Canespace

The Short List To The Superdome: Week 15

The 2011 season comes to a close and the Shortlist to the Superdome finishes with these teams ranked in order of their worthiness for consideration for a championship game invite as such:

LSU, Oklahoma State, Alabama, and Stanford.

Only one team lost a game last week that I didn't call for them to and ends up eliminated at the finish line from the Shortlist to the Superdome in 2011:

1) Houston watches their defense disintigrate before their eyes and can't keep pace with Southern Miss in the CUSA title game as they fall 49-28.  For Case Keenum, the record books may belong to him for all to see, but his one that got away will always be one of the biggest true life whopper tales of all time in a devastating slice of poetic justice.  It took him six years to secure his place in college football history but ultimately, he ends up with no storybook ending and the coach who signed him to his letter of intent might have coached another player to the Heisman ahead of him as well.  It probably is still better than having your career end due to a knee injury sustained while attempting to tackle a UCLA player who picked you off and was running for a touchdown.

Once again, the Shortlist and the BCS just don't see eye to eye for yet another year in a row, with the added irony thrown in this time that apparently the coach of the overrated championship game participant doesn't even agree with the results based on his comments made while coaching his re-matched opponent in New Orleans as well.

 

While the SEC has their sixth straight national championship already locked up before the title game is even played, the conference's perfect championship game record is also already sullied as well, but not as degraded as the integrity of the regular season conference showdown results that preceded this less than intriguing rematch.

 

Why the best offense in the toughest conference in college football was not elevated at the eleventh hour to preclude an interest sapping do-over for the crystal football in a similar fashion to what happened at the end of the 2006 season that started the SEC's championship streak eludes me, unless the most tenuous argument is advanced that the 2006 Michigan Wolverines needed late turnovers to even have a chance to make their loss competitive on the road that year while Alabama kept missing field goals at home during their loss in this one.

Reading that logical fallacy of a case only makes even less sense than ever of the motivation for why the voters scheduled the very first BCS championship replay in history.  In doing so, the entire system has made a very rich, powerful enemy in energy tycoon and Stillwater Cowboy bank-roller T. Boone Pickens, perhaps a mistake that could prove fatal to the current configuration of providing a championship caliber game utilizing the bowl system, polls and a scoring margin of victory blinded set of computers currently employed to close the system off to only the better half of the SEC in this given year.

  

If change is forced upon the gate keepers of the big bowl payouts by intervention of representative democracy, not only would it be a laughable waste of elected official time, it would also only highlight how far astray the nation's priorities have managed to veer while sports and entertainment consume the attention of the populace and fiddling rises above the cacophony of warning sirens blaring out over the final dismantling of the worlds last superpower.

Hey, at least a third of the SEC West will find the game exciting though, that ought to keep two of the more cantankerous states calm through the holidays and out of the Occupy movement, right?

Copyright 2011 by Christopher Whelpton for Canespace.com

Seasons Change, And So Does Canespace

This Winter, Canespace is undergoing an overhaul.

Blogging is supposed to informative.  It should provide access to facts about the team, coaches and players that increases the general knowledge base of their fans.

Blogging is also supposed to be opinionated.  People should be able to openly share their thoughts and feelings about their team.

Blogging is also supposed to be fun.  Yeah, probably most of all, blogging should be a lot of fun. 

Yet at times, blogging has stopped being fun for me and many others on Canespace.

Your Miami Hurricanes football team has struggled over the last several years and to some extent that is probably mostly to blame for making blogging more difficult and more challenging for many of us here at Canespace. 

But there are also several other issues at work here that also need to be addressed in order to facilitate a positive environment and productive conversation between Hurricane fans here on the blog.

These are some of the Winter renovations that are going to be made at Canespace:

1. We need everybody here to contribute to the best of their ability.  Nobody can produce all of the content on their own and any blog is only as good as its members.  We need everybody to step up their game.  If stats are your thing, or doing research or conducting internet searches or personal analysis and comments are where you are at it doesn't matter.  Just do IT!

2. If you are so depressed and miserable in your life in general and need to be so incredibly negative and so absolutely unrealistic on every comment you make that you become unmanageable to the point that it is beyond the scope of any one person (me) or blog (Canespace) to facilitate a reasonable conversation for any extended period of time then you need to find another team to root for, another blog to comment on or just something different to do in life.

3. If you are so shallow and so twisted and bent on winning at all costs right now that you have become delusional to the point that you believe that the UM administration would intentionally try to prevent their athletic department from hiring employees, recruiting athletes or playing players that might help them win games then you need to get serious help and get a life.

4. If you as a fan, in spite of my best efforts and application of extensive time, energy, effort and resources simply cannot or will not appreciate the first, best and most active privately run blog and legitimate place on the entire Internet to talk about UM athletics in the entire Hurricane network of sites then you need to find another activity or place where you are more comfortable.

5. If you as a fan do not recognize or appreciate the time and effort or the relationship building and personal investment that it takes to get Manny Navarro, Susan Degnan-Miller, Justin Antweil, Chris Whittyngham and SaveUMFootball all on the same blog at the same time for a LIVE chat to answer fans' questions in real time then you do not need to be here at Canespace.

Have you ever stopped posting comments, or yelling OUT LOUD, or complaining about recruiting on the blog just long enough to ask yourself:

"Where else can I find Navarro, Degnan, Whittyngham, Antweil and SaveUMFootball all at the same place at the same time on a blog?" 

I'll answer that for you: That has never happened any where else at any other time ever in the entire University of Miami blogosphere.  

And you all know that to be true.

So before you go suffer through the comment section at the Sun Sentinel or the Palm Beach Post blogs or embrace the idiots who post comments at the Miami Herald blog think about what we all have here at Canespace.

And definitely before you go spend your hard earned money on some worthless and at times obnoxious pay sites think about what you get here for free at Canespace.

So please take some time to think about those things and how you act when you are here.  We are all guests on what is, and can continue to be, a great blog for Miami Hurricane fans. 

Let's keep "The Space" as the place to be for fans of "The U".

GO CANES, GO CANESPACE!

Larkin Has His Game On Point

With big men Reggie Johnson (out until January) and Julian Gamble (out for the season) on the bench with knee injuries, first year University of Miami men's basketball coach Jim Larranaga has had to learn to take a page out of UM baseball coach Jim Morris' playbook and learn to play "small ball".

And small ball has been working for the Miami Hurricanes and for Larranaga so far.  Out of necessity, Miami has gone small and usually played at least three, and at times as many as four, guards on the floor for most of the time in most games early this season.

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But that has not been as big of a problem as one might think as the Hurricanes have started out with a respectable 5-2 record before beginning the always tough Atlantic Coast Conference play.

And the main reason for the Hurricanes' new found success and chemistry on the team all points in one direction: Freshman point guard Shane Larkin.

On November 15th Larkin was declared eligible to play for Miami this year after first committing to DePaul and later transferring to UM. Larranaga wasted no time in getting the highly touted Freshman into his lineup as his starting point guard.

"We have been very hopeful that Shane Larkin would be eligible to play this season and are tremendously grateful to the NCAA for approving his waiver," said Larranaga. "Shane adds a lot of speed, quickness and ball-handling ability to our already strong backcourt. We look forward to working him into the rotation."

The son of Cincinnati Reds legend Barry Larkin, Shane averaged 18.8 points, 6.4 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 3.5 steals per game as a senior at Dr. Phillips High in Orlando. He ended his high school career with a school record 320 steals and was second in career scoring behind 2010-11 All-SEC selection Chris Warren (Ole Miss).

A two-time all state player, he was also runner up for the 6A Player of the Year as a junior and senior. His high school resume landed him among the top 20 point guards in the country by Scout.com and earned him a No. 72 national ranking.

In Larkin, Larranaga has apparently found the point guard that had eluded previous UM coach Frank Haith for the last several years. He has sparked the Miami offense and has become a leader on the team in his short time in Coral Gables.

Today at the Bank United Center it was Durand Scott who once again flashed his scoring potential by posting 16 points to lead Miami to an 83-75 victory over Massachusetts on Saturday. Surprisingly Scott scored all of his points on free throws as he finished 0-for-6 from the field but made 16-of-18 free throw attempts. He also had six assists and six rebounds.

The Hurricanes (5-2) overcame a Minutemen comeback and clinched the win on Kenny Kadji’s slam dunk with 24 seconds remaining for an 81-74 lead.

Malcolm Grant scored 15 points and Shane Larkin finished with 14 points for the Hurricanes. Grant and Trey McKinney Jones scored five points each and Scott converted 5-of-6 free throws as Miami outscored Massachusetts, 17-1, and took the lead for good during a 7:56 stretch late in the first half.

LIVE Chat On Canespace Tonight At 8 PM

Tonight at 8 PM several reporters who cover University of Miami athletics will be on hand here at Canespace to answer your questions LIVE in real time.

Our new friend Susan Miller-Degnan from the Miami Herald will share her thoughts and information on the Miami Hurricane 2011 football season and current UM players and coaches.

Our long-time friend Manny Navarro may also drop by IF he has time from his hectic schedule to let us know what he is working on for the "Eye On The U" blog over at the Miami Herald web site.

Chris Whittyngham the Sports Director at WVUM, the on-campus radio station covering UM athletics, will also offer us his insights on UM football and basketball from the student perspective.

Former WVUM Sports Director Justin Antweil may also pop his head in the door just for old times sakes and for a few comments, a few laughs and maybe even some adult beverages.

In addition we also hope to have a special guest on tonight for the LIVE chat. Respected Hurricane insider and Twitter extraordinaire SaveUMFootball (PapaCane) is also expected to join us to answer your questions on football recruiting and other UM football program happenings.

Post your questions for Susan and Chris and others beginning at 8 PM.