Over the last several days, there have been several posts pertaining to Dane "The Blender" Bradshaw which are both critical of his recent stats and praise-ful of his heart and leadership skills. I came across an article that will put to rest ANY criticisms of this young man.
Introduce Seth Davis at cnnsi.com. Mr. Davis (and presumed cohorts) compiled the 2007 "All-Glue Team" that recognizes, in essence, NCAABB MVPs. These MVPs are not necessarily the ones with the most gaudy stats that will be on the "All-American lists", rather the ones who maintain the cohesion of a team (e.g., demonstrate properties of glue) through means other than "putting up numbers". Dane, now a back-to-back nominee of the All-Glue Team, was announced the "Captain" of the 2007 squad!
READ THE FIRST 1 1/3 PAGES!! Mr. Davis throws down some incredible anecdotes from Dane himself, Coach Pearl, teammates, and even an evil nemesis; which only begin to explain what type of young man Dane is and the character and class that he possesses. I won't quote it here (to avoid spoiling it and to force you to read the article), but Coach Pearl may have dropped the quote of the year. Give that man [Pearl] an award! So while no trophies, plaques, medals, ribbons or even an "official list" will be handed out (unless a "www" article is now official), I would like to be the first in the Big Orange-Blogosphere to say:
"Congratulations, Dane! Thank you for representing our team, our university, and all of our fans so well."
And also, before I forget, congrats to the other four members of the team (READ THE ARTICLE to find out who they are), and thank you to Mr. Davis for pumping the positivity in a cynical world that thrives on reporting `bad news'. Just as much `good news' is out there, it's just not being reported. We need more stories like this one.
And if you haven't yet, be sure to READ THE ARTICLE now.