About Keltin Wiens

Keltin Wiens is the KWTS Sports Director.

Get ready for a playoff system

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Keltin Wiens

For you true college football fans out there, what I’m going to tell you will sound like sweet music to your ears. College football is considering a playoff system.

The most influential people among the Football Bowl Subdivision elite in Division I college football met last week in Hollywood, Fla., to discuss the future of the sport. Among those in the meeting were the eleven FBS conference commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick, among other officials. There were numerous ideas floating about in the meetings that have been discussed relating to changing the current Bowl Championship Series system.

Under the BCS system, the two highest-ranked teams at the end of the season will play each other for the chance to call themselves the National Champions. The BCS is hardly fair, giving six conferences (the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and the SEC) an automatic bid to play in the highly regarded BCS bowls. Then, it gives at-large spots to teams both from within and outside the six “automatic qualifying” conferences. Continue reading →

Pat Summitt: 38 years later

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Keltin Wiens

Pat Summitt, the head coach for the Tennessee Lady Vols Women’s Basketball team, called it a career on April 19. For fans of women’s basketball in the NCAA Division I ranks, Pat Summitt is a household name.

After 38 years, Summitt stepped down from her job eight months after being diagnosed with early onset dementia, Alzheimer’s type. Summitt handed over her whistle to Holly Warlick, a former player of Summitt’s and assistant coach for the past 27 years.

Summitt is the winningest coach in college basketball history, with her win-loss record standing at an impressive 1,098-208. Summitt’s Lady Vols won their sixteenth overall Southeastern Conference last month. The Lady Vols made it to the NCAA Tournament all 38 years of Summitt’s career, never being seeded lower than No. 5 and never finishing the season with a losing record. Summitt also led her teams to 18 Final Fours and eight National Championships. The 18 Final Four appearances are tied with both the UCLA and North Carolina men’s teams for the most appearances in NCAA history. Summitt even has two basketball courts named after her (UT Martin and University of Tennessee). Continue reading →

Ozzie Guillen in Cold War trouble

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Keltin Wiens

Ozzie Guillen, the new manager of the new Miami Marlins, is in some Cold War trouble. Guillen was recently quoted in an interview with Time magazine that he loves and respects Fidel Castro because he has been able to survive all this time with such a large number of people trying to kill Castro. Of all the people that deserve love and respect from a manger of a Major League Baseball club (or anyone for that matter), Fidel Castro, one of the last surviving Cold War era dictators, should be at the bottom of the list.

These comments did not go unnoticed. Guillen is the face of a team that resides outside Little Havana in Miami. Therefore, when he makes these comments, the large Cuban fan base in south Florida was listening. The interview unleashed a firestorm of criticism in the city and across the nation. The anger at Guillen was buttressed by MLB commissioner Bud Selig’s five-game suspension of Guillen.

One doesn’t need to know much about baseball to realize that it is a long season. One hundred sixty-two games, in fact, make up a typical season. It doesn’t make sense when the remedy for talking favorably about an oppressive dictator is to suspend Guillen for roughly three percent of the regular season. I think it should have been more. Continue reading →

One and done

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Keltin Wiens

First of all, congratulations to the Kentucky Wildcats for winning the 2012 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. There is something that can be said for a team that best navigates the 69-team tournament over the course of three weeks. It is certainly no small accomplishment.

This Kentucky team is different than the traditional national champion squad. This team was coached by John Calipari, who is notorious for recruiting players who are “one and done,” or players that will only play one year in college before leaving for the NBA. This Kentucky team was comprised with three one and done players: Marcus Teague, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Anthony Davis.

Now, keep in mind that as of right now, none of these three players have officially declared for the NBA draft, but it is expected they will. This situation raises the age-old question of who benefits from the one and done rule. As it stands, players in the NBA must be at least 19-years-old before they can be drafted. Continue reading →

Pure Hypocrisy

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Keltin Wiens

I wrote only a few weeks ago about the excitement and the heartbreak of the NCAA Championship Tournament. Let’s be clear: I love March Madness, I don’t like the NCAA. The case of Jamar Samuels is the latest reason why.

Samuels is a senior on the Kansas State Wildcats men’s basketball team. He was undoubtably one of the team’s core players. Just minutes before an NCAA Tournament game on March 17, Samuels was suspended for the game against the Syracuse Orange over concerns about his eligibility. K-State lost the game to Syracuse, thus ending their season and Samuel’s career as a Wildcat.

The suspension was an act of pure hypocrisy by the NCAA. Jamar Samuels was suspended for taking $200 from a former AAU coach and family friend. Better yet, that $200 was used by Samuels so that he could keep from going hungry. He couldn’t afford to eat. Samuels comes from a poor family, which left the AAU coach to lend him some money. Taking the money is clearly an NCAA violation, but that is not what I’m arguing. I want some better compensation for NCAA student-athletes. Continue reading →

Saints no more

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Keltin Wiens

I love the New Orleans Saints. To be honest, the Saints are not my favorite team, but it is hard not to love the Saints and their story: winning the franchise’s first Super Bowl just two seasons ago after the city was rocked by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

When it came out several weeks ago the Saints and former defensive coordinator Greg Williams paid defensive players bounties for hits on offensive players, it shook the foundations of the National Football League. It was particularly frightening to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. But I, along with several current and former NFL players was not surprised this news broke. Why? Because it happens everywhere, not just with the New Orleans Saints. It’s just a matter of bad timing. Continue reading →

NCAA brings March Madness

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Keltin Wiens

March is here, finally. There are not too many months that bring back memories of such excitement and frustration as the third month of the year. This year is no different. This year may be just a little crazier.

For those who don’t know, I am talking about the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The 68-team mosh pit of a tournament that takes place every March has many nicknames, The Big Dance, The Tourney, but it is known by most as March Madness.

I, like many, filled out my bracket. Also, like many, my bracket has more missed picks than right ones. If you printed out and stacked all the possible bracket combinations, then you couldn’t fit the stacks of paper in the universe. The universe. I’m no math major, but those seem like pretty slim odds of guessing the whole thing right. But what would it be worth to guess the bracket right? Sure you may get $1 million dollars or a new car, but would it really be worth it? I don’t think so. Continue reading →

Making room for one more

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Keltin Wiens

Major League Baseball and the players’ union announced March 2 that the two sides are closer to a deal to implement another wild card team in the MLB playoffs. Good for you Major League Baseball, good for you.

The new system would allow another team in both the National League and American League to play a one-game playoff game to determine who goes on to the next round. The three division winners would have a first-round bye.

This system would only happen if the two sides can agree on how to squeeze the game into baseball’s post-season, one in which the scheduling for October baseball is already fairly rigid. Also, the teams playing in the one playoff game will have to figure out the logistical nightmare of moving a team or hosting an extra game. Continue reading →

Spring brings baseball back

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Keltin Wiens

As another February winds down, we are again confronted with spring training. Yes, baseball season is here again. Just the sound of the word “baseball” conjures up patriotic feelings for most Americans and an overwhelming majority of sports fans.

There are so many high hopes for the majors this season and it’s easy to see why. Just think about how the last one ended. The St. Louis Cardinals won a great seven-game World Series, once again frustrating the Texas Rangers. The Rangers made their second straight trip to the Fall Classic, but were once again sent away via the hands of the National League.

What happens when the Rangers have to once again compete with Albert Pujols, this time in their own division? What will this season hold for the Rangers and the newly acquired Yu Darvish and the recently-relapsed Josh Hamilton? Keep your televisions on and radios tuned in. Continue reading →

Collegiate Darwinism

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Keltin Wiens

For shame, college sports, for shame.

Conference USA and the Mountain West Conference announced last week the two conferences will form a brand new “super conference,” although it is hardly composed of “super” schools. After the power conferences in college sports like the SEC, Big 12, Big 10, Pac-12 and the Big East have had their pick of C-USA and MWC schools, the remaining 16 teams are Air Force, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Colorado State, East Carolina, Fresno State, Hawaii (football-only), Marshall, Nevada, New Mexico, University of Nevada at Las Vegas, Southern Miss, Rice, University of Texas at El Paso, Tulane, Tulsa and Wyoming.

This new conference stretches across five time-zones and reaches from South Carolina to Honolulu. The merger, to me, makes about as much sense as throwing a toaster into a bathtub. So why did the two conferences choose to make such a decision? The answer is survival. Continue reading →

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