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
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