If you read any tech news, you’ve probably heard by now the rumors Google has been working on a true challenger to Facebook. This isn’t supposed to be like their “Twitter killer” that was Google Buzz. Apparently this time they mean business. I began thinking about what, at this point, Google could do to really challenge the juggernaut that is Facebook when I had a realization that the answer might have been lying in front of us the whole time.

Google Buzz

I think the location based Buzz interface on the iPhone is excellent.

Buzz was good in concept. They had 170 million users right out of the gates, due to Gmail’s popularity. They offered the ability to import content from other services already in use, like Twitter, Picasa and Google Reader. What Google didn’t take fully into consideration was the fact that a large majority of people prefer a separation of work and play. In the case of Buzz, not everyone you send emails with is someone you want to share your life stream with. They ran into some rather major privacy concerns immediately after launch. Those problems have been well documented and Google responded quickly with some changes as well as videos and blog posts explaining how the settings worked.

I personally never used Buzz much. I gave it a try for a little while. I was a big fan of the location based portion of the mobile site, but other than that, I didn’t see much value in it. The Twitter import wasn’t real-time, but rather done all at once at the end of the day, making it nearly useless. Not enough of my friends ever got active on it to actually make it a competitor to Facebook for me. I never disabled it, but I after a few weeks, I quit making Buzz status updates and I removed my Twitter import from the service. All that is left is Google Reader, Picasa and Youtube automatic imports.

Google Wave

Wave was another Google project that in theory seemed like the future of web communication. The real time nature of it was/is impressive. It’s almost like a hybrid between email and instant messaging. When it was announced I couldn’t wait to get an invite to the beta. Once I got in, I was rather disappointed. The basics were easy, but any kind of advanced use quickly got confusing. Even worse was the fact that it was useless without people to try it with. They finally opened it up to the general public, but people have been slow to adopt it. I still think Wave has its place, perhaps as a collaborative tool for work, but it just isn’t ready yet.

Google Me

The rumors surrounding Google’s latest foray into the social web have continued to build over the last several months. From Digg founder Kevin Rose tweeting that it was definitely in the works and it would be called “Google Me” (Tweet has since been removed) to former Facebook CTO Adam D’Angelo stating that from what he had heard, “This is not a rumor. This is a real project.”

So the question is, what could they do to really challenge Facebook? They would need some kind of killer feature that would cause people to consider the new Google service. The truth is, Google already has a better service than Facebook in several areas already.

• YouTube > Facebook Video
• Picasa > Facebook Photos
• Google Reader > Facebook Shared Links
• Blogger > Facebook Notes
• Google Chat > Facebook Chat
• Gmail > Facebook Messages

What they don’t have is a good way to tie it all together. Buzz was supposed to accomplish that, but I think the fact that each service technically existed on a separate site kept it from being widely adopted. At Facebook the ability to post anything from the single box with the appearance of it being all under one roof makes it easy and intuitive for the average user. The problem with Google bringing all of that together is that they lose their individual brands. The challenge for Google is to find a way to import that data and functionality of all of those services, but allow them to stay separate as well, for people who don’t want to integrate everything. If they can do that, and that is a big “if”, then they might have a true Facebook challenger.

If they want to beat Facebook, however, they need a secret weapon. In this case, I think that weapon lies in Google Wave. The real-time aspects of Google Wave are truly impressive. You can actually see the words going appearing, as users type them. Even in most instant messaging protocols, you can only tell that someone is typing, not what they are typing. Imagine integrating that technology into wall posts and comments. It would be a feature not replicated anywhere else on the web. I think that is the trump card that must be played if Google wants to create a serious contender.

If Google can find a way to combine the impressive real-time features from Google Wave with the other advanced services they already offer, and bring it all under a single roof, then it might just be a social network that could prove to be a true challenger to the Facebook Goliath.

So let me get this straight…Dino Gaudio takes over a struggling Wake Forest basketball program (32-33 over the two years prior) because of the untimely death of the well-liked Skip Prosser. He responds by going 61-31 over his 3 years and leads Wake Forest to their first #1 ranking ever. How do they reward him?

Well, by firing him of course! Athletic Director Ron Wellman’s reasoning?

“A pattern of late-season fades.”

You’re FIRING me!?

Excuse me? A pattern of late-season fades? Wake has only been to the Elite 8 one time since the tourny went to 64 teams. Their only Final Four was in 1962, way back when Billy Packer was in school. Ron Wellman has been the AD at Wake Forest for 18 years, so I’m pretty sure he’s aware of their long history of coming up short in the postseason. It took 12 years to fire Dave Odom. Even including 4 years of Tim Duncan he could only make the Sweet 16 three times and the Elite 8 once. Skip Prosser had 6 years with only one Sweet 16 appearance before his tragic death, and he didn’t get that until his 4th season. The Demon Deacons are perennial underachievers in March. That’s just what Wake Forest does. Everyone knows it…except Ron Wellman, apparently.

As soon as I heard of Gaudio’s firing, the first thing that came to mind was, “They want Brad Stevens.” NCAA basketball’s hottest young thing. He’s young, well spoken, and he just took Butler…yeah BUTLER…to the NCAA championship game. Plus he just looks like a Wake Forest guy. (Don’t ask me what that means because I’m not sure…he just does).

Then Stevens went and signed a 12 year extension at Butler. Probably a smart decision. In today’s game, unless you’re in the Hall of Fame, coaches at any major D-1 school are perpetually on the hot seat. If Brad Stevens goes to Wake Forest (or any other major D-1 school), his expectations immediately go through the roof. He saw what they did to Dino after the success he had. Why would he want the same thing to happen to him? After his impressive run this season, leading his team to an NCAA Runner-up finish, he’s now a legend at Butler. He’ll be treated like royalty there for the remainder of his time. I’d stay too!

So what does Wake do? Well, they hire Jeff Bzdelik, of course.

Wait…who?

Jeff Bzdelik has already perfected the “disappointed in his team” look through years of practice.

I had forgotten about him too, so I had to look up the details. His stellar coaching history includes a 73-119 record in two seasons as head coach of the Denver Nuggets and a 36-58 record in 3 seasons at Colorado. His only success? A two year stint at Air Force in the middle, where he went 50–16 in the abysmal Mountain West Conference. He did lead them to the NIT Final Four in his 2nd season, so I guess that was an accomplishment.

So why would they hire Bzdelik? The only thing I can think of is that in his second season at Air Force, they beat Wake Forest 94-58. Wake Forest was bad that year, finishing 11th in the ACC with a 15-16 record, but perhaps the clinic Bzdelik’s team put on in Colorado Springs stuck in Wellman’s head.

This turn of events makes no sense to me. They can say it was because of poor post season play (1-5 under Gaudio), but this was as good of a case as any of a guy who didn’t get a fair shake.

Skip Prosser would be very disappointed.

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Update (4/14/2010):  I’m not the only one who thinks this hire is bizarre! Check out this searing article from The Gazette in Colorado Springs. And here’s another article from The Gazette about his sudden departure from Air Force three years ago. It sounds like a he pulled a Mack Brown!

A few thoughts have been driving me nuts about college hoops lately.

ACC vs Big East

I don’t want to hear anyone else going on and on about how the Big East is far and away the best conference. I’m looking at you Dick Vitale and ESPN. Let’s look at the facts. The ACC is 10-6 against the Big East this year, 40-33 against the Big East over the last five years, and 84-60 against the Big East over the last ten years.

Even if you don’t want to compare head to head, let’s check the current RPI standings to continue a purely statistical analysis. The ACC has 5 teams in the top 20 and 11/12 teams in the top 100. The Big East has 5 teams in the top 20 and 11/16 teams in the top 100. Looks pretty even to me…except for the fact that the Big East has 16 teams.

I think the two are comparable in strength, but when considering the fact that the Big East is 25% larger, I have to give a slight edge to the ACC. Heck, even Joe Lunardi is picking the ACC to get 8 NCAA tournament bids versus only 7 for the Big East.

ESPN + dook = bff 4eva

Yes, it's photoshopped. Don't sue me.

I know UNC is always a media darling, but at least we’re backing it up with talent this year. Dook on the other hand is underwhelming to the point where those geniuses in the media are grasping desperately for something good to write about.

At the beginning of the season, it was Andy Katz claiming that Brian Zoubek is “now a serviceable big man” despite the fact that he fouled out of their first game in 7 minutes and couldn’t even pull down more than 1 rebound in 3 of the first 5 games. Now you have Bobby Night and Mark Schlabach carrying on and on that moving Elliot Williams into the starting lineup has revitalized the team and they are now a final four and national championship contender.

• Nevermind that rumors were abound that he was threatening to transfer because he hadn’t played a single minute in the past two games (both losses).
• Nevermind that with this new lineup they struggled to beat a bad (13-15) St. John’s team.
• Nevermind that it took Gerald Henderson (35pts) and Jon Scheyer (30 pts, 5/10 3pt) having career nights in order to beat a sliding Wake Forest (4-4 over their last 8 games) on what is supposedly the toughest home court in America.

Now I’m happy for Elliot Williams. I really am. I know it must be frustrating to think you’re college selection might have delivered a near-mortal wound to your basketball career like several other recent highly touted dook recruits. But to instantly claim after watching the last two games that putting him the starting lineup (something which I think should have been done long ago anyway) has somehow changed this team into a championship contender really is a stretch.

This isn’t Nam, there are rules

The excessive physical play has got to stop. That’s at least 3 concussions in 3 weeks. (Tyler Hansbrough, Blake Griffin and Nolan Smith) Hansbrough and Griffin get absolutely brutalized in the post game in, game out and the calls seem to be disappearing faster than Greg Paulus’ minutes. At the same time they’re calling more non-existent touch fouls on the perimeter. What worries me is that it is going to take a horrific, career-ending injury to a star player before something is done.

Figures that as soon as I make fun of Michael Waltrip and the Aaron’s Dream Machine, it’s involved in a crash. Check out this video of Michael McDonald wrecking the Dream Machine on Friday in qualifying at Texas. He walks away fine. This is either good proof that the safer barrier and the Car of Tomorrow really work or else he’s taken on some of Michael Waltrip’s superhuman abilities.

I’ve come to the realization that Michael Waltrip is the most enigmatic driver in all of NASCAR. I was considering starting him in my fantasy NASCAR league this week, but at the last second, I decided to do some research. It’s a good thing I did too. Waltrip’s name recognition lures many unsuspecting fans into the idea that he is one of the better drivers, but when you actually look at the results, that isn’t even remotely the case.

People first knew his name because of his brother Darrel’s success, but the notion of him being a good driver stems from the fact that he has won two Daytona 500′s. That is an unbelievable feat. It took Dale Earnhardt 20 years to win that race, even though Daytona was arguably his best track and he dominated the competition in many other races there. Those two wins at NASCAR’s biggest race are what had me leaning towards inserting him into my starting lineup, but then I looked at his career stats and saw the truth.

He has only won 4 times in 762 career starts. He has won .5% of his races. That is half of one percent. What makes that number even worse is that all four of those wins came on restrictor plate tracks (3 Daytona, 1 Talladega) while he was driving for DEI…the team best known for building top cars for those tracks. Looking over the rest of his Winston Nextel Sprint Cup career, he only finished in the top 10 about 1 out of every 7 starts and his average finish was 21st. One of my favorite phrases, “mediocre at best,” cannot even be applied here. There is no way to spin those numbers. Michael Waltrip is just not that good…and because of that his name will never show up on my roster.

While he may not be a good driver, it isn’t all bad news for Michael. I think we can all agree that he is far and away the best at completely demolishing a car and walking away fine. Here’s a few clips to prove it:

He may have won 2 Daytona 500′s, but not all his races ended so well. Check out this clip, which I think is one of the most spectacular wrecks of all time.

This is a video of Waltrip’s car exploding into a million pieces. It’s also got an almost-crying Darrel Waltrip being interviewed after the crash. Be sure to watch till the end to see Michael just jump right up and run past the ambulance.

This is my personal favorite. Somehow he manages to crush the water barrels at the entrance to pit road while moving backwards. Wrecking like this has to be an art.

There’s plenty more where those came from…just search “Michael Waltrip wreck” on Youtube. There’s almost more of those than remixes of the Star Wars Kid video.