NKU and the Basketball Post-Season

I've never hidden my affections for my alma mater. Around these parts, it was always hard to compete with the likes of the Reds, the Bengals, the Bearcats, the Musketeers, and even the Wildcats for any sort of publicity. But for the Norse of Northern Kentucky University, that all changed when they slapped that big Division-I across their athletic department. It had been something they had been building to for a while. Their basketball arena and soccer fields rival UC and Xavier for size and quality. Now, they just need to figure out how to fill them. But those things will come with time. You can't sell out a 10,000 seat arena the first year of D-I, but it will come.

At the beginning of this basketball season, I thought the teams were doomed before they started. As part of the process to become a D-I program, for some reason, they are put on a 4-year probationary period. What this means is that they can't compete in the post-season conference tournament or the NCAA tournament. Which I think is ludicrous. Like some team that has been playing in Division-II since the school was started is now suddenly going to jump up into D-I and blow away everyone they play to gain a seed in the NCAA tournament? Sorry, I love the Norse, but that stuff doesn't happen if it's not on a movie set.

However, despite the probationary period, I learned something interesting from Paul Daugherty's article about this same topic yesterday, where he spoke to coach Dave Bezold: 

"Bezold says that if the Norse finish .500 or better, they will be eligible to play in the College Basketball Invitational. A CBI bid might sound marginal. But for a team of D-I rookies, it would be astounding."

You can read the full article HERE if you haven't maxed out your reads with that silly paywall.

But anyway, that sounds pretty neat to me. Playing in any sort of post-season tournament is pretty cool your first year in. The Norse are currently 8-11 with 7 games to play. So if Bezold's .500 mark is correct, then they'd have to finish the year on a 5-2 run. Which isn't impossible. They've got a 4-game win streak going right now. I made a chart below of the remaining opponents and how they faired in the previous match-up. All are league games. 

Remaining Schedule	Opponent	Previous Result	Score	Location
Feb 8	Lipscomb	W	67-53	Home
Feb 14	Fla. Gulf Coast	L	73-54	Away
Feb 16	Stetson	L	71-59	Away
Feb 21	Kennesaw State	W	64-53	Home
Feb 23	Mercer	W	63-53	Home
Feb 28	Univ. N. Florida	W	65-52	Away
Mar 2	Jacksonville	L	53-51	Away

All three losses came on the road, and one was by just 2 points. Kennesaw State, Lispcomb and North Florida all have sub .500 league records (NKU is currently 6-5). Of their seven remaining opponents, only Florida Gulf Coast and Mercer have overall winning records. I'd like to think with all four home games coming against teams from Florida, it may help the Norse steal a few they weren't expected to win because of travel. Also, I think of the three away games remaining, that they might only have trouble with Mercer. 

The Norse are averaging 60.1 points a game in league play. In their 6 league wins, they scored above that number. In their 5 league losses, their total was less than 60. Meanwhile, they've been holding league opponents to an average of 58.45 points per game. So, logic says NKU needs to get to that magic 60 and play enough defense to keep opponents where they've had them, and they'll be fine.

I really think this team has the chance to make it to that .500 mark. At that point, as Bezold said, they'd only be "eligible" for the CBI. It's no guarantee they'd be invited. But, boy, wouldn't that be the icing on the cake if they could get the invite.

**I'm going to check into whether or not this same scenario applies to the women's team and the alternate tournaments available. They are currently 9-11 with 7 games to play against the same opponents.**

Super Commercial Redux

Every actual sports writer is going to write about the game. The Ray Lewis finale controversy. The blackout. The brothers Harbaugh. The no-call holding at the end. Beyonce. You can get all that anywhere and everywhere. So I'm going for the other side of the party, the commercials.

I'd have to say, as far as collective Super Bowl commercial sets go, this year's crop was overall kind of sad. I'm not sure if the right advertisers didn't get the right creative teams in on the process, or if the skyrocketing cost of a 30-second spot has become too prohibitive for some of the smaller companies to compete. But for whatever reason, there wasn't much I liked this year. Also, there were a lot more movie trailers than I remember from previous years. I'm not counting them in my list.

I'll lay down my top 5 here and why, then do some lowlights as well.

5. M&M's "Love Ballad"- M&M's came strong out of the gate as the only commercial in the first break that did anything for me. That black something or other beer didn't make a lick of sense. And speaking of licking, that's what the chicks were planning for Red...and I assume more. Plus, I love when a commercial rocks a little Meatloaf, without actually having to see Meatloaf. The fellas over at Mars did pretty well here.

4. Tide "Miracle Stain"- Love a P&G spot for the hometown economy. And it's always smart to work football into your stuff. Really connects with the audience. I liked how it flowed. A lot happened in that minute. I kinda smelled the ending because the wife was doing laundry at the beginning. (Some nice foreshadowing) But the fact that she was a Ravens fan was a nice twist at the end. Plus, who doesn't want some "stain on a stick"?

3. Time Warner "Clean This Up"- Anyone who's read my blog or twitter before knows I'm a "Walking Dead" fan. I'm not as much a Time Warner fan. However, much like the Volkswagen "Darth Vader Kid" spot, I'll appreciate the content of the commercial without subscribing to the advertiser's product. Plus, they got Norman Reedus to be in the spot, which adds a whole different element of awesome. **This spot is not listed on the "Adblitz" page of Super Bowl spots. I know (because I work at the CBS affiliate in Cincinnati) that this spot was actually a local commercial that was sent to us. So I'm not sure if everyone across the country saw it. I would hope so. If not, here's a look:

2. Oreo "Whisper Fight"- Another early-game favorite. The irony of having a huge, heated argument that turns violent and requires emergency first responders over a cookies is, in itself, hilarious. But to add in the fact that the entire situation occurs in a library, where everyone still adheres to the common curtesy of being quiet, is awesome. Also, it was nice of the people of Nabisco to introduce children under the age of 12 to a library, which I assume most of them believed to be a tree cemetery.

1. Budweiser "Clydesdales: Brotherhood"- Once again, Bud knocked it out of the park for me. The guys with the horses always seem to find the most creative and thought provoking commercials, and usually it has very little to do with beer. Another "lots of info in a minute-long spot" commercial, but this one tells a very poignant of a man who raises his very own Clydesdale, forms a bond with him, then sends him off to be a professional Budweiser Clydesdale. I'm sure for people with kids, it probably brought a lot of those "If you love your kid, you've got to let them make their own way in life" kind of feelings. I think everything about this commercial was well done. Not only was the content great, but it was really well-shot. Sometimes the best Super Bowl ads have nothing to do with their product, they're just memorable. This one was memorable for me.

Honorable mentions: I also liked Bud's secondary commercials with Stevie Wonder as a witch doctor controlling "Superstition". But did anyone else notice Stevie drop his shades to check out the woman who walked up? I still think Stevie might be the biggest hustler in the world. I also liked the Taco Bell stuff, although when it first came on, I thought somebody had whacked the SAP button on the TV...til I realized who the advertiser was.

Now for my Super Bowl, huh's, gross, and WTF moments.

Huh: As good as Bud was on their other spots, I really didn't get the "Black Crown" stuff. Is it just an amber lager? Ok fine. But are you saying in order to drink it, we have to be people who live in darkly lit mansions and only wear all black? Cause if that's who you're tailoring it for, you missed the mark with your football-watching audience.

Gross: GoDaddy has been going downhill for quite some time. They used to tease you with attractive women. Then, they realized the gimmick was old. So they pretended to tease you with attractive women, then it turned out to be Joan Rivers. I thought that would be the last time GoDaddy would try to give me nightmares. And I suppose this was a salute to the "Any guy can get a hot girl" notion, but this was too much. The sound effects were off the deep end. And then they showed it in the post-game too? Like I needed my eyes and ears abused twice in one night.

WTF: I know. Super Bowls aren't just about football. And approximately 50% of the audience is female. But honestly Calvin Klein. Who were you drawing in with that man-thong spot? Something about a 360-something or other, no visible panty lines or some such? I don't know. I had to block it out. The point is, if it was for the ladies, fine. But don't try to sell ME something then. Just have the guy stand there in his underwear for a while and be done. Let him read a chapter of "50 Shades of Grey" if you want, but warn me first so I can walk away. But don't ask me to be interested in your product. Cause I don't want what you're selling now. Also, I like my Hanes boxers. 3-pack for 6 bucks. And that ad ain't gettin' me to switch.

Also, the E-Trade baby is played out. That Psy "Pistachios" commercial would have been funny about 2 months ago, and not even for that long. And the whole "Coke Chase" thing didn't seem to have a very good pay-off.

****Oreos won the Super Bowl by the way. But it wasn't for a video commercial they had on during the game. It was the picture they tweeted during the power blackout that totally trolled the whole game. A winrar is Oreos****



Opinions? Disagreements? No one's ever posted a comment on any of my blogs before. Feel free to say something. I'll probably answer cause I care too much.