Jimmer might not be the fastest cougar in the missionary, but I’ll borrow a phrase from my pal Jack K. when I say he can light it up like fabulous roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you can see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!”

Fredette is crafty with the ball and is a threat to pull up and shoot from just about anywhere in the galaxy. He has more range then a Shania Twain vocal. His eclectic array of long range bombs, scoop shots, fade-aways and circuitous dribbling is reminiscent of the collegiate dominance Stephen Curry, Wally Szczerbiak or, dare I say, a caucasian Marcus Hatten.

Fredette doesn’t exactly look, talk or act like the best player in college basketball. He’s more like a dark-haired Toby McGuire from Pleasantville. But don’t let the small town boy act fool you. Before he was scoring at will in the college ranks, the scrappy working-class kid not from Scranton (Glen Falls instead) was honing his game at your favorite upstate New York correctional facilities. Jimmer’s older brother TJ thought it wise for him to play pick-up ball with the inmates. In his first game he locked down the penitentiary by scoring over 40 points despite being heckled by felons. In fact, Jimmer never lost playing prison ball and won some smokes for the convicts smart enough to bet on him.

If you’re still not sold, realize that Jimmer was able to do something that even the great Littyhoops failed to accomplish by putting CBS College Sports on the map! The victory over SDSU was probably the most buzzed about game to ever air on the network formerly known as CSTV and sometimes referred to as the ghetto Versus.

BYU is ranked #9 in the nation with a gaudy record of 20-1 so Fredette should be fun to watch as the Madness soon sweeps over us all. Last year, he scored 37 to lead BYU to a first round double-overtime NCAA tournament victory over Florida. You can catch Jimmer on Versus this Saturday at New Mexico or on February 5th against a solid UNLV squad.

Who knows if Fredette can hack it in the NBA (projected as a late first round pick) or if we’ll all forget about him in a few years like we did with our compadre Serge Zwikker (google the dude and see what comes up on the results). What I do know is that if Fredette keeps scoring like Single Troy he will surely be flirting dangerously close with getting his mug cropped right into the Littyhoops masthead. Now wouldn’t that be something…

As a digital guy I hear the term viral tossed around like a Charlie Sheen escort. I tend to be skeptical of marketing plans in which “cool” viral content will be created. I’ve been creating content on the web in one form or another for over ten years and I’ve yet to output anything that has even come close to being viral. It’s almost as if things seem to go viral by accident more so than it can be planned. I’ll view something that’s so unbelievable that my first impulse is to share it with others because you just got to see it. I’ve yet to work with anyone who has been able to consistently, and predictable create content that goes viral.

My view on viral marketing has changed a bit after following my friends at BeenVerified.com execute a viral marketing campaign this week.

The story begins with Antoine Dodson. Antoine was interviewed for a local news story in which an intruder broke into his house and tried to abduct his sister. Antoine, in all his flaming glory, calls out the intruder with a passionate rant. My favorite lines of his are “you all need to hide your kids, hide your wife, hide your husband because they raping everyone out here!” and “you are so dumb, you are really dumb…for real”. The rest of the world seems to agree as the news segment has so far been viewed over 20 million views. The unlikely combination that the love child of Willie McGhee and Richard Simmons — from a housing project in Huntsville, Alabama no less — freaking out on camera over a sexual intruder is just too precious. The best SNL skit out there couldn’t make up something this good. It went viral.

Another phenomenon of viral content is that it gets remixed and mashed-up (thanks to digital technology it is easier to do than ever before). This happened with Antoine Dodson. One particular remix, by an outfit from Brooklyn called the Gregory Brothers, was especially catchy. The Gregory Brothers handle the auto-tune like Steve Nash with a basketball. They knew that they could create some hot shit from the Antoine Dodson remix and they did. The song has been viewed over 50MM times on Youtube and has become a top 100 Billboard hit. My guess is that they just floated the song out there and it went viral. Kudos to the Gregory Brothers. They expressly tried to create viral content and they did. Before you go and hire them to auto-tune your life and turn you into some kind of F-List celebrity realize that the combined audience of their other 48 videos on YouTube is less than the Dodson song.

Now here’s where Ross and BeenVerified.com come into play. BeenVerified is an online background checking company. They deal with large sets of human population databases as a core part of their business. They’ve also created a few mobile apps that have done well.

Ross, Josh and team came up with the idea to create the Sex Offender Tracker mobile application to identify sexual offenders in your neighborhood. Another company has actually done this but BV takes it a step further by using augmented reality. That means that when you hold up your phone it will compute results based on your exact geographic location. Open App. Point in any direction. Find predators. This app would probably get some decent PR on it’s own but BV wanted to make it viral. They wanted to people to pass it on and on and on. So they enlisted the help of sir Antoine as their pitchman.

Watch the Sex Offender Trafic app promo video featuring Antoine Dodson.

BV floated this out their on Monday morning. First, the top technology blogs picked up on this because it hits on a few digital trends (mobile apps, augmented reality, viral marketing, privacy) and it’s entertaining. Mashable, Huffington Post, and even TMZ ran with it. Readers started passing it around to their friends. On Tuesday night Jimmy Kimmel featured it as part of his opening monologue. In less than a week the video has been viewed over 600K times. This is without any marketing dollars being spent on advertising, promotion or distribution. The entire project’s distribution strategy was that this would go viral once it got out there.

I’m still not sure what this all means. While the PR and exposure has been valuable for BV, they are still figuring out (like much of the rest of the media world) the ROI on this type of campaign. I’m still not sure if you can plan or bank on viral but sometimes you just have a one-off Home Run idea and if you execute properly you can optimize the odds that it does spread virally. The Gregory Brothers did that and so did BV. But viral traction doesn’t necessarily tie directly back into sales since it’s hard to perfectly connect that viral spark with the actual product or service that genreated it. Just because Antoine Dodson cracks you up doesn’t mean you need a sex offender application on your phone. Yet, I’d bet most digital marketing agencies would triumph either campaign as a shining success and charge a pretty penny to their clients.

As for Antoine he’s leveraged his good fortune to move his family out of the hood (NPR Podcast). He even offers a Halloween costume on his website. Who knows how long he lasts as a viral star before he has to do what most other established brands need to do – pay for marketing.

Here is how Littyhoops sees it.

The NFL waited way too long on this issue. So they panicked. The darkest secret in professional sports is on the verge of being exposed. The sport of Football, as we know and love it today, is a death wish to the players who put their lives on the line each week they take the field.

The NFL realizes that insurmountable scientific evidence on the severity of concussions in football is now too obvious to ignore. They were trying to slow play this issue because they didn’t want to mess with the best and most popular product in sports. Heck, just last week they were trying to expand the season two additional weeks. But now they are taking a pr page from how Baseball dealt with steroids by taking a very public and aggressive stance against violent play. By doing this the league claims they value their players safety and well-being first and foremost.

This is blatent hypocricy.

The unsportsmanlike conduct here is that the NFL has built its brand on hard hits, fast-paced action, and awesome displays of power, strength and athleticism. It’s frightening and therefore exciting. It is must see TV. I often mention to people that I can imagine that a football player will one day be decapitated on the field (not sure why I think about things like this but I do). The force of a hit will be so hard that his head will pop right off.

Players have been trained to be devastating. The damage they inflict directly correlates to the accolades they receive and the dollars they earn. Duh! James Harrison just earned a $20MM dollar bonus. Sending the message that the style in which players have been trained is no longer appreciated but is now illegal is like accusing your pet cat Tom of murder for catching a mouse named Jerry.

The NFL realizes that medical advances and research studies will pack more punch than a Ronnie Lott open field helmet-to-helmet hit. The stats and studies are already out there. Watch this somewhat innocent ESPN Sports Science piece on concussions. Evidence will show that the effects of multiple concussions are far worse than what was previously understood. Add in the fact that concussions have been woefully under-diagnosed and we have ourselves a scandal. Former NFL players turn into vegtables at a young age. I would not be surprised if 5-10 players each game suffers a concussion. After all, there are over 100,000 concussions each year from football. Only a small percentage of these brain injuries are actually reported, diagnosed and treated. My neurosurgeon (yeah – it sucks to say you have a neurosurgeon) is convinced that the sport of football will not exist in its current form in the next generation as more information is revealed about the effects of concussions.

The game of football is about to experience a major transformation away from violence and towards speed, skill and more open space. It happened in Hockey. It is something that NASCAR is always managing (despite technology, cars are getting slower). This will be further accelerated by the NFL as it realizes that it can no longer conveniently ignore the damage, scrutiny and liability of the game that it sanctions. This isn’t a safety decision. It’s a business decision.

In the long run this will be a necessary evolution of a great sport. But in the now, it’s an awkward transition made at an awkward time. The NFL fumbled and everybody knows it. Shouldn’t they have figured this out in the off-season when the rules, messaging, pr, training and player communication could all be aligned with a clear plan on how the sport will move forward? I’m curious why the league panicked. Sure the league will claim they were as much in the dark as the very players that suffer from serious mental injuries. They will do everything and anything to “protect the shield” and the sanctity of the league. They need to if they want to remain the top pro sports league in the world.

This is going to get Roger Clemens ugly on a few different levels. Finger pointing, congressional hearings and more. Sound familiar? Archduke Franz Ferdinand hasn’t even been pancaked yet but the fireworks have already begun…

The issue isn’t the content as much as how it is delivered and how quickly it becomes stale. The Super Bowl commercials are great because they are all new and fresh. But most commercials run for months with the same exact 30 second unit. Perhaps there is an argument that repetition is an effective marketing tactic. But I don’t need to re-read my Comm 101 course pack to know that annoying the crap out of people isn’t an effective marketing tactic.

Imagine somebody gave you $5MM to spend on 50 prime time 30 second content blocks over the course of 3 months with the goal to be as influential as possible. Would you really think the most efficient way to do this would be to develop one piece of content and then run it 50 times? How about running 50 pieces of content one time each?

We now live in a real-time instant gratification world where fresh content is at our finger tips through Facebook, twitter and [choose your favorite] mobile apps. Pick up a newspaper and the first thing you realize is that the news in it is one day OLD.

Now let’s analyze your average commercial

1) It’s been played on television for a few weeks or even a few months
2) Therefore, there’s a good chance you’ve already seen it multiple times
3) The concepting, development and production may very well have started over one year ago

Man, if I wanted old, lame content I would watch TV Land.

Luckily for some, there is a vast brand marketing and creative agency conspiracy brewing in which everybody just pretends that their commercials don’t suck. An amazing commercial is just one that sucks a little less than the rest of them. This is comparable to when I get together with my fat/slow/short friends and we play basketball against each other. My 17% 3-pointer percentage is impressive compared to Evanter’s broken shot or Hillman’s defense is suffocating when he is guarding Kosh. Now imagine we charged for spectators to watch us play and they paid without it ever dawning on them how inferior our game was compared to professional basketball. Am I on crazy pills??

Here’s a little secret – there’s is a reason why people DVR shows just to skip the commercials.

A few years ago (July ‘08) I wrote a blog post in which I basically suggested one way to make commercials suck less is for them to introduce new music. It was a cutesy idea but didn’t really solve the major issues I’ve mentioned above.

So when I first saw what Old Spice did this week I was amazed. I’ve seen the future!

Quick backstory – Old Spice has been running a series of commercials called “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” with a cocky, confident, chiseled dude who articulately talks about the weird stuff that he is doing. They are the exact type of clever commercials that suck less and can be tolerated even after you’ve already seen each ad over a dozen times. This week they took it to another level. Over a two day period, Old Spice created over 80 short YouTube video ads in which the Old Spice Guy responds directly to people through social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.). Old Spice Guy responds to both celebrities and regular folks all in high quality, well-written “commercial-like” responses. You can watch the YouTube videos here.

So in real-time Old Spice was creating awesome, fresh content. It leveraged cheaper production costs, social media distribution platforms, and two way communication with its viewers to do something cool. Instead of relying on technologies from the freaking 1960’s, Old Spice figured out how to leverage modern day tools, platform and technologies to create the kind of stuff that people love.

I was into it. On Wednesday, I tweeted to Old Spice that I would donate $100 to any charity they mentioned if they made a video reply to me. I was so excited that I crossed my toes as I typled.

I’m not saying every brand should start employing this exact gimmick. But I’d be willing to bet marketing and advertising will look a lot more like this in ten years than the standard 30 second commercial. It definitely will take some time. Processes need to be modernized. For instance, the way commercials are approved and trafficked are obsolete. Brands have to be willing to further let go of how tightly they control the marketing message. The intricate conspiracy of pretending that commercials don’t suck will need to be exposed like Jeff Francouer lack of plate discipline.

Hopefully this is a harbinger of more cool stuff to come in television advertising. Otherwise, when the advanced life forms in 2150 look back at the “Lebron Era” of history (in their Comm 101 classes) they’re just going to laugh at how stupid we all were!

Here is a video that Old Spice made in response to a comment by Perez Hilton…

I wrote a post in June of 2008 called “The Internet Will Be Televised“. In the post I shared how intrigued I was by Hulu and how easy it is to hook up digital video to a large screen television. I also made predictions on which trends would most influence the television viewing experience. This included buzzwords like convenience, distribution channels, quality content, targeted audiences, and platform agnostic experiences. I don’t need to evaluate the accuracy of my predictions, because it’s now become pretty evident what will happen.

This month a New York City start-up called Boxee.tv officially launched its product. Its stated goal is to be the best way to enjoy entertainment from the Internet or your computer through your TV. Download the Boxee software and within minutes you’ll better understand how you will organize, find and consume video content in the future. Here is their video that introduces you to what they are trying to do.

I’ve also had a pretty awesome experience using ESPN360. Actually, my cable company (TimeWarner) doesn’t even provide the service, but I use a friend’s account to login remotely. The breadth of niche sports content is amazing and I’ve been using it to get my college basketball fix. I’ve also watched a few soccer games on ESPN360 and can easily envision a scenario where thousands of games are available to access on ESPN360 each week.

What has become blatantly obvious is that connecting digitally to a large screen television is way better than using a cable box. I actually wrote about how much cable service sucks in my previous post. There has been absolutely no innovation or advancement in the last few years – so, yeah, it still sucks.

Before I crown digital viewing as king, I’m trying to understand the economics. It’s the multi-billion dollar mosquito in the room.

Right now I pay over $100 each month for my cable service. That’s a staggering amount of dinero that I’ve come to terms with shelling out each month. The combination of Hulu, Boxee, ESPN360 and other digital channels costs me $0. I’ve been thinking hard about if cable is still worth the cost. If it wasn’t for live sports content, I would probably have axed it already.

This is where things heat up. Television networks and cable companies need to stop griping about how to split up their piles of gold (which they do whenever they have carriage fights) and begin figuring out how to keep their customers/viewers paying over $100 each month to access their content before they follow the fate of the music or print industries. When that happens, a giant vacuum basically comes and slowly sucks all the revenue out of the Industry. The consumer doesn’t mind because their experience is actually cheaper and better! If there is any lesson to be learned from the print/music sob story it’s the need to rally around technology and innovate when things are good and NOT just try to protect profits as long as possible.

I’ve listed out some things that television networks and cable companies need to do (and do quickly) in order to stay rich. If executed properly, the consumers experience will improve while the cable companies and television networks get to keep their monster revenues. If not done properly, we’ll all be watching television for free quite soon!

Equalize distribution channel monetization
I would pay just about anything to watch a new episode of the Jersey Shore. Currently, I can watch the show on MTV because I have cable. Besides advertising revenue based on audience, Viacom also makes a large chunk of their money by charging cable companies a per user fee to carry their channel. Approximately $2 of my cable bill goes directly to MTV. They are successfully monetizing me. I can also download the show on iTunes. Each show is individually priced so hopefully Viacom is making a similar margin as if I subscribed to cable. Finally, I can also go to MTV.com and watch the show for free. The show is on-demand, streams at high quality, and also comes with bonus content so the experience is just as good.

The prevailing thought is that I’m locked in as a cable subscriber so if I also view the show on MTV.com or iTunes it’s incremental revenue. Everybody likes to argue that digital viewing is additive and not cannibalistic. Therefore it adds incremental revenue, at least until consumers start to wonder if they still need cable. The best way to defend against this is to figure out how to charge for the content uniformly and monetize all distribution channels equally.

Charge for content, not cable
I should be paying to watch/access the Jersey Shore without regard to the platform I choose to consume it. I don’t want to pay for cable, I want to pay for content. If I’m paying for ESPN I want to be able to access it on television, the web, mobile device, my rad tv sunglasses or through the chip they implant in my brain (that happens in 2013). Cable companies are in the best position to be the content network partners because they have the paying relationship with the consumer and can ensure the aggregated audience (to ensure the advertising pipeline continues to flow).

This means I should be able to tell Boxee that I am a Time Warner subscriber and therefore get access to all the channels that I pay for through the service. I should also be able to have the shows upload to my iPod or mobile device.

A La Carte Pricing
I’m more than willing to pay for the video content I consume but I want more control over that process. If the cable company is going to bundle hundreds of channels that I don’t want and then charge me an extra $5 for the Big Ten Network then that seems like a rip off. Whoever gives me the most control of what I can access and charges me accordingly will get my check each month. (UPDATE: my bud Brodsky and the only guy i know actually smart enough to read the New Yorker just turned me on to this article about unbundling by James Surowiecki)

Advertising Innovation
Besides sports and live programming, the thirty second commercial unit/interruption is completely ineffective. It’s amazing to me how an entire industry can just totally ignore the effects of a widespread technology in DVR. Digital allows a two way relationship with the customer so start feeding me things that I want from brands that I use. I get it that advertising will keep my content costs down. But c’mon, do something more effective than waste my time with talking animals and cheesy jokes.

Lot’s of these concept are already happening in some form. Hulu is experimenting and innovating with the types of advertising units they incorporate into the content. Slingbox makes place-shifting seamless. Content provides like MLB are charging fans directly for their season pass and even distributing it through platforms like Boxee. Cable companies have begun to champion the concept of “TV Everywhere”. Comcast is in the process of launching Xfinity, a digital service that offers episodes of shows that are only available to subscribers of Comcast cable and internet services.

As I said, I’m interested to see how this all unfolds. The next 12-18 seem to be crucial for the Industry. It’s pretty obvious what needs to happen but in reality getting content networks, cable companies and other distribution players and disruptive technology to all play nice together seems almost impossible.

Please share if you have any ideas of grandeur on how a start-up can step into the tumult, mix things up, and grab a piece of the cheese. I also realize that Net Neutrality needs to be part of this conversation but not really up to speed of the implications of it. It’s a conversation that will be great to have.

You, like most of the sane individuals in our world, might just suspect that Ron Artest is a loon. After all, this is the guy who stormed into the stands to cause the most outrageous brawl, and some of the best reality television, in modern sports history and incited the demise of the metropolis of Detroit.

That brawl happened a few months after Artest asked for a month off to chill during the season since he was tired from producing a hip hop album that summer. Just recently, Ron Ron admitted to drinking Hennessy during halftime when he played with the Chicago Bulls. (If only Charlie Villanueva was his teammate, @CV31 could have tweeted “Ron Ron’s sippin on some cognac. 2nd half is gonna get willdddd!”). Artest has been suspended more times than Zach Morris. In fact, if Artest was Canadian and homosexual he would be the spitting image Sean Avery.

But for me, Ron Artest is my boy.

He might not actually be one of my “boys”, but this term “friend” can certainly liberally defined when you are disillusioned Johnnies fanatic. The fact is I like Ron Ron more than 72% of my Facebook “friends” and that’s what really matters.

I have had the pleasure of a few real life interactions with Ron Ron. The two years he played for the Johnnies were my junior and senior year of high school and I had seats right behind the bench. Besides being an absolute man child on the court (Perhaps he too drinks “Ron Ron” juice) he was also a total goofball. One game Artest was dressed but wasn’t playing. I tapped him on the back and asked him what was up. He said his thumb was sore. I asked him how it happened. He said “Nintendo”. Starring in the role of the confused, ignorant white boy I then said that didn’t make sense. He then explained he had played Bond on Nintendo for 18 straight hours the day before and now his thumb was sore. Fascinating.

More recently, I walked by Artest at the airport. When I realized it was him I said “Wassup Ron Ron” and he replied “Yo Littyhoops”. This story is true besides the part where he says Littyhoops.

The simple fact is that Artest is misunderstood. Foe those who live beyond the rough and gritty 10 mile corridor between Queensbride and Great Neck, it must be hard to imagine what it’s like to cruise down Jamaica BLVD searching for White Castle drive through window while blasting NaS. Did you know that Artest applied for a job at Best Buy when he was on the Bulls so he could get the employee discount and put down Jerry Krause as his reference?

You might remember last year’s hard fought seven game playoff series between the Lakers and the Rockets. Artest was ejected from Game 2 when he confronted Kobe after being elbowed in the throat. Asked if he would retaliate, Artest shared a story from the neighborhood when his friend was stabbed threw the heart with a leg from a table and he was accustom to that kind of stuff. Miraculously, this story seems to be true as here is a New York Times story from 1991 that reports a basketball death. —

Ron seems to have mellowed out some now that he resides on the left coast. A few weeks ago he kibbutzed with Jimmy Kimmel in his boxers. In spite of (or maybe because) all his craziness, Ron gives one heck of an entertaining interview.

But hey, according to Ron Ron that wasn’t even Ron Ron (shades of Locke character in Season 5 finale.

Did you know that Ron’s favorite movie is Titanic. Watch his inspired performance of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”. If you don’t like that rendition, try this one (about 30 seconds into the video).

Ron Artest is even down with the Hasidm and the Chabad House. Arest got out of bed early in the morning to raise 29K for the Yids! —
Ron gives more time to Elie Seckbach than just about any other NBA player and Elie certainly agrees with Littyhoops that Ron Ron is a mensch.

So, if I’ve turned you on to another side of Ron Arest, you should email him yourself and see what he’s all about at shinshinartest@gmail.com Or you can hit him up on twitter @BASKETBALL_RON. There’s a good chance he will call you back.

Maybe make some plans with him to meet up late night and eat some hot dos wrapped in bacon!

Let me set the guidelines. My rankings are based on the live sports experiences that were most enjoyable and memorable. It boils down to how many times I said or thought or mumbled to myself “this is awesome. This is the best moment of my life” while I was at the event. Pregame festivities can enhance an event but can’t make one (otherwise Michigan home football games would the list). The historical significance of the game is only a factor if it contributed to the excitement and experience. I’m sure there are a bunch of other technicalities that I’ll leave to my litigious homies to figure out.

To fully enjoy this post my advice is to click to the blog post web page so that you can watch some of the videos that are embedded within the post. They dont appear on the email.

Honorable Mention

1991 US Open First Round – Jimmy Connors defeats Patrick McEnroe
I was mad young at the time. I was there with my whole family so we went home in the middle of the third set (girls can’t hang past 11pm) with Conner about to be finished off. A few hours later I’m watching in disbelief from home as the 5th set unfolds and Connors is running around the court with winning point celebrations that rival Evanter’s slickest dance moves and thinking to myself – damn, I should still be there! My guess though is this match isn’t as remembered if Connors doesn’t go on to two more thrilling five setters against Krickstein and Paul Harhuis.

2002 – South Bend – Notre Damd 25, Michigan 23
Best tailgate/pregame scene of my life. Pre-game peakage for 2.5 solid hours. Walk to the stadium was nuts. The Great Weino was cursing out a priest and Da Bwetty was vandalizing the pristine campus. Unfortunately, the game was super lame. The whole time I had the feeling that we would lose and we did.

1999 – The Big House (My first game) — Michigan 26, Notre Dame 22
My first game as a freshman was a thrilling victory by Michigan over Notre Dame. I was celebrating in awe on the walk back home and ran into Anand (who already had a season under his belt). I kept on asking him if all the games were this good. I was in total amazement that this was the first of 20-25 Michigan games I was going to be at in the next four years. College just rocks. Here’s a Youtube highlight clip of the game that is fun to watch if it was also your first UM game.

2004 Accenture Match Play – La Costa/San Diego – Tiger Wood Match Play
A surreal and sensory scene as my SD roomy Jon and I followed Tiger for about five holes with less than 100 other people in the gallery as he destroyed some poor European chap in match play. I’ve never been in the presence and so close to a man with such intensity. He was in a ZONE. I must have yelled “Tiger, YOU DA MAN” a few hundred times from about 5-10 feet away and Tiger was so locked in with his Darth Vader style deep breathing that I’m not sure if anything could phase him.

Events I Should Have Been At And Jealous that I wasn’t…

2005 NCAA Tournament First Round – Vermont 60, Syracuse 57
I had to work that day and was heading up to Worchester the next morning. I had been following Vermont all season and adopted the Catamounts as my team. I was sitting on the couch next to Hillman when first Mopa-Njila and then T.J. Sorrentine heaved a three in overtime to ice the game. Lisa and Howie Hoops still talk about that shot. Apparently Lisa was going at it with a Syracuse fan the entire game and taunted him after the Catamounts pulled off the upset.

2003 ALCS Game 7 – Yankees 6, Boston 5
I had just moved to San Diego and was freaking out watching the Yankees come back off of Pedro on a 16″ inch TV that barely worked. Not sure I’ve ever been as excited watching a sports event as when Posada tied the game. This was when the Yankees were still on top and you felt like they could do anything if you rooted hard enough. I think Brett, Matt, Hillman and P were all at the game. Damn. This video does Aaron Boone’s Home Run proper.

1998 – David Wells Perfect Game
I had been planning to go to that game with my cousin Stacey. That week we decided not to go. Wells threw a perfecto – something I’m dying to see in my lifetime. Only mitigating factor is that my cousin and I plan to go to a bunch of games each season and always seem to flake (sorry Stace!)

1998 Jericho vs. Wheatley High School – Troy Slade vs. Jason Horowitz Doubles Match
Man, just to be there to see Troy straight up cheat on line calls as Witz gets angrier and angrier. Finally, Witz calls him out on it and Troy invokes Machiavelli by responding “An Eye for an Eye, HOROWITZ”. It amazes me that Troy lived to tell the story. My buddy P was there and verifies that the blatant cheating was as startling as I imagine it to be.

The Real List

#5 – 2005 US Open Quarterfinals – Andre Agassi defeats James Blake
During a change over in the middle of the 5th set, I was yelling like a maniac from the upper deck as the entire stadium was on its feat applauding the battle between the aging Agassi and the resurgent Blake. The place was still packed well after midnight and the atmosphere was more akin to a football game than a tennis match. I remember thinking to myself “Damn son, if every tennis match was like this it would be the greatest sport in the world”.

Blake dominated the first two sets and was up a break in the third. He had his own personal and super white and super annoying luxury suite chanting section that would repeatedly scream his name in between each points for two straight hours like he was in the midst of a keg stand. Everyone in the crowd wanted to see Agassi make it a match. It seemed hopeless. But Agassi somehow turned back the clock and started hitting stunning winners all over the court. I could sense it might be Agassi’s last hurrah on a grand stage. I wasn’t just rooting for him to win the match but was cherishing the experience to watch one of the best and most likable athletes of my youth. The match was finally decided in a tense, and extremely well played fifth set tie breaker that at one point was knotted at 6-6 with both guys one point away from facing match point. It was truly a match that nobody deserved to lose. I remember the buzz on the train ride home as everyone was gitty and thankful that they were in the stadium.

#4 – 2002 College Football – Michigan 32, Washington 29
Nothing could make a Michigan Man’s senior year of college more exciting than a national championship run. The Wolverines were a top ten team but faced a stiff test in their season opener against another top 10 teams in the Huskies (the team that had ruined their season the year before). Get by Washington during welcome week and Ann Arbor was going to be A LOT of fun.

The weather in Ann Arbor was perfect (which happens maybe 3x times a solar year) and our seats (25 or so of us sitting together) were 10 rows up in the student section. On the second play of the season, Chris Perry broke through the line for a 50 yard touchdown and a mosh pit broke out in our section that at the time I thought was going to last my entire life. If I ever thought I have received a omen from g-d, it was that play signaling a championship.

But then the game went back and forth and nerves starting to creep into the pit of my stomach. Kind of the same feeling you get after you would eat at Maize and Blue. Evidently, Michigan couldn’t make a kick! They had flubbed three field goals (by two different kickers) including the potential go ahead kick with less than 4 minutes in the game. Somehow Michigan got the ball back and went on one of those nerve-wrenching unwatchable final drives that have so often ended in heartbreak. This time the breaks fell Michigan’s way as a Braylon drop on 4th down was ruled a fumble recovery. After a lucky Penalty, Phillip Brabbs lined up for a 44 yard FG to win the game. At that point I would have bet all the rupees in Southeast Asia that Brabbs shank the kick. But the little powder looking fella nailed it flush through the uprights. Pandemonium lasted for a good week. I spent my night gloriously drinking Jaeger bombs in Brabbs honor all night at Rick’s and screaming his name on top of my lungs on the entire stumble home!

#3 – 1999 College Basketball – Duke 92, St. John’s 88
The Johnnies of 98-99 are, and will always be, my favorite basketball team of all-time. They had a budding, and still somewhat sane, star in Ron Artest. They had a pure NYC point guard in Erick Barkley who ran the show and a wonderful supporting cast in sharpshooter Bootsy Thornton, bruiser Tyrone Grant and glue guy Lavor Postell. They were NYC basketball, complete with the chip on the shoulder underdog attitude. (If you think this is L-Hoops hyperbole ask Hillman what the Johnnies did to the Terps in the Sweet 16 that year).

In the middle of the season, #2 ranked Duke sporting an 18-1 record and All-Americans in Elton Brand, Trajan Langdon and William Avery visited the Garden to take on the 8th ranked Johnnies. It was the first sellout for a St. John’s game in three years (a feat that seems unfathomable these days). For some inexplicable reason, we had given up our season tickets that season so Howie Hoops and I found ourselves up in the nose bleeds much closer to the rafters than the court.

It looked as though Duke was going to blow out the Johnnies early and the ghosts of Blue Devil past were starting to haunt me once again. But Bootsy Thornton, on his way to a forever endearing 40 point afternoon, heated up to keep the Johnnies close. The Johnnies hung around throughout the second half despite foul trouble. Artest checked back into the game and immediately scored a few buckets to set up an exhilarating final few minutes. It seemed doomed when Artest missed a three with less than 15 seconds left but he then stole the inbounds pass and was fouled hoisting up a wild three. I went nuts. The Johnnies were back in it! I did my patented “hold my breath and try to suffocate myself” as Artest went to the line. He was only able to convert on two of the foul shots (damn – I needed less oxygen!) After Duke hit two free throw to go back up by three, Barkley found Arest on the wing. Ron Ron nailed an off balance three to tie the game with one second left. I’ve never rooted harder for a shot to go into the basket in my entire life. Little Littyhoops screamed and screamed and screamed. We had shoved it to the man. Elton Brand had fouled out and the Johnnies were going to the Final Four!

Unfortunately, the magic was short-lived as Duke escaped in overtime. I remember leaving the Garden disappointed that they had lost but 100% confident in the team.

#2 2005 College Football, USC 30, Notre Dame 29
The opportunity to attend this game came about somewhat haphazardly. I was pulled into a project at CSTV that involved Tim Brown and Notre Dame themed dial-up internet service (made no sense at the time and still doesn’t) and I had to somehow oversee that 100K flyers were distributed at the game without any kind of street team (the details are hazy in my head).

Anyway, I showed up in South Bend four hours before the game and after walking for miles somehow ended up in a VIP tent with all the former Notre Dame greats (Totally, blew off the flyer thing). I met Joe Montana and had lunch with Tim Brown. As the game was about to begin, I tried to sneak onto the field by hopping on the back of a golf cart that Tim Brown took into the stadium but was caught without a credential at the last moment. My back-up plan to get into the stadium was that another CSTV contact was in the press box and would be able to get me in. But phone service wasn’t working and after fruitlessly calling dozens of times I figured I would try to scalp a ticket. I walked up to a group of kids and saw one dude jumping up and down because he had just secured a ticket. I asked him how much he paid and he told me $500. This game was that big. The night before they had sold out a pep rally in the stadium that was covered live on ESPNews (I caught the last 30 minutes of it).

I finally got in touch with my friend 15 minutes before kickoff. I went up to the press box for a bit and then settled into the bleachers in the stadium. The game was magical from the start as Notre Dame suprised the crowd by coming out in their Green jersey’s and turned back the clock and played like they were still in their glory days. When that little midget boxer Zbikowski returned a punt for a touchdown it was holy.

USC had Leinart, Bush, a 27 game winning streak and perhaps the greatest college football team ever assembled but the legend of Touchdown Jesus (one of the cooler sights from a football stadium) and the Golden Dome seemed to be in Notre Dame’s corner.

USC had the ball for one final drive down by 5. The faced a early 4th and 9 and the stadium was shaking with the Irish one play away from a shocking upset of the #1 team in the country. But under pressure, Leinart somehow threaded the needle on a sideline pass for a 1st down. USC steadily marched down the field all the way to Notre Dame one yard line. Leinart rolled out of the pocket and decided to scramble into the endzone but was leveled at the goal line. Game over. The place erupted and the fans stormed the field. But then just as fast as the fans rushed the field, they rushed off it. For some it struck me as a very similar moment to the parting of the red sea (wrong religion, I know). Apparently, Leinart fumbled and the ball went out of bounds and USC had one final play from the line of scrimmage. As thousands of fans watched from the sideline, Reggie Bush pushed Leinart into the end zone and USC escaped with the victory. The place was like a midnight mass. I looked around in amazement. Jesus had just died…again. The stadium was dead silence. I was freaking out to myself. I was not believing what I had just seen and not believing how crappy it must have felt to be a Notre Dame fan at that moment. I felt a little bad – sike! It was awesome to watch those bastards cry!

#1 2008 NCAA Tournament First Round in Tampa AKA Upset City

Four games. Four upsets. Two overtimes. Two buzzer-beaters.

Yeah, so it might be a complete bullshit cop out that I’m picking four games as the best game I’ve ever been too. But man, it really seemed like one long ass game and definitely one radical experience. There was about an hour difference between the end of the afternoon upsets and the start of nighttime upsets. I walked out of the arena and the Tampa sun was setting and I was pretty sure that this is what happens in heaven.

When you watch 10 hours straight of basketball in one day there are just too many special moments to remember. The first game was Drake vs. Western Kentucky. When the bracket was announced I figured this one was a dud. But it turned out to be one of the most entertaining ball games that I’ve ever watched. Drake came back from 17 down by shooting a three pointer every single time down the court. They had a point guard named Emmenecker who couldn’t shoot so instead he would just dribble around in circles until he found someone behind the arc to hoist up a three (Emmenecker had 0 baskets but 14 assists). I looked over and Howie Hoops was bobbing and weaving in excitement like that one “special” St. John’s fan (yes, the kid is even more special then me). Drake came all the way back to take the lead. Then some white farmboy bench warmer named Ty Rogers on Western Kentucky peeled off a pick from 40 feet and swished the game winner.

Game #2 saw my adopted Toreros of San Diego take down UCONN on a buzzer beater. We were sitting in the San Diego section and got swept up in the upset. My dad unexpectedly went for a ride with Thabeet in the hotel elevator and was staring at him funny the entire game. Mitch was bragging how tight he was with AJ Price’s family until AJ tore his ACL in the first half.

The first game of he night was #13 seed Siena blowing out Vanderbilt. As Vanderbilt was dejectedly walking into the locker room at the half Howie Hoops got a bit swept up in the moment and was screaming at the Volunteers about how much they suck. Courtney (a relative newcomer to the madness) looked on in horror! It seemed like more good basketball was an impossibility as Clemson had a 20 point first half lead. I searched for a television in the arena to watch the India game with my sister. But then Villanova stormed back with a monstrous second half. I was almost expecting a triple overtime game after being so spoiled all day but Nova pulled away. Four upsets in one arena. It had never happened before. I’ve never peaked for so long in my life!

About the only guy who had a better view in the whole ballpark was Chad the Ball Boy who was a few feet in front of us. Naturally, Chad and Roy are the closest of friends. It seems as though Chad is well on his way to a satisfying life as a Nihilist as he sat emotionless in his seat throughout the game. His job consists of warming Sheff up between innings and grabbing a relief pitcher’s jacket from the bullpen. To do this, Chad remains extraordinarily hydrated by drinking three or four Gatorades and a few bottles of water during the game. (Taking piss tests for the team perhaps?) He also put down a pack of sunflower seeds, skittles and huge wads of Big League Chew. All that being said, I’m convinced Chad can do a better job at first base than Daniel Murphy who looks completely lost in the big leagues.

The game was a typical drawn out affair but somehow remained close despite the Yanks being right on top of Livan Hernandez’s Cuban junk. Robbie Canoe roped four straight line drive grounders to Castillo that turned into two double plays and six outs and kept the Mets in the game. Interestingly, Canoe wasn’t that far off from tying Joe Torre record of 4 double plays in one game (had to look that one up).

The Yanks brought Rivera in to try and collect his 500th career save with one of his patented four out performance. He easily got out of the jam in the 8th and the Mets countered with K-Rod who had trouble finding the plate and somehow found himself facing Mariano Rivera with the bases loaded and two outs. Rivera has just two career at bats with his second one coming just last week. I happened to be watching the game as Melky outfitted Rivera with batting gloves, helmet, bats and instructions on the signs. Sabathia and Pettite watched with amusement in the dugout as Rivera lined out to center. Mariano is just as graceful at the plate as he is on the mound and can eve make hitting look simple. My guess is that if he was a centerfielder he would swipe 30 bases per year.

I’ll let my mobile video below tell the rest of the story. (If you reading this in an email click here.)

On another note — I find myself whipping out my Blackberry 8900 quite often to record the highlights of my life. I have about ten :30 second clips in the last few months. I find the long term implications of this really interesting. Unwittingly, I’m creating my lifetime highlight reel. If this continues I can only imagine the narrative these video clips will be able to tell over the course of a few years, decades, etc. Perhaps the greatest benefit of facebook will be as the ultimate digital scrapbook/biography of one’s life. It warms my heart to know that my great grandkids will know that ole Littyhoops had deep compassion for Johnny the Chicken before he was slaughtered.

Anyway, LET’S GO MO and congrats to Mariano on his 500th save. I remember back to when he was a struggling rookie as a starter before he had a breakout playoff series in ‘95 that set him up for his masterful ‘96 season as Wetland’s dominant setup guy.

It took Lisa and I less than a few hours of wondering around a sleepy half-full arena to fall in love with the tournament. We watched a #1 UCONN team featuring Donyell Marshall, Ray Allen and Doran Sheffer play a surprisingly close game to Rider (after meeting Rider all-star Charles Smith in the stands before the game!). We hung out with the dynamic Penn backcourt of Matt Maloney and Jerome Allen during the day and then watched their electric performance that night in upsetting Nebraska and their Polish Rifle Eric Piatkowski. We even got a cameo appearance of Yinka Dare and watched a Florida team (that would eventually make it to the Final Four) barely survive the regional behind a guy named D’meat Hook.

It took seven long years, but we finally made it back to the first round when the tournament returned to Nassau Coliseum in 2001. It was my sophomore year of college and I convinced Colby to come back to Long Island for the games. We watched a retarded Holy Cross center attempt free throws and spotted Tayshawn Prince at Roosevelt Field Mall.

In 2002, we really stepped up our game and planned a trip to Chicago with Colby, Brett and Weilgus and in which Lisa and Howie Hoops would meet up with us. We stayed in Colby’s grandparents house in Flossmore and even rendezvoused with the Roach Digga who was in town peddling forged Shannahan autographed 8″ by 10″s.

Since then it’s been a Litty family tradition (check out this AWESOME SPREADSHEET that Lisa created) to travel to a first round site every year including Indianapolis, Raleigh, Worcester, Philly, and Tampa. The one constant is Howie Hoops (it was almost Wally’s red highlighter) who is the only human to have made it to every single tournament (I missed 2004 when I was living in San Diego). In 2007, we were snowed out en route to Chicago and stranded on the LaGuardia runway for hours before our flight was eventually cancelled. The experience has left a dark mark over they year of 2007 for all of eternity.

This Thursday, the entire Litvack crew is heading down to Philly (with the Cohen clan) to continue the tradition. The teams and draw is questionable (UCONN and Nova yet again. Who cares about Morman and Aggies) but you never really know. Last year we went to Tampa not expecting much and history was made when all four lower seeded teams pulled off stunning first round upsets. At one point, I turned around to find a horrified look on Courtney’s face (a relative new-comer to the tradition) as she watched dad tell the Vanderbilt players to “go to hell” as they were jogging into the locker room at halftime against upstart #13 Siena.

This tournament tradition has turned into quite the main event in the LittyHoops household. Howie Hoops has been calculating the logistics (tickets, travel schedules, hotel reservations and hour by hour itinerary’s) for at least the last three months. It’s near impossible to have a full-fledged conversation with him without it drifting straight into tournament talk. My mom and Courtney now come to the tourney and sit through four full games even though they have no idea who’s playing!

This year has an added wrinkle in that Michigan plays on Thursday at the same time as the Philly games. In brainstorming possible solutions to not miss the game (watch in the hallway, hustle down to Chicky and Pete’s, etc) Lisa blurted out that she somehow knows the password to the Wachovia Center’s Wi-Fi signal. I’ve already secured a few iPhone’s and now have a technical solution that will rival my twitter updates for geekiest college basketball fan alive.

By the way, check out this video of Crisler Arena going bonkers after Michigan is announced in the field. I wish i was there!

Some Littyhoops Tourney Tidbits

Top 7 L-Hoops Tourney Highlights

#7 Florida Tuba Players and Creighton Upset
I’m not sure who spotted them (maybe Aaron) but the the Florida marching band had some of the fattest Tuba Players to ever blow a horn and it somehow initiated a massive laughing attack in my dad which than spread throughout all of us. It was the first game of the day and it set the tone for a miraculous comeback by Creighton which won on a a game winning three pointer in Double Overtime.

#6 Discovering Dwayne Wade
Travis Deiner was actually the star that weekend but Wade was so silky smooth and hit the clutch shot every time Marquette needed it. Nobody had any idea how great of a star Wade would become but looking back it’s great we had a chance to see him shine so early in his career.

#5 Courtney Sleeps!
This happened in Raleigh and I wasn’t there to witness it but rumor has it that Courtney fell asleep in Raleigh while Duke was playing! There is always a danger (in Mitch’s case a certainty) of falling asleep at some point during the day and it’s the easiest way to get banned and ridiculed for decades to come!

#5 Drew Nicholas Game-Winner!
We weren’t actually at this game. Instead we were watching it in some random hotel bar in Indianopolis. Nicholas hit the shot from the corner and Hillman went nuts running through the hotel bar and then the hotel lobby dopily running hunch-shouldered. The moment was so surreal that I’m still not sure if it was even real BRO.

#3 The Pauldings, Ricky Cleamons and Arthur Johnson
Quinn Snyder’s 2003 Missouri squad was a peculiar bunch that we got to know all two well over the course of a few days. We saw at least a dozen family members around the arena all in Ricky Paulding jersey’s throughout the week. Matt took a liking to a pudgy center named Arthur Johnson and we watched Ricky Clemons put on one of the worst individual performances in the history of the tournament. To this day I’m convinced the game was fixed and he was on the take. This theory has been strengthened now that Clemons is in jail!

#2 Sorrentine’s Prayer
This might be the #1 moment. The only problem is that I wasn’t there. I had rooted for Vermont all season but had to work that day. Lisa and Dad were in the tiny Worcester arena to see Coppenrath and Sorrentine take on the defending national champs. As legend goes, Lisa was going back and forth with a Syracuse fan all game. With time winding down in a close ball game, Sorrentine basically pulled up from half-court and swished a three to ice the game. The place went nuts and from my seat on Hillman’s couch I was jealous I wasn’t there!

#1 Upset City – Tampa
Last year, Tampa provided one of the greatest day of basketball watching one could ever imagine with two #12’s and two #13’s upsetting the favored teams. The Drake vs. Western Kentucky is the most thrilling fast-paced, momentum-turning game I’ve ever seen.

As my favorite stretch in sports begins tomorrow, it’s time to let you all know what I’m rooting for this March.

5 in 5
That’s the amount of games in consecutive days that the Johnnies must win to be crowned Big East tournament champions. This is the first year that all 16 Big East tournament teams qualify for the conference tournament. It all starts tomorrow in a rematch from last week’s victory over Georgetown. If the Redmen can pull off the upset they then get Marquette followed by Villanova and then potentially Louisville and Pittsburgh. It has the potential to be the greatest run in the history of basketball. I’ll leave it at that.

Michigan’s Almost Back
I would break down Michigan’s record, RPI rating and crucial victories to analyze their chances to make the tournament but there are a ton of bigger perverts than me who are already doing this. If Michigan beats Iowa on Thursday I’m confident that they are a lock to make the tournament for the first time in a decade. If they lose, they’re at the mercy of the bubble (and probably don’t deserve to make the dance). Assuming UM can knock off the Hawkeyes they will face Illinois in the second round (a team they split with this season). This could be an interesting game with a victory solidifying a #9 or #10 seed and even allow the Wolverines to make a run for a Big Ten title.

Michigan could be a dangerous team in the tournament. If Harris and Sims are on, and they make a decent percentage of their Dom Bombs, they can certainly win one game and potentially cause fits for a #2 seed (would be great to play Duke again). Belien has had success in the tournament at West Virginia where he uses his 1-3-1 trap to throw off opponents who aren’t used to the defensive scheme. Then again, Michigan could come out and shoot 3-21 from long range and get blown out in the first round by some crappy Big 12 team. Doesn’t that sound more the Michigan basketball program we know and hate.

BGSU
Howie Hoops alma mater has not been to the dance since 1967. As the story goes, young Howard, a freshly minted member of the class of ‘66 drove from New York to Kent, Ohio to watch the Falcons take on #1 ranked Marquette in the opening round of the tourney. Bowling Green was coached by Bill Fitch and led by Howie “Butch” Komives (who would go on to be one of the most hated Knicks of all time) and almost pulled off the shocker before losing by a single point to Marquette.

BGSU has had loads of bad luck and many more crappy teams. This year’s squad doesn’t stand out but they managed to go 11-5 in MAC play which was good enough for the #1 seed in the conference tournament. Pappa Litty has no hope or faith – but if the Falcons make it to the championship game on ESPN you better believe he’ll be going bonkers.

Littyhoops Ballers
Blake Griffin is an absolute beast and is the best player in college basketball. If college hoops had a steroid scandal, Griffin would be Mr. Boli. Without Griffen, the Sooners are mediocre; with him they are probably a #1 seed and a tournament favorite.

Patty Mills on St. Mary’s was quietly having one of the best seasons in college hoops when he broke his wrist against Gonzaga about six weeks ago. He returned to play in the Big West tournament but the Gaels were blown out by Gonzaga in the finals. St. Mary’s should still make the tournament and if Mills wrist is healthy watch for him to be this year’s Stephen Curry (Davidson and Curry were upset in their conference tournament and won’t be in the dance). Mills made a name for himself last summer at the Olympics when he was one of the top point guards in the entire tournament.

Hasheem “Chewbacca” Thabeet is positively freighting. Last year in Tampa, Howie Hoops ran into him in an elevator and was amazed for the rest of the weekend. Besides, Greg Paulus and Coach K, Thabeet is my favorite player to root against. When Dejuan Blair from Pittsburgh body slammed him – that was sweet.

If you’re interested in checking out future NBA lottery picks follow Griffin, Thabeet, Blair, James Harden (ASU), Wake Forest tandem of Jeff Teague and Al-Farouq Aminu and Earl Clark at Louisville.

Littybits
Some of the bubble teams that need to win a few games this week to feel comfortable leading into selection Sunday include Miami, Maryland, Minnesota, Penn State, Arizona and Florida.

There is a possibility that the Mountain West Conference gets more bids than the SEC. That is just weird.

Dopey Hoops two favorite players might all by dancing in the NIT. Kentucky’s Jodi Meeks has one of the most budget websites since the original L-hoops joint. Maryland’s Grieves Vasquez plays like a young and ineffective Nate Robinson.

Interested in some potential Cinderellas? Siena (small Catholic school near Albany) is going back to the dance where they knocked off Vanderbilt last year. SUNY Binghamton is playing in their conference championship game on Saturday to go to the dance for the first time ever. VCU guard Eric Maynor is probably the top mid-major player in the game.

I’ll leave you all with my favorite ESPN college hoops promos from 1998 (my freshman year of college) called Happy Action Fun Time. Check out the Fat Albert induced spots.

Finally, around every March, we all ask “What the hell ever happened to Serge Zwikker?”