Survivor winner can't make fire

Oh how embarassing would that be! I've watched some of the finale tonight in between Indiana/Southern Illinois and I caught the part where 2 of the final 4 contestants had to make fire in order to stay in the game. After an hour, neither had been able to start their fire, so they were given matches to help them out. Are you kidding? Oh, but it only got better. One of the contestants ran out of matches without their fire!!! Finally, the other of the two got her fire going and snapped the rope over the fire to end the tiebreaker but my goodness. I think it's fair to say she's not going to win. If she did, Survivor would lose all credibility.

Anyway, some thoughts from the weekend:

• Pittsburgh's lack of defense against Wisconsin surprised me. Granted, Wisconsin was on fire. First Alando Tucker, then Brian Butch, and finally Cammron Taylor. But they got good shots and Pitt didn't seem to have much intensity defensively. Another problem I see Pitt having in the future is their lack of true point guard depth. When Levance Fields got in foul trouble, Pitt had no other true point guard. Now Ronald Ramon played well, but he needs to play off the ball so he can get his jumper going. Aaron Gray was impressive despite having strep throat. Brian Butch, you've made a believer out of me. I've ridden you hard in the past for your habit of hanging around the perimeter and chucking 3s. But you established yourself on the block, then expanded your game. Butch is finally living up to his McD's All-American status.
• Butler/Purdue was the best game I saw this weekend. Purdue played well, having to deal with Carl Landry in foul trouble. Purdue came at Butler with spurt after spurt and it looked in the last 5 minutes or so Butler was worn out. But Butler was gritty, they kept fighting back and ironically it was Brandon Krone, who was 1/12, made a driving layup and got fouled, the grittiest play of the game. That gave Butler the lead for good. Butler will need to have a miserable Horizon league performance to not make the NCAAs. While Wisconsin and Ohio St. are definitely the top 2 of the Big 11, Purdue will be in the mix for the #3 spot.
• Kentucky's young players are starting to play better. Jodie Meeks made some big shots and provided the offense for UK as Joe Crawford struggled and Randolph Morris was in foul trouble. Louisville was not impressive at all. Ugly shooting to say the least. They're going to struggle in the Big East, more than I thought.
• Don't overlook Texas Tech in the Big 12. With Kansas's inconsistent play and Texas's youth, Tech could be the #2 team in the Big 12. Good guard play, good defense, and you'll know they'll be well-prepared. The first 10 minutes against Arkansas was a clinic.
• Ohio St. dominated Cincinnati, and they probably could've played better. I thought they sleptwalked through most of the game, they didn't look into it. But they were solid defensively and efficient offensively. Plus it doesn't help when you have the second coming of Patrick Ewing in the paint intimidating the opposition. And, UC was so cold they almost lowered the windchill in Indianapolis themselves.
• Indiana/Southern Illinois was even uglier than I thought it would be. SIU can't afford to have the refs call the game tightly, which they did, limiting the effectiveness of SIU's aggressive man defense. Another thing SIU can't afford is to see a 1-3-1 defense. 1-3-1s are easier than 2-3s and matchup zones in my opinion. Flash high/low, then the weak side wing player back cuts to make the back side defensive wing player play somebody, then swing the ball. The funny thing about this game was, Indiana needed it more than SIU.
• While shopping for Christmas presents, I stumbled upon two interesting things. First, you can now practice your putting while sitting on the toilet. No kidding, front of the box is a guy sitting on the toilet, pants down while putting on a very small putting green into the hole. I should've asked how many of these have been sold? I mean, one part of your body leaning over the putt while the other is about to umm, deposit a package going the other way. I think about golf all the time, but while I'm on the toilet is not one of those times. Second, you can now buy your very own Luke Skywalker or Darth Maul lightsaber. When I saw these, I instantly thought of the video of Star Wars kid hehe.
• Oh, and the Santa Claus at the mall was way too skinny. Plus, his hair was hanging out of his hat, he didn't look very believable.
• Ok, what would you do in this situation. Packers up on the Lions 10-6, about 7 minutes left in the game. Lions have 4th and 3 on the Packer 5, closest Lions have been to the end zone. So what does Rod Marinelli (head coach) do? He kicks the field goal?!?!?! Dude, you're 2-11, what do you have to lose? Maybe he is really playing to keep the #1 pick so he can choose Brady Quinn. (Packers won 17-9)
• What other sport goes to commercial when there are 50 seconds left in a quarter. NFL games are just one long commercial I swear. And unless you get DirecTV, you can't flip to another game when your hometown team is playing. Annoying.

Last week before Christmas vacation!!!!