Saturday, March 20th, 2010

News Feed Comments

Get the best deals on all College Football Tickets at Vividseats.com! Florida State Seminoles Football Tickets, Orange Bowl Tickets, Boston College Eagles Football Tickets, Iowa Hawkeyes Football Tickets, Emerald Bowl Tickets, Outback Bowl Tickets, Vanderbilt Commodores Football Tickets, Auburn Tigers Football Tickets, Kansas Jayhawks Football Tickets and many more are available now.

Back to Basics

Although the Jimbo Era officially began January 7, many Florida State fans are reserving judgement about his new regime until progress shows on the playing field. And that’s fair. As much as I love to tout coaching hires, top recruits, or optimism about the program as a whole, none of us knows how well the program overhaul will do until we see the team play. But with the beginning of Spring Practice yesterday, we get a glimpse of some changes Jimbo’s staff have already made. Yesterday I spoke with one of our team managers, Khoeny Dolisca, who has watched the team transformation with a sideline seat. When asked about the first day of spring practice, Khoeny stated, “It was a good practice. Very different from how things were... [Read more]

A Journey into the Heart of Booster Darkness

Most regular readers know I’m tough on the Seminole Booster program. I’ve “put them on blast” time and time again. I’ve suggested they be replaced by a stock program, I’ve begged for their transparency, and I’ve compared them to a well-funded, influential political lobby group.  You can say I am not a fan. Yet, I am in the minority. A lot of people claim the Seminole Booster program is essential. Booster Program CEO Andy Miller was recently quoted as saying “They do not realize that without private contributions, we do not have an athletic program.” Well, in order to prove the “truthiness” of Mr. Miller’s claim, I have to put myself in a dangerous mindset. I have to put... [Read more]

Beat NoleCC (Not Literally)

Beat NoleCC at Yahoo! Sports There’s no prize. In fact, this works in reverse. If my bracket beats your bracket, you should owe ME something, since I don’t watch hoops and pretty much know nothing about the teams. So yeah, come beat down my bracket at Yahoo! Sports Group ID: 115161 Password: ilikesoftball  Read More →

I’m Still Optimistic About FSU Softball

The Seminoles only won 1 game against the North Carolina Tar Heels over the weekend to open ACC play, but I’m still bullish on the Noles. Some will say that a relatively weak schedule reared it’s ugly head over the weekend, that the Noles aren’t going to win against good teams. They’ll say that FSU needs this or that, and that the Noles need to make major changes. Those folks couldn’t be more wrong from my view. I checked out both games on Saturday, when FSU Softball dropped the first game to UNC after a scoreless 7 innings on both sides and won the second game 2-1. I saw a lot of good in the loss though, right up until the very end. Carly Wynn was the bright spot for FSU in the game, collecting 3 hits on her first... [Read more]

Thanks For Playing and Here’s a Copy of the Home Game

Thanks For Playing and Here’s a Copy of the Home Game

I’ll keep this brief and to the point. Of Florida State’s nine losses this season, Friday night’s 58-52 loss to North Carolina State is in my opinion the worse loss of the season. Why do I say that? The mistakes made tonight mirror exactly the very same mistakes this team made in the first week of the season. Thirty-one games played with a week to prepare and FSU still looked like a team in its first week of practice much of the time. The most prominent of those mistakes were the 20 turnovers the Seminoles garnered giving the Wolfpack 16 easy points. Leonard Hamilton likes to say we invent ways to give the ball away. Well, he would be dead on with that comment about this game. Just ludicrous turnovers like throwing the ball too low to... [Read more]

FSU vs. Virginia Baseball Previews

The weather is not-so-good right now in Tallahassee, but hopefully it’ll clear out in time for tonight’s 6pm start for the Noles against the Virginia Cavaliers. Tomahawk Nation has a very nice preview of the weekend, including a lot of reasons (stats) why Virginia might be the better team. The College Baseball Blog has some summations for the entire ACC this weekend, and everyone picks the Noles to win 2 this weekend. The Tallahassee Democrat expects a pitchers duel this weekend. My $0.02? I think they’ve all hit the nail on the head. This weekend should be tight. Both teams have solid offenses, and both teams have good starting pitching. If the Noles want to win two this weekend though, I think they have to beat Virginia’s... [Read more]

This Weekend Will Tell Us About FSU Softball

This Weekend Will Tell Us About FSU Softball

The Florida State Seminoles are 21-2 in 2010. That’s the best start for the softball team in a very, very long time (‘93). Nearly every starter is batting above .300 (except for the LF platoon), and Sarah Hamilton and Terese Gober are pitching at a very high level, as usual. Everything is swell for Coach Alameda and the Seminoles, right? Much like the FSU Baseball team, we’re going to find out if mediocre competition is the reason for a great record, or if the Noles are a great team that’s ready to compete at an elite level in 2010. The Seminoles, on a 10 game winning streak after dominating their trip to Boca Raton, take on North Carolina this weekend (1pm & 3pm Saturday, 12pm on Sunday) to open the ACC schedule.... [Read more]

Tuesday FSU Ramblings

I’ll be honest. I’ve hit that wall that I hit every year. I’ve hit the wall to the point that I don’t have very many coherent thoughts regarding anything FSU. I’ve also hit the wall with photography at the games. It’s really, really nice to just go and watch the game instead of watching it through the camera the whole time. Anyway, here are a few of the highlights: Rumor on the internet message boards is that new FSU President Eric Barron sent an email to faculty encouraging them to take attendance and have tests on March 17, National Binge Drinking Day, St. Patrick’s Day. The small college kid voice in my head thinks that sucks. The 30 year old man in me likes the test idea, but not the attendance... [Read more]

Loucks’ Game Winner Saves ‘Noles

Florida State led by ten, 58-48, with 5:30 left in the game after Michael Snaer’s head fake driving layup. It would be the last basket FSU would score until Luke Loucks hit a very timely three pointer from the right wing with 1:46 to play. A runner by Durand Scott just fourteen seconds earlier had given Miami its only lead of the game at 60-58. Scott could not duplicate that magic launching a shot from his hip just before the buzzer sounded and the Seminoles held on to defeat the Hurricanes 61-60. If there was any doubt about the Seminoles (22-8, 10-6) making the NCAA that was erased with the ‘Noles tenth conference win of the season. But it wasn’t easy. It started out looking easy however as FSU led 19-5 with less than ten minutes gone... [Read more]

Recapping the Noles vs those Phillies

I know this is a little late – my most humble apologies – but Wednesday night I made my debut over at BusLeaguesBaseball, writing about the friendly (soccer term!) between the Seminoles and the Philadelphia Phillies. Sure, you might already know the score, but find out all that no one else bothered to tell you. For example, did you know the FSU faithful only did the Tomahawk Chop once? Did you know Jenn Sterger failed to make the game for the first time? So before Friday’s slateful of Seminole sports action, be sure to swing by BusLeaguesBaseball and read “The Buses have Returned to Florida“. Tell ‘em Jordi sent ya. (I know, I probably should have been watching the basketball game against Wake Forest, but... [Read more]

Democrat Article on AJ Yawn

Corey Clark wrote up a fantastic article today in the Tallahassee Democrat about Florida State basketball senior AJ Yawn. If you haven’t read it, do so NOW. Seriously, you need to get to know this kid. I’m not pushing the Democrat article simply because AJ is a personal friend of mine, but because his story should’ve been highlighted long ago. While at FSU, year after year of disappointing injuries or sickness kept AJ off the team, but fate had its way when Yawn tried out for a walk-on position this season. Impressing assistant coach Corey Williams, Yawn was given a spot on the team. But more than just a walk-on, AJ has become a team leader, even sometimes conducting practices when the coaches are away. He’s been a real... [Read more]

The Noles Scalp the Gators

It is always good to be 6-0 and become 7-0 at the hands of your biggest rival the Florida Gators, which is exactly what happened tonight. Tyler Holt lead the hitting off for the Seminoles with a single up the middle which began a first inning onslaught that did not see an out made until Justin Gonzalez grounded into a double play.   FSU was not done though, so when Jayce Boyd stepped to the plate after the double play he stood in on  a 1-0 count and blasted a two-run homerun to right-center making it 7-0.  The score remained 7-0 until the Gators added a run in the third on a Mike Zunino home run.  FSU quickly answered back in the bottom half of the third when Justin Gonzalez made amends for his first inning double play, by hitting a triple... [Read more]

The Aftermath of Clemson

After starting several times to write up something about this game the only thing I could finally come up with is that had to be the most embarrassing last 1:24 any Florida State team has ever played.  I have not seen every game obviously. But I’ve seen a good number of them over the years and I cannot recall seeing the Seminoles meltdown like that in the last 90 seconds. Oh sure, we’ve had disappointing last second losses. Tulane in 1995 comes to mind quickly where a miracle turnaround shot from the corner went in as the buzzer sounded to beat Pat Kennedy’s team 78-77. That happens in basketball. But this one was different. We found almost every way conceivable to lose the game. Missed free throws by Chris Singleton and Solomon... [Read more]

FSU Softball NFCA Weekend Review

The FSU Softball team was in action over the weekend in Columbus, GA for the NFCA Leadoff Classic. Checking in on the stats and news I have a few thoughts: Gametracker is useless and never works for me properly. Ever. The loss to Illinois was a downer. Carly Wynn was 0-for-5 in the loss, and left 5 on base. Sometimes it just works out like that. The rest of the weekend the Noles has bats of fire again, scoring 31 runs and only giving up 4. Sarah Hamilton tossed a no-hitter against Hofstra. Monica Montez hit her first home run since her freshman year. God help opposing teams if she’s healthy and can hit like she did her first year. Mallory Borden is doing a lot with her limited ABs (.357 / .474 / .429) More stats for your stat pleasure: LF... [Read more]

2nd Edition Jimbotron Fan Confidence Meter

Without further ado, here is the result of the February 2010 Fan Confidence Scalpoll on our newest JIMBOTRON!!!!! Jimbo Fisher and the FSU Football Team are experiencing a wash of LOVE from Seminole fans everywhere, after having a very successful February. Not only did Fisher and his crew sign a highly ranked recruiting class, they also announced perhaps the most EXTREME and AWESOME IDEA in FSU Football RECENT HISTORY. The Spring Football Game is actually a GAME and not some stupid controlled practice with a scoring system that nobody understands. I might actually attend it for the first time in years thanks to this revolutionary idea. In other news, so far so good for FSU Football players staying out of trouble. Ticket sales / renewals are... [Read more]