What Would Jesus Shuttlesworth Do?

The Masters. Huge. Quickly.

2010-04-13T00:14:00.004-04:00

As seen in the April 12 edition of The Heights, Boston College's Independent Newspaper

The Masters is the first sign that golf is actually here. It’s the start of spring, and watching it sure makes you think, “This is the year I get my handicap down to single digits.”

It’s not.

Still, the drama of Amen Corner and the green jacket is too good to pass up. Do a running diary? Why not?

Over-Under on number of Tiger jokes: 4.5

4:48 p.m.: KJ Choi clearly does not care about playing with Tiger for all four days, as the man is playing out of his mind. Plus, Choi used to be a competitive power lifter, so he’s got that going for him, which is nice.

4:53 p.m.: I’m loving the fact that Freddy Couples has no back, is wearing slippers, and still blasts the ball over 300 yards.

He is one of my favorite golfers. He seems like the kind you could just hang out with during a tailgate and slug a couple of Natty’s. You know, if it weren’t weird drinking 50-cent beers with a 50-year-old pro

golfer who’s made millions. Your call.

4:55 p.m.: Phil Mickelson is now forced to punch out from deep in the shrubbery, somewhere I find myself way too often. That’s what makes golf so much fun … Never mind, Phil nearly greened it. Let’s just say I wouldn’t have.

5:03 p.m.: Couples in the water -- that could spell the end. Right Said Fred

with the wrong shot choice there. Tough to go for that pin with a Sunday placement on the water-filled 12th.

5:09 p.m.: So Eldrick Woods just hit a shot from in the trees that kept him in the trees. Second shot? Tiger then hit it through the branches to within eight feet. The man is not human.

5:14 p.m.: The short stick has been killing everybody today – except KJ. He could wind up with a three-stroke victory before anyone notices. Anthony Kim has also been rolling them in, making a late run sending my friend Hirsh into an absolute roar. He loves him some AK.

5:19 p.m.: The Phil collapse hasn’t happened. Maybe it’s the fact he’s looking trim. The need for a manziere is minimal ... at least this week.

5:24 p.m.: Hirsh was just awoken to a frightening volume by Anthony Kim’s eagle and proceeded to break out a caddie-level awkward fist pump in celebration. Kim now sits at 11-under after two birdies and that eagle. He’s one behind Choi and Phil but will post his number early and apply the pressure.

5:27 p.m.: Whoever made the decision to put a mic on Tiger is a genius. We just got a solid, “God! Ti-Ger!!” Almost as good as yesterday’s, “Tiger Woods, you suck.” Talking in the third person just sounds ridiculous. Popko’s ready for some more Tiger sound bites.

5:35 p.m.: Anthony Kim is absolutely unconscious with his putter. Drained it from about 20. Hirsh’s phone is now blowing up with congratulations for his boy’s success. The level of one-sided bromance is at an all-time high. I’m starting to feel this run, too.

5:36 p.m.: And AK just hit his tee shot onto the wrong hole. I should stop talking now.

5:43 p.m.: Phil and AK both in the woods, and Phil just hit the shot of his life. From behind a tree in the pine straw through a gap about four-feet wide to within five feet … for eagle. Let’s see if AK, or anyone else for that matter, has it in them to top that.

5:52 p.m.: I spoke too soon on Phil. Just missed a putt I would have taken as a gimmie. In other news, I am not 14-under at the Masters. Tiger just three-putted from eight feet, and golf’s big boys are leaving strokes on the green.

6:08 p.m.: Anthony Kim drains a 15-footer for par on 18 -- the man put on a putting clinic today, shooting a 65 -- and posts t

he clubhouse lead of 12-under. Only problem is Phil is two strokes ahead, and he and Westwood are on the par 5, 15th that Tiger just put home an eagle on. It’s looking like AK is going to need some luck. Hirsh is slightly more subdued now.

6:16 p.m.: At this point, it’s Phil’s tournament to lose, but he has choked before. He probably still has nightmares about Winged Foot. Hirsh thinks he’ll pull it out, and I think he has one more epic choke job in him, but it’s tough to see it coming today. I’d love to see him come back to AK, but honestly, Westwood is the only one who can catch him, and he had the look of defeat on his face six holes ago. There are just not enough streaking golfers out on the course at this point.

6:19 p.m.: Lee Westwood also cannot putt, Phil’s lead is three, and I’m going to have to call it. The water on 16 and a Westwood ace is about all that could change that right now. No matter what, Lee is guaranteed another great finish. He has gone second, third, third in the past three majors. That, that is insane.

6:33 p.m.: The final pairing goes par-par on 16, and a three-shot lead with two to play looks too tough to overcome. Phil would need to channel his inner Jean Van de Velde to lose this now.

6:35 p.m.: Tiger’s on 18, so I need to say this now: If the Masters were at Bethpage Black, is there even a chance he returns? It would be absolutely brutal. He got destroyed by masses of drunk New Yorkers for taking out an umbrella when it was raining. Become a sex addict, and he’d never stand a chance.

6:39 p.m.: Tiger finished with a 69 as America chuckles. He’s out of it. Westwood needed a miss from Phil, but no luck, as Phil is draino. Up two with just one hole left. He is about to play the most conservative hole of his life. Three wood it is.

6:53 p.m.: Westwood just misses, and needs a Phil four-putt for the win, and … nothing but the bottom of the cup. Birdie. Three-stroke win, and now it’s just signing the scorecard and time for the peoples’ champ, Angel Cabrera, to present the blazer.

7:09 p.m.: Phil is rocking an epic farmer’s tan and mullet combo, and now he has his third green jacket. What a solid four days. Very few people could be mad at Phil winning. Plus, Freddy Couples competed, and Anthony Kim had a four-hole coming-out party.

The Masters. Huge. Quickly.

Masters Final Round Live Blog

2010-04-11T17:43:00.003-04:00

Live Blog Courtesy of The Heights

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=83833184c1" &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;The Masters Final Round Coverage&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Consolation Road to No Where

2010-03-17T20:53:00.008-04:00

As seen in a March 18 Blog Post in "The Heights" blog, 'SidelineSuperfan'

It’s a sad day for Boston College basketball. The NCAA tournament is just around the corner, and the Eagles can’t boast a team in either the men’s or women’s fields. Worse than that, there is no NIT. No CBI. Heck, the collegeinsider.com tournament didn’t even bother sniffing around Conte Forum.

Perhaps what’s most surprising is neither team was without options. Al Skinner refused to put his team in anything below the NIT. For that reason, Rakim Sanders will be free to travel -- excuse me, jab step (or was that a crab dribble?) -- wherever he wishes instead of hosting the likes of Fairfield in the CBI.

Sylvia Crawley and the Lady Eagles flat-out rejected an NIT birth despite the fact they could quite possibly win the tournament without leaving Chestnut Hill. The locker room was apparently divided over their participation, and rather than play as a team divided, they will sit as a team united.

I generally support playing as much competitive basketball as possible. An NIT or CBI title might not be a National Championship, but you have the chance to win some hardware and be one of only a few teams (two for women, four for men) that can say you ended the year with a W.

When it comes to Skinner and Crawley, I actually agree with their decision. One hundred percent. I may not have said that much about Skinner much this year, but for these teams, they fell well short of expectations, and they didn’t deserve to keep going.

If you watched BC basketball this year, you saw a pair of enigmas. For every high, there were more than a few lows. If the teams didn’t feel they were worthy of a second or third-rate tournament, good for them.What makes tournaments like the NIT great theatre isn’t the BC’s that don’t deserve any recognition for failing to do what they were supposed to.

The NIT is for the teams like Stony Brook. The Seawolves have only been one Division I team since 1999 and have never been in the postseason. They lost to BU -- and not even in Hockey, which is depressing -- in the America East tournament, but were granted an NIT berth thanks to their regular season title.

Stony Brook may have been given an eight seed, the lowest the NIT has to offer, but thanks to Cirque Du Soleil booting top-seeded Illinois from Assembly Hall, the school from the north shore of Long Island got to pack out their 5,000-seat gym for a postseason game Wednesday and host what they called the biggest game in Stony Brook history.

I’ve been in the gym. I've played on that floor. It bears a strong resemblance to a high school gym in that your high school gym may actually look more imposing. But they were pumped to have this opportunity for the first time ever. They sold out and were louder than every non-Duke crowd BC has seen. Because of that, an American East state school pushed to the limit a team that Skinner would likely have lost to by double digits (of course this IS Boston College, so an absolute stomping behind a 28-18 for Corey Raji is within reach as well).

Do you think Conte Forum would see that kind of support for a postseason tournament that is ultimately meaningless? I didn’t think so. Would it see even half capacity? The women’s team hosted an NIT Final Four game last season, and I bet most students reading this didn’t even know that.

Unable to get their goal, the Eagles didn’t want the token “set of steak knives” that comes as the door prize. As much as I’d like to see a few more games of Ayla Brown or Tyler Roche, I can’t say I want a consolation road to nowhere, either.

Where 2010 Happens

2010-03-15T11:51:00.003-04:00

As seen in the Feb. 22 Edition of The Heights, Boston College's Independent Newspaper

The world of the NBA trade is an animal in and of itself. Deals are not often struck for the purpose of two or three teams coming out the other side better. You get players’ actual talent traded for the proverbial bucket of balls –- only if that bucket of balls was Jerome James.

If you were paid way too much once upon a time, and can now attach the words “expiring contract” to your bio, you become instantly valuable. A few years ago, it turned Raef LaFrentz into one of the league’s most sought after big men.

Trades are made to get under the luxury tax threshold or the salary cap, and young talent or future draft picks are nowhere near as valuable as is the freedom from having to pay them.

You end up getting contract swaps like Brian Cardinal for Darko Milicic, or the pure salary dump of Matt Harpring and 2009 first-round pick Eric Maynor for the rights to 2002 German second-rounder Peter Fehse, whose entire value lies in the fact that he is not in the NBA and never will be, making him as much of an asset as I am.

The NBA has always been a freak animal, but something has come over the league recently. It’s the mythical “Summer of 2010.”

LeBron James. Dwyane Wade. Chris Bosh. They all are free agents this summer, and whatever sacrifices are made between now and July 1 are just water under the bridge.
My New York Knickerbockers were the poster child of horrendous NBA deals under Isiah Thomas, and now they are trying to reverse that trend. Donnie Walsh has, in under two years, managed to jettison Stephon Marbury to China, get rid of Jared Jefferies, Jamal Crawford, and the aforementioned Jerome James, though James most likely would have eaten all traces of his contract anyway.

In the process, he has brought in a potential star (that right there is called a New York bias) in Danilo Gallinari and has a chance to sign Tracy McGrady at a steep discount, as his albatross of a contract will come off the books at the end of the year.

With the final shedding of Jefferies, the Knicks can attempt to woo two top-class free agents with maximum money. As long as he doesn’t spend it on the likes of Michael Redd and Jermaine O’Neal, two guys who really don’t deserve the close to $20 million they are making this year, he could be a hero.

Largest media market in the country? Coach famous for a run-and-shoot offense known as “seven seconds or less?” Knicks fans are dancing like Jeff Jagodzinski after beating Virginia Tech.

The only blemish on Walsh’s record is the failure to get rid of Eddy Curry, the man who was once a solid post presence, but as he aged, it became clear that his “baby fat” was actually man fat, and the only thing he could do in seven seconds or less is pound down a Big Mac and large fry.

The summer of 2010 has replaced the draft as the place where teams go for hope. Everybody that wants a shot has one.

New Jersey is saddled with an NBA team that will almost certainly fail to crack 10 wins, in addition to the sad fact that, well, they are in New Jersey. Still, they could have the most cap space in the NBA and can offer LeBron a fresh start in Brooklyn with his boy Jay-Z.

The Bulls can offer Wade a hometown crowd.

The Clippers can offer the second biggest media market in the country and Blake Griffin.

The Timberwolves can offer … okay, not much, but they can throw down tons of money.

Teams see the horizon, and every one of them sees the superstar they want in their jersey. All these pointless trades create cap space and the possibility to be an immediate championship contender. The consolation price if LeBron and friends don’t want to spend their time hanging out in a city like Milwaukee? I guess you can still have Fehse.

THIS is March Madness?

2010-02-10T11:57:00.004-05:00

As Seen in the February 8th Issue of The Heights

Bigger is better in America. It’s landed Tony Siragusa a sideline gig. It made Darko Milicic a higher pick than Carmelo Anthony. It even made everyone consider Barry Bonds’ size-15 head a good thing.

So when it became widely reported that March Madness would be expanding to 96 teams, how could it be a bad thing? Coaches loved it. Networks loved it. Yet it caused most fans to react as if they found Tiger Woods’ number in their girlfriend’s cell phone.

Sports fans are willing to concede a lot of things, so long as the sanctity of the game they love isn’t compromised. Do not touch our yearly bracket pool.

I consider there to be three purely perfect sporting events left: the World Cup, the NHL playoffs, and March Madness. You can argue anything else – the Olympics, the Super Bowl, whatever – and I will say no. Any time a spectacle like the opening ceremony or the commercials draw nearly as many viewers as the actual sport, you have already lost perfection.

March Madness is the pinnacle of what should be untouched. More classes have been cut by yours truly in honor of the first two rounds of the tournament than I am willing to divulge. (Sorry to any professors of mine that happen to read this.) I even dropped a class second semester last year partly because there was a “can’t miss class” during the first round of games.

I’ve gone as far as riding in a broken down 1980s Volvo through a blizzard to avoid missing a second of UNLV-Georgia Tech.

Normally you might think that an extra 32 teams (well, 31 I guess. Thanks play-in game!) would give one-and-a-half times the fun. Wrong. Sure, a few more mid-majors would get a chance, and the Pac-10 would stand a chance at multiple bids, but who would get the majority of those bids? Middling power conference teams. If you really want to watch Auburn vs. Oregon for the right to lose to Kansas by 40, well, you can just watch the NIT.

Of course, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Co., stands less of a chance against the big boys, but that’s what makes the tournament so great. I still remember Hampton upsetting a dominant Iowa State team, and Bryce Drew sinking a buzzer-beating 3-pointer for Valparaiso.

A great game between two heavyweights is a beautiful thing for sure, but it’s the minnows attempting to flip everything on its head that bring out the sucker in everybody.
Oftentimes, the final bubble slots are a struggle to decide between which team is more wholly mediocre. A field of 96 means no longer are you looking for the mediocre – you are trying to decide which team sucks the least.

Imagine the selection committee deciding between a 18-13 Northwestern team that went 6-12 in the Big Ten and a 16-14 South Carolina team that went 7-9 in the SEC?

John Shurna! Sam Muldrow! This is March Madness!

By expanding to let in teams that floundered throughout the regular season, you open the door for teams like, well, Boston College into the big dance.

Look, I love BC basketball. To see Al Skinner’s team scrape into the tournament with something like a 6-10 ACC record and those resume-boosting losses to Maine and Saint Joseph’s would just make my day, and I assure you some “illness” will overtake me that Thursday. But it just isn’t right.

The Eagles aren’t dead in the water for the 65-team field yet. It would take some sort of miracle run from now till the end of the season. Rakim Sanders would have to enter some never-before-seen “eff-you, I’m scoring 30 tonight, and I dare you to try and stop me” mode, Reggie Jackson would have to tighten his handle, and Josh Southern would have to find both a secondary post move and a pulse.

Since that’s about as likely as a steep drop in the school’s cost of tuition, the NIT or, gulp, the CBI awaits.

Note: If Rakim really does decide to take that step (he showed flashes against FSU and Duke), I will eat my words as happily as I would a Steve’s Sizzling Steak – trust me when I say very happily.

Speaking of the NIT and the CBI, could you imagine what those tournaments would look like?

We’d get first-rate ESPN2 coverage of Jay Bilas analyzing the length of Deilvez Yearby and the IPFW Mastodons against Prairie View A&M in the CBI championship. On the plus side, that would allow Digger Phelps to rock a killer Prairie View A&M purple shirt and marker combo. It’s the little things that will keep me watching when CBS and the NCAA cash in on an extra week of pseudo-madness.

In addition to the billion-dollar contracts that are thrown about in return for the broadcast rights and advertising, it’s the millions that coaches stand to make from their tournament appearances that will eventually push the scales toward expansion.

Even “old-school” coaches like Mike Krzyzewski endorse the expansion. Why? Because coaches are often judged by their ability to get the team to the main event in March. The more teams in, the more secure everyone’s job will be, right?

Considering that it would set a new standard for which coaches would be judged, the advantage would be negated within a few years. Throw in the always prevalent economic downturn, and the only way a coach will get fired is if he takes up a Rod Marinelli level of losing or if some kind of abuse allegation from a player surfaces.

You can understand Coach K standing up for his brethren and maybe even trying to help his own chances in the tournament by watering down the field and hoping teams like VCU get knocked out before they can get to the Blue Devils, but it’s an idea that is panned by everyone outside the decision-making process.

It’s like the decision makers are sitting in a late ’90s Enron board meeting. The CEO (schools), CFO (NCAA), and accounting department (networks) have decided it would be a great idea to cook the books.

Well, at this point, the employees would like to disagree. You can continually water down the regular season, but don’t you dare touch our tournament. Internally, it may seem like a win-win, but it’ll be the viewers who come out on the losing end.

I want to care about Southeast Missouri State, Stony Brook, and Maryland Eastern Shore playing against the powers. You give the top 32 teams a bye and, what, maybe a half dozen Cinderella stories make it through?

You lessen the number of potential upsets, and suddenly you could end up with virtually none. No TJ Sorrentine drilling a 32-footer in Syracuse’s face. No Clifton Lee (and his outrageous afro) on Northwestern State there to bust my Final Four sleeper of Iowa. It might be hard to believe it now, but maybe no Davidson, no Gonzaga, no George Mason.

Suddenly the only “I could be that guy!” story you have to rally behind is Tennessee’s Skylar McBee, and you really couldn’t be him because, let’s face it, his name is just better than yours.

Without McBee we’d be left with nothing, and frankly that’s not something I’m willing to accept.

Sorry for the Layoff

2010-01-22T12:03:00.004-05:00

Hey all, sorry its been a while since I've written a post. I know, I know, all four of you out there must be very disappointed. Anyway, I just wanted to write to let you know that I have settled into a schedule with work and school and see some time on the horizon (ok, well actually Saturday) when I just might be able to sit down and give you my thoughts on Jets/Chargers, Jets/Colts, The Nate Robinson Situation, Whether or not the reason Donnie Walsh hasn't made a trade yet is because he refuses to communicate by any means other than telegram, or whatever else happens in the wide wide world of sports strikes my fancy. Until then, I hope everyone is enjoying this seasons new hit show, "Survivor: Revis Island."

SPOILER ALERT: Just like ABC's "Lost," the island wins

Karma is a Bitch

2009-12-28T18:37:00.004-05:00

Is it odd to not just hope, but expect your team to pull off something that had been proven nearly impossible? Slightly delusional maybe, but not exactly crazy. Now is it strange when that mindset is held by the entirety of the fan base and almost everyone who knows anything about the team?

That's what you got when the Jets played the previously 14-0 Indianapolis Colts. You may be thinking, "Oh great, everyone has confidence in Gang Green!" More likely you know exactly what I mean when I say it was the farthest thing from a ringing endorsement.

Blessed with a convoluted playoff scenario and a late kickoff, couch potatoes across the New York Metropolitan area could sit back and watch as Houston spent the first half destroying Miami, New England handily dispatched Jacksonville and Pittsburgh blindly stumbled in a Raven's team much in the giving spirit (113 penalty yards, two negated touchdowns and a solid Braylon Edwards impersonation by the usually steady Derrick Mason) and suddenly the Jets just needed two wins and they would be playoff bound one week after Rex Ryan declared them dead in the water.

Sidenote: With all he has done this year I am not about to concede the Ryan actually thought the Jets were out of it. I think it may have all been a ploy. Call me a conspiracy theorist, I just don't think Rex is that dumb.

Of course to get that playoff birth they would have to go through the 14-0 Colts and a division winning Cincinnati Bengals team, no big deal. Vegas still had the Colts favored by 6, but most bigtime football fans knew better. The Jets would return home for their final game at the Meadow lands at 8-7 and with a playoff birth on the line.

Yeah, the Colts already had locked up the AFC top seed, but the lack of effort would never enter the head of Peyton Manning. Considering there is an 85% chance Manning is coaching the team and Jim Caldwell is some Japanese Tech Tycoons new "life-like robot" hired to LOOK official, the overwhelming support for the Jet's had little to do with the Colts and everything to do with history.

The Jet's are cruel. They are the anti-Cubs. They don't like to be lovable, they don't like to let you know they're going down, they just lose. In the process they rip your heart out, leaving every Jet fan feeling like they accidentally wandered into the Temple of Doom. Very few loses for any team I follow stands out more than the 2004 playoffs when the Jets gave the shimmer of hope after Nate Kaeding, now the most accurate kicker IN NFL HISTORY, missed a 40 yard FG in overtime, and the Doug Brien made one for the Jets sending them into Pittsburgh to face the 15-1 Steelers. Luck was finally on the Jets side. The Jets played a great game and twice in the fourth quarter Doug Brien had a chance to give the Jets the win. Both times he went wide. Jeff Reed converted in OT and the Jets were done. Needless to say Doug Brien was released and I'm pretty certain if he found himself in New York it would be a less kind environment than the North Side of Chicago for Steve Bartman. That was the last time the Jets fans had faith their team could pull it out, and that was shattered.

They simply HAD to beat the Colts on Sunday. If they didn't, how could they put their fans through the proper amount of agony when they lose to the Bengals in week 17?

Sure, Jim Caldwell proved for the first time all year that he might actually be the coach of an NFL football team by pulling his starters and yeah the Colts were up before Curtis Painter became the most hated man in Indiana (Kelvin Sampson thanks you), but it was all going to happen so the Jets fans could have one more week of optimism.

Sidenote #2: There are plenty of players who's careers are defined by one awful moment but Curtis Painter has a chance to do something special. He may never see meaningful time after this season. If Jim Sorgi weren't hurt he wouldn't even have seen time against the Jets. Next year Sorgi will be back and Painter will be left to throw passes to the likes of Aaron Morehead in preseason. His shit stain on the turf of Lucas Oil stadium against the Jets will be his entire professional legacy.

I'm a skeptic about alot of things. Do I believe in cursed sports franchises? Not really. But do I believe in history just permeating an organization and fan base to the point that punching your fans in the stomach in games like this just becomes second nature? You better believe it.

Will any of that change how I watch the game next week? Not a chance. The Jets may have punched me in the chest, kicked me in the nuts and kneed me in the face, but I'll keep coming back for more.

David Shinskie-Claus

2009-12-25T00:27:00.004-05:00

As you sit there wearing Aunt Elma’s freshly knitted sweater and basking in the hundreds of dollars on store credit December 26th always brings, the Boston College football team will be getting ready to suit up and face the mighty USC Trojans.

Sure it SOUNDS bad, Head Coach Frank Spaziani even told the Boston Globe, “Hopefully it’s not a 76-second knockout.’’

But why is everybody so worried? Just look at the matchup on paper.

Sure USC has three Heisman Trophies this decade and seven overall. BC has Doug Flutie and then some more Doug Flutie.

USC has the hotshot former NFL head coach who gives away cars and apartments like most people give away candy canes on Christmas (allegedly). BC has a lifetime college assistant who is best known for his yellow towel and 1970’s mustache.

USC’s freshman quarterback was one of the top five players in the country last season. BC’s freshman quarterback is 25 and parlayed his time with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats into an ACC starting gig.

USC has pomp, circumstance, shiny body armor, and dudes with swords riding on horses. BC has an inflatable bird that stands on its head and an “Eagle’s on the Warpath” chant that is less effectively deployed than the federal bailout.

None of that stuff is even the “paper” for the game to be played on. That’s just the intro, the fluff, the pictures and one-syllable words that doubles as the USC team’s study guide for English class (Sorry, couldn’t resist).

Once you actually take a look at the “paper”, it doesn’t seem that daunting. The “Men of Troy” look downright beatable.

Sure BC is only 8-4. The Mighty Trojans? Well they are not one win better, going 8-4 themselves.

BC could barely win on the road, three of their four loses coming away from Alumni stadium. In two of the games (Virginia Tech and Clemson) they couldn’t even put up a fight. USC? Well they lost two on the road, including a 27-point dusting by Rose Bowl bound Oregon team.

BC’s loses all came to bowl eligible opponents (Notre Dame decided not to attend one, though if they had I’m sure the 6-6 Irish would have somehow found a slot in BCS picture). USC lost to Washington, a team who will be spending their holiday season at home and had lost 15 of their previous 16 when the then third-ranked Trojans came to town.

BC has 25-year-old journeyman freshman Dave Shinskie at the helm. USC has last year’s ESPN top prospect Matt Barkley running their show. Advantage? Surprisingly push.

Barkley may have thrown 2,385 yards to Shinskie’s 1,831, but both threw 13 picks while Uncle Dave actually had one more touchdown, winning that battle 14-13.

As far as team point production goes, the teams are pretty much even. BC scored 309 points while allowing 233. USC scored 11 more points (320) than the Eagles but allowed 12 more (245), letting the Eagles +76 point differential sit one better than the Trojan’s +75.

Throw in Montel Harris’ 1355 yards and 13 touchdowns being more than anyone on the USC sideline as well as top Trojan back Joe McKnight being questionable thanks to some issues with his girlfriend’s car and maybe BC does have just a little more than a wing and a prayer.

That being said, there is no denying the Trojan’s potential after seven straight trips to a BCS game, so it wouldn’t be a bad thing if Spaziani found the perfect game plan lying gift-wrapped by Santa under his tree. You’d have to say that on paper, the Christmas season would have to favor the Catholic school. As you know though, games are never won on paper.

Cloudy With a Chance of Airballs

2009-12-22T13:43:00.006-05:00

Even with glut of sports news I can get behind in the past few weeks including the Jets going from hot to not to hot steaming pile of poo, Jonathan Bender having the greatest recovery since Lazarus and Tiger Woods threatening to break sports single most untouchable record, Wilt Chamberlains 20,000 sexual conquests, the blogging has been lacking. Blame finals week, I had more important things to do, like giving the illusion of studying or writing papers. Still I made it down to Conte Forum to see Nick Masakowski and company run shit, or something like that.

So, BC basketball lost lost two in a row to local non-power conference teams. Oh no! The sky is falling! The levees are breaking! It’s a catastrophe! Give me Al Skinner’s head on a platter!

To quote everyone’s second favorite senile ESPN college football commentator, “Not so fast my friend!”

I’m all about rationalizing and placing blame and a lot of times that falls on the coach (if you can’t blame the refs that is). Hell, a small goal of mine as a sports journalist is to instigate a coach getting fired, it just seems like fun. This is not the time. The seemingly bi-weekly Skinner witch-hunt is in full swing at this moment, but I’m having none of it.

Why am I staunchly defending Skinner just a few weeks after being maybe the only basketball fan at BC to defend his “tight flex offense?” Is it because I like him as a person? Not exactly, every press conference I’ve been to with Al has been mostly bland with a few comments about the refs thrown in that have the media relations’ guy running to change his pants. Even so, I don’t feel Frank Spaziani is a great head football coach, and he was awesome to interview. Is it because I enjoy joking about Al and his assistant Bonzie Colson and the “Al Skinner Mirror Face” from his Eastern Clothing commercial? Ok yes, yes it is, but that’s not the only reason. So what is it you might ask?

1. We Beat Bryant!

Last season they were the Rhode Island based team to send large droves of fans up the commuter rail and out on the B-Line. BC won by 19. This year URI forced me to leave Conte Forum early for literally the first time ever. I've sat through all kinds of John Oates and Shamari Spears led disasters, but this was ugly. Well this year Bryant brought the sign of hope for the Eagles, more in the big ol' zero in the win column than anything else. And you know what? This year BC whooped dem Bulldgos by 26 and Al did something that you would never expect, he shook things up. To the bench went Josh Southern, he of 44 consecutive starts and Koy Detmer memorial beard, and in came sophomore Reggie Jackson. Yeah it's Bryant, but it worked! Corey Raji and Joe Trapani ran the floor and stretched the D where Southern would trail and take his perfunctory 2-3 elbow jumpers per game. BC outdid the Bulldogs by 19 on the boards and Southern still got 14 minutes. Lighting a fire under the best true big man on the roster while putting the most effective lineup on the floor? Never a bad idea.

2. We are Undefeated Against Power Conference Teams

As in no losses, zero. Three wins including over ACC foe Miami, effectively putting BC in a tie for the ACC lead with Florida State. I mean 1-0 vs Big 10, 1-0 vs Big East, 1-0 in the ACC is nice but how bout that 0-2 vs the A10, 0-1 vs the MVC and 1-1 vs the might Ivy League? Not as big as you'd think. Northern Iowa is the second rated team (Behind undefeated Missouri State) in a top 10 conference in the Missouri Valley. St. Joes and Rhode Island are both in the conference rated by the computer of the mighty Jeff Sagarin as the sixth best conference in College Basketball. You may be thinking, "Wait, aren't there six power or BCS conferences?" You are right, and the Atlantic 10 is actually BETTER than one of them and Rhode Island is 3rd in that conference and one of the countries top 40 teams according to Sagarin. And that pesky Harvard team? How bout the 50th best team in the country and they have one of the best point guards in the country in Jeremy Lin. How could we ever rationalize loses without you J-Sags?

3. We Did This Last Year

Actually it might have been worse. And that team made the tournament. They lost to Harvard when they were a year younger and without much of athleticism. Then they lost to Saint Louis, letting the Billikens take them down by the Big 10 scoreline of 53-50 in one of the ugliest games ever seen. This year the Crimson had more athleticism and Jeremy Lin ran train on Bico Paris, not a proud moment but even if you put that in the category of shouldn't have happened the losses weren't that bad. St. Joe's shot nearly 50% from the field and from deep and Northern Iowa shot 65%/55% and had Kwadzo Ahelegbe go nutty. When someone named Kwadzo goes 14-17 from the field for 32 points, you aren't winning that game. URI didn't miss on their first 6 threes and it wasn't all BC's poor closeouts, they were just on. Last year Harvard jumpstarted a 4 game losing streak for the Eagles. Then, they went on to win 6 of 8, including taking down Duke at Conte in the defining basketball moment of my time on the Heights. With the exception of walk-on Peter Rehnquist and new recruit Brady Heslip, who enrolled early, the entire team has been through these struggles. Rakim Sanders will knock the rust off, hopefully by the start of ACC play, and this team will be just fine. Yeah, these losses hurt the resume, but they aren't dead yet and South Carolina still comes to town for another chance for a resume victory.

Start making threes and free throws. Get the perimeter D shored up. Figure out a more effective way to break the press then having your point guard post up 90 feet from the hoop. Do this and maybe I'll stay on your side Al, unless you lose to Maine or NJIT, then we can pretend this never happened. Sound like a plan?

1,2, 3...DRAW

2009-12-04T10:46:00.008-05:00

All week I've been building up to Friday, 12 PM EST. Why? Is it because I finally am done with the most painfully boring English discussion class I have? A little bit. Is it probably the one lunch a week I can get some of friends to pay for? Definitely. But that’s only scratching the surface.
Noon is the start of the World Cup. The day when handballs will be bygones, talk of a 33rd team is no more and 32 countries play an international “Pick 4” Lottery. Watching Sepp Blatter pull out ping-pong ball out of four pots? Sounds like a regular party right? Well keep in mind I’m one of those guys who dedicated 15 hours in a weekend to watch the NFL draft from the likes of Jamarcus Russell and Alex Smith all the way to Ramzee Robinson and Ryan Hoag (yes I knew two Mr. Irrelevant draft picks by heart, from Alabama and Gustuvus Aldolphus in case you were wondering, which you weren’t). Well this is even more exciting, not to mention shorter.
With the global and nationalist meaning behind the World Cup, the draw can make all the difference. You think a team like the Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire as they would say, apparently there “is no translation”), who stopped a civil war for the Cup in 2006 wouldn’t love to be in a group with New Zealand and Slovenia over Mexico and France? Sure they relish a challenge but if it allows them to get to the knockout stages, they would be ecstatic.

It’s a lottery effecting literally billions, and its not exactly if its just one winner. The draw is just like the draft in that it gives hope to all 32 nations. Oh, and did I mention Charlize Theron is supposed to be involved in the proceedings?

Live blog it? Why not?

12:00:Why can I only see the first 30 seconds of Washington/Texas Tech basketball? If Bradon Roy and Nate Robinson still made up the backcourt it’d be a different story, but now I need to see some ping-pong balls. (Blogger's Note: Looking back the final few minutes of that game were far superior to 98% of the draw)
12:02: Bob Ley breaking out the commentary, ESPN breaking out the big guns.

And at this point I had to abandon the live blogging, all of two minutes in. Big headphones and a computer draw ridicule from even your friends when at lunch. Despite attempted media blackout I, as usual, failed but only found out the seeded team in the group for the USA. I won’t spoil it, unless some overwhelmingly witty title for this post came too mind and in that case, you will already have the surprise spoiled. Anyway, back to pseudo-replay live blogging, as I have not seen the actual telecast yet. Time-stamping will have to be abandoned in place of stamping just how far I am into the ESPN360 video.

1:00 – Gone was the Bob Ley I heard before replaced by some chick on a mountain. That’s right, a freaking mountain! At this point I expect all the pageantry of an Olympic Opening Ceremony, only inside a theatre. It could be epic.

3:00 – Well there goes that, production values have just dipped into PBS range. I hear a British announcer speaking softly under the audio of some dude playing a guitar. Then his appearance is on stage in front of a shot of scenery. They cut to him dancing and playing his guitar and the green screening and dancing all is too reminiscent of a commercial for a Wiggles sing-a-long.

4:00 – The native dancers are a nice touches even though the song they’re sounds like the least popular single on an album by Asia.

5:45 – The South African’s ace in the hole is certainly Nelson Mandela, a great an inspirational man. Plus he’s being played by Morgan Freeman in a movie, the man who is pretty much typecast as the voice of God. Enough said. His speech is likely one of the only times throughout this I will close the blog and make the video full screen on my computer.

8:00 – Well said by an aged Mandela on the importance of the World Cup coming to Africa, but the simultaneous British announcer is back. The in house announcer is showing all kinds of enthusiasm announcing Sepp Blatter and the South African President, Jacob Zuma. Sign this guy up for the AND1 African tour.

10:00 – President just predicted an African victory, followed by Blatter spitting some game at the hostess. “It’s easy to fall in love with Africa, when I see you. Definitely.” Get at me Sepp!

11:00 – Big focus on Africa getting their first World Cup. I’m not sure the long legacy of soccer on the whole continent after this, but it is definitely a big accomplishment for them.

13:00 – I’m not sure Blatter understands exactly when his points are supposed to be made. The Italian FA President is standing there waiting to return the return the trophy looking very confused as Blatter reads off the names supporting an education plan FIFA has presented for the world.

15:00 - Italian FA makes short statement, the forced use of English seems to have limited him, but expresses confidence in retaining the trophy. The beauty of the draw, right now every nation is confident. Though I do have to say President Zuma has one of the best laughs I’ve heard in a while.

16:00 – English is most likely not Blatter’s first language but he honestly seems incompetent. He did not know the World Cup was kicking off in Johannesburg. This man is the FIFA president, always good.

23:00 – A little kid in some “History of Football” piece just “mistook “a Brazilian player saying, “look, an African.” Not sure how that’s going to go over.

25:00 – The book they’re flipping through in the piece has videos on the pages. Show me a scrapbooking class that teaches you that.

28:00 – Always a redeeming endorsement of my major choice when a big part of FIFA’s development program in Africa is improving broadcasting.

30:00 –I see a microphone on this singer from Benin but I hear something that looks nothing like what her mouth is doing. She could be singing or could be even worse at hiding she is not than Ashlee Simpson. Remind me never to try and read the lips of singers from Benin again. At least we know that Africa’s musical taste is only 25 years behind the curve. Either that Raffi would still be an international sensation. (Blogger's Note: Didn't realize at the time the Raffi actually is from Africa. Crazy.)

34:00: Charlize Theron’s first appearance, definitely an improvement over her look from Monster. By far one of the most exciting parts of the pre-selection show, even though she seems unsure of exactly what she is saying and clearly know almost nothing about soccer.

38:00 – They keep calling out the random former players in the crowd but they say nothing and just smile for 2 seconds before going back to the stage.

39:00 – The mascot appears not to have gotten the memo about when he was to make his appearance. Ok, there he is, now on the stage looking more like a Robot Chicken sketch than good CGI. Though I am intrigued to see what happens when all this big African animals play soccer.

41:00 – This is looking like the most epic Budweiser Superbowl ad of all time. The Lion making a save and Zebra free kick wall were legit.

45:00 – I’m assuming that was the debut of the official match ball, and it is pretty legit. It also has a Zulu name, which I pretty sweet I guess.

47:00 – This montage of people in different professions can do nothing to convince me it’s not an advertisement for ITT Tech. At least they followed it up with their interpretation of what I can best tell is Guys and Dolls.

51:00 – Charlize said they won a Grammy. Way to go guys, but most importantly we finally have the “draw-master.” Nice and intimidating nickname, I wonder if that’s what his friends call him at home.

52:00 – “The Drawmaster” gets the double cheek kiss from Miss Theron and the crowd heckles him for it, very nice. Get some Drawmaster, get some.

1:01:00 – All the celebrities are out, personal favorite has to be Beckham coming out to Charlize’s, “Hey sweetheart.” Oh, Hollywood. Also the great John Smith will be drawing first.

1:04:00- After a lengthy explanation of rules an regulations that matter in some overly staged dialogue between the Drawmaster and Charlize which I will instead just link to, we finally have a team drawn and…what a shock! South Africa is team A1! Oh wait, that was already known? Well whatever. At least we have Ethiopian marathon runners in crazy white and gold outfits, and quite frankly, that’s all you need.

1:04:30 – Nothing matters much in the first pot drawing. Sure location matters, but I cannot know off the top of my head so thus its just naming groups at this point.

1:06:00 – Italy is in Cape Town first, finally I learn something!

1:07:00 – John Smith continues his luck and South Africa draws Mexico, by far the happiest team at this point, plus they draw the opening match as well.

1:08:30 – Maradona draws 2002 semi-finalist, South Korea. By far the stronger Korea. Two of the weaker teams are yet to come in this pot, Korea DPR and New Zealand.

1:09:00 – Throw the tea overboard, one if by land, two if by sea, its USA v. England AND it’s the opening match of Group C. Well if the US weren’t going to draw South Africa, very little mattered anymore, at least the toughest game is first before any more injury or Yellow Card trouble for them. The Drawmaster did just bring up the USA upset of England in 1950, but confused the hell out of Charlize in the meantime. Keep up with the smooth talk Mr. Drawmaster; it’s bound to work out. Between Captain Drawmaster and Sepp Blatter, the FIFA officials are doing some serious work.

1:10:00 – Australia to Germany and the Drawmaster continues to woo Charlize with his knowledge of previous World Cup groupings.

1:12:00 – New Zealand Italy, Charlize still craving more knowledge and the Drawmaster steps in a little closer. Brazil draws the Korea DPR and Honduras is going to Spain’s group, a repeat of 1982 the drawmaster tells us.

1:14:00 – Nigeria is draw and joins Korea and Argentina because South Africa cannot take an African team. Ivory Coast goes into group G for some reason and the USA/England lands Algeria, which is a nice relief as they appear the weakest African team not hosting the tournament, though the did defeat Egypt to get here, and that’s an accomplishment.

1:17:00 – Finally South Africa has a new opponent and its Uruguay. Charlize, now bored with the drawmaster, turned to Beckham as he draws the pot numbers. Ghana is now headed in with Australia and Germany. Potential group of death depending on Pot D team. France or Portugal and it is on.

1:18:00 – Cameroon is with Netherlands and all the African teams are drawn. Paraguay draws Italy and gets them to open as well. Chile is with Spain and Honduras and Charlize is non-responsive to the Drawmaster and his unending humor of their common Spanish language.

1:20:00 – The true telling of Group of Death is the second European team. France to South Africa and the hosts look dead in the water going into the tournament.

1:21:30 – The Greeks to Argentina’s group and it looks like a very well rounded group, as the music in the background grows more and more intense.

1:22:00 – The always-happy Ethiopian marathoner draws the US well, giving Group C Slovenia. Dangerous yes, but very young as well.

1:23:00 – Serbia to Germany’s group and that may well still be the death group. Denmark to the Dutch group, Slovakia to Italy, Portugal to Brazil and that has three top teams, and the North Koreans, it was nice having you. At least Kim Jong Il has a golf career to fall back on.

1:26:00 – The Swiss to Spain’s group and the draw is complete. Group D and Group G look toughest on first glance, but who knows come June.

1:28:00 – The two athletes actually in this world cup are diplomatic, though Boothe, the South African defender promises if nothing else a loud exit with 90,000 of those freaking horns. At least John Smith is as cocky as you could expect a rugby guy to be, claiming the South African group is tough, but “will provide good practice for the semi-finals and finals.” Got to love the modesty.

1:29:00 – The drawmaster, seeing his window of opportunity closing goes for the arm-around on Charlize with the response of an awkward laugh. Ouch. I hate to crash and burn with nobody watching. 200 million people? Now that’s a tough one.

1:30:00 – Charlize says “I’m going to take you with me,” completing the fantasy of the Drawmaster, who now has very little left to do with this world cup. At least he’s got the sweet nickname to keep him going.

FINE! If you’ve honestly slogged through the last 2100 or so words you deserve a prize. No really. I’ll have more detailed analysis of the World Cup later, but for right now nothing else much can be said. If you failed to follow that jibberish above here's a more easily digestible view of the groups. The Boys in the Stars & Stripes drew England but an otherwise favorable group and my other favorite team, Côte d'Ivoire drew what will undoubtedly go down as the Group of Death with Portugal and Brazil in addition to what is widely regarded as the strongest African side. North Korea looks dead in the water, but it their leaders athletic prowess can go untapped till his first round of golf you never know what magic they’ll find come June in South Africa.

I Accept Your Challenge BIg 10

2009-12-03T13:21:00.008-05:00

As seen (sort of) in "Top of the Heights," sports blog for The Heights online

The Big 10 used some surprising upsets (Wisconsin over Duke, Illinois over Clemson) to take its first Big 10/ACC Challenge in the 11-year history of the event. To be honest, I’m pretty sure that the good people of Bristol, CT who have been trying to make this event happen are the only ones in New England who care about that little fact.

The rest of us further up north? Well I’d say we’re just happy Boston College could go out to Michigan, formerly of the top 15, and grab a much-needed victory. Apparently the Wolverines were no match for Northern Iowa’s output against the BC defense. Player of the year candidate Manny Harris? He’s no Kwadzo Ahelegbe. Sorry Coach Beilein, you’ve done a nice job turning around that program, but Kevin Pittsnogle is just not walking through that door.

After watching the Wolverines struggle against Marquette and Creighton, I spoke my piece of wisdom about how to beat Harris, DeShawn Sims and company. What those two teams did was spread the floor and make their outside jumpers. By stretching the defense the backdoor and inside cuts looked very, very open. But I guess that’s why Al Skinner has his Eastern Clothing endorsement deal and I don’t. Skinner took the ball to the teeth of the Michigan defense to the tune of 34 points in the paint. BC made just three three-pointers in the game and only one in the first half, just 40 seconds from the break.

Sure, Beilen had his team firing up 34 threes, but you don’t have to outshoot them to beat them. They made nine from deep to make it look close in the end but the 20-7 run to end the game was mostly cosmetic aside from one or two scary possessions with the difference just six. In the end you still ended up with a BC victory and the all too familiar Big 10 scoreline of 62-58. The four-point difference in the end really doesn’t do justice to the domination of the Eagles.

The patented flex offense didn’t look all that effective but plenty of other tight-motion plays that find themselves into Skinners playbook did and Corey Raji was just eating it up.

Raji has always been a threat on the offensive glass despite being just 6-foot-6 because of his nose for the ball and superior positioning underneath. In his first two years the biggest problem was his sometimes-strange inability to finish the easy ones (or bunnies as Steve Lavin would say). Sure he’s had flashes. A career high 26 against Maine. Single-handedly keeping the Eagles in the game against USC last March with his first half heroics. Even this year against Providence he went off for 12 points and nine rebounds in the first eight minutes. Problem was, after the first half, the defense keys in and suddenly his production doesn’t just drop, it disappears.

Maybe he turned the corner against Michigan. It wasn’t the same killer output he had in the first half, but he was still able to find the holes and most importantly, finish the easy ones in the second. His cuts on inbounds plays have lead to a handful of quick scores this year, something Skinner’s last few teams were often criticized for.

Sure he still shooting 33 percent from the free-throw line but nobody save Biko Paris and Josh Southern (85 percent Josh? Really? It has to be the beard, hell it works for Baron Davis and Randy Moss) is having much success there right now for the Eagles.

The key for Raji will be what can he do when teams realize he’s on the court before halftime? Will he still be able to produce?

Following the game Wednesday, Skinner compared Raji to BC great Jared Dudley for his ability to feel the game on offense without having the play called for him. Raji may never be the player Dudley is, but if he can take the next step toward that, he could be a very dangerous weapon for the Eagles.

Following his freshman season there was the debate. Who was the next BC star, Raji or Rakim Sanders? It was split surprisingly more even than you might think. Then last year Sanders took that next step, making two buzzer beaters and generally being the team’s second option, while Raji was just there to mop up the offensive glass. Now with Sanders out, Raji may be taking that step himself. It just took him that one extra year.

Shay It Ain't So

2009-11-19T15:19:00.018-05:00

Great stories are made by the heroes and the villains. Then there is the France v. Ireland Word Cup playoff match. Damien Duff WAS the hero. Robbie Keane WAS the hero.

Then Thierry Henry flicked the ball to William Gallas to give France the win and he became the hero. Only Henry handled the ball illegally...twice.

Suddenly Henry's no longer the hero he's the villain. Martin Hansson did what every referee wants to avoid, he was noticed. Hansson too, became a villain. French Coach Raymond Domenech? Well he became one of the biggest villains/assholes, denying what millions had seen in person and TV land.Duff, Keane and the Rest of Ireland? No longer heroes, they had been forced to be the victims. The story now had no heroes at all.

Maybe the scorn isn't as great where the non-English-speaking media reins supreme (score one for freedom of the press), but that didn't stop the outcry from reaching France and Sweden. Both Henry and Hansson claimed to seriously reconsider their career choices in the aftermath. They both denied blame, to varying degrees of success, but ultimately realize that while they did their best they were to blame for the outcome, Henry for handling the ball, Hansson for missing the obvious call.

While Henry showed much humility, well at least much more than Diego Maradona after his famous "Hand of God", as we have yet been spared any gloating, self-inflicted nicknames for Henry's actions, his coach did not follow suit.

Domenech has been less than classy, going so far as the deny that the handball seen round the world even took place in his post-match press conference. Henry himself admitted to his action in his own conference, but Domenech was no going to have any of it. Henry told the referee it was indeed a handball and stuck consoled the dejected Irish team after the match ended.

Does his compassion and self-deprecation make Henry immune from blame for the incident? I'd argue it doesn't but at the same time he should not be made out the be the horrific villain and cheat he has been painted as.

Did he handle the ball? Undeniably, yes. Did he report his misdeed to the referee in time for it to rectified on the pitch? No, of course not. Does this make him into the Irish FA's version of Satan? I'd have to hope not.

While constant slow-mo and super-slow-mo iterations of the replay can be seen from multiple angles you can argue what ever you want about the handball. While from the camera behind the end line it is obvious that he touches it twice in succession before flicking it on to Gallas for the goal to clinch a trip to South Africa, you cannot assume it was something Henry thought about doing. Sure, the synapses of a top-tier professional athlete may fire a bit quicker under pressure than say, your average blogger, but the time it took for the ball to come up on him, it would be next to impossible for Henry to make the conscious decision that yes, yes I will cheat in an attempt to score a goal right here, right now.

Henry even called for the match to be replayed after the fact, something FIFA was having none of. It was widely known that a replay was the only fair way to award a Irish team that outplayed the French team on the own soil. It was an inspired effort from a team maligned for its result in the opening game of the two-match tie. Giovanni Trapattoni was under fire for defensive tactics that kept his team in games but left little room for comebacks.

Enter Duff and Keane and their link-up on the first goal. Suddenly the dream was possible. They could not only play with the French, heck, they could be better than them! If only they could have something every kid who's played whiffle ball knows about, a do-over. Brimming with confidence after a game they felt should have at the very least gone to penalties, Ireland assistant Liam Brady was ready to challenge his boys to go out do what before that day seemed impossible...again.

"This game should be replayed and we'll go to Paris to play it," Brady told reporters.

The call for the replay didn't stop with the coaches of the losing team or even Henry. Trapattoni may not have called for one but the Irish Justice minister did.

"Millions of people worldwide saw it was a blatant double handball, not to mention a double offside [bloggers note: I didn't even get into that, but yeah, that happened too]. We should put the powers that be in the cosy world of FIFA on the spot and demand a replay,” said Dermot Ahern.

The Taoiseach (That's Ireland's Government Leader, apparently. English titles are overrated on the Emerald Isle) Brian Cowen even wanted to discuss the matter with French President Nicolas Sarkozy before being thwarted by François Fillon's warning as reported by the London Times. Domenech likewise denied calls for a replay, something that if he had done would have push FIFA president Sepp Blatter's hand just a little bit more.

Lost in this suddenly political conflict full of hooligan government types and re-hashed recession talk was the craziest and most unique idea of the story, the importance of a game. Every sports writer picks a time to mention the transcendent nature of sports, and this is my stand. Well, it's probably the first of many, but while it's not exactly my Little Bighorn, the remarkable power of this story is awe inspiring.

How often can such a subtle movement as Henry's handball was send all corners of the world into pandemonium?

That is the power of the World Cup for you. One of the more incredible things about it is the fact that its not always anger. Yeah, the Irish have every right to be angry but look at them after the handball. Its not anger. Shock. Disbelief. Agony. All these are more applicable.

Take a look at Shay Given as he and his teammates appeal to Hansson with all they have to give them the rightful handball. Now, put me in Given's shoes and it might just be pure anger. If the Boston College refs were as qualified as Hansson or say Dick Bavetta I'd have a rap sheet in the intramural office of yellow cards and technical fouls as long as Paradise Lost. But, I feel like I just don't understand what its like being on that stage...no really, I don't. Desperation, not anger is what Given shows to one of the two least popular men in Ireland these days.

Ireland was eliminated unfairly, and everyday till they start the next qualification campaign will be tainted with the image of Henry's "Hand of Frog." But even as haunted as Henry is, facing scorn even in his own country, it can't be taken away from him now that he lead is country to the World Cup. The Irish and maybe even the French may not not believe the best team won, but the show of heart on both sides at the peak of competition is something both countries can take pride in.

Flexing Their Muscles

2009-11-19T12:36:00.015-05:00

There comes a time when even the seemingly indefensible must be defended. Just ask Bill Belichick.

Him and the spin machine that allows the Patriots to sign the likes Randy Moss, Brandon Meriweather and Corey Dillon, run up the score in a 16-0 season, and have stories like this come out but STILL be know as a high character team have been working overtime making fourth and two from their own 29 look like the right decision. The Boston Globe even took the time to find some mathematician that would say good ol’ Bill made the right call.

Belichick can say whatever he wants. He was wrong. Deep down even he has to know. It’s a chink in the Pats armor I’ve long been waiting to see as a Jets fan.

Sometimes though, the argument isn’t quite so cut and dry. Take Boston College basketball. For over the past decade that’s meant Al Skinner. It’s meant stoic sideline demeanor. It’s meant season opening suspensions. It’s meant suits from Eastern Clothing. And most importantly, it has meant the flex offense.

When Jared Dudley and Craig Smith were working the tight cuts, down screens and baseline motion to perfection, it was a sight to behold.

The last two seasons have been a little more barren in terms of the production. Tyrese Rice could put the ball in the hoop with the best of them, but knuckling down and grinding down 34 seconds on the shot-clock so that a big man can come from block-to-block for a wide open lay-up? That wasn’t Ty.Well not really, it still looks the same but hey, it put the ball in the basket and that’s really what matters.

It’s not a knock on Rice. He was the best player on a young team, the unquestioned leader. Skinner had to change things up for his star. With that, the flex took its lumps. Honestly, who can blame the critics? Which is more fun to watch, a succession of crisp back cuts, or Rice draining two three-pointers from roughly a quarter-mile a way before jawing at the courtside cameraman? Yeah, I thought so.

With nothing changing for BC besides Rice not having the ball, this could be the team to bring back the heyday of the flex for Skinner.

Biko Paris is no Tyrese, but that might be a good thing. Paris’ role has been the media talking point of the late offseason, so I’ll spare you that, but he’s a distributor who can handle the ball and settle the offense down.

You have Paris at the point and Josh Southern, well do what he does to the tune of 7 and 6, but that’s not where the flex is made. It’s made with the ability to create mismatches.

With the two through four spots, that’s what the Eagles have. The number of 6-foot-5, 230-pound shooting guards, even in the ACC? Minimal. But that’s what BC has in Rakim Sanders. With the ball being worked down low so much in the flex, Sander’s ability to body people down low is so important to the offense. Since most guards will need help, Sanders can look to kick and that’s where having a big man like Joe Trapani stretching the floor comes in handy. While his man goes into the post to help with Sanders, Trapani can leak and suddenly, the flex offense can look just a little pretty.

Throw in the pure rebounding instinct of Corey Raji being kept close to the hoop by the tightness of Skinner’s flex and suddenly, hey, this jut might work.

When you think about it like that, the flex doesn’t sound so bad does it? I guess all Belichick needed was two. And all Skinner needed was the right players.

Not Quite Azteca...But It Will Do

2009-11-12T21:17:00.007-05:00

As seen in the October 22, 2009 edition of The Heights, the Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College

Imagine fans more "smashed" on a whole than any pre-game tailgate you'll find on Shea Field, drinking enough tequila to bring LenDale White back to his old playing weight. Now imagine 105,000 of them screaming and chanting for two hours without a break.

Welcome to Estadio Azteca.

The go-to home ground for the Mexican national soccer team blows Michigan-Ohio State out of the water. I'm not calling the prototypical college football rivalry tame, but I doubt Terrelle Pryor will be looking over his shoulder this year in case a flare or bag of urine is coming his way. And that's without Azteca's barbed-wire fence.

Azteca is one of the most feared venues in the world. The noise is nearly unbeatable when the "El Tri" steps onto the field.

Mexico has Azteca. England has Wembley. Even Costa Rica has its national stadium in San Jose, with a field that makes the Astro Dome turf look like the sprawling fairways of Bethpage Black. Then the United States has…?

Maybe Giants Stadium? I was there for the Gold Cup this year and can guarantee the Mexican fans outnumbered those in Red, White, and Blue at least six or seven to every one.

How about Soldier Field in Chicago? When the U.S. last played there, its opponent - less than impressive Honduras - drowned out the American support.

Then comes the last game of qualifying for the World Cup. The United States had already clinched its trip to South Africa 2010, and its opponent for the evening, Costa Rica, had to win to avoid a home-and-home with Uruguay to clinch its place in the Mecca of international team sports, the World Cup (sorry, Olympics).

It's the type of situation where both players and fans phone-in their effort, preferring not to leave the couch and risk an injury, to sit in the stands in an unnaturally cold October. Still, the U.S. had to suit up and walk onto the field in Washington, D.C.'s RFK Stadium last Wednesday.

Head coach Bob Bradley may want to ask the USSF to move there permanently. The crowd was loud and vibrant in support of the Americans. Signs honoring injured striker (and former BC player) Charlie Davies hung from the lining walls, and the ESPN cameras had no shortage of "super fans" to show during breaks in the action.

Chants of "When the Yanks come marching in," which had been virtually silenced by Mexican support in my trip to the Meadowlands, were clearly audible hundreds of miles away through the television. It was what the U.S. had lacked for so long, a downright home-field advantage.

The U.S. team celebrated in front of its fans after the game like it had just won its very own World Cup. They were leaping around applauding the support of their compatriots.

Tim Howard, the veteran stalwart in front of the goal, was jumping around, hanging on his teammates with a massive smile. It conjured up images of Thomas Claiborne's celebration in front of the BC student section after the Eagles beat Va. Tech last season.

The ensuing field-storming after that victory - probably uncalled for and the sole reason there are now a small army of staties awaiting a lone zealot following a win over the likes of Northeastern - did not happen at RFK, but the mutual admiration of the effort on the field and in the stands was the same.

The scene looked similar to the U.S. upset of Spain, by far the biggest victory the national team had since it defeated England, the home of soccer (a.k.a. Association Football) … in 1950.

The best part about the RFK experience? The U.S didn't even win.

Jonathan Bornstein netted a header in the 95th minute to tie the game 2-2. The crowd may have been looking for a victory, but at that moment, a draw was all it needed. The lone point taken from the game was enough to assure that the stars and stripes would finish tops in the group, just ahead of Mexico. Meanwhile, Costa Rico, arguably the second biggest rival the U.S. has, was forced to book a round trip ticket to Montevideo for the chance to join Howard and company in South Africa.

If Bradley's team is really going to take the next step and become a true force the world away, that is the kind of support it needs.

Sure, there are some crazy people - yours truly included - who would relish the chance to sit so far up in the nosebleed that there isn't even a word for it just to say they saw the U.S. play at Azteca. Personal police escort included.

The team can't expect a crowd like that to be waiting for them when the suit up in Johannesburg or Bloemfontein, but if the U.S. knows a it has a crowd like the one it had at RFK is behind it back home, it just might be enough.

Welcome to the Sanch-ize

2009-10-03T19:32:00.005-04:00

As seen in the September 14, 2009 edition of The Heights, the Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College

Everyone makes mistakes. The weatherman will predict sunny skies only for it to pour. Sometimes. Mel Kiper will mess up in his seven-round mock draft. Occasionally. Even Chuck Norris didn't catch the bad guys the first time around. He needed a whole hour-long time slot.

This is where I have to admit I made a mistake. I thought Mark Sanchez would be a bust. When the Jets traded up to grab him I was the only Jet fan I knew who didn't immediately develop a man crush on the quarterback from USC. Even my friend who threw a remote through a wall when the Jets took Darelle Revis - now a premier NFL corner - was in love with Sanchez. But much like Mark McGwire, I am certainly not here to talk about the past.

It may be too early, scratch that, it is definitely way too early to anoint Sanchez the second coming of Joe Namath. He's played one game and scored as many points for the Jets as the Texans, his interception being returned all the way for a score. There was just something in his performance that made me feel a little bit better about him.

It was the same feeling that emanated from Chad Pennington's first few games. Both were quick to sprint up and down the field following the play and offer congratulations. Both had an intensity and a willingness to stand in a take a hit that young quarterbacks normally lack. Pennington was also quick to head butt his offensive lineman to get himself pumped up before the game, but something tells me that is not a part of Sanchez's preparation. That's the difference between being from a school in rural West Virginia - Pennington's Marshall Thundering Herd - versus Los Angeles and the mighty USC Trojans.

He made throws on the run, he made them in the pocket, he stepped up into space, and he even showed some fancy footwork on play action.

He may still be a bust, but I feel confident enough to say that in the debate of Sanchez versus Matthew Stafford, he isn't playing Ryan Leaf to the former Georgia QB's Peyton Manning.

Could my recent change of heart toward the rookie be due to the fact that I hated the pick of Kellen Clemens - the man who Sanchez beat out for the starting gig - even more than Sanchez? A little - it doesn't hurt to have one of the football teams I follow be able to write their depth chart in pen every weekend, and after today I don't think that will change any time soon.

I'd also like to thank the former Jets quarterback who recently unretired. I don't think anyone wants to read his name in the paper again, so I'll give him the Voldermort treatment, but without his soap opera I don't think I'd appreciate the stability that having a quarterback of the future brings to a team.

Stability at a position like QB is as important as anything else, both for the team and for the fan base. Sure the proverbial "water cooler" debate won't be as heated as if you have two guys going out there and laying it on the line every day in practice and complacency may not always be the best thing, but the positives far outweigh the negative.

Think about the past few years at Boston College. Faith in Matt Ryan is a given, but even compare the past two seasons. Chris Crane was an overall mediocre game manager save channeling Frank Tarkenton or Johnny Unitas against NC State, but he was the quarterback. People called for Dominique Davis, at least until he had to play and everyone wanted Crane back.

This year, it was Davis who was almost certainly the starter and with everything else going on with the program he would at least provide someone to rally behind. But when he transferred, yet another facet of the team was thrown into uncertainty. After early returns - granted they were against Kent State and Northeastern - it looks like Justin Tuggle or Dave Shinskie just might be better than Davis, but so much is reliant upon someone being that number one guy.

Even in the era of the wildcat, the importance of one man behind center is paramount.

With Sanchez at the wheel, the Jets can at least head into a single and certain direction. He could be the next Marino. He could be the next Danny Wuerffel. Even crazier, he could be the first Mark Sanchez.

No matter what, it is clear that he will get the chance be that and nobody will be challenging him.

Let's just hope the man crush lasts.

Thus Quoth the Ravens...We Need to See More

2009-08-24T20:13:00.008-04:00

Everyone reading this should consider themselves lucky to go three months of reading a blog by a Jet's fan without reading a single word about Mark Sanchez. Well, your luck has just run out.

After debating both with other Jets fans and with myself over my feelings on Sanchez, I finally could just give up and let his play on the field sway my opinion. Yeah, it IS preseason, but it's still against the Ravens and it beats the hell out of 7-on-7 drills. When the most you had to fear in drills was the coach's whistle, facing a 250-pound man who was at one point accused of double homicide charging at you full speed is a slightly different animal. I mean literally animal. Does this look like someone you want to mess with?

So after one real half of play from the Golden Boy, what do we really know? Not much of anything.

He came out looking shaky. He was drilled by Ray Lewis and threw a pick on his first throw. It was taken all the way to the house for seven. By this guy. For those of you wondering, that guy is Haloti Ngata, coming in at 6-foot-4 an a svelte 345 pounds.

The resounding opinion in the air as Sanchez walked back to the huddle his next time out was, "sure, he'll bounce back."

A pass that then should have been taken back for six by Ray Lewis thankfully hit the turf and the doubters were one. But even against the Raven's D, Rex Ryan's young quarterback showed a little bit of moxie.

It wasn't quite as great as his first career snap, (I really enjoy that the kid who had such a well versed reaction to the toss had a camera on it the first time watching the game. Just chillin', watching the Jets and filming your television. No big.) but he came back and on his last snap of the day, Sanchez had a souvenir to take home other than some aches and pains. His first career touchdown pass, a 17-yarder to Leon Washington.

Now 3-of-8 for 43 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 pick will not get you in the Hall, unless your Joe Namath of course, but it wasn't as bad as that first throw might make you think. Rex Ryan may be making his decision on a starter sooner rather than later, but I might need just a wee bit more time, and really, isn't it the seldom read blogger's opinion that actually matters?

My Bad...

2009-08-18T19:06:00.006-04:00

Brett Favre is back again. From this point on he will be known as "He Who Shall Not be Named." Sorry Voldermort, you can put sweet scars on magical babies heads all you want, but Fav-re is now the Dark Lord, at least in Wisconsin. But hey, at least Voldermort was able to provide some veteran leadership for Rajon Rondo.

While Number 4 may be taking Voldermorts title, the best comparison for Green Bay's Benedict Arnold may be another literary Sci-Fi great, Gollum from Lord of the Rings. His inability to led go of the "Ring of Power" (i.e. 20 interception seasons), keeps bringing him back again and again. I remember hearing my first Favre retirement story. I was 12. Now I'm about to go into my junior year of college. Enough said.

It's Over....maybe

2009-07-28T23:49:00.007-04:00

Brett Favre retired today. That's really nice, because it's been a while since I heard about that guy. He plays quarterback right? Or does he just wear wrangler jeans and drive a pickup? I just can't be sure anymore.

In other news at the top of the hour on Sportscenter, Roy Halladay has NOT been traded, no new offers have materialized and he did not pitch today. More to come on this breaking story...

Deja Vue All Over Again

2009-07-24T00:48:00.008-04:00

Mark Buehrle is known for his consistency and making quick work of opponents. Eric Cooper (whom wikipedia tells me wears the same number as Buehrle, 56...freaky) must now also be considered a monster of consistency. Cooper was the plate umpire for both of of Buerhle's no-hitters. Crazy right, his zone must be perfect for Mark. BUT WAIT! There's more! Both games lasted a paltry 2 hours, 3 minutes with the minimum number of batters faced.

As with many no hitters, Buehrle's will be remembered for the one remarkable highlight reel defensive play made to preserve it. DeWayne "Don't call me Dwayne" Wise robbed Gabe Kapler of a soul crushing home run to lead-off the ninth, making Kapler into a small trivia footnote on the game. As the announcer called it, one of the greatest catches he'd ever seen...under the circumstances.

Lets be honest, it was a greaaattt catch. Fan-tastic. Phe-nominal. Mag-nanimous. But if Kapler hits that in an 8-4 game six innings earlier, does anyone other than John Kruk really notice? Maybe, but they probably don't care. It's all about the situation. As far as pure greatness of catches go, I'd argue Jim Edmonds has a half dozen catches that are more spectatular than Willie Mays catch if you are looking at them in a vacuum. Some might point out the jump Mays got on the ball and the quick throw, I know, I know. I hold Willie Mays to very high esteem, even though he's Barry Bonds' godfather, but that catch was made greater by the fact it was in the World Series, in a tie game, in the 8th, on a ball that would have been out of 9 of 10 ballparks. Edmonds has a few choice plays in big situations, but on a grand scale they are largely meaningless.

One of the better football catches I've seen belongs to Aaron Moorehead when he was on the Colts. Great, except it was from Jim Sorgi in the preseason, home of corners who already have been kicked off "4th and Long." I've seen Brian Giles pull a ball pack from three rows deep in the left field stands. Problem was, it was for the Pirates and the year wasn't 1991, so nobody cared. Sport's aren't played in a vacuum. Wise's catch, though not on the scale of Mays', came at a big moment and allowed history to happen. We all know baseball fans are suckers for history. He was a defensive replacement who saved a perfect game in the ninth inning. He even added the bobble for style points.

Stuart's Little Goal

2009-07-12T13:05:00.019-04:00

So I missed ANOTHER USA Soccer game. Two actually. This time though, it's honestly not my fault. You can blame James Dolan. As a New York sports fan I often find myself doing that very same thing. He trades for a permanently concussed Eric Lindros (think Blake Griffin on skates, but not in a Manute Bol way), refuses to fire Isiah Thomas after, well, I mean, you're better of reading this:

March 2004 - Thomas refuses to sign renewal-request letters sent out to past season-ticket holders and tells Anucha Browne Sanders, "Bitch, I don't give a f--- about these white people."

And that was over 18 months before he had a sexual assault charge filed against him by the same woman. Well Dolan was behind that man holding on to one the the NBA's highest profile jobs, but his worst thing in my eye is what his day job, as head of Cablevision, does to my sports viewing. I have many qualms with the company, but frankly I just know you don't care, except that I was relegated to watching the third game of US Soccer's Gold Cup run on my computer. In Spanish. From a ghetto stream. And it was awesome.

Though I only saw the last 20 minutes of the game it was worth the many moments where I was lost in translation. I couldn't understand that the announcers were saying the word "ball" for about 15 minutes, but hey, the word goal is the same, plus their announcers take JP Dellacamera to school when the ball finds the back of the net. I kept tabs of the score before I tuned in and when the US was up 1-0 despite having some of their best training in Europe and was giving all the backups from a team already regarded as the National "C" team a chance to start, it looked over. I mean to be perfectly honest, Haiti just isn't that good.

Regardless of skill, four minutes after the break Haiti was up 2-1. I simply had to watch now. Tuning in at such a late stage, it was still clear that the US dominated, but they just didn't have what it took to finish. Suddenly, with the game at the behest of the referee and the clock ticking down (or up, crazy soccer clock rules!), the MLS' own Stuart Holden struck an absolutely killer shot that gave the keeper no chance on its way to the upper 90.

Goal. Or should I say, GOOOAL, GOOOAL, GOOOAL, GOOOAL, GOOOAL, GOOOAL...yeah, that just happened.

Despite meaning relatively little as a USA vs. Mexico Gold Cup Final is virtually assured, it gave me promise that maybe, just maybe, Holden could be the guy to unseat my least favorite US National teamer, Sacha Kljestan. Replace Kjlestan's Sasha Vujacic-esque head band with some sweet spike/bleached hair. It takes a real man to frost his tips.

Though Holden did try to silence the home crowd after his tying goal. I mean the game is in Foxboro, Massachusetts. I'm pretty sure Boston is not run amok with Haitians, so its safe to assume silence was not actually what he wanted. Let's hope he's just warming up for his antics in South Africa.

Daniel Murphy's Law

2009-07-08T12:14:00.003-04:00

The Met's suck. I think I just have to admit it. I've already endured multiple jokes from friends about following a minor league baseball team, and, well actually that's just about it. My friends apparently aren't too original with their insults after they find one they like.

Well regardless of the comedic genious of 20-year-old Yankee fans, the Met's season hit an all time low last night. Sportscenter ran their usual "Not Top 10 Plays" and the realization set in. Now appearing in this countdown is embaressing yes, but lets be honest, it happens. Everyone awkwardly flubs a grounder, or trips over their own feet, but this countdown was different. The Met's didn't just find one of their lowlights in the Top 10. They didn't even have two or three, that would be far too kind. No the New York Metrapolatins had their very own "Not Top 10" dedicated to their ineptitude. The young Mr. Daniel Murphy making errors at multiple positions, but at least he didn't botch a 3-2-1 double play like defensive replacement Jeremy Reed when he airmailed a 75 foot throw. That's not to say he didn't try, botching 3 of the Top 10 himself!

The one saving grace is this countries copyright laws as the video of this countdown has vanished into an underground cavern somewhere in the bustling Metropolis that is Bristol, Connecticut. It has been removed from everywhere I could look without finding myself on a government watchlist, and I can't say I'm too torn up about it. Still, just knowing it happened might be bad enough.

I thought an low had been reached when a celebration had already been started at the end of the first Yankee/Met game as a "harmless" pop-up floated over to Luis Castillo with two outs in the ninth. Then it drifted. And it drifted some more. Suddenly, it was clanging as much as leather-on-leather can clang (insert bizzare bondage joke here), off the heel of Castillo's glove and to the ground as two Yankee runs crossed home plate changing a one run lead and a gaurenteed win into a written in the books one run loss for the Mets. Ouch, now that hurt.

Castillo will recover. Murphy will hopefully figure it out, Maybe First Base IS the answer. But just knowing that the material is there for that top 10, and it's NOT a stretch...Welcome to beautiful Citi Field, home of the Binghamton Mets!

G is for Gluttony

2009-07-04T19:13:00.005-04:00

What could be a more American spectacle than large, beer drinkin' dudes slammin' back massive quantities of Nathan's hot dogs? Oh, that's right, it's much more American to have the smaller more efficient Japanese version come in a do the twice as well.

When Kobayashi came on and doubled the previous record, it was on. Kobayashi was in and guys nicknamed Badlands Cookie were on their way out. Nathan's had lucked into a cash cow only America and the Fourth of July could produce and out of nowhere, people cared about competitive eating. Suddenly some distant cousin of fame got the the Japanese wonders head. He suddenly became jacked and decided he could stomach just that many more hot dogs if his hair looked like something Bjork would wear to the Grammy's. Suddenly hear comes Joey Chestnut.
On July 4, 2007, America reclaimed the title belt. Chestnut has beaten Kobayashi! The announcers treated it like such a event that it required it's own holiday, seperate from that of America's independence. It was refered to as "the greatest event in sport's history," and Joey Chestnut was described as "a true American hero."

That was when competitive eating really took off. I even found myself watching the World Series of Competitive Eating, broadcast from where else but Las Vegas. Then, even after a more legendary showing that saw the two titans embroiled in an "eat-off," it hit me, wow these guys are just freaks. Maybe it came when I myself entered an eating competition and downed six dogs. One of my friends took the 6th dog to the last bite before a "reversal of fortune" cost him. That was half a dozen dogs. Now imagine that....plus 60. In 10 minutes. Gross right?

Nevermind, that just sounds delicious...

Not Exactly Finland...

2009-06-29T00:40:00.013-04:00

...then again Spain isn't exactly the USSR either. Zapatero isn't exactly Brezhnev either. In fact, I'd say the win in the finals of the 2009 Confederations Cup would be bigger (not in the global power struggle kind of sense, but you know the niche soccer fan sense) than the follow up to Miracle on Ice.

The US Hockey victory over Finland is one of the greatest footnotes in the history of sports. When "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" hasn't been beaten to death by ABC and Regis was still there, a question worth either $250,000 asked the contestant to name who the US beat in that Gold Medal game. Ask who the US beat in the Miracle on Ice? Lucky to be worth more than $1000, even on the dumbed down version of the show that competed with "Once Life to Live" and "The View" for an audience.

How the 2009 Confederations Cup goes down in US Soccer lore remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain. The good guys lost....unless your from Brazil, then get the hell off my blog and go celebrate in Rio. Actually, you can stay, it's not like anyone else will be reading.

This game I made sure I did not miss a single second of the game. If the USA was going to beat the nation that is one of the greatest footballing nations of all-time, I would be watching. I mean it would be by myself from a quite comfortable position on my couch, but it would have taken a natural disaster somewhere within a 100 feet of me to interrupt my private viewing party. I was taking no chances.

What me, myself and I witnessed was something out of a fairytale for the first 45 minutes. After Brazil held the ball up in the USA third of the field, the Red, White and Blue broke out the patented counter-attacking that brought them through past Spain. Right-Back Jonathan Spector curled a ball in, Clint Dempsey was on the end of it and millions of soccer fans across the globe just pinched themselves just 10 minutes into the final.

The US looked the better side for a spot after their goal, but there was no one denying Brazil's brilliance. Well, actually there wasn't no one, there were five of them. The back line and the undeniably awesome Tim Howard did not give anything up. Any ball that wasn't cleared out was parried or held by the Everton keeper.

Suddenly, with Brazil looking content to hold the ball up and slowly work their way in, got sloppy. Landon Donovan stole the ball in the US third and embarked on the greatest US journey since Lewis & Clark, BC guy Charlie Davies being his expedition partner. After the two's give-and-go, the ball was on Landycakes left foot and he calmly slotted home past Cesar.

At this point I could have been considered for a one-way ticket to a white-padded room I was so giddy. Did I mention I was watching the game solo?

As I mentioned, as did this guy, the back line was unstoppable in the first 45, and Spector was showing the world what Sir Alex Ferguson saw in the young American in what was his first game in defense.

But alas, all good things must come to an end, and a Luis Fabiano strike came barely a minute into the second half. The Americans continued to push but it just wasn't happening again.

The Brazilians finally tied the game in the 61st, but remarkably the score remained 2-1 USA as Howard saved the ball from within his own goal but neither the linesman nor the referee was able to see it. Ahh the beauty of the pace of a game versus slow motion.

Despite the stroke of luck, the Miracle on Grass round 2 was not to be as Fabiano made it a brace for him and tied the score in the 74th. Any other day and I am ecstatic of the Sevilla man's scoring knack but come on man! Your just torturing me now! And a golden boot to, well, boot!

At this point it was always to be seen the result. The US hold on for the next 16 minutes and then Brazil have 30 more in extra-time. Maybe it goes to the US if they can force penalties, but when you go from 2-0 up to playing for penalties in less than an hour, it is not looking very good. Of course Lucio obliged, heading home the winner in the 85th as Howard was left powerless.

Sure the result didn't go the way the cliche that is American Soccer fans wanted and the USA was denied their first FIFA championship....ever, but for the first time I will advocate the moral victory. The Stars and Stripes prevailed over the reigning European Champions and dominated the number one team in the world for 45 minutes.

If the US can keep the nucleus together, this kind of experience and unity could just maybe be just what they need for international success. The next trip to South Africa will be the true test.

Draft Diary 0.1 and Draft Thoughts

2009-06-26T20:50:00.012-04:00

So I managed to get in just under a half hour of live draft diary before all hell broke loose in my house and I was forced to abandon my endeavour. Have no fear, there will be more Live blogging to come in the future! Anyway here is the exactly 1/6 of the draft that I did blog on, and unlike Bill Simmons I spent no time lamenting Michael Jackson (this will have to do).

9:00 - Sorry about the delay with the diary. I was too busy crying and plotting trying to pull out Jordan Hill’s dreadlocks. Austin Daye went with the first non-lottery pick to the Pistons. He is the absolute opposite to the forwards taken by the Pistons recently (think Jason Maxiell). He’s only 190 pounds and tries to hide it with some baggy sleeves but hey, Jay Bilas likes his length, so he’s got that going for him.

9:03 - Who knew the sweater vest was making a comeback in Spokane? Thank you Mr. Daye. Maybe Adam Morrison could rock that on the sideline. It would really compliment his budding barely pubescent facial hair.

9:07 - Jeff Van Gundy brings up an interesting point. Tayschaun Prince and Austin Daye together? The Detroit Pistons, helping even the gender disparity in eating disorders since 2009.

9:08 - YES! First pick I nailed outside the lottery with James Johnson to the Bulls. If only someone beside Jay Bilas knew he was a martial artist from Wyoming he would have been top 10. The Bulls automatically gain an advantage in the next bench-clearing brawl.

9:11 - Steve Kerr plays coy on the Amare trade rumours. Does this surprise anyone? If a GM was not vague in a live draft interview he’d be out the door before the next team was off the clock.

9:13 - Somehow Jrue Holliday was the last guy in the green room before the 76ers got him. Austin Daye was by far the favorite coming into this thing while Holliday was a possible top 10 guy.

9:15 - Even the first thing that Holliday mentioned was defense. Holliday may never be the offensive player he looked to become but he should be able to shut down the rest of this bumper crop of point guards.

9:18 - Ty Lawson to Minnesota. Well apparently three point guards are needed to get the ball to Al Jefferson. And I thought they got rid of Kevin McHale? All this talk of so many trades. This better be the signal of one to come or poor Al’s gonna be quadruple teamed.

9:20 - There it is. Apparently Lawson headed to Nuggets. Lawson behind Billups? I like the sound of that, Lawson will probably be so much better learning from Billups tan having to go somewhere and handle the ball more

9:23 - Calling Jeff Teague? I guess I just know those Wake Guys. With Claxton and Law gone this is a good spot for Teague. Bibby is also a shoot first guard so Teague can refine his ability to overlook teammates and fire threes.

9:27 - Come on Utah don’t let me down with goofy white guys. Here it is…BOOO. Eric
Maynor, so no Mullens, how sad. Him and Kosta Koufos could have been the greatest 7
foot white former Ohio State center combo ever. That is not a title to be taken lightly.

At that point, just 27 minutes in I was unable to continue with my diary, but I was able to jot down a few notes:

Welcome to the NHL
You just have to love how all the international guys show up out of the crowd. Its reminiscent of the one hockey draft I watched where random eastern Europeans just appeared out of the crowd to receive congratulations from the teams that would eventually employ them. Nando de Colo, Jonas Jerebko, Henk Norel, Rodrique Beaubois, and Christian Eyenga (Division two in Spain? Officially the most random first round pick in history) were all in the house to great either David Stern or Adam Silver. Stern seemed actualy surprised to see 6'8" guys strolling out of the crowd while Silver actually seemed to enjoy that the guys wanted to come greet him.

ESPN Must Improve...Graphics
In both the NFL and NBA drafts the analysts try and highlight the weakness' 0f the top prospects taken by teams. They both present some doosies that would make the needs to improve seem like if anyone could improve such a trait, they too would be spoken of during the NBA draft. For example, Nick Calethes must improve his lateral quickness and Danny Green must improve his athleticism. I'm pretty sure one is born with those traits. If Green could improve his athleticism, he would, but its not so easy as a few hundred shots in the gym or a couple of wind sprints.

I Have a Trade to Announce
Adam Silver has the best job in the NBA. The deputy commish gets to announce the second round, and as usual said second round in ripe with trades, and who doesn't love a good swap of draft picks, rights to European players and guys who will total less than one hundred minutes on the season. Silver obviously appreciates his worth as he seems to get a chuckle out of every cheer that greets every trade, even when it means the gold standard for busts, Darco Milicik, is bound to come to the Knicks in said trade. The pick following the trade could be John Krasinksi, but the fans don't care, at least it was a trade.

Here is what came to mind during various moments in the first 14 picks that just had to be mentioned:

Winning the Lottery
Oklahoma City GM Sam Presti proves to be smarter than I thought. I do think he is building a good team but I felt that Rubio’s hype would prevail. Harden is just a basketball player, pure an simple. He doesn't need to be a star on this team to have a good impact.

“I’m Ricky Rubio, I’m not like anybody else.”
When asked who he compared to by Mike Tirico, that was Rubio's response. O, he's got an NBA ready personality. Though some people like the confidence I call it cockiness, and think he's a bust waiting to happen. He says quotes like that and his highlight tape is full of needless around the back dribbles that have no bearing on if he actually got to the cup or not. Fogarty swears by his skills and think he'll be great, I disagree. He's not Pistol Pete reincarnate, he's Jason Williams (the white one) 2.0. He's less known for his skills, more known for being White Chocolate and lucking into a possessed Dwayne Wade championship. Have fun in Minny Ricky, them Midwesterners just LOVE foreigners too.

Wait, where is Golden State?
I thought if Curry got by T-Wolves he’d be a Knick and my dream would come true. Not to be but at least I know both Stephen and his dad wanted New York. His dad Dell had the look on his face of “Why is my son going to Oakland? He's too classy for that.” Oaktown is about as far from Davidson College, a very white, very small, very rural school, as you can get.

Welcome to New York Jordan
A little kid held up a thumbs down as the camera panned over him for a crowd shot on the Jordan Hill. His dad turned it back up as if to say, "Don't boo him son." The kid couldn't have been more than 9 but he knew what was up. Gotta love New York draft fans, no matter what the sport. While most franchises use the draft as a time of hope, New Yorkers see it for what it is, a meat market where they get stuck with nothing more than last weeks bologna.

He Ain't Short
After last year when Jay Bilas spent all but 2.3 seconds of his airtime talking about just how long the arms of every draftee was, it took till Gerald Henderson, the 12th pick for Mr. Bilas to salivate over the length of another man.

Are You Mocking Me?

2009-06-25T17:12:00.028-04:00

Yes Tarvaris, I am, but we'll get to that.

Now I like mock drafts. Alot. For the 2007 NFL draft I made a three round mock with a solid 300 words or so on every pick. I mean every pick from One down to some random center I slotted in at the end of the third round. With the NBA draft tonight and my mock draft chops itching go all Brett Favre and re-un-retire (the double hyphen makes me feel like I'm in Ho-Ho-Kus), I will let them warm up in rural Mississippi and then head up to the land of Minnesota, who actually matter with two top 6 picks in this draft. In other news, my NBA Mock Draft is also a better QB than Tarvaris Jackson.

Without further ado:

1. Los Angeles Clippers - Blake Griffin, PF, Oklahoma
Ummmm yeah....they already announced this one so if I went differently you would not be reading any further. Blake concussed himself last season, though his appearance did not change that too much, and will most likely do so again when he finally realizes, hey, I play for the Clippers. My thoughts on Griffin are this. He was a man among boys in college. In the NBA there just so happens to be, other men. He can fly and dunk the ball and has a slightly more diverse offensive skill set than Dwight Howard, but not too much. That athleticism is great but he's at least 2 full inches shorter and has nowhere near the defensive prowess of Howard. All in all, it's a pick that must be made, but I am nowhere near sold.

2. Vancouver Grizzlies - Hasheem Thabeet, C, Connecticut
When was the last time a grizzly bear was seen in Memphis? They're from Vancouver. Hey Bible Belt, STOP STEALING TEAMS FROM THE NORTHWEST! The good news though, Thabeet won't pull a Stevie Franchise and request out. With Darko likely headed to the Knicks (Why Donnie? WHY? The last great "Serb" in "New York" was in GTA4, and that involved many people dying. Watch out Donnie), playing time in the middle is in need of filling. Which ends speculation as to who goes here.

3. Oklahoma City Thunder - Ricky Rubio, PG, Spain
I personally think the Thunder (Really? That was the best team name available?) should take James Harden or Stephen Curry or even Tyreke Evans, but I just have that inkling that it will end up being Rikcy Nikoloz Tskitishvili Slava Medvedenko Rubio. As you can tell I think he is vastly overrated. Like Ronald Reagan's presidency level overated. Am I a pessimist because I don't like three of the consensus top players? Maybe, and have no fear, there is plenty more where that came from.

4. Sacramento Kings - Tyreke Evans, G, Memphis
They love Johnny Flynn, but Evans is just a better prospect. I was very down on him as a college player and still am not too high on him but there is no question his skill set works in the NBA game. He needs to either add a plus jump shot or really refine those point guard skills. The young front court should play well with Evans though but this team is still building. They really need a better shooter than Beno Udrih to have on the perimeter with Kevin Martin for Ty's kick outs off penetration.

5. Minnesota Timberwolves - James Harden, SG, Arizona State
6. Minnesota Timberwolves - Jordan Hill, PF, Arizona
Showing the Pac-10 some love. Honestly, the T-Wolves, along with everyone else, probably think Stephen Curry is 100% signed, sealed, and delivered. I disagree. When Curry was no lock for the lottery, Harden was a Top 4 lock. Since then a grand total of ZERO games have been played. Welcome to the draft hype machine. I honestly do not like Harden. He plays like a point forward and fell off hard at the end of the year. He disappeared in every game I saw. Hill also screams bust to me for absolutely no good reason. Ironically they both are on the top of my NEW YORK KNICKERBOCKERS (Sorry, Stephan A Smith has nothing else to do but posses my blog after "leaving" ESPN. I really do apologize.

7. Golden State Warriors - Johnny Flynn , PG, Syracuse
The Warriors, assuming the Crawford trade goes through, will not necessarily be looking for another point guard and appear committed to Monta Ellis. That being said they covet Jordan Hill and hey look, he just went off the board. Flynn is a solid bulldog of a point who I actually like (It had to happen eventually) and could compliment Ellis well. That being said, with Hill gone I feel they trade back to someone who is looking for a point or, as in this mock, Stepehn Curry.

8. New York Knicks - Stephen Curry, G, Davidson
D' Antoni gets his wish. Curry gets his wish. The media get their wish. And I proceed to jizz in my pants. Aside from the overblown Curry and Lebron connection his game fits so well with the Knicks. I could see him struggling ala JJ Redick (my favorite!) in the NBA but his point guard skills and just overall court vision should help him out. Plus having Nate Robinson (for now) and Chris Duhon takes some pressure off him running the point immediately. This would be my dream pick.

9. Toronto Raptors - Demar Derozan, G/F, Southern California
10. Milwaukee Bucks - Ty Lawson, PG, North Carolina
11. New Jersey Nets - Terrence Williams, G/F, Louisville
12. Charlotte Bobcats - Tyler Hansbrough, PF, North Carolina
I was going to put Gerald Henderson, but come on, its MJ. A. Would he take a Duke guy? B. Would he pass up a UNC legend? I say no on both fronts

13. Indiana Pacers - Jrue Holliday, PG, UCLA
14. Phoenix Suns - Gerald Henderson, G/F, Duke
15. Detroit Pistons - DeJuan Blair, F, Pittsburgh
16. Chicago Bulls - James Johnson, SF, Wake Forrest
17. Philadelphia 76ers - Brandon Jennings, PG, Italy
18. Minnesota Timberwolves - Eric Maynor, PG, Virginia Commonwealth
19. Atlanta Hawks - Jeff Teague, G, Wake Forrest
20. Utah Jazz - BJ Mullens, C, Ohio State
Yeah he is the best real center prospect in this class but he is also an undoubtedly goofy white guy. Utah pretty much has to take him or the ghost of Greg Ostertag may strike.

21. New Orleans Hornets - Earl Clark, F, Louisville
22. Portland Trailblazers - Sam Young, SF, Pittsburgh
23. Sacramento Kings - Chase Budinger, SF, Arizona
24. Dallas Mavericks - Nick Clathes, PG, Florida
25. Oklahoma City Thunder - Jeff Teague, G, Wake Forrest
26. Chicago Bulls - Wayne Ellington, SG, North Carolina
27. Memphis Grizzlies - Omri Casspi, SF, Israel
28. Minnesota Timberwolves - Victor Claver, SF, Spain
29. New York - Austin Daye, F, Gonzaga
The speculation since the Knicks bought this pick has been Jack McClinton. I however think this is predecated on getting Jordan Hill at 8, which I hope doesn't happen. I think Daye is a "potential" guy but he is just as slight as Durant was. Now Daye is nowhere near where Durant was. For one, Nate Robinson will be a better rebounder next year if Daye goes to NYC. But, if Daye can be consistant with his offensive game he'd be a great fit in the 7 seconds or less offense. Speaking of 7 seconds or less, I'm pretty sure they make a pill for that.

30. Cleveland Cavaliers - DaJuan Summers, G/F, Georgetown

I'll have more updates and draft diary from the middle of the first on as well as a few preview thoughts on the draft as a whole.

Oops, I Did It Again

2009-06-25T01:12:00.019-04:00

If you've read this blog you would assume that I am technologically ignorant. I mean, the fact that I am indeed blogging seems to shoot this down, but you know, whatever.

Well, in another attempt to watch a game hours after it was actually completed ended in utter disaster, though this time it was barely my fault.

After USA Soccer's improbable trip to the semi-finals of the Confederations' Cup with their win over Egypt, I knew there was no way I was going to miss the game against Spain. Plans were formed in the days before to record it and watch it later in the day since me and two of my friends who really wanted to watch it both had work till 3:30. This triggered an interesting series of events:

3:05 ET - My friend Paul comes into my room at work to alert me that, as usual, the person in charge of recording the game has messed up but has been alerted and will record from this point forward. As its 25 minutes bast kickoff we check the score since we will miss these minutes anyway and to make us make better plans or decide to drink copious amount of alcohol before watching if Spain already lead 4-0 or something. Alas we see a 1-0 scoreline in favor of the US and our interest is peeked. We hearby assume radio silence.

3:35 ET - Sitting in the doctors office waiting for an appointment that amounted to 5 minutes of small talk before stripping down, turning my head and coughing (you needed to know that, I swear), some older guy walks in and attempts to put the game on the waiting room. Granted I had my fill of News 12 Long Island to that point, but wished to keep in the dark on the game. The fact that I am not an asshole prevented my from stopping the channel changing. Sadly, for him anyway, any channel that was not 12 was not working, sad for the receptionists if nobody else. After a brief internal celebration this conversation ensued:

Guy: "US soccer's playing Spain right now, ya know?"

Me: " Yeah, I'm actually recording it at home so I can watch it later, so don't tell me anything about the game."

Guy: "Yeah, US is up 1-0, its amazing. Spain's supposed to be pretty good, right?"

Me: "...sigh..Yeah. They're pretty good."

This man was now the most despised person in my vicinity as well as the poster child for human stupidity and the inability to listen to anyone besides the voices in their own heads. Keep in mind that group of people included another man who would be roughly tugging on my man region in a few minutes. I was not happy at all. Now I knew the US had held the lead at least through halftime, but was still at the very least intrigued by the second half.

4:50 ET - I had survived the rest of the time in the waiting room with nothing more than forced conversation about US soccer with people who knew no more than that Brazil and Spain were "pretty good," so if I could avoid the radio I would be set. That's when I got this text from my friend Mills:

"Im assuming ull be writing a post on 2days win..."

Poor grammar from a journalism major aside, I was crushed....well only a little, we had apparently just beat Span, which is nice. I immediately responded with some harsh words after which Mills valiantly attempted to convince me he was lying about the score the whole time.

5:05 ET - After these few texts in which he attempted to convince me the US had indeed lost 4-1 (Ignore the obvious fact of why would he be lying in the first place. Why would I think on such an obvious level?) I started to had a little bit of doubt. This shows my pessimism gained from being a Mets, Jets and Rangers fan more than anything else. We beat Spain? Somebody must be lying to me.

5:25 ET - Mills ruins the day again apologizing for ruining the game all over again just minutes after I was able to convince myself that the result was in doubt. So back to that mixed bag of emotions of victory and disappointment over being unable to see it. I really should never have checked my phone in the first place, but hindsight is 20/20 and hell, WE JUST BEAT SPAIN!!

As for the actual game, me and a half dozen friends (including Mills, who had long given up pretending the US hadn't won 2-0) watched the ESPN2 replay at 11 PM, so I could finally witness the fantastic result. Which leads me to my thoughts on the game.

Jozy Altidore = Brandi Chastain?
Not so much. Still his shirt removal following the opening goal really is a similar kind of symbol for US Soccer. While it isn't exactly the World Cup final, this men's team was never the respect team that Chastain played on. Altidore showed absolute raw emotion, one of the great things that make sports as important as they are and leads to people like me blogging about such things. That moment could end up being just as iconic for a nation of young boys as Chastain's shirt removal, I'm assuming in a much different way though. Also Altidore stripping down to his long sleeve under armour (though its probably Nike, you know what I mean, sorry corporate dudes scrolling the internet) earned him a yellow card. Somehow Chastain's sports bra failed to allicite a yellow (not that I'm complaining), though it did lead to a great NIKE commercial.

The Spanish Invitation
What the US did better than Spain, better than anyone expected them too, was capitalize on Spanish mistakes. The first goal (depite Altidore showing great strength in holding off the defender) was a combination of a poor play by Carlos Puyol (EDIT: Upon rewatching, don't blame Puyol all you Spanish fans who read my blog, that was merely a fantastic play my Altidore, who's hype I usually don't see, to turn and put the man on his back) and Iker Casillas, generally one of the best in the world, guessing when he didn't really have to and being caught off balance so that the shot, struck nearly right at him bounced off his hand and into the back of the net. The second goal was Clint Dempsey, who has played fantastic this tournament, taking the ball off the foot of former Sevilla youth and current Real Madrid fullback, Sergio Ramos. Ramos thought he had time to clear instead of just sending it out on the first touch. Dempsey was right behind him and put it in, even sending the Spanish announcer into pandemonium.

Thank God for Tim Howard
Howard was a huge difference maker in the game. He made six saves and stoned every chance the Spainards had while Casillas was unable to stop either of the United States' chances. Howard's play allowed the US counter attack to get out and cause problems and give them the chance to win, a chance they took. Howard has most likely certified his position as one of the best in the world. US keepers are the one position where America holds their own on a broader scale with the rest of the world. Now its Howard. It used to be Brad Friedel who has now over 250 appearances in the Premier League. Brad Guzan, who shut out Egypt in this Confederations Cup, is signed for Aston Villa where he backs up Friedel. Kasey Keller, Marcus Hahnemann and many others all have secured lucrative European contracts and have held their own across the pond. Some people say the focus on more sports predicated on eye-hand coordination leads to better keepers in the US and I have to say, I don't care, as long as we can keep competing with Spain and doing this to other keepers.

For fear of being found out for the property theif that I am i need to thank the LA Times for all these photos of the match, that and I really do think all the shots really are pretty damn awesome

Why So Serious?

2009-06-23T23:41:00.010-04:00

Lucas Glover has eliminated emotion from the game of golf. He also pissed off alot of New Yorkers, which is often frowned upon.

Glover makes Tiger's general golf course demeanor look almost sunny. Most commentators familiar with Glover seemed all but shocked by his smile when he received the US Open trophy. Glover's two stroke margin of victory really hides what was a great and dramatic round of golf culminating in a three hole stretch that could rival the greatest in recent major history. If I had the power of DVR or a working VCR (What's a VCR?) I would do one of those retrodiaries but instead I'll do anapproximate tale of my trip down the back nine of Bethpage Black on Championship Monday.

The front nine was a story of following the leaders (Note: Ricky Barnes either has a hot girlfriend, or hot stalker who followed him around) and rooting for them to choke. They were kind enough to oblige and despite very players posting any type of red numbers (I think at the turn of the Barnes and Glover it was Tiger Woods, Ross Fisher and Hunter Mahan), they came back to the field and built some drama. The best moment of the front nine had to be watching Glover and Barnes have fits with the long seventh and hearing the roar around the bend when David Duval rolled in a putt estimated at around 60-80 feet for birdie. Epic roar. Oh, it should be noted that for this round we acquired XM/Sirius Radio earpieces the had play-by-play in realtime of what we were watching. It did add something and help us make hole decisions later. I did however have a small bout with traditionalism when watching the overall reaction of the changing numbers on the leaderboards, however I got over it.

As we watched the leaders tee off at 10, an interesting fulcrum of the course that puts the 10th tee, 11th green and 12th tee within 30 yards we could hear on the radio and in the clamor of tha galleries that Phil Mickelson had put his 2nd at the 13th within 5 feet for eagle and a chance to get within a shot of the lead. We immediatly sprinted up the fairway and were at the green to see Mickelson hole out for the double circle on the scorecard. Well be see I mean lean awkwardly around a camera stand and see mostly grandstand, half of a caddy and what appeared to be Hunter Mahan's left leg, but hey, we were there. I'd like to say I've never been a big fan of Phil for whatever reason, maybe it was the tryout with the Toledo Mudhens, but the atmosphere surrounding him was electric and just fun to be a part of. I really couldn't help but root for him.

We then traveled with the throng and wedged our way into a crowd on the par-3 14th and saw some quite unspectactular pars before joining what could only be described as a powerful mass of humanity heading back across the road to what may be the four greatest finishing holes in golf, none more intimidating than the uphill, dogleg-left, 460-yard par-4 15th.

After standing in the middle of all the action and constantly being moved by "security" so the golfers could get to the 17th tee we were able to see tee shots off of 15, approach shots into 16, and 17 in its entirety, though the massive gallery would be responsible for telling exactly when and if the putt hit the bottom of the cup. That was when the greatest, and yet most depressing 4 holes of golf unfolded.

We heard the groan as Phil bogeyed 15, but hey he was still at 3-under and definitely in it. Then Hunter Mahan (who looks like the rock and roll/delivery guy from Accepted with his grimy beard and shade. If you know that movie, you know who I mean. Too bad I can't find a picture) hit a nearly perfect shot thatwas going right at the cup, and instead of either dropping or coming within 5 feet for birdie, kicked off the pin and off the green where Mahan would take three shots to get down from. A two or three shot swing that probably hurt just as much mentally. That comes close, he has a legitmate chance to win the US Open.

As we leave to head up 17 and 18 for Phil (I fought to see Duval's birdie putt on 16 as I may be one of the few people who actually like him) Duval drained his third birdie in as many holes to climb back to 3-under and tie for the lead of the US Open with two to play. He started his day making a triple on the third hole which I had once parred from similar distances and now had a T1 next to his name on the leaderboard. Would you ever have believed that a week ago? Doubtful if you actaully said yes. Then as Phil just missed his par and dropped to just 2-under we heard Lucas Glover drop in his birdie on 16. At that point, with Duval off the green at 17, I knew, Glover had just clinched the US Open, still I hoped it wasn't true.

The golfers with interesting storylines tried their best. Duval went around the entire hole before missing his par on 17 to put pressure on Glover. Phil had an uncharactoristicly pedestrian wedge into the green on 18 after a phenomenal drive then nearly holed out his bird from over 30 feet to get within one of Glover. But it wasn't meant to be. Ricky Barnes did what he was supposed to and choked away 9 strokes off his lowest score of the week (he did fall one short of a prediction of -1 fielded by one of my friends when he hit -11) and Phil and David took their T2 which both have seen plenty of in the past and were forced to watch Glover do what I guess has to be considered a celebration.

After three mud-covered days, the result may not have been ideal and Glover may be destined to join the the Rich Beems of the world, but the way we got their was fun. And without the 2009 US Open, who would still care about a fat, minimally skilled David Duval? Oh that's right, I guess I still would.

Third TIme's the Charm

2009-06-22T06:44:00.006-04:00

Up at 6 am ready to head out for what is supposed the final round of the US Open, my third straight day trolling through the pig slop that is the galleries of Bethpage Black...not that I'm complaining. I get to enjoy one of the greatest sporting events in America and its not even from the couch in my basement. With how the galleries have been the last few afternoons I expect absolute insanity today.

If the excitement does not reach Gus Johnson level, its just not good enough. Note: Any time a segue is made between discussion of topographical maps of a putting green and a 30 foot spot up three from TJ Sorrentine, its just something I might be interested in.

They Did WHAT!!

2009-06-21T23:52:00.010-04:00

With all due respect to Al Michaels and Antonio Freeman on MNF....WHATTT!!

So what are the odds that the United States wins by 3 goals when they need to after two a game and a half where they looked downright abysmal? Against a team that just beat the reigning world champs? Not very likely. OK, so it happened. Crazy no doubt, but the Americans still stood at 1-2 having allowed 2 more goals than they themselves scored, no chance of advancing.

As the great (Is there a better word? Old? Annoying? Penis?) Lee Corso would say, "NOT so fast my friend!"

Now lets take a look at what else had to happen. Italy, the aforementioned world champs, would have to also lose by at least three goals and score none. Cue my boy from Sevilla, Luis Fabiano. After not scoring against the US Fabiano wanted to make good on his one goal a game promise and struck twice before an own goal gave the game its final 3-0 margin.

Wow.

I'd like to use this opportunity to praise Charlie Davies, a US striker and former Boston College Eagle. Getting the start against Egypt Davies scored the first goal with a workman like effort and used his speed to stretch the defense. His presence is usually not till the second half, if used at all by Bob Bradley, but him and Jozy Altidore up front allowed golden boy Landon Donovan as well as Clint Dempsey to control the game a little further back and be more creative.

I didn't get a chance to see any of this game as I was at the US Open, so I'll let the video do the talking.

Sorry for the Spanish. The other option was German, but I didn't want to make anyone angry.

Two Green Swallows

2009-06-21T22:17:00.011-04:00

Back to the Black for a second day of floundering professionals making all the hackers and executive course players feel like they have a chance. I was not disappointed.

The rowdy New Yorkers were back, as was the poor putting performance. After an aggregate of over four hours spent camping out at the greens of 15 and 17, the latter home of Saturday's best crowds, there was a total of two birdies. The first by George McNeill as I mentioned earlier, and the second by Ricky Barnes. As me and my two friends stood on the hill overlooking the 17th in the early afternoon we wanted nothing more than somebody to sink a terrific putt or hole one from the front bunkers, but we were to be disappointed. Only Barnes, whom we rooted against wholeheartedly for no other reason than he was killing the buzz of a keeping anyone close to him was up to the task.

After the disappointment of the green and the further anger presented by a $8 soggy panini, we headed back to the space where Saturday's magic happened, the space between the second green and third tee for the start of the fourth round.

The atmosphere was electric. Reminescent of a College Football game as the second green screamed at every spectator who returned with beer and chanted "Three Tee SUCKS!" in unison. The third tee, who I pledged my allegiance to, being all of 4 feet from the tee marker, was not to be outdone responded with a just as boisterous "Two Green Swallows!" (How vulgar! In a game of gentleman!) Every player coming off the second green was further greeted by the wave from the third tee grandstand all the way down to the hill alongside the second fairway. Fans who had either never heard of Nottinghamshire or were too drunk to pronounce the included syllables now counted one of its residents among their favorite golfers.

Lee Westwood (Todd Hamilton did too, so he doesn't feel left out when he googles his name and stumbles upon this blog) was all about the crowd, throwing his ball into the grandstand and encouraging a louder wave, even joining in when the grandstand jeered and booed the hill section for failing to keep up with their section of the wave. Even as the USGA was upset at the crowd of the day before, closing the alcohol stands a whole 15 minutes earlier (THE GAUL!!), and generally being a Buzz Killington, Westwood was all the crowd wanted, someone who embraced the antics and had with it, not the robot that generally populates the PGA tour (see: Lucas Glover).

When the horn sounded with Phil Mickelson ready to tee off "within spitting distance" of me as one friend of mine noted, and play was stopped for darkness that would have meant about 3-4 more holes for me, the disappointment was noticeable. The crowd was ready to erupt. But hey, at least we get to go back for another day of golf.

Bogies and Brewskis

2009-06-20T21:43:00.017-04:00

If you told me that in a day at the US Open where I saw Tiger on 3 separate holes, watched Bubba Watson hit a drive estimated by a friend of mine at "about 900 yards," and didn't have to wait 3 hours to deal with parking that the best part of my day would be watching Drew Weaver and Jon Mallinger par back to back holes, I would have told you you were crazy.

The course was saturated and so were the galleries, in more ways than one. After a day of on-and-off rain the second round was finally complete, the field was cut and the third round could begin.

So what happens when you combine a New York Public Golf Course, copious amounts of rain and a delay of about an hour between golf shots for some fans? That is right, thousands of drunk asshole New Yorkers with serious deindividuation (think mob mentality) issues. They are cheering/jeering for men who would possibly stop mid back swing for a loudly chirping cricket. Needless to say, the the two groups eHarmony scores do not equal a match.

That being said, while the crowds drew the ire of critics everywhere, even prompting some to say that the rowdy crowds could prevent Bethpage from hosting another Open in the future (if I could find the link I would post it, but I forgot where I read it). I say the hell with it, this isn't exactly polo that we're watching.

While the crowds were pretty good during the 2nd round continuation on Saturday morning -- 17 seemed particularly raucous from my perch on the 15th green -- but they paled in comparison to the 3rd round crowds that evening. The rain weeded out the fair weather (literally) fans. The delay took with it most of the families out together. That left the perfect golf crowd in my opinion: middle-aged golf fans with just enough money in the bank to buy their fair share of $6 beers.

By the time of the restart for the third, my three friends and I headed out to the third green, a 200+ yard par 3. From their we could hear the grandstands for the tee and the second green -- the two nearly facing each other -- engaging in chanting matches, getting ready for the golf to start. When the first group teed off on two, every mediocre golf shot was greeted with a cheer worthy of a goal line stand in the Gainseville or Ann Arbor.

The aforementioned Drew Weaver, in that first group with Mallinger, hit a ball that looked decent from our location about 240 yards away and was somewhere on the putting surface. The crowd reacted like USA Hockey had just beat the Russians. Weaver, unable to see the ball on the raised surface began jumping up and down, assuming he holed out for an eagle, though after seeing his antics earlier in the week, you never know. Weaver ended up two putting from a reasonable distance for par, but the tone was set...it was going to be fun.

After the groups began playing onto the third green where we stood the crew around us became more and more motley. One particularly lonely and inebriated looking fellow was leaning over my friend Paul's shoulder, breathing basically on his neck, in an attempt to read his text messages. Everywhere we looked both the mud and the Bud had people falling all over themselves.

As we moved to the tenth tee to see Tiger tee off the drunk fans go drunker. As we fought our way to about 15-20 feet from the tees and two back from the ropes the guy in front of my same unlucky friend Paul -- notably the one who got these tickets in the first place -- turned to congratulate him on something followed by multiple repetitions of the pound and explode. Exactly what deserved congratulations remains to be seen as the man appeared to speak some dialect of Old Gaelic mixed liberally with Pig Latin and skewed noticeably by alcohol. All-in-all, he was quite well spoken.

The heckling and cheering on the 10th was twice that of 2 and 3, as was the BAC of the gallery. When Tiger came in and the rain began to fall, even he could not resist a smile and chuckle at the insanity of the crowd at a golf tournament. As the rain began to fall again, not even Tiger was immune, hearing taunts for breaking out the umbrella ("This ain't Arizona, this is Long Island baby!" was met by a grand ovation from the rest of the gallery around the tee box. Even so as golfers in an earlier pair prepared to drive off of the 12th hole, Tiger put his finger to his mouth and their was instant silence. His power over the people and apparently nature was later reinforced when one man who had been at the forefront of the jeering yelled, "Will the rain to stop Tiger, you can do it!" (Note: The picture of Tiger is from the '02 Open at Bethpage, though the fans behind him would appear to be looking for the 1972 version. Needless to say those were NOT the fans present on Saturday)

As one man directly in front of us said, "Long Island. Where the men are men and the sheep are scared."

Here are some more notes from the day at Bethpage

Heavy Stuffs Not Coming Down For a While
Within minutes of Tiger teeing off at 10 the rain started coming down and Tiger was, contrary to what some believed, unable to stop it. The rain was bad but after seeing what the played through on Thursday, it was still playable. The course was just so waterlogged from the last week that within 30 seconds of real steady rain puddles were already starting to form on the greens and they simply could not be squeegeed fast enough.

Which Way to the Senior Open?
When both Fred Funk and Tom Lehman rolled onto the 10th tee box it brought about many questions. Is Fred Funk someones caddy? Wait, Tom Lehman still plays golf? Not one of my friends or I could believe both of them had made the cut at the longest course in US Open history. It really proves that this course does have places to be had without bombing it every time. You just know Funk isn't putting it on many par 5's in 2. He didn't even do that 10 years ago.

Ricky Barnes?
That's right, Ricky Barnes is your leader, and he did it with a 36-hole record breaking score of 8-under par! Before this all I knew about Ricky Barnes is his character in Tiger Woods 06 was really good at spinning the ball, that's really it. Before today he wasn't even the most famous Rick Barnes as someone else in the gallery pointed out today. Even if he wins he'll only be the most famous in 49 states, Texas will stick with this Rick Barnes.

When Did I Start Playing in the US Open?
Three putts and bad two putts ruled the world today. No matter where we went, nobody could make a putt. 15 was especially bad as after sitting through group after group of players like the immortal Simon Dyson, we saw but one birdie. One! And that was by George McNeill. He didn't exactly stick around to play the weekend, well more of the weekend anyway.

Best Thing Since King Tut

2009-06-19T17:23:00.021-04:00

As has become common for me lately, I tend to miss the games I really want to watch. This time though I had a plan to rewatch it later. After abstaining from the internet for a whole day, I was ready to take in the mighty US Soccer team against Brazil. There had been DVR, plans to get together to watch the game, and then....technology hell broke loose.

The DVR who supposedly had held the game in its memory did not indeed actually have the game. Luckily, ESPN2 would replay the game at the hour of 12:30 am, or so my TV said. After admitting defeat toward my work day the following morning I decided I would show support for my country and watch the full 90, no matter what. After fighting fatigue for a solid two hours through the support of flipping back and forth between American Pie 2 and Grandma's Boy -- the usual dose of 11 PM Sportscenter was out of the question with the bottom line and such -- I set up an elaborate contraption consisting of small end table and a large floor mat that covered the bottom part of of my television so the score did not flash up on the bottom line while the game was only in the 6th minute or so. I was ready.

12:30 came, the channel was flipped, and what the hell is this? The 46th minute of Italy v. Egypt? This is not what I ordered. As my fatigue confined me to my couch I watched what turned out to be the greatest games in Egyptian history.

(As for the USA game, it will stay confined to parenthetical commenting. A 3-0 thrashing at the hands of Brazil described by Alexi Lalas as the US playing like they "didn't belong on the same field as Brazil." Brazil scored 6 minutes in, the 3rd time in the last 4 US games a goal was conceded in the first 6 minutes, really a solid month of June for American soccer. I think we might need to work on defense just a little before the next potential trip to South Africa)

The game that actually was on more than deserved the billing as the post-midnight headliner. Egypt was already up 1-0 after a first half on a Mohamed Homos (laugh at the name, uncivilized Americans, you know you want to do it) header off a corner from Egyptian legend Mohamed Aboutrika.

Still, the US also led Italy 1-0 at break before a 3-0 second half for the Azzurri started a 0-6 135 minutes of soccer for the Americans. The Pharohs (that is not a joke at the Egyptians cultural tradition, that's their REAL nickname. That alone is reason to root for them) played with a fire the US didn't have in them and turned away every attack and chance the Italians had. Italy dominate the last 45 minutes of play -- Egypt with only 1 or 2 real chances and a handful of half chances -- but were turned away at every turn. Giuseppe Rossi, Luca Toni and Simone Pepe were stonewalled less by a stout back line -- the Egyptian defense had a fair number of lapses -- and more by inspired play the veteran keeper, Essam El-Hadary.

El-Hadary had 6 saves including multiple wide-open shots from well within the 18. He deflected one shot with his leg as he slid out on a point-blank effort. Only a few minutes later El-Hadary was tested again as he just got a glove to a laser at his right post that he covered despite protests that it went over the line from the Italians (sounds almost like Hockey, huh?). He played with reckless abandon and after his first save of the second half just seemed like it would take something crazy to beat him.

The entire Egyptian team broke down after whistle made their victory official, the first ever by an African team against Italy. The Egyptian team really impressed me. For a team ranked so well by FIFA (as high as 15 in 2009, currently 40) they fielded a team for the Confederations Cup that only included included 4 players who don't currently play in Egypt. Even El-Hadry regreted his move to Basel after 12 years and 510 games at Al-Ahly.

Aboutrika is the pinnacle of that loyalty. Despite having offers from clubs all over Europe he has remained in Egypt and at his Cairo-based club Al-Ahly to the tune of 367 appearances. "He is arguably the best footballer on Earth not plying his trade in Europe or South America," wrote one Italian journalist covering the Confederations cup; and that was before his native sons fell victim to him. He was such a great figure in the Egyptian sports culture that when one of my friends went to Egypt he knew he had to go see an Al-Ahly game. Forget the Pyramids, I'm going to see Aboutrika.

Egypt currently sits fourth in their group for World Cup qualifying for their possible return to South Africa and will likely need a win Sunday to advance in the Confederations Cup, but right now I don't think anyone in Egypt cares. All I know is now I can wear my Al-Ahly jersey with pride. And you never know, somebody just might know what it is.

Dave from the Dead

2009-06-19T17:23:00.019-04:00

David Duval is currently not ranked among the top 850 golfers in the world. In fact Duval is 569 spots beyond the Lam Chih Bing, the pride of Singapore. If the PDF release by number one google hit for World Golf Rankings were to be tripled in size, Duval would appear ahead of just 18 golfers. Yet, somehow, at 882nd in the rankings David Duval -- sporting a fresh beer gut and grimy beard -- is one under par and in 12th after just over a round and a half at the US Open.

The man has not won a tournament since the 2001 British Open brought the consensus top 10 golfer in the world his long awaited major. That win is the only reason David Duval is being heard from these days thanks to the glory of major winner exemptions. Imagine that in other sports? Julio Franco would still be in the majors living off his 1991 batting crown.

It remains to be seen what Duval can do the rest of the weekend. He won the British and even had success there last year and was on the leaderboard on the weekend before a third round score that sounds more like I shot it than a former number one in the world knocked him to a T39 finish. The question will be weather that will be the Duval that shows up will be the one who disappeared off the face of the golfing world and shot an 83 under the pressure of the Duval who mastered Royal Lytham & St Annes in '01. The monsoon engulfing Long Island may just scream British Open enough to keep Duval in that mindset and keep him somewhere on the leaderboard.

Whatever happens -- incredible victory or total Ankiel-esque breakdown and defeat -- it should sure as hell be fun to watch.

Play It as It Floats

2009-06-18T22:41:00.005-04:00

So those of you who surf the blogosphere for quick easily digestible tidbits have probably wondered why o why I must churn out at least 600 words on every sports topic I pick up. Well alas! I found something that it may be difficult for me to do for (don't challenge me though, because then it will happen and nobody wants that), Thursday at the US Open. I'll spare you my thoughts on Bethpage Black, a course I've had the pleasure to pay a few different times -- I still consider the 47 I shot on the front my first time out in near monsoon conditions to be possibly a better round than whoever holds the course record -- but will save those ponderings for the next 3 or more likely 4 days of golf to come, especially as I head out there for Saturday's round(s).

I was unable to take in the monsoon golf as I was stuck in the horrific thing known as job training. I instead was forced to take in what I could from Jason Sobel's blog on ESPN. Sobel actually was able to keep blogging through the rain delay and well surpass those 600 words but he also kept me sane through hours of staring at data sheets through his receiving of texts from second level players and perusal of twitter for the always entertaining "Tweets." Well without seeing a single shot from the Black course, here are my thoughts from the 3 hours and 16 minutes of golf a followed live and in color from my palm pilot (yes they still make those).

Ian Poulter is the Shaq of Golf
Well, on Twitter at least. Sobel's updates on Poulter's tweets were some of the best parts of his blogging for the day. The best was when the course was logged with about an inch of standing water Poulter broke the news to the tweeting world (myself vehemently NOT included) that the USGA claimed they could clean up the course in an hour. One hour for a seven square mile or so golf course to be completely drained? Doubtful. Is every sports governing body both that stupid and self-confident. Don't answer that. Also you gotta love a guy who rocks the union jack as one of his more tame fashion statements.

The Leaders in the Clubhouse
Congrats to Jeff Brehaut, Johan Edfors, Andrew Parr and Ryan Spears. You will hold an overnight lead at the US Open. Overlooked awesome thing: how great a golf name is Parr. Screw the extra r, Parr is under par right now and must be loving it. Its a name so suited for the profession, like a linebacker named Slaughter, it just don't get better than that. Is it sad the the best part of a blog is a tweet about cleaning a golf course and the best part of the leaderboard is a random Canadians name? Yes. Welcome to day one of the 2009 US Open!

The Serious Stuff, like Parity
So half the field will have had to trudge through horrendous conditions for nine holes while the other half will have assumed much better conditions tomorrow. One can only hope that the rain expected over the weekend will hit the groups supposed to go out Thursday afternoon in their catchup rounds and even things out. It just doesn't seem fair for one player to have to get up and down from Lake Ronkonkoma Thursday morning while another plays a moist and forgiving course Friday. In the end it is 72 holes of golf, the elements always play a factor. You just have to play it as it lies.

Hey Look! It's a Jerse-Bro!

2009-06-15T17:11:00.020-04:00

The United States soccer team outscored the reigning world champions. I mean Italy still won the game, but the United States scored more goals.

Wait, wait...what?

I know some Americans, including a few reading this blog are clueless when it comes to soccer. I mean Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure level clueless. So when I say the US scored more goals in a game, and lost! You might as well be attempting to explain complex astrophysics and relativity to someone like, well, me.

The flaw in this, the beautiful game, lies in the even more complex rules that govern international eligibility. These are the rules that allow Kenyans and Ethiopians to run marathons under the flags of every nation in the world or allow a Brazilian named Alex to feature for the Japanese soccer team.

The Macedonian National Basketball team recently gained a new player when Darius Washington Jr. gained a passport in the country. You might remember Washington playing for Memphis in the early Calipari years and airballing two free throws with nobody on the line that would have sent the Tigers to the NCAA tournament and then breaking down into a emotional heap on the floor. Washington now gets to play international basketball and throw some alleys to the likes of Predrag "Peja" Samardžiski. What a duo? Aside from Peja there, can you name one Macedonian since Philip? The thing that would confuse people is what connection does a young black kid from outside Orlando have to a Baltic country less than 20 years old? I haven't the faintest idea. It wasn't even like he played professional basketball there. It makes zero sense! But such is the world of international sports.

On Monday it is true that the guys in the Blue with the Italian crest scored three goals while the US only had one on a 39th minute penalty slotted home by Landon Donovan (Sidenote: how underrated is a term like slotted home? You just don't hear it outside of soccer. Couldn't Dwight Howard "slot home" one of his ugly hook shots? Lawrence Tynes could "slot home" a game winning field goal right? I'd even say K-Rod could slot home his game ending slider! Just think of the possibilities!). But who scored two of those goals for Italy? Teaneck, New Jersey's own, Giuseppe Rossi.

So wait, a Bergen County boy is scoring goals in a game AGAINST his own United States. Where are the calls for Treason! Benadict Arnold lives, and he plays striker for Villarreal!

I don't agree with the practice but the use of ancestors and naturalization to get players for various national teams will not stop. In fact the ability to change country affiliation just became easier for those in the world of "football," now playing in a friendly (game not part of an organized tournament for those scoring at home) no longer prevents you from playing for another country later on down the road. In fact the United States -- fresh off wrangling Texas--born winger José Francisco Torres from the clutches of the Mexican national team -- landed midfielder Jermaine Jones, who had three caps for the German national team. Now perhaps Jones (born in Frankfurt, Germany) would have found a home as a regular in the German team had his country not preferred the services of various players born in Poland and Turkey.

Now its one thing for Macedonia or nearly every other country in Europe to pick up a player from the basketball rich nation of the United States. Its another entirely for a team like Italy, who is a top five team in the world with just players born within their borders, to poach a player from the suburbs of New York when the US often struggles to compete on an international level. But I guess you can't blame Rossi.

I mean who wouldn't trade the Meadowlands in for Milan?

"Sometimes You're Open for a Reason"

2009-06-15T00:00:00.009-04:00

"Sometimes your open for a reason." - Jeff Van Gundy

Van Gundy's comic wit comes at the expense of Laker's big man Andrew Bynum. Now Jeff has reasons galore to shade his commentary in the direction of the Magic. His brother Stan is their coach. The Magic's big man coach is Patrick Ewing, the star of Van Gundy's Knicks teams in the 90's. Even his unhealthy man crush on JJ Redick clouds his judgement.

Now as many of you know (seeing as this post is further behind schedule than the United States' discovery of WMD's in Iraq), the Lakers won the NBA Title. This is a certainty. It is also a certainty that said title had very little to do with Andrew Bynum.

Bynum came out firing like Plaxico Burress, taking the semi-contested elbow jumper like it was his job. Just over 4 minutes into the first quarter of Game 5 Bynum had taken -- and missed -- six shots and though I can't find the stat to back me up, I doubt more than one or two would be approved by the zen master.

In the new world of basketball sabermetrics and the Hockey-esque +/- rating Bynum had the lowest on the Lakers. In his 17 minutes on the court the Lakers were outscored by 6 points while Bynum himself had as many fouls as rebounds (5 each). The next closest Laker in the starting five was Trevor Ariza who was still +12 while on the court.

On the other hand JJ Redick was the lone bright spot for the Magic, and by far the most in the positive of the +/- stat with a +6. The only other players in the postive numbers were Jameer Nelson (+2), Marcin Gortat (+1) and the irreplacable Tony Battie (also +1). The much criticized (by me) shooting guard came on late and made all three shots he took including two threes to give the Magic a punchers chance in the fourth. Redick did cost his team the game late, but through no fault of his own as Stan Van Gundy decided the always defensively challenged Redick would draw the assignment of Finals MVP, Kobe Bryant. Really Stan Van? Didn't wanna give Adonal Foyle some run instead?

As the Lakers celebrated their 15th NBA title one thing was perfectly clear; Andrew Bynum was not the difference last year. In 2008 Bynum's injury took the heat for the Lakers' inability to hold serve inside, while really it was the fact that Luke Walton and Ronny Turiaf had to see major minutes on Kevin Garnett. Dwight Howard is a hell of a talent and he'll alter more shots than the ones he blocks/goaltends on the defensive end but his offense and and on the ball defensive leaves alot to be desired when compared to KG. Garnett can step away from the basket on either end and do damage. His savvy and developed game allows him to hit 20 footers and defend in the post and on the perimeter without picking up stupid fouls. Last year KG and the Truth had intensity off the charts and they took it to the title. This year Kobe was there with that same intensity. He had the underbite to prove it.

Lakers 3, Redick 0

2009-06-14T23:02:00.011-04:00

So 24 hours (48 by the time I got to posting this) after the conclusion of the Magic's (read Stan Van Gundy and Jameer Nelson's) epic collapse against the Lakers' i finally finished watching Game 4 of the finals. I vaguely remember watching the Lakers take a 3rd quarter lead before waking up feeling like I had been a cast member ABC's newest overly confusing show Flash Forward. Much like my feeling toward the show I had no expectations and was quite disappointed with the scenario. I tried to hold out till I could rewatch the end of the game as if it was live. About 6 minutes later in the ride to work I pulled up the score on my phone to find out Derek Fischer was resurrected to clinch another OT victory for the Lakers.

Later that day I did rewatch the 3rd and 4th quarters on youtube, a technique usually reserved for watching bootleg TV shows for those who have somehow not heard of any of the 12 million sites reserved for such federally offensive activity.

Once I finished the 7 part epic of the end of the game I thought about how to write about it. I thought about the newly minted idea of the retro diary before realizing that not only did Bill Simmons write one on the game, but he stole all my ideas! Jameer Nelson (seen here in what he should have been wearing all finals) getting inappropriate amounts of playing time! Rashard Lewis being a walking corpse! Trevor Ariza being the best player on the floor! The dumb blond chick falling down behind the broadcast crew! He even name dropped Jason Whitlock -- I met him once at a dessert buffet table, where else would he be, good guy though -- and made reference to other channels counter-programming! That's MY gig Bill! Let me and my small number of readers have their glory!

Then I realized something. Lost in the horrendous inability of Jameer Nelson to guard Derek Fischer was the all important forgotten text reminding me of one player who had almost gone unnoticed in all the drama. Upon waking up in the morning I checked my inbox to find said text from my friend Fogarty:

"Dude u need another blog to tear JJ Redick apart more"

How can I resist that? A man so deserved of being torn apart could not possibly go another game avoiding criticism, right? That's right, he can't.

The stat is unavoidable. In the 4 games of this series, JJ Redick has played in 3. The Magic have won exactly 1 game. For those who failed connect the dots in preschool, that one game would be the illusive 4th for Mr. Redick. Still, when he comes in the game, ready to unleash his 35% playoff shooting, Jeff Van Gundy can hardly speak for fear of revealing his erection. Redick shot 2-for-6 yet displayed a "great offensive potency." Please, his most difficult move was a pump fake and step back that every NBA player in the new millennium NOT named Bruno Sundov has possessed. I'm 85% certain Jerome James even broke it out on his way to grabbing his lavish Knicks contract.

Redick hustled. Redick played with heart. Redick gave it his all on every play. Basically all those things that a good white player with inferior athleticism should do. Please, he's an NBA player and he even dunked once in college. Athleticism isn't the problem when you just aren't the player everyone wants you to be. You might just suck. Derek Fischer played balls to the wall in Game 4. His shots will be remembered and someone might throw out the "gutsy performance" but his heart was fantastic. Ariza gave the game his all in playing 44 of 53 minutes, but he's athletic, so who cares. Lamar Odom sure as hell hustled, but that might be the sugar high from all the candy, so lets just leave him be.

Redick's offensive game is whats to blame. His best skill used to be running off screens and driving his man crazy trying to stick with him. Now, guys at the 3 and 4 can switch of the screens and still stay with him, neutralizing him even further. At one point when Redick was on the court the Lakers featured the lineup of Kobe with the supporting cast of Jordan Farmar, Luke Walton, Josh Powell, and DJ Mbenga. Not only was Redick ineffective against Kobe and four guys who aren't even important enough to make it on I'm a Celebrity...Get me Out of Here, but he wasn't even the best white American guy on the court! Luke Walton, in similar minutes during the season put up a combined points, rebounds, assists number of 10.5. Redick's was a mere 8.8.

From this finals, Redick can only hope to take three things from it; Jeff Van Gundy's undying affection, more than his share of complimentary hair gel, and hey, lets not forget that at least he's not Adam Morrison.

At Least BC Hockey Did SOMETHING this Year

2009-06-13T00:06:00.012-04:00

A game on the level of a Stanley Cup deciding game would figure to be represented well by the home team. Not so much for the unlucky Red Wings. Granted the city of Detroit doesn't need a college kid ripping on them in his blog to feel bad about themselves but the raucous Penguin presence in the arena is disconcerting. Sure with the young guns they picked up a healthy serving of band wagon fans but the cheers for Maxime Talbot's first goal was nearly as loud as a goal for the Wings. A friend of mine who had his back turned actually thought that it was the Wings who scored.

On the other end of the ice for the Pens, Marc Andre Fleury, much to the chagrin of some who I watched game 7 of the Stanley Cup with, came up huge. Fifty-four minutes of protecting the goal with a reckless abandon showed up all the haters with his brilliant play. One snafu on a slap shot from the blue line that really should have been saved -- honestly though, everyone but the Penguins diehards was rooting for something to go in, a two goal win makes nobody happy -- allowed Fleury to be the hero with a diving save on a wide open weak-side rebound by Niklas Lidstrom.

Now the Penguins (helped by three BC guys; Rob Scuderi, Brooks Orpik, and old Bill Guerin winning his first cup in 14 years) can celebrate by chugging some Molsons out of Lord Stanley's most epic cup.

NOTE: I know Molson's Canadian but with the end of the Stanley Cup, hockey is is in hibernation for a while and with it goes all of Canada. This is why I must make a Canadian beer joke now.

As goes Canada and the Cup, so goes the playoff beard. Paul Mara had the quickest growing beard in the playoffs but the Rangers failure to advance past the first round. Sidney Crosby proved he is not really a hockey player with his failure to grow any discernible facial hair and furthered his emasculation by having an injury force him to the bench for much of the later part of game 7. So as razors are broken out across the northern parts of North America it is time to award the best playoff beard to....

RASHARD LEWIS

Lewis has surprisingly taken the the playoff beard win despite playing a sport not known for its conspicuous facial hair. Pau Gasol attempted a run at the title with his grimy "beard" but ultimately fell to Lewis' beard of the Pharaohs. The only other NBA competitor who had any legitimate shot at catching Lewis was Chris "Birdman" Anderson but once the Birdman and his upside down mustache bowed out to the Lakers in the conference finals the competition was clinched. The scary part is, that picture was taken 11 games ago (in NBA playoff time that translates to 6 years, 75 days and 14 hours) and has only gotten longer. Much, much longer.

For Club and Country...or not

2009-06-12T19:19:00.015-04:00

After the many 2010 World Cup Qualifiers on Wednesday I decided that to comment on them I would have to find a reason I should care. I could root for my home country -- a novel idea -- and I did that, to the result of a win over Honduras to avenge a 3-1 loss to Costa Rica that included a US soccer team whose performance would run into some serious issues against The Big Green. I could root for the players of my favorite club team. Not many from La Liga's Sevilla FC played on Wednesday, but I found solace in centre/left back Ivica Dragutinović and the Serbian National team. They won both their matches in the week to take 18 of a possible 21 points so far and leave them 8 clear of France for the lead in their qualifying group. Former Yugoslav neighbors Montenegro came from two goals down to muster a draw at the mighty Cyprus.

Some fans however, find themselves more confused. A good friend of mine considers himself a soccer fan, though I feel in Europe it would be the same way someone over the pond is a basketball fan: they understand the game to a point, know their country plays it at a far weaker level and merely latches on to the best team they see on TV. Well this individual decides to fall in line with his heritage and root for the Italian National team. I respect the heritage angle, I rooted for Poland in Euro 2008, but he claims that were he to travel to the 2010 World Cup, he would root for Italy over his home US of A. Funny, considering that if his fellow "countrymen" said a word other than Ferrari or spaghetti he would be lost in the conversation. Interesting fact; he also claims to be AT LEAST half Chilean. Maybe I should warn him the Chile's defeat of Bolivia almost assures them of a place in South Africa, time to break out that Colo Colo jersey son.

He doesn't seem too happy about it...

Anyway, with the qualifiers giving the chance to look all around the world for stories three things have caught my eye in the last week:

Real Madrid's Big Signings
Seriously Real? You've spent so much money that the Yankees are jealous. Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo cost the Spanish giant £133 MILLION POUNDS. That is, by current exchange rates, $219 million dollars! For two players! A team tired of the stigma of choking with the most talent (which they did once again this past season) finally became too much so they decided to make it rain on the worlds top talent like Pac Man Jones.

USA Abysmal Defense
When all of America can pick out bad soccer without looking at a scoreline, its not a good thing. Anyone who watched the Costa Rica match could have determined what indeed was piss poor soccer. Alot of it starts in the backline where the left back -- long a problem position -- was manned by Demarcus Beasley, an offensive minded midfielder on many occasions. Sure losses come and so do brilliant goals but it wasn't the unmarked man in the box scoring the second Costa Rica goal that bothered me, it was the three guys waiting if the pass was long who were also unmarked that got to me.

England 6, Andorra 0
England is unblemished having claimed a maximum 21 points and almost assured of a world cup berth. WHOOPIE! Does someone want a cookie for this? Maybe a crumpet will do? This is not a vastly different team than failed to qualify for Euro 08, so don't expect too much. All beating Andorra does is clue a few English school children into the fact that there is in fact a country named Andorra.

The Day After in Disney

2009-06-10T16:12:00.020-04:00

So the Orlando Magic finally got off the snide in game three, far far away from the bright lights of the Staples Center. Their biggest celebrity is admitted Laker fan Tiger Woods and the angry Jack Nicholson has been replaced courtside by a mascot with the very original name of "Stuff." Stuff even has a place called his lair, where a brief scroll over the team website would have you believing he entices/entraps children in with toys and what appears to be gamecube.

Welcome to Disney World.

Dictionary.com defines a lair as a private place in which a person seeks concealment or seclusion. Quite the homecourt advantage, and definitely not a place I'd send my kids. Now Stan Van Gundy's lair is a place I feel like I could chill. I'd expect velour couches, plenty of mustache wax and Justin Timberlakes "Sexy Back" on permanent repeat.

How did the Magic pull out game 3 with Ron Jeremy as the coach and the Philly Fanatic disowned child-eating cousin as the mascot you might ask? Well funny you shoot ask, because I just so happen to know why.

Incredibly Hot Shooting

Namely shooting near 80% from the field in the first half. Sure, they dropped down to only 62% for the game but from a team like the Magic that shoots so many threes, that number is almost as impossible to get to as the Lost island. They didn't miss three consecutive field goals till around one minute left in the third when a Rashard Lewis three from the wing didn't drop. That leads me to my second reason...

Three Point Shooting

The Magic live and die on their shooting. Their offense is Dwight Howard kicking to four perimeter shooters nearly all the time. As Bill Simmons' stat digging pulled out in his NBA Finals "Preview" of sorts, from Game 7 of the Boston series through Game 4 of the Cleveland series, the Magic drained 55 of 119 3-pointers (47 percent). Insanity, like Gary Busey kinda crazy from deep. The difference in game 3 was not the trey balls they put up, but the ones they passed up. The Magic took only 14 three-pointers to the Lakers' 23. The shooters who usually spotted up and forced bad long range jumpers instead took it hard to the cup with great success. Rafer Alston, known for his far too quick trigger as well as he adventures with guys named The Professor and Escalade, hoisted only one three, which he drained.

The Stars

As played out as the NBA star thing is (thank you Nike puppets), it mattered. Big time. Kobe Bryant, the media proclaimed Mr. Clutch, saw his would-be game-winning shot get blocked from behind by Hedo Turkoglu at the end of regulation in game 2 while three of his teammates had the state of Montana between them and their defenders. In game 3 Kobe didn't just run into a great defensive play, he ran into himself, and Mr. Clutch lost to the very human Kobe Bryant. A game leading four turnovers as well as 0nly 5-10 from the free throw line. He was visibly ineffective in the fourth quarter for the first time in this playoffs and really didn't even look like he wanted to win the game.

Dwight Howard on the other hand did what he will have to do every game here on out for the Magic to win this series -- become Superman. He decided to just merely brush aside Andrew Bynum's corpse on his way to 21 points, 14 rebounds, 2 blocks and about a half dozen goaltends that may have injured Val Kilmer at his seat in the front row. He had only two assists but as happens when the Magic offense is clicking he would be credited with the hockey assist. He was efficient too, missing just once from the field and out doing Bryant from the line with an 11-of-16 mark. For good measure he even added one of his patented running hooks that threaten to destabilize the entire foundation of the arena when it shatters the backboard. In game 3, it was nothing but net.

Smart Substitutions

For the first time all series Cach Jeremy figured it out, on all levels. Rafer Alston played starters minutes. Jameer Nelson saw Anthony Johnson's old minutes. Anthony Johnson saw the same minutes as I did. All was right in point guard paradise and Alston responded by dropping 20 and getting to the basket whenever he pleased. JJ Redick was the always beautiful DNP -- Coach's Decision, instead yielding his minutes to Courtney Lee while even the soon to be vastly over-payed Marcin Gortat even conceded some minutes to Tony Battie. On the other side Phil Jackson threw DJ Mbenga into the mix for 17 seconds, about 17 seconds more the DJ Mbenga should ever get playing for the Sioux Falls Skyforce or the Mitsubishi Electric Dolphins (I swear thats a real team) yet alone the Lakers in the NBA finals. At least Sun Yue stayed on the bench.

The series took a turn for the good of the NBA but the Magic realistically need to sweep all three at home to have a shot. With all that the Magic did right in game three and the fact that JJ Redick was wearing a Kobe suit the final 12 minutes, Orlando only escaped with a four point win behind unconscious shooting. Game 4 will certainly have the Magic fall back to earth, and it all comes down to how they respond.

Even if Dwight Howard leaves his cape at home, we know Stuff will be ready to give his all. Just make sure you knock before entering his lair, you don't want to see him angry.

A Great Day for Pittsburgh

2009-06-10T01:24:00.012-04:00

The Pirates today landed former Boston College catcher Tony Sanchez with the fourth overall pick in yesterdays MLB draft, the highest a BC player has ever been selected. Another BC player, Mike Belfiore, went 41 picks later to the D-Backs while my New York Mets took a kid from my former High School in left-hander Steve Matz. Belfiore could hit the majors first, as college relievers are often fast tracked, but Pittsburgh got the top catcher in the draft and someone who could hold his own defensively if called up tomorrow.

Oh and then there's that whole Stanley Cup thing.

In a series dominated by the team on home ice, the Penguins came up big. The goals came from the third line as both Crosby and Malkin were held scoreless (casual hockey fans can stop reading here) and the much maligned Marc Andre Fleury came up huge. Fleury, a younger and apparently more well toothed (though with the mask you really never know) Fleury compared to former Ranger Theoren, made a breakaway save on Dan Cleary with under two minutes remaining which kept the Pens up one and immediately was noted not just for the great save but for its utter importance from everyone who I watched the game with, even those who preferred the simulcast offering of Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay to the Stanley Cup. While Fleury was saving the season of his team and an entire city doomed to watch the Pirates for the next three months, I'm pretty certain Harold and Kumar were leaning in to the crotch area of man named "Big Bob" with the intent to fellate, but really who's keeping track of such things?

Rob Scuderi cemented the win for the Pens by helping his buddy Fleury out and breaking out the padless-butterfly to defend the net with his goaltender laying sprawled on the side of the crease. At this point Harold and Kumar were getting urinated on by a Klansman or doing mushrooms with Barney Stinson or something.

The NHL. Where Ruslan Fedotenko being more important than Doogie Howser happens.

He's no Shavlik Randolph...

2009-06-08T23:50:00.012-04:00

J.J. Redick? In the 4th quarter of the NBA finals?

That plotline would have sounded possible, maybe even probable, sometime in early 2006. Redick and Morrison, it was the return of the beautiful game that is white-boy basketball where everybody "hustles" has "grit and determination" and is the "next Larry Bird."

Flash Forward three wonderful basketball years and Redick still is nothing more than a glorified shooter despite the shocking appearance the JJ Redick late game dribble drive in Game 2 in LA. The only determination Redick shows is in his quest to keep his hair looking like he is going straight from the locker room to the club without passing go or collecting $200. Of course most nights this works as he would seem to see no than a few minutes in relief of Mickael Pietrus or Courtney Lee. He might possibly not get off the bench at all as he did most of the series against the Cavaliers.

Nope. Not today. No way. No how. Jonathan Clay Redick gonna get his.

In a game that could swing the series for the Magic, Stan Van Gundy manages to find 27 minutes of mostly late game P.T. for JJ. The only time you'll see that again is if you happen to watch my college buddy J-Skulls, a Duke "homer" who hails from 5 miles south of Nowhere, NY, play in an NBA2k version of the finals. To defend Van Gundy (Not Skulls, his Duke fandom is indefensible), Pietrus fouled out and Lee's defense on Kobe in Game 1 made the chair Yi went up against before the '07 Draft look like Bruce Bowen.

Still Redick is NOT a viable defensive option on Sasha Vujacic yet alone Kobe Bryant. He is a shooter and his play forced a 6'10" Turkish man to guard Kobe. Redick wasn't even a factor on offense save a lone three from the corner late in the fourth. A missed WIDE OPEN three (I cannot stress how open. The vaunted Laker closeout defense wasn't within 5 feet at the time of his release) that swung the game in the Lakers' favor was much more important than any positive impact Redick had on the game.

Save the aforementioned late dribble-drive bucket -- a play that looked an awful lot like it was run FOR Redick in a need to score situation (I'll give Van Gundy credit for confusing the Lakers into letting them score as they were clearly thinking, "Did they really draw this up for JJ Redick?") -- JJ just stood idly in the far corner by the Lakers' bench doing very little other then making sure the Magic had 5 players on the court. Granted NBA basketball is never more of a 1-on-1 game than in the fourth quarter, but even as the other 3 players cycled around to some degree waiting for Turkoglu to do something, JJ just stood there.

Redick's play and minutes are just one issue the Magic have going into Game 3. What to do with Jameer Nelson is another. Getting Dwight Howard to decide that no matter what, a dude named Pau and the corpse that formerly belonged to Andrew Bynum will not stop him is most important.

I'm rooting for the Magic. Thats the beauty of the blog vs. the newspaper, I can say that without getting in trouble. Because of that I HOPE that Stan Van Gundy realizes JJ can join the rest of the great white college shooters (read: Duke graduate) of the past decade on the end of the bench and not try an be a hero. You never know, I've seen it happen to the greatest Boston College team in recent memory, felled by an "unguardable" NBA range three from none other than Redick.

But hey, after watching these playoffs it's become clear. If a pure shooter who has the same ability to create his shot against a top NBA defender as Wang Zhi Zhi does can make a positive impact on a championship team, it would be with this Orlando team.

Welcome!

2009-06-08T22:32:00.002-04:00

Welcome to my new blog! If you're reading this you are either one of my good friends who were somehow persuaded to read my blog while waiting for the newest Sporcle quiz to come online OR this blog hit it big and you decided to read back to see where it started from.

Anyway, the purpose of this blog will be to present my thoughts on the world of sports as seems fit in my convoluted mind. There will probably be a strong focus on teams that matter to me and if not it will eventually focus strongly on College Basketball, hence the name. If nothing else I'll attempt to put out my brand of humor to the important, the mundane and the incredibly strange in the Wide World of Sports.