Friday, March 31, 2006
Anna Benson Prepares to Sleep with the Entire Orioles Team
It is now being reported in the NY Post that Kris did in fact cheat on Anna. I wonder if she will do like she promised? Could be interesting.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Maybe It's That Time of the Month for Marcos Senna
Maybe there is a real scandal here and Marcos Senna is actually a woman.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
The Fighting Irish and the Catching, Dunking, and Sprinting Duck
Not to be outdone is the Oregon Duck Jordan Kent, who is the son of the Duck basketball coach, Ernie Kent. Jordan is on football scholarship at Oregon, where he is a backup wide receiver entering his sophomore season. He never played football until last season. Kent is also a sub on the basketball team and is a star sprinter on the Oregon track team. It's amazing that Kent is able to do all three sports and start taking graduate courses next year. Kent plans on focusing on the football because of his size and speed. The Portland Tribune did a nice write-up of this three-sport athlete.
Not a Good Place to be Bleeding
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Memo to Bandwagon: This is me jumping on.
Brandon Roy was the Pac-10 player of the year. He led his team with 19.9 points per game (27th in the nation), averaged 5.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and 1.4 steals per game. Beyond his numbers, Roy was also the leader of his team. He played great team defense, distributed the ball well, and made crucial plays. He is one of the most complete players in the NCAA this year and should be one of the best players to come out of this year’s NBA draft.
Roy can slash to the basket and finish well. He also can nail the mid-range jumper and has improved his three-point shooting to 40 percent. He is a very tough on the ball defender and his length can make things very difficult for 1s, 2s, and 3s. Moreover, he can even play some point guard because he handles the ball so well. Obviously, he is a well-rounded baller and will help a team out immediately.
If you had to make comparisons for Roy with current NBA players, you would have to look to some of the best out there like Kobe Bryant because they both are very aggressive defensively and can finish well, although, Roy will not have the same baggage as Kobe. Roy is already a polished player and will be a star in the League.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Return of the Reign Man?
US routed by ze Germans 4-1
The inexperience and lesser talent were apparent quite early. Although the US did not concede a goal in the first half it was it heels for most of that time. There was constant fouling giving the Germans many opportunities on set pieces that are their trademark. Fortunately for the US, the Germans were not that sharp in the first half and wasted several quality opportunities. For the defense, there was little organization in the middle and Conrad and Berhalter were very suspect. One bright spot was the play of Cory Gibbs at the outside back position. He showed speed, ability and played very solidly overall. He could make a good defensive substitute for the USMNT.
In the second half, the defense completely fell apart. Less than a minute in it conceded another free kick near the goal that resulted in the first goal. After that it was mistake after mistake that culminated in the three goals in a six minute span. Miscommunication and poor touches were the culprits in the collapse and the defense did nothing to help its keeper, Casey Keller. Keller was solid in goal although allowing four goals. Most of the goals Germany scored were tough shots from open positions allowed by the defense.
The US midfield and offense played much better than the defense by comparison. Although, there was not much organization from the midfield it still played solidly especially the outside positions. Bobby Convey played very well in starting the attack and doing some attacking himself, as did Pablo Mastroeni. Both looked quick and strong on the ball often beating the Germans. The others in the midfield played without creativity and did little to help the team.
The forwards had their opportunities to score but were stymied by a solid German defense led by German keeper Oliver Kahn who has grown his hair out and is looking like a ‘roided up Nick Nolte. I know I would be scared to take him on. Eddie Johnson had a great opportunity to score in the 66th minute on a header but Kahn made a spectacular one handed save to deny Johnson. After that it seemed the US team was deflated and had less motivation and the Germans began their onslaught. Late in the game Steve Cherundolo got a fluke goal by sending a long pass from the US half to Eddie Johnson. Kahn came out but Johnson and the keeper collided and the ball just trickled into the open goal. Johnson had some good plays and looked like he will be able to hold his own against top-flight competition.
All in all, it was not a very good match but Arena did say he learned a little about the team. For example, he now has a better idea about which players will not be going to Germany. Also, he said he would not play a tune-up with the host nation on its soil right before the World Cup. That is probably a good idea.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Coach-Player Love at University of Washington?
On Saturday Washington beat Illinois 67-64 to reach the Sweet 16. It was a great win by the Huskies but reading on Wayne Drehs' take on the game from ESPN.com made me wonder if there was more to the win than good coaching and good play:
Coach patted me on the butt, looked me in the eyes and told me that he needed me," Jensen said. "Right there, I didn't care about anything else in the world. . . . If I was going to wear out the bottom of my shoe, he wasn't going to get that ball.
So Mike Jensen used his elbows. He used his torso. He used his butt. He stretched his 6-foot, 8-inch frame as far as it would go. ...
I put my whole body in front of him," Jensen said. "I elbowed him. I butt-fronted him. I shoved him. Whatever it took. A couple times he got frustrated -- he'd push me or shove me -- but I just pushed him right back.
Maybe Lorenzo Romar listened to Jay Bilas' suggestion about seeing Brokeback Mountain.
Friday, March 17, 2006
The Friday Late Afternoon Games
- Cal v. NC State: Annoying that neither team has the players’ names on the back of the jerseys. It’s not like we know every player on both of these teams. 29-25 Cal at half. In a very close back and forth game, NC State pulled it out 58-52.
- Pittsburgh v. Kent State: Pitt up 13 at half. Never saw any clips of this game. 79-64.
- Michigan State v. George Mason: GMU up 3 at half. Never saw muchof this game either but GMU with the upset, 75-65.
- UConn v. Albany: At half UConn only up by one. Very sloppy play by UConn with 11 turnovers in first half. Amazingly, Albany is up by 10 with 13 minutes left in the 2nd half. Damn, I wish CBS would show this game, but the Cal-NC State game is a good one too. Well, UConn decided to show up and play with about 10 minutes left to play. What a pathetic performance by the #1 seed. UConn ended up winning 72-59.
Programming Note: President Palmer, I mean Dennis Haysbert, is getting great PR from CBS. The next big show for CBS is “The Unit” starring Haysbert. First he plays the U.S President and now he gets a show on CBS about his Unit. Somebody get me his agent.
Friday's Afternoon Games
- Memphis v. Oral Roberts: Must resist…temptation…cuz…it’s ….too….easy…. Oral Roberts is ahead by three with five left in the first half. Memphis decided it was time to start playing and has hit a bunch of threes. Memphis up by 12 at half and has scored 51 points. ORU made a couple of runs in the second half but Memphis won 94-78.
- West Virginia v. Southern Illinois: West Virginia has scored almost all its points either behind the three-point line or at the free-throw line with 5 minutes in the first half left. Mountaineers up by 12 at half. Bill Raftery sounded like the creepy uncle at the family reunion when he said “Daddy’s home, Daddy’s home” in response to a kind roll on the new daddy Kevin Pittsnogle’s three pointer. Keep your kids away from Raftery. WVU wins in spite of Bill Raftery, 64-46.
- Georgetown v. Northern Iowa: Good close game that they aren’t showing on TV until 10 minutes left in the second half. Just a good game, nothing too dramatic. 54-49
- Hoyas.Villanova v. Monmouth: The game is not TV, but how can the score be 10-6 with less than seven minutes left in the first half? What the hell? We still have a shot clock right? At half the score is a little more respectable, 27-16. That said Villanova scored more points in the last seven minutes than both teams had up to that point. The second half and much more scoring for Monmouth but Villanova still won 58-45.
Friday's Morning Games
Morning Games
- Ohio State v. Davidson: Interesting thing about Davidson is that they only have about 1600 students and the average SAT score is in the mid-1400s. How can you field a successful D1 basketball team at a school like that…amazing! Davidson up by 4 at half. The Buckeyes are starting to look like a dominant team now although Davidson is trying to hang in the game. Ohio State wins, 70-62.
- Iowa v. Northwestern State: After a close first half, Iowa started to pull away a little in the second half with a 8 point lead with 12 minutes remaining. I can’t believe one of Iowa’s best player is a balding 22 year-old. NW State came back to make a game of it in the last 5 minutes. 1 point game in the last minute. Somehow the Iowa player made, in succession, a free throw that crawled over the front of the rim and a toilet bowl free throw that went around 4 times. NW State pulls the upset with an incredible last second three after balding white guy only hits 1 of 2. 64-63. Biggest Upset so far. (that's balding white guy for Iowa only now he has a buzz cut which makes it much more obvious. i really like it when regular looking dudes are good at basketball.)
- Bucknell v. Arkansas: Very good and close game. Back and forth like Tennessee – Winthrop yesterday. Bucknell has had the lead for a while now although its only a small lead. Arkansas has a white guy with long hair and a headband that looks like the later version of Christian Laettner. Unfortunately, he doesn't play like Laettner did in the Tournament. After missing several key free throws, Bucknell still manages to win by 4. 59-55.
- Wisconsin v. Arizona: Zona jumps to an early 11 point lead due to their superior athleticism. Zona up by 20 halfway through the 1st half. I really thought this game might be a bit closer but Zona is up 21 with 15 minutes left in the game. Zona wins, 94-75.
Thursday, March 16, 2006
US ousted from WBC
The Late Afternoon Games
- UCLA – Belmont: The UCLA Bruins laid the smack down on the Belmont Bruins. 78-44.
- LSU – Iona: The Tigers owned Iona, 80-64.
- Gonzaga – Xavier: Gonzaga didn’t look too good in this game, except for the Stache who scored 35. Xavier led for most of the game. But, Adam Morrison took over the game and led the Bulldogs to the win. There seemed to be a lot of touchy fouls called by the refs. 79-75.
- GW – UNCW: Great game! Wilmington had a big lead but started giving the ball away like it was bird-flu infected Seahawk. GW came back and had a chance to take a lead when Wilmington stupidly fouled a three-point shot with 11 seconds remaining. But, GW could only hit two of three. In a last second gasp GW almost won it but couldn’t get a wide open layup off before time expired and the game went to overtime. After jumping to a 4 point lead, Wilmington was unable to hold on and GW won by 3 with clutch late free throws. 88-85.
Programming Notes:
I hate how CBS cuts between games when there is a timeout and then forgets to go back to the other game. Why don't they just do a split screen?
Also, I like how ESPN reverts to its halcyon days of the 80s by showing old boxing clips and tennis matches and then just cuts out of them to show the NCAA highlights. They are just giving up, I like it. I watched some "Mike Tyson's Greatest Hits" on ESPN, which was freaking awesome! When that guy was 19 he scared the shite out of everybody (not that he doesn't anymore, he just does it in a different way). He was knocking out just about everybody in the first round. I even saw one guy pretend to fight Tyson, get hit a few times, go down, get up to one knee and then jump up right after the ten count. He was trying to pretend like he wanted to continue to fight and was upset about the ref counting him out, but everybody knew he just wanted to leave.
The Afternoon Games
Tennessee - Winthrop: This game went down to the last seconds and Bruce Pearl did not sweat through his suit like he did against Florida. Pearl also was kind enough not to wear the orange blazer you can see from space. Neither team had a very big lead at any time. Winthrop gave a valiant effort and almost proved some Tennesse doubters right but, Tennessee pulled it out with an amazing last second shot.
Florida – South Alabama: I can’t say much about this game because CBS never even showed the game except for a brief update. Florida won. Must have been the absence of the sweaty beast that is Bruce Pearl.
Nevada – Montana: Upset City! This was a 12 over a 5. Montana looked good the whole game. Chappy is announcing this game too.
Marquette – Alabama: Alabama looked like it would coast to a victory after the bomb scare in San Diego. But, Marquette has clawed its way back into it with 10 minutes left in the second half. Another game down to the last seconds. This is why we all love the tournament. Despite almost throwing the game away, Alabama hit some late free throws and Marquette's best player, Steve Novak, missed a key shot in last 30 seconds. This makes the Big East 0 for 2 thus far in the tournament with Seton Hall's thrashing at the hands of Wichita State.
Iron Eagles
Great game between Boston College Eagles and Pacific Tigers this morning. It looked like BC was going to win handily halfway through the second half. But, Pacific manned up and sent it to overtime where Craig Smith hit two clutch free throws to send it to double overtime. It was pretty impressive because Smith isn’t a very good free throw shooter and could have easily pulled a Darius Washington. In the second overtime BC finally looked like the team that played Duke closely twice in the end of the season by outscoring Pacific 14-2.
One note about this game. Every time Ian Eagle, one of the announcers, introduced himself I thought he was saying “Iron Eagle here” because he pronounces his name “eye-an” like Ian Ziering of 90210 fame. I couldn’t help think of anyone but Louis Gossett, Jr. as Chappy in the movie. That's it, Ian Eagle is heretofore to be known by me as Chappy.
48 games over the next 4 days
The first NCAA tournament game has tipped off between Seton Hall and Wichita State. Wichita State is appropriately named the Shockers. We all like to see the shocking upsets so, Go Shockers!
There are 48 games over the next 4 days and I plan to watch as many of them as I can. This is probably detrimental to my health but I do it every year and I'm still doing ok so it can't be too bad.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Whoever smelt it dealt it
Anyway you slice it, the Knicks have had a horrible season and there is plenty of blame to go around for the turd the team has laid this year. The Knicks have a huge payroll, a world-class coach, and some talented players, but only have a 17-45 record this year. Blame Isiah Thomas for putting together a very expensive team with some good talent but has no chemistry and no real big man. Blame Larry Brown for not being able to get through to his players and install a system that works with the talent they have. Blame Stephon Marbury and the players because they are ultimately the ones responsible for winning and losing. Nobody can go around saying "Whoever smelt it dealt it" because everybody in the Knicks locker room has ripped a big one.
Friday, March 10, 2006
Paul Allen to Portland: "Save Me From My Mistakes"
Stop The Insanity!!!
Come Sunday evening the 65-legged beast that is the "Brackets" will be unleashed and we can pore over it for 5 days to see if we can predict who will win the NCAA championship and try win some money in our office pools. Billions of dollars will be lost in productivity due to this behemoth. Relationships will suffer because one person can't tear their eyes away from the 5-12 game that they predicted would be an upset. Our hygiene will deteriorate and our clothes will dirty during this period.
Inevitably, the office pool will be won by someone who doesn't watch college basketball and picks the winners based on some combination of mascots, colors, attractiveness of players, and where a friend attended. This in turn will let us tell our friends for the next 5 years about how Arizona, Gonzaga, Kent State, or some other team screwed us over in the 2006 Tourney and will keep us from ever picking for/against them again. Then we can't wait until next year to do it all over again.
Count me in! This is Southern Illinois' year!!!
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Americans mounted by the Mounties
In other news, Barry Bonds is alleged to have taken steroids and has testes the size of peas.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
In the Day's Least Surprising News...
After all of this what do we have? Well, we have some more evidence that Bonds used steroids and we have Bonds denying it. Exactly the same thing we had before today. Wow, what a breakthrough! I am so excited!
Really the only issue left for the steroid era is how will baseball deal with records and stats. For a decade or more baseball had players who were using steroids, some we know, some we suspect, and some we don't know. During that time a lot of offensive records fell but we can't be positive who did and did not use steroids because, in its infinited wisdom, baseball never tested for these drugs. Since baseball has started testing its clear that not only sluggers were using but little guys, pitchers and utility players did as well. In the end this will be known as the steroid era just like there is a deadball era and modern era.
Monday, March 06, 2006
P is for Portman
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Friday, March 03, 2006
Vincecredibly Stupid, Part II
A league soure tells us that, indeed, Texas quarterback Vince Young's Saturday Wonderlic was re-scored due to a grading error.
And the "real" score was higher than the six that spread through the scouting combine like a flash fire in a balsa wood factory.
But before Vince or agent Major Adams or Longhorns coach Mack Brown uncork the bubbly, the "real" score doesn't quite grant Young unfettered access to the next annual meeting of Mensa.
After further review, he got a seven.
And furthermore:
A league source tells us that Young's do-over actually was a do-over.
In other words, he got the same version of the test on Sunday that he had taken on Saturday.
There are multiple versions of the Wonderlic. We've heard the NFL uses five or six; we've seen in print somewhere that there are as many as 18.
But Vince somehow pulled the same version on Sunday that he'd seen on Saturday.
If this is true, it's truly a shame what the University of Texas has wrought upon VY. I know he will be marvelously paid and probably have a successful career, but his score suggests he might not be able to balance his checkbook. After his 10 years in the League what is he going to do? He may not be able to read the teleprompter to be a TV analyst. For UT to allow this to happen is reprehensible. I guess it must have been VY's glory days when he went to a prestigious institution and didn't have to learn anything but football.
Update 4:05 p.m.: Apparently, discussing VY's alleged Wonderlic score is disrespectful.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Lebron's nose-pick-and-roll
The win gives Lebron a reprieve from the beatdown he’s been getting since the All-star game by the media, “experts”, and fans. His team had gone 1-5 since then and ‘Bron had some horrible 4th quarters in that stretch. Charles Barkley called him out on the TNT pregame show. He said Lebron didn’t have that killer instinct or hadn’t shown that it was his team like MJ, Hakeem, and Barkley had done in the past. Cavs fans even booed Lebron the other night, which isn’t a smart move considering his contract is up soon.
Anyway, I think I know why Lebron has been doing poorly recently…his excessive nosepicking and nailbiting. Every time I see Lebron during a stoppage he is either picking his nose or biting his nails. Those certainly aren’t among the 7 Habits of Highly Successful People.
Right at the end of the Bulls game I saw Lebron digging for gold and I think it’s causing him to lose focus. (I wish I could find a picture of his nosepicking, alas, it was not to be.) Same thing when he’s at the line. He has time to look at his hands and sees a bit of nail that he could nibble on and bam! he loses concentration and misses the free throw. Momma James must have been too busy trying to create an NBA superstar or kicking out cop car windows to stop the bad habits that are doing him in now. Somebody needs to help him now before he blows everything!
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
The Next Isiah Thomas?
The Blazers could exchange their billionaire owner who is developing private space travel with a guy who gets as high as the stars when he has his feet firmly planted on the ground. I mean this guy was caught blazing on the highway with Sheed, cops found 150 grams of weed in his house, and he had the intelligence to go through an airport metal detector with an ounce and a half of weed wrapped in tin foil. Can't you just imagine him trying to build his team while he is high, he'd be the next Isiah Thomas trying to get the best fantasy league team possible.
"Team chemistry, what's that? I hope it has a high THC content."
With his track record, I can't understand David Stern having any problem with Stoudamire as an owner of an NBA team. Then again, he has allowed the self-proclaimed former drug dealer Jay-Z be a part owner of the Nets. I guess all the NBA players would know who to go to for their supply when they come to Portland.
Bum Rush
WBC: Who Bleeping Cares?
Vincecredibly Stupid
Second, there are those people out there who say the Wonderlic score doesn't matter in VY's case because he is such a great talent. I don't buy it. Why would the NFL make potential draftees take a test that doesn't matter? It is simply one tool in a box of many for the teams to evaluate players and it is up to the teams to give it weight.
Third, how can it not be discussed that so many players score so low on an aptitude test after either graduating or attending college for three years? The scores are indicative of the type of education players get and the effort they put into their education in D1 NCAA football. These schools are really shortchanging these players by allowing them to scrape by. Essentially, the schools are pimping these guys to bring in football revenue and don't really care what happens to them in the future.
Update 3:04 p.m: Bomani Jones of ESPN.com has said VY probably is an idiot but that it doesn't matter and it is all his agent's fault.