A busy couple of weeks!

After our tour of local breweries a few weekends back, we have been tied up with lots of family, work and school items.

Grandpa Ray did make it in town last Friday and we went out to dinner at Pasta Jay's on Pearl Street before watching the CU Buffs Stampede down Pearl Street. The loud band and old school fire truck scared the be-jesus out of Dylan but he recovered very quickly.

We then went to the CU vs. Wyoming game last Saturday at CU won 24-0. It was good to see the team show up to play and of course a Saturday afternoon game in Boulder in September is ALWAYS a great time.

Grandma Chris and Grandpa Gene have been in Colorado all week for a conference in Estes Park so Dylan has gotten to see his grandparents quite a bit in the past week.

Here are some photos from the past 2 weeks. We hope you enjoy them!

and after a busy couple of weeks, Dylan is ready for a day FULL of naps!!

Dylan's First Football Experience

Last Friday night Melissa headed off to see an outdoor play - Much a do about Nothing - at CU's Annual Summer Shakespeare Festival. This left Dylan and together for a night to ourselves!!

CU football practices began on Friday night from 5-8pm so Dylan and I had an easy choice on what to do: go check out some football!!

As some may recall, I was trying to take Dylan to the CU Spring game last April however given the temp and his age/weight, etc I decided to leave him home and check it out with Luke.

Anyway, I completely forget the camera at home so I could not document the occasion however I now know where we'll be each August - at CU's first football practice!

Here we are before our night together:


Note: he slept through the first hour of practice but was a bit more awake to check out what was going on around him before we left.

Basketball at MSG = Unbelievable!

A group of us had a once in a lifetime opportunity while in NYC a few weeks ago for a Bachelor Party.

Sean had a major hookup with the New York Knicks and got us an hour of court time on the hallowed grounds of Madison Square Garden. Granted it was 10am on a Saturday strapped in the middle of a long bachelor party weekend, but everyone showed up and brought their "A" game.

We managed to get out on the floor closer to 9:30 and had nearly 90 minutes (4 full court games to 21) of playing ball. The gang included about 14 guys and we played full court on the most famous NBA court!

It was just an absolutely amazing experience and some really competitive basketball games. I have been considering my official "retirement" from hoops after the experience. I figure I played some of the best basketball I ever have so I might as well go out on top! Hey, there aren't many better ways to go out!

Here are some photos of the gang. Just an amazing experience.

The Heisman Trophy

Well, Cinco de Mayo did not bring about any margaritas or even chips and salsa for me this year. It's actually quite all right however.

Rashaan Salaam's 1994 Heisman Trophy wandered into our office on May 5th, which gave all the Buff alumni in our office the chance to hold the trophy and take photos.

I realize this was a bit random. A women at our office is married to the head pro of the new Colorado National Golf Course and at the Heisman was on display at the dedication ceremony over this past weekend, as previously seen on this blog. So in returning it to Dal Ward it made a quick pit stop at work.

It wasn't quite like holding the Stanley Cup but it's pretty close for this guy.

Big event for CU

CU now has it's own golf course, Colorado National Golf Club.

Over this past weekend there were dedication festivities for Colorado National Golf Club -- the new home for CU's golf teams -- as well as a ribbon cutting ceremony to dedicate Colorado National Golf Club. This represents a "true" home course for the Buffs for many years to come. Over the past 20+ years, the Buffs have changed their home course on a somewhat regular basis.

Formerly Vista Ridge Golf Course, the links were purchased by Steve Kerr, a former CU golfer from the 80s. On the foggy, rainy morning a couple hundred Buff backers were in attendance, including professional golfers (and former Buffs) Steve Jones and Hale Irwin.

The CNGC clubhouse on Saturday was decked out with all sorts of past and present CU memorabilia and awards. Outside, lined up on one side of the putting green, were 12 carts, each painted with the colors and logo of a different team from the Big 12 Conference.

Of particular interest, parked on the side of the putting green was a range-ball picking vehicle colored red and white, with a Nebraska football helmet on the roof and an "N" emblazoned on the front. Keep in mind that range-ball pickers are often the target of people hitting balls on the practice range, and what better target for a CU fan than a symbol of the NU football team, long a dreaded nemesis of the Buffs.

Ranger is living the Dream this week

Seeing we are in the hospital with Dylan this week, my mom is staying at our house with Ranger. Yesterday they went on a 3+ hour walk that found Ranger walking to CU, taking a tour of campus and then walking home past the hospital. I'm sure he enjoyed the long walk and every smell along the way.

Here are a few photos from the excursion. These are pretty great...

I'd like to thank the kind person that took this photo in front of CU's football stadium!!

Funny thing, this is the gate I use for my access my season CU football seats

Didn't Luke and Firth have drinking parties in this dorm all the time? Ranger likes it.

Mid-season hoops recap

In a prior article, I delved into local hoops teams and made some predictions on how the seasons would progress. The crystal ball failed me in one team - the CU Men's Hoops team - and succeeded fairly well in another one - the Denver Nuggets. Here are my (abbreviated) report cards and I should note that I have followed both as much as someone who works and is in school can:

CU Men's Team: Coach Bzdelik's team is very young and has a lot of growing to do and has lived below the predictions I made for them this season. CU is not have a traditional powerhouse basketball team and doesn't have a lot of in-state talent to draw from. The last truly good-to-great player from in-state that went to CU was Chauncey Billups; and he was a truly great high school player and all-star in college (see below for more in Nuggets commentary). Even the player of the year winners for Colorado high schools that have come to CU have done mediocre to good on the college level (see Levi Knutson). The team has made progress and it's nice to see players on the team develop and improve their overall play during the season (the prior coaching regime often had highly-touted players come in as Freshmen and not leave much betters as Senior's). Good things should be coming the Buffs way as the team gains experience and more physical maturity.

This year's rotation includes 7 freshmen and sophomores and only one junior and one senior. This means they have the ability to improve and how shown signs of this all year. They have lost nearly 10 games in the final minute or two against teams that had twice the talent and size that the Buffs currently do. They play an offensive style (think of a more modern Princeton offense) that spreads out the defense and makes the opponents work hard on defense as the Buffs are constantly setting backdoor screens and moving in space. The defensive schemes are often what keeps the Buffs in the game as Bzdelik has played a mixture of man-to-man, zone match-up schemes and even the 1-3-1 half court trap. I can guaranty you no team in the Big 12 enjoys playing the Buffs, despite their lack of size and experience. Good things are to come for this program. Top Big 12 teams often struggled against the Buffs and their style of play. This leads me to believe that much better things are to come!

Denver Nuggets: The Nuggets are having a great year and leading their division (against the always tough Jazz and the upstart Trailblazers). This team is on pace for as many wins as last year and has the chance to be better in the playoffs as well as win more regular season games. Their is one reason for this and that is quite simply Denver's NBA All-Star point guard: Chauncey Billups. Everything this team was lacking last year (4th quarter poise, maturity, team play and an on court leader), Chauncey has brought to the team. This has improved Carmelo Anthony's level of play, Kenyon Martin has been a consistent contributor with a point guard that can distribute the ball and Nene is playing his best, injury free season of his career.

All of this leads to a few points:

1) Chauncey Billups deserves to be in the discussion regarding the League MVP. He may not deserve to win, but he should be in that conversation. Look at Detoit and Denver. These teams are the same as last year, sans Chuancey and AI are on different teams. Which team looks like they are going some where this year? That should tell you how great this guy has become.

2) George Karl is a possible coach of the year candidate. He had what could be one of the toughest seasons any coach could ever imagine last year given his team showed him little to no respect and at often times looked completely helpless/lifeless on the coaching bench. This team is performing this year and his off-season discussion with his team to play his kind of basketball and the removal of Iverson have greatly improved the Nuggets this year. His benching of Carmelo Anthony after he refused to exit a game was the move of a coach confident in his job and showed needed and necessary leadership.

Bold Basketball Predictions

The basketball season came into season this last week with little more than a whisper.

1) The CU Men's Basketball team: better than .500 this year.

While a winning half your games may not seem like a big deal or an accomplishment, taking a team of 6 Freshmen and 5 Sophomores and making them a winning group in a tough Big 12 conference will be quite a task. Despite this, I believe that Coach Jeff Bzdelik will do a great coaching job this year, his second with the Buffs.


2) The Nuggets may have a legitimate shot at winning their division and Carmelo Anthony may actually win his first playoff series + more (I'm thinking 55 wins is legitimately possible)

A new look Melo and the addition of Chauncey Billups (and the subtraction of Allen Iverson) has worked out immediately for the Nuggets. They are playing good team basketball and are showing the kind of team camaraderie not seen in these parts since the early 90's when Dikembe Mutombo and LaPhonso Ellis were leading the Nuggets.

It's been an amazing transformation this year. The words "team" and "defense" apply to this year's Nuggets for the first time in years. They are off to a great start and could possibly destroy the 50 win plateau from a year ago. Let's hope the Nuggets continue to improve.

"Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care"

We had a really neat opportunity last night in our MBA class. We had a guest speaker come in and talk about persuasion and motivating people, in line with our classroom learning. That guest speaker:

Dan Hawkins, head football coach at CU.

The topic of discussion for the week was persuasion, prepped in part by 80+ pages of readings around structuring a persuasive argument and different strategies around communicating your message along with focusing on your audience (and making sure you understand what they are looking for, not just what you are looking for). Very interesting and applicable stuff based on how it applies to business in general and our everyday lives.

Coach Hawk jumped into class and after getting a quick intro from the prof and a question to get him started, he was off to the chatter. It was a very passionate and enthusiastic speech, hands down the best class/lecture/speech/interaction I have seen before.

He talked about several things, notably the importance of having a vision and drive. Find what you are passionate about and have a driving vision and focus on including people in your mission that share your drive.

Surround yourself with good people. Reminds me of my football coach "you hang out with turds, you turn into a turd". You are only as good as the company you keep. Very true statements for any part of life.

Take chances and challenge yourself: taking a chance and getting out of your comfort zone is very important in life and in business. He created a great vibe around Boise State when he was there. He thought CU was a great opportunity and yet another chance to step out of what was becoming a comfortable situation and challenge himself.

That feeling in your gut when you fail or feel you are failing, take that feeling and use that negative experience as a learning experience and grow from it.

And probably my favorite line from the night: "Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care." It seems very applicable to many walks of life; whether it is philanthropic endeavors, business, your life and family or your friendships with others.

The overall talk with Coach Hawk lasted 45 minutes and covered a variety of topics such as "how do you walk into a players living room and persuade them to play for CU?", "How do you manage expectations amongst your staff and your bosses?" and "How do you go about persuading the school administration, the faculty, the students, the community and the state on your agenda as football coach?"

I wish I had had a tape recorder last night. It was a very candid discussion that left the entire class excited (I was pumped for a few hours and stayed up late studying and typing this because there was no way I could go to sleep).

Go Buffs! And as one of my classmates said last night "despite the fact I lit a fresh candle in my Coach Hawkins shrine this morning, I was very impressed with Coach Hawk but even objectively I'm sure I would have found endless business value. Totally worth the price of tuition, I can fail out a happy man."

After further review... my teams stink

I am quickly come to a realization that my teams are not so good (after further review). I recently wrote how well all were playing at 2-0 and since then my teams have followed the stock market... down, down, down...

CU got beat for a 3rd game in a row by a better team...

The Pack has cooled down and the loss of Al Harris is proving detrimental to the team...

The Bagders have lost 3 in a row against strong conference foes...

We went to the Broncos game yesterday, Melissa's first ever, and sat in 35 degree, overcast and drizzling conditions to watch 3 turnovers doom the Broncos against a motivated Jaguars team...

And to rub it all in my fantasy teams have strugged to 3-2 records after a 2-0 starts, respectively.

I'm not sure where to go from here, however I can only hope it gets better - and soon!! Time to go enjoy Columbus Day at el librario...

(Sports) Life is Good... for now

So, a quick post prior to tonight's CU vs WVU game...

The football season is relatively short, however being undefeated two games in does not make for a great season. With that said, all the teams I religiously follow are 2-0:

CU Buffs: Good start so far despite a scare in the EWU game. A big, tough task tonight against WVU and Pat White. Good news is Chris Fowler, CU Alum, will be doing the play-by-play. Perhaps that gives the home team an edge...

(Coach Hawkins is stoked for the "John Denver Bowl" tonight)

Green Bay Packers: The Aaron Rodgers, aka Mr. Cool, era is off to a strong start. A tough game against Dallas on Sunday night with yet another national television audience should prove to be the biggest challenge yet...

Wisconsin Badgers: Solid win at a very tough, hostile environment in Fresno State. The QB play will need to improve to give them a shot at the Big 10 title, however they are off this weekend before a visit to Michigan Sept 27. A definite 2-0 team after this weekend...

Denver Broncos: A convincing nad impressive game against Oakland was followed by likely the most controversial game of the NFL season vs. San Diego. The Broncos still had to score a TD on two plays and a 2-point conversion to win. San Diego still had the chance to win the game...

Team Ralphie (Fantasy Football via LilBig Football League): the team with the first overall pick in the draft has dominated its opponents two weeks in and despite a lack of depth has the opportunity to go 3-0 this week. Team Ralphie is the odds-on favorite (as voted by the league) to win the LilBig FL championship this year...

Team Favreageddon (SVB Sports ESPN league): highest point total after two weeks and the most complete lineup top to bottom with depth at every position. A near lock to go undefeated this year...

Enjoy your weekend, as we will be in Breck enjoying a nice relaxing, fall weekend. MfB suggests you don't enjoy your weekend drunk, on a moped, like this LB from 'Sconny... he is now my hero.

CU Buffs off to a good start...

The CU Buffs got off on the right foot Sunday night in a 38-17 victory over the instate CSU Rams. After a shaky start and a few early mistakes, the Buffs jumped to a 21-7 lead on an electrifying kickoff return for a TD by sophomore WR Josh Smith (his 1st collegiate touchdown). The Buffs fell asleep on the ensuing kickoff as CSU returned the kick for a TD to pull within 21-14 heading into halftime. The second half started with another solid kickoff return by Josh Smith who was one break away from another kickoff return for a TD. The Buffs never looked back.

This was the last scheduled game between the two schools at Mile High. CU took their option to play the 2009 game in Boulder while CSU returned the favor and chose to have the 2010 game in Fort Collins, making it the first time the two schools will meet their in at least 12 years. There are no future games scheduled at this time, likely a good situation as this game benefits CSU much more than CU when it is played in Denver, both financially and fan wise. CU has won 5 of the past 6 matchups and appears to be headed in a positive direction with the potential to be a perennial top 20 program. Coach Hawk has assembled some great young talent and has begun to implement his coach style and philosophies on the team. He has also taking a no-nonsense approach in taking quick and harsh discipline to any players not living up to the high standards and expectations he has laid out for the Buffaloes.

This is a great blog entry by Coach Hawk. http://www.cubuffs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=600&ATCLID=1571048&DB_OEM_ID=600&ATCLID=1571048 Please note there is a link to Coach Hawk's blog on the right sidebar on Musings from Boulder.

CSU appears to be in a down year as the overall talent, team speed and athleticism was lacking from this team compared to what we've seen in years past. The new coach seems to be pretty competent, it's just going to take him a while to get CSU to a respectable level (there fans were, as usual, completely classless and out of control prior to the kickoff this year).

The picture below to the right is another reason this game should not be at Mile High. A good 1/4 of CSU's section of the stadium (which is split in half for each school) was empty the entire game as they failed to sell their allotment. In fact, CU sold out their allotment and bought up tickets in the CSU section - see all the black and gold in the picture. This revenue actually falls into CSU's pockets, as Neil Wollk points out in a recent column.

http://www.buffzone.com/news/2008/aug/30/rams-pay-big-price-for-a-little-pride/

Go BUFFS!!

College football opening weekend predictions...

It's quickly becoming the best time of the year: College football is starting tonight! Here are some (brave) picks for the weekend:

Thursday:
1) South Carolina over NC State: only game of value on tonight and I like Spurrier winning - even if his kid is calling the plays

Friday:
1) SMU over Rice: Hello June Jones!

Saturday:
1) Missouri over Illinois: look for a close first half, then say goodnight Juice.

2) Clemson over Alabama: 'Bama has 3 true freshmen starting? I don't like Clemson that much, muss less at #9, however they should be able to handle 'Bama.

3) Michigan over Utah: Ugly start to this game, but Michigan pulls through. I think RichRod will surprise many folks in the Big 10 this year. Look for Michigan to finish 3rd in conference.

4)USC easily over Virginia.

5) LSU over App State: this could be a fun game to watch as LSU has a Harvard transfer starting at QB (?)

6) California over Michigan State: I'm not sure how the incumbent, Sr QB can lose his job to a sophomore, which leads me to believe Riley is the real deal. Cal at home, in a close one.

7) Kansas State over the Mean Green of North Texas

Sunday:

1) CU over CSU: All Buffs, all day long!

Monday:

1) Fresno State over Rutgers

2) Tennessee over UCLA (welcome to Westwood Rickie-Poo)

Let's hear some feedback. What do you think? Are there other games of consideration this weekend?

CU's football season has begun!

With a pre-season ranking of 36 (via SI.com), the CU Buffs opened training camp this week with a wide range of expectations heading into the 2008 season. This past Monday 105 players reported to what should be an exciting camp.

The newcomers and select veterans are working out each morning and the returning players are practicing in the afternoons.

With opening day against CSU at Mile High just under 25 days away, the Buffs have a lot of work to do. The Sunday night showdown will get national TV coverage on FSN, giving the game status as the sole game of the night and a spotlight that it hasn't had for years. CSU figures to be down this year with the Buffs having higher expectations given their recent Top 20 recruiting class, Hawk's third year on the job and a returning QB with a full year under his belt. A top notch schedule doesn't do the Buffs any favors, however I would much rather play CSU, West Virginia and Florida State in my non-conference than the cupcakes the likes of Ohio State, Kansas, Oklahoma and the like generally play.

Practices are open to the public and I will be sharing photos as soon as I can get down to a practice.