Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis... and Randolph Childress

The year was 1994.  We were rocking the Sega Genesis.  We woke up early that Saturday morning because we had to be at school for the team bus by 10AM.  The JV squad rolled in school vans over to Good Counsel High School where they got beaten by 13.  An amazingly skinny 14 year old freshman had 8 points, 3 assists, and a team high 7 turnovers to go with his 2 poutings on the bench, 1 talk-back to the coach, and 3 interactions with an opposing player that could be used against him in court.  Before we left the house, we set the VCR to tape the Wake Forrest/Duke game at 2:30 PM.  We were taken back when we turned on ESPN Classic last night.

Wow.

How tight was the ACC?  This is from memory because we couldn't find historical roster data.  Why is that so hard to find by the way?  To us, this is the sort of thing the internet was invented for.

Duke: Grant Hill, Jeff Capel, Cherokee Parks (he was bootsy but still played in the NBA for a spell)

Wake: Tim Duncan and our favorite college player ever, Randolph Childress.  More on Randolph in a moment.

UNC: Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace, Eric Montross, and one of our 37 least favorite college players ever: Donald Williams.

Maryland: Joe Smith, Keith Booth, Ugly Johnny Rhodes, X-Ree Hipp, and Duane Simpkins

Note: Our boy Joe believes that Johnny Rhodes also should have been a star in the NBA.

Georgia Tech: Travis Best and we think Drew Barry?  Remember Drew Barry?

UVA: Curtis Staples, Harold Deane, and we think that Junior Burroughs was on the squad, also Cory Alexander played in the NBA although we have no idea what his game was.  What did he do?  No one knows.

Clemson: Sharone Wright,

Florida State: Bob Sura, Charlie Ward

Note: Bob Sura!

NC State: Not sure they fielded a team for a couple years after they lost Gugliotta.  We literally can't remember a single player off this team.

Back to what inspired this blog.  Sometimes, in life, there are mysteries.  The greatest mystery of all time to us is how Randolph Childress was not a star in the NBA.  He was incredible.  Is there anyone here who carried his squad (a squad that included Duncan) to an ACC title over one of the greatest college teams ever and set a record for points in a tournament?  OK, Randolph we have you... anyone else?  No?  No one that tight ever?

His game was incredible.  He was buckets, great handle, saw the court and was always under control.  So smooth.  His game was literally like an infant's buttocks... in terms of the smoothness.

We taped that game back in '94.  After we got home, showered, played through Revenge of Shinobi on Genesis (we always got unlimited shurikens and tons of extra lives so you could beat it the tight way of saving the chick and killing the boss), we rewound the tape and watched an all-time classic.

In the 1st half, Childress passed on a lot of shots and was a distributor.  Duke put the uber-athletic Grant Hill on RC.  The game went back and forth with Wake trailing by a hoop in the final minute.  Duncan was all tawkward and lanky at this point and his offensive game was like that 51 year old at the Y with rec specs.  So, Wake works the ball around to Childress with about 20 seconds left.  They clear out the side.  16 seconds.  Childress drives on Hill.  14 seconds.  Childress steps back with his super tight stepback move that no one has ever done better ever.  13 seconds.  Childress launches a 3 over the 6'8" frame and outstretched arms of Hill, the same Hill that caught a ball above the square on an alley-oop and was one of the most athletic guys ever before the injuries.  11 seconds.  Buckets.  3 pointer puts Wake up 1.  No one at Cameron Privileged Suburban Stadium knows what to do.  Hill misses a shot at the buzzer.  Wake wins.

It was a great Saturday.  Note: We did not talk to any girls.

After he was drafted by the Pistons, he hurt his knee.  He resurfaced a few years later playing in dumb leagues overseas.  We can't help but think of what he would have been in today's league with the handchecking rules.  We think he'd be 20 and 8 and be a feared crunchtime scorer.  Wow he was tight.  We'll literally never forget.

College Football Bowl Pick 'Em Manifesto

We at GJW think there are not nearly enough manifestos out there.  How ballsy is it to write a manifesto?  Quite ballsy is the answer.  Nonetheless, here is our guide to picking bowl games and winning your bowl pool... And we realize this is after most of the bowl games are done so maybe apply this next time or something.

Article 1- The Big 10 sucks at bowls.

You wouldn't know it based on the constant media attention and insufferable fans of teams like THE OHIO STATE University, but the Big 10 stinks and has quietly stunk for the last few years.  Even when OSU won it's title, the rest of the Big 10 was out under performing in bowl games.  Everyone likes to make excuses about how the teams are built to win in cold weather.  This is like saying that a chick should be fatter in case she runs into a guy who likes fat chicks.  It's dumb.  Good teams win football games.  Big 10 this year?  1-6 in bowls. Thanks to Steve Spurrier for bothering to spring for the $.42 in postage to mail in another bowl game on his way to the golf course.

Article 2 - ACC teams should never be favored over SEC teams.  Thanks again Georgia Tech.  A doo-doo browntown LSU squad took the 'school with the ugliest girls in the ACC' to the woodshed, locked them inside, then left incriminating messages on every contact in the respective cell phones of the GT players.

Article 3 - Every few years, there will be a Boise State-Oklahoma type upset.  It is not worth your time to try and find it.  This year, it was Utah and Alabama.  You should not have picked Utah in this one.  If you did, and are reading this thinking that you are smarter than everyone who covers college football for a living, then you are a chooch.  These 2 teams play 10 times in the regular season and Alabama wins 8.  They have more good players, more great players, and go to a school with one of the most rabid and supportive fan bases in the world.  Utah is in Utah.

You can work yourself dizzy trying to find this game.  We've won our last several bowl pools, simply by picking favorites with a couple exceptions.  If you don't think that Alabama should be favored to beat Utah, you should go color in a book for coloring.

Article 4 - Despite the fact that everyone poops hammers on the Pac-10, they always do better than you'd think in bowls.  This year's 5-0 is obvious but the Pac 10 is always sneaky.  Those teams are better at bowls than you'd think.  Obviously, USC is the leader of the pack but teams like Arizona (beating top 20 BYU this year), Oregon State (beat a solid Pitt team), Oregon (spanked an over-rated Oklahoma State team which we'll get to in a minute), and Cal are always competitive in their bowl games.  5-0 this year, 4-2 last year?  That's a trend people.

Article 5 - When a conference is typically viewed as overhyped, has a banner year that causes the media to frenzy, pundits to write articles about how the 2 best teams are from this conference and those 2 teams should play for the title in a rematch and so on, and then the conference becomes REALLY overhyped, beware of said conference.  See Big XII, The.  

This year's 4-2 (4-3 if you agree with us that Florida rolls on Thursday) is the same as the Big East, potentially the same as Conference USA, and is not much better than the Mountain West Conference.  Simmer down everyone.

Article 6 - No conference ever in the history of conferences should have 10 teams go to bowls.  This is especially true when the highest ranked team got smoked by a middle of the pack SEC team.  Looking right at you ACC!  Simply put, no conference has enough depth to have better than a decent record if it's playing in 10 bowl games.  Expect 5-5 and you won't be disappointed too badly.

Article 7 - Always always always look at travel.  Who has to go far?  Far east or west?  Look at that stuff.  It's a factor.  This especially helps when you have no idea about either of the teams.  Who were you looking for in the Rice v Western Michigan matchup?  We didn't know either.  The game itself was the Texas Bowl.  Done and done.

Article 8 - Never underestimate the power of the 'we were in contention for the national title until we lost late in the season and we're disappointed with this bowl and having to play this meager team that is beneath us and we are not really ready to play' game.  See Alabama, Texas Tech, and even Texas (who needed all 60 minutes to beat a flawed Ohio State team)

Article 9 - This is the most important in our opinion, if you can't name a single player off of either team before reading about the matchup, just pick the favorite.  Several reasons here:

1) you don't know as much as you think you know

2) analyzing stats and results from teams that you have never seen play is like comparing apples to fruits on Chewbacca's home planet of Kashyyyk.

3) If you are ever the guy that brags about knowing that Northern Illinois would lose to Louisiana Tech, you're a douche and a chooch.  You're a chouche.

This rule didn't work out as well as in years past as there were a few more upsets but generally, this is the way to go.

Feel free to follow this advice.  Or, don't and lose to us again next year.