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 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.