Recapping the Week 3/21-3/27

Owners vs. Players- Ho-hum just another lockout week, even though it can’t be called a lockout because the players union decertified. Nothing new on the negotiation front and it has been said that both sides won’t seriously get back into negotiations until summer which makes perfect sense because at last glance both sides were so close to reaching a deal in the first place, even though this is typed you should have gotten some sarcasm out of this sentence. Chad Johnson, or the player that thought it would be cool to change his last name to the Spanish spelling of his number (?), participated in a tryout for the MLS franchise Sporting Kansas City. Yes the NFL has issues when this is the big news of the NFL, even if it’s an offseason week. Also promising less upsets than March Madness the Madden 2012 pick a player for the cover tournament has begun. Instead of actually looking at team rosters and coach for next season, yes I guess you could say I’m in denial about next season, I think I’m only going to look at the representative from each team for the Madden cover. As you can see there is tons of excitement for the Seahawks, or as they are passionately called when they choke the Chickenhawks, because the 12th man is the Seahawks representative. Interpretation of next seasons chances based off of the fans being the best player, the Seahawks will win three games. Also due to the fact that there is a “Madden Curse” all three Seahawks wins will be on the road. This also shows that Seattle sports are ramping up to challenge the Cleveland tag team of Indians and Cavaliers for worst professional teams in a city. Hey at least Seattle fans can say that the Oklahoma City Thunder are doing well but as evidenced by the Sonics moving I’m not quite sure that there were any Sonics fans in the first place. Side note, if your favorite team moved would you still watch their games and root for them? I think most people would say yes but I don’t think I could considering if a franchise moves the owner/management is basically giving all the fans an F you.

Back to my astute Madden observations, if your trying to get your son to the NFL just change your sons last name to Johnson. Out of thirty two teams there were three Johnson’s, Andre Johnson, Chris Johnson, and Steve Johnson. Unfortunately for Team Johnson one Johnson will be knocked out in the first round matchup of Andre Johnson vs. Chris Johnson, edge Chris Johnson. I’m also pretty sure that Madden could have made up a name like Mike Johnson for the Seahawks and nobody would have noticed and or cared. They actually would have probably thought something like, “Hey Mike Johnson is the Seahawks representative, isn’t he a really good wide receiver or something?” It’s true names have everything to do with athletic ability, sounds ridiculous but all good athletes have names that just sound perfect. I knew my days were numbered once I learned of this sad fact because lets face it the name Waterman just doesn’t scream athlete. I’m not quite sure what to make of the Danny Woodhead selection for the Patriots but I think EA Sports decided that too many people hate Tom Brady for his overall douche-bagness so they had to go in the opposite direction with Danny Woodhead. I can’t wait until Woodhead wins the whole tournament, fueled by the votes of undersized Americans who see Woodhead as the next great undersized athlete taking the reins from Earl Boykins, and gets snapped in half on a big hit from an average sized safety next season. The top three teams, besides the Seahwaks and the 12th man, that just sound awful to watch based on their Madden representative, yes this Madden cover thing has that much of an effect on me, the Bengals (Carlos Dunlap), Redskins (Brian Orakpo), and the Panthers (Jordan Gross). Dunlap and Orakpo last year were both solid rookie defense ends while Gross is great left tackle, but really how am I supposed to get excited about these teams when these are the picks by Madden for each teams best or most exciting player. Denver having Tim Tebow as there representative for the Madden cover is equally as bad as the Seahawks 12th man representative considering Tebow will be the backup quarterback for the Broncos next season. For Madden picking Tebow as the Broncos representative I forecast zero wins for the Broncos next season. The sad thing is that Tebow of course will win due to his cult following and the fact that according to ESPN he now does underwear adds. No I’m not quite sure why ESPN finds this newsworthy but I wonder if this will be what the NFL experts will be covering next season if there isn’t football, scary thought isn’t it?

NBA- All the teams have now crossed the seventy two game barrier meaning that there is less than ten games for each team left in the regular season. Thankfully this means that the misery is almost over in places like Cleveland and Minnesota but first these teams, the two worst in the NBA, will go into a “who can throw out a least impressive lineup” mode so they can try and assure themselves the best shot at the number one pick in the draft. I’ve always kind of wondered what it would be like to be a really serious fan of one of these teams at this point in the season, do you actually start rooting against your team for that number one pick? Do you watch SportsCenter at night and when you see the Cavaliers won do you go, “what the F*** are they doing?” If I ever actually played for one of these teams during this situation I would strongly consider retiring because what the coach is basically telling you is that you present the best chance for a loss, gee-whiz thanks coach you’re the best! Maybe this year the tanking won’t be as extreme as in previous years because there isn’t a consensus number one pick but it just kind of seems like a tradition in all major sports. New Orleans power forward David West tore his ACL which all but ends the Hornets chances in the playoffs but you kind of wonder if the always cost cutting Hornets are a little happy considering this will drive down the salary of David West who will be a free agent at seasons end. Continuing on the injury train Tim Duncan sprained his ankle, which has caused him to miss the past three games, all Spurs losses. One of those three losses was to the mighty Trail Blazers on a Nicolas Batum tip in as time expired. This was a great game and looks like a signature win for the Blazers but really this was just an epic sized choke job by the Spurs without Duncan. The Spurs were up eight points with under two minutes left and turned the ball over three times in the last thirty seconds which directly led to six Blazer points. It was a feel good win for the Blazers but its not promising that the Spurs without Duncan still came into Portland and should have left with a victory.

Since were under the ten game barrier until the playoffs its now appropriate to look at playoff matchups. This will be covered more in depth in next week’s blog post but for this week I’m just going to look at the Blazers and who they want to matchup against. The Western Conference playoff picture is very fluid so I’m just going to say that the Blazers will be seeded somewhere between 5 and 8 and will therefore be playing someone seeded between 1 and 4. That leaves the possible Blazer opponents as the San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Lakers, and the Oklahoma City Thunder. If the Blazers draw the Lakers or Thunder there done, it’s that simple they have no chance of beating either of these teams. On the other hand if they matchup against either of the two Texas teams I think they have a shot. I would prefer to go against the Mavericks for many reasons but basically it all boils down to how much I would enjoy seeing Mark Cubans face after the Blazers eliminate the Mavericks. Of course I say that I would like to play against the Spurs but lets face it all the Spurs are going to do in the playoffs are show that the regular season wasn’t a fluke like everyone believes and dominate so I really would rather avoid them as well. The Knicks and Nuggets continued to go in opposite directions after the Carmelo Anthony trade and just as everyone predicted it’s the Nuggets streaking and the Knicks slumping. Of course I say this in jest because Melo was supposed to save New York basketball along with Amare but has led them to a one win and nine loss record in their past ten games while the Nuggets have continued their torrid stretch and are seven and three in their last ten games. You can’t argue the fact that the results have been underwhelming, this is an understatement, but its still early and lets see what they can do in the playoffs. Continuing on the Eastern struggles the Boston Celtics have been fading as of late and at weeks end find themselves two games behind the new Eastern conference leading Chicago Bulls. To say that the Celtics have struggled since the Kendrick Perkins trade is also an understatement but really playoff seeding to the Celtics doesn’t matter they just need to be healthy. The Perkins for Jeff Green trade meant that Shaq would have to step up for the Celtics and the best thing you can say about Shaq so far is that he still has a good fashion sense from the sidelines. The Celtics need Shaq in the playoffs, Nenad Kristic is a nice player but as the starting center on a playoff team your in trouble, or they are going nowhere as evidenced by loss to the Bobcats in the past week. This is pretty off topic but I have to ask do NBA centers or power forwards ever wish that they hadn’t grown to be so big? Sounds ridiculous considering that most basketball players would kill to be a couple inches bigger but I think some bigs wish that they had stopped growing at some point. You can tell it’s a relatively slow week when my mind wanders like this, in other words bring on the playoffs.

MLB- As we plow through week 38 (?) of spring training there is finally light at the end of the tunnel in that opening day is this Thursday. I’m putting the over under at four weeks until I become sick of baseball, smart money is on the under considering the team I care about is the Mariners. I have a friend that says he doesn’t watch as much of the NBA when teams are between their 40th and 60th game because he feels the quality of play suffers because players begin to mail it in. This makes me wonder at what point do MLB players start to mail it in because their season is so brutally long? Game 3? Game 15? As a Mariners fan I’m going to mail it on all the days that King Felix isn’t pitching. Regardless my picks for the awards and the postseason;

AL MVP- Adrian Gonzalez
AL Cy Young- David Price
NL MVP- Albert Pujols
NL Cy Young- Pick a Phillie pitcher

Playoffs (From Divisional Round to League Championship to World Series)

Texas Rangers (AL West) over New York Yankees (AL Wildcard)
Chicago White Sox (AL Central) over Boston Red Sox (AL East)
Philadelphia Phillies (NL East) over St. Louis Cardinals (NL Wildcard)
Cincinnati Reds (NL Central) over Colorado Rockies (NL West)

Chicago White Sox over Texas Rangers
Philadelphia Phillies over Cincinnati Reds

Chicago White Sox over Philadelphia Phillies

Odds that this will actually happen- .0000000026%

NCAA Basketball- Only two people out of 5.6 million people on ESPN.com bracket challenge correctly picked all of the final four teams correctly, which quite honestly surprises me because how do you pick UCONN, Butler, VCU, and Kentucky as the Final Four teams. The only people I know that picked VCU in the Final Four are people who coin flipped for the winner of each game the whole tournament which might be a better strategy for me in the future due to the fact that I only picked two elite eight teams correctly. The winner of our nineteen-man tournament group only picked one final four team, UCONN and prayed that Kemba Walker didn’t have a bad game, and won easily pocketing a cool one hundred and twenty dollars. Our second and third place prize winners pocketed money even though they picked no final four teams, next year I’m putting in a rule that you have to pick a final four team to get prize money and if no one picks a final four team the house (me) gets the money. I’m not quite sure how VCU keeps making noise in March Madness but after thrashing Kansas its finally safe to say that they deserved to make the tournament after their controversial pick on Selection Sunday. If your a Kansas fan I really don’t know what to tell you besides God tried to gift wrap you this tournament and you failed. Not taking away from VCU but this VCU team was abused on the boards by Florida State giving up twenty offensive rebounds in their overtime victory so conventional wisdom would have Kansas, with their three future first round picks on the front line (Morris twins and Thomas Robinson) abusing VCU. After all the spread was Kansas eleven and a half point favorites but VCU rained three pointers all afternoon for basically a wire to wire ten point victory. If you thought former VCU ram head coach, now at Alabama (Roll Tide), Anthony Grant was a hot coaching commodity imagine how much current VCU coach Shaka Smart (great name by the way) has improved his coaching stock. I also find it kind of ironic that VCU got a tournament spot at the expense of Alabama who many viewed as the much more deserving team. The VCU team is also very unique in that there is not one elite NBA prospect on this team, almost mirroring the George Mason team in 2006. Matching up against VCU in the first final four game is last years runner up Butler. Left for dead after the departure of Gordon Hayward and early season struggles the Bulldogs have rallied back and find themselves in a position to head back to the title game, obviously this time they will hit the half court shot to win the championship. This much is obvious about Butler, Brad Stevens is a phenomenal coach and Shelven Mack and Matt Howard are great players. The other players on this team are almost players I would expect to see at the local 24 Hour Fitness but somehow they once again find themselves in the Final Four. After turning down numerous offers after last seasons run Butler coach Brad Stevens once again is the top coaching commodity in the nation and you have to wonder what jobs would force him to leave. After all it doesn’t get much better than the prestigious Oregon coaching position that was offered to Stevens last year, no I’m not this much of an Oregon homer complete sarcasm.

Jumping to the other side of the bracket we have a matchup between Kentucky and Connecticut and unlike the VCU versus Butler matchup I’m quite sure that some people actually had this as a Final Four matchup. I’ll admit I had UCONN losing in the second round (technically the third because of the first four games but whatever) because I thought that Kemba Walker would struggle but Walker has been remarkable in guiding UCONN back to the Final Four for the second time in three years. Its pretty amazing that the Huskies have won nine tournament games (5 in the Big East tournament) in nineteen days, talk about peaking at the right time. Brief side note I kind of feel bad for San Diego State because there three losses were to teams with the best two players in college basketball (twice to BYU and Jimmer Fredette and UCONN and Walker) but that’s the way it is. Kentucky on the other hand has played in a string of nail biters but prevailed in each one behind clutch shooting. Its pretty remarkable that Kentucky is making this run behind a roster of freshmen and a senior (Josh Harrellson) that played a whopping 88 minutes last year. Side note, I think that ESPN should either fire all of their college basketball experts or remove the word “expert” from their job title after their superb picking throughout the tournament so far. As for who I’m liking to win it all I think that its going to be either UCONN or Butler but the way this tournament has gone I really wouldn’t be surprised if any of these teams won.

The Week Moving Forward

Owners vs. Players- I will continue to wonder what the NFL network will show next year if there isn’t football, catchphrase with the experts? Madden voting continues and I really hope that the 12th man wins which would undoubtedly lead to parties in Seattle over the fact that a sports team in Seattle actually won something.

NBA- We march towards the playoffs and unfortunately this won’t be the year that Tracy McGrady finally advances past the first round. I understand he was a great player, I say was due to injuries and the fact that he now plays for the Pistons, but its pretty amazing that he never advanced out of the first round of the playoffs. Many would say that he never had a great supporting cast but this is undone by the fact that the one postseason that he missed due to injury the Houston Rockets actually advanced past the first round. Then again the Rockets probably would have advanced with McGrady anyway considering that they were playing the mighty Trail Blazers. Breaking his nine season playoff drought will be Troy Murphy of the Boston Celtics but I’m not quite sure he has anything to due with because he plays less than five minutes a game for the Celtics and has only been there for roughly fifteen games. I’m not quite sure who’s next on the list but I know Mike Dunleavy Jr. (repping that Lake Oswego proud) is quickly climbing the ranks as the longest tenured player without a playoff appearance. Yes, I think that it’s a fact that a white player must own this honor.

NCAA Basketball- After almost too many games in a short period now we are stuck to two games this week, if there’s one thing that the NCAA is really bad at its timing leading towards championships. I hope the aforementioned two people out of 5.6 million on ESPN get their bracket busted so they can feel what the rest of America felt when their teams lose. No I’m not bitter at all why would you say that?