hello kenner league and good bye vienna league

Nothing quite like a delay in the start of Kenner League after the worst season under JT3. Well the wait is over baby. Tonight's the night. It's time to get down to McDonough Gymnasium to check out the latest version of the Hoyas as well as FINALLY putting last season to bed.

Message board speculation has Wright and Monroe playing on DCX, Austin and the freshman on the Tombs, Clark and Henry on Clydes, and Hollis on the Madness All Stars.

What about Nikita? Julian? Are they even in town?

I'll be sure to let everybody know how accurate that is tomorrow or maybe even tonight.

And as Kenner League beings, the Vienna Men's League is just about done. Luckily your boys are still playing one more game. We had little trouble in taking apart Do It for the 3rd time this season. We increased our margin of victor over them each time out, going from an opening night 3 point squeaker to a 25 point rout last night.

We have been in this league for the last four summers and it will be our 3rd time meeting the Ancient Warriors in post-season play. We are 1-1 in previous playoff match-ups. If both teams get good turnouts, it should be a pretty good game. I'll take another black eye if it results in a victorious celebration at the Vienna Inn at about 845pm tomorrow night.

We came within one basket from winning the league in 2006 and this is the closest we have come since then. We really need to put this one away and add to the KG Vet trophy case.

it was raining tweets this morning

From time to time I have to really question my association with Twitter, but this morning was a completely different animal. The start of Redskins Training Camp has been wearing my phone out like no other event has ever done before - and that's saying something considering how many tweets I usually get every day.

Believe it or not, none of them contained anything that I would actually consider informative. I was looking for two things:

1. Did anybody get hurt yet? It happened on Day 1 last summer.

AND

2. Did they sign Mike Vick? I would do it in a second.

That's it. That's the list.

Speaking of training camp, I'd like to go one of these days. I say that every summer but I haven't been since Jesse and I went up to Carlisle, PA to see Camp Marty back in 2001.

So here are my options:

Tomorrow at 830am
Saturday at 830am
Sunday at 830am
Tuesday at, you guessed it, 830am
Wednesday at 830am
Thursday at 830am

You can also go on Saturday August 8th but that's Fan Appreciation Day and you would have to be insane to go on that day. It's like going to Kings Dominion on Weekend. Major League mistake right there boy. So from that list above, I think the best bet would be sometime next weekend.

I'm going to go out on a limb and boldly predict that I don't make it out to Ashburn. Well at least not for Redskins practice.

the final four @ Kilmer

Huge night of Summer League basketball at Kilmer tonight as the playoffs continue

HUGE.

The hoops action gets underway at 7:40pm as the Ancient Warriors take on the Home Team. Immediately following that contest, the KG Vets square off against Do It.

In the first semi of the night, the Ancient Warriors look to push their season record to 3 - 0 against the Home Team. For some reason the Home Team just isn't able to use their advantage of youth and speed against the sharp shooting, fundamentally sound golden oldies. Of course it always helps when you can spread shooters around a nearly 7-foot giant in the post. I'd be surprised if the Home Team advanced.

In the night cap, the KG Vets will look to advance past this round for the first time in the last three summers. Luckily we have put ourselves in a pretty good spot by finishing in first place for the first time with a record of 11 - 1. Since it's a major league conflict of interest for me to predict this game (since I'm playing it in) I'll just say that the fans want to see 1 v 2 in the finals and I think they won't be disappointed.

Some subplots for tonight include: Will Kaala and Baker show up from their other game? Will Jesse show up for his first Wednesday night game of the season? Will I find my black socks? Will Bret recover from his cold? Will Adam get a Technical? The list goes on and on...

Of course the beauty of summer league is that you never know who will OR will not show up. There's nothing quite like adult leagues and that's probably best for all.

4 summers in the making...

No matter what happens tonight, the KG Vets will end the regular season all alone in first place. For the first time in, uh, EVER.

How did it happen?

Well to be honest the league got a little bit worse and we got a little bit better after last season's nightmare. I guess our good friends from One on One couldn't take the shame that came along with losing to us last summer so they decided not to play.

Of course there is still that rather large obstacle in the form of the Ancient Warriors. We are 10 - 1 but we split with our old, pun intended, friends. I'm sure we will see them for the rubber match next week. Just in time for Clay Buckley to give me another black eye. Perfect.

Upon further inspection, it's probably a very deceiving 10 - 1. We tried our absolute best to give away our last game with the adult rec league equivalent of the Holy Roller. We have also come within 3 minutes of, not one but, TWO forfeit losses. Both of those games started with me frantically searching for a 4th, not a 5th like is the preferred starting number in basketball, in the parking lot much to the dismay of our lazy ass refs.

I didn't even mention going down by 13 to the worst team that has ever graced the hallowed hardwood courts of the B league.

In 2006 we were a controversial D'Arcy travel away from winning the tournament in our first try. It's taken a long time to get back to the spot. We should strongly consider winning it this time. You never know when Brendan might decide to move back to Asia or for how long Adam can continue to play the best pick-up ball of his life.

"GOLD'S GYM!" - Michael Anton Hales

Sayonara Latavious Williams...

China? Really? Awhile back I had a poll on this site about where Latavious might end up. I definitely didn't include The Middle Kingdom as one of the options.

It doesn't seem fair really. They gave us Yao Ming and all we can come up with as a "Thank You" is Latavious freaking Williams??? Ouch.

Look the recruitment of this guy has been one of the more frustrating cases to follow in recent memory. Every time you thought you were out, you were pulled right back in.

I think this particular case comes down to him not meeting the academic requirements needed to play college basketball.

I'm glad that JT3 decided not to offer him a scholarship. I think he knew that score wasn't going to come up roses.

I'm going to be absolutely shocked if he ends up getting his name called by David Stern next year.

SHOCKED

the fan needed Tony...too bad Tony doesn't need them

So 106.7 FM made the switch to Sports Talk today. Their first mistake is constantly referring to the station as "The Fan". How generic can you get?

Ever heard of WFAN in NY? Apparently not.

The Mike Wise show is about what I expected - a homeless man's version of the Tony Kornheiser show. I hope that Mr. Tony comes back and saves us from bad radio.

I think the real "entertainment" will begin whenever Lavar and Chad Dukes start talking. That should be like listening to a 4 hour train wreck that you just know won't yield any survivors.

Edit: The radio awkwardness has started. It will be interesting to see what they talk about after the get done talking about what they will talk about it. Get it?

Lavar is combating all of the negativity surrounding his show by saying that it's all manufactured by Dan Snyder's people. Great theory #56.

well that didn't take long

We only had to go one calendar month - June - without any live Arsenal games on the weekends. I mean that is just insane. There is no other off-season that compares with that kind of quick turnaround.

It's not exactly glamorous but it's something greatly needed during this summer wasteland of sports. It will be nice to talk and read about something not relating to Adebayor's medical test or loyalty clause.

The lineup is a hodge podge collection of starters and reserves:

Manuel Almunia - starter
Johan Djourou - lucky to make the bench
William Gallas - starter
Thomas Vermaelen - not sure since he's new, they can't start him Gallas and Toure unless he's a DM
Mikael Silvestre - why is he on the team?
Jack Wilshere - the next Cesc, but still reservist
Mark Randall - reserve
Emmanuel Frimpong - reserve
Tomas Rosicky - regular
Andrey Arshavin - starter
Sanchez Watt - reserve

They are playing League Two side Barnet F.C. in a "stadium" that looks like it is right on par with the SoccerPlex in Germantown.

OMG what is Eboue wearing on the sideline?

I can't believe I'm watching this game on a website called IraqGoals.net. Sure they are just taking the feed from ATVO, but still. IraqGoals?

Elsewhere in soccer today - United finally has a home MLS game after over a month of away games and USOC games at the 'Plex. They should seriously consider winning as opposed to those draws that they seem to be in love with this season. It's getting kind of tight at the top of the East.

We also have the US v Panama in the Gold Cup Quarterfinals. It's been tough to make any sort of sense out of this tournament since the USSF hasn't taken it very seriously. I would be very impressed and shocked if they defended their title.

Almunia forgot something...

While it's great to see Arsenal back in training - I mean it's gotta be the shortest off-season ever - I'm having a few problems with the above picture.

• Manuel Almunia - Why isn't he wearing shorts? Did he lose a bet? Does he think it makes him run faster? What the hell is going on there???

• Tomas Rosicky - I think it's great that he's out the training with the team in the pre-season but the conditions make me a little nervous. I mean this is a guy that hasn't played in 18 months because of a groin pull. I'm not sure training in the rain is the safe bet. I think Wenger should have him on a treadmill or taking Body Combat on rainy days.

• Jack Wilshere - Do his parents know he is hanging out with all of these strange men? Especailly the one that isn't wearing pants? He seriously looks 12 years old. Well no matter how young he is, he better get up to speed ASAP because Cesc isn't sticking around too much longer.

still waiting

Of all the freaking Summers (not DaJuan) for the Kenner League to be postponed, this was probably the worst possible timing ever.

We need some actual basketball to be played to get that nasty 08-09 taste out of our mouth.

We need to get a look at the freshman.

We need to get see how Vaughn, Sims, and Clark have improved.

Under normal circumstances, we would have had the chance to full fill all those needs this past Sunday.

Well the bad beat from last season continues. News was leaked on a GW message about around June 30th that the Kenner League would be postponed until the end of July. What a total NIGHTMARE. Did John Thompson III walk under a ladder or something?


As far as summer leagues that are actually going on, the KG Vets bumped their record up to 4-1 last night. It's a bit of a different setup this season. Different gym, smaller gym, 12 games in 14 game nights, currently unknown playoff structure. We are really shooting from the hip this summer.

NBA summer league action got underway yesterday. Mike Sweetney was seen in a Boston Celtics #56 jersey down in Orlando. A first round draft pick in 2003, Big Mike basically ate himself out of the league once his father unfortunately passed away just after entering the NBA. I would love to see him catch on with a team this season. He's got great hands for a big man to compliment his great post moves.

Can you hear me now?

I went about 3 weeks without a phone after my LG Chocolate systematically decided to retire at an early age.

I must say that it was a pretty sweet ride. The stops along the way included: randomly turning off, shutting down after being closed quickly, only working while charging, and then finally not even turning on while being plugged into a power outlet.

After realizing that I did need a phone from time to time, I went looking for help from my local Verizon store. After standing in line for about 20 minutes, I got some sketchy customer service advice by some kid dressed up in Goth. For whatever reason I decided to put a fair amount of stock for what he suggested. He said the buy a generic battery from RadioShack and I obliged.

So the battery showed up and my hopes were high. That didn't last long. I thought that I had beat the system by not extending my contract and only spending $23 on a battery. Upon putting the battery in my phone I was given a rather interesting screen that invoked confusion followed up closely by laughter:

USE GENUINE BATTERY. POWER OFF IN 10 - 9 - 8, etc, etc.

Major bummer for somebody that places a lot of emphasis on not being tied down to a 2 year contract.

I got a huge assist by a co-worker that gave me an older Verizon phone for free. All I had to do was get it activated for $15. Of course the full court press by the Verizon salesmen at the Clocktower store was pretty intense. Luckily I've got a special talent for ignoring people that suck.

The best part about this whole saga is that my old phone, that LG Chocolate I mentioned up at the top, is now working again. It's been on since Friday Night.

My best guess: The people at Verizon sent out a message for my phone to fail, forcing me into getting a new 2 year contract. Since I threw them for a loop, they panicked and just turned pumped a soul back into my old phone.

Thanks for nothing losers.