Been a While

So a lot has changed in the world of sports since my last post. Being that I just got the app to blog on my phone there should not be too long between posts coming up. Let's get back to sports.

How about that guy Novak Djokovic took the tennis world by storm and I for one was rooting for him the whole way. I have no idea why but Nadal rubs me the wrong way. Which is strange because being a lefty there are not many other lefties I root against.

It was an entertaining Tour de France I am not going to lie I was happy to see Contador struggle a little after taking shots at Lance Armstrong. Cadel Evans was the man this year in the race and earned and deserved the win.

Basketball is at its peak right now an I for one have been on the Linsanity ban wagon since the Lakers game. Love watching that kid play!

I will talk about college basketball at length in a future posts.

Feels good to get the posts going again. Next posts will include the usual visual accompaniment.

Some One Needs To Say It!

The NCAA didn't care if Cam Newton has been getting paid they wanted him out on the field for the last couple of weeks.

The bottom line is that in similar circumstances the NCAA has punished the student for the sins of the father or parent. They have cracked down hard of some students who never saw a single cent of the money. The problem is that the NCAA does not want people to see how much difficulty it is really having controlling players getting paid. If the Cam Newton and Auburn were to be suspended from eligibility everyone would see the issue in full magnitude. However waiting until a couple years from now when all the evidence has come out will be much less detrimental to the image of college football. It has happened in the past with great players or programs have cheated to win a national championship, and the NCAA has taken away the title. This does not seem to have had much effect on the popularity of the sport at all. It also allows the NCAA to appear as though they are strictly enforcing rules against later proven ineligible players. Sugar coating what is going on in college football is not a what needs to happen right now people are cheating, yes there are rules against it, therefore that is exactly what it is.

Cam Newton is good for the National Championship match up. You are going to have the best offensive player in the country facing off against the best offensive team in the country. There is going to be a team from the west coast and one from the east coast. The Pac 10 vs. the SEC; two of the most successful conferences in college sports. Both schools fans are going to travel extremely well. Auburn has been waiting for their opportunity since 2004. Oregon fans are some of the best traveling fans in the nation, and they have never had this type of opportunity.

The NCAA appears to be bending the rules for a player who is going to make them a ton of money. If not bending the rules at least adjusting the time frame of the inquiry to a situation which seems to benefit them as a company. The NCAA was originally put in place to protect the students from getting hurt in games and organizing a set standard of rules to allow players to be safe while participating in such events. They were also put in place to help the students excel both on the field and in the classroom. In 1984 the NCAA lost control of the television rights when the Supreme Court ruled against them in an antitrust case. In this particular situation too many of the students where not meeting academic requirements. With the Bush case and what seems likely to have the Newton situation follow in similar foot steps are we seeing a trend which the Supreme Court is going to have to once again step in? Only this time instead of academic requirements focusing on the money changing hands. The NCAA appears to be serving its own interest in both situations by dragging their feet with the investigations, and not keeping an even playing field but insuring a beneficial outcome for themselves. It is understandable that the NCAA would want to know all the facts about the case before making an official decision, but there does seem to be a lot of condemning evidence. There is also a strong likely hood the BCS is leaning on the NCAA to leave Newton on the field because their year depends partly on him playing.

I strongly dislike the government ever getting involved with such issues, but when the people who are put in place to govern such actions and effects are not doing the job in the way they were intended something needs to change.

What should I do?

Ah, Nike putting their finger on the pulse of American society as usual. I do like the new Lebron commercial, and I have had many people tell me they hate it. My first question is why? To which the main response is, that it shows no loyalty to any city or team, the entire NBA is just one business transaction to the players. Now to pose another question, how many players have been cut from teams and basically thrown out of cities because they performed poorly under pressure or in a big game, how many popular players have seen fans turn on them for one comment or action. Do you know what his life is like? Do you know what lead to his decision? Can you honestly tell me that any player who is competitive enough to play professional sports isn't going to try their absolute hardest to win every single game they play in? (Randy Moss not included) You can't make it to the level these people play at without a refusal to lose. Fans have the right to turn on players, why should the players have a different option, to stand there and let the fans brutalize them and shout insults.

Now granted I do think Lebron could have handled the whole discussion process a little bit better. He did however put is heart and soul into making that team win for a solid seven years. He did everything he could to win there, including putting the team on his back and carrying them through the playoffs when every player around him seemed to tense up. I can tell you one thing the Cavs owners don't hate Lebron, they may resent his decision to leave Cleveland but he was the best thing to happen to sports in that town in over twenty years, and made basketball big there again.

I am fine with people not liking Lebron, I personally don't like Kobe or Melo, both are great players and have strong followings, but I don't think it is fair to hate someone just because they took a job in another city. For one reason or another it didn't seem likely that Cleveland was going to win any time soon, the Celtics were still surprisingly strong last year and the Magic have been putting together very good teams for the past few years. So can you really blame the guy for moving cities and teams? Say what you want about Lebron while a player like himself is going to make a lot of money through endorsements and his contract every year, but when all is said and done all he wants in the championship. Lets think back a few years, how is what Lebron and Bosh just did any different that what Garnett and Allen did with the Celtics? In fact if you look at it Lebron and Bosh are getting paid the same this year. Garnet is getting paid 8,000,000 more a year than Allen and 5,000,000 more a year than Piearce. Look at what Kobe makes a year (and rightly so) he is making over 10,000,000 more a year then the man who was voted the leagues MVP the last two seasons! Does anyone want a list of who is making more than Lebron this year for me to prove this point?Kevin Garnett: $18,832,044

Amare Stoudemire: $16,486,611

Elton Brand: $15,959,099

Joe Johnson: $16,324,500

Vince Carter: $17,522,375

Dwight Howard: $16,647,130

Rashard Lewis: $19,573,711

Gilbert Arenus: $17,730,694

Andrei Kirilenko: $17,823,000

Deron Williams: $14,940,153

Kenyon Martin: $16,545,454

Carmelo Anthony: $17,149,243

Tim Duncan: $18,835,381

Cris Paul: $14,940,153

Zach Randolf: $17,666,666

Yao Ming: $17,686,100

Dirk Nowitzki: $17,278,618

Kobe Bryant: $24,806,250

Pau Gasol: $17,823,000

On a side note LeBron I understand the fans have turned on you quite a bit and that your popularity is down. However you did avoid some of the trouble Rooney went through when he recently tried to switch teams. Forty fans stood outside his house and yelled for an entire day that if he left Manchester United they would KILL him!

Dear BSU and TCU,

A letter from a slightly bias fan who really doesn't think you have proved much so far this season. Don't worry I am not alone, just expressing the concerns from a very common way of thought.

BSU, your strength of schedule is not as difficult this year as it was last year. Why would you deserve the national championship? The WAC is weaker than it has been in a number of years, and your supposed tough pre-conference schedule has gone out the window with both Virginia Tech and Oregon State struggling so far this year. Well Virginia Tech maybe not struggling but losing to James Madison, still not exactly sure what happened there. Virginia Tech still has the real meat of their schedule to get through and I would be surprised if they don't end up with at least one more loss possibly two. They are however looking more and more like the team everyone thought they would be preseason. Oregon State may have been ranked at some point this season but they have the toughest three game stretch of anyone to end the season. Vs. USC, @Stanford, Vs. Oregon. If they win two of those games they may end up ranked but I honestly don't know if they can. Nevada.... well who did they play before Hawaii? Cal your right, but who really knows what any team besides Stanford or Oregon is going to do from week to week in the Pac-10. Nevada still has to get through four of the top six teams in the WAC, which I have already expressed is not saying much, but teams like Fresno State, La Tech, and Idaho have enough fight to beat you. It is not that we don't think you are a great team everyone knows you are, but when you never get hurt because nobody you play is good and you schedule all your toughest opponents when you have a lot of time to plan for what they are going to do, no one has any faith that you are as good as you are.

On a side note how are you allowed to wear blue uniforms at home? I don't think this advantage helps you on offense much, but as a quarterback trying to throw a crossing route or a dump off to the running back it would be really easy to over look the safety or linebacker. Keep the blue turf, a lot of people like it and it sets you apart, but wear orange at home.

TCU, what have you shown me this year? Nothing lets just leave it at that. Did you even try to go out and find more than one tough team on your schedule or are you just happy with stomping every team in your conference? Which by the way may or may not happen with how strong Utah has turned out to be. How did you get a first place vote over teams like Missouri or Michigan State, who have actually beat people this year. Missouri beat the number one team in the land and is undefeated and you are still ranked higher I have absolutely no idea how this happens when your best win is the aforementioned Oregon State. It is no wonder no one is talking about you as legitimate title contender, you will be lucky if you go undefeated to be in one of the big bowl games this year. I have no faith in you being able to compete with any of the teams there. A win against Utah is just a win against another team who nobody has any idea of how good they really are because they played a very over rated Pitt team in the first game of the season as their toughest game so far.

While as usual you both have good teams, you are going to need two loss teams to even have a shot at a national championship, because right now a one loss Alabama, LSU, Ohio St., Oklahoma, or Wisconsin will most likely out rank you in the computers. Not to mention the four currently undefeated big conference teams.

Just moved

So I recently moved and got a new job, thus the lack of posts, which is kind of disappointing since there have been a number of the most interesting sporting events over the last couple of months. So where to begin.... how about the World Cup!!!!




I have yet to get to attend any of the games in this massive world wide sporting event, however a close friend of mine from high school has spent the last three years planning his trip. Staying in communication with him during the sporting event I have come to one conclusion.... I AM GOING TO THE NEXT WORLD CUP!!!



There is not sporting event which the rest of the world is brought together in the same way the world cup connects everyone. You can be from a country such as the USA where a life of luxury is often considered normal, and lose to a team from a third world country such as Ghana. A team can win one world cup and still not even make it out of group play the next.


What about the Olympics one might ask? Rightly so there are a number of countries competing and many more events for a country to excel in. While I agree and accept that one person can gain the entire countries support, there doesn't seem to the same amount of unity a team sport provides. One player can not win the world cup for you. Spain winning this year showed just how important a team is. Yes David Villa did nearly all the goal scoring the strength of the team was defense and controlling the pace of the game. How else can a team win the with the fewest goals ever by World Cup Champion? The team work and unity needed to win a world cup unites the fans of that country and region of the world beyond what any individual performance would be able to provide. Even in the USA this is true, look at the greatest Olympics victory ever was a team sport. Winning the hockey gold medal in 1980 brought the country together more completely than any one gold medal has.



Now on the out come of the World Cup...

I have three German grandparents so a large part of me resents Spain for winning the whole tournament. I honestly believe Germany was the strongest team going into the semis. After playing so well against Argentina it was disappointing so see their performance against Spain. However they had a great tournament other than two games, and were by far the funnest team to watch. On a similiar note it was a great experience for a number of younger German players to get playing time in such a pressure situation. Getting players like Muller out on the pitch and performing as well as they did boads well for the next world cup. Also the way Schwiensteiger ran the middle of the field showed how ready he was to fill the shoes of a great player like Ballack.

To Spain, congratulations you played exactly how you needed to. It was a perfectly put together performance, you were clearly the most consistent team in the tournament. It was slightly boring to watch nearly every single one of your games, but to argue with results would just be ludicrous. My one concern about Spain winning this way is that they won in nearly the exact same way as Italy did four years ago, with defense and controlling the pace of the game. If more and more teams start to play this way the games are going to be less interesting to watch and the pace is going to slow down on international games. I sincerely hope this trend does not continue, and that a high power offensive team dominates next world cup.

The Netherlands, you were one of my favorite teams to watch during the tournament. After the victory over Brazil there didn't seem to be any stopping what may have been the most fortunate team in the tournament. Every team needs to catch a break, and winning in that fashion seemed to show destiny was on their side. (along with a ton of talent and speed) I don't know if there was another team who was in as good of shape as the Netherlands in the entire tournament. The way the team played simply wore their opponents down in the last third of the game. Pressing as high as they did on defense will still maintaining a relentless attack kept all the spectators of the games on their toes.

Top teams go down!

Wow! I don't think anyone expect the top teams to get so mixed up this weekend.

--Kansas-- Everyone has an off game! I still would put them a top my hardest teams to beat list and thus most likely to win it all. Yes they had an off game, but still I don't think there is any reason for Kansas fans to get all upset just yet. Losing to in my opinion underrated Ok State team on the road is not a bad loss. Came at maybe a bad time because if they had won then they would have a clear edge for the number one overall seed at this point. ( i know there are still a ton of games to be played before selection Sunday, but there would still be an edge at this point.)

--Kentucky-- Loss really doesn't do anything to hurt your team. You lost on the road to a top 20 team. I mean it is a bummer to ever lose but once again not the end of the world. (as much as all you fans out there may disagree) Tenn is a good team and has been getting better as the season has progressed. I would say they are climbing their way into may people's minds of being a tough out if not a sleeper pick to go a long way into the tournament.

--Purdue-- Sorry fans, i have just 6 words to describe what is going to be a bummer of an end to a season where you could have won it all, Hummel is out for the season. There really isn't much else to say. I feel for you though, tough tough break!

--Syracuse-- Um... WOW! so what was hyped as one of the best games at the end of the regular season turned out to be awful. I have taken an interest in the play from this team since the beginning of the year, and I have come up with one interesting thought. The other teams on this list look really really good. (or at least you did until you lost your best player) Syracuse makes the team they are playing look a lot worse than they are. The way the Orange is beating people makes it look like they take whatever your game plan is and take it away from you. I have been impressed with this team all year, but recently have got conformation they are going to be a tough team to beat in the tournament, because you have no chance to prepare for that 2-3 zone they play so well.

Basketball!

Now there are a number of different ways I could go with this topic, but now that we have had the opportunity to see a number of the college teams past their first couple of games I think we should start with the rankings.
1. Kansas
2. Texas
3. Kentucky
4. Purdue
5. Syracuse
6. West Virginia
7. Duke
8. Villanova
9. North Carolina
10. Connecticut

These are the main teams that by just about anyone's standards have the best chance of winning the tournament. All of them are traditional powers, with at least a couple experienced players. On a side note, what happened to the Pac 10 (more specifically UCLA) so far this season. I mean normally they get better as the season goes on, but they are looking terribly weak so far.
Kansas: This teams is stacked and in my opinion has the best chance to win it all. Well duh, they are ranked #1 and have been all season. Here is why, they are an older team, these guys have been around for a couple of years. Their leaders are almost all upperclassmen, plus one outstanding freshman in Henry. Now in college basketball any one with more experience than a freshman is considered older. If you look back on the bast few national championship teams they all had similar makeup. A number of older guys maybe one great young player, but enough experience to handle the pressure when times got tough. The same thing goes for the team at #2. Texas, is a force to be reckoned with, which was shown by the their performances against other top teams with good big men. There are not going to be too many teams who can compete physically down low with these big men.
#3 Kentucky, they are probably the most talented team in the conversation for championship teams this year. Calipari does it again putting together another set of super talented freshmen, not that anyone is very surprised now with the name of Kentucky behind him I wouldn't be surprised if he got the top ranked person at every position some years. Here is the reason why the team will not win it all in my opinion; the team while it has proved that they can play down the stretch and win against some of the best teams in the nation, this team will struggle against a team like Kansas or Texas who is loaded with good upperclassmen. The main difference between freshmen and the rest of the players in the NCAA is the fact that the older players will play hard for the entire game. From what I have seen in some of Kansas' games is they are better than their opponent but they don't keep the team down once they get the lead. I think Calipari will likely run into the same problem he did in Memphis. Having the most talented team but too young to win it all. Now I am by not means saying they can't win, but until a Calipari team with a bunch of younger players does win, I will remain a skeptic.

(thought this pic was interesting)

#4-#8 I don't mean to disrespect these teams but to be honest they are all similar in a number of ways, and all the more dangerous because of it. They are loaded with more experienced teams and all of them have one freshmen or less in the top 6 contributors on the team. (only Syracuse has more than one sophomore) This is dangerous because these guys all know what to expect in the tournament situations. The determination and resolve from these teams will make them all tough to be come tournament time. The biggest change in these teams from last year is Syracuse. Last year they would just try to outscore you, watch out for the improved defense this year. I haven't seen much of Purdue, but their big men are all talented and persistent defenders and re-bounders. Tough to keep them off the glass. Duke is relying less on the outside shot so far this season, which will help them score more consistently throughout the games. (I haven't seen enough of West Virginia or Villanova to make a comment on their situations yet)

#9 North Carolina: Now I am a UNC fan so make sure to keep that in perspective but, I think the team is struggling in the aftermath of losing so many great college players. The people who are trying to fill the shoes this year are doing a good job but they just haven't shown the same determination going late in games against other good opponents this year. The big men are talented and so are the guards, but so far I haven't seen the same quality (again lost a ton of players) from this team. However they have played a number of good teams so far, and are gaining experience. Come tournament time I would not rule them out, but they need to find the Tyler on this team, the person who is going to push them in tough situations. Ginyard also needs to stay health for this team to have a hope, which doesn't look like it is going to happen.

#10 Connecticut: This team has the potential in my opinion to win it all, yes they have lost a number of important people to the team the last few years, but they have yet again a couple of great seniors. Most prominent of them in my opinion is Robinson. This guy has a number of pro like physical capabilities, and athleticism. So far they have only lost to Duke and Kentucky, and put up a good battle in both those performances. The only question so far is their center. While he was a McDonald's all American last year, he has not shown me yet that he can keep up with the college pace and level of play just yet. We will see as the season continues, but as usual Uconn will have a chance late this season.