8:07 PMGregg Rosenthal of Pro Football Talk reports that Vince Lombardi's life story will soon be adapted into a Broadway Play. Let's just hope Hank Williams, Jr., gets nowhere near the score.
7:57 PMJudy Battista of the New York Times on missed tackles in the NFL: "One trend most exposes how poor tackling is. According to the N.F.L., there were 81 touchdowns of 50 yards or more through Week 8, the most since 1970, great for highlight reels, a nightmare for defenses."
7:36 PMLou Holtz observing Opposite Day on ESPN set today after Navy dominated Notre Dame during 23-14 victory in South Bend today: "It was obvious Notre Dame was the better football team."
7:17 PM Here's a thought: When watching the Yankees ticker-tape parade from one of the adjacent buildings looming over the route, don't toss documents out the window that contain people's social security numbers. Or meatballs.
Detroit’s gone through some tough times lately, so it’s perhaps not entirely shocking that there are some people trying to take advantage of the tourists that have descended on the city for the Final Four.
One such tourist was Indianapolis mayor Greg Ballard, whose city is hosting the 2010 Final Four. On the walk back to his hotel from Ford Field after Saturday’s games, Ballard saw a man who he thought was having a seizure, so he did the good samaritan thing and stopped to help. Well, you know what happens next. Seizure guy was actually just fine, and a second man walked up to Ballard and grabbed his cell phone and took off. Ballard isn’t happy with Detroit, and Detroit is now unhappy with Ballard.
Leave it to Major League Baseball’s old and tired leadership to open half of the league’s games in cold climates, many of which will force postponements during the very first week of the season. While the proud and downtrodden denizens of Philadelphia should be have been celebrating the first professional sports crown in the city of brotherly love for decades, they instead found some of their press stolen because of a cancellation of the season opener between the White Sox and Royalsa day before the game was scheduled to be played!
That’s right folks, it’s baseball season, and it’s snowing in Chicago.
It’s ludicrous that a professional sports league that employs as many marketing consultants as locker room attendees could sign off on a plan designed to wreak havoc on the schedule year after year.
There’s a simple solution to avoid the annual cancellations, travel headaches and furious dispossesed fan bases: Play the entire first two weeks of the season in markets that are either: A) on the West coast, B) below the Mason-Dixon line or C) have domed stadiums. Stop kowtowing to the need for a New York opener and season-starting series in places like Cleveland and Chicago, and the season might actually work the way it’s supposed to on paper.
Of course, there’s never any weather-related problems in basketball, but there are plenty of crowd issues when the basketball is being played by women. If you tuned into the NCAA Women’s Final Four last night, ESPN would like to hear from you (they don’t believe the Nielsen ratings could possibly be that low) and Courtney Paris would like to apologize for crying so much the tears started flowing out of your screen.
Put those two stories together — the blown, $64,000 guarantee by a Joe Namath-sounding women’s basketball player and an utter lack of attendance (at least heading into the Final Four; no overnight attendance numbers were available last night) — and add in undefeated UConn’s seemingly inevitable drive to a perfect season, and there are plenty of fascinating story lines in St. Louis. Yet the bottom line, as it so often is with women’s basketball, no one cares.
That’s a shame. After all, when’s the next time an NFL great will have twin daughters playing in a Final Four, one of whom has an impulsively gregarious moment that costs him $64,000? When’s the next time we’re going to get to see that face? Priceless folks, priceless.
Somehow, despite the odds and ethical questions, a 19-year-old jockey is on the verge of competing in his horse racing’s signature event. If that doesn’t seem stunning enough, this is: Joe Talamo has already earned some $4 million en route to spitting range of his ultimate goal: the Kentucky Derby.
What’s even more amazing about Talomo, as first exposed by LAIST, are hisTwitter updates. For instance, check out these recent inputs from the rider of derby contender “I Want Revenge”.
“30 til derby: Am at Santa Anita. Worked out 3 horses this morning…Right Round by Flo Rida is my song of the day. Big month ahead,”
“30 til derby: just got home from dinner at the ivy and tim’s show. great night! going to bed. gotta wake up early”
“29 til derby: Working a couple more horses after the break. Then filming a scene at Clocker’s Corner for Jockeys. LA Times interview at 10.”
Hmmm, tough life you got there kid. Now, about that L.A. TIMES interview. Would you prefer a Bill Plaschke kiss up, or a clueless T.J. Simers job? Your choice.
In the worst possible type of basketball contest, the University of North Carolina jumped out to a quick double-digit lead against Villanova University and then refused to extend it for the rest of the game. This led to the painful 8-to-15 point lead that lasts all night but can never be resolved by an amazing comeback or a blowout that provides quick death to an outmanned opponent.
The fans that remained behind after Michigan State’s mildly unlikely ascent to the final game booed the Tar Heels as long as they could, but drowsiness eventually set in. The few remaining fans left in Ford Field by the end of the 83-69 snoozer did rouse long enough to boo throughout the post-game face time for Roy Williams and Tyler Hansborough.
In a game played in front of about 70,000 rabidly partisan Spartan fans in Detroit (and roughly a couple dozen Husky fans), Michigan State outran, outmuscled, and outhustled UConn en route to an 82-73 victory. The leading scorer for the Spartans was Kalin Lucas with 21 points, but every time we looked up, Durrell Summers was making one big play after another, like a ferocious dunk in transition that capped a decisive 17-7 run.
(”F-CK YO FACE!”)
UConn hung tough, to say the least; the teams battled to a 49-49 draw midway through the second half. But shoddy play at the line and on the glass doomed the Huskies, who had looked like (arguably) the most impressive team in the tournament up to that point. We would go on, but you just want to watch Summers dunk in Stanley Robinson’s face, don’t you? Video, courtesy of THE HOOP DOCTORS, is after the break. Read more…
We’re just hours away from the Final Four, and right on cue, we’ve got an NCAA ethics scandal. According to the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson has been hanging out in Detroit casinos, though it’s not known whether he’s been doing any gambling or not. The Inquirer piece comes complete with an immediate Roy Williams defense, but it took blog BUSTED COVERAGE only a matter of hours to get snapshots of the guard in earlier action … off the court.
That’s why the bigger issue for Williams and co. now is the set of photos BUSTED uncovered, shots which show Lawson gambling at craps tables in Reno, Nev. on New Year’s Eve. Why is that such a big deal? Well, considering the fact that the NCAA still has an ongoing investigation into the University of Toledo’s programs for alleged point-shaving, Nevada casinos probably aren’t the best places to be hanging around killing time … or placing bets that can land you in debt taht would warrrant, say, shaving points in a Final Four game.
Rick Reilly stands this morning as the sports media’s Jack O’Halloran, the ever-prodding manchild from Superman II: every time he throws a bus at Tiger Woods, Tiger crawls out from underneath just a little angrier.
Sunday, Bay Hill stood in for Metropolis and Sean O’Hair pulled over the black bedazzled robes to take the Terence Stamp role to Tiger on Sunday, seemingly in control until he saw that red swoosh fill the camera. At that point, O’Hair dropped from the Saturday leader to a Sunday round of 73 and Tiger dropped a 15-footer for the one-shot victory at 18.
In drama worthy of a Donner-esque cut of a better sequel, Tiger took his first title after last year’s knee surgery on a long putt at hole #72 just like he did last spring. After the win, he met again with the namesake of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, who we think might be Perry White in this analogy. Or Lois Lane. This one may need some work still, unlike Tiger’s knee.
Sunday held little heat for the Final Four as Michigan State and North Carolina committed to a weekend in Detroit in April, otherwise known as “the best weekend of weather ever”. No, really… just listen to every sportswriter go on about it next weekend, assuming they don’t spend the whole time in Windsor.
Neither game was particularly close, leaving casual sports fans hunting for Tiger or smaller game (as mentioned below). Sadly, even Clark Kellogg’s stale “versatile like baking soda” line couldn’t get any vinegar for a volcanic explosion.
At least the ticket sales should improve with a state team available to attend. Villanova and Connecticut will fill out the other two slots as we all spend all week polishing our convoluted plans to justify picking against a UConn-UNC final Monday night. (Oh, and is Roy Williams finally accepted at UNC? Just checking.)
A foreign country bordering the United States has such a horrific crime problem due to a drug war that it could affect their ability to host international tourists. Of course, we’re talking about Canada. Specifically, Vancouver’s inability to get decent amounts of cocaine has caused a gang war to break out, raising the murder rate dramatically.
After having to spend most of last summer listening to the incessant whining about the safety of the 2008 Beijing Games, we can’t help but notice the silence surrounding the 2010 Vancouver Games. We can’t quite put our finger on what could be different about the two countries. Maybe journalists feel safe after watching a “Da Vinci’s Inquest” marathon?
In case you suspect we’re overstating the case, listen to a local activist: “I’m really apprehensive about going out in the evening. We’ve turned into an American city.” Does that mean you’re not interested in two free Final Four tickets?
Stephen Curry’s little brother, Seth, will transfer to Duke and be eligible for the 2010-2011 campaign. Perhaps he just found the Teletubbies course syllabus on Liberty’s fall schedule.
John Calipari and the University of Kentucky have spotted each other from opposite ends of the dance and have started staring a little too long for it to be a coincidence. Expect someone’s dress to be up over their heads in the parking lot by Tax Day.
Congratuations to Bemidji State for advancing to the Frozen Four in NCAA hockey. We don’t have anything more to add; for that, please check out THE HOOVER STREET RAG. We just always wanted to link to the BEMIDJI PIONEER.
Finally, we know a referee that will be working the NBA Finals next in about 2024 after nearly injuring the future of the league by getting tangled underfoot of LeBron James:
Boringest is a word. Oh, it may not be in your fancy “dictionary” (whatever that is) or anything, but any one word that so perfectly encapsulates the five hours of brain-killing boredom that unfolded today on CBS is an absolutely legitimate part of the American vernacular. And these utterly drama-free contests sent fans scampering for the remote… or the Vivarin.
(Not even the rarely-seen “Reverse Bavarian Ear-Pooping” could save this snoozer.)
Perhaps we were spoiled by the epic ‘Nova-Pitt game from yesterday, but it’s always such a disappointment when there’s such a lead-up to such a letdown. MSU’s win wasn’t competitive in the last 10 minutes. But UNC? They barely even needed 10 minutes of their own to put Blake Griffin and Oklahoma away.
So much for inevitable fate of three Big East teams in the Final Four. Louisville should have saved something from that 40-point beatdown of Arizona the other night, because they looked like an exhausted team in the second half today and never even made a run to get back into the game once they got down for good.
The Spartans went on a 26-9 run in the second half en route to a 64-52 win in Indianapolis in front of a crowd that included a green-clad Magic Johnson.
And isn’t this just a classic Tom Izzo game? Sure, he’s got a lot of talent, but it just seems that he finds a way to get the most of every guy in his rotation in big games like this. Nobody was giving the Spartans a chance, even as a #2, to make the Final Four this year.
Any grousing about how the Big East didn’t deserve three 1 seeds in the tournament is pretty much dead and buried at this point, isn’t it? Aside from the fact that the original argument relied exclusively on “because it just shouldn’t be that way” rather than “because Memphis/Duke/Oklahoma earned it more than UConn,” it’s been proven true throughout the tournament, and especially today.
(FTW! No seriously, this was for the win.)
During the early game, UConn held off the same unusually frisky Missouri team that ran Memphis right out of the gym. The final was 82-75, with freshman (eep!) Kemba Walker scoring 23 points on just nine shots from the field (EEP!) for UConn.
That game didn’t hold a candle, though, to one of the best Elite 8 games of all time, as Pitt and Villanova (both Big East, mind you) went toe-to-toe, using every single bit of their 40 minutes before Villanova prevailed, 78-76. Read more…
It’s probably not the biggest shock in the world, but ESPN really wants the NCAA men’s basketball tournament rights. You can’t blame them; it’s one of the most-watched TV spectacles every year, it stretches across three weeks and draws viewers & advertisers like nothing else outside of the Super Bowl. Still, CBS has owned the rights to the annual hoops escapade for so long that it’s hard to imagine a cable network breaking in to steal it away.
(And the 2018 Final Four goes to, drum roll please … Bristol, CT!)
Well, prepare yourself folks. ESPN is going to to get it at some point, at least if ESPN President George Bodenheimer has anything to do with it. When asked by COLLEGE HOOPS JOURNAL whether or not his network would get back to covering the tournament, Bodenheimer’s answer was pretty unequivocal: “We would love to get back into the men’s tournament.”
