Author Archives: christoph131

Farewell to Calhoun

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The University of Connecticut basketball coach, 70 year old Jim Calhoun is expected to announce his retirement on Thursday. He will be replaced by Assistant Coach Kevin Ollie. UConn has been ruled ineligible for the tournament next season due to poor grades. Many players have either moved onto the NBA or switched schools. I have been a UConn fan for as long as I can remember and whenever I think of the Huskies, I think Jim Calhoun. Although he has missed many games over the past few years due to cancer and other injuries/illnesses, the guy could still coach. He won 3 national titles with the school during his tenure.

Calhoun retires with 875 wins and 381 losses in 39 years of coaching. That is enough to put him 10th on the all time winning list for college head coaches. He has won seven Big East Tournament Championships. He has been in the Basketball Hall of Fame since 2005. In 2011, he became the oldest coach to win a Division 1 March Madness Championship. He retires with a record of 50-19 in NCAA tournaments. He will go down as one of the greatest coaches of all time, and will surely be missed by all who loved watching him coach.

A New (old) Place for the NBA

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Yesterday, it was reported that a few rich guys are trying to bring the NBA back to Seattle. The SuperSonics were there for 41 years before becoming the Oklahoma City Thunder. They also are interested in buying an NHL team and moving them there as well. They aren’t strapped for cash. One of the partners included in the deal to build a $490 million arena is Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer.

They still need some approvals before it can become definite. Apparently, these guys are huge Sonics fans and have been trying to get a team back there since 2008 when they left.

Seguin’s Here To Stay

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Just as I stated yesterday while writing about the Bruin’s, the team has announced that they have continued to be in talks with multiple players in order to keep the core together for many years to come. They did so today by announcing that they have agreed to a new contract with star forward Tyler Seguin. The deal is averaged out to be $5.75 million over the next six years. He was supposed to be a free agent after this season.

Continue reading →

Bruin’s Notes

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Bruin’s GM Peter Chiarelli confirmed late last week that their annual rookie camp and tournament have been cancelled for this season due to the expiring CBA and potential lockout. As of now, the regular camp is still set to begin on September 17th.

He also said that he is in talks with other soon-to-be restricted free agents after extending Brad Marchand’s contract last week. He would not specify who he has been in negotiations with but Tuuka, Lucic, and Seguin are all set to be Restricted Free Agents after next season (assuming we have one). Who would you lock up first?

Bruins Lock Down Marchand

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The Bruins agreed to a 4 year deal with 24 year old star forward Brad Marchand. The deal is worth 18 million and begins after next season. This will keep Marchand in the black and gold until after the 2016-17 season.

Last season he scored 28 goals and added 27 assists in only his second season with the B’s. This will make Brad the 3rd highest paid forward on the roster, behind Krejci and Bergeron. If we did not extend his contract, he would have been a restricted free agent after this season (if there is one). 8 days till the old Collective Bargaining Agreement expires and we see our third sports lockout in under a year.

Pats Opener

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With the Offensive Line weaker than ever, and the lack of time the starters played in our 1-3 preseason, will the Patriots be able to cover their spread against the energized Titans. I am willing to bet that  Chris Johnson has a huge season just as he did three years ago when he had over 2000 rushing yards and 16 TD’s. Last season was more of a fluke after his big contract extension. This year, he will be ready to play.

However, our young-looking defense is now one year more experienced, and recieved big help from rookies Hightower and Jones. Plus, Wilfork’s 300 pound figure makes it hard for any running back to come up the middle.

The spread on the game is +6 going to the Titans. Will the Patriots be able to cover? I think that they will but I wouldn’t be expecting the same 59-0 blowout from 2009. Although, Brady’s 6 TD passes in that game would be great since he is now on my fantasy team. Enjoy your weekend!

Trip In The Time Machine

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Some people are still getting rich off of the merger that happened in 1976. For those of you who don’t know, this was the year that the ABA merged with the NBA. While many teams from the ABA folded, four teams moved on: Nets, Nuggets, Spurs, and Pacers. (See more on this subject in the movie Semi-Pro)

While most people know this happened they may not know the details. In 1970, when the merger began to be hyped up, there was an antitrust lawsuit challenging the NBA, filed by St. Louis Spirits’ owners Ozzie and Dan Silna (pictured below). They won the case, by the time the merger happened, because the judge decided that they were unfairly left out of the new league. That judge passed away last year.

The deal states that the brothers will make money off network television deals for those 4 teams. For all of you out there working, you will be happy to know that they sit around and have compiled over $240 million over the past 36 years. They are now bringing the case back up to a new judge saying that the NBA should have to pay them for international deals as well. The NBA has never failed to pay them, they put it in their budget each year, and this pisses off the owners for obvious reasons. What do you think?

NHL Locking Out?

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The NHL’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires in just less than two months.  So far, the players like what they are getting, but the owners want more.  The rich trying to get richer, sound familiar? (See NBA/NFL negotiations). The last report shows that the players would make 46% of the revenue for the league, when they made 57% last season. Contracts would also be limited to 5 years in the new proposal.  This is a big difference seeing as Zach Parise and Ryan suter both just signed 13 year deals with the Wild, worth $98 million each.

This sucks. Hockey is just becoming very popular again, especially after the playoffs of the past few seasons.  They already cancelled the 2004-05 season, due to negotiating problems. Commissioner Gary Bettman is actually a pretty decent guy, especially compared to NBA commissioner David Stern.  He said openly that he sees the players as 50-50 partners with the owners.

Since the season is starting on October 11 (hopefully), there isn’t all that much time to get things done.  All we need is another lockout to ruin yet another sport.

NBA Round Up

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Jeremy Lin

The Knicks have until 11:59 tonight to match the Rockets offer to new sensation Jeremy Lin. Many Imagefans would probably say that New York would be crazy not to sign Lin after last season, but there’s a lot more to the story. They were ready to match the $25.1 million offer until they saw that the third year offer was worth $14.8 million. This would mean that they would have been over the line for the luxury tax and would have to pay an excess of $43 million dollars for the 2014-15 season. This isn’t bad for Lin seeing as he made under $800k last year.

The Knicks have now signed Raymond Felton who was part of a deal that brought Carmelo Anthony to New York just a few seasons ago.  So it seems as though Lin will be going back to the team that only kept him around for two weeks of training camp last season.

Howard talks Getting Annoying

There has been speculation that Dwight Howard’s agent and the Lakers have been talking about a trade that would bring the big man to Los Angeles, while Andrew Bynum goes to Houston, and Orlando gets some young players and picks.  However, Howard said that he would only sign with the Nets for a long term contract, so that might change the Lakers minds.

Jason Kidd fitting in in The Big Apple

ImageAfter leaving Dallas where he could probably drive around in fields and not be seen, Jason Kidd has been charged with refusing a breathalyzer at the scene of a crash and failure to stop, just days after being traded to the New York Knicks. His escalade hit a telephone pole and ended up in the woods. Probably should have called for a cab and paid the 10 bucks after you just inked a deal for over $10 million.

The Mavericks Sign Mayo

O.J. Mayo, who averaged 12.6 PPG off the bench last season with the Grizzlies, has signed a contract with the Mavs. He will most likely be the starting Shooting Guard for them, seeing as he averaged over 17 points in both seasons as a starter before moving to the bench the last two seasons.  If not, he can have Jason Terry’s old role as the sixth man now that Terry has signed with the Celtics.

Robinson Going Pro

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According to many sources, Kansas Jayhawks’ forward Thomas Robinson will announce his intent to play in the NBA later today.  This is no surprise to anyone, and he is #4 on the big board for ESPN. Robinson has decided to not return to Kansas for his senior season.  As a Junior, Robinson averaged 17.9 PPG and 11.8 RPG, before losing to Kentucky in the Finals a week ago.  Robinson didn’t even start his Freshman or Sophomore years, averaging at most 14 mins per game.  Last year, however, he averaged over 31.  He is a great defender and a force on the boards.  Good luck Thomas!