Smile Politely. Speak Directly. A Champaign-Urbana Culture Blog

The good poet Robert Browning gave us these prescient words: “Jove strikes the Titans down not when they set about their mountain-piling, but when another rock would crown the work.” Ok, maybe that’s a little harsh. And maybe the Jets had a little more to do with the recent Titans-toppling event than Jove did. Blame whomever you’d like, but the fact of the matter is that the NFL’s last remaining undefeated team finally has one in the “L” column. And that means there’s a new top dog in this week’s rankings.

ALL WORK AND NO PLAY

Tuesday morning's workout was the last full practice before the lads fly off to sunny South Padre Island. There, they will work like dogs (dogs that work, not lapdogs). When they're not learning to shift around Kent State's shifting 1–3–1 zone, when not trying to figure out how to shut down Al Fisher, they'll be hitting the books. Chester Frazier, for example, has a big Psychology test next week.

The Human Pogo stick tallied another 20 points Sunday in Illinois’ 78–64 win against Jackson State.

Yawn.

Mike Davis is automatic, so there’s really no excitement in his statistics. He gets the ball, and then it’s in the basket. It's like an assembly line. Besides, he didn’t even tally a double-double this time.

Boooor-ing.

The excitement came from Dominique Keller, who enjoyed his coming out party with flash, dash, a splash of panache and other things rhyming with ash. Eight shot attempts, eight buckets, 16 points. Old school.

Steve Asmussen’s barn must be a lot quieter right now. The Breeders’ Cup buzz has diminished, the Big Brown rivalry has been shelved as one more story for “what might have been” and, in general, the racing season is over. The only visitors to his barn are most likely straggling reporters seeking news on if and when Curlin might race one last time.

Prior to Thursday's game at Vanderbilt, I drew up a list of questions about this year's team. I figured it might make for interesting reading among the faithful. It hadn't occurred to me that Illinois might win, impressively, in Nashville. The final was 69–63.

Déjà vu, huh? This time last year football fans were placing bets on whether the New England Patriots would go undefeated and whether the Miami Dolphins would go completely defeated. This year, the saga is replaying itself in the forms of the surprisingly dominant Tennessee Titans and the not-so-surprisingly atrocious Detroit Lions. But drama isn’t reserved for these extremes. In the middle of the pack we’re seeing perennial heavyweights like the Colts and Patriots ebb and flow, which keeps everybody on their toes. The next few weeks will give us a clearer sense of who will be trotting into the post season and who will be taking a seat.

For Cardinals fans, the baseball offseason has long been summed up by this column’s title. While we can distract ourselves with Albert Pujols winning yet another silly award, St. Louis fans still collectively huddle under blankets, beg Mother Nature for July’s suffocating heat waves and curse Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt under their breath for not allowing the front office to spend millions upon millions of dollars to nab the sexiest players on this year’s market, regardless of whether it makes perfect sense. "Oh, for just one Sabathia, K-Rod or Manny this Christmas," they cry. The perfect soundtrack to such moping is, of course, The Smiths.

And before you could say "a pair of cupcakes," Illinois was 2–0 on the season. The Illini trounced Texas A&M-Corpus Christi yesterday, 72–53. Friday's opener against Eastern Washington was tied at the half, but our guys prevailed by a healthy 66–50 margin. In both games, senior Trent Meacham had a hot hand from downtown.

But the real story is the coming out party for our new star.

God love the geldings. Honestly, if he was a colt, El Gato Malo probably wouldn’t be stepping foot onto another race track in his lifetime. Injured in his last start back in May, the bay gelding has been out of commission since. He spent a few months recovering from a leg injury at Winner’s Circle Ranch, out of sight and mind from the hysteria of the Triple Crown and the road to the Breeders’ Cup. Now he’s back in training, and trainer Craig Dollase says he’ll be ready for his next race in a couple weeks, with the Strub Stakes in February the ultimate goal in sight.

It appears Woody will don another uniform next year. The Cubs front office decided that giving a three to four year deal to the often electric, but always inconsistent closer wasn’t the best way to use their holiday money. The fact is, this is a good baseball decision. Woody was a solid closer and ninth-inning men are hard to come by, but with the acquisition of Kevin Gregg from the Marlins, the back-end of the Cubs bullpen is not the area the Cubs need to focus on this off-season.

The Eastern Washington University Eagles have landed. They've come to crap in the nest of our favorite local college basketball team. Can they?

Maybe. Probably not.

The 2008–09 Illinois Fightling Illini Men's Basketball team begins its season tonight with an advantage over the last two Illini squads: They've been practicing offense.

“Football players, like prostitutes, are in the business of ruining their bodies for the pleasure of strangers,” says writer Merle Kessler. Well, consider me one of those strangers. We’ve hit that time of year — in real and fantasy football — when diehard fans feel compelled to devote, approximately, 14 straight hours every Sunday (including pre-, between- and post-game coverage) to watching the game. But it seems that every week, there are new teams worth keeping an eye on. Are the Pats back? The Falcons for real? The Titans knocking on the door of the immortals? These are the types of questions that keep us glued to the tube on Sundays.

Guard Chester Frazier pulled down ten rebounds, while forward Mike Davis led the team in shooting in a tough battle against a Div. II team from Romeoville, Ill. It's role reversal, but this year's Illini squad will take whatever it can get from its players. In truth, Davis added seven rebounds to his scoring effort (18 points in 25 minutes). Demetri McCamey added four of ten treys, tallying 16 points to go with four rebounds and three assists.

"Sharpshooter" Trent Meacham was one for eight from the floor, with four turnovers. Starting post-man Mike Tisdale contributed three rebounds.

Division II Lewis University nearly won Sunday's game. Yes, it's an exhibition. But the truth is that Lewis was competitive. Guard Brandon Dagans repeatedly found a shot — whether off screens, or knifing through the middle. Swingman Jason Genova hurt Illinois with soft runners and long bombs. Freshman center Marty Strus outplayed the taller, older Tisdale.

Nothing says “The End of the Year” quite like the Breeders’ Cup World Championships… except maybe seeing this year’s Kentucky Derby winner enter stud duty. After the big dance is over, some horses are retired and some merely take it easy until next year begins. To sift through which is which, and who to be looking for next year, I’ve compiled a list of horses to give you the heads up on where the game stands presently.

Big Brown: The dual-classic winner was retired from a foot injury during a workout for the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Wednesday, Mr. Big debuted at Three Chimneys Farm in Lexington, Kentucky for a breeders open house. He is standing for $65,000, a figure that reflects the economy’s pinch on the industry. Smarty Jones debuted with a fee of $100,000 in 2004.

This week's Illini punching bag comes from Romeoville. Lewis University fields... well, courts... a pretty good basketball team, by Division II standards.

Led by Harvey-Thornton graduate Brandon Dagans, the Flyers notched 20 wins in 2007–08. But they were not scheduled for the purpose of challenging a young Illini team, still searching for an identity. Expect another 20 point win, and perhaps your last chance to see Stan Simpson in action this year.

On Monday night, I had the chance to sit in the stands at FedEx Field in Landover, Md., as two of the NFL’s top teams — the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Washington Redskins — went head to head. The result was a decisive Pittsburgh victory, but the real story was the amount of Pittsburgh fans in the stadium. Terrible Towels were everywhere and there were almost as many black-and-gold jerseys as there were burgundy-and-gold. Redskins defensive end Demetric Evans told reporters, “All I saw were Terrible Towels in the stands. Even when we were on offense and it’s supposed to be quiet, all you could hear was the Steelers fans cheering.” In other words, the Steelers have a loyal fanbase that travels far and wide. But certainly they’re not alone. The Cowboys faithful are, well, faithful. And how about fans of the Patriots? The Eagles? The Bears? So the question becomes: Which NFL team has the most loyal fans?

It's just an exhibition game, but Ed Hightower's presence in the stripey shirt meant this game was not mere pretend. Florida Southern wing-forward Preston Fredrick probably doesn't know who Ed Hightower is. But he was the only big man, for either team, who brought his A-game Sunday.

Illinois had more points at the end of the exhibition, 82–61. It's not so much a victory as a discovery of strengths and weaknesses.