Month: March 2008 (Page 17 of 21)

UNC gets revenge, wins ACC title

March 9, 2008 / John Paulsen

Who says that the college basketball regular season doesn’t matter? (BCS apologist Kirk Herbstreit, that’s who.)

It sure mattered yesterday when the #1 Tar Heels went into Durham and upended the #5 Blue Devils, 76-68. Duke led, 68-66, with three minutes to play, but North Carolina went on a 10-0 run to close the game and seal the win.

It’s always interesting to see how each team deals with the emotion of these matchups. Earlier this season, in Chapel Hill, the Tar Heels seemed anxious and overexcited while Duke, playing on the road, was calm, cool and collected. Last night, the roles were reversed. Duke got off to a bad start and didn’t get settled until the second half.

It was senior night for DeMarcus Nelson, and it felt like he was forcing things all game. He shot just 3-12 from the field. Gerald Henderson also went 3-12 and came up small in the final minutes, blowing a layup that would have put Duke up by four. He had another missed shot and a turnover during UNC’s run. Lastly, freshman Kyle Singler rounded out the bad shooting with a 3-10 effort. The only Duke players to really play well were Jon Scheyer and Greg Paulus.

Danny Green led North Carolina with 18 points, while Tyler Hansbrough and Wayne Ellington each chipped in with 16. Hansbrough also had 15 rebounds.

In recent years, North Carolina’s problem has been mental toughness down the stretch, but they showed it last night in a difficult environment. Getting Ty Lawson back certainly helps, but he isn’t practicing much so that might come back to bite them in the tournament.

UNC has a virtual lock on a #1 seed, and will probably get to play in Charlotte and Raleigh, making them a big favorite to reach the Final Four. Duke needs to win the ACC tournament and hope some of the other top teams lose in order to have a shot at a #1 seed in another region.

College Basketball, March Madness

Teams making it easier to get fat at the ballpark

March 7, 2008 / Anthony Stalter

According to the USA Today, at least 13 MLB teams are offering all-you-can-eat seats for part of the 2008 season.

Ticket prices for these seats range from $30 at the low end with the Atlanta Braves to $200 at the high end with the St. Louis Cardinals. The majority fall within the $30-$55 range. Most teams include pre-cooked, easy-to-prepare ballpark fare such as hot dogs, nachos, peanuts and soft drinks but don’t include beer, burgers, pizzas and desserts.
The Padres, meanwhile, will offer an All-You-Can-Eat buffet, including burgers, hot dogs and soft drinks, with 180-250 seats on top of the Western Metal Supply Co. building in PETCO Park’s left field corner. The section will feature bleacher seats with an adjoining buffet/eating area.

Leave it to America to figure out a way to shove more food in your face at sporting events. And let me say for the record, that I personally love the idea.

MLB

Sure we sucked, but at least we were paid well

March 7, 2008 / Anthony Stalter

The East Coast Bias ranked the most overpaid MLB teams of 2007.

Here are a couple teams that made the list:

SF Giants ($90 Million , 71-91) – Behind huge contracts to Zito and Bonds (neither of whom performed at a high level consistently), the Giants floundered to a last place finish and the 2nd worst record in the NL (Pirates, tied with Marlins). Good thing they let Schmidt go so they could sign Zito.
Baltimore Orioles ($93 Million, 69-93) – An increase of $20 Million over 2006 netted the Orioles absolutely no benefit, leaving them still the second-best team in the Baltimore-Washington area. As a point of pride, the O’s finished ahead of the Rays. On the other hand, the Rays only paid $24 Million to finish 3 games worse.
Chicago White Sox ($108 Million, 72-90) – The White Sox appear to have overpaid to keep an aging team together following their World Series victory, and it really cost them last year. 4th place behind medium market teams is not worth the 5th highest paid team in the league.

Somebody cap that league so these teams can stop embarrassing themselves.

MLB

Banks weighs in on NFL moves thus far

March 7, 2008 / Anthony Stalter

Don Banks of SI.com gives his thumbs up and down to those NFL teams that have made moves in free agency thus far.

Thumbs down:
Oakland Raiders — Where to begin? The Raiders gave defensive end-turned-tackle Tommy Kelly more than $18 million guaranteed despite the fact that the onetime undrafted collegiate free agent played just seven games last season and is coming off ACL surgery. They paid a steep price as well for receiver Javon Walker, who has had three knee surgeries and is said to be playing with a bone-on-bone situation in one of his knees. And they added ex-49ers offensive tackle Kwame Harris, a former first-round pick who couldn’t even stay in the lineup for San Francisco’s less-than-dominating offensive line last season.

Couldn’t agree more. Kelly and Walker are good players, but they’ve got GIGANTIC injury concerns. Plus, in an offseason where teams have been reluctant to overpay for free agents (unlike last year), the Raiders have handed out money like the Olive Garden hands out breadsticks.

NFL

St. Joes and Conference Tournaments

March 7, 2008 / Coach Z

A couple of games caught my eye yesterday. St. Joes upset of #11 Xavier at home may have saved their season. By beating the Muskateers 71-66, they provided a late season marquee win to their resume. At 18-10 and 9-6 they are in the hunt. A win at Dayton and a couple of conference tournament wins will put them in. But they still have work to do.

In the Valley, Wichita State ended a depleted season with Head Coach Greg Marshall being thrown out of the game. Watching it on replay made me even more furious at the officials. He was thrown out for turning around quickly in the coaches box. Not a word was uttered. They ended up losing by four (the number of technical foul shots Indiana State made). Do you think the officials will be penalized for this lack of judgement. Once again a game is taken out of the players hands. Why do officials have such big egos?

In the other Valley game, Missouri State perservered and won their fourth game in a row. Withg rumors swirling about Coach Barry Hinson’s dismissal (and Eddie Sutton’s hiring–didn’t he have a crash a year ago while drunk on the way to the team plane? Then another AD hires him mid-year and he doesn’t show any improvement at USF. Sounds like a good move to me.) Sorry about the tangent…
Missouri State takes on Illinois State today in hopes of keeping their season alive.

Over in the Big South, I watched two great games. Check out this clip of 7’7 Kenny George of UNC-Asheville. If he stays healthy he could be a ten year pro.

College Basketball