CubsFan1908

http://www.sportsline.com/mcc/autho
rs/reviews-by/47001

Look at this.  Then look at his recent posts.  Why do people think Pats fans are hated?  Here's reason numero uno.  It's people like this that completely ruin it for the few decent Pats fans.

"Notre Dame is dead."

"Notre Dame is no longer a great program."

"Nine straight bowl losses...  Notre Dame is terrible."

Yes, for the past couple years, Notre Dame fans have heard a lot of comments like these.  And with the Irish's performance the past couple years, especially last year, most understand why.  But all the "Notre Dame will never return to prominence" comments, the stats are actually piled against them.  The successes and failures of teams usually go through a rollercoaster like progression.  Teams are good, then go through a rough period.  Then a player will come along that catapults them to center stage.  Then the player retires, and again they sink to the cellar of the league.  Or the team could get a great front office guy or owner, and the team goes through their golden years.  Then the exec gets a better job and a ton more pay, or the owner sells the team, and again, the team suffers.  It's like the U.S.'s economy.  It goes through depressions, but it always gets better.

One prime example of this is the Celtics.  The Celtics were a losing team in the beginning, until the arrival of Red Auerbach.  Then they got Cousy and Bill Russell, and they were dominant.  Then Russell retired, and they went through their first losing season.  For the next eight years, the Celtics were out of the playoffs earlier than they were accustomed to.  Then came the Larry Bird days.  ANd after again being a prominent team, Bird retired and the team was again back to losing until 07-08.

Another example is the Patriots.  They were up and down, making only three championship games in their history until hiring Belicheck in 2000.  That's only three championships, which the Pats lost, in 40 years.  Now, they've been in four in eight years.  And when Tom Brady retires, chances are they will again sink to be a mediocre team at best.

A third example is the "Evil Empire," the New York Yankees.  They were a great team from the 20's all the way to the mid-60's.  Then they declined until a breif stint at the top in the late 70's.  Then of course, they became a bottom dweller in the 80's, and were revived in the late-90's the again become a dominant team, and again are beginning to slowly decline.

I know one team some Notre Dame hater will bring up is SMU.  I don't consider this legit, because Notre Dame never had a NCAA infraction, and didn't suffer a "death penalty."

So, all these patterns match with Notre Dame's.  They were good in the early years with Knute Rockne, then were mediocre until the Leahy era.  Then they were mediocre and at times just terrible, and them came the Parseghian era, which promoted Notre Dame to prominence until the 80's, when they again slipped to mediocrity until the Lou Holtz era.  After Lou Holtz, Notre Dame slipped into the depression they are in now.

In conclusion, the rollercoaster that is sports in unpredictable, and you never know when a drop is coming, or when you'll come around a bend and find your climbing a huge hill.

An upsetting Butler loss to Drake (Butler came before Drake, therefore Drake stole Butler's colors and mascot).

An ugly IU win against a pathetic Northwestern team.

A Purdue loss to IU.  And to make it worse, IU was in the middle of an investigation of their head coach.  Which brings me to probably the biggest and worst...

The whole Kelvin Sampson debacle.

Yes, this was a bad week for Indiana sports.  And with all the debating about the biggest basketball states, it came at a really bad time.

Since I was at the Butler game, I'll start there.  Two things were wrong at that game.  Butler's shooting and the officiating.  Butler's shooting was atrocius.  They could not make anything.  They were 10-16 from the charity stripe.  Terrible.  They were 25% from 3 point range.  Disgusting.  They shot 10% lower from the field than they average on the season.  They could not stop Young (# 20, don't know his first name), who scored 25.  Appaling.  And as bad as Butler's shooting was, the officiating was 10 times worse.  They would call non-existent fouls agaisnt Butler, and then try to give Butler a sympathy foul.  At one time when the officials actually made a good call.  The guy next to me stoop up and tried to start a standing ovation.  It's a shame when officials have such a direct impact on a game.  I wonder when the officials graduated from Drake...

I'll tie the other three points into one.  Purdue's loss hurt them, but they're fine.  They have a core of players that will be together for three more years, and will still make it to the Big Dance.  IU, on the other hand, is in trouble.  Next year, they will be without their top two players, will probably lose a couple of the recruits they signed this year, and will have a new head coach.  I've looked at some of the candidates that have been mentioned, here:

• Bruce Pearl: Has said IU is his dream job, but he could have some character issues, and why would he leave Tenneesee?  Especially now?
• Tom Izzo:  Has a team in Michigan State that is constantly Top 25, and has the most wins with one Big Ten team.  Why would he leave to start over with a team that might have to face NCAA sanctions?
• Brad Brownell: He's the coach at Wright State.  Wright State is a decent team, so I'm okay with this one.  We need a coach that will recruit players that will stay for four years and be team players.  Look at Purdue, they're set for four years.  That's what IU needs.  I've heard this is Rick Greenspan's favorite.
• Tony Bennett:  This is my favorite, but the current Washington St. coach seems to have something there.  He will recruit my kinds of players, and his team plays good defense.  We'd have to wait and see if Greenspan will attempt to go after Bennett, and if Bennett would leave the Cougars for the Hoosiers.

Thank God it's almost baseball season...

Well, at least not after this next sentence.  My dreams of the Pats losing have been crushed with the loss of the Packers; game over. 

Anyway, on to my next edition of My Random Thoughts and Feelings:

• I have found a new addiction.  I am now addicted to Reece's.  I got together with a couple of friends to watch the games and bought some snacks to have during the game.  One thing I bought was a bag of mini Reece's Cups.  It ended up, of the (approximately) 220 cups in the bag, I ate 200.  Heh.
• On to the next edition of Feuding Fans.  As I said in my last entry, all of my friends are fans of different teams.  On the College Basketball level, there is a UNC fan, a USC and a Texas A&M fan (who is also a Charger, BoSox, and Suns fan, who lives in the Midwest...), a couple Butler fans, and a Notre Dame fan.  You can bet with the losses to UNC, Texas A&M, Butler, and Notre Dame, and the upset by USC, there is going to be some major arguing next time we're all together.
• I play in a intermural basketball league, and my team just played thier last game.  We didn't win.  In fact, it wasn't even close.  How close?  Try 58 points close.  Yeah.  I am my team's best defender, and I almost always got a hand in the shooter's face, but it seemed like it went in every time.  And when you shoot and make 3's every time, you're hard to beat.
• I just watched a great movie on Turner Broadcasting Network.  It's called School of Rock.  And I'm gonna watch it again.  Right now.

And remember, get you're dog(s) spayed and neudered.

Welcome.  These blogs will usually have absolutely no relevance to sports, as I will leave these to the Message Boards, but since this is a special entry, I will make an exeption here.

• I watch the Congressional Hearings and wonder why Congress is wasting their time with the MLB.  I mean, it's not like there's a war going on right now, or there are bigger moral issues to worry about.  I mean, geez.  These people are represting us to keep our country the best in the world, and they are worrying him about BASEBALL.
• I'm watching American Idol (to see people make fools of themselves, I'm done after auditions), and this girl on right now says she's a LB.  I'm sad as I listen to her story, but I have to say it.  She is way too big for MLB, and she is not a good singer.
• It seems like all I do, all day, is argue with my peers about colleges.  One of the people I'm with is a Notre Dame fan like me, then there's a Duke fan, a UNC fan, and a USC fan.  I think you see the problem.  Two different rivalries, two different arguements going at once.  D.J., the USC fan, throws out names like Reggie Bush and Matt Lienart (throwing out recent names like that proves he's a fair-weather fan), so I throw out names like Joe Montana, Jerome Bettis, Tim Brown, ect., and I end the arguement with two words.  "O.J., Simpson." Meanwhile, the other two are trying to figure out one NBA HOF'er from Duke and if Vince Carter is worth anythin in the Duke/UNC argument.
• I have made a list of lines from TV shows (mostly from Rules of Engagement) that I want to use in everyday life.  Two that I have been able to use are "Okay, this metaphor is falling apart," and "Don't play dumb with me, because that is a battle you cannot win."

And that's about it.