cklablog

This enlightening Rivals.com article points up the staggering salary that Michael Beasley’s former AAU coach is making as an assistant at K-State.

Michael Beasley made Kansas State basketball relevant for the first time in more than a decade last season, and his presence put a few extra dollars in the pocket of the man responsible for luring him to Manhattan, Kan.

That would be Wildcats assistant Dalonte Hill, Beasley’s former AAU coach in the Washington, D.C., area. Hill, entering his sixth season as a college assistant, will make more money for the 2008-09 season than the entire three-man staffs at Ohio State, Washington State and Wisconsin and only $5,000 less than the staff at Texas, a survey done by Rivals.com shows.

$5,000 less than the entire staff at a perennial Big-12 power, who have earned a share of the league title twice in the last four years? Really?

The highest-paid assistant among the 13 schools we studied was North Carolina’s Joe Holladay ($265,000). Fellow Tar Heels assistant Steve Robinson was second ($242,000), and all three Kansas assistants tied for third at $234,000.

Hill is making more than the assistants at programs who won National championships and have been to multiple final fours? Why?

I guess you’d have to say, "nothing succeeds like success," or more accurately, "nothing pays like the fragile hope of success at the end of a very long, very dark tunnel."

But even still, why the fuck would anyone at a non-starter basketball program ever earn that much? Two words: Michael and Beasley.

Bob Huggins lured Hill to Kansas State. Hill was responsible for the recruitment of Beasley, who stuck with his pledge to play for the Wildcats even though Huggins left for West Virginia after just one season.

Hill coached Beasley in the AAU ranks, and Beasley called him "like a big brother." Beasley had committed to Charlotte while Hill was still there. When Huggins lured Hill to K-State, Beasley followed him. By then, Beasley had become the No. 1 prospect in the country.

Beasley, of course, was a one-and-done. A legitimate superstar, he was arguably the best one-and-done in Big-12 history (sorry Durant, but I think it’s true). Beasley helped K-State break the most humiliating losing streak in Men’s College Basketball, and surely helped the program regain if not a swagger, at least a stylish limp. Hell, Beasley even got them an NCAA tournament win (and I’m sure they’ll hang a Round of 32 banner in Bramlage Coliseum).

But now what does K-State do? They hired Head Coach Frank Martin and Delonte Hill in order to get Beasley (mission accomplished, hang that banner too) but now they’re on the hook with unproven coaches and a wonky salary structure.

At $400,000 for five years, was Beasley worth 2 mil? And that’s the hard cost — the "known known". What we won’t know is what K-State might have accomplished with a better coach than Martin. He’s clearly not at K-State because of his ability, he’s there because when Huggins bailed, K-Sate was desparate to keep Beasley. If Martin turns out to be a dud, what is the cost of that? How much long-term gain have you lost because you were chasing One Decent Season?

So far, Martin doesn’t look like half the recruiter Huggins was (maybe he is only half the scumbag Huggins was, Guido hair to the contrary), and things aren’t exactly looking up in Manhattan.

I don’t know how it’s going to end, but it doesn’t take Nostradamus to figure out that K-State sold short, got a brief return and is now looking at their metaphoric house the day after the kegger and wondering who puked in the flowerpot.

The President of Argentinian football club Rosario Central kicked off a poo-storm of Biblical proportion when he was unknowingly recorded while threatening to kill his team and coaching staff.

Baby Caligula managed not to spray too much spit as he assured supporters:

"Central are going to get out of this situation," he said. "We are going to move forward. We are going to kill the players, coaching staff and anyone else.

"If Rosario Central was going to fall I will kill all those sons of bitches, be they players or coaching staff.”

Tense agreement aside, this is a great approach. Utilizing the massacre method, you don’t have to worry about existing salary requirements or termination clauses when you’re recruiting new players and coaches to take the place of all the dead players and coaches.

"Wow, the training facilities look great, sir. But . . . what happened to all your players and staff?"

"How should I know? Fuggedaboutit. Don’t worry about them. It was an accident. I wasn’t even in the country."

So Newcastle United are a football club in, you know, Newcastle. They’re also a caricature of a football club, with the owner getting filmed recently chugging beers at a home game (yeah, that really is the owner).

Their last manager quit before he’d even signed his contract, gets talked back into the job, is told he’ll have a tight budget, immediately starts agitating publicly to buy the most expensive players in the world, then quits again when he’s told no . . . and the fans who idolize this mug blame the owner and start protesting, complete with demands that the owner sell to a Nigerian consortium or they’ll boycoutt the games.

And who could follow such a ludicrous show?

Joe Kinnear hasn’t worked in years, but he used to be pretty good in the 90s, so Newcastle drug him out of mothballs and gave him the job, and his response was to take his first day at work off. The press reported it, and Kinnear flipped out.

From the guardian.co.uk:

SCENE: INTERIOR, PRESS ROOM, DAY

JOE KINNEAR stalks in, looking around at all the assembled football writers.

JOE Which one is Simon Bird [Daily Mirror's north-east football writer]?

SIMON Me.

JOE You’re a cunt. Read the rest of this truly excellent ranterview »

So what have we learned? That they’re all fucking cunts. My favorite part is the Newcastle United press officer trying to keep this all “off the record” with a nudge-nudge-wink-wink approach. “Alright lads, off the record then?” You can just hear the obsequious smile.

They hate Pussneys too.

Oh, God!

The best part about Palin is that her nomination is forcing all the hypocrite talking-heads to drool out of the other side of their mouths for a change. Hopefully this will help ease the horrible right-sided face rash epidemic.

Bwahahahahahahah.

First off, I loved Iron Man. Best. Comic. Book. Movie. Evar.

My brother-in-law (a very smart cat who reads Iron Man) tells me that it’s extremely faithtful to the comic, and I understand that it’s the first of a new series of comic films that Marvel bet the bank on — rather than license the characters, they ponied up the money themselves. So good on ‘em, it’s a fantastic movie.

But Favreau? From the LA Times:

Some filmmakers get their start making shaky home movies, others catch the bug in a high school drama class or maybe through an art institute where they put paint to canvas. Favreau has more of an eight-sided education.

“It was Dungeons & Dragons, but I wouldn’t have owned up so quickly a few years ago,” Favreau said sheepishly.

“It’s rough. It’s one of the few groups that even comic-book fans look down on. But it gave me a really strong background in imagination, storytelling, understanding how to create tone and a sense of balance. You’re creating this modular, mythic environment where people can play in it.”

He goes on about his gamer shame, and how he had to put D&D aside because it was holding him back socially (read: nobody gets laid playing D&D).

“When I was young, it was exciting, but as I got older it felt like it was keeping me from progressing. You’re social in your small circle, but it’s asocial to the wider world.”

Before we all spit on him, let’s remember that there were a lot of gamers of our generation that couldn’t handle being nerds. We just didn’t care about what the dominant paradigm was doing because we were ant1s0c1aL.

The entertainment industry in LA is populated mostly by (white) people from anywhere other than California who desperately, painfully, truly need to be popular. After all, what is fame, but a big, fat ‘hey guy’ from all the people who . . . like you . . . right now, they like you.”

Okay . . . now we can spit on him.

Great movie though, I hope he gets Iron Man II.

Benitez tells Liverpool owners to end their feud

I’m not saying they’re muppets . . . but they’re muppets. Still, even clumsy Texan muppets are better than *evil dictator* muppets (coughDubaicough).

From the Wall Street Journal:

Romeo Miller is a 5-foot-10 point guard with a bad knee. He has never played a full season of high-school basketball. This season, he averaged 8.6 points a game for Beverly Hills High School, which finished last in its league.

But next fall, the 18-year-old will suit up for the University of Southern California, a program in the tough Pac-10 conference. And he will receive a full basketball scholarship valued at $44,400 a year.

. . . The scholarship, which is the talk of college recruiters, is a perfect L.A. story, intermingling money, show business and basketball. Besides being an average point guard, Mr. Miller is an actor and singer known as Lil’ Romeo, and the son of a wealthy music mogul. Some question whether the Millers took advantage of their resources — and their relationship with Demar DeRozan of Compton, Calif., one of the top high-school basketball players in America — to win the scholarship over more talented and less privileged athletes.

. . .Yet the school broke no rules, and Tim Floyd, USC’s basketball coach, makes no apologies about Mr. Miller’s potential to sell tickets. “We may have more 11- to 17-year-old girls in the stands than we’ve had in the past,” he says.

. . . Romeo, the oldest of Percy and Sonya Miller’s seven children, has been acting since the age of 11. From 2003 to 2006, he starred in “Romeo!,” a Nickelodeon series that his father produced. He is also a successful hip-hop artist, and has sold 1.5 million albums since 2001.

This is such a typical example of how Things Really Work in LA it’s not even extremely funny.

1. You’re mediocre.
2. Your father is wealthy and powerful.
3. You’re kind of famous because your father actually produced TV shows for you to be in.
4. You want to play Div 1 basketball, but you’re not really good enough.
5. Your father therefore puts you into a “package deal” with a really talented player from the ‘hood.
6. The coach and university roll over and ask for more.

Now, lest I be thought a hypocrite, may I point out that this is not any more shady than hiring somebody’s dad to get a player (Chalmers and Manning, I’m looking at you), but it is a uniquely Los Angeles scenario.

What will happen if Floyd never plays young Romeo the Star ™? Or will he be able to not play Romeo the Star ™?

Here’s to hoping they suck.

Tim Floyd
O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or if thou wilt not, be but still on the bench
And I’ll no longer be an Idiot.

Romeo
[Aside] Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?

Tim Floyd
‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy:
Thou art thyself, though never a very good player.
What’s in your Game? It is nor hand nor foot,
Nor arm nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O be some other name!

What’s in a name? That which we call a scrub
By any other word would ride the pine;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that rank mediocrity which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
and for thy name, which is no part of thee,
Sit your ass on that bench and hand people towels.

Missouri Men’s Basketball made their final road trip of the 2007-2008 season this weekend, as the Tigers traveled to Norman Oklahoma where they allegedly gave Oklahoma a basketball game before allegedly losing 75-66.

Details are still unclear, but a hearing to review the loss has been scheduled for their return to Colombia.