This is one way to kill time on the team plane…
Month: March 2010 (Page 29 of 59)
Turns out I may have jumped the gun on the post I wrote about how JaMarcus Russell should just quit football after reports surfaced that he wasn’t at the Raiders’ first offseason conditioning program on Monday.
“He’s trying to close a home in Alabama. It’s something that he couldn’t get out of,” Brown said. “You don’t want to lose your home. So he’ll be back in town today and ready to go (Tuesday).”
“You’ll be surprised when you see him,” Brown said. “It’s quite a bit of weight that he’s lost . . . I don’t want to pin it down and say how much he lost but it will be a significant difference when you see him compared to last year.
“The most important thing is he’s getting in shape. Not only losing weight, but getting in shape. He’s watching his diet, he has special meals brought in that he’s eating, and we have one of the Raiders, a former player there with him to monitor him and make sure things are going fine. The weight thing, he’ll get it down. He’ll get it down.”
If this weren’t JaMarcus Russell we’re talking about, I’d be eating a warm piece of crow right now. But he hasn’t earned the right to have people give him the benefit of the doubt. There were rumors that surfaced last year that he was in shape and then he showed up to offseason workouts with the same unconditioned body he has always had.
Plus, even if he has transformed his body, it’s about freaking time. The Raiders paid him $61 million to be the face of their franchise and so far he’s given them nothing in return. He might as well change his name to Neil McCauley because he’s been flat out stealing money.
This is a make or break year for Russell. If he ever wants to live up to his No. 1 overall billing, then he needs to put in the time and effort and make huge strides as a quarterback this year. If he wants to coast through another season, then chances are he won’t have many opportunities whenever the Raiders do decide to cut their losses and move on. I know there will always be some team that will give him a shot (look at Ryan Leaf – he still had suitors after the San Diego debacle), but it won’t be long before teams realize he’s a waste of time.
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It seems like as soon as the brackets were announced on Sunday, all of the pundits were circling the 5/12 matchup between Temple (A-10 champs) and Cornell (Ivy League champs) as an upset special. Here are two conflicting takes on the game from the Giant Killers blog and Eamonn Brennan at ESPN. First up is the GK blog:
We hate it when our model agrees with the pundits. So, allow us to say this: They’re jumping on our bandwagon, not the other way around. This is the most likely upset in the entire first round. Where do we start? How about from downtown? Cornell’s 88.4 GK rating (second-best in GK history) is in large part due to ridiculous 3-point shooting. Not only do the Big Red lead the country at 43.8 percent shooting from beyond the arc; 3s also account for 39.1 percent of their scoring. That type of high-risk approach signifies most successful GKs.
Temple can battle Cornell in this area because the Owls do have the nation’s second-toughest 3-point field goal defense (28.1 percent). However, the Owls have other problems. They don’t force turnovers (just 18.2 percent of opponents’ possessions, 286th in the country), and they grab offensive rebounds on only 33 percent of missed shots. What does that mean? They let opponents maximize possessions, and with Cornell, those possessions are worth a lot. Add in that Cornell protects the ball (turnover percentage of 18.7) and keeps opponents off the offensive glass (just 30.2 percent), and you have even more reasons to believe in an upset.
Want one more? Cornell outscored its opponents by more than a dozen points per game this season, yet was outscored at the free throw line. That has a strong correlation toward Giant Killing success. The Big Red have everything necessary to leave the Owls asking “Who?”
And now, from Brennan’s “Bracket babble” post:
I’m interviewing CBS’s Seth Davis later today, so I thought I’d go over to SI.com and bone up on his bracket picks. It turns out he has the same Final Four picks as mine: Kansas, Syracuse, West Virginia and Duke.
In a statement posted on his official website, Tiger Woods announced that he will return to the PGA Tour at this year’s Masters tournament, which takes place April 8-11.
“The Masters is where I won my first major, and I view this tournament with great respect. After a long and necessary time away from the game, I feel like I’m ready to start my season at Augusta.
“I have undergone almost two months of inpatient therapy, and I am continuing my treatment. Although I’m returning to competition, I still have a lot of work to do in my personal life.
“When I finally got into a position to think about competitive golf again, it became apparent to me that the Masters would be the earliest I could play. I called both Joe Lewis and Arnold Palmer and expressed my regrets for not attending the Tavistock Cup and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. I again want to thank them both for their support and their understanding. Those are fantastic tournaments, and I look forward to competing in them again.
I know I risk hurting my arm while trying to pat my own back, but this is what I wrote on March 2 when it was reported that Tiger was out of therapy and getting back into shape:
Does anyone else smell an April 8th return for Tiger? That’s the first day of the Masters and while I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of him playing in a smaller tournament or two before then, I’m willing to bet that Tiger would want to create some good publicity for himself on a big stage.
This one was rather easy to forecast. Woods (and his people) knows that the media coverage is going to be insane no matter where he goes, so he might as well play in a major, where access to him will be limited and there will be more storylines going on then just his return. He will still be the main focus obviously, but the Masters is already a big deal so why not return then?
Personally, I like the decision. It might have been wiser for him to return to a smaller event in order to get the first appearance out of the way, but why not tackle a major right away? His return is going to be a big story no matter what, so why not have it be on a huge national stage?
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