Legendary former UCLA Men's Basketball Coach John Wooden passed away over the weekend.
We once had the chance to interview The Wizard of Westwood. By "interview" we mean watch an HBO documentary** about the legend and his 10 championships at UCLA.
Wooden would begin the first practice of every season at UCLA by having his team assemble in the gym barefoot, with sock and sneakers by their side. He'd enter in the same fashion. And then he addressed his squad.
"Gentleman, a good basketball player has good feet," he would say. "A guy cannot play with blisters, so we will practice how to properly put on our shoes."
Imagine the faces of the first-year players, some of whom were McDonald's All Americans, as Wooden continued on.
"Roll the sock up good and bring it over your toes. Nice and snug. Now, roll the sock down your foot, and slowly bring it up the ankle. Nice and snug, nice and snug.
"Now put on your shoes. Tighten the laces starting from the front of the shoe. Nice and snug..."
Starting every season, defending National Champion or otherwise, with such order and precision toward something so seemingly mundane goes a long way towards explaining Wooden's success.
"It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen." -John Wooden
R.I.P. Coach.
The Pac-10, Big 12, Big 10 Conferences, and maybe the Philadelphia Public League are Looking into expansion possibilities.
Okay, the "Public League" bit was an exaggeration. However, do not be surprised if this whole expanding thing trickles down to the high school level, and one day Camden schools get offers to join the city in an urban "super conference."
It is not a question of "if" this will happen, but "when." After all, it is about money. It seems at the moment that sweeping change is inevitable to college football.
After just witnessing what happened recently with banks and our economy, expansion talk makes us uneasy on the D-train. We can hear it now when the system collapses because fans boycotted the BCMess championship game, "These conferences are two big two fail."
We propose that Athletic Directors from around the country play a round of the board game Risk to determine how to break up the entire nation into four obese conferences.
What really blows the steam on this locomotive about the possibilities of expansion is that we are not hearing the "purist" view from Directors on this subject. Yet they bemoan playoffs because bowls are important because of tradition.
It's time to call the NCAA what it is, a corporation.
This past Saturday the world had its eyes on the sport it loves second to soccer, Beer Pong. The Annual Passo Pong Tournament convened in a new stadium with a great mountainside view in Montgomery County. "Sexual Chocolate" emerged as the victor in a sharpshooting duel that thrilled and amazed the throng of folk in attendance. Comprised of D-train Passenger Andy P. (the white chocolate) and our Fireman Dave Euwings (the dark chocolate), Sexual Chocolate used timely marksmanship and distracting hip gyrations to triumph.
In related news, the rest of the staff have picked up some plywood and plastic cups to train for victory at next year's tourney.
**The UCLA Dynasty
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