From the "7-Up Stinks Studios," here we go...
Drew Brees, New Orleans quarterback, was guest speaker at the 2011 Best of Preps banquet at the Chattanooga Convention Center Tuesday.
Staff Photo by Tim Barber/Chattanooga Times Free PressBest of Preps best of all
The 5-at-10 was honored to be part of the Best of Preps banquet last night. It's a wonderful event, and one that a lot of people at the TFP and our corporate partners take a lot of pride in and invest a lot of time and resources.
Speaker Drew Brees was excellent. The crowd was capacity. The awards were deserving and appreciated. Home run all the way around.
Here are a few highlights:
-- During the audience Q&A, we circulated microphones among the crowd for questions for Brees. Two stood out: A Saints fan from the Mississippi-Gulf Coast shared her story about how much Brees and the Saints meant to her and her family after Katrina. Nice moment. The other was at the end, after we announced we had time for one more question, some fellow in
the back stood up and bellowed his question. We got the guy -- who was in a sleeveless shirt -- a microphone and he asked Drew, "If we put together a celebrity boxing match between you and Peyton Manning to raise money, would you do it?" A stunned Brees handled it gracefully, but it was a great moment.
-- There was a 5-foot ice statue that was one part Best of Preps logo/one part Lombardi Trophy. It was impressive in its impressiveness.
-- Jonathan Blevins, the former South Pittsburg football player that won last year's Davis Award for Heart and Desire, attended this year's banquet to congratulate Courtnee Hall, the Ridgeland catcher who won this year's Davis Award. It was a nice moment.
Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem, foreground left, redirects the shot of Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose, foreground center, as Heat's Dwyane Wade, foreground right, watches during the fourth quarter of Game 2 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals basketball series on Wednesday, May 18, 2011, in Chicago. The Heat won 85-75. (AP Photo/Charlie Arbogast)Heat getting hotter
The 5-at-10 has had some fun at the Miami Heat's expense (tear). We have pointed out their shortcomings (sob). We have harped on their emotional ups and downs (sniff-sniff).
Well, the Heat's time is here regardless of the path they covered to get here. The Heat hold a 3-1 edge in the Eastern Conference finals after an impressive, gutsy performance in a 101-93 overtime win over Chicago on Tuesday, Miami has fully embraced the Dennis Green moment. "They are who we thought they are."
Two quick thoughts have come to the forefront as the Heat appear headed to the NBA Finals for seems to be a date with the Dallas Mavericks:
-- Sometimes, we make sports too hard right? C'mon, the Heat have three of the best four players on the floor against almost every team they play. That is enough, and we should have known that.
-- Doc Rivers' comment about how beneficial it was for the Heat to face a lot of adversity during the regular season (including the admission of some players crying after a regular- season loss) has proved so true. The Heat have been forged by criticism and emotion, and they are in the rare and enviable place of having the most talented team (at least at the top)
and still being able to embrace the "Us against the world" mentality that can bond a locker room better than anything else.
One more thought, and we've talked about it here recently: If the Heat win it all, the new NBA "Power Trio" trend will not slow down any time soon. Don't you know the Chris Pauls and D-Howards and all the rest are watching this with great attention.
Kyle Busch celebrates winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup auto race at Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Va., Saturday April 30, 2011. (AP Photo/Clem Britt)Road burning Busch
Jumping Granny Clampett, Kyle Busch was caught doing 128 mph Tuesday. On a public road. In a 45-mph zone.
It will be interesting to see how NASCAR responds to Busch's inexplicable driving transgression. (Three-times the speed limit? Really?)
Apparently, in the biggest shocker of all, Busch -- one of NASCAR's renowned hot heads -- was very cooperative with the authorities.
Busch said he got carried away (You think, doctor?) while testing-driving a Lexus sports car.
On the bright side, if there's a person who can be reasonably expected to control a car going 125-plus mph, it would be a NASCAR driver. Of course, if something bad had happened, Busch would have blamed a mail box or a squirrel or any other item/thing that some how was to blame.
Somewhere Kevin Harvick is giggling.
Actors Zach Galifianakis, left, Bradley Cooper, center, and Ed Helms, stars of tge upcoming film "The Hangover Part II," pose for a portrait in Beverly Hills, Calif., Wednesday, May 18, 2011. The film opens in theatres May 26, 2011. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)The Wolfpack are back
Hangover 2 starts Thursday, and the 5-at-10 is hoping for the best -- but fearing the worst.
The range for the return of the Wolfpack is off the charts. It could be outstanding; it could be one of those awful comedies that the only funny parts are in the previews. It could be all or nothing (although, the previews have some great scenes, including Alan asking, "What is this a PF Chang's?").
It's official, the 5-at-10 is officially excited about this movie. It's in the books.
In honor of the second Hangover, let's recap a quick best/worst list of sequels (and we're just talking about true sequels, as in the second film in the series if there's more than two):
Best sequel: Godfather II
Second-best sequel: Empire Strikes Back
Worst sequel: Caddyshack II
Second-worst sequel: Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry met Lloyd
Best sports sequel: Rocky II
Worst sports sequel (that's not Caddyshack 2): All of the Bad New Bears remakes (And this counts all the kids' sports movies that follow the BNB formula of "the down-on-his/her-luck
coach, the hodgepodge collection of underdogs that include a chubby kid, a girl and add a stud player midway through, team starts to click and stuns the league's best team." Well, all
the ones like that except "Little Giants," which we have a soft spot for. Sue us.)
Most underrated sequel: Road Warrior
Most disappointing sequel: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Most inexplicable sequel: Weekend at Bernies 2 -- serously, someone signed off on the pitch of, "Hey, we have Jonathan Silverman and Andrew McCarthey already on baord, and the
guy that played the dead guy is in. What's that? Yeah, the dead guy that everyone is pretending is alive and just hungover may be smelly, but this is a visual/audio movie."
Best guess for Hangover 2 comparison as a sequel? Probably Fletch 2, which was mildly disappointing on the first viewing because we loved the first one so much (a lot like the
Hangover), but Fletch 2 became more enjoyable with multiple viewings.
Thoughts?
This and that
-- Spring Fling Day 1 star: Helllllllooooooo, Shelby Willard. The Central softball ace has been a leader in the pitching circle all season; Tuesday she was a star in the batter's box. Willard's two-out, walk-off grand slam capped a five-run, seventh-inning rally in the Lady Purple Pounders' 5-4 win in their state-tournament opener. In the words of the late, great TV classic, "Hee-Haw," that deserves a "Sallll-Loot."
-- Sweet Dizzy Dean Confusion, did you see this stat from the Braves' 2-0 win over Pittsburgh on Tuesday: Through the first three innings, Braves starter Jair Jurrjens had thrown 31 pitches and 28 of them were for strikes. Wow. (As for the Dizzy Dean reference, well, legend has it that during his time as an announcer, ol' Dizzy noticed a couple in the stands that were really in love. They were smooching on every pitch -- he was kissing her between the strikes and she was kissing him between the... well, fill in the blank and remember it's a family- oriented-Intertube-web-based sports column.)
-- Two of the A-list possible transfer quarterbacks have Auburn on their short list. Former N.C. State star and ACC player of the year Russell Wilson reportedly was on Auburn's campus Tuesday. Reports have also surfaced that former Michigan starter Tate Forcier has looked at Auburn and USC among others. Granted the Tigers enjoyed arguably the best transfer season of all-time as Cam Newton won the Heisman (AFLAC) while leading the Tigers to the title. Whether another transfer can work similar magic is debatable. That said, the Tigers' 11th-hour interest in quarterback transfers does not signal a lot of confidence in the two quarterbacks -- Barrett Trotter and Clint Moseley -- battling for the job to replace Newton.
-- NFL players and idle body parts during the work stoppage: While they are not allowed to work out at the team facilities, Drew Brees was turning heads at the Best of Preps banquet; Peyton Manning had neck surgery and Hines Ward was shaking his Hines parts on his way to winning the "Dancing with the Stars."
-- Huge props to the UTC athletic department, which produced program bests in almost all APR categories. Nice job all the way around. Side note: Heath Eslinger and the folks involved in the turnaround within the wrestling program deserve new singlets. That group went from very poor APR numbers to passing scores and the seventh-best GPA among wrestling programs in the country.
Until tomorrow.