Monday Items

-- Coach, ESPN. ESPN, Coach.

While it was not surprising that Barton didn't win an ESPY, the Lievenses were a little disappointed that the category wasn't given much attention and shunted off to a mere announcement at the end. The Bulldogs' incredible 45-second comeback was reduced to a quick flash in the opening montage.

Lievense said the show focused on entertainment, such as co-host Jimmy Kimmel's jokes and co-host LeBron James' talent-show musical skits.

"I think what happened was Jimmy Kimmel did a lot of talking and ran off a lot of time and then they had all these songs and LeBron James dancing," Coach Lievense said. "We really felt it was more marketing and entertainment than it was showing all these great athletes and what they accomplished."

Well, look who just caught up.

With some well-timed channel changing, I managed to catch the Kay Yow portion of the ESPYs and avoid any and all LeBron performance pieces. Growing up I got criticized for flipping around too much, but you need that experience in a crucial situation like that one.

Here's what Kissing Suzy Kolber had to say about the V award presentation:

ESPN tried to stir up the pot with a cat fight when they sent Ashley Judd and Pat Summit to present the inaugural Jimmy V Perserverence Award to the incredibly inspirational Coach Kay Yow of NC State. Yow is in grips of a battle with cancer but she credits God for allowing her to attend the show. Which is more than she could say for those asshole doctors who kept trying to force her in to bed. No other nominees were mentioned, the are presumed dead. Immediately following the show Sidney Lowe went to have his colon checked out.

-- Keep an eye out for the new ncsu.edu, which is being soft-launched at some point this week:

Beginning the week of July 16, visitors to the university home page will find a link to the redesigned site, where they can experience the new content, video and multimedia features and provide feedback prior to the site’s official launch in August.

“Because the site has so much new content and is so different from the current site, we wanted to give people, particularly those on campus, an opportunity to get used to the new site before it goes live,” said Jason Simon, the university’s director of Creative Services.

-- On Saturday, the White Sox were clinging to a one-run lead in the 9th when Bobby Jenks threw a wild pitch that allowed the tying run to score. What followed was possibly the closest thing to an expletive that Hawk Harrelson has ever uttered on air: "got dammit." And then ten seconds of silence. Chicago's play-by-play man, ladies and gentlemen. His entire call of that play was, "the ball gets away! [pause; runner scores] Got dammit!" [extended silence]. Hey, you got eyes, you fill in the blanks, pal. Imagine if this man had been doing the radio broadcast.

Harry Doyle: That's all we got, one goddamn hit?
Assistant: You can't say goddamn on the air.
Harry Doyle: Don't worry, nobody is listening anyway.

-- What's the point of streaking with clothes on (see 2:50 mark)? (Hat tip: BBTF.)