Losing Two in One Week....

'Tis kind of a sad week already here at ISU for me anyways. First of all, the office is quiet as Katie Zigars is off for the next two week on vacation (lucky). But, she will be back, while two folks most assuredly won't be, and that's Kellis Robinett of the Idaho State Journal, and Ryan Collingwood of the Blackfoot Morning News. Ryan, who had his farewell column come out yesterday, (including a shout-out to yours truly), has been nothing short of a miracle for me. I've tried and tried for 11 years to get the Blackfoot Morning News involved with ISU. Good grief we are like 20 minutes away and for my first 10 years I couldn't get anyone there to care, but Collingwood did a great job. He covered ISU football and basketball, including some road games, did some features, and generally brought ISU to the readers of the Morning News. Mark High is the new editor there, and I'll be introducing myself to him and showing him a little ISU hospitality, and hopefully he will continue with Ryan started.

As for Kellis, well, I'm losing a pretty good friend there. While it's true that at various times ISU coaches have had their differences with him (that could be said of any reporter by the way), the facts are facts. Kellis is one of the top reporters to ever come through here, and he is moving to the Omaha World Herald (here is his final column, with sadly, no shout out....).

I should mention at this point that I have always said I'm a stand-up guy and will acknowledge mistakes and stuff like that (as I have done here several times). A couple of weeks back I gave Kellis some grief about needling the coaches a bit and taking little shots and digs. I was reading over my blogposts and I noticed this from last week .... "Kellis Robinett of the Idaho State Journal had a regular article that is pretty straight forward, but he takes a few potshots at the Big Sky in his blog." So, I pretty much did exactly what I gave Kellis grief for doing, so while I have apologized to him in person, I do so publicly as well.

Anyway, Kellis earned a little bit of a rep in his last weeks with a couple of strong columns and things like that, but he shouldn't be judged by that. In reality, he should be judged by the full body of work while he was here, and that body of work is impressive to say the least.

The Journal has lost two ridiculously talented writers in the last few months in Kellis and Dan Thompson, leaving Kelvin Ang and Tim Flagstad a big hole to try to fill. Tim's writing has always been solid, and Kelvin's writing continually gets better and better, and just google his article on Joe Cullen for proof (I can't find it right now).

Anyways, we will miss both Ryan and Kellis. Robinett was a regular for poker night at my house, and he was one of the better players (he smiles when he's got nothing, he smiles when he's got a hand....uugh), and he was always complementary of my wife's cooking. We wish both well, knowing we will run into both of them again soon.

Just clocking in for the day....

I love CSI ... I will miss Gil Grissom, but I really think that Laurence Fishburne adds something to the cast, and I like where it is going. You all should know be no I'm a LOST-aholic, and I get depressed on every road trip when I have to go to practice on Wednesday night and miss it, having to catch it on ABC.com on Thursday morning. What I love are the mysteries...I never really have mysteries in real life. Or do I?

Poor Kellis is going to get a ribbing here, and I kid because I care, but this was posted on Kellis' blog yesterday...

"I went back and looked at Amorrow Morgan’s buzzer-beating shot from half court just before halftime against Eastern Washington, and there is no way in the solar system it took only nine-tenths of a second to shoot. I timed it several different times on replay and found that it took roughly 1.34 seconds to shoot.

He did catch the ball, take three steps, dribble and shoot, after all.

The officials made the right call with what they could see, but the game clock was started almost half a second late."

Ah.....a mystery! After the one-game Weber State shenanigan's with guys fouling out that got to play, the ISU table crew, excellent pros one and all, are being called to the carpet again potentially here. Let's break the mystery down like Dr. Jack Ramsay would (thank you Bill Simmons).

"I went back and looked at Amorrow Morgan’s buzzer-beating shot from half court just before halftime against Eastern Washington, and there is no way in the solar system it took only nine-tenths of a second to shoot. I timed it several different times on replay and found that it took roughly 1.34 seconds to shoot."

Technically we are going to give this to Kellis, because I times it 25 times in the office with Katie Zigars as a witness, and never got it at 0.9 seconds. However, the longest it ever took was 1.21 seconds (and I know I started the clock too fast and dragged on shutting it), and the fastest was 0.94 seconds. The most common time was 1.06 to 1.11, which occured 13 times, so let's look at those times, as we can throw out the other seven highs and lows as abberations.

The clock read 0:01.0 ... now that actually could be 1.09 seconds, because on the slo-motion replay, the game clock is at 0:00.1 when it leaves his hand, and in the next frame the clock is 0:00.0, and as my TV production college background reminds me, each frame is 1/24 of a second.

Based on that alone, Morgan could have gotten the shot off without any clock shenanigans. Of course, I'm watched the play knowing exactly when to start the clock, something the timekeep doesn't have the benefit of, which means he probably has a reaction lag time of 0.14 seconds (this is a standard addition in track and field as the accepted reaction time to starting or stopping a stop watch), meaning it is absolutely within reason to think that he got the shot off fairly and cleanly. For the life of me, clocking that thing at 1.34 seconds seems like an eternity, and I don't know how that happens, but in this case, the science trumps all

Dr. Jack's Decision -- basket good, no clock shenangians

"He did catch the ball, take three steps, dribble and shoot, after all."

Actually, looking at the recording, he takes four steps, but all are legal. Morgan is in the air running that curl route when he catches the ball and has all his momentum turned up court, and he lands one foot two foot .. so far so good. As he catches the ball in the air, he is releasing the ball for his one dribble almost instantly, and that's his third step, the fourth in when he sort of shot puts the ball out...remember, he doesn't take a jump shot...he really pushed the ball out from his body very quickly. He takes four steps, but with the mid-air catch and dribble, there isn't anything wrong or illegal there either.

Dr. Jack's Decision -- basket good, no travel

The officials made the right call with what they could see, but the game clock was started almost half a second late."

Wow...0.5 seconds late? In the span of three paragraphs, we went from .34 seconds late to .50 seconds late. Previous science showed he got the shot off cleanly.

Dr. Jack's Decision -- basket good, Idaho State Journal needs better stopwatch

See, when Dr. Jack breaks it down like that, everything feels better, doesn't it? Anyways, we love Kellis in the home office here, and like to kid him a bit, but honestly, Morgan got the shot off....there's no real argument.

See, this is what you get to do when you have to leave on a bus in a few hours and you are waiting for the bank to open!

Just One Big Crazy Weekend Coming Up

I'm continually impressed with the posts that Brad Bugger has been enlightening us with...I hope you all are enjoying. Oh, that crazy weekend? Men's basketball game on Friday at 7, get done at 10, drive to Missoula, get in a 3:30 am or so, sleep for four hours, handle all the pregame stuff, radio show at 10:45 am in Missoula, football at noon, drive back at 4 or so, back in Pocatello at 10 or so, repack, sleep, get up at 5:15 am, catch the Salt Lake Shuttle to the airport, and fly to catch up with men's basketball at noon. The saving grace, when all that ends....I'll be in Hawaii...I hope I'm awake to enjoy it. Back to one of the 100 or so Division I blogs on the internet (and about 80 or so popped up after this one).

Men's Basketball Opener on Friday night
Just a reminder that the team is doing a Meet & Greet at Wingers (all you can eat Sticky Fingers for $9.99 ... I mean are you serious?) where fans can get promotional materials and get pictures and autographs. Just don't take Busma's wings. Also, nothing too new on Felix's deal, but Felix has personally been in contact with the people in Brazil the NCAA is trying to reach for their International Clearinghouse, so I'm thinking good happy, positive thoughts right now. Let's keep our hopes up on this one.

However, Friday is the big day as the Joe O'Brien era, year three, officially opens against a ridiculously good NAIA opponent in Eastern Oregon. For those that think this is a pushover so there isn't a need of showing up, just read Kellis Robinett's blog post on that one. Hey, you can even ask the newlywed a question too! Also, Ryan Collingwood (an Eastern Oregon grad doncha know...) has his season preview of the Bengals up as well.

One question that wasn't asked was about parking for the game on Friday at Reed. There were still good spots near the facility last Friday, and the crowd was really not bad for an exhibition game. While Reed did lose parking spots, folks can park at the Vocational Tech building across from Reed, or at Turner-Garrison, catty-corner from Reed. It might involve a one block walk, but it's not further than parking near Bonneville Park and walking to the Holt front doors.

Lots of Women's Debuts this Week
The Seton Sobolewski era officially starts on Saturday when ISU takes on a very, very, very good DePaul team down in Albuquerque for the first of three games in that tournament (they also have Alcorn State and New Mexico). Along with the debut of Seton Sobolewski and his staff (actually, Jordan Green and Angela Munger have both coaches here before, so only Seton and Holly Robertson debut) Mark Liptak will be going at it solo on the radio call, so make sure you tune in for Mark's broadcasts. Also, Kelvin Ang talks about ISU's first recruiting class for Sobolewski, who stole one recruit out from under the University of Idaho for good measure. Idaho did announce former Bengal Bianca Cheever has signed with Jon Newlee and the Vandals.

Volleyball's Late Run
I joked at the press conference this week that very quietly, the volleyball team has won six of their last nine, making a late playoff push. The great thing is while we are all pretty happy with the team's resurgence, Chad is disappointed they haven't won more, and he isn't satisfied that the team is playing up to their potential, and wants them to do even better. Gotta like that, but credit to him and his team...it's ISU's first four-match win streak since 2003. It's a tough road this week at Northern Colorado and Northern Arizona.

Super Secret Press Conferences?
I was asked recently why ISU's Monday press conferences are not available video-wise or audio-wise, and the answer is the video thing is an equipment issue. The digital camera int he office doesn't have any sound for video, so that's not helpful, and the audio files can only be stored for a short period due to the amount of server space we get as an athletic department, which would eventually lead to major linkrot. Eventually I'd love to have a nicer digital camera that records video just for that purpose. I know Tim Flagstad videos the press conference with his camera (My wife's camera can do the video, but she uses it during the day because...well, it's hers...), but I can't find it on the Journal's site. If anyone would like to donate a good digital camera..... :) (EDIT 10:48 am ... Tim Flagstad sent me the link to his video of the press conference here. Yeah to Tim!!!!)

Three-point line stuff
The Journal has some good stuff on the new three-point line, as Kellis talked at length with some of ISU's long-range threats. When at Holt, there is no confusion because there is only the men's line, but at Reed, as you can see by the photo, there are two. Kelvin Ang took a closer look at how the two lines will effect the women's game.

In the Interest of Presenting All Sides
While I don't necessarily agree with all of Dan Thompson's points in his column, he does make some valid ones as well on the subject of marketing.

Quick Football Hitters
Since I'm gonna be rolling into Missoula around 3:30 am on Saturday morning, catching about four hours of sleep and getting up at 7:30 to start getting ready for the game, it'll be a quick hitter for me, so here are some quick hitters for you...Roman Stubbs of the Kaimin, Montana's student newspaper, has two pretty good pieces, on John Zamberlin, and on how Montana is approaching this game, knowing the Brawl of the Wild is next up for them. Dan Thompson has his weekly power poll as well as his notebook (note McBride's comments...a tremendously classy individual to note that while recovering from his ailment). I like Mac even more now. Fritz Neighbor of the Missoulian has his look at Idaho State, but I'm not sure who Mike Phipps is.

Little Kids Everywhere

That's what we had yesterday after practice....little kids everywhere. ISU football hosted a free youth clinic on Thursday, and well over 200 kids came out, including girls, to learn some basic techniques, get taught by their favorite player, and just have a good time.

It was great to see the players interacting with the little kids (and some bigger junior high school kids). My favorites were the offensive line guys, showing kids that playing the line and blocking is cool. News Channel 6 was there filming at one point and Mitch Rudder started pumping one little guy up, yelling "Channel 6 baby, they want you little man...they want to see you throw a big block!" Now that little guy was pumped.

Great job by John Zamberlin and Jeff Tingey in setting that up. There was a huge poster signing after the day was over, and every kid got a voucher for a free ticket for Saturday. Many of the parents went around with the kids and got to talk with coaches and players as well, so there was lots of good communication lines going on. It was really a sight to see.

You Do Realize Returning Kicks Isn't Always Easy
While I don't necessarily disagree that we have to do a better job returning kicks, Kellis might be slightly off base a bit here, because I'm pretty sure they will take their chances with JD as opposed to a touchback. The unit did spring JD Ponciano for some huge returns against Idaho, and getting big returns this week might be really tough facing a solid coverage team in Montana State.

Barn-Burner
Ryan Collingwood talks about ISU's improvements on defense, and the close nature of the ISU-MSU series.

I Would Think They Would Want the Attention
The University of Idaho cheerleading saga continues, as the new, less risque uniforms will debut against Nevada on Saturday. It was nice of the cheerleaders to change the uniforms to focus more attention on the team, but Idaho hasn't won an FBS game since 2006.

Remember, soccer today at 4:00 pm at Davis Field....be there!

Send a Wire to the Main Office, and Tell Them I Said ... OOOWWWWWW!!!!!

As someone who works in statistics all the time, it's only slightly annoying when my own hockey statistics are wrong, and since I have a big game tonight at 9:30 pm (be there or be square), and since there is no ISU event tonight, I'm just saying....8-2-1 record, 4.21 goals against, 82.7 save percentage, and three assists. Just saying.....it's all skillz.

Seriously though, has there ever been an ISU season like this? By the time September 18 gets here, the sports season is over three weeks old, and only soccer and cross county have had home games/meets? Really? Thankfully men's basketball has 23 home games. Well, 16, but it'll seem like more.

Linkage S'il Vous Plaît... (sorry, I've been listening to Air Musique on XM 100....French Top 40...lots of good music coming from France these days ... Les Respectables and Pamela are the currect biggies)

He's Back.......
Matt Gutierrez' time to collect unemployment was awfully short. The serious knee injury to Tom Brady left the Patriots with just Matt Cassel and rookie Kevin O'Connell, so Matt was resigned by Dr. Belichick yesterday, and could be the backup this Sunday against the New York Favres.....er, Jets.

He's Back, Part II
Kellis Robinett's long strange journey to the ends of the earth are over, and as such, his blog is finally updated. And while Kellis might be worried about ISU playing Hawaii in basketball, how many dstractions are there in Honolulu at 11:00 pm? Don't answer that. Either way, it's OK, because the WAC representative Jason Erickson, formerly of ISU, will be there as well. Jason is moving up in the world by the way, and while we are in Hawaii, don't think we aren't looking for this guy, and visiting these places. And yes, I know exactly how long until "Because You Left" begins....

Black (Orange) and Blue
Bailey Williams has seen most of the action in goal for ISU, especially with the other freshman keeper Michelle Harrison a bit under the weather. Now, some folks that peruse this blog know I'm a former collegiate soccer goalkeeper, so I have a soft spot for our keepers on the women's team. Now, the fact that Bailey got kicked in the face doesn't make me a bigger fan of hers, and getting four stitches and playing the next game two days later is great, but that doesn't necessarily make me a bigger fan either. But, thinking that the blood is streaming down her face, is "pretty sweet"? Just call me a Bailey Williams fan for life

I Should Have Stuck to Wii Curling on Deca-Sports

You know, I gotta tell you, there's nothing like a thinking your 9s over 4s is good until your opponent turns over a set of 4s....oh well, nothing like a poker game to get in the mood for soccer on Wednesday. Oh, and yes, if you check the time stamp of this post, it is 11:11 pm....sigh. Anyways, remember that the soccer game is gonna start at a really, really goofy time of 11:00 am. The game will be on KISU, and you can get it on your computer as well, with yours truly bringing you the action. The real season starts on Friday afternoon at 4:00 pm against Utah State. It feels like they just ran the mile test yesterday. Anyways, let's catch up on some links....

A Suite Way to Catch the Season Opener
If you have some extra cash on you, you can watch the season opener next week in Boise from the last suite left open for the game. Better yet, watch the game on TV, and send the money over to the Idaho State Bengal Foundation....you will be glad you did. Seriously though, seats are running low.

So That's Why Eisenstein Left
See, if we had a Buffalo Wild Wings in Pocatello, Russ might still be here. Of course, there are certain other wing places I'd be fine with as well....no link, but you can figure that one out, can't you?

People that are Easy to Root For
The on thing that Dan left out on his excellent story on Kenyon Blue....he is a walk-on...had a scholarship, and is currently paying his own way.

Scrimmage Stuff
KIFI has an online report of the second scrimmage, as did Tim Flagstad, who pinch hit for Dan Thompson (something about visiting his parents...what a good boy). KPVI also had a report as well. Speaking of scrimmages, ISU is starting Russel Hill at quarterback on the 30th. Boise State however isn't quite ready to announce theirs yet.

And Last Place According to Kellis Goes to.....
Kellis Robinett discusses the relationship between Idaho and Utah State, and the fact ISU has a former player from each team is interesting.

More on Matt
Matt Gutierrez did not play against Tampa on Friday, and while some would say it's because he didn't practice much in the week leading up to the game, but according to the Providence Journal, he might have the #2 job sewn up....just one heartbeat away...or one bad ankle is more like it.

Bengal Blog ... Hockey Night in Pocatello, and NFL News from around the USA...

Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Posted by Frank Mercogliano, Asst. A.D. for Media Relations

As you can see...trying a different blogstyle here, as I quickly discovered that the other blog is going to get very cumbersome once the school year starts and Katie starts posting once in a while and Russ as well, so I've noticed many blogs with the blogspot address and thought hey, that would work for this, right? So, let me know your thoughts...you all know where to reach me.
Hopefully, you guys are getting as excited as I am about the upcoming season. I can't believe we open football camp on Monday, August 4 at 4:00 pm...nuts, right? Of course, soccer opens camp Aug. 6, and volleyball Aug. 12. Heck, soccer has a game on August 20...that's just three weeks away.

Wednesday nights mean hockey nights in my life, and low and behold, look who leads the league in wins and goal against average. If you went to page two, you'd also see that same guy is tied for 23rd in scoring...nice. Skillz....yeah, I got' em. To the links!

What channel is it in Pocatello
This will get onto the website in a real story later, but the Idaho State soccer game on September 13 at Brigham Young will be broadcast live on BYU-TV. This will be the first televised ISU soccer game (other than the two tournament games in 2006 on Big Sky TV.

One Matt Will Stick for Sure
Lots of talk in New England about who Tom Brady's backup quarterback will be, and some folks think it will be Idaho State's own Matt Gutierrez, who played more last year than #2 QB Matt Cassel. Most pundits feel that Mr. Belichick will be keeping third-round draft pick Kevin O'Connell from San Diego State (who played against ISU in 2004 in a 38-21 SDSU season opening win). This should be the battle of Patriots camp.

Pago Picks a Pass...
Pago Togafau, who didn't see a ton of time last year with Philadelphia, might be in line for more, after being called out by the Courier Post on South Jersey in Eagles camp for the pick of the day, intercepting QB Kevin Kolb

Underdog
If there ever was an underdog to make an NFL roster from Idaho State this season, it would be Clyde Logan, who signed a free agent deal with the Cincinnati Bengals. Somehow, much to the chagrin of writer Chris Maier, Clyde made it through the 80-man roster cut, while second round draft choice Kenny Irons did not. Maier might not understand Clyde's military background, or the fact that his caoch played at Idaho State, but good for Clyde....he can do it....he's an ex-Marine.

Finally the Perfect Gift for Florida Gator fans who migrated to the Treasure Valley
While we here at Idaho State sometimes hear folks complain because of the scarceness of ISU gear in town (although I see it everywhere), at least when hats are made for us, these types of screw-ups don't happen. Having lived in Idaho and Florida during my lifetime...that's pretty funny.

Getting the Lead Out
While I'm sure everyone here is grateful to learn that the lead in artificial turf playing fields is not a threat to the health of the players, check out the picture attached to the article on CNN.com ... talk about free advertising...

First Up for Kellis...Northern Colorado
Kellis Robinett of the Journal is going to breakdown each team in the Big Sky in his order of finish from last to first...first up, Northern Colorado at #9.

Look....Blackfoot Covers Idaho State again!
One of the things that has always seemed weird to me is why doesn't the Blackfoot Morning-News cover Idaho State athletics? We're like 20 away, or 12 if you are my daughter Jessica, but seriously, I've seen tons of old articles...they used to always be out here. Well, I'm happy to report, there's a new sheriff in Blackfoot, and his name is sports editor Ryan Collingwood. Not only is he an excellent writer, but his blog, Collingwood's Corner, is mandatory reading. It'll be great having Ryan at the games...check it out.