Rambling like School Girls

If you want to read about a guy who is actually upset about the circumstances surrounding his surviving being hit by a car; check out The Sports Guy on "The Coma Guy".

I touched on this yesterday with Self and Williams, but wouldn't it be great to see Illinois, Kansas, and UNC in the Final Four after all three schools changed coaches and each would face his predecessor/ successor?

Speaking of Illinois, they host Iowa tonight. Steve Alford's team has been surprising all year and at least one reader thinks this is a game Illinois could lose, even at home. AndDro commented yesterday, "watch out for the Hawks tomorrow. Brunner is my pick to click against a suspect Illini interior D."

Does Woody Paige make anyone else want to throw things at the TV at least once a day during Around the Horn, or is it just me?

Another college basketball game on ESPN tonight is Marquette at DePaul. I asked if Marquette could win 5 conference games this season, with a win tonight, they will be over half way there. DePaul is a tough team, though and is led by Milwaukee native Quemont Greer who has become an outstanding player in the conference. The Golden Eagles will have to play very well tonight to win.

Why is it that the NFL's minority hiring policy is only in place for head coaching positions and not for general manager positions?

How close to the trading deadline does anyone think Ben Sheets will remain a Brewer? If any thinks he will still be playing in Milwaukee in 2006, or even August 1st of 2005, please let me know and tell me why.

I forgot to mention one thing in my column about the over-hyping of athletes and it was the High School All American Football game on NBC last weekend. Do we really need to watch these kids on national television playing an exhibition game and witness live as some of them declare which school they are going to, is any of this necessary?

Great win by Wisconsin on Sunday to keep the home winning streak alive. The next test is Illinois on Tuesday, good luck Bucky. How good would this team be, though if they had Devin Harris this year? Isn't it scary to think about? Yes I know other teams lose lottery players every year, but this is a rarity at 'Sconsin, especially when if he would have come back, the Badgers would be a legit national title contender.

For all of the Duke fans out there (I am one) who are excited about the 14-0 start (I am not one), don't worry the other shoe will drop soon. A tough test at upset specialist Florida State, where the Dookies have had problems, they play Maryland and Virginia Tech at home before the toughest part of one of the toughest schedules in the country begins. Just check out the Duke schedule after those three games.

If you were betting on the Super Bowl Champion and you had two of the remaining four teams, would you rather have two teams from the same conference, or one from each conference, regardless of which teams they were? I think I would rather have both teams from the same conference because then I will have at least one chance of winning the Super Bowl bet.

I'm actually going to make it through one of these without discussing the Cubs.

It's really hard to write anything while I'm watching Who's Line Is It Anyway on Comedy Central.

After the Suns' fifth loss in a row, I have to ask, will anyone win 72 games in an NBA season again? This just shows how dominant the Bulls were in '95-'96.

Finally, since PTI came on the air in September, 2001, how many different shows is ESPN going to come up with to try and mimic what Kornheiser and Wilbon do everyday? They have trotted out Woody Paige and Skip Bayless on Cold Pizza to have a segment where they go back and forth discussing the top sports topics of the day. This is basically a table of contents for PTI. They also try to have two people debating something everyday on Sportscenter. Even though PTI is one of the top watched shows in the history of the network, isn't this getting a little old? How much will they be able to copy PTI before that show gets old? I hope never, and pray the execs at the network don't go too far.

-Until next time...

College Hoops II

Last week when I posted my top 5 college basketball teams in the country, the list was almost exactly the same as many other polls. I realized no one wants to read another person's opinion on why those particular teams are the best in the country. This week I have decided to make a change which will be in place from today until the end of the season. I am going to tell all of you what teams I think are playing the best. It won't always be 5 teams, it may be 3, it may be 9, it's just going to be what I am feeling from watching a week's worth of games. Sure some of the teams I mention may be the "flavor of the week" but if they are playing well, they deserve to be discussed. A few guidelines first; neutral court wins will carry more weight than a home win, a one point conference road win is better than a ten point conference home win, and isn't it strange that the style of play in different conferences seems to be the same no matter the sport? Think about it, the Big Ten and Big XII are both power football conferences and both play a more physical style of basketball than relavtively more finesse style of conferences like the SEC or ACC. Does anyone else find this strange? Gaddis and I had this discussion earlier today, it just seems odd. At any rate, hopefully this will be to your liking, and if not, I apologize. Onto the list:

4.) The University of Texas Longhorns- (14-3)

The Longhorns had an impressive home win against Oklahoma State on "Big Monday", winning 75-61. Oklahoma State came in ranked fifth in the country and was right on the verge of being a top three team in my eyes. They will still probably end up in St. Louis, but on this night, the Longhorns were just better. Texas was playing in front of a raucous home crowd, but they played better than OK State all night. This is a talented team at Texas, but if they lose P.J. Tucker for the season (accademic ineligibility) will Daniel Gibson be able to carry this team deep into March? In order for Texas to really prove themselves worthy of being on my prestigious list, they will need to play very well and win at number 21 Oklahoma on Saturday. The Sooners may be one of the most underrated teams in the Big XII at this point, so this will be a nice test for both teams.

3.) The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa Crimson Tide- (14-3)

To start off with, Alabama has been my favorite football team since 1992 and since then I have also enjoyed watching the basketball team. I try not to ever miss a game when the Tide is on television. Last night's game when the Tide played host to Mississippi State was a great opportunity for me to watch this team and see how they would play against the Bulldogs and Lawrence Roberts (best player in the conference). I wasn't expecting to see anything special from Alabama, but saw an absolutely dominating performance, albeit from a team playing at home against a team missing its second best player. The Tide won 98-49, handing the Bulldogs their worst loss in 50 years. It wasn't the fact that Alabama won the game that impressed me, it was that I didn't even need to watch the last 15 minutes of the game because the performance was SO DOMINANT (I was able to enjoy the movie Garden State instead, great movie). In the first half, Mississippi State didn't have a field goal for almost 15 minutes and were down 49-18 at the half. Added to the dominating defensive performance was guard Earnest Shelton's career high 34 points. This team simply played some of the best basketball I have witnessed all season. We shall see if they are more than just a one hit wonder.

2.) Wake Forest University Demon Deacons (15-2)

Yes, yes they just lost last night at Florida State 91-83 in overtime, but the team showed me a lot in the loss. At one point in the first half, the Seminoles held a 19 point lead and were up 14 at the half. The Deacons kept fighting back in the second half led by point guard Chris Paul and eventually tied the game at 69 with 6:16 left in the game. If it wasn't for guard Taron Downey stopping the Wake Forest record setting streak of 50 free-throws made in a row, Wake probably would have come out with the victory. Wake Forest was playing in a building where the Seminoles have done nothing but knock off ranked teams under Leonard Hamilton. Since December 28, 2003, Florida State has beaten Maryland, UNC, Georgia Tech, and Wake Forest twice, when all were ranked in the top 21. With all of this going against Wake Forest, not to mention the fact FSU guard Von Wafer (who?) scored a career high 30 points last night, including 25 in the first half, Wake played a pretty darn impressive game. Down 14 at half time, lesser teams may have given up, but Skip Prosser had his team playing hard and not giving up the entire game, and they almost pulled it off. This says a lot about the character of the Demon Deacons. This team is tough and resilient enough to make it through to St. Louis. A non conference win at Cincinnati on Saturday would go a long way to helping this team forget the loss at FSU.

1.) The University of Kansas Jayhawks- (13-0)

Wayne Simien returned to the lineup for the Jayhawks when they played at Iowa State last Wednesday and looked healthy again. Even though the competition wasn't that tough and Kansas didn't beat the teams they played by 20, I still love this team. I would really love to see Kansas and all of its seniors play for the National Title against North Carolina and former coach Roy Williams. How pumped up do you think the Kansas players like Aaron Miles, Simien, and Keith Langford would be if this were for the title. Simien running up and down the court screaming, "I gave my left arm for you coach", Miles and Langford trying to make sure Williams knows he made the wrong decision, along with J.R. Giddens showing why he stayed at Kansas after being recruited by Williams, wouldn't you love to see this? How much would you pay to see this happen? I'm thinking I would go as high as $250 just to watch it on TV. Plus, then Bill Self could say, "Ha Ha, I won with a team you couldn't win with!" God that would be great. Until that happens, we can just keep playing this game out in our minds and on paper. I love this team; senior led, great coach, great role players, freshmen and sophomores coming into their own, punch their ticket to St. Louis.

One noticeably absent team from the list this week is Illinois. The only reason for this is because I didn't see a single game of theirs this week. Should I see them again, they will probably be back on the list. Well, that's it for this week. Check out Duke tonight, they are getting better, and the aforementioned Wake/Cincy and Texas/Oklahoma games.

-Until next time...

ESPN: The Problem

I said yesterday I was going to discuss the over-hyping of athletes, so that is precisely what I am going to do today. Obviously many factors go into the marketing of an athlete; the school he or she attends getting the name out, local media picking up stories about the player and trying to get regional and natioanl attention, and finally national media discovering the player and forcing the name of the player on everyone they can. While any media exposure to athletes begins with local papers or television covering the player, the problem begins when the national press decides this athlete is the "next big thing".

The biggest problem with the over-hyping of athletes are the networks of ESPN. I like the programming on ESPN as much as anybody and try not to miss any episodes of Around the Horn and PTI, but I absolutely HATE when those shows as well as Sportscenter do nothing but pump up athletes who haven't proven anything yet to be the best at his or her respective sport. The problem is that instead of just telling us, "Hey here's something amazing this person has been doing in (insert sport here), keep an eye on this person, they could be really special in a few years", they tell us over and over again about the person, and try to get us to believe this athlete is the second coming.

For a few examples we will look at two men and one girl; LeBron James, Michael Vick, and Michelle Wie. First of all, to the over-hyped athlete who has actually lived up to and surpased the early expectations placed on him. James was first put on the cover of Sports Illustrated when he was 17 and a JUNIOR in high school in Ohio. During his senior year; ESPN.com had a James watch to keep track of which team had the best chance of drafting him in the NBA draft, ESPN had a game of his on national television, and kept forcing him down our throats, telling everyone he is the best high school basketball player ever (probably true) and had all of the tools to be the best NBA player ever (probably will happen).

Even though he has overcome the hype which came with him, it was still too much to take when he hadn't done anything yet. He led his team to a high school state championship in basketball and people were ready to put him in the Hall of Fame (I believe his high school jersey is already there). In his rookie season, people were saying he couldn't shoot the ball very well (41% from the field including only 29% from three point range), but he has taken that one point of concern and turned it into 49% from the field and 35% from the three point line. As many people have already said, he combines Magic's vision with Michael's ability to take over a game. Not only that, but he is leading his team to the thick of a division race, being only 1/2 game behind Detroit right now. James is playing very well and is an outstanding basketball player, but even a casual fan would have noticed this even without the marketing mackine that ESPN has turned into. Anyone can see LeBron is a special player. We didn't need him on the cover of SI as a Junior, a high school game on ESPN as a senior, or constant comparisons to the best players ever (even though I just did that also). The fact remains he still hasn't lived up to all of the hype he has received and won't unless he gets into the Hall of Fame.

Antoher player who is being marketed very well by ESPN is Michael Vick. If ESPN and it's Sunday Night Football crew and NFL Countdown crew were in charge of things, Michael Vick would be in the Hall of Fame right now, next to Peyton Manning. I have already discussed Vick to some extent, so this won't take very long. Not many people probably knew about who he was until he led Virginia Tech to the Sugar Bowl against Florida State in 2000. He was a great COLLEGE quarterback because of the style of play. A running quarterback in college is just as dangerous as a pure passer. Look at Navy back in the 50's and Nebraska in the 80's and 90's. In the NFL, this just isn't so. You must have a passing attack to be effective in the NFL. Sure Vick takes what defenses give to him, but how does a guy with so much speed and supposedly an underrated offensive line get sacked (are you ready for this?) 46 times? He needs to learn how to be a quarterback in the NFL before he will win a title, if he ever does. He should be able to outrun any defensive player. Granted someone might sneak in on his backside, but 46 sacks, he either needs to get rid of the ball or run away from sacks. He may one day realize he needs to look to pass out of some situations he trys to run out of, win a title, and get to Canton, but until then he hasn't justified the hype. For more proof, here are his career stats; 512 of 955 (53.6%), 6,619 yards, 36 touchdowns, 26 interceptions, 302 rushes for 2,234 yards and 13 touchdowns. He is not great yet, so Joe Thiesmann can keep preaching it, just don't listen.

Finally we come to Michelle Wie, the 14 year old golfing phenom. Sure it's nice she competes on the LPGA Tour and plays in some PGA Tour events, but someone call me when she makes a cut or wins a tournament. Yeah, she can hit the ball farther and better than I can, but can we please stop hearing about her playing in PGA events. This has been done before by Annika Sorrenstam and even Wie herself! Why is this still such a big deal? It will be a huge story if she makes a cut in a men's tournament, much less wins one, but until then, ESPN needs to stop marketing these tournaments just because she is in them. The Sony Open last weekend featured something Tiger hasn't even enjoyed and that is shot-by-shot coverage of Michelle Wie in the FIRST TWO ROUNDS. If you watched any of the tournament like I did, you were probably sick of Wie by her third hole. We saw EVERY shot she played including any putt she had no matter how close it was and no matter if it was for bogey. God forbid we miss her stroke a two foot bogey putt to see someone with a chance to win the tournament (or even make the cut) play a shot that matters. ESPN pumped up this tournament and told people to watch just to watch Wie. Little did I know all we could watch was Wie. It doesn't seem to me she's even that good of a golfer. I mean as a professional golfer (which she isn't yet). But, she wasn't making shots she needed to make and looked quite disturbed after she would have a bad shot or hole. Her pouting, sulking, mug when things aren't going as well as she thinks they should could soon join the pantheon of "faces". Maybe the pressure to win is too great for her, maybe all of the endorsements she is undoubtedly getting because of ESPN coverage are starting to wear on her with commitments, maybe she's getting sick of playing golf all of the time at the age of 14. Any of these things are possible, or maybe, just maybe she's not as good as ESPN and other people hope she is.

To me right now, she is like the short-lived FOX series Skin. We heard all about Skin during the 2003 MLB playoffs. You couldn't watch a game without hearing, "HIS FATHER IS THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY!" at least four times. The show only lasted 4 episodes after all of the hype. This is kind of where Michelle Wie is right now in her career. We have heard everything we need or care to hear about her. She needs to last more than four episodes now so we can see if she develops into anything close to being worthy of all of the hype.

ESPN is a huge problem with the over-hyping of athletes, but so are all of the sports magazines and papers which cover these young, unproven athletes ad nauseam (and I didn't even mention Freddy Adu or Sebastian Telfair). Now with ESPN unveiling an entirely new network called ESPNU which will cover college sports 24/7, we can only imagine where all of the hype will go. It's a sad day for the innocence and beauty of sports, if there is any left.

-Until next time...

Playoffs

This weekend of playoff games was justification for all of the people who thought 8-8 teams shouldn't be in the post season. St. Louis got run right out of the Georgia Dome on Saturday and Philly downed the Vikings on Sunday. Oh yeah, then there were the AFC games in which the Steelers and Pats won to set up a game which many would probably like to see as the Super Bowl.

I only watched two of the games intently, the Falcons/Rams and Patriots/Colts. The reason I didn't watch the other two games as closely is that I went to church durning the Steelers/Jets game and then was on my way to a friends' house for the second game during the ending of the first. On Sunday I was reffing during the entire Vikings game and didn't get home until kickoff of the Pats game.

The Patriots proved once again why they have won two of the past three Super Bowls. They don't make mistakes, have a coach who never gets flustered, coordinators who know what they are going to call five plays down the line, a team who expects to win, fans who expect to win and never give up on their team, and have players who make big plays. Kevin Faulk came up with a huge reception for first down on a third and nine from their own 7, to keep an eventual touchdown drive alive. On the defensive side of the ball, Tedy Bruschi had a big take away and the rest of the players held MVP Peyton Manning and the high powered Colts offense to just three points. Sure the weather was bad, but that's why home field advantage is so important. You now have to wonder if the Colts will ever be able to get to the Super Bowl without playing every game in the RCA Dome. Manning looked quite pedestrian in his performance yesterday throwing for only 238 yards on 27 of 42 passing and 1 interception. We did get to see quite a bit of the Peyton Manning "I can't believe this is happening to me again, nothing is going right and I'm going to be 6-0 against Tom bleeping Brady" face. This is the only thing I really dislike about Manning. He wears too much emotion on his sleeve. Granted there were a lot of dropped balls by his receivers (5), but not everything is someone else's fault. How long can other players stand him just yelling about things Manning doesn't like, even when it's his own fault? I honestly can't see Manning winning a Super Bowl within the next 5 seasons. Whether or not he does at all in his career is yet to be seen, but if he can't get past the outdoor games, he won't. He just beat Marino's record of touchdowns in a season, let's just see if he can ever beat Marino's record of Super Bowl victories, zero.

Onto another quarterback who won't win a title this year and may go his entire career without one. Michael Vick showed why he is a great threat to defenses, but not much more. I'm sorry but Michael Vick just simply does not impress me as a quarterback all that much. He is a smart player in that he takes what is given to him (12/16- 2 touchdowns, 8 rushes 119 yards), but he would not be someone I would want to quarterback my team in a must-win game. I would take many players before him. I will discuss more about the over-hyping of athletes in another column, but let me say just one last thing about Mr. Vick. He is the best athlete ever to play quarterback, the players who have previously held that title; Daunte Culpepper, Donovan McNabb, and Randall Cunningham have led their teams to a total of zero Super Bowl titles. How many Super Bowl appearances have they led their respective teams to? Wait for it... wait for it... wait... that's right ZERO. Obviously this will end this weekend as McNabb and Vick face-off for a Super Bowl birth.

Onto my picks for this weekend. It is early in the week and many things can happen, but I will make them anyway. First the NFC. As much as I have put down Michael Vick already in this column, I have to think he will lead his team to a victory in Philadelphia this weekend. The team is playing with a lot of confidence running the ball right now and are playing the 17th ranked rushing defense in the league. While I don't think we will see them put another 300+ on the ground, they will be able to run against the Eagles with success. This won't be as high scoring as the Falcons/Rams game, 17 may in fact win this one, and the edge there has to go to the Falcons. They just have more people who can make plays on offense, Vick, Warrick Dunn, Alge Crumpler, TJ Duckett, and Peerless Price. The Eagles have McNabb and (all due respect to Freddie Mitchell) Brian Westbrook. I also like the way the Falcons defense swarms to the ball. Plus, I would just like to see what kind of garbage would be said this year if the Eagles lose again. Last year after they lost the NFC Championship game I visited some of the Philadelphia message boards and read some of the most racist, disgusting, and just plain stupid things I have ever read in my life. I want to see if the Philadelphia fans can go even lower this year. Falcons 20 Eagles 13.

The Steelers dominated the Patriots in Pittsburgh 34-20 earlier this season to stop the 21 game winning streak. So why do I think the Patriots will win this weekend in Pittsburgh with the AFC title on the line? Because they've done it before. In 2001 the Steelers had the number three offense in the league and the number one defense and got beaten by the Patriots 24-17 in Pittsburgh, when the Pats had only the 19th ranked offense and the 24th ranked defense in the league, not to mention second year quarterback Tom Brady leading the team. The Patriots are so good at preparing for these games it shouldn't even be a contest. Sure New England's secondary is depleted, but the Steelers don't exactly threaten down field very often in their offense. They are a power football team and the Patriots defense is built to stop power teams. Sure the Steelers put up 34 against this same defense earlier in the season, but this is the playoffs and the Steelers have a rookie quarterback who hasn't been very impressive lately playing against a dynasty. Hopefully for Steelers fans, Big Ben will be like Danny Manning in '88 and lead his team to a championship in his first year. I don't see it happening. Oh yeah, and the Patriots will be playing this game with running back Corey Dillon, who gives this Patriot team such a different dynamic with his ability to bust big plays and set up the play action. What does all of this mean? Patriots 24 Steelers 17, same score as in 2001.

By the way, you will probably find out by this time next week that I have no idea what I'm talking about (if you haven't already).

-Until next time...