Let me ask this: why is it that, when I visit Kroger, Wal-Mart, etc. these days and buy 2, maybe 3 items, I get a receipt that’s roughtly 18 inches long? Why is this necessary??

Duke looked horrible in the first half last night against Holy Cross. That may have been among the worst halves of basketball I’ve ever seen a Duke team play. They shot around 32%, turned the ball over repeatedly (again), and went into the half down 28-22 to Holy Cross. That’s right, they only scored 22 points in the half. J.J. Redick scored more than that last year in the first half of a few games. Their offense clearly needs some work, especially shooting and handling the ball. ESPN’s Hubert Davis said it well during the halftime show. He said they looked confused at times, and don’t have a “go to guy”. This is definitely true. Nelson has been the default, but he still seems to go silent for periods of time. They need someone (i.e. McRoberts) to step up and be that guy. Nobody did that in the first half last night.

However, they did play very well in the second half, shooting much better (61%) and outscoring Holy Cross 35-18 for a 12-point win. Hopefully, the hot shooting of the second half will give them some offensive confidence and carry over to this weekend’s game vs George Mason. As they move into conference play, they simply cannot afford these “bad half-good half” games like last night and the Georgetown game. They’ve got to start playing for 40 minutes.

In other basketball news, Bob Knight tied Adolph Rupp for second on the all-time win list. He needs 4 more to pass Dean Smith and set a new record.

A pre-game brawl broke out among fans at a Serbian basketball game. Early reports indicate neither Ron Artest nor any members of the University of Miami football team were present.

NBA commissioner David Stern is now admitting that the league should have obtained more input from players before the decision to switch to a new ball was made. I’m still not sure why Stern made this change in the first place. Players coming into the league no longer care about fundamentals, but about being on SportsCenter. Therefore, every year, the overall skills of your average NBA player is worse than the previous year, and so throwing a new ball into the mix only seems like throwing gasoline on the fire. But maybe that’s just me.

Speaking of gas-related stories, first, don’t mess with granny, and then, “stinks on a plane” (h/t Relevant).

I was looking at the website of a church here in town, the first church I attended when I first moved here in 1992. Looking though the staff bios, I found this quote from the singles minister. Asked to describe “myself in a few words”, he wrote:

First, I believed in Santa Claus. Then I did not believe in Santa Claus. Now I am Santa Claus.

I liked that.

Speaking of Christmas-related quotes, here’s one for you. It’s from Seinfeld, spoken by Jerry’s character, who is a little confused about the true spirit of Christmas, in my opinion. However, I still find it humorous:

Oh, volunteer work!. See that’s what I like about the holiday season. That’s the true spirit of Christmas. People being helped by people other than me. That makes me feel good inside.

I was unable to find a Kwanza quote from Kramer. That’s probably a good thing. (Try saying “Kwanza quote from Kramer” ten times really fast.)

Spam now accounts for over 9 out of 10 emails sent via the internet. The destination for most of them appears to be my mailbox.

I read this week that while Ron Zook’s Illinois team went 2-10 this year, the Florida team that faces Ohio State in a few weeks includes 20 players that he recruited to the team. When a coach immediately is successful with a previous coach’s players, the question is always asked about whether the coach will be able to have continued success once he gets his own players into the program.

There are some, like Tubby Smith, who succeed with other’s players and then never reach that level again. Tubby won the national championship his first year at Kentucky, but has not returned to the final four since. That’s 8 seasons, and I’m going to go out on a limb here and say it will be 9 in March. Some would say he has been successful, and on some level that’s true, but by Kentucky standards, 8 (or 9) years without a final four appearance falls short of success.

Others, however, do continue to compete. Steve Fischer comes to mind. He took over as coach at Michigan in 1989 the week the tournament began (after Bill Frieder was shown the door for already accepting the Arizona State job before season’s end), and took the Wolverines to a national championship. He returned to the title game in 1992 and 1993 with his own players, despite falling short both times.

What about Urban Meyer? He’s playing for a title with Zook’s players. Will he continue to compete for titles once he’s coaching the players he recruits, or is this his one-and-done? I suspect he’ll continue to succeed, but only time will tell. And by the way, I was glad to hear him continue to lobby for a playoff even after his team benefited from the BCS system. That seems to indicate he’s serious, not just blowing smoke to try to position his team for this year’s title game.

But wait… The Onion reporting that there won’t be a championship game after all. Congratulations to Ohio State.

I don’t listen to Jim Rome, but his radio show airs on a local radio station. On rare occaions, I’m in my car during the time it airs and I hear a little of it. I heard a few minutes the other day, and apparently he’d been talking about a rodeo. This was an email he read that cracked me up.

Dear Jim,

Rodeo fans are all rednecks.

Sincerely,
NASCAR fans

Classic.