All- Stars, Fast Cars, and More

If this weekend was any indication, when the two founders of this site get together, there will most certainly be good music, good food, good company, good beer, and good sports. Getting to the bar 10 minutes after eating, Gaddis, Janke, and I spotted a table near the television and Gaddis changed the channel to the Skills and Dunk Contests. The $10 we pumped into the juke box lasted us all night and the All-Star festivities kept us entertained.

Josh Smith may have single-handedly resurrected the Dunk Contest after his outstanding dunks and winning the contest hands down over Amare Stoudamire. Apparently the first dunk Smith did was even better because of the history of the dunk. Gaddis informed us, "You don't understand the history of that dunk. Dr. J did it first in 1981 and that led to Jordan doing it and everyone else. It's a great dunk." An amazing stat from an encyclopedia of this kind of knowledge. There were times during this contest I actually turned away from the table and put down my beer to watch these guys dunk. Smith had I believe 3 perfect scores which is outstanding in this contest. Stoudamire had some nice trys and his teamwork with Nash was excellent. Chris Andersen needs to realize if his dunk doesn't work the first seven times, it probably isn't going to work and even if it does, you aren't going to get many points. You really need to have a back-up plan, because watching him fail for 10 minutes was painful. If Josh Smith and J.R. Smith and some of these younger guys keep entering this contest and work on their dunks before the weekend, it could be the showcase of the weekend it once was.

While we were at the bar we decided we would watch the Daytona 500 on Sunday before the All-Star game. Gaddis and I seriously watched the whole thing. Well, I was reading the paper and was online almost the entire time, and Gaddis fell asleep on and off throughout the entire race. He did wake up in time to see the final three laps, so I guess that's good enough, because really that's all you need to see. I don't know how people can watch races start to finish and actually be entertained the whole time. People can't understand how I can watch golf and be entertained, so I am not putting NASCAR fans down, I just don't understand it and probably never will. When Jeff Gordon passed Dale Earnhardt Jr. on what the 196th lap, the announcers didn't even notice it right away. They kept going on and on about Jr. and what a race he was having. I saw Gordon take the lead and they were still talking about Jr, but then suddenly they realized about 20 seconds later that Earnhardt wasn't even in the lead anymore. There were also features of the telecast like "crank it up" when the viewers are supposed to turn up their televisions or surround sound to hear the cars better, or every pit interview, just unecessary for the telecast. Although only televising 200 laps of a race would be bad, they need some other features.

After the race was over we watched Duke/Wake Forest. This was quite an intense game and J.J. Redick had one of the best games of his career. It was an important win for the Blue Devils who had lost 2 in a row and still have to play at Georgia Tech and North Carolina. Many people had been doubting Duke after dropping those 2 and 4 out of their last 7 but you have to remember this team (like the Yankees) judges itself on how it does in the postseason. They have a great coach and great guards, two things you need in the tournament. They could do very well in March and will probably make at least the Sweet 16. I was also quite impressed as I usually am with Wake Forest, by the way they came back to make the game close in the final 2:00 of the game. Chris Paul is just an outstanding player and had the Demon Deacons playing tough right to the end. His ability to get to the rim late in the game showed us the suspect interior defense of the Blue Devils again (just like Raymond Felton two weeks ago). I still think Wake Forest will end up in St. Louis, but can't see them winning it all.

The All-Star game was the final viewing for the weekend, and it was okay. I wasn't too thrilled about the game, kind of just had it on in the background and we were flipping between that, The Simpsons, Desperate Housewives, and Boston Legal almost the entire time it was on. I didn't understand why the pregame show was so long, but oh well, good thing cartoons were on. Saw the ending, thought the game lacked any kind of intesity, but how much can you really expect from an exhibition game? My favorite part of the game was the dunks by McGrady and Carter.

Other than that, the UWM game was nice to have on at the restaurant, and they had a big win. Marquette beat a good DePaul team, but needs a Conference USA tournament championship to make the field of 65 at this point.

-Until next time...