Crazy Weekend

There are only 3 certainties in life - death, taxes and my bracket getting busted after just a week of tournament play. The only difference this year is that most people's brackets are busted and I am not alone. It was an weekend of awesome games and amazing upsets in the NCAA tournament. The tourney has been up and down a little bit the last couple of years. But this first weekend this March has been great. The sweet 16 features a 9-Th seed that upset the big, bad Kansas. It also features a 10-Th, 11-Th and 12-Th seeds. The first round also featured a 13-Th and 14-Th seeded teams that upset Georgetown and Vanderbilt. The theory has always been that there is always a 12 over 5 upset in the first round and I called the Cornell over Temple game correctly. But I didn't think Cornell will also dump Wisconsin and go to the sweet 16. I also didn't know there would be a 13 over 4 and a 14 over 3. Amazing! The talk of the nation now is Northern Iowa, who beat Kansas and St. Mary's, who beat Villanova - 2 teams responsible for my brackets being in the state they are. But I can't complain. Don't we all love the underdogs!

It's not just about the upsets. The games have been awesome and a lot of close finishes as well. Both Northern Iowa and Michigan State have played 2 nail-baiters and now they have to play each other. Should be fun. Surprisingly, Cornell has had no problems with their comfortable upsets. Not since Penn made the Final Four in 1979 has an Ivy League team won two games in the NCAA tournament. Cornell has done it by averaging 82.5 points a game. They now have to play Kentucky, the clear favorites to win it all now that Kansas is back home. Kentucky, Duke, Syracuse and Ohio State are the big-names still left in the tournament and have looked decent. It should be fun watching them fight it out with the little guys next weekend. It's time now to follow the NBA for a couple of days before the gang reconvenes for the tournament on Thursday. NBA is heating up too with everybody on top of the conference standings winning and refusing to lose. The Phoenix Suns are playing great, but they cannot close the gap in the standings. Lets save that story for another day.

March Madness

March madness is here. Most people think NCAA tournament when you say March madness. But a lot of god games actually happen during the conference tournaments leading up to the big dance. I wish I had more times on my hands to watch some of these games. The conference tournaments usually feature teams that know each other very well and hate each other and are rivals. This brings an added juice to the contest and some of these games are real fun. Obviously there is not much at stake for the top teams in the tournaments for the big conferences, but a NCAA berth is usually at stake for all smaller conferences. The process has started already and this will keep us busy through the month. Fun times.

In the NBA, Kobe hit his 6-Th game winner of this season. This guy is becoming a legendary clutch player this season. He is the most popular player in the league and he is only getting bigger with these game winners. Kobe's shot today stopped a 3 game losing streak for the Lakers. They actually don't look as good as they used to in December but a lot of people think they will just turn it up in the playoffs. They still have the most talent in the league and they have the black mamba. The Cavs look great, but can they beat the Lakers? Thats the question to be answered this season. I think the much awaited Cavs-Lakers matchup will happen this year in the finals. Boston looks shot and the Magic this season don't look like a championship team. Cavs may still need Shaq to make sure they get past the Magic, but the Cavs look better than they did last year. The surprising team in the NBA are the Mavericks. They have won 12 straight and they are threatening the top teams in the league with their record.

Basketball is fun, but NFL is clearly the national sport. The daily coverage and attention the NFL is getting even during the off-season is amazing. And this is expanding every year. Seems like the people just can't get enough of the NFL and there's constant chatter on ESPN all day about the NFL though the first game is still almost 6 months away. The news today was how Derek Anderson crushed the Cleveland Browns fan on his way out. Looks like the dude was really hurt by them cherring his injury during a game. Fans are sometimes messed up, but I didn't expect so much emotion from him on the way out. The other news is TO being recruited by the Bengals. I can't imagine TO and Ocho on the same team. They both should drive Carson Palmer nuts.

Missed Dunk

Couple of interesting games on ABC today. The usual Suns-Spurs contest had a typical ending. The Suns lost and they lost a heart-breaker. Jason Richardson, the former slam-dunk champion, missed a wide-open dunk that would have tied the game with 40 seconds to go. The Suns then had to play catchup by fouling and Nash still had the ball in his hands with 3+ seconds to go trailing by just 3. This was because he hit a ridiculous 3 a few seconds back, but now he decided to make an ill-decided pass to Frye and the clock ran out on them before a shot even went up. Bad ending for the Suns as always at San Antonio. The only difference for both these teams these days is that they are both in the bottom half of the Western standings. Actually, I was mentally treating the Spurs as a better team all game long because they have the pedigree and they have Timmy, but they are actually behind the Suns in the standings. Even more reason why the Suns should have won this game today.

The other game today on ABC was between a couple of teams in the top half of the West - Denver at the Lakers. The Lakers got booed in the first half by the home crowd, but they came through in the second. The rich and creamies couldn't take advantage of some horrible shooting by Kobe - 3/17. It's interesting to watch Kenyon Martin defend Kobe for stretches and he usually does a good job. Thats an amazing assignment for a power forward. This game was also probably the first real payoff for the Lakers as far as having Ron Artest on the roster. He defended Melo well and actually forced a 6-Th foul on him. It was a horrible call by the ref, but Artest induced the stupidity anyways. It is good to see George Karl coaching amidst all his cancer treatment. I wonder how long he can keep going like this. In other news, Shaq is out till the playoffs since his thumb might require surgery. I don't think the Cavs will miss him, at least not until the playoffs. Canada beats the US in OT in the Olympics hockey finals. The nation of Canada is more relieved than excited.

Amare stays put

The trade deadline came and went and I was happy about it. Amare stayed back and that’s good for the Suns. It’s good in the sense that most of the rumored deals to me looked like a pure salary dump and not necessarily something that was focused on rebuilding. I don’t mind them not wanting to resign Amare for a lot of money. I am probably of the opinion that he is not a max contract guy myself. So that’s not the issue. If you are letting him walk next year, then you don’t get anything in return. So you try and trade and get something in return. Agreed. But what’s the point of trading him for big Z’s large contract and buying that out? Essentially you are swapping expiring contracts and dumping big Z right away to save some cash the rest of this season. That ain’t rebuilding. That’s just saving cash.

I was hoping for more talent and may be draft picks and obviously Cavs can’t give you top picks being an elite team themselves. To be fair to Kerr, looks like he did want J.J.Hickson and that’s apparently why the Cavs didn’t do the deal. But still J.J.Hickson is not what I was looking for when it comes to trading Amare. So I never liked this deal and I am glad it didn’t go through. It would have just been another data-point to show how Robert Sarver would rather save some money than build a team. Also the Suns are in the playoff race and they have been sliding up and down the standing all the way from 1 to 9. That tells me they have some talent, but are inconsistent. They are not a contender, but shouldn’t they have been buyers and not sellers in the trade market? I am surprised Sarver gets away with all this. I am just happy they are not rebuilding mid-stream and wasting Nash’s time.

The Cavs got Jamison and did not have to give up Hickson. Good trade for them, though Jamison shot 0-12 in his first game and they promptly lost his first 2 games. It will work out in the long run. The Cavs will also get Z back after whole buyout dance with the Wizards. Wizards are now completely transformed. Not sure where they are going next season. The Cavs still have the best record in the league after losing 3 straight. They are good. Kobe came back today and hit another game winner against Memphis today. This guy’s legend is growing everyday this season even more than it did with his 4-Th championship. He has hit 5 game winners and that’s impressive to say the least. Apparently Melo had that many a couple of years back, which is also amazing. Suns won today on the road against a good Thunder team and the shocking thing was, they won without Nash.

All-star weekend

Another NBA all-star weekend is in the books. The Saturday night festivities this year were worse than usual. The slam-dunk contest was uninspired and boring. It might have taken a step or 3 back. The last few years have been marginally exciting. Not so much this time. The 3-point shooting contest was also sub-par and the "HORSE" contest is just plain stupid. I don't know if I am biased, but the skills competition which Steve Nash won was the only interesting part of Saturday night. Thats because it tests some skills and there's a clock that guys have to beat. It's kinda exciting to some extent. I would expand it and make it more interesting and take a serious look at revamping all of the other events. They need better contests and better contestants. I was disappointed in Shannon Brown of the Lakers. The guy can literally jump out of the gym and his dunks were not even half as impressive as his dunks in a real game. Did he even think about this contest or did he just show up? He even dragged Kobe out for a stupid dunk that half of the NBA can do in a real game. Demar Derozan of the Toronto Raptors came with a plan, but he was over-matched. NBA needs better contestants or they should shut this slam-dunk contest down.

Today's game was not too bad. I mean all All-Star games suck, but this was lower on the suckage scale compared to the usual fare. It was close at the end and the East won it. I was amazed that more than 108,000 people showed up to watch this thing. I am sure somebody made a lot of money. I just hope the people working the concessions etc. made some good money too. It was probably not a bad all-star game to try and score some tickets for considering the size of that stadium. But then again, what are you going to see from the nose-bleeds in that monster? Both LeBron and Shakira probably look like David Stern from up there. One of the most retarded things I have ever seen happened towards the end of this game. Deron Williams actually fouled D-Wade with just 13 seconds to go and with the score all tied up. The dude had no idea what the score was. If this doesn't tell us how irrelevant these All-Star games are, not sure what will. And that too it was Deron Williams - a guy who is coached everyday by Jerry Sloan. But then he got off the hook as the game featured a few more fouls on both sides as guys couldn't keep their hands off the other team. But at least those morons didn't foul intentionally like Deron did.

Time to get back to the regular season. I am hoping the Phoenix Suns continue their good run and bounce all the way back. The trade deadline is this Thursday and it would be interesting to see what happens with Amare. Dallas has already traded Josh Howard as part of a package for Caron Butler and a bunch of pieces from Washington. Great trade for Dallas. A healthy Howard is probably more useful all-around player than Caron Butler, but he has never been healthy lately. Plus all his off-field transgressions has upset the Dallas fan-base. He had to go. Butler brings a lot of scoring to Big-D and he will take some pressure off Dirk - the same help that Marion was supposed to provide, but he never did. Matrix has not shot over 25% from beyond the arc since he left Steve Nash. Dallas also gets some size in Brendan Haywood. It's a good trade for Dallas, though I Don't know how much better they are with Butler. One problem is, he is not that different from Marion and Nowitzki from a position and role perspective. Suns will see them soon and it should be a fun game. Even as a big-time NBA fan, I have to say, the sports world is just not the same without the NFL. There was winter Olympics, Daytona 500, NBA all-star game and college basketball this weekend, but all of that combined can't replace the NFL. The guys suffering the most should be the sports talk show and TV show guys. There is nothing to talk about and hence people won't tune in. NFL is truly the king in this country.

Who Dat'

Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl yesterday. They were clearly the sentimental favorites and they came through in this game. I was expecting the Colts to win it and they started the game looking like the better team. But I don't know what happened to Manning and the Colts after that. He did not score a TD after the first quarter though he had 333 yards passing in the game. The Saints as always started slow and seemed to wake up in the second half. They had 2 field goals in the first half, but they did not give up any points to the Colts in the second quarter. So they went into half-time just trailing 10-6. Saints were actually stopped on a 4-Th and goal by the Colts on a gutsy call by Sean Payton. It was amazing to see such a call in the Super Bowl. But that was just an appetizer served by Sean Payton

Then came the call of the day on the other side of the half-time. Once the stupid "who" went to bed after the half-time show, the Colts were supposed to get the ball on the second half kick-off. But the Saints went for an on-side kick and got the ball. This was an amazing call and a great momentum changer. Drew Brees took advantage right away and scored on that drive to give the Saints their first lead in the game. The game then went back and forth in the 3-Rd quarter as Manning and the Colts played well and scored easily as well. But just like the second quarter, the colts couldn't score in the 4-Th quarter and the clinching point was Tracy Porter's pick-6 with just 3:12 to go. Manning got the ball with about 5 minutes to go and it looked like he was on one of his patented late game drives to tie this game. But it was not meant to be. He had problems getting the ball to Reggie Wayne all game and when he tried again, Porter jumped the route and sealed the deal. This one pass kinda affects Manning's legacy since he has now lost one super bowl and won only one. A victory yesterday would have cemented his legacy as the best ever given his numbers, rings and 4 MVPs. He had 333 yards, but went scoreless in the 2-Nd and 4-Th quarters. Tough ending for the Manning family on this one.

This was one of the Super Bowls where most people did not have a strong love or animosity for either team. This is because both Brees and Manning are great QBs and classy guys. I didn't have a strong preference for either side, but I am happy for Brees. He is a great QB and a good guy and I have always been a fan since his Purdue days, I was upset at San Diego for letting him go, but I see their point too in that Philip Rivers is younger and is also pretty good. Finally Brees is a super-star and has a ring to back it up. That picture of him with his son in his hands and tears in his eyes is going to be one of the images defining this Super Bowl. Manning on the other hand is going to be thinking of that pick for a while. I am still not sure what happened to the Colts during those stretches. This was a weird game in some sense. It was not as high-scoring a game as most people expected. Neither defenses seemed to do that well, but the scoring was not there for long stretches of this game. Both QBs had great numbers, but again, both offenses were ineffective for long stretches. Brees had Warner type numbers - 32 of 39 for 288 yards and 2 TDs. He carved the Colts D up in the second half and won the MVP.

Brees is a classy superstar with mad game. I am totally happy for him.

Manning and Brees

These 2 weeks leading up to the Super Bowl should be split into a Manning week and a Brees week. They are the biggest stories of this Super Bowl - Dwight Freeney's ankle notwithstanding. There has never been a better QB match-up probably ever in the Super Bowl. These are 2 classy, charismatic quarterbacks who have put up some insane numbers during the season. Usually such prolific offenses fall along the wayside during the playoffs. They don't make it all the way to the Super Bowl. We are lucky this year that these 2 stud QBs have made it this far and are locked and loaded to fire on all cylinders. Peyton Manning's numbers were 68.8 % completion percentage for 4500 yards and 33 TDs. Brees went for 70.6 % completion for 4388 yards and 34 TDs. Thats some solid QB play right there.

With all that said, Peyton Manning and the Colts should probably be the favorites. The Saints and Brees are great, but Peyton Manning is Peyton Manning. How are you going to pick against him? Plus the concern for me with the Saints is that their offense is just a little slowed down these days. Why and how I am not sure, but they are not hurting fools like they used to. I am sure they will be back a little bit for the Super Bowl and will give us a great game, but if I have to pick one team in that game, it has to be the Colts. But both are great franchises with good coaches and great QBs. So I won't be rooting for or against anyone and I won't mind if either Brees or Manning wins. Part of me wants Brees to win because he doesn't have a ring yet and I feel like Manning will also have a better chance at making it to the Super Bowl again more so than Drew Brees. Colts just seem to be a better run franchise.

In the NBA, the Suns are on a 3 game wining streak after losing to everybody and their mom for a few weeks. Amare's name is all over the trade rumors and this time, it feels real. I would like to think they will take a step forward with the new pieces they acquire, but I don't see how. Even with all his deficiencies, Amare is not an easy player to replace. He is dominant around the basket and you can't teach that size, athleticism and attitude. It's kinda sad he is not learning to defend or rebound - 2 things that can be taught, especially given Amare's physical tools. At least with Nash, the excuse for his bad defense is his lack of lateral quickness and athleticism. We will obviously stay tuned for any Amare news the rest of the way. I am really concerned about what this trade will mean to Nash's career. Suns can and will rebuild, but Nash and rebuilding can't go together at this age. Thats the concern.

Brees V Manning

Brees and Manning have both made it to the Super Bowl this season as expected. It always looked like they were on a collision course earlier in the season, but things usually don't follow the script like this. This playoffs didn't follow the script either, but the best 2 teams did end up in the Super Bowl finally. The Saints and the Vikings played a very interesting game today. It was as close as I thought it would be and wanted it to be, but the flow of the game was completely different than what I expected. It started off with both teams scoring in the first quarter, but then the scoring slowed down and the turnovers picked up. The Vikings in the second half just refused to hold onto the ball. They kept fumbling and the Saints recovered most of it. If they didn't fumble, then Favre threw interceptions. But the Saints for some reason just could not take advantage. They still had to go to overtime and they won the game on a 40 yard field goal after 3 plays were reviewed in that OT drive.

Dallas went into New Orleans late in the season and beat them. As the theory goes, they gave the league a footprint to slow down Drew Brees and the Saints offense. There is some truth to this as the Saints offense has not been the same since. They never looked dominant even in today's game despite the 5 turnovers handed to them by the Vikes. Even when Reggie Bush gave them the ball, the Vikes fumbled it right back to the Saints. Favre played well and played hurt, but made a crucial mistake very late in the game and I am not able to decide how costly that error was. The Vikings were driving the ball to either end the game or send it to overtime. They were going to go either make a field goal or miss one or stall, but the game was down to seconds and the Saints were not going to get the ball back to do anything significant. They barely entered field goal range, when they got a stupid penalty which pushed them 5 yards back. They were now looking at a 55 or a 56 yarder, which is probably out of Longwell's range, but who cares if you are just taking a shot in a tied ball game with no seconds on the clock. But Favre killed that opportunity by throwing an interception to effectively send the game to OT. Saints won the toss and won the game.

Favre's interception was once his last pass of the season. We have seen that before. But is this the last pass of his career? Who knows and who cares. Thats a drama that will unfold all off-season as usual. I feel like he will be back for one more year and he should. He had a great year and he should play one more season. He looked pretty beat up emotionally in his post-game presser. He was also physically beat up by the Saints. Brett Favre is a diva, but I don't mind him at all during the season. Brad Childress on the other hand, I am not sure what his problem is. I don't like that guy. He sounds too arrogant and self-important for my taste and I am glad he won't be in the Super Bowl. The Saints D is not great, but they seem to get to the QB and they force fumbles. The offense is just not what it used to be and they need to get to that point if they want to challenge the Colts. The Colts had their share of problems today against the Jets today in the first half, but finally the superior talent prevailed. The Jets just did not have the firepower to compete with Manning. Like I said yesterday, their defense is also over-rated and the Jets rely on that defense a little too much. Mark Sanchez is pretty impressive though. I can't believe he plays so well as a rookie. The Jets should be good for a while. But the Colts should be the favorite 2 weeks from now in the Super Bowl given the state of the Saints offense. It should be a good super bowl though with a star-studded QB cast. I don't mind the 2 week hype on this one.

NFL Championship Games

The NFL Championship week is here. It's time for the Colts and the Saints to move on to the Super Bowl. I know there's a lot of hype around the Jets - half of it because they are from New York. But the Colts will take care of them easily. There's no defense that can stop Peyton Manning. Your only shot is slowing him down and have your offense match him pass for pass. The Jets can't do that. They don't move the ball consistently enough to bother the Colts. Plus their defense is a little overrated and the Colts D might be a little underrated. The only shot the Jets have is if Shonn Greene goes nuts. Unlikely to happen tomorrow. I don't think the Colts are going to miss 3 field goals either to help the Jets.

The Saints-Vikings game on the other hand should be a fun one, though I pick the home team on this one too. The Saints D is pretty decent and Favre has to be near perfect to stay in this one. Of course Favre has been just that this season, but this is obviously the toughest challenge to day. And Prince's stupid fight song might have jinxed them forever. I am hoping this game is a good one and not a blowout. I am kinda tired of all the blowouts this NFL playoff season. The Viking are legit though with Favre and All-Day and a good defense to back those 2 up. The only downside for me with the Saints is that some fools are starting to hype up Reggie Bush a little too much. Lets make no mistake, it's Brees's show all the way.

Lakers V Cavs

The second Lakers-Cavs match-up happened today and the King won again. It's impressive that LeBron and the Cavs have swept both the games against this year's Lakers. LeBron was awesome tonight and the torch I believe is slowly shifting from Kobe's hands to LeBron's. It was also fun and scary to watch Shaq and LeBron lined up inside and out with the ball moving back-and-forth as the guy defending LeBron had to leave him to double Shaq. It was an interesting sight. Kobe was good, but Gasol missed a couple of key free-throws and had a tough stretch at the end which finished the Lakers off. The Cavs are now just a game behind the Lakers and thats surprising considering how good the Lakers started the season and how bad the Cavs began this season. Now it feels just like last year and no wonder the Nike puppets are in full flow again. The only question is, can the Cavs take care of the East, beat the Magic and/or the Celtics and get to the finals? We know the Lakers will be there and it should be interesting to see if the Cavs get there.

The All-star starters were announced today and the Suns have 2 guys starting - Amare and Nash. I have to say they don't have the record to justify 2 all-stars these days though these 2 guys definitely deserve to be there. They have good numbers, but lately the Suns are losing a lot of games. One of my friends says they may drop all the way and miss the playoffs altogether. It's entirely possible given how tight the Western race is and how good teams like Memphis and Oklahoma City are playing. On the positive side, the Suns are still only 3.5 games behind the second placed team in the West and lets hope they move in that direction. Nash somehow jumped over T-Mac in the voting and thats good for the NBA. In the East, it's kind of stupid that Iverson is starting, but what can you do if fans vote that way. AI is truly popular, but T-Mac apparently is benefitting from the Chinese vote since he is Yao Ming's teammate.

San Diego chokes again

There are two things that has not changed a whole lot in the last 5 years - Nate Kaeding's playoff performance and my life. Whenever I think of Kaeding, I think of Marty Schottenheimer stalling the offense in the dying stages of a playoff game and asking Kaeding to kick the field goal that was supposed to win or tie the game for the Chargers. Kaeding invariably missed those and ended the Chargers season pre-maturely. The same thing happened today, only that he missed the kicks throughout this game and not just at the end. He is a good kicker and has great regular season stats, but he always screws up in the playoffs. The fact that he has survived so long in San Diego tells you that he is good. He just missed 3 field goals all season long, but he missed 3 today. The middle one was a 57 yarder and could have put the Chargers up 13-0. But the other 2 field goals were very makable and I don't know what gets into his head during the playoffs.

The Jets were lucky with those missed kicks, but they once again proved the adage that "defense wins championship". We all love offensive football and points, but the Jets are the only team this weekend that went into a hostile environment, didn't get a first down until the second quarter and still won the game. Thats because the defense came to play and induced Rivers into 2 interceptions. Very familiar type of loss to the Chargers. They have been losing like this pretty much every year. All the teams that lost this weekend had at least 2 turnovers. The defenses at home are especially aggressive and they come after the offense and induce a boatload of turnovers. Dallas had to deal with the same thing as they got blown out of Minnesota. The Vikes got to Romo repeatedly and forced him to fumble the ball. Dallas missed a field goal too and they couldn't stop Favre to Sidney Rice either. Favre had 4 TDs and the last one actually pissed off the Boys.

Now the Vikes goto the dome in N'aalians and the Colts host the Jets. I can't believe the Jets are in the AFC championship game after making the playoffs only because the Colts and the Bengals sat all their starters when they played the Jets towards the end of the season. The Colts won comfortably yesterday, but they had their share of problems against the Ravens D. I saw something in that game that I might not see ever again. Ed Reed intercepted Peyton Manning not once, but twice on the same drive and the Ravens didn't get the ball both times. Pierre Garcon chased after Reed and knocked the ball out for a fumble after the first interception. The second one was called back because the receiver was interfered by another guy while Reed was busy catching the ball. I guess even Peyton Manning has to be more lucky than good sometimes. They ran for negative yards almost always on first down and Peyton got them the first down anyways from 2-Nd and 12 or whatever, Jets D might even be tougher. Not sure if the Colts can succeed without running the ball effectively. Plus the Jets run the ball well too. Both games have a potential to be interesting, but they might be blowouts too.

Is Warner done?

The Arizona Cardinals had a rough day today at New Orleans. I thought going in that this was going to be their toughest game in their path to a Championship, even if they went all the way. New Orleans and Drew Brees are too tough to handle for anybody and for the Cards defense on the road, they are pretty close to indefensible. So the Cards offense had to carry them today. They started fast on their first offensive play from scrimmage - a 70 yard TD scamper by Tim Hightower. I am usually not a big fan of such quick hits early in the game via the running game. These plays are not going to happen again and while the offense gets 7 points on the board, they really don't get in rhythm, they don't get to do what they do best. Saints got the ball back and scored. The Cards then had a couple of bad turnovers that changed the game. The Saints went up 21-7, but the Cards cut it to 21-14. The game then got out of their hands quickly. Warner got knocked out of the game in the second quarter and that obviously didn't help. Reggie Bush made a bunch of plays and you are in trouble if Reggie Bush is making a difference in a game. He is a peripheral Saint these days at best and when he is impacting the game, the Saints are unstoppable. He ended up with 217 all-purpose yards in this game and that single stat in and of itself should be embarrassing to the Cards defense.

It was 35-14 at the half and even with Warner coming back in the second half, this game was out of hand. The Cards couldn't score again and they looked lost in this game except for the first quarter. Warner looked dazed and physically old for the first time after that brutal hit. It was amazing how a single hit added 10 years to his age. Now the talk is about his future. I love this guy and I hope he comes back. Between the Rams and the Cards, he has turned around 2 franchises in his career and when he retires, the Cards will take a big step back. I think he might retire, but then he has 10 million reasons to come back. Lets see how it goes. In the other game, the Colts blew out the Ravens. That game was close in the first quarter and slipped out of the Ravens grasp pretty quickly after that. So far this weekend, the home teams have won both games and I expect Minnesota and San Diego to continue the trend tomorrow. Dallas might cause the upset. Thats the game to look forward to tomorrow. In other news, the Suns have totally come down to earth. They are at a point where they are losing quite a few games at home and almost all the games on the road. They are barely a .500 team right now and I am not sure if that will change anytime soon. Thank God they had a 14-3 start and thats keeping their record respectable.

Bye Bye 2009

The sports year is ending and Tiger Woods and the Phoenix Suns are probably the happiest that the month of December is in the books. It has been a brutal month (plus a few days) for Tiger. Not only has he been busted for all kinds of "transgressions", he is probably not involved in any new "transgressions" the last 5 weeks and that in and of itself should be really tough for this guy considering his now impressive rap sheet! He will be back at some point in 2010 and I wonder if thats the first time we will see him in public or on TV. This Woods story will probably go down as the biggest story of the year. But even otherwise, it has been a very eventful year is sports as always. It's been so long and so interesting, I don't even remember what happened in the early parts of this year. The last few weeks and months have been very exciting to say the least.

In college football, Urban Meyer abruptly resigned last Saturday citing health problems, then decided he would instead take an indefinite leave of absence. I was shocked by that whole sequence and it showed us how everybody have their own closets in the cupboard and how we as humans take too much stress and pain on our shoulders for no good reason sometimes. I hope he changes his lifestyle and approach to coaching and life when he comes back. Otherwise, he should just stay retired and be happy - not that happiness is that simple to achieve even for a millionaire like Meyer. Texas Tech fired Mike Leach for mistreating a player and I can't even believe some of the things he has done is even possible in this day and age. Strange dude!

The Bowl Season is in full swing and seems like it has been in full swing since Thanks-giving for crying out loud! The best result so far has to be Arizona losing to Nebraska 33-0. Even as a Pac-10 honk, I can't help but rejoice when the wildcats lose this bad. The Pac-10 in general has looked bad so far, but Oregon should take care of the suckeyes tomorrow in the Rose Bowl and restore some West coast pride. Either that or lets hope LeGarrette Blount punches Jim Tressel in the face after the game. That would be a perfect start and end of the year for Blount and of course for me if a suckeye gets punched. Time to bring on the real bowl games though starting with the New Year. There are still enough garbage games including a Jan 6-Th matchup between Central Michigan and Troy. What are those 2 teams waiting for? Shouldn't that bowl game be played on Dec 6-Th instead of Jan 6-Th? I don't get it.

The other defining aspect of this month has been the Phoenix Suns' 7-9 record after a blistering 14-3 record in November (and late October). This was expected given their brutal December schedule. They did have 2 bad losses - at home against OKC Thunder and on the road at Golden State. Otherwise, they could have been 9-7 and that would have been a good record given the tough schedule. The scarier part has been how their defense has dropped back to the old pathetic levels. They were playing much better defense earlier in the year, but they can't stop anybody again these days. With all this said and done, the Suns should go 12-4 or 11-5 again in January against that weak schedule. But it won't matter unless they get back whatever little defensive mojo they had for some time. Lets see how it goes. Of course January primarily means the NFL playoffs and thats what we are all waiting for.

Happy 2010 folks.

The imperfect Saints

Interesting upsets in the NFL this weekend. It started with the Saints shockingly losing at home to the Cowboys last night. Nobody saw this coming and more than the loss itself, the way the Saints lost was surprising. It was not a shootout that the boys won 44-42. Instead the boys shut down the Saints offense. Brees was held to one TD and less than 300 yards passing. The Cowboys defense got to him early and often. It was a very impressive effort by the Dallas defense. I didn't see this earlier in the season. DeMarcus Ware showing up and playing in this game was in and of itself a big boost for the Cowboys after his neck injury last week. When you are 13-0, you are good, but you are also lucky. The Saints got their lucky breaks in this game as well, but the Dallas defense would not let them score. Now the talk is, what can the other teams learn and copy from the Cowboys to stop the Saints. The Saints will be fine. I still expect them to be in the Super Bowl. Not many teams can do to them what the Cowboys did on Saturday.

The upset special should have started Thursday itself when the Jacksonville Jaguars were leading the Colts late into the second half. They let the Colts off the hook and blew a golden opportunity. Now the Colts are the only undefeated team in a weak AFC. There are around 2 million teams in the league right now with a 7-7 record. Throw in a couple of 8-6 teams, thats a lot of mediocrity right there. But I guess it's fun for the fans to follow these teams. I expect some strange teams to make the playoffs over the next 2 weeks. It would be amazing if the Tennessee Titans made the playoffs after their pathetic start to the season. The Raiders added to the "upset-fest" by beating the Broncos in Denver. The Broncos are done for all practical purposes (I don't care if they even make the playoffs). In the NFC, Minnesota had a chance to put some pressure on the Saints for the top spot, but instead they put some pressure on themselves by losing to the Carolina Panthers and their QB Matt Moore. Both Favre and AP looked listless in this game. They have now lost twice on Sunday Night Football over the last 3 weeks. Apparently Favre and Brad Childress also had some arguments over Favre getting pulled out of this game.

Green Bay lost a WILD one in Pittsburgh. Big Ben threw for 503 yards and 3 TDs and A-Rod threw for 383 yards and 3 TDs. If the Packers had won, the Cheese-heads would have been all excited about passing Favre and winning the division over the next 2 weeks. Now, slowly the talk about Favre's age, shoulder and arm strength is starting back again proving once again our sports media is more fickle than a 15 year old girl. I am more amazed at what his addition to the team has done to All-Day. Adrian Peterson is not where he used to be or needs to be. All the passing has taken the ball away from AP's hands and he is not able to make an impact on the game anymore. He still had a powerful TD today, but nothing more. The Vikes have to put the ball back in his hands and use Favre selectively like they used to in the first few weeks. That should be the recipe. The stud RB in the league right now is Chris Johnson. Dude is unstoppable in the open field and is probably the biggest threat on a football field outside of Peyton Manning this season. Johnson is still under-rated and not many people will even recognize this dude on the streets. Arizona won at Detroit, but not that convincingly. The media is on their case for inconsistency. Just bring on the playoffs and shut these fools up.

Two teams moving in different directions

My favorite teams are in the midst of interesting stretches right now. The Arizona Cardinals played the Vikings Sunday night and absolutely dominated them. Kurt Warner showed us once again that when this guy is in rhythm and if you give him time, he is as good as anybody. Brett may be Favre but he wasn't half as good as Warner last Sunday. The Cards offensive line was brilliant and Warner sliced and diced the Vikes at will. Those 2 receivers - Anquan Boldin And Larry Fitzgerald are ridiculous! They are just too good, too big, too fast, too strong and too tough. They made the Vikings corners look stupid. The coners had no clue how to cover them. Fitz is also a classy guy who gives a lot of credit to Boldin despite being a superstar himself. This Cards team is peaking ahead of last year's schedule and I hope they are not peaking too soon. Nobody is beating Drew Brees in the NFC this year and the Cards are not viewed as a serious threat. But I will take Warner and these Cards over anybody else in the NFC, except the Saints.

The Suns on the other hand have lost 4 out of 5 and they have another brutal 6 game stretch with only Washington being an "easy" game. Yesterday they lost to the Mavericks. It's always tough for me to see the Suns lose to the Mavericks. Or the Lakers or the Spurs for that matter. It would be interesting to see how the Suns do at home against these cats. The Lakers are not quite 20-1 as like Reggie Miller had predicted, but they are a close 17-3. They are clearly the class of the league, but the Suns are suddenly 3 games behind them and have also dropped to the 4-Th seed in the West behind the Lakers, Denver and now Dallas. I think they'll stabilize and should still have a shot at the number 2 seed in the West. These 4 teams plus Portland are the elites in the West with San Antonio being the wild-card. I expect them to be an elite team by Feb or so, but for now they look mediocre. In the East, Orlando, Boston, Cleveland and Atlanta are at the top. I think those 4 teams are here to stay.

Here comes the road bump!

The Suns season has been flawless until this week. We knew it can't go this way forever and the inevitable bad stretch was coming, but it seem to have come already. They went on the road again and this trip did not go too well. They lost at New York yesterday and at Cleveland today. They are 0-2 in December after a smashing November. It's not that they are losing that is a cause for concern here, but the how, when and where they are losing thats disturbing. Both these losses were blowouts. In fact 4 out of the 5 Suns losses so far have been blowouts on the road. But who loses to New York? They are a horrible 4-15 and thats after the win against the Suns. Not only did the Suns lose to them, they got blown out by their ex-coach. If that was not motivation enough, they had a BIG game today against their old friend the BIG aristotle. Unfortunately, that was not enough to pick them up either. They got blown out again and they scored 14 and 15 points in the first 2 quarters for a grand total for 29 in a half. Thats pathetic to put it mildly. All of the Cavs scored and torched the Suns in this one. They didn't even need LeBron, who had a 12-8-10 night.

Whatever it is that the Suns are suddenly ailing from, they better snap out of it soon because they are entering a tough stretch including the Lakers at home on Sunday. Thats followed by Dallas, Orlando, Denver, San Antonio and Portland. Ouch! They may be lucky to come out of that stretch playing 500 ball. Lets see how it goes. Nobody seems to be in the same league as the Lakers right now, but the Suns at least had the record. That may not be the case when this stretch is done. The Lakers might put some distance in the standings too. Lets strap on the seat belt for this stretch. Lots of other news in the sports world right now. In college, Bobby Bowden has been forced out and Charlie Weis has been fired. Tiger Woods has been caught in some family "transgressions" and girls are coming of the woodwork with juicy stuff. TMZ might be all set for months with this story. Dude is busted. Tomorrow is the civil war between Oregon and Oregon state. This one is for all the marbles with a rose bowl berth on the line. The fans up there are nuts already and a game of this magnitude should pretty much drive them over the edge. It should be a good one, but Oregon should win.

No more answer

Kind of a sad day in the NBA today. One of my favorite players decided to hang up his sneakers in an unexpected move. Allen Iverson is retired. This may not be a permanent retirement because I am sure he will come back if somebody offers him a job. But unfortunately, nobody wants him right now and he has decided to retire at least for now. His reluctance and refusal to come off the bench is definitely stupid and it's sad he is not willing to give up on that. If he is willing to come off the bench, I am sure he will have a job. He was unemployed and it is definitely a more honorable option to retire than be unemployed for someone at his level. But as a fan, retirement hits you a little differently than him just being unemployed. I feel kinda sad and disappointed. AI was an exciting, fun, speedy, entertaining, small guard who played hard and hurt most of the time. You won't find too many "answers" like him under 6 feet.

AI is 34 years old and for a guard, he is a little old. I would compare him to a big guy like Shaq who is 37 now because small guys rely a lot more on speed than big dudes. But Shaq is still employed and is a starter. In fact, there is no question about Shaq ever coming off the bench, though that might happen now given how well the Cavs are playing without him the last few games! AI is at a stage where he is too old for young teams that are in a rebuilding mode. A team like Memphis had no business signing him in the first place. But then again, it's the same team that traded for Zach Randolph and traded away Pau Gasol. So who's really surprised if the Grizz wants to bring in AI for a year to sell tickets or whatever. But then why would you not start him? Thats a classic case of the front office and the coaching staff not being on the same page. AI should be willing to come off the bench, but for Memphis, I am not so sure. I think both sides were at fault on this.

If he is not a good fit for a young team, he would have been a great fit for a contender who can use a little offensive firepower. But 2 problems there. First, AI is refusing to come off the bench. Contending teams would love a player like that off the bench. Secondly, AI has always been a focal point in his team. He is also a guard who needs to have the ball in his hands a little too much. Good teams are probably afraid he would be too disruptive. Sometimes in life, perception is reality and AI definitely is a victim of how he is being perceived. With his off court issues and his history, teams were already reluctant to touch him and his refusal to come off the bench shoved the good teams away from him for good. Shaq is old, Shaq's game is disruptive too, but he is a good seed and a team player. Teams don't think the same of AI. I still hope somebody will pick him up and he'll un-retire. Dude is still quick and can cross fools over in a split-second, but he has to be willing to make some compromises. As you can tell, I am sympathetic to this guy and his style of play and his toughness is a big reason why people like me support him. He is a little guy with a lot of heart.

The Answer entertained us for years and I am thankful for that on this thanksgiving eve.

LSU's blunder

LSU lost a very interesting game yesterday after committing a comedy of errors. They were driving, trailing by 2 and with time running out. They first got into the field goal range, but the QB got sacked. Then they ran a bone-headed screen play that got stuffed well behind the line of scrimmage. These 2 plays took them back out of field goal range. Somewhere along the way, they also burnt a lot of clock because they apparently called a timeout that they thought was awarded, but it actually went unnoticed by the zebras. They eventually took that timeout later in the drive anyways. Finally they were left with a few seconds on the clock and were forced to go for a hail mary. The pass fell short of the goal-line, but was miraculously caught by one of the LSU receivers. The clock stopped with just a second to go. This is when all hell broke lose. LSU was just not in a position to get the field goal unit in there before the college clock restarted after the first down. So the QB didn't know what to do and he ended up taking the snap and spiking it. There was no way he could have saved a fraction of that remaining second by spiking the ball. I don't know what he was thinking. He should have just run a legitimate play and went for the TD. Instead the game ended on a spike by LSU. Strange indeed. I don't know how LSU did not have the field goal unit ready to run onto the field and kick the ball in that situation.

After last week's 4-Th and 2 call by Bill, there were more coaches in the news this college football weekend. There was the whole LSU mess above. Then there were two more head-scratching 4-Th down calls. Stanford's Jim Harbaugh decided to go for it on fourth-and-8 late during the big game and turned the ball over to Cal. In the Ivy league, Yale went for a fake punt on fourth-and-22 and failed miserably. They ended up losing the game too. But more than these 2 coaches, the coach in real trouble is Charlie Weis after Notre Dame lost to UConn. You are in trouble if you are at Notre Dame and you are losing to a service academy and a basketball school. Many casual sports fans may not even know Navy and UConn have football programs, but Notre Dame keeps losing to such powerhouses. I don't think he should survive this and I don't think he will. May be the Domers can go after Jon Gruden again. I like him on ESPN and I will miss him stretching out every syllable of every name (Tony GON-ZA-LEZ), but he might be fun to follow in college. But then again, Buffalo Bills also want him and I am not sure if he is really interested in working for less money in a college setting. It's a great idea for someone who wants to build a program and become a legend at a college town with slightly less pressure than the pros. But thats the only reason for someone who has NFL opportunities to go for it. You can become a hall of famer in the NFL and you can make a lot of money, but you can never become a legend at a single town in the pros. Ten years is the most a coach can survive at one place in pros these days.

Speaking of the pros, another NFL sunday in the books. Colts and the Saints win again to go 10-0. Colts win a close one at Baltimore. The Ravens had a shot in this one, but a late interception didn't help. A Ravens win would have fit in well with the other upsets this week. Kansas City stunned Pittsburgh in OT and Oakland beat Cincinnati. Oakland was just hoping for an OT, but the Bengals fumbled the kickoff after the Raider's game-tying TD. Raiders then kicked the field goal to win the game. There was another OT game this weekend prompting more discussions about the NFL overtime rules. Giants beat the Falcons to hand them their 5-Th straight loss. Matty Ice tied the game on a 2-minute drive, but he never saw the ball again after they lost the OT toss. There were more fun, close games this weekend compared to last week. Philly beat Chicago 24-20 in Sunday night football. Cutler seems completely off. I guess the coaches have him all confused after those interceptions. Now he seems to be over-throwing all his receivers all the time by about 5 yards. Nobody can catch these balls including his blazing fast receivers like Johnny Knox. The game of the week was probably between Detroit and Cleveland, 2 bad teams. Mathew Stafford threw for 422 yards and 5 TDs including his first game winning drive. This kid is good. Keep an eye on him. Brady Quinn had his first decent game of his career - 304 yards and 4 TDs. At the other end of the spectrum, Brett Favre had another phenomenal game throwing for 4 TDs. The worst game of the day was Dallas beating Washington 7-6. I think the Florida Gators can beat the Redskins by at least 10 points.

Kurt Warner left the Cardinals-Rams game because of a blow to his head. Cards won 21-13, but I hope Warner is back healthy soon.

Nelly strikes again

The Golden State Warriors are a mess again. The trouble started when they did not re-sign Baron Davis last off-season and got worse when Nelly stopped coaching or caring sometime during last year. Not that he is a great coach to begin with, but if he doesn't have top talent and is not interested in putting in the work, you got no shot. I didn't have a big problem with them letting boom-dizzle walk. He is injury prone and can go south on you both mentally and physically anytime. So I kinda saw the W's point in not paying top dollars over too many years. But the problem was, he took them to the playoffs for the first time in 13 years and the Warriors probably needed him more than any other team. In any case, Baron is gone now and Nelly doesn't have a top point guard in his roster.

Nelly is a very different type of coach. He definitely makes the game fun by playing a high-scoring style. Thats his strength. He brings a fun, attractive brand of basketball to town. But he does not quite run a specific system. His offense is very different from Mike D'Antoni's run and gun for instance. Nelly lets them run and shoot the 3, but in the half court, he pretty much lets his guys play one-on-one. He does not run many plays or draw up creative stuff. He basically relies on great talent or he tries to exploit mismatches - both are different forms of one-on-one basketball. So without talent, he is useless. When Baron left, the W's lost their prime talent and the leader on the court. Nelly over the last decade has basically been relying on Nash and Baron Davis and Dirk Nowitzki. He doesn't have that kinda talent right now. Nelly also doesn't trust young players. And he is pretty erratic with substitutions. You can see all these issues with the current Warriors and the impact of all these issues on a young team is not a pretty.

So Nelly doesn't have the talent and is not interested in putting in the work. The Warriors season really went south when Stephen Jackson went Jacko on the W's. Captain Jack had to be demoted and eventually traded to Charlotte - seems like you can dump anybody on MJ the executive. But apparently thats not the last or the only Warriors issue. Now there are rumors that Monta Ellis is unhappy and he complained to Nelly that he keeps blaming him for all problems. There are rumors that Anthony Randolph is not that happy either since he doesn't play much. If the Warriors are forced to trade either Monta or Randolph, it would be an amazing case of history repeating itself. Nelly would have the distinction of destroying the same franchise twice within a span of 15 years. He traded Chris Webber, his best player back then and now he will be trading Monta or Randolph, his best player on the current roster.

Warrior fans are too scared to even think of this scenario. They are very upset at Nelly and want him out. There' an amazing consensus that the coach got to go and the fans think he should take the GM and the owner out with him as well. It is an horribly run franchise top to bottom and Nelly is of absolutely no help. But who is going to fire him given that he hired the GM and not the other way around. It's pretty sad for the Warrior fans who are one of the most loyal fans in the league. Even now, more fans show up at the Warrior games than even some playoff teams in the league. I heard that the commish D-Stern is concerned about the Warriors (mis)management. It's basically a mess all around in the Bay.

Speaking of the Bay Area, the Raiders are also in the news for all the wrong reasons. The league's worst QB has been benched finally. Stephen Gostkowski has replaced JaMarcus Russell as the Raider's starting QB. The Raiders will be slightly better now, but nobody will notice anyways. Who cares if you lose 23-7 or 23-13. There was a Thursday night game tonight between Carolina and Miami. NFL needs to stop this Thursday game nonsense. Not many people are watching this and is messing up the fantasy games too. Back to the NBA. The Suns lost an easy one today at New Orleans who were without Chris Paul. The Suns dropped the ball on this one. May be they were still hung over from the big Houston win. Pau Gasol is back for the Lakers and is in mid-season form already. He had a 24-13 night today and this Lakers team looks scary good!

Dumb Belichick

It's a good thing Bill Belichick is Bill Belichick. He has the resume and those super bowl rings to survive the stupid call he made with the game on the line Sunday night. It was one of those typical Colts versus Patriots classic that was as good as advertised. Colts were trailing 34-21 in the fourth quarter when they scored once and kicked the ball away to the Patriots with less than 3 minutes to go. The Colts trusted their defense instead of going for an onside kick. Indy had all 3 of their timeouts plus the 2 minute warning. Pats got the ball and started the drive on the wrong foot by taking a timeout. It's very rare that the team thats ahead needs a timeout in that situation. They ran on the first down for minimal gain and gained 8 yards on a pass play on second down. Colts stopped the clock both times. Pats couldn't complete the pass on third down. Everybody, including the Pats special team thought hoody will punt the ball away. Instead hoody shocked the world by deciding to go for it on 4-Th and 2 from his own 28 yard line! On top of it, he took his third and last timeout to set the play up. They went for a short pass, that was completed, but Kevin Faulk juggled a ball a little bit after touching it well beyond the first down marker. He then caught the ball as he was being tackled backwards and he landed short of the first down with no clarity on where actually did he have possession of the ball. The ref did not give him the spot and the first down and the Pats turned the ball over to the Colts on downs.

I actually thought Faulk got the first down despite the bobble, but the ref was not in a position to see it. Hoody could have challenged the call if only he had a timeout. And the clock was just beyond 2 minutes and hence was not eligible for a review from upstairs. The ball went to Manning on the 28 yard line and of course he scored the winning TD after milking the clock expertly for a 35-34 win. This was a shocking end to a game that the Patriots seemed to dominate and it was a stupid coaching call for sure. I love aggressive coaching and going on fourth downs and I have always maintained that Belichick and the Patriots are one of the most aggressive teams in the league despite Belichick's defensive background. I have seen them going for it on fourth down under similar situations and actually making it. But that usually happens further down the field and not at their own 28 yard line. Most coaches would even be scared to pass the ball on those 3 downs, but may be they'll do it considering they are turning the ball over to Manning, one of the best QBs ever, if they don't get the first down. And of course the hoody is absolutely going to pass the ball around on the first three downs given that he has hall-of-famers Tom Brady and Randy Moss on that offense. But he took it too far when he chose to go for it on 4-Th down as well. And it was not 4-Th and 1 either. It was a good, long 2 yards. You cannot run the risk of giving Peyton Manning a short field with the game on the line. Of course Belichick is facing the music everywhere and most experts are ripping him apart the last day and a half.

The irony of the whole thing is that the Pats actually got the first down. The ref just missed the call and the hoody is paying the price. I love it! I can't believe how most coaches on TV are supporting him. I guess it's a fraternity and they want to stick together. Some of these coaches will never go for it on 4-Th and 2 even if their life depended on it and they are saying it was not a bad decision by the hoody. Even Gruden on monday night football was saying how going for it is much better than giving the ball to Manning even it that dude has to go 70 or 80 yards. Well, he just had to drive 28 yards because of this stupid decision and hows that better than making him drive 80 yards? Now we all get a new phrase - "don't pull a Bill Belichick". Speaking of MNF, the Cleveland Browns are horrible. They literally put me to sleep. I was watching the game and I suddenly woke up on my couch wondering what happened. Cleveland Browns offense is what happened and I turned the TV off to proceed with my night. The Chicago-San Francisco and the Dallas-Green Bay games were also pretty mediocre this week. Dallas and Green Bay were both surprisingly ineffective on offense and Dallas lost the game.

The other surprise of the week was Denver losing to Washington and now they are tied for first with the resurgent Chargers. San Diego will eventually win that division when its all said and done. Cincinnati is going to win it's division too after they went into Pittsburgh and punked them even without a great game from Carson Palmer and that offense. The Saints and the Vikings are still rolling. There was another interesting coaching call in the Jaguars-Jets game. The Jags were trailing 21-22 and were facing a second-and-6 from the 10 with less than 2 minutes to go. Maurice Jones-Drew took a handoff up the middle and could have easily walked in for a TD. But he went down and took a knee to give Jacksonville first-and-goal from the 1 with about 1 1/2 minutes left. Jets were out of timeouts and this move allowed the jags to milk the clock all the way down. They kicked the winning field goal with 0's on the clock. Smart move. Jags coach Jack Del Rio even mimicked Herm Edwards's "you play to win the game" in the post-game news conference. What's up with these coaches pulling references from legendary rants from fellow coaches? Last week, Arizona's Ken Whisenhunt made fun of Dennis Green's "we let them off the hook" line. Keep it up coaches. In other news, college basketball is kicking off and ESPN is doing a beautiful thing. They have a 24 hour kick-off marathon. Best idea ever. Unfortunately, I may not get to watch any of it. But I still love the idea.