Mile-High Failure

So the Nuggest played like crap this whole series, anyone who has watched the games knows that they were perhaps the biggest disappointment of the whole playoffs.  Both Melo' and AI played terribly, and the Nuggets' defense couldn't stop Kobe.  George Karl is going to have to make some changes for his team for the future.  It's obvious that they had the capabilities of being a good team, you don't win 50 games in todays Western Conference if you don't have some talent, they have two of the best scorers in the league in Anthony and Iverson, they have a former defensive player of the year in Marcus Camby, who led the league in blocks and was second in rebounds this year, and they have good role players like JR Smith and Linas Kleiza.  All in all, what this team really needs in some form of consistency and for them to have that, the team is going to need to have its stars step up.

The unachievable 8-seed

For some reason, the Denver Nuggets feel like they need to just give the 8-seed to the Golden State Warriors.  The Nuggets put together a good run, moved ahead of the Warriors for the final playoff spot, and then ran into the immovable wall of......the Sacramento Kings?  Sooooo they lost to the lottery-bound Kings, but that was alright because they were about to visit the Seattle Supersonics, who they had already crushed three times this season, so what do they do?  They lose?  Again!!!  Luckily, despite Denver's determination to give up the final playoff spot, Golden State hasn't been doing so well either, so as of right now, the two teams are tied for the 8-spot and meet Thursday in a game that may as well decide who will be staying home for the playoffs. 

What a game

Monday night's National Championship game between the Memphis Tigers and the Kansas Jayhawks was one of the best title games I have ever seen.  The game had everything you could want in a championship game: the two undisputed best teams in the country, a stirring comeback, a last second shot, NBA-caliber players, and an overtime victory.  Mario Chalmers's game-tying 3-pointer with less then three seconds left sent the game into overtime, where Kansas prevailed due to the Tiger's poor free-throw-shooting.  Something that writers had been saying about them all year finally came back to haunt them as the free-throw-shooting cost Memphis the game.

So what is the big deal?

I don't understand why everyone is making such a big deal about Arizona Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart being pictured at his house with a group of co-eds in his hot tub.  He was reprimanded by coach Ken Wisenhunt and people are treating him as if he was caught stealing.  My question is......who cares?  Why is it such a big deal?  He's single, he's a millionaire, and he was at his own house.  He was not cheating on any spouse, he wasn't doing any drugs, he was just partying and doing what any young, single, millionaire would do, having a good time.  It's not that big of a deal and people need to leave it alone.

Microcosm of the Whole Season

The last game of the Orange's dismal season was a good summary of the season as a whole.  Syracuse started off dominant, flying out to a quick and impressive lead, but like so many games this season, they let the lead slip away and lost the game in the most heartbreaking of fashions.  Much like their loss to Pitt a couple of weeks ago, where Syracuse blew an 11-point lead in the final three and a half minutes, the Orange were up by a 22 points at one point, yet ended up blowing the game in the final couple of minutes.  Yes, once again, Syracuse had to break my heart and leave me waiting for next season. 

Mason vs W&M

I can't tell you how happy I was when I saw that William and Mary had beaten VCU in the CAA semifinals. I knew that VCU was going to be George Mason's biggest roadblock in winning the CAA title and going back to the tournament for the first time since their magical Cinderella run in 2006. I never feel confident about games, but I was confident in this one that Mason would pull it off, and they did, dominating W&M in the second half to win 68-59. With this win, GMU punches an automatic ticket to the big dance and here's to hoping they can pull off another couple of miracles.

I hope they all stay

I will be quite happy if Syracuse doesn't lose their freshman core of point guard Johnny Flynn and forward Donte Greene. Even though the Orange didn't have the greatest season this past year, their two star rookies showed a lot of potential and are both in contention for Big East rookie of the year honors. Although most people assume Flynn will stay, there are just as many people who think that Greene is definitely a goner as evidenced by the amount of "Don'te leave" shirts you see scattered around the Carrier Dome. Although most predict Greene will be a top-10 pick when he declares for the draft, I believe that for his own good, and for the good of the team, he needs to stay. Greene needs a couple more years of seasoning and a couple more years under Coach Boeheim in order to be the best pro he can be.

One and Done

It's getting very frustrating seeing all these one and done players in college basketball. I suppose if you're a fan of the NBA, then it's nice to see these players that are so highly touted coming out of high school and entering the pros as soon as possible. Unfortunately for me, I am a college basketball fan, and I like seeing the talent stay as long as possible, it makes the game that much better. I do enjoy the new policy that doesn't let players jump right from high school to the pros, but now I'm teased by seeing what some of these players can do and watching them for a season, only to watch them leave after a year. I probably need to start watching the NBA more.

The Garbage-man

The difference between watching a game on television and actually being there in person is a phenomenal one.  I was lucky enough to score some tickets to Syracuse's last home game against the Marquette Golden Eagles and being there in person gave me more of an appreciation of the little things that you notice certain players do, the most notable player being No. 12, Kristof Ongeanat, a Belgian import from a junior college in California.  Ongeanat's stat-line wasn't notably impressive, but by no means underwhelming, he had 9 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 blocks.  What impressed me about Ongeanat were the little things that he did, the things that didn't show up in the box score, watching the game, only four rows back, I felt like Ongeanat altered every shot that Marquette put up, he seemed to me like he was everywhere, his hustle was incredible.  I was not the only one that noticed it either, I could hear the chatter of the crowd, and the positive things that they were saying about him, it all showed when Ongeanat stole the ball, drove the length of the floor and then slammed it down, drawing a foul, the place went crazy.  If I had been watching the game on TV, I would never have noticed the little things he did and I would not have appreciated him as much as I did after the game.

Brett Favre retires

As I'm sure everyone knows by now, Brett Favre has officially announced his retirement from football.  He leaves behind a legacy as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, quarterback that has ever lived.  Not only did he set almost all the notable passing records this past year, but he had one of his greatest statistical season in 2007 at the age of 38.  Favre set a career high in completion percentage and posted the third best passer-rating of his career as he led the Packers to the NFC championship game against the eventual Super Bowl champion New York Giants.  Unfortunately, the last pass that Favre will probably ever throw was intercepted in the overtime loss.  The fact that his last pass was intercepted is perhaps appropriate as Favre was always known as one of the last true gunslingers of this era.  That last pass takes nothing away from Brett Favre's legacy, though, as he is a former Super Bowl champion, a three time MVP, and has thrown for more touchdowns and passed for more yards then any other quarterback.  I don't need to tell you this, but Brett Favre is a sure-fire hall of famer and deserves to enjoy his retirement.

I refuse to believe it!

Sorry, I refuse to believe that UFC is replacing boxing and I'm getting pretty tired of hearing it!

As probably one of the only true boxing fans left on this earth, and admittedly knowing almost nothing about UFC, I will never, never admit that boxing is giving ground to UFC.  UFC is a fad, and like any fad, it will eventually die (hopefully), and even if it doesn't, I will always be loyal to the sport I've loved for years.  Nothing can compare to the drama of boxing, one needs to only witness the Israel Vasquez and Rafael Marquez slugfest from last weekend to understand how superior boxing is to UFC.  Nothing can compare to the heart that those two 122 pounders showed last Saturday as they pounded each other for 12 heart-stopping rounds.  Plus you will never see a UFC fighter that reaches the level of popularity that fighters like Mike Tyson and Oscar De La Hoya reach.  Boxing has more stories then UFC will ever have and that is evidenced by the amount of high-quality sports writers that have written about the sport.  Yes, in my opinion, boxing will always be superior to UFC.

Fake Fans

To a true sports fan, probably the most annoying thing to witness is someone falsely rooting for a team that they support for all the wrong reasons, like solely rooting for them only because of the fact that they are winning. Many people know fans like this as bandwagon fans, people who only jump on a team's bandwagon when they start winning, but bandwagon fans are just a small sub-category of the real evil, the evil known as........the fake fan. Fake fans come in all shape and sizes and they are, admittedly, fairly harmless, just really really annoying. Fake fans are the people who claim they follow a team, but can't name their starting lineups, or they know hardly any history of the team. A fake fan claims that he loves his team, yet will miss games for the flimsiest of excuses, a fake fan will leave games early to beat traffic no matter what the score is, a fake fan will do anything that makes a real fan ashamed to be near them.  The sad truth is that most fans are fake fans, and the only thing us real fans can do is call them out on it.

Sports Hell

I believe I am stuck in a perpetual sports hell.

Well not a hell per se, but maybe a sports purgatory, since for some reason, none of my teams can make any sort of noise in their respective playoffs. As a life long Syracuse Orange (or Orangemen as I will always know them as) fan, I have been part of the highest of highs, seeing them win a title in 2003, to the lowest of lows, seeing them get snubbed by the committee last year only to justify it by bowing out in the NIT. I know I shouldn't complain since many people don't get to see their favorite team win a championship, but recent futility of the team's playoff play has been embarrassing.

The year after they won the championship, the made a respectable run in the tournament, beating the 2002 champ, Maryland, before eventually losing to Alabama. Back then I was disappointed, but that seems great in retrospect. In the 2004-2005 season, Syracuse had what i thought to be one of their better teams of the past 15 or so years. The Orange spent most of the season ranked in or around the top 10 and had a truly exciting consensus All-American by the name of Hakim Warrick, who could throw a dunk down with the best of them and was also a very solid rebounder. Gerry McNamara also gave us someone to be truly happy with, as his touch from deep gave us a consistent 3-point option, and he was a career 89 percent free throw shooter. All in all this was a team to be very excited with as they retained many of the holdovers from the championship season and they had gotten used to the post-Carmelo world. So anyways, after a season when Syracuse managed to post a very solid record against very solid teams, they capped it all off by winning the Big East title, so as you can imagine I was very excited come tournament time when the Orange garnered a 4-seed and were pitted against lowly Vermont in the first round. So what happens? They lose! To Vermont! In the first round! I am not a good enough writer to describe my feelings that day, all I can say is that it was akin to the general feeling in the air that you have at a funeral, especially since it was Warrick's last year on the team.

You want to know hell? It's knowing that your team is known for two of the NCAA tournaments biggest upsets, losing the game against Vermont, and losing to 15-seed Richmond as a 2-seed in 1991. The year afterward looked gloomy, as their best player was gone, along with a few other vital pieces from the 2003 season. It was up to Gerry McNamara to put the team on his shoulders, but one man couldn't do it all as was proven by the Orange finished the regular season 19-11, with a 7-9 record in the Big East. Few were picking Syracuse to make the NCAA tournament as they entered the Big East tournament as a 9-seed.

Just for some background, no team seeded as low as 9th had ever won the Big East tournament, and no team had ever won four games en route to the Big East title.

I mentioned earlier that Syracuse was relying on Gerry McNamara to carry them throughout the year and that he had come up short during the regular season, well that was all for naught as McNamara did whatever he could to ensure his team would win the Big East title and garner a spot in the bracket. In the first round against Cincinnati, McNamara hit a running, one-handed-three as time expired to lead Syracuse past the Bearcats by one point. In the second round, Syracuse faced Connecticut, who would eventually enter the NCAA's as a 1-seed, and McNamara hit a long 3 at the buzzer to tie the game and helped win it in over time, in the next game against Georgetown, he stole the ball at the last second and dished it to Eric Devendorf for the easy layup, giving Syracuse their first lead of the game with seconds left and the eventual win. In the championship round against Pittsburgh, he scored 14 points to help beat the Panthers. Syracuse dominated the headlines during this tournament and gave me newfound hope that they would be a dark horse in the NCAA's now that they had earned a seeding. Unfortunately it was not meant to be as Syracuse once again lost in the first round to Texas A&M, with McNamara only scoring two points in his last game at the school.

The next season was more tolerable since with McNamara gone, there were not many expectation for Syracuse, still I, along with many many others, thought that Syracuse had earned a spot after beating mighty Georgetown late in the season, but once again I was left disappointed as they were snubbed from the tournament and ended up losing in the quarterfinals of the NIT. So as you can see, I have been stuck in this "Purgatory" for years now with no hope of getting out, it's not just that they lose, it's also that Syracuse always manages to raise my hopes at the best possible time, only to dash them just as quickly when it matters most.

I have also had to endure seeing the Redskins wallow in ineptitude for years now with the exception of this past season and the 2005 season, in which they had to go on major winning streaks just to make the playoffs and to be unceremoniously booted by the Seahawks both times.

And I don't even want to get started on the Yankees