The Beginning of the End…

…of the school year that is! But I guess 2012 IS getting kinda close….

Anyways, Tyler and I had a little sit down with Coach Tinkle the other day and we had an interesting conversation. First, I was wearing my Stanford shirt so we talked about that for a while. I’m always amazed how little is known about “The Play”. People never realize that John Elway played for that Stanford team and had just lead the Cardinal on the apparent game winning drive. Unfortunately Cal made an amazing play, the band came onto the field, and Elway never got to play in a Bowl Game. After a couple stories were swapped, we got into the meat of the conversation: Athletes as roll models.

Now, instead of telling you all what we talked about, we’re actually having Coach Tinkle come on Sports Talk in a couple weeks. You can listen to the entire conversation on Tuesday May 18th at 6:05 on KBGA 89.9…and I’ll also post the entire show on here!

That isn’t the only interview we have lined up however. The week before Coach Tinkle, Athletic Director Jim O’Day will be in studio. That will be on Tuesday May 11th. Me and him had a good conversation about tournament expansion and student athlete retention rates. Some cool topics came up like APR and it will be great to get him in studio. If you have any questions to either of these two gentlemen…make sure to listen and call in at 243-6226 and they are open to questions.

That’s all for news on Sports Talk….now back to my increasingly huge pile of homework due before the end of the semester!

Coach Tinkle seemed genuinely excited to talk about this and had some interesting things to say. First, he made sure to point out that his recruiting relies heavily on character, though that was easy to see with players like Anthony Johnson.

Same ol’ Arguments

Spring Break is here! And it couldn’t have come at a better time. With work and the J-School smothering the lives all of all its occupants, I haven’t even had a chance to watch my daily SportsCenter or listen to Mike and Mike in the Morning. This is bad for multiple reasons: First, it means I have lots of homework which is never good. Second, I don’t know what is going on in the sporting world. And thirdly, as a Sports Talk host, it’s always good to hear other people doing the same job to get ideas.

Speaking of Sports Talk…this week’s show (3-23-10) was one of the better ones. One of the things we discussed was the NFL’s new overtime policy and here is a summary of my position:

Isn’t it odd to have a Commissioner that bleeds the word “parity”, yet he (as well as every other person with power in the NFL) refuses to value all the areas of football the same? According to this new overtime rule…Offense is superior to both Defense and Special Teams. So many times, people think the only way to score is offensively. We continue to diss ball hawks such as Ed Reed and Darren Sharper who score on Defense regularly. Or how about Dante Hall and Devin Hester on special teams? Is the opportunity to score via special teams not important anymore? I hear these arguments about the NFC Championship game, saying the Saints win was cheap. I mean come on….they lucked out and got a good kickoff return, 10 yard penalty, 10 yard pass, field goal and game over. They didn’t deserve that at all! What do I say to that? If the Vikings were such a superior team, where were their special teams (a third of their team mind you) during the kickoff? What makes a kick return cheap? A punt return? A defensive touchdown? They still take great skill to pull off. When will people stop preaching something to their kids that they no longer believe themselves: Football is a TEAM sport.

Now that I got that off my back! But seriously, football is a team sport and there are many different ways to score! Why categorize one as “better” or “more legitimate” than another?

Another topic we covered was the emergence of mid-majors in the NCAA Tournament. Tyler asked an interesting question. He asked if I would ever be afraid of mid-majors diluting the tournament. To which I replied….hell no. I hate that title of mid-major because it implies mid-talent or not as good. I thought college football was the sport where we had to whine about these schools. Boise State can go undefeated every year and never get a chance for a championship. That’s what makes college basketball so great, ANYBODY can win it! Now that parity (that magic word again) has arisen in college hoops, traditionalists are getting scared that they will one day win it all. There is no difference between a final four of Kentucky, UNC, Michigan State, UCLA and one of Kansas and Duke “diluted” by Cornell and Xavier. How could that ever be a bad thing? Heck, Xavier has made three straight sweet sixteen’s. He went on to say when it comes down to the Final Four and Championship games, people want one seeds against one seeds, otherwise we get blowouts. But what if these teams are one seeds talent wise, but don’t get the recognition? I think they are proving that right now. Look at these matchups….pick which one you think would be more of a blowout: Duke vs. Purdue or Northern Iowa vs. Michigan State? I bet true basketball fans would say Duke vs. Purdue and that’s two “power conferences” playing each other.

But anyways, just a glimpse into my mind and the on goings of Sports Talk. Till next time!

To Busy To Title This

Things I’ve learned the last two weeks:

-My title has lots of “t’s”

-Basketball is officially an individual sport

-Tuesdays are rough

Let’s start with “Tuesdays are rough” for 500 please! If it weren’t for Sports Talk on Tuesday…my brain would explode from pure frustration and fatigue. It starts off with what my schedule says is an hour and a half, (but anyone in that class would agree it feels like 3 weeks) of Media Law. After that tantalizing class, me and a few journalism ami’s scurry to eat lunch and get back to the house (Don Anderson Hall) before RTV 351/361 starts. While this class is fun and entertaining, let’s not kid ourselves, its three hours long. Now its 4 o’clock, my brain is fried and I have to do the news at KBGA. An hour of writing till five, then we go on air for ten minutes. Done after that, right?! Wrong, we have an hour before Sports Talk starts. Granted, this is the fun part of the day, but I really want nothing more than to sit in a chair on someone’s porch. Anyone’s porch. Then Sports Talk starts, it usually starts with talking about Avatar, somehow leads to Vince taking off his jeans, a caller reminds us we are sports talk, me and Tyler banter about Brett Favre, and a quick sign off because we are out of time. THEN…I run the board for Talking Heads, go to work at KPAX where I run the cameras for the 10 o’clock show, and finally, it’s eleven and I can go home. Tuesdays are rough.

Much like Sports Talk, halfway into this blog, we will finally start talking about sports! What a game Anthony Johnson had. We had him on the show that same week, so I’m going to take all the credit for the win. You can send me your thank you notes via the comment box. In all seriousness, I dare you to find me a better individual performance in college basketball history. Which leads right into what I’ve learned! After watching AJ tear it up, its obvious basketball can no longer be categorized as a team sport. When one player scores 42 of your teams 66 points, 21 of the teams final points, and outscores the opponent 34-25 in the second half….it is definitely an individual sport. The Griz’s strategy was simple, get out of the way and let Johnson shoot whatever shot he wants.

And finally, before I leave you all, don’t you dare forget to watch the Griz take on New Mexico on Thursday March 18^th at 7:40 on CBS. Hopefully it’ll be epic.

The Background

 

I love sports. That’s my guilty pleasure. But hey, at least I can admit it, right? First and foremost I’m a Broncos fan and a Dodgers fan. I have interesting stories as to why for each of them, but that’s for another time. I grew up watching SportsCenter before going to school and idolizing the likes of Stuart Scott. I’ve always dreamed of talking about sports on TV or the radio…a place where I could express my opinions and listeners/viewers were forced to listen (unless they changed the channel of course). Oh wait, you’ve heard this dream before? From almost every average kid? Maybe, but mine has a twist.

Towards the end of fall semester of my sophomore year, I met the host of Sports Talk, a show that plays once a week on KBGA College Radio. Charlie Thomas was his name and he was looking for a third person to join him and Jordan Treece, and take over when they were done. I was working at KBGA and the News Director passed my name along. One week later I was sitting on a stool in the KBGA studio living my dream. Sure it’s unpaid and airs on a small college radio station, but what sports fan wouldn’t want to talk about sports on air, regardless of fan base and pay.

Fast forward to the present, I’ve been doing Sports Talk for a year and a half. This being the first post, I wanted to give a little background information about how I started and what Sports Talk is. In future posts, I’ll talk about what it takes to get a show ready, any interesting stories, and hopefully post some excerpts from the shows, granting you an inside look into the life of a sports talk show host super-star!

On a side note, tune in to Sports Talk every Tuesday from 6:05-7:30 p.m. on 89.9 FM or the live stream at kbga.org. And follow us at twitter.com/kbgasportstalk or our KBGA Sports Talk page on facebook.