Q&A: Hops - All Good Things Must Come To An End edition

I like my blog posts like my IPAs. That is, to feel the hops at the end. My thanks to Anthony for color coding his responses.




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1. Well, you're the last guy to go. I haphazardly chose the order for this one by one, so read in to it what you will that you were last. Before we launch in to the hoops stuff, lets get caught up on what's going on in your life. I wish I would have started asking this question from the get-go but only thought to with the last few people I conversed with. What's new with job, wife, living situation, etc? 

You referenced in news that you need to lead with your best because you may not have the viewers by the end, so it seems appropriate that I am here. Maybe it’s because you knew I would get answers back to you as quick as or quicker than anyone else so not a lot of lag time for the last one. Not much is new. I am still doing financial planning (so investments and insurance) at Northwestern Mutual. Still married with no kids to Carrie. Living about 2 miles south of downtown Nashville. Still am a drunkard for the most part.

2. You gonna bring any proposals to the table this year in regards to hosting?

I’ll bring something, but not Nashville. I will probably just endorse a spot already listed. My top list of places I would like to see it hosted next year: 1. Austin 2. LA 3. Seattle/Spokane 4. Some beach town 5. Dallas 6. Chattanooga. I am so pumped for Cincy and what Donley has in store. It’s going to be hard to live up to the standards of Portland and Cincy, so good luck to whoever has to plan 8.

3. If I had to summarize your career arc in PCTI, I'd say it started high, took a dip, and after last season returned to its initial height. I don't know if the stats back this up but your game has never really been about the stats anyway. I think everyone in this thing typically tries to build on success and expand what we do before being reminded that the best way to be successful is to stick with what got us there. How would you size up where you fit in to this thing now? 

I think you are exactly right, I am not too worried about stats and can enjoy myself as long as my team is winning and I am helping out. I am also a headcase, so when things are going well and my confidence is up, I can help in a lot of ways. When things go bad, I really hurt my team. After the first 2 years, I wasn’t working out and so I would wear down (especially my knees) after a couple games. I also got away from playing defense and a swing man that makes hustle plays. Last year I felt great going into the weekend and think it showed with me being a positive impact for the majority of the time.

4. Building off of that, how do you help your squad this year and what are your team's greatest strengths? 

As of now, this is the most confidence and best physically I have felt since the first two PCTI’s. I am working out consistently and playing 2-3 times a week every week. I will help my team by flying around on defense and help getting the ball moving on O. I think our team’s greatest strength is we have a very balanced scoring attack with guys who love to move the ball. I also think we have 3 of the 4 best defenders in PCTI.

5. What worries you about either where you guys may have a shortcoming or where we may have a particular advantage? 

The only thing that worries me not having Abe that can create his own shot when everyone else seems gassed. Granted, that doesn’t worry me too much as I think if we are in a good flow, we will get good shots. I think an advantage we have is outside of the Doc, we have the 4 best people at bratting out and 2 rookies who have potential. Wait, is that a disadvantage?

6. I think the biggest surprise after six PCTI's has to be that half of our weekends have been so one sided. Not to mention three of the past four years. I don't think it's possible to state how important a competitive weekend is for the overall experience, even if we perhaps don't realize it at the time. Of course, there's nothing you can do to guaranteee that. It's on the team that's getting its asse kicked to turn things around and so far we've yet to have a team rally out of a hole in the series to come back and win. That leads me to this question, do you think this year will be a repeat of recent history or do you think we're going to return to the epic three day wars reminiscent of PCTI I and II? 

I think we will go back to a competitive weekend of 6 or 7 games. Here is what I think the reason is (I why I am in favor of 8 players per team). In Denver and Portland we had 6 players per team. That means people get tired quicker and play gets sloppy. In this situation, the teams have to match up perfectly in order to be competitive. With 7 or 8 people, you add another layer in there and the margin or talent spreads out that much more. All that being said, I would be surprised if this is a 5 game or less series.

7. Since its inception, you've worn the C on your jersey when it comes to nightlife. Give us a story or two from one of those nights out that maybe has been lost to history or just never brought to light. I think we all know that look some of you have when there was some debauchery from the night before but nobody is saying much come game time. 

I take pride in going out every night. I now usually go out for a couple drinks on the nights we have games the next day, but come Saturday I am getting housed. As far as night memories, here are some I can remember. Angeleeeeee has lost it’s luster since Spot got hitched, but that was one of the best. The group of cougs from Scottsdale was a fun time. The first year when me, you, Abe, and Joe went out and we were just sitting at a table having a beer and Joe jumped out of his chair to stretch because he started cramping was hilarious. My favorite that people may not know about was in Lexington, Abe and I went out but at some point got split up. Next thing I know the bars are about to shut down and I get a call from Abe. He left with this girl to go smoke and didn’t know there was going to be 3 or 4 other people at her place. He had gotten high and didn’t know where he was. It took us 20 minutes to find each other, but we did and embraced like we had been separated for years. We celebrated with Waffle House.

8. If you guys decided to rebrand as the pentapod and had the pick of the rest of PCTI to add as your fifth member, who are you picking? 

In my dreams, Sabin starts drinking, loves it, and is embraced by the QP. As of now, Ben would have to be the leader, but I think TP will make some noise. Last would be Dan the Nutrition Man.

9. Most underrated player in PCTI is? Most overrated? 

This is an interesting question because this can be answered by over the life of PCTI or this year. This can also be talent to draft position or what someone brings to the court vs. what their reputation is. I don’t really care to look at the history and where people were drafted and how they played as of now, I will answer based on this year’s draft. I think based off what we saw last year from Don Don and him being drafted 6^th he would have to be most overrated (now it really seems like I hate his game). I think he said it best that when he tries to force things and does not focus on creating havoc with his hustle and athleticism, he is not nearly as good. Having Abe and Joe  may free him up to do that this year. You could make an argument for Dan but captains have valued his intangibles and defense, so I guess he is properly rated? As for underrated, I will prove that I should be drafted higher than the 9-11 spots. Bruise could make a push for that depending on how effective he is.

10. This is the very last question of the Q&A, which for the record I plan on bringing back every year. As a founding father and an integral part of the Bored or Directors, I'm giving you free reign to comment here on whatever you choose. Take it away. 

I appreciate being considered part of the Bored. I’m basically the tie breaker for if/when you and Dan can’t agree on something (rarely). This is good with me because it means less work for me and I still get credit. I like to think of myself as an idea guy and just pass that along to Dan the Video Editing Man. To wrap up, I just want to say that I value this weekend over any other. The fact we are going into our 7^th year and not slowing down shows how much we all love this weekend. Everyone I tell about the weekend is completely jealous, not to mention the numerous requests I get to be a part of this thing. I have honestly thought of trying to email E60 or some columnist about it because (especially in summer) I think it is so cool and interesting, someone would do a special on it. In fact, I want to do a 30 for 30 style doc on it and the evolution of it, but that would take a ton of time and effort. I jokingly said that I hate everyone’s game in Donley’s Q&A but I love playing with everyone in this because of everyone’s passion for the game. I also want to win in 6 games or less to take over the PCTI overall wins lead. Love the Q&A and glad you are planning on doing it every year.