Here's a sneak peak for you....

....OK, I've been sitting on this and didn't want to post on the main site without Joe's quotes, but RECRUITING IS OVER!!!!! (YEAH!) Here is recruit #8, Kamil Gawrzydek (and I have no clue how to pronounce that just yet)

A Kamil Makes Eight, ISU Signs North Platte’s Gawrzydek

6-11 center completes recruiting class for 2010-11 season

Pocatello, ID --- Idaho State University Joe O’Brien and his coaching staff have probably earned a little R-&-R as O’Brien has announced the signing of 6-11 center Kamil Gawrzydek of Teresin, Poland for the 2010-11 season, completing a large eight-man recruiting class. Gawrzydek joins Abner Moreira of Western Wyoming Junior College, Nick Mason of Memphis Southwind High School, Chase Grabau of North Platte Community College, Justin Brunswick of Middletown Madison High School, Kenny McGowen of the College of the Sequioas, Brandon Glanz of Las Vegas Coronado High School and Andre' Hatchett of Tucson Santa Rita High School. Gawrzydek’s signing completes the 2010 recruiting class, one that features four JC transfers and four high school seniors.

Gawrzydek, who was a college teammate of Bengal recruit Chase Grabau at North Platte CC, was slated to be the starting center last year before injuries derailed his sophomore season. He ended up playing in 23 games for North Platte, and 223 minutes total. Despite that, he still shot .686 from the field and averaged 3.7 points and 3.4 rebounds per game in less than 10 minutes of action. Despite his limited minutes he still finished third on the team in blocks as well.

North Platte last year went 29-6 and won the NJCAA Region IX championship, advancing to NJCAA National Tournament for the first time in school history.


So as soon as I get Joe's quote, that will be on the site, so it's a sneak preview for all the bloggers that read this.

And Now Help Me Win a VAN!!!!
I entered a homemade video into a contest sponsored by the Jay and Jack Lost Podcast, and it got picked as a finalist. I've already won a finalist prize, which is a replica of the LOST four-toed statue, but the winner of the internet vote wins a real Dharma Initiative Van. This is totally for real, and I could use help from the Bengal faithful...all you have to do is go directly to my video here....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0vbxxHtcRg

and click the thumbs up button underneath the video. You have to be logged into Youtube to do that, but I really would appreciate it. Thanks gang

Office Closed

If all seems quiet on the media relations front in the next few days ... that's because it's going to be pretty quiet around here. Our entire office will be working the Spokane Regional from Thursday through next Sunday, with a full days drive there on Wednesday and back on Monday. The only event going on this weekend is a women's golf tournament....that's it. No softball, no tennis, no track ... no nothing. Weird, right?

There will be some football popping up this week though. I'm waiting for the official eights and weights from the Pro Day stuff that goes on today (I just found out about that one). That is going on at Holt Arena from 11:30 (the guys who are done with their eligibility), and then upcoming seniors at 2:30, and everyone else around 3:30ish or so. Mark Campbell takes the weights and heights at that event and will get those to me, and then I can have the prospectus finalized. That reminds me...last year I got a bound prospectus from Oklahoma....bound. Full color cover. Money is great, isn't it? This year by the way Oklahoma's spring guide is 100 pages....100 pages? ISU's 2001 media guide for the fall season...i.e. the one that counts, was only 96 pages.

Now onto a bunch of things around the office/school/department you folks might find interesting..

Football Team Collects Food for the Idaho Food Bank
Nice job by Wes Horrocks of Channel 3 covering the proceedings here. Not sure why they went with the orange jerseys though.

Thankfully Southern Utah's Quarterback Won't be the One Going Off This Time
Back in 2000, South Utah quarterback Matt Cannon led the Southern Utah Thunderbirds with three rushing touchdowns and 1,153 yards rushing. Well, not really, it only seemed like it...it was actually 262 yards, and it still is the record for the most yards by a visiting player, as SUU beat ISU 62-24 (on Homecoming....uugh).

Now, a much different cannon is being talked about....one that actually goes boom. It's been pretty funny from my end, because a fan is putting all of this together, and sinking some $$ into it (I'll get him a Bengal Foundation membership for all of this at the very least), but some folks seem to be against it, harping on that you can't shoot a cannon in the dome. Really? They have fireworks during concerts in here, and a cannon will not be any louder than the freakin' Monster Trucks that rev themselves up outside of my office that forces me to go home early. It's not shooting a real cannonball, it's just powder...it will be fine, really. And yes, the man doing this (who by the way is in the Army, so yes, he knows of what he speaks) has talked to the folks needed, including the guy who runs the building, who is all for it. So, we got the building folks to OK it, the team OK'ed it, and the players OK'ed it. Be warned...we might very well have a cannon shooting at home games.

LOST Video Contest
Some folks might wonder "What does Frank Mercogliano do on a Sunday in his downtime?" Well, I make contest entries for LOST. If I get in the top 10, I'm coming back here begging for votes, because I want that van. If I don't make the top 10 I'll post the thing on Youtube anyways....

If you haven't been watching the greatest show on television....you don't even have to miss the NCAA Tournament, because it is on Tuesdays. Just go to Hulu.com, and catch up on the first five seasons, and you can be caught up in five weeks.

Charlotte's Web
Let me tell you a little story. Sit down...please...get a brownie or some chips. Back in 1998 when I came to Idaho State, the ISU athletic website sucked. It was HORRID. I had never done anything with the internet or a website ever, and so it continued to suck for a few months. It really was bad. Well, in the fall of 1998, a friend of mine named Ray Emery helped me revamp it so that we had a way to update it, get stats and news and rosters and stuff on there, and it was serviceable. Here is what it looked like back fall of 1999 (look at how cute the football page was back then), here is it in December of 2000, and in October of 2001, and the last incarnation of to old www.isu.edu/athletic site, the day before we switched to www.isubengals.com.

Flash forward to 2002, and ISU unveiled www.isubengals.com, which actually debuted on August 9, 2002, and it now more note worthy because I had a goatee at the time. At the time, we were ahead of the pack in terms of a website, it was clean, fast, organized, and everyone in Bengalville was happy, and kudos went to Howard Gauthier, who was the A.D. and agreed to spend the money and make the switch.

Well, it's 2010, and we have had the exact same website for the last eight years, and while I will still say it's totally function, we have no bells and whistles, and we are trying to keep up with the Joneses while trapped in the sites mandated design (case in point, there is NOTHING but white space on the right side of the page, and the videos we post are just sort of crammed into the page).

Now, we can fix that, but it would cost money. Eventually the question becomes this...do you keep adding and fixing, or do you just start over? Do you keep fixing your car, which is functional and runs, but can't maybe do everything you want, or do you just go down to Meador's and get a new car? Well, we are approaching the new car portion of the discussion.

We are looking at potentially switching our website for a radical redesign, very possibly with a new company. CBS College Sports, formerly CSTV, formerly Fans Only, formerly something else I can't remember, is getting a bit cost prohibitive, and so we are looking at a different company possibly, that handles and caters to more schools our size (view Montana State's website for an example).

So this is where you guys come in....what do YOU want in a website? There are things Katie, Jamie and I definitely want (more dedicated spots for video, facebook and twitter links in a better format, and a better layout graphically), but if you have any comments or suggestions on what you want to see on a website (be reasonable), email me at mercfran@isu.edu. If the cannon thing is any indication...yes, we listen to folks down here. We may not do it, we may not agree, but no idea is too dumb to be listened too, as Mr. Garrison was so nice to point out a few years ago.

Former Bengals in the Tourney
Amazingly enough, two former ISU Bengals are both in the NCAA Tournament. Paul Bubb, now the Sr. Associate Athletic Director at Murray State, will no doubt accompany the Racers to San Jose as the #13 MSU Racers take on #4 Vanderbilt, and Russ Eisenstein had possibly the best call of the day on Saturday (it's the inside the second video clip here...nice to have that in-house TV production eh?) as his Ohip Bobcats shook off an 7-9 conference record, and a #9 seed in the conference tournament to earn a 14-seed and head to Providence, RI to face off with the #33 Georgetown Hoyas. Dance boys, dance....

The Start of a BIG WEEK

Nothing like three games with Weber State in three days (men Thursday, and then men and women on Saturday) to help get over the men's loss to Sacramento State.

DON'T FORGET TO WEAR WHITE THURSDAY AND SATURDAY!!!!!

By the way, most folks don't know this, but there were some...shenanigans going on in Sacramento on Saturday. None of this is an excuse, but they made Idaho State have a 10 am shoot around for a 7:00 pm game, meaning it was an early start. The reason was they had three alumni games, one at noon, one at 1, and one at 2. Well geez kids....have those a little later maybe? Then, our team has a routine they go through, starting with early shooting, some post drills, and whatnot. Well, our team was locked in the locker room until 6:05 pm, because Sacramento State had their closed walk through from 5:05 pm to 6:05 pm ... and probably the last 20 minutes of that the Hornets were doing nothing but jump shots.

Did it matter? Probably not, but ISU's normal routine was disrupted a little, without a lot of time to prepare for that. Anyone get the feeling that we the Hornets come to Pocatello ISU might have a "closed shootaround" from 5:30 to 6:30 pm? Conference rules say the court has to be available only 30 minutes prior to a game, and that probably needs changed. Just a little gamesmanship there that I thought was interesting.

Of course, the basketball starts tomorrow ... but today is Wednesday, which is always a conflict for me this time of year. I have to record the greatest television show of all-time LOST for my hockey game, which is OK....it'll be a nice way to wind down. Seriously LOST was insane last week.....Mrs. Hawking? Hurley giving himself up? and who are the people Ben knew in the butcher shop? Mind-boggling.....

To get this back to basketball a minute....here's something I was discussing with Kellis and Coach O'Brien separately, and they both agreed with me to a point. I saw if the season ended today, Amorrow Morgan might be the league MVP. Think about it....Portland State spreads stuff out too much to get one guy that award, although Phil Nelson would be the guy. For Weber State, only Kellen McCoy is averaging in double-figures, and he's at 13.6 points per game....is he really an MVP candidate? Doesn't it come down to Morgan and Anthony Johnson of Montana? If Montana finishes higher than ISU, I'd personally go Johnson, and if ISU finishes higher, isn't it Morgan? That MVP race should be interesting, but we are a long ways away from that.

Different Ways To Shoot
Not ISU related, but a cool article on Montana State's Nubia Garcia was in the NCAA's Champions Magazine.

I Suppose This is Good...
Apparently, ISU is one of the top five schools in nuclear engineering, according to Dr. Vailas who is at the State Board meetings...

We Know All About It....
Interesting to see another softball program in Idaho, as the Statesman is working on a report regarding the start of the Boise State program, who ISU will be playing in March.

Leo!
Great article here about former Bengal football coach Leo McKillop....a fascinating read....

Pago-Mania!
It wasn't long after I had this Q&A with Pago Togafau, he of the Super Bowl Bound Arizona Cardinals, that Kelvin Ang caught up with him as well. Speaking of football, Tim Flagstad wants to give credit where credit is due...to Jeff Tingey.

Farewell
Former ISU graduate and a major play in the state of Idaho, and Idaho's history, Harry Magnuson passed away.

Need a High Paying Job?
It would help if you were an attorney, but still....

Incredible Finish....
You gotta see this finish....unfortunately, I can't link to it since it's a high school game, but go to Youtube and type in "Middleton 3 Miracles Floor Level" to see a a three to send a game to overtime, a three to give a team a three-point lead with two seconds left, and then a 3.4 court shot to tie it again, and then a buzzer beater to end it...wild stuff.