Yesterday I spoke with one of our team managers, Khoeny Dolisca, who has watched the team transformation with a sideline seat. When asked about the first day of spring practice, Khoeny stated, “It was a good practice. Very different from how things were before. We are going back to basics.”

What sort of basics are the coaches pushing? “Tackling mostly. Ball security. Overall hustle and mindset.” What is the mindset of the players? How are they reacting? “People are stepping up. Everyone seems more aggressive to make big plays.”

What areas are coaches targeting? “We’re rebuilding special teams” How so? “We aren’t really focusing on punt/kick returns. We’re looking to strengthen our kickoff game and punting plays.”

We all know our defense was awful. How are the coaches addressing it? “Coaches are tougher than ever on defensive guys. And the players are responding. They’re stepping up and working hard because they know that if they don’t, Coach will start someone in their place.”

You get the feeling that more than new drills, better schemes, and tougher practices, Coach Fisher has instilled a new mindset in our guys. A mindset of play hard or go home. A mindset that should have been present for several year. Players know that they have to earn their spot on the team, so they’re giving more.

I still understand the desire to reserve judgement and curb enthusiasm until the changes pan out with wins, but I believe it’s safe to say that our program is headed in the right direction. Jimbo’s already fixed many of the problems that led us down the path of irrelevance. Will we see 10 wins this season? Probably not. But this season should be the first in a line of steadily improving years that puts FSU back into the national picture of college football.

Yet, I am in the minority. A lot of people claim the Seminole Booster program is essential. Booster Program CEO Andy Miller was recently quoted as saying “They do not realize that without private contributions, we do not have an athletic program.”

Well, in order to prove the “truthiness” of Mr. Miller’s claim, I have to put myself in a dangerous mindset. I have to put aside all attachment, memory, and kinship. I have to do away with human feeling. I must become Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now:

ScalpEm Headquarters: Your mission is to proceed up the Suwanee River in a Seminole patrol boat. Pick up the Seminole Boosters’ path at the Big Bend, follow it north, and learn what you can along the way. When you find the Boosters, infiltrate them by whatever means available and terminate their command.

Jordi: Terminate the Boosters?

ScalpEm Headquarters: They are out there operating without any decent restraint, totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct. And they are running the athletic program.

Average Fan: Terminate with extreme prejudice.

ScalpEm Headquarters: You understand, Jordi, that this mission does not exist, nor will it ever exist …

I have to become Captain Willard to the Seminole Boosters.

The first step is to evaluate the Boosters’ overall importance to the university. According to its website, “Seminole Boosters, Inc. is the fundraising organization that helps fund the Florida State University Athletic Department budget“. Yet, on the university’s “about” page, there is only one brief mention of athletics, and that is as a part of the experience.

Although not mentioned, going to Bullwinkles and getting thrown into the Westcott Fountain are also part of the FSU experience. Yet the owner of Bullwinkles doesn’t influence university decisions.

(Maybe he does. Maybe he or she is a Booster member. Maybe they have people everywhere like the Masons or the Illuminati. Maybe the Boosters built Doak Campbell Stadium and they have secret maps scattered around the campus, like in National Treasure or The DaVinci Code.)

The next question to ask is: How important are athletics to the overall well-being of the university?

As much as it pains me to say this, I’m going to say “not very”. Although I’m not sure how many universities have no sports, there are plenty of establishments of higher learning that do just fine without certain sports. Did you know, for example, in 1975 the University of Tampa board of trustees voted to do away with the football program?

Yet University of Tampa is still alive and well.

(Imagine the fate of the University of South Florida’s program if UT still had their team. Would USF be in the same spot they are now, on the cusp of being a legit state power? Or would UT’s program had emerged as a competitor?)

So we know universities can survive without football. But what is the value of athletics as a whole? Is it important?

Did you know small, private schools spend 5% of their budgets on athletics? Did you know, according to that same article, there are no boosters at small, private universities? Athletics at these schools are funded by the students.

In some cases, students are voting down increases in their tuition that would earmarked for athletic spending. For these students, the cost of athletics is not worth the increased price of attendance.

(By the way, we have already discussed the university relationship to athletic profit. A few months ago, I attempted to make the assertion that the football team indirectly built or improved the campus and I was raked over the coals. So this time I am assuming the athletic department has no direct financial benefit to the rest of the university. If I am wrong again, let me know.)

Some would say the benefit of a booster program is to take the cost of the athletic program off the students and place it on an outside organization funded by private individuals. This way, students can realize the entire college experience the way it has been for the last hundred or so years, with athletic competitions and all the associated pomp and circumstance, with minimal cost.

But what if the value of athletics is marginal at best to the college experience? Could you put a value on the happiness of a university after a championship? Sure, people are more likely to party, have a good time, and maybe even enjoy the company of the opposite sex after the game, but after the bacchanalia subsides and the kegs are returned, what’s left? Do grades go up after championships? Are potential students more likely to attend?

I don’t know the answer.

On the flip side, what about the negative impact a few misbehaved athletes have had on our university? How much did the free shoes scandal in the 1990s cost us? What about the academic scandal of a few years ago? What about the negative press we got from Peter Warrick, Ernie Sims, Geno Hayes, Sebastian Janokowski, Preston Parker, etc? Does that have an affect on how people view FSU as a whole? We  could only wish Myron Rolle’s greatness wiped away the sins of past athletes like he was a next-generation Jesus.

What if Jesus listened to Ice Cube every time it was a good day?

Can the benefit of sports programs be measured?

If so, then the impact of the Booster program can be measured.

Until then, I can hypothesize, fantasize, eulogize, and feature the Seminole Boosters as George Bailey in the FSU version of “It’s a Wonderful Life” until the cows come home.

Nothing is going to change.

Before I sign off, think about this: while the Seminole Boosters want a multi-million dollar indoor training complex for the football team and improvements to athletic student housing, many of the integral academic departments at Florida State University have had their budgets cut, had to lay off teachers, merge with other departments, or had to make other types of sacrifices due to lack of money.

My guess is that Andy Miller sees nothing wrong with this.

The horror, the horror …

There’s no prize. In fact, this works in reverse. If my bracket beats your bracket, you should owe ME something, since I don’t watch hoops and pretty much know nothing about the teams.

So yeah, come beat down my bracket at Yahoo! Sports

Group ID: 115161

Password: ilikesoftball

Those folks couldn’t be more wrong from my view.

I checked out both games on Saturday, when FSU Softball dropped the first game to UNC after a scoreless 7 innings on both sides and won the second game 2-1. I saw a lot of good in the loss though, right up until the very end. Carly Wynn was the bright spot for FSU in the game, collecting 3 hits on her first three ABs. Tory Haddad and Shayla Jackson eventually had the other FSU hits against Danielle Spaulding. Overall, in 30 Plate Appearances, the Noles struck out 9 times, 3 from Mallory Borden.

That sounds bad, right? Wrong. Other than Borden, the Noles (30% of all BFs including Borden, 22% without) were MUCH better than average against Spaulding, who has struck out 141 in 293 batters faced (48% of all BFs).  Sunday was more in line with Spaulding’s average, FSU struck out 38% of the time against Spaulding, but they still beat the average. Remember, the two loses were in extra innings and in both loses the FSU pitching staff gave up 5 runs. Five runs doesn’t beat UNC or any other good team, end of discussion.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda. I know, the Noles didn’t win those two games. But, I’m still plenty bullish on FSU Softball as the season moves on. Lonnie Alameda and staff have the hitters moving in the right direction from where I sit, and I still think that the pitching will straighten itself out.  The FSU Softball teams of the last few years wouldn’t have made as much contact as they did over the weekend. They wouldn’t have hung in there. We need to sit tight and watch this program develop past Alameda’s 2nd year at the helm, because more good things are coming.

Addressing Other Issues

• Regarding UNC’s size. At the game they didn’t seem that much bigger than FSU. It certainly didn’t feel like they had a bunch of bombers going up to the plate each AB, and to top it off there was a stiff wind blowing out of JoAnne Graf Field. Game 1 would have been much different had Haddad, Robin Ahrberg or anyone else put a halfway decent fly ball into the outfield, because it would have gone out and we’d be talking about a 2-1 series win for the Noles. I credit Spaulding, who didn’t have as many strike outs, but kept a lot of balls on the ground or in the infield.
• Power Outage. I’m with you guys on wanting another big bat or two in the FSU lineup. That won’t change this year. I’m hopeful that changes over the next couple of recruiting classes.
• The grounds crew for the softball team need to learn how to wet the field better in windy conditions. There shouldn’t have been as much dust blowing around as there was on Saturday afternoon.
• The FSU pitching staff is good, but not great so far. It needs to be great when the NCAA tournament rolls around if the Noles want to get anywhere.
• I can’t praise Carly Wynn enough for her hustle. She turned a single into a double on a weakly hit / wind assisted fly. It was just fun to watch her run, and she’s going to be sorely missed next season.

FSU takes on FIU today at 5pm and 7pm, and Auburn on Thursday at 3pm, before heading down to the USF Tournament in Clearwater, FL this weekend.

Of Florida State’s nine losses this season, Friday night’s 58-52 loss to North Carolina State is in my opinion the worse loss of the season.

Why do I say that? The mistakes made tonight mirror exactly the very same mistakes this team made in the first week of the season. Thirty-one games played with a week to prepare and FSU still looked like a team in its first week of practice much of the time.

The most prominent of those mistakes were the 20 turnovers the Seminoles garnered giving the Wolfpack 16 easy points. Leonard Hamilton likes to say we invent ways to give the ball away. Well, he would be dead on with that comment about this game.

Just ludicrous turnovers like throwing the ball too low to teammate and bouncing it off his foot and out of bounds. Getting a rebound and flipping it causally to another player that player unfortunately being the opponent. Throwing a pass way wiiiiiiiide of your mark and you weren’t even being defended on the play. Throwing a pass to nobody, things like that.

Then there was free throw shooting or the lack thereof. Aside from not getting to the line enough in the first place the ‘Noles had another horrid game from the stripe shooting 9 of 17. Andy Enfield, FSU’s shooting guru has his work cut out for him for this to improve for next season. Assuming he can that is because it is going to have to be up to the players to fix that what has become a huge issue.

Then there was Scott Wood who once again burned FSU with 6, that’s SIX three pointers out of ten attempts for 18 points. The combined total for Wood against FSU is 13 of 21 threes and 49 total points.

So why, after getting scorched for 31 in the first game did the coaching staff come out with the very same defensive assignment on Wood?? That worked out real well didn’t it. And by the time the adjustment was made in who was guarding Wood it was way too late as the Pack held nine point advantage, 46-37, with fourteen minutes left to play.

And lastly there is that offense or what is supposedly an offense because whatever it is FSU is trying to do frankly is bumfuzzling (as Bobby Bowden would say). For whatever reasons this team will not throw the ball into the post player. FSU looks like they will throw it in there but hesitates missing that split second opportunity to do so. By then it is too late and the ‘Noles settle for long jump shots.

Eighteen long jump shots to be exact of which FSU hit just three and just 39% from the floor overall.

So with the defeat by the third seeded ‘Noles to the eleventh seeded Wolfpack FSU falls to 22-9, is one and done in the ACC tournament, sees its record in Greensboro fall to 1-8, and will wait for the selection show on Sunday to see where they will travel to. And it’s a good bet that it will be a lengthy destination as the best seed FSU can hope for now is probably a nine seed. When you loose twice to NC State and are 0-3 against the two top teams in the conference anything better than a nine seed and the Seminoles can consider themselves extremely lucky.

I’ll just blame the loss on Florida State SID person Chuck Walsh missing his first game in 17 years due to the flu. Yeah, that’s why the team was off its game. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

My $0.02?

I think they’ve all hit the nail on the head. This weekend should be tight. Both teams have solid offenses, and both teams have good starting pitching. If the Noles want to win two this weekend though, I think they have to beat Virginia’s ace, Danny Hultzen, tonight. If they lose that one, I think Parker is definitely in some trouble this weekend and Gast is due for some inconsistency. I guess I chalk Sunday up to a high scoring loss, and Saturday to a close game win. It really all comes down to tonight’s game.

Win or lose watching Sean Gilmartin pitch on Friday nights is a treat for Seminole fans. Game time is 6pm today, 6pm Saturday and 1pm on Sunday. Saturday and Sunday are clear, weather-wise, but keep your eyes open for the weather situation today. Feel free to check out my favorite weather website, Weather Underground for the 32304 hourly forecast with zip code detail.

The Seminoles, on a 10 game winning streak after dominating their trip to Boca Raton, take on North Carolina this weekend (1pm & 3pm Saturday, 12pm on Sunday) to open the ACC schedule. The Tar Heels are 16-3 overall, on a 14 game winning streak, with their only losses occuring in Austin, Texas to current NFCA #14 LSU and #15 Texas and vote-getter DePaul.  UNC has cleaned house on a West Coast Trip over the weekend, and has one more game tonight against UCLA before the FSU Series this weekend. Like the Seminoles, the Tar Heels are led by great pitching in Danielle Spaulding and Amber Johnson, and they have a solid offense. Make no mistake, UNC is a major contender for the ACC Title, along with Georgia Tech and FSU. The Tar Heels know the next two weeks of play (against the Noles and Jackets) likely determines their chances for a regular season ACC Championship in 2010.

On paper, the Noles look better than last year. In person, the Noles look better than last year too. Yes, the competition hasn’t always been up to par, but what I’ve seen with my own eyes is a more disciplined and better hitting team. They’re more patient at the plate, more selective with pitches and they’ve made a ton of “hard” outs when they make them.  They’ve had contributions from players I didn’t expect much offense from like Kristie McConn (.367 / .446 / .551) and true freshman Tiffani Brown (.317 / .358 / .459). Robin Ahrberg (.324 / .380 / .507) successfully returned from injury. Tory Haddad (.379 / .500 / .707) and Shayla Jackson (.418 / .435 / .506) have had such great years that I almost forget about all-everything team captain Carly Wynn (.408 / .516 / .803). It’s important to realize that they will not hit the same way against elite pitching staffs, but I think they’ll do better than they have in recent years. Don’t forget, they’ve been close in recent years and have pulled off some very solid upsets of great teams. The stats have not been this good across the board in recent memory, even against the most mediocre of teams.

With all of that in mind, I am worried about the outcome of Saturday and Sunday. I’m mainly worried about the pitching staff, but I also fear the fielding too. Sarah Hamilton has the stats this season, and maybe in these last couple of weeks she’s worked out what I would call “growing pains” thanks to adding some new pitches to her arsenal. Terese Gober, who has been strong to start the year, has had a rough couple of outings and seen her ERA nearly double to a still very respectable 1.21. Both Hamilton and Gober will have to keep the UNC bats at bay this weekend in order for FSU to succeed, since the FSU bats might not go completely cold, but cannot be expected to score 4+ runs on the Spaulding / Johnson duo. For the gloved, the good news is that Jen Lapicki and Tory Haddard are rock solid. The bad news? Brown, Stager and McConn aren’t. The infield needs to get its act together or errors could cost the Noles victories this weekend.

Weekend Prediction

Based on what I’ve seen, this weekend SHOULD see FSU win 2 of the 3 games. It’s at home and the Seminoles will have more rest than UNC who will make the cross country trip after playing UCLA tonight. Hopefully that rest will keep the bats sharp and help solidify the gloves. Don’t expect the games to be high scoring affairs, but the FSU bats should make enough contact across the board to win a couple of 2-1 or 3-2 ball games provided Gober and Hamilton command the strike zone.

If you can make it out there, prior to FSU Baseball’s 6pm game against Virginia DO IT! Admission is FREE.

Anyway, here are a few of the highlights:

• Rumor on the internet message boards is that new FSU President Eric Barron sent an email to faculty encouraging them to take attendance and have tests on March 17, National Binge Drinking Day, St. Patrick’s Day. The small college kid voice in my head thinks that sucks. The 30 year old man in me likes the test idea, but not the attendance idea. Does FSU actually have a president that cares about academics now? Amazing.
• The FSU Baseball team is pretty darn good. RaysNNoles over at Tomahawk Nation has an interesting article on the #5 Seminoles, and why it’s still a bit too early to punch a ticket to Omaha. I’m always cautious when it comes to the baseball team.
• Warchant.com has a Q&A with Andy Miller, CEO of Seminole Boosters. What I find interesting is that we are paying people (“full time representatives”) in other areas of the state to recruit new boosters. I’m not sure how I feel about that, even if one of them is one of my all time favorite Noles, Drew Weatherford.
• FSU Softball is off to it’s best start since 1993, with 20 wins and 2 losses on the season. What do we know? The hitting has improved, and the pitching is solid as always. What we don’t know yet, and we will find out this weekend against UNC, is can FSU play this well against some better competition?
• I don’t follow basketball, but it’s obvious to me that Sue Semrau is the best coach at FSU right now. Why? She’s built a program from basically nothing, continues to cater to fans and was the only coach that had to speak about the result of the FSU Cheating Scandal. You know, because certain athletic directors were nowhere to be found to comment on it.
• Congrats to the FSU Men’s Basketball team for finishing strong enough that they’ll be in the NCAA Tournament (presumably) for the 2nd year in a row.

It would be the last basket FSU would score until Luke Loucks hit a very timely three pointer from the right wing with 1:46 to play. A runner by Durand Scott just fourteen seconds earlier had given Miami its only lead of the game at 60-58.

Scott could not duplicate that magic launching a shot from his hip just before the buzzer sounded and the Seminoles held on to defeat the Hurricanes 61-60.

If there was any doubt about the Seminoles (22-8, 10-6) making the NCAA that was erased with the ‘Noles tenth conference win of the season.

But it wasn’t easy.

It started out looking easy however as FSU led 19-5 with less than ten minutes gone in the game.

And then the Seminoles’ nemesis of the season, namely turnovers, struck once again. Finding ways to give the ball away FSU turned the ball over on four straight possessions starting with Loucks taking steps before inbounding the ball and ending with an illegal screen by Chris Singleton.

The Seminoles finished the game with 17 led by Snaer’s six but who had a strange game in also dishing out a game high 8 assists.

Later in the half the ‘Noles gave up the ball on three out of four possessions. Snaer collected two and Derwin Kitchen left his feet only to throw the ball into the stands.

But FSU managed to hold it together after Miami closed it to four points several times. Loucks intercepted a cross court pass intended for Adrian Thomas and took it the distance laying in the ball as the buzzer sounded to give FSU a 30-22 halftime lead.

In the second half the Seminoles seemed to be in control of the game.

A flurry of three point shots by both squads, four by FSU, over a span of three minutes gave the ‘Noles a 56-45 margin.

Three point shooting was key in the victory both offensively and defensively.

Spotty from the arc much of the season, FSU connected on 10 of 18 threes with Loucks and Devidas Dulkys each having three.

Defensively Leonard Hamilton admitted after the game that the game plan was to stop Miami’s dangerous perimeter shooting. Commenting on the ‘Canes 3 of 15 shooting from the arc Hamilton said, “We knew we had to defend the three.”

But it was a pick your poison kind of thing as Miami took what the FSU defense was giving them by driving the ball to the basket. The result was either layups or numerous free throws, 22 of them connecting on 19 by a team that came into the game shooting 66% from the line.

“We didn’t defend the dribble very well and Miami was able to get to the line”, Hamilton said.

FSU was definitely leaking oil as Miami went on a 12-0 run to take its only lead of the game. But once again the defense stiffened and a jump ball late in the game was key in pulling out the win.

Snaer grabbed an offensive rebound with 45 seconds remaining. Running the clock down FSU could not get a shot off but Snaer whose late game heroics are seemingly becoming commonplace, tied up the ball with the possession arrow pointing towards the ‘Noles and 15 seconds left but only 5 seconds on the shot clock.

Singleton’s quick shot attempt was blocked DeQuan Jones giving Miami one last chance.

With 5.1 seconds James Dews lobbed an awkward pass over Xavier Gibson to Thomas who had trouble handling the ball. Passing to Scott two FSU defenders quickly closed in on him forcing the off balance shot that had no chance of going in.

Loucks and Dulkys each scored 13 and Ryan Reid added 10 with the team shooting 50% overall but getting to the free throw line just eight times.

The Seminoles got a large contribution from the bench that scored more points than the starters, 33-28.
Scott led the ‘Canes with 14 points with Miami being held to 41% shooting.

Florida State will now begin preparing starting Monday for the ACC tournament. The ‘Noles will have to await the outcome of the Clemson/Wake Forest game to determine what seed they will be. With Virginia Tech beating Georgia Tech on Saturday, the Seminoles will need Clemson to lose to be able to move into the fourth seed and the all important first round bye.

Sure, you might already know the score, but find out all that no one else bothered to tell you. For example, did you know the FSU faithful only did the Tomahawk Chop once? Did you know Jenn Sterger failed to make the game for the first time?

So before Friday’s slateful of Seminole sports action, be sure to swing by BusLeaguesBaseball and read “The Buses have Returned to Florida“. Tell ‘em Jordi sent ya.

(I know, I probably should have been watching the basketball game against Wake Forest, but it’s not everyday I get to start my spring with Seminole baseball. And besides, I was following Andrew Carter’s twitter feed all night, so I knew what was up.)