End of Season Harlem Shake Record

Nobody wants to read anything more about the Harlem Shake, but I just need to close the book on the effect it had on college basketball teams this year. We tracked four teams that did a Harlem Shake-- George Washington, Nebraska, Kansas and Louisville-- to see how it impacted the squads. Barring a miracle on the latter two of those teams will be heading to the dance. Here are the final numbers:

George Washington Pre-Shake: 11-11

George Washington Post-Shake: 2-5

Nebraska Pre-Shake: 12-12

Nebraska Post-Shake: 2-3

Kansas Pre-Shake: 20-4

Kansas Post-Shake: 6-1

Louisville Pre-Shake: 20-5

Louisville Post-Shake: 6-0

Adding that up, the record for the Total Harlem Shake Effect is 16-9. I think the true moral of the story there is that if you are a good team, then the Harlem Shake can be beneficial. If you suck, then your going to suck a little bit more if you do a national phenomena dance. Regardless of the stats, I think its safe to say that this craze will be forgotten a year from now and is nowhere near the greatest college basketball dance of all time. That title belongs to one man, and one man only. Take me home.

PS. One love to the fat kid in the grey sweatshirt trying to fight Buzz. 

Um, Do The Ravens Even Want To Repeat?

So let's see. They lose Boldin, Kruger, Ellerbe, tearful Ray and probably Ed Reed. Halotia Ngata and that moron T Sizzle are still pretty good but the years are catching up to them. This means they are gonna make Flacco earn every cent of his outrageous deal. People love to talk about him and Ray Rice and Torrey Smith but they all forget how many big time catches Boldin made. Ray Lewis and Ed Reed's contributions don't need to be stated and Paul Kruger was their best defensive lineman in the playoffs and arguably best defender in general.

If you're a decent quarterback you can win in this league and make deep runs in the playoffs with a great defense. Hell, if you're Mark Sanchez bad you can get to two straight AFC title games and even come close to winning those games. Ravens take away a monster part of their defensive line, a big part of their linebacking core and one of the greatest DB's (probably gone) to ever lace em up and you find your team scrapping with the Browns for 3rd place in the AFC North.

What happens when Torrey Smith gets shut down during a handful of games? You gonna run Ray Rice into the turf? Seems like the Ravens only option. Good luck repeating, Baltimore.

I'm not gonna be one of those guys who blasts Flacco here either. Does he deserve all that cash? Absolutely not. Is he one of the best in the game? Yeah, because he's a winner and performs under pressure. He could very well be a 2 time Super Bowl winner if Billy Cundiff wasn't a complete asshole. But overcoming all of these losses has me skeptical about the Ravens in the AFC North let alone repeating.

PS- The Bengals have the most money to spend amongst all NFL teams. That could mean bad news for the Steelers and Ravens.

Kickers Still Getting No Love In College Football

 

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We all know that kickers get absolutely no love in college or in the NFL, that's rather obvious. But you would figure at least their coaches would show them some affection, publicly, at least. Not here. Not Ohio State football. This old bag just eviscerates his kicker in front of the entire roster. As if it's not hard enough for this scrub to fit in already now he can't even find peace with the coach. Brutal.

College kickers have absolutely no sack when it comes to hitting a game winning field goal but even on the rare occasions that they do they still don't get any attention. Got a question for you: What was the kicker's name that won the Chick-fil-a Bowl for Clemson over LSU? What was the Michigan kicker's name who won the Sugar Bowl for them over Virginia Tech? Did you even know both of those games were won on the legs of a kicker? Unless you're a diehard fan of either of those teams you have absolutely no idea who they are. But they propelled their teams to huge bowl wins. Rightfully most of the credit goes to Denard and Boyd for leading their respective teams all game but don't you think we should at least remember some of the good kickers bring to the team?

I bet the average or even above average sports fan doesn't even know the name of the Florida State kicker. Dustin Hopkins is a guy who is one of the best at his position to ever play in college football. Not even being facetious... look at his stats.

Look, I understand that kickers pretty much suck on the college level but even I gotta say it's pretty brutal when a coach screams at you in front of the whole team degrading your position.

PS- If this was by chance a punter then all bets are off. Whenever someone says what their dream job would be as an athlete it's always something like 3rd string quarterback or last man off the bench. Shut up. Best job in sports is a punter. There is literally no situation where you have to be clutch or get blamed. Sam Koch running around like his head was cut off in the super bowl is the extent of it. Some may try and bring up Matt Dodge's punt to Desean Jackson that lost the Giants a shot at the playoffs a couple years ago. Well I'd argue that Matt Dodge should have been salting my fries at McDonalds at that time. If you can't kick the ball out of bounds then you shouldn't be in the NFL period. Punter=best job as an athlete.

Via Men of Scarlet and Gray

Bracketology Prediction #3

Mark Few and Kelly Olynyk are the two biggest reasons Gonzaga is ranked #1 in the country for the first time ever.

Welcome to the March edition of my bracketology predictions. We're almost there, amigos. This entire season has offered us a disgusting amount of drama and we're really just getting started. Lunardi has updated his bracket for us to salivate over so let's get crackin.

Oregon State Updates Already Atrocious Logo To Something Even Worse

A lot of changes in the PAC 12 with regards to aesthetics. Arizona switched from grass to field turf. I'm not sure how players' cleats won't stick to the rubber pellets when it gets hotter than the devil's drawers in the desert but I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we arrive at it. ASU updated their live mascot to look even creepier than it did before by giving it a Zorro esque mustache and pupils that portray heavy cocaine use. Hey, your mascot is supposed to be an extension of your students, right?

Original->Updated

And finally, Oregon State has just recently updated their logo into a whoosh of orange, black and white. Apparently it's supposed to be a beaver? Couldn't look anymore less like a beaver. Here's the thing with OSU, they have the color scheme to have some fresh uniforms and logos. Just so much untapped potential with black and orange. Sure it may look like some goofy halloween threads but black and orange are some pretty menacing colors in my opinion.

But it is tough when you're under constant pressure from those assholes in Eugene who change outfits each meal they eat per day so I understand the need for mixing it up every so often but this is remarkably weak. Honestly it looks like the black and orange version of the Hurricane's old alternate logo. 

The original wasn't so special but this is putrid. Make it the alternate to the alternate logo. Or downsize it and put it on the belts. Because if that finger painting catastrophe is strewn across their field then you can bet your buns I will not be tuning into OSU home games. Not that I had any reason to in the first place.

Kobe Can Still Leap

Lemme be the first to say that while this is a pretty ferocious slam, I'm not going nutty over it like everyone else is. I think it's just a product of how much people love Kobe now all of a sudden. It's funny, when a bigger egotistical maniac strolls along we start adoring the lesser of the two evils. Like I said, not doing backflips over this dunk because it's not like he dunked OVER Josh Smith. Kobe had him beat. Smith was trailing the whole time and Kobe had the angle.

Now, that's not to say that it wasn't a gnarly dunk. I honestly didn't know Kobe could still hop like that and assault the rim like it was a concierge in Denver. Just goes to show how much of a competitive freak he really is. I'll say this much though, for as much as I loathe Kobe, I respect the hell out of him. I loathe LeBron, but he hasn't earned my respect just yet. I mean Bryant is really the only reason why this team is .500. Just a bunch of underachieving idiots running around while Mamba does all of the work.

I also love Kobe because his twitter is an absolute laugh riot. Damn near every tweet is pure gold. Last night he simply tweeted: #Vino, apparently that's his new nickname. Then he has a hashtag that reads #CountOnKobe. And he left us with this gem just a week ago:

Along with that bumbling oaf Broussard, Kobe Bean is the most unintentionally hilarious sports figure on twitter.

PS- This is my favorite Kobe dunk of all time. He did this on a busted ankle, in the playoffs, with Kevin Harlan giving his signature comment and Reggie Miller referring to him by his middle name. Brilliance.