Nate McMillan: Ruben, you aren’t going to play.
Ruben Patterson: PLAY ME 25 MINUTES, OR I’M NOT GOING TO PLAY.
Nate McMillan: Um… I’m going with Option B.
Ruben Patterson: Kinda leaves us right where we started, huh?
Nate McMillan: Yeah.

“That’s the thing that is holding me up — John Nash won’t trade me unless he gets someone good,” Patterson told The Oregonian. Well, you have to remember. You are Ruben Patterson. There’s not a huge market out there for 30-year-old attempted nanny-rapers who turn the ball over and shoot as accurately as the kid who was hiding in the bathroom in Pulp Fiction.

Actually, I do think Ruben Patterson can help a team. Defensively, he’s a pit bull. Put him on a contender, and he could be their Bruce Bowen… only, without the three-pointers and general sanity. But even moreso with a contender than with a team like Portland… he’s not getting 25 minutes a game, unless he has a specific assignment like Kobe or McGrady, etc. Sorry pal.

I really believe that if you’re a football coach at the pro or college level, you should spend about 0 seconds per week caring about what the fans have to say. I have been to enough football games and enough sports bars to know that football fans, myself included, know very little about the X’s and O’s of football, despite being convinced that they’re experts.

Which is why I don’t understand why Phil Fulmer is going out of his way to tell fans that he knows this UT season was unacceptable, blah blah blah… save it, man. You sound like a pussy. You’re making yourself accountable to a group of people that aren’t your boss. If you believe in yourself, then do your job better instead of going around apologizing and looking for people to forgive you.

Anyway, Phil, if you really want to write a letter that’s going to create a little breathing room for you, get people off your back, and get them talking about something else… send this out to the fans.

Rick Arnett of SI.com points out that the Skins Game has used up its usefulness. I’d say that I agree, but he’s not voicing an opinion, so much as he’s stating a fact… it’s would be like me agreeing that yes, Ahman Green is black.

I don’t care about Fred Funk and the skirt, either. Perhaps it was worth the tinest of chuckles, but it was set up and contrived. Seeing highlights, I was amused for about a second.

When I was a kid, and I went golfing with my brother and my cousins, if you didn’t drive it past the women’s tee, the rule was that you played the rest of the hole with your dick out. You looking for some attention, Fred Funk? Go that route. Be a man and yank out the captain for the back nine.

Anyway, when I was a much younger MJD, I remember liking the Skins Game. They’re not my fondest childhood memories or anything, but I liked seeing Jack and Arnie chat it up. I remember Lee Trevino being a funny guy. I remember mimicking Chi-Chi’s putter swordsman thing. The problem now is that no one has any personality.

Jack and Arnie were beloved… unlike Tiger, who isn’t beloved so much as he is revered. People felt like they could walk up to Jack or Arnie and say hello. They felt like they could buy Lee Trevino a few shots after the round and then drive him home after he pisses all over himself. If you approach Tiger Woods, Steve Williams might punch you in the kidneys and steal your digital camera.

I can’t think of one guy right now that would be even mildly entertaining in this format. Tiger acts like (and just might be) a better human being than the rest of us. Maybe John Daly, but I’m too busy feeling sorry for him. Phil Mickelson has a nice smile, that’s it. In terms of personality, he is a barren wasteland on which displaying human emotion is not allowed. Same for Ernie, Vijay, Goosen, pretty much anyone else.

Seth Davis breaks down the reasons that mid-majors like Bucknell are having more and more success against the big boys. 2 of their last 5 games are wins over Syracuse and Kansas… which, you know, is pretty decent.

It’s a continuing trend, and Seth Davis isn’t ripping the lid off a huge new scoop or anything, but… it is a trend worth looking into. You’ve got teams like Louisville and UNC recruiting the McDonalds All-Americans of the world… and getting a year or two from them before they jump for the NBA. It’ll be hard for a squad like that to ever have a senior-laden line-up.

Meanwhile, a school like Bucknell will never come close to landing a McDonalds All-American… they couldn’t even get a Hardees All-American. But they will have teams with veteran leadership, experienced players who have been in every situation, and a team full of guys who know the system in and out. If you’ve got a good coach… that’s the way to go. In basketball, especially at the college level, intelligent play in a good system with unselfish players will beat raw ability. Ask Stephon Marbury. Maybe not every time, maybe not even most of the time… but it will eventually happen.

I just wonder how long it’s going to take before it changes the way that guys like Krzyzewski, Boeheim, and Pitino recruit.