Today's Calls: Fake Selection Sunday vs. Real Selection Sunday, Shaq vs. the West, Brian McNamee vs. Ansel Adams, Kevin Love vs. Darren Collison, Eric Gordon vs. Illinois fans, Chris Webber vs. Chris Duhon, Steve Spagnuolo vs. Tom Coughlin, Curt Schilling vs. Theo Epstein, NFL Pro Bowl vs. Weekend Productivity and More!
The Opening Pitch: I'll admit it -- I'm addicted to brackets.
If you're putting together a projected NCAA Tournament bracket, I'm poring over it. Could be February; could be July.
So naturally, I'm a little obsessed with the fake Tournament selection process that the NCAA brilliantly held this week for the media, to allow a little transparency to the process. (DeCourcy talks about it here.)
In the media's final 65, the No. 1 seeds were Memphis, UCLA, Duke and Kansas. Nothing unreasonable. (Notably, mid-major media-crush Drake got a 5-seed.)
Then I did what any self-respecting fan would do: I started to play out their bracket, game-by-game and round-by-round. If these guys could make a bracket, then I could fill it out. It's the only natural reaction.
And so, much to my horror, I had two-time defending champ Florida going out IN THE FIRST ROUND to 6-seed Indiana, with Eric Gordon leading the Hoosiers on a miracle run to the Final Four, including a regional final upset over overall No. 1 Memphis.
I had Duke rebounding from last year's embarrassing first-round exit, but losing to Tennessee in the East region final (in Charlotte!) after a tough Sweet 16 game against Michael Beasley and Kansas State.
I had Kansas becoming the first No. 1 seed to lose, falling to 8-seed surprise Arkansas in the tournament's first weekend. (Opening a UNC glide-path to the Final Four out of the Midwest.)
And I had UCLA surviving a West regional final with Georgetown (the Tournament's best game), en route to a national title behind Tournament MOP Kevin Love.
(Obsessive? Yes. The highlight of my week? Absolutely. I am SO ready for March.)
Meanwhile, in my non-fantasy college basketball world, my "championship" UCLA team beat Washington State in Pullman last night. Kevin love had only 16 points (on 6/8 FG shooting) and only 9 rebounds, but Wazzu was so focused on stopping him that they let Darren Collison score 18 points in the 2nd half. (Coming next week: My midseason All-America team. Here's a hint that shouldn't surprise you: Love is on it.)
More CBB: In two nasty rivalry games, Pitt held off West Virginia on a buzzer-beater, and Eric Gordon, despite struggling in the first half, led Indiana to a 2OT win over Illinois in hostile (understatement) Champaign, where "Eric Gordon" is a curse word.
Clemens vs. McNamee: PED Photography Class. It's one thing to hear that Brian McNamee handed over physical evidence that Clemens used steroids; it's another when you see photos of that evidence (conveniently handed out by McNamee's lawyers).
Ansel Adams would have been proud (okay: appalled, but still ...) of the photos' composition, particularly the classy touch of the lonely crushed beer can, next to a pile of gauze pads and needles.
Clemens spent Thursday talking with members of the Congressional investigation, but the real show is next Wednesday, when Clemens, McNamee, Kirk Radomski and Chuck Knoblauch all testify openly at a hearing.
Shaq introduces himself to PHX: "I look forward to making people eat their words." You know what? I'm starting to come around: An energized Shaq is a dangerous Shaq, and if he can match his health with his current motivation, I could actually see the Suns winning the NBA title. We really need to see the Shaqified Suns in action first, but even then, give them 10 weeks to get ready for the heart of the playoffs; he'll fit right in.
NBA Last Night: Chris Webber's Oakland homecoming. Wearing his old No. 4, he got the start for the Warriors, playing 12 minutes and registering 4 points, 2 assists, 1 rebound and 3 fouls while Golden State got off to a rough start in "Webber Era 2" with a loss to the lowly Bulls. (Chris Duhon: Career-high 34.)
NBA Tonight: KG's Minneapolis homecoming. Now that it's settled that injured Kevin Garnett will do the right thing and make the trip with the Celtics to Minnesota for his first game back there since his trade out of town, I hope the crowd will treat him right. (I think he'll be overwhelmed at the reception.)
Giants keep Super Bowl XLII maestro Steve Spagnuolo with 3Y/$6M contract that make him one of the NFL's highest-paid assistants ... and almost assuredly came with an implicit deal that he will succeed Tom Coughlin as Giants head coach before those 3 years are up.
Name to Know: Kurt William Havelock, the nutjob who rolled his car within view of University of Phoenix Stadium on the day of the Super Bowl -- with a rifle and 200 rounds of ammo -- before turning himself in. We can talk light-heartedly about it now, but that could have been horrible beyond description.
MLB: Is Schilling done for '08 season ... already? Sure feels like it, because the Red Sox are already talking about getting their money back for giving him that pricey 1-year deal after the season was over.
(Schilling insists he thought he could play in '08, with no reason to believe he would have any motivation to rip off the team.) Schilling's 38Pitches.com blog is hopping.
(Worth considering: Would season-ending surgery be it, not just for Schilling's 2008, but for his career?)
CFB Recruiting Signing Day Hangover: When players de-commit from hard verbals at the last minute, the jilted coach has a right to be ticked -- but obviously didn't have the goods to out-pitch a competitor.
Still: A small correction to recruiting's market economy can and should happen by having an "early" Signing Day in the fall, where players can formally commit without their new college coaches spending the remainder of the winter wondering if they'll actually get their guy. Players can avoid the madness, too.
"The US national team plays it's biggest rival in front of 70,000 fans (albeit 2/3 Mexican fans) in Houston and you make no mention of it? It was a great game, with the US taking the lead twice and Mexico coming back to tie both times, a US goal nullified on a terrible offsides call, and two US players aged 18 (Altidore and Adu) playing in the game and playing pretty well. Altidore scored the US's second goal on a great header."
In Case You Missed It: The FireJoeMorgan guys revealed their true identities, solving one of the great mysteries of the sports-blog universe. If you're not reading FJM, you're totally missing out. (And I don't care what their names are, I'm still calling them "Ken Tremendous," "Junior" and "dak.")
The Final Word: "Zzz ... ." What better way to describe the NFL Pro Bowl? No offense to Hawaii, but here's hoping the NFL moves the game to the site of that year's Super Bowl and plays it on the open Sunday between the end of the regular season and the Super Bowl. Even then, it will probably still be a dud.
Dan Shanoff writes The Wake-Up Call every weekday morning for SportingNews.com and blogs daily at DanShanoff.com. Got any comments, questions or feedback? Email Dan at shanofftsn-[at]-gmail-[dot]-com.
I’m weeping as we speak. I really think the UC was the beginning of the end. After the old barn was torn down the ambiance and the energy never were the same. A hockey game is no longer the electric event it once was.
Time for Dollar Bill to have that last Gin and tonic and ride off to that great former owner retirement home on the north shore.
Problem is I don’t think Peter Wirtz gets it either.
Stop it it’s so sad. :cry:
Though I can’t feel your pain you have my sympathy. And you are right that this team is being run into the ground.
Not only is it ownership, and management’s fault, but I’m going to blame the players too. They don’t play with heart there anymore, they need to get the fans excited about hockey again. How about cleaning house and throwing caution to the wind. Picking up players who are exciting and young, and willing to pay them what they are worth. Not siging guys like Martin Lapointe to huge contracts, would also help. They can’t move guys like that they have no place in the game nowadays.
But the odds of Wirtz getting of his a*s to shell out the big bucks for skilled players is about as likely as me going vegetarian.
I think some die hard hawks fans should go to the Mafia (which is readily avaiable there) to have Wirtz “whacked”.
Nice posts guys and thanks for the cards. I can only hope beyond hope that things will turn around in the foreseeable future. I can’t afford to wait as long as our long suffering baseball teams did before winning a championship. And to tell you the truth, I was actually 3 years old when the Hawks last hoisted the cup. (Not that I remember it that well).
But little has changed down on Madison street since that time, the perception of what wins championships has changed little over these 40 plus years.
I really think they believed they would be competitive this year, and that’s the scary part, they did the very they could!!
Whacking Wirtz is out though, not that it hasn’t crossed the minds of most Hawks fans. I think Wirtz is untouchable what with his ties to his booze distributorships and all. He’s as pickled as a herring now and if that hasn’t killed him, nothing will.
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Comments
I’m weeping as we speak. I really think the UC was the beginning of the end. After the old barn was torn down the ambiance and the energy never were the same. A hockey game is no longer the electric event it once was.
Time for Dollar Bill to have that last Gin and tonic and ride off to that great former owner retirement home on the north shore.
Problem is I don’t think Peter Wirtz gets it either.
by sparkinjr on Feb 8, 2008 9:25 AM EST reply actions
Stop it it’s so sad. :cry:
Though I can’t feel your pain you have my sympathy. And you are right that this team is being run into the ground.
Not only is it ownership, and management’s fault, but I’m going to blame the players too. They don’t play with heart there anymore, they need to get the fans excited about hockey again. How about cleaning house and throwing caution to the wind. Picking up players who are exciting and young, and willing to pay them what they are worth. Not siging guys like Martin Lapointe to huge contracts, would also help. They can’t move guys like that they have no place in the game nowadays.
But the odds of Wirtz getting of his a*s to shell out the big bucks for skilled players is about as likely as me going vegetarian.
I think some die hard hawks fans should go to the Mafia (which is readily avaiable there) to have Wirtz “whacked”.
Jamr what do think about that?
by senatorsguru on Feb 8, 2008 9:25 AM EST reply actions
Nice posts guys and thanks for the cards. I can only hope beyond hope that things will turn around in the foreseeable future. I can’t afford to wait as long as our long suffering baseball teams did before winning a championship. And to tell you the truth, I was actually 3 years old when the Hawks last hoisted the cup. (Not that I remember it that well).
But little has changed down on Madison street since that time, the perception of what wins championships has changed little over these 40 plus years.
I really think they believed they would be competitive this year, and that’s the scary part, they did the very they could!!
Whacking Wirtz is out though, not that it hasn’t crossed the minds of most Hawks fans. I think Wirtz is untouchable what with his ties to his booze distributorships and all. He’s as pickled as a herring now and if that hasn’t killed him, nothing will.
by JAMR on Feb 8, 2008 9:25 AM EST reply actions
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