It's Just A Football Game

I am not mourning the Bears loss to the Colts in the Super Bowl like some, including one of my superiors at work. Sports, especially pro sports aren't worth it. Now if Miami had just lost in the national championship, that might be different since I went to school there. But pro sports, no way. I'm disappointed, yes. But hey, there's always next year.

And I'm not ready to give up on Rex Grossman. Yes, he didn't play his best game, but give the guy a break. He just finished his rookie season basically and he did pretty well. I actually think Da Bears should've thrown the ball more in the 2nd and 3rd quarters instead of being conservative and running the ball. Kansas City and Baltimore tried doing that and they lost. Da Bears threw the ball downfield all year and had success, they should've gone play action since the Colts were putting 8, sometimes 9 guys in the box to stop the run.

I expect Da Bears to make another run next year.

Ok, I watched a lot of hoops today (and am still watching as I write), so let's go through it all:

• Marquette/Georgetown. This was Georgetown's game, but Marquette would answer every run. Finally, in the last 5 minutes, Marquette ran out of answers. Georgetown has gotten a lot better in the last month or so. Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert had great games and the Hoyas made 3s, and made 3s make the Princeton offense that much tougher to defend. For Marquette, Dominic James really struggled, probably the worst game I've seen him play. They needed to make outside shots to make up for their lack of size, and they failed to make shots consistently. Marquette was 4/21 from 3.
• Congrats to Dayton for winning their first true road game of the year. They did it after falling behind St. Bonaventure 17-3. That would've been a really bad loss.
• Bad week for Virginia Commonwealth, losing to Hofstra and Old Dominion. The Colonial is tough, but VCU's at-large hopes if they don't win the conference tourney are fading.
• Villanova almost blew a 16 point halftime lead and their NCAA hopes at Seton Hall, but hung onto win. Curtis Sumpter had 21 and 10.
• Another Big 10 home squeaker for Ohio St., getting by Purdue. Jamar Butler was 3/7, Ron Lewis 2/6, that's not good enough. Another guy whose play has fallen off is Daqean Cook, who was just 2/7 today. OSU was just 3/17 from 3. They're not playing very well, the Big 10 is that weak.
• At least Illinois/Indiana II was better basketball than the first meeting. Armon Bassett continues to prove he's one of the more underrated freshmen players in the country. Roderick Wilmont is still hot, and DJ White had 5 assists to go with his 15 points. Illinois still doesn't have a signature win. Chester Frazier and Trent Meachem both didn't score. That's not good.
• I'm not surprised West Virginia beat UCLA. UCLA was without Darren Collison so they went against John Bielein's D without an experienced point guard.
• My Redhawks are above .500 for the first time all year, going to 12-11, 8-3 in the MAC after beating Ball St. 66-44 today. Usually Miami/Ball St. goes down to the wire, but Miami jumped out to a 26-8 lead and cruised from there.
• Usually a 7 point lead in overtime is good enough to win, but not for Texas Tech which gave it up, then lost in the second overtime to Oklahoma St. Fouls left Tech with no size for the extra 10 minutes and it cost them. Tech was defenseless against Mario Boggan, who won it with an offensive rebound and score. It's the first time a Bob Knight coached team has lost 5 straight since 1972 and right now they probably wouldn't get an NCAA bid if the selection was today. Texas is licking their chops at their rematch with Okie State Monday night since the Cowboys have to go to Austin after playing 50 minutes today.
• Virginia Tech 84, Virginia 57, go figure. The ACC is #1 in the power ratings now.
• What's up with the SEC? Alabama lost at Mississippi, who's in the NCAA hunt. And LSU knocked off Arkansas. Plus, Tennessee took Vandy behind the woodshed. Is the SEC that good or that mediocre?
• Big win for Air Force at the Pit. Right now, I think the Mountain West would get 3 in: Air Force, BYU, and UNLV.
• To know how good of a game Creighton/Southern Illinois was, all you need to know is Creighton shot 54% at SIU and lost. SIU shot 65% from the field, in the defensive-minded Valley?!?!?! Even though Creighton lost, I realize now why Josh Dotzler is so important for them. He didn't score and only had 3 assists, but he initiated the offense, allowing Nate Funk to play off the ball. For SIU, Matt Shaw and Jamaal Tatum were brilliant, hitting big shot after big shot, most of them contested. Despite the 38 combined turnovers ( a result of the intensity of the game), this was a high-quality game.
• The largest crowd ever to see a game at the Nutter Center saw Wright St. upset Butler by 12. Now, I would've told you last night Wright St. was going to win for 2 reasons. First, Butler just played at Cleveland St. Thurs. night. Despite blowing them out, they still had to travel, by bus most likely, so they were going to have tired legs. Second, Butler made 20 3s Thurs. night, so they were probably going to be cold tonight. Just like in golf, it's tough to follow up a really low round with another one. Butler couldn't make anything from the outside, a result of both of my reasons. Even AJ Graves, 97% foul shooter, missed one tonight. DaShaun Wood for Wright St. is the best player you don't know. He was always a great slasher and defender. This year, he's added the jump shot and the 3 ball, and he's unstoppable. Tonight, he went for 30 points (23 in the 2nd half), 7 boards, and 6 assists.
• Xavier 87, George Washington 58, at GW. This was the X I was looking for all year. 4 guys in double figures, X shot 53% from the floor. Where was this performance all year?
• Another big game against a good team, another poor shooting performance from the outside by Kentucky. Credit to them for hanging tough after falling behind by 15 earlier and playing tight defense (and being helped out by Noah and Horford getting in foul trouble for Florida). But they are just not good shooters and I don't see them beating anyone they're not supposed to. Florida didn't play great, but getting out of a very hyped up Rupp with a win is always good.

I watched Barack Obama's declaration speech today and you can't help but like the guy. I don't agree with everything he says, but I like him, something I can't say about the other major Democratic candidate, and I'm not talking about Joe Biden hehe

Just think, if Duke loses at Maryland tomorrow, they're on the bubble. At least I think so.