Nothing to say and yet a lot to say

I think I have lost hope. I am disillusioned. I am disappointed. I have a new player to hate and his name is Paul Pierce. I didn't hate the Celtics, but I do now. How could the Lakers lose a 24 point lead? I knew they would. I told my roommate after the first quarter, they have never been good at holding a big lead. They lost a big lead to Utah, but held on to win. Not last night. The Celtics match up better than I expected and even with Perkins hurt. I don't want to think about the game. I still have a glimmer of hope that they can win 3 straight, but it is small. I guess the best way to look at it is that they will be better next year with Bynum back and any other additions/subractions that the now brillaint Mitch Kupchak deems necessary. The Celtics on the other hand, I think, can only get worse. Ray Allen can't continue to carry them next year. KG isn't clutch. PP (I refuse to say his name any more) is erratic and will be a year older. So fine, they win this year then they are done. It won't be a Spurs type riegn, win every other year. This will be it. Red can laugh from his rocking chair in heaven at Phil for getting this close and losing to his Celts. But next year, we will be back. Would I want to see a rematch, sure, but I don't think the Celts will make it back next year. We'll have to wait and see.

Quarterly Sports Update

Yeah, that's about how often I post on here, once every 4 months. And I am not even going to promise to do it more often.

Headlines!!!

Finals Flashback - Lakers/Celtics set to face off tomorrow 6/05 for game 1 of the finals.

Both teams have had big turnaround seasons due to blockbuster (and as some may claim, unfair) trades that brought in new life. Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen joined Paul Pierce on the Boston Celtics who along with solid play of youngsters Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins claimed the best record in the NBA. On the other hand the Lakers started the season well behind the MVP winning play of Kobe Bryant and the maturation of Andrew Bynum. The season took a turn for the worse when Bynum got hurt and was lost for the season. The Lakers received a gift from the Memphis Grizzlies in the form of one Pau Gasol. With his versatility and the consistent play of Lamar Odom the Lakers finished the season as Western Conference Champs.

The Celtics had a harder time getting through the playoff. They were taken to 7 games by both the Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers. Although they were able to beat the defending Eastern Conference Champions Detriot Pistons in 6. The Lakers on the other hand sweep the Denver Nuggets in the first round, had some problems with the fiesty Utah Jazz in the second round before winning in 6, then took car of the defending World Champion San Antonio Spurs in 5. The Lakers looked undeniably better on their way to the finals, losing 3 games, only one of which was by double digits, to strong Western Conference teams. The Celtics it seemed couldn't win on the road and at some times lacked intensity or the ability to finish a team off. It didn't help that Doc Rivers decided to change the rotation for seemingly no reason. But it is a credit to both teams that they made it this far, especially when comparing it to where they were last year.
The storied rivalry is back on center stage. Most are picking the Lakers in 6 but I think they can do it in 5. Game starts tomorrow at 6pm PST.

Formula 1 heads to Canada.

The only race in North America is this weekend at the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit in Montreal. Kimi Raikonnen is looking to bounce back after a dismal race in Monaco, while Lewis Hamilton is hoping to follow up his Monaco win with another here. Ferrari feel they have a strong car and Massa wants to prove that he too can win a championship. He had some bad luck in Monaco but is ready to show what he can do. BMW are lurking in the background waiting for a misstep from either McLaren or Ferrari. They are hoping to pounce and claim their first F1 victory since starting theit own team.

Despite the close championship race the focus this week has been all about Max Mosley, the disgraced president of the FIA. After word came out of his Nazi themed sex scandal many clubs called for his resignation. Not only did he push back , a move that many saw as Max trying to be bigger than the sport, but he put his position in the hands of the 171 executive members of the FIA. This last tuesday they all met in Paris to take part in a vote of confidence. During the buildup all people would take about was who would succeed Mosley as president, but that was all moot once the vote came back in support of Mosley. He has promised to step down once his term is over in October, but many doubt he will stay true to his word. Not that this is done with, I echo the words of BMW's Mario Theissen who urged everyone to get past this and put the focus back on the sport.

The GP of Canada is Sunday 6/08 at 10am PST and will be broadcast on FOX.

Let the games begin

Or rather the racing season. This weekend is the opening race of the F1 calender. As usually the race will be help in Melbourne at the Albert Park track. This may be the last year the race is held there as F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone is putting pressure on them to hold a night race to boost viewer ratings in Europe do to the primetime broadcast slot. There are also some new faces and old faces in new colours. The biggest changes are Fernando Alonso going back to Renault and Hiekki Kovalainen going to McLaren. Other changes include Gian Carlo Fisichella landing at Force India (formerly Spyker), Nelsinho Piquet getting the nod at Renault, Timo Glock making it back to the grid with Toyota and the two Sebs at Torro Rosso, Vettel and Bourdais. Kazuki Nakajima is another rookie who has shown surprising pace in the Williams Toyota, and he along with Nico Rosberg are looking set to battle with BMW and Renault at the front of the second pack.

Tonight is Qualifying and I will give an update afterwards. Kimi Raikonnen was fastest in the morning session of practice while Lewis Hamilton came back in the second session and ended in P1 although his time was slower than Kimi in the morning. Some teams had a couple issues but nothing that won't be finxed in time for Qually. The main players are where you would expect and it looks like car on pole will be either Red or Silver. We'll have to wait and see!

I suck at updating this blog

What has happened since my last post? Well USC ended up being PAC-10 Co-Champions (the have won the PAC-10 a record 6 years in a row) and going to the Rose Bowl. There they faced a weak Illinois squad that they demolished as was expected. It is unfortunate they couldn't have played a better team like Georgia, but no, the Rose Bowl commission wanted to stick with tradition and pick a Big Ten team, even though that conference was weak and Illinois was the 3rd best Big Ten team. So another Rose Bowl win and we ended the season ranked 3rd in the AP and 2nd in the USA Today polls.

We should have a good team this year. We lost some big time players to the NFL, namely seniors JD Booty, Sed Ellis, Lo Jack and Fred Davis. We do have some talented underclassmen ready to step up and fill the voids. We didn't lose many underclassmen either with Rey Maualuga and Brian Cushing opting to stay and play. Our recruiting class was not up to recent standards but we still finished with a couple 5 star recruits, 10 linemen and a top 10 class. We will have a fierce QB battle between Mark Sanchez and Mitch Mustain, the early edge going to Sanchez, with Aaron Corp as the dark horse. I can't wait for spring practice to start and season to get going. We have a tough schedule this year and open at Virginia then come home to face Ohio State. I have confidence we will get back to the Championship this year. Now I need to see if I can get season tickets!

Keeping the dream alive

The Trojans survived Mother Nature and the Cal Bears to keep their hopes of playing in the Rose Bowl alive. The match-up didn't carry as much as weight as was expected earlier this season when both teams were ranked in the top 10. Nonetheless the Trojans emerged from Memorial Stadium victorious with a 24-17 win. It wasn't a pretty game but we some good things as well as some not so good.

The Good

We won the game. Chauncey Washington had a huge day and was the workhorse we needed on a wet day like Saturday. He finished with a career best 220 and 1 touchdown. Stanley Havili caught a pass. Even better it was a touchdown. Vidal Hazelton is challenging Patrick turner as the go-to receiver. Kevin Ellison and Terrel Thomas both had an interception, the latter ending an end of the game drive that could have tied the game. Ronald Johnson averaged 25.5 yards on kick returns and had a long of 41.

The Not so Good

It was wet. The defense gave up over 200 yards rushing (not counting the -14 yards Nate Longshore had). Justin Forsett rang up 164 yard on the ground. The linebackers got banged up. Keith Rivers has a high ankle sprain and may miss the next game against ASU and Clay Matthews broke a finger and will play with a cast, again. Only one long pass attempt and it was incomplete. Fumbled snaps. It was wet.

The Trojans moved up slightly in the rankings after this win. They are now 11th in the BCS and AP polls. They head to Tempe next to face the 8th ranked Arizona State Sun Devils. They have some close games in the past and this will not be a cake walk, what game has this been this year? They have 12 days before the game and usually Pete Carroll does a great job preparing his guys. We will see if he can keep his unbeaten record in November alive as well as their BCS bowl hope.

Fight On!

Two Steps Back, One Step Forward

That is how things felt at Buttonwillow on Saturday. The big change I made was putting new tires on the car. I was running Falken Azenis RT-615 235/40R17 all around before, but the tires were pretty worn and I was advised to get new tires. Seeing how things went Saturday I might as well have stuck with the old tires. The tires I put on the car are Kumho Ecsta SPT's, 225/45R17 front and 245/40R17 rear. I chose those tires after researching what was available in my price range. I didn't want to spend a lot on tires that I was going to burn up at the track, plus I plan to sell the car soon and want to use these one up before I sell it. I was looking at a couple cheap brands like General and Nexen, but I decided to go with the Kumho's that were about $10 more a tire but was a more widely known brand. I knew theses would not be as sticky as the Falkens but I didn't know they would be this bad. The idea behind getting some cheap, hard tires is to theoretically help improve my driving. If I can drive fast with crappy tires, I will be even faster with R compounds. Yes, I will be taking a step back in terms of the capability of the car with crappy tires, but I am willing to put it to the test.

Old................................................New

To expand on theme of taking a step back to learn I also ran the day with the ASC (automatic stability control - traction control) turned on, this was at the behest of the chief instructor and I agreed after my 3 off track excursions last month. Most new cars have some sort of traction control. The car is setup with wheel spin sensors and when it senses a change in wheel speed compared to the other wheels it will either apply the brake to that wheel or cut the throttle momentarily. The systems on the new cars are relatively transparent; unfortunately my car is not very new and the system is anything but transparent. The new systems also have a higher threshold, or allow you to manually select the aggressiveness of the system. Again, not my car. The ASC system does what it was designed to do, cut the throttle when wheel spin is detected. On this day it was both a blessing and a curse. The former because I am sure it saved me from spinning on more than one occasion and the latter because it was extremely aggravating to come out of a corner and accelerate only the system cut the throttle. It was most aggravating on the high g sweepers where I can usually carry a lot of speed. I know the problem was exacerbated by the crappy tires and I was trying to fight it most of the day.

That was my problem, I was trying to fight it. I was trying to get the car to do what I was used to it doing, but with these tires it couldn't do it. It took a while to figure this out. Another factor that didn't help was that we ran a different configuration of the track. Last month, and on my previous events, we ran the full track with either the Sweeper or Star Mazda in the clockwise direction. Saturday we ran the full track with Star Mazda but in the counter clockwise direction. Throughout the day I was trying to work out the line and figure out where I needed to be on the track. I probably should have been more proactive in getting an instructor to ride with me or at least give me a ride, but I didn't. The first three sessions were frustrating and I was upset about not going as quickly as I was used to and struggling with the car. The main problem was under steer. I would turn into a corner and it would just push a lot and coming out of the corner the ASC would cut the power. I adjusted the air pressure slightly but that didn't help much. In the last session I did what I should have been doing sooner, dialing it back a little and going slower. Obviously the tires I have cannot handle the same turn-in speeds that my old ones could, and they likewise cannot handle the exit speeds, wanting to spin. The refrain when learning to negotiate turns is 'slow in, fast out,' and that is what I decided to do in the last session. I was going to slow down more than normal and accelerate out smoothly. It worked. I had to rain my ego in a little and let a couple people pass me in the beginning, but I felt an improvement. The tires where not squealing as much and the ASC wasn't kicking in as often. I finally took a step forward.

Some good open wheeled action

The weekend was a great learning experience. I am a little upset that I didn't go as quick as I wanted, but I think I am becoming a better driver. I did have to take two steps back to go one forward. I kind of wish I was able to stay another day and get an instructor to help me more with the line but there will be other opportunities. I have an autocross this weekend and I am interested to see how the tires handle there. I don't have any other track events planned until February but something else could come up. I am still thinking of selling the M3 and getting an e30 318is or 325is. If anyone is interested in a clean low mileage M3 let me know.

Return to form, for the defense at least

We got our revenge on Oregon St for beating us last year. And it looked like our defense wanted to personally take it out on the poor OSU QB Sean Canfield. The Trojans came out and played a great first half but the offense seemed to take the second off and let the defense do all the work. In the end we can’t complain too much, we came out with a 24-3 win and a sliver of hope of getting to the Rose Bowl. Granted it will take a lot for that to happen, namely us winning the rest of our games (Cal, ASU and UCLA) and Oregon losing to at least of their games (Arizona, UCLA and OSU). It is a long shot but anything can happen.

The Expected

The Defense played like we knew they could all along and logged their best game of the season (ND doesn’t really count since they are 1-8 and can’t even beat Navy). They held OSU to 176 total yards, 85 passing and 91 rushing. And they sacked Sean Canfield 9 times and intercepted him once. It looked like it might be a long day as James Rogers ran the ball 39 yard on the first play of OSU’s opening drive. The defense stepped it up though and the 3 points they did score was after a Booty fumble. Defensive MOP, freak freshman Everson Griffen who showed his speed in recording 3.5 sacks to lead the team.

The receivers continuing to not step up. They had a good game last week in the loss to Oregon but they did not look very good today. It is sad that this is expected but no one has stepped up all year as the go to receiver.

John David Booty being a little rusty. He was and it showed. Not all of the receiving woes can be placed on the receivers. Some of Booty’s passes where high or off target. What did you expect with him missing 3 games for a broken finger?

The Unexpected

The inability of the offense to do anything in the second half. They had the ball 6 times and the drives went like this: 4 plays, 20 yards, punt; 3 plays, 9 yards, punt; 3 plays, 3 yards, punt; 3 plays, 7 yards, punt; 7 plays, 33 yards punt; 5 plays, 40 yards, end of game. Not a very encouraging sequence of possessions.

Chauncey Washington had a good day and Stafon Johnson didn't see the rock much. Chauncey had some toughs runs and picked up good yardage on the nations best rushing defense. He scored on a screen pass that went for 26 yards. Stafon Johnson was held out for most of the second half by the trainers who supposedly didn't want him to re-aggravate his ankle sprain.

The use of the shotgun. We knew they had been working on it. Now we finally saw it. What does it mean? I am not sure; maybe give Booty more time to overthrow a receiver? That is being harsh. I was surprised by Booty’s lack of mobility. There was one play when he was had a defender rushing him so he starts backpedaling but his feet can’t keep up and he falls over backwards. I don’t think if Sanchez is in there he gets sacked twice.

Playcalling, some good, some bad. I don’t know why they chose the week Booty came back to throw the ball downfield more. Mark Sanchez did hook up with Hazelton for a 30 yarder in the last drive. Some questionable calls include the 2 third and long plays that gave the ball to McKnight and resulted in lost yardage. Maybe you can get away with those plays when Reggie was playing, but McKnight is no Reggie Bush, yet.Overall I can’t really complain. We got the win and our defense is playing great. As long as they keep that up and our offense can put some points on the board we should be okay. I still think there are areas for improvement, mostly on the offensive side, but Booty should be better the next time around. We have a tough match-up with Cal this weekend and even though they dropped three straight before beating Washington St. this past Saturday you know they will get geeked up to face the Trojans. Plus the game is in Berkeley. I think we are starting to peak at the right time and Pete Carroll has never lost a November game at USC so I think we should be all right. We will just have to wait and see.