Barack-etology

This week, it was my turn again to write "The Skinny" column.

I wrote about why I think it's fine for President Obama to fill out an NCAA bracket. He gets a lot of criticism for it, but it's one of the things I like about him. And it has nothing to do with being liberal or conservative. If President George W. Bush had talked to Buster Olney on ESPN about the World Series, I would have liked that too.

Anyway, before I just repeat myself, here's my article:

The Skinny: Bracketologist in chief

Photo from ESPN.com

BYU and the ESPYs

I didn't watch all of the ESPY awards last night, just the important parts.

First, Jimmer won the award for Best Male College Athlete. I thought he gave a great speech and handled himself very well. Of course, compared to other LDS kids or BYU kids, it might not be that special. But in the real world, Jimmer still proves to be an impressive young man. (And his girlfriend Whitney looked good and modest, way to represent.)

I can't find a video of his acceptance speech yet, except for this home recording of a news report on Fox 13:



Another big reason for watching the ESPYs is Seth Meyers, I'm a big fan. He's usually hilarious on SNL Weekend Update* and even funnier as the show's head writer, and he killed at the White House Correspondent's Dinner.

Back when the Brandon Davies news broke out in March, I was disappointed by the response from both The Daily Show (skip to 1:47) and, as a matter of fact, Weekend Update with Seth Meyers (skip to 2:53). I wasn't too offended by the jokes, I just thought they weren't that funny. Jon Stewart and Seth Meyers let me down.

But, Seth redeemed himself at the ESPYs with the first funny Brandon Davies joke I've heard. (It only took four months.)

(Skip to the 11:00 mark for the Brandon Davies joke.)

*This is Seth Meyers' rant about the Arnold Schwarzenegger sex scandal, so naturally there is some PG or PG-13 rated humor. Just to warn you.

In which I take on Rick Reilly and defend Jimmer

AP Photo

So, the day after BYU loses to Florida and the season is suddenly over, this comes up on ESPN.com, saddening Cougar fans even further:

"Jimmer grows dimmer" by Rick Reilly

Of course, Reilly has every right to his opinion, and even to express it on ESPN. But this viewpoint of his just seemed totally unfair and mean-spirited. He literally based his whole interpretation of Jimmermania on one bad game. And he doesn't pass up a chance to laugh at us Mormons.

So, I had to respond.

Here's what I said, in today's Daily Universe:

A single game (I would have picked another headline, I think)

I hope you BYU fans enjoy it!

I also had another story in today's paper, just a quick one about the awards Jimmer got yesterday (rather ironic, don't you think, Reilly?) Even though the story's just eight inches long, I think I did a good job of giving it some voice and personality.

Honoring the Jimmer

And...the Last Edition from N'Awlins

And, just like that, I'm heading home.

It was quite a game tonight. I'm glad I was here - now I can say that I've been to an NCAA game. (Depending on my future career, I hope I get to go to a lot more.) And it's always great to see the Cougars.

But it was heartbreaking and disappointing. It's such a strange way to end the sports season, to lose one game and all of a sudden it's time to go home. It's especially a strange way to end a college basketball career, for Jimmer, Jackson and Logan.

In the 48 hours I was here, I was very productive. Besides writing five stories for The Daily Universe, I also saw a lot of the French Quarter and the surrounding area.

I like New Orleans a lot. It's definitely got something that no other city has. In a lot of ways it's like Las Vegas. But even if the "hedonistic" lifestyle is the same in both cities, Vegas is sleeker and shinier, more futuristic. New Orleans looks and feels 200 years old, and it's not as clean as Vegas. But that gives it its own appeal.

Today, I spent the morning roaming the French Quarter, looking for BYU fans to talk to and also took a ton of photos. It was a little bit strange being a tourist all alone, I wish Erin and Allisyn were with me. But I saw a lot of cool stuff.

Here's the story I wrote:

New Orleans: A different way of life

And, here's a link to my Facebook photo album with all the photos (I set it so that "Everyone" could see it, so you shouldn't have any trouble accessing it):

N'Awlins!

I'll put some photos here too, just to make my blog pretty:











Then, I walked over to the arena for the game. When I got to my assigned seat, I discovered how lucky I was to be here:

Doesn't get much better than that.

At the media buffet, I met Matt Marheine from The Daily Cardinal, one of Wisconsin's student newspapers. It was great to meet him and chat with him. He even offered to loan his photos of the BYU vs. Florida game to The Daily Universe, which was super nice.

Also before the game, I got my chance to meet Andy Katz. I came up to him and said hi, and that I was the student newspaper guy who Pat Forde talked to. He seemed to remember me from that article. He didn't have anything to say, and I couldn't think of anything. (It was a few minutes before the game, so he was probably a little busy.) So it was a little awkward. Afterward I was thinking, "Duh! I should have told him that I'm a big fan of his and love listening to his podcast and thanks for watching and supporting BYU all year." But, too late. I was awkward. (Now I'll never get a job at ESPN! Just kidding.)

Then it was game time. It was tough to not be vocal! I felt like the team sometimes needed one more voice to cheer for them. But, all in all, the guys worked hard and definitely deserve to be commended, not only for making it to the Sweet 16 but for everything they've done all year.

Of course, even though I was prepared for either a Butler or a Wisconsin preview, now I couldn't use that. Instead, I filled up that newspaper space with an extra story on this being the last game for Jimmer, Jackson and Logan. At the press conference, I asked Jimmer and Jackson about the emotions they were feeling and the thoughts running through their head, and they said a lot of nice things, enough for me to come up with a separate story. It was probably the fastest story I've ever written!

You can see all three stories in Friday's Daily Universe. Or, right here on my blog!

(The link to my BYU fans in New Orleans story is above.)

Sweet ride comes to an end

BYU seniors go out with a memorable season

Oh, I almost forgot: Cory Giger tweeted me to ask if I would be on his show again! This time just to talk about the game. It was pretty cool, and I think the interview went well.

And this one is available online!

Sports Central with Cory Giger 3/24/11 (Go to the 1:02:55 mark to get to my interview.)

Catchin' up in Vegas

Now that the long day is over, I think I'll relax and do a blog update or two.

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First, I'll follow up on my brief stint as a celebrity. Since my last post about it, not too much has happened other than I did the Israel Sports Radio interview with Jasmine Marcus. It was a lot of fun, and it was great to talk to someone who was so interested. You can listen to the interview here (look for "Jumpshots with Jasmine- BYU sports editor JJ Despain, Ari Bluestein, Cornell squash club Dan O’Connor and YU basketball star Jeremy Pressman").

Oh, on my way to Las Vegas I was catching up on my podcasts. And I was sort of mentioned in one! It was the ESPNU College Basketball podcast, with Dana O'Neil and Eamonn Brennan. What was cool was that it was Dana who called me last week, but Eamonn who brought me up in the podcast. It's cool to think of all these people in Bristol talking about me.

Go to the podcast here and go to the 6:47 mark if you want to skip all the way to where I come in.

Also, a couple of friends from the newsroom are involved with a project called "Her Campus: A Collegiette's Guide to Life." It's like Seventeen magazine, but online and for college-age girls. Tiffany, Lauren and Darrian are involved with BYU's HerCampus.com site, and they have a "Campus Celebrities" section (not to be confused with the "Campus Cuties" section, haha). Anyway, Darrian asked me a few questions and I guess I'll be on their site! That should be cool. By being featured on a site somewhat linked to Seventeen, I'm well on my way to Justin Bieber's path to stardom.

The last thing is that I got some feedback from Cory Giger, the DJ at ESPN Radio 1450 AM. He sent me some direct messages on Twitter:

That was nice to hear from him again, although it's too bad he doesn't have that audio available. And it's nice that, even though he doesn't like the Honor Code, he's respectable about it.

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This weekend, I'm in Las Vegas for the Mountain West Conference basketball tournament. I'm here as a sports columnist representing The Daily Universe. And I've already cranked out three editorials!

1) Not down and out, just turning out

This one I wrote literally in the van while we were pulling into Las Vegas. I was very impressed to see how many BYU students were planning on coming to the tournament and supporting their Cougars, instead of writing off the season after the Brandon Davies announcement and the embarrassing New Mexico loss that followed.

2) Rams win would be a Cougars win too

Yesterday and this morning I was probably thinking more about the Colorado State vs. New Mexico game than the BYU vs. TCU game, to be honest. For some reason I've just been really intrigued by coach Tim Miles and the Rams this season. I was rooting for them to get into the NCAA Tournament, although it looks now like they've definitely missed that chance.

Anyway, I wrote this viewpoint to discuss how Colorado State could win against New Mexico (and why that would be good for us). I knew that the viewpoint would only be relevant for about six hours, haha. In fact, I don't know if it was ever published on the website, just on my blog. But I wrote it for fun, and now you guys can read it if you're interested.

3) Back on track to break the curse of the Lobos

This is what I wrote after it turned out Colorado State lost to New Mexico (after a really good fight). During both the BYU game and the Colorado State game, I was sort of struggling to think of what to write. But this is what I finally came up with. Hits newsstands in about six hours, but you can read it here first!

And it's too bad Colorado State didn't win, because I wrote two different beginnings to my editorial so that I would be ready for either outcome and I liked my Colorado State winning one better:

The Colorado State Rams overcame the New Mexico Lobos __-__ yesterday, even though they trailed about __ percent of the game.

Around the 12-minute mark in the second half, Wes Eikmeier made a big three that kept the Lobos from running away with a win. Eikmeier's shot was followed by a steal and breakaway layup from Pierce Hornung to take back the lead and make the score 47-46. ... New Mexico kept the game close, very close. The Lobos even grabbed the lead __ more times. But CSU coach Tim Miles and his Rams persevered and kept their finesse until the final buzzer.

While the Rams celebrated their miracle win, BYU was probably celebrating just as much.

During the conference season, BYU swept every team in the league but could not get past New Mexico. Fortunately for Cougar Nation, Colorado State nicely pushed them out of the way for us.

The Week of Davies

I am rapidly becoming the national media's resident expert on the BYU Honor Code.

The announcement came Tuesday night that Brandon Davies, BYU's third leading scorer, would be suspended for the rest of this season because of an Honor Code violation.

I was actually on my way to a Real Salt Lake match when it happened. I had never been to one, and I thought I'd take a chance to go before I graduate and no longer can represent The Daily Universe. (I still need to get to a Jazz game.) Anyway, here's the story I did (didn't end up making it into the paper, haha):

Real Salt Lake makes history

Anyway, back to the basketball bad news. I knew immediately that I would write a viewpoint on it on Wednesday. But it turns out I would be depended on for a lot more.

I was in the DU newsroom when there was a call on the phone for me. It was none other than Pat Forde of ESPN.com. He was looking for a campus perspective on the Davies news, and after calling somewhere at BYU was eventually routed to the campus newspaper and then to me. Forde used some of what I had to say in a column:

BYU puts principle over performance

Pretty cool to see my name on ESPN.com!

Then, I wrote my editorial, which is in today's paper:

Honoring the Code

As I was leaving the newsroom, I saw that an e-mail came from Deseret News looking for someone to do a campus story for them. I decided I was too busy, but I handed it over to our man Chuck Krebs who did a great job.

Fans' reaction to Brandon Davies suspension
(We had it in The Daily Universe too, but it looks like it's not on the website yet.)

The rest of the night I stayed in a pretty depressive state while I watched the game.

This morning, I saw that I had a Facebook message from Jasmine Marcus, who introduced herself as the host of Jumpshots with Jasmine, a radio show at Israel Sports Radio based out of Jerusalem. How 'bout that, huh? After going back and forth, I'm scheduled to be on Jasmine's radio show next Tuesday at 9 a.m. MST. From the looks of the website, it looks like you'll be able to listen there, if not live then at least soon after. Be sure to listen in!

Then, today at work, I got a call on my cell phone from Dana O'Neil, another ESPN.com writer. She wasn't writing anything else, she said she just had some questions out of curiosity. She said she got my number from Pat Forde, and that I've become ESPN's go-to guy about the Honor Code.

After that, I got a call from Cory Giger, a DJ for ESPN Radio 1450 AM in State College, PA. I wanted to call me back about a half hour later to go live on his radio show out there. Even though I wasn't too nervous to talk to Pat Forde, Jasmine Marcus, or Dana O'Neil, I was a little nervous to be on live radio. But excited at the same time. Then, I looked him up on Twitter, and he seemed like he might have some animosity toward the Honor Code and maybe toward me. So I got nervous again. Fortunately though, if he had any animosity he didn't express any of that toward me. It went well.

(One interesting question, and probably the most confrontational: He asked me what percentage of students I would predict are out having sex even though they did sign the Honor Code. I told him I know the sex and the alcohol exists around here, but to be honest I wouldn't even know where to look for it. Maybe I just don't know where to look, but I really think it's minimal around here.)

Unfortunately, I don't know where to listen to it online. The 1450 AM website is very outdated. It looks like it might show up at this UStream site eventually, but so far I haven't seen anything. I'll be sure to spread the word the moment I know.

So, even with a website and two radio shows down, that wasn't the end.

Now, there's a possibility I might be on TV.

I got a Facebook message from Sheryll Lamothe from Inside Edition. From what I know about Inside Edition, it seems a kind of gossipy, E! channel style of journalism. But Sheryll was very respectful and interested in what I had to say. She said she read my Daily Universe editorial and was interested in interviewing me for the show. All she has done so far is put me on her list of possible interviews, so nothing is set up yet. And I'm not sure how I would be on TV unless someone from Inside Edition comes to Provo. I guess that will come up later. Anyway, I'm on a TV producer's list!

As far as my actual thoughts on the whole situation, it's basically summed up in my Daily Universe editorial. There's not a whole lot to add other than that.

Originally, I thought that although Davies will be missed, I didn't think it was enough to change game outcomes. We might win by less, or lose by more, but I didn't think it would change Ws to Ls and vice versa.

But after last night, that view might not be accurate. The game against New Mexico was pretty atrocious. I don't think it was a direct result of Davies being missing, but probably indirectly. The whole team was pretty dead. And I don't blame them, I felt pretty dead too. (It doesn't help either that New Mexico was doing really well.) I hope the team can shake this off soon.

Jimmermania!

So, any of you who are college basketball fans, BYU fans, or human beings in general, you already know about the latest wave of Jimmermania this week.

I can't put up many links on the blog here, because The Daily Universe website is down, we're guessing because it got Jimmered. No joke. But I'll give you a sequence of events:

1) On Tuesday's opinion page in The Daily Universe, a letter was published entitled "Idol worship." I can't link to it since the website is down, but here's the copied-and-pasted text:

I can't walk across campus without hearing Jimmer Fredette's name a dozen times. His name comes up everywhere: in class, at work, during lunch. Really, people? Cut it out with the Jimmer worship. Last time I checked, idol worship was very much frowned upon in the scriptures. Don't you have a life to live? Then quit wasting it in front of the TV or in lines at the Marriott Center. At the very least, stop trying to convert those of us who don't follow BYU sports and don't care that baseball and badminton are two different things. Pushing basketball on us isn't going to make us like it any better. I'm not blaming Jimmer for all this; was it Nephi's fault in the Book of Mormon when his brothers worshiped him? As far as I'm concerned, Jimmer is perfectly free to live his dreams. If he reaches his goals and lives his dreams, more power to him. I would like the same courtesy from his fans: let me live my own dreams in peace, even if they don't include ever sitting in the Marriott Center screaming my brains out.

Michelle Peralta
Apple Valley, Calif.

2) Before the letter was actually published though, it was put up on the Daily Universe website. Michelle linked to it on her Facebook page, apparently proud of what she had accomplished.

But her Facebook privacy settings must have been pretty lax, because tons of people were able to comment on her Facebook page until the thread was ultimately taken down. But not before someone captured most of it:

Jimmered on Facebook

3) We spent all day Tuesday in the newsroom reading aloud our favorite Jimmerisms from the thread. It was classic.

4) Eamonn Brennan from ESPN even picked up on it, and blogged about it on ESPN's website.

One of the best things about this Facebook thread is that virtually all of the comments were kind and clean, and just simply funny. Probably at any other school, the comments would have been littered with profanity and mean-spirited responses. But not at BYU. That's something we can be proud of. (Ryan Ginn at The Daily Reveille wrote about that too.)

Another blog post, this time on Yahoo! Sports: Letter besmirching Jimmer inspires hilarious Facebook thread

5) Some of BYU's "Front Row Fanatics" put together a YouTube video, inviting Michelle Peralta to take part in the Jimmer experience:



6) Our opinion editor got enough letters that she planned Thursday's page to be all about Jimmer. Again, I'd give you links to all the letters, but the website is down probably because so many people have already read them and wanted to comment.

But, lucky for you folks, I have access to part of the opinion page. I drew a cartoon that provides a pictorial Jimmerism. Here it is in glorious color!


7) We quickly assigned a reporter to do a story on all this, our very own Kristian Ekenes. He's come up with a lot of great stuff so far, including an exclusive interview with Michelle Peralta herself. Look for that story in tomorrow's edition of The Daily Universe!

8) To be continued...

Faith Over Football

Once again, I woke up Monday morning without an idea but was able to find a good one when it was time to write.

I was listening to Friday's ESPN Radio podcast*, and it included an interview with UCLA football coach Rick Neuheisel. He was talking about his upcoming season, but he happened to mention Xavier Su'a-Filo, a UCLA lineman who is gone for a couple of years to go on a Mormon mission.

I got to thinking about what it must be like to take a two-year break from college sports at a university outside of Utah, a university that is not as used to Mormons and missionaries. I did a lot of research and found out a lot of interesting stuff.

Here's my column:

'Faith over football' - LDS athlete decides right

And here are a bunch of stories and websites I read about Xavier Su'a-Filo (in alphabetical order):

Brian Price and Xavier Su'a-Filo won't return

Manti Te'o, other Mormon prospects face recruiting challenges - This story is mostly about Manti Te'o, another LDS high school recruit. I admired with how adamant he was with college recruiters about going on a mission. Then I found this story written a year later, saying Te'o had changed his mind and was indefinitely delaying his mission. I found a couple other examples of LDS athletes who thought about missions but decided to stay with college football. It only made Su'a-Filo stand out more.

Offensive tackle Su'a-Filo leaving UCLA to fulfill Mormon mission

Player Bio: Xavie Su'a-Filo

Scout.com: Xavier Su'a-Filo Profile

UCLA football: Xavier Su'a-Filo to go on Mormon mission

Before I sign off, I do want to reiterate my point that I am not trying to judge anyone who decides not to go on a mission. Going on a mission is a commandment, but I do not claim to understand every individual reason or set of circumstances. I know lots of people, including my own dad, who did not serve missions and yet are still active in building the kingdom of God on Earth. I do not mean to badmouth Te'o, Longshore, Prince or anyone else who chose something other than a mission. I just hope my article shows how Su'a-Filo impressed me.

It looks like I actually have two more opinion pages after today. I thought next Monday would be the last paper of the summer, but I just found out there will be another Tuesday paper and therefore another Issues & Ideas page.

I had my job interview today. I think it went pretty well. The only problem was my class schedule. But then I fixed it! I'm no longer taking some classes I was really looking forward to, but the classes I replaced them with should still be good, and they still fulfill requirements for my political science minor. And now I don't have class on Fridays this fall!

* Click on the 7/30 podcast.

For Love of the Game

A low-key and laid-back J Squared column today.

No one on base - Take yourself out to the ball game

With my personal goal to pay more attention to Major League Baseball this season, plus going to most of the Orem Owlz home games with my wife this summer, I've had the idea to write generally about baseball for a column sometime this term. And today happened to be the day.

I had a really tough time figuring out what to say exactly. But after a long time of thinking I came up with the theme of feeling like one of the few baseball fans left in the world. Baseball is still very popular, but often I feel like it's not "cool" anymore. The commentators in the ESPN podcasts I listen to talk about baseball as almost an afterthought. And other sports writers and editors here at The Daily Universe only had complaints when it came to baseball. It sort of frustrated me.

Even after I came up with my main idea, I still had a hard time explaining why I love baseball. A lot of the ways I came up with to describe baseball's appeal were applicable to other sports, so they didn't work. In the end, I wish I could say more somehow but I think what is there will be enough to get the point across.

(Recently I'm working on being more concise. Most of the time, in conversations and articles, I feel like I'm not expressing myself exactly the way I want to, which means I tend to ramble. I'm trying to not do that as much.)

Thankfully, I've already had a few supportive responses. Donny, one of my bosses at my other job, is a big baseball fan and liked my article. And whoever was the first to comment on the Daily Universe website makes baseball a big part of life for him and his family.

I know baseball isn't going away any time soon. But I felt like defending it against anyone who forgets it or ignores it.

Here are two entertaining letters to the editor (they were responses to Thursday's letter about "celestial sandwiches"):

The Snack Zone truth

Abuse of alliteration