NBA-Bloggers...

I've been invited to write for a new site that is collecting blogs that address NBA Basketball.

NBA-Bloggers

An interesting development.

Dear blog author:
We recently came across your site, spadream.blogspot.com, while searching for bloggers who blog about the NBA.

A small group of us have started a new site called NBA Bloggers. Our intent is to bring basketball bloggers closer together, and make a positive contribution to the Internet community.

Would you be interested in joining NBA Bloggers? Please take a few minutes to have a look at what we are trying to do, and if you are interested, there is a sign up page to get the ball rolling. We would greatly appreciate your support in this endeavour.

Its nice to know that someone "came across" my blog that isn't on facebook getting bombarded with "news feed" articles about "Jonathan May has posted a new Note".

I haven't written much about my Grizzlies lately, between the Election and Alabama's coaching search I have been preoccupied.

I'll have to change that now.

Good news first - Pau Gasol has been cleared for full contact drills, and may return to the Grizzlies lineup as soon as Wednesday. Also on the positive, Dhantay Jones is finally playing NBA basketball. I don't know how it happened, but he has become a reliable 11-13pt scorer. You've got to have those guys on a roster if you're going to do something special (which we won't this year).

Bad news second - The Griz are now 5-15 after a home loss to the Clippers last night. Even more saddening is that only 14,000 of my fellow Memphians came out to support their boys. Throw in that Lawrence Roberts has been hurting the last few days and the whole mess with Brian Davis trying to buy my team you can see where bringing Gasol back to the court would be a big deal.

Anyhow, AI is on the market, but don't look for him in Memphis. Too much uncertainty to take on that kind of contract. Plus, we'd lose all the cap space we've got coming after Eddie Jones contract comes off the books in May.

Stay Tuned...

SO....now what?

Coaches I do not want at Alabama:

1. Houston Nutt - Head Coach of Arkansas

2. Jim Grobe - Head Coach of Wake Forest

3. Paul Johnson - Head Coach of Navy

4. Chan Gailey - Head Coach of Georgia Tech

5. Slyvester Croom - Head Coach of Miss St. (I know he is one of Bear's boys and such, but he's been a dick at MSU. I don't think that transition would go smoothly. He went into recruits homes to play the race card against UA...hard to forgive and forget, since some of those kids are now on OUR team)

Coaches I am luke warm on:

1. Mike Sherman - Former Packers HC and current OC/Assist. HC for the Houstan Texans

2. Mike Stoops - Head Coach of Univ. of Arizona (I believe his quote was "I would walk on broken glass for the Alabama job." Or something to that effect. That was 4 years ago.)

Coaches I do want at Alabama (and are realistic, in no particular order):

1. Mike Leach - Head Coach of Texas Tech

2. Jim Leavitt - Head Coach of Univ. of S Florida

3. Jimbo Fisher - Off. Coord. for LSU Tigers

4. Joe Kines - Def. Coord for Alabama (probably only has two or three more years of coaching, so they would have time to bring someone in to take over at their own pace...maybe Jimbo as OC under Kines, with an agreement in place for Jimbo to take over after 2 years? Could be interesting.

5. Dabo Swinney - WR Coach for Clemson
(Swinney, 33, received a bachelor of science degree in commerce and business administration at Alabama in 1993 after lettering three times for the Crimson Tide (1990-92). A walk-on who went on to earn a scholarship, Swinney played at wide receiver and was a member of Alabama's 1992 National Championship team under Gene Stallings. His position coach was Bowden in 1989 and former Tiger assistant Woody McCorvey from 1990-92. Swinney was also an All-SEC Academic team and SEC Scholar Athlete Honor Roll member in both 1990 and 1992.)

6. Bobby Petrino - Head Coach of Louisville

Coaches I do want at Alabama (but are long-shots at best)

1. Nick Saban - Some have suggested that CRR turning down 'Bama has allowed UA to wait until after Jan 1. If reports that Saban was actually interested were true, this could be interesting, however the exchange regarding reported contract numbrs the last three days may kill this one before it starts running (again).

2. John Grudden - Rumor has it his days in Tampa could be numbered...

3. Jim Mora Jr - Same thing as Grudden, except replace Tampa with Atlanta

4. Bear Bryant - Hey, wouldn't I disappoint you as a 'Bama fan if I didn't say it?

5. Bob Stoops - some say he wants out of Oklahoma due to possible NCAA infractions...do we need that here?

6. Mike Shula - I was pretty consistent from the start that I wanted him to have another year. The team is primed to break out next season and we could have had a "bama guy" for the next 25 years in CMS. I bet somewhere in South Florida CMS is laughing while spending thousands of dollars that UA owes him. $67k/month until 2012 (less whatever his next job pays him).

Other names out there I can't judge:

1. Rick Neuheisel - QB coach for the Baltimore Ravens. Former HC of University of Washignton and University of Colorado

2. Gene Stallings - Said on Paul Finebaum's radio show that he would be interested in a short term stint, to help buy time to get "the right guy". Bama and our "revisionist history" has forgotten that a big faction of the fan base wanted Stallings out before the 1992 season and that he left under questionable terms.

3. Greg Schiano - Head Coach of Rutgers. was pretty clear he wasn't going to leave Rutgers for U of Miami. I don't see him leaving for UA either.

If the trustee's open the checkbook even wider, and really drop $4M or $5M per year in someones lap, we can still draw a big name. If we can't I'd prefer to draft risky. I have been using the NBA draft analogy. I'd rather take a kid out of HS or with 1 year of college experience who has unlimited potential, and high risk. These are the Jimbo Fishers and Dabo Swinneys, and in some ways even a guy like Mike Stoops who's only been a HC for two seasons. If you go the other route, you can draft a guy who was a 4-year college player. The problem is what you see is what you get. When Spurrier went from Duke to UF, he was nobody. When Stoops went form UF to OU, he was nobody. Look where they ended up. Granted it doesn't always work out (i.e. Larry Coker).

It was nice to see Coach Rodriguez come out and say that his decisoin not to take the job at Alabama had everything to do with staying at WVU, and reasons to stay. It had nothing to do with reasons to take the Alabama job. He handled the whole thing pretty well. Gave Mal Moore a lot of respect, and my tendancy is to believe that they are pretty professional. Just not cut-throat enough. If we put an offer on the table for $2.5M, WVU wouldn't have been able to get close. We got cheap. Its our mistake. One we won't make again I hope.

Of note. I wrote on this blog yesterday at 4pm Eastern:
"My gut says he wont accept the job. if thats the case, we're fucked. majory fucked. "

Being clairvoyant is burden...

I can't make a coach prediction yet, but will soon.

Stay Tuned...

Time to Eat Crow...

As I feared all night, CRR is staying at WVU.

Its hard to be too upset. He played there. He's from the area. He's a god there.

You'd like to see that be a difficult decision for the guy.

If it was easy for him to walk away from, it wouldn't look good for keeping him at UA.

That won't be a problem now.

Some reports are that his wife didn't want to live under a microscope.

Some reports are that he was afraid of the pressure.

I don't know that I belive all that.

But its my turn to eat crow for being so excited the last two days that I let a few of my friends in the Law School know that I was looking forward to seeing CRR in Crimson.

I hate the Birmingham News.

If they hadn't broken this story yesterday evening in an attempt "be first" maybe the pressure doesn't mount on CRR when he gets back to WV last night.

Maybe...

If...

But...

What do we do with Mal Moore?

It doesn't look like there is anyone else on the radar.

Moore has overseen some turbulent times in the football program.

But every other aspect of the Athletic Dept. has grown under his leadership.

The facilities have been renovated and expanded.

Baseball, Basketball (Mens and Womens), Softball, Gymnastics, Tennis, Golf...all made significant improvement under Mal.

The truth of the matter is, it looks like the days of prominence for the University of Alabama are over.

Maybe it is time to wake up and look around.

The SEC isn't want it used to be.

And neither is Alabama.

Don't hate CRR.

He showed the kind of love to his school that we want someone to show to Alabama.

Be upset.

Be hurt.

Don't hate.

I have to sleep. I have been up watching this story and writing my exam for Blaze since 10am yesterday. Thats a solid 29+ hours. Maybe some sleep will help soothe the pain.

I am going to drink tonight that is for damn sure.

Who's in?

Stay Tuned...

Wow...just wow!

Warning: Not office appropriate...

George W. Bush screws the Country:



Here is the link

Thanks Anya (or Adam), for the clip.

Stay Tuned...

So Rich Rodriguez has an offer...Now what?

Soon to become...

Reports out of South Florida are that Nick Saban (former LSU coach) turned down a 10 year, 50 million dollar contract (plus a 7 million signing bonus) that would have made him the highest paid coach in the history of college athletics (Bob Stoops at Oklahoma holds that distinction at $3.1M) [Article]

A UA board of trustee member came out and said that is rediculous, that UA would NEVER have made such an offer, and that its a lie being perpetrated by Jimmy Sexton (Saban's agent) who operates out of Memphis and is a UT grad in an effort (along wiht Don Shula) to make UA look stupid. [Article] (update:Now Sexton and Saban are saying this is a false report too)

It HAS been confirmed that Rich Rodriguez of West Virginia has been offered the job, and we exepect to hear an answer as soon as this afternoon, with a potential press conference tomorrow in T-Town if he accepts. Now here are the issues with CRR... [Article]

1 - CRR is a WVU grad, and he is head coach of his Alama Matter and has already ahd more success than any coach in school history. he owns the place. he is the bear bryant of WVU...needless to say he has some serious "Roots" there

2 - CRR is only getting $1.1 million at WVU, which is NOTHING compared to what he woudl get paid at UA.

3 - Rumors are that he wants to take over Florida State when Bowden retires (1 or 2 years) [this lends itsself to a thought that roots aren't a big deal compared to being coach of a MAJOR program]

4 - WVU just gave him a raise 6 months ago, and says the can't offer more money because they've got a budget to adhere to. His primary complaint with WVU is that the facilities are AWFUL (something that UA leads the country in) and Morgantown is a shit-hole town that is REALLY AHRD to recruit good players to come play there. Tuscaloosa has its faults, but its one of the best college towns in America, and only 45 min from B'ham which suprisingly is a selling point.

5 - His wife doesn't like WV...but i bet she wont like AL much better...

6 - WVU announced yesterday that htey play to renovate ALL the footballf acilities, the problem is that it wont be done for 4-6 years...so, he would have to be patient. [Article]


7 - THe UA job is one of the BEST and WORST jobs in college football. Lots of money, and its agood place to recruit because of the tradition and facilities, and the southeast is rich in HS talent. The SEC is a far superior conference to the Big East, but ont he flip side of that, he can win 9 games every year in the big east without breaking a sweat...This job is THANKLESS, if you don't win 9 or 10 agmes every year, play in 1/3 of the SEC championship games, and compete for a NC year in and year out, the fans will turn on you so fast your head will spin. From an EGO perspective, this is both a good and a bad thing. An egotist will believe he can handle that, and that he is good enough to win...at the same time, an egotist with a reality gras will realize that its almost impossible to escape the shadow of bear Bryant...

My gut says he wont accept the job. if thats the case, we're fucked. majory fucked. more fucked than all those guys your sitting with are in their exams...Fucked with a capital F...

Word is that Face-to-Face negotiations are under way as we speak...between CRR and Mal Moore.

News may be imminent.

If you like to see how crazy people are, here is an article about 'Bama fan's "Tracking Planes".

I'll let you know if I hear anything else news-worthy...

For your entertainment, some of the "better" photoshop jobs done by UA fans this week, in anticipation of different coaches:















Roll Tide!

Stay Tuned...

Some people have too much time on their hands...

Truly remarkable work by people with nothing better to do!

"I've got my mind set on you"


If the embedded video isn't working (as it sometimes doesn't in facebook) just click here

New song written by a Bama Fan "Turning the Tide":


If the embedded video isn't working just click here

Warning to the next coach...we are crazy!

But we will love you if you win!


Stay Tuned...

Things I'd rather do than study Legal Profession:

1. Remove the fingernails from my left hand;
2. Retake Judy Cornett's Civ Pro 1 exam;
3. Clean Toilets;
4. Swallow several Legos;
5. Fall from a reasonably high ledge;
6. Re-arrange my sock drawer;
7. Clean the cat's litter box;
8. Have a root canal;
9. Ride "It's a Small World" at Disneyland, from opening until closing of the park;
11. Take a soccer ball to the face;
10. Join the army.

Anyone else have ideas?



Stay Tuned...