A New Direction for the Blog?

I've made a lot of changes to this blog. And for some reason, I'm never satisfied with it. At first I thought "hey, I'll write in this everyday and as long as it's about sports, it'll be easy." Well, what I learned was that keeping a blog and having to update it everyday is tough. Especially when you're trying to balance school and two radio shows during the course of a week.

Then I thought, "I'll write on the weekends and try and throw some humor into it." And as hard as I tried, once again I failed. It's not because of the amount of coverage in sports, its mostly because that since I'm not getting paid for this sort of thing, it's sort of a secondary priority when it comes to things to do for the day.

But the one thing that I do know is that I love to write (even though I know nobody out there in internet world may be reading this). I've always loved it. Whether it was when I was little trying to write my own Matt Christopher novels or just trying to come up with something on my own, the point is, writing has always been there. And I think it's because my tone is very conversational and easy-going when it comes to reading it. So what I want is a vote from the people, what direction do you want this blog to go? Email me: MikeOsh1985@gmail.com

-M

It's Tournament Time

So the brackets are out. It's time to start filling out your picks as we are on the drive from 65 all the way to crowning a new national champion three weeks from tomorrow on April 7th. And while you can listen to all the analysts and the predictions as much as you want, the simple truth of the matter is you must pick upsets if you plan on winning your bracket pool. It's just a fact. You can't put all of the #1 seeds in the final four because that never happens. The great thing about this tournament is a team like Coppin State, who at 16-20 made the tournament maybe can get lucky and make a run. Of course, the chances of that happening are slim to none simply because Coppin State is a team who is 228 in the RPI, finished 7-9 in conference play, and finished 9 games back behind regular season champ Morgan State. They lost to Xavier by 49, Marquette by 47 and even Indiana was even able to smear them, although only by 27.

Speaking of Indiana, I wasn't surprised at all that my Hoosiers received an #8 seed. Not only do I not think that they will beat #9 Arkansas in the first round, but hypothetically, even if they somehow do, their reward for winning is they get to play the #1 seed in the ENTIRE tournament in North Carolina. Many people around here were angered when the results were revealed but let's be honest people, this is a team that has lost 3 of 4 including embarassing losses to Minnesota and Penn State. Indiana basketball, if it truly is the program that is mentioned with all the greats like UCLA, Duke, and Kentucky, must beat Penn State and Minnesota. It's really as simple as that. D.J. White finishes his career having never won a Big Ten Tournament game. Kind of sad in a way.

So what kind of a team is Arkansas? Well, the Razorbacks come into this game with a 22-11 record, won 4 of their last 6 including a thrilling 92-91 win over Tennessee (who with that loss blew their chances for a #1 seed) and have 3 players that score in double figures led by senior Sonny Weems at a little more than 14 points per game. After that, you also have Patrick Beverley and Darian Townes who score 12 and 11.9 ppg respectively. Arkansas is very athletic and very versatile and could give the Hoosiers problems. Plus they have a bit more momentum on their side recently making it all the way to the SEC Championship game. When the team scores 80 points or more they are 9-0 and 11-0 when they shoot over 50% from the floor. That's why I'm going with the Razorbacks to upset my Hoosiers, if you can even call #9 beating an #8 an upset.

I could go over all the teams that got snubbed and those that I think got in and shouldn't have (see Arizona and Oregon) but I'm sure at this point, you've heard enough of that. So I'm not going to sit here and try and change your mind because for most people, once they have their mind set on something there's almost nothing you can do to change it. I did see a funny Bobby Knight clip on Youtube that I'm going to post here.

I'm going to make the rest of my first round picks now so I can review them over next weekend's show and compare how much I think I know about College Basketball compared to the actual results.

EAST
North Carolina
Arkansas
George Mason
Washington State
Saint Joseph's
Louisville
Butler
Tennessee

Midwest
Kansas
UNLV
Villanova
Vanderbilt
Kansas State
Wisconsin
Gonzaga
Georgetown

South
Memphis
Mississippi State
Michigan State
Pittsburgh
Kentucky
Stanford
St. Mary's
Texas

West
UCLA
BYU
Western Kentucky
UConn
Baylor
Xavier
West Virginia
Duke

Oh and to close out the show for today, the cast of Boy Meets World by first and last name are:

Cory Matthews- Ben Savage
Eric Matthews- Will Friedle
Alan Matthews- William Russ
Amy Matthews- Betsy Randle
Shawn Hunter- Rider Strong
Topanga Lawrence- Danielle Fishel
George Feeny- William Daniels

That's all I got for today guys. Catch you next weekend. And be sure to listen to my radio show "The Front Row" Monday and Friday mornings on 99.1 WIUX-LP. Or online at WIUX.org

-M

Picture courtesy of: http://c.myspace.com/Groups/00000/53/73/113735_l.jpg

The State of Indiana Basketball

What up everyone? "The Weekend" is back, after a long break. I was in Florida for ten days just relaxing trying to throw all the hassles of school behind me, at least for a short while. But now that I'm back I'm more committed than ever and ready to give all you out there in internet world, my very best work.

Let's begin with my beloved Hoosiers. On Friday night, while stuck in a traffic jam in Atlanta, I was receiving frequent updates from friends as Indiana took on Minnesota in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis. After being behind as much as 16 with 9:41 to go (it was 24-8 Minnesota at that point), Indiana fought back making it a 7 point game at halftime 34-27. With 15:51 to go in the game, D.J. White made two free throws to tie the game up at 34-34 and the two teams battled back and forth with neither one getting more than 5 points ahead the rest of the game.

That's when disaster struck. With 4 seconds to go and Indiana down 2, Eric Gordon (our supposed savior who was to bring back the prestige and honor that is Indiana basketball), missed the first of two free throws. This is a guy who shoots 84.5 % from the line. Having to miss the second one on purpose to give the Hoosiers a shot, Gordon lofted the ball off the back rim where it hung up long enough for D.J. to grab it and put it in for an "and 1." D.J. missed the three point opportunity but somehow once again got his own rebound and was fouled. So once again Indiana had ANOTHER opportunity to put themselves ahead. This time, White missed the first but made the second. So it's 58-57 at this point with 1 second and some change left. After both teams traded timeouts, Blake Hoffarber, who won an ESPY in 2005 after this miraculous shot, caught a pass in the frontcourt, hoisted up a shot, and somehow made it AGAIN this time to beat Indiana 59-58. If you haven't seen Blake's most recent heroics, you can watch it here.

So the question becomes now, how is anyone, especially the players, supposed to have any sort of confidence in this team after they've lost 3 of 4 to close out the season? I personally have none and am planning on picking whomever IU plays in the NCAA tournament to BEAT IU simply because I think the players still aren't over the whole NCAA violations thing. In one aspect, I understand because you put a lot of trust in a coach when he recruits you that he'll be there the whole time, that you can count on him. But at the same time, it's time for the players to grow up and move on. At one point in the season this was a top 10 team in and America and for us to suddenly struggle to beat Northwestern and lose to Penn State and Minnesota...are you kidding me? Yes, I'm talking to you JaMarcus Ellis and Jordan Crawford. Stop whining how bad it is that you don't have your coach anymore and just play basketball. That shows real class just walking out on a meeting with the athletic director just because you don't like what he's saying. GROW UP! You get to go to school and play basketball for FREE, which is something I know many kids would kill to get a chance. Ever since Kelvin Sampson's resignation on February 22nd, this team is 3-3 and it is GUARANTEED that Dan Dakich's will NOT be the coach next season.

On a side note, congratulations to Minnie Driver on her pregnancy announcement. She's one of my favorite actresses. I really enjoyed her in Good Will Hunting and Grosse Pointe Blank. Today's trivia question comes from one of my all-time favorite TV series, can you tell me the cast of the popular TGIF sitcom Boy Meets World? By real name too? Best of Luck.

Picture courtesy of: http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/uploaded_images/IMG_3247-759535.JPG

My Oscar Predictions

Today there wasn't that much going on in the world of sports. The Phoenix Suns showed what a vulnerable team they are now that they have Shaq, Tiger won his 4th straight PGA Tour win, and Wladimir Klitschko defeated Sultan Ibragimov and cemented himself as one of the best Heavyweight fighters in the World. Other than that, really nothing more going on. I picked Kevin Harvick for my radio show's contest "Start Your Engines" so I'm hoping they get to finish that race and he places well.

But tonight is all about the Oscars. Whether you want to admit you're a fan or not, the point is I know you'll be watching. Everyone's always interested in who wins best picture, best supporting actor/actress, best supporting actor/actress, and best director. The problem is, they get through some of the awards in the beginning then they make you wait 3 hours to find out who wins the last few awards. On one hand, its a genius idea because it makes you watch the whole thing, but it could also be a hindrance due to some people going to bed and not even paying attention.

So here are my picks for the categories that I listed above. Now remember, I've seen most of these movies and its my opinion that these people should win:

Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, "There Will Be Blood"
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood"
Best Actress: Julie Christie in "Away From Her"
Best Supporting Actor: Phillip Seymour Hoffman in "Charlie Wilson's War"
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan in "Gone Baby Gone"
Best Picture: Michael Clayton

And for those of you who saw the movie "There Will Be Blood," SNL had a great sketch last night parodying it. You can watch the video here.

Finally answering yesterday's trivia question, the cast of family members by real name (first and last) are:

Carl Winslow: Reginald VelJohnson
Harriet Winslow: Jo Marie Payton-Noble
Eddie Winslow: Darius McCrary
Laura Winslow: Kellie Shanygne Williams
Steve Urkel: Jaleel White

Look for more next weekend, I'm out. Peace.

-M

Picture courtesy of: http://www.bvallc.com/pensionblog/uploaded_images/Oscars-732859.jpg

My Vantage Point on the Kelvin Sampson Resignation

First off, for those of you that enjoy seeing GOOD movies with intricately drawn plot line with full character development, PLEASE GOD DON'T GO SEE "VANTAGE POINT." For me, it's right up there with the worst movies that I have ever seen along with "Catwoman" with Halle Berry, "Sugar and Spice" about the cheerleader chicks that rob banks, and "Johnny English" with Rowan Atkinson. One of the reasons "Vantage Point" was so terrible other than the fact that it was promoted 8,000 times during the NBA All-Star game to the point where it became ridiculously annoying (kind of like the "This is Our Country" song played during Chevy commercials not too long ago), but it also didn't let you divulge deep enough into each character's persona before they whisked you away and switched you to someone else's view. And by the time they came back to it 7 different vantage points and 45 minutes later, you had forgot what happened and now had to go back through your memory and sort through all the different characters to try and remember where you left off. Not to mention that by the time they actually get to the climax of the movie, it's no longer than 10 minutes tops. All that buildup, for ten minutes. Maybe it's just me, but I would have rather preferred not seeing the same scene over and over again where the mayor says, "I give you my city" eight different times and then having the President raise his arms and eight different times watch him get shot. It became repetitive to the point where I wanted someone to pull out a gun and shoot me and get it over with. I consider myself a connoisseur of good movies and this was up there with my worst four of all time.

Now onto sports. Yesterday was Indiana University's first game without recently resigned head coach Kelvin Sampson. Initially, as a Hoosier fan, I was worried because according to all the reports you read on Friday, DJ White and five other players skipped afternoon practice and some out there in the sports world wondered if the players would really consider boycotting the rest of the season in support of their terminated coach. But luckily, everyone came to their senses (especially White, who at 17.1 ppg and 10.4 rpg is easily the front runner for Big Ten Player of the Year and first team All-American honors) and the Hoosiers pulled out a close one and a big win at Northwestern 85-82. Sure, some of you may say, "wait a second, Northwestern was 0-13 in the Big Ten, how can you call this a big win?" I'll tell you why, it was Indiana's first game under Dan Dakich who was named interim coach for the rest of the season by athletic director Rick Greenspan Friday. Since six players skipped practice on Friday afternoon, the only time Dakich had with his players was later that night when the team did a walk-through and in the shoot around Saturday afternoon right before the game. So for this team to come together, with or without their recently dismissed coach and in a time of turmoil pull out a win on the road, that's huge. This could have easily gone the other way where the team looks disorganized and they did at times (they need to switch out of the man-to-man zone because when defenders get screened it leads to backdoor cuts and easy layups for the other team) and lose. But this team fought back from as much as 9 point deficits and played good defense when they absolutely had to.

Will this team succeed under Dakich? I can't say right now. What I do know it that Hoosier fans will have to give him a few days for everything to cool down around here and see how the team finishes the season. If we win the next four games (home against Ohio State and Minnesota and @ Michigan State and Penn State), Dakich has done his job. If we go 3-1, I still think he's done a good job. This is a tough situation for Dan. Coming in midway through the season after Rob Senderoff was forced to resign amid allegations of excessive phone calls and lead a top #15 team as they head into the Big Ten Tournament, would be tough on almost anybody. Especially someone who has to consider that this will only last one, maybe two months at most before you get replaced and returned to your old position. Whether or not Dan Dakich is the next head coach at Indiana University will depend on how he fares in the tournament, both Big Ten and NCAAs. With a roster that contains D.J. White and Eric Gordon, expectations are high, and it's up to him to find a way to harness all that talent, and return us once again to NCAA greatness.

Real quick, I have a trivia question for you today; name for me the main characters by first and last name of the ABC series "Family Matters." I know I can do it because I've done it before. Now it's your turn. As soon as you think you know it, email me mikeosh1985@gmail.com and DON'T CHEAT.

That's all for today guys, I'll be on here tomorrow same time, same place.

-M

Picture Courtesy of: http://www.impawards.com/2008/posters/vantage_point.jpg

Welcome to "The Weekend"

On behalf of MTO Productions, I'd like to welcome you to "The Weekend" with me, your host, Mike Oshita. This is a new thing we're trying out here at MTO, so we need your feedback. Shoot me an email and tell me what you think: MikeOsh1985@gmail.com.

So what is this new format going to be like you ask? Well, first and foremost, it's going to be about sports, no matter what. As far back as I can remember, sports has always been the most important thing for me other than family. So I'd say 95% of our focus will be directed towards that. Another 4% will go towards me rambling on whatever is on my mind for the day. It may be about a movie I've seen recently, to an issue that I think does or doesn't make sense, to something good on TV that I recommend. I feel like this is a way for me to connect with people in my audience that don't want to talk about sports all day every day.

And finally, the last 1% will be towards furthering my career as the next Howie Schwab. For those of you who don't know who that is, Howie Schwab is the coordination producer for ESPN studio production but he is most known for, at least in college kids minds, as the man to beat on the ESPN Classic show "Stump the Schwab." It's basically a who knows more when it comes to sports but I'm throwing in a twist: also included especially when you try and stump me in the segment I like to call "I Pity You Fool," you can ask me questions about 1990s TV and up. So if you have a "Boy Meets World" question or "Family Matters" query that you think I can't answer, post it on the blog and I'll try and answer it. If I don't, you win, it's that simple. But if I get it, I just add you to all the other fools who thought they could pity-win their way to victory. So a lot of changes going on here at MTO, we've even changed the name of the website, so bookmark it and look forward to postings on here every Saturday and Sunday because you're turned into "The Weekend" with Mike Oshita.

I'll write more on here a little later, gotta go school some wannabes on the court. Peace

M.

The Kelvin Sampson Era and Allegations

O.k. Let's me start by saying that as an Indiana University student, I was very happy with our win yesterday over Michigan State. We blew them out basically in a game that two out of the three analysts from College Gameday (Hubert Davis and Jay Bilas) predicted would go the other way with a Spartan victory Here's what they're saying in East Lansing. But even without D.J. White, who went out with 4:55 to go in the first half, my Hoosiers found a way to win. It was the play of our star Eric Gordon, who finished with 28 and broke Mike Woodson's scoring record, along with forcing 19 turnovers that essentially doomed the Spartans in. Not to mention the great play of the supporting cast who stepped up when they needed to. DeAndre Thomas, who finally looks to be back in Sampson's good graces, had 10 points of 5-9 shooting playing 16 big minutes when we needed him. JaMarcus Ellis, who at one point I criticized more than anyone on the team, had a great night shooting the ball hitting back-to-back 3's at one point finishing the night with 12 points. And let's not forget Jordan Crawford too added 12 big points. This is the type of game that makes me as a Indiana fan, believe that this could be a sweet 16 team and ever go further, because of the way this team played tonight. Even when you take away one of our best players, we still find a way to win. And if we can continue to get this type of production from our supporting cast outside of Gordon and DJ when he comes back, I think we'll make a pretty good run.

Now onto the coaching situation. When this story first broke late Tuesday night, I was shocked. My initial reaction was, "I can't believe something like this is happening again." For those of you who don't remember, "The NCAA launched its investigation after Indiana announced in October that Sampson had made 100 impermissible phone calls while he was on probation for illicit calls made while he was the coach at Oklahoma from 2000-06. During that time, he made 577 impermissible calls" (ESPN.com). So this is nothing new to Kelvin. The point is he KNOWINGLY went out of the way to break the rules by continuing to phone recruits and their families and then lied about it to the NCAA and Indiana University itself. On Friday, new IU President Michael McRobbie announced that the school would conduct their own investigation into the NCAA accusations and report back to McRobbie by the following Friday, essentially giving them 7 days. Among those heading the investigation include athletic director Rick Greenspan, university council Dorothy Frapwell and faculty representative Bruce Jaffee. Jay Bilas, analyst from College Gameday, brought up a really good point on Saturday when he said in his opinion, IU had already made up its mind, and the only reason for the 7 day inquiry, was to make sure it couldn't be sued just like what happened with former Ohio State coach Jim O'Brien. In a process that should take place over a few months, Indiana has instead turned it into 7 days. And I couldn't agree more. Now what do I think will happen? I think Sampson coaches Tuesday night against Purdue and on Friday, the committee recommends that Kelvin be terminated.

As much as you want to believe him (meaning Kelvin), the NCAA just doesn't throw out wild, crazy accusations without some kind of proof. You know they have something, you just don't know how specific it is at this point. Michael Vick thought he could beat the U.S. Government in court saying he was innocent of the dogfighting charges, look where he is now. If Indiana doesn't recommend that Sampson be fired then its a discredit to the athletic department and the entire university. Indiana basketball is up there with Kentucky, Duke and other elite institutions when it comes to historic programs. To keep Sampson around means that you're condoning what he did. Which is wrong because it says its o.k. to take shortcuts and cheat the system, as long as your team keeps winning. Since 1960, Indiana has had 0 violations in basketball up until this point. This is a black-eye to the university and one of those things where depending on the outcome and recommendations of the committee, could divide fans. And you know what the funny thing about this to me is, if Indiana was having an average to below average season, Sampson would be gone in a heartbeat. But because we're in the top 15 in the country, its o.k. to some people. By the end of the game last night, students were chanting "Kelvin Sampson" in support of our coach. Just another reason I really dislike some sports fans because they continue to flip flop depending on how the team performs. And that my friends, is not a true fan.