAA football history. They could not go home. They could not practice nor train on their home field, and could not play in front of a home crowd.
Tulane personified what many of us evacuees went through—surviving only through the kindness of others. It is not a situation any of us would like to be in again. Katrina taught us to rely on ourselves, and maybe this push of inward strength can sustain the Wave as they rebuild their fan base. Those same fans stepping up to the plate to buy tickets (and show up) as well as wear their colors with pride would be a good place to start.
Wear your heart on your sleeves, Tulane fans, and make sure those sleeves are covered in green.
See this, Tulane fans? It would be nice if you wore these more often...
To follow up on the outstanding cartoon about Michael Vick in yesterday's New Orleans Times-Picayune, sportswriter John DeShazier has written an editorial worth reading.
A few highlights from DeShazier's column (and emphasis, mine):
"Too often, "keeping it real" means keeping company with trouble, staying "true" to your roots means staying dumb as a door knob, refusing to "sell out" means selling yourself short and your supporters a bill of goods.
That explains how a man like Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, who has adulation and salary almost beyond measure, gets caught in a de####able mess that results in a federal indictment tabbing him with dogfighting and dog killing.
And if you're not sick of that kind of stupidity, I'll be sick enough for you and a million others.
Sick, tired, disgusted, disappointed and angry at watching a procession of young, talented, black men who have everything to lose continue to contort themselves into positions from which they can't untangle, mostly because of a set of unwritten rules that are so idiotic they don't warrant the ink it would cost to write them down."
And DeShazier continues:
"I'm not suggesting athletes turn their backs on the communities from where they came. Most return as heroes and inspirations, and others will do the same in the future. They can and will give back, can and will sow seeds that blossom into something beautiful in places where beauty left and wasn't expected to return.
This Michael Vick cartoon appeared in this morning's edition of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and this is Pulitzer material. The cartoonist is Steve Kelley.
Chris Paul is the face of the New Orleans Hornets, the franchise embodied in one person. If he were here, walking down the streets of New Orleans, the locals might yell to him “Hey, Chris, where y’at dawlin’?
For those of you in Rio Linda (thank you very much Rush Limbaugh) “where y’at” is a familiar greeting to friends and family in the Crescent City which means “how are you” or “how have youbeen?”
CP3 would hear it …if he were here.
Paul made an appearance at the NBA Draft fest for Hornets fans at the New Orleans Arena back on June 28. To his credit, he has not been idle, either. I checked Chris’ website, Chris Paul .com and I found some of the things he has been doing:
--Chris sponsored a Habitat for Humanity event in Winston-Salem, NC in June and will host another Habitat Fundraiser there over a weekend in September. No doubt his growing up in the area and attending Wake Forest forged very strong ties there.
--Chris has held a basketball camp in Oklahoma City and just completed one in Winston-Salem. Oklahoma City has hosted the Hornets for most of the last two NBA seasons since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in August of 2005. Paul was drafted just two months before the storm, so Oklahoma City has been the only home he has known in his professional basketball career.
Said one mother at the Oklahoma City event as quoted in The Oklahoman:
“I was really curious whether they were going to have the camp because I knew the (Hornets) were going back to New Orleans. I think it means a lot that (Paul) stayed here and did this for the kids. And he's present at the camp. That was one of my concerns, would he actually be involved? And he is.”
My question is: why was no CP3 camp scheduled for New Orleans? Why has Chris not shown the commitment to kids and fans in New Orleans that he has in OKC?
In New Orleans, youths are starved for summer goings-on every year. A CP3 basketball camp may have helped keep some “at-risk” youths off the street and, possibly away from trouble. The Hornets have indeed held a basketball camp in New Orleans, and it was attended by Hornets F-C Hilton Armstrong.
But, Chris Paul was not there. The face of the franchise. According to the team website, there will be one more camp in the area from July 30th-August 3rd with a Hornets' player to-be-named-later. Chris, can you volunteer for that one, please?
Please do not misunderstand. CP’s commitment to charity is not in question. His commitment to charities in storm-ravaged New Orleans, almost two years after the fact, is. If the Hornets are here for the long haul--a debatable question for sure--then Paul must be prominent in the community, like, say Reggie Bush of the New Orleans Saints has been.
City Park's Tad Gormley Stadium was underwater after Katrina
Bush made a $50,000 donation to a local high school and is involved in a charity to restore Tad Gormley Stadium, one of the city’s only venues for high school football. Surely there is a gym or basketball court that needs refurbishing somewhere in New Orleans. The CP3 Memorial Gym has a nice ring to it.
The Hornets have tickets to sell. The key to selling those tickets is having the Hornets' highest profile player in the public eye constantly. Being the part of the recovery of the city of New Orleans gives Paul many opporunities daily to make a positive impact. As people move back to the New Orleans area, with a Saints team with a waiting list for season tickets, it sure makes sense to make people aware that the Hornets have more tickets to sell than they have buyers at this point. Why not get a running start on those sales with Paul leading the charge?
Paul helping the recovery and helping sell tickets seems like a win-win proposition for the Hornets and the city.
I don’t know where Paul is these days, now that we’re well into the NBA off-season. But I know there is a city, somewhere--at 30 degrees north latitude and 90 degrees west longitude--desperate for a hero and a champion. In Post-Katrina New Orleans, we cannot have enough of them.
CP3, where are you?
Post Script 7/21/07: I read in the NFL Czar's Blog an entry from May in which he reported that Reggie Bush has actually made another $50,000 donation to the same school again in 2007. Just another hundred-thousand reasons to thank Bush and wonder when Chris Paul will make that kind of impact in New Orleans. See link below for details.
Since my avatar is a fleur-de-lis, the logo of my favorite team--the NFL's Saints--is the same, and I live in a former colony of France named after Louis XIV (the Sun King), I thought it appropriate to tell my fellow bloggers Happy Bastille Day!! For those of you saying Huh?, this is France's 4th of July.
Washington and Lafayette at Valley Forge
I think it's entirely appropriate that we Americans celebrate the important role that France played in our nation's independence from Great Britain just 10 days after our own Independence Day.
The greatest French-American was never even an American during his lifetime. The Marquis de Lafayette came to the American Colonies, volunteered in the American Army, and was arguably George Washington's most trusted and able commander. He used his money, influence and position to further the cause of Independence in America to his fellow Frenchmen. Lafayette was postuhumously made an American citizen in 2002.
From this American, Mercibeaucoup, France
The most popular Frenchman in America, 1777....
.....And the most popular Frenchman in America 2007.
Overcoming adversity, in spite of nearly insurmountable odds, was no rare occurrence in the life of former USA Hockey head coach Herb Brooks. Sadly, Brooks died in an automobile accident in 2003, and was inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2006.
But if Herbie were here, Bob Bradley could take a lesson or two from the 1980 US Olympic Hockey coach that he might apply to his current US Men’s National Soccer team. I consulted Kevin Allen’s book, USA Hockey: A Celebration o####reat Tradition (Triumph Books, 1997)for some insight as to what lessons Bradley might glean from Brooks.
Lesson #1: Believe: You know the deck is stacked against you, but you play to win anyway.
The 1980 US Olympic team was far less talented relatively than Bradley’s US Soccer squad at the Copa America. Most of Brooks’ (pictured left) players had never played professional hockey, and all of Bradley’s roster for the Copa were professionals. Much less talented than the opposition, but professionals nonetheless.
Through most of the 20th Century, professional players were not allowed in Olympic Hockey tournaments. The Soviet Union was able to field the best team in the world because their players were technically in the Red Army, and therefore, eligible to play in the Olympics. But, make no mistake, the USSR team of 1980 was unquestionably the best in the world. Allen writes that the Soviets inflicted a 10-3 thrashing of the same US Olympic team that would beat them and win the Gold medal just a week before the games. The year before, they had beaten an NHL All-Star team 6-0.
When Brooks said he wanted to win the gold medal in Lake Placid, not many believed he could, maybe only Brooks himself.
Lesson #2: Turn to humor: Laugh at the opposition to break them down to mortals. Herb made his players laugh at the mighty Soviet right wing Boris Mikhailov by comparing them him to Stan Laurel of “Laurel and Hardy” fame. He told his players in jest “You can beat Stan Laurel, can’t you?”
Mikhailov and Laurel (left)
In the “Miracle on Ice”game, the US played against legendary Soviet goalie Vladislav Tretiak, the Dominek Hasek of his era. When the USA tied the game 2-2 with one second left in the first period, the Americans had already shown the Soviets to be human, and it was coach Viktor Tikhonov who stunned the crowd by pulling Tretiak and inserting backup goalie Vladimir Myshkin at the start of the second period.
By that point, the laugh was on the USSR. Pulling Tretiak was just what the Americans needed to prove to themselves that they could win. Psychologically, the removal of Tretiak was a huge roadblock that got removed, according to Allen. Bradley can do the same with his opposition (see below).
Argentina's Lionel Messi.........................And Fast Times' Jeff ####oli (You D**K!)
Lesson #3: Carpe Diem: Seize the Day
Brooks was a master motivator and strategist. His players saved their best performances for when it mattered most. Mike Eruzione, of course, scored the game-winning goal to beat the Soviets 4-3 to advance to the gold-medal game in 1980. Goalie Jim Craig must have thought he was being shot at, he turned so many rubber biscuits aside to preserve the Americans victory in the tournament.
According to Allen, Brooks read note card to his team before the USSR game. It said: “You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here.” Brooks was hard on his players. He rode them mercilessly at times to instill in them a sense of teamwork and shared responsibility. By the time the Olympics came around, they all understood there would be no tomorrow if they lost. Again, Allen writes that champagne awaited the US players after the victory against the Russians and no one touched it. They would still need to beat Finland (which they did, 4-2 the following day) to win the Gold Medal.
It seems impossible, but miracles can happen.....
But wait a minute, Soccer is not Hockey…. Soccer and Hockey are different sports, to be sure. Bradley’s Copa team had no practice time, and Bradley was so consumed with the Gold Cup, he must not have given the Copa America any preparation time in his mind before beating Mexico 2-1 in the Gold Cup final.
Brooks had almost a year to prepare for the Olympic games, and weeded-out the best 20 players and molded them into a team. Bradley had no such opportunity. However, it is not beyond possibility that Bradley already has in mind the 25 or so players who likely represent the USA in South Africa in 2010, should they qualify. The time for molding the clay is now.
Also, Brooks used a hybrid style of European technical skill with North American-style grit and toughness. A similar hybrid can exist for soccer between European tactics and molding it with South American athleticism and creativity.
Herb Brooks could teach a lot to Bob Bradley. It’s too bad he’s not here to do it, for those who knew him, Brooks was a man that oozed confidence and enthusiasm. He was infectious with his desire to teach and coach. Bradley would do well to read up and follow Brooks’ example.
The Buzz is not back at the University of New Orleans. It never had a chance to arrive.
UNO men’s head basketball coach Buzz Williams announced his resignation on Friday to become an assistant coach at Marquette University. Williams lasted only one year on the job with a three year contract. Last year, former head coach Monte Towe resigned to become an assistant coach under Sidney Lowe at North Carolina State, where Towe helped lead the Wolfpack to the 1974 NCAA Championship.
Williams would have made $150,000 per year as UNO’s head coach. As reported in the New Orleans Times Picayune, he is set to make $200,000 per year at Marquette. While no one can blame him for leaving for the money, he leaves a UNO basketball program in desperate need of stability in Post-Katrina New Orleans. Buzz was 14-17 last year for the Privateers, and a not-too-shabby 9-9 in the Sun Belt Conference.
Why this is troubling is that UNO was just getting back on its feet after Katrina damaged much of the Nat Kiefer Arena on the Lakefront, UNO’s home for basketball. Laying dormant since the storm, appropriated money had begun to flow, and the Arena was tentatively set to open in the 2008-2009 season. Williams was to be the driving force behind restoring UNO basketball (and the entire athletic department with it) to the prominence of the Tim Floyd days.
It would be harsh to call Williams a carpetbagger for packing his bags after such a short stay, and he may well have experienced frustrations that he thought may have hampered his ability to do his job to the best of his ability. Among those challenges certainly were the lack of a suitable arena and the long time scale to fix it. UNO played last season and will play this season in the Human Performance Center, the equivalent of a college recreational facility or loosely compared to an average high-school gym. Not exactly Division I standards, but after Katrina, much work still needs to be done here in New Orleans.
The bigger picture is that, as we’ve seen here amongst ordinary folks, qualified people, essential-to-the-recovery people, are still leaving New Orleans like torrential rains on a summer afternoon. The loss of doctors, lawyers, accountants, bankers, and Fortune 500 Companies from the area is staggering. To make matters worse, they were trickling out of New Orleans before Katrina. Williams was contributing to the recovery by doing what he loved at a university that needed him. Had he succeeded, Nat Kiefer Arena may well have been the “House that Buzz Rebuilt.” That job will have to go to someone else.
UNO’s slow recovery from Katrina was not unexpected. Long the “red-headed step-child” of the Louisiana State University System--yes, UNO was once LS-UNO and has the same crest as LSU--UNO was not among the priorities of a state university board looking at hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to deal with. Possibly, the UNO administration gave a too-rosy picture of what UNO was going to look like to Williams before he accepted the job.
Here’s to wishing Buzz success at Marquette, certainly much more of a prominent D-I basketball program than UNO. Here’s to hoping as well that UNO can find a replacement in someone who wants to be there, even relishing the opportunity to rebuild a basketball program with some history from scratch.
I wonder what would be happening at the Copa America in Venezuela if Jürgen Klinsmann had accepted the job as the head coach of the US Men's National Team last year. Press comments after the team's 4-1 loss to Argentina might have gone like this:
Do you think....
"I'm embarrassed. Totally. We played Argentina like it was a team of Maradonas and gave them too much respect. No one challenged the opposition, we backed off and gave them all the space on the Pampas to roam, make plays, and ultimately, thrash us."
...the Golden Bomber.....
"I've been a part of a World Cup-winning team, I've played in short tournaments where every result, every pass in the opposition zone and every clear from our own end was critical. Our players seem to play like there is a tomorrow. In football--world football--you have to have complete and total focus as a team. It comes from having the right players here in the first place."
And after the 3-1 loss to Paraguay:
...tolerates losing?
"One of our team's chances has got to go in with those opportunities. I'm looking for the players that will rise to the occasion in a desperate situation. We must find a way when the opportunity presents itself. Again, we played like we have one more game to go. In this case, we do, because we'll likely be going home after the Columbia game."
Faux press conferences and crystal balls aside, I like Bradley, I've got to wonder, though, what Klinsmann would have brought to this team had he taken the job. Assuming our players know International Football, if Jürgen Klinsmann tells me to do something, I am not going to let down a hero of the World Cup.... At least I know where I will end up if I do.
I look at our strikers like Twellman and Johnson and think Klinsmann could have helped them develop the killer instinct in International games that they regularly show in MLS. I think, with the selection of Bradley, US Soccer is saying that it is satisfied to be the King of CONCACAF and own Mexico on US soil. If that is the USA's focus, it will likely be never that the US will field a team of Argentina's caliber or be a serious challenger for a World Cup tile.
At some point, even with Bradley, USA Soccer fans have got to believe that performances like the Copa are not acceptable, and that being the top dog in our region means very little on a world football stage,
An abbreviated bunch of thoughts on the USA's 3-1 loss to Paraguay in the Copa America:
1. Other than Kasey Keller, who are these guys? Maybe I don't watch very much of the USMNT, but I have yet to see Twellman and Johnson play a decent game in the red, white and blue.
2. The USA at least deserved to be on the pitch until the 93rd minute, and made some very good plays near the end of the game, but these guys need Turtle Wax their finish is so bad.
3. Lee Nguyen gets beat on a 50-50 ball after just entering the game. How does that happen?
4. Paraguay has more offensive power than the USA's A team for sure. Again, like the Argentina game, the "A" team may very well have lost this game as well.
5. US Soccer will probably respond to the embarrassing performance by staying out of the Copa in the future. It will be a mistake if they do so.
6. I feel that Bob Bradley is like Dennis Conner in the 1983 America's Cup. The best skipper in the world can't win a race in a slower boat.
7. The US plays the "Swiss Cheese" defensive formation. When will we learn that this is not basketball, and every chance, either for or against, is like a fight to the death?
*. The best moment was the camera shot of the beautiful sunset in the 25th minute. Did anyone else notice that?
* #2 Don't you just love Ray Hudson's calls? Magnificent.
The visiting University of New Orleans Privateers pulled off a major upset last night, defeating the North Carolina State Wolfpack 65-63 in Raleigh, NC. The event was significant on its own—a lesser UNO team from a lesser conference (the Sun Belt), and on the road at the home of Jimmy Valvano, Norm Sloan, and oh yes, Monte Towe. 
youngster Joe Pasternack (right). At least Pasternack gives some emotional gravitas to the situation: he’s a New Orleans native and his parents, flooded out though they were, chose to stay in the New Orleans area. The youthful and energetic Pasternack may just be what UNO needs—passion, enthusiasm, and an upset here or there, to build up the recruiting base and get more people in the seats at the Human Performance Center.
A lot will depend on Tulane football fans. The two previous games, both at home, had announced crowds well under 30,000, and likely no more than 10-15,000 people actually put “cheeks in the chairs.” Keep in mind as well that supporters of the University of Houston and Championship Division-member Southeastern Louisiana filled probably half of those seats. 
Post Script 7/21/07: I read in the NFL Czar's Blog an entry from May in which he reported that Reggie Bush has actually made another $50,000 donation to the same school again in 2007. Just another hundred-thousand reasons to thank Bush and wonder when Chris Paul will make that kind of impact in New Orleans. See link below for details.
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