GU Hoyas

My friend, Kurt, and I went to the Georgetown Hoyas – Harvard game earlier today.  We’ve been going to Hoyas games for a long time — watching many of the all-time greats play at the Capital Centre in Landover, MD … Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Eric “Sleepy” Floyd, Gene Duren, Allen Iverson, Reggie Williams, Reggie Wingate, etc.  This list goes on and on.

It was great to see the Hoyas win the NCAA Championship in the 80′s as well as numerous Big East regular season titles and Big East Tournaments (in the legendary Madison Square Garden).   The program went through a rough stretch, but it’s been an enjoyable few seasons under Coach John Thompson III.  I’m sure his father must be so proud to see his son lead his team back to the NCAA Final Four as well as Big East prominence.

After a tough year last year, this year’s squad looks much more well-balanced – and the team chemistry seems better, too.   They have the outstanding big man, Greg Monroe, manning the center … and a number of terrific players in Chris Wright, Austin Freeman, Jason Clark, etc.

Harvard, coached by Tommy Amaker (we both graduated from WT Woodson in Fairfax), actually played quite well.  The Crimson Tide was tied with the Hoyas late in the first half before the Hoyas went on a big run.   Harvard’s leading scorer is Jeremy Lin — go watch him play if you get the chance — he’s an outstanding player — not just saying that since he’s an Asian brother and has a cool last name. 

I’m looking forward to the Hoyas as they enter Big East play next week.  It should be an interesting and fun season.  The UConn game on Jan 9th should be a great battle.  Go Hoyas!

Snow

The Washington, DC area was blasted with a wonderful snowstorm — nearly two feet of snow in some places.   I know that many of the cities in the Northeast can function ably when snow hits, but certainly not Washington, DC.  Heck, just a couple of inches of snow can paralyze the traffic in the DC area.

It started snowing about 10:00 pm on Friday … after waking up on Saturday morning, the streets were covered with about 6 – 8 inches of snow.  But, then the major portion of the storm hit on Saturday afternoon.  It was simply spectacular.   I think we had about 18 inches of snow in the Rosslyn area.

My townhouse overlooks the Potomac River and is directly across from Georgetown University.  So, the sights were beautiful.   It was so quiet and peaceful.

A few good friends of mine decided to have dinner in Georgetown on Saturday night.   I live about 1 mile from Cafe Milano.  I figured I’d bundle up, throw on my boots and make the walk there (since cars couldn’t get out of the neighborhood).  It was nearly a mistake — Key Bridge was not plowed — so what is normally a 15-minute walk took nearly 40 minutes.  What a work-out!  My Timberlands came through in the clutch.

It was beautiful walking across Key Bridge and up M St in Georgetown.  Nearly 75% of the bars and restaurants were closed.  We had dinner at 9:00 pm at Milano — we were the last diners in there.   We then went to the Four Seasons for after-dinner drinks.   I didn’t want to trek back across Key Bridge since it was so cold and windy outside — I fortunately found 1 taxi.  It’s normally about  $5.50 fare for the ride to my house — the cabbie charged me $20 but I gladly paid the fare since I got home safely.

We’ll see how the snow removal plays out in the next couple of days.  Peace.

This week

This was a terrific week in Washington, DC — a mixture of family, work, education, non-profits and friendships.  And, to top it off, we’re getting hitting with the biggest snowstorm of the past 6 years.   They’re now calling for 18 – 24 inches of snow in the greater DC area.  I just took a walk over to the hotel next to my house for breakfast and to read the paper.  It was so peaceful and quiet — very few cars on the road and I didn’t see anyone else walking around.

Last Sunday, I took two of my mentees Christmas shopping at Leesburg Premium Outlets and then to Toys r Us.   Each year, I normally buy Christmas presents for about 12 – 15 children (the children of good friends and mentees).  Normally, I ask the parent for the Wish List, then I buy the presents online or go to the mall by myself.  But, this year, it was different since I was going shopping with two of my mentees – ages 10 and 14 years old.  Wow, the energy in the car as we were headed to the mall.  Then, the flat-out dash to their favorite stores.  And, the ear-to-ear grin as we went out and picked out presents.  I absolutely loved it … the joy and happiness on the faces of my mentees was priceless.

On Monday morning, I was fortunate enough to be invited to the White House for a holiday tour of the White House (pictures are posted on my Facebook page) and on Tuesday afternoon I went to the White House for a holiday reception.  President Obama received a rousing ovation from the crowded room of guests — his positive remarks were well-received by the audience.   Whoever did the holiday decorations for the White House did a spectacular job.   It was breath-taking … room after room was stunning.

I attended a number of holiday parties this week but the one that topped my list was the Asian-American LEAD party on Monday afternoon.  Why?  Because the performances by our elementary students was off the charts.  Various groups of children sang Christmas songs, some read poems and stories, and one group did a fashion show.

This was a good week for my new business, JLynn Associates — making good traction on a couple of key projects and reviewed my corporate website, which should be ready to launch in early January (designed by the terrific folks from the Pappas Group).  I also was on the Georgetown campus all week for student meetings, independent study presentations and faculty meetings.

I also went Christmas shopping one day this week with my mother and brother.  So, all in all, it’s been a great but exhaustive week.  This snowstorm comes at a good time … can’t really go anywhere so it’ll be a good time to chill, read and relax.  Peace.

Heisman predictions

Tonight’s Heisman Trophy Presentation Ceremony should be interesting … especially with five worthy candidates.  This is just one person’s opinion — here’s my prediction on the outcome for this year:

1) Mark Ingram, Alabama — he will be first Crimson Tide player to win the award.  I actually think Suh deserves the Heisman since he’s the most talented player this year, but voters seem to prefer offensive players, especially QB’s and RB’s — particularly from big-name programs.  His 3-TD performance in last week’s SEC Championship Game will help him garner this award.  The only drawback is he’s only a sophomore and will have more cracks at the Heisman.

2) Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska — he’ll probably be one of the top three picks in the NFL Draft next April.  Of course, it depends on the team’s needs, but he could also go number one in the draft.  He’s simply a dominating and havoc-wreaking defensive tackle.  He’s NFL All-Pro written all over him.  It’d be great to see a DT win the Heisman.  Although I think Ingram will win it, I won’t be surprised if Suh ends up the winner.

3) Colt McCoy, Texas — I think Gerhart should ranked higher, but voters love QB’s, especially ones from high-profile, glamorous programs.  This award was his to win but he came up short last week in the Big 12 Championship Game.  But, he was the front-runner and many of the midwest voters will probably choose him.

4) Toby Gerhart, Standford — a rock star and animal.  Total stud athlete — also a good college baseball player.  But, playing on the west coast will hurt him.  Not enough voters, especially from the east coast, saw him play that much this season.  He’s deserving of the honor.

5) Tim Tebow, Florida — no sympathy for Tim.  He’s already won one Heisman and two national championships.  He’s a class act — on and off the field.  He’ll go down as one of the greatest college football players in history.   But, he didn’t get it done in last week’s SEC Championship Game – and that’ll hurt him with voters.  Again, he’s a class act and I hope he finds a good fit in the NFL.  Quality people like him deserve to be honored and admired.

Internet Innovation Alliance Symposium

Yesterday, the Internet Innovation Alliance hosted the IIA’s Biannual Symposium:  Universal Broadband:  Access for All Americans at the Newseum in Washington, DC.   Co-chaired by Bruce Mehlman and  David Sutphen, the IAA is a coalition of businesses, trade associations and non-profit groups.  The focus of IIA is to promote broadband availability to all Americans, particularly those in under-served communities.

The symposium started with a terrific opening presentation by the outstanding pollster, Cornell Belcher (he gained much fame as the pollster for the Obama presidential campaign last year).  His presentation clearly showed the need for the adoption of broadband, particularly in the under-served African-American and Hispanic communities.

I was then fortunate to be a part of the first panel, which was hosted by Jeff Johnson – Managing Editor, The Truth with Jeff Johnson.  The other panelists were Denmark West – President, BET Digital, Maria Teresa Kumar – Founder, Voto Latino, and Derek Douglas – White House Director of Urban Affairs.  It was a quite an honor to share the panel with such esteemed experts.

Our panel session was focused on the benefits of online content for minority communities and addressing the wireless internet as a bridge over the digital divide.  My area of expertise is Sports — earlier this decade, AOL invested heavily in strategic partnerships with all of the professional sports leagues as consumers started to make the switch from dial-up, narrowband connections to broadband and wireless connections.

The video of yesterday’s symposium can be viewed as http://www.internetinnovation.org.

A good night in DC

I went to a couple of neat events in DC last night.  The first one was a Congressional French Caucus reception at the stunning home of the Ambassador of France.  Wow, what a spectacular and beautiful home.   The event was hosted by Dior — they put on a fantastic fashion show.

This is one of the unique things of living in the Washington, DC area — the many beautiful embassies and the homes of the ambassadors.   I’ve been fortunate enough to attend events at the home of the Japanese and French Ambassador in the past month — each are distinct and pay homage to the home country.

I then attended the Brunswick DC Group’s holiday party, which was held at L2 in Georgetown.  Despite the dreary wintry weather, there was a great turn-out.  There was an eclectic and interesting gathering of clients, friends and supporters of the Brunswick Group — which is a superb strategic communications firm.

Last night was the first of many holiday parties to attend in the coming two weeks.   Cheers.

Georgetown

I’m enjoying my role as the “Visiting Professor of Sports Industry Management” for the Georgetown University School of Continuing Education’s Sports Industry Management program.  This position includes advising students and faculty, teaching, serving as an ambassador for the program and working on strategic planning with the Associate Dean of the program, Matt Winkler.

This position is very gratifying … I mentored / worked with many of the younger employees at AOL over the past 14 years … so it’s a natural fit to consult and work with the graduate students – who are in the same age range.  It’s great to see when the “light bulb” comes on.

I’ve written many times about our program — I’m proud to see the growth of the program — we have an outstanding group of sports execs that are part of our faculty — and I continue to be impressed with our students.  I look forward to seeing this program grow over the coming years.

To learn more about the program, please go to http://scs.georgetown.edu/departments/14/master-of-professional-studies-in-sports-industry-management.

BTW, I am still teaching in the GU McDonough School of Business.  I’ll start my fifth year of teaching Sports Marketing Strategy next month.  It is a good and interesting mix of teaching /advising both graduate and undergraduate students.

Catching up

After posting about 165 blogs over the past year, I took off a couple of weeks, but I’ll get back to posting a few blogs per week.  Here’s some highlights / fun things over the past few weeks –

Sat, Nov 21 — took two of my mentees, Sally and Da-Zhi to the movie, “The Blind Side.”  All three of us loved the meeting.  I thought it told a great story … I’m sure many of you have seen it so no need to re-hash the story.  Sandra Bullock definitely delivered an Academy Award winning type of performance.

Week of Nov 23 — definitely the highlight was going with my mother and brother to Tucson, Arizona for Thanksgiving and a Lynn family reunion.  My cousins hold a reunion every two years — this year, Cousin Kathy, hosted at her wonderful home in Tucson.  We had about 40 Lynns there for the holiday and reunion.  It was absolutely terrific.  My cousins are wonderful people — and they were so supportive after the passing of my father in 2008.

For my brother and I, it’s been a good year for reunions — we had a reunion with the Japanese side of our family in Tokyo in June; and now, we just had a reunion with our American relatives.

Week of Nov 30 — lots of time was spent with some of the non-profit organizations that I serve as a member of the board of directors or advisory council.  I met this week with Asian-American LEAD, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship and Asian Pacific Islander American Scholar Fund.

Some of my friends / advisers have suggested that I scale back the time commitments to the non-profits while I continue to work on setting up my new business.  But, to me personally, it’s far too important to do what I / we can to help others — especially the youth from low-income families that can use our help and advice.   So, I will continue to plow forward with my philanthropic efforts.