Tim is a Texas Ex! Can you please get Gabe Muoneke a roster spot? I know you've received a lot of requests recently so I thought I'd ask too btw, don't turn on 610. You'll probably hear the postgame show. It will make you drive 90 regardless of the outcome.
Heh. Roster spots are the coach's job. It was good to see him out there at media day, though. And since he's from Houston, we're expecting to see a lot of Gabe fans out there in pre-season. We'll try and see if we can get a few of the concourse TVs switched to UT-OU for the UT alums. (If you're an OU alum, sorry, can't help you. ) No guarantees -- our concourse TV package is still a work in progress, although it will be complete and finished by the start of the regular season. Tim
Silly silly people.... It's not a matter of sucking or not. We KNOW they do! It's a matter of whether or not they spit or swallow
Impressions: The building is awesome. Most impressed with... 1. The scoreboard. Just freakin' killer. 2. The sound system. Could use a tiny tweak or two, but overall, a HUGE upgrade. 3. The food. All I had were nachos, but those were some of the best nachos I've ever eaten. 4. The service staff. Damn, everyone was exceedingly nice. Very impressive. 5. The seats. Very comfy. A little disappointed by... 1. Cost of food. Three drinks, one nachos, $20. Ouch. Typical arena food prices, I guess. 2. Distance between each row. The seats were comfortable but if you sit in the middle of a row, it is TOUGH to get out and get back in if others are sitting in between you and the aisle. Guess this is just something you give up to get closer to the floor, but it was awkward. 3. The event itself. Got there at 1:20, entered at 1:30, walked around the building until about 2:00, watched the power dancers and break dancers (Breakin II: Electric Boogaloo) until 2:45 and saw 15 minutes of practice??? I thought when the guy said, "That's it. Rockets win! See you tomorrow." that he was joking! I'm sure this was Van Gundy limiting time, but damn! Just for those who are worried about parking, I parked two blocks from the building on the street for free. There were three spaces on the street on the same block. Piece of cake.
Overall... like Jeff said... too short!!! ... but damn... WHAT AN ARENA!!! I have some pics but I dont know how to post them... The highlight was when francis through an alley-oop bouce pass to Cornell and he dunked it home... GREAT BASKETBALL
I got to take a photo with Cat and Alex Scales... Cat was cool cause there was some drama about security, but he was really cool... I sat in the second row... I GOT IN USING a special red ticket that we got from some white guy and his son...
my girlfriend got 2 in the mail but we couldnt go, what did the red ticket do opposed to the same way the others got in? made you sit close to the court? please dont tell me that!
It let you go in before they let everyone else go in at 1:30pm, we got in aroung like 12:45 and got to walk around and talk to the staff and check out the ENTIRE Arena... We got to pick who we wanted a photo with... YAO MING was leaving right afterwards and Stevie was too... Cat was the only guy left and the guy showed us the list... I SAID... "GIMMIE PINK" (Cat's Picture section)... We got to shoot freethrows but i turned it down after seeing all these little kids on the court with John Amechie shooting free throws... I TOLD MYSELF... IF ONLY THEY KNEW... I gave it to a MILF for her son... But yeah, we got to walk around and not get hassled and sit very very close... ALL CAUSE OF THE RED TICKETS....
Good news. Glad they won. Hopefully this will give them the confidence to beat someone other than themselves. What were the teams, by the way?
I thought the sound was too loud but I have sensative ears so I wore ear plugs. The scoreboard is great. The led lights around the arena are way better looking in person. . Clutch bear is FUNNY. I shook his hand and got a picture takin with him.Its not a digital camera so I cant show it here. BUt for some reason,the staff guy working there taking pictures told some other people to jump into the picture with me and clutch. It was my camera and he ruined it.Hopefully I can photoshop those girls out of the picture. The seats were okay. I noticed the "bigger" seats are only in the lower bowl and in the middle sections only. I was sitting to the side angle,and my seat was SMALL. But still comfy though. JVG looks TINY in person. Good lord. I have bad vision because I dont wont to wear glasses or contacts,and I was looking for him the whole time. Then they announced his name and I still couldnt see him. I saw what looked like a ballboy in the huddle wearing a sweatshirt,and then he started talking on the mic. I thought that was funny. Hes cute too. But he didnt seem to happy,probably wanted to go home and relax. I didnt try out the drinks or food. I parked in the GARAGE for FREE. A cop told me on the street it was free. YEAH. I walked all through the seating. If your on the upper bowl,dont be on the "ends". The glare on the court from lights is TERRIBLE. Looks like a "sun" reflecting on the court in two spots. But all the other seats had no glare reflection. The isles space is STUPID. I had trouble walking through the seatting isle with NO PEOPLE seatting. I cant imagine how bad it is with peoples feet there. Seems literally impossible. The steps are very small on the upper bowl. Okay for women,but small for men. Cornell AIRBALLED a free throw Dudley style. They made him shoot a ton more after the scrimmage I guess as punishment. Moochie still sucked. But Wilks nailed a three. Boki is way better in person ,he seems faster and more fluid than on tv when he is trying to guard Shard. Boki hit a three,and a long two. Ming LOVES this guy. I noticed before toss up Ming constantly talked to Boki and even gave him a "wedgy" by pulling Bokis shorts up. Francis had a jordanesque type dunk on a breakaway.He seems to not have loss any vertical since he gained weight from his rookie year. MObley was quiet. Griffin sure does have a weird looking "pass" thing where after he grabs a rebound he "flings" it over his shoulder to a outlet Francis. But it comes very close to being intercepted. I always "cringe" every time I see him do that blind pass. He did it in the game last night and then again today. NUmber 40(dont know name,scrub) sucks . Cato hit a 14 footer fade away and looked smooth doing it. This guy might win our rocket most improve player award. Ming didnt really do much in the scrimmage. Just passed out of double teams. He did hit a layup and was fouled. Jvg made a speech at the end,about liking Houston and wanting wins. Steve then spoke about wins and liking the unis and the new "era".I wanted a picture taking of me and Ming but forgot about it and left. Did anybody get a picture taken with Ming??? Show it here. I want to see if Ming ever smiles in pictures.
haha.. did yall hear a guy repeatedly yell "BOKI!!" haha that was me... i was like the only one who was cheering him on.. he did pretty well too
The starters were Francis, Mobley, Norris, Griffin and Yao. Jackson, Piatkowski and Taylor didn't play, but Taylor was dressed and looks very slimmed down. The second team was Wilks, Boki, Moeneke and two others I cannot remember. There were some security issues, apparently, according to a friend of mine so they didn't let too many people on the floor and were very cautious about everything.
Thanks, Jeff. Cato and Scales, maybe? Doesn't look like Cato jumping center in rockHEAD's photos though.
Post your views on the open practice First, let me say that I think the arena looks very nice, inside and out – this might change if Les goes through with the plan to hang a Toyota Tundra from one of the luxury boxes, but for right now, the place is very stylish. I expected less from the guy who brought us the clown costume uniforms, so my expectations were exceeded in this regard. The food was another pleasant surprise, much better in quality than what’s offered at Minute Maid Park. Those serving the food were very enthusiastic and cheerful, another large step up from Minute Maid. I don’t expect people who are serving fast food for a living to be turning cartwheels, but they should at least be efficient and mindful of their customers. At Minute Maid, the food employees ignore you, stand around doing nothing, and when they do finally acknowledge you, they move slowly and make plenty of mistakes. But the people today were not only quick and attentive, but pleasant as well, and thus exceed expectations. I only hope they can keep it up. Now for the bad part – the seating. I tried several seats in the upper bowl, both at mid-court and behind the basket. It may be true that these seats are slightly closer to the court than those at Compaq, but I swear that they are much higher up as well, to make room for the double row of luxury boxes underneath them. Even from the bottom row of the upper bowl, it seems like the court is far away, like an overhead shot that you might see on television. I would only buy such seats to experience the atmosphere of being at a game live because the view is simple inadequate. Unfortunately, such atmosphere isn’t really there except for big games (like the Lakers) because there’s too few fans upstairs because the prices up there are too high for the view (it becomes a chicken & egg thing at this point). The bottom line is that, except for the aforementioned big games, I have no interest in sitting upstairs. Which means that, unless I can find a deal on EBay, I won’t be going to any games this year (since the big games are already sold out anyway) because the only seats I can afford are overpriced with a terrible nosebleed view. Finally, the actual event today failed to meet expectations. What I expected was about five minutes of dancers, five minutes of Clutch, and a ½ hour of basketball. Instead, we got a ½ hour of cheerleaders and Clutch, then ten minutes of basketball. The scrimmage was well played with lots of effort, but at only ten minutes, it wasn’t worth the buildup it got. I was also disappointed that score wasn’t kept – I’m of the opinion that playing any sport without scoring is a waste of time.
Are the upper level really that bad??? UGH, I bought tickets in that area for two games this year. Frankly, the tickets in the lower area are just too expensive. Oh well.....does anyone know how easy it is to move down?
