Heard it From Hoard: Column 69
Maybe it was the Fontainebleau.
The Bearcats luxurious Miami home for the Orange Bowl was also Oklahoma's team hotel for the BCS Championship game. 1500 rooms, 11 restaurants, 7 pools, 2 disappointing losses. I enjoyed watching the Florida/Oklahoma game with some friends from UC and blogger extraordinaire C. Trent Rosecrans. I'm not sure what made me more nauseous - the number of El Monterey Taquitos I consumed (put them on your Super Bowl party menu right now) or the fawning over Tim Tebow. Yes, he is a tremendous football player. By all accounts he is a wonderful human being. But by the end of the game, Fox had me convinced that a brilliant University of Florida scientist had somehow taken strains of DNA from Joe Montana, John Elway, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Nelson Mandela in creating Saint Tebow. I know that his fans wonder why so many people seem to dislike a kid who represents everything we want a student/athlete to be. I don't think most people actually dislike Tebow - it's the non-stop gushing by my media brethren that's hard to stomach. Did you catch this commercial for Gatorade G? Michael Jordan, Peyton Manning, Mia Hamm, Tiger Woods...Jackie Robinson? As C. Trent put it, "I know Gatorade had recuperative powers, but I had no idea it was that good!" It's a bit strange to see a dead guy selling a sports drink - especially when it was invented about 10 years after the guy retired from baseball. Speaking of Jackie Robinson, my favorite sportswriter Joe Posnanski wrote a great blog entry recently on retiring Jackie's #42. I don't know if UC will upset Connecticut on Saturday, but I'm confident that the Bearcats will give maximum effort on defense. Practice the day after the Providence loss was as physical and intense as any practice I've seen at UC in the 13 years I've been around the program. And if Mick has much of a voice left on Saturday I'll be shocked. I got my first look at newcomer Ibrahima Thomas at practice and the thing that really stood out is that he has extremely quick feet for a 6'11" guy. Statistically he wasn't a big shot blocker at Oklahoma State, but I guarantee that he'll deflect a bunch of passes into the post area that result in steals for UC. "He's got tremendous length and can shoot the ball," Coach Cronin told me. "He got trial by fire as he started as a freshman at Oklahoma State, and he started every game this year as a sophomore. They had a coaching change and he tried to ride it out, but he just wasn't comfortable with the new staff. His people went shopping for a new school in December and fortunately we were able to land him. He's going to be a big addition for us." "We're going to get him stronger. Part of the reason he chose us is that he wants to get stronger and wants to continue to develop his offensive game. One thing about him that I've learned is that he's going to do whatever you ask him to do. He's just a tremendous young guy and a great addition for us. He's going to be able to help us on both sides of the court." Finally, here's a random recommendation. If you haven't seen the movie Slumdog Millionaire yet, my advice is to run, not walk. It is tremendous - you'll thank me after you see it. I'd love to hear from you. The address is dhoard@pawsox.com. Enjoy this week's photo of the handsome lad posing by the Christmas tree.
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