My Challenge to MTSU

In recent years student attendance has been up tremendously at Football games.  As a matter of fact, every game this year has had a nearly full student section.  Sadly the same cannot be said for basketball.  To be frank, the basketball attendance last year was embarrassing.  There was one sellout, which was against UT, and and a good quarter of the crowd was wearing orange. The biggest crowd of the year besides UT was a double header for Mardi Gras night and more people were there to dress up like hammered fools (some weren't "dressing up" for the hammered part) than to support their team.  In our biggest game against our biggest rival against Western Kentucky we had 20 people in the student section. This year, let's change that.

We have a Men's team budding with potential, one with one of the best players in the conference in Desmond Yates.  "Boogie" was the pre-season player of the year last year but was slowed by nagging injuries and was stuck playing out of position all year because of an injury to Theryn Hudson.  This year Theryn is back and Boogie is healthy.  By the end of the year King Boogie I could not only be that, the homecoming king, but also MTSU's all-time leading scorer.  On top of Boogie, Theryn, Calvin O'Neil, and a few other returning players (including Montario Haddock who I think will have a breakout year) are some new editions that I'm incredibly high on.  Last year was a struggle at Point Guard after Nigel Johnson got hurt.  Nigel graduated and the man taking his place is one of the most exciting players in the Sun Belt.  James Washington is quick, fast, can shoot, and is highly intelligent.  Coach Davis plans to use his speed to the max, running constantly making for an exciting brand of basketball.  Someone who should benefit from this is fellow JuCo transfer Rod Emanuel.  Rod is a slick scorer with a sweet shot who should be the starting two-guard to open the year.

On the Women's side, we have one of the best players in the country in Alysha Clark.  If you haven't seen her play, what the hell are you waiting for?  She can do quite literally everything.  She can score inside and outside, she rebounds, and is a tremendous athlete.  She also is a versatile defender and a tremendous leader.  Speaking of tremendous leaders, Chelsia Lymon is an ideal point guard.  Lymon was the 08-09 Sun Belt Defensive player of the year and in the second half of the scrimmage Monday was a highlight real at the offensive end.  Jackie Pickel and Anne Marie Lanning are back and have greatly improved their games as all-around players.  Brandi Brown is also back and her shot is in mid-season form.  Emily Queen and Dana Garret should also contribute off the bench as they did last year and you can also expect Tina Stewart to see significant playing time.  All of these girls are tremendous players and even better people off the court.  They play a beautiful brand of basketball and execute it to perfection.

So here's my challenge: let's have at least a 50% full student section at every game.  I realize that basketball games aren't always as convenient to go to as football games, but filling up half of a section in a school with 24,000 undergrads isn't too much to ask.  We can do this people.  Coach Insell and Coach Davis are putting a good product on the floor.  Come watch. I was talking to Coach Insell recently and said how much fun I had going to practice and covering his program, he immediately interrupted me and said "No, no.  It's not my program.  It's our program."

Hi, I'm Your Tour Guide

The student television season started this week and thus my show, MT Sports Live (9 pm CST on MTTV!), did just that, went live. About halfway through the show we were discussing the weekly football press conference when I remembered a particular question that had really bugged me when it was asked of every player and coach. "Does the mindset change going from a conference to non-conference game?" I proceeded to go on a mini-rant (and for the record my co-host Zac Defrancesca, a fellow former athlete backed me up) about how this might be dumber than asking Bill Belicheck for an injury report. Its a question you've heard asked a million times by media members and the answer never changes: it's always no. This is why I now present to you the fans and all my fellow media members an explanation of why, so that hopefully we can never hear this ridiculous question asked again. So come with me, as I take you on a guided tour inside the mind of an athlete!

The modern athlete is trained in media speak, and most of them have learned how to answer many questions put forth by us in the media in a simplistic answer that really doesn't provide any new information. This is why its such a breath of fresh air for me as an interviewer to interview someone like MTSU starting point guard Chelsia Lymon, who simply tells it like it is. However to say this stale, mundane routine of obvious question leading to obvious answer is the athletes and overprotective coaches faults is ridiculous. Its our fault in the media too. Many media members are former athletes who couldn't make it on a higher level (this is not an indictment as this includes me) but still have a love for sport and want to stay as close to it as possible. However it seems like many of these people forget what its like to be an athlete as soon as they cross over the athlete/media line. The question in focus here "does your mindset change now that we're in conference" is a perfect example.

As soon as an athlete steps on their particular playing surface it's game time, no matter who the opponent. It doesn't matter whether MTSU is stepping on the field versus North Texas, Maryland, or Texas, for each individual player, they are just playing football. Does that mean they don't adjust based on who they're playing? Absolutely not. If you're playing Alabama you're probably not going to run right at Mt. Cody in the middle of the defensive line, but it has nothing to do with the name on the front of the jersey. Unlike an athletes attitude, game planning has nothing to do with the name on the front of the jersey, it's all about the names on the backs.

I am about to crush a longstanding mathematical anomaly in sports, and that is no athlete plays 100% all the time. This is because it's impossible unless you want to be dead by the end of the first quarter of your game. There is also no such thing as 110%. Once again this is because it's impossible this time not because of physical limits but because of mathematical ones. Athletes play at about 85-90% for most of the time than elevate their games as they see fit. The great athletes, or at least those with superior mental makeup (you don't always get the superior athletic ability with the Michael Jordan mind, trust me. I know because I got the brain and a 5'11" body that runs a 4.8), are able to tell when it is time to elevate their game better than the standard athlete, and they are also able to sustain it longer. This has nothing to do with mindset going into a game, its simply reading the game as it comes along. Kobe Bryant doesn't go into a game knowing at the 8:48 mark of the 4th quarter its go-time; he assesses the game is it progresses and chooses his time to jump. This is also why I can become unguardable in many pickup games despite rarely being the best athlete on the floor. I see its go-time and turn my game up to 100% while everyone else is playing at 85% and at that point its as Lee Corso would say, goodnight sweetheart!

The same is true on a football field. In football when the ball is snapped you go and then the whistle blows so you stop. In theory you would go 100% for that time, but anybody who's watched a football game knows that's not the case. No, not because the tackle got beat by the defensive end on a particular play (someone has to win every battle). However, the evidence lies when about once a game a guy gets blown up on a block because he didn't keep his head on a swivel, or a receiver gets leveled over the middle because his quarterback left him out to dry. Paying attention is part of playing 100%, and in football the result of not playing at 100% is typically quite devastating for you or one of your teammates.

As Herman Edwards would say, "you play to win the game." This doesn't necessarily mean you play your hardest. You have to play better than the person opposite you. That's it. No matter how hard they play you have to play better. If you're 50% is better than your 100% than why play your best? It's wasted energy. If you have that much of an advantage than you play well enough to win decisively and that's the end of it. Does that sound great? Of course not. If a player admitted that to the media would his coach have a fit? You better believe it! However that's the truth and now you have to deal with it.

The important fact out of all of this though, is that it is not determined before a game how much effort a player will put in. Sure a player or a team can start on fire because they've preached putting forth the extra effort but eventually its the same game you've played all your life and you play it as such. The goal of an athlete is to maximize his or her abilities for the entirety of the game and it is up to them to figure out how to do that. "Leaving it all on the field" does you no good if you've left it all by halftime. Remember, a game is a game is a game is a game and a play is a play is a play is play is a play, no matter who an athlete is playing. So now that we have this understanding can I PLEASE never hear the ridiculous conference question again?

Alright that's enough, rant's over. And now that I mention it, so is your tour. Watch your step on the way out. Oh, and tips are gladly accepted!

I'm Goin Home! Who's Comin With Me?

Ask me where I'm from and I'll tell you New York. However ask me where I grew up and that answer is Greenville, SC. Greenville is the 3rd largest city in the Palmetto State behind the capital Columbia, and a city that was vital to our nation's founding, Charleston. About 45 minutes from Greenville is a small town called Clemson which is home to a not so small Clemson University. Clemson is a university rich in tradition that has gained national notoriety for many of its science and engineering programs amongst other academic achievements.

Athletically Clemson has been successful in many sports, turning out a plethora of pro athletes from Khalil Green (MLB) to Dale Davis (NBA) to US National Soccer Team member Oguchi Onyewu (who plays club fútbol for AC Milan). However our version of football, is without a doubt the sport by which Tiger fans live and die. MTSU will get to see this first hand this weekend as the Blue Raiders travel to Death Valley to take on the Orange and White, and as I travel home to watch the game I'm inviting you to come with me; here are 5 reasons why:

1) You should support your Blue Raiders!

First and foremost you should support your school. Not from home, but from the stands. I understand you can't go to every road game but this one is a) not absurdly far away and b) is on a long weekend. This is the perfect chance for you to be on the sidelines and show your Blue Raider pride at an away game. So no excuses! Be Loud! Be Proud! Be Blue!

2) Its not often you see passion like this.

As I said, Clemson fans live and die with their football team. Even if we filled our stadium with die hard Blue Raider fans, we

still wouldn't be close to what the experience is at Death Valley simply because Clemson's home turf has 80,000 seats while ours has less than half of that. For a true sports fan there's nothing like watching a game in that kind of atmosphere, seeing so many people come together for one cause. Hopefully on September 5th, that will be a losing cause but that's neither here nor there.

3) "The Most Exciting 25 Seconds in College Football"

Whether the above statement is true or not is clearly up for debate, however there is no arguing watching Clemson's pre-game tradition is a truly unique experience, one that must be seen in person to fully understand. Three buses full of players pull up to the stadium at which point the players pile off the bus, through the gate and to the top of "the hill." There they wait, giddy with anticipation, for their turn to touch Howard's rock and run full boar down the hill. It's a tradition that's over a half century old and you can see it simply if you make the trip.

4) "At Running Back...#28...C.J. Spiller"

You may have seen guys who are fast. But unless you've been to an Olympic track meet, you've never seen someone this fast. C.J. Spiller is a potential Heisman Candidate (if Clemson is a factor at all in the ACC) and is considered one of the top 5 and maybe even 3 running backs in the country. In his spare time he also runs track to the tune of a 10.22 100m time. Simply put he's blazing fast, but unlike someone like Trindon Holliday of LSU, Spiller can also run people over as opposed to running around them. He will almost certainly be a first round pick in next April's NFL Draft and probably could have been this year if he hadn't chosen to come back for his senior season. It's also worth noting that as absurdly fast as Spiller is, he's not even the fastest player on Clemson's roster. That honor belongs to starting receiver Jacoby Ford (#6) who was the only person who beat Spiller in the 100 meters at their NCAA Regional Meet. However, Ford's personal best of 10.01 in the 100m is his second most impressive time. Coming out of High School he was clocked at 4.126 in the 40 yard dash meaning he could seriously challenge Chris Johnson's record time at the NFL Combine in the spring should Ford choose to go pro in football and be invited to workout. Simply put, if you like to see guys who run fast, you need to be at this game!

5) Upstate South Carolina is Gorgeous!!!

You've got the whole weekend so you might as well use it. Upstate South Carolina has about everything you could ask for in a weekend getaway. Clemson is on Lake Hartwell which sits at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. You can go hiking, rent a boat, go fishing, or simply stay on Clemson's campus which has plenty of nice green space to sit by itself. If you're more of a city person than the extra 45 minute drive to my hometown will definitely be worth your while. Greenville is a big city compared to Murfreesboro but tiny compared to somewhere like Atlanta, meaning its big enough to have all the different shops, restaurants, and boutiques of a big city, yet small enough so that you don't feel like you don't have space to breathe, nevertheless move on the sidewalks. Greenville also has Falls Park, which features a gorgeous suspension bridge overlooking Reedy River Falls (pictured) as well as plenty of grassy areas to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon.

There you have it, the top 5 reasons to travel with your Blue Raiders this weekend to Clemson. Consider this your official invitation to my home, the Palmetto State. See ya there!