Suns win one

Tonight the Suns beat the Celtics 88-71. Suns don't win many games when they score only 88. Actually the suns don't win many games these days period! So it's a pleasant surprise for suns fans when they beat top-notch teams like the Celtics. Granted, the good old celtics were playing on back-to-back nights on the road, but these are still the eastern conference leading celtics with the big-3 or 4 or 5 or whatever number of great players on that roster you want to recognize. Thus the inconsistent and mediocre suns season continues. They lost by 34 points at Denver and then went on a nice 5 game winning streak against some bad teams (and the knicks). Then they lost 3 in a row to even worse teams. Now, they beat the celtics at home to get to 21-24. They supposedly had a team meeting recently with some front office suits in the room and this game is touted as a strong response coming out of that meeting. Whatever the cause was, this is a sold result, but they are still what their record indicates and it indicates nothing but mediocrity.

I am not sure how the suns owner Robert Sarver can show up in public after taking a team that went to the western conference finals just 8 months back and turning it into a 11-Th placed team with a 21-24 record. Most suns fans were not too disturbed when he let Amare walk. We were all caught up in what Amare can't do - namely defend well or rebound consistently, but what was lost was what he can do and what he did do for the suns. People forgot Amare was Blake Griffin before Blake Girffin and it was not going to be easy to replace his production. Poor guy never got his due in Phoenix and he never lost it and turned on the city like some knucklehead superstars do. Thats just amazing considering how rough a background he comes from. My respect for him constantly keeps going up looking at the way he plays and conducts himself. I am glad the Suns fans gave him a nice ovation when he visited. That was absolutely the appropriate response for Amare.

Without Amare, the season was meandering along when the front office pulled the Vince Carter - Hedo trade. Not a bad trade for the future in terms of cap room, but does nothing for this year. It took a already floundering team and added lack of chemistry to it's list of problems. Now, Steve Nash has to get used to 3 new players and try and incorporate them into his offense. Not the kind of rebuilding project he is looking for at 37. I love Grant Hill, but at 38, if he is Nash's best fast-break option and also the most reliable defender, the team is not being managed well. So what do you do with this team and the veterans, especially Steve Nash? I don't want him to be traded, but why waste his time and talent with this roster? Sarver and others keep talking about still making the playoffs. NBA teams constantly try to make the playoffs as if that means something. The truth is, making the playoffs means nothing except more money for the owners. It saves the coach's job and causes some momentary excitement, but if you are not contending, what's the point in just making the playoffs? It's a meaningful goal only for a young team on the rise. Making it to the playoffs as an eight seed only to lose to the Spurs or the Lakers in 5 games cannot be a goal for this Suns team led by a 37 year old superstar.

Nash is still playing at the high-level, but his assists that used to be slam dunks (and 1) when Amare was around are now a hit or miss layup attempts with Gortat and Lopez. I am amazed Nash is still averaging 11 assists per game. Marcin Gortat actually had a great 19-17 game tonight against the Celtics. May be this is the turning point we have all been waiting for. May be he cements his place at the center position and the Suns find some chemistry with this new group. May be the team meeting sparks a sustained run. The Celtics didn't play well today, but they did play tough and the game had a few tense moments and pushing and shoving followed by a few ejections. May be the team rallies around this and takes off. Remember how the Cleveland game ended up changing Miami's fortunes? I am searching for something here because I don't want to see Nash struggle for a mediocre team. Yes, a playoff berth is the best this team can do and it doesn't mean much. But it's still better than nothing and it will at least give Nash a shot. Plus it will put some money in the owner's pocket and might encourage him to be more aggressive next year. Nash and Hill might still have a year left in their young legs and I don't want that to go to waste.

Packers-V-Steelers

The Super Bowl lineup is now set. The Packers and the Steelers got the job done today in almost similar fashion. They both looked like they were going to blowout their opponent in the first half, but slowed down significantly in the second half to let the Bears and the Jets back into the game. But they did hold on at the end to win close games by a score or less. I am not a big big-ben fan - couldn't resist the opportunity to use 2 "big" back-to-back, but you gotta give the devil it's due. Nobody clutches up like this guy and he is almost impossible to bring down. He rarely plays "pretty" or puts up big numbers, but he always seems to make plays in the 4-Th quarter. His QB rating in this game was 35.5, but there were 2 third down plays late in the game when the ball was in his hands and he completed big passes to help the Steelers kill the clock. The second one was typical Ben as he got out of the pocket and found a receiver in the crowd just past the first down marker. All Rex Ryan could do was throw down his headset in disgust.

The Jets had a shot today, but they should have scored during that long drive in the 4-Th quarter when they stalled at the goal-line. That drive reminded me of the stalled Oregon's drive against Auburn in the college championship game. Of course the other option for the Jets would have been to have actually shown up in the first half. They didn't do either and hence lost the game. If you have as bad a first half as the Jets did, you need a flawless second half to have any shot at winning. The Jets were almost there, but not quite. Rex deserves some credit for half-time adjustments, but he can now work on preparing a script for next year's "hard knocks". That show should go back-to-back with the Jets because it's going to be a letdown next season with any other team. As part of his script, Rexy should mix in a home playoff game too. He has played 6 road playoff games in 2 years and has gone 4-2. Pretty impressive in it's own right, but a home playoff game wont hurt their chances.

The Packers generated their own excitement today as they let the Bears back into the game after a 14-0 first-half lead. Cutler got injured mysteriously and the Bears took a step back from bad to worse momentarily when Todd Collins stepped in. But then they put in the third string QB Caleb Hanie and he turned the game around for the Bears. He drove them for a TD and made things interesting, but threw an interception on 4-Th down late in the game to finish things off. Apparently the Bears fans are burning Cutler's jersey for not playing through an injury which they think was not major. I guess tomorrow's MRI will reveal the damage and at this stage, Cutler may actually be wishing it shows a ligament tear or something serious. But the fans are playing doctor right now and are pissed at Cutler for not being tough enough. Controversy always seems to find Cutler or may be he finds them. He is the exact opposite of Aaron Rodgers, who seems to have managed his young career flawlessly up to this point. I sure hope he adds a Super Bowl championship to his resume.

Sport Illustrated rarely gets it right, but their Super Bowl pick this season - Steelers over the Packers. Pretty impressive though I sure hope they are wrong about the eventual champion.

Talk and Walk

If you talk the talk, you got to walk the walk. This is why most people don't talk the talk. This is especially true in sports where people are afraid they may not be able to walk the walk, so they don't resort to any controversial trash talking. Athletes and coaches often display fake humility and false respect when they talk about the other team and try not to give them any bulletin-board material. Modern day sports is really soft and mellow when it comes to trash talking and hating the rival teams. Blame it on free agency, or the realities of the 24X7 media with a constant eye on everything or may be it's just a more evolved society we live in today. Whatever the reason is, teams don't hate and go after each other in the media like they used to. However, life, like fashion, always goes around in circles and this trend of decency and decorum between teams might be changing too.

At the forefront of this revolution, if you can call it that, are the New York Jets led by Rex Ryan. In 2 years, this guy has single handedly changed the landscape of the NFL. He is brash, loud and anything but shy. His team has taken his lead and they also say and do whatever they want. Antonio Cromartie shocked everybody when he dropped an A-expletive on Tom Brady of all people. Guys don't do that these days, especially with superstar QBs with a spotless image. Of course the Jets were perfectly at ease with such behavior while Bill Belichick, on the other hand, would still not bite. The entire Patriots contingent would not respond, including Brady. I was hoping Brady would take a shot or two, but he probably thought he would win the game and then drop some trash on the Jets. Dude never got a chance. Wes Welker was the only guy who would venture out into the wild, but he got benched by the Hoodie for the first possession of last weekend's game. I thought what Welker did was smart and hilarious. He dropped 11 feet or toe references during the course of a normal interview with an obvious eye on Rex Ryan's "foot porn".

All of this is great for the NFL. The league sure can use a little more character and edge in it'e personalities. People calling each other expletives is not great, but things like what Ryan and Welker did adds a lot of personality to these games and builds rivalries. There are not many quality rivalries right now, but seems like the Jets are building a whole bunch of them all by themselves. A few years back when the NFL re-aligned, they sent a survey to teams asking them to identify their biggest rival. All the teams in the then AFC West (except the Raiders) identified the Oakland Raiders as their primary rival. I think in a year or 2, the New York Jets might be voted as the hated rival by the entire league. Rex Ryan tried his best to piss off Peyton Manning and then Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. But the Jets backed it all up with victories against both the teams. For the second year in a row, they are going to the AFC championship game after 2 road playoff wins. Thats no fluke ladies and gentleman. This team is special and whatever they are doing is working. They can talk and then back it up on the football field.

The Jets win over the Patriots was especially impressive considering they just lost 45-3 at Foxboro few weeks back. Rex doesn't just talk, but also coaches. He came up with a brilliant game-plan to throttle MVP Brady and the Patriots offense and completely changed the game on the hoody. Win or lose, I don't remember hoody getting out-coached too many times, but he was against Ryan and the Jets. Sexy Rexy is brash, loud, funny and he seems to be beloved in his locker room. They want to play for him and win for him. Not sure if his style will work with a mediocre team or a losing team, but he is the king of NY right now as the Jets are a game away from the Super Bowl. They have a legitimate shot at making it to the Super Bowl, though they are unusually gracious and humble towards the Steelers. Not sure why the Steelers are treated so special, but I am sure there is some method to this madness. This seems to be Rex's chosen approach to the Steelers - quite different from his attitude towards the Colts or the Patriots. The Jets did beat the Steelers at the ketchup bottle in December. May be he is scared Polamalu, who missed that game, is going to whack them this time around, which is very likely.

In any case, Jets-Steelers will be a great game. To quote Bart Scott - "can't wait".

Stanford lucks out

Stanford is front and center of the football universe right now. They scored an impressive 40-12 victory over virginia tech in the orange bowl and since then, Stanford's coach Jim Harbaugh and their QB Andrew Luck have dominated the sports pages across the country. Jim Harbaugh was the most sought after coach in all of football this week - may be ever, and rightfully so. 3 NFL teams - Denver, San Francisco and Miami, were after him and Stanford threw money at him to try and retain him as well. Finally, Harbaugh committed to stick with the Bay Area but not with Stanford. He was announced as the new head coach of the San Francisco 49'ers. What Harbaugh had done at the farm after taking over a 1-11 Stanford team is pretty impressive. In a short time, he took them to a BCS bowl and won it in style. I have always been a big fan of Harbaugh since his "captain comeback" days with the Colts. I wish him good luck in the NFL where is brother is not doing bad either as the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. Of course, Harbaugh should thank his stud QB Luck for a lot of his success this year, but Harbaugh deserves his share of the spotlight too.

Luck was super efficient against Va Tech and the Hokies looked all confused in the second half trying to deal with him and that offense. He has all the pro-skills and looked every bit like the projected first pick in the NFL draft. Obviously, the other major news of the week was concerning his future. He cut the conversation short by shocking everybody. He has decided to stay back at Stanford instead of making millions of dollars. Staying back in school is always risky for pro-prospects and is especially risky for a projected first pick and even more so for Luck given the uncertainty of the labor situation in the NFL right now. The labor situation is one reason he is staying back, but depending on how the NFL resolves it and when they decide to implement the rookie wage scale (starting 2011 or 2012), he could lose tens of millions of dollars. Now add to it the fact that Jim Harbaugh is gone, you really have to say Luck is rolling the dice here. There are several cases of athletes over the years, including Jake Locker - the other popular Pac-10 QB this season, who decided to stay back in school and lost some shine and draft position. As good as Luck is, he can suffer a similar fate especially with the coaching situation now at Stanford.

The closest parallel that comes to my mind is Peyton Manning. He came back to school even when he was guaranteed be a top pick. It worked out well for Peyton as he was still the first pick the next year and is now headed towards being the best QB ever in the history of the NFL. Luck would have to be very lucky to follow in those footsteps. Aside from the obvious dangers of an injury, the problem for Luck is going to be the unsettled coaching situation at Stanford and all the changes in his offensive line. This decision must have been a lot tougher call for Luck than it was for Manning, but he has made the same call nonetheless. Coincidentally, Manning's decision from the late 90's is in the news this week because of his playoff matchup against the NY Jets. One of the suspicion for why Manning went back to school was that he wanted to avoid playing for the Jets, who had the first pick in 1997. Luck is dealing with the same theory involving the Carolina Panthers, who have this year's first pick. I don't think Luck is trying to avoid the Panthers, but only he knows for sure.

In any case, It's great news for Stanford and it's fans. Having Luck back will give them a huge boost, especially after losing Harbaugh. A QB of Luck's stature doesn't come along too often in college and Stanford gets him for another year. This makes their coaching job more attractive as well. The only frustrating part for Stanford is how they are nothing more than a training ground for top coaches. Even if they hire the best, they are going to lose him after a few years because they can't compete with top college programs and NFL teams that came after that successful coach after a few years. However, losing Harbaugh to the NFL is better than losing him to a bigger name college program like Michigan. It would have been a repeat of losing Tyrone Willingham to Notre Dame and that would have been even more frustrating to the cardinal faithful. At least now, they can expect Luck to get them a few wins. They can also pat themselves on the back for spotting and hiring 2 sought after coaching talents in Ty Wilingham and Jim Harbaugh within a few years of each other. Somebody is doing the right hiring at Stanford. Lets see what they do next.

The small 10

The Big 10 conference got it's behind kicked today in the New Year day bowl games. The non-AQ (thats my favorite abbreviation these days - non automatic qualifiers) TCU beat Wisconsin in the grand daddy today. It was a close game that ended 21-19. Thats a huge win for the AQ guys, who have consistently done well in the BCS bowls. In fact, thats why they are even allowed in these days after having a tougher time getting in during the first few years of BCS. The conference that should not be allowed in to the BCS games automatically is actually the Big East. Ever since Miami and Va Tech left the conference, they have been awful. After Cincinnati stunk up the BCS joint the last 2 years, it was UConn's turn today as they lost 48-20 to Oklahoma in the Fiesta bowl. Good for Oklahoma and Bob Stoops because they have looked horrible the last few years in the BCS games themselves. I feel like the Big East has single handedly diluted the BCS bowls the last few years. NCAA should definitely revisit this conference's AQ status for BCS the next time they look at it.

As for the Big 10, they again had all kinds of problems against more athletic teams and conferences. While TCU beat Wisconsin, Florida beat Joe-Pa and Penn state in a close contest for the Outback bowl. Miss state crushed Michigan 52-14 and Alabama rolled tide all over Michigan State 49-7. No special teams trick plays in this one for Michigan state. And Northwestern lost to Texas Tech 45-38 to complete the 5 losses in one day for the Big 10. This after all the controversy surrounding the Ohio state suckeyes. ESPN's Mark May ripped the NCAA for the soft penalty for the OSU players and he blamed it on NCAA's partial treatment of it's preferred conferences like the Big 10. His theory is that the penalty would have included the BCS bowl game suspension as well if it was a different school from the SEC or something. NCAA does look stupid that they suspended the guys for games next year, but they get to play in a couple of days in the bowl game. But thats what TV and money does to whatever little integrity thats left of the NCAA. Of course, it probably won't help the Big 10 on the field as I totally expect Arkansas to beat OSU in the Sugar bowl with or without these fools.

I can't believe we are already in the last week of the NFL season. There are a lot of scenarios to be played out tomorrow. The AFC is pretty much set with only the relative standings to be decided. The only open issue is the AFC South championship, but with Indy hosting Tennessee tomorrow, it's their division to lose. NFC is more interesting with 2 spots still up for grabs. The NFC West championship is still open. Seattle is hosting St. Louis and I totally want them to win. I don't care about either of these teams, but it would be totally awesome to have a 7-9 team in the playoffs. They not only get to make the playoffs, they will be hosting a playoff game against a team with a better record. It would be even more awesome if the Giants and the Bucs stay home with a 10-6 record while Seattle is stinking it up in the playoffs. I sure hope the Hawks bring it home tomorrow. The other wild-card spot is Green Bay's to lose. If they win, they are in. If they lose, the Giants can get in with a win. Bucs have the toughest route there since they need both the Packers and the Giants to lose. Unlikely given the opponents. Packers have the tough Bears, but it's at home and the Bears may not play their starters all game. Lets see what happens. I want the Packers to make it. I think they are the best team among the wild-card bunch and will be a tough out in the playoffs.