A Way to Early Prediction for FSU's 2012 Season

The 2012 Florida State Football schedule was released yesterday, and the overall reaction was mild cheer.
This was for a few reasons.

• First, we are so conditioned by poorly timed and poorly called penalities and/or fouls by ACC officials during games involving the state of North Carolina darlings that we think the ACC hates FSU. This may or may not be true, but it is the perception by many fans. So when the schedule was released and it did not have any crazy back to back opponents we did not know how to act.
• Second, we are missing West Viriginia. We are not sad about this from a win/loss angle, but it does take some luster off the schedule. Oh well, Savannah State is in its place, and plenty of Boy Scout troops and Boys and Girls clubs will be getting group tickets.
• Third, we don't know what our team will be like. We know our defense will be sick starting with the line. Our linebackers will be fierce, and our secondary will be experienced. Our offense will return a healthy, very good QB, a stable of running backs, and a deep recieving core. We will be explosive at best. At worst, we will be stale and impotent because our line will be young. Last year we lost seniors to injury and had 18 year olds starting. That is not a recipe to get a run push on the goal line or time for our QB. In other news, our "overrated" QB played portions of the year with a separated shoulder and a broken fibula. #onions

So from a tepid response to a tepid season, I give you a game by game prediction:

Murray State: W
Savannah State: W
Wake Forest: W*
Clemson: W*
@ USF: L
@ North Carolina State: W
Boston College: W
@ Miami: W
Duke: W
@ Virginia Tech: L**
@ Maryland: W*
Florida: L

*Revenge Game
** Annual Thursday night against an opponent that can upset FSU because the ACC hates its most nationally prominent program.

You may be asking why the Maryland game is a revenge game. Good question. Randy Edsall onside kicked after we ran it with our backup fullback on fourth down and he scored a touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Therefore, I think Jimbo will be in F-you mode.

As for the Wake game, it's our conference opener and DI opener. We will be prepared and our defense will eat someone. Clemson will be similar to wake except Sammy Watkins will make a crazy long TD catch... or three. Honestly, though, I worry those two games will cause the team to look past an in state opponent because it is close to home. I think USF will be ready to play. We will, too, but those types of games do not match up well for the establishment. Sure we will have the home loss from a few years ago in our mind, but that is an entirely different team and coaching staff. So it will not carry the same revenge factor if it were a loss from last year. If we win that one, look for us to lay an egg in Raleigh simply because we lose a game every year after some sort of let down. At USF and at NCST have those qualities.

As for VT and UF. They are good programs despite poor ends to last year. VT is dangerous at night and at home. I can't imagine a more difficult atmosphere to play in except if we were at the Swamp at night. Speaking of UF, I think they come in with upset on the mind. I think we are missing two important players to injury because that is what happens by the end of football seasons. I think they break the streak... and if they don't (and if they do), SCREW YOU FLORIDA.

The other games are run of the mill games. Gotta show up to play. I'm not sorry UM doesn't rank as important enough for a potential upset or big game. They had an exodus of upper classmen to the NFL and they have looming sanctions. They did it to themselves... well not the young players, but the President and Boosters. Just because the media has died of the story doesn't mean it is going away. It affects their strength as a program and will in the future.

The Greatest Moments from the Greatest Weekend

I love the NBA All-Star weekend. That's not exaggeration I love it. I "cancel plans with cute girls" love All-Star weekend (Sorry). It is probably the child in me but I get so excited about seeing most of the world's best basketball players on the same court competing against each other on Sunday night. I still want a "Vince Carter dunking in 2000" moment in the Slam Dunk contest. I want to see some celebrity do something goofy during the celebrity game or seeing a rookie or sophomore begin to make a name for himself on Friday night.

The game and the dunk contest were covered from this weekend but there were a lot of other great moments. I wanted to take a look back at those other great moments that made up a pretty good All-Star weekend.

All-Star Celebrity Game
The Kevin Hart bit playing with Dwight Howard and the child dressed up as Superman were great moments. But I would grow tired of Hart by the end of the weekend from that game and commercials from his movie that I can promise I will not see until it is randomly on Comedy Central when I wake up from a nap.

But my favorite moment from that game came from the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, and his over the shoulder pass to J. Cole, who then botched the layup.

If this is the type of basketball that goes down in President Obama's pickup games then we need to get some cameras in there. I would much rather see Obama, Duncan and friends play ball over some the college basketball I've seen this season.

Rising Stars Challenge
I like the change from the Rookie/Sophomore game to the draft by the GM's, Shaq and Charles Barkley, mixing up the players from both classes. The draft was fun a few weeks ago on a Thursday night broadcast on TNT and buzz around this game had built up expectations higher than they had been the past few seasons. The NHL has held a live draft by two of the top players in their sport to pick the players to fill out the remaining All-Star rosters for the past few seasons and people have been clamoring to see the NBA put this in place as well for their All-Star game. I think trying it this year with the rookies and sophomores showed that it was a success. Did you see how well John Wall played after being picked 11th in the draft? He was gunning for MVP the second he stepped on the court, playing good defense and playing extremely well on the offensive side. I would love to see this happening with the "real" All-Star game. How great would NBA stars play after being picked way too late? Would LeBron try to pick the most fun team ever? Would they let Kobe and LeBron be captains to let us know who would be the best GM ever, while also deciding player ever? Players picking other players to their All-Star teams would be the greatest thing the All-Star game has ever done. I would love to see more angry, committed players in the game.

OK back to my favorite moment from the Rising Stars game, it came late in the game after the game was already decided. In these moments it normally turns into an unofficial slam dunk contest. To further prove that he shouldn't have been picked 11th, John Wall was throwing down. Well he was throwing down until he tried to bounce the ball to himself while Greg Monroe stood a little too close to the lane. Greg Monroe decided he wanted the ball so he grabbed the ball and threw it down to his own teammates for their own dunks. No one saw this coming and it was hilarious. It doesn't sound like Wall appreciated it too much but Greg Monroe don't worry you had the best moment on the Rising Stars game.

Slam Dunk Contest
Saturday night has four events not just the Slam Dunk contest but that's what we all tune in for. I think overall the night was fun with the Haier Shooting Challenge, the Taco Bell Skills Challenge and even the 3-point shootout. But how we view the weekend is how good the Slam Dunk contest ends up being. This year might not have been the best, but I think there were two great dunks and several fun ones. I'll just show my favorite dunk from Saturday night. Not much lead-in but it was Jeremy Evan's second dunk of the evening where he dunked two balls at once, while jumping over Gordon Hayward sitting on a stool. Impressive stuff from the eventual Slam Dunk contest champion.

All-Star Game
Overall, the All-Star game was a lot of fun. There's still very little defensive and a lot of great passes and dunks. I'll take it. But my favorite moment of the night came when the East All-Star starters were introduced coming out of the smoky steps in the floor. Four of the players come up the stairs, head bobbing, laughing and seemingly having a good time. The fifth player stands off to side stoned face and just looking on the scene with what might have been contempt on his face. The four having fun were LeBron, Dwight Howard, Dwayne Wade and Carmelo Anthony and the fifth one was Derrick Rose. I'm not saying I think one group is better or worse for their response to being in the All-Star game, but I can say it was fun too see the juxtaposition. Derrick Rose please keep being aloof while everyone else around seems to be having a real good time. That won't ever stop being funny.

All-Star weekend has come and gone and I have to wait another year for one of my favorite weekends. Rest In Peace All-Star weekend 2012, I wish you had been around longer and thanks for the memories.

Welcome Us Back!! or (The One Where I Get Way too Personal)

The Sports Party has been on a hiatus. Those of you who follow me on Twitter (@chrislaprade1) and on Facebook might have been happy not to see my announcements everyday. Others of you, at least I hope so, missed being able to read and listen to our thoughts on an almost daily basis. Well for that group WE ARE BACK!

Starting today we will begin posting articles on the site again. Mitch and Pat are both coming back in some capacity to be a part of the blog. At the same time I am looking for other people that want to be a part of the site. If you have any interest in this, email me at thesportsparty@gmail.com. I am looking for people that can write, be guest on the podcast or if you want to be apart of the site in anyway just get in touch with me.

Next thing I want to talk about is the podcast. I'll be changing up the style of the podcast, moving it to once a week, and just trying out some different things until we (you and I) can find something we really enjoy. The podcast won't get started for a few weeks but it will be back, but most likely not on iTunes (Sorry).

OK, now I want to get to why the Sports Party hasn't posted anything in over two months. Over the end of last semester I started having panic attacks at school. This was not something I had encountered before and honestly didn't know how to handle it. I didn't tell anyone, I didn't see a doctor, I didn't even tell my family. In turn these panic attacks caused me to become depressed. (I actually hate using the word depressed and most of the time say bummed or down) Over the last three or four months I have finally let my family know what is going on and began to seek the medical advice that I need to get through this period in my life. Everyday isn't easy and everyday isn't some depressing, gloomy day where I sit in a dark room on my computer, actually most are somewhere inbetween. The panic attacks are less frequent and I am at a point where I manage them much better. Doctors are working to find the right set of medicines to help me feel better. And with help from my family and friends I continue to move in a direction where I feel more like myself.

Before this started I loved writing on the site, loved setting up podcast and chatting with great friends about my greatest passion, sports. As the panic attacks started and the depression became an issue, I could not find the passion to keep this blog going. I tried but it became hard and felt more like work than it should. After awhile I just left the site alone. But now as things are beginning to turn around my passion for sports and expressing my opinion on sports has returned quickly.

For those of you who were coming to the site daily I apologize for the break. We had what I felt was a good following, that was also growing. I hope that we can bring you back in without thinking that the content will just stop again in a few weeks.

I didn't write that for sympathy or anything like that. I wrote it because that's the best way I can express myself and expressing myself is something I needed to do. I also wrote this for the fans of this site to explain what happened and I hope that it came through well.

So we are back, I have post that will go up this afternoon about All Star weekend (one of my favorite weekends of the year). Pat and Mitch both have articles that are going up later this week. So stay tuned and welcome back to the Sports Party.