Part 1
Having some fun in the handicapping world.
I'll start with this as this is a contest that for me sparks, as President Bush the elder once referenced, a thousand points of light. I'm not a Republican by nature or any other abnormal predisposition, but despite Bush's conservatism, his words evoked true for many people and created a variety of images for millions of Americans, and some of those images have deep roots and ties to the LSD movement of the 60's and 70's. So despite his do-gooder attitude, his acid-laced words are now a part of the collective unconscious of today's millennials, a generation of dead heads, a few select high-profile handicappers, and most likely some of our Supreme Court justices.
What I'm getting at is today's handicapping manifesto has become so frickin' stat oriented that plain old common sense and track records have taken a back seat to stars: numbers, ratios, and replacement value. What? In CBB too? There's a reason the Bears can't beat the Packers, or the Jets beat the Pats, or the Broncos win a Superbowl and it ain't got nothin' to do with the frickin' stats! Sometimes it's bigger than the NUMBERS!!! It's cosmic!
The only thing that Fezzik likes to espouse that I totally agree with is: some cities and some fan bases will never see success, or at least extended success. Whether it's ownership, economic fan base, location, or whatever, some cities are destined to languish in mediocrity. Eugene, Oregon, where I did attend college has yet to make it to that elite status even though they have an extraordinary amount of monetary and communal support as well as plenty of media love. But are they really on the same level of Alabama? Ohio State? Florida State, Southern Cal? … there's always someone a tick above. I will admit this, I was a runner at Oregon and the Ducks have probably won more track and field championships than anyone else, but who pays attention to cross-country, the shot-put, or the 10,000 meters? C'mon, really?
I visited UC Davis when I was looking at colleges. I have to say, Davis, California is unlike any other college city in California and certainly unlike any city in suburban Los Angeles. It's a beautiful city, a flat city, and if I remember correctly, there were more bicycles per capita than any other city in the U.S.. And when I say flat, I mean flat.
Davis, has always reminded me of Amsterdam, Holland, but it's only drawback is it lacks the charm, canals, windmills, icy winters, Rembrandt's, Van Gogh's, cuisine, cheese, and hookers, but other than that it's an exact duplicate when it comes to communal bicycles. Besides being a grower of exotic fruit, I think they still have the only veterinary school in CA as well as the best vintners program in the world.
So what's this have to do with basketball and especially with Utah State? Nothing really. Other than Utah is equally eccentric in its own way. It has to do with Mormons. And I don't say Mormons in a negative way. Mormons are good in so many ways, but when it comes to sports, the LDS kids are special.