Recapping the Week 4/4-4/10

Owners vs. Players- As we head toward the one month mark in the NFL lockout that can’t technically be called a lockout there was a slight bit of good news that came out on Sunday afternoon in that a judge will be ordering the NFL and its players to begin mediation at some point this week. I may have missed something but it seems that one of the issues preventing both sides from getting together to mediate was a disagreement on where to meet and discuss the future of the NFL. Obviously the location of where the players and the NFL meet is an incredibly stupid thing to argue about but its not like they really have any more serious priorities to resolve do they? For once I’m going to agree with the NFL and not the players in this one because the NFL wants to mediate in Washington D.C. while the players want to mediate in Minnesota. Why Minnesota of all places? The only explanation for the players choosing Minnesota for mediation is that Adrian Peterson was in charge of location selection but even this is a stretch, who likes anywhere in Minnesota over Los Angeles, Miami, Eugene (ok maybe this is a stretch), or a hundred other cities. I digress, this forced mediation is a step in the right direction but this doesn’t guarantee that an agreement will be reached anytime in the near future, translation don’t get your hopes up too much.

Now on to everyone’s favorite part, the Madden cover-voting breakdown. The white running back continued its shocking underdog story with both Peyton Hillis and Danny Woodhead advancing to the Elite Eight, unfortunately still no comment from the endangered species committee if the white running back will be taken off the endangered species list. Peyton Hillis (51% fan voting) advanced past Matt Ryan (49%) in a game for the ages that will live on for future generations through ESPN Classic replays. If you were wondering which matchup certainly won’t be on ESPN Classic it would be the week 1 matchup of Matt Ryan (89%) advancing past Jordan Gross (11%), further proving that there are no Carolina Panther fans. Quick side note I might be the only person on the whole West coast with any Panther apparel as I chose a half price Panther sweatshirt over a half price Cleveland Browns sweatshirt a couple years ago. If you were wondering yes, this is the moment that I regret the most in my life. Team Johnson who placed three Johnsons; Andre, Stevie, and Calvin, in the tournament has been eliminated, I still maintain that if you want your son to go the NFL just name him Johnson. Upon further review I think that naming your son Johnson also gives him the best chance to make it in the NBA so the bottom line is if you want to live off your kids later in life name them Johnson. Looking back on the bracket the one thing that I wish had changed was the Bears having Jay Cutler as their representative instead of their actual representative Julius Peppers. This would have been hilarious I’m quite sure that after what Cutler did during the playoffs, which may have been justified but no one cares, opposing fans would have voted Cutler to the Madden Cover just to spite Cutler and the Bears. Good news for Cutler is that Rory McIlroy after his Masters performance has passed him as the person I mention when I screw up in the clutch, which is never but if I were to hypothetically screw up I would now say “I pulled a McIlroy” instead of “I pulled a Cutler”, I’m sure Cutler is rejoicing.
Because I’ve already run out of NFL and Madden stuff to talk about I will include my thoughts on the Masters in the Owners vs. Players section, if including golf in the NFL section doesn’t spur the NFL to end the lockout before fans lose interest I don’t know what will. Sunday was the only time in my life that I actually thought I had to be watching golf or I would be missing something. Some of this had to do with Tiger being in the chase for a Major but even with Tiger falling out of it at the end the roommates and I stayed glued to the Masters as it came down to the final hole. Sorry I lied most of it had to do with the competition between myself and friends about whose three person squad could register the lowest combined score and take the forty buck prize. Unfortunately team Waterman ended away a far away second place, 14 strokes behind 1st place, but it wasn’t all bad as I was able to recoup half of my buy in due to my team registering the lowest combined round on Friday. As hinted at before Rory McIlroy, who entered Sunday with a four-stroke lead, enjoyed a truly legendary meltdown by shooting eight strokes over par on Sunday en route to finishing outside of the top 15. If you ever want to look up the definition of choking watch McIlroy’s three hole stretch in which he registered a combined plus eight strokes, the other definitions of choking are the 2001 Blazers blowing a fifteen point lead in the fourth quarter of game 7 and the 2004 Yankees losing four straight to the Red Sox in the ALCS. Not the best day for McIlroy, who is only 21 years old, but I think he gained infinitely more fans with the way he handled himself after he finished than he would have if he had won the tournament. Tiger Woods who is still golf’s main attraction, didn’t disappoint on Sunday as he used a hot start early to tie himself for the lead before fading to his eventual position of fourth, three strokes behind the leader. I’m convinced that the 99.98% of viewers thought that Tiger was going to win after he became a co-leader but it just wasn’t meant to be as Tiger missed too many short putts to keep up with those he was tied with. The .02% of viewers that thought Tiger wasn’t going to win was the families of the other golfers, seriously no one thought Tiger wasn’t going to win. Even though he didn’t win it was great to see him back on the prowl (cheesiness alert) and seeing Tiger walking down the fairway dressed in his Sunday red ranks up there as one of the cooler sites in sports.

NBA- Were still not quite to the playoffs but at least we now know who the sixteen teams will be. This week I’ll give out awards, some real and some fictional, and next week I will try and predict out the playoffs and the winner of the NBA finals (Blazers!!!).

MVP- LeBron James

Derrick Rose is probably going to win the MVP largely due to the media becoming infatuated with him at the midpoint in the season but I would still vote James as the MVP of the league. I think that basketball is the one major sport where statistics don’t give the whole picture, but James throwing up a line of 26 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists per game can only be described as remarkable. There isn’t a true definition for MVP but I think the best way to look at it is if you replaced James with any other elite player at his position how would the Heat fare? Kevin Durant is the best small forward besides James and while I think he would be successful on the Heat I don’t think he or anyone else brings anything close to what James brought to the Heat this year. James along with Wade had to do everything for the Heat this year as it was 2.5 guys for the Heat (Bosh only gets half points) against the opposing five every night. James had to be basically everything on every night; a playmaker, scorer, lockdown defender, and rebounder, or else the Heat weren’t winning. On the other hand if you replace Rose with Chris Paul, Deron Williams, or Russell Westbrook I’m not sure if the Bulls would be any different. Rose is a great scorer and does bring his A game in the clutch but I don’t think he’s even close to as valuable to the Bulls as LeBron is to the Heat.

Most Improved Player- LaMarcus Aldridge

Yes this is a biased pick but the difference between Aldridge this season and the past few seasons is stunning. With the announcement that Brandon Roy was going to be missing significant time due to his knees being incurably screwed up many including myself wrote the Blazers off as contenders. Instead Aldridge put the Blazers on his back highlighted by averaging 27 points and 9 rebounds during the month of February. Everyone knew that he was the Blazers only scoring option but that didn’t stop him and on a nightly basis he threw up 20 plus points against defenses geared to stop him. This ones easy in my book, no one improved more than he did, he went from a nice complimentary player to a bona fide number one option.

Most Disappointing Team- Milwaukee Bucks

They were viewed as a certain playoff team preseason after making the playoffs last season and adding Corey Maggette and Drew Gooden to their roster in the offseason, instead they will be watching the playoffs from home. Even though they endured a terrible streak of injuries there is no way that this team should be missing the playoffs in the Eastern Conference.

Team That Played on National Television the Least- Toronto Raptors

I’m not sure but by my unofficial calculations they were the only team that didn’t log a single national television appearance. Then again a roster headlined by Andrea Bargnani doesn’t exactly scream must watch TV so really we should be thanking television executives for not putting us through a Raptors game. For those that are wondering the winner of this award in the other two major sports leagues would be the Pittsburgh Pirates (never seen a Pirate game on TV) for the MLB and the Buffalo Bills of the NFL.

Rookie of the Year- Blake Griffin

No explanation needed here.

Coach of the Year and Executive of the Year- Tom Thibodeau and Gar Forman of the Bulls

This is a joint effort as Forman (general manager of the Bulls) and Thibodeau have both done a great job making the Bulls legitimate contenders for the championship. The Bulls brought in eight new rotation players in the offseason and Thibodeau was able to mold this new roster into a powerhouse defensive team that looks like it will claim the number one playoff seed in the East. Not bad for a team that was supposed to be a year away from truly contending.

Worst Player in the NBA- Sean Marks

Even though he is now unemployed Sean Marks time on the Blazers ensured that he would be the runaway winner of this award. He seems like a nice enough guy but there is no way that he should be playing in the NBA. I don’t think that he has one skill that could even be described as below average he is truly awful at everything. The best part of the Gerald Wallace trade from at least in my eyes was actually sending him to Charlotte.

Player That Ruined My Fantasy Basketball Team- Darren Collison

This was actually the award that was the hardest for me to determine but Collison came away with it in the end of Gerald Wallace. Wallace made the list because I had a friend draft my first round for me and instead of taking Amare Stoudamire sixth overall he drafted Wallace who might even be a stretch in the second round. As for Collison he came in with way too much hype and of course I fell for it and he proceeded to sleepwalk through the season. This award also doubles as my time to vent for my fantasy failures.

Strangest Moment of the Year- Drew Gooden registering a triple double

Of all the players to register a triple double I’m 100% sure that Gooden is the one name on the list that doesn’t belong, I’m pretty sure that the glamour of a triple/double has all but disappeared after Gooden got one this past week. Gooden has always been a good scorer and rebounder but his career average of 1.1 assist per game says it all. I’m interested in watching the tape of this game just to see what the hell the other defense was doing that night, seriously a Gooden triple/double makes zero sense. Upon further review the opposing team was the Cleveland Cavaliers; it all makes sense now.

MLB- Were only in week two of the regular season, unfortunately this means that Mariners have eliminated themselves from the playoffs. After winning their first two games the Mariners have lost their past seven including most recently getting swept in their first home series to the mighty Cleveland Indians. I actually had the Mariners lasting less than a week until they were eliminated from playoff contention so they surpassed my expectations. Bad news for the Mariners is that they might have some contention for worst team in the American League as the Tampa Bay Rays have opened up with a superior 1 win and 8 loss record, don’t worry I still give the Mariners the edge to be the worst team in the American League. My roommate summing up how bad the Mariners are, “It’s that bad that the Cy Young winner (King Felix) isn’t even guaranteed getting the Mariners a win.” Of course this isn’t any of his doing but just how truly awful the Mariner offense is. I’m not a huge Mariner fan by any measure but after watching him pitch I’m always left wondering what his stats would be if he pitched for a contender. He won the Cy Young last year with a record of 13 wins and 12 losses with an ERA of 2.27 and 232 strikeouts. The Mariners only getting him 13 wins last year was an utter embarrassment and just shows how futile their offense was. Of course over the off-season the Mariners decided to do nothing about their offense, makes sense right? Bold prediction the Mariners will get no-hit or perfect gamed this year, guarantee it. I understand the Mariners can’t trade him because they could never get full value for him and Felix and Ichiro are the only reason that people still go to Mariner games but I kind of wish that they would trade him so he gets the press and wins he deserves. Its kind of like Zach Grienke when he won the Cy Young on the Royals, what an accomplishment that nobody watched because the Royals were so awful and weren’t ever on TV. In related news the Texas Rangers will stroll to the AL West crown, they’re too good offensively to not win this division by 10+ games. Its only week 2 but its pretty funny to see the Cleveland Indians and Kansas City Royals as the leading teams in the AL Central, neither of these teams is very good but I think the Royals can at least contend for a .500 record this year. I might have just pulled something from writing too much this early in the MLB season, you have to remember it’s all about pacing.

Brick Throwing Competition- UCONN 53 Butler 41

First and foremost this was an ugly game, there is no debating this. Butler shot a tad over 18 percent, which is quite remarkable considering that they were shooting at 15 percent with three minutes left in the game, quite the improvement if you ask me. Then there’s the matter of Butler only scoring one basket in the paint, UCONN may be a good defensive team but there’s no way there this good. The worst statistic for Butler was the fact that they had 2 more field goals (12) than UCONN blocks (10), you can’t make these statistics up this shouldn’t happen. It’s not even like Kemba Walker beat them, Butler just couldn’t score to save their life. Not trying to brag but I’m pretty sure that the Wet Bandits could have surpassed 41 points (I’m dead serious) but we definitely would have given up more than 53. There’s really not much else to say here, not the best way to end an otherwise phenomenal NCAA tournament. Side note how many sports fans can relate to Butler fans? As an Oregon fan I can tell you that it sucked (duh) losing the national title game and I can’t imagine losing twice in a row. The only fans off the top of my head that can relate to this are fans of the Buffalo Bills in the early 90’s when they lost three straight title games.

The Week Moving Forward

Owners vs. Players- As I write this there is a little less than 18 days left until the NFL Draft, which is hard to get excited about considering there might not be a season next year. My only thoughts on this are that the Panthers should take a QB, either Cam Newton or Blaine Gabbert, with the first pick, Jimmy Clausen isn’t the answer at QB. Plus if they don’t take a QB I’m pretty sure star wide receiver Steve Smith might kill someone, this should be incentive enough. I think this should be pretty straightforward logic, if you are returning a QB from the worst team in the league you need to change something. The one exception to this rule is the Texans in 2006 but they don’t even really count because they traded for a QB, Matt Schuab, instead of drafting one. You could even argue that they should have taken a QB because they haven’t made the playoffs since they drafted defensive end Mario Williams with the first overall pick in 2006. As for the rest of the draft I really don’t care but it would be nice to see the Seahawks grab a QB with their first round pick.

NBA- The last week of the regular season carries some serious playoff seeding ramifications but the real spotlight will be on the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Minnesota Timberwolves as they duel it out for the worst team in the NBA. I have often referred to the Cavaliers as a D-League team, which now seems a little unfair since they are actually tied for the worst team in the league. I hope the Cavaliers end up with the number one pick because I don’t want the Timberwolves to take another PG in the first round. Side note I find it a little unreal that an NBA All-Star (Kevin Love) could play for the worst team in the NBA. Does an All-Star really lead his team to the worst record in the NBA? I’m thinking the answer should be no but in his defense Love’s supporting cast is pretty bad.

MLB- I think I threw my arm out writing too much in the MLB recap column so unfortunately I have nothing to provide here.

Recapping the Week 3/28-4/3

Owners vs. Players- I was a little disappointed this week that ESPN didn’t try some sort April Fools joke about the lockout but then again knowing the current situation I don’t think anyone would believe them. Side note, this was the weakest April Fools I’ve ever been around what happened to all the pranks people? This may sound hypocritical considering that I took part in zero pranks but my pranks always fail due to me giving it away by laughing. Side note off of a side note, way back in sixth grade there was a rumor among my fellow little league playing mates that the way to get the best pitcher in our league off of his game was to smile at him when you went up to the plate, no this wasn’t an April Fools day joke either we actually tried this. I realize this has nothing to with the NFL dealing with the very real possibility of not playing a season next year but I’d rather stick to awful sports stories of my youth over depressing news of NFL owner’s greed. Since there is still nothing going on in terms of negotiations I will continue my break down of Madden cover tournament because this at least gives me hope that we will have some sort of season next year.

As many predicted the city of Seattle has once again come away winless as the Seahawks representative the 12th man was eliminated by 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis. This basically was a bye for Willis as I’m not even sure that Seahawks fans could get excited about seeing themselves on the cover of a video game. Shocking everyone was the news that all defensive linemen and offensive linemen had been eliminated after round one of voting. Secretly I’m convinced that if an offensive lineman actually had a chance at winning EA Sports would sabotage the voting so that they didn’t have to deal with a fat white guy on the cover of one of their top selling video games. You can’t tell me that there wouldn’t be a drop in sales figures; I’m convinced if there was an offensive lineman on the cover of Madden sales would drop. I also can’t help but notice that all two white running backs in the NFL, I know I’m missing Toby Gerhart but he hasn’t existed since he annihilated the Ducks two years ago, have advanced to round two. This is an amazing development but there is still no word as to whether the white running back species will be taken off the endangered species list. This puts the endangered species committee in a tough spot because they are still reeling from Jason Seahorn’s retirement, which made the white cornerback officially extinct so who knows how they will respond in this situation. Moving on with the sweet sixteen breakdowns, Jesus, sorry Tim Tebow, fell to Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles in what has to go down as the biggest upset so far. Danny Woodhead, yes he actually was the Patriots representative, advanced to round two behind the votes of all under sized Americans. Continuing with cover controversy, PETA has already announced their displeasure with Mike Vick being the representative for the Eagles. I’m already having nightmares about walking into Best Buy to buy Madden next summer as a PETA led anti-Michael Vick protest goes on in the parking lot. This has already caused me to lose countles hours of sleep and will only get worse as Madden gets closer to coming out.

I’m not sure what took me so long to come up with this but if there isn’t an NFL season next year what needs to happen is each team has to name a Madden representative, no the Seahawks can’t name the 12th man, to play out their schedule against each other teams Madden representative for the Super Bowl. I mean this makes perfect sense right if we can’t have football with elite athletes the best we can do is have virtual football with elite athletes right? Every team and its chosen representative would play there given sixteen game schedules and as in the regular season the division winners and wild card winners would advance to the playoffs. Somewhere in Ohio all Cleveland Browns fans are jumping up and down because this would give the Browns there best chance at a Super Bowl. Making this even better is the fact that these matchups will be live televised and uncensored which means that you can listen to world class trash talking. If you haven’t sat courtside or close to courtside at an NBA game the best part is hearing the talking (trash talking) of the players. Yes, I can tell you that its true that Kevin Garnett does actually swear 1.8 billion times per game. Listening to him play against the Blazers when he was on the Timberwolves often left me wondering if he had a vocabulary outside of profanity. These games also left me wondering if one time Blazer great Travis Outlaw could actually form coherent sentences. Moving on the bottom line is that sitting courtside is a good way to stunt or ruin a young kids vocabulary. Each weekly matchup would be played at stadiums on the jumbotron, obviously Jerry Jones built his monster jumbotron with the knowledge that the Cowboys would have an enormous home field advantage in this video game season. The other upside of this idea is ESPN would finally stop airing Madden Bus, I’m actually a little shocked at how this was an actual idea. Does anyone actually want to watch TV about other playing video games? The NFL draft will obviously drastically change due to this video game season and in a surprising turn of events yours truly is now the top prospect due to my superior Madden playing abilities.

NBA- The Cleveland Cavaliers actually upset their fans by beating the Miami Heat which hurt their chances of snagging the number one pick in the upcoming draft. This isn’t true as I’m quite sure the general feeling in Cleveland is that beating LeBron is greater than actually winning a title. I’m really not sure how the Heat can justify this loss but at least they can say that the Lakers also lost to the Cavaliers as well. The funny part of this whole matchup was LeBron saying that he wanted his number retired in Cleveland; does this guy have no common sense or what? Did LeBron not see the hundreds of videos of fans burning jerseys with his name on it? I’m happy that LeBron lost but I’m also glad to say that he escaped Cleveland both times without anything happening to him. The first time he played there I legitimately thought that someone was going to either throw something at him or jump on the court and charge him. Unfortunately for betting people LeBron surviving Cleveland ruined prop bets of player most likely to be killed by opposing fans. LeBron was the overwhelming leader in this category and the only player that actually came close was Chris Bosh due to his defection from Toronto. Bosh would have actually challenged LeBron for the player most likely to be killed by opposing fans if not for the simple fact that no one cares about basketball in Toronto. Side note, tell me how this isn’t a fair trade for both sides Toronto ships the Raptors and Blue Jays, to Seattle and Portland respectively, while the US sends back ten NHL teams that draw no fans. Ok maybe ten NHL teams is a little extreme, but the NHL in the US isn’t really working out as evidenced by the fact that Major League Soccer just passed it as the fourth most viewed sport in the US. Anytime soccer in the US is beating you its time to wave the white flag. This is also where the NFL should take note that lockouts aren’t very good for keeping fans (yes this logic is as obvious is as simple as it seems). The unfortunate side effect of this trade is that the Seattle sports market place would actually pass Cleveland as the city with the worst professional sports teams. Briefly back to my hypothetical prop betting Carmelo Anthony in Denver had the highest odds of being killed by his own fans while playing.

We are still unfortunately a little over two weeks away from the playoffs in the NBA so that means that there is virtually no compelling basketball to be played in the future as teams start resting up for the playoffs. For instance earlier this week the Spurs sat Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Tim Duncan, and Antonio McDyess against the Blazers to insure against future injuries. The sad thing is that the Spurs still almost won this game. All teams engage in this sort of practice down the final stretch except it seems that Blazer coach Nate McMillan never got the memo about this. Against the Mavericks on Sunday the Blazers were comfortably ahead with just over four minutes remaining when the Mavericks pulled all their starters metaphorically waving the white flag on the game. McMillan countered this by keeping his starters in until there was just under the one minute left in the game. I try not to rag on coaches but this was just stupid why risk injury when the other team has already given up on the game? Plus this is the Blazers were talking about here; funny things have been known to happen regarding injuries. I can already see what’s going to happen in one of the games at the end of the season (call me Nostradamus), the Blazers will be leading the Golden State Warriors by 25 with two minutes left in the fourth on Tuesday night when LaMarcus Aldridge tears his hamstring jogging up the court. Its basically going to be the Boobie Miles, best sports name of all time, situation in Friday Night Lights (movie version). Of course instead of being upset about how Aldridge got injured I’ll be excited about how smart I just made myself look to you guys in predicting this injury. Best stat line of the week goes to Jared Jeffries of the Knicks registering a plus 25 rating while the only stats he accumulated were two rebounds. Jeffries will be now affectionately called the player that makes everyone believe they could play in the NBA.

MLB- Baseball season has finally begun and the Mariners have already surpassed last seasons run total by registering 12 runs in their first three games. If you actually watched any of these games Seattle should have really only scored about six runs but the Athletics defense gift-wrapped the Mariners six more. Good news for the Mariners is that King Felix didn’t disappoint with a complete game victory in his first outing. The MLB season is less than a week under way but what is going on in Tampa Bay? Getting swept by the Orioles and only scoring three runs by doing so is awful and something that only the Mariners would seem capable of doing. Its extremely early but Tampa Bay doesn’t have much margin of error in the AL East and the news that star third baseman Evan Longoria is headed to the DL makes opening weekend a complete failure for the Rays. I would say more about the MLB but I’m going to pace myself on the MLB section considering that each team has at least 158 games left on their regular season schedule.

NCCA Basketball- Just as everyone predicted it’s the Butler Bulldogs versus the Connecticut Huskies for the NCAA championship on Monday night. I don’t have much to say about the semifinal games but the one thing that kind of bothers me is why does every team in this tournament feel like they have to take a three for their last shot when their only down two? I love this kind of aggressive thinking when I’m playing NBA 2K11 but the reality is that contested three pointers in real life don’t work nearly as well as contested three pointers in real life. Kentucky losing to Connecticut was the perfect example of this as Kentucky had the final possession of the game when they were down two and instead of making an aggressive move to the basket they settled for swinging the ball around the perimeter until finally they ended up throwing up a contested three pointer. Of course if this shot goes in John Calipari inevitably would be hailed as a legend for his ability to draw up such a phenomenal play. I’m convinced that Calipari has found the perfect way to survive as a coach, recruit one and done players every year. Obviously these one and done players have elite talent but if they struggle it’s their fault because their too immature/inexperienced but if they succeed Calipari gets all the credit for being an elite recruiter and player developer. If you think about it it’s perfect, he wins either way. Think about it the only time Calipari really failed was when he was the coach of the New Jersey Nets, the NBA is all about player development compared to college where its much more about recruiting athletes. I’m not trying to take away from Calipari, I think he's a pretty good coach, but I would have been intrigued to see how Calipari would be faring if he ended up with the Chicago Bulls job this past summer.

Back to the teams that are actually playing in this game, Butler actually might have been a villain for the first time in the past two years in dispatching of this years Cinderella, VCU. I’m not sure about everyone else but watching the VCU vs. Butler game I couldn’t figure out whom to root for at all, a rare but welcome problem for me. I think that the Butler vs. UCONN matchup will be a great game and in the end I think that the Huskies will be the one to take home the championship. Side note, how many people before the year thought that it would be the UCONN men’s team not the UCONN women’s team in the championship game? Both Butler and UCONN are led by their guards, Butler’s Shelvin Mack and UCONN’s Kemba Walker, but I think that the difference in this game will be the play of each teams supporting cast. For Butler this means that Matt Howard will have to have a great game and for UCONN freshman Jeremy Lamb and Shabazz Napier must continue their strong tournament run. Jeremy Lamb is a Tracy McGrady clone, I don’t think he's smiled all tournament and always has a far off look in his eyes but he can definitely ball. Really I think this game might be the ultimate test of the age-old experience (Butler last years runner up) vs. inexperience (UCONN no tournament last year) question. For the record I don’t really buy into this whole experience plays a role in everything but it is kind of hard to find a team in recent history that has won it all while being led by freshman/rookies. UCONN 66 Butler 61, for the record Butler will hit a half court shot as time expires to end the game (yes there is irony in that last sentence).

The Week Moving Forward-

Owners vs. Players- I will continue my pursuit of making a virtual Madden season happen, have to give Browns fans some hope, as the owners and players still remain way too far apart when it comes to compromising. After months of research I’ve finally come to the conclusion that the only winners of this whole lockout thing are drug dealers. Due to their being a lockout I don’t think there is drug testing anymore you can connect the dots from here. Hopefully there aren’t any more serious injuries to any players like Chad Pennington, who tore his ACL playing pickup basketball. I’m not sure if any other player had a rougher end to their career than Pennington who couldn’t catch a break when it came to injuries, put it this way Pennington deserves to be on the Blazers. The first thing that I thought of when I heard about Pennington was Aaron Boone tearing his ACL playing basketball during the offseason and promptly getting cut by the Yankees. For those that don’t remember Boone actually led the Yankees to the World Series that year by hitting a walk off home run in the AL Championship series and the Yankees responded by cutting him that offseason after Boone tore his ACL. The Yankees can’t really come out as bad guys in all of this because Boone actually had a clause that prevented him from playing pickup basketball in the offseason so the Yankees were able to void his contract with no cost. Of course the Yankees turned Boone’s ACL injury into Alex Rodriguez as their third baseman so it’s not like they missed Boone at all. Am I the only one that wished A-Rod went to the Red Sox that offseason instead of the Yankees? As you can see by the above paragraph there’s nothing to look forward to this week in the NFL.

NBA- This is the week that tanking will go into full effect as teams strive to lose their last five games so they can get better odds for the number one pick. The sad thing about this whole tanking phenomenon is that the NBA draft lottery almost never plays out to how it’s supposed to play out so the whole tanking thing is often for nothing. Don’t worry fans the bottom ten teams in the league will still engage in tanking so get ready to watch your favorite team throw out a starting lineup you’ve never heard of. This week and next is basically the equivalent of dead week in college, i.e. nothing to get excited about. Next week the playoff preview and season awards will be given out, I promise I won’t tank this.

MLB- Were less than a week into the season and I’m already ready for October. This past weekend/this coming week might be the best stretch of sports in the year but the fact is that after the NBA playoffs end (don’t worry it stretches on for like two months) sports sucks because all that’s left is the MLB. I’m too lazy to make a golf section of this but one of my roommates; two of our friends, and myself did our annual Masters draft. Basic format each of us pays 10$ to pick three golfers, snake drafting, and the lowest combined score of our team wins all the money. Last year was an unmitigated disaster for me as two of my golfers missed the cut causing me to lose by over thirty strokes but I got the first pick this year so maybe things will be different. I’m not sure why we do this because none of us care about golf but its always pretty funny because as a group we probably couldn’t name twelve golfers so we all end up with our computers in front of us looking at the world ranking. My squad is as follows, with my observations on them in parenthesis, Lee Westwood (#2 in the world), Dustin Johnson (choke artist), and unfortunately I can’t tell you my third member because I’ve already forgotten but bottom line is that I can sense (hope) that this will be my year. The best part of this whole deal is that my other two roommates decided to pick two of our squads each and the loser (who has the highest combined score) has to grow a mustache for a month. Basically this week is the only week that golf will matter the whole year.

NCAA Basketball- What happens in Connecticut once basketball season ends? Do they hibernate until next basketball season?

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?

Recapping the Week 3/14-3/20

Owners vs. Players- As week two of owners vs. players comes drags on I find myself wondering if I prefer this drama or Brett Favre retirement drama, I guess we all will find out in a couple weeks when Brett Favre gets that uncontrollable itch to play football. As of now I’d give a slight edge to watching Jersey Shore over watching both of these. On second thought after watching “The Situation” bomb out on roasting Donald Trump I’ll take the Brett Favre drama. Can’t wait to hear Mel Kiper Jr’s analysis of the above drafting that just took place. The only real news of the week was that the NFL players association has asked the top prospects to skip the draft due to the ongoing differences between the players and the owners. My thoughts on this go as follow; I don’t care, figure out your differences so I can play fantasy football next year. In a less selfish view, I understand why the players association has asked for the top prospects to skip on the draft but doesn’t it seem a little unfair that the top prospects are being asked to sacrifice for something that they had no part in? Seriously the players are getting asked to skip out on their moment in the sun so the owners and players can figure out a new salary structure that pays top picks less, makes perfect sense right?

NBA- In late January ESPN’s Henry Abbott wrote an article (seen here http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/24200/the-truth-about-kobe-bryant-in-crunch-time) stating that Kobe Bryant wasn’t as clutch as he is perceived. Abbott has the stats that show that Kobe is only a little above the league average when it comes to “clutch” shots but after watching Kobe murder the Blazers again down the stretch I have to ask, is there really anyone else that you want shooting the ball with the game on the line? Seriously the last shot that Kobe hit against the Blazers was unbelievable and also indefensible. The Lakers showed during this game that they are vulnerable (they were playing without Andrew Bynum) but I’m still liking them coming out of the West once the playoffs begin. As for the Blazers they have the talent to do some damage in the playoffs but they have a disturbing trend in that they can’t close out teams in the last couple minutes. As you can tell this will be a problem in the playoffs so as much as I hate to say it I’m once again expecting the Blazers to make a first round exit in the playoffs. Good news for the Blazers is that they registered two wins against the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Lakers one win against the Cavaliers. I know that must of hurt all those Laker fans out there but I have to take all the cheap shots I can get.

Also this week the Knicks continued their Jekyll and Hyde performance by losing to the Detroit Pistons, Milwaukee Bucks, and Indiana Pacers along with beating the Memphis Grizzlies. Brief side note the Grizzlies appear, I say appear because they never play on national TV, to be a very good team that is peaking at the right time without their best player, yes that is somehow possible. This much is obvious following the Melo trade; the Knicks are capable of beating and losing to every team in the NBA and D-League (Cavaliers). Then again the Knicks haven’t quite proven that they are capable of beating the Cavaliers so disregard that last statement. I’m still not quite sure how I feel about this trade because they obviously did it with an eye on the future but how exactly are they going to go out and acquire significant pieces for their future? They don’t have the draft picks and after giving Melo a max contract they don’t appear to have the cap room. Plus I’m not exactly sure how well Melo and Amare Stoudemire are going to hold up seeing as issues are already springing up regarding touches. Stoudemire thrives with point guard that run the pick and roll (Steve Nash and to some degree Raymond Felton this year) while Melo is much more of an isolation type player. As you can see not a perfect match but they have at least a year before they are expected to seriously contend so they have time to figure it out.

In news that I’m sure that none of you care about Tyler Hansbrough, yes Tyler Hansbrough, spearheaded my late season surge into the fantasy basketball playoffs. I’m not quite sure what has gotten into Hansbrough, maybe its just March Madness, but he's actually started to play like a lottery pick as of late. Don’t look now but the Pacers actually look they could return to basketball relevance next year as there young core continues to improve. No worries Eastern Conference I just jinxed them so look for them to struggle for the next couple of years. Crazy Kevin Love line of the week, yes technically this is cheating the weekly recap but I’m still going to include it, 6 points 12 rebounds and 5 assists against the Warriors last Sunday. This is meaningful for two reasons, first it snapped his double-double streak at fifty-three games and secondly he was two assists shy of knocking me out of the fantasy basketball playoffs so props to him for recognizing my situation and not throwing anymore dimes. In all serious a great streak for Love too bad the Timberwolves only managed thirteen wins throughout the streak. Unfortunately for the Timberwolves this means that fans now have no reason at all to appear at Timberwolves home games.

MLB- Yes I just went a whole NBA recap without mentioning the Heat, I can finally cross that one off the bucket list. As you can tell by the previous sentence that there is nothing newsworthy to report about in the MLB.

NCAA Basketball- The first three rounds of the NCAA tournament are in the books and the Ducks are still alive! By alive I mean the Ducks are still playing in the CBI tournament that no one cares about. Back to the action, as usual the Thursday to Sunday stretch of games was memorable featuring buzzer beaters and the Pittsburgh Panthers not making it out of the first weekend. Future tournament picking rule number one, Pittsburgh is not a contender no matter their seed. I will say this about the Pitt vs. Butler game, craziest ending possible ending and also the slowest ending possible. Also quite possibly two of the stupidest fouls possible considering the situation. Moving on, VCU once again is the mid-major making news in the tournament with their surprise entry into the sweet sixteen. Future tournament picking rule number two, don’t ever expect anything out of Georgetown in the NCAA tournament. All the other number one seeds in the tournament held serve and advanced and all of the number two seeds also advanced minus Notre Dame. The one thing that I was amazed at on Sunday was the awful time management displayed by Washington and Texas and ultimately it ended up costing them. In Washington’s case how do you throw up a half court three-point attempt with three seconds left? That just doesn’t happen its the equivalent of Leon Lett and recovering blocked kicks, it should never happen. Somehow Washington was granted another opportunity when UNC’s John Henson found it suitable to drop the half court heave out of bounds. Henson would have been the easy winner of least clutch play of the tournament if UNC had lost that game. Then on to Texas, failing to get the ball in on a five second count shows that you don’t deserve to advance. The teams that I like from this point to advance to the final four are Kansas and Ohio State (they both look elite) and Florida and Duke.

Also not quite tournament basketball but the timing of announcing that Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl might not return next season was atrocious, how can you announce something of that nature the day before your teams first game. Of course people had been speculating about the future of Pearl and Tennessee basketball since Pearl was suspended for major violations but there’s absolutely no need for the athletic director to come out and say such a thing the day before a critical game. The worst timing possible and an absolutely low-ball thing to do in my books, Lane Kiffin and now this, talk about program stability. It makes perfect sense to come out and say this after Tennessee was eliminated but before the first game, you have to be kidding me. I’m left wondering why I ever picked Tennessee in the first place, regardless after the weekend I still have the highest projected points out of my group so I’d have to consider it a success.

Instead of watching the Marquette vs. Syracuse game on Sunday, I mean this was their third meeting I believe, I instead watched ESPN “Fab Five” documentary and if you haven’t seen it yet make sure you do. First thing I’ve got to say is how did none of the players on that team ever win a championship of any kind? I find that truly remarkable considering they played in two national titles in college and three of the players on that Fab Five had successful NBA careers. Yes, I realize old-man Juwan Howard is still in the league but I don’t think that the Heat are going to win the title this year. I found it amazing that Michigan was able to bring in a recruiting class that consisted of four of the top twelve players in the country and five out of the top fifty high school prospects, unfortunately for Michigan they were unable to reel in fellow top fifty member Greg Ostertag. Never wanting their rivalry to end Jalen Rose and Grant Hill engaged in a new war of words about Duke and Coach K and on this one I’m siding with Rose. Most of what Rose said was inflammatory but his overall message was that Duke and Coach K only recruit certain types of players and they are almost always from upper class families and are clean cut players. I think that this is true that Duke recruits players that are more clean cut than most but I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing, one of the things that I think this is linked to is that Duke likes having players that aren’t one and done and this is why they sometimes pass on highly rated players because they feel that these players are too focused on their future. Lastly did anyone else think of Tim Tebow when the Fab Five were talking about Christian Laettner? The Fab Five described Laettner as a “god” to all Duke fans and someone that was universally hated by all other schools. Tebow fits this description remarkably well and both had enormous success at the college level for their respective schools. I’m not quite sure if Tebow should take this comparison as an insult or an compliment. Unfortunately I haven’t gotten word about when ESPN’s doing a documentary on the Exquisite Eight of the Wet Bandits.

The Week Moving Forward-

Owners vs. Players- Nothing to look forward to here; I would put the odds of an agreement happening between slim to none. The major question is if there is a lockout will there be a Madden 2012? Not that I really play Madden but is it possible that EA Sports is the one that is the most pissed about this whole lockout thing?

NBA- The playoff grind continues and this is about the time in the season where I wish the playoffs had already started. I think the best way to combat this moving forward is to skip the stretch of the season where teams are playing between their fortieth and sixtieth games. I mean really this has to be the stretch where there is the most blowouts the players just become sick of playing and mail it in. This is also the stretch where it becomes painfully obvious that teams are tanking games in hopes of getting higher draft picks. So to all those fans out there enjoy those Cavaliers vs. Kings games while you can.

MLB- I somehow mistimed the number of weeks leading up to the season and the number of divisions, I was never was good at math, so unfortunately there is no season previews left. I mean I could delve further into the Mariners but I don’t want to make anyone suicidal.

NCAA Basketball- After having my bracket survive week number one of tournament madness I’m bracing for what is sure to be a brutal week number two. Game that I’m most looking forward to watching is BYU vs. Florida. First off its two teams whose best player is white, I mean really how often can you say that? On a serious note its time to see what Jimmer can do against a major conference team in Florida. Remember one of BYU’s losses was to UCLA who Florida just beat, I’d give Florida the edge but maybe they’ll get Jimmered. Sorry to cut it short but its just about time for me to get my Jimmer on at the gym, replays of this will be on ESPN Classic I’m sure.

Recapping the Week 3/7-3/13

Owners vs. Players- Get used to the new headline of owners vs. players because following Fridays unsuccessful attempt to bridge the gap between the two sides the NFL has officially plunged into the unknown. There was hope early on in the week that both sides could reach some sort of agreement to prevent a lockout but as the week progressed it became evident that a wide gap between the two sides remained. Revenue sharing between owners and players continues to be the main issue between the two sides and as of now it appears that the league is in serious danger of having a shortened or nonexistent season. Obviously this is disappointing news for anybody that considers themselves as fans of the NFL but the real loser of this situation has to be yours truly because without the NFL next year there will obviously be no fantasy football. At least this means that we won’t have to deal with ESPN fantasy expert Mathew Berry anymore. Seriously how do you become qualified for the job fantasy expert? Back to the owner vs. player problem, as was stated in last weeks post I’m backing the players in this one but the reality is that the players have the chips stacked against them in this battle. Owners can survive without their teams playing in a season but players on the other hand not so much. It’s a tough spot to be in as they want to make sure they get a fair share of league revenue but the fact is that without a season most NFL players have no way of earning money. This is of course besides Titans running back Chris Johnson who has claimed that he will be joining the US track and field team (someone tell Chris Johnson that the pay for track and field athletes isn’t anything special). Besides the loss of fantasy football the other main downfall of this whole lockout thing is that there won’t be any of HBO’s Hardknocks. Then again its not like any team was going to top the entertainment provided in last season by the New York Jets, so maybe this isn’t such a big loss overall. Regardless not one of the finer weeks in NFL history but at least my Yahoo news feed didn’t throw anymore Tom Brady hair pictures up there so it wasn’t all that bad.

NBA- In wake of the NFL’s lockout announcement rumors about an NBA lockout in 2011/2012 have ramped up. The current agreement expires in July so there is still time and obviously this isn’t a main priority for the players considering they are still playing right now. Upon losing to the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday the DEFCON system had to be reevaluated considering that the Heat were already at DEFCON 1. Government officials were sent to Miami to create a new DEFCON system and were hard at work on this task when they were abruptly told to stop following the Heats victory over the Lakers on Thursday. To be honest I’m a little surprised that the Lakers lost to the Heat given the way the Heat had been playing but lets face it the Heat are a very good team that is capable of beating anybody in the league. As a friend pointed out to me during the Heat game, why exactly do the Heat have such poor fan support? One of my initial problems with LeBron’s defection to Miami was the fan support that he left in Cleveland, no matter what was happening you could always count on buzzing crowd in Cleveland. If you watch almost any Heat game (like the Laker one on Thursday) at tip off you can see vacant seats in many places throughout the arena. I understand there is a lot more going on in Miami than Cleveland but I find it absolutely baffling that the Heat, when facing off against an elite team against the Lakers, struggle to sell out their arena. Back to the actual games, the Heat are going to struggle against good teams (like the Blazers) if James, Wade, and Bosh aren’t firing on all cylinders. I’ve never really been a Chris Bosh fan for whatever reason, most of it comes through handling his free agency through twitter, and seeing LaMarcus Aldridge abuse Bosh during the game was fantastic. Quick note on Aldridge, his last two months of basketball have been phenomenal but I still think the all-star committee got it right in leaving him off the Western conference squad.
I’ve never understood the obsession about Bosh being a superstar player, yes he put up impressive stats in Toronto but I’m more inclined every day to chalk this up to the fact that he was the only scoring option in Toronto. He’s not a player that you can build your team around and I think a fair comparison for him is a slightly worse version of Pau Gasol. Their career path is pretty similar in that they struggled playing for small market teams and then joined contenders. Obviously Gasol has flourished in his role on the Lakers while Bosh has so far struggled on the Heat; there is obviously a lot of time for Bosh to change this sentiment but I was very unimpressed with Bosh’s play against the Blazers. Quick note on the Blazers I was primed to write a glowing review on them following back to back wins against the Orlando Magic and Heat but then they somehow lost to the Charlotte Bobcats. This team is obviously improving as the season goes on but I still don’t think they can be considered a legitimate contender in the Western Conference. In other news the Knicks once again lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers, which is impossible to explain considering the Cavaliers have only one player that could actually play on a contender (Baron Davis). The Cleveland Cavaliers, owners of twelve wins, now posses three wins against the New York Knicks, for those of you that aren’t math majors that is twenty-five percents of the Cavaliers win total. The Knicks are exciting to watch but as evidenced by their eighteen-point loss (the game wasn’t even this close) to the Mavericks the Knicks aren’t a serious contender in the East. The Denver Nuggets have faded back into obscurity following Melo’s trade but since trading Melo they posses a record of six wins and two losses. Will see if they can hold up this pace but dealing Anthony could be a matter of addition by subtraction. Then in the weekly crazy Kevin Love line of the week Love tallied 16 points and 21 rebounds en route to establishing a new record for most consecutive double doubles (52).

MLB- Never to be outdone the MLB announced that they are planning there own lockout following this season. I’m not quite sure if this is a nice gesture to support their NFL and NBA colleagues or just the MLB trying to reclaim SportsCenter. Of course this is just a joke, sorry to frighten all you MLB fans, but there is really nothing to report besides spring training continuing. The countdown to the MLB season is at a little more than two weeks as I write this column, considering the monumental effort requiring in editing these articles it will probably be closer to one week until opening day once I publish this.

NCAA Football- It has been a nightmarish offseason for NCAA football as allegations of improper recruiting and most recently Jim Tressel’s violations have captured headlines. Regarding Tressel, the NCAA is a complete joke in only suspending Tressel for two games when he acknowledged that he knew of his player’s wrong doing. For a quick recap for those not up to speed with Tressel’s suspension, the NCAA this past week suspended Tressel for the opening two games of next season after he admitted that he knew of his players breaking rules dealing with improper benefits. These five players, headlined by Terrelle Pyror, were suspended for the first five games of next season following the NCAA ruling that they received improper benefits. When these allegations came out Tressel denied any knowledge of their actions and wasn’t punished as a result. A couple months later Tressel acknowledges that he was aware of their actions and didn’t do anything to stop it. Quick history lesson, the University of Southern California was put on a much harsher penalty, including a two-year postseason ban and loss of scholarships, for lack of institutional control in their recruitment and handling of Reggie Bush. It can’t be proved but then head coach Pete Carroll has always maintained that he knew nothing of Reggie Bush receiving improper benefits. These are two very similar situations dealing with improper benefits but in one situation the head coach was aware and did nothing and in the other the head coach was unaware (or at least Pete Carroll says he was). Common sense would tell you that Ohio State should have been the school punished more harshly but somehow the NCAA found it fitting to punish USC more harshly, which is just fine by me seeing as the Trojans play in the Pac-10. This whole situation is completely laughable and if I’m a Trojan fan I would be livid at the NCAA’s ruling against Tressel. Funnily enough this is the second questionable ruling against Ohio State in the past three months, with the first one being allowing Pryor and the five others to play in the Orange Bowl after they admitted to receiving improper benefits.
I deliberately waited on bringing up the Oregon situation until now hoping that more facts would pop up or the NCAA would make some sort of ruling but that hasn’t been the case. Here’s a quick primer on the situation, Yahoo sports reporter Charles Robinson published a report that showed Oregon paying around twenty eight thousand dollars to two men with close ties to recruits that ended up with Oregon. The main question regards Oregon’s payment of twenty five thousand dollars to Willie Lyles, a relative unknown in the college recruiting world. Just to clarify it is acceptable for a university to pay a scouting service for videotapes, player measurements, and player contact information, but these fees hardly ever approach the twenty five thousand dollar mark the Ducks paid Willie Lyles. There are many well-known scouting services that charge various figures, usually topping out around ten thousand or so dollars, for these services but Lyles isn’t known for offering these services and the twenty five thousand fee is very high. Lyles has been linked to Oregon running back Lache Seastrunk (who redshirted this past year) and the fee he charged Oregon has been interpreted as something of a pay off for Lyles insuring that Seastrunk ends up at Oregon.
College football has always been kind of a gray area and Oregon is the latest program to come under NCAA scrutiny for recruiting practices. As a Duck fan I’m not going to lie the situation does appear sketchy but I don’t know all the facts so maybe I’m missing something. Maybe Lyles actually supplied the Ducks with a variety of recruiting services we just don’t know that yet, so give it some time for the facts to come out. The NCAA has already started their investigation into Oregon and Lyles, although knowing their speed it may be a couple decades before we get final results. It doesn’t look great for the Ducks and for a second consecutive offseason the Ducks are going to be portrayed in a negative light but I don’t think it’s a given that Oregon ends up getting in major trouble in the investigation. First you have to look at it like this, would Oregon really be stupid enough to write the Lyles expense in their expense documents if they felt like they were doing something wrong. I certainly hope not considering that I’m trying to get my degree from Oregon and writing an illegal expense in public documents indicates a serious lack of intelligence and or common sense. Secondly its going to be fairly easy to prove that Oregon was doing business with a sketchy individual in Lyles (this has basically been proven), but its going to be very tough to prove that Oregon paid Lyles in return for Lyles guaranteeing that Seastrunk would end up in Eugene. Barring Seastrunk or Lyles admitting to wrong doing, not likely in my books, I don’t think the NCAA can hit Oregon with a major penalty. I think that its very likely that Oregon ends up getting some sort of minor punishment like a loss of scholarships or something of that nature but I think the ultimate end result of this is that the NCAA will start cracking down on these street agents like Lyles. Some feel that the NCAA, because of the questionable nature of recruiting, is targeting Oregon unfairly but the fact is that Oregon has a paper trail linking them to Lyles. I have a friend that maintains that all elite football prospects are paid under the table for committing to a school, this is impossible but there is ample evidence that this sort of action does exist (SMU violations, Fab Five at Michigan, Reggie Bush). Its almost impossible to regulate all of this and recruiting obviously isn’t a clean area of athletics but that’s just the way it is. The good news from my point of view is that the NCAA hasn’t gotten wind of my recruitment to the Wet Bandits and I hope it stays this way.

NCAA Basketball- I’m not going to break down selection Sunday but if I had to pick my two favorites entering the tournament I would pick Ohio State and Kansas as the teams to beat. I will say that I accidently gave my Dad, a Middlebury and Harvard graduate, false hope that one of his college team made the college tournament only to realize that they in fact didn’t make it. I spoke a little to soon in stating that Harvard was going to make the dance before they lost in heartbreaking fashion to rival Princeton on Saturday. I’m not sure how my Dad’s recovery is going, but I’m not entirely sure my Dad would have been aware of Harvard’s situation if I hadn’t brought it up. Back to the teams that made the tournament, I’m not quite sure how UAB made it seeing as they beat no one but it was worth it just to see Virginia Tech’s fan base cry bloody murder. Note to Virginia Tech fans, beating the number one team doesn’t guarantee tournament entry especially when you lose the majority of the games to lesser teams following the Duke victory.

1. Boston Red Sox- The Red Sox, after a disappointing 2010 campaign, moved aggressively in the free agent market and came away with Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez. It’s not very often that a team can add two all-stars in the prime of their career but this just speaks to the spending ability of teams like the Red Sox and Yankees. The investments in Crawford and Gonzalez have set the bar for the Red Sox at championship or bust but its not like this is anything new for manager Terry Francona or the Red Sox. This team boasts arguably the strongest offense in the MLB with these new signings, but the key to Red Sox making another title run will be keeping this team healthy. This team last year was never healthy and as a result never reached its full potential. Getting Jacoby Ellsbury (the Greg Oden of baseball) and Dustin Pedroia back healthy can also be considered offseason additions since neither Ellsbury nor Pedroia played half the season last year. This team had serious issues closing games last year but I think that Jonathan Papelbon will bounce back from last years down campaign. Also I think that this will finally be the year that it can be proven that J.D. Drew actually can’t show any emotion, or Apple comes out and says Drew was a robot designed to play baseball. Regardless this team is aiming for a title and if they can stay healthy (a big if) they look like the favorites heading into the season.

2. New York Yankees- The Yankees are still going to score runs but the question is if their rotation will be able to contain other teams offenses. Slightly off topic but the Onions piece poking fun at Derek Jeter is hilarious and I felt it needed inclusion, link here, http://www.onionsportsnetwork.com/articles/derek-jeter-rejects-move-to-outfield-by-reminding,19407/ Behind C.C. Sabathia and Phil Hughes in the rotation there is the question mark known as A.J. Burnett and two spots still open for grabs. Andy Pettitte’s retirement was a tough blow for this team and picking from Freddy Garcia, Bartolo Colon, and others to replace Pettitte is certainly not something that you would expect the Yankees to be doing, but this is their status as we approach the season. If Garcia and Colon (prospect Ivan Nova could also grab a slot) can be serviceable as the fourth and fifth starters this team will contend for a wild card slot. On the other hand if the fourth and fifth starters struggle I think that the Yankees could be watching the playoffs from home.

3. Tampa Bay Rays- As always I still included the name Devil Rays but at the last second I remembered manager Joel Maddon charges fans a dollar for saying the dreaded Devil Rays name. As we all know since intramural season is now over I am no longer getting payed by University of Oregon boosters so I can’t really pay the dollar fine. This team experienced something of a mass exodus through trades and free agency but their minor league system continues to churn out quality player after quality player so its hard to rule this team out as contenders. The new crop of players is led by starting pitcher Jeremey Hellickson, who pitched great in his stint as an injury replacement and spot starter, who will fill the void left by the departure of Matt Garza. This teams rotation is deep and talented and their offense isn’t too shabby either so a playoff berth isn’t out of the question but ultimately I think they will fade out of the playoff picture at the end of the season.

4. Toronto Blue Jays- I don’t think many people realize A) that Canada has a baseball team and B) this team will be good this year. Going back to my first point the Blue Jays are always kind of forgotten about and it doesn’t help their recognition around the league when they just traded their most well known player but this team is a year or two off from being a playoff contender if their players continue their development. The trade of Vernon Wells will hurt this team in the short run but this did wonders for their long term cap flexibility, not that any free agents are going to want to play in Toronto but still a good move. The Jays will once again struggle to finish with a .500 record due to the strength of the East but if they stay the course this team will surprise some people in the coming years.

5. Baltimore Orioles- Another team in the AL East that looks to have a promising future, the Orioles enter their first full season with manager Buck Showalter at the helm and if they can play how they finished last year they have a shot at escaping the AL East cellar. The Orioles still have plenty of holes but are beginning to see young talent break through to the major league level headlined by the debut of catcher Matt Wieters last year and this year promises to bring the debut of more homegrown prospects. I have to point out that Orioles star center fielder, and one of my favorite players, Adam Jones was given away by the Mariners (they seem to have a talent for giving away promising players) for nothing. The Orioles surprisingly were quite active in the offseason bringing in corner infielders Derek Lee and Mark Reynolds (still looking for a good strikeout nickname for him) and designated hitter Vladimir Guerrero to bolster the offense. This team is still going to have plenty of growing pains but there is hope for the future in Baltimore.

NL East

1. Philadelphia Phillies- The Phillies are the prohibitive NL favorites entering the year which is quite puzzling because their rotation has plenty of question marks (yes that was sarcasm ). Their offense still remains potent at every position with the only major transition being Dominic Brown and Ben Francisco filling in for the departed Jayson Werth. Side note, I don’t know what it is about the NL East but they have to have the most exciting young talent in the game (Brown, Stephen Strassburg, Mike Stanton, Jason Heyward) out of all the divisions. Also want to give some props to Cliff Lee who actually took a slight pay cut in returning to the Phillies over the summer. It was rumored that Lee would head to whichever team would pay him the most, funny quote from an ESPN writer, Cliff Lee would play in Siberia if they paid him the most, instead Lee took slightly less (were talking a hundred million dollars so really not that much) to return to Philly. Barring a complete meltdown this team is playoff bound and with their rotation should make good on the preseason hype of title favorites.

2. Florida Marlins- There are three levels in the NL East; the Phillies at the top, then the Marlins, Braves, and Mets, and then at the bottom the Nationals. Out of the three teams in the second tier of the NL East I like the Marlins as the ones to finish behind the Phillies. As always the Marlins are full of young studs that will unfortunately be playing for a new team in a couple years due to the fact that the Marlins have no payroll. I think I might as well just start calling the Marlins a minor league team for big market teams because this has been their job in recent years, develop promising young players and then see them walk away to big markets. Memo to the MLB send this team to someplace that cares and get this team a new owner that will spend money on the team. Back to the actual team, led by Josh Johnson the Marlins have a great rotation that ranks among the best in the league. If Hanley Ramirez can get some support from prospects Mike Stanton and Logan Morrison on the offensive side of the ball I think that the Marlins could be a surprise contender for the NL wild card berth. Fearless prediction eighty-three wins and no playoffs for the Marlins, as well as a postseason move to Portland (we can hope).

3. Atlanta Braves- It’s a new era for the Braves with Fredi Gonzalez taking over the managerial reigns for Bobby Cox and we can only hope that we will never see Brooks Conrad play defense again. The dude might be able to hit but it’s going to be near impossible for him to win over Atlanta fans after his choke job in last years post season. The good news for Gonzalez is that with Chipper Jones coming back from injury and the addition of Dan Uggla (Florida not spending money once again) it appears that Conrad can go back to his utility/pinch hitter role that he excelled in last year. After the arrival of Jason Heyward last year the Braves are poised to break in another new top prospect this year in Freddie Freeman who will most likely be the Braves starting first baseman when they break camp. The rotation led by ace Tim Hudson once again looks to be solid but the bullpen is a relative unknown after the departure of closer Billy Wagner. My prediction for the Braves is for them to end the season right around .500.

4. New York Mets- This team has the talent to be a decent team but its hard to expect them to finish near the top of their division when almost all of their players are coming off significant injuries or have considerable injury concerns. The Mets have question marks at second base and center field and their depth behind the starters, for when they inevitably get injured, is pretty thin. Then there is the mess known as the pitching staff, I’m not sure where to start but the back end of their rotation for the beginning of the season, Johan Santana is out with injury, doesn’t look promising and who knows what closer Francisco Rodriguez will be able to give the Mets this year. As mentioned I’m not sure what exactly the Mets are capable of doing but I can guarantee that they will not be a National League playoff team.

5. Washington Nationals- The Nationals actually made news in the baseball world for the first time in a while (maybe ever?) and it actually wasn’t for whom they picked first in the draft. Although they also did that as well but they made news this past offseason for throwing money at Jayson Werth in attempt to bring some credibility to the perennial losing machine known as the Nationals. I understand why the “credibility” signings are made but I really don’t like these moves because what it really means is your drastically over paying for a player (see Royals Gil Meche). In the absence of Stephen Strassburg who will be sidelined for much, if not all, of the year while recovering Tommy John surgery National fans will at least have the pleasure of watching one man highlight show Ryan Zimmerman. However behind Zimmerman and Werth there is nothing to watch on this team, their pitching staff will make you want to turn off the TV. Expect another poor season as Nationals fans (if there are any) dream about the day that Strassburg returns and top prospect Bryce Harper makes it to the league.

The Week Moving Forward-

Owners vs. Players- Hopefully Vegas will set an over under line for the owner vs. player struggle, besides that there’s really not much to look forward to.

NBA- Now that the whole Heat DEFCON situation has gone away the focus can go back to the other 29 teams in the NBA, 28 once you subtract the Cavaliers of course. The playoff picture will continue to become more clear with the Portland Blazers leading the way of course (no bias involved there). As of now I’m still liking the Lakers coming out of the West but I’m kind of shying away from the Celtics in the East, I promise by playoff time I’ll pick an East favorite.

MLB- No one cares about spring training, but in case your wondering it’s unfortunately still going on.

NCAA Basketball- I will convince myself that three significantly lower seeded teams will pull out an upset only to see my bracket go up in flames when it doesn’t happen, it’s a yearly tradition. I will also be making it back home following finals to check on my Dad’s condition following the Harvard false alarm, I’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile enjoy the first two games of the tournament on TruTv, no that’s not a misprint.

NCAA Football- I will most likely throw one of my Wet Bandit teammates to the NCAA investigators to relieve pressure on the Duck football team.

Recapping the Week 2/28-3/6

NFL- There was finally some good news in my quest to avenge my fantasy football disappointment last season, this good news being that the league deadline for the CBA to expire was pushed back one more week to this coming Friday. Most NFL experts are cautiously optimistic about this latest development but I still think that there will be a lockout of some kind. Money, obviously, is still the main issue separating the two sides but at least we finally got some good news from this ongoing lockout saga. After catching up more on the lockout issue this week, tradeaplooza kind of ruined last week I’m still recovering, I think there is one issue that is very troubling. If you haven’t read ESPN.com writer Bill Simmons article I highly recommend it because it is a highly disturbing look at what I will be talking about. I’m sure that this has already been talked about but NFL players for the most part have very short careers (Brett Favre never got the memo apparently) and most likely can’t afford for a lockout to happen. What I’m trying to get at is that due to their short career lengths I think that current NFL players might seriously harm future generations of players by making shortsighted decisions to prevent themselves from not getting paychecks in the upcoming season. The NFL players association has the average NFL player playing in the league for only 3.3 years. For a player in his athletic prime, also your prime money earning years, it would be very difficult to sacrifice a season in which your supposed to be earning the most in your career and ultimately I think that this will lead to the players caving to the owners demand in one main area.

The main area I see NFL players caving is in the creation of an 18 game schedule. Brief side note out of all the sports I feel like the NFL is the one major league that has the number of games right so I’m still trying to figure out why they want to change this. Simply put football is a brutal game on the human body and athletes keep getting bigger, stronger, and faster which will probably produce more devastating injuries (concussions being the most worrisome) in the future. Through the preseason and eight regular season games this past year there were 154 reported concussions, which was a 21 percent jump from the preseason and first eight weeks of the 2009 season. The NFL public relations machine somehow hailed this as progress (?) but this has to be a major red flag for current and future players. The NFL called this progress by stating that more teams and players were reporting concussions, but I think that the 154 reported concussions is still a very understated figure to the amount of concussions that actually occurred. It is good news that the NFL has in recent years has made concussions a more serious issue but these concussion problems are only going to get worse as athletes continue to become bigger, stronger, and faster. Making the NFL season two games longer really has no benefits for current players as no team is entirely healthy for the entire season. The only team that may be in favor of a longer season might be the Green Bay Packers who seemed to get better as the injuries piled up this past year. Of course they get two extra game checks from the extra games but is anybody going to be healthy enough to cash these checks besides the kickers and punters of the world? Obviously I’m not completely plugged into the lockout situation but the more that I look into the situation the more I find myself hating the owners in the league. They’re the ones asking players to sacrifice their bodies for two more games so they can earn more money. The only way I could justify a lockout of a major sport is if there was an inherent danger for the athletes if they continued to play the sport. The NFL does have such a problem, as evidenced by former players struggles after retiring, but instead of looking at new helmet models, such as making the one worn by DeSean Jackson mandatory, the owners are worried about making more money. Last time I checked these owners are some of the richest individuals in the world and even with the sixteen game schedule they own for the most part profitable organizations. As President Obama, figured it was time to incorporate the Prez in the blog, stated when asked about the lockout,

“We’ve got owners, most of whom are worth close to $1 billion; you’ve got players who are making millions of dollars. My working assumption at a time when people are having to cut back, compromise, and worry about making the mortgage and, you know, paying for their kids’ college education, is that the two parties should be able to work it out without the president of the United States intervening. I’m a big football fan, but I also think that for an industry that’s making $9 billion a year in revenue, they can figure out how to divide it up in a sensible way. And be true to their fans, who are the ones who, obviously, allow for all the money that they’re making. So my expectation and hope is that they’ll resolve it without me intervening, because it turns out I’ve got a lot of other stuff to do.”

I have the over/under on six blog posts before I mention Obama again (smart money is on the over). But really whoever wrote this for Obama couldn’t have summed it up any better but I also understand the players holding out and if they end up sitting out an extended period of time I am completely fine with that even if it means there is no fantasy football until 2012. I obviously don’t mean this because the 2012 season will never reach the playoffs due to our impending extinction in 2012, so 2011 is really my only chance at avenging this past season.

NBA- The Miami Heat are losing so all is good in the world according to Dwayne Wade, it always gets me that he somehow still acts surprised when he says this. The big news in the NBA as you may have guessed is that the Miami Heat went winless this past week. Of course this brought the panic level to DEFCON 1 in Miami, credit to junior history for ingraining in my head the DEFCON levels, upon the Heat’s elimination from the playoffs (or at least they acted like it was the playoffs). Or at least that was the reaction coming from the Heat locker room where head coach Eric Spoelstra said players were in tears. Quick name the only three teams in the NBA with team names that don’t end with an s. First one to respond to that on my twitter (@MaxCWaterman) gets a follow from me; try not to crash twitter with your responses. Too be honest I’m not quite sure which worries me more, the Heat losing just about every close game to playoff teams or the fact that they are in tears following a regular season game. My money is on Chris Bosh crying but the sneak pick has to be Mike Bibby who must be wondering why he requested a buyout from the surging Washington Wizards. No the Wizards aren’t surging for those that are wondering. I don’t think I ever cried after a regular season game in my career but maybe the Heat after their losses watch The Notebook I just don’t know. Yes it’s disconcerting to see the Heat struggle against teams that they will have to beat in the playoffs but this whole reaction has been a little ludicrous. The Heat are still going to be top four seed in the East come playoff time and if they can make at least to the title no one will remember this besides me because I will still be trying to prove that Chris Bosh was the one that was crying. By now you should realize that Chris Bosh isn’t one of my favorite players in the league. I will admit I am a little perplexed why they run plays for Chris Bosh when they need three pointers and why LeBron is the first option on all last shots (someone tell Spoelstra that D-Wade is a top five player) but the Heat are still a title contender. Then again they are apparently on the verge of a mental breakdown so who knows what the Heat will do next. The Blazers are next on their schedule, which is actually one of their easiest games for the next couple of weeks so it will be interesting to see if they can right the ship. Moving from the East Coast to the West the Lakers have somewhat quietly gone on a tear following the all-star break. The Lakers advanced their post all-star break record to seven wins and zero losses following a rout of the Spurs in San Antonio. I have maintained that the Lakers are the team to beat in the West throughout this season and games like this are why the Lakers will be tough if not impossible to beat in a seven game series. I don’t really believe in “statement games”, (was it a statement for the Cavaliers when they beat the Lakers?) but this was an impressive performance for the Lakers highlighted by Ron Artest destroying a helpless fan while chasing a loose ball. I think that Ron Artest should personally thank me for jinxing him out of his slump because after weeks of ragging on him he now once again is able to play offense. It’s either me jinxing him back to usefulness or he found a good psychologist again. I will say that after watching the Charlotte Bobcats play for the first time in a year that they are the worst team to watch in the league, there is legitimately nothing exciting about that squad. For those wondering the Bobcats barely nudged out the Detroit Pistons for this dubious honor. Crazy Kevin Love line of the week took place on Saturday when Love recorded 20 points and 21 rebounds to push his double-double streak to fifty games against the surging Washington Wizards.

MLB- I have downgraded my Mariner season wins prediction to 71 wins upon looking at their roster and realizing that they will score on average 1.7 runs per game.

AL Central

1. Chicago White Sox- Let me start by saying that I expect this to be the most contested division in the MLB but ultimately I see the White Sox snagging the crown near the end of the season. They have some serious power with Paul Konerko and Adam Dunn anchoring their lineup but they also have what I feel is a top five rotation in the league. Midseason acquisition Edwin Jackson returns for a full season in a White Sox uniform and then their rotation will be bolstered with the return of Jake Peavy from injury. The biggest unknown with this team is who will take over the closer role with Bobby Jenks defection to the Red Sox. This team should win the division and with their rotation set themselves up for a deep run in October.

2. Detroit Tigers- This team might be the most interesting team besides the Los Angeles Dodgers in terms of who knows what you’re going to get. This team could easily switch positions with the White Sox or Twins because they have the talent but they also have a very troubled roster with injuries and off the field issues. This team will need Miguel DUI Cabrera (not a laughing matter but a great fantasy team name nonetheless) to have another monster year but who knows if he’ll be able to provide that with his well documented struggles off the field. A playoff contender based on talent but really nothing would surprise me as for as records go with the Tigers.

3. Minnesota Twins- The defending AL central champions will have their work cut out for them this year as they still await the return of Justin Morneau from lingering concussion symptoms. The good news is that Joe Mauer is still ready to spray the ball to all fields and that closer Joe Nathan will return from injury. Manager Ron Gardenhire every year has this team competing for the AL central crown on a modest payroll but this year I just don’t quite see their rotation getting it done. For heavens sake Carl Pavano is their ace. Nothing against Carl Pavano but he in reality at this point in his career he should be your number three starter at best. Look for this team to end with around eighty-five wins and an October in which they can watch the playoffs from home.

4. Kansas City Royals- The race between the Royals and the Indians for worst team in the Central will certainly be must watch TV but in the end I think that the Royals will end up with a slightly better record than the Indians. This team has been in rebuilding mode for the past 25 years, at least that’s what it feels like, and this year promises to be like many previous years in that the Royals will not be pretty to watch but experts have consistently stated that the Royals have the best farm system so maybe times might actually be changing. Unfortunately for the present the Royals no longer have Zach Grienke so there really is no reason to watch this squad. Prediction for the Royals is 72 wins which is good for six more than the Indians.

5. Cleveland Indians- Continuing with the theme of Cleveland sports teams being awful is the Indians who will be in contention for worst team in the MLB throughout the season (luckily the Pirates seem to have an unbreakable grasp on this). The big question for this team is if Grady Sizemore can return from a string of injuries that have plagued his once promising career. There are a couple of bright spots on this team including Shin-Soo Choo, a player that the Mariners basically gave away for no reason, promising catching prospect Carlos Santana, and enigmatic pitcher Fausto Carmona. Besides these players there is Travis Hafner who isn’t feared anymore and a bunch of garbage, which will lead to team that might only be slightly better than the Cavaliers (I promise that will be the last cross sports comparison ever).

NL Central

1. Cincinatti Reds- The defending champs are looking like the favorites once again in the NL Central but I expect this to be another close divisional race. This team returns basically all of the players from last year’s squad but I really don’t have a problem with this as the Reds are still a relatively young team. This team is loaded on offense with reigning MVP Joey Votto leading the way but they also have a solid starting rotation and a lockdown eight and ninth inning duo in Aroldis Chapman and Francisco Cordero. This team should be able to fend off the Cardinals for the NL Central crown but I’m not sure their rotation is championship caliber so I wouldn’t label them championship contenders yet.

2. St. Louis Cardinals- As I mentioned before I was really liking this team as a dark horse title contender before the Adam Wainwright season ending surgery happened, still this team is a force to be reckoned with the thirty million dollar man guiding the offense. Along with Albert Pujols the Cardinals have Matt Holiday and rising star Colby Rasmus providing support and they also picked up Lance Berkman through free agency in what I think will end up being a great move. Their rotation obviously lost a stud in Wainwright but they still will possess what should be at worst an above average rotation in the National League. Ultimately I think this will be a team that contends with the Reds for the central crown and if they fail to get that they should be able to snag the National League wild card spot.

3. Milwaukee Brewers- This will most likely be the last year that Brewers are competitive for a little bit as there payroll will once again prevent them from being able to retain elite talent but I don’t think this is a playoff team anyway. The acquisition of Zach Grienke gives them a top-flight one-two punch with Grienke and former staff ace Yovani Gallardo but behind third starter Shaun Marcum the pitching situation gets dicey to say the least. The Brewers struggled to hold leads last year in the late innings and I see this becoming a problem once again this coming season. Their offense, led by Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder, will make the Brewers a winning squad but I think that they will fall short of a playoff bid.

4. Chicago Cubs- The good news for the Cubs is that Carlos Zambrano hasn’t gotten into a fight with any teammates or coaches so far this year. The bad news is that pitcher Carlos Silva and third baseman Aramis Ramirez lasted less than ten games preseason games before they found it fitting to start throwing punches. The Cubs in an effort to get back to the playoffs invested in Carlos Pena and acquired Matt Garza through trade but I just don’t get the feeling that this team is a real contender for a playoff berth. Just looking at this roster makes you think that this team could be a contender but at least to me it seems like there's something missing. A team that I believe will struggle with consistency en route to sub .500 season.

5. Pittsburgh Pirates- Yes I realize that I picked the Pirates to finish somewhere other than last but I figured it was about time for them to climb out of the cellar, plus have you looked at the Astros? Their roster is way too depressing. Back to the Pirates their recent youth movement is beginning to pay dividends with the influx of promising young players Andrew McCutchen, Jose Tabata, and Pedro Alvarez. This of course is offset by the fact that their pitchers will struggle to give up less than eight runs a game but still there is some hope for the future of Pirates baseball.

6. Houston Astros- If I asked you to name the Astros starting infield I would bet that you couldn’t name one let alone two of them. It doesn’t help that they also lost their top prospect and starting catcher to a torn ACL earlier in the week but that’s just the way things have been going for the Astros recently. Wandy Rodriguez and Brett Myers are quality-starting pitchers but behind them it isn’t pretty. The outfield group is the only group that would rate above an average level on this team and because of this the Astros will allow the Pirates to move into the envious fifth slot in the NL Central.

NCAA Basketball- Less than one week until Selection Sunday and I still have no idea who I’m liking for the title, not good.

Wet Bandits forfeit defeat to Unnamed opponent- If you didn’t see on ESPN our magical season came to the end due to our manager misreading the date for our playoff game. Fan reaction to this news in Eugene was ugly to say the least and its safe to say that the managers job is definitely in limbo. As for how the star player (me) took the loss, rough but there were no tears in the locker room mainly because we got the news in class. Still this isn’t even the worst playoff story in my distinguished career, I’ll go way back into the memory banks to sophomore year of city league basketball for this horror story. Morning of the championship game anticipation was high when yours truly realized fifteen minutes before the game that I didn’t have my jersey (pregame preparation was never my strong area). Following a frenzied search through every nook and cranny of the house it was realized that my jersey had magically disappeared. Sounds crazy but I actually think the other team cursed us and made my jersey disappear because the jersey was never found. Back to the story, I was able to grab a replacement jersey at the beginning of the third quarter but we just couldn’t pull it out. Because of this it has been said that I am the greatest player in Lake Oswego City League history to go with out a title, certainly has a nice ring to it doesn’t it? Certainly a disappointing end to the intramural season but lets be real a team by the name Wet Bandits didn’t have much of a chance. No word on potential off season acquisitions but the teams core players promise to hit the film and weight rooms over the offseason and hopefully be able to win those free t-shirts next year. No word on when the commemorative season DVD comes out but when it does I’ll let you know.

The Week Moving Forward-

NFL- The future of the league is once again in question, at least until Friday when the latest deadline expires. Then in other news my Yahoo newsfeed apparently decided that Tom Brady now having a ponytail is newsworthy. So there you have it the two biggest story lines for the coming week, the future of the league and Tom Brady’s hair.

NBA- Hopefully we can all witness LeBron and the Heat crying on the court after they lose to the Blazers but this might be too much to ask for. The Spurs will continue to have the best record in the league but everyone including myself will overlook them as title contenders. Maybe I’ll catch on by next week but its tough to call a team with Matt Bonner a legitimate title contender. Then again the Celtics had Brian Scalabrine and won a title so maybe it is possible to win with one awkward ginger on a team. Yes I realize I did Bonner a great disservice by comparing him to Scalabrine, but does he have any other legitimate comparisons? We can only hope that the Basketball Gods somehow unite Scalabrine and Bonner on the same team in the near future.

MLB- Approaching twenty days until the regular season starts and I am left wondering which hat to add to my modest collection. By modest I mean my collection consisting of a Pittsburgh Pirates and a Milwaukee Brewers cap. I think that it’s a safe bet to say that if I do buy a hat for opening day I will continue in my tradition of buying hats of terrible NL central teams, the Astros would presumably be up next. Don’t worry I know you guys are on the edge of your seat so I’ll keep you updated through the coming weeks.

NCAA Basketball- With the NCAA tournament moving to 68 teams there will now no longer be any snub teams right? Never quite understood the addition of three extra teams but what do I know. At least this year we finally get the awesome sports coverage of TruTV (?) who will be handling the first two games. From Wikipedia I have gathered that TruTV used to be Court TV so I am just as confused as you as to why they are now branching off into the NCAA tournament. I’m guessing there’s going to be some sort of revolt when all of Judge Judy’s fans turn on the TV only to see first round action of Bucknell playing Eastern Washington (hypothetical of course).