Live Blog: Purdue @ Illinois

I will be in Champaign on Sunday, Feb. 8 at Noon CT to live blog the Purdue-Illinois game. You can follow along on the live blog page.

Live blog from Miami

I'll be live blogging the BCS title game tonight at http://www.collegebcs.com/bcstitle.html


You can also read about my time there on that page.

BCS Title Game Coverage

I'm in Miami covering the BCS title game. You can follow along at http://www.collegebcs.com/bcstitle.html

Move live blogging - Wooden Tradition

Blogging from the Duke-Purdue game was so much fun, that I'm taking the Ernie Banks attitude and playing two. Or blogging two, as it were.

I'll be at the Wooden Tradition on Saturday, December 20th blogging the double header that starts at 3 PM CT. The first game is Davidson and Purdue, followed by Southern Illinois and St. Mary's.

Click here for the live blog page.

What'd I do?

Texas fans have been taking my name in vain all week, but they aren't alone. Apparently, people are lining up all over to take shots at me.

I received a surprising phone call from a friend this morning to tell me that the folks on the ESPN Sports Reporters show took aim during some BCS discussion.

It was a typical BCS discussion, whining about the ratings, especially the computers, the lack of a playoff, and the system in general. Very low-level stuff. High on outrage, low on ideas.

At some point, Mike Lupica of the NY Daily News says, "How many of these computer geeks, who have so much power in this sport, are gonna let the numbers fall, and the season hangs in the balance for Texas and Oklahoma, it's not right."

John Saunders, the moderator of the group, then says, "Computers are only 1/3 of the equation...But what a lot of people have a beef with is the Harris Poll, where a gentleman by the name of Jerry Palm is on the list."

Lupica interjects, "who sits in his basement in (simultaneously with Bob Ryan) Indiana!"

I've never met Saunders or Lupica. I'm surprised they have even heard of me, let alone know where I live. Perhaps they are confusing me with Jeff Sagarin, who also lives in Indiana. I don't know what I did to float to the top of their minds, and especially to inspire such disdain.

To be clear, I am not a voter in the Harris poll. If nominated, I would not run. If elected, I would not serve.

And one more thing: I sit in my attic, not my basement.

Live Blog from Duke @ Purdue

I will be live blogging from the Duke-Purdue ACC-Big Ten Challenge game at Mackey Arena on Tuesday night, December 2nd. The game starts at 8:00 PM CT, but I'll be on a little before then.

Click here for the blog page. You can go there before the game and set an e-mail reminder for yourself if you like.

The blogging program I use allows for things like reader input and polls, so we'll try to have fun with it. If it goes well, I may do some more games later in the season.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Jay

Acerbic columnist Jay Mariotti abruptly quit the Chicago Sun Times on Monday after returning from Beijing. Just last summer, he signed a big contract extension to stay at the Sun Times, but after covering the Olympics, he decided newspapers are dinosaurs and to try to find his way on the web.

You can tell from this piece in today's S-T that he's missed by almost no one. I haven't read him for years, for many of the reasons detailed in the piece, so I don't miss him either.

Bears pick Orton, ND moves back to Indiana

The Bears finally cut the cord with Rex Grossman and turned the offense over to former Boiler Kyle Orton. After watching the game with Seattle the other day, Rex better stay ready. There's a good chance Orton is going to get creamed.

The offensieve line couldn't block anything and wouldn't recognize a blitz in a police lineup. If that doesn't get fixed, the QB won't matter.

In other Chicago news, the Tribune has finally recognized that Notre Dame is in Indiana. Last week, I wrote about how their list of athletes with "Illinois connections" included someone whose only connection was that she attended ND. It took them a week, but she finally dropped off the list.

The University of Chicago at South Bend

One of my pet peeves about the Chicago Tribune sports section, and Chicago sports media in general, is that they treat the University of Notre Dame like it's the University of Chicago at South Bend. I understand that the school has a large fan base here, but I have always thought that it is a bit silly for the Irish to get better coverage than the University of Illinois. But, they do.

South Bend, by the way, is halfway to Ohio from Chicago. Milwaukee is closer to downtown Chicago than South Bend.

The most recent (and blatant) example of the geographic confusion is in the agate type on the Olympics page. There, you'll find a list of three dozen athletes with Illinois connections. There are people who grew up in Illinois, went to college in Illinois, or play professionally here. They might not even represent the US in the games, like Andres Nocioni of the Bulls, who plays for Argentina, but they all have a connection to the state, except one.

Near the bottom of the list is women's sabre gold medalist Mariel Zagunis. Her "Illinois" connection - she attended Notre Dame.

Billy packs it in

Billy Packer is gone from the airwaves of college basketball. CBS and Packer mutually agreed to end their relationship, and Packer will not broadcast ACC games on Raycom either. Packer says he is working on other college basketball projects.

Presumably, that will not involve learning about the tournament selection process. For a guy who was supposedly intelligent, that was a subject upon which he was woefully ignorant. I suspect that was by choice. I used to dread the part of the selection show where he would get to interview the selection committee chair because he would usually beat the drum for some completely irrelevant cause. My favorite was a couple of years ago when he whined ad nausem about the selection of several non-major at-large teams instead of middle-of-the-road ACC teams because the ACC had a better tournament history. As if that had ever mattered.

I have to say, I never really enjoyed listening to him call games either, mostly because he didn't seem to enjoy it. He seemed to be knowledgeable on the air, but there was no joy in his work.

Fortunately, I didn't watch him much because I have been to the last several Final Fours in person.

You may have noticed that I said he seemed knowledgeable "on the air." Off the air was different, and I say that from personal experience.

I met him when I was working at Michael Jordan's charity golf tournament in Chicago the summer before Glenn Robinson was to start playing for Purdue. I asked him if he thought the addition of Robinson would make Purdue a contender in the Big Ten and he said, and I quote, "I don't know. I never watch Purdue." He was a bit surly about it too.

I was floored. He has a reputation for being unpleasant off-camera, and he did not disappoint in that regard, so that's not why I was surprised. I could not believe a major national basketball analyst like him would admit to knowing nothing about Purdue.

I suppose he could have just been blowing me off, but it's not like I asked him about Prairie View A&M. You know, as annoying as Dick Vitale can be at times, he could tell you something about Prairie View. He has a passion for the college game. I just never got that from Packer - on air or off.

He'll be replaced by Clark Kellogg, who will be an improvement. Kellogg has always been one of my favorite analysts and it will be great to have him back courtside. Not that he was bad in the studio, but he should be doing games.

Two big TV deals

Two big TV deals were announced today.

First, NBC announced an extension of their contract to cover Notre Dame home football games. NDBC will now carry on through the 2015 season. The current deal, which paid the Irish $9M per year, was set to expire in 2010. No word on financial terms of the new deal. Notre Dame games on NBC had their lowest ratings ever last season.

The interesting thing about this deal is that it requires Notre Dame to play seven true home games and one off-site "home" game per year beginning in 2009. So, Notre Dame will play only four true road games per year. That will certainly making getting into a BCS game a lot easier.

Also, the war between the Big Ten and Comcast finally came to an end with a peace accord that will put the Big Ten Network on the cable provider's systems.

Comcast will initially offer the network on its expanded basic package in the Big Ten states. However, in Spring of 2009, Comcast will be free to move it to a more expensive (to the customer) digital package.

Outside the Big Ten states (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin), the provider can offer it up any way it wishes, including as part of a sports package.

Comcast will also be able to offer up some BTN programming through its video-on-demand service.

There were no details on the amount Comcast will charge subscribers as a "Big Ten Tax." Look for that line item on your next bill.

College World Series

The College World Series starts today, and I might get to watch it for a change. I have always been a big fan of this event, but I haven't been able to watch much of it the last few years for various reasons. I started watching when I was in college. At that time, someone I played little league with (Pete Stanicek) was playing for Stanford.

It was kind of funny back then. For a couple of years, our little league team had a future major leaguer (Pete) and the worst hitter in the history of organized baseball (me).

College baseball is a little harder to follow than football and basketball because it doesn't get nearly the TV coverage, but that is improving. I was able to follow the end of a pretty decent season by my Boilermakers on the Big Ten Network, and if you get one of the cable/satellite sports packages, you can see most of the good teams play in the regular season. Also, ESPN covers some of the tournament regionals on its basic channels. That's how I saw Stanford, which is the only CWS team I saw more than a few innings of this season.

Like every sport, the college game is different than the pros in the level of ability (advantage pros), and the spirit with which the game is played (advantage college). Baseball is the only one I'm aware of where there is a significant difference between the colleges and the pros in the equipment used. College baseball uses aluminum bats, which is a huge advantage to the hitters, especially if the ball doesn't hit the sweet spot. Bats don't break and balls travel farther. As a result of that (and the fact that pitching and fielding aren't as good), there's a lot more runs in college baseball.

And, if my friend and CSTV colleague Eric Sorenson is right, it might really be bombs away.

So at the risk of making a complete fool of myself, here are my picks for the CWS.

Bracket 1 (Miami, FSU, Georgia, Stanford)

Florida St over Stanford and Georgia over Miami today.
Miami eliminates Stanford, Georgia beats FSU.
FSU eliminates Miami, then beats Georgia twice to get to the title round.

Bracket 2 (North Carolina, Rice, LSU, Fresno St)

Fresno St over Rice and UNC over LSU tomorrow
LSU eliminates Rice, UNC over Fresno
LSU eliminates Fresno, but loses to UNC to send Tar Heels to the title round.

UNC beats Florida St 2-1 to win championship.

Michigan-App St finally get their due

The second week of the college football season received about as much coverage in the Chicago Tribune as the first week, but it was spread out a little differently. Teddy Greenstein had a report from the Michigan-Oregon game, and the AP story from the Appalachian St-Lenoir-Rhyne game was published. Combined, the two reports took half a page, which means Michigan and App St got about four times as much coverage in the Trib the week after their meeting than they did on the week they played each other.

Chicago Tribune abandons college football

I opened my Sunday Chicago Tribune looking forward to catching up on the college football action around the country and was shocked to see that the Tribune is no longer covering it in any significant way.

You used to be able to read up on the action around the Big Ten and in the top 25. No more.

You used to be able to see news and notes from around the country. No more.

What we got on Sunday was a quarter of a page on the Northwestern game, a quarter of a page on the Illinois game, a quarter of a page on the Northern Illinois game, which was played in Chicago, a page and a half on the game at the University of Chicago at South Bend, better known to most people as Notre Dame, and a page of stats and box scores. That's it.

Oh, and we got three column inches on the Appalachian St-Michigan game. That was a quickie column from Teddy Greenstein, the Trib's excellent college football writer, suggesting it was time for Lloyd Carr to retire. No game story. No quotes. Not even a wrapup from the wire on one of the biggest upsets in recent history in the sport.

That's pretty disappointing, but I suspect it's a sign of the times. With more people going to the internet to get information, papers are getting more provincial. The Trib probably feels no need to cover schools outside the state because those fans are likely getting their info in other places. I do that too, but I'm old school enough that I still open the paper first. Now, I have no reason to rush.

Big Ten Network Review

As a Big Ten guy (Purdue '85), I was excited about the idea of a Big Ten Network. That idea came to life on August 30th when the network hit the air waves.

It began with a football preview edition of Big Ten Tonight hosted by the network's primary on-air talent, Dave Revsine, formerly of ESPN and a Northwestern grad. Revsine was joined by network analysts Gerry DiNardo, a former coach at Indiana, and former Illinois running back Howard Griffith.

The show went off without too many glitches. The worst was a technical problem during the Iowa preview, which got cut short. Revsine does a great job, of course. DiNardo adds good information, but watching him takes a little getting used to. He sits slumped and a little sideways and I find myself leaning in my chair a little when he's on. I think Griffith is new to TV because he's somewhat unpolished, but he does a decent job bringing the player's perspective. One thing he had trouble with was referring to his Illini in the first person, which is something I struggle with myself at times. 40-year habits are hard to break.

The network's biggest glitch occurred around 6 AM the next morning when it went off the air for just over an hour.

Friday night saw the debut of the Big Ten Tailgate Show, where they take a look at the games coming up the next day from the on-campus point of view. It's hosted by Mike Hall. At the open of the show, he went down the schedule of the next day's games and referred to Purdue as "Purdon't." I'm sure he thought that was clever, but Purdue people don't generally think of that as a term of endearment. Then, he threw it out to Wayne Larrivee and Chris Martin for a report from the "University of Indiana." It's not U of I, but Indiana University. So, he managed to offend the fans of 18% of the schools that pay his salary in his first minute on the air. Nice start.

The show also featured two correspondents who each spent time at one of the schools and took in some of the game week atmosphere. One attended Penn St and introduced us to things like the Creamery and the Friday night pep rally. The other was at Michigan and did things like work in the food service line and hang out with the band. They had reports interspersed within the show and sometimes talked with each other and Hall. The individual reports seemed OK, but there wasn't a lot of chemistry among them when they were on together. It could have been due to some technical trouble. It looked like the remote guys had problems hearing at times.

Game day was a big winner for the Big Ten Network because it had one of the biggest upsets in recent years, and it was the main game on the network at the time. Appalachian St stunned Michigan 34-32 in Ann Arbor in a game that may not have been on a TV screen at all if not for the BTN. (Note that all games have some sort of "television" coverage to accommodate replay, but some of those broadcasts are internet-based and not over the air).

For me, it meant that I got to watch the game, but I couldn't see it live. I was covering the Notre Dame-Georgia Tech game (speaking of disastrous home openers) that day, but when I came home, I watched the replay. The crew on that game was Thom Brennaman and Charles Davis, who did a pretty good job. They were as surprised as anyone else, but never disrespected or patronized ASU.

There were a couple of funny lines from that broadcast. During the open, we had the requisite shot of Michigan entering the stadium and Brennaman was talking about how Michigan had dreams of a National Championship. Those would be quashed four hours later. Late in the game, Davis noted that this was only the second game he and Brennaman had worked together, and that the first was the Boise State-Oklahoma Fiesta Bowl. Brennaman then said, "I bet Jim Tressel will be really glad to see us next week." They'll be doing the Akron-Ohio St game.

Also, Big Ten fans got to watch Tressel take on his old school, which certainly wouldn't have been on outside Columbus otherwise. And Indiana fans got full coverage of not only the Hoosiers' game with Indiana St, but all of the remembrances of their late coach, Terry Hoeppner.

There have been a few other minor things, like graphics misidentifying Oregon State as the Ducks (which would not be forgivable if it were the Pac 10 Network) and Michigan tackle Jake Long as a wide receiver. I also notice that sometimes the graphics on my TV are cut off on the left side.

And then there is the whole issue of distribution. DirecTV has it (and that's how I see it). Comcast does not, and it has a big chunk of the cable rights in Big Ten country. Negotiations have been public and acrimonious, so it doesn't look like Comcast or Dish Network, the other major satellite service, will be coming on board anytime soon. I think it will become more pressing as basketball approaches because the network will have more compelling matchups in basketball season than it gets in football.

All in all, the opening weekend was a pretty decent start for the Network. I don't know how many problems brand new networks typically have in their first few days on the air, but the BTN didn't seem to have too many and nothing that isn't fixable. I think the network is going to end up being a great thing for Big Ten fans, especially when they all have access to it.

Was that really necessary?

The day after the unfortunate tragedy of the shootings at Virginia Tech, a package shows up in the mailroom at NBC News containing a video "manifesto" (more like inane ramblings) from the lunatic who shot up the school. Naturally, they did what any news organization would do, which is play it into the ground without any regard for the feelings of those directly affected by the incident.

Soon, every news station was running it with the NBC News logo on it - as if it took some great reporting to get the scoop. That's an interesting image to associate with your brand. I can see the new marketing slogan now. "NBC News - the preferred network of homicidal maniacs." But, I digress.

My papers the next day ran a picture from the video. The Chicago Tribune went the relatively tasteful (meaning still revolting) route by printing a picture of the killer posing with his guns pointed at an angle away from the camera. The NW Indiana Times ran the picture of him with his gun pointed right at the camera. Right on the front page. Good Morning, NW Indiana! I had to throw away both front pages to keep them from my kids. That's not an image they need to see. For that matter, that's not an image I need to see.

I understand that the video is part of the story and it can't be ignored, but it also doesn't have to be rammed down our throats. Technology is such today that NBC News didn't have to run it at all. They could have summarized it and directed viewers to the NBC News website to see the video if they felt so inclined. The papers didn't have to print such provocative pictures from the video. We get the idea without the sensationalism.

Spare us, but more importantly, spare those directly affected.

Let's see ESPN (un)cover this!

I can't imagine watching Poker on television and it bugs me that it takes up space on my sports page (Poker is no more of a sport than chess), but I might be convinced to watch this.

Nashville Star

You would think someone with a seasonal job like mine would be able to write more once the season was over, but it hasn't worked out that way. I'm still catching up with all the stuff I let go during February and March.

During my late night downtime this spring, I did something I would have never imagined myself doing. I watched almost the entire season of Nashville Star, which is the country equivalent of American Idol. It would be an understatement to say that I don't much care for country music. Most of the time, I actively avoid it, but Nicole Jamrose was on the show, so I watched to see how she did. Jamrose, which is a great name for a country singer, is from Dyer and I had a chance to see her perform around here once a few years back, so it was pretty neat to see a local singer get that kind of chance. She did very well too, finishing third. The winner was a kid named Chris Young, who will soon be a superstar. He's unbelievably talented. In fact, the top five or six singers on Nashville Star were a lot better than anyone I saw on American Idol.

It will be interesting to see how her success on the show ends up affecting her career. Does she end up with a record deal and a shot at big-time success, or does she go back to playing the bars of NW Indiana? I suspect it'll be the former, but first, she goes on a tour with the other top four finishers on the show. If you're into that kind of thing, the tour is mostly in the southeast in July. Check your local listings.

Bucky not lucky

On the hour-long American Idol results show, which was at least 30 minutes too long, we learned that the voters kicked off Bucky Covington, who did about the lamest version of Fat Bottom Girls imaginable. I would have booted Ace Young, who turned We Will Rock You into a lullaby, but Bucky was certainly a worthy choice as well. Ace must have a bigger family.

Ace and Bucky reprised their sorry efforts on the show, I guess to remind us why we disliked them so much, although Ace did manage to get the words right this time. They were joined in the "bottom three" by Elliott Yamin, who fought his way through Somebody to Love. He was also forced to sing it again, and seemed surprised to be asked to do so. The others were all deemed "safe" (imagine Ryan Seacrest channeling Dutch Rennert) and didn't have to sing again.

The group of eight opened the show with a medley of Queen hits that they didn't perform the other night. Each singer got to do a bit of a solo. Ace sang Killer Queen, and did a nice job on that. He should have done that one the night before. Elliott also sang a better song for him when he did You're My Best Friend. Bucky was still weak in a duet with Chris Daughtry on Under Pressure and we learned that Katharine's choice to change from Don't Stop Me Now was a really good decision.

During the time-wasting part of the results show, they had video clips from each singer's family wishing them well. Elliott's mom said, "We're praying for you, Elliott. Give 'em hell!" I missed a couple of clips while I pondered the theological significance of that.

I also almost missed the Secret deodorant ad with Danica Patrick, which ends with "Secret - strong enough for Danica Patrick, strong enough for a woman." Have I missed another memo? Is she not a woman?

Next week, the Idol singers take a shot at some old standards that Rod Stewart has sung (man, what a wild change his career has taken), but I won't be there to see it. I return now to my peaceful, non-American Idol existence, already in progress.

Queen Karaoke

I am probably the only American who has never watched a minute of American Idol. That changed tonight. That's because the eight finalists were required to sing songs by my favorite band, Queen.

The good thing for the singers is that Queen's catalog is large and diverse enough that finding an appropriate song that fits each singer's style should be easy. The bad news is that when you sing it, you will be compared to Freddie Mercury.

That's one of the things working against Paul Rodgers during his current tour fronting Queen. I saw them in Chicago a few weeks ago and I thought the concert was great. They only did songs that worked with Paul's style and skipped those that didn't. Roger Taylor (drummer and underrated singer) took over lead singer duties on three songs as well. During those, Rodgers was not on stage. Queen performed Bohemian Rhapsody, the signature "Freddie" song, with a video of Freddie for the first part, the usual video for the opera section, and Rodgers singing the hard rock part at the end. My only disappointment was that they didn't perform two songs that were written after Queen's last US tour in the mid-80s (which I also saw), One Vision and I Want it All.

The American Idol contestants were hit and miss, and so were the judges. It seemed like the judges were unfamiliar with some of the songs. I should have been a guest judge (he says modestly). I'm not a singer, but I know good when I hear it and I know these particular songs well. Also, I had never seen any of these singers previous performances, so I was judging them just on how they did that one song and not whether I liked them going in. Here are my critiques in the order in which they performed:

1. Bucky Covington - Fat Bottomed Girls
Bucky has a very polished voice, but this is a raunchy song, and he sang it like he was in a HS choir. He hit all the notes, but had no idea how it was supposed to sound. Totally the wrong song for him. He should have sung one of the ballads, like Love of my Life or Save Me, which nobody sang.

2. Ace Young - We Will Rock You
If I were to kick one person off for this week's performance, it would be him. He had the same problem Bucky did - his voice was too "perfect" for this us-against-the-world rock anthem and he didn't convey the right feeling at all. Judge Simon Bar Sinister (SBS) was right on when he called it "We Will Rock You Gently". On top of that, he botched the lyrics. He should have sung one of the ballads also, perhaps Who Wants to Live Forever, which someone else butchered later. Primarily though, he should have sang a song that he could remember the words to.

3. Kellie Pickler - Bohemian Rhapsody
Singers only get a minute and a half and BoRhap is about a 6-minute song, so she had to do some serious editing. She had the best "production". Her costume, makeup and lighting harkened back to the video, and she sang it well. She must be a country singer, because I detected a bit of an annoying twang slipping in occasionally, but she did a pretty good job of suppressing that for the most part.

The judges agreed with Brian May, who said she was brave to take on this song. There's some truth to that because it's such a standard and because of how much editing you have to do, but another contestant was even more courageous. I guess someone else did BoRhap last year as well and did a good job on it, but I didn't hear it, of course.

4. Chris Daughtry - Innuendo
Innuendo is a song that Queen has never performed live (and not because it's not a good song, as SBS said, because they never toured after it was written), so it was interesting to hear him do it. He did a nice job, considering that, like BoRhap, it's about six minutes long and had to be severely edited. He is clearly the rock singer in the bunch. He has no stage presence whatsoever, but among the first four, he did the best job singing his chosen song the way it should be sung.

SBS complained that he should have chosen a more popular song, and there's something to that. Stone Cold Crazy would have worked well, or he could have done Tie Your Mother Down.

5. Katharine McPhee - Who Wants to Live Forever
Katharine has a beautiful voice and she wasted it on this song. This is a melancholy and powerful song, and she sang it weak and syrupy sweet. My wife said it was "Mariah Carey does Queen" except Carey would have at least sung it powerfully. McPhee either doesn't have the pipes to do it or chose not to. She was originally going to sing Don't Stop Me Now, and I'm glad she didn't, although this didn't work either. Something like Killer Queen would have been better suited to her.

The judges liked her, by the way, which is an indication that they just didn't know this song or they have the hots for her.

6. Elliott Yamin - Somebody to Love
Roger Taylor said in the intro that this is the toughest song to sing in their entire repertoire and I couldn't agree more. I've always felt that if you think you're a good singer, sing this and we'll see. Yamin took a risk by trying to tackle this and he was in over his head. He did a good job with the desperate feel of the song, but the singing was all over the place. He had the good sense not to try to hit the falsetto at the end, which was clearly out of his range, but he just didn't seem comfortable with the song. I would suggest a week of practice isn't enough to do a proper job on it.

The judges liked him, but I'm not really sure why. Maybe they appreciated the effort.

7. Taylor Hicks - Crazy Little Thing Called Love
He said he chose this song (he had originally picked something else, which now escapes me) because it was something he could move around and dance to. I think I can safely say I've never seen anybody so uncomfortable and unnatural on stage. I didn't know whether to cringe or laugh when he was doing whatever it was he was doing. At least his convulsions didn't affect his singing. He was the best of the night at singing his chosen song. Next time though, I'd just as soon see him sing standing still. Maybe I'll just close my eyes.

8. Paris Bennett - Show Must Go On
After seven more-or-less mediocre performances of my favorite band's songs, I was not looking forward to someone tackling this one, which is one of my personal favorites. However, if anyone "nailed it" tonight, it was Paris. She's a little stiff on stage, but her voice was powerful enough to handle the song and she sang it well. I can see why Brian and Roger liked her.

So, I would have rated them in order: Paris, Kellie, Chris, Taylor, Elliott, Katharine, Bucky and Ace.

What I got out of this show though was just how good Freddie Mercury was. Nobody in this group was anywhere close, and they only had to do one of his songs in a style that hopefully suited them. I also learned that only five seasons into the show, America has run out of super-talented, but undiscovered singers. I would have thought we would have had more than four seasons worth.