Gooseys Gabbings-The World of Weird Bizarre and Odd News

> Gooseys Gabbings-The World of Weird Bizarre and Odd News

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Wisconsin and Ohio St. Post a classic NCAA 1-2 matchup

As an avid fan of basketball and the Big Ten, it made it sweet to see the 1-2 matchup this late in the season be Ohio St. and Wisconsin. For one, it just gives an absolute tribute to the coaches and the talent that the Big Ten has top to bottom, and for another, it's basketball the way it should be--intricate, executed, and a grind-it-out finish that left fans gasping for more.

Mike Conley's shot to win 49-48 in Columbus was nothing short of spectacular; but what I loved was the competitive nature of the game and the mark it should leave on college basketball. When we are surrounded day in and day out by something going wrong in the NBA or a million dollar player screaming for the ball more and more, to see these teams go at it was pure pleasure.

While I have said since the beginning of the year that I have felt Thad Matta's team is the best in the country, I have been very, very impressed and in awe of what Bo Ryan puts together year in and year out. Ohio St. obviously has the recruiting prowess and the big names like Oden and Conley. Ryan, on the other hand, rarely has that blue-chipper that can jump from the college ranks to the NBA without missing a beat; still, his teams every year are at the top of the Big Ten and foes don't ever want to face Wisconsin at the Kohl Center, no matter who you are. Why? Because Ryan typifies what college basketball used to be and what it should be now, the kind of Gene Keady-ish Bobby Knight old school "defense first" motto that can be taught but rarely executed.

His players look to him for guidance, and he gives it with exclamation points. He scowls on the sidelines, but still has the ability to motivate when it's needed. I just love this guy for being in the same conference as my favorite team, the Illini. While I have always liked Bruce Weber, I am not sure if coaching-wise he has all of the tools that Ryan represents. Weber is an offensive-minded coach nowadays, even though he does come from Keady's breeding and his SIU teams were thuggish in their defensive skills. Now, it's more finesse and to out-athleticize teams for Weber's Illini, a huge difference from the dream team Illinois had in 2004-05.

To see the Buckeyes and Badgers slug it out like Ali-Frazier was a classic, and I am proud of both of these teams. Wisconsin proved that they are no fluke despite losing the game and the #1 ranking, but I think both of these teams have legitimate shots at cutting down the nets in April. I am super excited for the Big Ten tournament and all the competition that should bring. I only hope my Illini don't embarass themselves!!!!

Congrats, Buckeyes. And thank you, Badgers!! You made this one of the games of the year!!

Goosey

Labels: Badgers, basketball, Big Ten, Bo Ryan, Bruce Weber, Buckeyes, Greg Oden, hoops, Illini, Mike Conley, NCAA, Ohio State University, sports, Thad Matta, University of Illinois, University of Wisconsin

"Lost" Review "Stranger in a Strange Land" Season 3 Episode 9

Lost is starting to really roll with the "Others" and some information (FINALLY!) about their origins and at least the level of where their power reaches. Obviously, they are a group of manipulators, brainwashers, and tapping into the human psyche more than what we can possibly imagine; the question is, what role then do the passengers of Flight 815 ultimately have to do with the puppet game that the Others are playing? Or do they?

Jack, now on his own with the Others, is having a very hard time putting all of these different pieces of the puzzle together. One of the most intriguing lines of the show is when Jack is reprimanding Tom for what the Others have done, and Tom responds to him, "You like this glass house you live in? How 'bout I get you some stones?"

The point that I think Tom was trying to make was that, although the Others have done some despicable things in the passengers' eyes, is that we all have our faults, our wrongdoings, and maybe a clue as to finding out some things that the passengers have done that we don't know about yet.

We get introduced to Isabelle, "The Sheriff", when Jack gets injected into Juliet's "trial" about whether she wanted Jack to kill Ben. Isabelle is very much a hardened toughie that doesn't show much emotion other than to intimidate. Meanwhile, Sawyer and Kate are away but not exactly--safe--that we feel as they are still in the jungle. We also get a little bit more on Carl and Alex, and even Sawyer again shows his soft side in his discussion with Carl about love. I love Sawyer--the perfect vulnerable man who never shows it until the time is right, the tortured soul that comes off so bad and has done so many bad things, but still deep down knows he is wrong and wants to be better.

We get another intriguing situation with the flashbacks with guest star Bai Ling and Jack with the story of "being able to see someone" and then marking them. Jack believes that it is something having to do with being an "angry, lonely leader", but it's easy to think that perhaps because of Isabelle's comments about "do you know what it means?" leave something to the imagination that there's more to what Jack believes it is--especially because of the beating he takes! One side note: I didn't care for this set of flashbacks--Bai Ling did not put in a strong performance, in my estimation.

Another subplot that is really starting to cook up is Jack and Juliet. Does Juliet care for him? Is she playing him? Is this part of an Others experiment? Is she really in trouble? If so, how will they work together? Will Jack be able to go back home--and what about her now after Ben promised her?

Whatever it is, this is the kind of stuff that keeps me absolutely mesmerized about Lost. So many people have clamored for answers and the producers have given more and more, but I love the fact that nearly every person in the world can intelligently formulate an idea of why and what is happening on the island. But that's the magic of the show; the unknown, being "Lost" with the losties.

Sawyer and Kate's relationship, in a word, is just weird. It was better when the tension between the triangle of Jack-Sawyer-Kate was what it was prior to them having sex; now it's a question of jealousy and true intent, and while that's ok, it doesn't have the same "verve" to it. I don't like having Sawyer be this way, it kind of degrades his character's progress a bit. I also don't like Kate being this way, but again, it's up in the air how things will progress, and that's all we can ask for.

We're left with the raft leaving with Jack, Juliet, and Ben going "home"--or is it? I certainly think that this episode again created more questions than answers, but I am ok with that--the tension continues to mount on many levels, and we begin another climactic climb towards what should be a great season finale in the next couple of months. The only constant is change with this show, and that's fine by me--despite the lame flashback and explanation of the person "who is not one of us but walks among us", this episode was a good starting point after the end of the chaos surrounding Ben's surgery and Kate and Sawyer's return.

Goosey

Labels: ABC, dramas, editorial, entertainment, Evangeline Lilly, Jack, Kate, Lost, Matthew Fox, Matthew-Fox, Sawyer, television, tv

Law and Order SVU Review "Haystack"

After last week's episode that focused mostly on Benson's solving of the case, we switch back to Stabler and a situation where a baby goes missing and the hunt to find the kidnapper.

Interestingly enough, I don't remember if there was any discussion about what happened after Elliot got thrown through a window--you would think there would be something!! However, still, we had a tale that twisted just like the great episodes we've come to expect.

The disturbing situation of a child being taken is bad enough, but when the mother committed suicide, viewers were left almost breathless with little clue as to what would happen next. The situation got more muddled when we had a gambling addicted, alcoholic would-be father wanting the child when it was found.

Stabler's handling and undying drive to find the child once again proved beyond a doubt that, no matter if he's had domestic issues and violent tendencies, this is a great man that will stop at nothing to do what is right. When the story evolved into finally finding the REAL father of the missing baby, things got pretty ugly pretty quickly. In a miracle "haystack", they found the baby, and the shift of attention then went to why and who committed the crime.

The story finally ended with the father of the baby, a wifebeater named "Patty" Kendall, confessed to taking the baby after Stabler and Casey conned him about a sonogram with fingerprints of his that were at the crime scene.

We were left with yet another cliffhanger when Olivia broke the news to Stabler that she had tested her DNA and that she had a brother. Where this goes now is anyone's guess, but the problem I have with this is that at the end of the last episode, we had Elliott visiting his wife and trying to make things right--we never had any discussion and obviously no closure to that; and now we have this little twist about Olivia.

The problem about this is that SVU weaves in and out of being a procedural drama and then tries to examine its characters more closely, but we never get too much of each. While this retains interest to a certain degree, it can also be annoying if you prefer one over the other. I will agree that this season has been very entertaining, but it's been very short on the "subjective" side of how things are progressing in the character's minds; they played on the Stabler-Danni relationship and then re-established the chemistry with Olivia and Elliott when she returned from the undercover work, but since then it's been very flat. So, I certainly hope that before the season wraps up we can delve our ways back into the lives of these great, deep characters and have a little less focus on all of the details of a specific case they are involved in; I would think most fans of the show would agree--we want more!!

Goosey

Labels: Chris Meloni, Chris-Meloni, crime shows, dramas, editorial, Elliott Stabler, Law and Order, Law-and-order, Mariska Hargitay, Mariska-Hargitay, procedurals, Special Victims unit, SVU, television, tv