Monday, August 25, 2008

The Olympics done right, and U.S. Open late night

A few final thoughts on the Summer Olympics and others news from the sports world as we wait for the final days of the college football offseason to expire.

U.S.A. BASKETBALL BACK ON TOP

If you didn’t get to watch the men’s basketball gold medal game, you missed an amazing display of basketball at its highest level. Spain played great, but when it mattered most, the United States was better, pulling out a 118-107 victory.

I was like a lot of people who had lost interest in watching the Dream Team. After embarrassing performances at the 2002 and 2006 World Championships as well as a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics, it appeared the professional players did not care about representing their country. But this version of the U.S. National Team, we were told, was different. Not that I had anyway of knowing for sure since NBC didn’t seem to care enough about men’s basketball to air it in primetime, but seeing the scores and reading the stories revealed a U.S. squad that was beating foreigners in a manner most Americans had come to expect.

So, Saturday night I set my DVR for the 1:30 a.m. tipoff, and when I watched the game Sunday afternoon was impressed with what I saw.

First, the level of international play has come a long way since 1992 when the original Dream Team was able to sleepwalk its way to a gold medal, winning every game by more than 30 points. The Spanish team was loaded with NBA players. Usually a Dream Team victory by less than 20 points is more a result of poor play by the U.S., but that wasn’t the case Sunday. The original Dream Team spread the basketball gospel to the world, and over the past 16 years we’ve seen more foreigners enter the NBA and become impact players. At the same time, international teams have been hard at work, aiming to catch the Americans.

Over the past eight years, it was clear the world had caught up to the U.S.A., and national teams like Spain, Argentina and Greece appeared to have passed us by. We first realized it in 2004. We finally decided to do something about it in 2006, and now it appears the United States has reasserted itself as the dominant basketball nation in the world.

So, what made the difference? Watching the fourth quarter of the gold medal game, it was obvious. The U.S. players cared.

There were Michael Redd and Carlos Boozer, having not taken their warm-ups off all game, looking no different than the high school or college kid who sits at the end of the bench, jumping up and down with every made basket, screaming in support of their teammates and racing off the bench to celebrate and encourage at every timeout.

There were Kobe Bryant, Lebron James and Dwayne Wade — arguably the three best basketball players in the world today —jumping, hugging and racing around the court like high schoolers who had just won a state championship. This wasn’t about contract extensions, signing bonuses or shoe sales. This was grown men, expressing the childlike joy of playing and winning that first drew them to the game.

There was Carmelo Anthony, too nervous to sit in his chair, watching each possession from his hand and knees, pounding his fist on the court, again looking more like a kid on the Princeton bench during the closing minutes of an NCAA tournament game than a millionaire celebrity.

As a member of the 2004 Olympic team and the leading scorer on the 2006 World Championship team, Anthony had been adamant that this team would restore the United State’s place on top of the basketball world. His tears as the national anthem played after receiving his gold medal said all that needed to be about how much the Olympic experience meant to him.

BOLT DOES IT THE RIGHT WAY IN 200

Last week I expressed my admiration and frustration with Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt after he coasted to victory and still set a new world record in the 100-meter final.

Today, I’m going to say “thank you” Mr. Lightning Bolt. Thank you for giving your all in the 200-meter final. Michael Johnson’s 12-year-old world record would still stand today if Bolt had not gone full throttle from the starting blocks to the finish line. As television replays showed, Bolt knew he had the race won with 50 meters to go. But as the strain started to show on his face, his eyes darted quickly between the clock and the finish line. He knew the chance to make history was in front of him, and his pushed is body to its limit in order to make it happen.

That is what we expect to see from the world’s best athletes, and doing it on the biggest stage makes it that much more special.

TENNIS — DON’T FORGET ABOUT U.S. OPEN

The Olympics are done, but there are still plenty of great, live, late-night sports to watch on TV over the next few weeks. The U.S. Open tennis tournament started Monday. Any good tennis fans could tell you that late night matches at the U.S. Open are broadcast every night on the USA cable network.

Something about playing at night, in front of a rowdy crowd with a national TV audience brings out the best in the players. Some of the greatest matches over the past decade at the U.S. Open have been played in the first four rounds — on a weeknight, with the first serve coming sometime after 8 p.m. CDT, and the final shot being struck close to or after midnight.

Monday night’s first-round match between No. 9 seed James Blake and 19-year-old rising American player Donald Young looked like it would be a snoozer after Blake won the opening set 6-1. But Young showed flashes that he might someday be a special player. His combination of raw speed, quickness, touch, power and shot-making were on display, and in the second set he added some consistency to the mix, leading to a 6-3 victory. Blake bounced back and cruised through the third set (6-1) and appeared to have broken Young’s spirit, leading the fourth set 2-0. He was two points from a 3-0 lead when Young rallied to win the game, and a funny thing happened: the crowd turned on Blake. It wasn’t so much that they started to cheer against Blake (normally a fan favorite), it was more a case of pulling for the underdog, exhorting Young to keep fighting, extend the match and give the spectators their own late-night classic memories. Young responded, breaking Blake’s serve twice to comeback and win the fourth set 6-4.

In the fifth set, both men gave the fans what they wanted. The rallies were intense. Go-for-broke winners were flying from both sides of the court. It wasn’t quite at the level of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s fifth set at the 2008 Wimbledon final, but under the lights with a raucous New York crowd, it was just as good to watch on TV. In the end, with the set tied at 4 the veteran Blake found a way to break Young and claimed the final set 6-4. The crowd thanked Young for his efforts with a champion’s ovation as he walked off center court, then stayed to help Blake celebrate his hard-fought decision.

For the next two weeks, the U.S. Open will be on USA each night. Blake-Young was not a fluke. It’s what tennis fans have come to expect, more often than not, every year during the last week of August and first week of September. If you’ve never checked it out, I encourage you to do so.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

BEARKAT FOOTBALL: Success in 2008 means Kats become contenders

There’s a buzz in the air surrounding the Sam Houston State University football program. The potential for 2008 to be a championship season is very real. Unlike the title-wining teams of 2001 and 2004 when the Kats were bringing back talent and adding a well-known transfer quarterback to the mix, this year’s team has more question as the season opener against East Central Oklahoma approaches.

• This time, the high-profile transfer QB is entering his third season with the program, but can Rhett Bomar come back from the knee injury that ended last season early, and will he perform this season at a level equal to or higher than what he showed in 2007?

• All-SLC running back Chris Poullard will miss the 2008 season while addressing some academic issues, so the question is can the Kats find someone (or several someones) capable of filling the void?

• Can the offensive line — having already lost preseason all-SLC selection John Dirk for the season — open holes for the running game and provide Bomar enough time to execute the passing game?

• Can a wide receiver corps that has been consistently inconsistent since 2005, continue to build on the improvement it showed in the second half of last season and help carry the offense to championship heights in 2008?

• Can anyone on the defensive front other than Chris Brown pressure the opposing quarterback on a regular basis?

• Will a change in the base defensive formation result in a unit that isn’t forced to live by a bend-but-don’t-break philosophy?

• Was the five-game winning streak to close out the end of the 2007 season a sign of a team maturing and laying the foundation for even bigger things in 2008?

The answer to these questions will become clear as the season unfolds, but sitting here today, one week before the start of the season, all of the reports from the offseason — out of spring practice, summer voluntary workouts and three weeks of preseason camp — give Bearkat fans reason to believe the answer to all of the above could be “yes.”

Which leaves one big unanswered question, one that has been lingering in the mind of many since 2005: Do Todd Whitten and his coaching staff have what it takes to lead the Bearkats to a championship and build SHSU into a perennial playoff program?

Whitten is 16-16 in three season, having improved his record each year, from 3-7 to 6-5 to 7-4. The Kats are 4-0 against Division II opponents, 0-5 against Division I FBS programs, and 12-11 against fellow Division I FCS squads — including three definitive victories over archrival Stephen F. Austin (which has to be worth something).

From a distance, the numbers don’t appear to set off any alarms, but a deeper look reveals a disturbing trend. Against the best FCS competition — most notably Southland Conference foes McNeese State and Central Arkansas — Whitten is winless.

SHSU opens conference play Oct. 11 against UCA in Conway, Ark. The following Saturday, the Cowboys come from Lake Charles, La., to Bowers Stadium. It’s an oversimplification to say the fate of the entire season will be decided in the course of eight days. The Kats have several challenging nonconference FCS games (Prairie View A&M and Gardner Webb). Conference road games at Northwestern State and Nicholls State are anything but guaranteed wins, and home games against SFA, Southeastern Louisiana and Texas State-San Marcos will be challenging as well.

But the truth is what the Bearkats do on the second and third Saturdays in October will be major factors in whether or not this season is considered a success.

If the Kats can sweep UCA and McNeese, a spot in the playoffs and the SLC title will be theirs for the taking if they take care of business in the final five games. A 2-0 start to conference play would also give SHSU some wiggle room should they drop a conference game (trips to Natchitoches and Thibodeaux are likely suspects) down the stretch.

If the Kats split those two key games, their playoff and SLC championship hopes will stay alive. They’ll need a finishing kick equal to last season’s, but there will still be plenty to play for.

If the Kats are swept, as they have been each of the past two seasons, their playoff chances will be on life support, setting the stage for another five-game winning streak to finish the year, another season with an overall winning record and absolutely nothing to show for it.

So, enjoy next Thursday’s season opener. Have fun watching the Prairie View A&M game. If you can, hit the road and cheer on the Kats when the play at Kansas, and head over to North Carolina as they take on Gardner Webb.

But mark your calendar on Oct. 11 and Oct. 18, because by the time the sun rises on Sunday, Oct. 19, the college football world will know if the 2008 Bearkats are a contender or a pretender.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

World's Fastest Man isn't even trying — and that's too bad

I feel safe saying that I’ve watched more track and field over the past 15 years than the average sports fan. Nothing in the sport is more impressive to me that the raw speed and power of a world-class 100-meter race, and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt is the most impressive sprinter I’ve ever watched.

I’m going to call him Insane Bolt from now on.

I had not seen Bolt run before watching the opening round of the 100 meters during late-night Olympic coverage on Friday. He sprinted 50 meters, and then jogged to the finish line in 9.92 seconds.

Insane.

He did the same thing in the quarterfinals (sprinting 60 meters) and again in the semifinals (going hard for a full 70 meters), so it should not have come as a surprise when he stopped running full speed after 85 meters in the finals and cruised across the finish line while beating on his chest, winning the gold and breaking his own world record in the process. When you consider the fact Bolt, also the favorite to win the 200 meters, only started running the 100 this year, his accomplishments are even more amazing.

Or should I say, insane.

The reason it doesn’t look like he’s trying is because he’s not, which has to be even more demoralizing to his opponents. He is supremely confident and not afraid to show it, and that is a huge part of track and field — gamesmanship. While his competitors come to the starting blocks with cold stares and quiet looks of determination, Bolt bounces to the music blaring through the stadium. During the race, while the competition musters every ounce of strength and energy that a lifetime of training has provided, the 21-year-old Bolt appears to effortlessly pull in front and then, almost mocking his opponents, slows down and peers from side to side in search of his nearest competition.

"I didn't come here to break the world record because I already was the world-record holder," Bolt said. "I came here to win."

Fair enough, but here is my only complaint: there is a time and place to “shut it down.” It’s fine in the prelims, where it serves several purposes — saving energy and letting your competition know that you have more where that came from. But the Olympics final is not the place to showboat. Save it for after the finish line (where he continued to bask in his own glory, and I have no problem with it).

Bolt is so young and so talented that he clearly does not appreciate the gift he has been given. Out of respect to his competitors, to all of the Olympic champions that preceded him, and to everyone else who can only dream of having his ability, Bolt has a responsibility to give his best effort on the world’s biggest stage.

The day will come, much sooner than Bolt can imagine right now, when he will no longer take his speed for granted. We know he can run faster than the 9.69 seconds he recorded Saturday night, but will we ever get to see it? The 2008 Olympics were probably just a coming out party for Bolt, but nothing in life is guaranteed. I would hate to think the world would never get to see what he is capable of when giving his best effort.

Olympics provide a rare August sporting treat

Normally, August is my least favorite sports month of the year. College sports are dormant. Professional baseball is grinding along, the excitement of the September pennant races still on the horizon. Pro, college and high school football are going through the worst portion of the season: training camp. Coaches pray each day will pass without a major injury, and players quickly grown weary of beating up on the fellow teammates, while fans must suffer through the final days of the offseason by reading practice reports and discussing intrasquad scrimmages.

Good thing 2008 is an Olympic year.

I don’t remember the 2004 Olympics in Athens providing as much excitement as the first week of the Beijing games have. As of Saturday night, two storylines have developed that reminded me what makes that Olympics so much fun as a spectator — the honor of watching world-class athletes perform at their best, and thrill of cheering for the red, white and blue.

SWIMMING

Michael Phelps can now be considered the greatest Olympic athlete in the history of the modern games. Winning eight gold medals in eight events takes a little bit of luck, and Phelps got that when the USA pulled off an impossible comeback in the final 25 meters of the 4x100 freestyle relay to edge France. His victory in the 100-meter butterfly — his seventh gold and the only event in which he did not set a world record — was even more spectacular, and might not have been awarded in previous decades when timing devices could not detect a difference of .01 seconds.

Phelps went to Beijing with what many considered an impossible goal. Olympic glory is magnified because the opportunity only presents itself once every four years. The World Series, the Super Bowl and NBA Finals are held every year, giving players in those sports the chance to claim supremacy every 12 months. For some Olympic athletes, a lifetime of training is followed by just one shot at Olympic gold.

The fact that Phelps was able to win eight gold medals at one Olympic games is amazing. It has never been done before and probably will never happen again. Phelps, 23, could still be one of the world’s best swimmers when the 2012 games come to London, and he would only be 31 years old in 2016. If he is still around, he will probably end his career with more than 20 Olympic gold medals, but the odds of him winning eight or more again are virtually impossible.

I hope everyone can appreciate just how special his achievement this past week was.

GYMNASTICS

Gymnastics may be the ultimate “Olympic sport," under the definition of “a sport that the general public has no interest in for 3 years and 11 months yet everyone suddenly becomes an expert on when the Olympics arrive.”

While Phelps and other swimmers can maintain their world-class status for more than a decade, the lifespan of a world-class gymnast is short. Sixteen is supposed to be the minimum age, and by the time a young woman is 20, the physical pounding and natural maturing of the body is usually too much to overcome. So, for Nastia Liukin, 18, and Shawn Johnson, 16, everything they have worked for in their short-lived lives was on the line Thursday afternoon. Two girls — friends and roommates — had the same goal, and both knew that their own success would mean their friend’s failure.

Where a little girl finds the desire to hurl herself through the air, twisting and contorting her body in ways that don’t seem humanly possible, is beyond me. Where they find the courage to actually put their body through the physical punishment required to master those skills is even more amazing. So, as I sat watching Liukin and Johnson prepare to do their floor exercise, the final event of the all-around competition, I found myself cheering for them. I wasn’t fired up the way TV cameras captured Bela Karolyi inside the NBC studios, but I was on the edge of my seat, pumping my fist and exhorting them to stick every landing.

Part of it was national pride, wanting to see the two American girls finish on top. But the other part of me was cheering for them simply to succeed because they deserved it. Most of us will never know what it takes to have a chance at being the best at anything. Liukin and Johnson were at the Olympics because they had earned it, but now they still had to execute when it mattered most. One mistake, and a lifetime of work would come up short.

Liukin and Johnson both gave flawless performances. With the pressure at its highest, they both met the challenge. Because it was a competition, there had to be a winner, and Liukin took the Olympic gold, while Johnson, the 2007 world champion, had to settle for the silver.

But on that night, there were no losers.