2013 All Minnesota NCAA Basketball Team

How do you think this team would do?  

C - Mike Muscala - Bucknell - Rosevill, MN - SR
C - Jared Berggren - Wisconsin - Princeton, MN - SR

PF - Trevor Mbakwe - Minnesota - St Paul, MN - SR
PF - Sam Dower - Gonzaga - Brooklyn Park, MN - JR
PF - Mike Bruesewitz - Wisconsin - St Paul, MN - SR

SF - Rodney Williams - Minnesota - Minneapolis, MN - SR
SF - Trent Lockett - Marquette - Golden Valley, MN - SR
SF - Ethan Wragge - Creighton - Eden Prairie, MN - JR

OG - Joe Coleman - Minnesota - Minneapolis, MN - SO
OG - Raymond Cowels III - Santa Clara - Minneapolis, MN - SR

PG - Nate Wolters - South Dakota St - St Cloud, MN - SR
PG - Jordair Jett - Saint Louis - St Paul, MN - JR
PG - Siyani Chambers - Harvard - Golden Valley, MN - FR

2011/2012 Team
2010/2011 Team 

Some promising young guys on the way up too:
Tyus Jones - Apple Valley, MN
Rashad Vaughn - Robbinsdale, MN
Reid Travis - Minneapolis, MN
Alex Illikainen - Grand Rapids, MN

As The Rush Comes

....I'm not sure who these ladies are or what they are promoting, but I approve. 



You can find more similar videos here. 

POTpourri

• Alabama routs Notre Dame to win BCS Championship. 
• NHL strike ends, games to begin 01/19/2013.  Should we forget?  
• The 2013 Academy Award nominees named.  
• A cheaper iPhone?  Sounds intriguing.  
• Nobody elected to Baseball Hall of Fame.  Why no Mike Piazza?  
• Why are we allowing Gerrymandering to kill American Democracy? 
• Buffalo Bills hire Doug Marrone as new head coach. 
• Have you seen GQ's list of the Best Breasts of 2012?  
• Tea Party hits record level of unpopularity in latest public opinion poll.  
• Alabama QB A.J. McCarron is doing alright off the field too. Just ask Brent Musburger.
• Remember when Bill Kristol wanted Chuck Hagel to be Vice President? 
• Should the U.S. mint a trillion dollar coin?  Paul Krugman makes a good point. 
• Teen Mom Farrah Abraham is looking good these days!
• Please read up on the conservative money making machine.  
• Why aren't 'fiscal conservatives' outraged by wasteful defense and drug war spending? 
• Perhaps some psychological testing should be in store for Alex Jones.  Just saying.  
• It's official, 2012 was the warmest in U.S. recorded history.   
• RIP Ned Wertimer.  
• How is that "Austerity" thing working for you Europe? 
• Sapphire Strip Club in Las Vegas unveils plans for a new adult pool.
• WTF AIG, you've got some big balls. 

2012 Year in Review

AZ Tidbits

• The Suns are apparently in trade talks with Memphis for Rudy Gay.  Pull the trigger!
• Gabrielle Giffords and Mark Craig launch 'Americans for Responsible Solutions'.   
• The Cardinals name Steve Keim as new General Manager.  Good call.  
• Is it too early to begin the recall proceedings for Matt Salmon?  
• Sun Devil All American DT Will Sutton announces that he will return for his Senior year. 
• Are you familiar with the Phoenix areas Top 5 wealthiest zip codes? 
• RIP Jeff Lewis.    
• Is Richard Carmona going to run for Governor of Arizona?    
• It appears that the Diamondbacks are still shopping Justin Upton for some reason. 
• Be careful of those PediCabs in Old Town Scottsdale. 
• Cardinals set to draft number 7 in the 2013 NFL Draft. 
• Arizona's American's for Responsible Leadership "Non Profit" runs afoul of the IRS. 
• Not cool Darnell Dockett.   There are plenty of single women out there for you. 
• Is Jeff Flake going to be more moderate than his history suggests?  Probably not.
• Should Arizona gun owners have the right to destroy their legally obtained guns?  
• Arizona is about to hit a population milestone, 6.64 million residents. 
• Valle Luna in Phoenix ranked as 14th best eatery in the country. 
• Asian-Americans say Latinos not the only ones hit by Arizona immigration law. 
• The University of Arizona to offer a minor in hip-hop. 
• Arizona law could make online impersonation twitter parody accounts a felony. 

New David Bowie

David Bowie is back, finally, after 10 years with "Where Are We Now".   It's not the most uplifting tune but I'm guessing his fans will be happy with it. 

TPSG Top 10 Movies of 2012

The critics may not agree with all of these picks but I enjoyed them, that's all that matters.  For the record, I like smart movies, I like action and suspense, I like to laugh, I like good acting and good direction.  Keep in mind, I haven't seen everything, not by a long shot, so this list could still be subject to some updating.  

Top 10 Movies of 2012: 

1. Zero Dark Thirty - Jessica Chastain, Jason Clark - I think Kathryn Bigelow has become my favorite director, this was a fantastic movie.  Jessica Chastain should win an Oscar for this one.  
2. Django Unchained - Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz - great cast, great acting, lots of violence and suspense with a few laughs mixed in, I absolutely loved it.  
3. Argo - Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston - a smart thriller that does a great job of building suspense even though anybody with any knowledge of U.S. history already knows how it's going to end.
4. Silver Linings Playbook - Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence - Great cast, great performances, great direction, just a great all around movie. 
5. The Dark Knight Rises - Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway  - Not quite at the level of the "The Dark Knight" but still an excellent movie. 
6. Ted - Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis - Who would have thought that a talking/walking Teddy Bear could be so funny?  This was easily the funniest movie of the year. 
7. Lincoln - Daniel Day Lewis, Tommy Lee Jones - I predict an easy Best Actor win for Daniel Day Lewis for this one, he does an absolutely remarkable job as Abe Lincoln.   
8. End of Watch - Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Pena - Gritty movie about cops patrolling south central Los Angeles.  Action packed, horrific, tragic and edge of your seat.  
9. Life of Pi -  Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan - really a remarkable movie to watch.
10. Skyfall - Daniel Craig, Judi Dench - Daniel Craig has really revitalized the Bond franchise. 

America Voted for Divided Government?

. . . at least according to Mitch McConnell, here's his quote from this past weekend's "Meet the Press":

" the United States chose a divided government to tackle difficult economic issues facing the nation."

Really?  Apparently, he's overlooking the fact that America just re-elected Democrat Barack Obama as President, increased the Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate and won a majority of the popular vote for U.S. House seats.  If not for the gerrymandering of House seats we'd have a Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives too.  Republicans at this point have absolutely have no mandate, they should not be dictating anything to anybody.  

Ray Lewis

I'm going to miss the Ray Lewis entrance dance!

Packers 24, Vikings 10

NFC Wildcard Playoffs 

The Packers throttle the Vikings 24-10 tonight in the first round of the NFL Playoffs.  The Vikings had a nice opening drive, after that it was all Packers. Joe Webb started in place of an injured Christian Ponder and put to rest any thoughts that anybody may have had of him being a starting caliber NFL QB, he was pretty awful. Given that the Vikings won 10 games this year I fear they may be stuck with Christian Ponder at QB going forward, I am far from sold on him, he really didn't have that good a year himself, make no mistake though, Ponder is better than Joe Webb. As disappointed as I am with the loss, you cannot be unhappy with the season as a whole, they improved from 3 wins to 10 wins, they had a great draft class, Adrian Peterson returned from a devastating knee injury to possibly win the MVP Award, they made the playoffs, no doubt about it, things are looking brighter moving forward.  Some tweaks are needed though, they need to resolve the Percy Harvin situation, they could use a WR who can stretch the field, they need to at the very least find a veteran QB who can push Ponder.  

Observations:

• Nothing went right for the Vikings tonight.  Nothing.  
• The Packers did a nice job of containing Adrian Peterson. 
• The Vikings are a much better team indoors than outdoors.
• I don't think there's a better QB in football right now than Aaron Rodgers. 
• If the Vikings bring Joe Webb back next year I would hope it's as a WR not a QB.   
• The limitations of the Cover-2 defense were on full display tonight. 
• Why didn't the Vikings try an onside kick after their last TD?   
• Draft needs for the Vikings in 2013:   DT, WR, LB.  
• Faith Hill was probably the highlight of the game for me.  
• Up next for the Vikings?  NFL Draft.  April 25, 2013. 

POTpourri

• Nothing like some Xenia Deli pictures to kick off the new year.  
• USA wins the 2013 World Junior Hockey Championship! 
• Jon Huntsman calls the GOP 'devoid of a soul'.  I concur.
• Sean Hannity's ratings take a tumble.  Is sanity finally prevailing?
• Maxim ranks the Top 100 Sexiest Russian women.  Here's another list.  
• Just when you think House Republicans couldn't sink any lower, they deliver.  
• Johnny Manziel is doing alright for himself off the field too.  
• Al Jazeera acquires Current TV. 
• It's confirmed, Michele Bachmann is still crazy. 
• RIP Patti Page & Wren Blair. 
• John Boehner re-elected for a second term as Speaker of the House. 
• Jessica Alba is looking mighty good these days.  
• The myth of the 'Fiscal Conservative' lives on.  
• Senator Barney Frank?  Works for me.   
• Andy Reid named head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. 
• Hello Veronica Pliego, how come I've never heard of you? 
• Is Peter King finally wising up to the far right?  It sure looks like it. About time.
• North Dakota State repeats as FCS football champions. 
• Why is the estate tax going to be adjusted for inflation but minimum wage is not?
• More evidence surfaces on the GOP's "War on Women".  It's real folks. 

Arizona Cardinal Coaching Candidates

Andy Reid - it looks like he's headed to the Chiefs.  I'm honestly not too broken up about that as it sounds like he wants a lot of control over much of the football operations.  I'm a firm believer that you need to keep the coaching duties and front office duties separate, when any one person gains too much control things start to get a bit off kilter (as they did with Ken Whisenhunt when he gained more player personnel say the last couple of years). 

Ray Horton - he's done an outstanding job with the Cardinals defense and seems to have a lot of respect in the Cardinals lockeroom.  I could live with him as head coach, only on the condition that he bring in an experienced offensive coordinator to run the offense though (and rumor has it that he does have ties to Norv Turner from his playing days with the Cowboys).  The big downside to hiring Horton as the head coach is that you'd lose him as the defensive coordinator as he was already said he wouldn't be calling the defensive plays if he's named head coach.  It's probably safe to say that they'd be running the same defensive schemes though. 

Todd Haley - the Bidwells apparently are big fans of Todd Haley and given his offensive pedigree (and the Cardinals offensive struggles), he might make sense with the Cardinals, especially if they would be able to retain Horton as the Defensive Coordinator.  If hiring Haley as head coach meant losing Horton though, I think I'd probably just as soon see them go with Horton. 

Mike McCoy - he's the current offensive coordinator for the Broncos.  He won last year with Tim Tebow and this year with Peyton Manning and those two couldn't be more different, that would bode well for him with whoever ends up at QB for the Cardinals next year.  He's in demand, the Bills, Bears and Eagles will also be interviewing him.  I think it's only a matter of time before he's a head coach somewhere.

Bill O'Brien - he seems to have impressed a lot of people with how he's handled the mess at Penn State, he's also got NFL experience with the Patriots.  He's also an offensive guy too so that would be a plus for the Cardinals. 

I haven't heard many rumblings about Lovie Smith or Chip Kelly, I doubt that they go in that direction though.  At this point I'm guessing they'll be going with Horton or Haley, but you never know, a darkhorse could certainly still emerge (Bill Cowher?  Doug Marrone?  Bruce Arians?  Mike Holmgren?).  Don't scoff at the big name suggestions, the Bidwells have brought in Buddy Ryan and Dennis Green in the past, they're not afraid to go big when the situation calls for it.

January Flavor of the Month . . . . .

. . . . . is Karlie Montana.  Check her out!

AZ Tidbits

• The Arizona Cardinals fire Ken Whisenhunt and Rod Graves. 
• Is Andy Reid in line to replace Ken Whisenhunt?  
• KTAR's list of the Top 25 Arizonans to watch in 2013 is interesting. 
• Let the Alex Smith to Arizona rumors commence.  
• Patrick Peterson is sole Arizona Cardinal named to the NFL Pro Bowl.
• Sure enough, Arizona state leaders want a gun in every school.  
• The Arizona Republic names Jon Kyl 2012 Arizonan of the Year.
• UA knocks off Nevada 49-48 in the Gildan New Mexico Bowl. 
• Joe Arpaio wants armed posse members in schools.  
• Former ASU Sun Devil Cain Velasquez wins back the UFC Heavyweight title. 
• New Times lists the 13 Phoenix Artists You need to Hear in 2013.  
• Arizona increased access to guns and decreased funding for mental health services in 2012.

Mashup of Top 50+ Pop Songs of 2012

This is an amazing video!  Love it!