Last Night on "The Knee Jerks": Pistons Talk Put On Hold, But Some Good Rants

Our NBA talk got put on hold for a couple weeks last night on "The Knee Jerks", my weekly sports gabfest with Big Al from The Wayne Fontes Experience.

Our guest, A. Sherrod Blakely---Pistons beat writer for MLive.com---got caught up in some work-related stuff and couldn't be with us, after all. But he WILL be joining us on October 12, so we're pleased about that!

So given all that extra time to kill, Al and I started flapping our gums, as is our wont! And, as usual, a couple of good rants resulted.

We kicked things off by talking Tigers and their chances to wrap this division up (finally) this week.

Al, as usual, is a Nervous Nellie and I had to "talk him down," as he put it. Because, after all, I AMJ the "Voice of Reason"!!

I reminded Al that the Tigers just need to win two of four against the Twins and that they certainly can do that.

Next, we moved on to U-M and their win over Indiana. The health of QB Tate Forcier is an issue, and again I "reasoned" Al down from the ledge, assuring him that the Wolverines CAN win without Forcier.

A good rant developed in this segment as we veered off into the college basketball programs in this area, especially the sad state of affairs at University of Detroit-Mercy.

We wrapped things up with the Lions and their historic win on Sunday over Washington. Another good rant formed here when the subject turned to Joey Harrington and how he never really fit in with this town's fans.

Don't forget to follow us on Twitter, for updates on scheduled guests, time changes, etc.

Next week's guest: Marvin Hagler, Jr., who is launching a boxing career on October 10. Marvin will then fight Sugar Ray Leonard Jr. (I'm not making this up) in February.

Upcoming guests:

Oct. 5 Marvin Hagler Jr.
Oct. 12 A. Sherrod Blakely
Oct. 19 Bob Page
Oct. 26 TBA
Nov. 2 Jose Canseco (yes, THE Jose Canseco!!)


Some highlights from last night:

Big Al

On U-M football: "(QB) Denard Robinson...if he's in there, the other team knows it's going to be a running play. But the defense can't stop a high school team right now."

On the Tigers: "I'm concerned about the Twins! Are they in the Tigers' heads? Carl Pavano's been unhittable against the Tigers this year."

On the UDM basketball program: "Perry Watson was a good coach and had a lot of ties to the PSL, but as far as selling the program and getting people excited about it, there wasn't much there."

On the Lions: "You have to say the 2009 draft was a home run. Look at all the guys who are starting. And they're getting some contributions from the players in the lower rounds, too. But they're still not a very good team yet."


Eno

On the Tigers: "I think they can get the two wins they need against the Twins. As far as Pavano, no one can explain it. Pavano probably couldn't, and the Tigers probably couldn't. It's just one of those things. That's why baseball is such a great game."

On U-M football: "If Michigan can't win without Tate Forcier, then they have issues. The kid's been good, but let's not get carried away. I'm more concerned about their defense than the QB situation. Michigan is supposed to be deep at QB. So let's see it."

On UDM basketball: "One of the biggest recruiting obstacles is Calihan Hall. It's old, decrepit, and is just a glorified high school gym. Plus the campus is old and not very attractive. And it's in a bad part of town. You don't even want to park your car there. They won't even play Oakland University, because OU's program is way better."

On Matthew Stafford: "There's something about this kid that tells me that everything's going to be OK. He has that presence about him. We wanted to believe that about Joey Harrington, but he was from Oregon and he was a pretty boy who played the piano. It wasn't a good fit."

You can listen to the episode by clicking below!