Author: Gruff Sparty

In Real Life, Cinderella Rarely Gets a Slipper

The highlight of almost every NCAA tournament is the upsets. Everybody likes an underdog, unless of course you are cheering for Goliath when David takes him down. Who will ever forget powerhouse Virginia losing as a 1-seed to UMBC in the opening round? I certainly felt crushed in 2017 when my second seeded Spartans were ousted by the Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee State. This year’s March Madness was certainly no different with plenty of lower seeds pulling out improbable victories. But at the end of the tournament it is rare that Cinderella gets to put on that glass slipper.

USATSI

Some upsets of course are greater than others. The more obscure the underdog the greater the storyline. It still amazes me that there are teams that I have never even heard of that make their way into the tournament and get an unlikely win. I mean just who is Oral Roberts anyway and where do they come from? (Google tells me Tulsa, Oklahoma) Did anyone outside of Maryland know what the acronym UMBC stood for before they made history by beating Virginia?

Occasionally you get a clue of where an unknown team is coming from right in the name. Virginia Commonwealth must have come from the Commonwealth of Virginia – not to be confused with the Old Dominion, which I know for a fact calls Norfolk home. George Mason I could have surmised likewise came from the “Mother of Statesman” state. Florida Gulf Coast had the courtesy of at least saying in its name that it was from, well, the gulf coast of Florida. I would guess that means Tampa right? (wrong, Fort Myers) Thankfully Loyola- Chicago gets specific so as not to be confused with Loyola of New Orleans, Maryland, or Loyola Marymount (who – fun fact – made the Elite Eight in 1990 as an 11-seed).

This season seemed destined for a Cinderella to get her slipper at the end of the dance. After all, when the first tipoff went up there was no Duke and no Kentucky for the first time since 1976. North Carolina exited early after a solid drubbing from Wisconsin. Kansas lost in only the second round and the tourney was suddenly bereft of blue bloods. The best of the Big Ten went out early as upstart Loyola Chicago showed flashes of another impossible run before they fell to perhaps even more unlikely Oregon State. Oral Roberts punched another Big Ten power in the face and moved past Florida before falling to Arkansas. The conference considered the best in the country finished the tournament with a paltry 6-7 record.

After already beating 2-seed Ohio State in the first round, Oral Roberts celebrates its victory over Florida. Maddie Meyer, Getty Images

Ultimately the small schools and the no-names had to step aside to UCLA’s First In to Final Four storyline, matching only the storybook 2011 VCU team to perform that feat. But can we really call a team that has won 11 National Championships a Cinderella squad? Not for my money; even if the team had a great story and fantastic run through the tournament. They played Gonzaga in one of the great Final Four games of all time before falling on a last second 3-point heave in overtime. Even if they deserved to be called a Cinderella they are leaving the ball alone.

And at the end of all that it is still the two best teams from the regular season meeting in the Championship game Monday night. Perhaps once upon a time we would have called Gonzaga an underdog, but that was more than a decade ago and certainly before they ran the table against every team they have faced this season (including more conventional heavyweights Kansas, West Virginia, Iowa, Virginia, and UCLA). They will face off against the champions of the Big XII – no not Kansas this year – but a Power Five team with a name you probably recognize. These might not be the powerhouse teams you would expect in the National Final but they are powerhouse teams nonetheless.

Looks like another year where Cinderella won’t get her slipper.

Black vs. Gold

The Very Different Experiences of Riding a Harley and a Honda

Tim’s Gold Wing loaded down for a 1500 mile road trip.

My Friend Tim has an Iron Butt. That is to say he recently completed the Iron Butt Associations’s Bun Burner 1500 – riding 1500 miles in less than 36 hours – on a trip from Maryland to Omaha. I thought perhaps he was a little crazy. I wouldn’t dream of making such a trip or perhaps I would only dream of making such a trip and not actually do it. But when he arrived and showed off his new Honda Gold Wing to me it made a lot more sense. This is a bike made for crossing continents.

We decided to go for a ride the next day in Iowa’s Loess Hills; across the Missouri River to Glenwood, a jog through town, and then North on the scenic Byway. On my 1200 cc Sportster Forty-Eight the Byway is a perfect ride. The speed limit hangs around 45 with gentle curves and rolling hills, which is a sweet spot for both my bike and riding style. But after riding near 70 mph on Highway 34 and twenty more minutes of bliss my right hand started going numb from the vibration plus my back was getting hammered from the occasional road buckle. So I decided to stop at a gas station for a pit stop.

Beauty and the Beast. You decide which is which.

Tim was generous enough to offer switching bikes for the ride back. I must admit that I was both excited and fairly nervous. Nothing tests a friendship like dumping your friend’s $20,000 motorcycle on its side. But I’ve always enjoyed the idea of trying all different kinds of motorcycles. I started on dirt bikes, owned a dual-sport for a short while, and had a sport bike for years. I recently rented a V-Rod from Riders Share and I look forward to trying as many bikes as I can in the future.

Before starting out, Tim gave me an introduction to his motorcycle. It has a huge TFT display with large spaces for the speedometer and tachometer, gas gauge, gear indicator, and a host of other data. Front and center is the navigation screen which can switch to show you all of your available apps (it has Apple Carplay!). Tim said it can even read you your text messages to your Bluetooth helmet while you ride. The Gold Wing has four ride modes: Sport, Tour, Rain, and Economy. It also has approximately 10,000 buttons.

I showed Tim all the bells and whistles on my bike. It has a speedometer. Also, a small LCD that has a clock, time, trip mileage, and gear selector / RPM. Not even a gas gauge. That’s about it.

With some trepidation I slowly waddled the bike backwards with my toes as I couldn’t even flatfoot the bike. As Tim had assured me, once I got moving the bulk of the bike seemed to disappear and the riding was fantastic. The bike is surprisingly nimble and quiet. You ride as if sitting on a cloud in a quiet bubble of windless solitude. It eats up corners and miles like nobody’s business. I feared stoplights because I didn’t want to have to keep the bike upright and because I just wanted to keep riding. On occasion I wondered what that horrendously loud noise was coming from behind me and realized it was my buddy Tim on my bike, Vance and Hines pipes roaring.

We quickly made it back through Glenwood and blasted out on to Highway 34. I was way more confident on the Gold Wing going 70 mph than I ever have been on my bike going anywhere above 60. The trip back to the house seemed to go by much faster than the ride to the gas station. It was over way too quickly.

I tried to think of an analogy to try and explain the difference between riding the two bikes and the best I could come up with was a football one. My bike is like a fullback. Old school. You don’t find them on a lot of teams anymore because they are going out of style. They are low to the ground, stout, tough, and a maybe a little unstable. When you need one yard they are your go to player. A Gold Wing on the other hand is like a left tackle. Huge but surprisingly nimble on their feet. They may not be the quickest but they can play all game long without getting tired. The best ones don’t really even get noticed but just keep getting the job done play after play.

Not the greatest analogy perhaps but bottom line the two bikes couldn’t be much more different. They aren’t quite opposites but they are different in almost every imaginable way. The Forty-Eight is an old school, air-cooled, loud, vibrating V-Twin cruiser with forward controls that you have to hold on to for dear life like a bucking bronco least you get left behind. The Gold Wing is a gadget laden, refined, flat-six monster made to cruise across states without you taking much notice of the miles going by while you listen to the radio. Oh and carves corners like the dancing hippo-ballerinas from Fantasia.

So would I buy a Gold Wing? Probably not anytime soon. It was a sweet ride but I don’t have a spare $20,000 laying around and I’m not planning on testing the fortitude of my backside anytime soon. But it does make me think about how long I will keep hanging on to my Harley. It’s a great bike for commuting and I love looking at it in my garage every single time I go out there. Some day though I’ll need a little more cushion under me and maybe want to go a few more miles than my 2.1 gallon tank can sustain. When I do, I’ll be thinking fondly of the time I rode a Honda Gold Wing.

My First Motorcycle Rental at Riders Share

Like anything else in the Gig Economy, what you see isn’t exactly what you get.

Most of us are now familiar with the Gig Economy – Uber, Air B&B, Grub Hub, etc. Regular people using their own assets to try and make money. There are now two relatively new sites that bring the Gig Economy to the joys of motorcycle riding. Riders Share and Twisted Roads both allow you to rent motorcycles from your fellow riders. Recently I decided to try out the former.

I have wanted to rent a motorcycle for years but the options have always been quite limited. There are a few major companies – Eagle Rider probably being the most prominent – but they mostly cater to two audiences. First, those riders planning a trip to a major motorcycle rally like Sturgis or Daytona. As you might expect this equates a selection almost entirely of large and heavy Harley-Davidson touring models. Second, individuals going on vacation to touristy places like Las Vegas. This leaves a lot of locations and lot of motorcycle models off the table.

I like the idea of trying out all different kinds of motorcycles. Though I’ve ridden motorcycles for 15 years now, I still consider myself a bit of a novice. All of my experience is on the handful of bikes that I have owned or the one model I used during my beginner rider course. I’m not really ready to step to an 800 or 900 lb. touring bike. So the option of finding something smaller, and not from a major dealership, really appealed to me.

Renting on Riders Share is a pretty easy process. You do have to do some upfront work to verify that you have a motorcycle license and insurance; both reasonable protections for individuals willing to rent their bikes to complete strangers. Then you just pick a bike and find dates on a calendar that work for you and the owner. You can message the owner to ask questions ahead of time if you want. Once you finalize your rental you are provided the owner’s address and contact information. It’s pretty transparent and user friendly.

The Pick-Up

I love the look of this bike.

I had a hour drive to get down to Lincoln so I let the owner know I was on my way. He texted back with a different address and phone number for pick-up. This was a bit of a yellow flag but I assumed, it being a Friday, that he was probably at work. The location was downtown Lincoln. The spot was actually a U-Haul rental and auto-body shop where a friend of his worked; the owner wasn’t even present. The friend was nice and luckily pointed out that the gas tank was under the seat (which I never would have found on my own) but that was about it. Not exactly an ideal place or situation to hop on a bike you’ve never ridden before.

A second yellow flag; the gas gauge didn’t work. My inquiry into the tank looking empty is actually what prompted the gas tank discussion, it’s location and how it looked like it was full. But this wasn’t mentioned on the website or by the owner at all prior to me getting the bike. I’m not sure it would have made any difference in me choosing to rent the bike or not but it would have been nice to know.

The Ride

One of many state recreational areas on my route

While the broken gas gauge was certainly a disappointment, the bike was not. I have been interested in the V-Rod since it was introduced back in 2001 and it definitely lived up to my expectations. The 100th Anniversary edition was a great looking bike in billet aluminum and silver, though it did show a bit of wear from the last seventeen years of riding. What really stood out was the fantastic 1250 cc liquid-cooled Revolution motor made in cooperation with Porsche. It is so different than my 1200 Sportster that it hard to put into words; smoother, higher rev’ing, more torque. Just better. Why didn’t people buy more of these bikes?

My plan was to set out for Nebraska City but I wasn’t super comfortable on a divided highway going 70 miles an hour surrounded by semis on someone else’s bike. So I turned off the highway and cruised around on the country roads outside of Lincoln. I found a couple state recreation areas, stopped for lunch at a Runza, and otherwise took in the scenery. The bike was perfect for this kind of riding.

The Big Fail

But remember that broken gas gauge I mentioned earlier? Yeah, that came back to bite me. It’s funny because the bike I own doesn’t even have a gas gauge and the peanut tank only holds a smidge over two gallons. That doesn’t matter on my three mile commute to work where I do almost all of my riding. There is basically no chance I won’t make it to the gas station between my house and work. I never really worry about running out of gas. And somehow, even after worrying about it when I picked up the bike, I became numb to the yellow “low gas” light on my instrument panel I looked at all day. On my last stop at Branched Oak State Recreation Area I had even planned to fill up on my way back into town. As luck would have it I ran out of gas and coasted to a stop just over a mile away from the Emerald Mini Mart on Highway 6.

Lucky for me, Nebraskans are nice people. A car pulled over not long after I hoped off my bike on the side of the road. They drove off with the $8 I gave them and promised to return. After about 40 minutes I wasn’t so sure they would so I flagged down a another passer-by (two other people had stopped in the meantime to check on me). This older gentlemen, in a truck that can only generously be described as vintage, gave me a ride to the Emerald Mini Mart. They of course were out of gas cans. So as rural Nebraskans do, he called a friend just up the road from where I left my bike to borrow a gas can. The old farmer had one to spare (and an old Road Glide in his yard I noted).

Soon enough I had gas in my tank. And sitting by my helmet and backpack beside the bike was a one-gallon gas can and this note:

Good people those Nebraskans.

Lessons Learned

Did this plate expire in February?

Riders Share is less like renting from a dealer and more like borrowing a buddy’s bike for the day. And you might need to be more mindful of the condition of your friend’s bike than one coming from a professional organization. I certainly should have paid closer attention to the fact that I was riding a bike that wasn’t going to tell me when it was out of gas – well until it was out of gas. I also noticed at one point during my ride that the license plate was expired.

That said, I really enjoyed the experience. I got to ride a bike I’ve always wanted to ride for about $110. The Revolution motor was so sweet it makes me want to go trade my Sportster in right now and scour the internet for a used Night Rod. I got to put on more miles in a day than I normally ride in a month or two going to work and back. Some nice people came and helped me out when I needed it. I felt great by the end of the day despite my ordeal. And I’m ready to do it all again.

This time I’ll make sure to fill her up.

How to Get Started Riding Motorcycles

Motorcycles can be intimidating but they don’t have to be unreachable.

Growing up I never had a chance to ride a motorcycle. We had an old Malaguti moped in our shed that I always wanted to get running but it just sat there collecting dust. My older brother dreamed of riding a Ninja some day – we were both big Top Gun fans – but it never happened. I could have easily gone my whole life never riding at all. But after I got back from my first deployment to Iraq I promised myself I was going to learn how to ride a motorcycle (and not kill myself in the process).

How not to get started.

A lot of soldiers come back from a deployment and buy a motorcycle. Often it ends in disaster. There are a number or reasons for that but it usually comes down to a new rider buying more bike than they can handle or not taking the time to learn how to ride properly. A new rider should almost never just go out and buy the best bike they can afford. A friend of mine got a really good deal on a barely used Harley-Davidson Road King this way. It had been purchased by a police officer who wanted to ride with his buddies. On his first ride with the group he laid his bike down at a stop light. He never rode again.

Riding a friend’s bike might seem like a good way to get started but this could also end badly. If you borrow a friend’s bike and you aren’t very experienced there is a good chance you may damage their bike. That’s a great way for you to get injured and to ruin your friendship. No matter how forgiving your friends are it’s hard to get over high dollar damage to a bike.

Becoming a good rider is a process. It is both more difficult than driving a car and less forgiving. Doing it properly is important but there is no perfect path. However, I believe their are two main entry points into motorcycling.

Start in the Dirt

This is how a lot of people learned to ride back in the day. At some point as a little kid they got plopped on a little 50cc bike with a helmet too big for their head and puttered around the back yard or a campground. This is still the best way to get started in my opinion. It’s pretty safe and kids are resilient. Plus it’s a skill they will never lose.

I didn’t get a chance to learn as a kid but I still started on a dirt bike. My first bike was a Yamaha TT-R 250. It was a little tall for a new rider and had a lot of zip but it had plenty to grow into. There are plenty of bikes in the 125 to 250 range from any of the major manufacturers, especially the Big Four Japanese companies. You really can’t go wrong with any of them these days. There also great bikes from KTM, Husqvarna, and other more specialized brands.

Though you can probably find a good deal on a used bike as a new rider I would suggest getting something new. Dirt bikes are made to be beat up. The last thing you want as a new rider is a bike that has something wrong with it. This will be discouraging and may turn you off to riding permanently. A new Yamaha TT-R 125 is around $3,300 which isn’t terrible. You’ll lose money when you sell it in a few years but see that money as an investment in learning how to ride. Or just keep it forever because it will run as long as you take care of it.

If you live in the country then a dirt bike is a great choice. But if you don’t then you’ll need to find somewhere to ride. This could be prohibitive if you live in a heavily urban area since you may not make the time to take your bike out. And you’ll need something to get your bike around. Either in the bed of a truck or on a hitch carrier. I used a hitch carrier for years and it worked great. Make sure you get good ratchet straps however. Early on my bike fell off the carrier at a stop light which was super embarrassing. Luckily it wasn’t much damage and I invested in better tie downs. Lesson learned.

Start with a Class

Even if you start on a dirt bike you’ll eventually want to ride on the road. The only way to do that is to get a motorcycle license. The best way to do that is through a Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) sponsored class. You can often find these classes hosted at a local courthouse, college campus, or motorcycle dealership. The MSF website has a zip code search that can easily link you up with a class.

There are plenty of new skills that a basic rider course can teach you. Most of these classes start with a classroom portion of a few hours and a day and a half (or two) out on a controlled course (often a parking lot with cones set up). It may look a little silly to an outside observer but learning to take the correct angle in a turn or how to use your brakes aggressively but safely are invaluable skills to any rider.

Most of the basic courses provide a motorcycle and required gear. More advanced courses let you learn on your own bike, with your own gear, and are just as valuable. I took a sport bike rider course after I had my Yamaha FZ6R for several years and I found that class well worth the time and effort. Motorcycle riding is a lifetime accumulation of skills; you never stop learning.

However you decide to get into riding you won’t regret putting in the time and thought to doing it safely and to the best of your ability. A lifetime of fun awaits.

Why Are Most Motorcycle Reviews Worthless for Beginner Riders?

When I was younger, I was a car guy. I didn’t know anything about mechanics, I didn’t work on my own cars, but I just generally enjoyed reading and learning about cars. I had a subscription to Car & Driver magazine and looked forward to seeing what the next generation Corvette was going to look like or who was going to win the seemingly annual Mustang vs Camero shootout. I would pour through every article, cover to cover, about every type and style of car. But at some point I stopped reading because while I found all the articles interesting they weren’t always informative. Or maybe I should say they weren’t always very useful because I was a car neophyte and Car & Driver wasn’t written for a reader like me.

I remember one article in particular that was about a minivan. At the time I was young and single and really didn’t need to know anything about minivans (but as I said, I read cover to cover). Who doesn’t want to know how the new Toyota Siena compares to the perennial favorite Honda Odyssey? But this article spent so much time talking about the lateral g’s the minivan could do on the skid pad or how its 0-60 times compared to other minivans in its class. There was little to nothing about what might actually be useful to a soccer mom or dad in the real world. They made a passing reference to “cargo space” but not one mention or car seats or how the materials might hold up to sippy cup spills. I wondered who might find this review even remotely useful? Someone looking to out drag everyone else in the carpool?

I find the same problem watching or reading motorcycle reviews today. I’ve been riding off and on now for almost 20 years but I still feel like a beginner rider in a lot of ways. I don’t go to the track, I only do basic maintenance (oil changes, etc.), and I mostly commute a short distance with my bike. Though I’ve got the bug I’ve never taken a bike on a long tour across the country. I’m interested in bikes but not super-knowledgeable. The guys that do motorcycle reviews sometimes don’t even speak the same language as a beginner rider or a rider like me.

Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of really good reviews out there. YouTube has made accessible a ton of really good content. I’ve watched a lot of MC Commute, FortNine, Motorcycle.com, and the guys from RevZilla. They have lots of experience and know what they are talking about. But they stopped being beginner riders a long time ago. Have you seen the reviews from the silver foxes over at Motorcyle.com? Asking them about what bike is best for a beginner is like asking a 60 year old nuclear physicist what classes you should take your first semester of college. That guy stopped thinking about those types of things 40 years ago.

I plan on following up this article with a series on picking the right bike and gear from a beginner point of view. I hope you’ll find it useful.

Not Great but Very Good

The Great AloneThe Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I planned to rate this three stars until right before I finished it. I then rated this four stars before talking myself back into a three star rating an hour later. I wish I could give it something in between the two.

Truth be told this was probably not my kind of book to begin with. I was taken in by the cover and catchy title after seeing the book on the shelf in a local Target. I was intrigued by the Vietnam-veteran-POW angle of the father in the story plus I’ve always been interested in Alaska. So I gave it a try.

It was a good book. Readable. The story flowed straightforward, perhaps predictably, for much of the book. A slow tension filled fuse burning. Then boom: a few twists and turns at the end of act two before gliding to an acceptable conclusion.

My chief complaint is that the characters were more like caricatures than real people. The abused wife. The thoughtful child. The rich other man. The handsome hockey player. Of course the boyfriend in Alaska is a blonde good-looking hockey player. Worst of all was Ernt, a hard-drinking Vietnam veteran with PTSD who abused his wife and family. Ernt has no inner voice. No real back story other than he was better before being a POW. No growth. I was so disappointed in this character. He was nothing more than a plot device. I thought maybe this book was his redemption story; which perhaps is a reflection on me rather than the author. This book is a bit of a redemption story but not for Ernt Allbright.

The book was a fine read if, like I said, probably not my cup of tea. I imagine if you like other Kristin Hannah works or related authors you will like this book just fine.

View all my reviews

Book Review: War and Peace

War and PeaceWar and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Finally. War and Peace is known as a long read. Just looking at its heft can be intimidating. Even the epilogue is a 100 pages. 100! And if you read as slow as I do they it’s going to be months of your life committed to one book. But it was not the slog I thought it was going to be. The book is actually quite readable. A great narrative with fantastic characters, it never felt overly difficult just long.

If I had any complaints it’s that Tolstoy seems to need three pages to say what could have been said in one. You might find yourself at times wondering just what is that point of this or that. And many of the characters, even the protagonists, are thoroughly unlikable for much of the book. But I suppose that’s what makes it so good. There are scoundrels, harlots, well-meaning fools, people with bad morals, and those with just bad luck. His characters feel like people rather than heroes or villains.

It feels a bit like a soap opera set in the Napoleonic Wars. The setting is big and bold but not overpowering. It paints the background of the narrative but rarely dominates it. Everything comes back to the intricate web of characters whose Russian names are difficult to remember at times. You may be asking yourself at times, who is Boris again? I did not take notes but sometimes wish I had. It’s a lot to try and keep straight in your mind.

All of that said, it was a worthwhile once in a lifetime read. I could have done without Part II of the epilogue where Tolstoy describes his theory of history. It had nothing to do with the story whatsoever and adds 50 pages to a book that is already over 1400 pages long. Also, may I suggest when you are done to watch the BBC mini-series (available on Amazon). It’s well done and may help you straighten out the characters and story in your head. I had already forgotten some of the beginning of the book by the time I finished. And at only 8 hours of so in length it will go by much quicker than 1455 pages.

View all my reviews

The New Lion King is Disney Magic

Growing Up Disney

Like many kids, I grew up on Disney movies.  I remember waiting for the Sunday night Wonderful World of Disney to come on TV.  The theme song “When you wish Upon a Star” is permanently tattooed on my brain.  Swiss Family Robinson was one of my favorites live action movies.  I liked both The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast but it was Aladdin that really had me hooked.  Then came the Lion King.  It is still my favorite Disney movie and one of my all time favorite movies period.  Right up there with Top Gun.

Then I grew up.  I was still a Disney fan.  I managed to catch Toy Story and a Bug’s Life at some point and even The Emperor’s New Groove.  Then I mostly stopped watching any movies from the mouse.  My nephews were into Finding Nemo, Cars, and the Incredibles.  I only seemed to watch a Disney when they were watching one.  When I went to the theater in those days it was usually to see the next film in the Marvel franchise or another Star Wars installment.

Catching Up

Now my daughter is almost five.  We started planning a Disney vacation a few months ago and wanted to ensure she was familiar with more of the characters.  She was already big into Cinderella; that was even her Halloween costume last year (her mom got be a fairy god mother and I got to be a pumpkin).  Then went to a production of Cinderella at a local high school followed by a viewing at home of the original 1950 animated version.

There were a lot of movies we wanted to watch again or watch for the first time ourselves.  So we started on some of the movies that we hadn’t seen.  Lilo and Stitch was first in the queue and I loved it.  Why hadn’t I seen this before?  Sad and funny at the same time it pulled at the heartstrings like all the great Disney movies do.  Stitch is now one of my favorite characters.  Then we watched Moana.  What a fantastic movie.  Great characters, soaring music, and amazing animation.  It is now among my favorite Disney movies.  Checking out the Red Box outside the local Walmart we stumbled onto the new live-action Dumbo.  It made me believe that elephants could fly again.

The King is Back

Then it just so happened that the Lion King was coming to theaters.  I had missed all the live-action remakes that Disney has made over the last decade.  As I said, I had been too busy catching superhero blockbusters and wasn’t much into Disney films at the time.  Truth be told, I was also concerned that the remake of my favorite Disney movie wouldn’t do the original justice.  I thought they were going to ruin it.  But Dumbo had been really pretty good and my daughter was ready to go to her first movie.  So off we went.

It was awesome.  Don’t get me wrong, I still love the original and it will probably always be my favorite.  The new movie, however, is simply amazing.  Disney really can make magic.  They can make you believe that signing lions and dancing hippos are real.  My only complaints would be mere quibbles.  I miss the voices of the original Timon and Pumba.  The new voice of Scar is perhaps not quite a Jeremy Irons.  Otherwise, though, the movie is thoroughly fantastic.

Ready for More

Recently I read an article by Carly Mallenbaum about how, starting with the new Lion King, she was “over” the Disney re-makes.  She said it felt cheap.  She said the incredible new graphics didn’t fit the decades old story.  Her chief complaint was the remakes were robbing this generation of something new.  Those complaints are ill founded and just plain wrong.

On the first count, Disney has not stopped making completely original films.  Since 2012 they have introduced these outstanding new animated movies: Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Inside Out, Zootopia, Moana, and CoCo.  Basically a new animated feature, with all new characters, new music, and new stories every single year.  Some of those films I haven’t seen yet.  The ones I have seen have all been excellent.  This generation is not being robbed of new content and their own unique experiences.

Her second point – that new graphics don’t fit an old story – is just plain bogus.  Can’t she see that the new movie is it’s own kind of magic?  And great stories don’t just get old, put on the shelf, or tossed away.  We still love Shakespeare and Dickens don’t we?  And every few years isn’t a new version of these old stories remade for stage or screen?  How many versions of Romeo and Juliet are there?  Those new version aren’t just derivatives of the old; they are classics re-imagined.

A Whole New World

The best part of the new Lion King was watching it with my own little cub.  Not too long ago I lost my own Dad to cancer and the movie has taken on a whole new meaning for me.  Watching Simba’s journey means more to me now than it did the first time watching it 30 years ago.  I love that I can share my favorite Disney movie with my daughter and  that it’s the first movie she ever got to see in a theater.  The original version belongs to my generation and it’s still a classic.  But this version belongs to both of us.  We can share it.  That’s the magic of Disney.

The Greatness of Tom Izzo

It wasn’t long after Michigan State’s disappointing loss to upstart Texas Tech that sportswriters again began to question just how good of a coach is Tom Izzo.  The very next day Adam Zagoria from Forbes – who is inextricably both a basketball insider and tennis writer – wrote an article showing how Tom Izzo didn’t stack up against the all-time greatest coaches.  His ratio of championships to Final Four appearances lagged behind the lofty number of John Wooden, Coach K, Dean Smith, Roy Williams, even Villanova coach Jay Wright.

Tom Izzo

While it’s true that Coach Izzo only has one championship on his resume, a look at some other numbers show just how extraordinary the career of Mr. March has been.

There is a reason that teams hang Final Four banners in their arenas.  Getting to the last weekend of the NCAA tournament is incredibly difficult.  There are 347 Division 1 men’s basketball programs, 92 of which have been to a Final Four in their program’s history.  Only six of those programs have more Final Four appearances than Michigan State under Tom Izzo.  Izzo has the same number of Final Fours as Indiana.  He’s coached in more Final Fours than perennial powerhouses Michigan and Syracuse.  He  has twice as many appearances as Arizona and five more than either Marquette or Texas.  Izzo has more appearances in the Final Four than every single mid-major conference.

In fact, Izzo’s true greatness is that he has been to so many Final Fours that his team should never have reached in the first place.  A 2015 article from FiveThirtyEight argued that Izzo was the greatest coach in NCAA tournament history – and that it wasn’t even close.  Their model showed that teams under Izzo had won 14.6 more games than you would expect based on their seeding.  His numbers were better than Pitino, Calipari, and Calhoun.  Better in fact than Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, and Dean Smith – by a wide margin.  Their numbers showed that his numbers were seven standard deviations above the expected number of wins.  That’s not just an outlier but an extraordinary feat of coaching.

Every Spartan fan hopes that Tom Izzo will once again cut down the nets in April but it’s hard to argue that Coach Izzo hasn’t lived up the name Mr. March.