NHL Playoff Spotlight: Devils Face Elimination

The New Jersey Devils are in a familiar position...sort of. In the first round of the NHL Playoffs, the Devils had a three games to none lead over the New York Rangers. In game four, the Devils stomped on the ailing Rangers' collective throats and eliminated them quickly and painlessly.

In round two, once again New Jersey finds themselves in a 3-0 series-only this time they are the ones who's backs are against the wall.

The Carolina Hurricanes have looked sharp throughout the season, first by basically going wire-to-wire as the first-place team in the Southeast Division, and then here in the postseason.

The Hurricanes are playing like every game is game 7: they look hungry and they want...I mean really want it.

Penalties and goaltending are the keys to winning in the NHL Playoffs. In the first round, the Rangers opened the series by giving New Jersey power play after powler play. The Devils took advantage of it, and combined with All-World forward Jaromir Jagr's broken wing, the short of it is that New York never recovered.

Now the Devils are in a similar position, although their scoring stars Brian Gionta and Patrick Elias aren't injured. Another advantage for New Jersey is that they are not relying on scoring from just one player, so they don't have to worry what will happen if one of their stars goes down.

New Jersey is in a different type of series with the Hurricanes. The 'Canes are agressive under Peter Laviolette (remember him, Mike Milbury?), constantly pursuing the puck. They also are getting excellent goaltending, something that has slipped off for the Devils in this round. Carolina also isn't taking stupid penalties.

Carolina also has balanced scoring. Very balanced scoring. They get points from several different players on the ice, which makes them even more dangerous because they can score regardless of which line is playing.

The Devils have their work cut out for them, and we'll see how they respond in game 4 in Carolina tonight.

MLB: Moose Continues to Mow 'em Down

The Yankees have slowly inched their way back to the top of the American League East, and one of the reasons is their sarting pitching, namely Mike Mussina.

Mussina (4-1) is off to one of the finest starts of his career. He has kept his club in every game that he has started so far this season, and he has surrendered no more than three earned runs in any one of his starts. He ranks in the top ten in several different categories, including wins, save percentage, and innigs pitched, and he is in the top three in earned run average and strikeouts.

He has been the true glue of the starting pitchers of this club for several years now, and when he was thrown into the fire of facing the Red Sox' Pedro Martinez in several starts in the span of a few weeks a couple of seasons ago, he was brilliant, winning nearly every one of those starts.

Mussina has always been known for being one of the better fielding pitchers in the league, as his five Gold Gloves from 1996-2003 would indicate, but perhaps now the Moose will be recognized as one of the better all-around pitchers of his era.

Currently, he owns a 4-1 record and has an ERA of just 2.31 after his outstanding performance againtst the Toronto Blue Jays: six innings pitched, one run, seven hits, two walks, and seven strikeouts.

In his only loss of the season he gave up three runs but the Yankees didn't hit for him. And his strikeout-to-walk ratio is always excellent, usually at least three or four to one.

And the way that he's been pitching so far this season, this just may be his best year yet.

NHL Playoff Spotlight: Rangers' Back Against the Wall

The Rangers, who were one of the more dominating teams in the NHL this season, turns out to be one of two teams that has lost the first three games of their series and finds themselves on the brink of elimination.
New York, who slumped its way into the playoffs after losing a season-long grip on first place in the Atlantic Division, continued to play the way they ended the season, uninspired and lifeless.
The Rangers had two major problems going into this year's post season. Let me preface this by saying that you have to throw out game one. Since the Rangers aren't scoring, they thought that they would just come out and bully and beat up the Devils. The problem was they did it illegally, they got caught doing it, and they looked ugly doing it. You're never going to win a game, especially a playoff game, when you give the other team 13 power plays and five PP goals. So forget that one.
Back to the two problems.
First of all, as great a season that he may have had, Henrik Lundqvist is a rooke who had not yet experienced the overdrive and ferocity that is the NHL Playoffs. That can be a very bad thing.
Second, this team is far too top heavy in the scoring department. They don't have the depth that you need to go deep into the playoffs. This team relies heavily on its all-world player, Jaromir Jagr. They aren't getting any scoring out of their other lines. I have been wondering for some time now how New York would fare without its prized posession. We saw what happened, and it wasn't pretty. It still isn't. From the moment I saw him get hurt, it appeared to me to be the type of injury that results in a separated shoulder or a torn rotator cuff. As often happens during the playoffs, all that the Rangers would release on Jagr's injury was that he had an "upper body injury". Yea, big surprise that was to hear.
Jagr has been leading this club all season long, and without him they are in deep trouble and may not live beyond tonight.

NHL Playoff Spotlight: Devils Burn Rangers in Game One

The NHL Playoffs have begun, and the teams are wasting no time battling it out. It's almost like opening day, when the bad teams still don't know how bad they are. Every team starts evenly, and the lower seeded clubs are playing like they are ranked higher than they are.

Just a game or two into most of these series, the underdogs are fighting for their playoff lives right from the first game.

In the Eastern Conference, the series between the Ottawa Senators and Tampa Bay Lightning is locked at 1-1. After winning game one, the Sens couldn't make it two in a row. The significance of that fact is that Ottawa is now 0-for-13 in games where they can take a 2-0 series lead. The defending Cup Champs didn't have a great season, but they're not going down without a fight.

Heads turned when the Carolina Hurricanes, one of the hottest clubs in the league all season, dropped the first game of their series against the Montreal Canadiens. Game two will be Monday night, and I expect that the series will be tied at one apiece when it's over.

The Buffalo Sabres needed to go into a second overtime to continue their season-long dominance over the Broad St. Bullies, the Philadelphia Flyers. It wasn't easy, but Buffalo took a 1-0 lead. Look for Philly to make a series of it.

The final Eastern Conference series is the one that's closer to home to the Metropolitan New York area, and that, of course, is the Rangers-Devils. The Rangers are looking to throw the first game into the garbage pile and start over, as they could not have played a worse game against New Jersey if they tried. It was a game with non-stop penalties, and the Devils would make the Blueshirts pay, scoring four power-play goals on their way to a 6-1 smacking of New York.

In some circles they say that it's easier for a team to get over a blowout than a close loss. The Rangers better hope so, because this one is a bitter pill to swallow.

The worst news for the Rangers after game one wasn't just the lopsided scoreboard, but their injury to their stud scorer, Jaromir Jagr.

The Rangers owe their success this season to basically two players: Jagr and goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. The Rangers go as these two players go. When Jagr was lighting up the scoreboard and Lundy was hot, New York was practically unbeatable. Towards the end of the season when Jagr started to slip, the Rangers went into a funk that appears is not yet over.

Rangers fans should come in off of the ledge, because we have not yet heard the last from this team. Look for New York to rebound and make a run at New Jersey...possibly as soon as game two. But if the Jagr meister is as hurt as he appeared when he left the ice on Saturday, the Rangers could be in big, big trouble and could make yet another early exit from the Chase for Lord Stanley's Cup.

In the West, Edmonton is trying to keep the Red Wings up against the wall as that series is 1-1. The Oilers believe in themselves, something that can be not just overlooked but unappreciated. Give a team a little confidence in the playoffs and it can go a long way. Just look at what Anaheim accomplished a few years back.

The Colorado Avalanche surprised the Dallas Stars as they took the first game of their series in Dallas. The Stars will come back as long as they put more pressure on Colorado than they did the last two periods of game one. This is one of the more evenly matched series, so it's possible that it may go the distance.

The Calgary Flames had to go into OT to beat the Mighty Ducks, but the Ducks came back to tie the series on Sunday night. This is another series that could go seven games.

The Nashville Predators won more home games than any other team in the NHL this season, but San Jose has high-scoring Jonathan Cheechoo and possible MVP Joe Thornton. They were a very impressive team this season, and they should come back and knock Nashville out.

Drop a line, give me your take on how the NHL Playoffs will shape up, and who you think is going to win the Cup.

The State of the City Teams Address, part 2

The Giants and Jets had two different seasons, with the G-Men giving their fans a ray of hope and the Jets fans reaching for the Pepto Bismol before September was over. The question that the fans have to ask themselves is "Is it better to not make the playoffs at all so that nobody's talking about you or is it better to get waxed by a score of 23-0 in a first round home playoff game after winning the division?"
The Giants had a season that would be considered successful by most standards (11-6 incl. playoffs, first place in the NFC East), but they had some disappointing losses as well that had they been wins they would have been set up even better for their first round matchup.
The 16-13 loss to Dallas was embarrassing, was were the two 24-21 losses; first to a Minnesota club that was in disarray all season (even if they did improve in the second half), and then in Seattle, where they should have won the game on several different occasions.
Yet they managed to hold on to beat the Redskins by one game to win the East, even though Washington beat the Giants on Dec. 24 by a score of 35-20 where the boys in blue barely showed up and Eli was awful.
Had they won two of those three games they would have finished with 13 wins, which would have given them the #1 seed in the NFC, and they would have had homefield advantage throughout the playoffs. More than likely they would have opened the playoffs with a home game against the Redskins, and I'm sure that they would have been out to avenge their Christmas Eve loss in their own stadium.
Even if they had accomplished that much and gone out in the next round, the taste that was left in the fans' mouth would not have been quite as bitter.
Chalk it up to a second-year quarterback making his first postseason start.
As for the Jets, it was a season that their fans will want to forget as soon as possible.
With a 4-12 record and winless on the road (and let's not forget that their division incudes trips to the powerhouse Dolphins and Bills), the Jets were about as bad as they could get.
Once again they lost their #1 QB, Chad Pennington, to injury. By the time that it was all said and done, they actually were on the phone with Vinny T. before season's end.
They began the season by getting scalped in Arrowhead, and the team never seemed to fully recover from the loss. The following week they beat the struggling Dolphins at home, only to follow that with a home loss to Jacksonville and an anemic offensive showing as they lost 13-3 in Baltimore.
Herman Edwards regrouped the troops to shock everyone when they beat Tampa Bay at home 14-12, but that would be about the highlight of the season as they would go on to lose seven in a row and nine of their final eleven games, with their other two wins on the year coming when they hosted a physically decimated Raiders' squad on week fourteen and three weeks later when they sent the Buffalo Bills home searching for answers.
Since this horrible season ended, they lost Edwards to the Chiefs, they have questions to answer about the durability of their quarterback, and they seemingly have more holes to fill than a block of Swiss cheese.
About the only positive that the New York Jets can take from the 2005 season is their draft pick. They will pick fourth, and if they're lucky, they'll take advantage of this pick and make the best move for this club.
Report cards for the Giants and Jets: Giants B-, Jets F

Yanks just starting to heat up

The Yankees are still hovering around .500, but they're just heating up. Giambi had two blasts today, one of them being a mammoth shot to the upper deck in center field of the Metrodome. The starters have looked good so far, and overall they have deserved a better fate than they have had. When the bats are going, which is most of the time, you never know who's going to be the star of the day at the plate. One day it's A-Rod, the next it's Posada, another it's Matsui, and today it was Giambi. It's going to be a long season, that's for sure, but before it's all said and done it will be a longer season for opposing pitchers.

The State of the City Teams Address

Welcome to the first annual State of the City Teams Address. And by city teams I mean no other than the teams that play in and around the biggest, best city in the world, New York City.
First I’ll take a look at the teams whose season is coming to an end, then I'll talk about the Giants and the Jets, and then I’ll analyze the teams whose seasons have just begun.
I’m going to make this a four-part series, since one blog entry would be too long to try to analyze the seasons of nine professional sports franchises.
I’ll begin with the two area teams that play on the hardwood, the Nets and the Knicks. These are two clubs that couldn’t be closer together geographically, and further apart in the standings.
For argument’s sake we’ll call the Nets a New York City team. In the NBA, there are only two cities that have two teams: New York and Los Angeles.
In L.A., there are the Lakers and the Clippers. The Clippers have been perennial doormats for the league, but even they are closer to their cross-city rivals than the Knicks are to the Nets.
New Jersey has been an Eastern Conference powerhouse ever since the acquisition of point guard Jason Kidd. Then they got Vince Carter and they became even stronger. They went to the NBA finals a couple of years ago, and are once again a strong playoff team with a chance of representing the East in the finals.
Then there are the Knicks. I ask, is there a team in the league that has less direction than the Knicks? It appears as if the Knicks don’t know which direction they’re headed or what they want to accomplish. Are they going for a youth movement or are they trying to win now?
By the looks of this team, they sure don’t look like they’re trying to win now. At least they don’t show it on the court. This club has been below .500 and has not made the playoffs for what will be the fifth consecutive year. Ironically enough, they’re neighbors across the Hudson River have been above .500 for five seasons now and have made the playoffs in those years.
If you’re trying to rebuild, you need veterans that are willing to teach the young players and aid in their development, not players that are more concerned with their own numbers rather than the wins and losses column.
The team looks lost on the court, Larry Brown looks as though he’s trying to direct traffic during a Chinese fire drill in downtown Hong Kong on New Year’s Day, and Isiah just smiles at the cameras and continues to bring in round pieces to this square puzzle.
The Knicks have a lot of time on their hands for Larry and Isiah to try to get on the same page while they’re on the golf course. Because it sure doesn’t look like they’ve even been in the same library this season.

March Sadness

We're down to the fianl game of another stellar NCAA tournament. This year's action was absolutely fantastic, perhaps the most entertaining in years; and that includes last year's tourney, when we had games like Vermont knocking out defending champion Syracuse in the first round.

There were some unbelievable runs in this tournament, we never would have guessed that we would still have been talking about some of them as late in the dance as we were.

But hats off to the George Masons, the Wichita States, and the LSU's of this year's tournament. These teams all turned heads this season and they made it all so much fun, not just for us, but for themselves as well. And isn't that what it's all about, anyway?

So, although most of us didn't win our pools, our favorite teams were knocked out, and our brackets looked like hell by the time that it was all said and done, it was a heck of a ride.

It may be a bit anticlimactic that the teams that won over America's hearts, George Mason and LSU, didn't make it to the final game, but let's enjoy this championship game anyway. It's been years since UCLA was in the final battle, and Florida has never been a basketball powerhouse. So let's shift gears and embrace this game, so be it for different reasons then we may have wanted to, but for the fun of what it means to the two teams that are there. And congratulations to UCLA and Florida, whoever wins. It will be a tremendous accomplishment for either club. And for the rest of us, there's nothing more that we can say, except for thanks and we'll get 'em next year.

Wasted Moves Out on the Island

It appears that the moves that Mike Milbury made after the new collective bargaining agreement was reached were not just unpopular with Islanders fans, but they also proved to do absolutely nothing to get this team moving in the right direction.
The Islanders have made the playoffs the last few seasons while their high-priced rivals from Broadway have had to watch them from the comfort of a temmates living room as the Rangers haven't made the playoffs since the last decade.
So, although it has been shown that it takes more than a top 5 payroll to win in this league, New York still hasn't gone deep into the playoffs since they knocked out the defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins in '93.
Many people will never forgive him for letting captain Michael Peca leave. One of the best two-way players in the league, Peca didn't just kill penalties, he turned them into offensive possibilities for the Islanders, making penalty killing an exciting part of the game for fans.
The defensive unit was gutted, with blue line standouts Kenny Jonsson and Adrian Aucoin gone.
Watching this team make moves has been like watching a carousel... the names keep changing but they're not going anywhere.
The fans will have to just watch and wait to see if the team can go on a tear in the remaining games of the season to try to jump into that number eight spot. But it won't be easy - not just because the Islanders have been playing up-and-down hockey, but because the other teams that they're fighting with are suddenly on fire. Atlanta was losing 4-1 against the Devils the other night, only to see the Thrashers come back to win the game at 5-4. Toronto has been tough lately as well, and Montreal has been on fire.
Time will tell if Milbury has made the right moves. So far this season it just seems to be business as usual on the Island.

Raiders Drop Ball... Again

As it has happened all too many times in the recent past, the Oakland Raiders have dropped the ball, and again, it's the quarterback position.

At first, the rumor was that the Raiders were going to reunite their all-world wide receiver Randy Moss with his hookup from Minnesota, Daunte Culpepper. I didn't think that this was a bad idea, considering the success that the tandem had when they were together playing in front of the big Hefty Bag.

All of the signs were there. Culpepper was unhappy in Minnesota (and vice-versa), and Kerry Collins had apparently worn out his welcome in Silver and Black. It seemed like a no-brainer.

That idea didn't work out, as Culpepper decided to go east of Minnesota instead of west, and he signed with the Miami Dolphins.

After that, Drew Brees became expendable in San Diego, as the Chargers decided to put the future of the club in the hands of Phillip Rivers. Brees was dragged through the press his first season or two, but then turned things around for himself in '04. Last year was a bit of a down year for the Chargers, but Brees wasn't the one at fault.

The Raiders should have jumped at Brees. He's got a great arm, he's elevated his game dramatically over the past two seasons, he's young, and I'm sure that he would have loved to play against his old team twice a season, as athletes that change teams always try to prove to their former club that they made a mistake by letting them go.

Instead, the Raiders let him pass them by, and they settled for Aaron Brooks from the Saints.

It seems that ever since Jim Plunkett retired, the Raiders have more than struggled at the quartereback position, with the exception of Rich Gannon. Let's just think of a few. There was Jay Schroeder, a big, strong kid with an awesome arm, and he had a minimum amount of success with Washington. He turned out to be a bad quarterback with a great arm. And, speaking of such, that takes us to Jeff George.

This was basically the same story. George could throw the ball a country mile, but he couldn't run an offense. His best years were with Atlanta, but he failed miserably in his other stops, one of which was Oakland.

There was also the head case from USC, Todd Marinovich. He was supposed to be the next southpaw savior of the team. I think that Al Davis was having Kenny Stabler flashbacks when he saw Marinovich. He turned out to be a flaky flash in the pan and didn't stay too long.

And let's not forget Vince Evans. Another grand scheme to salvage the franchise. We saw how well that worked. I rest my case.

Which brings us to Brooks. several years ago Brooks appeared to be an up-and-coming young quarterback who needed a team around him. I've watched him several times over the last four or five years, and from what I saw of him this season, this seems to be a quarterback who's game is going backwards, not forwards. The Saints got some players to fill the supporting roles, including wideout Joe Horn, who would probably be considered as one of the best receivers in the league if he played just about anywhere but New Orleans.

I was able to watch the Saints a few times this season, in addition to seeing clips of their play from week to week. Aaron Brooks made some very questionable decisions this season, and made some plays that left me scratching my head.

You may want to give him a pass because of all of the turmoil that New Orleans had to endure throughout the season due to hurricane Katrina. If that's your argument, I'll give it to you, because no National Football League team should have to tolerate some of the things that the Saints had to during their season.

Brooks was obviously frustrated last year, and that frustration came to a head as he was quoted in the press at one point claiming that he was going to quit if there was one more change made to the Saints' practice and game schedules.

I haven't been impressed with Brooks for a couple of years now. I will keep an open mind. I have been following sports long enough to know that sometimes all that a struggling player needs is a change of scenery (see Eddie Lee Whitman's departure from the Yankees), and I won't hammer Brooks until at least the third week of the season. I just hope that this isn't going to be another Jay Schroeder or Jeff George era.

Hansbrough turning pro?

So now the latest rumor is that University of North Carolina freshman forward Tyler Hansbrough is going to enter this year's upcoming NBA draft. I think that it would be a tremendous mistake for Hansbrough to go through wih this decision and I'll explain why, for several reasons.

First of all, he's just a freshman. Does he really believe that he has learned everything that he possibly could from Roy Williaams? I don't think so. And also, although it may not be any of his concern, but how is any school supposed to build successful programs if their kids don't stay longer than a year or two? Not good for college basketball, not good for the players, not good for the NCAA coaches.

Second, although he had a spectacular freshman season, what Hansbrough and his fellow Tar Heels achieved this season can only serve as building blocks for the next few seasons. Hansbrough can only get better, as can his team, and perhaps with another big man added, he could dominate his game even further than he is now.

Next, he is only 6' 9". He may be able to get away with playing in the paint as a makeshift center in college, but if he thinks that that's gooing to fly in the NBA, he's got another thing coming. 6' 9" guys are a dime a dozen in the Association, and he should use the next three years of eligibility not only for his team and their future success, but also for himself. Tyler Hansbrough can not take his body into the NBA right now with any success. He's built like Rik Smits, who did have a successful pro career, but the difference in the two is that Smits was a legitimate 7 footer, he wasn't six nine. Those three inches can make all the difference in the world when your batttling for rebounds in the pros.

In closing, if I were to talk to Mr. Hansbrough right now, I would say take the time, if not the whole three years, then maybe two, but take the time to let your body mature, get bigger and stronger, and bettter prepare yourself to make an impact for a career as a power forward in the NBA.

Madness Update

Thanks to the play of this year's higher seeds in the NCAA Tournament, we now have tournament pools where people have gone from the NCAA ashes and are now rising from those ashes as the proverbial Phoenix.
Many of us were knocked out of contention on the first round of the regionals, some still had Final Four teams still alive in the Sweet 16, but that was the point where many that were still remaining with high hopes were pushed off of the college basketball ledge.
For me, the first upset that dented my armour was when Ohio State was booted in the second round by Georgetown. That didn't hurt all that bad, because I still had many teams still alive; especially those that I had picked to go deep into the tournament. When it came to the Sweet 16 round, I had a chance to win seven of the eight games. But that was the round that stuck a dagger in my heart. LSU beat Duke, which under normal circumstances I would have been jubilant, being a Tar Heel fan, but I had chosen the Blue Devils to go to the championship game versus UConn, so that one hurt.
Gonzaga was beaten by UCLA, another killer. I couldn't believe my eyes as I watched that game. Gonazaga completely gave the game away to the Bruins. They didn't score a single point from the seven minute mark until there was about two minutes left in the game. They just kept turning the ball over. I was stunned.
On the other side of the bracket, there was the UNC-Tennessee game...oh wait, no there wasn't...they both got tossed out in the round before, so the matchup ended up being George Mason-Wichita State.
Connecticut and Villanova held up their end of the bargain for me, but the Florida game was useless to me since I had them losing that game to Ohio State.
So, moving to the Elite Eight, I could have been in worse shape. I had my eventual winner, UConn, still alive, and so was 'Nova, so I had that upcoming matchup where I wanted it.
On the other side, I had Texas in the Elite Eight, but I had them losing to Duke, so that game was also useless. Memphis was in, but they were supposed to lose that round to Gonzaga, and since the Bulldogs were out, this was another game which had no meaning to me.
So we come down to the Final Four. I have Duke playing Gonzaga and UConn versus Villanova. Then UConn beats Duke 72-69 for the whole bunch of bananas. Pretty good, huh? Well, it sounded good when I made the selections, but like so many of you out there, my sheet ended up looking like most of my high school report cards....LOTS of red ink!
Don't let me be miserable on my own this tournament...misery loves company, so let me know how you did. Were you knocked out early? Do you ACTUALLY still have a team alive (I'll bet SOMEONE out there has either LSU or UCLA)? Have you already been declared the winner? Let me know.
Till next time, good luck to those of you who still have a chance at the ol' office pool, and for those of us who don't...theres' always next year.

March Madness

Once again, it's March, which to college basketball fans, is the most exciting time of the year as the conference tournaments lead to the field of 64 known as "The Big Dance", or the NCAA College Basketball Torunament.
As usual there were some first round surprises that had pool players jumping out of windows. Many of the matchups were closer than they appeared in the rankings. There was not a huge dropoff of talent from the 5th spot down to the 12th. So, to the casual observer, when #10 Alabama took out #7 Marquette, it was a shocker. Marquette may have showed a better record than 'Bama, as they were 20-10 compared to the Crimson Tide's 17-12, but when you compare conferences and schedules, it isn't hard to understand how Alabama overtook Marquette.
However, there were some surprises that turned even the most seasoned analyst's head. Northwestern State, a team that many don't even know where they came from (most of us have heard of Northwestern University in Chicago, but not Northwestern State.) It was a complete surprise when they took out #3 Iowa, a game that eneded up crossed off of many a tournament pool sheet.
There were a couple of more upsets that had players drawing long red lines through their brackets. When #6 Oklahoma was bounced by #11 Wisconsin-Milwaukee, that game had some heads turning. Georgetown raised more than a few eyebrows when they (a 7 seed) ousted #2 Ohio State. I know that Georgetown did a number on my Minneapolis breacket as I had the Buckeyes going to the final four when I had them beaten by Villanova to represent the bracket.
Another shocker was when fourth seeded Kansas was ousted in the very first round by 13th seeded Bradley.
#7 Wichita State threw a wrench into the Washington, D.C. bracket when they upset second seeded Tennesee.
But without a doubt the biggest surprise in this 2006 NCAA Tournament is the #11 George Mason University. A law school in Fairfax, Virginia, Mason has been more competitive in the last few seasons, but no one expected them to pull off the feats that they have so far in the tournament.
First, they (an 11 seed) upset #6 Michigan State in the first round. Their next matchup was against North Carolina, the defending national champs. Nobody (including myself, a HUGE Tar Heel fan) expected Carolina to successfully defend its title, as we all know that 4/5 of that team bolted for the NBA after they won it all last season. But Roy Williams did a tremendous job with a team that everyone wrote off in the preseason as a having a rebuilding year for UNC due to losing too many players. But they finished at 22-7 and earned a third seed in the bracket. George Mason sent the Tar Heels home prematurely as they beat Carolina by five points in round two.
Now Mason goes up against Wichita State, who let's not forget knocked out Seton Hall and then second seeded Tennesee. So now Mason will try to once again knock off a higher seeded team and keep its Cinderella season alive. They beat North Carolina. Wichita State beat Tennesee. Both teams have beaten national powerhouses on their way to this meeting. It should be a great game, and hopefully this matchup, as well as some of the others, will give us the excitement that they first two rounds have.
My picks for the Final Four: Duke beats Gonzaga and UConn wins the other half of the sheet. I had them beating Ohio State, but now that is no longer possible. For the whole ball of wax I have Connecticut outlasting the Dukies, 72-69.
I'm not in an office pool, but I am in the ESPN pool for $10,000. Since my Elite Eight and Final Four teams are still alive (for the most part), I still have a great shot to win it all. Check in with me and let me know how you did in your pool. Who was your big underdog? Which high seed killed your picks? Where did you end up? Let me know.
Enjoy the rest of the tournament and good luck in your pools!

the 13th round

the 13th round

NEW OLYMPIC SPORT
In light of the accident that Dick Cheney had (I have my suspicions about the "accident" part), and the fact that we are in the middle of another Winter Olympics Season, I think that we should have a new Winter Olympic sport that will combine politics and the biathlon: the Politician Shoot! The difference in my sport and the biathlon is that things are a little reversed: instead of skiing to several posts and then stopping to shoot, the shooter stays in one place and the target (insert politician of your choice, hopefully from the present administration) gets to ski around and avoid being shot. Personally, I'd love to see the beady-eyed lil bastard, his VP, and the rest of his Motley Crue of a cabinet dodging bullets as they dance around in snowshoes, dodging bullets left and right. Do I hear Olympic Gold??? There's only one rule.....I'M FIRST!!

Like an onion...the more you peel the more it stinks

Rick Tocchet is now being investigated for financing a gambling ring which, in the beginning, was said to possibly include one or two players. Then, we were told that the Great Wayne Gretzky's wife, Janet Jones, could possibly be implicated as well.
When the news hit, the media ran to Gretzky for a comment. He didn't have much to say, other than he knew nothing about what his wife was doing when it came to gambling. Seems to me a bit of a far cry from the when the cinema heros of yesteryear would protect the leading lady by demanding "Do what you want to me but leave the girl alone." Instead, Wayne was saying "Do what you want to the girl but leave me alone."
Now today we are told that not only did Gretzky know what was going on, but that the authorities have him on tape talking to Tocchet about how he was going to keep his wife out of it. As the old saying goes, "It's like an onion...the more layers you peel, the more it stinks."
And that is exactly what is going on here. Since day one this was a story about an assistant coach and possibly a couple of current NHL'ers. Now it has evolved into the coach, the team's owner, the owner's wife, and the threat of several more current players being thrown into the mix.
The NFL, which has many of the best league policies in professional American sports today, again has this issue nailed directly on the head: If you are found to be gambling on any sporting event, regardless of whether it's your sport or not, you will be banned from the league. No nonsense. No grey area.
That's exactly how this should be handled. The NHL sat out an entire season due to a labor dispute. Perhaps this subject was and has been overlooked for some time because they have had no problems with gambling in the game, well at least not until now.
If there is no policy in the league, one needs to be instituted toot suite. And the other leagues, if they don't have a policy directed towards this issue itself, should sit down with the unions and get an agreement worked out. It's the only way that the leagues as well as the players can show that they will not tolerate this type of behavior.
Ask Paul Hornung about being suspended from the league. If he had not been the adopted son of the greatest coach in any sport, Hornung would tell you that he would have never played pro football again.
I know that if I were a player, and I knew that the guy next to me liked to bet with bookies, I wouldn't feel very comfortable knowing that if he has a bad week of picking games, he may not play as hard as he should because he "owes" certain people a favor who have a vested interest in the outcome of the game we were playing.
If you won't tolerate a blemish on your sport, and you seriously want to do something about it, sit down and draw up a policy. That's the only way that the fans are going to believe that you want to rid the game of the disease.

Not-So-Super Bowl?

So there we had it. After the NFL's Championship Sunday, we had two weeks of buildup to what was supposed to be the best Super Bowl of recent years. First there were the Seattle Seahawks, now of the NFC, making their first Super Bowl appearance in team history. It was not a huge surprise that the Seahawks were there; they were the #1 seed in the NFC with the best record. They had the NFL's Most Valuable Player, scored the most points in the conference, and had a solid defense. Representing the AFC were the Pittsburgh Steeelers. A lot of fuss made about a #6 seed making it to the big dance, but this was not your ordinary #6. This team was on a winning streak since November and they are known for being able to do the two thiings that it takes to win in the NFL: they can run the ball and they can stop the run. There were several storylines that endeared the Steelers to people that did not ordinarily don the black and gold. First, there was Jerome Bettis, a more likeable guy not to be found, retiring as the fifth best rusher in league history AND the Super Bowl being hosted in his hometown. Then there was Bill Cower, the coach that holds the longest current tenure as head coach for his team, who is revered as well as respected by many. Seattle, however, didn't bring that much to the table. There was Shaun Alexander, the league's top runner, and there was Mike Holmgren, taking his second team to the Super Bowl and his third appearance overall as a head coach. Finally the big game came. All the anticipation was over, and the game was on. I thought that the first half was a little tough to stomach, and at the close of the half a lot of fans were praying that the game was going to get better. For the most part, it lacked excitement, there were a lot of stalled drives, mistakes made, and very little scoring. Then the second half began. There was finally some excitement to the game, the idea of scoring was more of a possibility than a dream, and the fans seemed to wake up (maybe that was the Stones' doing). The mistakes, mostly by Seattle, were still there, however. The refs must have decided that Seattle wan't the only bunch in town that could botch the biggest game of the year, so not to be outdone, they jumped in so that they could get America talking about their (lack of) performance around the water coolers on Monday morning. None of the game's big stars were worth talking about. In fact, there was such a lack of a standout performer that when the game was over, I looked at my friend and asked, "So who's the MVP?" He didn't have an answer for me and he's a die-hard Steelers fan. If you look at some of the players that were expected to play a big part, it didn't happen. The Bus had 43 yards on the day. Roethlisberger had the worst QB rating of any winning QB in a Super Bowl: 22. You didn't hear Polamalu's or Joey Porter's names the entire game. Alexander didn't light up the board and Hasselbeck made too many mistakes, not to mention that they were on the losing team. So, as far as I'm concerned, this is not a game that's going to go into the annals and join the likes of Super Bowl III (Jets-Colts), either of the 49ers-Bengals Super Bowls, XXV (Giants-Buffalo), XXXIV (Rams-Titans), or XXXVI (Patriots-Rams). No, this Super Bowl will go down as one of the forgetables, like the first two that the Packers won, the two that Dallas wrecked Buffalo in, or when the 49ers beat Denver 55-10. Super Bowl? No, I would say that SB XL was more of a Snoozer Bowl.