Evan Turner at the Buzzer

Big Ten Tournament. Indianapolis. THe only way the Michigan Basketball team could really redeam itself was to win the Big Ten Tournament to get the the NCAA Tournament. It is too hard to tell in words...so let me show you the video....

........................................................................

Iowa was pretty easy. We man handled them.





Ohio State was the bitter. After coming back from a 10plus deficite and Manny hitting the game winning bucket with 2.2 left on the shot clock, NCAA Player of the Year Candidate, Evan Turner shot up a Hail-Mary Half Court shot to win the game. I can say no more.

......................Last 2.2 second action.........................

Spring Break

Spring Break...its that time when everyone leaves you and its cold and lonly...its the time you get to sleep and eay a lot from the basketball team...and its the time wthat you can lift and play ball like that was all there was to do. Love it. So that is pretty much what I did.

I started a new power based workout. It revolves around the three big body lifts. The squat, the bench, and the clean. The squat I am doing is a full squat, done all the way. The bench is a very explosive bench, going down and then blowing up. The clean is the most difficult lift out of the three for sure. If you dont know what the clean is, check out this video...



This video has the full clean and jerk. I am just doing the first part where he gets it in the squad position. Sick. This dude Kendrick Farris has the world record with 405 KG...anyhow

Why is it so hard? Becausre there are three states to the lift. THere is the initial hip movement, then there is the sholder shrug, and then the pull of the bar up with the elbows flipping under the bar supper fast. Its super complicated. To learnt the lfit correctly, I am getting my buddy, Dan, Assistant strength and conditioning coach. I have split the lift to three parts...the Romanian dead lift, the power snatch and the front squat to work on all three parts. Hope to get the Clean down in 2 months

The team got to go to the theater together. We watched the movie shutter island. It was a very interesting movie. It was depicted more of a horror movie but it wasnt really that scary. It was very mental, very thought provoking and mind twisting. So if you like those type of movies, you should go watch it. I am pretty picky in what I watch cause I dont like to waste my time watching crap, but if thats your type, then go for it. Here is a trailer.



I was also lucky that my dad got to visit for two days. He came on his way to see his client. We got to watch mIchgian Hockey destroy Lake Superior State at my first ever hockey game. It was cool to see my buddies play on the ice.



The next day I got him row 2 tickets for our last season game against Michigan state. Oh what an atmosphere! It was rediculous. Whitnes everywere. And was I getting heckled! Getting called cowboy and yeehaa!! the whole time hahaha. But we palyed pourly and the Spartan fans savored every minute of it. There was one point efore the game when the Izzone, the student section, was getting all non state fans out of their zone. Well there was this girl who was wearing a while shirt like everyone else, but it had a block M on it. THe whole student section started to yell at her till the ushers came and made her leave! What the heck! I felt so bad for her! These people are crazy! hahaha

Iowa

Iowa was a cool trip. We went to Iowa to win a game. We accomplished a lot more. We flew to Iowa and it was freezing. It was so cold. The place was dry and bareen. Its the worst place I have ever visited. Just a lot of fields and a few people and its just lame. I remember the morning of the game, we were at the hotel and some dudes were like, "What do you want to do tonight? Eh...there is a hawkeye game. That sounds cool." Thats how lame it is. Terrible.
The Hotel was sweet...they actually had a hot tub and a pool. Koodos to them. But WAYYYY too many pillows...I dont even use a pillow. BUt who on earth would use 4.5 pillows? Thats a Marriot for you. And the little light on the side of the bed...now thats clever. I even used it...not just to use it but bc Willy is lazy. How that makes sence? I have no idea...

Everyone was rannting on how bad the stadium was, but it was sweet. It was a bowl shaped stadium, built into the ground like Michigan Stadium. From the outside, it just looked like a one storied structure, but behind the eight window doors was a clorious arena, with screens all the way around including some HD monitors. Banners filled the place, dominated by their Wrestling program. I was talking with one of the managers there (that get full scholerships for their work), and he told me that wrestling is just so popular. THe basketball arena probobly had 4-6000 people at the game that night, barely anyone there. The stadium holds 15,000. He says on wrestling meets they would have it at the basketball arena and have 16,000 people with stadning room only on the perimiter of the arena. Crazy.

And you could tell. There team was terrible. But of course our Wolverines had problems holding on and the Hawkeyes cmae back. In the last second DeShawn Sims took a pace at the top and drained a 3pointer to tie the game. The Hawkeyes brought it to the other side of the floor in the last seconds to take the game but came up emtie handed. Over time. And Manny Harris shined, hitting three pointers and slashing his way through, and with the help of Peedi, sealed the game as a Victory for the Wolverines.

100th post with the Saints as the SuperBowl Champions!

What can I say? THe game was amazing. I went with some friends to my roomate from last year, Ben´s house. We had a fun time watching the game. Haha it was great. The Saints started at the bottom but then slowly worked themselves back. THe second half was pretty intence because of more scoring and the intensity of the hits. Then, just as Farve lost the game for Minnesota, Peyton Manning did the same for the Colts in throwing an interception within yards of a touchdown to tie to t¡e the gmae. So the score appears to be much more spread than it really is. Wow. I was so glad for the Saints. I have been following them the whole year and gave yall a heads up a few weeks ago to watch them in the playoffs.

Peyton Manning gave the final blow to his own team with the interception.

Stunned with Joy

The New Orleans Saints won their first Super Bowl with a surprise 31-17 win over the Indianapolis Colts in Miami. Drew Brees hit a record-equalling 32 passes for 288 yards, with touchdowns to Pierre Thomas and Jeremy Shockey. And cornerback Tracy Porter returned an interception from Colts quarterback Peyton Manning 74 yards for another score to seal victory. Garrett Hartley kicked three field goals of over 40 yards as the Saints came back from 10-0 down early on. Indianapolis, who won the NFL title in Miami just three years ago, went into the game as favourites.

Brees Did it. Under all odds, after being rejected his entire career as too small, not good enough, the undersized 6footer and 180lbs QB not only became Superbowl champion, but also Superbowl MVP. He is the man. Respectable, full of entegrity, a hard worker, and a leader. What a joy to see him win and hold his son, showing him what can be accomplished through hard work and dedication. What a name to live up to for his son. Wow.

Coach Peyton was so tired after the win that on their flight home, he had some Lombardi goodness keeping him asleep. Pillow of Lombardi trophy? Haha, I know which one I rather have.

Best Play of the Game? Lance Moore´s sick and rediculous catch for 2-points. From a Reciver´s perspective, nothing gets more intensly difficult or just plain awesome as this. WOW.

Highlights of that awesome game:

......................................................................................
......................................................................................

So we all know what people were really watching...the Superbowl Commercials. SO what hit good this year' What were my favs? Lets take a look at some of the top ones and remember the laughs we had the first time. Here is my favorite from last year.

Monster.com Fiddling Beaver Ad - Pretty good one

Google: Parisian Love Ad - A lot of people liked this one. Very Clever.

Doritos Do Ad - Doritos usually have the best. This one was worth mentioning.

Denny´s Chicken - these were pretty funny. I just loved to see that chicken screen hahaha


TOP 3 ADDS? From DPinedoBlog, here are my top 3 favorite:

3. Hyundai Soata / Brett Favre Ad
-This one was awesome! Hahaha, made me laugh. Just too good to be true. Love that Farve played along with it. Hahaha

2. Snickers Betty White Super Bowl Ad
-I laughed so hard when Betty White got takled. It was just so out of place. Great stuff.


1. Doritos: House Rules Ad
-Doritos did it again. Best one by far! It was so funny. I just watched, eyes glued to the screen. And that little kid is the hero of the night. Hahahaha he was so funny but yet so serious and that is Why I love it. Two loves in life: His Moma and His Doritos. Well worth watching over and over again.


There you go, chaps. Re-live the moment of the Saint´s SuperBowol win and their awesome commercials. Gotta love it. Thank God for football and the Superbowl!

Serena Flying in the Air with her iPad

The new year is almost done with its first month. Classes are solid, getting the schedual is becoming accustamery, and news is int he air...
......................................................................................
First off, I was watching the Australian Open, and wow, haha. I was talking to my roomate albert, who is a powerlifter and looks huge for hsi size, and I was telling him how Serena Williams could probobly kick his butt. He was like, yea, she is big, but naw, no way. Then I turned on the TV and there she was...playing and swinging her raquet...her huge body in glory. She is so huge. Her quadricepts is like the size of Albert´s core, and his core is huge. Holy Cow. So I just want to make all yall aware...that dont take Tennis Female players lightly, they will likely rick your butt. Starting with Serena Williams.




And Guess who won the Austrelian Open this year? You´re looking at her. 12 Single´s Grand Slam Titles and 11 Doubles Grand Slam Titles...her nickname might as well be Miss Grand Slam.
......................................................................................
Something else that is pretty big news...at Least I think so. I got up one morning in Chicago getting ready for the Northwestern game (of which we will not speak of) to find the USA today outside my hotel door. On the front page, I see something detremential. Sure, it is one news story, but it is the mentality that we must be aware of. During the past six years, millions of passengers have flown on at least 65,000 US Air flights that should never have left the ground due to maintainance problebmes, the USAtoday 6 month investigation found. This is a mentality issue. How can we target so much attention on screening tecnology, no fly list, cockpit saftly, and terrorist issues when we have issues of our own! We have piles and pile sof problems, but instead of taking care of what we can do, we focus on what we cannot do and put our efforts and attention on it. This is the problem with politics on a national scale, this is a problem in our local businesses and schools, and even at the house. We need to focus on what we can handle and work on dealing with the larger issues. If you let it slip by at home, then it makes sence that 65,000 flights with mecanical problems that you could have been onboard, have flown in the last 6 years.
......................................................................................
So the iPad came out...now what? Is this gonna be a revolutionary tecnological advancement? Or is this just a pretty boy toy from the pretty boy of all boy companies, Apple. Yes, I am writting this on my black mac book. Yes I have a unlocked and jailbroken iPhone 2G. And yes I use apple software and recomend it. But why on earth create something like a large iPod touch and give it the hype of a $45 million blockbuster hit movie on 3-D? Steve Jobs says it was supposed to hit the gap between phone and laptop. Is there really a gap? Is there a need to fill that gap? What can it do...surf the Web, play games, watch high-definition movies, listen to music, dispatch and receive e-mail and read electronic books and newspapers. Alright, that is everything that the iPod touch can do. Ok. What can it do better?
-It has a bigger screen...ok, not bad. 10inches. Ok. Anything else?
-It has an ibook application that can read books and magazines and newspaper like a Kindle.
-Can it play flash? No
-Does it have a high speed processor to run different applications? No
-Does it have a camera for web conferenceing? No
-BUT, geuess what? ...it has WiFi...so you can get online as long as there is a internet wireless port in your vecinity. OR you can buy the 3G upgrade capability for $130 extra along with a AT&T $30/month plan to get data anywhere


...here is my big problem. It is not Creating New Media, or creating anything new in any sence of the word...it is only about Consuming. And that is the problem I have about it. There is nothing new. Sure, we will see how much of the market it will take from the ebook market, considering the iPad is 2-3 time more expensive than the other competators, such as Amazon Kindle and Sony-s ebooks. Why carry along a laptop, a smart phone AND some big pad. I mean, it looks good, but lack of physical keyboard, no video camera, and limited internet because of disabilities such as Flash leave the iPad as a only so-good type of player. Its good, but only at a few things...that can already be done on your iPod Touch. Yes, you iPod touch. Alright. My iPhone can do everything that that sucker tcan do (minus having to pay for books through the iBook application...I just do it for free). So yea, not me, not my dollars. I wonder to see what happens int he market. This was the worse kept secret for Apple EVER, since people have been expecting it for like up to 2 years. But it is finally here now. And lets see what happens. We will surely be talking about this again in the future.
......................................................................................
Last thing, the Basketball team has not been doing well. Losses after lossses. Some have been close, some have been blow outs, such as the Northwestern game. We hope to change things around. Wisconsin, Purdue, and Michigan State have not been pretty losses. Infact, Michigan State hurt SO much because we barely lost, at the very very end of the game. Peedi almost had the out of bounds play of the year, but barely missed. Lets see what we got left.
......................................................................................