D.C. Sports Bog - By The Washington Post's Dan Steinberg - January 6, 2008

Hoyas Win! Pikachu Returns!

Roy Hibbert's game-winning three-pointer this afternoon set off a sea of gray exultations, thousands of leaping and hugging and screaming students behind both baskets, clad in monotonous gray Hoyas t-shirts. And then, like a single florescent banana dropped into a silo of oatmeal, there was Andrew Leighton. Dressed as...

By Dan Steinberg | January 12, 2008; 7:01 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: College Basketball
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Atlantic 11 in Than-Bauk

Two weeks ago, one deranged Local Poll voter chose to submit his entire ballot in haiku form. Last week, that same poor soul, Bill Fitzgerald, one-upped himself by submitting his entire ballot in limerick form, despite the fact that there wasn't even a poll that week. Sick, right? And...

By Dan Steinberg | January 11, 2008; 12:24 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: College Basketball
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Kimmel/Letterman Copying DeShawn/Gooden

(NBAE via Getty) For all my talk about being a great source for professional athlete facial hair news, I've been woefully lacking on three recent major stories. 1) In yesterday's Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Drew Gooden provides an update on his beard-growing contest with DeShawn Stevenson. "There's been a lot of...

By Dan Steinberg | January 11, 2008; 10:59 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: NBA , Wizards
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GW Colonials = Locksmiths

So, apparently, don't count out those Colonials just yet. That 49-20 win smelled like the AFC Championship game score domination. I mean, as Steven Goff astutely noted, GW had as many blocks and steals as St. Louis had points last night. I believe Hillary Clinton had as many steals...

By Dan Steinberg | January 11, 2008; 9:29 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: College Basketball
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DeShawn's Tattoo: An Update

If I'm not mistaken, there's still more work to be done, but here's the number, joining the name. Did I realize that the number would be filled in with dollar signs, $100 bill icons and what looks like bullet holes? I did not. Also, it's sort of a nice...

By Dan Steinberg | January 11, 2008; 6:37 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Wizards
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DeShawn's Robe, the Locksmith and Stewie

Oddly, his back looks much the same. Scroll down for whatever explanation I could manage. Six more crucial factoids small, insignificant facts as the Wiz get ready for four games in five days.... I got to practice today expecting the worse. I hadn't been around much lately, but 2008...

By Dan Steinberg | January 10, 2008; 5:07 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Wizards
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Tamir Goodman's First Two Games

Dunkin is still on the roster, thankfully. Well, he's probably not on pace to make the PBL All-Star Game just yet. In game one, a 92-89 home loss to the Wilmington Sea Dawgs, Tamir "was primarily used as the Nighthawks back-up point guard and played 12:28 minutes but did...

By Dan Steinberg | January 10, 2008; 3:25 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Minor League Basketball
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Virginia Loses Some Locker Room Perks

Updating two recent stories.... 1) Concerning the widely accepted notion that depriving college basketball kids of certain locker room amenities (i.e. nameplates) is the surest way to success, witness the University of Virginia's newest news story, courtesy of beat writer Adam Kilgore: After the 108-70 loss at Xavier, Virginia's players...

By Dan Steinberg | January 10, 2008; 3:04 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: College Basketball
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Fire Joe Gibbs? Now what?

Actually, when I heard how James Madison had lost at William & Mary last night, I was curious what the folks at FireDeanKeener.com would be thinking. But the site has vanished. I guess rising to No. 5 in the Atlantic 11 will do that to the cynics. The FireMyCoach.com...

By Dan Steinberg | January 10, 2008; 2:15 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: College Basketball , Redskins
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A-10: We're Not Mid-Majors!

Big-time Xavier big-timed Virginia. (AP photo) This debate has been raging fermenting like smelly cheese for several years now. The A-10, we can all acknowledge, used to be a very strong second-tier basketball conference, coming just after the biggest of the big boys. The last few years have been...

By Dan Steinberg | January 10, 2008; 11:35 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: College Basketball
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Local Hoops Tautologies

Ok, actually, what follow are not tautologies. A tautology is sort of an unnecessary repetition of the same idea; for example * a sweaty Gary Williams * a poorly attended George Washington home game * Georgetown fans, upset by a perceived lack of respect * a John Feinstein-approved Patriot...

By Dan Steinberg | January 10, 2008; 9:53 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (19)
Categories: College Basketball
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Kedric Golston and Chris Wilson Taste Smack

At long last, we got some Redskins to taste Fred Smoot's Smack on camera. This was actually from several weeks ago, pre-playoff run and pre-playoff loss and pre-Gibbs retirement, but Kedric Golston and Chris Wilson eagerly gobbled down one Smack bar each in their role as Blog Show special correspondents....

By Dan Steinberg | January 10, 2008; 9:16 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Redskins
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Pols Paying Tribute to Gibbs

Next week: praising volunteers for fighting their guts out. (Getty) Personally, I found it nothing but touching that so many famous political-types have chosen to play homage to Joe Gibbs over the past few chaotic days. They could have said that they were taking the race one day at...

By Dan Steinberg | January 9, 2008; 5:04 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Redskins
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Rallying for Gibbs at the Park Video

Of course once the fans were permitted past the guard gate yesterday for their meeting with Gibbs, all the media folks pounced on them, rendering my hard work waiting outside the gates with the fans as they played football largely moot. But still, if you want to see that rally,...

By Dan Steinberg | January 9, 2008; 1:22 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Redskins
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Athletes and the Primaries

AP photo. The previous item discussed how some Democratic presidential operatives were supporting the Redskins. But whom, you ask, are the Redskins supporting? Unclear. Mr. Snyder gave $10k to the National Republican Congressional Committee in October. Mark Brunell gave $1,000 to Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.) in April. Couldn't find any...

By Dan Steinberg | January 9, 2008; 12:21 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: MLB , NBA , NFL , Redskins
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Chat With Me

Busy day today: I've got an interview with Al Jazeera English's Sportsworld program about tailgating (which will allow me to introduce an international audience to the Dead Tree Crew, heaven help us all), and I've got a WaPo chat about my year-end Best of 2007 list at 2 pm. There...

By Dan Steinberg | January 9, 2008; 11:12 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Media
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The Dems and the Redskins

This happened over the weekend, but I got briefly confused reading about Obama's Redskins-related comments during the New Hampshire debate. From the Oregonian's politics blog: One of the moderators, Scott Spradling told Obama that his ears must have been ringing from what the Republicans said about him in the...

By Dan Steinberg | January 9, 2008; 8:02 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Redskins
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Coach Joe's Send-off Rally

What do you get the man who has everything? More to the point, what do you get the Hall of Fame pro football coach when he retires from the Redskins for a second time? The answers: * Burgundy and gold flowers: mums, roses and some unknown blooms from the...

By Dan Steinberg | January 8, 2008; 5:06 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Redskins
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When Gibbs Retired, the First Time

Part of the 1993 Superstar WaPo crew. When Gibbs retires in 2029, I hope the Post's eyelid blogger refers to me fondly. The first wave of "Joe Gibbs Retires" stories makes you wistful over the March 6, 1993 media as much as it does over Joe Gibbs. For example,...

By Dan Steinberg | January 8, 2008; 1:12 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Redskins
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Gibbs Fan Rally

Fans are gathering at 2:30 outside Redskins Park. B.Y.O.P. (Bring your own pineapples.)...

By Dan Steinberg | January 8, 2008; 12:55 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Redskins
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Portis on Gibbs

From his recent NFL.com feature: Q: What does it mean to be a running back for Joe Gibbs? CP: I think Coach Shanahan is probably one of the top coaches in the NFL. But I think Joe Gibbs is probably one of the top people in life, just for the...

By Dan Steinberg | January 8, 2008; 11:40 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Redskins
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CSN, MASN and NFL Network: All Gibbs

Comcast SportsyNet's going all Gibbs, with special in-studio guests including future Blog Show correspondent Kedric Goldston, plus a full day of programming. â€¢ 12:00 - Redskins Radio with Larry Michael and Bram Weinstein Live â€¢ 2:00 - SportsNite Special Edition: Goldston, Ray Brown, Russ Thaler and Brent Harris in studio...

By Dan Steinberg | January 8, 2008; 11:18 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Redskins
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Gibbs Opinions: A Round-up

(Preston Keres - TWP) Updating all day, from the top.... Deuce of Davenport: We love the legend of Joe Gibbs, but as with most legends, the stories are better than the actual truth. The truth is, in Gibbs's reincarnation as a head coach, he was largely unsuccessful. He was...

By Dan Steinberg | January 8, 2008; 10:59 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Redskins
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Gibbs Leaves With Class

(Katherine Frey - TWP) I'm the first to admit I have no "sources within the team" or "high-ranking team officials" or "long-tenured veterans" who call me to kibitz about all things Redskins. And it's easy to say this after the fact. But I'm saying it anyhow: I felt not...

By Dan Steinberg | January 8, 2008; 9:49 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (27)
Categories: Redskins
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Local Hoops Poll Week Eight: Atta Loss

Well, we took a bit more than a week off, and Georgetown and Maryland were the only ranked teams that made it through unscathed. A voter suggested we convert this into a Local Poll for some other region, rotating that region weekly. Taken under advisement. If anyone is interested...

By Dan Steinberg | January 7, 2008; 6:04 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: College Basketball
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Gilbert's Recipe for Happiness

(Preston Keres - TWP) I'm starting to think of Gilbert as sort of the secular Joe Gibbs. Gibbs puts his weekly spiritual guides to life on the Web; Gilbert does the same, a bit less regularly but with equal length and earnestness, invoking True Happiness as his God. But...

By Dan Steinberg | January 7, 2008; 3:43 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Wizards
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Locker Room Evictions

The sad empty shell of MTSU's locker room. Gary Williams's locker room restrictions following that loss to American seemed benign enough: no action photos, no practice jerseys and, most severely, no player nameplates. But those punishments, plus some more bad non-conference opponents, appear to have done the trick. Since...

By Dan Steinberg | January 7, 2008; 12:54 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Terps
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D.C. Cheerleaders Party

For as long as I can remember, I've been writing about the ties between local athletes from different teams: D.C. United players going to Caps games, the Caps taking batting practice with the Nats, prominent Nats being spotted at Wizards games along with members of the Redskins, Redskins reserves...

By Dan Steinberg | January 7, 2008; 11:31 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Caps , Redskins , Terps , Wizards
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The Seattle Media, Sean Taylor and the Afterlife

Via Seattlest. When I first heard the Redskins suggest that Sean Taylor was affecting the flight path of field goals and punts, or that their 21-point margin against the Cowboys was something more than a coincidence, my immediate reaction was: 'Wow, I'm definitely going to ignore this. Whoa, look...

By Dan Steinberg | January 7, 2008; 10:36 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Redskins
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D.C. Sports Bog: January 6, 2008 - January 12, 2008