Geoffrey H Wood

Craig Brackins images by McClanahan StudioSeason ticket holders who attend tonight's Iowa State v. Iowa basketball game in Hilton will get a copy sweet copy of a limited edition Craig Brackins poster produced by The Meyocks Group and and featuring the image above put together by McClanahan Studio of Ames.

Click here for the blog post by photographer Dan McClanahan on how he put the post together and what it was like working with Craig.

I won't be able to make the game but would really like a poster - if anyone gets a chance to grab an extra, please do and let me know.

I don't know what's going on but the University of Iowa has had three Men's basketball players announce transfers in the past few weeks.

After changing it's NHL affiliation from the Dallas Stars to the Anaheim Ducks, the minor league hockey franchise in Des Moines (the Iowa Stars) needed a new name. Today, they announced that name: The Iowa Chops.

I like it. So, does Keith Murphy. I'm a firm believer that minor league sports clubs need to have local names that are meaningful and fun. It may come from growing up as a Cedar Rapidian and going to Cedar Rapids Kernals games. I'd buy an Iowa Chops t-shirt.

In other central Iowa sports news, Iowa State scored big in the college basketball arms race with the announcement of a new dedicated basketball practice facility today. Such facilities are by no means necessary to the success of a basketball program, in my opinion, (there are gyms all across campus) but since everyone we recruit against has one or is building one we need to stay in the game.

It's a little like having a publicly funded NFL stadium. NFL team owners are loaded with cash and can easily pay for their own stadiums but if you have cities all across the country willing to build a stadium on your behalf with tax dollars, why not?

Back to the new BPF (basketball practice facility), the fact that Dickson Jensen is paying for it is outstanding. You have an Iowa State booster, who own's the AAU program that boasts the top recruit that has ever considered Iowa State (and the best recruit that Iowa State has a shot to get, likely ever), donating millions to the school's basketball program - right in time for said recruit to take advantage of it. Excellent.

Hope and I went to see Superbad, yesterday afternoon, at my insistence. I thought that previews looked good and I've liked most of Seth Rogen's movies so far, so this one (billed to be a generational epic) had to be good, right?

Well, I thought it was ok. Hope didn't even give it that much credit. Others in the theater laughed hilariously. I don't if we're too old or if it was just the setting.

Actually, it probably was the setting. Earlier this summer we received Beerfest on DVD through Netflix and I watched most of it with Hope in the room (doing other things but somewhat paying attention). Like Superbad there were some funny parts, good oneliners, and the occasional laugh-out-loud-because-the-scene-is-completely-rick-diculous moments but overall it was disappointing. This latter movie was from the Broken Lizard group, so it wasn't an age thing.

On the 5th Annual Mid-Summer Get Together trip in Wisconsin(1) late last month, we caught the movie on HBO and found it hilarious. We actually watched it several times and still found it dumb and childish but somehow funnier. We even started dropping the oneliners immediately (Yah, take what is yours Grandpapa!). Now I'm curious if I would've even liked a single Kevin Smith movie if I saw Mallrats today rather than back at the fratter Freshman year.

Back to Superbad, the most interesting part of the movie was the fact that Greg Oden watched it with us. Greg Oden is superstar local product who has had ESPN televising his basketball games since he was in high school up the road at Lawrence North. He played one year at Ohio State (he was injured for part of it but came back just in time to play/beat the visiting Cyclones in Columbus) and then was drafted first overall to Portland a few months ago.

He was in line for tickets behind Hope and then came into the show behind us. No word on if he enjoyed the movie better than we did. We did follow him out and it looked like the Portland money has purchased him a new Cadillac Escalade. Not too unusual for 19 year old kids on Indy's northeast side but at least he earned that money himself.

(1)This started about 15 hours after we got home from Europe and hasn't been written about, yet.

This was linked today on CycloneReport.com(1) and it's pretty sweet; the text says:

This is where players are born, where they learn the love of a game, the spirit of sport, the drive to be the best, the will to win. Everything large and great started somewhere small and quiet, like the whisper of the swish of the net. Can you hear it? This is the beginning. THIS IS THE START OF SOMETHING BIG."

It was noted that the supposed poster is lacking the ISU and Big 12 logos as well as the schedule (which was also released today) so it may just be a prototype - either way it's a pretty cool picture of Wes, Jiri and Rahshon.

(1)Mark, it was linked from your photobucket account - I could tell from your hunting pics ;)

Last week ESPN continued the downfall of their media franchise from respectable journalism to pop-culture tabloid by publishing of yet another "list" this one focusing on "101 things all sports fans must experience before they die"

For my take on the highlights, I'll begin with my connections:

1/3. Summer/Winter Olympics (every four years in a different city).

I've never been but have visited at least two Olympic venue's post competition (Lake Placid & Calgary) as well as known a couple Olympians (who all live in America but have competed for other countries) and recently met a gold medalist (Cael).

6. Spring training (February-March, Florida and Arizona).

I used to watch Red Sox games in Winter Haven, FL when visiting my grandparents. I've wanted to coordinate one of my Southwest Florida work trips with a Twins game in Fort Myers but it has yet to happen.

14. College World Series (June, Omaha, Neb.).

I've been to Rosenblatt and had tickets for the CWS but never made it inside.

33. The Indy 500 (Memorial Day weekend, Indianapolis).

Our first experience of the race was this May though I had been to the track & museum early on in life

59. Calgary Stampede (July, Calgary, Alberta).

Been there!

74. Field of Dreams Ghost Sundays (select days in summer, Dyersville, Iowa).

I've been to the Field of Dreams many times but never actually seen a "Ghost Sunday" game.

86. Iowa-Iowa State wrestling match (winter, Iowa). There aren't any masks, folding chairs, cages, turnbuckle smashes or soap opera story lines. When a state cares this much about wrestling and the programs are this good, you don't need Vince McMahon to make it compelling.

I've watched this on IPTV several times but never actually witnessed it live. Following up Cael's #2 national ranking in his rookie coaching campaign and the having the meet in Ames probably makes this the year to do.

And conclude with the too rick-diculous(1) to have made the list:

41. The Iditarod (February, Anchorage to Nome, Alaska).

People go watch the Iditarod? Sheesh.

49. Lady Vols game (winter, Knoxville, Tenn.). ...When Pat Summitt takes command, the Vols go on a run and the band starts playing "Rocky Top," there is no better atmosphere for basketball -- men's or women's.

I come from a WBB school but I very much doubt there is "no better atmosphere".

52. Indiana high school basketball tournament (March, Indiana).

Locals tell me the IN state tourney is nothing since they divided it by class - might as well have put the now defunct IA Six-Man Girls Tourney on the list, too.

57. World Figure Skating Championships (annual, around the world).

No comment necessary.

90. Show-Me State Games (July, Columbia, Mo.). You can watch sports on TV or you can get off your couch and participate. And that's what about 30,000 Missourians do every summer, ranging from age 3 to 83.

Apparently this happens in 40 states including Iowa where they have more than 73000 participants throughout the year. Why is MO so groundbreaking?

(1) You know, the guy Ludacris stole his act from.

I've mentioned former Cyclone Paul Shirley several times on this blog(1) and he's out promoting his book on the radio and the internet these days. Several Cyclone fans have pointed out that he's doing a lot of bagging on ISU and Ames and are none-to-happy about it. I'm about halfway through the book and enjoying it so I'm choosing to abstain from listening to any of the interviews lest it spoil my opinion of Mr. Shirley before I finish.

Paul Clark, the editor over at CycloneReport.com, had this to say about it today:

And Don't Call Me Shirley

I have to admit, Paul Shirley's stream of putdowns aimed at Iowa State is wearing awfully thin with me. I know the guy is just trying to sell books, but at what point does profit motive completely trump sense of loyalty? We know you grew up in Kansas and would have loved to play for the Jayhawks. But they didn't want you and Iowa State did. Shouldn't that count for something? It does in my world. You attended ISU on someone else's dime and you were a great student and a good basketball player. So kudos for holding up your end of that bargain. But you're quickly running out of friends in Cyclone Country and the more you talk, the fewer you have.Iowa State gave you the opportunity to even be in position to write your book, to pen your blogs, to leverage a marginal basketball career into something amusing and entertaining. Sure ISU had a lot of player turnover when you were there. Sure some of your teammates weren't exactly classroom champions. Sure your head coach had issues and demons and sure Ames isn't Monte Carlo. But look at it this way: would you have rather played at Washburn? You weren't good enough to treat the alma mater the way you are doing publicly these days. If you want to sell out on being a Cyclone to cash in on the book selling circuit, no one can stop you. Just be aware, that's what you are doing, and you're alienating a lot of fans in the process.

Ouch. I knew that Shirley was up to something when he appeared as a Hawkeye player in Glory Road.

1. Here, here, here and here.