Best against the best

Everyone has assumed that it is a foregone conclusion that the Lakers will play Cleveland in the finals this. However, that is what everyone assumed last year and Orlando beat Cleveland out. I thought it would be interesting to see how the 6 best teams in the NBA fair against each other.

Lakers: 4-6

Utah W L W

Denver L L

Boston W L

Orlando W

Cleveland L L

Utah 4-8

Lakers LWL

Denver LLLW

Boston L

Orlando WL

Cleveland LW

Denver 9-1

Lakers WW

Utah WWWL

Boston W

Orlando W

Cleveland WW

Boston 4-5

Lakers LW

Utah W

Denver L

Orlando LWLL

Cleveland W

Orlando 5-5

Lakers L

Utah LW

Denver L

Boston WLWW

Cleveland LW

Cleveland 4-5

Lakers WW

Utah WL

Denver LL

Boston L

Orlando WL

Kudos to you Denver fans.

Mountain West athletes invited to the combine

18 MWC football players have been invited to strut their stuff at this years combine. Special thanks to Mike Sando of ESPN for publishing the complete list of the players invited to this years combine. http://www.divshare.com/download/10558617-ea3. Check out his NFC West blog for a brief description of what players do at the combine. http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcwest/post/_/id/14428/quick-look-at-2010-combine-schedule

TCU

Jerry Hughes

Daryl Washington

Marshall Newhouse

James Gresham

BYU

Max Hall

Manase Tonga

Dennis Pita

Utah

Matt Asiata

Brandon Reed

Koa Misi

Sylvester Stephensen

Zane Beadles

UNLV
Jason Beauchamp

Joseph Hawley

Ryan Wolfe

New Mexico

Erik Cook

Colorado State

Shelley Smith

Cole Pemberton

USA! USA! USA!

I am ashamed to admit that prior to tonight I didn’t understand how the scoring for men’s ice hockey worked. Let me enlighten you with my new found knowledge. There are 12 teams split up into 3 divisions of 4. Each team plays every team in their division. You get 3 points for a win, 2 points for an overtime win, 1 point for an overtime loss, and nothing for a loss. After the 4 games are done the teams are seeded into a traditional bracket with the top 4 teams receiving a first -round bye. If two teams are tied at the end of the prelims the tie breakers are head to head and then the amount of goals scored.

USA’s win tonight gave them a perfect 9 points. Sweeden and Finland each have 6 points and they play tomorrow, thus the winner of the game (assuming there is no overtime) would get 9 points. Finland would have to score 4 goals to tie USA and Sweeden would have to score 8. No other team can catch USA for the top spot. (Russia is also guaranteed one of the 4 seeded spots.) Canada’s loss was pretty devastating. Because they only won their last game via overtime, Canada falls to 6^th place and now will have to have a play in game to reach the quarter finals.

Anyway, let’s get to tonight’s game. Canada was the favorite to cruise to a gold medal. Their entire team is made up of NHL players (so is USA’s) and it has Sidney Crosby who is a scoring machine. So it was no surprise that Canada looked like the better team tonight: they outshot the Americans almost 2-1, and they passed better, they handled the puck better.

The American’s only won because their goal tending was simply amazing. The last 6 minutes of the game was like watching the Canadian’s shoot against a brick wall. It was the most exciting hockey I have ever seen. Shot after shot was deflected. The Canadians shot 14 shots to American’s 4 in the final period. Simply stated, the American Goalie Miller won the game.

I still think Canada is the team to beat this year, but tonight was a big win. USA was expected to be the 4^th best team, and it’s looking like it will be the #1 seed.

Thoughts on Tiger

My thoughts on the Tiger fiasco are relatively few. I thought he was sincere, but ultimately it doesn't matter whether he was or not. I don't understand the mindset of criticizing someone for the quality of their apology. He didn't hurt me, and he didn't hurt you. He didn't cheat on the field. Yes what he did was repugnant, but we expect our superstars to be super athletes and not super moral rockstars. That's all.

Kobe should keep sitting

I have been saying that Kobe needs to rest for a while now. He has a broken index finger, a sprained ankle, and back spasms. I had figured that losing games would be worth it so long as Kobe got his rest.

Well Kobe has finally sat the last three games, and guess what the Lakers are 3-0. Not only that but they beat three quality playoff teams. Lamar and Pau have been coming up huge. Not wanting to belabor the point I will only look at the rebounding. Against the Blazers the two of them pulled down 30 rebounds, against the spurs 29, and tonight against the Jazz they got another 30 (for the season they average about 21)

However more importantly, Kobe's absence is allowing the young Laker point guards an opportunity to get more touches and develop. Against the Blazers Farmar and Brown got 31 points, against the spurs they got 21, and against the Jazz they put up 29 (for the season they are averaging 15.2)

Are the Lakers a better team without Kobe? Of course not. But will the Lakers be better off if Kobe continues to rest? I think so.

Mock Draft 1.0

Now that the Super Bowl is over its time to start talking draft. I have compiled the Mock drafts from four respected sources as well as make a mock draft of my own. I'm sure my predictions are going to change as we closer to April but I feel pretty good about it. When I have more time I will sit down and write out my reasoning for each pick.

Thoughts on the Mike Dunleavy firing.

I have been waiting for years for the Clippers to show me enough so that I can become more than a closet fan. I was able to stick with the Lakers and the 49ers during their stink seasons because those franchises had proven successful before and I knew as an organization they would get back to a competitive level. (I still don't know how I became a Angels fan since they were historically awful before their championship run, I'm pretty sure I just owned a bunch of their baseball cards.) But the Clips - well they might be the most the most historically futile franchise still in existence. I don't want their stink on me, so I quietly wait hoping that things will turn around.

That's why I was pretty excited when I learned that Dunleavy was fired. I really don't understand basketball as much as I do football, but I would watch a clippers game and see Dunleavy repeatedly shoot his team in the foot. And his stats back up this assessment; Dunleavy was plain awful as the Clipper's coach. In six and a half season he put together an impressive 215-325 record and made the playoffs only once. And its not like they don't have talent. Their starting line is Baron Davis, Eric Gordon, Marcus Camby, Rasaul Buttler and Chris Kaman. That's a good team. You cannot tell me that they are worse than the Milwakee bucks who currently have one more win than the Clippers: Brandon Jennings, Charlie Bell, Carlos Delphino, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, and Andrew Bogut.

Bottom line is when I heard that Dunleavy got fired I was excited. I even posted on my facebook status that I was jumping on the the Clippers band wagon before it got too crowded. And then Kayce showed me this,http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/Los-Angeles-Clippers-Isiah-Thomas-020510. And it all came crashing down. Really Isiah Thomas? The same guy who lead the New York Knickerbockers to a 56-108 record before being fired. The same guy who couldn't find another job anywhere but Florida International University, and whose team is currently 7-18 and in 11th place in the conference?

It looks like that the Clippers may end up with Donald (I am an imcompetant racist drafting disaster) Sterling as the owner, with Mike (I'm tired of getting blasted by Bill Simmons so I am going to resign) Dunleavy running the front office, and Isiah (I couldn't coach a girls jr. varsity team if my life depended on it )Thomas Coaching the team. I'm starting to think that Griffen might be better off taking a sledge hammer to his knee and collecting the insurance than to come back to play for this team. Looks like I will be a closet fan for a while longer.

Thoughts on David Sills.

I am going to try and get into the habit of just writing regularly, even if what i churn out isn't very good quality...

Has everyone read the David Sills piece on ESPN? http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4891901. It is both amazing and sad. In a nutshell Steve Clarkson, who has pipelined several famous USC qbs including Leinart and Barkley, found this 14 year old kid from Delaware. He was so impressed with the kid that he convinced Kiffen to extend a scholarship offer.

I am cynical enough not to expect anything more from USC, much less from Lane (violation) Kiffen, and I can't really blame a kid in middle school for the lack of foresight, but what the heck were his parents thinking? This kid's chance at a normal childhood is ruined. The way I see it whether or not this kid pans out he is going to be in deep trouble.

Scenario A: David Sills is a flop: I say there is at least a 65% chance that this kid doesn't become a top college prospect. I understand he has a professional quarterbacks coach which will help, but as far as I know the competition in Delaware isn't exactly stiff. More importantly, this is a prepubescent kid we are talking about. Sure he might have the technique down, but he might not develop physically. What happens when he turns 18 and is only 5'10 and can barely bench 220 and he gets his scholarship revoked? Do you really think that this kid is going to be taking high school seriously? Of course not, our Qb at a school with a crappy football team couldn't even handle the pressure. The kid ends up going to a JC, until he finds a dead end low quality job. And unlike most football would-be's he doesn't talk about how he almost won the state championship for the most of his life, rather he talks about his pop warner championship.

Scenario B: David Sills is the reincarnation of UCLA's Troy Aikman: There is about a 1% chance this happens. But with life long coaching from professionals, its possible that a squad of experts can help this kid develop physically and mentally into in all pro quarterback. Plus, assuming USC continues to recruit as well as they do (and why wouldn't you go to USC its in LA and the boosters pay you) this kid is going to have an all pro offensive line and running game to protect him, as well as tremendous athletes to chuck the ball to. At first glance it all appears to be great, the only problem is that child athletes always end up messed up. They spend their whole lives being propped up on a footstool and being told how great they are, that they begin to think that the rules of life don't apply to them. They fail to develop the necessary attributes that come along with rejection and disappointment. Perhaps I am just overreacting to the Tiger Woods scandal, but this explanation makes intuitive sense to me.

Bottom line, I'm ok with this kids father giving the kid a professional coach, or heck even a slew of professional coaches, but don't sign with USC. Let the kid experience high school, enjoy winning at that level, and not spend his whole life waiting for college.