Great Bucknut Joke to begin the day

An Ohio family of OSU football supporters heads out one Saturday to do their back-to-school shopping.

While in the sports shop the son picks up a Michigan jersey and says to his older sister, "I've decided to become a Michigan fan and I would like this jersey. His big sister is outraged by this and promptly cuffs him round the head and says, "Go talk to mother".

Off goes the little lad with the Michigan jersey in hand and finds his mother. "Mom?""Yes son?" "I've decided I'm going to be a Michigan fan and I would like this jersey." The mother is outraged at this, promptly slaps him upside his melon and says, "Go talk to your father!"

Off he goes with the Wolverine Jersey in hand and finds his father. "Dad?""Yes son?" "I've decided I'm going to be an Michigan fan and I would like this jersey." The father is outraged, expectorates on the jersey and says, "No son of mine is ever going to be seen in THAT!"

A while later, they're all back in the car and heading towards home. The father turns to his son and says, "Son, I hope you've learned something today?"

The son says, "Yes, Dad, I have."

"Good son, what is it?"

The son replies, "I've only been a Michigan fan for fifteen minutes and I hate you Buckeye bastards already."

Michigan Update

Al Montoya signed with the Rangers ending his Michigan career. I say good for him and we'll move on. I don't think he ever really improved over the course of his career, he just pretty much stayed the same, sometimes even got worse. It was always the will he stay or will he go question so I'm glad it's over so we can bring in one of the two goalies we got commitments for early this year and go from there. For all he did we never got the NC that we expected him to carry us after his freshman year. With that out of the way we can concentrate on who will be playing for Michigan this next year as Tambellini is staying, after a few rumors that floated around that he was leaving early as well, along with the new incoming freshmen which include Jack Johnson who is supposed to go in the top 5 of the NHL draft this year and Andrew Cogliano who is pegged in the last third of the first round as well. Should be another exciting year of hockey, and it's been too long since we took home an NC considering all the talent we have year in and year out at Yost.

On to Football recruiting and this year we definitely need DB's badly, especially at safety considering we had a silent commitment from Nic Harris who decided to go to Oklahoma at the last minute. Good news is on its way as Steve Brown the #65 ranked player in the country according to Rivals and the #4 corner, although he will most likely play safety, in the country is set to announce on Monday August 1st and it is down to Michigan and Notre Dame. Most people are expecting him to announce for the Maize and Blue so we shall wait and see although considering the sources it is from I'd be shocked if we didn't see him in a winged helmet. Also Taylor Mays was out for an unofficial, he is the #2 athlete and #6 player in the country overall, from Seattle. He had a great visit and there are two sets of rumors in which one is it's down to Michigan and Washington, his home school as well as the school that his dad went to, or it is another Michigan and USC battle which we have not been winning many lately but if so hope this is one. DB recruiting is looking good as in addition to them Antwine Perez is still looking at Michigan, LSU and USC and with him being from New Jersey I like our chances, and also Darrin Walls, the #1 CB in the country from Woodland Hills High School in Pennsylvania, the same school as our own Steve Breaston and Ryan Mundy which bodes very well for us, it is shaping up to another Michigan - Notre Dame battle with Florida also in there as well. Myron Rolle is still out there but I don't think we get him. Not sure about Mays since it is so far from home but I don't think we have to worry about our DB recruiting this year.

Now with Basketball, DeShawn Sims tore it up in Vegas and hopefully he announces for us as soon as Tory Jackson should within another few weeks. We need one of the dominoes to fall and we can get started as we are all just sitting around and waiting after the K'len Morris commitment last year. We have offered another combo guard Will Walker from Chicago and he apparently outplayed Tory in Vegas. There is also another big man from Oklahoma who we are on the top of his list but we have yet to offer Epke Udoh in case Herzog doesn't work out. As much as I would like to see Jackson, Sim and Herzog to go along with Morris to make an all state of Michigan class and show ourselves to be back in the state I don't think it will happen. I just don't have a good feeling about Herzog so Udoh, if the coaches like him enough I would like to see aboard, he's 6'9 but very thin at 220 so if he can fill out it wouldn't be a bad backup plan. Good to know the staff has backup plans in mind after the Crawford/Hairston fiasco from last year. I believe in Tommy and co. and this is the year we make our mark back on the national map.

I hate Bees

For some reason we have a huge bee hive in the front yard of our house and I'm sure there's something else in the backyard too because on Thursday night as I'm playing NCAA 2006 with Steven I move to pick up something from the ground and a bee fucking stings me on my left forearm. I have no idea how a bee got into my room but it hurt and it sucked a fat one. I woke up the next day and it seemed ok so I went to work and everything was fine until Friday night at dinner. We went to Manna for Andrew's birthday and while we're eating I start not to feel good and my arm is just getting bigger and bigger. It started to swell up at dinner and I didn't feel right so I just went home early for the night and just crashed.

Woke up pretty late on Saturday and took care of some errands before I hit up the gym and came home to start playing NCAA 2006 for a few hours. For those that don't have it, you need to get it, it's dope as hell, I haven't played PS2 for a few months but this game has got me hooked back on it. Got a call from Earl around 9 to meet up with everyone else and watch the Wedding Crashers. It is one funny ass movie, definitely well worth it and it's one that I will definitely buy as soon as it comes out on DVD. Afterwards all of us went back to my place and Steven and his friends were already there so we had a big group drinking in my room. Drank some Scoresby and just had a good time crackin jokes and talkin shit. I even got drunk enough to say "What the Fuck Turntable." An inside joke about when I told my friends I was getting turntables a couple years ago Marcus says your dad probably said "Kenny, what the fuck turntable" and its something that's just stuck around the past few years. Watched some DVD's and everyone ended up leaving around 3:30-4 am.

For some reason I woke up around 10 am and I couldn't go back to sleep so I played some more NCAA 2006. I was supposed to build this shed that we got for our pool area to store the chairs and tables and shit but it looks way too ridiculous to build so I didn't and just went swimming for a while. Entourage was on later so I stayed to watch that, dope as hell as usual and then grabbed dinner. Watched Family Guy and played some more NCAA after that and crashed. Just another usual weekend, but can't wait for this upcoming one.

New grill came in yesterday although not everything is set up and the fire pit should be arriving today. All this shit's gonna be dope and it should be great to see everything all set up soon. Also starting on a new meal plan which should keep me in check more and it seems to be working already, hopefully it'll help kick start me back on a downward trend since I hit my plateau.

Hip Hop Today

It's been pretty slow today again at work so I've got nothin else to do but write another entry. I've been thinking lately about the music that I listen to and how Hip-Hop has degenerated into what it is today. Listening to the radio all you hear is the reggaetone crap that I can't stand, then they'll play 50 Cent about 50 times and every once in a while you'll hear some good stuff. It seems as we're force fed these songs that are supposed to be "hot" and eventually it grows on you to the point that you want to buy it. Case and point this new guy Mike Jones, when I first heard "Still Tippin" I thought it was awful and now when I hear it on the radio I'll actually listen to it now. Then "Back Then" came out and now I'm thinkin this dude is actually pretty good. I like the hook a lot on "Back Then" so maybe that's it but I'm actually thinkin about gettin his album. Along with the other Houston cats comin up Slim Thug, I read somewhere it was a real good album, and then Paul Wall joint drops next week and Kanye on the radio this mornin said it was hot so I'll probably get it on that recommendation alone. Hip-Hop has become so commercially viable that it's not what it used to be. The roots of Hip-Hop are gone and now it's just all packaged commercial bullshit. There's a term for this from a Comm class I took but I can't remember it right now that describes this phenomenon exactly. The example at the time was extreme sports like the skateboarding and the skating, etc. This too used to be done by kids for fun and since it turned into such a commercial success the major corporations took this and are exploiting the hell out of it.

Another way to think of it is KDAY which came back on the air sometime last year. For those that don't know KDAY was the first station in Los Angeles ever to play hip-hop music back in the early 80's. Then they went out of business for whatever reason and they came back last year. When it first came back they played strictly music only for a few months. No DJ's, no commercials, just the classics. They played stuff that other stations would only play during off peak hours. But because of that they started to get a large audience that appreciated those old school joints. Although it isn't the same as the Beat or Power yet, they are getting close to becoming the exact same type of station. KDAY will still play some old school stuff mixed in but now they're starting to put in some R&B along with some songs that are shoved down our throat by the other stations. Same thing, the station sees that a lot of people are listening and now they add commercials and DJ's, the whole nine and its soon to become the same as the other two major stations in LA.

That leads me to where, will hip-hop go next? It's probably going to reach its saturation point soon in American culture and then what will happen? It will be interesting to see but hopefully there will always be some artists that remind me how great it is and can be. Speaking of which if you don't have the Common CD you need to go cop that. I hadn't heard a good new CD in a while before Common dropped and it's definitely one of the albums of the year. I cannot wait until the new Kanye drops as well, hopefully it'll be another classic like his first album is going to become.

Turnin the Corner

My regular 8-6 M-F work as a Customs broker will be coming to a close soon, my dad told me that I'm being transferred to the warehouse in a few weeks where I'll soon have to work late, on weekends, holidays and whatnot, I guess I'll understand what I bankers go through and it's gonna suck. Not sure what I can expect when I get moved out, but it's a move I got to make and we'll see how it goes. I'm looking at it in a disappointing negative way because of the hours that I look at I'm going to have to work but I doubt it will be as bad as my worst case scenario. I also have to stop being so much of a bitch and do some hard work in the workplace, granted not like what I've been doing is ridiculously easy, but my dad went through a lot of shit to build our company to where it's at today. Hopefully I can carry it on and make it even better.

Football season is almost upon us. I'm getting e-mails daily regarding fantasy football leagues and I can't wait to get it going. Last year I joined 2 College Fantasy Leagues as well and they were a lot of fun. This should be a very exciting season for my two teams which if you didn't know are my alma mater, the Michigan Wolverines and the Oakland Raiders. When I first went off to college at Michigan I was looking forward to 4 years of Rose Bowls and National Championships. I came back from Michigan with none. My freshman year was the Tom Brady led squad that somehow lost to the sparties when we had the dual QB system with Drew Henson and then also somehow blew an 18 point lead at home to Illinois. Instead of heading to Pasadena where I had always dreamed of going since it was so close to home yet I had never gone we were sent to Miami and the Orange Bowl. Although I wanted to go I didn't want to ask my parents for that kind of money and I figured hey its my freshman year this is just the tip of the iceberg. So that New Years I sat at home with some friends and watched one of the greatest games I have ever seen in my life and I was ready to go onto season 2.

That next year Drew Henson was ready to take over until he broke his foot in the preseason and John Navarre had to step in and lead us over such difficult opponents as Bowling Green and Rice. Navarre looked all world until he had to head out to Pasadena against UCLA and played ok but ok doesn't get it done on the road. Sure there were some other things that happened, including Julius Curry's INT that was clearly inbounds but the refs ruled out of bounds but shit happens. Then we blew the game at Purdue followed by the 54-51 game vs Northwestern where the A-Train inexplicably got stripped by the air and dropped the ball to give the wildcats another chance which they capitalized on. So another 6-2 Big Ten season sending us to the Citrus Bowl. Drew Henson and David Terrell ripped it up in the Citrus Bowl vs Auburn and we seemed ready to finally make our run to the National Championship.

Then the year I would rather forget, Henson leaves early, not for the NFL but for the Ohio State backing George Steinbrenners New York Yankees. Terrell also left early for the NFL and now we're left with John Navarre a year way too early and Marquise Walker. Walker had a hell of a year but John Navarre was just not ready for it and we ended up with another 6-2 Big Ten season with a heartbreaking loss at Washington at the beginning of the year, clockgate in the middle of the year vs the sparties and somehow spotting Ohio State a 23 point lead in the first half to end up coming back just short of the win. Can't forget the most embarassing bowl loss to Tennessee and it was just an awful year.

Finally my senior year, the year that everything was supposed to come together. John Navarre is now experienced, Chris Perry should be ready to step up and National Championship here we come. We open up the season with one of the best games I've seen in person vs Washington with Phil Brabbs kicking the GW FG with no time left after Washington decided to have 12 men on the field after a penalty. Then to follow that great game up, what do you know we blow another road game to a Notre Dame team that was nowhere near our level. Had another great game to watch vs Penn State in overtime and then we head into the showdown at home with Iowa and get manhandled by Brad Banks and company, couple that with the fact that I had one of the worst hangovers of my life that morning that probably ranks up there in the worst days of my life. We bounce back and get ready to storm into the Horseshoe with the undefeated Bucknuts and we're ready to take them down. We go down there and dominate in every way possible except on the scoreboard. We get 3 first half FG's and that's it. I was in the corner where the ref called that BS PI on Braylon and our offense consists of 9 points. The Bucknuts win and we head back to Ann Arbor with another 6-2 Big Ten record and even the Citrus Bowl doesn't want us anymore so we get the Outback. The beauty of the Outback Bowl, an 8 am start on New Years Day in California. So I head out to a party get home by 4, sleep for 4 hours and start watching this game in bed. We got the win thanks to Ron Zook's ineptitude and going for 2 early in the game when anyone considering doing such a thing should've been shot.

Man that was a rant, but anyways my point was that I left Michigan with 4 years of 6-2 in the Big Ten after thinking that we were to be playing for National Championships every other year. It's amazing to think how much talent we have at Michigan and our last NC was in 1997. I think all these years of living and dying with Michigan have gotten me to realize that we will always underachieve under Coach Carr, he's a great man off the field, although he supposedly gave me a "you stupid Asian" look when I almost got into an accident with him, but on the field he has yet to bring back the elusive NC. He's gotten two straight Big Ten Championships and two Rose Bowls, these past two years but look what's happened we've lost both of them. We can't stop a mobile QB either and it's just frustrating. So this year I enter the year with some more realistic expectations. I'll have those along with my preseason top 10 or 20 list, depending on how much time I have, when it gets to August. I would give almost anything to win the NC this year in Pasadena, third time's a charm but I highly doubt it.

The Oakland Raiders will be another interesting group to watch with the addition of Randy Moss. It gives the Raiders, I believe, the best WR trio in the NFL, I know most will say the Colts with Harrison, Wayne and Stokley but I'm gonna be a homer here. Randy Moss, hands down best in the game, Jerry Porter who broke out last year and would be a very good #1 but now he becomes a #2 which will give him so much more opportunities considering the D will always have to keep an eye on "Straight Cash" Moss. Rounding out the trio is Ronald Curry, the former #1 player in the country in football and basketball who is now bulked up and had one of the best catches of last year in the NFL vs the Donkeys aka Broncos, at Mile High. Lamont Jordan is added to bolster the running game and I believe he will have a breakout year finally out of Curtis Martin's shadow. The D will still be a question and we're going to have to turn into a Colts type offense where we will need to outscore our opponents to win some games. Either way I'm very excited to see where both teams will go this year and it's just around the corner.

Rollin Along

After a busy first half of the week the 2nd half was much more laid back and I enjoyed it along with the weekend. After work on Friday got together with the boys for Mike's birthday celebration which was Tuesday and Nima's going away as he's off to med school in Chi-town. Went down to Muldoon's or something like that down in the OC bitch aka Newport, and got pretty messed up off some Jameson whisky, very good and smooth, definitely recommened. Surprisingly not hung over woke up on Saturday to get ready for the Hopkins-Taylor fight that night. Started to fire up the grill and drink some Coors Lights and Tecates, haven't had that in a while, and watched the fight. I remember it being close but can't remember all the details because I had been drinking for a while before the fight had started. I think it was closer than the judges show but it was Hopkins fault for starting off slower than John Navarre trying to throw a ball and he paid for it. There is a rematch clause in the contract which will be invoked and some are saying as early as this fall it will happen, dependent on Taylor and his cut on his head. Then proceeded to drink some more until I passed out.

Woke up Saturday with my dad waking me up as we got some new outdoor furniture for the pool area. My parents are goin crazy with this shit but it's gonna be off the chain as soon as it gets here. New built-in grill with counter, stools and fridge, then a fire pit as well. All that stuff is supposed to be arriving next week so we'll still have some summer fun with it. Later that night saw two of the best shows on TV, Entourage and Family Guy and after playing some NCAA Football 2006 called it a night. For those of y'all that haven't gotten it you need to go cop this game, the new shit is crazy with in-season recruiting and the race for the Heisman, I wish I had more time to play the game.

Yesterday went to Home Depot Center for the Real Madrid - LA Galaxy game. Place was packed and it was ridiculous getting in and out of parking but it was worth it. Had to go through a ticket broker to get my tickets but the seats were sweet, upper deck but it was on the wheel chair access so we were in the very front. Tried to get a dope ass warmup suit they had there, Carolina Blue jacket, Navy Blue pants but they sold out at halftime and told me to check back tomorrow but they only got a couple mediums left, fuckin sucks and I can't find this warmup on ebay, google anywhere, if anyone else knows what I'm talkin about and knows where I could get one it'd be greatly appreciated. That shit was so dope, I'm kickin myself for not going to the game early and buyin it. Not much else for the rest of this week, probably take a weekend off alcohol for once, well I'm going to try to, and we'll see what happens, maybe that will finally let me go play some poker for the first time in months.

Laker Moves

LA Times is reporting the Kwame Brown Trade is done for Caron and either Chucky or Devean. Unlike many fans I like this trade a lot I think it brings us another big who I think has a load of potential. Jordan messed up Kwame so much mentally I think a change of scenery could do wonders for him. When he plays significant minutes Brown has shown himself to be a very good player. Second it allows us to play Kwame at 4 and move Lamar back to his natural position at 3 which will help out a lot as well. Also can't forget we needed to take this trade to unload Caron because his market value isn't as high as we think it is and look at the offseason for swingmen and the contracts their getting. Simmons at 47, Hughes at 65, Caron would've commanded at least 40 which we do not need to pay and we sure as hell can't afford to let him walk for nothing.

Some other interesting rumors include the Lakers are trying to get Seattle to do a sign and trade for Antonio Daniels instead of just outright signing him for the Mid Level Exception. However if it can't be agreed upon he will probably just sign for the MLE. There is also talk of a Vlade Divac and Brian Grant for Ruben Patterson and Theo Ratliff. You might look at that and say the trade would never go through but the reason it makes sense is it will allow Portland to get rid of 4 salaries at once so they can pay less of a luxury tax. Vlade will be bought out and Grant will be released via the "Allan Houston exception" and they unload the two salaries to the Lakers. Take that trade with a grain of salt but it's in serious discussion so our new starting five could be Ratliff, Brown, Odom, Kobe and Daniels, which is much better than what we were running with this past year.

Summer League, I haven't been able to watch but I've heard good things about Von Wafer and William "Smush" Parker who I thought we should've grabbed coming out of college. I'd love to keep Smush on the squad this year and stash Wafer away in the NBDL for a year and then have him come up.

Very slow on the Michigan recruiting front football wise, we'll probably see some stuff coming in a month or so. Taylor Mays is coming out for a visit soon hopefully we can get him considering S is a pressing need. Most say it's down to us and U$C so hopefully the good guys can win on this one. Basketball not much either, still waiting one of the dominoes to drop Jackson, Herzog, Sims and I think the rest will follow, hopefully. Putting Morris with those 3 would make a hell of a recruiting class, just what we need to get us back to the top. Hockey finished its lockout finally so we're officially on the Al Montoya will he stay or will he go watch, hopefully he makes up his mind soon so the coaches can know if they need to bring one of the recruits a year early or not.

Need to cut back on the drinking

Another drinking weekend started off on Friday with Nima and Andrew's going away party at Nima's house. Got there and just started drinkin like crazy including throwing some shots down with Mr. Mehran. Got pretty wasted and had a great time seein everybody for the first time in a good minute. Ended up stayin there til like 3 and went home and crashed.

Woke up the next morning wanting to eat some Pho which is what I did with Dennis, Earl and Jack. After drinking for 7 of the previous 9 days I knew I needed some time off so after that went to Dennis' house to play his modded Xbox which is crazy. We were playing all the old school NES and SNES games including Blades of Steel, Golf and Street Fighter II Turbo. Went home and took a nap then woke up to go do something. It was tough finding something to do without drinking, doesn't that sound like something an alcoholic would say?, and so we went to the movies and watched the Longest Yard which was pretty cool.

Sunday had lunch with the folks and then helped them out at Sam's Club and various errands. Grabbed dinner with Steven and then watched Entourage and Family Guy until it was time to meet up Domski who came into town for the weekend at Dave and Busters. Randy and Colin decided to roll with me and we met up Domski and his friend Melissa. We started off with a bang as Colin ordered some Patron with Tabasco in it. Didn't drink too much but had a good amount. Played some ball where Domski kicked my ass then played some pool. D&B shuts down early on Sunday and good thing cause I had to get up for work in the morning. So a pretty decent weekend. This next weekend should be a good one as we're gonna get the Hopkins-Taylor fight in addition to our new grill coming in this week so it's gonna be on and poppin, no more drinking until Friday for Mike's Birthday.

One Wild Ass Weekend

Had one crazy ass weekend and it was great. Started out on Friday with drinking followed by James getting his way into an open vending machine and grabbing over 30 sodas and finished off by late night drunken bowling. It was a good start and only the beginning.

On Saturday my roommate from Michigan, James, came down for the weekend and along with King and Eug we went down to Newport to pick him up and also hang out at King's house. The house is real nice and we took the tour and followed that up by playing some really intense Ping Pong. The King and I took 2 of the 3 to win the series. Then we went back home and we really got it started. Tried not to make it too big of a party and it was successful, considering how much we had to drink and how many people we had it wasn't that big of a mess. Had a great time drinkin with everyone and hope we can do another one of those soon. By far the best ratio we've ever had at our house so that helped a great deal as well.

For some reason this weekend I kept waking up somewhat early considering it was a weekend and how much I had drank the night before. Luckily no hangovers to report. Sunday was BBQ day so went out to the market grabbed some grub and luckily they had a keg which we also picked up and started grilling. On top of that we ended up playing Beer Pong which I haven't done in a few years and it showed as the first game James and Chandler worked the King and I. We redeemed ourselves in the rematch but then lost our 3rd game of the day and we finished the outdoor portion of the evening. Went inside to start drinking some El Charro that my dad had left us but instead everyone went into the "Black Hole" aka our TV room to watch Entourage. It was a good episode but after that everyone was turning lazy and ready to sleep hence its name. I started hollering and yelling to get everyone up which I eventually did and we went to break in the new Karoake system that was installed this past week and drink some more. We finished the keg, and had a bottle and a third of El Charro along with some Cuervo and some Don Julio. Spent all night rotating as people were watching TV, singing or hangin out in the jacuzzi. Not as many people as Saturday but still a great time.

Yesterday was the day of cleaning, woke up and started cleaning all the mess up before me and James could head out to Newport Beach to meet up with our other roommate Steve Bob Tom, the man with three first names. Considering I had drank for 4 consecutive days already I wasn't planning on drinking but of course Steve Tom wouldn't be himself if he didn't make us drink so we had to oblige. Big Shout out to Steve and his new fiancee congratulations to both of you. We ended up having a couple more drinks before Steve passed out for one of his power naps and James and I played Euchre with Steve's buddy Mike and his girl Nikki. Hadn't played Euchre in a while so it was fun. Steve wakes up again and we start to play Kings cup but a little more than halfway through the game falls apart as Steve goes to pass out again. At this point King comes by to hang out and along with me and James we grab some food before we head back home.

Just dropped James off at the airport and I've come to work ridiculously early today. It's gonna be a long day but it was a great weekend and hopefully we can do it again soon. Even in college I don't think I had this much alcohol intake within a five day period. I don't think I'm missing anything but if I did and you were there let me know. Not sure exactly on Friday at the restaurant and bowling alley but it was a decent amount. Saturday we went through 4 24's of Bud Light, 3 handles of Smirnoff, 1 5th of Absolut and 1/3rd of a handle of Belvedere. Sunday was the quarter barrel of Coors Light along with 1 and 1/3rd bottles of El Charro, a bottle of Cuervo, half a bottle of Don Julio and half a handle of Absolut. Probably some other stuff I missed out on but just tryin to show what y'all missed out on if you weren't there. Now it's back to the daily grind but this week only 4 days until the weekend.

Busy Week

It's been a very busy week at work so I haven't had a chance to update. Let's start off with Michigan Recruiting, we picked up a commitment from QB David Cone, an under the radar kid from Georgia who performed well enough at camp to pick up an offer which is saying alot considering there were only a few offers out to QB's at this point. Apparently he did enough to warrant it and after watching his tape its not a bad pickup. He does have some problem with his footwork at this point but that can easily be coached, he has a pretty quick release and seems to be accurate on his throws as well.

Antwine Perez, Rivals #3 safety, IIRC, and #35 overall is down to a top 3 of Michigan, LSU and USC. Considering he's from NJ, I like our chances, we are also recruiting his teammate WR Andrey Baskin. Cobrani Mixon who said he was a commitment last week has come back to say he's going to take another week or two to think it over but I'd be very surprised if he doesn't end up wearing Maize and Blue.

Now onto the NBA Draft which we've been waiting for since the Lakers ended the season. I'd been hearing rumblings about this Bynum kid for a few weeks so I somewhat expected it considering where we were selecting. However I did not expect Danny Granger to still be on the board at this point which definitely upset me because I feel Granger could step in right away and help us out. But if we aren't able to move Caron then it would be tough to explain the pick. Bynum is extremely young, will not turn 18 until October and he looks like he could be a good one. Hopefully the Laker management was right in this gamble as it could pay off big if he pans out.

Other surprises in the draft include Charlie Villanueva at #7, what the hell was Toronto thinking? Him and Bosh are very similar types of players and I think Bosh is much better. On top of that they passed on Granger with their second first rounder as well. Toronto definitely gets my award for worst draft. Drafts I liked were Atlanta with Marvin Williams and Salim Stoudamire and Boston which got Gerald Green, Ryan Gomes and Orien Greene. Danny Granger was an absolute steal at #17 to Indiana and if Wayne Simien can stop getting hurt every other game he could contribute in Miami.

The Lakers supposed trade with Indiana doesn't look like it's going to happen. I really think it was in place but when Granger fell to Indiana at #17 they called it off. There are many other things that will happen so we must just wait and see. I expect the Lakers to try to move Caron, although I like him a lot we're just too overloaded at 3 right now. I already spoke about Bynum but onto to the two second rounders. At 37 picking up Ronny Turiaf was a great pick IMO. He is the type of player that the Lakers were lacking and will be a contributor. He is a high energy guy that will crash the boards and will not give up which we need. AT 39, Von Wafer is a risky pick considering they could have taken Roko Ukic, who many are high on or could have gone big again with a Chris Taft who fell like a rock and they could've taken a flyer on. Wafer is an extremely talented player who has had problems in college but not a terrible pick in the 2nd because he could work out and make the team. He was a McDonald's All American in LeBron's year and he should have won that dunk contest but because it was the LeBron show it went to King James. I'm extremely excited for this new Laker squad to take the floor under Phil. Hope to see a trade or two and maybe Bynum can contribute about 10 mins a game and provide some defense and rebounding at first. I think Turiaf can be a solid contributor at 15 mins or so a game which will help out especially if we're gonna continue using Lamar at 4, which I hope we don't have to.

It's gonna be a fun long weekend, two of my roommates from college James and Steve are comin into town for the weekend and the folks are out of town so we should get crunk!!!