End Times in Miami?

So it's been quite a while since my last post and my excuse is that I've been very busy. In the past month I've moved from Ohio to Colorado and started a new job with the Craig Daily Press. For all my Eastern Time Zone readers, that means the posts are going to be coming across the horn later at night. Apologies for that. But with internet newly installed in my apartment, I'm ready to get back to doing some serious posting. It just so happens that I'm coming back during a particularly interesting time in sports.

There will be tennis posts to come. The Euro Soccer Championships will be thrilling, but they can wait. The New York Mets are enjoying success I could not have imagined at this point in the year, but it's still early in baseball. There has been an inordinate amount of news coming out of the Atlantic 10 this summer, and we'll get there soon enough. But I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that my interests match up with those of ESPN; that is to say, I want to talk about the Miami Heat.

If you have an excellent memory, you'll recall that I wrote about the Heat in one of my most recent posts. I talked about not being worried about the Heat, because they're just too talented to lose to most of the teams in the NBA when the games really matter. I continued to feel that way when the Indiana Pacers took a 2-1 lead on the Heat, and Miami won the next three games. I still didn't worry when the Celtics came back to tie the Eastern Conference Finals 2-2. Even Bosh-less, the Heat have way more talent than Boston. But now, there is nothing but worry for the Heat, because they are a game down and have to win in Boston to stay alive. Not impossible, but not feeling likely right now.

So how did this happen? How did Miami go from overwhelming favorite to the brink? Was it because we (I) overestimated them? I don't think so. They are the same team as last year (probably a bit better), the loss of Bosh notwithstanding. While I've battled the "inability to close" idea that ESPN and others have propagated since last season, it keeps coming true. But I think the term "close" is the wrong one. No one can close a game better than the Miami Heat when they have an eight point lead. They play loose and are unstoppable on offense, like normal. As a result, teams can't get any closer down the stretch.

But when Miami is in a two or three-point game, or losing by a few, the offense just doesn't seem to flow as freely. Dwyane Wade and Lebron James' drives to the basket don't even seem as smooth. They play a forced, rough style of basketball. During a normal part of any game, the layups are beautiful, inventive and always seem to drop. At the end of a close one, though, something is missing (couldn't find a video of Garnett blocking James down the stretch of game 5, but that's a good example. Just a basic, straight-line drive to the basket. That's not going to work in the NBA most times.) And it's not just better defense.

This is very interesting, because Wade and James have proven many times in the past that they are capable. Lebron James is the same guy that went for 47 against the eventual champion Boston Celtics in game 7, and single-handedly beat the Detroit Pistons in two overtimes in 2007. But in years past, he hasn't been there. He is still as dominant as ever, but isn't dominating at the right time, or at least not dominating enough to make that "right time" not matter.

Will that come back? Game 6 in Boston would be a good place to start.

Landing Jordan Sibert

The rumors have finally been confirmed that Jordan Sibert will transfer to UD from Ohio State this season, and play two seasons with the Flyers starting in 2013. The prevailing thought after Sibert had announced he would transfer was that Dayton had an excellent shot at getting him, but the fact that it came true is no less big a deal just because we were pretty sure it would.

Sibert represents the type of physically imposing and gifted guard that Dayton has not had in years. At 6-4, he'll have the size to play above many of the guards in the Atlantic 10, and his athleticism will be a game-changer, too. Dayton has had 6-4 shooting guards in the past; that's where Paul Williams was listed. But Sibert should be expected to be significantly more aggressive going to the basket and as a finisher; PW never really had that in his arsenal. Marcus Johnson was an amazing athlete and a great defender, but only really against smaller players. MJ is listed at 6-3 at DaytonFlyers.com, but that is probably giving him an extra inch. Not to mention Marcus really struggled with his jump shot later in his career. With Sibert, UD will supposedly have a guard who can do all of those things--shoot the three, slash to the basket and have some nice size to create mismatches. Of course, Chris Wright was supposed to be the same thing at the small forward/power forward position, and that only worked out every once in awhile. But I'm going to err on the side of positivity here. Anytime a guy who was the No. 37 rated recruit in the country coming out of high school is coming to your school, you've got to be excited about it.

The interesting thing here is that Sibert will not get a chance to play with most of the guys who are going to be a factor on this year's team. He would figure to be a major player in year four of the "crazy amounts of changes" era of UD basketball. After losing seven seniors following the 2009-10 season, Dayton lost two more to graduation, two to transferring and its coach after '10-11. Now after the most recent season, Dayton lost three more seniors (plus Ralph Hill to transfer), and will have four new additions to the team; two transfers who are now eligible, and two incoming freshmen. Those four will all be around for Sibert's first year of playing in Dayton. But Kevin Dillard, Josh Benson and Matt Kavanaugh will not. The only guy who might still be around who figures to play a decent role on this year's team is Devin Oliver (I use might because if the freshmen or Matt Derenbecker play well, they just might take Devin's spot, and he might decide to transfer).

So what kind of impact will Sibert have at UD? Unfortunately, it's hard to imagine him having a huge one, given the volatility of the time he's coming to the program. Guys who would be committing over the next year notwithstanding, Sibert would be playing his first year alongside Oliver, Derenbecker, Vee Sanford, Khari Price, Jalen Robinson, Devon Scott and Alex Gavrilovic. Is it just me, or does that seem a really rag-tag group of players? It is a necessary evil for Archie Miller and crew to make the best of its situation, but I hope they start invest a lot more time recruiting and less looking for transfers in the next couple years. Sometimes, a transfer can be an awesome addition to a team, and provide a spark (see Rob Lowery's first year with UD). But in the grand scheme of things, getting just two years out of a player is a difficult way to build a program (unless of course you're operating with the recruiting abilities of John Calipari). Having Jordan Sibert come to Dayton is a great thing, and it should provide the program with even more talent. If a couple other players pan out, UD might be very good again much quicker than we imagined. But while this is a great pick-up for UD in the short term, it's time for Miller to start looking long term, big-picture. Three freshman coming in next year is not bad, but that needs to keep happening. Having four year players that are there from the beginning is how to build a foundation for a good program. Rob Lowery provided an awesome spark, especially in his junior year, to the Dayton offense, but he was never a pillar of that team in the way that Chris Wright, Marcus Johnson or even Kurt Huelsman were.

Pat Summitt continues to set the standard

With her announcement of stepping down as Tennessee's head women's basketball coach, Pat Summitt has shown once again just how much better she is than everybody else doing this coaching thing.

You know most of the story. 16 SEC regular season and tournament championships. 18 Final Fours. 1,098 wins. Tennessee never missed an NCAA Tournament during her 38 years at the helm, a feat that absolutely boggles the mind. But by stepping down due to her battle with early-onset Alzheimer, Summitt showed she knew when her time had come, a characteristic not displayed by many athletes or coaches these days.

There was Michael Jordan coming back to play for the Washington Wizards when he shouldn't have been, and Brett Favre ruining his relationship with Green Bay before heading to the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings. Even then, Favre stuck around until scandals surrounding his penis did more to force him out of football. In college football, both Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno hung on to their jobs at the helm for way too long, the latter ending in disastrous circumstances. Bobby Petrino hadn't been at Arkansas for long, but he was revered by the Razorback faithful. Now, he's out of a job because he too let his ego and perceived importance get the best of him.

Not Summitt, though. Somehow (sarcasm), she managed to avoid the inflated sense of self that has ruined so many other sports personalities. She knew earlier this season that this would have to be her last, but where she differed from so many others was that she followed through on that. Sure, Summitt will still be the "Coach Emeritus" (whatever that means) at Tennessee, but she's done with the profession. She'll still be there so Tennessee can recruit competitively, but Summitt knows it's time to hang up the proverbial whistle.

Always good to know that there are still some decent, smart people in the sporting world.

Why I'm not worried about the Heat, even a little bit

I couldn't find much to write about in the past week and change. But with the NBA playoffs coming up soon, there has been an interesting development in the league that is quickly becoming the biggest headline: the Heat are losing games, they can't keep pace with Chicago. Can they pull it together and win a championship? Wait...that's been the headline of the NBA for the past two seasons.

In this most recent addition of "The Heat can't cut it", the Heat have gone 3-4 while trying to make a push for the Eastern Conference's top seed. Of greater note is the fact that three of those four losses came to the Boston Celtics (twice) and the Chicago Bulls. The fact that as the season winds down, and the Heat are unable to beat other playoff teams from the East gives some people concern (or fills them with glee). Bill Simmons even took the time to write a column about how his beloved Celtics are back, and that they could mess with the Heat in a playoff series if they stay healthy. Sorry, not gonna happen. Because while I'm no expert on the NBA, I watch enough to know that the regular season is mostly meaningless.

In the NBA's regular season, getting into decent position in the playoffs is the only concern. It is a rarity to have a game in which both teams really play hard on a given night in the NBA. Take this BS Report podcast with Steve Nash, who talks about in a normal NBA season, having "scheduling losses", losses that a team basically just surrenders due to the grind of its schedule at that time. Yeah, sometimes in the NBA teams don't really show up. When they do, it's fantastic. That is why the playoffs are so entertaining. Because teams and players are giving it everything they've got in the playoffs. That's also why the regular season can't really be used to evaluate a playoff bracket.

Take Lebron James' first team for example. In the two years before James left for Miami, the Cleveland Cavaliers had the best record in the NBA and lost in the playoffs. In 2009, the Cavs were an unbelievable 66-16 in the regular season, but were dispatched pretty easily by the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals. If not for a buzzer-beater by James in game 2, that would have been five game series. A 66-16 team was manhandled. Orlando, despite its inferior regular season record, was the better team. In the next year, everyone knows what happened. Cleveland went down to the Boston Celtics in six games, and Lebron "quit" in game 5. (This is an argument for another time, but I watched the game, and just don't agree that he had already quit on the Cavs. Look at his game 6 stats for at least some evidence). Whether or not James had given up, what always seems to be lost in that story is that clearly, the Celtics were a much better team than they were given credit for during the regular season. Everyone thought the C's beating the Cavs was an incredible upset, but then the Celtics beat the Magic easily, and almost won the Championship over the Lakers. It seems obvious to me that the Celtics flipped a switch in the playoffs and started playing real basketball. They just wanted to get into position, and when that happened, with all their veterans, become the team they knew they were capable of being.

So what was it about those Cavs that made them so good in the regular season but unable to get over the hump in the playoffs? The answer is simple: they played hard every night in the regular season. Players like Anderson Varejao hustled like crazy every night and were awarded as All-Stars in the regular season. But the playoffs started, and the Varejaos of the world start going against guys who are more athletically gifted, more talented and now playing just as hard, and things got ugly. (Varejao's career stats: 7.3 points, 7.2 rebounds. His career playoff numbers: 6.0 points, 5.6 rebounds (according to databasebasketball.com). In 2009-10, Varejao averaged 8.6 points and 7.6 rebounds. In the playoffs that year, he went for 5.7 points and 6.5 rebounds. In both cases, he played less minutes per game than during the regular season, but that is just as telling as the decrease in numbers: Varejao couldn't get the job done quite as well anymore).

Now look at last season, in which the Heat were the second seed in the East behind the Bulls. Miami went 0-3 against Chicago in the regular season, and it looked like Chicago had a serious mental edge. But then after losing game one, Miami reeled off four straight wins in relatively easy fashion, burying the Bulls in the fourth quarter each time. The Heat proved it was a better team than Chicago was.

Given the way this NBA season has gone, there's no reason to expect a different result in the playoffs. The Bulls almost exactly the same team as last year: a hard-playing group of most good players that operate around one unbelievable superstar. They have managed to win without Derrick Rose this year, which might be better for the Bulls come playoff time, but it's unlikely. When everybody is playing as hard as Taj Gibson and Joakim Noah are, Chicago looks a whole lot more pedestrian. And when everybody in Miami is playing that hard, the Heat will become a whole new animal, similar to last year.

Hopefully it will still result in a team on a mission from the West dispatching them in the NBA Finals, so the Heat narrative can continue.

We found baseball in a hopeless place

One hundred sixty-two games. It can be easy to forget in the early season excitement of Major League Baseball (which begins tonight, at least in the U.S.), that we've got to last through five and a half months and 162 games just to get to the playoffs. And that means if your team is not very good, after a month-long (maybe) grace period of just being happy to watch baseball, the sport can get pretty old and pretty depressing pretty fast. That's not a good thing, because a few tennis Grand Slams aside, baseball's the only thing going on during the summer months.

This is precisely why I'm concerned about the 2012 MLB season. According to Grantland.com baseball writer Jonah Keri, it would be a surprise if the New York Mets (my favorite team) were to finish anything better than last in the NL East. In ESPN.com writer Jayson Stark's annual preseason prediction of the World Series winner, the Mets qualified as one of the ten teams that have "no shot to be cooking in October." And in a division that possesses expected contenders in the Phillies, Braves and Marlins, let alone the popular sleeper-pick Washington Nationals. It could be a very long season for the Metropolitans. The Amazin's are looking like anything but in 2012.

So how to enjoy a season of baseball in which the team I like will probably be 10 games off the lead within the first 40 games of the season? Fantasy baseball will certainly help. But the key to continuing to enjoy baseball lies in following individual pursuits. Will David Wright, one of the great Mets of my lifetime, finally enjoy a healthy season and return to his original form? Will any of the young players (Ike Davis, Lucas Duda, Ruben Tejada) have a breakout year and be a pleasant surprise in an otherwise dark year? How impressive will Johan Santana be after sitting out last year due to surgery? Outside of the Mets, how about Jose Reyes? Will he continue to be the dominate game-changer he was in 2011, or will he go back to good-but-not-great form after securing himself that massive contract?

With so many players, so many games and so, so, so many numbers, there is always something that can be enjoyed about baseball. Really, where else can we so easily access a hitter's batting average against a certain pitcher when he is facing a 2-1 count? Nowhere else in sports that I'm aware of. Love it. So tune in tonight, tomorrow and over the weekend.

Evaluating the Final Four games on anything but basketball

For the first time since I can't remember, I won't be able to watch the Final Four games tonight. Yes, devastation. Luckily, there is a way of figuring out which teams will meet in the Championship game without even catching a whiff of basketball.

Kentucky vs. Louisville
Mascot
Kentucky's mascot is among the most generic in all of sports, right alongside bulldog; that being said, Louisville's mascot is the Cardinal. The Cardinal is a non-predatory bird, and while it looks cool and is the state bird of Ohio, that's about all it has going. Sorry, Cardy, the Wildcat takes round one.

Roster names
Pretty easy call on this one. Junior guard Twany Beckham aside, UK's roster is a veritable who's-who of average basketball player names. Darius Miller. Terence Jones. Anthony Davis. Sam Malone. Coach Cal is an unbelievable recruiter, but he's got to work on getting his name-game up. On the other hand, Louisville has two guys with the last name Smith on its roster and still manages to be more exciting. Whether its freshman Angel Nunez (anybody named Angel is automatically getting my attention) who doesn't play at all or sophomore Gorgui Dieng (same goes for anybody named Gorgui--or Dieng, for that matter) who starts for the Cardinals, Louisville has cool names on lockdown. The 'Ville has some guy named Stephan Van Treese on its roster. That dude sounds like he should be the son of a Duke, but is disappointingly just from Indianapolis. Still, his name's getting the job done. Even one of Louisville's more boring names, Kyle Kuric, rolls off the tongue nicely due to its alliteration. Cards even things up.

Most Interesting Man test
This test is inspired by the Dos Equis commercials featuring the "Most Interesting Man in the World". Which team has a guy who might speak French in Russian? Or maybe he could have inside jokes with total strangers? Basically, who would I want to hang out with most? And the answer to this one goes to the the resident winner of the name game as well--Gorgui Dieng. While in Louisville last weekend I spent time hanging out with a guy from Tanzania who was friends with the people I was visiting. He was funny, always in a good mood and ready to mix it up with whoever, and told some absolutely fascinating stories. Gorgui may not party quite as hardy as anybody in Lexington, but I'm thinking he'd be way more interesting to listen to between the weekends, telling me stories about his time in Senegal and what he thinks of the States. That definitely sounds better than talking to Anthony Davis about how crazy it was at this one AAU Tournament he played at when he was 15. Edge, Louisville.

Most Interesting Coach test
Same as before, but with the men running the benches for both teams. Unfortunately, I know very little nothing about either team's coaches beyond the leading men, so there are only two candidates I could choose from in this one. And that seems like a pretty easy call. Coach Cal may be deplorable, but is there any doubt he'd be a fun to hang with? It is clear as day from interviews that his players like him, and he's doing something right in order to fill his roster with future NBA-ers year after year. I'm guessing it's got to do with that personality. Coach Pitino on the other hand? Larger than life guy, for sure. Ultra-successful college coach, yes. But he still strikes me as very meh. The only thing I'd want to talk about is what a conversation Ricky probably wouldn't be keen on having.

Who is more worth rooting for?
Well, neither team. It's Kentucky and Louisville. The only way to make this worse would be to replace one of the teams with North Carolina and bring Tyler Hansbrough back to the Tar Heels' roster. But Louisville has several seniors and guys who aren't going to be making money playing professional basketball in the U.S., and other guys who might make the money, but still won't be playing. Set aside the fact that Kentucky is a farm team for the pros and how much that sucks in general. Most of the guys playing on that team will have plenty more shots on glory when they are in the pros. This is just a stop for them. No matter how much they really care about this Championship and no matter what happens over the next three days, the future is bright for them. For Kyle Kuric and Peyton Siva? The future (as far as basketball is concerned) is the next three days. So this has to the to the Cardinals.

For anybody not able to keep track, Louisville pulled off the upset, 3-2. Despite all the indications, opinions and talent to the contrary, here is some hard evidence that the Cardinals have a chance. And hey, even if Louisville does get thrashed tonight, at least Gorgui Dieng will have given it some pride: MVP of this column.

Ohio State vs. Kansas
Mascot
If there is a mascot that Ohio State would actually beat, it is escaping me. Seriously, Ohio State are the Buckeyes. And not even the tree. The seed on the tree that peanut buttery snacks are modeled after. Even if it was the tree, the Buckeye is not an especially impressive angiosperm. Were they the Ohio State Redwoods, then maybe we're talking. But Buckeye? Let alone the fact that Kansas' mascot is a mythical bird. This is not close. Point KU.

Roster names
Mostly boring on both sides. All of Kansas' cool is coming from guys that don't see the floor: Naadir Tharpe, Niko Roberts, Merv Lindsay (Merv!). The Jayhawks do have two guards with decent names in Tyshawn Taylor (once again, on the strength of alliteration) and Elijah Johnson (on the strength of Elijah), but KU has clearly left this one wide open. Ohio State doesn't have much to shout about in the category either, however. It is always a good thing to have a Weatherspoon on the roster, and J.D. Weatherspoon proudly sports the scarlet and grey from the sidelines. So Ohio State has that going for it, which is nice. Throw in LaQuinton Ross and Evan Ravenel, and the name game is going down to the wire. The way I see it, it comes down to Merv Lindsay and Evan Ravenel. And while Merv has the advantage of having a fake first name for a first name and a real first name for a last name, I think only Gorgui Dieng has a shot at beating Evan Ravenel for full-name glory. Kudos to Ravvy's parents for having the guts to name him Evan. That could have gone south quickly with so many e's, a's and v's in such a short span of syllables. But it hasn't. Point Buckeyes.

Most Interesting Man test
Thomas Robinson is an incredible player with an incredible story. He has put his younger sister before himself at all times, and should be commended for that. But in spite of that and in spite of my disdain for him, I don't think there's any choice other than Jared Sullinger for Most Interesting Man in this game. Sully's larger-than-life personality has been on display since his freshman year. It reached a nationwide audience when we saw him singing "Party in the USA" on ESPN, but it is there for all to see in the middle of games as well. Sullinger puts his tongue out and cheers and nods when good things are happening for his team. But this year, the other side of Sullinger was seen much more frequently. He was pouting when things weren't going well. He quit on his team because he allowed things he couldn't control get the better of him a couple times. Right now, however, Sullinger appears to have his swag back in full force. And even though he annoys me to watch on TV, I have no doubt he'd be a blast to be around in person. Buckeyes, 2-1.

Most Interesting Coach test
Thad Matta's name is Thad Matta, and that is awesome. Thad also is kinda cool because he's not like any of the other mega-successful coaches of big programs in the country--Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Bo Ryan, John Calipari, Billy Donovan, Jim Boeheim, etc. All those guys are totally composed in their interviews. Thad doesn't have that polished feel about him. He seems much more genuine in his comments because of that. That being said, he coached at Xavier, which pretty much ends this argument. Bill Self is another one of those boring, polished automatons, but he hasn't been at Xavier. Sorry for that Ocean's 12-esque, buildup and anti-climax, but I needed to write something. Edge, Kansas.

Who is more worth rooting for?
The T-Rob story speaks for itself. That guy is pretty well worth rooting for, as are the other veterans on his team, but Ohio State has some worthiness of its own. The Buckeyes are coming off a year in which they were far and away the best team in the country, but suffered in the Elite Eight due to a poor shooting game. What's more, that loss came at the hands of a freshman-laden Kentucky team. This year's UK team is totally different, but I would imagine the leftover Buckeyes would still love a shot at returning the favor. Jared Sullinger has said he came back this year because of the sting of last year. Whether or not you like Sully (and I don't), that's what college basketball is all about. And Kansas' last national championship came in 2007, while OSU hasn't cut down the Nets since 1960. I'd say that means point, Bucks.

Finaly tally comes to Ohio State 3, Kansas 2. The scientific approach delivered by Ken Pomeroy says it will be Kentucky-Ohio State. The non-scientific but educated consensus from the ESPN pundits says we're getting Kentucky-Kansas. And this non-scientific and not-educated is pimping a Louisville-Ohio State final two. I guess that adds up to a fun night of basketball.

No need for teams in the Hunger Games

I finally got around to seeing the Hunger Games today, and came out the other side thoroughly pleased. An unnecessary District 11 riot aside, the movie was really good. But before getting too into those thoughts, a couple generals ones first.

One thing I haven't had the chance to do much of since going to college is see movies at the theaters. A combination of the fact that for the most part I was content waiting to see movies when they came out on Netflix and the fact that, believe it or not, there is almost always something to do at school that sounds just as fun as going to the cinema, I just haven't been to the actual theaters much lately. But wow, is it fun to go. I love watching movies at anytime, but there is nothing quite like the seats rumbling beneath you when the bass kicks in on the speakers that are playing way too loud while you watch that gigantic screen.

And this brings us back to the Hunger Games, which took full advantage of the opportunities afforded by a movie theater. We walked in during the first trailer, which was for some horror flick called House at the End of the Street. This movie would have blown by pretty quickly, but it happens to star Jennifer Lawrence, and the trailer involved some time with her putzing around in a tank top, which will always work for me. I don't know the last horror movie I watched, but #HATES (as was thrown together at the end of the trailer) just might be the next one. I love Jennifer Lawrence. The rest of them were exciting ones as well: The Avengers, Snow White and the Huntsman (which has a chance to be good, but has one serious flaw: Kristen Stewart is not gonna pass as fairer than Charlize Theron anytime soon), G.I. Joe: Retaliation (starring The Rock!), What to Expect When You're Expecting (looked pretty funny, but then again so do most comedy trailers) and a 30-second teaser bit for the Twilight Breaking Dawn part 2 (more on that later).

Then the movie started. I won't bore anyone with my every thought on the film, but I really enjoyed it. I loved the way the cameras were used in that out-of-control sort of way, especially during the time in District 12. It made the movie feel that much more intimate, which was good for a movie that was based on a first-person narrated book. Speaking of the narration, the Katniss in this movie if probably a better version of the Katniss in the book. While Katty seems like a great gal in the books, she is also prone to infuriating fits of stupidity. She just doesn't make very good decisions and never seems to read people the right way. Not having been a teenage girl in my time, it was at times brutal to read what was going on in Katniss' head, because it just wasn't very smart stuff, coming from an otherwise intelligent individual. But making the movie from a third-perspective was a great move, because all that pent up emotion was left in the capable hands of Lawrence. And I gotta say, Jenny killed it. Her wandering eyes in scenes with Peeta and her scenes with both Primrose and Rue were excellent. I got all the Katniss I needed without getting any of the Katniss I didn't want. And that all involved plenty of Jennifer Lawrence. And any review of this movie should not happen without mentioning that Stanley Tucci, Elizabeth Banks and Lenny Kravitz were absolutely perfect as Caesar Flickerman, Effie Trinket and Cinna, respectively. Awesome.

The other big bonus from this film was my major concern coming in. Leading up to the movie, I saw Facebook and Twitter updates about people who had tickets for the movie, and were pumped up about it. At the end of many of these people's updates was the hashtagged phrase #teampeeta. Having read the Hunger Games trilogy, I understood the reference. During the height of the Twilight Saga's reign, there were people proclaiming that they were on #teamedward or #teamjacob, the two young men chiefly involved in Bella's life. Now I have not read the Twilight books, so I don't know if Jacob was actually a love option for Bella or if he was actually worth rooting for in that love triangle, but I assume he was, because many people boasted about their #teamjacob-ness. And that is what upset me. Sure, there are two dudes heavily involved in Katniss' life: Gale and Peeta. She has those confusing teenage-y feelings about both dudes. Of course, the feelings are nonsense, but she has them. But what bothers me is the thought that anyone might proclaim to be a part of #teamgale. Seriously? Gale is hardly even involved in the first book! And in the second and third when he plays a bigger role, he just shows that the disgruntled, moany 18-year-old who can't get over a 16-year-old girl who's a bigger bad-ass than he is. All Gale does is whine about the Capitol and he votes to have a Hunger Games of the Capitol's children (if you've only seen the movie or read the first book, sorry. But this isn't giving much away, you'll get there). How could anyone be on that dude's team?

No thanks, I'll take Peeta, the guy who does nothing but good, says all the right things, has everything awful happen to him in the world but still maintains some sense of himself (a self that is better than everybody else in the supremely f-ed up world Suzanne Collins created). That was my concern. That this movie was going to be portrayed as some Twilight love triangle. That's not what it is. Peeta is always the shockingly better option. Was there really anybody on #teamgale going in? Has anybody who's seen the movie decided to stay on that bandwagon? I hope not.