Monday Grab Bag: Still waiting for an AD

Following up on my lead-in from last week, I've made a decision on what baseball team to follow.

To summarize, with my beloved White Sox turning into a bona fide dumpster fire (three straight losses to the Astros over the weekend!), I'm looking for a hardball distraction to obscure the mounting futility.  Turning to twitter, I received numerous suggestions like the Yomiuri Giants, Dorados de Chihuahua, along with more conventional choices like the Seattle Mariners.  (Thanks to everyone who chimed in!) 

In the end, however, there was only one real option.  I'm going with the home team, and jumping back on the Rockies bandwagon.  And what a bandwagon it is!  After yesterday's 5-2 victory over Philadelphia, the Rox moved to four games over .500, and sit only half a game back of the division leading Diamondbacks.  My poor, poor White Sox could only dream of such heights.

So get ready, Coors Field.  Your attendance is about to be boosted by one over the next homestand!

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Today in the bag, I'm talking AD search, the NBA finals, and the US Open.

Click below for the bag...


The AD search is a slow burn - 

Everywhere I went this weekend, people wanted to know what's going on with the Athletic Director search. The painful truth is that, despite 20 days passing since Mike Bohn's ouster, the University is still weeks away from even putting together the search committee, let alone making a hire.

CU spokesman Bronson Hilliard (talk about a job that should come with a lifetime supply of Advil) specifically avoided outlining a timeline by saying:

"I wouldn't say we're going about it in a leisurely way.  I would say we're going about it in a deliberate way. The goal here is to make a careful, very strategic choice for the institution and we're not going to rush that. We're going to take our time and do it right."(-link)

The point is, we're still potentially months away from a resolution. Hell, I'm not even expecting someone before football season starts.

DiStefano and CU will take their time finding a new AD.  From: the BDC

Really, I'm not all that surprised.  While it would've made a certain amount of sense for CU to have had the machinations for hiring in place prior to Bohn's "resignation," the search for a new AD was never going to be a fast one.  Public administrative hires are typically slow to develop, with most recent examples taking many months.  This is not out of the norm.

Although the lack of movement towards a new AD may not be surprising, it is damaging.  I can't imagine that interim AD Ceal Barry has much latitude to aggressively combat the $7.5 million budgetary shortfall the department is facing, or the standing to land significant donations toward the slagging facilities project.  Essentially, the department has been left in standby at precisely the moment that it needs to be active and innovative.  It's just really hard to be patient here.


San Antonio retakes the lead - 

Once again the script has been flipped.  With the surprise start of aging sixth man Manu Ginobili combining with Danny Green's 6-10 shooting from beyond the arc, the San Antonio Spurs eased past the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.  The 114-104 victory puts San Antonio a single road win away from their fifth title in the Tim Duncan era.

YAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRG!  San Antonio is back in the lead.

ESPN has to crack at some point, right?  The 'Worldwide Leader' is so focused on jumping to conclusions that, after five games of  polemic outcomes, their capacity to overreact to a single game has to be stretched to it's limit.  Just Sunday morning I heard declarations that the Heat were poised for a decisive two-game run to end the series in six; that Dwyane Wade has been reinvigorated, and that Ginobili is washed up.  Cut to this morning: Manu is back (!!!) and the Heat are doomed. *sigh*  They'll never learn.

Of course, considering the Heat's penchant for responding to losses, I fully expect them to come out swinging in Game 6, probably amounting to another blowout win.  Where that will leave the game-to-game narrative is anyone's guess. 


Justin Rose shoots past Mickelson to win US Open - 

Despite an exciting start, Phil Mickelson was forced to settle for second at the US Open in Philadelphia, with Justin Rose lifting the trophy that could've, should've been his.

For Rose, it was only his first win at a major, and the first US Open victory for a Brit in over 40 years.  He won it by playing a perfectly par 70 on Sunday, which seemed miraculous considering the weekend long struggles of his competitors.

Justin Rose is your 2013 US Open champion.

Shooting a final round 74, Mickelson, who had entered Championship Sunday as the prohibitive favorite to win, wilted under the constant pressure from the hellaciously tailored Marion course.  He finished two strokes back of Rose, tied with Jason Day.  It was a record sixth second-place US Open finish for 'Lefty,' a feat he described yesterday as "heartbreaking."

On the plus side, by finishing in a second-place tie, he saved himself $743,896 that he'd have to pay taxes on, which I know has been a big concern for him in the past.


Happy Monday!