Google and Twitterz say it's Pi day, which makes it even more ironic* that it's also Bobby Jenks' 29th birthday.


Funniest thing found on his Wikipedia...

Jenks is known affectionately as 'Big Bobby' or 'Big Bad Bobby Jenks' due to his 6'3", 275lb frame. In all of baseball, only CC Sabathia, Dmitri Young, Franklyn German, and Jonathan Broxton are listed at heavier weights.

During the 2005 World Series, in a much-replayed clip, Sox manager Ozzie Guillén signaled for Jenks to come in from the bullpen to pitch.

Instead of the usual baseball tradition of the manager touching one arm or the other to signal whether to bring in a right-handed or left-handed relief pitcher, Guillen opened his arms wide both vertically and horizontally, basically miming to send in the "tall and wide" guy.

Jenks is known to sport his signature "bleach-blonde" goatee during games, adding to his menacing appearance.

Menacing.

(* - Get it? Pi = Pie. He likes to eat. ... I'll see myself out.)

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March Madness. Woooooooo.

BOBBY: Well, you burned out Julius Peppers. The Bulls are too depressing to even think about, let alone discuss. Hockey seems like it's in a post-Olympic lull. So I say we talk about crappy college basketball. I'll keep it simple: who do you have winning the NCAA men's tournament?

As someone who follows Michigan (colossal disappointment), Iowa (pathetic doormat), DePaul (um, dead?), and Washington State (bad headache), this really hasn't been my year for college basketball. I can't think of a year I've paid attention to it less since I really started following the sport outside the NCAA tournament in 2004. Still, I care too much about the NBA not to invest some time in its future stars.

I really like Kentucky... my favorite's probably Bledsoe, with Cousins behind him, then Wall. Shit, they're all incredible. It's pretty funny how Wall didn't win Freshman of the Year (Cousins took it) and Cal didn't win Coach of the Year (the Vanderbilt coach [seriously.] took it). When will someone finally step up and regulate some aspect of anything the SEC does? Oh well, screw them. As for Kentucky's chances? I'm firmly entrenched in the "they can't possibly close out in six straight tourney games" camp. Still, it'd be a travesty if they didn't make the Final Four.

I love Ohio State... they'd probably be nothing without Evan "The Villain" Turner and Mark Titus. But they are fun to watch. They're, like, the only thing good about the Big Ten. I think they have at least Elite 8 potential. Plus, one of their bigs, Dallas Lauderdale, has a receding hairline, a sweet gap in his front teeth, and occasionally throws down those two-handed standing dunks in the paint that have more to do with his size than athleticism (think James Augustine circa-2004 or Luc Longley circa-any year)... it's great.

I'm probably taking stupid Kansas... kinda old and experienced, kinda too young to know any better, pretty deep. Plus Bill Self ruins me all the time. And hey, maybe Aldrich ends up on the Nets next year and battles David Lee forever. I pretty much just picture Aldrich and Collins running pick and roll on every meaningful play and KU burying teams in that way. The odd thing is, I don't know if Kansas even runs a play like that. They do have Xavier Henry, and he was a heralded recruit. So they must be good!

RICKY: I know we're not talking about the Bulls - I am so glad we're not talking about the Bulls - but shit, I have to mention this: the first time I flipped on the game yesterday, their on-court lineup was...(get ready for this)....Acie Law, Jannero Pargo, Flip Murray, Hakim Warrick, and Chris Richard.

....let that soak in for a second....

I hate when people discuss if a college team could beat a pro team (no, USC couldn't hang with the Raiders), but seriously, that lineup couldn't take the Bulls to the Sweet 16.

So, college hoops.

I silently nodded when reading your "I can't think of a year I've paid attention to it less" line, but it just dawned on me that I say that every year.

I actually used to be good at this stuff - I've won a pool or two in my day and gotten the entire Final Four correct twice in the last six years - but I've been hilariously inept as of late. I'm pretty sure I even lost two Final Four teams on the first day last year. So, just as a warning, please don't take anything I'm about to say seriously.

The first question I always ask when filling out a bracket is "are the good teams actually good?". I'm not sure if they are this year. The only problem: I haven't paid close enough attention to identify some solid sleepers. The tournament has been pretty chalk-y the last few years, so I really wouldn't be surprised if all hell broke loose this time.

The second thing I always do when filling out a bracket: choose teams based on how many guys I know. The big three this year: Kentucky, Kansas, and Purdue. With Robbie Hummel, I would have had the Boilermakers in the Final Four. Is crazy to think they can maybe still get there without him?

Two other teams I like: Duke and Georgia Tech.

I obviously loathe Duke (MJ fan growing up = lifelong Tar Heel devotion), but I think they're pretty good this year. Scheyer Face is undeniable.


The GT love stems from my boy Iman Shumpert. He's my favorite player in college basketball.

In high school (he went to Oak Park), he wrote a player diary for his town's local paper. This is noteworthy because the paper ran his picture in the corner with COLUMNIST written underneath.


I always thought that was really funny.

RICKY: I can't believe you just wrote that many words defending Duke. Now what am supposed to do with this conversation?

I guess we can turn it to Illinois, a team that'll probably miss the tournament but it feels weird to talk about college hoops without 'em.

Here's my Illinois fandom in a nutshell: liked them when I was younger and still do, but I don't get even one percent bummed out when they lose. I guess they're my college hoops team, but I would never put them anywhere near the Bears, Bulls, Sox, or even 'Hawks. I'm definitely interested in them though, especially after having spent the winter covering high school ball around the area.

Bruce Weber is so terrible. A good X's and O's coach? Maybe. But look at how far that program has fallen since the '05. Do you think that would have happened under Bill Self? Please. When you add in how much talent this area produces, I honestly think it's shocking he even has a job. Illinois should be a perennial powerhouse, not perennial bubble team.

Look at the 30 finalists for the Naismith Award. There are four local kids on that list: Scheyer, Sherron Collins, Evan Turner, and Jacob Pullen. Illinois got exactly zero of those kids, and Weber's goddamn brother was Scheyer's high school coach.  That is so pathetic.

For the record, I do think Illinois could potentially be awesome next year. Three seniors + D.J. Richardson would make for a decent team anyways, but I really think Jereme Richmond could be one of those Michael Beasley-type freshmen. I think I'd be surprised if they're not a top-15 team for most of the year.

I actually disagree with you on the Big 10 bashing, too. The upper echelon of Big 10 basketball is pretty sweet. Penn State, Iowa, Northwestern? Yeah, they're gross, but I'm down with the good teams.

It's stupid to talk about next year when we're on the brink of this year's tournament, but I'll end this by predicting Big 10 dominance in 2011. Illinois should have its best team since the Deron-Dee-Luther days. Purdue will have Hummel back and they're only losing Chris Kramer. You know MSU and Wisconsin will be solid, as always. Ohio State will lose Turner, but they're bringing in one of the nation's best recruiting classes. 

Finally: my friend Danny thinks Evan Turner will be a better pro than Rose. Please everyone bash him in the comment section.


BobbyStompy is the assistant editor of Tremendous Upside Potential. He can be reached at stompaberdeen [at] aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @bobbystompy.

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Where would TUP be right now without Julius Peppers? The man is my only material.

The Bulls are spiraling downwards and probably don't matter until this season is over, anyways. Spring training is upon us, but Camp Ozzie has been more or less sane so far. Illinois choking away an NCAA bid is fun, but if I make fun of them too much I won't have any friends.

So yeah: early March ain't the easiest time to write an Internet sports weblog, people.

Thankfully, Peppers has pretty much been good for a post per day by himself. Dude's a quote machine.

First, he gave the world one of my favorite quotes from an athlete ever by explaining why he turned down an extension from Carolina.

"That deal was to make me the highest-paid defensive player, but slightly, very slightly," Peppers said. "I didn't really feel the sincerity behind that deal."

Fuck yes. Fat, middle class, midwesterners everywhere must drop dead every time they read that.

And, as I explained on Tuesday, I really enjoyed the answer he gave reporters when questioned about taking plays off.

 Now? Another gem. On wearing taking No. 90, formerly owned by second year defensive tackle Jarron Gilbert (aka Pool Jump Guy!).

"Hopefully, he will just give it up out of respect," Peppers said last week.

I imagine Peppers walking into Halas Hall and being like "Yo, I'm Julius Peppers. WHO DA FUCK ARE Y'ALL?"

I love him.

*
Also fun: this comment from the Trib's "Peppers will keep wearing No. 90" story.

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i94 Sports: You know, the Bears can always trade next year's first rounder for Brandon Marshall...

Sun-Times: My friend Adam wrote a nice piece on Duncan Keith.

MOUTHPIECE: Milton Bradley is sort of the best.

Buster Sports: Tim Tebow's Wonderlic score is below average. 

Walldo: 119 words banned by the Trib.

And a music video. After the jump...

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I didn't see the game last night because I was at work, but this tweet from BullBearSock made me laugh.

Haha, he's the best.

Also: what the hell has happened to the Bulls' defense? They're still No. 11 in John Hollinger's defensive efficiency ratings, but they've now given up 100 points or more in the last eight games. And the last two games are especially ugly: Dallas' 122-point effort on Saturday matched the most points the Bulls have allowed all year. Of course, Utah blew that mark out of the water yesterday, hanging 132 at the United Center.

We know Joakim Noah was so crucial to the rebounding - Hinrich led the Bulls with five boards yesterday - but is he equally important to the defense? Did trading Salmons and Tyrus really hurt the D that much? 

From By the Horns:

The Bulls really might as well have put a welcome mat in the paint. That's how easy a time the Jazz had in there. Utah got 21 layups and two dunks, including one in which Deron Williams posterized Derrick Rose. What's more, the Jazz dominated the glass (42-32). That total included a 14-6 edge in offensive rebounds. And did I mention Utah earned 39 free throw attempts? Oh, and they scored 24 points off 16 Chicago turnovers.

So, basically, the Jazz either hit the shot, earned a second chance, got fouled, or got the ball right back. There quite literally was no stopping them last night. And let me tell you, several of those free throw were the result of fouls right at the bucket. There was no keeping the Jazz away from the rim...and collapsing on them was just as bad, considering they went 12-for-20 from beyond the arc, including 6-for-7 by C.J. Miles and 2-for-2 from Wesley Matthews.

The absence of Joakim Noah is killing the Bulls.

The Bulls earn a capitalized UGH as of late. Yeah, that's what sitting in the ninth seed gets you.

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One would think that something as perplexing and extraordinary as the Bears signing a free agent to a $90+ million contract would have caused this football crazy city to explode.

That really wasn't the case.

Fans were excited, I'm sure, but also weary: Cutler-mania jaded us all. It's the reason we're not hearing the same "Super Bears, Super Bowl" chants this spring as last. The hype machine couldn't have been bigger for Cutler, and the letdown couldn't have been more devastating. As such, the city's football optimism seems a bit more guarded than last time around.

There are two other reasons Chicago hasn't latched on to Peppers the same way it did Cutler:

a) Cutler is a quarterback. I don't think I need to explain any further.

b) Peppers has a bit of a reputation for not taking full advantage of all of his physical gifts. Some say he's got a little Randy Moss in him. He may take some plays off.

"Eating the Dinosaur", the latest book from Chuck Klosterman, features an essay on college-basketball-behemoth-turned-NBA-bust Ralph Sampson. Klosterman's theory is that Americans (read: white people) took joy in Sampson's NBA failures because it made them feel better about themselves: we'd all like to think that if we had the gifts of Ralph Sampson, we'd own the work ethic, toughness, and determination to turn ourselves into a Hall of Fame NBA center. We would get every ounce of talent out of that agile, 7'4 body.

Perhaps the skepticism the Peppers signing generated conveyed a similar feeling.

You look at Julius Peppers and you see one of the best athletes alive. He fits my LeBron Theory.

From my October NBA preview:

Every time I watch LeBron, I feel as if he could be the greatest athlete in the world at any sport. Best boxer in the world. Best NFL wide receiver. An All-Pro defensive end. A ball-hawking free safety. The greatest soccer goalie the world has ever seen. He could probably pick any Olympic sport and dominate that, too. Not out of the blue, of course. I mean if chose these sports over basketball when he was younger and worked his whole life at them. The man is just incredible.

Peppers gifts - or, excuse me, "features" - lets one's imagination run wild the same way.

Which is to say: if Peppers could own any sport on Earth, why has he only been in the teens in sacks twice in eight seasons?

This comes back to the above point b: the guy takes plays off. He has to, right? Someone that big, that fast, that agile, and that strong shouldn't merely produce All-Pro seasons, he should produce true dominance. One would think if Julius Peppers had the mind-set of your average blue collar, beer drinking, Chicago male, he'd be one of the most statistically accomplished football players ever. He'd probably average 30 sacks a year, if not 75. 

The blue collar line of thinking is ridiculous, of course. You, average Chicago male, almost certainly would not care more about football greatness if you were Julius Peppers than Julius Peppers currently does. You'd probably act the exact same way, given similar circumstances. Besides, it's impossible for nearly any pro athlete to give it 100 percent 100 percent of the time. Peppers admitted as much at his introductory Bears press conference.

"I feel like that one thing about me taking plays off, somebody said that when I was playing in college and it's followed me throughout my career," he said. "If we had the film on and we were watching it and you wanted to pick one person out that was taking a play off on a particular play, you could pick anybody. It's not only me. I'm not the only one who's doing it, but I'm the only one who people are saying it about. I mean sometimes when you're on the field you get tired. If I'm not playing as hard on play 66 as I was on play No. 1, then come on."

This is actually a great answer to a question about his work ethic, but it probably isn't a great answer to give to the media. It's too honest. I can see people (read: white people) reading this quote and thinking "Features" is a bum.

Thankfully, smarter humans, like Football Outsiders' K.C. Joyner, exist.

You may remember Joyner as the man who compared Cutler to Rex Grossman last offseason. He got drilled in Chicago by media and fans, but 26 interceptions later, I'd say Joyner is vindicated.  

Joyner's latest study involves Peppers' effort. His conclusion (via the Trib's Brad Biggs):

"What I don't understand is why Peppers isn't given a bit more leeway than this. For years, Peppers was one of the hardest working defensive linemen in the league and that didn't change last season.

"What did change is that Peppers had an offseason illness that caused him to lose a lot of weight. That very well may have been why he lacked energy but instead of leaning on that explanation, many have jumped to the conclusion that he suddenly turned into another overpaid, lazy athlete. All I can say to this is that most of the time, hard working players don't suddenly become lazy."

Joyner notes that Peppers rebounded to make 9 ½ one-on-one sacks, which he defines as sacks in which a rusher must defeat his blocker and sack the quarterback in less than three seconds. Peppers had seven in less than 2.7 seconds.

The conclusion by Joyner? The Bears didn't roll the dice on a player who gives effort when he wants to and takes time off on occasion. Does he have a Jared Allen motor? Maybe not. Who does? Did they pay a bum? No.

Julius Peppers is no different than nearly all professional athletes. He wouldn't be any different from you if you were a 6'7, 275 lb. defensive end with an astonishingly quick 40 time.

What I'm saying is that Peppers should have our full support. If you're still left jaded from the Cutler fiasco, fine. But don't think Julius Peppers will rest now that he has a $91 million contract.

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