Bob Dunning: If you can’t handle the heat, stay in the locker room

BAN THE PRESS, KILL THE MESSENGER … one line stood out from all the rest in Will Bellamy’s excellent recounting of the UC Davis men’s basketball loss to UC Santa Barbara Saturday night at The Pavilion …

Bellamy, in his Sunday Enterprise Sports front-pager, concluded by noting that Aggie coach Jim Les “opted to deny media access to the players after the game.” … never mind that the press had full access after Thursday night’s dramatic Aggie win over Cal Poly in the same arena … apparently, speaking to the press after a win is no problem at all … hey, maybe it would be best if we just don’t report Aggie losses at all …

No one uses that overworked term “student-athlete” more than the folks at UC Davis, but suddenly, when the team loses, the best and brightest “students” in the state of California are deemed incapable by their head coach of answering a few simple questions about what just transpired on the basketball court … this coach-as-general mentality has no place at a major public institution that openly touts its “Principles of Community” and may even still honor the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution …

This is not the NBA, where coaches do have a right to control all aspects of the operation … people in this town love the Aggies … we want to hear what the players have to say whether they’ve just experienced the joy of victory or the agony of defeat …

QUESTIONING AUTHORITY … commenting on the city’s plan to use the untested Consumption Based Fixed Rate system to calculate our future water bills, my friend John wonders out loud “if they are going to use prior usage in their calculations, why they don’t use a prior 12-month period, say, Nov. 1 through Oct. 31 (assuming Oct. 31 is the latest data they can use for the following Jan. 1 bill), so that an entire annual usage cycle is taken into account.” …

The reason they’re using summer only to base the year-round bill is that summer is when most people use more water than they do in winter … by charging them for that high use year-round, the city is able to raise far more revenue at a seemingly “lower” per-gallon rate, than if they averaged it over 12 months … and if folks look only at the per-gallon rate, they may get fooled into thinking this rate increase won’t be as bad as it actually is … what, you thought this $113 million project wasn’t going to lead to some creative financing on the city’s part? …

Adds John, still arguing for the more reasonable year-round billing cycle, “In this manner, you wouldn’t advantage those folks who happened to use less than average in the summer, but more than average in the winter, and vice versa.” … that makes way too much sense, John … clearly, some folks will have an easier time than others conserving water in the summer and some will have an easier time conserving in the winter …

You can eliminate these built-in inequities by billing everyone based on an entire year’s usage, thus leveling the playing field, but for reasons unknown to me, the city refuses to take this more reasonable approach … by tweaking the per-gallon charge to fit a 12-month cycle instead of a 6-month cycle, the city can still raise the same amount of revenue without discriminating against those who for some reason or other use more water in summer than the rest of us and less water in winter … year-round pricing is clearly the only fair way to go because it treats all ratepayers equally, which is about the best anyone can ask for …

PACKING IT IN … so, the Packers are trailing the seemingly unstoppable 49ers, 38-24, with just 11:37 remaining in the fourth quarter of their do-or-die playoff game … a game, where if they lose, there will be no tomorrow … the Packers have the ball at the Green Bay 49 yard line, facing a fourth-and-five …

Time for quarterback Aaron Rodgers to fasten the old chin strap and make something happen … so, what do the Packers do? … yep, as Vince Lombardi rolls over in his grave, rather than attempt to make a measly five yards and keep their flickering Super Bowl hopes alive, the Packers punt … at that point, even a third-grader knew this game was over …

The Packers, with their full-of-holes Swiss cheese defense had no answer for the 49ers offense … after the punt, San Francisco methodically marched 93 yards down the field to score yet another touchdown, burning nearly 8 minutes off the clock as they did so … when the Packers finally got the ball back, there were only three meaningless minutes left on the clock and a three-touchdown to deficit to make up …

The head coach on the Packers sideline is paid millions of dollars annually to make these backward decisions … he owes someone a refund …

— Reach Bob Dunning at bdunning@davisenterprise.net