Uncensored Writing

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

The 45 Most Important Players to the Chicago Bulls Dynasty - #10 B.J. Armstrong

B.J. Armstrong
After growing up in Detroit, Michigan, Armstrong made his way (slightly) south to the greatest institution in the world, The University of Iowa. During his time with the Hawkeyes, he helped lead them to both a Sweet 16 and Elite 8 appearance.

His impressive college career was enough for him to be selected by the Chicago Bulls with the 18th overall selection in the 1989 NBA Draft.

Armstrong started his career backing up starting point guard, John Paxson. In the first playoff game of the 1991 playoffs, Armstrong went off for his first career double-double, scoring 18 points with ten assists. Still, it was not enough to unseat Paxson as the primary point guard, as Armstrong's minutes plummeted during the NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.

In Armstrong's third season in 1991-92, his role continued to grow in minutes despite still coming off the bench. He was allowed the minutes to take over games at times and made a much larger impact in the 1992 playoffs. He scored double-digit points in seven separate games and played at least 15 minutes in all but one game. Armstrong was starting to show his true talent, and it was clear that he was the most talented point guard on the roster. The thing that may have hurt Armstrong the most is the Bulls refusal to let him play in a tie and suspenders.

Still, the Bulls felt safe with John Paxson which helped him keep his starting job throughout the playoffs. It wouldn't make much of a difference as the Bulls cruised to their second straight championship.

Armstrong finally wrestled away the starting position in 1992-93 and delivered in his new role as he provided the Bulls with another player who could create his own shot and give defenses nightmares. During the regular season, he would set a new high in points with 28 against the Los Angeles Clippers. In the playoffs, it was more of the same as he finished third on the team in scoring, including 18 points in the deciding game against the Suns as the Bulls went on to win their third straight championship.

Although he would stick around for a couple years, and even make the All-Star team in 1994, he would not make it to the next threepeat, as he was the first overall pick in the expansion draft by the Toronto Raptors. B.J. refused to report to the team (probably because he didn't want to play with John Salley, which nobody could blame him for), so they were forced to trade him to the Golden State Warriors for a bunch of spare parts. He maintained his productivity in that first year with the Warriors but dropped off the following year when he got hurt and lost his starting job to Mark Price.

Armstrong would go on to play for Charlotte Hornets and Orlando Magic before calling it quits after one final year with the Chicago Bulls. He then took a front office job with the Bulls before becoming an agent where his client list includes Derrick Rose and Draymond Green. It just shows you the value of a good University of Iowa education.

Previous Entries:

#13 - Will Perdue

#12 - Scott Williams

#11 - Steve Kerr

Monday, March 26, 2018

The 15 Worst Things About XWF Episode 1

The XWF was a short-lived wrestling organization in the early 2000s. It started in November 2001 which means it actually preceded the beginnings of TNA which did not start until June of 2002. Oh, but don't worry about overlap as the XWF was out of business by February of 2002. Honestly, early TNA looks a whole lot like the XWF. It is not good, but there are some good aspects of it. And luckily, they put three of their episodes on YouTube to be broken down. They pack a lot into 45 minutes, so buckle up, and if you'd like to check out the episode, it's embedded below.

Not everything was bad, so the beginning of the list will actually be positive. We take a downward spiral into negatives fairly quickly.

15. They Had The Brain
The best thing they did was get Curt Hennig and have him, not managed, but represented by agent, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. I am extremely cynical towards this wrestling venture, but even I popped for this. Unfortunately, I'll talk about the match itself later.

14. Mean WHOOOOOOOO Gene
They also got Mean Gene Okerlund, and there is literally no way to fault them for that.

13. Hype Videos
Willie Nelson talks about how much he loves America with Hacksaw Jim Duggan for 20 seconds. It's inane and delightful. Johnny B. Badd does a ten-second promo, and it gets me so hyped. Norman Smiley does the same. They even got Gene Simmons to do one for The Demon. I don't actually see any of these guys wrestle on this episode, and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if I don't see any of them wrestle at all in these episodes, but the POSSIBILITY has me very intrigued.

12. Talent Did Exist
A bunch of cruiserweights, led by the former Prince Iaukea, come knocking on Piper's door, so he invents a Cruiserweight Title for everyone to compete for. Piper says that people can be eliminated by pinfall, submission, or over the top rope, but everyone is thrown over the top rope, so it's just a Cruiserweight Battle Royal. That is bad, but the fact that they have Psicosis, Kid Kash, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Juventud Guerrera, Low Ki (known as Quick Kick), and Prince Iaukea (known as The Tongan Prince) definitely saves it.

As I said, it's a Cruiserweight Battle Royal, so it's by far the best match on the show. The funniest part is that they pan away from the match to show Josh Matthews to hype him as the next big thing in the Cruiserweight division. Kid Kash wins the Battle Royal to become the first champion of the XWF.

11. A King On Leave
For the broadcast team, they got Tony Schiavone as their main play-by-play announcer which sounds bad, but for color, they had Jerry "The King" Lawler. Lawler quit the WWE for nine months when his wife, The Kat, got fired. This fit perfectly into that break of his. Lawler's commentary does not age well, because it's pretty horrifically offensive for today's world, but back then, you couldn't have gotten a more desired announcer.

10. A Perfectly Stupid Ending
Curt Hennig takes on Vampiro in the first episode main event. The match is fine until the end when Heenan gets a pair of brass knuckles. Before he can use them, Roddy Piper runs out and does this.

He hits Hennig, even though Hennig and Heenan never cheated. There was no proof that The Brain was going to use those brass knuckles for nefarious means; he might have just had cold knuckles. This injustice leads to Vampiro picking up the easy win.

9. Nasty Jimmy Forgot The Hammer
This was a company run by Brian Knobbs, Jimmy Hart, and Greg "The Hammer" Valentine. For the DVD set, they couldn't even get Valentine to say anything which should tell you a lot about the quality of this product. But they did get Knobbs and Hart, and they focused on wrestlers from the past, present, and future. I'll let you take a guess at which one of those categories this company is sorely lacking. They also said they didn't want any prima donnas, and then immediately bragged about signing Hulk Hogan.

8. Authority Figures
Sable is the CEO, but she is just known by her first name, Rena. Sable was never great at speaking, but she did a hell of a job memorizing her lines as she actually sounds like she has a purpose in her words. But she only speaks for a minute before introducing the commissioner, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. Why did they need two authority figures immediately? Because..., um, shrug emoji. Piper said he'll deal with the wrestlers, and she can deal with the money. I really hope they do some vignettes of Sable crunching the numbers.

7. Is Buff Enough?
The first match, to pop off the crowd, and set the tone for this new wrestling venture, is Big Vito vs. Buff Bagwell. I love Buff Bagwell, but this is exactly the match that you would expect.

6. Party Marty vs. Tall Hulk Hogan

The second match of the card is Marty Jannetty, who does not appear to be intoxicated, taking on some dude named Hail. He's 6'10" 340 pounds and couldn't wrestle his way out of a wet paper bag. He beats Jannetty, but the fact that a guy built like Hail never got a shot in the WWE shows how worthless he was in the ring. This is the first match that highlights the XWF's Hulk Hogan strategy. The XWF brought in every variation of Hulk Hogan to see if they could create a new Hulk Hogan. They had a fetish for giant buff dudes who were balding or completely bald and couldn't wrestle. They looked at professional wrestling, saw Hulk Hogan, loved Hulk Hogan, wanted to produce an entire organization of Hulk Hogans. Their big issue was that they forgot the most important ingredient of Hulk Hogan, and that is charisma. Despite failing to look for that, they would end up with one Hulk Hogan, but that was when they brought in Hulk Hogan.

5. Nasty Boys vs. Hulk Hogan Twins

The Nasty Boys take on The Shane Twins. You're not going to believe this, but the Shane Twins are giant buff dudes who can barely move. The Shane Twins win, but the Nasty Boys start beating on them, only to be stopped by The Road Warriors.

4. British Hulk Hogan Takes On Hulk Hogan's Nephew

Horace Hogan vs. Ian Harrison basically proved that their strategy in finding stars is finding guys who had lots of muscles and the wrestling talent would be secondary at best. British Hogan vs. Hogan Relative saw the foreigner coming out on top.

3. WXF?
This is the XWF secondary logo.

There is no human being alive who wouldn't guess that this company is called the WXF.

2. When Nasty Gets Nice
The end of this video, when they go back to director's commentary, is goddamn insane. Brian Knobbs only knows how to speak one way, and it's fast and loud. He was getting all hyped about the Nasty Boys feuding with The Road Warriors, but then he decided it was time to be serious. This is that moment.

He's still talking fast and loud, but he's combining that with some somber notes as he talks about the death of Hawk and Curt Hennig. They may have not wanted to combine all of the recap in one take, but two takes are for prima donnas.

1. Xcitement
XWF stands for Xcitement Wrestling Federation. I have nothing more to add.

Thursday, March 22, 2018

The 45 Most Important Players to the Chicago Bulls Dynasty - #11 Steve Kerr

Steve Kerr
Steve Kerr, more commonly referred to as the Lebanon Leprechaun (I may be the first person to ever call him that, but he was born in Lebanon), came out of his career at Arizona ready to set the world on fire. This was especially true since he was a lights out shooter, setting a record for 3-point percentage at 57.3%. He was drafted in the second round by the nearby Phoenix Suns. His early career saw him bounce from the Suns to the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Orlando Magic before becoming a free agent in 1993. That is when he signed with the Chicago Bulls and would truly find his niche in the NBA.

Kerr had his best years with the Chicago Bulls, but a lot of this was due to the Bulls seeing value in his contributions and giving him more minutes than he received anywhere else. I mean, the guy shot over 50% from deep in his first season with the Cavaliers, and then shot 43% and 45% respectively in the two following years, but back then, NBA teams didn't know that threes were better since they are one more than two. In those two non-title winning years, Kerr backed up B.J. Armstrong, although he still finished fifth on the team in minutes as he received a lot of time at both guard positions off the bench.

Although B.J. Armstrong was lost in the expansion draft to the Toronto Raptors, Kerr's role only switched in that he was now backing up Ron Harper instead of Armstrong. His numbers during those championship years barely changed, which may have been the greatest attribute of Steve Kerr; you knew what you could expect from him. He wasn't going to be the best defender or playmaker, but when it came down to making shots, there weren't many guys you would rather have with the ball in his hands.

Since Steve Kerr was consistent in his play, there really aren't any interesting box scores to point to. There are no games where he went off for big points or completely took the game over in any way. That was never meant to be his role, and he never tried to fill it. Instead, Steve Kerr's Bulls tenure is one of moments, and there is one moment that stands above all others.

In Game Six of the 1997 NBA Finals, the Bulls were tied with the Utah Jazz at 86. time was running down on the shot clock, and the Jazz chose to double team Michael Jordan. With five seconds left on the clock, Jordan passed to Steve Kerr from 15 feet out, and this is what happened.

I highly recommend watching the video as the speech after is nearly as good as the shot.

But this is what Steve Kerr will always be remembered for as a player. To be fair, it's really damn tough to top hitting a game winning shot to win a NBA Championship. But it is also hilarious what are considered Steve Kerr's top 10 highlights in the following YouTube video.

1. Shot to win Championship - this one is totally legitimate.
2. Drive penetration, banks it in, and-one, a nice play.
3. Pump-fake, dribble, nails jumper.
4. Hits a floater.
5. Three-pointer in transition.
6. Off-balance three-pointer, another nice play.
7. Assist to Toni Kukoc
8. Rebound followed by assist to Jordan who hits a layup.
9. Gets pass from Michael Jordan, takes a dribble, hits mid-range jumper.
10. Give and Go with Bill Wennington.

Outside of number one, there are probably quite a few players who have better highlight videos from a single game, but hey, it worked for Kerr. And even after leaving the Bulls, he managed to join the San Antonio Spurs and win two more titles.

After his playing career was over, he bounced around between being a General Manager, broadcaster, and now the Head Coach of the Golden State Warriors, where he has won an additional two titles, giving him seven overall, one more than former teammate, Michael Jordan. Steve Kerr may not be flashy, but he sure as hell is effective. Even crazier, as long as his health holds out, he's nowhere near being finished.

Previous Entries:

#13 - Will Perdue

#12 - Scott Williams

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

The Bullshit of NFL Draft Scouting

It's NFL Draft season. If you are a fan of a bad team, this may be the best time of the year. As a Bears fan, I understand this better than most. But no matter who you cheer for, it is, without a doubt, the dumbest time of the year. There is so much bullshit being said, very confidently I might add, that some of it may seem believable at first glance. That is why I am here to help you cut through the shit to get to the actual truth.

Experience
This is one that happens again and again when discussing quarterbacks, but I have even heard it with running backs. If somebody doesn't play much in college, they must have not been that good to begin with. At first glance, it makes sense, but if you actually look into the situation, it's pretty clear that there are certain situations where this is patently false. A great example for running backs was Alvin Kamara. Kamara is an incredible talent, but Butch Jones got comfortable with playing top prospect Jalen Hurd who was good but simply never got better as he progressed through college. Hence, it took some time before Kamara got his shot, but when he was on the field, he was incredible, and it doesn't matter that he didn't get a ton of playing time, because it didn't hurt his development, in fact, it really just kept him fresher for the NFL.

My boy, Mitch Trubisky, is a great example at quarterback. Last year, he was ripped into because he had very few starts at quarterback in college, and Bill Parcells came up with a evaluation 30 YEARS AGO that said that you needed lots of starts to be successful. They never came up with any reason that his inexperience affected his play. Well, wait, they came up with one reason, but that was just putting another layer of bullshit on their evaluation.

Clutch/Winning
Clutch and winning seem to go together as areas where you can just throw something out and have it stick without actually watching a single play of football. Great quarterbacks win. If you don't win, you're not a winner, and if you're not a winner you can't be clutch. People looked at some close losses and deemed Mitch Trubisky not clutch. They failed to see how well he actually threw the ball in close games, just that his team didn't win. It was not a clutch problem; it was a North Carolina doesn't have enough talent to beat far superior teams problem. Eight wins isn't going to wow anyone, but after Trubisky left, they dropped to three wins.

This year, people are bringing up the fact that Josh Allen didn't win much in college. And herein lies the problem. Josh Allen didn't win because he isn't an accurate quarterback, but when Josh Allen sucks in the NFL, they will point to an unimpressive win-loss record instead of realizing that he was never good at throwing the football. The former is a symptom, the latter is the disease. Focus on the disease.

Height
Now, don't get me wrong, being tall has advantages over being short. It's easier to see down the field, and you're less likely to have a pass batted down if you have a higher release point. Those are real things. But being short has advantages too. Longer limbs means that it is mechanically more difficult to have clean releases. There is a reason that we don't see any super tall quarterbacks succeed, but nobody has ever claimed that a guy is too tall to play quarterback, because this is the United States so if some of a good thing is good, then a lot of a good thing must be great.

Obviously, this is the one that Baker Mayfield is struggling with. He's only 6'0" so that means he's too short to be a quarterback. Yeah, he's as tall as Drew Brees and taller than Russell Wilson, two guys who have had moderate success (and Super Bowl wins) in the NFL, but Mayfield's too short. And those issues I mentioned for shorter quarterbacks are not things that Mayfield struggled with in college. Will it be tougher in the NFL? Definitely, but that's true of EVERY SINGLE PLAYER EVER. Don't assume issues without any evidence.

Negative Plays
A great running back gains yards. Therefore, a running back who loses yards on a relative high percentage of his carries cannot be a great running back. Even I almost fell for this one as I do think a running back that consistently gets some yards is better than a home run hitter who often gives you negative plays. Luckily the Move The Sticks podcast opened my eyes when it came to Saquon Barkley. I mean, after watching him against Iowa the last couple years, my opinion was never going to tank on the man, but it may have made me a bit more skeptical. The problem with this argument is that Penn State runs a heavy run-pass option offense. If the quarterback is reading the defense correctly, it should be incredibly rare that you would lose yards on the option, so the problem was more that Trace McSorley was trying to force the ball to Barkley instead of taking what the defense gives him. Barkley was stuck trying to make something out of nothing, and yeah, you're going to have some negative plays when that happens. Negative plays are bad, but that's not a real issue. A guy being indecisive in the backfield is an issue, which is something that I do not see in Barkley's game.

Decrease in Production
So a guy has a great sophomore year and his stats drop off as a junior. Wait, let's go with great junior year, could go out for the draft, but loves his college experience, wants to get a degree, and stays for his senior season and his numbers drop off. Let's say, oh, just for a totally hypothetical, that he is a cornerback for a prominent midwestern institution, had eight interceptions, won the Thorpe award for best defensive back, but then fell off to three interceptions during his senior season. Just a random hypothetical. Anyway, his drop in production was more for the fact that nobody threw the ball anywhere near his side of the field which should be more evidence for how great of a player he actually was.

Anyway, Desmond King, I mean, random player from Midwestern school, somehow fell to the fifth round, and then had an incredible rookie season where everybody was shocked that he was such an impact player. Anyway, my anger will never cease that the Bears didn't go for Desmond King before the Chargers selected him, because anyone who watched him instead of just believing a bunch of bullshit, knew that the guy was a football player who was always in the right spot at the right time.

Anyway, that's all the time we have for today. I am sure there are a lot of other bullshit reasons that people use to justify disliking a player, so feel free to send them my way, and I can continue this for a part two.

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

The 45 Most Important Players to the Chicago Bulls Dynasty - #12 Scott Williams

Scott Williams
Scott Williams was a McDonalds All-American coming out of high school and decided to take his talents across the country as he moved away from California to attend the University of North Carolina. He had a good, although not great collegiate career, as he averaged double-digit points during his final three years while being a good rebounder. It was pretty amazing for Williams to do as well as he did in college as during his sophomore year, his parents died when his father committed a murder-suicide at their home in California.

Williams went undrafted in 1990, but the Bulls signed as a free agent shortly after the draft. This is where Williams' luck started to change. As a North Carolina graduate, Michael Jordan immediately took a liking to him. It also helped that the Bulls only draft pick that year, Toni Kukoc, chose not to sign with the team despite repeated attempts by Bulls management.

Even though Williams never set the world on fire, his contributions increased every year he was with the Bulls. During his rookie season, he was the last guy off the bench throughout the regular season. But when the playoffs hit, the Bulls liked his energy so much that he ended up taking Stacey King's minutes in the NBA Finals and getting significant playing time in all of the wins over the Lakers. In fact, the Bulls went 12-0 when Williams saw playing time during the 1991 playoffs.

In 1991-92, Williams continued his trend of making a bigger impact when it counts the most. Throughout the season, he had two games where he scored double-digit points, but in the playoffs, he managed three such games. He was the second-to-last person off the bench during the regular season, but he was the first big man off the bench for the playoffs as the Bulls relied on his energy and versatility to play both the power forward and center positions.

For the Bulls final title of their first threepeat, Williams had solidified himself as an essential part of the team. He was the first guy off the bench in both the regular season and in the playoffs. Although Williams didn't light up the box score, he provided good defense and rebounding and was a key in solidifying the bench unit of that final championship season.

Before we get to his post-Bulls career, how about you take a seat, listen to some funky beats and watch Scott Williams highlights for four minutes (Spoiler alert: Williams puts on some weight)?

He would last one more year with the Bulls, and let's just say he wasn't thrilled with how he was treated by the team.

So, yeah, he chose to get out of town and join up with the Philadelphia 76ers as a free agent. He would then play for Milwaukee which led to my favorite nugget when researching Williams. He was involved in a trade along with a current NBA player when, in 2001, the Milwaukee Bucks traded him and a 2004 first round pick to the Denver Nuggets for Aleksandar Radojevic and Kevin Willis. That future first rounder would be used to select Josh Smith who is kind of current since he played a few games for the New Orleans Pelicans earlier this season. Williams would also play for Phoenix, Dallas, and Cleveland before retiring in 2005. After retiring, he has spent his time bouncing between basketball coaching and announcing.

And if you needed any evidence that YouTube is the absolute best, here is Scott Williams allegedly seducing some ladies at a Suns game.

I love the internet.

Previous Entries:

#13 - Will Perdue

Sunday, March 18, 2018

Grading Each Iowa Wrestler's Performance at the NCAA Tournament

The NCAA Tournament concluded this wrestling season which is one of my most manic-depressive moments of the year. It is such a high to have about 20 hours of wrestling to watch over three days and then have nothing for eight months. But at least we ended on a high note as the Hawkeyes performed incredibly well at the tournament, and although a few guys didn't quite live up to expectations, there was really only one dud of a performance. Let's grade each wrestler, from worst to best performance this past weekend.

10. Paul Glynn - 133 - Incomplete
Paul Glynn did not qualify for the NCAA Tournament so not a lot to say about his performance.

9. Joey Gunther - 174 - D
Gunther had two matches in the NCAA Tournament, and he went 0-2. That's...less than ideal. His first match was against 13 seed, Jacobe Smith. That's a fairly good draw as an unseeded guy, but Gunther did not take advantage and ended up giving up a major decision. Smith did end up becoming an All-American with an eighth place finish, so it is slightly more acceptable. He then lost a closer match to Josef Johnson, but Gunther again got no offense going. He showed up, but that was about it.

8. Brandon Sorensen - 149 - B-
Sorensen finishes this low despite having the third best finish of any Iowa wrestler where he took fifth place at 149. Still, anything short of making the NCAA Finals was going to be a disappointment for Sorensen, and unfortunately for him, those dreams ended early. After a nice 11-6 win over Jared Prince from Navy, Sorensen took on Ronald Perry from Lock Haven. Perry stalled throughout the match but nailed his one shot for a takedown late in the third and Sorensen wasn't able to answer. Although losing to the 15 seed is a tough pill to swallow, Perry did make it all the way to the NCAA Finals. After that, Sorensen caught fire and took a major decision over DeLuca from Rutgers, a decision over Deakin from Northwestern, and major decisions from both Hayes (Ohio State) and Lewallen (Oklahoma State). On Saturday morning, he took on Matt Kolodzik from Princeton and again failed to get to his offense and lost a close decision. That sent him to the fifth place match where he shut out Grant Leeth of Missouri 4-0. Overall, it wasn't a bad performance, but it just left you wanting more, as I'm sure Sorensen himself expected more of himself. Still, he goes out a 4-time All-American at Iowa, which is one hell of an accomplishment, and he will definitely be missed.

7. Vince Turk - 141 - B
Turk came into the tournament unseeded and had the extra disadvantage of having a pigtail match before he even made it into the bracket of 32. He ended up getting a major decision in his first match. His second match pitted him against 16th seeded Cole Weaver, a guy Turk had lost to at the Midlands this season. It looked like more of the same as Weaver was ahead late in the match, but with less than ten seconds left Turk, not only got the takedown but took him to his back for a two-count and won 4-3 in a match that had me jumping up and down and terrifying my dog. Unfortunately, that set up a match with #1 seed, Bryce Meredith. Although Turk got close on a couple shots, Meredith's defense was too much and Turk fell 5-2. He would then win a 3-2 decision over Limmex before losing a 3-2 decision to Chad Red of Nebraska. That was disheartening as Turk beat Red two weeks earlier at the Big Ten Tournament, but Red was wrestling very well at the tournament and ended up taking seventh place and becoming an All-American. Overall, the progress Turk made from the beginning of the year until the end was truly amazing, and his relentless offense with absolutely no defense was always fun to watch.

6. Mitch Bowman - 184 - B+
Bowman had a similar tournament to Turk. He was able to take out the 15th seeded wrestler at 184 in Missouri's Canten Marriott with a pretty damn impressive 10-2 major decision. Unfortunately, he was on the wrong side of a major decision when he faced second-seeded Myles Martin. But Bowman bounced back with a 4-3 win over Eastern Michigan before running into seventh seeded Taylor Venz. Venz proved too much for Bowman and too much for most, as Venz ended up taking fourth place at 184. Bowman came in unranked and lost to the guys who took second and fourth place. He got bonus points over a ranked guy, you really can't ask much more from the guy than that.

5. Cash Wilcke - 197 - B+
I'm going to sound like a broken record at this point. Good first match, got matched up against the guy who would go on to make the Finals and lost. Then, he went on a tear on the backside of the bracket, getting a pin and then winning in overtime to again make it into the Round of 12, the blood round, for the second consecutive year. That is where he got matched up against top-seeded Kollin Moore; Wilcke again came short of his quest to become an All-American.

I would just like to point out that Iowa only had one loss to a wrestler that did not become an All-American, and that was Gunther's loss to Josef Johnson. In fact, here are the placements of all of their losses.

UR, 8, 8, 7, 5, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1

That is INSANE. Over half of Iowa's losses at the tournament happened to guys that finished in the top three at their weight.

4. Alex Marinelli - 165 - A-
Four through two were the toughest guys to rank as you could basically place them anywhere. Marinelli came out and wrestled better than he has all year, and this is a guy who was undefeated going into the Big Ten Tournament. He just came out determined and pushed his will on people. He started with two straight pins before running into the 4-seed, Chad Walsh of Rider. It was a battle from start to finish, but Marinelli gritted out a 7-6 win. He then took on two-time National Champion, Isaiah Martinez, and Marinelli did not have enough for IMAR. That started an unfortunate run of three straight losses which dropped him to sixth place. One was to Evan Wick, who was wrestling out of his mind and ended up in third, and the other was to David McFadden, in a match that was close but ended in a flash pin that seemed a little questionable to me. But let's not overlook the fact that Marinelli went in and attacked for every minute he was out there. It was fun to watch and he is definitely a national title contender for the 2019 season.

3. Sam Stoll - Heavyweight - A-
Stoll started off hot with a pin in his first match. After that, it looked like he would move on past Youssef Hermida of Maryland as he had the lead late in the match before giving up a six-point move and losing 7-2. That sent him to the consolation bracket where he didn't panic; he just started crushing dudes. He held Andrew Dunn of Virginia Tech scoreless in a 7-0 win. He followed that up with a pin over Purdue's Shawn Streck. That put him in the blood round against Nathan Butler of Stanford where he dominated in a 15-3 major decision. After that, he had Penn State's Nick Nevills who had beaten Stoll twice earlier this season. It went to overtime where Stoll got a big takedown to Nevills back for a four-point move and a 5-1 victory. After that, he took on Jacob Kasper. Stoll looked good early but got caught in a headlock and pinned. That sent him to the fifth place match where he ended his season in the best way possible, with a pin over Hofstra's Michael Hughes in the first period. Stoll got the slight edge for that victory over Nevills as that was probably the best non-Spencer Lee win of Iowa's tournament.

2. Michael Kemerer - 157 - A
Kemerer came out and showed why he was considered one of the top two guys at this weight class the entire year with pins in each of his first two matches. Of course, due to seeding stupidity, he was matched up against Jason Nolf in the quarterfinals, which was at least one, if not two rounds before that match should have taken place. Nolf did end up getting the decision as Kemerer couldn't find a way to generate offense against the Penn State stud. He went to the consolation side of the bracket and immediately drew second-seeded Joey Lavallee of Missouri. He won a convincing 5-2 decision. Then he took on the fourth-ranked Josh Shields and did the same thing to him, this time winning 6-2. Then he took on fifth ranked Alec Pantaleo, and he beat him 6-1. It was Kemerer doing exactly what you would expect on his way to the third place match. Unfortunately, Kemerer suffered a shoulder injury in the third place match and had to injury default. I'm not going to fault him for that. He lost to Jason Nolf, who everybody loses to. Outside of that, he showed why he is a top guy at this weight class, and he did it while clearly not being at 100%. Getting past Nolf is going to be tough, but I certainly wouldn't count Kemerer out.

1. Spencer Lee - 125 - A++
I have to give Spencer Lee a made up grade, because what he did was so unfathomably dominant that an A+ simply wouldn't do the trick. In my most ideal scenario for Lee, I would have had him dominating his first two opponents, pulling a major decision against Piccininni, getting a one-point win over Tomasello, and doing the same in the finals against Suriano. That was the best case scenario in my mind. That would have been an amazing tournament. Instead, he went out and did this:

1st Round: 18-0 Technical Fall in 1:41 over Alonzo Allen of Chattanooga
2nd Round: 18-0 Technical Fall in 3:59 over Luke Welch of Purdue
Quarterfinals: Fall in 3:58 over Nick Piccininni of Oklahoma State
Semifinals: Fall in 6:02 over Nathan Tomasello of Ohio State
Finals: 5-1 Decision over Nick Suriano of Rutgers

When it was all said and done, he outscored his opponents 60-4 and scored 27 team points by himself. If Spencer Lee was a team, he would have tied for 20th place on his own.

Before the tournament started, I was super high on Spencer Lee. I thought he had a very good chance of becoming the greatest wrestler of the Tom Brands era. Now? He's got a shot to be the greatest wrestler to ever wear an Iowa singlet. That's not hyperbole; he's that damn good.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

The 45 Most Important Players to the Chicago Bulls Dynasty - #13 Will Perdue

Will Perdue
William Edward Perdue III was drafted 11th overall in the 1988 NBA Draft after a five-year career at Vanderbilt which saw him average a double-double during his senior season and was names the SEC Player of the Year.

Although Perdue was drafted as the Bulls center of the future, he never quite lived up to those expectations. He was never able to pass up Bill Cartwright on the depth chart, and when Cartwright left, Luc Longley stepped up to take over the role. Still, Perdue filled his backup role admirably, even if Michael Jordan hated him.

And Michael Jordan REALLY hated Will Perdue. Jordan used to fire the ball into Perdue as hard as he could since he knew Perdue didn't have the best hands. when the ball would bounce away, it would give Jordan an opportunity to openly chastise Perdue for messing up. This was tame considering that one time when Perdue set a hard screen on Jordan during practice, Jordan hit him with two punches while cussing up a storm. Even Phil Jackson wasn't a big fan as he refused to give Perdue more minutes since he thought he was too soft on defense.

But despite some high level people thinking quite lowly of him, Perdue hung around and contributed to the Bulls second team. Knowing there were better scoring options, Perdue filled his role and nearly had as many double-digit rebounding games (seven) as he did double-digit scoring games (eight) during the 1990-91 season. He got consistent playing time during the Bulls first championship run, but his standout performance was in the series-clinching game against the New York Knicks where he put up 16 points and ten rebounds off the bench.

That second Bulls Championship year was very similar, including a 16 point, ten rebound performance in the opening game of the playoffs against the Miami Heat. His minutes fell off slightly as Scott Williams emerged as the number one big man off the bench, but Perdue still filled his role as a contributor. In 1992-93, his role during the regular season stayed the same, although he played in just one game in the NBA Finals that year as they found Williams and Stacey King better suited to play against the Suns high-paced attack.

Perdue hung onto the Bulls roster for both the 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasons, but was traded to the San Antonio Spurs before the next threepeat, although he was able to get a fourth ring in 1999. He ended up signing on with the Bulls for another year after that for a cool $5.3 million, which was more than he made in six seasons during his previous sting with the team.

Since there are no real stories of what Will Perdue is up to these days. Let's watch Will Perdue throw it down a couple times.

The Prince of Vanderbilt, throwing it down like a straight up G.

Previous Entries: