Koo’s Corner

I have devoted the whole day to watching college football. Woke up at 7:45 just to make sure I watched some Gameday and the LSU vs. Appalachian State kickoff.I’ll update this from time to time today. Got both tv’s running and all the channels.

8:50- I thought Appalachian State would at least give LSU a good game. 17-0, and I don’t see this one tightening up at all. The difference in line play is huge.

Initially I questioned if Clemson vs Alabama really deserved Gameday over Illinois vs. Missouri. The Missouri game is and will be a better game, but Nick Saban gives the Alabama game more star power. No doubt if Saban was not at Alabama, Gameday would be elsewhere.

9:30- Terrelle Pryor is getting his first whole series in the Buckeyes third drive. 3 out of 4 first plays were passes. Ran first a first down on the nice draw. So far so good 3-3 passing. Drive stalled out in red zone, but it should be noted that he was with the second string offensive line. Would love to see him with the first string line. Looks to be attempt to get some experience under a lot of the freshmen’s bets (Shugarts, Pryor, Thomas, Brewster, Posey and Adams I think were all in on that drive.

Virginia Tech is struggling.

10:30- Good half for the Buckeyes. Defense was awesome, offense was ok but not dynamic.

Sean Glennon is pissing me off.

Akron is giving Wisky a good game. Florida and Tebow haven’t exploded yet.

10:55- Chris Wells could have a serious ankle injury…..I feel sick…. He isn’t putting any weight on it, what so ever. Really not encouraging. Hoping for the best…… Really worried about this.

God damnit. The cart to the locker room. Also Robiskie was banged up on his TD catch. This is not good. Need to be healthy for USC game.

11:04- I hope to god this isn’t a ruptured achilles. Honestly the way it looked, and the way they are looking at him, its very possible and that’s a horrible injury to come back from.

11:25- Terrelle Pryor got to have a drive with the first string O line and got to run the spread option a handful of times. Drive culminated with a real sweet Vince Young like 20 yard TD. Mind is still on Wells. Going to drink some beer and think positively. I am thinking that maybe if it is the achilles, he might come back next year to pump his draft stock up again next year.

11:30- Upset alert…Pitt is losing to Bowling Green 20-17 and looks to be getting the ball back… Stay tuned.

In way more important news, Wells is back on the sideline, limping with a boot on. The fact he is putting weight on it is encouraging. I handicap that there is a 50% chance he will be back for the USC game. Let’s see what the report is.

11:44 - East Carolina has made it a game with Virginia Tech. 2 point game with 3 minutes to go. …..

The rephs just blew a big one for Bowling Green. They scored a defensive TD off a fumble to take a 2 score lead. Unfortunately there was in advent whistle and they have to take possession around midfield instead of having the TD.

Below is a link to my latest article on Bucknuts. It doesn’t focus on the Buckeyes but rather stuff to keep an eye out for in the Big Ten and the country.

http://bucknuts.com/news/articles/2008/8/29/koos-news-a-quick-look-at-the-nation

In one of the segments, I outline why the west coast is a little lacking in college football fanaticism compared to the rest of the country.

I attribute to 4 factors.

1) Pac 10 Schools are in major cities with pro sports teams

2) The Expansive Region the Conference Cover- Hard to follow teams on the road

3) The Time Difference- Gameday at 7:30 am?

4) Local importance on media, music, entertainment, and technology

Speaking of the Pac 10, I find this story from The Wiz of Odds fairly entertaining.Below is a picture of Arizona State’s new practice facility. As you can see it has a pressurrized bubble roof that keeps temperature down in the desert heat..

Interesting design, an airbag/tent design. Kind of seems like a bad idea. Well only weeks after its completion, it turns out it is. A huge storm whipped through the area and this what’s left of the facility. Below is the after picture.

It is with a shit eating grin in my face that I present you with one of the most entertaining blogs you will ever read on Benkoo.com. Tonight at dinner with my family (last time I will see my sister and Dad in 2008), they let me know while cleaning out the garage they found a long “psychoeducational testing evaluation” done of me when I was about 6 years old.

The context was that I was a little runt and they wanted to see what the professionals thought. Below are their findings and my reactions to them.

Reaction: Tasks requiring eye hand coordination are still difficult and result in poor anger control. My pencil grip is still akward. The rumor is that I threw some blocks when this lady wouldn’t’ let me finish building. Rome wasn’t built in a week. Lay off me, woman!

Reaction: This one kind of hurt. I mean I am pretty much labeled an underachiever before First grade. That’s pretty hard to do. My only defense is that I was only allowed to watch 1 cartoon a day and that was either Transformers or GI Joes. In addition the no fun gestapo that are my parents didn’t allow sugar cereals (what the hell, was this a Dateline NBC topic in the seventies). You would be pretty angry too if you had to eat Rice Crispies 5 days a week and miss out on GI Joes.

Reaction: I love the quote “gets wild at times and lashes out at others, more often verbally than physically”. Even as a kid I was a gangster putting it down on those who didn’t show respect. Its a big shocker that only a year later I was not allowed to play at lunch after tying Andrew Montarubio sp? to the tether ball poll with a jump rope. What a snitch.

Reaction: Dude special ed? Just because I was a bad ass with poor motor skills? This was the most disheartening. That someone paid a lot of money by my folks wanted to throw in a bucket with Corky from life goes on. In all honesty I would have loved to see this applied to young Ben Koo. He would have thrown blocks all over the place.

In retrospect: I was a little shit and its good to be reminded of it. I probably still have a good deal of this baggage, but hey I got into a good school, have a great job, speak at the business school, write for an ESPN affiliate, and finally mastered how to use legos. Regardless that I hold a pencil like a special ed kid and still find myself easily annoyed with ignorance, incompetence, ridiculousness, etc, I consider myself far removed from the retarded problem child I was painted back in these days.

It’s time for bed, but not before some interesting tidbits to come through in the last couple of days.

- The Big Ten Network and Time Warner Cable have reached a distribution agreement. Last week talks heated up as both sides engaged in a back and forth posturing/propoganda battle. This is huge for the BTN as another 2.5 million people will get the network on basic cable in the Big Ten region, and also sets the groudwork for future distribution on the sports tier for those outside the Big Ten Region.

The timing of this annoucement also coincides on the day that ESPN announced an extended agreement with the SEC, effectively killing the possibility of a launch of a rumored SEC Network.

- There are rumblings of troubles for Vudu, the on demand media box that I am a fan of. While its not clear exactly what’s true and what’s rumors, there has definitely been a management shakeup as well a pending strategy overhaul looming.

- Pacino and De Niro in a new movie coming out? I couldn’t dig up much on Righteous Kill other than a trailer I saw earlier. Although its big news that these two have teamed up again, expectations on IMDB are very tepid with community members skeptical that 50 cent also stars in the movie. Another fan said that the title sounded more like a Stephen Seagal movie compared to a classic De Niro and Pacino film.

- Lastly I checked out the new MTV show tonight Exiled. I liked the concept. A bunch of bratty kids who had obnoxiously over the top Sweet 16 parties, are still brats (shocker!) and need some type of intervention. So why not send these MTV made prissy pre madonas to a third world country to toughen them up a bit?

MTV pays the bill and lines them up with some type of third world boot camp exotic destination in order to “open their eyes” to real life struggles.

The whole appeal to me was seeing these kids struggle and suffer. Yeah its basic schadenfreude, but these kids are in need of a thorough public belittling. Unfortunately though the show comes off as an extension of Sweet 16, with you ultimately end sympathizing with the kids and rooting for them.

The problem is that there is already a show like that called Made, where young kids overcome their shortcomings to achieve something that’s seems outlandish. Exiled was just more fluff that will most likely perpetuate these kids’ obnixious and pompous egos instead of a whole hearted reality check.

It all must snuck up on me, but watching the USA basketball team was a real treat. Being told it was on Sunday morning in the US (true except for on the West Coast), I thought I had a day until the big game. Having not seen any basketball this Olympics, it was great to see a very entertaining and competitive Gold medal game.

Below are some random thoughts

-  I give a lot of credit to Mike Krzyzewski. Yeah he had the best talent by far, but he got the team playing their best ball, meshed together a bunch of guys who don’t play together, made defense a priority, and most importantly kept the team laser focused on the prize at hand.

For whatever reason Coach K is not really embraced by sports fans. Maybe its that he always wins, he is kind of boring, and Duke is overpimped by ESPN. Regardless of how you feel, you have to appreciate the job he did with this team.

- Dwyane Wade is back and played a hell of a game and tournament. No doubt he will be a top 5 player next year in the NBA. My questions is are the Heat a top ten team in the NBA next year? Sounds ridiculous considering they are in the East and last year they were one of the worst teams in the East.

Regardless Wade, Marion, and now Beasley present a nice trio of players. Although supporting talent is few and far between, its very possible that the Heat could still be be a top tier contender at least in the East.

- Marc Gasol will be an All Star in the NBA. The East has Bosh and Howard, but Gasol showed he can hang with them and at times even dominated the two All stars. With Memphis having Conley, Gay, Mayo, and now Gasol, they become a team to keep an eye on over the next handful of years as a possible up comer to challenge Boston, Detroit, and Cleveland. So Memphis plays in the West, something that slipped my mind. Regardless the Grizzlies are building out a nice squad with Conley, Gay, Mayo, and now Gasol. Gasol showed he can play at the same level as Bosh and Howard and will now look to get the Grizzlies into conetion again.

-  Rudy Fernandez showed me some game and I am kind of thinking that its 3-1 that the Blazers win a championship in the next 3 years. Its very possible the Blazers will have three of the best rookies in the NBA next year with Oden coming back from injury, Fernandez who looks ready to contribute, and Jerryd Bayless running the point. These three to go along with Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge makes me think they are the most likely to succeed the Spurs as the premier  Western Power House.

- A year ago and a half ago, I had a friend asked me if I were to build a 3 man basketball team, who would I pick. I went with Chris Paul, Chris Bosh, and Lebron James. At the time he didn’t know who Paul and Bosh were. I have to say I don’t know if I would change my answer now. In particular Bosh is a guy that continues to grow on me. Dependable, smart, and with good range for a big man. Its a shame he is lampooned in Toronto.

- Just one man’s opinion, but I thought it was pretty lame that Spain puts player’s first names on the back of their jerseys.

-  The announcers were all over Ricky Rubio the young prodigy point guard, rumored to be a front runner for the top pick of the NBA in 2010. While its a little early, I can definitely see him being an elite point guard in the NBA. A little raw in some areas I would say he is on par with guys like DJ Augustin and Jerryd Bayless who were top picks on this year’s draft. That’s quite impressive considering he still has two more years to mature. Tonight he hung with DeRon Williams and Chris Paul, while making Jason Kidd look his old age.

Below is cool highlight reel with a lame soundtrack of Rubio.

With the college football season less then a week away, its becoming an intruiging storyline of the Big Ten Network can reach distribution deals with the remaining cable companies who have yet to broker a deal with the upsttart sports network.

2 months back Comcast joined Dish, DirectTV, Verizon, ATT, and many others to carry the network with rumblings that MediaCom and Time Warner were reopening up negotiaions.

Earlier this week, Gene Smith (Oho State’s Athletic Director), made an announcement informing fans that Time Warner negotiotions had stalled and that those looking for the network should look for diffrent providers.

Smith’s email effectively painted Time Warner as the bad guy. Time Warner has struck back by proposing to allow BTN football games to be available on a pay per view basis. While Mediacom seems to have brokered a last minute deal for distribution, Charter Communication’s is still negotiating , the BTN and Time Warner saga has become a half hearted posturing and rhetoric war between the two companies.

The pay per view proposal was a half ass posturing move to paint the BTN as the bad guy (not saying they aren’t). Time Warner does not seem to be legitimately pursuing a deal and is more dragging their feet in negotiations to give the appearance to subscribers that they are pursuing a deal.

The BTN but Time Warner on blast once again.

“Time Warner is well aware that it cannot selectively choose to air a network’s programming in lieu of full carriage. In addition, offering to do so to a customer base it has effectively ignored for the past year in not carrying the network is counter-productive and creates both confusion and false hope.

“While proposals have recently been exchanged, there is a wide gap between what Time Warner and its other competitors would seem to agree is reasonable and fair. Somehow America’s top cable operator, largest telephone company and two satellite providers have each decided to make the Big Ten Network available to their customers. There are another 230 or so similar companies, serving more than 55 million homes and seven out of every 10 folks in the eight Big Ten states, that each carry the network, too.

“Time Warner has already had more than 18 months to decide to offer the Big Ten Network to its customers, and in a statement Wednesday said ‘we are ready to carry the network.’ Fine. Then they should carry the network, and at terms comparable to the network’s other agreements. Or they should tell their customers they have decided not to. Either way, fans deserve to know the truth.”

The bottom line here is that this is a war of attrition and both sides are pretty dug in. BTN has some pretty solid distribution, but covets getting Time Warner in the fold. Time Warner is poorly run company and has done some internal analysis that probably shows that the amount of money it will cost to broker a deal is more than the amount of subscribers the company will lose, especially if they continue overstating their intentions and progress to reach a deal.

The trut is that the company is slowly bleeding customers. Some because of this, some because their product is average, and a lot because their customer service and market strategy is garbage. They should take a page out of Verizon, ATT, and the satelittle companies and put am emphasis on consumer needs and wants rather than then bottom line.

After a week of moving and bumming someone else’s internet, Benkoo.com is back and in full effect. Lots of cool things in the works, but for now I’ll just leave you with this.

I have often blogged about the Big Ten’s network uphill struggle for distribution by the major cable companies. About a month ago, the upstart sport’s network cleared a major hurdle by getting distribution on Comcast. However the one state in the Big Ten region, that really missed out was Ohio.

Unlike other states in the midwest, the majority of Ohion’s get their cable from Time Warner, a cable distributor that claimed they were still in negotiations with the Big Ten Network.

Both sides seemed to be nearing a deal, as Time Warner ever promised prospective customers in Ohio that a deal would be brokered by the start of the season. However Ohio State athletic director in an outbound email, paints a much more pessimistic outlook. Below are some highlights, with the full version of the email being found here.

While I think its a nice courtesy that someone updates the fan’s who are weighing making decisions as consumers, I am not sure its the AD’s responsibility to do this. In what’s most likely a posturing move by the Big Ten, Time Warner is sure to lose a significant amount of customers who will not put with not having the network two years running.

Time will tell if a deal will ever be brokered, but to me Time Warner (already know for a inferior products and service) is really dropping the ball on this one by allowing hoards of customers to switch away from them.

Been busy moving this week so tv time has been very limited. However came across this ad below. Its kind of lame, but catchy. An effective dorky jingle, and the slogan of “Go Meat” is entertaining.

Earlier this week, I commented on how the Olympics seemed to be off to an ominous start with talks of pollution, doping, and attacks. However its been a surprisingly intriguing Olympics, despite NBC’s less than stellar prime time schedule. However tonight, those who tuned in to watch Michael Phelp’s go for 7th gold were in for a real treat in the 100 m butterfly. Below are pictures if the thrilling finish, of Phelps behind with inches to go against Milorad Cavic. The finish is so ridiculous, that many feel it’s almost a hoax or timing error. Judge for yourself.

Feet to go for Phelps…Inches for Cavic

Phelps gets in one last stroke

Somehow he pulls it off

Freaking amazing!