Arena Sweet Arena

There’s no place like home. Well, home field/ice/court advantage.

In my travels over the last five months, I was fortunate enough to attend 3 games- one NFL, one NHL and one NBA. The downside was that I was unfortunate enough to be the away fan at each of these games. Don’t get me wrong—I completely understand the importance of the away fans. In fact, there could be a whole analysis done on whether seeing a patch of your jerseys in the crowd when you’re away from home is as inspiring as a venue full of them that can sometimes be taken for granted. As great as it may be to see your devoted fans travel (or encounter a band of displaced ones on the road), and as much as I love to take on the responsibility for cheering extra loudly in enemy territory so my boys know I’m there, I still think there’s something untouchable about a home game.

This October, the Canes went to Helsinki for the first 2 games of the season against the Minnesota Wild. Each team had 3 native Finns on their roster, all of whom were on the ice for the opening face-off, which I thought was a pretty cool idea. From what I’ve read on Canes sites, there were over 300 Caniacs that made the trek (and those who regularly read my blog, know how seriously bummed I was to not be part of that group). Caniacs who made the trip wrote back that there were only about 120 Wild fans that went. Now, I get that the flight time, and therefore cost, from Minnesota would be more than from Raleigh, but I could only imagine how awesome that was for our guys to see so many of our fans in the stands so far from home. In every interview about it after they returned, and some still to this day, 2 months later, the guys have mentioned how great the fan support is and their appreciation for being so well-represented in Finland. It’s in extreme cases like this where I could see travelling fans might beat out the home crowd vibe.

In contrast, the last two games at the Florida Panthers and Atlanta Thrashers had significant amounts of empty seats. It’s kind of sad to see teams lacking that home support. When I went to the Canes @ Rangers game in October, I got the same vibe. What Rangers fans were there didn’t seem to even notice hockey was happening until their team scored. I get that it was early in the season, but I’ve rarely seen the RBC Center not be packed, and the fans that are there without question make their presence known throughout the entire game, regardless of what part of the season we’re in or where we sit in the standings. Definitely made me appreciate being a Caniac that much more!

Yesterday, I went to pick up tickets for my most hockey-enthusiastic friends and I for as many home games as I could get the first 2 weeks in January (note that some were already sold out). Pulling up to the RBC Center, I got the same jittery, excited energy that I do going to games. It’s the same feeling I got when walking into Doak Campbell Stadium at FSU for my first-ever football game… seeing the team colors/logo surrounding you, hearing the fans screaming and chanting in unison… there’s just something- not to be cliché, but- intangible and indescribable about that feeling as a fan. To be honest, it’s what got me hooked on football… and pretty much every sport after that. Ask any friend who’s watched a game with me and they’ll tell you how ridiculous I get leading up to and all the way through (and often after) going to a game. It’s intense. I’m sure the teams can sense it, too. That connection between the fans and the team, defending their home base, is why I think, for both sides, there’s no place like home. It’s good to be back.

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Urban Legend

After 6 years as a Florida Gator, Urban has stepped down. For real this time. No Favre-ing.

I decided to forgo the fun of guessing who the new coach might be and analyzing the resumes and credentials of the possible candidates. Now that it’s been made official, let the analysis begin.

Will Muschamp will be taking over as our head coach after Urban’s final game, our bowl game against Penn State. The fine folks at Gatorsports.com have already done a nice job of writing Coach Muschamp’s mini-bio, so I recommend you check out this link if you’d like the details. In general, his results with defenses he’s worked with in the past sound good. The fact that he’s from Gainesville is a plus. Him leaving a pretty sure future coaching at Texas to come coach for us seems like another positive sign. The only thing that really makes me wonder is that he went to UGA. According to the article, he’s also BFF with Jimbo Fisher, but considering my past, I can’t say much about being friends with Noles. Hopefully this stellar recruiting he’s known for will get things back to good for the Gators. Urban, thanks for the memories. Welcome to Gator Nation, Coach Muschamp!

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Top 10... ish

My recent nomadic lifestyle and visit with the technologically-challenged have made catching games and updating the blog a little tricky, but rest assured, requests for a new entry have not gone unheard. Instead of analysis as usual, here is my version of the Top 10… not so much plays, but sports info.

10. We’ll get it out of the way first. The Gators were defeated at home by South Carolina for the first time on Nov. 13^th. Not only was it an incredibly embarrassing game and torturous to watch, but it also effectively took our last hope for a chance at the SEC Championship game and any decent bowl game, for that matter. Boo to this season. At least we beat App State.

9. There have been a lot of personnel changes in the NFL since I’ve written last. Most notable being the firing of both Wade Phillips and Brad Childress immediately following their games against Green Bay. Pretty sure any NFL fans saw those two coming. This whole outburst between Vince Young and Jeff Fisher was a little more surprising, though. Should be interesting to see what ends up happening next Sunday.

8. The Skins and Giants have both been defeated in pretty ridiculous ways by Michael Vick and the Eagles these past two weeks. The question is- is Vick that good or were the Eagles and Giants (Eli’s 3 ints, etc) that bad?

7. The Magic have been doing well so far this season. Some of the games have been pretty close, but being 9-3 and at the top of the Eastern conference isn’t bad at all.

6. The Canes have been doing well, too, though not quite as well as the Magic. Some of the tough games have been pushed into OT, most recently ending in a loss, but at least getting that one point that we can definitely use. We’re 9^th in the East, and barely hanging in at 9-9-2, but that’s a definite improvement from where we stood around this time last season when a slew of injuries lead to a 14-game losing streak. There’s still plenty of time to get in the top 8.

5. Speaking of hockey, NHL All-Star voting has opened! I hadn’t really paid attention in the past, but since the game will be in Raleigh this year, the hype has gotten me interested, plus I know the guys in contention a little better this time around. You can vote online at http://vote.nhl.com/ or by texting the last name of the player you want to vote for to 81812. The list of players on the ballot is at the website.

4. Harry Potter 7 was awesome. If you haven’t seen it already, you should. Even if you weren’t into the books, it’s still good. (Though if that’s the case, I also highly recommend you go read the books.)  I couldn’t come up with a 10^th legit sports thing to write about, so figured I’d throw this out there. That’s how good it was.

3. NCAA basketball is officially back! I’m so excited to start watching Billy D’s crew again. The game against Ohio State was on ESPN, which was good since we could actually watch it, but not so good because we looked, well, not so good, toward the end. Same issues as last season—start off strong, then forget that you actually have to work in the second half to keep it close (or keep the lead). We do fine against the teams we’re supposed to beat, but when it comes to teams like Ohio State, there are still some issues. At least the rebounding has gotten much better. Side note- Congratulations to the UConn women’s bball team for getting their winning streak up to 81. 7 more and they tie the UCLA men’s streak of 88 consecutive wins.

2. I don’t think I’ve seen a more intense day of NFL games as yesterday. I watched the Jets make a crazy, literally last minute effort to come back and beat Houston in the early game, followed by the really close Colts v Pats game. Peyton totally had the opportunity to get the win if it weren’t for that last interception. The night game, as mentioned in #8, was a little ridiculous, but great to watch. For anyone who wasn’t able to watch, you missed a great Sunday in football.

1. And in the #1 spot, where it deserves to be, I will share with you quite possibly the best thing I’ve ever seen on YouTube. Words do it no justice, so watch and enjoy :)

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Caniac Karma

Since game 1 of the season in Finland, I’ve listened to every Canes game online since I’m too far away to watch on tv. Then this past week, the new guy at work has been torturing me, talking about how his friend had tickets to the Canes v Rangers game, so he was going. I wanted so badly to go see my boys play since they’d be up here in NYC, but was having a hard time convincing someone they wanted to buy a ticket and go with me. About 2 hours before faceoff, my love and undying support for the Canes paid off in the form of a pair of tickets that someone couldn’t use coming through a long chain of people to me & a friend. I couldn’t have imagined a better away game to watch live! Well, I’d love to see a Canes v Habs game at the Bell Centre, but still, quality-wise, this game was great.

I was the away fan I hate to sit near. I cheered my boys on from just 12 rows up from the blue line. My friend and I were two of maybe 10 people in all of Madison Square Garden that stood up and screamed when the rest of the crowd sat silently observing each of the 4 Canes goals. We yelled shouts of approval to Cam with each of his amazing saves, and threw in a couple cheers for Finland whenever Joni, Jussi or Ruutu were near enough to potentially hear us. Somehow, I managed all this cheering with just a sore throat and no black eye!

As for the more technical side, Cam did have several amazing saves, which isn’t out of the ordinary. Henrik Lundqvist had some amazing saves, too, though and made the game exciting to watch. Since this was the first time I actually got to watch them play this year after the games in Finland, it was great to see the speed of the new guys. Skinner looked great out there, and he’s so freaking young! He even made NHL First Star of the night. I’m hoping he stays with us for a while. He’s been working well with Cole, it seems, and I’m loving the switch of Ruutu to center. The switch created the new Skinner-Ruutu-Cole line, which apparently has already been dubbed the JET line—for Jeff Skinner, Eric Cole, Tuomo Ruutu—and it looks damn good. They got all 4 goals against the Rangers, and just generally looked like they’re going to work really well together. Cole’s even looking better now that he’s working with his young protégé. I hope this shifting of the lines continues to have a positive impact, keeping us in contention this season. For now, one game at a time… Let’s go Canes!

PATs:

• I had every intention of finally writing about the NFL games last night, but got a little distracted. Prepare for an in-depth analysis of the Jets v Packers this week, since I’m capping my celebration of my favorite sports weekend of the year with a trip to the New Meadowlands. The big news from this past week was mostly injuries, which seems to be the theme this season. Romo ended up with a broken clavicle and may be out for the rest of the season. Ouch. Literally. Bring in Kitna… Favre’s consecutive start streak is in jeopardy, thanks in part to the beating his ankle took against my Packers. Guess we’ll have to see on Sunday what Childress actually decides to do.
• I was so excited about the Magic’s great start (well, ok, great preseason), then they go and lose to the Heat. Of all teams… And Dwight got blocked by a little guy in Washington. Boston beat Miami, but then the Cavs beat Boston. Things are all crazy. I’m planning to get to a Magic game this season, whether that ends up happening here against the Knicks or as planned in Milwaukee against the Bucks.
• The Rangers (Texas version) seemed to have lost their spark once they got to the World Series. Based on how close the ALCS and NLCS matchups were, I was convinced this World Series would be a little closer. Maybe things will change with tonight’s game, otherwise the Giants (SF version) will be in a pretty good position for the title.
• Florida v Georgia today! I’m not saying anything on this yet, cause I’m a little too nervous for a pre-game analysis…
• Gator bball won their first exhibition game against Florida Tech (one Florida school I didn’t know existed). I’m excited to see how Billy D’s team will do this season. At least they’re actually televising a game Nov 16^th when we play Ohio State!

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It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

As a fan of most sports, this week or so is my favorite time of year. NFL and college football season is in full swing. It’s the most exciting part of the MLB season, even if your team isn’t in it anymore (maybe next year, Sox…). Hockey season, my second favorite, is just getting started. The NBA is wrapping up preseason games, and NCAA bball is starting to pop up randomly on ESPN. All that’s missing is some tennis…

I’ve been neglecting Bill Simmons this week, but I have been keeping an eye on baseball on my own some. I watched part of games 3, 4, and 5 of the Rangers v Yankees and the last in the Giants v Phillies series. I haven’t followed baseball as much this year, so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, but where did the Giants come from? I didn’t see either of these matchups coming, and expected the Phillies to at least keep it closer when the matchup was announced. With the Rangers, I remembered them sweeping the Yankees in September and hoped whatever they figured out in that series would get them to beat the Yankees again now.  As a Sox fan, I am of course ecstatic that the Yankees lost, and decided I’d be happy with whatever else ends up happening as long as they’re out. It’s actually been more fun to watch the games this postseason since they’ve been so close in both matchups. Congratulations to both the Rangers and Giants on their well-deserved wins, and I look forward to what should be a close World Series.

I know it sounds blasphemous, but I was kind of glad to have a break from Gator football this weekend, I’m not gonna lie. The whole Dan Mullen v Steve Addazio homecoming loss last week was just heartbreaking. From what I hear, there is talk amongst members of the Gator Nation about who is to blame for this rough season. I, for one, am not a huge Steve Addazio fan after seeing the tangible difference since Dan Mullen left for Mississippi State, and am glad Urban came back before he could have had total (albeit, interim) control over the entire team’s fate. Some apparently are saying Urban is to blame, completely disregarding the whole 2 national championships and success on many other levels., etc. With Zook, we had reason to voice our frustration while marching on campus in small angry mobs. I really think this situation is just a huge change in personnel, both on the field and behind the scenes, and different personalities than we got used to seeing.  That being said, Cam Newton, our QB-in-waiting before Brantley, is doing a ridiculous job at Auburn, leading the team really well and looking pretty good in the Heisman race. Though it makes me wonder “what if…” a little bit, I still back Brantley 100% and hope things start to look better for my Gators asap.

PATs:

• The Magic managed to go undefeated through their pre-season games. I would have loved to have seen the matchup with the Heat, but it was cancelled due to unsafe court conditions. When I saw that go across the bottom line on Friday, I was confused for a sec (Unsafe conditions for an indoor sport? Really?), then later heard that it was because of the oil-based cleaning solution used on the court. So random. Either way, for those who actually still pay attention to the NBA, let the season begin!
• My Canes have had a tough start to the season, with their first 7 games on the road (or maybe “in the air” would be more accurate) between the Finland season opener and the West Coast trip. Now they’re coming home to play the Caps on the 27^th.  Since I couldn’t watch the games yet this season, I’ve been listening to the radio feed, and we’ve been doing pretty decent from what Chuck K. is saying. The team is noticeably younger this year, and while younger brings some inexperience, it also brings speed, which has been evident in our games as well. Skinner’s been great at putting up the effort as our regular guys have been adjusting to the new lines. Jussi, one of my favorite Finns, has continued his impressive play, saving the game against Phoenix in overtime with an assist from Joni, “his fellow countryman” as the announcers keep saying. For any Canes fans out there, there’s a group on Facebook campaigning for Jussi as a write-in for the All Star game called “Jussi Jokinen for 2011 NHL All-Star Game” if you’re interested in joining and getting Jussi the recognition he deserves after being left out of the Olympics!

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Up For Debate

The Gators played football again this weekend. Once again, I don’t want to talk about it.

Green Bay played, too. See above.

It may have been a rough week for my teams, but all true sports fans learn to take the ups with the downs. As a friend of mine often reminds me, those of us who are fans of teams that have regularly been successful for a while get spoiled. We’re used to coming out ahead, not having to worry about working our way up in the rankings, but rather watch that we don’t fall too far out, and start to take these things for granted. Before the Gator loss was final, I heard that Kentucky beat South Carolina, who beat Alabama last week, which gave us a potential (though small) chance to work our way back into contention. Not so much anymore. The upside from this week was that Wisconsin beat Ohio State, taking out one more of the unbeatens. Things are always more interesting when the field is more even. The dilemma, though, if so few are left undefeated in the end, is whether or not that will be enough for Boise State to get in the championship, or if their weaker schedule will end up keeping them out. If they win out, will they be deserving of a chance?

As for the NFL, there were some close games this week, namely Green Bay v Miami and Baltimore v New England that went into overtime. Surprisingly- well, at least somewhat surprisingly- the Chargers lost to St. Louis. Yes, the Rams. It’s sad, really. They haven’t looked the same since they got rid of LT. In today’s NFL text commentary, there was discussion of San Diego’s tendency to let guys go, thinking they’re past their prime or need new blood, like with LT and Drew Brees. Then these guys go on to be successful with their new teams, winning a Super Bowl, making plays like they used to, general successes elsewhere. Are they actually getting rid of guys too early, or is it that they're just not meshing with the system anymore? Though it might happen more often with the Chargers, it's happening elsewhere, too. Look at Randy Moss and his supposed hair debate with Bieber, I mean, Brady before he joined Brett at the Vikings last week got them all riled up. And then there's Jake DelHomme being let go by Carolina and going on to the Browns to... oh wait, nevermind. But still, with San Diego, the question is legit.

Losing to the Rams may have been the final straw for Norv’s job security, which was already on its last leg. PR’s been doing relatively ok still, either that or Orton’s been doing a lot better. They’re my usual tandem for the fantasy league, though I’d typically end up using Orton on the weeks he did the worst, but this year they’re literally even as of today’s games in fantasy points for the season. Watching him today, I was seriously starting to rethink leaving Orton on the bench, really impressed by his performance so far. I even apologized for any negative comments in the past season as he was leading a successful drive within the 2 minute warning to potentially beat the Jets. Then he fumbled and the game was over. That was the Orton I knew….

In other NFL news, Big Ben came back this weekend and delivered a win for the Steelers over the Browns in Colt McCoy’s debut. Considering it was his first time leading the Browns, and considering that it’s the Browns, he didn’t do half bad, going 23/33 for 281 yards, 1 touchdown and unfortunately, 2 interceptions. The 49ers managed to finally get a win. Minnesota prevailed in the battle for survival with Dallas. The Sunday night game is going on as I write, but the Skins are going at it without the, um, help(?), of Albert Haynesworth who was scratched with “Coach’s decision” given as the reason. I have no words for that man.

PATs-

• The Canes lost their first game after the Finland trip and have a crazy travel schedule ahead through early November. The bright side is they get a break toward the end of the season having most of their games at home. For now, they’ll have to keep adjusting to time zone changes all over the place as they do a tour of the west coast, then return at the end of October to face some of the toughest teams in the eastern conference. Their game v the Canucks is in progress, too, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that that great 4 point start to the season doesn’t get completely lost in the time changes.

• Even though the rest of my weekend was rough sports-wise, the highlight of my Saturday was watching the Yankees lose 7-2 to the Rangers in the ALCS Game 2. And it was even more appropriate that this happened while I was in Boston. In the B.S. Report this week, Bill Simmons discussed his theory that the Yankees blew the end of their season so they’d face the Twins instead of Texas at the beginning of the ALCS. I have to say, he just might be right… it’s starting off as a great matchup!

• This may seem completely random, but UCF is looking pretty good from what I caught of their game this Thursday. They had to skip halftime, taking just a short break between the 2^nd and 3^rd quarters, due to an intense rainstorm. They were doing well, forcing Marshall to punt quite a bit, avoiding penalties, and dominating in rushing yards. While it being against Marshall might not be saying too much, they still looked pretty legit and like they might be on the path to becoming yet another force in the realm of Florida college football in the years to come.

• Alright, fine, I’ll talk about it. I couldn’t watch it (which was good), but I was getting the play-by-play from my good friend that is my faithful sportscaster via text for Gator games I can’t watch—earning her the title henceforth of The Sportstexter—and it wasn’t pretty. I sensed the glimmer of hope in her texts when Miss. State missed their field goal and we got the ball on their 35… then the disappointment as Demps fumbled on the 16 yard line. Then hope again as we were driving down the field with under 2 minutes left in a challenging, but do-able last ditch effort… then the disappointment when Henry missed the field goal attempt we worked so hard for wide right. My phone battery died right after that text, and with it, our post-season hopes. It’s official. This season is all for rebuilding…

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In a Glass Case of Emotion

The Gators played football this weekend, and I don’t want to talk about it.

LSU ruins the birthday weekend almost every season, regardless of how either team is playing otherwise. This year was no exception, with a game that had 7 lead changes and some crazy calls that ended in the Gators’ second loss in six weeks. Most coaches I at least respect, but Nick Saban and Les Miles are two I’m not a fan of. Now I’m a strong supporter of the fake punt whenever I play Madden (mostly because that’s one of the few plays I can actually execute), but when a coach is known for using them, his team is in the ideal situation to use one, and you don’t plan to counter one—not cool. The feeling of Gator Nation slipping into the coma of a rebuilding year is becoming more real. If nothing else, at least Alabama lost to South Carolina and Miami lost to FSU. Almost makes up for our loss… but not quite. It does bring up the question, though… with Alabama out, who is deserving of the #1 spot?

I didn’t get to watch the NFL games this week, though I was keeping track of the scores. Shaun Hill seems to be doing fine with Detroit after their 44-6 win (over the Rams, mind you). Kansas City has finally lost, and poor Buffalo still can’t get a win. The backup QB switch between Washington and Chicago worked out ok for the Bears, though it’s a miracle that Todd Collins was able to pull off the win with 4 interceptions. My 2 favorite teams, Washington and Green Bay, played each other this week in a really close game. It was hard to follow rooting against the Skins (partially because Gano is my kicker in the fantasy league), but the Skins pulled it off in OT. Once I got home and saw more info than the score, I found that Rodgers had a concussion, Jermichael Finley left with a knee issue, and Clay Matthews and about 3 other guys all had random injuries, too. That might have had something to do with it. This slew of injuries on top of the loss of Ryan Grant earlier in the season leaves us with a tough 12 weeks ahead.

Finally, on a happier note, the Canes won both of their season opening games in Helsinki this week. Due to the time difference, they were on at noon here, so I was able to listen to Chuck K. call the game via streaming audio at work. I’m not gonna lie, I was having some serious regret for not blowing all my money and flying over there for the games. My team in Finland?! Too perfect. Maybe they’ll do it again since it went so well. Coming back with 4 points to start the season is definitely a better start than we had last fall. The Caps are right with us with 4 pts, too, but over 3 games compared to our 2. It’s nice to be at the top :) I completely didn’t realize how much I missed hockey until our first game started. It’s a very close second to football, all thanks to the roster full of humble guys on the Canes and the great atmosphere of the RBC Center fan-wise. We have a lot of young guys that look like they have a lot of potential, including Skinner, our prized draft pick, who won the 2^nd game for us with his shootout goal. Speaking of young additions looking impressive, Derek Stepan of the Rangers made a hat trick in his debut game. Pretty impressive, yet slightly concerning for when we face them later this month. Also good- New Jersey has lost all 3 of their games so far. It’s starting off to be a great season :)

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Change of Seasons

It feels like football season. Time to return to the blog.

With grad school applications and a stint in Manhattan (not to mention the lack of sports aside from baseball), I took a bit of a hiatus from the blog for a bit. Now that my favorite time of year is back, it’s time to get back to what’s important. So, here we go…

The NFL has been bizarre this season already. QBs dropping like flies. Dallas at the bottom of the NFC East (and the Skins at the top). The Colts are 2-2. LT as a Jet, T.J. as a Raven, and all sorts of other team switches. And craziest of all—the Kansas City Chiefs are the only undefeated team left after week 4? Weird.

I had an off-season of reflection and came to the conclusion that my heart just wasn’t completely with the Skins, but that I had somewhat secretly been hiding feelings for another team. The majority of my family (that cares about football) is loyal to the Green Bay Packers. I had always respected them and their tradition, and felt like it would just be following along to choose them as my team since I didn’t really grow up with them. Still, I had Greg Jennings and Donald Driver on my fantasy teams since season 1 (though someone else got to Donald before me this year), and I had admired them from a distance. While I will always be pro-Redskins, it was time to prioritize my split allegiance, so I made my hidden Green Bay love public. Consider this the official notice: I confess, I am a cheesehead.

That being said, it’s nice to be able to cheer for Donovan without feeling conflicted now that he’s not wearing Eagles gear. It seems that things are at least on the right track with the Skins, though it will take some time with the new personnel to get going smoothly. Aside from the bump in the road in Chicago, Green Bay is playing about as expected. Or at least as well as can be expected without Ryan Grant. Jermichael Finley’s been doing great while the whole rotating RB thing gets sorted out with Brandon Jackson and John Kuhn.

Not only is football back, but hockey comes back Thursday, too! My Canes are doing their season opener in Helsinki, Finland this season against the Minnesota Wild. While I would have loved to have gone with the 300+ Canes fans that made the trek through the AAA fan package deal, finances (and my lack of passport during booking) kept me here in the states to cheer them on from afar… during work, since they’ll be playing both games at noon our time due to the time difference. Luckily, I can get away with this to some extent since I can listen to podcasts at work with no issue J

Which brings me to my final musing before I close out this first blog entry of the NFL/NHL season… I’ve been listening to Bill Simmons (well, the B.S. Report) and PTI almost daily via podcast at work. I’ll probably work them into the blog throughout the season and hope to maybe generate some discussion with topics this season, too. Feel free to post comments and start debates as we go! Looking forward to an interesting season…

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It’s the End of the World As We Know It…

At least for college football. And for many reasons. A whole bunch of things have gone down today that can change the way things will look for at least the next few seasons. For the more immediate future, USC is finally feeling the repercussions of some shady deals with Reggie Bush that were against NCAA regulations. Their bball program had already gotten in trouble due to deals with O.J. Mayo when he was on the team. USC had appealed the football allegations, which centered on various forms of compensation for Reggie Bush during his time as a Trojan from 2003-2005. Their record could be greatly affected by this- including a national title- depending on how the punishment ends up looking. Reggie Bush’s Heisman will be reviewed by the committee, as he would have been considered ineligible if this is confirmed.

While I am a firm believer in everyone following the same rules in sports to make things as fair as possible, and also have some strong feelings about USC, I think some aspects of the proposed punishment are affecting the wrong people. Yes, USC should have had a greater understanding of what was going on with their athletic programs; however, Pete Carroll and the particular player in question here will only feel shame for bringing these issues on their former team, if that, when it comes to things like the loss of scholarships and the 2 year post-season ban. While Lane Kiffin is probably my second least liked coach, right behind Pete, he wasn’t the one to condone these actions, yet he will be the one to suffer most. Right along with the new group of players, most of whom, according to ESPN, were barely in high school when these things were going on. They transferred or otherwise committed knowing there was investigation underway, but probably not expecting to have their careers rocked like this. I hope the NCAA has a plan to address any concerns these players may have.

On a more long-lasting note, the Pac-10 has officially gained a new member as the University of Colorado announced it would be leaving the Big 12. This could mean the beginning of a huge shift in conference make-up as Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma & Oklahoma State may be making moves as well. Nebraska has been mentioned in a potential switch to the Big 10. The Big 12 being dismantled or potentially looking extremely different, Pac-10 becoming the Pac-? as it attempts to recruit a major chunk of teams, and remaining teams scrambling to various conferences after theirs fall apart will make a huge difference once all the changes take effect.

I’m sure there are plenty of other underlying reasons, but it seems that most of this musical conference game going on is due to money and network coverage cash. BCS bowl games will have to be completely revamped. Regular season schedules will be different. Things will get crazy. My only hope out of all of this is for more balanced conference quality and maybe, just maybe, resorting to a playoff system…

Finally, what should have been the headline for today’s blog has gotten bumped to a final thought with all the college football insanity that sprung up in its way. The Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup last night in Game 6 against the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers had a ridiculous run to get that far, and had even pushed Game 6 into OT. In the end, Chicago pulled it off with a shot that most didn’t even realize went in. Well, except for Kane, the guy that hit it in, and Leighton, the Flyers goalie. Ten bucks says Leighton goes due to that shot, despite his great stand-in play during the playoffs. Niemi was amazing throughout the playoffs and definitely did a great job in getting the Blackhawks to their first cup in forever. So, to the Flyers, congratulations on a great and unexpected run. Chicago, congrats on the win.

Random side note: how on Earth does Byfuglien = Buf-lin? :oP

NBA Finals Game 4 tonight! Let’s go Celtics!

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From Brooms to Doom

The Orlando Magic went from 2 consecutive playoff round sweeps to a horrible series during which they barely looked like they had a chance. I can understand that the closer you get to the Finals, the better the competition, but damn. I’ll be the first to admit that Boston had us looking pretty sloppy. There were inconsistencies in foul calling between games in the series, and various issues all around, but generally, we just looked pretty bad. Boston took the first three games in a row, with only the 2^nd looking like an actual game. Losing at home really brought the confidence from the 2-round-sweep down, though the boys showed some fight when they were playing to stay alive in games 4 and 5. Game 7 was just not meant to be, though. Boston took an early lead and looked like they had things under control, while Orlando just couldn’t make up the difference. They gave it a good shot, but Boston will be going on to represent the East.

On the opposite coast, I was hoping the Suns could knock the Lakers out of contention. Steve Nash had been ridiculous through the whole playoffs, playing through a swollen-shut eye and a broken nose. I officially dubbed him the Black Knight of the NBA, as he wrote each injury off as only a flesh wound and played on like nothing had happened. Alas, the Suns’ playoff run was not meant to make it to the Finals either, as they fell to the Lakers in their Game 6. Though the difference was small and their resolve seemed stronger after Game 5, Ron Artest’s literally last second shot to get the win may have ultimately been the momentum killer. At least now with LA going into the Finals, I won’t feel bad about cheering for the Celtics. May Boston beat them decisively and in as few games as possible to shut them up at least a little bit.

As for hockey… Chicago beat San Jose, making it to the Stanley Cup Finals for the West, as I had predicted. I was conflicted on the East, as I like the Canadiens, but respect the Flyers, too. I have several friends who are fans of either team and would have been fine with either going on to represent our coast, which the Flyers will do after overcoming some crazy odds. Montreal was great beating the Caps and Pens, but when it came to getting past the crazy momentum of the Flyers, it was just too much. Both teams played well, and Leighton, former Canes backup goalie, has been great for Philly. Though my pick was either Chicago in 6, or Flyers in 7, I had to pick the latter as the only guy ahead of me in the Canes Playoff Pick’em mentioned Chicago going all the way. So, I’ll be cheering the Flyers on (even though they’re currently down 1-0 in the series, we’ve seen that doesn’t mean much) and hoping I can pull off a victory in the Pick’em Challenge my first year playing :)

NBA PS- Anybody else think it would be fun to see Phil Jackson go back to Chicago if LeBron meets him there? That could be fun to watch. I’m just sayin…  

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A Little Swept Away...

The title’s a stretch, I know. After pulling off the sweep in Round 1 of the NBA Playoffs against the Charlotte Bobcats, my boys faced the Atlanta Hawks in Round 2 well-rested. Atlanta had ended a close 7-game match against the Milwaukee Bucks shortly before facing the Magic, and apparently didn’t get enough time off. Orlando swept the Hawks in Round 2 bringing their playoff run to an impressive 8-0 streak. Boston beat out the Cavs in their Round 2 matchup, ending LeBron and Shaq’s run for the championship, and possibly their time with Cleveland as well. The first Magic-Celtics game of the conference finals is currently underway, and though I love Doc Rivers and have a great respect for the Celtics, I’m hoping my hometown boys can continue their win streak.

It wasn’t quite a sweep, but the Flyers pulled off a rare 4-0 run over the Boston Bruins after being down 3 games in the NHL conference semi-finals. Boucher, the Flyers’ goalie, went out due to injury partway through the 5^th game of the series, bringing former Cane, Michael Leighton, in the game. The Flyers won that game 4-0 and won their next two games to complete the semi-sweep and send the Bruins home. They’ll join the Habs for an unlikely conference finals matchup.  After knocking out the Capitals in the first round, Montreal stood their ground against the defending Stanley Cup Champions and came out victorious. As I’ve said from the beginning, I’m pulling for the Habs, but the Flyers were a close second and now that they’ve got Leighton… I’ll be happy to see either go on in this case. The Blackhawks have been my choice from the West since the start of the Playoffs, but it would be great to see the winner of the East take home the Cup to keep it in the conference.

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Fear the Deer & Vive Les Habitents!

Since the Orlando Magic swept the Bobcats in round 1, I had time to focus on the other matchups in the NBA playoffs. I haven’t spent as much time watching the NBA as I would have liked recently, so it was fun to have this time to see the players I used to watch either in the NBA or college again.

For somewhat selfish reasons, I’ve been rooting for the Milwaukee Bucks in the series v Atlanta. While Al Horford is my favorite Gator in the NBA, I wanted the Bucks to break the 2-2 tie, but still hoped he would have a good game. Luckily, that is exactly what happened. The Bucks were keeping it close the entire time I watched through the first half. While I refused to switch the channel to the Habs v Caps game going on at the same time (more on that later), I did lose focus for a bit in the final minutes of that crucial game 7. Apparently since I wasn’t giving them all my attention, the Bucks decided to slack a bit, resulting in a 10 point deficit when I went back to watching their game. Oops. Once I realized my mistake and focused on them again, the Bucks scored 14 unanswered points to take the lead and go on to win.  Al did have an amazing game, though, and ended with 25 points and 11 rebounds, many of which came at crucial times ie: ending ATL’s scoreless nearly 4 minutes.

Watching the NHL playoffs hasn’t been quite as fun since my Canes aren’t playing. (Is it bad I miss my boys already?) I’ve decided to be pro-Habs for playoffs, partly because they had the power to knock evil Alex Ovechkin out of the running, but mostly because I have several friends who are fans & their fan base seems the least pretentious of those I am familiar with (namely NJ, Sabres, Boston, Caps, Penguins). Similar to the powers I discovered I have for the NBA playoffs, I was watching the Magic game during the Caps v Habs game 6, only switching for a moment at halftime to see how things were going. Immediately upon putting the game on, the Caps scored their first (and only) goal, so I switched back to NBA as quickly as possible to minimize the damage. Convinced that was my doing, I refused to watch game 7 and followed on espn.com instead, watching gamecast in the final minutes (when I messed up the juju for the Bucks, apparently). I knew Halak had held the Caps scoreless again to this point, making it 1-0 in the 3^rd period, and checked in just in time to see both teams score once and the Habs pull off the win to advance to round 2. I was way excited to see the Habs go on, and possibly even more excited to see that the dirty-playing Ovechkin (or “OvenChicken” as he is affectionately known on the Canes message boards) would be going home. I’m pro-Flyers, too, for the same reasons I chose to follow the Habs, so should the two meet in the Finals, I’m not sure what I’ll do…

As for the Sox, they were doing better since I left my Ellsbury shirt behind in Gainesville. Mind you, “better” is still not great, but if it ends in a W, I’ll take it. With all the playoff games going on in the NBA and NHL, and the lack of televised Sox games anyway, I haven’t been focused on them yet. Though maybe that’s the problem… :)

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...In With the New

I’ve been MIA lately blog-wise with my Canes getting held out of the playoffs, baseball just starting up, brackets ending, and 2 friends of mine getting married, the latter of which involved a road trip. Rest assured I am back to updating now, following one of my favorite days in the spring turning into a 3 day long event.

The NFL draft is almost like Christmas (or now mini-Chanukah?) when you get to see who your team gets, hoping it’s something useful you will like, and give away your college guys, hoping their new teams will appreciate them as much as you have. Or maybe that’s just how it is for my friends and I. Either way, it’s exciting. I haven’t gotten to complete my analysis quite yet, and probably won’t till the season starts again in all its insanity, but here are my thoughts so far…

-- My Skins finally woke up and realized we need serious o-line help, picking up 4 guys with potential to make things functional. Hoping Shanahan has this under control after getting rid of a bunch of our guys shortly after his arrival… And speaking of getting rid of guys, poor Jason Campbell got traded to the Raiders (sad thing #1) for a 4^th round draft pick in 2012 (sad thing #2). This guy never had a shot when we threw him into the game with a shoddy o-line that couldn’t hold off a defense long enough for guys to run their routes, then got mad at him when he couldn’t scramble enough to make that work. Though Raiders fans scare the crap out of me, I hope JC works well with Louis Murphy and that together they can turn Oakland around some if they’re gonna have to be out there anyway.

-- At the end of the draft, 9 Gators had been drafted, 3 of them (unfortunately) going to the Patriots. Some of my boys still available have the potential to do well in the NFL, but if they get taken at all, they’ll have to go as free agents.

-- Now that the draft is over, I’m going to miss the little song that plays when they announce a selection, but more so, the “we can have a draft while we watch the draft” commercial with Ditka. You gotta love Ditka. If he teamed up with Shaq in a commercial, I would buy/watch whatever they told me to.

-- I was as surprised as everyone else when Tebow got picked 25^th by the Broncos. It made more sense later when I learned that Denver just did it to QB-block the Bills, but regardless of when he went, I’m glad he went. I’m also glad he went to Josh’s team and not the Pats, cause I don’t think I would have handled that well.

-- Not that Rex Ryan is my favorite person or anything, but I was bummed to hear that Leon Washington got traded to work under Pete Carroll in Seattle. Leon was one of my favorite Noles to watch play, and has done well in the NFL (and on my fantasy teams) until he busted his leg. Stephania said on ESPN during the draft today that he expects to be good to go by the start of the season, but I’m curious to see if he can play as well as he used to.

PATs:

-- The Sox got off to a bumpy start, but ever since I left my Ellsbury shirt behind in Gainesville accidentally, they’ve been doing better. If that’s what it takes, I’m fine with going back to my old Sox shirt. Being 5 games back isn’t where I’d like them to be ideally, but less than 20 games into a 162 game season, I’m not too worried about it. Yet.

-- Stanley Cup playoff quarterfinals have actually been pretty interesting so far. Only the Flyers have gone on to the next level at this point (yay for beating Jersey!), and the rest of the matchups are pretty close. I’ve been keeping track of what’s going on, but watching games isn’t nearly as exciting with my boys out of the running.

-- The Magic just won their 3^rd game over the Bobcats in the first round of NBA playoff games. Sweep, perhaps? Eastern conference matchups seem to be more decisive so far than Western conference matchups, but it’s still early.

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Out with the Old...

Right when so much has been going down sports-wise, which is partially the reason, I’ve been slacking on the blog. Instead of trying to catch up completely, here’s the basics of what’s happened with the teams up to the transition between hockey/NCAA bball and baseball’s season opener.

NHL- The Canes were very up and down and kept some of us fans hoping for a miracle, but with an embarrassing loss to the Devils last night (I do not like them) , the Habs the previous game, and Boston not losing all their remaining games, we’ve officially been mathematically eliminated. On the bright side, the River Rats guys we’ve called up from the AHL to cover the injuries toward the end of the season have looked pretty good, especially Boychuk and McBain. If nothing else, we can be hopeful for next season with the depth it looks like we have in the system.

NCAA- Butler made an awesome run to make it into the championship game beating Izzo’s Spartans 52-50. They face Duke tomorrow night for the title. Wonder how many brackets had this matchup…

NFL- Random trading has been going down, but saw tonight on the bottom line that Donovan McNabb will officially be joining my Redskins next season. Don’t think it’s right to have done that to him the way the Eagles did, but hopefully he can get something going with the Skins and kinda mentor JC if he’s sticking around as our QB in waiting. Surprisingly, I don’t think I’ve heard much Favre-ing going on yet. Has he said he’s staying or going yet at all?

MLB- A new addition to the blog lineup: Red Sox! Not that the season opener with the Yankees is looking so hot, but I’m excited that my boys are back. Hopefully everybody will get adjusted to their new spots in the field and we’ll get things settled for a good run this season. *As I was writing this, Youk had an amazing triple that brought 2 guys in and made the score 5-4 with no outs in the bottom of the 6^th. There’s hope for this game yet!

So as we bid farewell tomorrow to college basketball and later this month to regular season hockey, we can usher in the new season of baseball with the Sox v Yankees first series and look forward to new lineups this fall. Here’s to potentially successful seasons for my completely unpredictable teams! Guess I just have a thing for potentially horribly disappointing teams that always do just enough when you least expect it to keep you hoping for a miracle…

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Hockey Heartache & Bracket Breakdowns

Crazy Canes Games

The Canes v Bruins game was rough to watch at the RBC Center, especially considering we had 3 Bruins guys sitting right in front of us. Long story short, the Bruins won one of the crucial games we had left (as if they all weren’t points-wise). Their 5-2 win stole 2 badly needed points, which essentially set us back 4 in the playoff run. My friends and I stayed after despite the loss and got to meet 2 of the Finns, which was awesome. Jamie McBain, who had an assist in what was his first NHL game, walked past, but we didn’t realize till it was too late.

Two days later, the boys took on an Ovechkin-less Caps team. It was another intense game that ended in overtime, but we got the 4-3 win thanks to Ray Whitney’s goal. Corvo, a former Cane, scored on us twice, which was a little hard to watch for those of us still getting used to the switch. Congrats to LaRose for his 100^th career goal!

Saturday’s 3-2 win over Pittsburgh was amazing. Joni had a great game defensively despite all the criticizing that’s been going on with people saying he’s been lazy. He had a lot of time on the ice, creating some great saves and scoring to tie the game in the 3^rd period. The best part came with .9 of a second to spare in overtime (again!) when McBain saved the game sending the puck to the back of the net from near the blue line.

Back-to-back games are always rough, so when the Slugs came to Raleigh for Sunday’s game, there was some skepticism about how the game would go. It was definitely a faster-paced game than I’d seen in a while. With Legace getting hurt in the Pens game, Peters was in again and didn’t get off to a great start when Buffalo went up 4-0 early. Legace’s injury apparently wasn’t that bad, as he was put in in the 2^nd period, but when the Canes got on the board shortly after the switch, Buffalo soon answered. The Canes made a great push at the end playing really aggressively and getting 2 goals in the 3^rd, but it wasn’t enough. This loss paired with the Bruins beating the Rangers earlier today made Boston a little more secure in their playoff spot and our hopes a little less possible.

On to the brackets…

If I thought agonizing over one team was bad, it was nothing compared to adding brackets and 64 teams to stress about. March Madness was in full swing early when 3 of the first round games went into overtime. One—my Gators v BYU—went into double OT. My boys lost (as I had picked), but there were plenty of upsets that no one saw coming. Well, maybe the hopeful students and alumni...

Georgetown’s young team went out in round 1 to Ohio 97-83. Murray State beat Vandy by 1 point. Villanova was nearly knocked off by Robert Morris, but managed the W in one of those first round OTs, only to get bumped in round 2  by Saint Mary’s (another surprise lingerer) 75-68. Wisconsin, my pick to face Syracuse for the championship game, was taken out by Cornell (hello Ivy League?) in the 2^nd round by a surprising 87-69. The most shocking of all was Kansas losing to Northern Iowa 69-67 after struggling through the game then nearly making a comeback, but not quite enough.

My theory is the seeding was off, which ironically caused better matchups than expected. That and some random teams just hit a hot streak and were taken for granted by the more well-known teams. Of course, this is only going to add to the argument for expanding the field. I still say that wouldn’t solve anything, but if it makes more money, I’m sure it will happen. Next up: Sweet Sixteen!

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Selection Sunday Surprises & Snubs (and a shifting side note)

Surprise—My Gators are in!! To be honest, I had written off the chance of that happening (short of winning the SEC title) after, well, losing the Georgia game. Totally didn’t see this coming. Especially after Mississippi State beat us, then made an impressive run through the SEC Tournament. Which brings me to…

Snub #1- Mississippi State. Yeah, they weren’t that good all season, but neither were we, really. They looked good at the end, and though it could have just been a good streak from a determined team, I guess the committee looked at quality of wins more or something. Thank you Noles and Michigan State for getting us in :)

Snubs #2 & 3- Virginia Tech and Illinois. VT looked convincingly better than Wake Forest, if you ask me. Hell, they beat Wake this season, which should count for something. Or at least one would think. Greenburg seems to be handling the whole thing really well with the media, but the potential changes for him are concerning for VT. Illinois was right there with my Gators through the whole bubble drama, but didn’t make it. I’m not as familiar with their season, but from what I saw, they looked fine.

I’m not a believer in conference champions getting an automatic bid. It probably spills over from football, but there are some conferences full of tough teams, and some I’ve never heard of and for good reason. I don’t agree with it and think the system needs revamped, cause there were definitely some quality teams that didn’t make it and should have.

PATs:

-LT has gone to the Jets. Delhomme is now a Brown (interesting…). Brady Quinn got shifted to the Broncos. This should be an interesting season. Can’t wait to see what happens in the draft!

-Alex Ovechkin shoved—literally—Brian Campbell into the boards, breaking his clavicle and ribs. Dude’s gonna miss the rest of the season most likely, and Alex got a game misconduct, but is awaiting further punishment (from what I hear) since this wasn’t the first time. From the released statements I’ve heard, Alex seems completely fine with what he did, saying “It was not a hard hit. I just wanted to push him.” Yeah, push him into the boards, shoulder-first.

I know Ruutu hits hard and even got suspended earlier this season for a check on Darcy Tucker that resulted in a concussion, but at least Ruutu apologized to him and you could tell he didn’t mean to hurt him. Tucker had his head down when he shouldn’t have and just got hit the wrong way at the wrong time. Alex is just being cocky and thinks he’s invincible. Not a fan (in case you couldn’t tell). I hope my boy gets him in a totally legit check on the 25^th.

-Not talking about the Canes v Coyotes game, but looking forward to being at the RBC Center for the Canes v Bruins tomorrow night, face tats & all!

-The Magic ended their 9 game streak losing to the Bobcats :( Meh, it was a good run and we’re still fine. Can’t complain.

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Cardiac Canes & Conference Championships

Like all other true Caniacs, I’ve nearly had a coronary several times and held my breath for at least 5 total minutes during the past 2 games. With every game holding crucial point-getting opportunities, my heart sank when the Caps went up 2-0 in the 1^st period Wednesday night. Dwyer quickly got us on the board after that 2^nd score, making it a slightly less stressful 2-1.  My favorite Finn tied the game in the 2^nd period, but before it was over, each team got a power play goal-- Ovechkin involved for the Caps and one for the original Finn trio for the Canes—making it 3-3 and sending the game into OT. All the Caniacs at the Ale House for this game’s Cool Bar were convinced we could pull off the win, then our hopes were shot down when Fleischmann scored for the Caps a little over 3 minutes in. We at least picked up 1 of those crucial points…

The game the next day against the Pens was no easier to watch. It was déjà vu at first, hearing the Pens go up 2-0 on the radio on my way home. Whitney scored on a power play as I was walking in the door, and just over a minute later, Boychuk scored his 2^nd goal this season to tie the game. He definitely has some serious potential. Eric Staal answered his brother’s goal in the 2^nd period, but the Penguins tied it up shortly after. A scoreless 3^rd period sent the game to overtime… again. (Between this stress and the bracket drama, I’ll be lucky if I survive to see the Sox play!) The intensity of OT was kept to a minimum this time when Pothier, recently acquired from the Caps in some last minute trade moves, scored the winning goal just 23 seconds in. 3 out of 4 possible points against the league leader and defending Stanley Cup Champions isn’t too bad… :)

In a slightly less dramatic fight for a playoff spot, my Gators survived the Auburn game to snap the 3 game losing streak winning 78-69, but it wasn’t as clear of a win as it should have been. Auburn was just above the other Tigers of the SEC in the West standings, and LSU looked like crap all season, so that’s not saying much. We should have looked much better against them, especially since we’re fighting for our bracket spot.

The quarterfinals of the SEC tournament v Miss. St. started off horribly with the less evil of the 2 SEC Bulldogs leading 11-2 early from several failed shots by the Gators. (Side note: Can someone please tell me how the SEC allowed 2 Tiger mascots and 2 Bulldog mascots in the same conference? This has bugged me for years. Apparently that chunk of the south isn’t creative enough to come up with an original fierce animal?) The Gators got back in it before deciding to fall behind again due to a slew of turnovers this time. Miss. St. definitely set the pace for the 1^st half, causing the Gators to rush and take shots that weren’t there. You’d think I’d have learned by now that we only like to play in the 2^nd half… the boys came out much more energized, cut the lead to under 10, and fought a bit harder. It just wasn’t enough in the end. Boynton and Walker kept the boys from total despair, but we got bumped from the SEC tournament, losing 75-69.

PATs:

--The Magic beat the Bulls yesterday 111-82 for their 7^th win in a row. The Cavs beat the 76ers tonight 100-95, and San Antonio by just 2 points earlier this week following a loss to the Bucks. The semi-slump may have been due to LeBron being out with a busted ankle & Shaq still out. With LeBron back in the lineup tonight, the Cavs did a little better, but once the recovery is set, things could look a bit differently.

--In ACC Tournament news, the evil Thug U beat VT in a really close game, which was highly upsetting. I hate them. I’m just sayin. Duke won, of course, and Georgia Tech knocked UNC out in the first round followed by an upset over Maryland today 69-64. FSU fell to NC State 58-52. All sorts of crazy lower ranked teams with upsets in the ACC…

--Who’s on and off the bubble is changing every 5 seconds at this point with it being conference championship week, so I’m not even gonna make an attempt at an update. Thank God this weekend is Selection Sunday!

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Hopeful, but Realistic

The Canes managed to continue the win streak following the Olympic break, beating Toronto 5-1 and Ottawa 4-1. There were a ton of roster changes right at the trade deadline, but Pothier, picked up from the Caps, has been fitting in well so far. We got him, Osala (Finn #4) and a 2^nd round draft pick for Corvo. Walker went to the Caps, too, and seems to be doing well with them so far. Hopefully they get a chance at the Stanley Cup so it was worth the switch. The Canes’ win streak ended at 7 games last night against the Panthers, but tonight they shut out Atlanta 4-0. I almost felt bad for Atlanta, cause there were a ton of empty seats and what fans were there were mostly wearing Hawks or Braves gear. Guess I kinda took Caniac fandom for granted.

Billy D’s Gator boys had the last 3 games of the regular season to prove themselves worthy of one of the 65 spots, and though they had some great comebacks, they blew all 3 of them. Especially in the Vandy and Kentucky games, they let some serious double digit deficits build up before deciding to actually play in the second half each game. Both times, they came within 2-3 points then let the run end in defeat anyway. Now there’s even more pressure to get as far as possible in the SEC Tournament if they want to end the NIT streak.

 

PATs:

--Duke beat UNC 82-50 in an embarrassing attempt at a game last night to sweep the series. I get that UNC just won the championship last year and had key seniors leave, but to be unranked for a while, near the bottom of the ACC and swept by Duke is a crazy change from last season.

-- The Magic have continued to win their last few games pretty decisively and pulled off a close win over the Lakers tonight. The Cavs survived 4 of the last 5 games without Shaq, beating the Pistons 99-92 on Snuggie Night, then losing to Milwaukee 85-92.  If Orlando can keep up the win streak and the Cavs struggle for a few more games, they could pull ahead in the East.

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Oh, Canada...

The USA v Canada game was everything a gold medal game should be. It was intense the whole way through, with a crazy last second goal by Parise to send it into overtime. Crosby’s shot in OT got Canada the gold, which was kind of disappointing after the US team looked ridiculously (and unexpectedly) good through all their games, but they got it without question. I felt so bad for Miller, who had an amazing run, but the man can only do so much. At least he got MVP if he had to settle for a silver medal.

Though it may not have been the way I preferred, all 4 of the Canes in the Olympics came home with a medal. Finland beat Slovakia 5-3 for the bronze in a game that had me on edge for a good chunk of it. Forced by my friend to choose one team to root for instead of being pro any team with a Cane on it, I chose Finland cause my favorite player, Tuomo Ruutu, was playing for them, and they were kind of the forgotten team with everybody getting all crazy over the US and Canada. Leaving with bronze after a fairly tough set of games isn’t bad at all. The Canes guys did well for the most part, though Joni making the intense hit to get himself  suspended for a game wasn’t so great.

The Gators lost a close game to UGA this weekend to make the chance for getting back to the brackets that much harder. All we have to do is win our last 2 games… against Vandy and Kentucky. No problem… Though Tennessee did beat Kentucky, and we beat the Vols pretty decisively. Things get way too crazy this close to Selection Sunday.

I only caught the 2^nd half of FSU v Clemson, and it looked pretty close. FSU came back from behind and got a small lead, but Clemson killed it toward the end. Their bracket hope is still up in the air, too. Should be interesting to see who all makes it from the ACC this year.

Tebow kicked ass at the cones and vertical and ran a 4.72 40, though that may not matter much with so much concern over his throwing motion, revamped version yet to be revealed. With Colt, Sam, and Claussen not throwing at the Combine either, the top QBs are waiting till Pro Day to throw, if they can by then with various injuries. I haven’t gotten to watch much of the Combine, but a friend told me about this guy who’s all up in it and has some serious draft stuff on his site: http://draftheadquarters.com/current-season/NFL_Combine_Live_Blog.htm  It’s pretty cool. If you’re at all interested in the draft, I recommend checking it out.

Last but not least for the NBA, the Magic have been doing well lately beating the Heat this weekend and the 76ers today. With Shaq out for 2 months following thumb surgery, my boys might win the East if LeBron can’t carry the Cavs…

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Brackets, Brackets Everywhere

My Gator boys made me proud on Tuesday beating Tennessee 75-62. Now that it’s do or die, they really stepped up, especially in the 2^nd half. They hit a ton of 3 pointers, most by Walker. He may be short, as commentators seem to enjoy reminding us, but the boy is damn good. Definitely this group’s version of Taurean Green. (For those Gators who lost track, T is now playing bball on a Greek pro team. Lee is somewhere in Europe, too. At least Horford stayed in the states…) Somewhere in there, Chism busted his hip, but insisted on playing. If I were Bruce, I so would not have let this fly with Kentucky looming on Saturday. The boy couldn’t even sit when he was fouled out. He limped toward the bench, then hit the floor on all fours and rocked back and forth, clearly in pain. We have our own match with Kentucky to worry about right before the SEC Tournament starts. 3 more games...

Olympic hockey quarterfinals sent all 4 Canes guys into the semis. Gleason made some crucial blocks during a Swiss power play in the 3^rd period, helping the USA hold the #1 spot by beating the Swiss team 2-0. Staal had an assist for Canada after a rough hit, and they ended up beating Russia 7-3. Kiprusoff was frickin amazing and definitely deserves the credit for Finland’s 2-0 shutout over the Czech team. My boy may not have scored, but he did his thing checking anyone in his path in true Ruutu style to help fill the defensive void left by Pitkanen. Nobody scored till late in the 3^rd period when Finland got a shot in partially due to a Czech wardrobe malfunction. Pitkanen was out for the Finland v Czech quarterfinal for an elbow to the face last game, but will be back against the US team tomorrow. Though I want Tim and the USA to win gold, it’s gonna be hard to cheer against Finland & its 2 Canes. Should be a good game :)

In honor of all the hockey-watching, The Sports Kid drew me a picture of Cam Ward and Tuomo Ruutu. Note that Cam has the pads on his legs and mitt on his free hand, and that he only let Ruutu score “because it was during practice and it’s ok.” Love this kid!

 PATs:

-- In ACC bball drama I didn’t get to watch, VT lost to Boston College, making their fight for brackets a little more questionable. FSU beat UNC, which made me happy for the Noles winning and having a slightly better shot at brackets. Gotta love the stress of the bubble!

-- Tons of drama has been going down NFL-wise. Westbrook and LT have been set free by the Eagles and Chargers. Peppers is leaving Carolina. The combine officially started. Mock drafts are flying around all over the place. Tebow changed up his throwing motion, but decided against unveiling the new shoulder-level gem until Pro Day. Madness.  Once the hockey insanity has calmed down and I can focus, I’ll come back to this…

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Voitto for USA!

Once the games had started, I went on a mission to help someone learn how to say “Go Finland!” in Finnish to cheer for Ruutu and Pitkanen. I finally got the answer (Hyvä Suomi!), but in the process found a bunch of websites and YouTube videos that teach you Finnish & it all went downhill from there. Thank you, Olympics, for giving me yet another country I want to visit before I die. 

Hockey was crazy last night with a ridiculous USA v Canada game. When 3 goals were scored within the first 10 minutes, I was excited at the prospect of a high-scoring game. Things evened out a little more on defense and the game was awesome to watch. The USA pulled off the 5-3 win (victory = voitto), but Staal got one of Canada’s goals, so it worked out ok for me.

The Finland v Sweden game was much more disappointing, especially for us Finland supporters. After looking really together in their first 2 games against Belarus and Germany, it looked like Ruutu was the only guy actually playing last night, and one guy can’t carry the entire team. He had some great hits (check = taklaus) and was all over the ice (ice = jää). Pitkanen had a crazy hit, too, that may have involved the elbow-ish region connecting with a Swedish dude’s face, sending him away for a 5 minute Sweden power play and game misconduct penalty, leaving one less Cane to cheer for in the quarterfinals while he serves a 1 game suspension. Ouch. Sweden won 3-0.

PATs:

--My Yankees/Giants friend keeps trying to bet me for various sports, and my NBA pick was Cavs over Nuggets in 5 games. While I’m way more of a Celtics than Nuggets fan (Chris Andersen creeps me out almost as bad as Pau Gasol), their win over Boston is at least one step closer to my pick being right. The Magic beat the Cavs, which I’m fine with even though it’s against my pick, cause I’m sure the Cavs will still pull it off & the Magic is my team.

--The Gators got another win over Ole Miss this weekend, but we still have to make it through

the last 4 games to see if the faint hope of brackets will work out. The Duke v VT game was much closer than the final score made it look, and UNC’s not so hot season continued with a loss to Boston College. Less than a month till brackets!

--Curling is awesome. Now that I’ve figured out it’s like bocce ball on ice with stones and brooms, it makes total sense. And I’m hooked. There will definitely be a curling withdrawal period after the Olympics are over. My NYC Gator says it isn’t a real sport and got me to watch the biathlon yesterday. Strapping a rifle on your back while you ski seems about as Olympic sport-like as curling, if you ask me… 

--NFL combine is this week! Analysis and scouting reports coming soon :)

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