Monthly Archives: December 2011

College Round Up

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Wednesday was not a good day for undefeated teams in college basketball.  Both #4 Louisville and #13 Indiana lost their games, leaving only Syracuse, Baylor, Missouri, and Murray State as the undefeated teams in the top 25. (Keep in mind that Murray State has not played any high ranked teams, and won’t for the rest of the season so it is tough to tell how good they are)  Baylor barely slipped by #14 Mississippi State in the final seconds of a close match.

#1 Syracuse, #2 Ohio State, & #3 Kentucky all won by more than 20 points, and with Louisville losing just their first game, they will most likely still remain in the top 8. #9 UConn rode Jeremy Lamb’s 22 points to a slight win over USF.  As much as I hate to admit it, UNC will most likely move up to the 4th rank and Duke & Baylor will round out the next two spots, due to their weak upcoming schedule.

8 Pats to the Pro Bowl

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I was doing my hourly check of ESPN.com and was pretty surprised to see that the Pats found a way to land eight – yes, eight- players in the Pro Bowl. The fact that this team has been pretty make-shift since day 1 and found a way to send the most players to the Pro Bowl is a testament to how well prepared and why the Patriots have the best front office in the game. This also illustrates how Tom Brady makes everyone around him that much better. Besides Brady, they will be sending Wes, Gronk, WIlfork, Andre Carter, Waters, Mankins and Matthew Slater (he’s a special teamer so the Pats only actually send 7.5). I think that Hernandez should also have been sprinkled into the mix, but I guess you can only send one behemoth TE per team.

Nonetheless, the Pats have created a winning team with an eclectic mix of players on all sides of the ball. This organization flat out knows how to win and I have a feeling will be making a deep run into the playoffs, and that’s a lot coming from a Steelers fan.

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Celtics Fall Short In Miami

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Surprise, surprise, the Heat won. As if anyone gave the Celts a chance in the first place. I may sound like a broken record with this, but again I feel good about the team. Not often are you going to hear that about a team starting off the season 0-2. With 3 minutes left to play the Celtics had Miami within three points. What killed them for the second game in a row was the slow start. They found themselves digging out of a hole once again. I mean a 39 point second quarter is inexcusable. It just can’t happen. The defense needs to step it up. They can’t give up 69 points in a half, even if it is to Lebron and the Heat. Excuse me, especially if it’s Lebron and the Heat. Rondo wasn’t exactly as outstanding as on Christmas Day but he quietly put up 22 points and continues to be the glue that’s going to hold this team together. With that said, Ray’s going to do Ray. Give him the ball with .05 seconds and an inch of space and watch what he does with it. But that stuff is a given. What the Celts need is a bench that can keep them in games. Brandon Bass continued to show what he can do tonight and even Keyon Dooling showed some veteran fire late in the game with 13 points off the bench. If it wasn’t for Miami’s rookie point guard Norris Cole and his miracle shooting down the stretch, the game could’ve went either way. Throw Mickael Pietrus into the mix and return the Truth, C’s win this game for sure. Again, it’s hard to sit here with an 0-2 team and be happy, but you can’t be too worried. Anyways, things can only go up from here, right?

College Athlete Contracts

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There is much debate over whether or not college athletes should be receiving multi-year contracts, or if they should stick with their one-year renewable scholarships that they have now. Many schools have objected to this new NCAA ruling, which means it will be put on hold until they can reach an agreement. There are pro’s and con’s to each side.

Players- Even if they are injured on the field, or they fail to produce the highest numbers, they will still be able to attend school with their original financial help. This means, if there is a freshman star quarterback, the team will still need to cover the costs of the sophomores, juniors, and seniors, even though they are not playing.

Teams- These are mostly cons. They are stuck with players even if they have bad conduct issues, bad performance, as long as they can obtain the minimum GPA. Players have all the power, they can leave and opt out at any time for professional leagues.

I don’t know if it will go through but the board of the NCAA seems to be pushing it pretty hard.  It would not be implemented for at least another year or two but it’s a good thing to think about.

Celtics Head to South Beach

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The Celts are taking their talents to South Beach tonight as they prepare to take on Lebron and the Heat. Pretty much everyone has already counted the C’s out. I mean the spread is -10.5 in favor of Miami. I’m not going to sit here and pretend to talk like the Celtics should win, but I don’t think it’s going to be as much of a massacre as everyone is making out to be. Christmas Day we saw what the Celtics are capable of. They can play. Granted, we also saw the Heat man handle the defending champion Mavs right after. But then again, the Nuggets just smoked them last night too so I feel a little better about it. If Rondo comes out firing, takes control of the offense and Brandon Bass steps up again, I could see this being a close game. Only thing that’s rough for the C’s is they’ll be once again without Pierce, and Pietrus isn’t going to start until Friday, leaving a questionable defense to cover Lebron and Wade. I guess it could go either way. Regardless, the Celtics can’t sit back early on because the Heat are not the Knicks. If we don’t show up right away, they won’t let us in.

 

Braylon Edwards Cut by 49ers, Voices His Frustration on Twitter

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Early this morning Braylon Edwards was cut by the San Francisco 49ers. I’ve never been a big fan of Edwards even dating back to his days as a Brown, but I have to feel bad for the guy. He literally just donated $10,000 to 79 college students from a deal he made with then 8th grade students back when he was a rookie. If you aren’t so sharp on your math skills that totals up to $790,000. When you think of it you probably think that’s nothing to an NFL player. Wrong. Braylon Edwards only made $1 million this season, so it looks like he basically played for nothing. Back to the point of him being cut, Edwards apparently wasn’t very thrilled about it, and he took his opinion to twitter a little under an hour ago.

@OfficialBraylon Braylon Edwards

I was released today by the 49ers due to my injury that required more time to rehab and hasn’t allowed me to re-sync with the offense….

Championship Hangover?

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The 2011 NBA Champion Dallas Mavericks have started the season 0-2.  They got spanked against the Heat, until they stopped trying in the fourth quarter, and even lost against a Ty Lawson-led Denver team by 22 points.  Is it possible to have a championship hangover, even with the extra 2 months before the season started?  Will they be like the Bruins and instantly go from the worst team to the best?  I don’t think so.  They lost a couple of key components from last year’s surprise championship team.  First off, they lost Tyson Chandler to the Knicks.  He was a huge defensive presence and averaged over 10 points per game an almost 7 rebounds.  They even lost some role players such as JJ Barea and Caron Butler.  They have an aging point guard in Jason Kidd who is on his way out, and he really only has one or two people to pass to now.  What do you guys think?

 

Brees Sets Single Season Passing Record

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Late last night Saints signal caller Drew Brees passed Dan Marino to set the NFL record for yards passing in a season, a mark that Marino held for nearly three decades. Brees set the mark with 5,087 passing yards, and still has a game left next week to add to his total.

Finally Brees is being recognized this season and it is well deserved. All year I’ve been hearing about Aaron Rodgers, rightfully so. The guy is an incredible quarterback. Brees seemed to just fly under the radar until the past couple of weeks. All the talk was about how Aaron Rodgers was by far the best QB in the league, and the hands down favorite to win the MVP award. I’m going to have to respectively disagree. I don’t see him as the unanimous choice. Brees is averaging just less than an unheard of 340 passing yards per game and has completed over 70% of his passes. Drew Brees is such a rare talent. For a guy that is only an even 6 feet tall and can put up the numbers he does is just amazing.

Rodgers has a shot to break Tom Brady’s mark of 50 passing touchdowns this season, (which I don’t think he will) but if it does happen I’m sure he will be a near lock for the MVP. Rodgers does have the overall better numbers, and his team nearly went undefeated this year so seeing him win the award would come as no surprise to many, but there are at least a few others in the discussion. Even our own Tom Brady has to be in that discussion. I know I might be in the minority here, but my vote would have to be for Brees.

 

Best NFL Play Ever?

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Unless you’ve been under a rock for the past three days, I’m sure you’ve seen Jerome Simpson’s flip into the endzone. It’s just so incredible that it would’ve felt wrong not posting it. Anyways, I’ll give it a 9.5 considering he didn’t completely stick the landing. I could do better. But seriously, is this the single best NFL play ever?