Billikens Basketball is Back

On Wednesday night, the St. Louis University Billikens did something that no Atlantic-10 team had done in six years. They won at Xavier.

The little kid in me wanted to do what I did as an eighth grader when the Billikens won an NCAA tournament game against the University of Massachusetts. When SLU made it to the second round of the big dance, I had just gotten home from middle school and watched the last ten minutes or so of the game. After they won, I sprinted around my house yelling, slipped on the hardwood floor in the hallway and hit my knee, which hurt quite a bit. I then got up and continued running around the house in circles yelling. I was simply more cautious when I got in the hallway. I was at work, so I didn't do that, but I certainly wanted to run through the halls. SLU went on to lose to Kentucky in the second round and I hate them to this very day for that very reason. I at least got to have reverse revenge on the Wildcats through Duke, though.

What's reverse revenge? It's bragging rights that you didn't know about when you became a fan of a team. I became a fan of Duke because my dad liked them and because my Aunt Missy's father, Papa, was a basketball manager for them many years ago. What I later found out is that one of the most famous college basketball games of all time involved Duke beating Kentucky on a buzzer beater by Christian Laettner to advance to the Final Four. I have enjoyed reverse revenge on the Cowboys via the Steelers and the Brewers and many others via the Cardinals as well. It's not as good as seeing it happen and not needing Wikipedia or Youtube to pull it up, but it works well enough to shut up most people. But I digress.

I've added reasons to hate the Wildcats over the year, like how they ran a good man out of town in Tubby Smith and replaced him with a twice-proven cheater, in John Calipari. Maybe they'll run Calipari out of town if he gets a Final Four vacated there like he did at Memphis and UMass. Kentucky also seems to have a hand in keeping my brackets from winning every year. I still have placed high enough to make the money the last two years, but haven't won. And by money I mean play money because betting real money on such things isn't legal. Now, back to the Billikens!

SLU hasn't had an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament since the Larry Hughes season that Kentucky ended. They went on a crazy run to win the 2000 Conference USA tournament, allowing them to lose to current head coach Rick Majerus' Utah squad, but that was an automatic berth. Everything is coming full circle now for the Billikens. The man who knocked them out of their last tournament is trying to lead them back there and their next big test is on the road against the last team that they defeated in the NCAA tournament: You guessed it. Frank Stallone. No, just kidding, it's UMass like I said earlier. But how often do I get to make references to old SNL bits in a sports blog? I think it's allowed since it's from roughly the same time period as the NCAA tournament game I'm referencing.

SLU's RPI jumped nine spots up to 42 in the country after Wednesday's win over Xavier. If they can knock off the Minutemen on Saturday, SLU would take the tiebreaker against one of the four schools that they are currently tied with for the conference lead before coming home against a very beatable St. Bonaventure team. Due to the Xavier victory, UMass isn't a must-win, but it certainly would be nice for the Bills to keep their run going before coming back home to Chaifetz Arena, where they lose very rarely and springboard SLU's season towards an at-large NCAA tournament berth that they've been anticipating for over a decade.

May Tebow Be With You

It's been a week and I'm over the Steelers loss to the Denver Tebows, er...Broncos. It was painful to watch, but the reality was, with the team as banged up as they were, they just weren't going to be able to make another Super Bowl run this year, and I suppose I'd rather have them lose to a silly sideshow than a team I actually hate, like the New England Patriots.

We didn't deserve to win the game, with the way we played. After our second drive, our offense pretty much shut down until the second half, which allowed the Broncos to build a two touchdown lead on their own field. Our secondary looked like it belonged in the Alamo Bowl. How a team allows over 300 passing yards on just 10 completions is beyond me. Sure, with a lot of our defensive linemen hurt, the pass rush isn't going to be as good, but that doesn't directly result in our corner backs and safeties not being able to tackle. I can't really explain how Tim Tebow keeps winning, I just know that he does. I hope he will at least continue it this week. The Patriots have 13 players listed as questionable going into tonight's game, according to Mike Rodak of ESPN. This gives me hope that more Tebow magic could be available. That, and the fact the Patriots have just a terrible defense. I feel that this game will be much closer than the beat down that took place in Denver, but I feel Tebow might turn back into a pumpkin soon and the carriage ride could be over.

I'm taking the Patriots in this one: 27-20 (Prove me wrong, Tim Tebow, prove me wrong!)

As for the early game on Saturday between the 49ers and Saints, I feel that the matchup probably favors San Francisco. They're at home for one and they have the top rushing defense to pit against the Saints' strong rushing attack. When a top offense takes on a top defense, the defense usually wins. That said, the St. Louis Rams stayed with the 49ers twice and they looked really unimpressive in both games. I still don't feel that they're that good of a team, nor do I feel that Alex Smith is that great of an NFL quarterback. Drew Brees, on the other hand, is a former Super Bowl MVP and if the ground attack doesn't do much, he can still make the offense work by throwing screen passes to Darren Sproles and hitting his myriad of receivers. Brees spreads the ball around like Antonio Cromartie spreads his, well, you know (click the link if you don't know). I have to take the Saints in this one, just due to experience and the quarterback factor.

Saints 38 - 49ers 30

The early game on Sunday I feel, is the easiest straight up pick of the week. The Ravens have finally gotten their home playoff game that has alluded them for years. Their defense is as strong as ever. And the Ravens beat the Texans 29-14 in Week 5 when Houston was at their best and still had Matt Schaub taking snaps. They're now down to their third string quarterback, rookie T.J. Yates, at this point. I just don't see a rookie going on the road against a top defense and being mistake-free enough to come away with this win. I mean, the Ravens don't have a great quarterback either in Joe Flacco, but he has much more experience managing games than Yates does. I think the Texans' only chance is if they can completely shut down Ray Rice and the Baltimore running game. Houston's defense is certainly their strong suit, so they can for Flacco to beat them, they might have a shot. I'm still taking the Ravens.

Ravens 16 Texans 10

For the last game of the weekend, we have one of those classic playoff scenarios. We have the best team, the dominant team, in the Green Bay Packers. They nearly went undefeated in the regular season and simply dominated the NFL this season. We also have the New York Giants, the classic "they're hot at the right time" team. We saw this match up in the NLDS between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Philadelphia Phillies and we know how that ended (See right for emphasis, especially Carp's face).

I'm going to go ahead and ride the crazy train, and pick the Giants on this one. A lot can be said for hot teams and the Packers aren't in mid-season form right now. Their offensive line is beat up and Aaron Rodgers hasn't thrown a pass in a game situation in three weeks. On the other side of the ball, the Giants defensive line finally has all of its starters together, which was not the case when these two teams met during the regular season. Eli Manning has been in the zone lately and the Giants have managed to get their running game going again in recent weeks. I went with the most logical picks last week and only went two for four. Let's see what a little bit of crazy will do.

Giants 27 Packers 25

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...


The Rams announced yesterday that they have hired Jeff Fisher as the team's new head coach. Or should I say Fisher hired the Rams, as he was choosing between them and Miami? Either way, this was a big victory for the Rams. The head coaching pool was pretty thin this season with Bill Cowher and Jon Gruden looking to remain with their television jobs for at least one more year. Fisher was the best candidate available, so it was important for the Rams to acquire him. For the first time since Dick Vermeil left, they've hired a coach who has previous experience in the NFL as a head coach (I'm not counting Jim Haslett since he was an interim and wasn't hired as an actual head coach).

The Rams already have a few building blocks in place with Sam Bradford at quarterback, probably one more good year out of Steven Jackson in the backfield, James Laurinaitis at linebacker, and Chris Long on the defensive line, who had a Pro Bowl caliber year regardless of what the idiot voters said. 13 sacks in a season when your team is almost always behind is impressive. First-round pick Robert Quinn also looks like he could be a solid player in upcoming years, especially with better coaching. The Rams also have the second pick overall in the upcoming draft and quite a bit of cap space.

Fisher chose the Rams because they have an attractive situation, even after yet another abysmal season. I don't expect the Rams to return to the playoffs next year, but if they add more weapons around Bradford (including drafting Justin Blackmon out of Oklahoma State) the one year turn around from a weak team to a power is possible in this league. The 49ers have shown us that this season. The 1999 Rams showed us that more than a decade ago by being the first (and last) team to go from 0-8 in a division to 8-0 in a division in a year's time. I'll give a true prediction on what I see the Rams doing once I see the schedule come out this spring, but for the time being, I'm hopeful that my other team can get back on track.

Photo from prosportsblogging.com

NFL Playoff Preview

There are many sports holidays that I celebrate: MLB Opening Day, the first two days of the NCAA basketball tournament, and the opening of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Today, I celebrate another: the beginning of the NFL playoffs.

Wild-card weekend starts with the Houston Texans hosing the Cincinnati Bengals.I don't see the Texans, who haven't won a single game since clinching their first playoff spot in franchise history, turning it around now. Much of the Texans' success came early in the season when they had Matt Schaub at quarterback. They're now on their third string QB after Matt Leinart got injured in his first outing, and I just dont see rookie T.J. Yates making the plays that a team needs to win playoff game. And sure, the Bengals are also starting a rookie at quarterback, but Andy Dalton was a first-round pick and looks like a starting NFL quarterback. He has poise as well as a talented supporting cast with quick receivers and the rejuvenated Cedric Benson at running back. And speaking of the Bengals speedy receivers, here's my favorite moment of the season from that group:



I'm taking the Bengals 20-13.

The late game on Saturday could turn into a shootout between the Detroit Lions and the New Orleans Saints. The Lions put up 41 points last week at Lambeau Field and now they'll be back inside, which will just add to their speed. The Saints can score with anyone, so I think the difference in this game will be experience. The Saints have been there before and are just two years removed from winning the Super Bowl. The Lions haven't been to the playoffs since I was walking the halls of Parkway Southwest Middle School on a regular basis. I see the Lions putting up a fight and keeping the game close early, I just don't see them pulling it off.
I'll go with the Saints 41-30.

Sunday's games will probably both be a little ugly. The Atlanta Falcons and New York Giants have both been winning ugly for a while. A quarter of the Giants wins this season were against the Dallas Cowboys, which if you watched this season, you'll know that wasn't much of an accomplishment. For me, this game comes down to the experience factor. Tom Coughlin is a Super Bowl winning head coach (and God bless him for that!) and he has a quarterback in Eli Manning that has proven he can win in the playoffs. We're still yet to see if Matt Ryan of the Falcons can do the same and winning on the road won't be easy. I think Ryan's going to have to wait at least one more year before he gets that monkey off of his back.
I'll take the Giants 27-23

The weekend closes in the Mile-High City with the Denver Broncos hosting my Pittsburgh Steelers. I don't like my team's chances of going all the way now that we're down to our third-string running back and Ben Roethlisberger still nursing his high-ankle sprain, but they're not going to lose to Tim Tebow. Tebow and the Broncos offense only managed three points at home last week against the lowly Kansas City Chiefs. Even without Ryan Clark, who will be sitting out due to his sickle cell trait which makes it dangerous for him to play at that altitude, I fully expect the Steelers defense to dismantle Tebow and the Broncos. One of their top offensive linemen will miss the game and their top running back, Willis McGahee, is a bit dinged up as well. The illustration on the right is what I expect to happen this Sunday. Just insert James Harrison for Bane and Tim Tebow for Batman. In this case, it's a metaphor, but I wouldn't put it past Harrison to go for the real thing.

I'll take my Steelers this week, 17-9.

Photo from DC Comics

This Week, My Friends Will Call Me a Traitor

It rolls around every four years. It's a time when I choose my favorite team over the hometown team and get a lot of trash talk from my friends. It's time for the Steelers to play the Rams. And even though the Steelers winning the game would serve both teams best, the Steelers for playoff position and the Rams for draft position, it will still look like a betrayal to many of my friends.

When watching your team, even if it would be better for your team to lose, it's still difficult not to get caught up in the game and find yourself cheering for your team. It happened to me, just last week. I attended the Rams/Bengals tilt with my friends Sam, Matt, and their friend Craig. Going into the game, I certainly was hoping for a Rams loss. Winning could do the Rams no good and I was hoping for Cincinnati to get on a roll heading into their Week 17 match up with the Ravens. But after being in the Ed Jones Dome with thousands of Bengals fans and witnessing the Rams getting hosed by the refs on one of the Bengals' two touchdown drives, it still ticked me off to watch the Rams lose to them. So while it's all well and good for my friends to say they don't care about this week's game, I'm certain that if the Rams were to somehow pull ahead, I'd receive a drove of text messages about it. As for the Rams, I don't expect them to produce much on the field, but maybe we'll get another gem from Harvey Dahl (video below).

The Rams game was excruciating aside from Dahl's choice words, which livened up the stadium. The bright side was, I still had my favorite team, the Steelers, for a fall back. I wore my Pittsburgh cap to the game and didn't get a word of smack talk from any Bengals fans. It's good to have a back up.

I hope the Steelers realize that this week and decide to sit Ben Roethlisberger. He looked awful on Monday night against the 49ers and let's face it, the Steelers' defense alone should be enough to defeat this year's pitiful version of the Rams. Stick Charlie Batch in there. Have him hand of the ball to a solid running back in Rashard Mendenhall and just run it down the throat of the Rams, who have the worst rushing defense in the league (It's worse than the Raptors' new alternate uniforms). The Steelers can probably knock off the Browns in Week 17 with Batch in there too, but I'm fine with Big Ben playing again if he looks better. I just don't think it's worth risking your starting quarterback when in all likelihood, you can win without him, because in the playoffs, they won't win without him.

A quick side note for hockey fans: if you haven't been following HBO's show, 24/7, which follows the two clubs on the way to the Winter Classic (the Rangers and Flyers this year), you probably missed this clip of Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov. I was on the floor the first time I watched it and it literally had me rolling. It's definitely a show worth watching if you have HBO (Or I could just be realistic and say the internet, as I'm sure it's floating around somewhere). Enjoy, eh?!

Football observations for Week 2

First, let's backtrack and look at college for a second. Miami beat 17th ranked Ohio State 24-6 yesterday. While I was happy with the outcome, since Miami isn't going anywhere this season anyway, I'm sad that no one billed that game as the Cheaters Bowl 2011.

A quick look at my teams:
The Steelers should bounce back this week for four reasons. 1. The Seahawks suck. 2. The Steelers are at home. 3. The Steelers turned the ball over seven times last week and if they don't come out angrier than a Nazi on fire, there is something wrong with them. 4. The Seahawks are a west coast team and are playing at 1 pm ET. West coast teams typically do really poorly in that scenario, especially when they have to travel all the way across the country. (Thanks to Dan the Clark for pointing that last one out).

The Rams, unfortunately, are in trouble. Steven Jackson isn't playing (or at least he shouldn't) due to his pulled quad muscle. Sam Bradford didn't look sharp at all in the new offense last week and will be without his favorite target in Danny Amendola. And he's going to have to deal with a defensive line that's far superior to that of the Eagles, and the Philly D-line made Swiss cheese of the Rams'  O-line last week. The Rams' front five have to get better this week, or we could have a blowout loss to go with an 0-2 record. Defensively, the Rams will be without Ron Bartell (probably for the year) and some of their tackling looked like the Rams from the 1-15 season. Sure, Eli Manning isn't going to run circles around the Rams like Michael Vick, but I hope tackling drills were a part of practice this week.

Thoughts and Questions Around the NFL:
Parlay bet of the week. Look for the Redskins and Bills to both start 2-0. We'll name it the Professor Chanderbhan effect, after my DC native friend who recently moved to Buffalo.

When was the last time the Lions were a favorite over a team that made the playoffs the previous year? It was probably before the last ice age, but I expect this to hold up and am taking the Lions over the Chiefs.

If the Eagles are scheduled to play the Browns in Cleveland next year when the two teams meet, will PETA protest Vick going into the Dawg Pound? I'm taking the Eagles over the Falcons this week and the Colts over the Browns. The Colts looked bad last week, but they didn't lose a home game to the Bengals a la the Browns.