Sunday, April 01, 2012

Sunday Night Dessert: Too Nice Outside to Think of Sports Far Away

I have to admit that I had a lot of disinterest in the sports world this weekend.  My NCAA bracket was pretty much busted, and while I watched the end of Ohio State's late choke job against Kansas, it wasn't all that captivating. Let's face it, the weather was just too spectacular to sit in front of the television. If we're going to have weather that's 30 degrees above normal, it's far better for it to happen from December to March rather than, oh, say August.

Bo Pelini thinks the team is motivated a little more this spring.  Sounds good, but color me a little cynical here. I hope it's honest talk and that this team is motivated to break the pattern of not showing up once or twice each season.  I'm not so cyncial as to think that Nebraska won't break the pattern; it's just that saying you are going to do things different means far less than actually doing it in the season.  I would have hoped that slipping on the banana peel in 2009 and 2010 would have meant not doing it in 2010 or 2011...and it didn't.  All sorts of reasons why, and that's not important. It's simply time to start making it happen.

On thing that floored me this week was when I read that Illinois hired Ohio's John Groce for under $1.4 million.  Why did that floor me?  Nebraska is paying Tim Miles $1.4 million. I understand why Groce said "no" to Nebraska; bigger, better jobs are going to be out there if he waits.  But it sure seems like Groce settled.  When I heard that Illinois was pursuing Groce, I figured his salary would be double what Miles got from Nebraska.  Do I think Nebraska offered Groce more than Illinois did?  I'd sure like to think so, because despite Miles having a longer head coaching background, Groce has the record of success as both an assistant coach in the Big Ten as well as the head coaching background.  I'm not saying that Miles was a bad choice for Nebraska; I just hope that Miles was hired after it was clear that Groce wasn't coming to Lincoln.

This next weekend is the Frozen Four for college hockey...but ESPN is treating the sport like an afterthought.  The regionals were relegated to ESPNU and internet streams (on selected carriers)...and even one of the semifinals on Thursday has been bounced to ESPNU.

And if you want to be jealous of any sportscasters, be jealous of KOZN's Kevin Kugler this week.  Kugler calls the national championship basketball Monday night, then heads to Augusta to call the Masters next weekend.  Yeah, that sounds like a couple of pretty good assignments...and he (probably) gets paid to do it.  (In the media game anymore, you can't always assume that...)

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