iggymcfly

I haven't watched a basketball game since Dallas got eliminated, but I've kinda been following the Suns/Spurs series anyway, and just looking at the box score/recap, I think the blame for this loss has to go to D'Antoni. I mean if you've got Steve Nash who's got a bad back, is generally in rough physical shape and you play him 46 minutes, play Marion 46 minutes, and play Bell 47 minutes, it shouldn't be a big surprise when the team wears out and collapses down the stretch. Yes, I know they're just going to blame the suspensions, but that doesn't say anything about why Jalen Rose was left to rot on the bench. He's only 34, just last year, he was averaging double digits for the Raptors, and he's got all the playoff experience in the world. How could you think it's a better idea to run a 6-man rotation than to give him some minutes? I was saying at the end of the season that D'Antoni should get coach of the year, because I knew Avery wasn't that good, and I hate the idea of making Coach of the Year a "most improved team" award, but f*ck that. I'd like to make an official retraction. You're new coach of the year: Gregg Popovich!

I don't know how my team's so bad this year. Pujols is absolutely sleepwalking through the season as his OPS is 200 points below his career low and 350 points below where it was last year. Based on this season's stats, he's not even a Top 200 ballplayer. Dontrelle Willis who was supposed to be my ace has an ERA of over 5.00 and a WHIP of over 1.50. Harang who was the best pitcher on my league-leading squad last year also has an ERA of over 5.00 this year. Felipe Lopez and Alfonso Soriano are also both having much worse seasons than usual at ages when they should be peaking. Basically, all my big players are just underperforming for no reason right now. I've got tons of talent, the vast majority of it between the ages of 23 and 33, but I'm still getting no production. Nothing to do but just wait and hope it turns around I guess.

Grrrrr. Had to set the hockey game to record again tonight. Watched all of regulation, and then realizing I'd only set the timer to extend 90 minutes, figured I'd better record some more in case the game went long. While I do that, I accidentally end up switching to one of the ESPN networks and see Barry Melrose with a "Senators 4 Sabres 3" in front of him. So I watched 90 minutes and then spoiled the outcome of overtime. Oh well, at least the Senators look to be moving by Buffalo to the Stanley Cup Finals. I don't mind so much spoiling the outcome of one game in the conference finals, knowing there's likely a whole nother series to look forward to. Go Ottawa!

Had to record the game and just finished it now, but I just want to say that the Sens are playing some tremendous hockey right now. The Alfredsson/Heatley/Spezza line is just a thing of beauty to watch and the whole team's playing very good defense. I don't know if they can beat Detroit or Anaheim, but I feel really, really good about their chances of beating the Sabres.

Daniel Alfredsson >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> You

Ottawa may not have a great seed this year, but since about the middle of December, they've been playing better hockey than anyone in the NHL. They finished the season 39-9-8 and destroyed teams in Pitt and NJ that were significantly better than the Rangers squad that Buffalo was scrapping to get by. If you really think that Buffalo is better than a coin-flip to make the Finals, I think you're deluding yourself.

Milo was likeable? Really? I must have missed that one. Between asking everyone about their feelings every 10 seconds when they're supposed to be working on a national crisis, his childish fighting with Morris, and his incessant brooding over his schoolboy crush, I was glad to see him go. If you're point's just that the writing's gone to hell on 24 though, I'll certainly agree with that.

Ray Emery's season stats GAA: 2.47 SV%: .918 Ryan Miller's season stats GAA: 2.73 SV%: .911 OMG! The horror! How will Ottawa survive this terrible mismatch!

Saying Ottawa only has "one line" is ridiculous. They're 4th and 5th lines were the whole reason they beat New Jersey. They outscored the Devils' scrubs something like 6-0. Trust me, the Senators are at least as deep as Buffalo is. And Emery's been playing pretty decent in the playoffs. I think Ottawa will beat the Sabres in 6. Red Wings probably win in 5. It just kind of feels like they've been on cruise control so far as they played way better late in their series than they have in the early games. I think they pull it together to get by Anaheim decisively.

I like 2+2 a lot, but if you're not looking for "gambling types", I guess a board based on gambling isn't your best bet. I will say that the "sporting events" section there is completely different from the "sports betting" folder and gets a lot of action, but I can't vouch for the quality, as the only time I posted there was right after Michigan got screwed out of the title.

How can I do better than Princess Cunt? That just has a ring to it. I guess it does sound a little on the heelish side though. In all seriousness, I think you should just stick with Princess Leena at this point. Everyone recognizes you under that handle instantly. I hate trying to have to play the "X poster used to be Y poster" game to keep track of who everyone is all the time. I think at this point, people just think of you instead of the name anyway. No one thinks, "oh her name has princess in it, she must be trying to start shit".

Can't really argue much here. Everything is close enough to where I have it, that I can see where you're coming from. One thing though, I really think Florida's overall resume is much better than USC's at this point. Even using your rankings, Florida beat #11 LSU by 13, #18 Tennessee on the road when they had Ainge and were much better, and #30 Georgia. The only loss on the year was to a still very good #10 Auburn team on the road. USC does have the one big win over Arkansas, but McFadden was injured that game and only had 9 carries, and the Razorbacks weren't the same team at all. It's like comparing the Rutgers that barely beat UNC in the opener to the team that beat Louisville last week. Outside of that, the only ranked team the Trojans have beaten is #25 Nebraska, and that would have been a lot closer if Callahan had a decent gameplan. Add in the loss to unranked Oregon State, and I think their overall resume's significantly weaker than that of the Gators. Sure, USC looked better than UF last night, but over the course of the season, Florida's accomplished a lot more. Still though, the rankings were pretty good overall. You got Nebraska and Clemson back in there, and dropped Cal, Tennessee, and Texas about as far as they deserved. Auburn should be down a little further and LSU should be up a little further, but it's probably better than what the AP and coaches will come out with this week.

Ooh, that's tough that you got backdoored on the Hawaii game. Last I saw it, Hawaii was rolling. Don't get too discouraged about a 2-4 week though. Even winning sports bettors will go through stretches where they miss 6 and 7 games in a row at some point.

Just in case you're interested for comparison's sake, I've got a whole picks thread here. 0-2 so far this week, but I've got lots more picks to go.

Michigan was pretty dominant again this week as Minnesota was never really in the game at all. Are you sure that you want to have two one-loss teams over them? I mean for as good as Texas has looked this year, who have they beat? Iowa State and that's it. Also, Texas got beaten pretty soundly at home by OSU, and I really think that if the Wolverines got the Buckeyes at home this year, they'd beat them. Glad to see Georgia Tech in the Top 20 though, even though I'd probably put them a little higher.

The funniest part about this as that SMU already lost to a Sun Belt team this year in North Texas, 24-6. The teams from that conference are so schizophrenic that you just never know what they're going to do. (Yes, I used that prior fact to bet on Arkansas State last week and well..... I felt stupid.)

Not bad. I actually like LSU at #3; if I didn't feel obligated to keep them behind Auburn, I might have them there myself. The only thing far off enough to even argue with would be Texas. They didn't just lose, they lost by 17 at home. That kind of loss, to me means you're not a real contender for the national championship, especially when they haven't beaten a ranked team yet.

I would love to know how someone can write this article and come to the conclusion that Howard should be the MVP. I mean reading it, I thought, wow, that's a really persuasive case for Pujols, I'd think almost anyone who read this would be swayed, and then at the end, he comes out and says he thinks Howard should be the MVP. WTF!

Maybe he took broadcasting lessons from Keith Jackson? I don't think I've ever seen a worse call in my life than what he did in the Rose Bowl last year.

I actually agree on the 9/11 stuff. People are emotional and easily manipulated. The way the media was reacting now, you'd think the bombings just happened. For three days, it covered the entire front page of the newspaper. I just don't see the big deal about an anniversary I guess. It's nothing but a day on a calendar.

The point is that Auburn won every game they played in a major conference agains tough competition, and they had no chance to win a national title. That's controversial almost by definition. Who cares if they didn't "look good" against Virginia Tech. It's pretty hard to get motivated to play at your absolute peak when you know you just got ratfucked out of a shot at the national title. I think Utah deserved a shot too. They were extremely impressive all season long, and I think they could have given USC a hell of a game. 2004 was a perfect argument for a playoff. When you've got four legitimate teams that haven't lost at the end of the season (five altogether), no bowl system is going to crown a true national champion.

Auburn didn't go undefeated in 2003. They went undefeated in 2004. 2003 was the year that LSU and USC split the national championship, which is why Vern said "by avoiding a split national championship, every season but 2003 they've avoided real controversy."

You think undefeated Auburn being left out of the national title game for an Oklahoma team that wasn't even on USC's level "avoided controversy"? You're crazy. They need a plus one game at the bare minimum, and they really need an 8-team playoff.

I'm depressed too. I just found out my DUI's probably going to go through, and I'll likely be on probation for a year. I was thinking things were going to be moving forward really well, but it's looking like that might not happen right now.

I like that you have the all-time records thing up there. That's neat. I doubt I take over first in overall wins this year, but I will pass Teke for best winning percentage. One more thing to shoot for anyway.