Do we really want to find Bobby Fischer?

After work and my workout, I felt like doing some pleasure reading. So I brought along the book, "Bobby Fischer Goes to War" with me to Panera Bread and finally started it ( I bought it a couple of months ago). It's the story about Fischer's victory over Boris Spassky in the World Chess Championship, breaking the Soviet stronghold on the title. If you're not familiar with Fischer, he is a chess genius but also crazy and eccentric. Unfortunately, his upbringing didn't help. He never knew his biological father, who was a genius, and his mom, also a genius, left him before he was done with high school because she couldn't stand Bobby anymore. She didn't help much as she was famous for her outbursts at US Chess Federation meetings, arguing that Bobby should be given more money. I'll keep you posted, it's been a good read so far.

So I watched the figure skating finals last night, and just as I said, it was full of drama. You would think that after so many practices and run-throughs, the skaters could do these routines in their sleep. But yet it amazes me every Olympics how the pressure gets to the women. I think of figure skating as being in a symphony band. With so many practices, how can you mess up??? But yet it happens, everytime. Just like last night, you have one skater who does the "winning" program and the others in that last group who make mistakes. 1988: Katarina Witt, 1992: Kristi Yamaguchi, 1994: Oksana Baiul (although Nancy Kerrigan was a close 2nd), 1998: Tara Lipinski, 2002: Emily Hughes, 2006: Shizuka Arakawa. What do they all have in common? They won, although Arakawa didn't do everything she had planned, but it was so much better than anyone else, she "won" the event.

Poor Sasha Cohen. I was rooting for her, not just because she was American, but because of how she found herself and became more committed and wouldn't settle for 2nd. And after Tuesday night, everyone thought this was her year. She had fire in her eyes. Last night, she looked like a deer in highlights. The rap on Sasha is that she can't put 2 good programs together, and unfortunately it rang true again. I give her credit for fighting back to win silver, although that was a gift as she rightfully described it. Irina Slutskaya, the Russian favorite, skated like she was asleep on her feet, just no energy. But how could Cohen go from wanting it to hoping for it??? I got a sense she would be tight after the short program. She was so happy about her short program, and rightfully so, but in her interview afterward, she wanted to dwell on it. When Thursday's free skate was mentioned, you could see her get tentative, not wanting to think about it. If I was on a mission for a gold medal, my answer would be, "Tonight was a great start, I did everything I wanted to out there, but tonight is only one step. Thursday, everyone will be gunning for me so I need 2 good days of practice, then I've gotta go win it, I haven't won anything yet." But that's just me.

Now, there was talk Cohen was hurt going into the free skate, but she skated in the exhibition tonight. Yeah, the leg doesn't hurt as much when there's no pressure.

Here's what I'm watching in hoops tomorrow (2 weeks until Selection Sunday, can you believe it!!!!):

• Syracuse at Georgetown. Great rivalry, my favorite game to watch in the 80s when Rony Seikaly and the Orange went up against Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo of the Hoyas. A Syracuse win would get them to 20 wins and most likely an NCAA berth.
• Arkansas at Tennessee. An Arkansas victory almost assures them of an NCAA berth. The SEC is making a late push for 5, possibly 6 bids.
• Michigan at Ohio State. Michigan is in right now. A win in Columbus gets them in for sure. Ohio St. is playing for a Big 10 championship and a #2 seed in the NCAAs.
• Northern Iowa at Southern Illinois. This has turned into a must win for the Salukis, who have struggled the last couple of weeks. Northern Iowa could use a win also after getting blown out by Bradley at home.
• Miami at Kent St. Clearly the biggest game of the day. Ok, maybe not in the country, but it is for 1st place overall in the MAC. Miami is going for their 8th win in a row.
• Kentucky at LSU. Kentucky needs a quality win. LSU needs to win on the national stage to prove they are a good team. I really like LSU, I've said that all year. Are they mature enough to win big games, they've lost some close ones they were in control of.
• Nebraska at Texas A&M. This is an elimination game in the Big 12, the loser is headed for the NIT. The winner isn't assured of anything but hope.
• Iowa at Illinois. Illinois got shut down at Iowa City in their first meeting. I think Illinois wins big, unless Iowa can actually prove that they play basketball outside of Carver-Hawkeye.
• Kansas at Texas. I've been looking forward to this game all week. We'll get to find out how good Kansas really is, and Texas as well. Texas must win to stay in the hunt for a #1 seed.
• Nevada at Utah St. A game that won't be on tv, but a game in which the winner will probably get an at-large berth barring a collapse down the stretch.

Full day of hoops tomorrow, how can you not love it?!?!?!

Sadly, we may know the reason why Lance Armstrong and Sheryl Crow broke up. Sheryl had surgery to remove a tumor from her breast that was malignant. Her prognosis is good and I hope she can make a good recovery.