I listened to a lot of music as a child. Particularly during my 4th through 6th grade years. My brother is six years older than me, and so he was in his high school years during that time. We also shared a bedroom, so I had access to all of his LP’s and 8-tracks. A lot of that music he (we) listened to during those years is stuff I still love, or at least still listen to from time to time. Boston, Kansas, Foreigner, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Bad Company, Peter Frampton, Styx, KISS, ZZ Top, and many others. I grew up on 70’s rock.

However, during my junior high years, for whatever reason, I didn’t listen to a lot of rock. In part, I suppose, it was because my brother took most of it off to college with him. But, I also recall becoming more interested in church music around that time, and growing up in the Church of Christ denomination here in the South, that meant acappella music. We had various acappella cassettes (8-tracks were dying out by then) from different CoC singing groups, including some stuff from Howard Publishing and one or two from Ray Walker. I loved those, and they taught me how to sing, eventually driving me to lead singing occasionally on Wednesday nights at church and joining the chorus when I began attending Harding Academy as a 9th grader.

Eventually, I got over that. Sure, Acappella and AVB were somewhat of an attraction in the late 80’s and early 90’s, but I’ve never been much of a Keith Lancaster fan. And, if you’re going to make all of the noises to sound like instruments, just pick up some instruments already. Real instruments sound much better than this vocal manufactured crap anyway. But I digress. It wouldn’t be until the late 90’s and the music recorded by The Zoe Group that I would listen to much acappella music again.

Why am I talking about this? I’m starting to ramble, but when I rejoined my peers in listening to popular music again my junior year in high school, one of the first cassettes I bought was Synchronicity by The Police, released earlier that year (1983). I had heard Police songs from time to time in previous years, but Synchronicity was huge that year with hits like “King of Pain” and “Every Breath You Take”. I quickly became a huge fan, eventually acquiring all of their previous titles.

Therefore, it was quite a disappointment when they effectively disbanded after the Synchronicity tour the following year. I enjoyed Sting’s early solo work, but would have liked to have seen more albums from The Police as well. They were together less than a year after I started listening to their stuff. They’ve done nothing new together (to speak of) since 1984, and it didn’t appear that they ever would.

But now, over 20 years later, the rumors have been swirling - a reunion. There was a brief reunion for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a few years ago. But this time the talk is of a real reunion - a world tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of “Roxanne”, their first single. Clearly, I would welcome such news. I would love to see these guys back together again.

One this is certain - they will reunite to perform at the Grammy’s in a couple of weeks. I’ll be setting my DVR for that. But whether or not there will be anything to follow, or just another one-time show, remains to be seen. Hopefully, the rumors are true and, at some point, there will even be some new music released as well. It’s been too long.

Most of my favorite commercials these days come from ESPN. The “This Is SportsCenter” commercials are hilarious. My current favorite is the Manning family touring the ESPN campus. They did a great job with that one. The stern look Archie gives the boys as he glances back at them is classic.

They’ve had so many in the past I can’t recall all of them (I’m sure there’s a list somewhere.) A few I recalled and found on youTube were:

• Y2K (one of my favorites)
• Steve Irwin and the Florida Gator
• Pete Sampras
• International SportsCenter
• Spinoffs

During football season, College GameDay has had a number of good ones, too. Now, I’m enjoying a current commercial being shown regularly by the basketball version of GameDay. It features the GameDay crew - Rece Davis, Digger Phelps, Hubert Davis and Jay Bilas - having lunch at what appears to be a school cafeteria. Davis, of course, is a former UNC player, and Bilas a former Duke player. Here’s the commercial:

But, if you’re talking rivalry, the ESPN commercials I like the most of late are the ones from the “Never Graduate” series. Here’s a list of several great rivalries seen in these commercials.

• OSU - Michigan (includes another OSU-Michigan spot as well)
• Alabama - Auburn
• Texas - Texas A&M
• UCLA - USC

My favorite, of course, depicts the greatest rivalry in college sports - Duke vs Carolina basketball:

By the way, only UNC fans recognize 1924. Everyone else says they only have 4 national titles. Just thought I’d throw that in.

Shaquille O’Neal chased down a hit-and-run driver early this morning. Shortly after being apprehended by the All-Star NBA center, the driver was forced to change his pants.

Roger Federer, quite simply, is the man. Federer won his third grand slam in a row today at the Australian and his 10th overall. He won all 7 matches in the tournament without losing a set. The last player to do that was Bjorn Borg. Pete Sampras’ record of 14 grand slams could very well be passed next year if Federer continues his domination. He is just amazing. And Serena Williams came out of nowhere to win the women’s as an unseeded player. I’m not surprised Serena won the final against Sharapova (even though I thought Maria would win), but the way she blew her off the court was surprising. It was like the Serena of old. Is she back? We’ll see in the coming months.

I saw this interesting article about Texas freshman Kevin Durant. Since the NBA put a rule in place that says players must be one-year removed from high school to enter the NBA draft, players like Durant and Greg Oden end up in college, at least for a year. Despite the press Oden has received, Durant has been the most impressive freshman I’ve seen this year. In the article, it mentions that Durant didn’t like the rule initially, but now is thankful it’s in place. Regarding making millions at such a young age, he says:

I’d have struggled, man. I would have wanted to spend all my money on stupid stuff. I’d have wanted to buy everybody else everything. It would have been a disaster, I think.

Granted, he’ll only be one year older next year when he likely will enter the draft, and still pretty young to be given that kind of money, but it appears the extra time to consider what lies ahead and how to deal with it has done him some good, and he’ll be better prepared when his moment comes. Hopefully, it will do the same for other players as well.

The ACC has admitted there was a error with the clock in the Duke-Clemson game on Thursday. In other words, the conference has admitted what everyone who saw the game or the highlights already knew. BC comes to Cameron tonight, where I suspect the clock will run without incident.

I said earlier this season Carolina will be the best team when March rolls around. Since their last loss at Virginia Tech a couple of weeks ago, they’ve won 4 games in a row by an average of nearly 24 points, two of those over ranked opponents and one over recently-ranked Georgia Tech. This weekend they went to Arizona and annihilated the Wildcats, giving Lute Olsen his worst home loss during his tenure as Arizona’s coach. They’ve looked human at various times during the season, and they’re still a young team so mistakes are sometimes made, but I still think they’re going to be the best team in another month, if they’re not already. However, I will admit that I haven’t seen Wisconsin or UCLA play yet.

Florida is the other “best team” candidate, but playing the SEC isn’t really helping them right now. Of course, it’s not their fault that the rest of the conference is sucking so far. Based on SEC play so far, Florida could actually go undefeated. However, their easiest road games are behind them, so that’s unlikely. They have 5 road trips remaining - Georgia, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, LSU and Tennessee - all of which could pull off an upset at home. Regardless, Florida is clearly head and shoulders above the rest of the conference. And, as a matter of fact, most of the country.

Of the six West division teams, exactly ZERO have a winning conference record at this point. Arkansas and Auburn are tied for first with conference records of 3-4, which, clearly, is pretty sad. I haven’t looked at the numbers and schedules, but at this point it seems possible that the winner of the West could have a losing conference record.

When the polls are released tomorrow, Florida could be the only SEC team ranked. After two straight blowouts (to Arkansas and Vanderbilt), LSU should drop out, even if they were to win at Goergia today. Alabama has now lost 4 of 6, including twice to Arkansas and a blowout loss earlier this week at Auburn. They were #12 last week, but I can’t see how losing 4 of 6, including 2 losses this week, can possibly merit remaining in the rankings. Kentucky, who this past week was #25 in the ESPN poll (and unranked in the AP), could be in one or both polls tomorrow with a win today. They lost earlier in the week in Georgia, but a win over Tennessee today could keep them in, but just barely.

For a conference that was expected to be very strong, it’s been unimpressive thus far. However, perhaps it’s because everyone is looking in the wrong place. Tennessee, LSU and Alabama have clearly been disappointments, but Georgia and Vanderbilt have been surprises that could continue to improve and make some noise in the end. Florida is the only team that has lived up to it’s expectations, but there’s still a lot of games to be played.

I missed this last week, but apparently there was a rumor that Terry Bradshaw had died in an auto accident circulating last Thursday or Friday. It’s not clear how it originated, but one theory is that a Shreveport radio station had reported an accident on Terry Bradshaw Passway, which was heard by some as “Terry Bradshaw Passed Away” in the wreck. On PTI, Michael Wilbon quoted Terry’s friend and former co-worker James Brown as saying he spoke to Terry, who was on vacation and responed to the rumor with “My golf game is dead, but I’ve alive.”

Last night I came across this article - Arenas says he’d score ‘84 or 85′ against Duke. Six months or so later, Gilbert Areanas still can’t get over being cut from the USA Basketball team. Apparently, he blames it on Coach Mike Krzyzewski.

All I know about Arenas these days is that he’s apparently doing very well in the NBA. I occasionally hear something about him hitting a game-winning shot and/or scoring points like he’s Jordan or Kobe. Of course, I could care less about the NBA until late May, and Arenas hasn’t been in the latter stages of the playoffs lately (ever?) that I’ve seen. Therefore, I haven’t actually seen him play since college. He may very well be deserving of a spot on the USA team. But, there’s probably several dozen players who are as well, but there aren’t that many spots. Not everyone gets to play.

So, instead of taking it like a man and moving on, he’s chosen to act like a child and continues to bring it up whenever he has the opportunity. The article says that he “has made a career out of using snubs as motivation.” Whatever works, I guess. He says:

I thought it was funny because if I have the chance to go back to college, I’ll give up one NBA season to play against Duke. One college game … 40-minute game at Duke, they got soft rims I’d probably score 84 or 85. I wouldn’t pass the ball. I wouldn’t even think about passing it. It would be like a NBA Live or an NBA 2K7 game, you just shoot with one person.

This guy has some serious issues. I’d suggest counseling. More from the article:

Arenas has promised this season to take out his frustrations about the national team on Krzyzewski’s Team USA assistants, Phoenix coach Mike D’Antoni and Portland coach Nate McMillan.

What is this, third grade? “I’m gonna get you, Coach K!” Grow up and get over yourself. You look childish and you’re just embarrasssing yourself.

Oh, and I mentioned not having seen him play since college. And I probably only saw him play a few times during those years. However, I did catch his final college game, in which he shot 4 for 17 from the field and scored 10 points.

That was in the 2001 NCAA championship game, which his Arizona Wildcat team lost 82-72.

To Duke.

So close…he only needed 75 more.

He probably hasn’t gotten over that one, either.

So, I didn’t watch the game yet, but Duke squeaked out a win over Clemson a few minutes ago. I’ve been busy all evening, but had the gamecast on my monitor so I could walk by and check it every now and then.

With 12 seconds left, they went up by 5 points and it appeared they had it. I look at it again, and there’s 4 seconds left and it’s tied. What? Then, the final and Duke wins by 2 points. So, I had to see that right away.

I promptly went to my DVR and backed up to watch the last 12 seconds. After Clemson scored with 5.0 seconds left to cut it back to 3 points, Josh McRoberts throws an inbounds pass directly to a Clemson player. Paulus was the intended recipient, but he faked one way and went the other. Josh threw the pass “one way”, not the other. When I say “directly”, I mean directly - the Clemson player was standing there directly behind the 3-point line. His feet never moved. He caught the pass, launched it, and tied the game.

However, the clock started late and did not stop as it should have immediately after the made basket. When it finally did, I believe there were 1.8 seconds left. Duke called timeout after the shot to set up a final play. During the timeout, the officials reset the clock to 4.4 seconds. What they did, apparently, was set the clock based on where it was when the ball went through - which is what they should do. But, what they apparently didn’t notice is that it had started late. There should have been less than 4.4 seconds left, probably no more than 3 to 3.5 seconds. The player caught and shot a 3-pointer. That takes at least 1.5 to 2 seconds. It definitely takes more than 0.6 seconds.

After the timeout, Duke inbounded the ball to Jon Scheyer, who took a few dribbles and passed the ball down to David McClure inside the Duke lane for a layup at the buzzer. He appeared to release the ball with about 0.2 seconds left, which was prior to the final horn (and therefore it counted), but it was at least 1 second after the clock probably should have expired, had the clock been reset correctly.

What I couldn’t figure out is that Mike Patrick and Len Elmore didn’t notice this on several replays of the Clemson shot. It was obvious the clock didn’t start until the ball was almost inside the basket, but they didn’t appear to recognize it either and never said a word. I’m sure someone else noticed it and it will get plenty of air time on ESPN and elsewhere. Regardless, it’s over now and the win counts.

I hate that this happened, particularly since everyone has complained so loudly in recent years that “Duke gets all the calls.” I’ve commented many times on that and how ludicrous it was, but clearly they benefited from a mistake tonight. Of course, you can’t say what might have happened had the clock been set to 3 seconds instead. Duke was in a timeout, and a different play may have been called with less time. They could have scored anyway. They may have gone into overtime and still won the game. And, of course, they may have gone to OT and Clemson may have come out with the win. It can’t be known what would have happened with a little less time, and it can’t really be said that they won due to that mistake. It helped for the particular play they executed, but who knows what would have happened in a different situation.

So, I’m glad they won, but hate that it happened the way it did and that there will (most likely) be controversy surrounding the win. I’m anxious to watch the entire game to see how they played throughout. They probably deserved to lose just for blowing a 5-point lead with 12 seconds left. But such is life in the ACC.

I saw this report on GMA this morning, and I’m amazed that this story continues to get press (although I probably shouldn’t be in this day and age.) As most people who don’t depend solely on Fox News for their information already know, the Indonesian school Barack Obama attended as a child for a couple of years is in fact a normal public school. It is not a “madrassa“, where fundamentalist/extremist Islamic views are taught to Muslim children. GMA was reporting their story today, CNN had posted a similar story on their website a couple of days ago.

I was surprised (well, not really) to see a clip of a Fox anchor state flat out that this was true, despite evidence to the contrary which was readily available. (Dan Rather and the Killian documents come to mind as a similar attempt to discredit a politician with blatant falsehoods.) This was easily verifiable, and yet it (evidently) wasn’t checked out. It doesn’t even appear that the school is a “Muslim school”, as has been reported. According to the headmaster, “These rumors about our school being an Islamic extremist school are completely incorrect. We are a regular public school.”

The ABC article also says the following:

[The headmaster] confirmed that Obama attended the school as a child, before he transferred to a local Catholic school. The school featured both boy and girl students, basketball, and classes in many subjects. A class in Islam was matched by one in Christianity, complete with teachings from the New Testament, a sign featuring the Lord’s Prayer and a painting of Jesus.

Of course, with the country being overwhelmingly Muslim, there’s probably some influence there (as Christianity has often been in this country.) But it certainly does not appear to be the radical training school that some like Fox and Rush Limbaugh would have us believe. It seems unlikely that a radical Muslim school would be teaching Christianity.

Obama has begun to respond as well, including his statement that “the notion that somehow, at the age of 6 or 7, I was being trained for something other than math, science and reading, is ludicrous.”

I mentioned last week this campaign of sorts to paint Obama as something that he’s not, which is nothing new in politics. However, this packs a bigger punch than most because they’re attempting to paint him as a radical Muslim, which is the current face of evil in this country. You convince people he’s good friends with Osama Bin Laden, and he might as well drop out of the race now.

Obama seems to be a very likable guy. I’ve enjoyed listening to him when I’ve see him interviewed on television. I agree with him on some issues I’ve heard him discuss and I am also enjoying reading his book. Some have questioned whether he’s ready to be president, considering he’s a relative newcomer to national politics, and I’m not certain myself. Then again, I’m inclined to think that could be a good thing, too. (God knows we’ve had enough veteran politicians on both sides screwing things up long enough.)

Regardless, he shouldn’t miss an opportunity because of false information being broadcast by major news outlets. If it was a mistake, then it was just bad reporting, and should be corrected. If it wasn’t, then it was dishonest and malicious, and they should be ashamed. Either way, they know better, and should apologize and make it right.

I intended to watch more of the Australian Open than I have, and I really wanted to see the Roger Federer/Andy Roddick match. However, with Federer hammering Roddick 6-4, 6-0, 6-2, it doesn’t appear to have been that great of a match. Well, it was for Federer, I guess. Apparently he played nearly flawlessly, and all of the improvement Roddick showed late last year had no effect on the outcome. I was also disappointed to see that injury aided the exit of Raphael Nadal. A Federer-Nadal match, with both healthy, would have been worth watching again.

On the women’s side, Serena Williams has suprisingly made it to the final. Williams was unseeded and has not won a tournament since 2005, having been out much of last year due to injury. I’ve never been a fan of the Williams sisters, but they dominited women’s tennis for several years, and had they stayed healthy and focused, probably would have continued to until now. So, it’s not too surprising to see Serena back. She will face Maria Sharapova in the final. Despite Williams’ play during this “comeback” of sorts, I still have to pick Sharapova to win it.

Occasionally I suggest or predict something and it actually turns out to be accurate, or at least close. A few months ago, I wrote this:

I think some of the SEC teams - namely, LSU and Alabama - are somewhat overrated. LSU had a great run at the end of last year, but I don’t think they’re a top 10 team, especially without Thomas. Alabama, likewise, may not quite be a top 12 team, and Gottfried is just not a good coach.

I still don’t believe Gottfried is much of a coach, but it also seems that I may have been on target (or at least close) with regards to LSU and Alabama. Both teams have underwhelmed me in recent weeks, each losing 3 of their last 5 games.

LSU has lost back to back games - a 20-point loss at Arkansas where Steven Hill abused them (and there’s just no excuse for that), and a double-digit loss at home last night to Vanderbilt. They started the year ranked #7 (the reason I labeled them overrated) and are currently at #22, although I expect them to fall out of the top 25 next week, especially if they lose at Georgia this weekend, which is more than likely.

Alabama has looked worse, not only losing but losing big each time. In their 3 losses, the average margin has been 24 points (27 to Arkansas, 21 to Vanderbilt, 24 to Auburn). Also, at home last Saturday, they were down 15 at the half to Georgia before rallying to win by 2 in the final seconds, and avoiding losing 4 of 5 instead. Steele has not been completely healthy, I believe, but I’m not certain that losing regularly by 20+ can be blamed entirely on that.

I admit, even I’ve been surprised at some of what I’ve seen from both teams at times. I thought they weren’t quite as good as expected, but better than they’ve been of late. Of course, there’s still about 6 weeks to go in the regular season, and there’s plenty of time for these teams to turn it around. And, chances are, they will, if for no other reason than to spite me.

This is not from last night, but several years ago. I think I’ve seen it before (or one that was very similar), but it still cracks me up.

Global warming is one of the many polarizing political issues of the day. Just the mention of it will cause some to predict the earth’s demise and others to deny such an animal exists. Al Gore has long been an advocate for policy changes because of his conviction that climate change is, at least in part, the fault of humans. President Bush will discuss his administration’s global warming policy tonight. So, I read this article - ‘Smoking gun’ for human-caused warming - with interest this morning (thanks to Ben Witherington

“The future is bleak.” According to the article, that’s what scientists are saying. A new report says that human-caused global warming is no longer disputable. Or, at least, that’s the way I read it. It is happening, humans are part of the cause, and it’s going to continue to get worse.

Ben Witherington has posted about global warming several times in the past week, including this morning, which discusses this article. They are worth a read.

• Evangelicals and Climate Scientists Agree on Global Warming (1/18)
• Global Warming and Evangelicals Part Deux (1/21)
• The Smoking Gun - 1600 Page Global Warming Report Out Soon (1/23)

I am not a scientist and admit that I don’t understand all of the science behind it. I don’t always know what to believe when I read things from both sides of this issue (including some linked from the comments in Ben’s posts from the other side.) It seems pretty evident that global warming is occurring. The debate largely seems to be over whether or not it is occurring naturally and will eventually correct itself, or whether humans are causing problems that will be detrimental to the health of the earth and can do anything to stop it (and, perhaps, reverse it.)

I commented briefly on this a while back. The information in Gore’s book and Brokaw’s documentary was pretty interesting, and I hope to read more on the subject in the future. I feel it’s probable that we’ve had some effect on global warming, and many other environmental issues that should be addressed. And, as a Christian, I believe I have to consider such things and be responsible in caring for God’s creation.

Last night, Duke’s women’s basketball team may very well have been contributing to rising temperatures. The Lady Devils were on fire at Tennessee and opened up the game with a 19-0 run. Duke’s first five minutes were pretty impressive. Tennessee, of course, mounted a comeback (especially being at home) and cut the lead to 2 points in the final minute, before Duke held on for a 74-70 win.

Abby Waner had 24 points and Lindsey Harding scored 21 in the win. Duke and North Carolina remain undefeated and ranked #1 and #2. They meet in a couple of weeks in Chapel Hill. It’s unlikely they’ll both remain undefeated before then, with each team having a couple of road games prior to their meeting (including UNC’s trip to Maryland, a likely loss). But, if they remain unscathed until February 8th, that will be the biggest game of the year thus far. It may very well be anyway.