Where Have all the Posts Gone?

Oh hi. I didn’t know you were still there.

Are you still there?

I’ve been busy with other endeavors, mainly school and The Blog Alliance (both are awesome). So I’m sorry I haven’t had anything on this blog in over a week. But let’s not kid ourselves, no one’s reading this page. I could say really mean and bad things and I’d be the only one to know.

I’ll start to post more. Will you read it? Will you post comments? Should LOA take a leave of absence? Has LOA jumped the shark?

Stay tuned…

Spartan Basketball 2006-2007: The Bench

The Spartan’s bench was at best non-productive in 2005-2006. Tom Izzo team’s usually have balanced scoring from his starting line-up and a solid sixth man off the bench, i.e. Morris Peterson. The 2006-2007 team will have more even scoring from the starters and the potential to have a very productive bench. Here’s what Michigan State’s bench will look like.

2006-2007 Bench
PG – Travis Walton: solid defender, must improve jump shot. He will play the one and Neitzel will slide over to the two often next season.

SG – Maurice Joseph: MOJO can shoot. He needs to bulk up and then Spartan fans will be reminded of another fellow Canadian, David Thomas.

SG – Isaiah Dahlman: big time high school scorer at 30+ per game. He needs to put on a lot of weight, but at 6’6’’ will cause huge mismatches against smaller Big Ten guards.

SG – Leon Freeman: Freeman has an offer from State, but hasn’t signed due to academic issues. He is an athletic player and a great defender. Freeman would remind Spartan fans of the good ole defensive days of State basketball.

PF – Goran Suton: The next Ballinger? Perhaps. Suton will be able to draw defenders out to the perimeter, which will open up the lane for the guards. Must improve defensively.

PF – Idong Ibok: I dunk, I block. He is slowly developing a nice jump hook, but is still too raw to be a solid contributor next year.

C – Tom Herzog: A true 7’0’’ center at MSU will be nice. The bad news is he is still developing an offensive game. Defensively Herzog is solid, but has struggled in AAU games against the OSU commit, Greg Oden. Herzog may play next year, but won’t add much to an already solid front-court.

Things look pretty good for the Spartans. They will get back to a more balanced scoring attack, led by Brown and defensively State will get back to their old ways.

Spartan Basketball 2006-2007: The Starters

Spring football is here. So what. College basketball is still fresh in my mind. Since Michigan State was unable to make it to a fourth final four in eight years I lost interest in this year’s NCAA Tournament. And Jon was right, outside of Florida and southern California, no one cared about this championship game.

So let’s take a quick look to next year’s Spartan basketball team.

(This was going to be a long post, so I split it into two posts: the starters and the players off the bench. I’ll do a spring football wrap-up after the practices conclude.)

Good-bye Maurice Ager and Paul Davis. It was fun for the four years you both were here. You both accomplished a lot and hopefully your professional careers will be filled with success.

Now onto next year.

2006-2007 Starting Line-up
PG – Drew Neitzel: Neitzel struggled this year running the team. That won’t be the case next year as he becomes a legitimate scorer. He needs to take it to the basket more often and improve defensively. If he does that he will have a strong year.

SG – Shannon Brown: He’s good. He’ll average 20 points/game and will get into the 30’s several times. The only concern is he doesn’t go into the Spartan Senior Slump like Adam Ballinger, Mike Chapelle and Chris Hill.

SF – Raymar Morgan: The freshman will get significant playing time and will produce. At 6’8’’ he can play the three or four and allows the Spartans to have versatility defensively. Morgan is an old school Izzo type player. He’ll hit the wall mid-season like all freshman do, but will still be a productive player.

PF – Marquise Gray: Gray must develop a 12-14 foot jump shot and improve on his free throw shooting. Generally players make their biggest improvement between their freshman and sophomore years. Under Coach Boylen Gray will make huge improvements and dominate in the post next year.

C – Drew Naymick: If Naymick can stay healthy he could be a nice surprise for Spartan fans. His role next year will be similar to Jason Andreas’ role a few years ago. Five or six points and seven or eight rebounds from Naymick will actually go a long way.

Do You Like Me? Circle Yes, No or Maybe

Yeah I love my blog.

You know what else I love? The Blog Alliance. Check out more of my posts as well as JC’s and EKG’s at www.theblogalliance.blogpost.com.

Books, check ‘em out.

Only Once in a Lifetime

Very early tomorrow morning an event that only happens once every century will occur.

At 1:02:03 AM it will 1:02:03 on 4/5/06. Get it? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

I guess this will happen again at 1:02:03 PM, but this will be the only day this will happen for 100 years. So lay off me I’m starving.

I pointed this out to the ER intern (who unfortunately has to be on OB/GYN this month) and the OB/GYN resident. There are a couple of women who will probably deliver tomorrow. I said if my child were born on 4/5/06, I’d name him/her Seven, even if it would upset George Costanza.

The ER intern thought my bad joke was still somewhat funny, but OB/GYN resident wasn’t as amused. Apparently that resident has the same sense of humor as a swollen labia majora with a vulvular hematoma and blood/blood clots oozing out of the vagina.

That may have been mildly graphic, but OB is more than mildly graphic. My imagination cannot make that stuff up.

Anyhoo, enjoy these special times tomorrow. And in the future if I make silly/goofy jokes, just laugh at them because if you don’t you’ll hurt my feelings and then I’ll be forced to call you a bloody vagina. I don’t want to have to call you that, but if I must, I must.

Leave of Abscence Has Lasted Longer than Emily's Reasons Why Not

This here is Leave of Absence’s 108th post. And when I say Leave of Absence I mean my 108th post.

I would have mentioned my 100th post, but I didn’t notice it, so I’m paying attention now.

I’m not a great blogger, but I have fun with this. It’s nice to write about meaningless drivel and have people comment about whether they agree or disagree.

I agree with everything you’ve said, but there’s more.

I’ve written some things I thought were actually okay. I know they aren’t in AP style and that I’m not really a true journalist (even though I do have a sweet USA Today winter coat and took a kick ass journalism class in eighth grade with Mr. Servis), but I thought some blogs were well written and I think my former English teachers in high-school would be proud…maybe not. I don’t really care.

Of all 107 previous posts, I think the best came in the month of January. I had the “Pat Robertson Finds a New Etiology for Stroke” post and the “Nutriceuticals” and “Tecmo Super Bowl” posts seem to spark fun comments. I also have two archived blogs about why the MSU men’s basketball team would be in trouble this year: “Spartans Struggle in Early Season” (in Decemeber) and “MSU Will Sink or Swim with Neitzel.” Those two posts were more accurate than any of the articles other Spartan journalists/writers wrote during the season trying to chronicle the teams mishaps.

Okay enough self-congratulatory writing. Sorry if I sound like I’m bragging. I’m not. I’ve had fun with blogging. I hope people have had fun reading them. I hope I continue to write more posts.