100% Cotten: Hogs, Hoops and High Places
12/10/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 10, 2007
by Stan Cotten
AND YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM...(see last column)
In their rush to get it first - they got it wrong. Media and Internet reports that Jim Grobe was heading to Arkansas missed the mark. Pressure instead of patience created some egg-covered faces.
The only place Jim Grobe was going was home.
On a Wednesday night in Nashville, while Dino Gaudio's Deacons were standing toe to toe with one of the SEC's better basketball teams, the Vanderbilt Commodores, the story filling computer screens along press row was that Jim Grobe's Deacons would have to find another coach. On this night, the SEC would get two wins against the ACC.
Somebody either on the inside or right on the skirt just knew it was going to happen. Surely Jim Grobe wouldn't turn down Arkansas. Wake to Arkansas? Done deal. Whoever that was then lit the fuse with an open mouth - only to get burned in the ensuing firestorm.
But someone else took the bait and swam. Put it in print for all to see and be deceived. Gotta get the scoop, but you'd better have the proof. It's a danger zone for sure, and some just never learn that getting it right should be the goal.
See you next season, Jim.
CONFERENCE EXPANSION
Did you hear the one about the SEC expanding to 13 teams? A Georgia fan came up to me in Athens and wondered when the Deacs had joined the league. "I must have missed that one," he said. He was referring, I assumed, to the fact that in four days Wake Forest had played both the Vanderbilt Commodores and his Georgia Bulldogs. He might not have known that the Demon Deacons had also taken down Vandy in football recently.
And the two games in Nashville and Athens proved to be not that much different than games in Anytown, ACC. You had better play well, or you are likely to lose.
Wake played arguably its best game of the season at Vanderbilt and still came up on the short end of an 83-80 score. The Deacs became the 94th non-SEC team to lose in Memorial Gym in the last 100 games. But the Deacons had played well. Played hard and found their shooting touch. And had their chances to win the game. Coach Dino Gaudio told his players that he "...left the gym that night proud to be your coach."
And in Athens, the Deacs forced 26 Bulldog turnovers but shot so poorly they still could not make a serious run at winning the game. Perhaps exam week arrived at a good time. A fresh start comes with a stretch of six games at the friendly Joel Coliseum.
COTTEN BRIEFS
I've been calling games for almost three decades now and have had some interesting broadcast locations. Three of the more unique ones have already happened this season. I thought the Dinger and I were far away from the court at Iowa, fifteen or so rows back and up from the end line, until Wake played at the Bobcats Arena against Charlotte. That game was a rumor as far as we were concerned we were so high. Had we gotten to eat from the Club Level menu it might have been worth it. And had I had my football binoculars with me I would have used them. Really. We had been to Vanderbilt before, so I was prepared for the Orchestra Pit - below court level on the endline. Good thing I played trumpet in 8th grade.
I called Coach Mike Petersen on his cell phone in the Virgin Islands to congratulate him after learning the Deacons had won their second game there. They're still winning, having just upended another solid team at Western Carolina. Good for them.
And speaking of winning. Best of luck to Jay Vidovich's Deacons having knocked off Notre Dame in overtime to advance to soccer's Final Four-the College Cup. I say take Jennifer Averill with you, coach. Couldn't hurt.