Month: March 2010 (Page 20 of 59)

      Previewing the Sweet 16

      March 22, 2010 /

      We lost Kansas and Villanova this weekend, but the other six #1 and #2 seeds are still standing. Bracket-wise, I thought I was dead after losing my overall winner Kansas, but it turns out that if my other FF picks come in — Syracuse, Duke and West Virginia — I can still win. Come on, Mountaineers!

      Jeff Sagarin’s ratings are doing pretty well across the board. In games where the favorite has an advantage of three points or more, they are 23-7. Sagarin is 4-2 in predicting winners where the favorite has a 2-3 point advantage, and is 10-2 in games where the favorite has a 0-2 point advantage. That last part is pretty impressive, and way out of Sagarin’s norm in predicting winners in the last few years.

      Ken Pomeroy’s ratings are 19-4 in picking picks where he gives the winner a 70%+ chance of winning, 4-2 in the 65-70% range, 2-2 in the 60-65% range and 11-4 in the 50-60% range. Basically, the slight favorites have ended up winning a vast majority of the games, and it’s helping Sagarin and Pomeroy’s records in tight matchups.

      Here’s a look ahead at the Sweet 16 games:

      Michigan State vs. Northern Iowa
      Line: MSU -7 (off?)
      Sagarin Line: MSU -2.08
      Pomeroy: MSU (51.0%)
      Even before Kalin Lucas’ Achilles injury, both Sagarin and Pomeroy saw this matchup as a virtual tossup. With Lucas out, I have to think the Panthers are the favorite. They have a nice mix of shooters and big men, and are coming off of a huge win against the top overall seed in the tournament. UNI’s confidence is high and they have all the tools to beat the Spartans, who will have to go without their best player. The game is in St. Louis too, so if the Panther faithful show up, UNI could have the crowd on it side. My pick: Northern Iowa +7 and straight up

      Continue reading »

      College Basketball, March Madness

      Kelvin Sampson’s fingerprints still linger

      March 22, 2010 /

      Kelvin Sampson may be gone — he’s an assistant coach for the surging Milwaukee Bucks — but his former players (and recruits) are doing a lot of damage in the tourney.

      Six guys who either played for or were recruited by Sampson all made the field in different uniforms and five of them were still playing when the second round tipped off.

      “I hadn’t thought about that, but I guess there are a lot of us,’’ said West Virginia’s Devin Ebanks, a top five recruit who decommitted after Sampson was booted at IU.

      Damion James, ousted in the first round when Texas lost to Wake Forest, was supposed to play at Oklahoma but he was released from his scholarship after Sampson left OU for Indiana, leaving a trail of NCAA stink behind and no players for Jeff Capel.

      Scottie Reynolds could have been James’ teammate. Instead Capel let him out of his commitment, too. On Saturday he and Villanova lost to St. Mary’s in the second round.

      Armon Bassett, angry at the university’s decision to force Sampson out, was reportedly part of a pack of players that threatened not to play after Sampson left. He was dismissed by interim head coach Dan Dakich, reinstated by Crean and then booted again. On Thursday night, Bassett led Ohio University to one of the more stunning first-round upsets, scoring 32 in a win against Georgetown.

      With players leaving left and right, Jordan Crawford told Crean in June 2008 that he, too, would be leaving Bloomington. He transferred to Xavier. The Musketeers will play Pitt in the second-round on Sunday.

      Sampson sure could recruit, but one wonders if all those illegal texts and phone calls were the reason why.

      College Basketball, March Madness

      Tiger Woods: “I was living a lie.”

      March 22, 2010 /

      Taking questions from the media for the first time since he crashed his SUV outside his Florida home last November, Tiger Woods admitted to ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi that he was “living a lie.”

      From ESPN.com:

      “I was living a life of a lie, I really was. And I was doing a lot of things … that hurt a lot of people. And stripping away denial and rationalization you start coming to the truth of who you really are and that can be very ugly. But then again, when you face it and you start conquering it and you start living up to it, the strength that I feel now … I’ve never felt that type of strength.”

      “I hurt a lot of people, not just my wife,” he told Rinaldi on Sunday. “My friends, my colleagues, the public, kids who looked up to me. There were a lot of people that thought I was a different person and my actions were not according to that. That’s why I had to apologize. I was so sorry for what I had done.”

      “I’m sure if more people would have known in my inner circle, they would have stopped it or tried to put a stop to it. But I kept it all to myself,” he said.

      “I’m a little nervous about that to be honest with you,” Woods told ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi, who asked him what he expects when he returns to golf on April 8 following an auto accident which led to an indefinite leave from professional golf and an admission of multiple affairs. “It would be nice to hear a couple claps here and there.”

      Tiger is a scumbag for cheating on his wife with multiple women and he’s paying for it through public embarrassment. But here’s the thing, outside of hoping he learns some humility throughout this situation, there’s nothing else more that he needs to do. He’s apologized publicly to his wife and his family, he’s gone through treatment and he’s spoken with the media. He doesn’t owe any explanation to anybody outside of those close to him. So in my eyes, he’s already gone above and beyond. (I don’t want to throw a parade for him – I just don’t think he needs to do anything else but move on.)

      I don’t know Tiger personally – I just know what I see and hear on TV. He could be down to earth guy or he could be a pompous ass – I have no clue. But the guy has made a mistake and he’s paying for it. And quite frankly, when you strip everything away, his personal life has very little to do with his golf game. So if he gets booed at the Masters next week, then I think people need a reality check.

      Everyone is entitled to their own opinions about him, but in the end he owes us nothing.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      Golf

      With a little help from Jay Bilas, Rockin’ Refuel helps one high school athlete go to college

      March 22, 2010 /

      Given what has transpired over the past couple months in sports, it’s kind of hard to weed through the headlines and find a positive story. From Tiger Woods to Ben Roethlisberger, there have been enough negative sports headlines to go around.

      So if I may, I’d like to take a second to focus on a positive storyline – one that I was able to participate in and see unfold first hand.

      Shamrock Farms is a local milk processor out of Phoenix that has developed a new product called Rockin’ Refuel, which is a protein-enhanced milk geared towards helping young athletes rebuild, recover and refuel after workouts. The drink boasts that it has 40 percent more protein than regular milk and is chockfull of vitamins.

      At the beginning of the month, Rockin’ Refuel teamed up with an organization called Hoop It Up 3-on-3 (a local market 3-on-3 basketball tour that is affiliated with the American Cancer Society and Coaches vs. Cancer) in New York City to help kickoff a great event. Along with ESPN college hoops analyst Jay Bilas, Rockin’ Refuel traveled to Xavier High School in Manhattan to conduct the “Most Rockin’ Shot,” which was a contest that gave one lucky student a $10,000 academic scholarship.

      Continue reading »

      College Basketball, Interviews

      Dolphins’ Ronnie Brown arrested on DUI charge

      March 22, 2010 /

      According to a report by the Miami Herald, Dolphins’ running back Ronnie Brown was arrested in Atlanta late Friday night on suspicion of DUI.

      Brown, who has no previous arrest record, was arrested after an officer pulled him over for making a lane change without signaling, sources said.

      The Dolphins are aware of the situation, and they are continuing to monitor the legal process. They are not believed to be overly upset with Brown because of his impeccable past as a player and a citizen.

      Brown is distraught over the arrest, and he has hired an attorney to help defend him in the case, the sources said. He did not perform well during the field-sobriety test, which contributed to the officer’s decision to arrest Brown, sources said. It remains possible the charges soon could be reduced to a traffic violation in the coming days. The arresting officer’s detailed version of the arrest has not yet been obtained because it occurred during the weekend. Brown’s agent, Todd France, did not return messages Sunday to comment on the arrest.

      Is it just me or does Atlanta seem like the hotspot for NFL players to get into trouble off the field? Ben Roethlisberger, Ray Lewis, Brandon Marshall and now Brown all have had issues in the city and while I’m not positive, I’m sure Pacman Jones has gotten into trouble there too. I just don’t have time to go through his rap sheet right now.

      It’s interesting that Brown hired a lawyer to defend him in this case. Does that mean that he feels that the DUI was bogus and the police officer had it in for him? Or does he know the DUI is legit and he’s just trying to get a lighter penalty? He had no prior incidents before the arrest and he was originally pulled over for making an improper lane change, so who knows. All the report says is that “he did not perform well during the field-sobriety test.” Does that mean he was over the legal limit? I guess we’ll find out soon.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      NFL

      « Older posts Newer posts »

      © 2026 The Scores Report – The National Sports Blog

      Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑