Recapping the Week 2/1-2/7

Disaster in Dallas- Packers 31 Steelers 25
Thankfully the game turned out to be better than the hosting environment in Dallas, although I’m quite sure that a 49-0 blowout by either of the teams would have been better than the hosting environment. When the words Super Bowl and falling ice injures six are mentioned in the same sentence do I really have to say more? Also I’m going to say that Dallas failed due to the numerous tweets from players and Bill Simmons ragging on Dallas for not having much of a nightlife. If this isn’t one of the better ideas for bringing the NFL to Los Angeles I don’t know what is. They have the weather, the nightlife, and enough celebs for the NFL, just build the stadium and help us all out. Seriously I don’t understand how this doesn’t happen I’m sure that there are good enough reasons including the fact that California already has three teams, (really not sure if the 49ers deserve to count as a team after this past years performance) but LA needs a team. And no USC doesn’t count as a profesional team anymore because it has Lane Kiffin, not Pete Carrol (have to take my shots at Kiffin anyway I can take them). Then once LA gets a team you would switch from Miami to LA every year, no place else really deserves the game in my eyes. The only other place that I could see hosting the game is Arizona but I mean what else is there to do in Arizona? People who argue for cold weather environments such as New York, stop wasting your time, its not going to happen.
Well after that rant on nothing related to the game I figure I can now move onto the game (took long enough right?). Another week, another missed pick I wish I could tell you when I’ll figure it out but I just don’t know. Really right now I’m just hoping I don’t get designated for assignment but will see. Picking the Steelers was something that I actually felt pretty confident about but Aaron Rodgers was just about perfect in leading the Lombardi trophy back to Wisconsin. My keys to a Steelers victory were getting Rashard Mendenhall going on the ground, getting pressure on Rodgers, and hitting Mike Wallace for a couple of big plays throughout the game. The Steelers did a pretty good job of getting some heat and hits on Rodgers (8 QB hits), but there were nothing that was going to faze him during the game. That is besides from his receivers getting a severe case of the dropsies at times. Getting in a 14-0 deficit pretty early in the game didn’t help but I think Rashard Mendenhall was grossly underused throughout this game. This was the same guy who gashed the Jets for 127 yards on 21 carries the previous week but against the Packers Mendenhall only got 14 rushes for 63 yards. The Steelers at times were too one dimensional which hurt their play action passing game deep to Mike Wallace and down the seams to Heath Miller. Mike Wallace had a great game but didn’t have that one “explosion” play of forty plus yards. The Steelers did take some shots with Wallace but just couldn’t connect. The Packers were able to pull this game out due to big plays by their opportunistic defense, unfortunately for fans this didn’t mean that B.J. Raji got in the end zone. I’m not too sure how many others thought Big Ben was going to lead the Steelers down the field on the last drive, but I was pretty convinced that he was going to lead them downfield for the final score. Unfortunately he decided he didn’t need any more rings and decided to turn the ball over on downs. To all Steelers fans; that was not Pass Interference on the last play get over it.
To be honest I’m not quite sure how the Packers won the title because most of the time the teams that stay healthiest are the ones contending for titles, not the ones decimated by injury. Maybe the Packers were just deciding to make it harder on themselves? By the end of the season the Packers had offensive stars Ryan Grant and Jermichael Finley (guaranteed top 3 fantasy tight end next season) on the IR along with fourteen others. They also lost difference makers Charles Woodson and Donald Driver during the game, crazy stuff I’m not to sure if they have worse luck than the Blazers though. I’m still waiting for the drama to pop up this week about the injured reserve guys not being allowed in the post super bowl picture. And yes I deliberately chose not to mention Fergie and the Black Eyed Peas for a reason, they were that bad.

Super Bowl Commercials
Almost made my week when a friend told me that there were actually prop bets on Bodog.com about the best add of the Super Bowl but then I realized that people actually lost money on this stuff. Seriously who bets on this stuff? Other crazy bets that I heard were, the length of the national anthem, what Fergie would wear during halftime, and what color Gatorade the winning coach would be drenched with. I can almost imagine these conversations following the game, “Sorry honey, I lost everything betting that McCarthy was going to be drenched with blue Gatorade, not orange.” Still waiting for Hardball 2 to come out and what better way to show his betting problem than losing all of his money on a situation like this? Back to the commercials I have Doritos as the clear winner just through the amount of good commercials they had. I had Cheetos (nonexistent, bad sleeper pick) as my chip to watch but I obviously should have been riding the Doritos bandwagon. Also major props to Chrysler for their “imported from Detroit” commercial with Eminem.

NBA- The Cavaliers continued their march to what hopefully culminates with them losing their last fifty-five games (we can hope right?). The streak continued to 24 straight losses this past week with my Blazers squeaking by on Saturday with a six point victory. If the Blazers had lost I was ready to throw in the towel, unfortunately for my schoolwork they won and I will still waste two hours watching what they call basketball. I had the Cavaliers getting the victory this week but they decided they weren’t ready to get back in the W column yet. Anyone else in the NBA get screwed more over the off-season than Antawn Jamison? All I’m going to say is that if the Cavaliers don’t get a victory this week it could be get to something like thirty three straight losses. The Cav’s will lose Monday at Dallas and then face the fearsome trio of the Pistons, Clippers, and Wizards. All of these games are at home so you would think that they should be able to pull off at least one victory. I’m hoping it gets to the Wizards without them getting a win, because if they do it would bring on the classic matchup of one unstoppable force going up against another unstoppable force. These two forces would be the inability of the Wizards to win on the road (none on the year) and the flat inability of the Cavaliers to win a basketball game. The Raptors were able to snap their own streak at 13 games after knocking off Kevin Love and his D-League teammates. In news regarding the actual NBA, the Celtics continued to dominate the other elite teams by beating the Magic in Boston. This team is scary good but is so old that I always am left wondering if there going to be able to stay injury free. If I had to pick a winner coming out of the East right now I think you’d have to go with the Celtics but reasonable arguments could be made for the Heat, Bulls, or Magic. The Lakers continued with their inability to beat elite teams, (this is way overrated, there going to be there in the Western finals) this time losing to the Spurs on a last second tip-in. Could it actually be possible that Popovich rests his starters so much that they are rusty come playoff time? Hope the sarcasm carried through but really, I felt like I was watching the second unit for most of the game. The NBA all-star reserves were announced and I don’t really have too much of an issue with the selections but still here is my list of whom I would have taken.

Who should make the All-Star Team
(Starters in bold)

East
Point Guards- Derrick Rose, Rajon Rondo, Raymond Felton
The first two are no brainers as they have both become elite point guards even though they do it in completely separate ways. Felton gets included because he had been great before he decided that the NBA season ends approximately sometime near the end of December. Regardless he is still having a great year (17 points and 9 assists per game) and deserves to make the game.

Shooting Guards- Dwayne Wade, Joe Johnson
Wade is still putting up the stats in Miami and in my opinion has passed Kobe as the best two guard in the league. Side note this could have happened a year or two ago but I’m just now coming to this conclusion. Didn’t really want to include Johnson but it wouldn’t be the all-star game unless you have the highest paid player plus this theoretical East squad needed another guard.

Small Forward- Lebron James, Paul Pierce
If you didn’t notice I kind of lean towards players with winning records. This will be my one exception, as neither of these teams will make the playoffs. Side note kind of sad/embarrassing had to look up to make sure I got the right name for the three spot I always want to call it strong forward for some reason. This is when you can doubt my sports knowledge. I must look like a complete idiot for this because what’s the difference between a strong forward and a power forward?

Power Forward- Amare Stoudemire, Kevin Garnett, Chris Bosh
All three of these guys mean so much to their team even though only one leads their team in scoring. Before Bosh and Garnett got hurt both of their teams could make legitimate cases for their teams being the best in the league. As far as Amare goes Knick fans are still furious that they ended up with him. Best moment of the year would have been if Amare’s three versus the Celtics would have counted, Paul Pierce would have never heard the end of that.

Center- Dwight Howard, Al Horford
Easiest position to pick by far both of these teams would be absolutely lost without these two.

Biggest Snub- Joakim Noah/Carlos Boozer
Both these guys have put up the stats but unfortunately both have endured long stints being injured. Boozer has put up a 20/10 line since he’s been back while Noah was averaging 14/12 while anchoring a stout Chicago defense before injuring his right thumb.

West

Point Guards- Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, Deron Williams
You can’t go wrong with any of these three. Thankfully my Blazers decided to pick Martell Webster over either Paul or Williams.

Shooting Guards- Kobe Bryant, Manu Ginobili
Easy choices once again as the choices for the West two guard behind these two the choices are really not at all exciting.

Small Forward- Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony
Really debated into leaving Melo out of this but that would be solely because I hate this ongoing trade debacle. Plus Melo had to make the team to ruin my goal of not having him mentioned in this article. In other news I have just joined the Durantula nickname bandwagon. Unfortunately I still think a Black Mamba will beat up a Durantula so I’m still open to new nicknames for Durant.

Power Forward- Dirk Nowitzki, Blake Griffin, Kevin Love
Dirk was unreal before he got hurt and Blake is dominating in his rookie season and has at least three dunks a week that you would normally only see once a month. Pains me to leave Aldridge off but I’ve got to put Love on the list, you just don’t see someone averaging 21 points and 15 boards while shooting the three ball at a 43 percent clip. I’m not quite sure that he will fit at all in the all-star game style but he definitely deserves to be there.

Center- Yao Ming (Just kidding), Pau Gasol, Tim Duncan
You’re both centers get over it. This whole system is screwed up by the west center position because the fans have to vote one in a starting center and I’m not to sure if there is anyone in the west who deserves to make it (thankfully Yao Ming’s injury actually helps us out). Also does China realize Yao Ming stopped playing a couple months ago?

Biggest Snub- LaMarcus Aldridge
He probably deserves to make it for carrying the Blazers to just outside of the eight slot but the reality is that compared to the Nowitzki, Griffin, and Love he doesn’t have that strong of a case. He’s one of three players (including Kevin Martin and Steve Nash) that I would argue should make it as reserves on the Eastern Conference. Former Blazer Zach Randolph is also having a monster year (20 and 13) but he plays in Memphis, automatically making him ineligible for the all-star game.

NHL- The NHL makes a rare appearance on this blog due to two fighting instances seen on SportsCenter. No one actually watches hockey on TV right? Hockey moment number one of the week was watching the Boston Bruins and Dallas Stars get into three fights in four seconds. This is actually pretty funny to watch and can easily be found on YouTube, but my main question is why do these teams hate each other so much? Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong but Dallas and Boston aren’t exactly rivals correct? The thing that amazes me is how do you start a fight just seconds into the game? Either everyone that went out there at the very beginning had the shortest tempers possible or both teams decided pregame that they were going to try and set a Guinness World Record. The other noteworthy hockey moment of the week occurred when Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Brent Johnson dropped Islander goalie Rick DiPietro with one punch in apparently the first goalie fight since 2007. The left hook thrown by Johnson shows why the NHL is struggling with viewers, lack of goalie fights. Unfortunately for DiPietro he will have to miss the next four to six weeks to attend to injuries suffered during the fight.

NCAA Basketball- Apparently there is a division one basketball team in Eugene. Still no word on if a half court line has been found in Matt Knight arena.

NCAA Football- Signing day was this past Wednesday and from what the experts say there will be at least 250 future Heisman contenders. For those wondering I still remain committed to the Wet Bandits. Great recruiting classes always help and I don’t think a team has won a championship with a four year average of over 25th best recruiting class in the country but you still have to develop your players. Prime example is UCLA 10th best in 2010, 17th in 2009, and 14th in 2008 (rankings by ESPN). UCLA, for those that didn’t know division one football existed on the west coast, hasn’t been a very good team for at least five years even with continued recruiting success. Recruiting is usually looked at through looking at a prospects star level. Therefore the more stars a certain team has the higher ranking and greater future indicator of success. Most teams with a perennial top five recruiting class are the national title contenders (Alabama, Oklahoma, among others) but the fall of Texas and Florida this past year show that recruiting is more about “fits” than stars. John Brantley obviously didn’t fit Florida’s offense and because of this the Gator offense was for the most part horrendous this past year. Coaches also have to take into account a players character, ability to be coached, and upside when giving out scholarships. One thing that recruiting sites seem to do is give the team with the best skill players the highest grades but the key to all football is controlling the line of scrimmage (Nick Fairley) on both sides of the ball (underrated Auburn offensive line). You can have all the skill players in the world on the offensive side of the ball (UCLA) but have no way to get them the ball due to suspect offensive line play. UCLA might not be the best example because they also are missing a quarterback but my point remains a team that recruits well along the lines will always be a competitive team. The skill positions (anything other than the offensive and defensive lines) besides quarterbacks in my opinion are easier to find fits for than the lines. Examples of this are everywhere, Michael Crabtree (two star defensive back coming out of high school), Jeff Maehl (unranked defensive back coming out of high school), and James Rodgers (unranked wide receiver). The skill positions are based much more on upsideso there are more unheralded players that succeed in these areas. Of course I have to give a shout out to my Ducks who landed a consensus top 15 class that has Eugene buzzing especially with the signing day switch of DeAnthony “Black Mamba” Thomas from USC to Oregon. The Ducks class is strong along the offensive line, receivers, and athlete groups while struggling to sign a complete defensive line class (recurring theme every year for Oregon). The last time Oregon signed a class with this much hype was in 2007 and four years later this led to a national title berth. With this latest class I think its safe to say that expectations in Eugene under Chip Kelly have now moved to BCS or bust territory (that happened fast).

Wet Bandits 61 Pretty Boy Swag 47- One of the stranger games that I’ve ever played in due to the fact that we played the majority of the game against a team that only was playing with three players. They actually started the game with four players (not sure if they realized you usually play with five) but then one of their players suffered a sprained ankle a couple of minutes in and had to sit out the rest of the game. I know what your thinking, that I sprained another guys ankle with my crossover but I don’t think I was playing when the injury happened. We were actually losing four versus five by eight when their player got hurt so I’m not to sure if we actually would have won this game without the injury. For those wondering how this happens, playing five on three isn’t fun at all (its not basketball). Yours truly only had three points on one shot (efficiency off the chart!!) before sitting out the last twenty five minutes of the game due to the circumstances of five on three. And yes I will be signing autographs on Wednesday.

Week Moving Forward-
NFL- The talks of a lockout will now consume SportsCenter and to be honest I don’t really care that much as of now. I say that I don’t care now but really if there’s a lockout next year I will be heated due to no fantasy football. For those wondering I suffered a brutal six place finish in our ten-dollar league this past year. I’ve already guaranteed a championship next year so there has to be football. Really hoping that there isn’t an eighteen game schedule and I’m not really going to have too much of a problem if the players sit because of this. The good news out of this is that Melo trade drama will take a back seat for the time being but I’m sure I will be sick of the lockout drama by next weekend.

NBA- Melo won’t be traded (shocker). Ron Artest decided he didn’t like LA anymore and requested a trade. Seriously Ron? I actually now am convinced that Artest is crazy, this last trade demand pushed him over the edge. The Blazers will continue their push to be swept out of the first round of the playoffs (need to start rebuilding). I’m kind of feeling like there will be at least one significant injury this week in terms of playoff teams. This is where I should say I hope its Nowitzki or Duncan so Aldridge can get in the All-Star game but I’m not to sure he would even get in if either of those two got hurt (Nash).

Wet Bandits (-5) over PhiPsiUno- I was finally able to locate the intramurals league page for the purpose of this article so I no longer have to refer to teams as unnamed. I’m not to sure if this is a fraternity (don’t think so) or a math club (that’s what I’m hoping) so I ended up going in between even matchup if it’s a fraternity, and the ten point favorite if it’s a math club. Really all I’m hoping for is the other team to have at least five players so we can actually play a legitimate game of basketball. I’m hearing the game might be on ESPN2 but nothing has been confirmed yet.