Thus far in 2007, there haven't been any happenings in Appalachian sports. The women's basketball is scheduled to kick off the new year for Mountaineer athletics at Furman. Currently, they're 1-1 in the conference.
A couple of notable things in nationwide sports news: The QB for the Denver Broncos Darrent Williams was shot and killed last night while inside of a stretch Hummer limo.
Texas Tech just beat New Mexico, making Bob Knight the winningest coach in men's Div. I basketball with 880 wins. In all of the aftermath, there was a bunch of old people blowing smoke up each other's asses, a banner unrolled and Knight threw a chair across the court.
Okay, that last part didn't really happen. But the rest of it is accurate. In an annoyingly scratchy voice that made you want to clear his throat for him; Bob Knight began to give more kudos to everyone else than a rapper who's just been given a moon-man at the video-music awards. I've never heard Bob Knight give so many compliments (he talked about how the basketball hall of fame isn't complete without Dick Vitale's presence, how the nobody else ever has appreciated their athletic director as he appreciates his.)
But yes, pretty big deal, even though Tennessee's Pat Summit currently has 925 wins for Div. I women's basketball.
Also today, Michigan takes on USC in the Rose Bowl at 5pm.
Now, as a new year's present to my readers. One of my favorite commercials of all time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_1Hz9cAru8
Monday, January 1, 2007
Saturday, December 30, 2006
It's awesome, baby!
So I've been on a little holiday hiatus, and I picked a bad time too, eh? Lots has happened in Appalachian sports. Well, not so much Appalachian sports as just Appalachian men's basketball, but let's be honest, do you really care to hear about any of the other ones now that football season is over (excluding you if you happen to be Whitney Tossie's mom or Maria Grimes' sister)? Nah, I didn't think so.
So let's backtrack a bit. Before Christmas, the App men's team won the San Juan Shootout, which was huge for them, b/c they beat Virginia (who then got beat by Utah, making the App win slightly less impressive), Central Fla. and Vanderbilt. The after dinner Minter had 27 points in the win over Vandy, making me realize I hadn't credited him enough previously. Despite his obvious lack of lung capacity (oftentimes being the last one down the court), he's making serious contributions for the team. Minter and DJ Thompson were co-MVP's of the tournament, and the en fuego Nathan Cranford made the all tournament team. All of this triggered Dick Vital naming App the Team of the Week, and the appearance of ASU on the Top-25 Mid-major team's list (as No. 24). All of this and a quarter will get you a pack of Winterfresh; but still, that's awesome, baby!
Tonight, they played at Virginia Commonwealth, and once again, I was forced to listen to Davy Crocket's broadcast of the game. This time I actually heard him call the "free-throw line" "the free-throw line"...so I wasn't so emphatically pissed of at him. VCU, going into the game was 16th on the afore mentioned Top-25 Mid Major list.
Thompson got in foul trouble early. Tell Houston we have a problem. Fancher was forced to put in Ryann Abraham in his place. Like I said before, Little DJ: still a good alternative to the original, but the dynamics of the team are inevitably altered when DJ isn't there to orchestrate them.
From what I heard about Sophomore Eric Maynor from VCU, his game is anything but sophomoric. He led all scorers with 27 points.
But it wasn't enough.
Donte escorted VCU into the 7th circle of his inferno, leading the Mountaineers back from a 17-point deficit (which was early in the 2nd half), for a 73-70 victory. That's bound to move them farther up in the Top 25 Mid-major rankings.
I didn't hear Bermudez's name at all during the broadcast, which surprised me because he's had some good games for App, and Cranford wasn't having a particularly stellar night (he finished 3/6 from the field, 2/5 from 3-point range, 8 pts. total). Upon further investigation of the box score, I confirmed that he did not play. I'm wondering if he might be hurt or if Fancher is really just walking the walk (he's been talking about "shortening his bench" lately, referring to the depth of the team and the fact that they're all worthy of playing time). I don't think that's the case, seeing as though Kellen Brand spent 16 minutes on the court tonight--a lot for him. I smell an injury. Making a note to myself to look into that.
I'm excited for them. I'll be interested to see how many Appalachian fans hop on the men's basketball bandwagon now that they've got some big wins on their belt. That should be evident by looking at attendance for the next home game, which will be against Elon on the 13th. They haven't had a home game since before the San Juan Shootout. Hopefully their big wins will spark some more fan support, because it's definitely lacking.
Just in case you are interested in other sports, girls' basketball just lost to College of Charleston on Friday in a close game 73-65. Before that, they beat VCU. Whitney Tossie, still a badass, dropped 30 and continues to have a paramount season since Maria Grimes assumes a lot of the point-guard work load and Tossie isn't forced to do it like last season.
So let's backtrack a bit. Before Christmas, the App men's team won the San Juan Shootout, which was huge for them, b/c they beat Virginia (who then got beat by Utah, making the App win slightly less impressive), Central Fla. and Vanderbilt. The after dinner Minter had 27 points in the win over Vandy, making me realize I hadn't credited him enough previously. Despite his obvious lack of lung capacity (oftentimes being the last one down the court), he's making serious contributions for the team. Minter and DJ Thompson were co-MVP's of the tournament, and the en fuego Nathan Cranford made the all tournament team. All of this triggered Dick Vital naming App the Team of the Week, and the appearance of ASU on the Top-25 Mid-major team's list (as No. 24). All of this and a quarter will get you a pack of Winterfresh; but still, that's awesome, baby!
Tonight, they played at Virginia Commonwealth, and once again, I was forced to listen to Davy Crocket's broadcast of the game. This time I actually heard him call the "free-throw line" "the free-throw line"...so I wasn't so emphatically pissed of at him. VCU, going into the game was 16th on the afore mentioned Top-25 Mid Major list.
Thompson got in foul trouble early. Tell Houston we have a problem. Fancher was forced to put in Ryann Abraham in his place. Like I said before, Little DJ: still a good alternative to the original, but the dynamics of the team are inevitably altered when DJ isn't there to orchestrate them.
From what I heard about Sophomore Eric Maynor from VCU, his game is anything but sophomoric. He led all scorers with 27 points.
But it wasn't enough.
Donte escorted VCU into the 7th circle of his inferno, leading the Mountaineers back from a 17-point deficit (which was early in the 2nd half), for a 73-70 victory. That's bound to move them farther up in the Top 25 Mid-major rankings.
I didn't hear Bermudez's name at all during the broadcast, which surprised me because he's had some good games for App, and Cranford wasn't having a particularly stellar night (he finished 3/6 from the field, 2/5 from 3-point range, 8 pts. total). Upon further investigation of the box score, I confirmed that he did not play. I'm wondering if he might be hurt or if Fancher is really just walking the walk (he's been talking about "shortening his bench" lately, referring to the depth of the team and the fact that they're all worthy of playing time). I don't think that's the case, seeing as though Kellen Brand spent 16 minutes on the court tonight--a lot for him. I smell an injury. Making a note to myself to look into that.
I'm excited for them. I'll be interested to see how many Appalachian fans hop on the men's basketball bandwagon now that they've got some big wins on their belt. That should be evident by looking at attendance for the next home game, which will be against Elon on the 13th. They haven't had a home game since before the San Juan Shootout. Hopefully their big wins will spark some more fan support, because it's definitely lacking.
Just in case you are interested in other sports, girls' basketball just lost to College of Charleston on Friday in a close game 73-65. Before that, they beat VCU. Whitney Tossie, still a badass, dropped 30 and continues to have a paramount season since Maria Grimes assumes a lot of the point-guard work load and Tossie isn't forced to do it like last season.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
"I don’t think we're talking a repeat, a three peat, or even a four peat.
...That’s right, were talking a minimum eight peat, Bob" ~SNL Superfans
In case you haven't already heard, App won another national championship. Really a great end to a great year. The Apps went 14-1 on the season, losing only their first game at NC State. To think that this years' seniors have not seen a loss at Kidd-Brewer Stadium in their academic career is something special.
If you had any doubts about the abilities of a semi-injured Kevin Richardson, those were put to rest by the end of the game, if not by the half. The Appalachian workhorse ran for 179 yards and all four of App's touchdowns, including one 45-yarder and the others from the redzone.
The good news: App repeated to their 2nd national title in as many years, and standout seniors such as Buck Buchanan award candidates Marques Murrell and Jeremy Wiggins got the storybook ending to their college careers.
The better news: Kevin Richardson, true freshman sensation quarterback Armanti Edwards, Corey Lynch, Jerome Touchstone, Kerry Brown and 10 other starters (including special teams) return for the Mountaineers next year--so there are already people thinking "three-peat" and the media are starting to use the word "dynasty" in reference to the Appalachian football program.
Though a national championship is always something special, the game couldn't compare with last year's win over Northern Iowa. Let's be honest; there's no competing with Richie Williams limping onto the field to spur the most memorable comeback in ASU history for the first-ever ASU national title.
But if something could, it would be a running back carrying the team on his injured shoulder, rushing for every touchdown of the game, after being handed the ball by a true freshman quarterback who wasn't even on the preseason media guide depth-chart (there were 3-Trey Elder the predicted starter), who ran for 81 yards himself. All of this in front of a Carter-Finley Stadium record crowd of 22 thousand-some fans, most of them wearing black and gold.
As for basketball, I made it to the Dante Minter debut at the convocation center thursday evening. Minter transferred in last year to App from UVA, and had to redshirt the year as per NCAA regulation. The show was less than entertaining as Appalachian handed Brevard College their asses in a 93-53 beat-down.
Though Minter looked good on paper after the game (10 pts. 7 rebounds). He looked less than ACC-caliber on the court, as he struggled to keep up with the run-and-gun style of offense that the Mountaineers like to play (but I guess I'd struggle too if I were twice as big as anybody else on the court), and was ripped a couple of times by the malnourished-looking weaklings of Brevard (one of their guards looked like he was pushing 14, maybe 15-years-old).
Today they took on Georgia Southern, and won a close game. I wasn't fortunate enough to make it to the Convo, and had to settle for listening to "the voice of the mountaineers" David Jackson on the radio. I swear, this guy has to think up fancy names for every line of the court. I don't think I've ever heard him refer to the free-throw line as "the free-throw line." Instead, it's the "charity stripe." The half-court line is always referred to as "the time stripe." It annoys the crap out of me.
I mean, if we're going to use nicknames for points of reference on the court that no-one else uses, let's do the players the same justice.
For instance Dante Minter: From now on, call him D. Mint. Perhaps The After Dinner Mint? Coach Houston Fancher will henceforth be known as "Dubya"...because everyone knows you don't mess with Texas (especially Houston...Houston Fancher, that is).
No, I'm not done yet. Dave, you may want to get a pen and paper to write this down.
Go ahead, I'll wait.
Now, as I was saying, Eduardo Bermudez becomes "El Puertoriqueno," though both he and Ryann Abraham are from Puerto Rico, Bermudez gets that title, because he came to the continental USA more recently. Abraham is only to be called "Little DJ," (however DJ may refer to him as "mini-me"). Collectively, Bermudez and Abraham are "los boricuas." Doug McLaughlin-Williams is "The 20 Spot," "20 Dollar-Billiams," because he got charged with a felony a few years back for counterfeiting $20 bills (google it--that's something you won't find in the ASU media-guide, despite the fact that that's the reason he plays here--because Boston University revoked his scholarship).
Referees will only be called "zebras" or "foot locker employees," but those are interchangeable. And the ball will no longer be called a ball, but rather, "the sphere." Also, you will refer to yourself as Davy Crocket.
Now.
Back to the game.
Davy Crocket and his co-host whats hisface would not stop whining about how terrible the refs were for this game, because they were apparently calling fouls every 2 seconds. The thing is, if the fouls were going both ways, which the official stats indicate they were (Ga So. had 28 fouls, app finished with 26), that actually favors App, so long as Thompson doesn't get into foul trouble (he only had 3...and 27 points). Up to this point, Dubya has given nearly everyone dressed out a good amount of playing time, and the people coming off of the bench have been every bit as good as the starters, better in some cases.
So, if all of the starters from each team were to foul out, hypothetically (like Davy Crocket suggested could happen at one point during the game), Dubya's gotta feel confident in the abilities of his bench as compared to every other team's in the SoCon.
Little DJ does a nice job on the court when giving his older counterpart a break. Though he doesn't show as much of an ability to drive the lane and force fouls, he does a nice job of seeing the floor and has a pretty good jumper. El Puertoriqueno has had two 20-point-plus games, one of which was coming off of the bench. He has a good jumper like Cranford (who he often subs in for), but isn't content to settle for a three, like Cranford. When he drives the lane, he forces fouls, and he's not a bad free-throw shooter, most of the time (he's 86% from the "charity stripe" this season).
More of an assessment of the bench later. This is what you get for now.
In case you haven't already heard, App won another national championship. Really a great end to a great year. The Apps went 14-1 on the season, losing only their first game at NC State. To think that this years' seniors have not seen a loss at Kidd-Brewer Stadium in their academic career is something special.
If you had any doubts about the abilities of a semi-injured Kevin Richardson, those were put to rest by the end of the game, if not by the half. The Appalachian workhorse ran for 179 yards and all four of App's touchdowns, including one 45-yarder and the others from the redzone.
The good news: App repeated to their 2nd national title in as many years, and standout seniors such as Buck Buchanan award candidates Marques Murrell and Jeremy Wiggins got the storybook ending to their college careers.
The better news: Kevin Richardson, true freshman sensation quarterback Armanti Edwards, Corey Lynch, Jerome Touchstone, Kerry Brown and 10 other starters (including special teams) return for the Mountaineers next year--so there are already people thinking "three-peat" and the media are starting to use the word "dynasty" in reference to the Appalachian football program.
Though a national championship is always something special, the game couldn't compare with last year's win over Northern Iowa. Let's be honest; there's no competing with Richie Williams limping onto the field to spur the most memorable comeback in ASU history for the first-ever ASU national title.
But if something could, it would be a running back carrying the team on his injured shoulder, rushing for every touchdown of the game, after being handed the ball by a true freshman quarterback who wasn't even on the preseason media guide depth-chart (there were 3-Trey Elder the predicted starter), who ran for 81 yards himself. All of this in front of a Carter-Finley Stadium record crowd of 22 thousand-some fans, most of them wearing black and gold.
As for basketball, I made it to the Dante Minter debut at the convocation center thursday evening. Minter transferred in last year to App from UVA, and had to redshirt the year as per NCAA regulation. The show was less than entertaining as Appalachian handed Brevard College their asses in a 93-53 beat-down.
Though Minter looked good on paper after the game (10 pts. 7 rebounds). He looked less than ACC-caliber on the court, as he struggled to keep up with the run-and-gun style of offense that the Mountaineers like to play (but I guess I'd struggle too if I were twice as big as anybody else on the court), and was ripped a couple of times by the malnourished-looking weaklings of Brevard (one of their guards looked like he was pushing 14, maybe 15-years-old).
Today they took on Georgia Southern, and won a close game. I wasn't fortunate enough to make it to the Convo, and had to settle for listening to "the voice of the mountaineers" David Jackson on the radio. I swear, this guy has to think up fancy names for every line of the court. I don't think I've ever heard him refer to the free-throw line as "the free-throw line." Instead, it's the "charity stripe." The half-court line is always referred to as "the time stripe." It annoys the crap out of me.
I mean, if we're going to use nicknames for points of reference on the court that no-one else uses, let's do the players the same justice.
For instance Dante Minter: From now on, call him D. Mint. Perhaps The After Dinner Mint? Coach Houston Fancher will henceforth be known as "Dubya"...because everyone knows you don't mess with Texas (especially Houston...Houston Fancher, that is).
No, I'm not done yet. Dave, you may want to get a pen and paper to write this down.
Go ahead, I'll wait.
Now, as I was saying, Eduardo Bermudez becomes "El Puertoriqueno," though both he and Ryann Abraham are from Puerto Rico, Bermudez gets that title, because he came to the continental USA more recently. Abraham is only to be called "Little DJ," (however DJ may refer to him as "mini-me"). Collectively, Bermudez and Abraham are "los boricuas." Doug McLaughlin-Williams is "The 20 Spot," "20 Dollar-Billiams," because he got charged with a felony a few years back for counterfeiting $20 bills (google it--that's something you won't find in the ASU media-guide, despite the fact that that's the reason he plays here--because Boston University revoked his scholarship).
Referees will only be called "zebras" or "foot locker employees," but those are interchangeable. And the ball will no longer be called a ball, but rather, "the sphere." Also, you will refer to yourself as Davy Crocket.
Now.
Back to the game.
Davy Crocket and his co-host whats hisface would not stop whining about how terrible the refs were for this game, because they were apparently calling fouls every 2 seconds. The thing is, if the fouls were going both ways, which the official stats indicate they were (Ga So. had 28 fouls, app finished with 26), that actually favors App, so long as Thompson doesn't get into foul trouble (he only had 3...and 27 points). Up to this point, Dubya has given nearly everyone dressed out a good amount of playing time, and the people coming off of the bench have been every bit as good as the starters, better in some cases.
So, if all of the starters from each team were to foul out, hypothetically (like Davy Crocket suggested could happen at one point during the game), Dubya's gotta feel confident in the abilities of his bench as compared to every other team's in the SoCon.
Little DJ does a nice job on the court when giving his older counterpart a break. Though he doesn't show as much of an ability to drive the lane and force fouls, he does a nice job of seeing the floor and has a pretty good jumper. El Puertoriqueno has had two 20-point-plus games, one of which was coming off of the bench. He has a good jumper like Cranford (who he often subs in for), but isn't content to settle for a three, like Cranford. When he drives the lane, he forces fouls, and he's not a bad free-throw shooter, most of the time (he's 86% from the "charity stripe" this season).
More of an assessment of the bench later. This is what you get for now.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Bring your running game.
The Appalachian box office sold out of tickets to the Championship game at 1:45 yesterday. I would have been devastated if I wasn't able to get tickets after waiting in that line that occupied over two hours of many students' day this morning. Though I've heard of many left ticket-less for the athletic event of the year (at least for those living around here). Chattanooga's box office has been sold out for days.
But I am not one of them. I'll be watching the men's basketball game on Thursday evening before packing up and heading to Chattanooga in the morning with some friends.
If you weren't wearing your heavy liquor coat this past Saturday at the game, you might remember the fact that Kevin Richardson basically carried the team on his back the first half of the game, rushing for 145 yards and two touchdowns. You might also remember him lying on the field in the third quarter, to remain absent for the rest of the game with what ASU Sports Information director Mike Flynn referred to as an "injured trapezoid,"
Perhaps I was in the wrong biology class in high school, but I always thought "trapezoid" was a type of parallelogram. My search of the term in webmd.com found no results as well. My guess is that the sports information director was actually told "trapezius" (a shoulder muscle).
In any case, all of the geometric components of the running back seem to be back in working order, as Sports Information reported that today he practiced "without limitations."
Yes, wipe your brow. It does appear that the integral Kevin Richardson will be good to go on Friday against the UMass Minutemen.
Without him, the Mountaineer offense would suffer.
Kevin Richardson is the Steve Smith of Appalachian; the go-to guy of the offense. He opens up the option of a passing game, just like extra defensive coverage of Smith makes it that much easier for the Panthers' running game.
Given, freshman QB Armanti Edwards cannot be overlooked in terms of App's running game (he rushed for 110 yards Saturday). And it's not often that a true freshman, like Edwards, can lead a team through such a successful season. He works well outside of the pocket, scrambling after the offensive line can't hold anymore while continuing to eye receivers down the field. When he can't find any, he dodges oncoming sacks, often running for the first down himself.
Though without Richardson on the field, you can bet that Edwards wouldn't be racking up as many rushing yards either, with one less threat for the defense to worry about, they'd be expecting Edwards to charge down the field, waiting on it like a fat guy waits on a new bin of macaroni and cheese at the Golden Corral.
So, Richardson, be sure to pack your running game along with your cleats for the game on Friday. Maybe an extra trapezoid or two, too.
But I am not one of them. I'll be watching the men's basketball game on Thursday evening before packing up and heading to Chattanooga in the morning with some friends.
If you weren't wearing your heavy liquor coat this past Saturday at the game, you might remember the fact that Kevin Richardson basically carried the team on his back the first half of the game, rushing for 145 yards and two touchdowns. You might also remember him lying on the field in the third quarter, to remain absent for the rest of the game with what ASU Sports Information director Mike Flynn referred to as an "injured trapezoid,"
Perhaps I was in the wrong biology class in high school, but I always thought "trapezoid" was a type of parallelogram. My search of the term in webmd.com found no results as well. My guess is that the sports information director was actually told "trapezius" (a shoulder muscle).
In any case, all of the geometric components of the running back seem to be back in working order, as Sports Information reported that today he practiced "without limitations."
Yes, wipe your brow. It does appear that the integral Kevin Richardson will be good to go on Friday against the UMass Minutemen.
Without him, the Mountaineer offense would suffer.
Kevin Richardson is the Steve Smith of Appalachian; the go-to guy of the offense. He opens up the option of a passing game, just like extra defensive coverage of Smith makes it that much easier for the Panthers' running game.
Given, freshman QB Armanti Edwards cannot be overlooked in terms of App's running game (he rushed for 110 yards Saturday). And it's not often that a true freshman, like Edwards, can lead a team through such a successful season. He works well outside of the pocket, scrambling after the offensive line can't hold anymore while continuing to eye receivers down the field. When he can't find any, he dodges oncoming sacks, often running for the first down himself.
Though without Richardson on the field, you can bet that Edwards wouldn't be racking up as many rushing yards either, with one less threat for the defense to worry about, they'd be expecting Edwards to charge down the field, waiting on it like a fat guy waits on a new bin of macaroni and cheese at the Golden Corral.
So, Richardson, be sure to pack your running game along with your cleats for the game on Friday. Maybe an extra trapezoid or two, too.
Monday, December 11, 2006
An Introduction
Though it is a common belief that the media should be objective, how objective can a person covering the sports of a small town truly be? The home team is always played-up in local media no matter what the outcome of the game, because the townspeople aren't man enough to hear the brutal truth about their team, which can be hard to swallow.
In a loss situation, local papers and broadcasters will sugarcoat the defeat by focusing on the glimpses of blue in a mostly overcast sky of mediocre to poor athletic performance on the part of the home-team.
In a win situation, it's more of the same, though it becomes much easier to make the home team sound good.
This isn't to say that the local media is lying, so long as omitting the truth isn't considered lying. Or is it?
Boone is no different.
The points of pride of Mountaineer Athletics are played up, the other ones are concealed for the most part.
Case in point: If you ever check out the sports section of The Watauga Democrat, you may have read that Saturday's game against Youngstown State had a playoff record crowd of 18,040. What you didn't read was the fact that that figure still fell well short of the regular season attendance, which was 22,588. Why does this figure never make it to the presses? Because it speaks poorly about our school spirit. Around 4,000 fans decided not to go to the game Saturday because they'd rather watch it on ESPN from the warmth of their houses, apartments, and dorms, despite the fact that it could have been the last game of the season, it was supposed to be a half-way decent game to watch, and there was a chance of getting your face on nationwide television.
Sports Information offices are notorious for make near-empty glasses seem at least half full.
Appalachian Sports Information makes it an art form.
"Appalachian opened the game with an early 4-2 lead on a Clayton layup with 17:15 on the clock." ~Appalachian Sports Information, www.goasu.com
Believe it or not, that's pretty much the only "high point" of the Appalachain men's basketball massacre Sunday, in a 69-37 loss to Virginia Tech.
Here's a sentence from the same article that is particularly amusing:
"The Mountaineers tried to stage a run to open up the second half and got back within 17 points twice in the period, but couldn’t hold cut into the lead against a team that shot 58 percent in the second half."
It's stated as if being within 17 is some major feat, when that is the case only when compared to the fact that they lost by over 30.
But where is the honesty in all this? Can't we speak freely for just a second, and stop sugarcoating the performance of our athletics?
Why can't we be blunt, and say "The ASU men's basketball team got their asses handed to them by the Hokies Saturday, in the third-straight loss to an ACC team. Even so, the outcome of the game has little meaning, because who really considers the Southern Conference on the same playing-field as the ACC anyway? The only opposition in common for these teams is Wake Forest, who Virginia Tech will play on the 17th (App lost to Wake in Winston-Salem by 10 over the Thanksgiving holiday), and UNC-Greensboro, which both teams have yet to play."?
My mission is not to provide good P.R. for the school unless warranted, OR bash it for no apparent reason. But rather to provide an uncensored window into the truth of Appalachian sports, which is something you cannot find by reading The Appalachian or The Watauga Democrat.
In a loss situation, local papers and broadcasters will sugarcoat the defeat by focusing on the glimpses of blue in a mostly overcast sky of mediocre to poor athletic performance on the part of the home-team.
In a win situation, it's more of the same, though it becomes much easier to make the home team sound good.
This isn't to say that the local media is lying, so long as omitting the truth isn't considered lying. Or is it?
Boone is no different.
The points of pride of Mountaineer Athletics are played up, the other ones are concealed for the most part.
Case in point: If you ever check out the sports section of The Watauga Democrat, you may have read that Saturday's game against Youngstown State had a playoff record crowd of 18,040. What you didn't read was the fact that that figure still fell well short of the regular season attendance, which was 22,588. Why does this figure never make it to the presses? Because it speaks poorly about our school spirit. Around 4,000 fans decided not to go to the game Saturday because they'd rather watch it on ESPN from the warmth of their houses, apartments, and dorms, despite the fact that it could have been the last game of the season, it was supposed to be a half-way decent game to watch, and there was a chance of getting your face on nationwide television.
Sports Information offices are notorious for make near-empty glasses seem at least half full.
Appalachian Sports Information makes it an art form.
"Appalachian opened the game with an early 4-2 lead on a Clayton layup with 17:15 on the clock." ~Appalachian Sports Information, www.goasu.com
Believe it or not, that's pretty much the only "high point" of the Appalachain men's basketball massacre Sunday, in a 69-37 loss to Virginia Tech.
Here's a sentence from the same article that is particularly amusing:
"The Mountaineers tried to stage a run to open up the second half and got back within 17 points twice in the period, but couldn’t hold cut into the lead against a team that shot 58 percent in the second half."
It's stated as if being within 17 is some major feat, when that is the case only when compared to the fact that they lost by over 30.
But where is the honesty in all this? Can't we speak freely for just a second, and stop sugarcoating the performance of our athletics?
Why can't we be blunt, and say "The ASU men's basketball team got their asses handed to them by the Hokies Saturday, in the third-straight loss to an ACC team. Even so, the outcome of the game has little meaning, because who really considers the Southern Conference on the same playing-field as the ACC anyway? The only opposition in common for these teams is Wake Forest, who Virginia Tech will play on the 17th (App lost to Wake in Winston-Salem by 10 over the Thanksgiving holiday), and UNC-Greensboro, which both teams have yet to play."?
My mission is not to provide good P.R. for the school unless warranted, OR bash it for no apparent reason. But rather to provide an uncensored window into the truth of Appalachian sports, which is something you cannot find by reading The Appalachian or The Watauga Democrat.
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