Wayman Tisdale, 1964-2009

Wayman Tisdale lost a two-year battle yesterday with colon cancer. He was universally loved by everyone. And I mean everyone… even rival coaches. Billy Tubbs recruited Tisdale to Oklahoma… Tisdale was the kid everyone wanted. He was Blake Griffin way before Blake Griffin. He was only 44 years old and had transitioned to his second career as a musician. The Hokie Guru remembers watching him play basketball when he was growing up in North Dakota many years ago (Tisdale will be remembered far more for his college basketball career than profoessional) We know he’s going to a better place now. Shows you how short life can be so there is no day but today… make sure you live it. Wayman, of course, would ask us to continue life today… and will… with this edition of news and notes:

1.) Greg Paulus, former men’s basktball point guard at Duke University, is heading to the ‘Cuse to compete for the quarterback position. His prior visits were to Michigan and Nebraska, but it appears he will be a good fit with the Oranagemen because, well, he was raised in upstate New York. Good luck to Greg.

2.) The NBA’s Houston Rockets, who have their two best players in Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady both on the bench for injuries, are giving the Lost Angles Lakers fits… big time… this Rockets team is playing like, forgive the Hokie Guru for using the same word in a sentence, rockets… they are playing like the Run and Gun Phoenix Suns teams of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s… spring city… the Hokie Guru sees a Rockets team that has developed depth with new players, like former dookie, Shane “who’s your daddy-eh? Battier (that rhymes… Shane might the best player that Duke has ever put in the NBA) who plays awesome defense, and Ron Artest, former St. John’s Red Storm alumnus, the most physical player in the NBA. Kyle Lowry (Villanova Alumni) is also playing very good at the guard slot for the Rockets. The series is getting chippy. The Hokie Guru still takes the Lakers in game seven (he’s all about conspiracy theories putting the Lakers and Cavs in the Finals) at 3:30 PM EST on Sunday, May 17, 2009 (on ABC television), but let me tell you… the Rockets have now learned how to win… and they have developed long-term depth… fantastic coaching by Houston’s staff. The Houston Rockets are on the Hokie Guru’s A list of NBA teams to watch next year. The Hokie Guru would like to see LaBron James play in Houston as a free agent. Imagine the dominance with Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady, Labron James, Ron Artest, and Shane Battier all on the floor at the same time… and Kyle Lowry coming in as sixth man… this all could indeed happen folks.

3.) In the second game seven on Sunday, the Orlando Magic take on the Joker (sorry, the Boston Celtics).

The Hokie Guru will be short on this one… it’s going to be hard for Orlando to win a game seven on the road at the Fleet Center in Boston. One Boston team, however, IS HOME. The Joker will win game seven.

4.) Tweet, Tweet, baby. Very interesting… coaches cannot text message recruits, but social networking ala Twitter, is permissible. Boo yah.

5.) Take a look at Tom Dienhart’s All- Spring Team here and Mark Schalbach’s Post-Spring Top 25 right here. The usual suspects, Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, USC, and Virginia Tech, are ranked 1-5, respectively. The Big 12 and the SEC dominate the top 10 and the top 25… keep your eye on September 5, 2009… when #5 Virginia Tech takes on #8 Alabama in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta… that’s the best game of the opening weekend in the 2009 college football season.

6.) And we close on a sad note… Boston College linebacker, and 1st team All-American, Mark Herzlich has cancer. He is a good kid (yes, he’s a kid… he’s only 21) and we here at Govloop wish him a speedy recovery. And Herzlick is already taking action.

Oh, sorry… the government thing… the Hokie Guru was part of team that recently reviewed the Department of Homeland Security information technology disaster recovery activities… you can see the report right here. And you can see press reports on the audit here, here, and here. We are proud of the work we do as public servants. Ut Prosim (that I may serve).

And that’s it for this week 🙂