Author: Jamey Codding (Page 7 of 7)

At the Final Four with Infiniti and the M Hybrid

March 31, 2011 / Jamey Codding

This is the best time of year for many sports fans. Baseball season is underway (and with it, the promise of spring), the NFL Draft is around the corner, the NBA is gearing up for the postseason and, of course, the excitement of March Madness culminates with the Final Four and the crowning of a new national champion.

We’ll be on hand in Houston for the Final Four, along with our friends at Inifiniti, who debuted ads for their sleek new M Hybrid during tournament telecasts this year. Many consider March Madness the greatest event in sports, and to see two Cinderellas fight for the chance to meet two of the game’s most respected programs in the title game will be memorable, for sure.

Below, we’ve detailed five things we’re most looking forward to as we prepare for this weekend’s games. Check them out, but first, learn more about the all-new 360 hp, 32 mpg Infiniti M Hybrid, the high-performance hybrid.

1. Brad Stevens vs. Shaka Smart
These two are the hottest young names in the college coaching ranks and it will be interesting to see how the chess match plays out. Neither team runs at a blistering pace, but Smart will likely try to push the tempo to take advantage of his team’s depth and athleticism. Butler has struggled against the press, so VCU is likely to use pressure early and often. On the flip side, Stevens always seems to have the Bulldogs executing with precision both offensively and defensively, so look for Butler to get a few easy baskets coming out of timeouts.

2. VCU’s three-point shooting
By any measure, the Rams are on fire from long range in the tournament. After shooting a decent (but not great) 36% on the season, they’ve hit at a 44% clip in the tournament, and it’s been the difference in just about every game. Butler is pretty darn good at guarding the three-point line (32% on the season), so something has to give. If the Rams hit at a 40%+ clip on Saturday, they have a great chance to advance.

3. Matt Howard
This kid stands 6’ 8” and is 230 pounds of bone and muscle, with an emphasis on bone. The Butler forward typically is the least athletic player on the court, but he more than makes up for it with savvy and hustle. Need someone to give up his body to get a loose ball? Howard is your man. Need someone to calmly hit a free throw or a three-pointer in a tight game? Howard is your man. Need someone to awkwardly outplay the other team’s bigs? Yes, Howard is your man. We just wish that he still had his moustache.

4. Kemba Walker vs. the Kentucky defense
UConn has won its first four tournament games because it had the best player on the floor. Walker is averaging 26.8 points in the tournament, which is no surprise considering he’s coming off a five-game, 130-point scoring spree in the Big East Tournament. Conversely, the Wildcats are #20 in the nation in adjusted defensive efficiency. That’s not elite, but it’s better than solid and you better believe that John Calipari will have a gameplan that utilizes his team’s rangy athleticism to try to slow Walker down. If UK holds Walker below his tourney average, they have a great chance to pull out a victory.

5. Jim Calhoun vs. John Calipari
There’s bad blood between these two since Calipari’s days at UMass when he beat out UConn for the services of Marcus Camby. Cahoun never likes to lose, but he especially wants to beat the hotshot, and Calipari still qualifies. It didn’t sit well with the UConn coach when Calipari made it to the Final Four before he did, so it would be sweet revenge to bounce Kentucky out on Saturday.

John Paulsen contributed to this piece. For more of John’s Final Four coverage, head over to The Scores Report.

Cars, On Location, Sports

2011 Final Four Brad Stevens Butler final four Final Four in Houston Final Four with Infiniti high performance hybrid Infiniti Infiniti M Hybrid Jim Calhoun John Calipari Kemba Walker Kentucky M Hybrid March Madness Matt Howard Shaka Smart UConn VCU

Product review: KIKEN custom build laptop shoulder bag from SLAPPA

March 3, 2011 / Jamey Codding

Enter to win your own KIKEN, or other great prizes!

I am a backpack guy. Whether I’m going away for a week or heading out for a quick overnighter, you can bet I’ve got my backpack slung across my back for the trip. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate a good laptop shoulder bag, especially for those daily commutes or day-long work meetings where a hulking backpack would just be overkill. Seeing as how my favorite backpack at the moment – and, incidentally, the best one I’ve ever owned – is SLAPPA’s custom build M.A.S.K. backpack, I didn’t hesitate when offered the opportunity to take the KIKEN shoulder bag (billed as the M.A.S.K. cousin) for a test drive.

Now, we’ve admittedly been big SLAPPA fans here at Bullz-Eye for several years, largely because they’ve always delivered high-quality bags that have clearly been thoroughly researched long before seeing the light of day. The KIKEN is no different on that front. SLAPPA spent nearly 20 months developing this shoulder bag, surveying customers and trade show attendees in an effort to, as they say, “develop the best laptop shoulder bag on the market.” Did they succeed? Well, we won’t pretend to have that answer since we haven’t sampled the KIKEN’s closest competitors, but after spending one weekend with the bag, we can say those 20 months of development were very well spent.

I recently left the wife and kids for a weekend and headed up to Traverse City, MI, for my annual trip with some college friends. Typically, this weekend is built for my M.A.S.K. backpack, but I couldn’t pass up the perfect opportunity to really put the KIKEN through the paces. I loaded it up with everything I’d normally throw into my backpack – laptop, iPod, all the necessary cords and chargers, GPS and mount, some snacks, an extra pair of shoes, some cold weather gear, and a few other odds and ends. With its huge center storage compartment and series of handy pockets, along with the TSA-friendly quick-scan 18” laptop section in the back, the KIKEN took everything I could throw at it. Plus, packing everything up was a breeze since you can open both main compartments wide like a book to get to everything you need. And like most other SLAPPA bags, it’s made with puncture-proof and water-resistant 1680D Ballistix nylon, and every zipper puller, clasp and “D” ring is molded alloy. We’ve come to expect nothing but top quality from SLAPPA gear, and they always deliver.

That’s not to say I dig everything about the KIKEN – I’d prefer clasps on the bag flap instead of a long Velcro strip, and I’d love to have a mesh pocket on one of the corners for a water bottle – but those two quibbles are more than offset by the ability to customize the look of the bag with one of the four interchangeable flaps, which allows you to change the look and functionality of the bag at any time. For my trip, I swapped out the Black Blast flap for the Jedi Mind Trix option, which comes with two large Velcro straps that I used tie down my jacket. Handy, indeed. Granted, you have to buy each of the flaps separately, but it’s a cool option to have nonetheless, particularly for a cavernous bag like this that still doesn’t feel too bulky when it’s strapped onto your shoulder. We can’t definitively say the KIKEN is the best laptop shoulder bag on the market, but we’d be surprised if it had much competition for that title.

Like what you read? Enter to win your own KIKEN!

Gadgets, Gear, Lifestyle, Stuff to Buy, Travel

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Killing Machines: The Cars of “Death Race 2”

January 18, 2011 / Jamey Codding

Death Race 2 cars

“Death Race 2” stars plenty of well-known names, including Luke Goss, Danny Trejo, Ving Rhames and Sean Bean, not to mention some delightful eye candy in the form of Tanit Phoenix and Lauren Cohan. But for some, the real stars of this prequel to the 2008 “Death Race” are the tricked-out cars which are loaded with all sorts of machine guns, rocket launchers and whatever other kind of artillery you can think of. We were invited to the “Death Race 2” set last March in Cape Town, South Africa, and as part of our tour, we got an up-close look at these cars-turned-tanks. Check out some of our favorite photos in the gallery below, and be sure to take a look at our complete recap of the trip, including interviews with many of the names listed above as well as a travelogue with details about our time as an extra in the movie.

Cars, Movies, On Location, Travel

Death Race Death Race 2 Death Race 2 cars Death Race cars Death Race Mustang Luke Goss Luke Goss car Luke Goss Death Race Luke Goss Death Race 2 Rise of Frankenstein

Bullz-Eye Does Dallas: The Red River Rivalry

October 3, 2010 / Jamey Codding

Red River Rivalry

Nothing beats a good old fashioned college football rivalry, and few top Oklahoma vs. Texas. As one of the game’s oldest grudge matches, the Red River Rivalry is steeped in history and bad blood. Every fall, downtown Dallas is overrun with maroon and burnt orange as fans from Norman and Austin descend upon the Cotton Bowl to renew acquaintances in the midst of the annual State Fair of Texas.

This year marked the 105th meeting between the two teams, and Bullz-Eye was fortunate enough to attend the latest edition of the Red River Rivalry, courtesy of the good people from Ram trucks. If you’ve never experienced a true college football rivalry in person, this one should land near the top of your to-do list. The game has taken place at the Cotton Bowl every year since 1932, which would seem to swing home field advantage to the Longhorns when, in fact, Dallas actually serves as middle ground between the two campuses. Sooner fans were just as prevalent on the fairgrounds throughout the weekend as Longhorn fans were, with shouts of “Boomer…SOONERS!” ringing out amidst thousands of “hook ’em horns” gestures in the hours leading up to game time. Each school’s band treated fans to several performances just prior to kickoff, which got everyone worked into a proper pregame lather before we headed for the gate to find our seats.

As always, allegiances were very clearly split at the 50-yard line inside the Cotton Bowl, with a sea of orange dominating one half of the stadium and Sooner red overtaking the other. Oklahoma controlled the game early while holding a 21-7 lead at halftime, and though an otherwise flat Texas team managed to tighten things up late in the fourth quarter, it wasn’t enough to overcome the eighth-ranked Sooners, who rolled to a 28-20 win but still trail UT in the all-time series, 41-59 with five ties. Check out a collection of photos from the pregame festivities below, and come back later this week to read our recap from the entire weekend, including a rundown of all the fair had to offer and a closer look at the latest addition to the Ram family, the impressive Laramie Longhorn.

Red River Rivalry