Seattle Sportsnet

So Donovan McNabb found out that games can end in a tie over the weekend, and ESPN is trying their hardest to turn this into news. Attention media: this isn’t news. The last NFL tie was six years ago and I guarantee you it’s not on ESPN Classic. Ties are supposed to be relegated to soccer and Europe. Ties should be on Homeland Security’s watchlist under “things that should never penetrate our borders.” And yet in the very sport to top all American sports, we had a tie on Sunday, a “Euro victory,” if you will. Ridiculous.

Does the media hate all black quarterbacks, or is it just McNabb? Keep in mind, McNabb is the guy who raised this issue when ESPN’s Rush Limbaugh Experiment backfired and Rush said some things about black quarterbacks (especially McNabb) that he probably now regrets. It seems like any time McNabb does something that could even remotely be construed as dumb, the media is there to make an example out of him and his actions.

Did you know that Frank Gore couldn’t read when until he got to college? Yeah, it’s true, but you don’t hear the media making a big deal out of it the way they do with McNabb’s blunders. “We’re here reporting live today at The Keg, where Niners running back Frank Gore just had trouble with the word ‘salisbury,’ which probably dates back to his days at Miami when he couldn’t read, yet somehow managed to get through university courses…” It’s things like this we should be covering.

The only time I’ve heard about Gore’s illiteracy was a few years ago (I think it might have been during the ’02 Fiesta Bowl, when Maurice Clarett ran free for the last time) during an in-game halftime special. Whichever network was broadcasting the special turned it into a sentimental, Lifetime-type story, complete with the sad piano playing, sepia camera tones, and interviews with the little people who taught Gore the alphabet. And yet nobody ever questioned how Gore got into a major college and passed a few classes before literacy kicked in. Amazing.

Anyways, McNabb’s ignorance on ties is irrelevant. Everyone should be ignorant about ties. Ties are dumb. If the world revolved around ties, then we’d all be Communist. Think about that the next time you watch soccer.

“Dawg Pack Dirt” is an idea that originated in 2004 when SSN writer Alex Akita began producing info sheets on Husky Men’s Basketball opponents for students in the Dawg Pack student section. Now in its fifth year of production, “Dawg Pack Dirt” is presently being produced and distributed by current UW students and Dawg Pack members Nate Taggart and Aaron Bean. “Dawg Pack Dirt” is meant to provide fans with points of emphasis for the game, including information on the team, as well as individual players. The section focusing on individual players is often geared towards the student section and facilitates creative chants and fan involvement throughout the game. We will posting the Dirt on the morning of each Husky home game for fans to enjoy.

Dawg Pack Dirt, Volume 5, Issue 2, Cleveland State University, November 18th, 2008
By Nate Taggart and Aaron Bean

The Game:

-Cleveland State University at University of Washington in the O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic Tournament

-Tuesday November 18, 2008 @ 7:00 p.m.

-Bank of America Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion

The Team:

-The Cleveland State Vikings make their home in the Horizon League which is home to teams like Butler and Valparaiso who made the NCAA and CBI tournaments last year, respectively.

-The 0-1 Dawgs face off against the 1-0 Cleveland State Vikings on Tuesday in the first game of the CBE Classic. The Vikings beat Oakland on Saturday night, rallying to a 58-55 win in the last 3 minutes after trailing the entire game.

-The Vikings are a coming off of a turnaround season with a 21-13 record and an RPI of 63 after losing 20 games the previous year and not breaking the 200 mark in RPI in the last 5 years. They received their first bid to a postseason tournament since 1988 last season when they were invited to the NIT where they lost in the first round to Dayton.

-Cleveland State is predicted by pretty much all of the experts to win the Horizon League this year over perennial favorite, Butler.

-The Vikings returned four of their starters for the 2008-2009 campaign and in those returners lies their two-man show of F J’Nathan Bullock and G Cedric Jackson. Both players averaged over 10 PPG last year with 14.8 and 13.9 PPG, respectively. Nobody else on the team nears the production numbers of their senior leaders.

Here are the ESPN Blue Ribbon Pre-Season Grades for both teams:

Washington:
Backcourt: B
Bench/Depth: B-
Frontcourt: B
Intangibles: B+

Cleveland State:
Backcourt: B+
Bench/Depth: B
Frontcourt: B+
Intangibles: A

The Players:

-So. G #2 Eric Schiele is the team’s garbage time player, scoring 1 point and going 0-5 from the field last year in 7 minutes of playing time.

-Fr. F #20 Charlie “C-Woods” Woods would like to be reached at cwoods_cwoods@yahoo.com. He claims that he is both right and left handed so when he’s missing shots in warm-ups, you know what to do.

-Fr. G #22 Josh McCoy does a really good Barack Obama as is evidenced by his pictures from Halloween. Ask him about it.

-RS. Fr. F #23 Daitwan “Twan” Eppinger would also like to be reached on his AIM at twanbasketball23.

-So. G #30 Norris Cole shot a blistering 24% from beyond the arc going 10-42 and 38% from the field last year but still earned the role of 6th Man and earned a lot of play time for his efforts.

-So. G #32 D’Aundray Brown must be friends with our buddy “Too Hard Too Guard” from last year as he calls himself “Best Kept Secret.” Seems pretty obsessed with the fact that he’s from the 330 (Youngstown, OH). I don’t really know anything bad about Youngstown but I’m sure we could find something.

-Sr. F #45 Renard Fields better be practicing his free throws during pre-game. He only shot 42% from the line last season.

-Fr. F #50 Ethan Anderson somehow finds himself on a collegiate basketball court after one year of high school basketball. Supposedly he is a very accomplished high school tennis player.