Go Cards!

It's going to be a great Sunday tomorrow. I have to make sure I watch the Cards-Eagles game one way or the other. It might be another 70 years before the Cards get this far. For all we know, they might be Oklahoma City Cardinals by then. The only thing more intriguing than watching the Cards in the NFC conference game is that they have a shot - a very legitimate shot, at going to the Super Bowl. It is a surprise that they made it this far, but let's not forget this was a weak NFC league this season and I can't see why the Cards can't represent the conference in the big game. The Eagles are not that good either. Both the Cards and the Eagles have only 9 regular season wins and I don't think there's a whole lot of talent differential between the two.

Eagles just have "name recognition" because they have been to many of these games, they have stars like Donovan McNabb, they were expected to be good this year and they started the season strong. But after watching them all season, I would say they are over-rated. So I pick the Cards at home in this one. In any case, the real Super Bowl is probably going to be played in Pittsburgh tomorrow. That game between the Steelers and the Ravens is going to be off the hook. I want the Ravens to win, but I am afraid that Pittsburgh at home is going to win. I grudgingly pick the Steelers at home and either of these 2 teams should be prohibitive favorites in the Super Bowl.

Basketball is fun too these days. Arizona State finally has a team to talk about this season. They won at UCLA today behind a great performance from super-soph James Harden as always. This was ASU's first road win over a top-10 team since 1998. Thats an ugly stat, but in James we trust and today he came through for my Devils in front of LA celebs like Pat Riley and Kevin Love. The story of the day was Jonathan Xavier, the brother of Providence's Jeff Xavier calmly walking onto the court and all the way to the free-throw line to confront the refs after Jeff Xavier's hard fall. That was not even a foul, but the brother was upset I guess. It's kinda scary how easy it is for people to get to the court like that. If people have not seen it yet, they should find it on youtube.

In the NBA, the Magic are on a roll. They walked into LA and punched the Lakers on the face yesterday. Three things stood out for me from this game. It was impressive to see the Magic win on the road in LA and establish themselves as a legitimate contender. They are for real. The second thing was, Dwight Howard showed the national audience how dominant he has become. I almost got a new appreciation for interior defense and strong "big-man" play just looking at him do his thing. It's amazing to see how many shots he changes in the paint and how he patrols the paint. Thats over and above all the rebounds and blocks he is credited with everyday on the stat-sheet.

Last but not the least, Kobe showed us he can still go knuckle-head, good-ole Kobe on us anytime. I can't believe what he was doing the last minute of this game. He followed one bad shot with another and got completely carried away by his drive to one-up his friend Dwight Howard. He took some horrible shots on Dwight when Dwight was on Kobe on a switch or when he was helping with the double team. Kobe had a triple-double but shot a horrible 10 of 26. LeBron looked a lot better than Kobe yesterday dominating the Hornets at home. When LeBron shoots the jumper like that, there aint nobody that can even come close to stopping him. But both the Cavs and the Celtics better be careful with the Magic. They are coming hard and they spanked Denver on the road today.