Final Four-Nanza

For the second time in a row, The Butler Bulldogs have a shot at a National Championship. And The Buckeyes are pushed out of the tourney by a less impressive SEC team, this time with some officiating help. But I digress, this Final Four guarantees for the first time ever, a traditional powerhouse versus and upstart Mid-Major. Yes Mid-Majors have been in The Final Four before, but not 2 on the same side, this is more absurd than if the Seahawks made The Super Bowl this past winter. Sorry Obama, your bracket is in shambles just as much as everyone who gave this thing a shot in the dark. The RPI of the Final Four this year is a grand total of 97, since the creation of the RPI ranking system the Final Four has never had an RPI total that high. One side contributed 84 of those points. 84.

I know that's not how that data is usually used, but come on, look at that. That is absurd, that doesn't happen. Cinderella doesn't make it out of the Sweet Sixteen. In my opinion these two so called up-starts on the East side of the bracket have seen far worse than UNC and UK. I honestly feel the winner of this cavalcade of nonsense will be a double digit RPI school.

Yes Dick.

It's a MAD house!!!

No number one seeds, three iffy oustings for them all. I'll be back with more on this soon. I'm still recovering from watching the OSU vs UK game. But here is my pick to win it for absurdities sake.

The 5 Stages of Prime-Time

I love DeSean Jackson. I love watching him ruin team’s days with his uncanny ability to play football. This guy makes Devin Hester seem like a walk in the park to defend. And yes he is a bit cocky and well, stupid at times. But its ok, its all part of the process. Give him some time, Andy Reid is, and turns out he knows a thing or two about when players are overstaying their welcome. It hurts my football soul to do that to Donovan, who I’ve been a huge fan of as long as he’s been around, but even I am having trouble understanding all this nonsense out in the capital is in no way some part his doing – sidebar: SERIOUSLY, what is going on there? I know I’m not the only person who before this season felt that Mike Shannahan and Donovan Mcnabb were two of the NFL’s best men. Forget calling Terelle Owens team obliterator, I’m thinking that title should be reserved for Fat Albert, who has about 10 million dollars of The ‘Skins cap locked up so he can play 6 plays a game and break contain on DeSean’s new best friend, Mike Vick.

I can not think of a more electrifying, frightening or riskier duo than Mike Vick and DeSean Jackson. Both of which have an upside that is the ceiling of ability and talent in the NFL, and a downside that is the ugliest, scariest, hardest to clean up in the league. Vick is much less of a risk in all fairness, since he has already made it to stage 5 of “The 5 Stages of Prime-Time”. As for DeSean, he’s only at stage 3, so he’s got a lil’ bit of cooking left to do.

The 5 Stages of Prime-Time

Stage 1: Spending 75-100% of one’s signing bonus on something frivolous

Stage 2: Through celebration, causing or failing to cause a turnover.

Stage 3: Excessive Celebration penalties and fines, repeatedly

Stage 4: Getting caught doing something illegal

Stage 5: Doing work

So America, calm down, Desean will either just sit were he’s at and be harmless other than a penalty here or there, or he’ll graduate from the school of Deion.

Some graduates include: Vick, Romanowski, Ray Lewis, Vincent Jackson, "Prime Time"

Still in School: DeSean, Ocho, T.O.

Dropouts: Plaxico, OJ, T.O.

Let’s go Bowlin’/BCS – Bad, College, STUPID

Sorry about my absence, I’ve been following “John Hamm’s 10 Steps to be More Like Don Draper”. But hey, I’m back aren’t I? Anyways, I’ve been thinking a lot about this BCS system, and I figure there isn’t a better day to bring it up than January 1^st. I’m starting to more and more agree with Carl from “Aqua Teen Hunger Force”. The BCS is obviously far from perfect, but it’s the most modern version of the college insanity that has been going on for years; and sadly, it is probably the best option that has been explored and used by the NCAA. But, it still sucks. I wanted to come up with some clever word-smith-er-y there but I felt the straightforward simplicity of “It sucks” speaks to the point. The other option commonly presented is a March Madness esque, 12-16 team playoff. Which personally, I feel is a bit much. So the most commonly presented options we hear as sports fans are, leave it be, it’s awful but it could get worse, and lets throw a bunch of teams into a pile and see who comes out. I don’t know about you but I played Football a few years in high school, and those seasons took a toll on me at 10 games. These athletes are already playing 13-15 games a season depending on conference championships and bowls. And the solution is to extend that by 1-4 games? Like expanding the NFL schedule, this is a bad idea. Interestingly enough, my solution to both options is well… both options. And that means BCS and playoffs. Yup, playoffs.

But Kenton, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Yes, yes I can. It’s fairly simple and would solve the usual questions that arise during the BCS selections and bowls: Should Boise/TCU play in the National Championship? Who invited anyone from the Big East? Why is Ohio State in the National Championship? Who’s overrated? Who’s underrated? Etc.

BCS Playoff plans:

· BCS is the deciding factor in Bowl Rankings

· No more AQ’s because if a team wins the Big Ten, or Twelve, Pac 10 or SEC, more likely than not, they’ll be top 8

· These top 8 teams go to the BCS bowl games like before, (Rose, Sugar, Fiesta, Orange)

· All other Bowl eligible teams get their non – BCS bowls

· The BCS Bowls are the playoff games.

· The top 8 teams are seeded by traditional placing. Meaning if there is a Big Ten and a Pac 10 team present, they will face each other in The Rose Bowl etc

· Every year the first round includes all 4 bowls, but the second and championship rounds rotate. So if the initial year has The Fiesta Bowl as the Championship game, it is not in the second round of playoffs that year, and will not be in the second or championship round the following year

· This means it is possible to be Rose/Fiesta/Sugar/Orange Bowl Champs and National Champs

If a team of a non-automatic qualifying conference like Boise State or TCU can pull off an upset in a BCS game, it remains just that, an upset. But, if a team from a non AQ wins 3 BCS playoff games to win a National Championship, there will be no question, I don't care if it's Ball State somehow. Any top 8 team that outlasts the other 7; regardless of conference or preseason poll, can not be doubted by any one of sane mind that they deserve The Coaches' Trophy. This plan maintains as much tradition as possible while modernizing the game. No longer can the point be brought forward that an undefeated Non AQ would have won the big game if they had the chance. Because under this system, they would have their chance.

Blue Flame Party!

It's been awhile folks, please pardon the absence of opinionated complain-er-y; alas though, I return. It's been over a month, but honestly can you blame me? I'll we've had is the tournaments and second semester NBA, both which are really not that interesting unless you're a die hard for either sport until the Final Four or playoffs. And my return just happens to come on the day of the true start of the MLB season. But SportsLadd, it started Sunday with the Red Sox vs. Yankees. I say neigh! The old tradition of the start of baseball was not that of the Sunday night two random teams contract with ESPN start to the season you young fellers know of, but more a tip o' the hat to the oldest and original professional baseball team. How many knew that lil' nugget o' knowledge? Probably the guys who share I share a last name with to be honest, if you're not one of them and you knew, congrats you win a virtual high five!
Anyone else confused as to why Bud Selig is the most stubborn man in the world when it comes to baseball tradition in reference to banning Pete Rose, instant replay, and keeping the DH? Well mainly because those aren't real traditions, just the hot button issues of the baseball world he is afraid to tackle. Yet Selig has changed some of the actual traditions of baseball, The Reds no longer open up the season the day before everyone else, The All-Star game "means something" now, Barry Bonds wasn't investigated before he "broke" records. Here's the short answer, money. Baseball like football is now a business, not a sport. There's no money in allowing Rose to be elected to the HOF, but there is in not looking into Bonds' 35 lbs. muscle gain, more homers more tickets sold. A contract with ESPN for two currently hot teams means more money than The Cincinnati Reds, a team who has been hovering near .500 for about the past 10 years.

Ok I'm done.

Welcome to the League Rookie of the Year Jason Heyward, terrible start to the year buddy.

MArch Madness is over - Disappointments: Every 1 seed but Duke, and Ohio State... I wasn't thinking National Champs, but I figured you could at least make it to the Final Four, especially when with our regions 1 seed knocked out, especially with The Naismith winner. Sheesh, good thing I was recovering from a surgery, on morphine when the Buck's shot -1,000% against Tennessee.
Also in case you didn't watch, Goliath: Duke turned up the D to 11 for the last 33.5 seconds of the game to keep David: Butler from making America happy. Especially since everyone ever hates Duke (it's on a t-shirt so you know it's true!). I personally am not a fan of Duke, and Coach Mike Kryszwikscechski, which is pronounced Shuh-chef-ski, never really was my scene. But that man can coach, and put together a team. Not to mention he took the least talented 1 seed in the tourney to the championship game and won it. But this isn't about him, it's about the kids, the collegiate athletes, the ones who have to study before each game not just the other team, but their own classes. And these Duke Blue Devils behaved nothing like their nickname, the won and behaved like men, not like animals, they didn't run around jumping on press booths in front of the defeated team, they shook hands and rejoiced. These 18-22 year old kids played like men and behaved like men, and I respect them, and feel if you're going to hate Duke, put it off for a year, unless you're a Tar Heel, then as a Buckeye fan, I can in no conscious mind ask you to like your arch rival. Congrats Duke, I actually think you deserved it, and congrats Butler, you're no longer doomed to the utterly clever jokes, being asked if your professors are Jeffery and Benson, The Ninja Kittehz will have your back, justice for all.

Welcome back sports, we missed you.

But How Will I FO CUS Now?!

Tiger Woods lost his Gatorade sponsorship. And no one cared. Honestly, who else is sick of this? We know entirely too much about these peoples lives, we know potential names of potential celebrity babies, who they're dating, what they ate last night. It all disgusts me, I didn't need to know Tiger Woods slept with 12 women, or was it 15... but it shouldn't matter. The first Tigerette to come out was from my hometown, that was annoying. I understand that him leaving golf to work on his family would raise questions, which he could choose to answer, but I don't feel that we as fans or dissenters deserve to know anything about these peoples personal lives. Kobe went to court, so that'll be big, but I shouldn't know that his wife got a 24 karat pink diamond. I understand it is all a business and celebrity isn't reserved to the movies anymore. It still upsets me and shouldn't be such a present part of our lives. We need to worry about ourselves, and fix our own personal problems and not watch these super(wo)men fall. Everyone loves the tragic hero, but this is real life, if you want to see the rise and fall of a sports hero go watch Raging Bull, not Tiger Woods' life.


Here is some good news, the US Mens Hockey team is in the gold medal match for the first time since 2002 when they lost to the Canadians, and have a chance to win their 3rd gold since 1980. So they have a rematch with the friendly rivals from the Great White North; or America's Hat, eh? If you were wondering, the woman's team lost to the Canadians and brought home a Silver.



Tim Tebow continues to try and make people think he can be an NFL quarter back. Good luck buddy, you're a great athlete but as a starting QB in the NFL, I don't see it. Find a home where you can be a wildcat option, you'd be fine there. Ndamukong Suh is still undoubtedly the best player in the draft.

Here are 5 quarter backs who are better than Tim Tebow as a NFL prospect.

1. Sam Bradford
- Sam Bradford won his Heisman from his accuracy and mobility, he creates time and then makes accurate throws that are fast, from his quick release, he doesn't turn the ball over regularly and throws it away when necessary. He is a leader, did you see what happened when he was taken out? that offense was disheveled and confused. Minus his injury from the last year, he is hands down the best looking QB as a prospect so far. And guess who had a "terrible" shoulder injury.

2. Jimmy Clausen
- Jimmy looked great this year, and is; like Bradford, extremely accurate. He doesn't turn over the ball unnecessarily and has the ability to find his second options quickly after reading a coverage that prevents his main option from being open, and when it is all covered, throws it away, unless it's a game breaking situation.

3. Colt Mccoy
- Colt looks a lot like a a Matt Schaub to me. And if you've seen his stats from this year, I think you'll agree that is a good thing.

4. Dan Lefevour
These last two guys have that un-trainable, x-factor if you will like that of a Romo, Favre, or even Mcnabb. Just not the meaty line-backery look of a Mcnabb. Pike is a robo-man, yet he manages to light up the scoreboard and lead his team. Le-fever is just a machine, he scores seemingly at will and has a number of NCAA records.

5. Tony Pike

If you like Tebow, you'll hate me. If you're not sold on him, read up on him, and if you agree with me, awesome.






Medal Count -

In the year two thousand...

So techincally... I'm supposed to be doing homework.

But I'm doing this on my break, that is semi-productive right?

So I'm limited on time, I'm a procrastinator, but not a completely useless hunk-o-man/boy. So I've decided to make some predictions in my first potential reoccurring theme:

Claire Buoyance

1. The US will hold off Deutschland and finish with more medals.
2. But not more silvers. Why does that silver tid bit matter? It doesn't, but if I'm right, I look brilliant.
3. Lakers will defeat the Cavs this year; yes, the experts will finally be right. Weird... I know right?
4. People will pick the Reds, Padres, Braves, Royals, Mariners, and Blue Jays as their dark horse teams. Only the Mariners will make the playoffs.
   
5. Brett Favre will retire.
6. Drew Brees will make the cover of GQ

Default Ohio State prediction: Evan Turner will be the first overall pick in the draft, and the Bucks will make it to the final four, but be vanquished by the Uconn womens team.

Both men AND women.

Wild Card: Lady Gaga will be a man, when they clone a male zygote of her.

You're Ma Boy Blue

So today the San Diego Chargers released the best player in the history of their franchise. In case you haven't been on ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo, or for my readers in SD, outside. Ladainian Tomlinson is no longer a Charger.

Say what you will.



Ok, now my turn.




This was the right decision for these Chargers to make.
Suprised?
Yeah me too. But here is the thing, this is the right decision after The Spanos' family broke down and completely changed the Chargers that LT thrived in. They brought in Phillip Rivers, great decision, especially since The Brees fella turned out to be such a bust. They got Norv Turner, renowned and veteran coach - not. Norv Turner is of the same breed as the coach sons of the league (Wade Phillips and Jim Mora Jr.). Norv brought in his Shotgun, pass first offense and cemented the fact that LT would never be the MVP he was back in 06. They allowed Lorenzo Neal to leave and lost the ideal leading blocker for their offense. The Chargers went from the 2nd rush offense with LT and Neal to the 31st with LT and Sproles. Granted the passing went from the 26th to the 5th. Here is something you can not do with passing 65% of the time. You can not own the clock. In football you need to score and keep the ball away, a rush game is the perfect was to accomplish this objective.

The reason The Chargers made the right decision was because they created an environment in which LT could not succeed regardless of injury issues. In order for a successful rushing game in the future, they need to replace LT. But not with a similar styled back. They need to find some thunder to Sproles' Lightening. I recommend a "Beanie" Wells type of back, an Eddie George if you will. In the draft this year the viable options for that kind of player would be a Jonathan Dwyer from Gtech, or Toby Gerhart from Stanford. The Charger's however have the 28th pick. Not very likely those two will be there, or wanted at that point. I think that Dwyer will be gone before the Chargers have a pick in the 1st round and Gerhart will be gone before they have their shot in the 2nd. There is however an extremely talented player who may sneak through to the late 3rd or 4th round. Only one problem with him is he made a big mistake on a big stage early in the season. He however was the only member of the Oregon team who could seem to do anything against Ohio State's front 7. That's right, Legarrette Blount.


Ladainian Tomlinson is a guaranteed 1st ballot Hall of Famer, the best Tailback in the history of the team, maybe the best player. Regardless, he is a great player and us here in San Diego will miss him. This is one of the reasons I can't stand the NFL, team/player loyalty is all but dead... That's a rant for another time though.

Medal Count for today - Defeat the World!

Happy Valentines day all.
Or, Happy Valentines day morrow. Did anyone watch the NBA All-Star game?

Didn't think so.


Sorry that was uncalled for, but honestly, is the NBA All-Star break not the most neglected? No one tries, it's just a bunch of really talented guys screwin' around for 48. I hear this Haiti talk, and that is a great idea, and more should have been done for that. It is a great idea, for this season. Yes, Haiti will need help for the next 5 years, but America will get over it's heartache for them in less than one. Not that we are heartless, we just don't have the longest attention span as a nation media-wise. But make the All-Star game charitable for something. Have each conference vote on what they want to support. The winning team gets more money for their organization and some type of personal benefit. The MLB fixed their lack of interest with making it "count", the NFL made it pre-Super Bowl, and not in Hawaii. It's just all together better. So NBA, step it up. David Stern, you're making Bud Selig look good right now. And Bud Selig never looks good.

So I hope you had a good V-day, whether or not you just take it for fun and hang out with someone you really like, or if you think it's a contrived big corporation holiday.

Which it is. But people, get past that and just take the excuse to be nice to someone.
I should take my advice... Poor David Stern, I'll make it up to him.



Here is a Valentine for David Stern:
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Fix the NBA
Or else you're screwed.

Hey, I never claimed to be a poet.

P.S.
See Valentines Day with a ladyfriend, it's pretty damn good. She'll be so stoked you're willing to see a "chick flick", and you won't wanna kill yourself from being stuck in a crappy movie.

Hold me closer, tiny dunker


So to give you all an idea of what I'm used to versus where I am currently.

This is the view out of my sister's Brooklynn apartment:

Cold, snowy, beautiful, and on the East Coast. Don't get me wrong I love this city, especially this lil' part of Brooklynn. But while cold and I, are buddies, we aren't best buddies. I am a flip flop man, and I tried to bring them; I honestly tried, but my better judgement kicked in when my mom mentioned frostbite.

And here I am, not wanting to leave my sister and her puppy, or New York for that matter, but comon' I got stuff back home waiting on me.

Yes... My flippy-floppies.

And here is one of many looks into The Hidden Valley:

Welcome to Escondido, The Hidden Valley. Warm, sometimes too warm, hilly, we have um, big rocks, a movie theater.. it's pretty cool I guess. Point is, while it is fairly boring, there isn't much epic New York history there, or tall buildings, or anything really. It's my home and it's were 2 of my best friends currently reside. And I miss it.

Even though it's a desert.

But onto what you're here for, the sports talk-er-y.

So ESPN's SportsNation is currently in the search for the "posterizing" of all time. But this morning ESPN's First Take was discussing the best of the first half of the NBA season. "Posterizing" for those of you who are pretending you know what that means, a.k.a. me a week or so ago, is: The act of dunking, so epicly; that in fact, the epicness of said dunk must be recorded forever, on a poster (note examples 1-3).

Ex: 1 - The Old School Posterization

2 - The Yao-za

3 - The Diplomat

So there is a pretty good array of posterizations. Now that we're all on the same page, here is my point: Shannon Brown has the posterization of the half year (Now that I've written that statement, I feel the argument should be who cares...).

But nonetheless the show goes on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NxCBf2S2rQ

at the :52 mark

Shannon Brown just is a flea, lil' guy on the court (at 6'4" - NBA is absurd with their height) who springs up to dunk over anyone. I swear this guy has a hit-list of tall people to dunk on.

And who doesn't love the tiny dunker?

Some may argue to posterize you have to be famous enough to be on a poster. Eh, true, but Kobe, Lebron, Micheal, they have poster quality stuff nightly. This guy deserves a poster from one of these slams. Seriously, watch the dunk contest, he will win.

Well... Probably

Feburary 11th, 2010

So, I'm stuck in Williamsburg, a super trendy (Hipster, sorry forgot the proper term for a second) part of Brooklynn waiting for the snow storm to ease off so I can fly back the the complete opposite style of place, my home Escondido. Make's total sense to start a sports blog right now huh? No not really, unless you consider that Williamsburg is about as sports friendly as San Diego is snowy. Seriously, I walked into a little coffee shop on Bedford Ave with my sister, and people looked at my Buckeye hoody as if the establishments foundation was moved there from Ann Arbor.

I figure out of all the things I could rant about or unfairly judge tonight in this NBA All-Star Break, Lack of Baseball, whether or not Mcnabb will be an Eagle/Is Favre retiring? a.k.a. the usual. I think I'm going to go with a Empire City theme tonight.

So news from today, the New Jersey Giants cut ties to one of their more problematic but talented players, Antonio Pierce. No he's not guilty of this - but of this, yes. Pierce was shocked, and extremely poised, but confused as to why he was let go. He may have found the reason in his released statement, "They said it wasn't my health, or the way I played, but just that -- that they were going in another direction". Another direction, just fancy business lingo or euphimism? Like it's even a question, saying "another direction" here is as straightfoward as any of the Spanos' claiming dropping Drew Brees was a good desicion. It's not just Pierce's infamous air horn stunt that makes this a good desicion, he also was not one for team chemistry, or knowing when to stay out of the spotlight. This looks good for the Giants to me, less drama, less "me" players, more of what helped Coughlin win a ring, Coughlinism, tough, militaristic, football. Good on ya mates.

As for the Knick's and Nets, (yes I know they are from Jersey... don't worry I'm going somewhere with this one) you guys need to figure this out. I'm a Laker fan by default and even I hate seeing the eastern seaboard minus The Celtics be pathetic. Well, I've never liked The Celtics but thats beside the point. Alright heres my plan to fix you both:

Knicks: Get Tmac, do it.

Nets: Let Jay-Z run the show. Seriously, the man can market the pants off Beyonce'. Move them here to Brooklynn, build a new stadium, create jobs etc. Let him make a Blueprint for success, and stop getting point guards once their careers are on the decline. And get off that Auto-tune cuz we onnnnnnn.Follow that and boom, success will rain upon you. Don't fear success, even if it takes a shot at you.