House(d) on Hoops: 2001 Edition

The last time we heard from Conrad "Hoopie" Housed was after UConn's mid-season win over Cincinnati - a win that may have turned around their season and a post that was the fifth most viewed in DomeSite history. Hoopie has been too busy to lay down the basketball truths lately - the man manages to work several jobs each year in between interviews. That was not always the case as this classic conversation from 2001 with fellow DomeSite legend T-Panic demonstrates:

It was actually really nice to see Duke win last night. they have shown the country how to win with class. UConn fans need to stop with the Duke resentment and appreciate the Blue Devils as a team that UConn should strive to be. There is a reason why the best recruits go there. They develop as players and people. They will continue on next year and probably be a contender again. There was no stupid dancing in a circle, yelling acting like they are hanging out in the projects listening to JayZ like UConn did after winning it in 99. I hope Calhoun was taking notes. Now they have kids like Jason Williams, Duhon who are great players, but will also win and lose with class and keep the tradition rolling. You never hear about Duke kids getting arrested for possession of pot, taking plane tickets from agents or complaining that they do not play enough or score enough. For every Rickey Moore, who sacrifices for the team, Duke has 4-5 of those guys on their team every year. UConn fans should quit with the envy and realize that the UConn program is not a legit Top 10 program like everyone thought after being lucky enough to win it in 99.

I did not realize you had become such a big Duke fan.

How Does He Do It? Amazing:
http://www.sportsline.com/u/ce/multi/0,1329,4360291_55,00.html

This is why I keep telling you guys Duke is the best program in all college sports, not just hoops. I only wish UConn conducted business like Duke. A program all should be modeled after. Here's an excerpt:

"Shavlick Randolph is the fifth recruit who ranks among BlueChipHoops.com's top 30 players to commit to the defending national champions. Also in the fold are 6-9 Shelden Williams of Oklahoma (No. 5 nationally), 6-4 J.J. Redick of Virginia (No. 14), 6-10 Michael Thompson of Illinois (No. 17) and 6-2 Sean Dockery of Illinois (No. 30). Duke will also have 6-6 Lee Melchionni of Pennsylvania, a borderline top 100 player, pay his own way to the school and walk on next season."

A top 100 player will walk on??? Amazing. What is Coach K doing to get these guys? This looks like a dynasty in the making. Like the Fab5, except these kids are Duke student-athletes and will always respect the game and play with class. No wonder Coach K is about to be enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA.

Your second favorite team UConn isn't doing too bad either. Commitment from SF Denham Brown (usually rated within or near the top 50) and expecting any day now a verbal from SG Rashad Anderson (top 30 in all publications). Now we're going after big men.

Those two guys are supposed to be OK, but could cause a problem since both play the same position. Calhoun has not been able to keep kids happy with playing time in recent years and if you have two somewhat big recruits playing same position there is bound to be a problem. Somehow Coach K manages to get the type of kids who will accept a lesser role in exchange for team success. I am afraid that one of these two kids will be overhyped or a Doug Wrenn type. You just do not see thoise type of problems at Duke.
All of the impact big guys are gone already.

Looks like we have a good shot at Emeka Okafor.

Duke has four recruits (Randolph, Thompson, Redick and Williams) rated higher than him. Too little too late. Uconn just can't compete with Duke.

Stay tuned to the DomeSite for Hoopie's take on this years tournament. His track record shows that he's a man with hoop knowledge that demands respect.

The Week That Was - 7 Years Ago

Let's go back a few years and see what was happening, Bridgeport Post-Style:

Upper West Side Stalker Sought: "A Menace," Police Say

(AP) MARCH 10, 2001 NEW YORK, NEW YORK - City police are looking for a man who they claim went on a stalking rampage last Saturday night and early Sunday morning, victimizing several women in the bars that line Amsterdam Avenue. The suspect has been described as a tall, thin, white male and police are working with a sketch artist to produce fliers that will be distributed to local residents.

"At this time, we're looking for a caucasian male, late 20s to early 30s, short dark hair, possibly with a serious drinking problem," Detective Luis Alfonseca stated at a 20th Precinct news conference. "There are indications that the perpetrator of these alleged incidents is not a resident of Manhattan. His lack of drinking sophistication and reports of his wearing some sort of Mormon-style short sleeve dress shirt in mid-winter seem to indicate that the suspect may reside in another locale, but we're certainly not dealing with a native here." Police officials have also indicated that they are seeking a second man in connection with the incidents, though they refuse to label him a suspect. "We just want to talk to him, to see if he knew this guy or knows where this guy is from. At this time, there are no indications that he committed any crimes, but we would like him to come down and talk to us."

The incidents began around 11:30 p.m.. One of the complainants, a Columbia University coed who refused to identify herself for this story reported that the lanky suspect accosted her and her friends. "He said something like, 'My friend Rob is thirty,' and we were like, 'OK,' then he told my friend Sarah that he had 'access' to an aerobed. The guy was real creepy and real tall, and he kept leaning in and touching me and my friends on the shoulder." Several other complainants describe similar "lean-ins" as well as close-talking and inappropriate tactile advances.

Thomas Kendale, a doorman at Bourbon Street, confronted the man. "I told him that if he didn't stop touching the girls, I was going to have to ask him to leave. He said something like, 'What about my pain?' This guy was completely out of control. Then this other guy came over and said, 'Don't worry, dog, I'm on the job.' I don't know if they were together or not." Doorman Leroy McKinney from the nearby Gin Mill had a similar story. "This tall skinny guy comes up to the door and he's swaying like crazy. Then he leans in to the woman in front of him in line and asks her something like, 'Do you know my friend Bill. He lives in Manhattan.' Then the guy starts howling like that was really funny. I told him he couldn't come in because he was too drunk. He said, 'Rejection tastes like pain,' or something like that. Then this other guy came up and was like, 'Yo, dog, it's OK, I'm on the job.' I told him I didn't care, his friend wasn't coming in." The pair were later seen arguing on 86th street.

Police would not confirm reports that the assailant's companion was wearing carpenter pants.

The assailant's rampage continued for several hours, and by Wednesday morning, police had received 24 complaints. "This guy is a one man Puerto Rican Day parade," one anonymous police official confided to the New York Post.

Det. Alfonseca said that police were looking into several leads. He would not confirm reports that police were looking in the New Hampshire and Maine areas for the suspect. "There are indications that we're dealing with a New Englander, but there are also indications that the suspect may be merely mentally impaired, autistic, or even Canadian. I can't compromise our investigation by going into any further details. If you see this suspect, my best advice is to just get away from him as quickly as possible."

A Tale of True Loyalty and Devotion

Once upon a time, in a once proud industrial city long since fallen on hard times, there lived a boy who loved sports almost as much as he loved chemically induced altered mental states. Like any sports fan, he had his team loyalties. In professional football, his team was the Dallas Cowboys. this was in spite the fact that the blue-collar city of his childhood was more than 1,600 miles from Dallas, a city he had never even visited in a state he had never been to. What motivated this boy to choose those Cowboys as his team is anybody's guess, but there's no doubt that their success in those days certainly didn't hurt. On Sundays, this boy would cheer his heart out for Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett and Too Tall Jones, even Danny White. He shambled through the halls of his high school rocking a Mr. Don haircut and a Dallas Cowboys Starter jacket (which might explain why his basketball teammates never invited him to the barber shop). He reveled in the triumphs of Troy Aikman and Emmet Smith and laughed in the face of his own brother, a fan of the rival Redskins.

A few years pass and the boy of our story is no longer a boy, he's grown into some sort of manchild of adult age. Over the years, he's left behind a lot of his childhood things: that tough luck town, Mr. Don, athleticism, his dignity and most importantly for our story, he's left behind those Dallas Cowboys. You see, something happened on February 3, 2002 that made our somewhat addled protaganist switch his loyalties from those 'Boys of the Texas plains to the New England Patriots, a team whose fans this boy mocked and ridiculed in the days when his beloved Cowboys were running rougshod through the NFL while men in Massachusetts wearing red pants struggled mightily in the hopes of making the playoffs as a wild card.

Some would say our formerly Cowboy-loving friend is a fairweather fan of the worst kind. The DomeSite would say he's a fayerweather fan for certain. However you look at it, you have to admire someone who's not afraid to answer the question "who are you rooting for" with the question "who's winning". Or do you?

ConBeck Presents: "What is to be Done?"

"That myspace page crush attempt was awful."





"I saw a sticker of that band on a urinal last night. I took a picture on my phone, but I don't even know how to send it. It would have been much funnier if you saw it in the manner i initially did."









"It would have been funnier if we were shitfaced with our pants at our ankles standing in a pool of various men's urine?"






"That, and if you were there asking people who were trying to piss for paper towels like a drunken gay zombie."







". . . and if you then walked out of the bar onto the sidewalk and stumbled two blocks while groping several unsuspecting females and mumbling that you need more drinks."





"Then we can take the paper towels and the grope-groupies back to your place for that fabled barbecue."








"Then we can fold out your futon for a nap and take a look at the science projects growing in your bathroom."






"Then we can wash your bed's plastic sheets with a power washer and you can leave 5.0 another incoherent voicemail."







"Then we can watch you ask a 4'11" guy to go outside, then change your mind, jerk him off and pay his bar tab."








"Then you can put your pampers on and pass out three hours before the rest of us."







"Then you could mumble something about a guy's mother and disgrace Red Sox Nation again by backing down from a Yankee fan while in Fenway Park."

FINIS?

House(d) on Hoops: UConn v. Cincinnati Recap

This is a new DomeSite feature we like to call "House(d) on Hoops" where noted hoopologist Conrad "Hyper Hoopies" House(d) (pictured left) spreads the basketball wisdom. It's like Larry King's old column from USA Today only the observations are more obvious. The views expressed below are not necessarily those of the DomeSite. Gather these pearls of wisdom, sports fans.


This was a nice win. Dome- you continue to provide the worst hoops analysis in the world, but at least you are consistent. It is amazing that you have a better chance to win when you make free throws (32-37).

Price was erratic and in foul trouble and Dyson was invisible in 1st half. there is no one else to go to except Austrie. Yes, he had three possessions in a row that lead to a 6-0 run, but there is no one else to turn to. Rickey Moore is not walking through that door, Khalid is not walking through that door.

Cincy is a decent team. [DomeSite note: Cincinnati is 9-10 with an RPI of 109] Athletic, good guards, Vaughn is legit and they have a few big guys to rebound. That was a tough crowd, rowdy environment. There are no easy road games in the BE. This win is a great confidence booster going into Indiana.

Have you ever seen more teams make more threes against one team (UConn)? Unreal. I'd love to see the 3 pt percentage against UConn. [DomeSite note: 37.1% making UConn 257th in the Division I]

Wiggins (another guy who sucks according to Dome) was the difference, along with Thabeet, who is playing great.

The defense was solid and Dyson hit 3's when they needed them. I was surprised that JC didn't stick with the zone more often because that was effective.

That block that Dyson had on the guy on a semi-breakaway was unreal. It kills me that this team has been so mediocre when you see plays like this or the 2 hands block Stanley had at Seton Hall. There is serious talent here, but it rarely comes together.

Indiana can really shoot. that is what worries me. Dyson needs to get very aggressive with Gordon and try to hinder his scoring. Wiggins can also try to slow him, but no one has been able to yet. Thabeet needs to stay out of foul trouble because DJ White will go at him early. UConn needs to start fast, like in Cincy tonight.