Bleacher Report - Articles by Mike White

Gonzaga 2008-09 Preview: Five Must-Win Games

Mike White — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:59:49 -0500

Call me a cynic—better yet, call me the cynic on the Gonzaga campus.

Now entering my fifth year as a student at the Spokane-based school of hoops, I've seen everything from the incoming freshman calling this year the year to the outgoing senior saying likewise. The four other teams I've witnessed have had their share of problems, which might be changed this year.

Depth

Even when there are plenty of talented players between the sixth and12th men, Few has always been reluctant to use them all, going with (usually) a max of three men off the bench. Of late, however, he's opened up, and he must this year as the ride to New Year's Day is riddled with road trips and hard matchups. If Few opens up opportunities, great things can and will happen.

Turnovers

Never short on them, the underperforming teams of late have mastered coughing it up. Pargo's dribble-drive tendencies aren't going to end this, but it is up to the rest of the rotation to be more patient ball-handlers.

Rebound margin

The teams of the past, probably best exampled under the Turiaf years, were ones that won the rebounding margin a majority of the time, especially in conference games. As the competition in the WCC has grown, so has the dominance over the boards.

If this year's crop of big men doesn't provide an advantage here, you can expect around a .500 record outside of the conference and some unaccustomed conference losses. The fact that this seems to have all been placed in the hands of F Ira Brown, a glorified SF, is horrifying.

Outside shooting

You can tie it to the rebounding margin, but the problems of getting Raivio warm in his waning years and Daye's struggles last year were high-volume misses. Early in crucial games, Few can't have his guys trying to perfect the stroke while seemingly abandoning the interior offense.

You know Stephen Gray will be on target early, so getting him as the primary option from behind the arc is a critical process for the Zags' modified Flex attack.

No one can presume that all of these issues will be stamped out, but so long as Few works on them towards March, Gonzaga will be in fine shape for the tournament. However, five games loom as keys to the evolution of the Zags' '08-'09 season, one filled with Final Four aspirations (not mine, necessarily).

Game No. 1: @ Washington State, 10 December

For several years now, the Bennett legacy of defensive prowess has shut down Gonzaga like nothing else I have seen, holding the Zags to under 60 points in their last four meetings. Despite an opponent gutted by graduations, the Cougars shouldn't be looked down upon, as the defense will remain.

Whether a more vibrant interior game by Gonzaga will manifest is another thing entirely, but it is a key to fleeing this putrid little hellhole with a W.

Game No. 2: vs. Connecticut (Key Arena, Seattle, WA), 20 December

Simply combine "steadily improving" and "7'4" center" in the same sentence, and you've already got me under my desk suffering from the PTSD. Hasheem Thabeet isn't scary good...yet. However, I'm worried already.

Can Ira Brown, Jake Foster, and Robert Sacre stop him without Jeff Adrien and A.J. Brown murdering us from everywhere else on the court? I'm not hopeful, but I'd bet it's closer than Vegas thinks either way.

Game No. 3: @ Tennessee, 7 January

Despite seeing some well-deserved rest after the long run-up to New Year's, a week later the Zags have to face the evil Hunter Orange-suited genius Bruce Pearl in one more out-of-conference machismo matchup.

Sure, Chris Lofton and four others are gone. Sure, Bruce Pearl sees a team needing improvement after its exhibition games and a few injuries. However, they're still picked to win the SEC East, have Wayne Chism and Tyler Smith back, and even if the injuries aren't settled, the Zags won't look good falling to a pick to win the conference's East Division, let alone an underperforming Vols team.

Games No. 4 & 5: vs. St. Mary's, 29 January; @ St. Mary's, 12 February

If one can whittle down the impact players touted in the WCC to give the Zags a run for the conference, they have often been seniors with less than two-and-a-half years of experience in the starting lineup facing down the conference's perennial favorite. Guys like Travis Nielsen and the ilk are fifth-year guys who have simply been around as opposed to been good for a while.

What impressed me about Randy Bennett has been his penchant for pushing his young talent, like Diamon Simpson, Omar Samhan, and Patrick Mills, and let them struggle but then eventually thrive (well, Mills never really struggled much, to be fair).

Now he can reap even more as Simpson runs the court as a four-year starter, with Samhan as their bulky, fiery post presence and Mills as the difficult-to-cover threat from everywhere.

This team is so good a split of the two games would be good for the Zags holding on to the regular season crown, but the Gaels are talented enough to sweep the series. Get your heart medication on standby for these games, as it is safe to say these ones will be simply awesome.

Draft Day Shakeup? Big Trade In Latest Mock

Mike White — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:02:45 -0400

The rumors seem to only get marginally bolder with every passing hour towards the draft, but Pat Riley's wavering thoughts towards trading away the number two overall pick so he can take Mayo with a future payoff feel more real to this writer. The ability of trading the pick to any of the suitors looking for Beasley gives Miami the ability to add components, or at least picks, to stock up on.

With that, feast your eyes upon a new draft order and mock for tonight's draft:

1.) Chicago - G Derrick Rose, University of Memphis

Well, we all know he's their man. Whatever qualities he doesn't possess are the only things that can separate this man from being the perennial All-Star we all expect him to be.

2.) Memphis (from Miami) - F Michael Beasley, Kansas State University

Miami gets its wish for a suitor. Memphis gets Beasley in a three-way deal with Miami and Minnesota.

Memphis gets the number two pick, Miami's 2009 second-round pick.
Miami gets Minnesota's number three pick, G Javaris Crittenton, F Andre Brown, and a future protected first-round pick from Memphis.
Minnesota gets Memphis' number three selection, rights to C Marc Gasol, & G Chris Quinn.

3.) Miami (from Memphis) - G O.J. Mayo, University of Southern California

How does one get cake and eat it, too? Ask Riley, who gets a protected future first-round pick from Mempis while not having to fall way down the draft, or give up something useful as filler. Lord knows Miami will try to force Marcus Banks back into Minnesota's hands, and despite being a moron, McHale will decline the offer, instead taking Quinn as filler, who might remind him of former Gopher teammate, Flip Saunders.

4.) Seattle - C Brook Lopez, Stanford University

It's a true tossup for the Sonics, with Bayless sitting and glaring from his round table in the New York draft day studio, but the need for a capable, mostly healthy center is pressing in the rainy Northwest.

5.) Minnesota - Kevin Love, University of California-Los Angeles

The comparisons are everywhere between GM Kevin McHale and Love, who watched tapes of the former great to improve his game as a youngster. Whether or not he fulfills a career as fruitful as McHale's is doubtful, but he could grow up to be a capable sixth man on a contender.

6.) New York - F Danilo Gallinari, Armani Jeans Milano

Danilo's Italian, Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni is Italian. It's a match made in heaven, one assumes, although probably not as steamy as the McHale-Love Connection (pun intended!).

7.) Los Angeles Clippers - G Eric Gordon, Indiana University

Small, but bound to be a big-time scorer. Just pray he isn't the second coming of DeJuan Wagner.

8.) Milwaukee - F Joe Alexander, West Virginia University

Have need? Here's Joe to fill up the three slot, and he'll do it admirably. This team justs might be putting it all together... albeit slowly.

9.) Charlotte - G Jerryd Bayless, University of Arizona

The fall of the draft is Bayless, as the shakeup at 2, 3, and 5 pushes him down, and not even damaged goods like the Knicks or the Clippers will take him. With Larry Brown not sold on Ray Felton, Jumpman 23 better be leaping for joy with Bayless available here.

10.) New Jersey - G Russell Westbrook, University of California-Los Angeles

Just missing out on Bayless, the Nets still have to be happy to see Westbrook around this late, passing on LSU's Anthony Randolph for the UCLA stud.

Analysis:

The shakeup of this monumental trade will weigh on the legacies of these three franchises. Miami will now have Mayo, Wade, and Marion, a 1-2-3 combo on par with any tandem in the league, barring Wade's shoulder keeps holding up.

Memphis gets the coveted Beasley, although giving up a future number one to do it, but Beasley's more than worth it. Minnesota reaches for Love, but obtain's Marc Gasol's rights.

Of all three involved, I'd gander that Minnesota is best positioned for a collapse, as Love is not as touted as other big men in the draft and I'm not just yet sold on Marc. Miami looks strong coming out of the draft, but I don't expect a playoff run just yet. Depth in the post is something they might be able to add with Memphis' first rounder.

Sam Maresh: Promising Career on Hold for Gopher Stud Recruit

Mike White — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:50:26 -0400

In the middle of a bleak beginning for the Tim Brewster era at the helm of Gopher Football, one Minnesota star heeded the call to take up the task of helping the program rebuild and move towards a promising future.

These days, however, Sam Maresh will look towards health before contemplation of suiting up in maroon and gold.

Maresh, the top in-state recruit for Brewster's 2008 recruiting class that ranked in the Top 25 nationally, will have to forgo football for now, as he must have open-heart surgery to repair or replace his aortic valve.

As first reported by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune on June 10, Maresh's surgery was scheduled for June 26. Two days separate Maresh from the rest of his life and, hopefully, an illustrious career.

Either way, most of the state will have this strong and daring kid in their thoughts.

Brewster, unflinching in his support of Maresh, states that Sam will still carry the program into the dramatic next phase of the shift towards legitimacy. The Champlin Park High School graduate will bring the Gophers into their new friendly confines as the flag carrier for their entrance into TCF Bank Stadium, the new, lavish on-campus stadium for the football program.

"Either in pads or in street clothes, he will be carrying the flag," Brewster claimed at the press conference announcing's Maresh's condition.

At 6'3" and a muscle-bound 225 pounds, Maresh was a force in the middle for Champlin Park HS in Champlin, MN, just Northwest of the Twin Cities. He was a Top 250 HS Senior and a four-star rated recruit, according to Rivals.com.

After leaving his first official visit to the campus in April 2007, Sam asked his father, Bill, to turn around, knowing full well that the University of Minnesota was the place for him.

Brewster was so ecstatic from Maresh's commitment, according to Gopher football beat writer Chip Scoogins, that, amidst the celebration of his announcement to the team, Brewster grabbed Sam's dad and wrapped him up in a bear hug that had the elder Maresh off the ground.

During a 1-11 season mired in inescapable obstacles for Brewster's young team and coaching staff, it was the knowledge of quick reinforcements, most notably Maresh, that brought hope.

The Signing Day-announced recruits included six other Rivals four-star recruits, most notably Dallas (TX) Skyline safety Keanon Cooper and Indianapolis (IN) Ben Davis quarterback MarQueis Gray, a U.S. Army All-American.

While a fruitful life post-surgery seems likely, Maresh has a chance as pursuing his dream of being on the field for the leaps Brewster aims to take the program.

Former Gonzaga forward Ronny Turiaf, Sam's equal in high character and skill, was also forced to endure open-heart surgery, his for an enlarged heart. This year's NBA Finals were a good showcase of Ronny's life after a life- and career-threatening health complication, as Turiaf made it back as an integral role player for the Western Conference Champion Lakers.

Turiaf was poised as a low and high post defender against the likes of Kevin Garnett, shadowing the former NBA MVP and reigning Defensive Player of the Year with his tenacious defense.

Another example of a healthy post-surgery life is current Minnesota Timberwolves Assistant GM Fred Hoiberg. While a guard on the Timberwolves, Hoiberg also had complications with his aorta, forcing surgery.

While the NBA veteran was forced to cut his career short, he now has his health and looks back at his own situation and Maresh's with a view of being fortunate—for his health and the fact that, in Sam's case, the problem was caught.

In two days, Sam will be at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN under the care of Dr. Hartzell Schaff, a Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery specialist with his M.D. from the University of Oklahoma and residencies and fellowships at the famed Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD, and who is one of the nation's best and most experienced cardiac surgeons.

Maresh is undoubtedly in great care from not only the Mayo clinic surgeons and staff, but also his inner circle of family and friends. Whether or not he'll be making it back to the gridiron is anyone's guess, but I know better than to root against this kid, and he'll be in my thoughts and prayers—and I hope he is in yours as well.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune and Rivals.com were used as source material for this piece.

Gamey: A Treatise Against The 'Gamer'

Mike White — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:06:27 -0400

"A gamer is someone who does whatever he can to win - stealing home, making a diving catch, taking out the second baseman, hitting the clutch homer, always playing hard. A gamer doesn't care about his stats. He never takes a game off for a phony reason. He gets his uniform dirty."
-- Lowell Cohn, Award-winning journalist & idiot

For as long as there has been sports journalism, we can deduce that there has been an equal length of history of the adoration of the "gamer," the scrappy player who appears to "play the game the right way," to quote Joe Morgan.

For a more general understanding, well, we all know what a gamer truly is: he's the inferior player whose hustle, character, and/or other qualities endear him to sappy, moronic journalists like Cohn, as well as towards the populous of fans.

While usually a high-character guy, a gamer is inevitably a cancer to the team. Yes, you read that last line right. While endearing himself to the fan base, he's crippling the lineup when he plays. No amount of smiles, great interviews, and autographs can make up for inferior talent.

So apologies to the Willie Bloomquists of the world. In the Northwest, Willie Bloomquist might as well be king at the moment despite hitting like an invalid. Baseball Prospectus saw the ailment, writing in 2005 equating the middling utility infielder who lacks hitting and doesn't do particularly at most of the defensive positions he plays as a syphilitic incubation.

"This kind of infection by local white boys with scrappy personalities is often untreatable." Bloomquist has been putting up EQAs in the .240s or worse since 2003, but still has seen over 200 PAs in three seasons during that stretch, an untenable decision by management. Letting a scab play for more than a third of the season should force a GM's firing, as it is a proverbial slap to the face of a franchise; a clear message that says "I'm scrapping this season by playing this 'scrappy' player while holding up his successors to muck around in the minors."

A gamer like Bloomquist, who handicaps the offense while failing to provide any defensive value beyond playing more than two positions should only be revered for the fact that he made it to The Show, and beyond that should only play when no short-term alternative can be found. The seemingly poetic fantasizing that journalists have with these futility players is merely for the show of their trifling bs-ing, an attempt to sap the audience in a fantastic story than provide the truth. The adoration that these journalists engender is sickening.

If you hope for success for your favorite franchise, don't lay your sympathies with the cancers that prevent progression. Attack and treat the infection, so that the health of your team can be restored.

Mike White is a senior at Gonzaga University and hates watching Nick Punto in the batters box.

Keppinger, et al. Lead New Wave for Reds

Mike White — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:44:25 -0400

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

--Benjamin Franklin, 13 Nov 1788

If baseball had a sport-specific antecedent to the famous Benjamin Franklin line, they would probably churn out “…Cheating, chewing tobacco, and Jeff Keppinger’s batting average” as three constants throughout baseball.

If there were a Hall of Fame for the relatively obscure in sports, Keppinger ought be an inductee. A 2001 pick out of the University of Georgia, Keppinger has a career .320 average in 2340 career plate appearances, as well as a career .309 mark in the majors, but had never caught on to full season duty. He might have had that chance with the New York Mets, who went through four second basemen last year, including Ruben Gotay, for whom the Royals sent for the rights to Keppinger.

Now a Red, albeit playing shortstop, he is now forming with Indians cast-off Brandon Phillips into the best middle infield of cast-offs in the majors. In Phillips the Reds have their first 30/30 athlete since Barry Larkin, but a sure defender to go with great speed and power. Opposite him you have Keppinger, a high-contact hitter who also manages to get on base at a clip over .360.

While Keppinger’s defense at his new full-time position is merely adequate, it more than makes up for other, more announced tandems. The Marlins much-lauded combo of Dan Uggla and Hanley Ramirez put up similarly impressive numbers from historically inferior hitting positions, but they bring nothing to the table defensively, with Ramirez rating so bad in his defense that BP rated him only about the eighth-best player in the NL, despite leading the entire league in VORP, which doesn’t account for defense.

The Keppinger/Phillips tandem also doesn’t hurt the bank, either, with their combined salary costing the Reds $285,000 less than one year of Alex Gonzalez, last year’s starter at shortstop, or about half of a heathy/injured 38 year-old Ken Griffey, Jr. In comparison, Cano/Jeter are making $24.6 million in 2008.

Maybe the biggest turn towards the progression of this franchise, and with it Keppinger’s career is the early-season backing he’s received by Dusty Baker. The ever-leery Baker, who has been called by many, including Baseball Prospectus, to both bench offensive-minded fielders as well as force his hitters to swing instead of take pitches, cutting down on walks and effectively damning the career of Corey Patterson. With Alex Gonzalez down for another month or so, Baker will continue to use Keppinger for the foreseeable stretch, but there is optimism, as he’s expressed praise of him on both sides of his game.

"He's the guy that's kind of a perfect second hitter" Baker told MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon at the start of the 2008 campaign, lauding his contact ability especially in two-strike counts.

Should Keppinger hold down short for the rest of the season, he and Phillips should see even more offensive production once vaunted prospect Jay Bruce finally makes his way to the Show. Bruce, a 2006 first rounder from Beaumont, TX is their 21 year-old stud center fielder and the number one prospect according to BP’s Kevin Goldstein. Bruce oozes tools Makita wished they had and has exhibited prodigious power at every level with a minor league slugging percentage of .543 as he climbed five levels in less than three years.

The offense is set for the future, but pitching is something that must progress, but some pieces are in place. Harang is proving to be a better than league-average innings eater, but he needs the reinforcements that under-22 flamethrowers Johnny Cueto and Homer Bailey can bring. Each top ten prospect, Cueto and Bailey bring amazing heat and with each possessing a solid junk pitch, they will find success so long and their control holds up. Once they settle into the rotation and survive the hitter-friendly Great American Ballpark, the Reds figure to re-enter the playoff conversation as early as next year.

Mike White is a senior at Gonzaga University and freelance White Sox basher.