That’s the number 0. Leon Powe definitely represented the Town on the national stage. After ABC’s emotional biopic at halftime, Powe came out in the second half and finished with a career high 21 points, and a most valuable performance off the Celtic’s bench. He even received the NBA/ T-Mobile player of the game award. I bet everyone and they mama in Oakland was lightin’ up their Metros tonight. It’s like Stern heard my call for drama and delivered the goods. They even had him floating on a green Silver Surfer-like graphic all the way down the floor on his way to a monster dunk. Now that’s good television!
It’s like it was yesterday, I can remember him as an Oakland Tech Bulldog playing in the CIF tournament games. I know some Cal fans frowned upon his decision to enter the draft after one good year at Cal, but after learning his entire story, one can’t help think that he made the right decision given his circumstances. His little brothers and sisters will never have to live out of a car and share Big Macs again if Powe has the type of career that tonight’s breakout game forecasts.
First, to the Yardbarker crew, let me say that I believe “MacBlast” is an Apple-obsessed geek soiree that occurs during the “Mac World Expo and Conference” that is held each year in SF. Here, we are discussing the very different “Mack Blast.” Within the roots of this expression lies a particular contradiction of some significance for anyone interested in hyphy-semiotics. To be “put on blast” is to be exposed in a way that is undesired by the “blastee,” yet to be acknowledged publicly as a Mack is generally a good thing - or is it? Let us take the case of Frank Lucas whose entire criminal empire was undone by one overly ostentatious gesture (if we are to believe the film “American Gangster”). It was by wearing an expensive fur coat which many would agree to be quite “Mackish,” to a very public event, he leaked a sign of his success to the world, and hence, to the NYPD.
It is by this account, I believe that to be “put on Mack blast” would be a negative thing - especially for a Mack of the old school variety. One’s Mackish reputation is preserved longer if it remains discreet. How much paper is stacked, how much weight is pushed, how many illicit affairs are had, are all things best whispered about in private and should never be “blasted” as public information, lest the “blaster” wishes some great harm to befall him/her. However, we live in a different time where excessiveness is a sign of success, and for those athletes and celebrities who have achieved the means to such excessiveness through socially permissible avenues, then perhaps being “Mack Blasted” is not such a bad thing. Obviously, in the above video our friend Marshawn Lynch does not look particularly bothered now the world knows he spent a mortgage note’s worth of loot on tickets to the Super Bowl.
In conclusion, I actually hope that the emergence of this phrase would point toward a trend back to discretion and away from the conspicuousness of our popular culture. This would be a good thing for Mackdom and society as a whole. It would be interesting if from now on, if the worst thing for a Mack would be “to be put on Mack blast,” and, if you want to get super gangster about it, would even warrant another kind of mack blast in response. Let the hype-mongers take notice.
Chris Mullin is signing in here. At the Cal-USC game. I’m not sure what he’s signing for. Could it be the uber-hyped O.J. Mayo? Maybe the elder-Meschery-coached, nascent-paint-beast Mr. DeVon Hardin? Or perhaps the subtle, Croshere-2.0-stylings of Ryan Anderson. Any which way, we like the local-scouting-ness of it all. But since Meschery Senior did some work with Hardin over the summer, we hope that you can recognize Mr. Future Beast and draft accordingly.
Did I mention that the Bears smoked the Trojans yet? My bad. O.J. Mayo got off for a considerable sum, but the Bears were too dense in the paint and too hot from beyond the arc. The final was 92-82. And we FTBers got to tack that win onto the one Barack Obama registered in Iowa. Nice double dip. Now if we can just steal Hardin or Anderson, Mully’s little drive uptown will have been for all the right reasons.
Turman
PS. Props to Cal man about town Michael O’Connor and family for sponsoring the FTB presence at the show. One love to Michael O’C. And go spend some money at the man’s club already. It’s called The Independent and they sponsor some of the most interesting live music known to The Bay.
Then, all too suddenly he says he has to do the testis check. Fine. Whatever. He wouldn’t be the first doctor to tell me to pull my pants down. He would, however, be the first doctor NOT to ask me to. He literally strapped his gloves on while I was lying back on this chair, and put his hands down my pants to do the check.
“Let me just get this guy out of the wayyyy.” His words interrupted my blogging thought process and fast forwarded my mind into panic mode. “There, got it. Now cough please.”
Just a sample from Rod’s latest post on Yahoo’s NBA Expert Blog.
Back in 2005, Cal couldn’t get enough of Rod Benson. In fact he was kinda’ killing in his sophomore year, averaging more then 13 points and 6 boards a contest.
About six or seven months ago I stumbled on to “Too Much Rod Benson“. I actually found it because of the “Boom Got Them Tho” video that made the rounds on YouTube. After following his stuff for a while now, I gotta’ say, this dude is genuinely funny. And he can write. And he’s Poli Sci graduate from UC Berkeley. And he plays professional hoop. Well, sort of. He’s currently playing in the D-League for the Dakota Wizards (Note: Benson was named Player of the Week).
Well, I’m rootin’ for the dude. And I certainly hope he keeps up the writing, because it is some of the most entertaining sports bloggin’ by and athlete I’ve seen.
Let’s see, an active big who logged 28 rebounds in a single game. Don, have you read his blog?
Gd.
Now, make the jump to see Rod do the Chicken Noodle Soup Dance. Read More »
Plenty of folks are doing the Soulja Boy. So what if Bo Ryan is a 60-year old white dude. Who lives in Wisconsin.
Okay, so he’s also the coach of the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team. And coincidentally, he’s also the owner of a prestigious statistical honorarium: Bo is the current leader in overall winning percentage among NCAA coaches with at least 20 years of head coaching experience. Ordinarily, I would get witty or something now, but let’s just let Bo do his thing. Go ‘head Bo. And Superman.
Thoughts?
Turman
PS. That other school, The University of California, and their men’s football team, will not be discussed at the current time.
For approximately 40 minutes or so, Cal was the number one football team in the country. During this time, the nervous crowd never really let out a proper roar to announce the arrival of this unlikely truth, largely because the PA announcer never reported the LSU-Kentucky score to the assembled faithful. We were left furtively passing along reports of the multiple overtimes by word of mouth until finally, as the sun passed over the lip of the stadium and halftime was upon us, the truth was clear. If Cal could preserve their tentative halftime lead, they would be atop the polls. Alas, the coming darkness proved to be a harbinger as I searched fruitlessly for beer.
Redshirt freshman Kevin Riley started in place of the injured Nate Longshore. Without going into excruciatingly granular detail about his performance, it is fair to say that his performance was uneven. He started slow, but managed to get untracked to deliver a fairly stout line: 20 of 34 for 294 yards and three touchdowns, including one rushing score. Unfortunately, the game that Riley delivered was one that would have been perfect for 2001. With this season’s heightened expectations and the national championship on the line, anything that ends in a loss is not enough. And the way the loss unfolded was truly crushing.
If you can’t taste any stomach bile yet, Read More »
Holy mother of Pappy Waldorf! The new AP and USA Today polls are out today. And after winning at Oregon Saturday, the University of California Golden Bears are number three in the country. Seriously. Number three. Cal.
Some of you may remember doing a spit take on your Heineken when DeSean Jackson “promised” Cal fans a national championship after last year’s Holiday Bowl win. Well, apparently he was dead serious. And it gets better from here. As a graduate of Long Beach Poly (Snoop D-O Double Gizzle’s alma mater) the USC game will no doubt have special meaning for him. More on this to come.
D-Jax caught eleven balls for 161 yards and two touchdowns yesterday after some motivational clowning from receiver Lavelle Hawkins. From SF Gate:
Hawkins had a similarly interesting message for Jackson this week at practice. Hawkins consistently poked fun at the Heisman candidate, who hadn’t caught a touchdown pass since November’s loss at Arizona.
“I was going to talk bad about him until he started making some plays,” Hawkins said. “I think he wanted to fight me, and I knew he would really show up today.”
Lavelle’s just one dude. Who knows what motivation to greatness the USC game is going to provide? I know I’m a little ahead of myself here, but ponder it for a moment with me. There’ll be 90,000 people screaming “Go Bears.” There’ll be a national TV audience. He’ll be playing for a possible BCS Bowl berth and national championship. And he’ll be playing against the team that he grew up watching and almost played for, a fact which more than a few SC fans apparently remember. Vividly, in some cases.
Well, at least I haven’t had to read anything in the LA Times about Cal not deserving DeSean yet. Somehow, I don’t think that’s going to be the story in the Southland this time around. Although a certain promise from last winter might come to reside on a bulletin board or two.
This is a picture of Jahvid Best. He is a freshman who just finished an impressive debut in Cal’s win over the 15th-ranked volunteers of Tennessee. After a 48-touchdown senior season at Salesian High, he is the newest home-grown phenom for the 12th-ranked Bears. And, oh by the way, he’s also the state champion in the 100 and 200 meters, having set the best time in the nation for high schoolers in the former, running a blazing 10.3 at the state meet last year. He may not have been the star of the evening, with that honorarium reserved for DeSean Jackson and his nascent Heisman candidacy, but in many ways (and for today at least) Jahvid embodies the expectations that now accompany the Golden Bears to every contest. He finished with four rushes for 46 yards and some tasty kick returns. Splendid.
Hence the handy mathematical equation in the title. In the past, Bears fans could revel in relatively modest achievements (see: beating Stanford). Now, football nirvana has grown more difficult to come by. Sure, we rushed the field like a bunch of giddy Appalachian State students after the game, but deep down everyone in blue and gold knew that this was actually a game that we were supposed to win. It’s tough sledding at the top of the D-1 heap, Jahvid. You did your thing though. Nice touches. Good production in a big game. And since school’s starting, get out the PeeChee folder and take some notes from DeSean, who delivered an electrifying punt return for a touchdown when everyone in the world knew what was up; oh, and he has six returns for a touchdown in 27 tries. Mad-crazy happiness results. It’s mathematically sound.
Meanwhile, for added happy, the CalTrans Orange-clad, Rocky Top-singing Tennesseans—who apparently would drive RVs to Siberia for a game—are presently trying to find out where in tarnations the San Mateo Bridge is. With their hopes for quick passage out of B-Town effectively doomed, it would be smart for the Knoxville set to start lowering expectations, um, like, now.
Go Bears,
Turman
PS. I don’t know what was up with my camera phone, but the “holy light from above” shining down on Best is kinda freaky in a seeing the Virgin Mary in a piece of toast kind of way. Don’tchathink?
