He Just Doesn't Want To Let Go

What is going on in the swamps of Mississippi? Or, for that matter, the not-frozen-tundra-at-this-time-of-year in Wisconsin?

The Green Bay Packers are offering Brett Favre $20 million to stay retired as a Packer. Favre just can’t stay away from the game. He has decided he wants to play another year, and says that he was rushed into a decision when he retired back in March.

To add insult to injury, Favre reportedly wants to be traded within the NFC North, to either the Vikings or the Bears. The Packers appear to be granting his wishes. Favre, for his part, refused to speak to the Buccaneers and the Jets. Brett Favre in a Minnesota or Chicago uniform would be like Jim Brown playing for Pittsburgh. Or, like Troy Aikman playing for the New York Giants.

Competition is addictive, especially when you have been great as long and as recently as Favre. However, $20 million is nothing to sneeze at, even for someone who is already set for life.

The Packers are probably correct in trying to begin the Aaron Rodgers era. They are taking the position that last year’s season was an aberration, and that Favre just doesn’t have much left in the tank. They have also avoided a public relations hit, by leaking Favre’s interest to play in Minnesota or Chicago. I have to admit, though, that Favre would instantly improve the Vikings or Bears. In turn, that would severely hurt the Packers and make the NFC North wide open.

All of this probably means that Detroit will probably win the division, win three playoff games, and win the Super Bowl. Just kidding on that one.

What I Did This Summer

I promised I would be on sabbatical through the beginning of August, and I’ve very nearly made it!

This blog will continue to focus on the three sports I love the most: college football, the NFL, and college basketball. There are other things that are worthy of comment from time to time, and I won’t forget those, especially as we approach the baseball post-season and another NBA season. Coming later in the week will be the beginning of college football predictions and projections.

Outside of this blog, I have a real job and a real life. My job takes me around the country. For the past seven weeks, I have been working at a client site outside of Boston. That’s a long way from Texas, according to Google Maps and any other map out there. Thanks to the wonders of modern commercial air travel and a client that will pay for it, I can travel to New England every week.

The highlight of my summer came a few weeks back, when I was able to go to a baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston. Every baseball fan should do this once in their lives, whether they like the Red Sox or not. Tickets are hard to come by, as the team has sold out every game for the last five years. I was lucky to find a ticket on the team website the week before the game, but that is easier said than done.


I had never experienced baseball quite like this before. I had a seat in the right field grandstand. This part of the park is rarely shown on television. It is covered and contains wooden chairback seats that have to be at least 50 years old, if not older. It also has an obstructed view, as there are posts holding up the upper deck. It didn’t matter, because I was in the park. I spent the first part of the game moving around the park and taking in the atmosphere. It was a big party. The fans love their team. The team store knows it, and sells t-shirts for what seems like half the team. You can not only get a David Ortiz jersey, but you can also get a Manny Delcarmen t-shirt. In addition, you can get a Daisuke Matsuzaka shirt in Japanese.

However, the fans don’t go to Fenway just to drink expensive beer and to hang out. They go for the game and for their beloved Red Sox. The fans cheer a simple little first inning run like it decides a post-season game. They are knowledgable of the game and appreciate effort. On this night, a Tuesday night game against the Twins, catcher Jason Varitek took the night off until the seventh inning. He received a standing ovation from the crowd for simply coming out of the bullpen. By this time, the home team was down 5-2. Where I come from, people are leaving late in the game to beat traffic and to try to get to bed. Not in Boston. The fans stayed and were rewarded with a 4-run eighth inning, to give the Red Sox a 6-5 win. The denizens of Red Sox Nation were happy on this night.



The ownership of the Red Sox has done an awesome job of adding additional revenue enhancements without totally tearing up the ballpark. There are now some luxury boxes in left field, along with seating on top of the Green Monster in left field. When entering the park, you can tell it is old. However, the park is clean and well-kept, especially for a facility that is nearly 100 years old.

Fenway Park is a treasure. I would go back if given the opportunity.

Sabbatical

I have decided to take a sabbatical from blogging for the time being. This blog will return in the first part of August, just in time for football season.

Have a great summer!

Obligatory Larry Brown Picture #2

Just Another Week In The Association

There is a lot of action in the NBA, both on and off the court.

First, let’s get the latest Larry Brown gig out of the way. The vagabond coach landed yesterday in Charlotte as coach of the Bobcats. The Bobcats will become the ninth NBA team that he has coached. He has also coached Denver, San Antonio, the L.A. Clippers, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, Indiana, and Detroit. In addition, Brown has coached in college at UCLA and Kansas, and coached the Carolina Cougars of the ABA. The picture shows Brown in the good old days as coach of the then-ABA Nuggets. Why not Charlotte, and why not Larry Brown? More power to them.

Surprisingly, most of the playoff intrigue is in the Eastern Conference. The lower-seeded teams such as Philadelphia and Atlanta are giving Detroit and Boston all they want. Will there be an upset? I doubt it. They’re making it interesting, though.

That thud you hear are teams in the Western Conference. What was supposed to be a set of classic playoff series have turned into wreckage. The Lakers swept 8th place Denver. The Spurs beat Phoenix, and the Hornets beat the Mavericks by identical 4-1 counts. Only the Houston Rockets spared themselves embarrassment by staving off elimination and forcing a Game 6 against the Jazz on Friday night in Utah.


The first casualty of the playoff disaster was Dallas Mavericks coach Avery Johnson. Owner Mark Cuban made Avery the scapegoat for all that has gone wrong with the Mavs over the last two years. One truth of the NBA is that players tune coaches out after about three years or so, no matter who the coach is. Avery will land on his feet somewhere in the league. As for the Mavs, they are now just Dirk Nowitzki and a bunch of guys. This is not a championship team by any stretch of the imagination. Plus, it was a bonehead move to send two future draft picks to New Jersey as part of the Jason Kidd trade. Perhaps Cuban should cash out and sell the team. It’s going to be a painful rebuilding process in Dallas.

The Halfway House of the NFL

Major League

Last Friday, the NBA Board of Governors did the expected, and voted by a 28-2 margin to approve the move of the Seattle Supersonics to my hometown of Oklahoma City. All that now stands in the way of the Sonics’ move are a couple of legal proceedings: a suit by former owner Howard Schultz to get his team back (doubtful), and an attempt by the city of Seattle to hold the Sonics to the last two years of their lease at KeyArena. By doing this, Seattle would put themselves in danger of not getting a replacement franchise from an unhappy NBA.

Oklahoma City proved itself as a major league city during the last two years when it babysat the flood-stricken New Orleans Hornets. The people of Oklahoma consistently sold out an arena and brought a lot of corporate support to the table for what was then an awful team. The infusion of money and relative success in Oklahoma City laid the foundation for a great season in this year’s return to New Orleans. OKC, meanwhile, earned lots of brownie points with the NBA for temporarily hosting the franchise, placing itself at the top of the list for franchise relocations.

I take no joy in Seattle’s loss of their team. The people of Puget Sound supported their team for 41 years. The issues were not with the fans, but with the arena deal. The city remodeled the former Seattle Center Coliseum into KeyArena in 1995. The arena became obsolete just ten years later, due to a lack of luxury suites and a not-so-favorable lease to the Sonics. Both the Seahawks and Mariners received taxpayer-assisted stadiums in the last decade, and the politicians in Seattle were not receiving a groundswell of support for help for the Sonics.

Enter Oklahoma City. A group of Oklahoma City businessmen bought the Sonics in 2006, and gave Seattle over a year to come up with a new arena, just as the previous local owner had done. The folks in the Northwest couldn’t get a deal done. Meanwhile, Oklahoma City passed the continuation of an expiring temporary sales tax, approving the use of proceeds to upgrade the six-year-old Ford Center to a first-class NBA arena. So, the NBA approved an imminent move of the Sonics to Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma City has come a long way. It was once destined to be an eternal minor league town, not ready for prime time. There are a lot of good and proud people in Oklahoma. They are survivors of the Dust Bowl and the worst act of domestic terrorism in the history of the United States. They took a land that no one else wanted and made something out of it. Now, the city is taking advantage of its renaissance and placing itself on the list of cities with major league teams. It'll be a little weird to see box scores with "New York" and "Oklahoma City" next to each other.

Once this move comes to fruition, I will have a new favorite NBA team. Blood is thicker than water. Sooner born and Sooner bred...

One Shining Moment, Missouri Style..

..or as viewed through the lens of a Kansas fan.

I couldn't help but get a kick of this latest example of America's most underrated rivalry: Kansas vs. Missouri. The rivalry doesn't get a lot of pub outside of the heartland, but these schools really, really don't like each other. As documented earlier, these states fought a war against each other.

An enterprising KU fan put together this video montage to the tune of CBS's signature, "One Shining Moment". It documents a quarter century of Mizzou miscues and lowlights.

Among the infamous events:
* The Nebraska 1998 comeback in football, climaxed by the touchdown reception on the tipped pass. This helped preserve a national championship for the Huskers.
* The Colorado fifth-down touchdown in 1990, allowing the Buffs to beat Missouri and to go on to win a share of a national championship.
* Tyus Edney's coast-to-coast drive for the buzzer-beating bucket, giving UCLA a comeback win over the Tigers in the second round of the 1995 NCAA tournament. UCLA went on to win the national championship.
* Ex-basketball coach Quin Snyder exiting the court to a shower of popcorn.
* QB Chase Daniel picking and eating boogers on the sideline.
* The time in 1983 when Missouri All-American center Steve Stipanovich accidentally shot himself in the arm.
* Missouri removing the name of Wal-Mart heiress Paige Laurie from their new arena, after it was discovered she paid someone to attend classes and take tests for her at USC. The arena was named after her when her father gave a significant sum to Mizzou for naming rights. What was once called the Paige Sports Arena is now simply Mizzou Arena.

I can't wait to see a Mizzou response...

Finally, Playoffs

After a short hiatus, this blog is back!

After a long wait, the NBA playoffs begin this weekend. I have a hard time following the long NBA season. The 82-game regular season is a drag. However, the playoffs are a different story. The NBA playoffs are great entertainment. There is nothing like staying up for a late-night West Coast NBA playoff game with something on the line, especially if your team is playing said West Coast team. This promises to be the best set of NBA playoff series in a long time, possibly ever.

The Eastern Conference consists of two teams: Boston and Detroit. Shades of 1988. The Celtics have used the acquisition of Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to shoot to the top of the league and a 66-win season. The Detroit Pistons are right behind them, and look to be on a collision course with the Celtics. The other six teams (Orlando, Cleveland, Washington, Toronto, Philadelphia, and Atlanta) are there for filler, because the NBA requires eight teams in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

The Western Conference, on the other hand, is an eight-team battle royal. The West is so strong that Golden State won 48 games and missed the playoffs. If the Warriors were in the East playing an Eastern Conference schedule, they would probably be the 3rd best team on that side of the league. Instead, they sit home.

We have four great matchups in the West: Denver-Los Angeles, Utah-Houston, Phoenix-San Antonio, and Dallas-New Orleans. Any of those teams can make some noise in these playoffs. I believe the Lakers, Utah, San Antonio, and the Mavericks will win their first round series. The Spurs won’t go down easily, and will go on to meet the Lakers in the Western Conference finals. The Spurs will out-tough the Lakers to go to the NBA Finals.

Unfortunately for the West teams, the Celtics and Pistons won’t be tested until they play each other. Boston and Detroit will play a classic 7-game series, to be won by the Celtics. The Celtics then roll past the Western team, most likely the Spurs. Celtic pride returns, and brings yet another championship to the land of chowder.

Message Board Thread Of The Day

A screen shot during the CBS broadcast of Monday night's Kansas-Memphis national championship game caught none other than Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams sitting in the Kansas section with a KU sticker on his shirt. Williams just happens to be the coach at North Carolina. His Tar Heels were thumped Saturday night by those same Jayhawks. Roy coached at KU for 15 years before moving back home to Carolina in 2003.

The natives in Carolina are restless. Many look at this as an act of sacrilege, as if Williams wants to go back to KU. The leading UNC message board, Inside Carolina, currently has a 19 page thread debating the idea of Williams taking on the KU colors for one more night:

Roy Williams

There is a long-running rivalry between fans of Kansas and North Carolina. They have a history of sharing coaches. UNC legend Dean Smith played at Kansas. KU national championship coach Larry Brown played for Smith at UNC. Former Smith assistant Williams graduated from UNC and coached at both KU and UNC. KU fans would like to take the credit for UNC's success. The truth is, Frank McGuire was winning games at UNC before Dean Smith got there. Likewise, KU was winning games before they got coaches from UNC.

This year, though, KU has scoreboard on Carolina.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk

The Kansas Jayhawks completed a comeback for the ages to win the national championship a few moments ago. Memphis had a nine-point lead over the Jayhawks with 2:12 left in regulation. Kansas took advantage of a ton of missed Memphis free throws to get back in the game and finish it off in overtime, 75-69.

An age-old maxim of basketball proved itself true once again: the team that makes free throws wins games.

The Jayhawks win their third national championship, and their first in twenty years.

Bill Self is about to be an even richer man. At worst, KU will pony up to give him a substantial raise. And, Boone Pickens will try to break the bank to bring him back home to Stillwater.

This is the first men's basketball national championship for the Big 12 Conference. KU's last national championship was won as part of the Big 8.

As I type, CBS is about to play "One Shining Moment". That song symbolizes the end of winter and of basketball season. Once that song signs off, it is officially spring. Time for NBA post-season and baseball...

More Final Four Thoughts

The two teams I thought would not make the national championship game will be playing Monday night. Memphis finished off UCLA, 78-63, while Kansas beat the snot out of North Carolina, 84-66.

Kansas-Memphis will be a yawner on the East and West coasts, and has the potential to be a TV ratings loser for CBS. However, it will be a great game. KU looked good tonight, but Memphis is really, really strong.

A team wearing blue and white will win on Monday night.

Final Four Thoughts

Observations while watching the first half of UCLA vs. Memphis:

Both of these teams are really good. I picked UCLA before the tournament to win the whole enchilada, but Memphis has looked really, really good the last two weeks. They are definitely not your standard garden variety Conference USA team. They've lost one game all year, on a night they played a subpar game against Tennessee.

The next game should be fun. Roy Williams leads North Carolina against his old school, Kansas. Both schools are forever entwined through KU alum and UNC coaching legend Dean Smith, and his pupils including former KU coaches Larry Brown and Roy Williams. Bill Self is in his first Final Four and finds himself in the same position as Roy Williams in 2003: with his alma mater calling. Oklahoma State is offering a lot of T. Boone Pickens' money to Self to come home. Five years ago, Roy Williams was lured back home to UNC after taking KU to the national championship game.

More later tonight...

Boone's Farm

Stillwater, Oklahoma has become the epicenter of controversy in the last 36 hours. Oklahoma State fired Sean Sutton as head men’s basketball coach after just two years, with a total record of 39-29.

There are two camps involved in this mess. Sean Sutton is the son of legendary retired OSU coach Eddie Sutton. Upon taking OSU to the Final Four in 2004, Eddie Sutton asked OSU to name Sean as head coach-designate and his replacement. The elder Sutton threatened to resign if the Cowboys did not follow through with that request. OSU shortly thereafter named Sean Sutton the heir apparent to his father. Sean actually assumed those duties in the middle of the 2006 season, after his father drove drunk and rammed his Dodge Durango into the side of another driver's car, resulting in a DUI and a repeat trip to rehab.

Enter T. Boone Pickens. The corporate raider and OSU alum gave the largest donation in the history of the university to the athletic department in 2005. Pickens pledged $165 million dollars to renovate the football stadium and build new facilities for other sports. In the time period following, the athletic director and university president resigned. $165 million buys a lot of influence. Pickens had his friend, OSU golf coach Mike Holder installed as athletic director. Holder runs the day-to-day operations of the athletic department, but Pickens retains the final word over hiring and firing decisions. Pickens is a fan of football coach Mike Gundy, who has had a barely above average three-year tenure as coach of the Cowboys, but recently had his contract extended.

It is said that the Suttons and their camp never got along with the Pickens gang. With such a large donation, Pickens demands a lot of control. The Suttons stood in the way. As the OSU basketball team plunged into mediocrity, the natives in Stillwater were restless, as was an oilman in Dallas by the last name of Pickens. To make a long story short, Sean Sutton became a millionaire as a result of the buyout of the last three years of his contract.

On one hand, Eddie Sutton set both his alma mater and his son up for failure by pushing Sean into the head coaching chair. It is really hard to follow a legend, and it is impossible when you are the son of said legend. Sean would probably now love to trade places with his brother Scott, a successful head coach for nine years at Oral Roberts. I’m sure the Suttons would like to have some do-overs. Nonetheless, they have reason to be hacked off at their alma mater.

On the other hand, T. Boone Pickens really does own a Big 12 athletic department. Money talks, and big money screams. Watch an OSU football game, and you’ll find T. Boone Pickens on the sidelines in a loud orange sweater, if he’s not yukking it up with the broadcasters in the booth. He makes Jerry Jones look low-profile. Tom Hicks would love to have this kind of control at the University of Texas. Pickens wanted his man as basketball coach. Now, he’ll have his chance.

OSU needed to take some risks if they wanted to compete on the level of rivals Oklahoma and Texas. Control of their athletic department by a megalomaniac is the price they are paying to compete in big-time Division I athletics.

And Then There Were Four

Depending on your perspective, the upcoming Final Four shapes up to be really awesome, or really dull. It's dull if you think four top seeds in the Final Four is boring. It's awesome if you think there will be some awesome hoops in San Antonio this weekend.

Three of the regional finals were pretty dull. North Carolina had a bit of a tussle with Louisville, but pulled away at the end. UCLA and Memphis won their regional finals in a big way. In the best game of the weekend, Kansas barely escaped against Davidson, 59-57. These are heady times in Lawrence, as the basketball team is following up the football team's 12-1 season and win in the Orange Bowl.

For the first time ever, all four top seeds advanced to the Final Four. Three of the bluebloods of college basketball will be there, in North Carolina, UCLA, and Kansas. Memphis is a traditionally strong program, as well.

Just three more games left in the college basketball season..

I'm Not A Genius After All..

...and that's ok, because Davidson is going to the Elite Eight. Wisconsin is the first team I've picked to make a regional final that lost. Thanks to someone's YouTube post, we now have the Davidson fight song as part of this post.

This tournament has an owner, and it's Stephen Curry. The Davidson guard scored 33 points tonight as the Wildcats beat the stuffing out of Wisconsin, 73-56. The tiny North Carolina school awaits the winner of the game between Kansas and Villanova in Sunday's regional final. At this rate, former NBA guard Dell Curry is going to be known as Stephen's father.

Davidson is among the smallest of Division I schools, with 1700 undergraduate students. It is a highly selective school with a $41,000 yearly pricetag. Ouch. The school currently has a $428 million endowment. The school has paid for any desiring student to travel to Detroit to attend this weekend's games. I have a feeling the administrators were expecting one game in Motown, and not two.

Davidson is making the little guys proud.

Basketball Genius?

The science of predicting brackets is part skill and part luck. Not many people, including myself, predicted Davidson and Western Kentucky to make the Sweet 16. But, here they are.

However, teams like Xavier and Louisville are making me look like a genius. I picked both of them to advance to the round of 8 to play UCLA and North Carolina, respectively. And, both of them advanced. My Final Four of UNC, UCLA, Kansas, and Texas are still intact. And, I have them beating Louisville, Xavier, Wisconsin, and Memphis to get there. All of those teams are still alive.

I picked Florida to beat Ohio State in last year's national championship game. That was one of the more obvious picks in recent years. However, if lightning strikes twice, and UCLA beats North Carolina in the final, I'll stand on my head. Shades of Dick Vitale in 1987 when Austin Peay beat Illinois in the first round.

64 to 16

The second round of the NCAA men's tournament produced some expected results, along with some surprises.

Late Saturday night, UCLA won a game it should have lost, coming back from a 10-point second half deficit to get past the Aggies of the Texas Agricultural & Mechanical College, 53-49. The Aggies led for most of the game, but went cold from the field in the second half, costing themselves the game. This bodes well for UCLA, who is bound to play much better next week in Phoenix.

On Sunday, the biggest upset had to be in Raleigh, where Davidson sent Georgetown home, 74-70. The Wildcats advance to the Sweet 16 in Detroit, where Wisconsin awaits.

The last 16 teams left standing:

East: This region held true to form. All four top seeds survived the first two rounds. In the next round, North Carolina plays Washington State, and Tennessee plays Louisville.

Midwest: This is another wild region. Top-seeded Kansas is still alive, and they play 12th-seeded Villanova. In the other half of this region, 3rd seeded Wisconsin plays tournament darling Davidson.

South: This region almost held to form, as 5th seeded Michigan State is the lowest seed remaining. The Spartans next play Memphis, narrow winners over Mississippi State. 2nd seeded Texas plays 3rd seeded Stanford.

West: This is the psycho region, and it was almost wrecked even more before UCLA came back on A&M. UCLA plays 12th seed Western Kentucky. 3rd seeded Xavier plays old friend Bob Huggins and West Virginia.

How did the conferences do? The following conferences have teams left:
Big East: 3 (Louisville, West Virginia, Villanova)
Pac 10: 3 (UCLA, Stanford, Washington State)
Big Ten: 2 (Wisconsin, Michigan State)
Big XII: 2 (Kansas, Texas)
ACC: 1 (North Carolina)
SEC: 1 (Tennessee)
Sun Belt: 1 (Western Kentucky)
Atlantic 10: 1 (Xavier)
Southern: 1 (Davidson)
Conference USA: 1 (Memphis)

More basketball later...

Almost Heaven, West Virginia

And, down goes Duke!

West Virginia did the deed, knocking the hated Blue Devils out of the Tournament, 73-67.

Like him or not, Bob Huggins is a darn good coach. West Virginia did well to bring him back to his alma mater. I kinda like him. He doesn't pretend to be something he's not. He's a basketball coach, period. He recruits basketball players and wins games, period. If a school knows up front what they're getting, like West Virginia and Kansas State before it, they'll be successful on the court.

In the meantime, Duke is a shell of its former self. Good riddance.

Have a Tampa

Isn't that a cigar? In this case, the NCAA had a Tampa on Friday. Not a cigar, but the unlikeliest of events in the subregional site at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa (Isn't that strange to have a building named after a newspaper in your rival city across the bay? That would be like an arena in Dallas called the Star-Telegram Center. Strange.). Not one, not two, but four lower seeds advanced from there on Friday. To make things better, the 12th and 13th seeds advanced in Tampa from both the West and Midwest regions. This has never happened, much less at the same site.

The above video is Western Kentucky's Ty Rogers throwing up a 30-footer closely guarded for the win in overtime against Drake. WKU probably, in all honesty, should have been seeded higher. They go on to play San Diego. That's the University of San Diego, not State. The Toreros stunned Connecticut in overtime. You read that right: Western Kentucky is playing San Diego for a trip to the Sweet 16.

But, they weren't done in Tampa. Part of the Midwest bracket played that evening, and 13th seeded Siena pummeled Vanderbilt, 83-62. That wasn't even close. In the nightcap, 12th-seeded Villanova, one of the last two teams to make the tournament, rallied from an 18 point deficit to beat Clemson, 75-69. Villanova and Siena meet on Sunday for a trip to the Sweet 16 in beautiful downtown Detroit.

This is why they call it March Madness.