This is my first post in three weeks. Because of work, a short vacation and other distractions, I haven't written any posts since the afternoon of the NCAA Men's Championship Game, a miss-a-thon that was won by UConn. The next night, the Texas A&M Lady Aggies defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a back-and-forth, edge-of-your-seat contest to claim the Women's Championship trophy. Then, unknown South African pro Charl Swartzel avoided the pitfalls that doomed so many others at Augusta during the Masters and won his first PGA major; Tiger Woods showed flashes of his former greatness and finished in a tie for fourth at -10.
The baseball season is off and running. Defending AL MVP Josh Hamilton is lost for 6-8 weeks after fracturing a bone in his right arm trying to score from third on a foul pop-up in one of the year's biggest stories so far. The Cleveland Indians have risen as one of baseball's best teams, an amazing feat for a team picked almost uniformly to finish fourth in the AL Central.
This week's rankings had a new #1 in the MLB, dethroning the reigning Texas Rangers:
1) The Colorado Rockies (12-3); a chic pick to win the NL West or Wild Card last year, the Rockies are off and running this season, led by their two young, contracted superstars, Carlos 'CarGo' Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki. Tulowitzki, who finished fourth in the NL MVP voting despite missing 40 games with a broken wrist, was picked by many to win the award this season if healthy, and he has made those experts look like genuises with seven home runs already.
2) The Texas Rangers (10-5); last year, when Hamilton missed the final month of the season with rib injuries, the Rangers were far ahead in the AL West and on their way to their first-ever World Series appearance. So far, they're staying afloat without the uber-talented outfielders, thanks to the ball-crushing tandem of Ian Kinsler and Nelson Cruz.
3) The Philadelphia Phillies (10-4); that vaunted starting pitching has proven worth the hype, as the offense has struggled without Chase Utley but the team keeps winning.
4) The New York Yankees (9-5); now all but uncontested atop the AL East, the Yankees' powerful lineup and effective bullpen are looking sharp.
5) The Cleveland Indians (11-4); I'm pretty sure they had the lowest attendance in the Majors a year ago, and started with it so far, but they're atop the AL Central after an early-season sweep of the much-ballyhooed Boston Red Sox.
6) The Cincinnati Reds (9-6); They led the NL in runs scored last year, and, led by defending NL MVP Joey Votto (who is hitting .444), they look primed for another run.
7) The Kansas City Royals (10-5); Second in the AL Central in another huge surprise.
8) Los Angeles Angels (10-5); After wasting away in last-place Arizona for two years, righthander Dan Haren looks rejuvenated by competing again
9) San Francisco Giants (8-7); the defending World Champions are a step behind Colorado in the West, but still looking competitive
10) The Florida Marlins (8-6); the Marlins tend to fizzle out of competition late, but they're looking okay in the early going.
Boston Bummin'
They picked up Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez. They already had Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz, J.D. Drew, a healthy Jacoby Ellsbury. They got a healthy Josh Beckett to sit in the rotation with Jon Lester, Clay Buchholtz, John Lackey and Dice-K Matsuzaka. And they have a bullpen of Jonathan Papelbon and Daniel Bard. They have the most passionate fan base in sports backing them up.
All they need are wins. At this point, the "Best Team Ever", as some were jokingly calling it, is 4-10, having lost early season-series to the Rangers, the Indians and the Tampa Bay Rays, the latter of whom has looked lost against everybody else. They keep saying its still early in the season and they'll get going, but the Yankees continue to climb the ladder and leave their hated foes behind.
Y'all Ready for This?
The NBA Finals started last night, and heads turned in alarm everywhere.
The Oklahoma City Thunder grasped a tough fight against the Denver Nuggets, 107-103.
Ray Allen hit a 3-pointer (big surprise there) to give the struggling Boston Celtics a hard-fought win (They trailed most of the game) over the New York Knicks, 87-85.
The regular season's best-team-in-the-West San Antonio Spurs lost to the scratching-and-clawing Memphis Grizzlies, 101-98.
The New Orleans Hornets send the two-time-defending champion Los Angeles Lakers a message with a 109-100 win.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
The Top Two, April 4, 2011
I had to give this post that title. Because, not only is tonight the night of the NCAA Men's College Basketball Championship, but because every other significant stage of the process is giving an alliterate name: Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four (even, this year, First Four).
Today, April 4, 2011, we will see a new champion crowned in the Division 1 college hoops world. Last year's champ, Duke University, was ousted in the Sweet Sixteen by Arizona, and are nowhere to be found. But the program over whom they claimed victory last year, the Butler Bulldogs, are still alive and well. But, before I get into tonight's game, I better recap how the two participants got there.
At approximately 6:08 (ish) Saturday afternoon, the eighth-seeded Butler Bulldogs dirtied their hands in the highest-combined-seeded Final Four matchup ever (their 8th seed and the 11th seed of their opponent, the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams). The combined seed, 19, was a doozy. The game was even better.
Both teams had upset Number Ones (Pittsburgh for Butler, Kansas for VCU) on their way to the game, and so we knew not to underestimate them. But it was still pretty awesome. After Butler took an early lead, the Rams started playing the fast-and-furious full-court game that had been the major factor in their 12 points-per-game average margin of victory in the tournament, over such powerhouse teams as Kansas, USC, Purdue, and Georgetown. The Rams led at halftime. But Butler, patient and grinding it out on defense, led by the 6-foot-8 Matt Howard, began to rebound and steal, and tournament star Shelvin Mack began hitting shots from inside and outside the arc, even with a hand in his face. The Bulldogs, who came within a few inches on Gordon Hayward's last-second half-court shot of winning the '10 National Championship against Duke, basically squeezed the life and competitiveness out of the bigger, faster VCU team. They got victimized by Jamie Skeen for a game-high 27 points, but got the Rams as a team into foul trouble and subsequently knocked down nearly all of their own free throws. They ended the Rams' true Cinderella run with a series of wins on the glass and key layups, by a score of 70-62.
At the end of the game, while the players and coaches rejoiced while awash in the cheers of their fans, a sign read "Where's Duke?" Butler becomes the first team to make back-to-back National Championship games since the '06-07 Florida Gators, and the first-ever to not be ranked first or second either time.
Meanwhile, a slightly-less magical, but no less intense, matchup pitted a #3 against a #4 in the late game, with the University of Connecticut (UCONN) Huskies and the University of Kentucky Wildcats, respectively. Both teams had shown explosiveness, led by guards Kemba Walker (UCONN) and Brandon Knight (UK). Both were tall, fast, athletic teams with the ability to shoot and rebound well, and they showed it. Well, they showed the rebounding.
Two days later, the glaring thing about that game is still Kansas' horrible shooting, just 33% from the floor. A team accustomed to making three-pointers in bunches blew up and couldn't make a thing from beyond the arc. The Wildcats were all over the offensive glass, rebounding brilliantly, but there were stretches of many minutes where they looked woefully inadequate at even layups. And, of course, Kentucky didn't have Kemba Walker, the likely runner-up (to BYU's top-scorer-in-the-nation Jimmer Fredette) for the Naismith Player of the Year Award. Walker didn't have his best game, scoring just 18 points, but he kept his team in it emotionally with his constant chatter and his exhortations for them to play harder, and he contributed 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals and one block to the Huskies' eventual 56-55 win. In a moment of great irony, Brandon Knight, who was 6-for-23 in the game after a sterling tournament-long showing, hit a three-pointer at the final buzzer, cutting the lead to 1, after several minutes' worth of attempted shots by Kentucky (all misses) that could have made that buzzer-beater much more fantastic.
So, what to think? Butler vs. UConn? The first thing my dad said was "It's not unlike Butler/Duke."
And he's right. You've got an athletic squad with a lot of tall men and savvy defense (UConn), plus a superduper athlete right in the middle (Walker) against, well, Butler, a team that can kill you on defense even while being iffy on offense.
My personal take? Butler has been awesome in this tournament, but they'll be hard-pressed to not suffer the agony of two national championship losses in two years. UConn has perhaps three or four guys 6'8 or taller (the height of Matt Howard, Butler's only effective big man and arguably their best player), all of them are athletic, and Walker leads a team that can score efficiently on the fast break. Howard and star defensive guard Ronald Nored of the Bulldogs both got into trouble with four fouls in the semifinal game against VCU; it won't be hard for the Huskies to get Howard especially into trouble, what with their speed and their big bodies.
That said, if Butler can shoot free throws like they have all tournament (Howard, in particular, has been outstanding, going 11-for-12 against the Rams), and if Shelvin Mack continues to rain it in from the three-point line (he made 5-of-6 in the Final Four) anything can happen. Of course, Butler already ousted from the tournament a team that was, like UConn, rather much taller and seemingly more athletic than themselves (Pitt).
It'll be a great game, and, if anything like the two Final Four matchups, edge-of-your-seat, can't-look-away intense.
Today, April 4, 2011, we will see a new champion crowned in the Division 1 college hoops world. Last year's champ, Duke University, was ousted in the Sweet Sixteen by Arizona, and are nowhere to be found. But the program over whom they claimed victory last year, the Butler Bulldogs, are still alive and well. But, before I get into tonight's game, I better recap how the two participants got there.
At approximately 6:08 (ish) Saturday afternoon, the eighth-seeded Butler Bulldogs dirtied their hands in the highest-combined-seeded Final Four matchup ever (their 8th seed and the 11th seed of their opponent, the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams). The combined seed, 19, was a doozy. The game was even better.
Both teams had upset Number Ones (Pittsburgh for Butler, Kansas for VCU) on their way to the game, and so we knew not to underestimate them. But it was still pretty awesome. After Butler took an early lead, the Rams started playing the fast-and-furious full-court game that had been the major factor in their 12 points-per-game average margin of victory in the tournament, over such powerhouse teams as Kansas, USC, Purdue, and Georgetown. The Rams led at halftime. But Butler, patient and grinding it out on defense, led by the 6-foot-8 Matt Howard, began to rebound and steal, and tournament star Shelvin Mack began hitting shots from inside and outside the arc, even with a hand in his face. The Bulldogs, who came within a few inches on Gordon Hayward's last-second half-court shot of winning the '10 National Championship against Duke, basically squeezed the life and competitiveness out of the bigger, faster VCU team. They got victimized by Jamie Skeen for a game-high 27 points, but got the Rams as a team into foul trouble and subsequently knocked down nearly all of their own free throws. They ended the Rams' true Cinderella run with a series of wins on the glass and key layups, by a score of 70-62.
At the end of the game, while the players and coaches rejoiced while awash in the cheers of their fans, a sign read "Where's Duke?" Butler becomes the first team to make back-to-back National Championship games since the '06-07 Florida Gators, and the first-ever to not be ranked first or second either time.
Meanwhile, a slightly-less magical, but no less intense, matchup pitted a #3 against a #4 in the late game, with the University of Connecticut (UCONN) Huskies and the University of Kentucky Wildcats, respectively. Both teams had shown explosiveness, led by guards Kemba Walker (UCONN) and Brandon Knight (UK). Both were tall, fast, athletic teams with the ability to shoot and rebound well, and they showed it. Well, they showed the rebounding.
Two days later, the glaring thing about that game is still Kansas' horrible shooting, just 33% from the floor. A team accustomed to making three-pointers in bunches blew up and couldn't make a thing from beyond the arc. The Wildcats were all over the offensive glass, rebounding brilliantly, but there were stretches of many minutes where they looked woefully inadequate at even layups. And, of course, Kentucky didn't have Kemba Walker, the likely runner-up (to BYU's top-scorer-in-the-nation Jimmer Fredette) for the Naismith Player of the Year Award. Walker didn't have his best game, scoring just 18 points, but he kept his team in it emotionally with his constant chatter and his exhortations for them to play harder, and he contributed 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals and one block to the Huskies' eventual 56-55 win. In a moment of great irony, Brandon Knight, who was 6-for-23 in the game after a sterling tournament-long showing, hit a three-pointer at the final buzzer, cutting the lead to 1, after several minutes' worth of attempted shots by Kentucky (all misses) that could have made that buzzer-beater much more fantastic.
So, what to think? Butler vs. UConn? The first thing my dad said was "It's not unlike Butler/Duke."
And he's right. You've got an athletic squad with a lot of tall men and savvy defense (UConn), plus a superduper athlete right in the middle (Walker) against, well, Butler, a team that can kill you on defense even while being iffy on offense.
My personal take? Butler has been awesome in this tournament, but they'll be hard-pressed to not suffer the agony of two national championship losses in two years. UConn has perhaps three or four guys 6'8 or taller (the height of Matt Howard, Butler's only effective big man and arguably their best player), all of them are athletic, and Walker leads a team that can score efficiently on the fast break. Howard and star defensive guard Ronald Nored of the Bulldogs both got into trouble with four fouls in the semifinal game against VCU; it won't be hard for the Huskies to get Howard especially into trouble, what with their speed and their big bodies.
That said, if Butler can shoot free throws like they have all tournament (Howard, in particular, has been outstanding, going 11-for-12 against the Rams), and if Shelvin Mack continues to rain it in from the three-point line (he made 5-of-6 in the Final Four) anything can happen. Of course, Butler already ousted from the tournament a team that was, like UConn, rather much taller and seemingly more athletic than themselves (Pitt).
It'll be a great game, and, if anything like the two Final Four matchups, edge-of-your-seat, can't-look-away intense.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)