Singler Returns, Updates on NHL, MLB, and Steeler Issues

The defending National Champions got a huge boost on Monday when the reigning Final Four Most Outstanding Player, Kyle Singler, announced that he'd be returning to Duke University for his senior season. The Blue Devils will be losing Jon Scheyer, Brian Zoubek, and Lance Thomas to graduation. The possibility of losing Singler and Nolan Smith as well would've put Duke in a similar position to the one of North Carolina during the past season. The majority of UNC's key players either graduated or left early for the NBA following their NCAA title and the Tar Heels failed to even make the tournament this season. They did manage to make the NIT finals before falling to Dayton, but when Roy Williams hadn't missed the dance since moving back to Chapel Hill, this season certainly will be viewed as a disappointment.

Singler's return along with the potential of Smith coming back would allow Duke to remain with the elite NCAA schools for next season, not just in TV ratings, but in the polls as well. And when Kentucky can lose five key players early to the NBA including stars John Wall and Demarcus Cousins, and coach John Calipari still manages to reload, keeping key players through their senior year is the best way to compete with him. Marcus Camby was a part of Calipari's bogus recruiting, and from that look, he can't believe he's still getting away with it either.

I know I'm a little late with hockey predictions for this space, but I did make them elsewhere. Here's what my choices looked like in the ESPN sports nation voting:
Eastern Conference
Caps over Habs in 5
Devils over Flyers in 7
Sabres over Bruins in 6
Penguins over Senators in 6

Western Conference
Avalanche over Sharks in 6
Blackhawks over Predators in 6
Canucks over Kings in 6
Red Wings over Coyotes in 5

All of my predictions are still possible other than the Wings over Phoenix in five, but I'm willing to let that one slide. The Coyotes have surprised everyone with their grit and determination to this point. They lost their captain, Shane Doan, in the second period of game 3 but they kept coming at Detroit and the Wings failed to counter and bring the pressure until it was too late. By stealing a win in Detroit, the Coyotes have managed to get home ice back after they were unable to secure game 2 at home. I'm sure the Wings aren't done, but Phoenix has them right where they want them.

The biggest goat of the playoffs so far has to be the Sharks' Dan Boyle. He ended a scoreless game in overtime by shooting the puck into his own net. You can see it below.



Blues fans will feel empathy for the Sharks but no pity as we all remember the Marc Bergevin goal against the Sharks when the Blues were the top seed, having won the President's Trophy. Just awful.

My finals hockey note relates to both hockey and baseball. According to my friend Matt Lucas, a White Sox fan,  the Cubs showed up to Game 1 of the Blackhawks series and the Hawks lost. The Sox showed up to Game 2 and they shut out Nashville 2-0. If losing is contagious, then the Cubs must have the bubonic plague of losing. It seems to just radiate off of them, kind of like Pig Pen from Peanuts.

The Cubs struggles are going right from the start this season. They've dropped three of their last four, including two of three at home to the last place Astros. That was the only series so far this season that Houston has actually won. The Cubs' overall record of 5-8 has them four games back of the Cardinals already and with no signs of slowing by St. Louis, the Cubs could find themselves in a big hole before they can even get going.

St. Louis has now won four series out of four to begin the season, taking two of three in each. After winning the opener in Arizona, they look primed to make it five for five. The redbirds have gotten great starting pitching so far this season. Their starters now have a record of 8-1 this season and the Brad Penny signing is already starting to look like a genius move by general manager John Mozeliak. Penny is 2-0 in three starts, having gone seven innings in each and he has only yielded a total of three runs. When you add him to Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter, St. Louis has a dominant top three in the rotation. With that trio, they only need Kyle Lohse and rookie Jaime Garcia to be decent, and Garcia's been far better than that, only allowing one run in his first two starts. Lohse will get his third shot tomorrow and even though he's the only St. Louis starter without a win, he hasn't pitched poorly either. He receives a tough match-up in former Cardinal Dan Haren, but if Lohse can keep the club in it early, he should have a chance to notch a "W" as the Arizona bullpen has struggled over their last five games with an ERA over 15.00.

In this country, everyone gets the benefit of a doubt. Especially athletes. We look at them as role models and heroes, even though this is usually unfair. Most of them are just normal people like you and me, who just happen to be talented at playing games. However, most of them won't be looked down on as long as they're just decent people. That being said, I've been just as guilty when it comes to turning a blind eye towards my own teams and players. When Ben Roethlisberger followed his first Super Bowl victory with his disastrous motorcycle accident, I called him an idiot, but other than that, I just hoped that he had learned from it and would make better decisions in the future. After his second Super Bowl win, a civil rape suit was brought against him by a woman from Nevada. Her story was very weak with no charges being filed and the fact that is was a civil suit made it look like she just wanted some money. So I stuck by him and it looked even worse for this woman when he decided to counter sue for defamation.  The big story now is that he's been accused of raping another girl and even though no charges were filed, details keep coming out that make Roethlisberger look worse and worse. He met with commissioner Roger Goodell last week and it seems like a suspension is imminent. The only question is for how long. My guess is somewhere between two and four games, but Goodell could decide to do something drastic to make and example of him. And while that would dramatically impact my team's chances to make the playoffs next season, let alone win the Super Bowl, I can't say that I'd be that opposed to it. After all, who knows what Ben will do if he wins another Super Bowl? Rob a bank? Hold a hospital for terminal children hostage? Genocide? At this stage, it sounds less and less like hyperbole.

The Steelers seem to have sent Roethlisberger a pretty clear message by trading Super Bowl XLIII MVP Santonio Holmes to the Jets for next to nothing (5th round pick). Holmes has had a few run-ins with the law since being drafted and with Pittsburgh being a classy organization over the years, they had clearly tired of their image being sullied by Holmes' antics. Trading the team's top wide receiver should show Roethlisberger that no one is untouchable. He should know now that it's shape up or ship out. I just hope he chooses the former.

Back to baseball to end on a lighter note, here's Chan Ho Park showing the language/culture barrier while defending his poor outing to begin the season. Classic.

Final Four and the Blues' Last Stand

The most recent time that I had a team in the Final Four that  I really cared about,  I was a freshman in college. UCLA made it for the past three seasons before this year's collapse, and while I've cheered for the Bruins, I've never considered them one of my teams. The Duke Blue Devils are, however, one of my teams. I've cheered for them since they came to prominence in the early 90's alongside my father who enjoyed coach Krzyzewski's coaching style as well as his passion.

I would still cheer for my local teams like Mizzou and my personal favorite, SLU, over Duke, but that's about it. I've also found links between my local teams and Duke. My hatred of the Kansas Jayhawks transferred quite nicely to being a Duke fan when KU's coach, Roy Williams, left Kansas for North Carolina. My hatred for the Kentucky Wildcats for knocking out SLU in their last NCAA tournament appearance is also eased by a particular March Madness moment for which I will always have Duke to thank (see below).



And while I am very optimistic about both SLU and Mizzou's chances to become great in the next few years under Rick Majerus and Mike Anderson respectively, Duke is still and might always be, my best chance to see one of my teams win a national championship in college basketball. I'm ecstatic to have a real rooting interest in the Final Four again. I've also despised Bobby Huggins on the behalf of SLU when he was with Cincinnati and Mizzou during his one year with Kansas State, so now I can have a truly universal dislike for him between my top three teams. I'm hoping he gets a "T" just like he always did when he came in to play the Billikens. I took my little sister Natalie to see Cincy one year and told her prior to the game that their coach was going to get called for a technical foul. She was impressed when fewer than five minutes into the contest, coach Huggins gave a ref an earful causing him to turn and tap his hands together. Huggins has calmed down a bit since those years, but if a bad call goes against him, I still wouldn't put it past him. And as all you Duke haters know, we always get the calls (Rolls eyes).

As for the Butler and Michigan State game, I doubt anyone had two five-seeds meeting up in the Final Four. Both have great stories. MSU is really shorthanded after losing their best player, Kalin Lucas, in the second round of the NCAA tourney. But with great coaching from Tom Izzo, the Spartans persevered and managed to knock out a Cinderella in Northern Iowa and squeak by Tennessee. Izzo's coaching is what gives Sparty the best chance tonight. His six Final Fours since 1999 are the most among all NCAA coaches and it is difficult to argue that this can be a coincidence. Izzo is a great motivator for his players and can adjust game plans with the best of them as well.

As for Butler, a lot of people are calling this Hoosiers, the College Years. There's no way it can be as bad as another piece of Americana gone to college.  Butler's coach, Brad Stevens, doesn't have Izzo's experience going for him, but he's still no slouch with the clipboard. He's gone 86-14 in his first three years with the Bulldogs, which is one of the greatest starts in college history. He's also gone to the dance every year since being hired. The Bulldogs might be looked at as an underdog overall, but they're actually favored in this game by a point, and with good reason. Butler shouldn't have been a five-seed. They were ranked 8th in the coaches poll and 11th in the AP poll coming into the tournament. This means that they were deserving of at least a three-seed if you do the simple math. Four teams for each seed, so the top four teams should all get a one, the next four should get a two, and the next four should get a three. Butler wasn't even the bottom team of the 3-seed tier, but because of their conference, they got passed up for a team like Georgetown, who comes from the power conference known as the Big East. How'd that work out again? Butler's still playing and the Hoyas were knocked out before you could say Ohio Bobcats. Oh, and Georgetown was ranked 14th and 15th in the polls. Should the pollsters should get more of a look from the NCAA committee next year, perhaps?

The Bulldogs are playing six miles from their campus, which I'm sure you'll hear at least 11 times during tonight's broadcast on CBS and an extra seven times during the second game if Butler wins. This will get overplayed, but it really is a home game for them. Even if there are Indiana and Purdue fans there, who do you think they'll cheer for? Big Ten rival MSU or hometown Butler? Yeah, that's an easy choice.

My picks are going to be from the heart as well:
Duke 73 - Virgina 68
Butler 82 - MSU 74

The Blues are all but done now when it comes to the playoffs. They are six points behind Colorado for the last spot with five games remaining. Had they not blown yet another lead on Thursday in Nashville, they could be a much more realistic four points out. Even with missing the postseason again, it would still be nice to see a strong finish.

The team has a lot of potential for next year and a lot of money to spend this offseason, even though a fair amount should go towards locking up restricted free agents like Erik Johnson, David Perron, and Alex Steen. EJ's really come on since the Olympics and has more goals than any Blues defenseman since Chris Pronger scored 16 in the 2003-04 season. Perron still needs to be more consistent, but has shown off his magic hands this year and that he can be physical and all over the ice like Detroit's Pavol Datsyuk. As for Steen, I would crown him the Blues' MVP for the second half of the season. He's always playing hard and always scoring. He's finally starting to live up to that first-round potential that Toronto thought he had when they drafted him. Anyone still complaining about giving up Lee Stempniak for him, even with Stempniak's 27 goals? Steen will play in 68 games at most this year due to an injury back in the fall and still has one more point this year than Stempniak. I'll certainly take that. I'd also love to see us bring back Paul Kariya for a cheaper price with the way he's come on, but I'm not sure if he would sign for around the $2 million that I have in mind. Making a run at Ilya Kovalchuk would be nice to see as well since owner Dave Checketts has told the media that the Blues will have a very active offseason.

I still plan to be as obnoxious as ever at the game tonight, even with our playoff chances being bleak. There's a lot to cheer for as a Blues fan in the coming years, even if it's not this year. LET'S GO BLUES!

On another hockey related note, if you've noticed how inconsistent suspensions have been in the NHL over the past few years, believe it or not, they really do have a system to decide it. My buddy Mike sent me this from a blog called Down Goes Brown. It's certainly worth your time if you're a hockey fan.