"DOWN WITH STANFORD"

[IAmMarquette]

Friend of mine emailed this to me. Entertaining.

Down With Stanford
Stanford University is a famous bastion of academia known for rigorous standards in the classroom. As a #3 seed, it’s also very clear that Stanford has a good basketball team. They have the coach of the year in the Pac-Ten in Trent Johnson. They have twin towers literally in 7-footers Brook and Robin Lopez, one of whom is a top-five NBA pick and the other a certain first rounder. My impression of Stanford, however, has gone into the Silicon toilet after watching the crapshow that was their second round match-up against Marquette. Usually smart people aren’t so stupid, but the Stanford Cardinal basketball program should be in detention for their head coach getting ejected and Robin Lopez acting like a complete jackass the entire game. I would cheer for Exxon, Halliburton and Darth Vader before I would cheer for the Dick Trees of Stanford.

On Saturday night the Stanford Cardinal should have embarrassed everyone who has ever worn a maroon and white sweatshirt, including my close personal friend Kris Atteberry. Head coach Trent Johnson was ejected from a NCAA tournament game in the first half. How in the hell can you get ejected from the tournament? I don’t care who you are, you can control your emotions enough when you get a technical foul and realize 300 million people are watching you throw a temper tantrum halfway out on the court. You are a head coach who is in the living rooms of high school kids telling their parents that you will guide them to become better men in their tenure in college and you have seven minutes of SportsCenter devoted to your hissy fit? I just can’t believe that a coach would have such little concern for his team to allow his personal emotions to overrule his judgment. If a player were to get two technicals and lose the opportunity to play in the greatest tournament in professional sports, (it is) it would be a terrible representation of himself. When a coach does it, it’s downright deplorable.

After Trent Johnson exited stage left and got the same view of the game that I did, one of his star post players channeled his coach’s idiocy and talked crap to everyone after every play.

I was ready to let it pass the first time Robin Lopez yelled at a Marquette defender after he drew a foul in the paint. The subsequent 10 times that Lopez jawed and gestured made me want to come through my television. He was offensive to the point where I think he wanted everyone to see how much he was talking crap. Don’t you have to be smart to go to Stanford? The first rule of crap-talking is to do it quietly and surgically so you frustrate your opponent until he snaps and the referee sees him. That’s the point of talking crap in the first place: get the other guy off his game to the point where he gets all-Trent Johnson, freaks out and gets a couple T’s. I’m not sure if Robin is upset because his brother Brook is better than he is, because he has a girl’s name, or because he looks like Sideshow Bob. But the intensity is fake posturing, just an act to make people think he’s energetic and passionate. Take a deep breath and stop being a jerk. You are a good basketball player; you don’t need to scream at a 6’6’’ guy who you shot over when you’re 7 feet tall. Congratulations. Get over yourself.

Stanford is still a good school, I guess. They have Brin and Page and I think their little Google idea will work out just fine. But I hope the Texas Longhorns kick the hell out of their basketball team next Friday.

http://www.10000takes.com/2008/03/toms_take_down_with_stanford.html#more

[TallTitan34]

They both have girls names though.   

[HarveysWallbangers]

Did you guys really think the Stanford coach deserved to get tossed? I didn't. I thought it was a gross overreaction by th referee!

[mu_hilltopper]

Agreed.  On the "hissy fit" scale, it was about a 2. 

[Sir Lawrence]

I'll second that.  Had it happened to Crean, I would have had a coronary.  Stupid to walk out to mid court, but not deserving of a toss--he could have warned him. 

[CTWarrior]

I agree that it was not a hissy fit.  But he got one technical and was warned to end it, and he continued.  Most refs probably wouldn't have tossed him, but he really has no one to blame but himself.

The funny thing is, he was complaining on a call that I thought was pretty obvious the refs got right.  Hayward successfully split the double team and the kid hip checked him.  There are enough times that the refs screw up and if I was gonna get tossed, I would rather it be complaining about a truly bad call.

[MUSF]

He didn't deserve to get run and the refs realized it. That's why there was a huge foul discrepency after the ejection and why the Lopez sisters were not allowed to be touched the rest of the game.

I knew the ejection was a bad omen the minute it happened.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Did you guys really think the Stanford coach deserved to get tossed? I didn't. I thought it was a gross overreaction by th referee!

I wish like hell it didn't happen as the officiating changed drastically after that call.

[wadesworld]

As was stated above...he wasn't going crazy, but he had already gotten one technical foul and you can't approach the referees, walking half way onto the court.  If he was surprised to get his second technical foul after that he has to get a clue.

Whether it helped or hurt Marquette is a different story.  We did go up by 11 points shortly after that, but we couldn't get many calls from their on out, although there is going to be quite a difference in fouls when one team is shooting jumpers/3 pointers and the other is pounding it inside every time down.

[77ncaachamps]

Whether it helped or hurt Marquette is a different story.  We did go up by 11 points shortly after that, but we couldn't get many calls from their on out, although there is going to be quite a difference in fouls when one team is shooting jumpers/3 pointers and the other is pounding it inside every time down.

Trent pulled an "AL" - getting the early T for the later gimme fouls. 

[ecompt]

we drove to the basket at least 10 times after the technicals and only once (when DJ went in) did Stanford get whistled for a foul.