News around here is that BC head basketball coach Al Skinner might be interested in the job opening for the Charlotte Bobcats. I would be surprised to see him go, but it is another case (such as the Tom O’Brien case some 3 months ago) where a BC coach builds a solid program with marginal players, but is constantly harassed because they haven’t won the big game. Anyway I will keep you posted.
Marquez Haynes transferred, probably because Skinner told him he was bringing in a few guards next year to compete with his spot. I wish him the best wherever he goes.

I also was thinking about the Masters today, which starts in a week from tomorrow. I am intrigued because it is shaping to be one of the best in recent years, with a lot of top guys on their game (Vijay, Tiger, Phil) and some young guns too (Camilo Villegas, Luke Donald, Adam Scott). Plus you always have to love the old time champs, unfortunately no Nicklaus or Palmer for about the third year, but it should be fun with Seve Ballesteros, Tom Watson, Freddy Couples and maybe even Nick Faldo. See you on Rae’s Creek.

Dave

Feeling (Carolina) Blue

Well, there are plenty of people around here a lot more happy than I am. The University of North Carolina basketball team lost tonight as most of you know by now, and this crushes me. But I'm not really here to complain about a lackluster second performance and a historically bad overtime or anything like that. The thing I took the most out of this weekend is how for at least one year, parity is dead. If I was ESPN, I would have named this "Perish of Parity Weekend". With the types of postseasons we've seen recently, especially with the likes of a George Mason like year, it's almost unprecedented to see no lower than a 2 seed in the Final Four. If Carolina hadn't blown it, we would be looking at three 1 seeds and a 2 seed in UCLA which very well could have been a 1 seed. There very well could have been four 1 seeds in the Final Four, an NCAA tournament first. I don't think this signals the end of the surge of mid-majors, Cinderellas, and buzzer beaters, but this year at least, the best teams played good basketball when it mattered most. Look at a team like Ohio State. After rolling through 16th seed Central Connecticut, the Buckeyes saw their championship hopes flatline a couple of times, only to revitalize themselves and survive. Xavier and Tennessee both had Thad Motta's squad on the ropes in their respective games, but like good teams, Ohio State found a way to win. And Ohio State knew how to close out a game, hitting an absurd amount of free throws down the stretch against Memphis to turn a close one into a 16 point win.

There's no question who the best defensive team in the tournament is right now. The UCLA Bruins put on an absolute clinic on their road to the Final Four. They gave up 42, 54, 55, and 55 points in their four seperate games. Say all you want about the Pac-10, but the Bruins are also for real. Even Oregon looked solid all tournament representing the Pac-10.

Now is there a reason I only highlighted two teams? You betchya. Time for the picks...
Ohio State 78 - Georgetown 69...Greg Oden meets his biggest opponent in 7'2" Roy Hibbert of the Hoyas in a match-up of who can get the most quick fouls. I think Oden will play like the projected number one draft pick he is and Ohio State pulls away late.
UCLA 68 - Florida 60...Defense wins championships, and UCLA's will at least get them to the championship. Lee Humphrey shot the lights out for Florida against Oregon, but he hasn't seen a perimeter defense like UCLA's all year, and the rest of the Gators will struggle as a result. UCLA will have just enough offense, and Aaron Afflalo will have his best game of the tournament when it matters most.

Stay tuned for a national championship pick, but if those picks hold up, which they probably won't, I think I'm California Dreamin'...
That's all for tonight, have a good week kids.
-MC

Closing Time

Hey guys, remember me? I'm back from my hiatus after a long spring trip to Arizona for baseball and a couple of days of getting re-acquainted to the weather and more importantly the time zone. It's been quite a while, I'm surprised I still remember the password. Anyhoo, big announcement coming out of Red Sox camp down in Fort Myers today. The Sox announced today that Jon Papelbon will be the Sox's closer when the season opens up April 2 in Kansas City. It's becoming apparent that Papelbon wants to close and naturally the Red Sox like him as a closer. I gotta say I'm not the biggest fan of the move. Papelbon could very well end up as the best closer in baseball this year, I recognize that, and that thrills me. But the thing that I don't get is why break up what should easily be the best rotation in the league if not baseball this year? In my opinion, having four guys who would be number one or number two guys on any other staff at worse is more valuable than having that closer. You have to break it down like this. What is more likely to happen? Papelbon blown saves or Julian Tavarez bad starts? In my opinion, it's the latter, but that's yet to be seen. The trump card in this whole thing could be Roger Clemens. If Clemens returns to Beantown, this move makes so much more sense, but if he does it won't be until June. That, and I'm not ready yet to allow Roger Clemens back into Boston. We'll have to wait and see though.

If you guys get a chance, check out Pardon the Interruption star Tony Kornheiser's radio show on the Washington Post website. Kornheiser, my hero, saw his show return recently to the 8:30-10:30 am time slot on weekdays. Good for some laughs, definitely. Also, expect a surplus of baseball previews from me in the coming days, that is if Blogger doesn't totally screw me over again like it did last night. The whole National League Central is floating in cyberspace somewhere, that's all that needs to be said. But like Southern Illinois and Texas A&M (who just blew it), I'm out. Later kids.
-MC

Wednesday

Wednesday.
The day before round two, on the eve of separating the contenders from the pretenders.
While 16 teams play, a win on the second Thursday or Friday leaves you a legitimate contender for the NCAA tournament. Since my bracket has been crumpled up in a ball in the bottom of trashcan since Saturday afternoon, I am going to take a crack at picking the sweet 16. Is it fair to call me a certified bracketologist if I pick all 8 correct? Probably not, but since I run a sports blog I am going to take a crack at it anyway.
Southern Illinois vs. Kansas
This one seems easy, Kansas has that look in its eye right now and I don’t think the Salukis are going to get in the way of the eye. Kansas is a contender.
Butler vs. Florida
Since the Bulldogs needed an offensive foul call from heaven to beat Maryland, I am going to have to write them off as a pretender. Surprise, surprise, but the defending champs are the contender.
Georgetown vs. Vanderbilt
I don’t think either of these teams are contenders for the title, but since Roy Hibbert is still 7-2 and they have a Ewing on the floor and a Thompson on the bench, I have to go with them as the contender. Of course I also had Washington State over them in this game in my bracket, so shows how much I know. But hey, at least I hope I can say BC lost because they ran into the eventual champ and not because Sean Williams has a particular affection for the marijuana.
USC vs. North Carolina
This seems natural right? UNC all the way right? I think that USC is the contender, they have the size to match up to NC, plus all it takes is one good elbow under the basket for Hansborough to be done. USC is a contender
UNLV vs. Oregon
I know everybody is talking about this, but I still can’t believe that UNLV point guard Kevin Kruger played for Arizona State last year and was allowed to play an extra year at a different school because of some freak anti NBA rule in college basketball that was intact for only a short period of time. He already graduated from ASU, so the dude is smart. Sure, Oregon is as hot as anybody right now, but I can’t get over those yellow unis and the fact that Akili Smith went there. I think UNLV is the contender.
Memphis vs. Texas A&M
As a side note, I got to mention that one of my buddies Brennan picked Texas A&M Corpus Christi to go to the sweet 16 over Wisconsin and UNLV, because he thought it was the A&M with Acie Law and Dominique Kirk. Thinking about it, he almost got that pick right, actually and besides, who am I to laugh? I had Duke in the elite 8. No confusion here however, Texas A&M College Station is the contender.
Ohio State vs. Tennessee
This isn’t a game of great teams; it’s a game of coaching philosophies. Oden and Ohio State are here thanks to the fact that Xavier coach Sean Miller did not employ the heartless Bruce Pearl approach to the end of game situations. Pearl fouled three up with a less than 10 seconds, Sean Miller did not. Bruce Pearl is in the round of 16, Sean Miller is not. Bruce Pearl and the Tennessee Volunteers are contenders.
UCLA vs. Pitt
This game does not excite me in the least. UCLA was horrid in the first half against Indiana (not as horrid as Indy though!!) and Pitt needed OT to defeat VCU. I know VCU had Eric Maynor, but all Pitt has is Aaron Gray and some other mediocre players that I can’t name. The point to get here is that UCLA is the contender.
Thanks for waiting for the post, I promise there will be another this week. Thanks to all the loyal readers, the occasional readers, and the first time readers.

Dave

The Weekend That Was

Good weekend for sports on the tube. After breaking out of BC for spring break on Friday, among other events I witnessed at least parts of the Matsuzaka’s debut, BC Ice Hockey vs. New Hampshire, Wisconsin/MSU Basketball, the Celtics in double OT, BC Basketball, and the US Open*. While I don’t really want to get into the particulars of all the events, I would like to make a few general comments.
(*-indicates the sport of bowling)
Matsuzaka looked very solid after giving up a double to Johnny Ayers on his first pitch of the afternoon. Dice-K looked like he was ready for April 2nd already. Spring training isn’t that necessary these days except for the guys trying to make the team. Most players are smart enough to work out on their own in the off season. It probably takes a guy like Manny Ramirez 4 days to get his sweet stroke back in the groove. As my dad joked, it’s a wonder more guys don’t come later, because once you show up you are playing every day for the next 8 months. So yeah, Manny shorted the fans for a couple days by coming late to camp, but these guys have been in camp for a only a week and they are ready to go. I say let the regulars stay at home for a few extra weeks to deal with those mysterious family ailments or arrests. Hey Manny and Pedro make those excuses every year, so we might as well dedicate the first 3 weeks of spring training as the Optional Grandmother Illness Period.
Second thing I had to point out was the Wisconsin vs. Michigan State basketball game. Much like an SEC football game, this one had very few actual points scored. The final score was something like 52-50, a painstaking affair like those 9-6 supposed SEC “Classics”. There is a difference though, between SEC football and Big-10 basketball. The SEC is actually good at football. Big-10 basketball is terrible. I thought that I would let it slide, being as it was a Saturday morning and knowing what college kids are thinking about at 12PM Saturday morning (along the lines of “why am I awake right now?”), but then I saw the scroll from halftime of the Texas-Kansas game, 54-42. Durant had 25, more than the University of Wisconsin. The Big-10 is just not very good, sorry I have to break it to you. Of course if Oden decides to assert himself and scores 40 against BC in the second round of the tournament in the 2-7 matchup, I will shut up.
Skipping the Celtics, who are on the wrong path (remember, Oden and Durant) and leaving BC sports mostly out of this column, I have to turn to the most captivating event of the weekend: the Denny’s Professional Bowler’s Association US Open, LIVE ON ESPN from North Brunswick, New Jersey. Don’t knock bowling. It’s covered by ESPN, which is more than the NHL and PGA Tour can boast these days. In the semifinals, I watched in amazement as 3-time champ Pete Weber started off with 8 straight strikes. Dare I say, En Fuego? If you have ever seen me bowl, you would know why this would be particularly impressive. I once bowled 9 straight gutterballs and the mere fact that these guys could keep it on the lane till the end was fascinating to me. Weber was a docile looking middle aged man, with slicked back, thinning brown hair and his NASCAR-esque shirt over his small frame. He was wearing his signature sunglasses indoors as well, which gave him the general characteristics of a good ol’ boy just along for the ride, having some fun on the road and playing the game he loves. This is what I thought, but I was dead wrong. He had the mouth of every other 21st century poster boy athletes, flashing outrageous 300 signs to the crowd with every strike. I saw him make the Degeneration-X “suck it” sign before they cut to a commercial break. Then when the semifinal match was all but over, he pointed to the camera and said “you better bowl a 260, Wes, or you are done,” complete with a slashing motion across the neck. I couldn’t believe it. I changed back and forth to a NBA basketball game just to make sure it was, in fact, bowling that I was presently viewing. I’m not making this up.
The killer came during the finals, when they showed a clip of Pete Weber’s father, the legendary Dick Weber, winning the ever US Open back in the 1962. After rolling the winning rock, the ever-classy Dick said “I’m so glad to have won, I am going to give my wife all the money, and this trophy here is never going to leave my arms.” There’s irony for ya. He was probably rolling over in his grave Sunday as his son went on to win his 4th title amid his outbursts of “boo ya” and “how you like me now?”
Good to know some things in sports are still sacred.
That’s about all I got today, happy Monday for all our readers. (I’ll be spending this one in bed)

Dave