They are both much-heralded scorers and will both likely get their shot at playing in the NBA. But for now, both players are much more focusing on leading their teams to a run in the NCAA Tournament.

Kelly Olynyk

Kelly Olynyk is currently the best player on the number one team in the nation. You would think that would make the young man feel pretty validated, but the Gonzaga Bulldogs are not getting a lot of respect from most college basketball fans. The WCC is not exactly the most feared conference in college basketball and while Gonzaga only lost two games all season, some argue they have not played any tough competition.

But that doesn’t take away from the fact that Olynyk has dominated while playing both forward and center for the Bulldogs. Olynyk averaged 17.3 points per game and seven rebounds. He is also shooting an amazingly efficient 65 percent from the field. In fact, he managed to play thirteen games where he shot over 70 percent from the field, an incredible feat considering how much he is incorporated into the offense.

Doug McDermott

On the other hand, Doug McDermott has completely put the Creighton Blue Jays on his back. McDermott led his the Blue Jays to a Missouri Valley Conference championship

And don’t be mistaken; McDermott was absolutely crucial to Creighton’s success. You could argue that the Blue Jays would not even contend for the Missouri Valley title if it McDermott were not on the roster.

The junior guard 23.4 points per game and nearly eight rebounds. He is also shooting almost 57 percent from the field and 50 percent from behind the arc. Earlier in the year McDermott led his team past Wisconsin with a 30 point, eight rebound performance.

Both McDermott and Olynyk will appear in the NCAA tournament but plenty of people won’t expect them to last long.

Gonzaga as a title contender? A lot of people say no.

Creighton as a Final Four team? Many would say fat chance.

But history has shown that the tournament is often the showcase for some of the best players in the nation to will their teams to victory (see: Kemba Walker, 2011).

No one is doubting that Olynyk and McDermott are two of the best players in the country. A smart man would be hesitant to bet on them fizzling out come tournament time.

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PLEASE NOTE: ACTIONS TAKEN FROM THE HYPERLINKS ON THIS BLOG MAY YIELD COMMISSIONS FOR COUPLE OF SPORTS.

LSU is a traditional SEC powerhouse.

How dominant has the SEC been lately? The last seven national champions have emerged from the SEC if that gives you some kind of an idea. Obviously those national championships haven’t all come from the same teams. Instead, they’ve come from a combination of teams like Florida, Alabama, Auburn, and LSU. In addition to providing multiple championships, several of the SEC teams that didn’t win the championships in those years were usually ranked in the top 10. For example, last year, Alabama, LSU, and Arkansas were all ranked in the top 10 and they were just from the SEC West alone!

Additionally, the top of the SEC every year is generally near the top of the polls compared to rest of the country. Although the SEC is very powerful at the top, there are a lot of good teams in the middle and lower tier of the league as well. Many of the teams who haven’t quite been good enough to compete for the SEC crown are still very talented and could probably compete for championships in other divisions.

The Missouri Tigers are the newest member of the SEC.

For example, Missouri recently joined the SEC moving over from the Big 12. They’ve had a strong football program over the last decade and were even ranked as highly as #1 overall only five years ago. They played for the Big 12 championship multiple years as the North division champion. So far, they’ve been one of the teams in the middle of the pack in the SEC.

Vanderbilt is another school that has a pretty good football team, but isn’t currently competing at the top of the SEC. As a football fan, you can get Vanderbilt Commodores football tickets for very reasonable prices. They’re available online and you can even get them from the box office in some cases.

There are all kinds of teams in the middle tier of the league that would probably be able to compete in other leagues. For example, Texas A&M, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Georgia are all very strong teams that have done well this year.

As a football fan, watching SEC football is something that can bring you a lot of enjoyment. If you like very strong defenses, smash-mouth football, and rich rivalries that go way back, the Southeastern Conference is definitely for you. If you haven’t been keeping up with the SEC so far, you owe it to yourself to check it out as soon as possible. Whether you watch the games on TV or take them in live and in person, you’ll have a great time.

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PLEASE NOTE: ACTIONS TAKEN FROM THE HYPERLINKS ON THIS BLOG MAY YIELD COMMISSIONS FOR COUPLE OF SPORTS.

When: September 21st, 2012

What: Northwestern University Women’s Soccer game vs. Penn State University

Where: Lakeside Field, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

Why: After a team hazing scandal rocked the Wildcats’ women’s soccer team back in 2006, the program has regrouped to become competitive again in the Big Ten Conference. Illinois itself is one of the hotbeds for soccer in America, and is the only US state to have an amateur women’s soccer league comprised of teams solely from the state of Illinois.

Verbose as we are, there is no way we can spend the next year constantly yelling talking to each other. Terrible as it may sound to the ears of an outsider, singing as loudly as possible is a frequent occurrence in The Highland Flinger (THF). We will make a playlist of what we’re slappin’ the air bass to. Each list will contain songs from artists/bands from the state or will allude to the state in some way.

VIRGINIA

1. Dave Matthews Band – You & Me
Dave Matthews was a bartender in Charlottesville, VA before making it big with his own band. The band played in Virginia, recorded in Virginia, and their first “Live” CDs came from shows that they played – you guessed it – in Virgina.

2. Jason Mraz – I Won’t Give Up
Jason Mraz have a California/Hawaiian sound to his music, but he was born and raised in Mechanicsville, VA. By the way, is that not the most ridiculous name for a city? Did people just stop trying at some point when naming new cities?

3. Patsy Cline – Crazy
In 1963, Patsy Cline died at the height of her career in a private plane crash. She was posthumously inducted as the first female solo artist into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

4. Seven Mary Three – Cumbersome
Never has the name of a song so encapsulated the name of the band singing it. Did they just say random words out loud when trying to come up with a band name?

5. Chris Brown – Turn Up The Music
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the hullabaloo about Chris Brown’s new tattoo. His latest piece of ink on his neck depicts a woman with a black eye and a half-beaten face. The problem is, the tattoo looks a little too much like Rihanna, the women he notoriously beat in a car a few years ago. He claims that the tattoo is of a random woman, but you can decide for yourself. In any case, it begs the question: Does this guy actually WANT people to punch him in the face?

6. Pat McGee Band – Rebecca
Another band from Virginia where the lead singer names the band after himself. So what’s the difference between the two? Well, other than the fact that the Pat McGee band is from Richmond, not a whole lot…

7. Snoop Dogg, Pharrell, & Uncle Charlie Wilson – Beautiful
Pharrell Williams is a bit of a chameleon in the music world, having had a part in nearly every style of music. He should also get some credit for pioneering the urban “nerd” look, now made popular by NBA players like Russell Westbrook and LeBron James.

8. Missy Elliott – Work It
In this song, Missy Elliott sings a line, and then that line is played backwards. Even more impressive, most people listening to popular music at this time had memorized the nonsensical gibberish that was that backwards verse.

9. Timbaland – The Way I Are
Timbaland was accused of plagerizing Nelly Furtado back in 2007. We bet the accusers wouldn’t claim this terrible grammar as their own.

10. Trey Songz Feat. Nicki Minaj – Bottoms Up
We would have no idea who Trey Songz is, without our friend, Anish who is obsessed and was way ahead on the curve with this one. That and that fact that we saw lawn signs promoting Mr. Songz once in St. Louis.

11. D’Angelo – Brown Sugar
D’Angelo was one of the most influential artists during the rise of the “neo soul” movement of the early-mid 1990s, which incidentally, I didn’t even know existed.

12. Big & Rich – Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy)
There may or may not be a picture of Jackie and her college roommate acting out the title of this song. No comment as to who was the horse.

The Carter Family.

13. The Carter Family – Wildwood Flower
Throughout the years the Carter Family band has had 8 different family members involved, including June Carter who later married Johnny Cash. Even their distant cousin was former US President Jimmy Carter! And come on, doesn’t this photo just scream “Uber-successful folk music band”? I think so.

14. Ella Fitzgerald – They Can’t Take That Away From Me

Before being known as the “First Lady of Song”, Ella Fitzgerald made her singing debut at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, competing in one of the earliest “amateur nights” in Apollo Theater history.

15. Train – Meet Virginia

The girl in Train songs sounds like the hottest, craziest, most annoying, and sweetest girl all wrapped into one human being. Take this line for example: “She never compromises, loves babies and surprises; Wears high heels when she exercises, Ain’t that beautiful”. What a hot mess.

When: August 17th-25th, 2012

What: New Haven Open at Yale

Where: Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale University, New Haven, CT

Why: The New Haven Open at Yale is a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. A Premier tournament on the WTA Tour, it is the last American tournament before the fourth and last Grand Slam tournament of the year, the US Open.

What is skimboarding?  A skimboard looks like a surfboard, just smaller and a little bit wider. The board is a little over 4 feet tall and about 2 feet wide, and skimboarders use their board to glide across the water’s surface. Unlike surfing, skimboarding begins on the beach with a fast dash into the water and dropping the board onto the thin wash of previous waves. Skimboarders use their momentum to skim out to breaking waves, which they then catch in a thrilling, circus-like spinning move and take back into shore in a manner similar to surfing. Another aspect of skimboarding includes ‘flatland’, which involves performing tricks derived from skateboarding such as “ollies” and “shove-its” on the wash of waves without actually catching the shore breaks.

Skimboarding originated in Southern California when lifeguards wanted an easy way to get across the beaches of Laguna. Instead of running in slow motion like a scene out of Baywatch, they decided that skimming along to tops of the thin layer of wash was the faster way to go. Skimboarding has developed since then, and has grown to need not one but two North American skimboarding organizations. And just like many other sports today, skimboarding has evolved to include an “extreme” aspect, as many have taken their skimboards to bigger shorebreaks for some extreme riding.

Formerly the East Coast Skimboarding Championships, the mouthful-named Zap Amateur World Championships of Skimboarding celebrated its 31st anniversary this year in the small beach town of Dewey Beach, DE. The competition is run essentially like a surfing competition. Where heats of participants in various divisions try to catch as many waves or do as many tricks as they can during an 8 minute window. Guys and gals take off from the beach like Usain Bolt during the 100 meter dash before expertly laying their skimboard down on the wash, jumping on and skimming toward the wave and finally hitting the wave, spinning at its apex with a rooster tail of water following in their wake. Riders are given scores of 1-10 by a panel of judges for each wave ridden, and higher scores are earned for completed wave rides ending in harder tricks.

Dewey Beach, just south of the more famous Rehoboth Beach, serves as the longtime host for the event, and it seems to have rubbed off on the locals. Skimboarders line the sand for what looks like miles, sprinting into the water and catching waves one right after the other. A couple of skimboard shops can be found just off of the sand, with Alley Oop Skim Shop also providing sponsorship for the event. The main strip in Dewey is lined with beach bars and casual eateries, looking like the beach towns in California where skimboarding was invented.

Skimboarding is a classic case of working with what you have, and making the best of it. In Dewey Beach, the steady stream of 3-footers has kept skimboarding popular there for over three decades. The Zap Amateur World Championships of Skimboarding taught us a valuable lesson: When life hands you small waves, it’s time to grab a smaller board and run at them face first from the beach.

When: August 16th-26th, 2012

What: The 2012 Little League World Series

Where: Howard J. Lamade Stadium, South Williamsport, PA

Why: Each year, teams from eight US regions and eight International regions come to the middle of Pennsylvania to play in two separate double elimination tournaments. After the US and International champions are crowned, the winners square off to decide who wins the Little League World Series.

When: Saturday August 18th, 2012

What: Twilight Polo at Great Meadow

Where: Great Meadow, The Plains, VA

Why: Great Meadow, host to the Virginia Gold Cup steeplechase races, is a world class international polo field. During the summer more than 20,000 fans gather at Great Meadow to watch the Twilight Polo program with two matches every Saturday night between the middle of May and early September.

Verbose as we are, there is no way we can spend the next year constantly yelling talking to each other. Terrible as it may sound to the ears of an outsider, singing as loudly as possible is a frequent occurrence in The Highland Flinger (THF). We will make a playlist of what we’re slappin’ the air bass to. Each list will contain songs from artists/bands from the state or will allude to the state in some way.

MARYLAND

1. Counting Crows – Accidentally In Love

This is the third time the Counting Crows have appeared on our playlists. Once in California (where the band formed), once in Nebraska (because of their song “Omaha”), and now in Maryland…where lead vocalist, Adam Duritz was born. A true transcontinental band!

2. OAR – About an Hour Ago

Most of OAR’s band members are from Rockville, Maryland, as you will often hear them say in any live performance (we’ve seen them 3 times). We try to focus on their Maryland roots, so we forget where they went to college (hint: it’s in Ohio).

3. Good Charlotte – Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous

Hey! Remember this song? This was Good Charlotte’s breakthrough hit and seemed to be played constantly on every radio station in 2002 when it came out. The band is from Waldorf, Maryland.

4. 4 P.M. – Sukiyaki

Formed in Baltimore, MD, 4 P.M. is an acronym meaning “For Positive Music”. Sukiyaki is a Japanese word translating to “I will walk looking up”. It is also a meat soup. How any of this works out in a love song, you’ll have to listen to find out.

5. Nikki Blonsky – Good Morning Baltimore

The musical is great on stage, but the movie is worth a watch, too:

6. Chris & Jenna – Winona

Chris & Jenna are awesome. They’re from Westminster, MD and decided to record an album and donate all the proceeds to charity. According to their Facebook page, Jenna also plays the Glockenspiel, an instrument we were introduced to all the way across the country in Washington. Double awesome.

7. Jimmy Briscoe & The Little Beavers – Why Do Fools Fall in Love

1970s Baltimore teenage group, Jimmy Briscoe & The Little Beavers ask an age old question. Recently, while we were at the National Botanical Garden in Washington D.C. we learned that cloves are a popular ingredient in love potions. So that’s probably the answer. Cloves.

8. Lungfish – Black Helicopters

Lungfish are freshwater fish that, as you may have guessed, have two lungs! They can breathe air, but also have gills.

9. NoCo – Unstoppable

Something that is clearly unstoppable is the shortening of titles. NoCo is short for Northern Comfort.

10. Office of Future Plans – Salamander

Salamanders are one of the few creatures that can regrow lost limbs!

11. Oh, The Story! – The Astronomer

A band that’s on indefinite hiatus, we’re sure there’s a juicy story behind the break.

12. Sound Experience – J.P.Walk

It was in Boogie Nights 2…that’s how you know it’s good.

13. Thin Dark Line – Dammit

We see nothing wrong with tributes, especially when it’s a Blink 182 remake.

14. Velocity Girl – My Forgotten Favorite

One of our forgotten favorites is the movie Clueless, which this song happens to be featured in.

15. The Whatnauts – Why Can’t People Be Colors Too?

Now you can be even more colors! Have you seen how crazy fun The Color Run looks?

Maryland is a Spotify playlist, too.

In the case of fishing at the White Marlin Open, bigger means a better payday.

253 boats set out in the Atlantic Ocean over 4 days with dreams of catching fish much larger than your average “thiiiiiis big” anecdote. Anglers cast their lines into the deep blue sea looking to hook one of six different types of fishes: white marlin, blue marlin, tuna, wahoo, dolphin fish, and shark. The weight of the fishes caught spanned anywhere from 30 pounds to nearly 300 pounds, which pales in comparison to the 1,500 pound blue marlin that went uncaught during the tournament, but still very impressive nonetheless.

The White Marlin Open celebrated its 39th year this year, and is the world’s largest billfish tournament. Ocean City is known as the “White Marlin Capital of the World”, and the tournament attracts anglers from all over the world and this year had an estimated total prize money payout of $2,307,000. The tournament encourages non-lethal tag and release for many of the fishes caught, but winning marlins and other larger fish are often brought back to the marina for verification of size and weight.

That’s a big tuna.

Even though only a small portion of the state of Maryland has Atlantic coastline, Ocean City has become one of the state’s biggest tourist attractions, and in the summer months, the city swells to being the second largest city in the state. In addition to typical beach-going activities, Ocean City is a popular game fishing and charter fishing destination because of its abundance of bigger fish. White marlin specifically come to the waters off the coast of Maryland after spawning and migrating from the subtropics. They tend to prefer deep blue ocean water over 330 feet below the surface, and are widely considered to be a rare and solitary species relative to other similar fish.

The elusive white marlin.

Which ties right into the White Marlin Open. “Why so much prize money for catching fish?” you might have asked yourself as you first read the amount of prize money given away at the tournament. Well, these fish are really freaking hard to catch! These guys aren’t throwing out nets and catching schools of fish that end up packed inside of tin cans. No, the anglers at the White Marlin Open are armed with a fishing pole, some heavy duty fishing lines, bait, and a hook. Searching the deep waters for elusive and gargantuan fish, a bite on the line is merely the beginning for these fishermen. Once a fish is on the line, anglers take to their respective “fighting chairs” (swivels seats with a fishing pole brace) and attempt to reel in their fish for the next 45 minutes to 3 hours.

Yes you read that correctly. Sometimes it takes 3 full hours just to reel in one of these fishes! Because these giant fish are trying to, you know, NOT get reeled in and are using their considerable size and power to swim the other way. Not to break down why it’s called “fishing” and not “catching”, but it’s safe to say that the odds of getting one of these fishes on board during the 4 day tournament is pretty slim. Many anglers have spent years fishing in the White Marlin Open without ever catching a qualifying fish. When they do though, it’s time to show it off back at the docks, which is the only real spectator aspect of the tournament. Hundreds of people crowd the scales to get a look at these magnificent fish, many of which are longer than most people are tall. The bigger the fish, the more “oooooohhhhs” and “aaaahhhhhs” elicited from the fun and festive crowd.

A very important white marlin.

Giant tuna are considerably more impressive in person, with a shimmering blue skin and bright yellow fins, I found myself looking at these fish that weight more than me and wondering just how many spicy tuna rolls could be made from one of them (To be fair, it had been quite a while since we’ve gotten good sushi). But as big and thrilling as the tuna and other fish are, it’s really the white marlin that people are here to see. They know how hard the fish are to catch, so seeing a qualifying white marlin (70 lbs. and 67 inches long) is a special occasion.

And the fans weren’t disappointed this year. Bill Duffy on the local boat “Blew Bayou” brought in a white marlin to be weighed on the third day of the tournament. Catching several other white marlins on the day, the fish he brought in to weigh was dangerously close to being below the qualification standards. After measuring in at 70 inches, the anticipation of the anglers and the crowd was thick as the fish was being weighed. When the announced weight was 72 pounds, the crowd erupted and the fishermen on the “Blew Bayou” finally let out the pent-up emotion. Duffy had been fishing the White Marlin Open for 9 years without the greatest of luck, but on this day he fought the seas and tipped the scales just enough to make a sizable impact. And oh by the way, that “sizable impact” ended up being $1.4 million in prize money for the only qualifying white marlin caught in the tournament, making up for the previous 9 years of disappointment.

Because at the White Marlin Open, in terms of fish on the scales and numbers on the check, bigger really means better.

Here’s a video from the White Marlin Open showing the weigh-ins from Day 3 of the tournament, featuring Bill Duffy’s $1.4 million white marlin, as well as a (very quick) cameo from Couple of Sports: