The Week That Was

The biggest news this week (even bigger than the Kevin Ware injury, which is another discussion for another time) was CBSSports.com college basketball writer Jeff Goodman's story that Ed Rush, the head of Pac-12 basketball officials, offered rewards to his referees if they gave technical fouls to Arizona head coach Sean Miller.

Rush, according to a source within the Pac-12 officiating group, told a group of referees on the Thursday of the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas that he would give them $5,000 or a trip to Cancun if they either "rang him up" or "ran him," meaning hit Miller with a technical or toss him out of the game. Rush then reiterated during a Friday morning meeting, according to one referee in attendance, that officials should take similar action against Miller if he did anything on Friday in the Pac-12 semifinals against UCLA.

I often call March Madness the most wonderful time of the year. It's like Christmas for me. I don't think I'm going out on a limb to say any of this either, as most people's feelings about the tournament range from love to complete "I've sent you twelve of my eyelashes in this letter" obsession.

For most of the first three days we got terrible basketball. I don't mean the standard "the college game is inferior" basketball either. I'm talking ten blindfolded kids playing outside on a windy day bad. Shooting percentages were down, turnovers were up, and if the court they were playing on didn't have an NCAA logo in the middle, no one would have been watching.

And then, just like that Sunday's games single handedly redeemed the weekend. It was awesome. Anyway, as the Sweet Sixteen tips off tonight, here are my power rankings (in reverse order) the past week:

#292. Reggie Johnson: Coming in dead last, I went with this number because it's what Big Reggie's weight is listed as. 292 pounds? Come on now. That's like saying Trey Edmunds ran a 40 in 4.37 seconds. Reggie only played 18 minutes in Miami's win against Illinois, while also suffering an injury that will force him out in tonight's game against Marquette. Hard times out there for a big man.

This week was one of the most important weeks on Virginia Tech's sports schedule. Let's just say that Erick Green was not the only Hokie to get sent off with a win on his senior night. That's right, on Tuesday yours truly played his last intramural basketball game of a much-maligned career. Well, it may not be maligned per say...but definitely historic.

Why historic? Because by all accounts (and by accounts I just mean my own), I am the losingest basketball player in the history of Virginia Tech IM sports. Before the season, I had won a total of one game in three years. ONE. And it wasn't just the losses, it was the margin of those losses. There was one time that a ref asked if we wanted take the mercy rule at halftime, because we were down THIRTY. Think the second half of this week's Tech/Duke game...only for three years.

Needless to say, when my team beat the Brown Mambas in the first round of the playoffs this season I was HYPE. I mean, I was more excited than Magic Johnson on Twitter. While my teammates were more than slightly confused, they couldn't say that my excitement wasn't contagious. It's a contagious type of energy that just spreads to everyone else on the floor.

Okay, usually these columns are fun. They take a look back at the week in sports and give me an opportunity to show all 20 of my readers how well (or poorly) I can make fun of people.

Not today.

I was geared up with a column about things like Miami losing by 15 points to Wake Forest, their worst loss since the Nevin Shapiro regime, NBA guard J.R. Smith asking some girl on Twitter if she "was trying to get the pipe", and the playful war of words between the team of Shane Beamer/Aaron Moorehead/Trey Gresh against Antone Exum.

All of that was coming this week...but not any more. Not when I saw that the Naismith Award revealed its top 30 candidates and that Erick Green was not one of them.

In other words, IT IS ON.

In case you weren't aware (probably because it is one of the least relevant awards of all time) the Naismith Men's College Basketball Player of the Year Award is supposedly given to the best player in college basketball each season. Every year about this time they come out with a list of the top-30 candidates, otherwise known as the players who actually have a chance to win.

Usually to start this column I have a humorous anecdote or something major that has happened either to me recently, such as Peter Lalich's Tupac to my Biggie Smalls (kids, ask your parents).

But this week? Nothing. It was just a weird week of random stories that really had no bearing on my life at all. I think this can all chalk up to one thing: senioritis. I have noticed that my level of caring, especially in a scholastic sense, has fallen off a cliff this semester. My production and care has dropped off so much, you can basically call me Rorell Breddie.

(Side note: To put it in perspective, do I know my dad reads this site pretty religiously? Yes. That is my level of caring right now.)

Anyway, I think the karmic gods have come back to bite me in the behind because not only do I not have any awesome stories...well none that don't involve rails or the words "snow beers"...but also my internet cut out almost ALL day yesterday, meaning that I couldn't even email this column to Joe.

Karma is getting me for being lazy...and the worst part is that I don't care at all. Is this what being Matt Leinart is like?

Anyway, here are some of the better stories over the past week:

When I started to write this, I was very concerned that there would not be an awesome college football story to lead things off. We are officially in the doldrums between signing day and spring practice, and players getting in trouble is one of the few things that grabs a headline.

CUE NICK SABAN'S MUSIC!

That's right, the moment I started writing this column was the exact time the Twitterverse broke the story of four Alabama players getting arrested, three for second-degree robbery and one for the fraudulent use of a debit card.

Obviously the Hokie in me initially hoped that this could somehow give Tech an advantage come August, but after further research I found that when you have a roster full of four-star recruits, it's not hard to replace four freshmen (three of which who barely played last season). After further reading, however, it's simply mind blowing that these guys thought they could get away with it. Alabama football players are the biggest celebrities in Tuscaloosa. That would be like an actor driving drunk in Hollywood, or Lil' Wayne getting caught with pot in New Orleans... Well, you get my point. All are indefinitely suspended.

This has been a big week for me.

First off I had a promising interview with a potential future employer. That was cool and all, but Sunday probably took the week. No, I take that back. It DEFINITELY took the week. Why, you ask? Well, the short answer is that I may have a new mortal enemy.

Let me break it down for you in three steps:

1. The Super Bowl happened: This one is pretty obvious. Biggest game of the year.
2. CBS broadcast the Super Bowl: Again, pretty obvious. But breaking it down even more, Joe hates CBS and its overhyped shows like Two Broke Girls Who Work For NCIS Hawaii 5.0. Understandable.
3. I had to make a sarcastic Tweet about Joe's hatred of CBS. See that sarcastic comment below? Well let me run it back again.

@thekeyplay Two Broke Girls is the Peter Lalich of tv shows.— Brian Marcolini (@marcolini11) February 4, 2013

Everyone has those moments when they see something on Twitter, but it's so terrible that they hang in a highly tense balance between not believing it and not wanting to believe it.

One of the best examples of this individual sway of emotions was a story told to me by my friend Kevin. On the night former Oklahoma City Thunder shooting guard James Harden was traded, Kevin—a die-hard OKC fan—was at a bar in downtown Blacksburg. After he saw it on Twitter he immediately bought a stronger drink simply out of disbelief. Then after seeing the story break on the bottom crawl of ESPN, he set that (barely touched) drink down and immediately walked home to sit in silence.

He just couldn't handle being around people.

That is exactly how I felt when I saw the news that Antone Exum tore his ACL. I just sat on a couch and stared at my computer screen, hoping it was some sort of hoax or poorly sourced report. It just couldn't be. The guy that had adopted the previously vacant "vocal team leader" role just blew out his knee playing pick up hoops? It simply sucked too much to be true.

Is there any player not named Te'o that has gone through a larger roller coaster than Exum? Over the first four weeks of the season no one was more scrutinized and criticized than him. Critiques of his play ranged from mild displeasure to absolute vitriol, all coming to a head after an absolutely BRUTAL game against Cincinnati (2 face masks, 2 pass interferences).

After weeks and weeks of speculation, the new offensive staff was finalized and officially announced. On Friday, Scot Loeffler, Jeff Grimes and Aaron Moorehead will ride into Blacksburg like white knights on stallions.

Other than that, it's been a pretty quiet week. I mean, Shane Beamer did troll some people on Twitter, leading me to embark in a twenty-minute mental exercise as to what would happen if Bud Foster had an account. Could you imagine? Some UVA bro tries to troll Foster’s defense on Twitter, which is then followed by Foster’s threats of "total, soul crushing annihilation" while motivating Jack Tyler and Antone Exum to send a season-long message.

Speaking of Exum...

1. Saban is probably up watching film. So I'm hitting the field to get some work in! #AUG31— Antone Exum Jr. (@IAmSwag1) January 21, 2013

That was at 3 A.M. Monday morning. You know where normal people were at 3 A.M. Monday morning? Sleeping...or sleeping off a night at Big Al's. This man is insane, in such a good way.

That may have been all the news in Blacksburg, but lucky for us the sports world got weird (and awesome) over the past week.

Well, the day has finally come. As CBS Sports' Bruce Feldman reported, the Frankinator has hired Scot Loeffler to be his new offensive coordinator. Yep, that Scot Loeffler. The one handed the dumpster fire at Auburn. The one who threw a TOTAL of 198 passes at Temple in 2011 (for comparison, Logan Thomas threw 429 this season).

My three thoughts on the hiring immediately after it happened:

• Gulp.
• What does this mean in terms of Thomas' professional decision?
• How in the hell does Feldman know so many people, on so many different staffs? Was it because he wrote a book with Mike Leach, and now all universities have a fear of being boarded and pirated? Yeah, that must be it. If it happened to Craig James, it could happen to you.

But, after I did my research I started to feel more confident about his hiring.