Every New Season Comes From Some Other Season's End...

The transition from the oblong & outdoor grassy fields of Urban’s territory to the round ball & indoor hard court of Billy ball has begun. SEC play started Saturday against Vandy… and unfortunately our conference record starts 0-1. This year’s Gator Boys look a lot more like the championship teams than the short-lived era of Nick Calathes. Billy D’s philosophy of getting the ball to the guy who has the shot and not having an ego the size of Jerry Jones’s jumbotron seems to have clicked with this crew. This makes me happy. Cause that means there’s hope. Especially with only 1 senior on the squad this year.

NFL Playoff Wildcard games on Sat. were essentially a replay of last week. Literally. The J-e-t-s Jets! x3 continued their dominance over the Bengals with a final of 24-14. The Battle of Evil gave Romo and his Cowgirls a 34-14 W over the Eagles, and consequently, another week before he has to cry about the end of their playoff run.

Sunday’s games were a bit more surprising. Ray Lewis and the Ravens D seemed to know every Pats move before it happened. Brady’s 3 interceptions, among other various slip-ups, only helped lead Baltimore to beat NE 33-14 at home during the postseason for the first time since '78.   The Packers v Cardinals game was exhausting to watch and emotionally draining for those of us pulling for Green Bay. Struggling to come back from a serious deficit for a good chunk of the game, the Packers managed to tie it, but with enough time left for an AZ field goal attempt. And shank. Just when we thought there was hope in OT, the ball was stripped from Rodgers mid-throw (ish) and run in for a Cardinals TD. It was an amazing game to watch, though, with an average of 400 yds between the 2 QBs, 4 TDs each, and a final score of 51-45.

PATs:

• Pete Carroll is leaving USC for the Seahawks.  Pretty sure he’ll be more tolerable there since he'll have to prove himself in the NFL. I might even learn to be ok with USC’s existence without Pete or Leinart there to provide the cocky pretentiousness that made the Pac-10 overrated and USC the bane of my existence.

• The Magic finally won one after a 4 game losing streak. Is it wrong that I feel bad cause we beat Al Horford’s team?

• The Canes managed to pull off a 4-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators. Surprising because we won, but even more surprising we won by 3 points! Maybe things are turning around…

• Bruce Pearl coached the #15 Vols to a 76-68 win over top-ranked Kansas, knocking out one of the remaining unbeatens and shaking things up a bit in the world of college bball. Should be an interesting season!