Terry Foster's Blog

Pistons should trade Prince for big man

My instincts tell me Pistons forward Tayshaun Prince is on the trading block. I have no inside information or anything like that, but the Pistons should look into trading him.

They need a big man desperately and their lack of talent and girth will show as the season progresses. Prince is the man who might be able to fetch that. The Pistons got away with their lack of size during an 85-80 victory Tuesday night against the Orlando Magic at The Palace.

Dwight Howard got into early foul trouble and wasn't even around when the game was decided. He finished with eight points and six rebounds before fouling out. The Pistons ran four guys at him for most of the night, but I believe it was more of a case that Howard played poorly rather than the Piston bigs contained him.

Prince might be able to fetch a decent big if the Pistons can swing a three-way trade.

Wouldn't Los Angeles Clippers center Chris Kamen look good in a Pistons uniform? Go Chips!

The Pistons said Prince is injured with a lower back strain and will miss at least three games. That sent a red flag up in my mind. During my dealings in the NBA, guys disappear when they are being talked about in a trade. I do not know if that is the case with Prince, but it got me thinking about a possible trade.

Maybe nothing will happen. But President Joe Dumars needs to make some phone calls. The Orlando game was a nice case of fool's gold. The Pistons need help up front and Prince is the guy who can fetch it.

Why not Rip Hamilton? I actually like it when Hamilton plays with Ben Gordon. Those guys give teams fits. Why not see if it can work a little longer? Prince does not fit the system as well as he did before. He can still play a little bit but he looks more like a spectator than a contributor.

I can be reached at Terry.Foster@detnews.com or 313-222-1494. You can follow me on twitter.com/bigscoop.

Misdirection play by Lions

Let's roll back to Sunday's frustrating 17-10 loss to the St. Louis Rams at Ford Field. The Lions trailed 10-2 with a few seconds left in the first half and the team called a Hail Mary to the end zone, hoping to pick up a lucky touchdown or maybe a pass interference penalty.

Coach Jim Schwartz told quarterback Matthew Stafford to throw the ball out of bounds if nothing was open. The Rams dropped five defensive backs back to protect the end zone. So Stafford threw the ball into the stands, which makes absolutely no sense.

If he can throw it in the stands, why can't he throw it in the end zone to perhaps create a lucky break?

Here is the first lesson about desperation Hail Mary passes: They are never open. You just sort of throw the ball up for grabs and hope for the best. But the Lions did not do that. Schwartz set Stafford up for ridicule and failure, which fans took full advantage of.

We were in the stands and a number of people screamed: "Hey Matthew! I was open." We all laughed because it was funny. In my four decades of attending football games or covering them I have never seen someone throw a Hail Mary into the stands."

I did not know this misguided pass was per instructions from the coach, and nobody in the stands did either.

Some fans screamed at Stafford about the play and Dominic Raiola went off on them. I applaud him for sticking up for his quarterback. But this was not the time or place.

Most people are not really that down on Stafford. They do not want to run him out of town. They simply wanted to know why he threw the pass into the stands. Now we have an explanation and the guy you should question is Schwartz, not Stafford. Stafford was following instructions.

Bad brew at Michigan

A few weeks ago I attended Michigan's near miss loss at Iowa. Afterwards I wrote a commentary saying that all did not seem right around the Michigan program. Something was wrong.

There seemed to be a lot of bickering and divide surrounding the program. Coaches were bickering. Players seemed confused and key people around the program are not in concert with the job coach Rich Rodriguez was doing. My gut said something and I wrote about it.

Quite naturally a lot of old blue took exception to the column and bombarded my email with unsavory comments, some calling me the biggest yellow journalist since the term was coined decades ago.

I tried to answer most of them but could not.

I wonder how they feel about their program now? The great Michigan divide has turned into the great Michigan slide.

Since that game Michigan has lost to Penn State and Illinois by a combined score of 73-23. And spare me the Delaware State blow out. That does not count.

There is something wrong with the brew in Ann Arbor that goes beyond having a youthful football team. It seems as if opponents have figured out quarterback Tate Forcier and Michigan's defense remains an embarrassment.

Meanwhile you had former quarterback Rick Leach rip former coach Lloyd Carr for sitting with Iowa people in the press box. Carr felt the need to finally give support to Rodriguez during a scripted radio interview.

And I forgot to mention that Rich Rod's sugar daddy Bill Martin is leaving as athletic director.

There will be more chills and spills surrounding Michigan as the Wolverines try to slip into a flea bag bowl somewhere. Like I said, something is wrong with the brew in Ann Arbor. Maybe even the biggest blue supporters can see it now.

I can be reached at Terry.Foster@detnews.com or 313-222-1494. You can follow me at twitter.com/bigscoop.

Black Sunday

If you are a Detroit sports fan you probably feel hung over and depressed today.

Welcome to black Sunday.

Saturday was a brutal day for area sports teams. The Michigan Wolverines were embarrassed for the second week in a row 38-13 to one of the worst teams in the Big Ten. Michigan State took the first quarter off, got jobbed on a touchdown call and lost 42-34 to Minnesota. And a few hundred miles from that debacle the Pistons blew an 11-point lead and were throttled by the Milwaukee Bucks 96-85.

The Red Wings won 3-1 at Calgary but their season so far has been nothing to crow about. They are closer to last place than first.

Football is what drives us this time of year and this has been one of the worst seasons in recent memory. You know you are in trouble when your best chance at salvation is rooting for the sad sack Lions (1-5) who are coming off a bye week to take on the even worst St. Louis Rams (0-7) who come into Ford Field today with a 17-game losing streak.

My son Little B actually wants to go to the game saying it might be the only time he gets to see the Lions win. I am debating that right now. Do I take him to his first NFL game? Or does dad sit back and enjoy meaningful games on television?

But back to Saturday. The Spartans remain mentally week and vulnerable. You know they were still thinking about that stunning loss to Iowa the week before. Minnesota took advantage and jumped them early and MSU could never take command even though it led late. You do not give bad teams a chance and that is exactly what MSU did.

Michigan is just am embarrassment. I have never seen it so bad in Ann Arbor. I suppose coach Rich Rodriguez will turn it around at some point. That is what we keep hearing. But his team is mentally week and are still confused about this system. It appears as if people have game tape on quarterback Tate Forcier and they are able to shut him down.

The bottom line is this has been a brutal season for football and there is no rainbow of hope in sight.

I can be reached at Terry.Foster@detnews.com or 313-222-1494.

Central Michigan gunning for top 25

Today is a big day for Central Michigan football.

Check that. Today is a huge day for CMU football.

Today the Chippewas play at Boston College and if they can win that game the unimaginable will happen. CMU will crack the Top 25 for the first time in school history. How about that?

It would join smaller schools like Boise State, UTEP and Fresno State who have battled the big boys and won. A lot of the credit must go to that huge victory a few weeks ago at Michigan State.

CMU not only won that game but kept on winning in the Mid American Conference. The offense is explosive as usual, but the key has been a defense that has played better than anticipated. .

I will be watching college football today and am hopeful to see highlights of the Central game at BC. And I will have my fingers crossed. If I see CMU in the top 25 poll next week I might have to cut it out of the paper to have as a keepsake.

Go Chips!

Sticking up for Lion fans

Today it is time to stick up for Lion fans.

Sometimes they can be goofy. Sometimes they roll too much in the Lions butter and believe miracles are about to happen. And sometimes they are just too giddy when the smallest positive thing happens at Ford Field.

The other day I was talking to one of my boys who asked "what is wrong with Lion fans? How come they've had black outs in the last 10 games? Are they truly fans?

The answer is yes. Lion fans are doing what anybody else would do. If your NFL franchise quit on you then you are not obligated to attend games. The Lions (1-5) face the St. Louis Rams (0-7) Sunday in what must amount to one of the worst match ups this past decade.

The Rams have lost 17 games in a row and the Lions have dropped 28 of the last 30 games. Why should you feel an obligation to see that?

Lion fans are like anybody else. Show me signs of a pulse and they will show up. Tell me any other franchise that would sell out games if their team lost this many games. Maybe Green Bay fans because there is nothing else there. But do you think you would see sell outs in New York, Philadelphia or St. Louis for a product this bad?

Hardly.

I can be reached at Terry.Foster@detnews.com or 313-222-1494.

Pistons get off to hot start

The Pistons got off to a nice start during their season-opening 96-74 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies at the Fed Ex Forum. They totally controlled the second half with a nice offensive game that the dysfunctional Grizzlies could not match.

I want to temper this entry a bit by reminding you that Memphis is one of the worse teams in the NBA that was missing a couple of key parts. However, you saw what the Pistons want too do. They attacked the basket and applied a lot of pressure on the Grizzlies defense.

It was fun and exciting. The Pistons will score a lot of points this season. And I am willing to bet they will brag a lot about their defense in the coming days. I'm still not buying into them being a great or even a good defensive team just yet.

Memphis missed a number of open jumpers early and became frustrated with its own ineptitude and the Pistons superior offense. The better teams will find more success because the Pistons remain a work in progress defensively.

You saw an active and fresh Ben Wallace. And you will see a bunch of that early in the season. The key is can he hold up during the grind of a long season? My guess is he won't although coach John Kuester will monitor his minutes to try to get him through the season. He will have strong games now and then when he can find fresh legs. But leadership will be Big Ben's strength.

He should be the Pistons best post defender even on sluggish days. He will need more help and Wallace's first order should be trying to teach Charlie Villanueva how to defend the post better who allows his man to post too deep without much confrontation.

I can be reached at Terry.Foster@detnews.com or 313-222-1494.

Football is no fun in Michigan

This is the part of the year I look forward to the most. Now I can't wait for it to go away.

Football is no fun around here. And it is becoming a trend. Michigan, Michigan State and the Lions are not very good. Michigan (5-3) is the only team with a winning record but the Wolverines are just 1-3 in the Big Ten and are out of the title race already. They are coming off a 3-9 season and have won just three conference wins under Rich Rodriguez. The sad thing is the Big Ten is not very good.

Michigan State (4-4) is coming off a brutal last-play loss to Iowa and the best thing about the Lions (1-5) is they won't finish 0-16 again. The Lions are part of a group dubbed "The Sad Seven," They are the seven franchises that do not show a pulse.

The good news for the Lions is they play one of the Sad 7, the St. Louis Rams, Sunday at Ford Field and are 3 1/2 point favorites. The Lions should win that game handily. That is how bad the Rams are. But with the way the season is going you just never know.

I remember the days where the Lions used to make the playoffs every other year, we complained about eight-win seasons with Michigan and MSU was begging its way into bad bowls. It might not have been perfect, but I long for those days.

Hey at least we've got Central Michigan, the unofficial state champions of football.

I can be reached at Terry.Foster@detnews.com or 313-222-1494. You can follow me at twitter.com/bigscoop.

Magic throws Isiah under the bus

Magic Johnson should be ashamed of himself because he sold out on his boy Isiah Thomas to sell books.

Johnson attacked the former Piston guard in a book he co-wrote with Larry Bird. Johnson admitted that he had a role in keeping Thomas off the 1992 Olympic Dream Team and that he believed Thomas questioned his sexuality when Johnson was diagnosed with HIV.

I have no doubt that Thomas asked people if Johnson were gay. But the whole league asked that question. That rumor was talked about when Johnson was a rookie in the NBA. I am not saying it is true but people talked about it.

The tragedy here is that Thomas and Johnson were like blood brothers. Johnson had a room for Isiah in his Los Angeles mansion and they did so many things together that you could write another book about a great friendship. That also included former Piston Mark Aguirre. They were the Three Amigos.

Johnson also sold out on Michael Jordan. He allowed Jordan to take full blame for keeping Thomas off the team by remaining silent. Thomas deserved to be on that team and I believe Johnson wanted him off for reasons other than he believed Thomas was a jerk. Magic wants the ball in his hands and Thomas was a great point guard that would demand it.

Instead, Utah's John Stockton got the spot.

Thomas did burn bridges because of his competitive nature. He wanted NBA titles and he took some of the glory away from Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. He never could never get rid of the south side of Chicago that festered inside. But Johnson and Bird and Jordan had personal issues also. They also were not angels.

I can be reached at Terry.Foster@detnews.com or 313-222-1494. Follow me at twitter.com/bigscoop.

Category: My health

Five meals a day

There are many parts of dieting that can be a struggle. The part I struggle with is that my doctor and personal trainer (we will get into that later) wants me to eat more meals during the day.

The goal is to eat five smaller meals a day to keep metabolism going so my body is burning more energy. I am a creature of habit. I am used to eating three bigger meals and calling it a day. I am not a big snack guy but I am trying to abide by the five meal rule.

My breakfast usually consists of oatmeal and a natural sweetener called Agava. The reason it is good is because it does not cause blood sugar spikes. Also I might have half a bagel and a scrambled egg on top.

My lunch is soup and salad. And dinner I have chicken breasts or fish and salad and vegetables. I sometimes treat myself with a roll and butter. But I have cut down on bread.

Now what do I snack on? I am still discovering things and I sure could use some help on this. (See, I do not have this totally figured out. )

But here are some of the things I love to eat to fill out my five meals. Grapes and berries. Sliced green or red pepper with a low-fat dressing or crab dip. Dip and crackers.

The key is to find something that is fattening that you like. They want me eating every three hours during the day. I struggle with that because of my work schedule. But if you have any ideas please share with the group.

I can be reached at Terry.Foster@detnews.com or 313-222-1494. You can follow me at twitter.com/bigscoop.