Monday, March 25, 2013

Dave's Thoughts of the Day: March 25th

Good to be back after a nice weekend.

This weekend I joined some of my sisters, her relatives, and friends to celebrate her birthday.  To celebrate we went to the Griffith Observatory.   It's all about the views from the outside.   From Griffith you can see all of Los Angeles.  You're also within a clear line of sight of the famous "HOLLYWOOD" sign.

After the trip, we all met at a nearby Johnny Rockets.    Johnny Rockets is not my favorite hamburger.  It's not my least favorite hamburger either, but it's somewhere in the middle.   I ordered a basic one, the #12... I liked it, but it was a tad dry and not earth-shattering.  Their fries were boring too, and I'd have done sweet potato fries instead had I remembered.

That wasn't so important.  Sharing moments with my sister who's now in college was the big thing here.  Good times.

We all went back to Oxnard to meet our parents for the family party the next day.  My sister loved the barbecue my Dad made.  It was a good time.  You know what really surprised me about my Dad's barbecue this weekend?  He got some top sirloin boneless steaks and popped them on the grill too.  They were cooked really well done for safety reasons but despite that, the steak was very good!  Completely took me by surprise.  To eat these little filets and get the same taste and texture (aside from the done-ness) that I'd get at Nick + Stef's.   The quality of the meat was *very* good!

So back to the grind... a few other observations.

Can somebody beat the Heat please?!   There are 30 teams in the NBA and 26 of them can't beat Miami?  That is a disgrace!!  I know how good Miami is, but this is getting outrageous.   Truthfully, I'm now *very* worried about the Heat beating the long standing 33 game winning streak the Lakers had in 1972.

The team that finally beat the Lakers to end the streak: Milwaukee.  At the time, Milwaukee had a guy named Lew Alcindor aka Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.  They also had Oscar Robertson.   The Lakers had Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West.  Great teams both!

And you want to know who the Heat would play to get their 34th straight win on April 9th?  THE MILWAUKEE BUCKS.  How about that synergy?!   I can guarantee you the NBA did not plan that... but how amazing of a coincidence is that?

Florida Gulf Coast is the most amazing story going in the NCAA Tournament.   I want to also give a lot of credit to my buddy John in CT for pointing out their incredible rise to their tournament both.   15 years ago, they were barely starting as a *school* let alone a basketball program.  Today, Coach Andy Enfield has them into the Sweet 16.

This is a terrible comparison, but two weeks ago in our Fast Food Bracket, we had #15 seeded Anthony's Coal Fired pizza advance to the Sweet 16.   Most of us thought it was outrageous!      And I'll be honest: I said to myself  "There is no way this will happen in the actual NCAA Tournament.  Ever."

More than the mere prospect of making the Sweet 16, FGCU is bar none the most exciting team to watch in this tournament.    Now, I think it gets outrageous when people over-focus on acrobatics a la the LA Clippers, but this team can both score, dunk, and play defense.   In other words, they know how to *play.*  The Clippers do not know how to play... they know how to dunk!  They know how to market themselves... but you put them into a half court game and they look lost.

FGCU on the other hand has it down with pretty much most facets of the game.   Beating tournament teams by 10 points each is damn impressive no matter what the seed is, and that it was a 15 seed is captivating.  Now, the dunks FGCU makes are unbelievable.   You usually don't *see* athleticism like this in college basketball.  The only problem is, they're now going to play Florida.

Florida is probably their equal in terms of athleticism and overall talent probably goes in the Gators' favor.   I also think Florida is bound for a huge upset BUT, I'm not seeing it against Fla. Gulf Coast.   I saw somewhere that Florida is a 13.5 point favorite.  Not sure if the Gators cover that but I would guess they'd win by ten points or so.  The Gators play very well in blowout games and so far they've won each game by double digits.  The Gators do NOT play well in close games, but that won't be an issue with FGCU.  HOWEVER, what a story the Gulf Coast team is.  What-a-story!

Next weekend, I'm joining some family and going to Wonder-Con in Anaheim.   I know, nerd central.  Stay tuned folks I'll have more to share on that one!

Going back to the Clippers, my Grandfather, a casual observer of the game, was telling me about how well the Clippers were playing and he said "Their defense is really good."   Boy I could not agree less, but I was not about to get into an argument with my grandpa.   Those are scenarios where respect is important.  They always say "respect your elders."  It's good advice.

It was probably a good thing I didn't argue with him:  Later I found out the Clippers are 4th best in the NBA for Points Allowed Per Game.   That *is* a good defense.

Has anyone tried the new NBA Stats webpage lately?  The damn thing is unreadable.  I respect advanced stats and sortable data as much as anyone but all I was trying to do was get the damn points allowed per game stats for all 30 teams.  Instead I got all this mumbo jumbo and excel formulas and percentages and PER hootinany.  How do you spell "Hootinanny?"  It's a Southern Term... whatever... the point here is, I do not have an accountant available to retrieve the information I need.  Ah well, I'll stick with Yahoo!

Tried to bodyslam an insect with my hand but I missed!   Blast...

Let's face it... the Yankees are a terrible baseball lineup.  They've got good pitching, but those games will be tough to watch.

The team to watch this year will be the Blue Jays.   I'm going to put on more Blue Jays games than ever before.  I want to see if these jokers are worth all the hype.

Too much red meat this weekend:  tonight I'm prepping some ground turkey with italian seasoning... with it I will serve Marinara sauce and Penne Pasta.   Good meals ahead.

That's all the time I have... catch you all tomorrow.

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