Cup of Coffee

January 2, 2011: Expectations

123 Comments

I'm trying to temper my excitement, but if the Tin-Eared one had been called for that late charge, the Wolves may already have beaten both of last year's finalists this year.

123 thoughts on “January 2, 2011: Expectations”

    1. You can get a free preview of League Pass Broadband until January 8. To anybody who hasn't already seen it, I recommend checking out the last 5 minutes of last night's game. Love hits a couple threes and then Rubio takes over. The bounce pass between Nowitzki's legs was so sick!

      http://www.nba.com/allaccess/watchListen.html

              1. Oh, right. That's probably it. You could try an out of market game and see if you can get it to work. I don't have to worry about that in SC, of course.

                1. Yeah, the out of market games work fine. But there's not a single Wolves game that even shows up for me.

                    1. stupid thing is that I had the game on, and heard all of the amazing plays, but I was playing a game on the PC and missed them

                    4. Comments on public lists would be so much more honest if guys would just say "The #1 pick wasn't a guy from my team."

                      They're like the ESPN polls, which might as well be asking "Where are you from?" on every single question.

                    5. I do tend to find those polls interesting though for the areas of the country that shouldn't have an alliance with any particular team and see where the patterns are there.

    2. Extreme SSS, but the guy who supposedly can't shoot is shooting 57 percent from the field, including 67 percent on 3s. He also is shooting 83 percent from the FT line and has a 7/3 assist-T.O. ratio. Still looking for his first offensive rebound, however.

      2. Still looking for his first offensive rebound

        I prefer to think of this as he knows that someone has to get back down the court to play defense.

  2. Three new banners are up (E-6's Rubio gem from last night, plus two more from hj, of course).

    One of hj's new ones was created some time ago but was forgotten, because sometimes "I'll download this now and add it later" turns into "Whoops, I forgot to add that." If I've done that to your banner, anyone, let me know.

    1. love the Showtime banner, but as a suggestion any text should be more towards the center of the banner so as not to get trimmed on narrower browser windows. I know I don't have it maximized, but it's showing "GOM" right now, and all that brings to mind is Mannequin Bill Paxton's Aliens lament. Wait, that actually fits, now that I think about it.

      2. I'd like to know who each of those umps are. #3 is Cowboy Joe West, and #7 is Angel Hernandez, right?

    1. The only ones I'm absolutely sure of are #3 and #7. As always, the rest are bugging me - I know, but I don't, and I'll slap myself when they're pointed out.

        1. It's possible I've seen it. Every single one of those I've done has featured movies I've seen but didn't recognize. I'm okay with locales and costumes, but it's the performances I remember most. If all I got were the eyes of the actors, I'd probably do better.

  5. It just occurred to me that today's the "soft deadline" for the final money to come through for our show. Everything's on track and there's no reason to believe it won't, but I won't be comfortable until it does.

    In case those of you from the business world are wondering, yes, our "soft deadlines" are exactly the same as yours in that they pass without incident 100% of the time. I won't hear anything today.

  9. Oh, Ricky:

    The Wolves are scoring 103 points per 100 possessions with Rubio on the floor, and just 93 with him on the bench. Just look at the other numbers.

      1. Can you blame me? I've been wandering in the wilderness for the last seven years.

        Note to FTLT: You can sleep in the guest room until you find a more permanent place to live. Make sure that you don't empty the beer fridge. My wife doesn't like dirty clothes on the floor.

        And just look at that picture mashed up for the ESPN power rankings:

        Durant, Wade, Ricky!

  10. If you are having sinus problems, or your palate is just bored, I have a cure for you: Rick Bayless's toasted arbol chile salsa.

    roast 3-4 cloves garlic (unpeeled) in a dry (not non-stick) pan over medium heat for about 15 minutes. Garlic should be soft and have black spots on the paper in a few places. Remove the garlic and, in the same pan, toast 30-40 arbol chiles (stems removed) for 3-4 minutes.

    Peel the garlic. Blend the garlic, chiles, and about 3/4 cup water until nearly smooth. Season with about 1/2 tsp coarse salt. Refrigerate for a couple hours to let the flavors blend.

    This is a fiery salsa. Great with grilled shrimp or fish, or just about anything else.

    I paired it yesterday with the L.A. Times' totally delicious avocado-tomatillo sauce (I double the avocado and lime in the recipe; go light on the salt).

    And I made Mark Miller's red chile sauce as a base for chili (3+ lbs of chunked chuck roast, mixed with a little flour, salt and pepper and browned well in batches; roasted hot italian sausage, cut into chunks; the pan deglazed with a bottle of beer; everything into the crock pot with about 3-4 cups of red chile sauce).

    zomg. I've made that red chile sauce before. It is almost a mole. Awe-some. I served the chili over rice and topped with chopped onion, avocado, cilantro, some crumbled cotija, a dollop of salsa and a dollop of sour cream.

    I'm eating leftovers for lunch right now. Yes, you are jealous.

    1. yeah, that was kind of a shock. There must have been a huge difference in thinking when it comes to Luck/Manning

  13. Marion Gaborik is second in the NHL in goals scored. Why is it after he left the Wild, he scores a lot more goals and is never hurt?

  17. Russell Wilson may not be big enough to play in the NFL, but he sure plays like an NFL QB. Great poise and decision-making.

  18. Trying out the NBA League Pass free preview. Picture looks great, but the HD is a little too much for my computer to handle at full screen. Is there a way to adjust the settings?

  20. Spurs score first seven points of the first quarter, but the Wolves outscore Spurs 35-18 to finish the quarter. Nicely done.

  21. Ok, so Russell Wilson didn't make such a great decision there trying to spike the ball with 2 seconds. but what an anti-climactic ending.

    1. the umpire was still in the defensive line when the ref wound the clock...still a poor play choice

  22. This may be my favorite review since the two-word review of Shark Sandwich:

    The film is reprehensible, dismaying, ugly, artless and an affront to any notion, however remote, of human decency. It makes a point of Martin's lack of all surgical skills. He seems to have sewn his victims together with summer camp skills where you stitch the parts of a billfold together with leather thread. I am left with this question: After Ashlynn Yennie's first movie role was in the first "Human Centipede" movie, and now her second is in "Human Centipede Two," do you think she'll leave show business?

  23. 64 in the first half against the Spurs? That's almost a whole game against them a lot of nights.

  26. no local tv tonight so I got the wolves on the radio tonight. Im glad they switched to WCCO because I can pick that station up out here in the hinterlands of Southern Minnesota whereas KFAN drops out at sunset. Alan Horton is a pretty good play by play man, and does his best Vin Scully impression because he has got no color guy (I imagine this save money, gotta pay one less person)

          1. B, that was awesome. I'm still laughing...so much so that I got the raised eyebrow from my wife.

  27. ouch (twitter)

    APkrawczynski Jon Krawczynski
    Broken left hand for Ginobili. Not good.

    1. Just give me like 2 minutes, he will do something dumb. All kidding aside he looks good tonight.

        3. Yeah, whatevs. I was just giving -6 the business with his how you like me now on Ridnour on the same night his favorite whipping boy was looking pretty good himself.

  32. Finished 2666 (Roberto Bolaño) this holiday break - long read (+900 pages). Heady read. Liked the section on the critics.

    The Mexican murders seem like a mystery unsolved, but that's O.K. The original novel was supposed to be published in 5 parts, yet they did it in one (natch). Have heard that there is a mysterious 6th unpublished part floating around out there...

    Was drawn to Bolaño by a short New Yorker podcast Gomez Palacio - quite good.

    No reference to 2666 in this novel, but in another of his works, Amulet, a road in Mexico City is identified as looking like 'a cemetery in the year 2666'.

    1. Loved and was very intimidated by 2666. That was a book that I finished and thought, "I need to read that again". I think my favorite was the life story of Archimboldi (sp?) (the last part, I think).

      By the way, thanks for the rec on "Sense of an Ending". Probably my favorite book I read in 2011. Loved everything about the perniciousness of memory.

  35. bring out the puppies! 2 game win streak and broke a 16 (!) game losing streak to the Spurs

        1. True enough, but he did have a Love, and it took a f*ckin root canal to give him minutes.

              1. Wait, what? Too many contractions in there for me. I just think Kurt was over-matched in every way.

                1. Ah geez, I edited that stupid thing like three times because I thought it didn't say what I wanted it to say.

                  It should have said that "I don't think his terribleness can be overstated."

                  I'm slightly drunk.

                  1. I thought that's what you meant but then I thought, "Maybe he's being clever seeing as how Greek led with: 'Hey, I'm not saying Rambis wasn't terrible. I'm just saying he was terrible.'"
                    Either way, I concur with you. Even more so after watching 5 games of the product under Adelman.

    1. And here I generated a theory that the NCAA told every single team in the rest of the bowls to "be like Baylor and Washington".

    1. I kind of hope so, but they also need OL help and safety help and....

      edit..they could also sell off the #3 pick for more picks because they need players

      1. One would think that if Griffin III declares, he'd be gone by the time Cleveland picks at 4. I could see another QB needy team trying to trade up to get him. They'd just need to ensure to trade down somewhere where there's a player high on their board still available, obviously.

  40. this Rose chip Bowl comes down to a possession for Andrew Luck with 2 and a half minutes to go to win it. All he needs is a figgie.

  41. Standford playing for the FG...my #1 rule in college football, never trust a kicker no matter how short the attempt

    1. It's a Stanford thing. Give him 15 or so years in the NFL and maybe he will start winning Super Bowls (like Elway and Plunkett).

Comments are closed.