The Week That Was

The second seasons for both the NBA and NHL began this past week, and each had their fair share of surprises. In the NBA, four of the eight road teams won Game 1 of their series. The Chicago Bulls put in an inspired effort, led by stud Derrick Rose's 36 points and knocked off the Celtics in overtime, 105-103. Hopefully, the Bulls can take another game in Boston but even if they don't they at least assured themselves a split. It will be imperative for them to sweep at home if they want to pull off the upset, because the chances of them winning another game in Boston are slim. The biggest upset of the weekend was the Philadelphia 76ers defeating the Orlando Magic. The Sixers were down by as many as 18 in the third quarter but staged a furious rally in the fourth. Andre Iguodala hit a shot at the buzzer to give the Sixers the win, and atone for missing two free throws a minute earlier that could have put the Sixers ahead. Other road teams that won were the Houston Rockets over the Portland Trail Blazers in a rout, and the Dallas Mavericks storming from behind to beat the San Antonio Spurts. The heavy favorites to reach the NBA Finals, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Los Angeles Lakers had no trouble in their Game 1's.

The Washington Capitals had one of their best seasons in franchise history but it appears one thing hasn't changed, they still choke in the playoffs. The Caps dropped the first two games at home against the New York Rangers and now face a must win at Madison Square Garden tonight. The Capitals switched goalies after starting goalie Jose Theodore performed poorly in a 4-3, Game 1 loss. They inserted rookie goaltender, Simeon Varlamov, for Game 2. Varlamov only gave up a goal, but was outplayed by Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. Caps star Alexander Ovechkin hasn't scored a goal yet and it is imperative for the Caps that he get off the schneid tonight.

News broke last week that the Washington Wizards are poised to name Flip Saunders their new head coach. Saunders has previously been the head coach of the Minnesota Timeberwolves and Detroit Pistons. Saunders teams have consistently done well in the regular season but faltered and fell short of expectations in the playoffs. Saunders is known as an offensive mastermind, and it is believed he can make the Wizards even more potent on offense than they already are. I think Avery Johnson would have been the better hire. The Wizards haven't lacked scoring punch all of these years, they have lacked defense. I think Johnson could have instilled that toughness. I don't think Saunders is a bad hire, and I think he can get the Wizards into the playoffs, but if the goal is to win championships I think Johnson would have been the better choice.

My flag football team, Ron Burgundy, dropped their first game of the season yesterday, 24-2. The game was closer than the score indicates as we had many scoring opportunities but couldn't punch the ball into the end zone. The team we played, The Show, were very good, especially this one girl they had who burned us for multiple touchdowns. We play again on Sunday, thankfully at 3 PM, as yesterday's 9 AM start time was not fun.

The Week That Was

In just one week the NCAA Tournament field has been whittled down from 65 to 16. The case could be made that this year's Sweet 16 field is the greatest Sweet 16 field of all time. For the first time ever all of the #1, 2, and 3 seeds have made it to the Sweet 16. The lone remaining "Cinderella" team is #12 Arizona, a premiere program. One benefit of all the top seeds making it through the first weekend is the quality of the games we will get to see this week. Every Sweet 16 game has a chance to be really good, even Louisville/Arizona. Some people might say that the first weekend was boring due to the lack of upsets. That is hogwash. Those people are casual fans that don't watch college basketball and only watch the buzzer beaters in the tournament. It has been beaten into the general publics head that Tournament games end with buzzer beaters and upsets. It is not always like that, while certainly it was more rare this year, it is not like in other years the Tournament has always been filled with upsets. Many games came down to the wire, many top seeds were challenged and there were exciting finishes all 4 days. I loved the first four days the Tournament had to offer and am really excited for the final four rounds.

North Carolina looked pretty impressive in their two wins over Radford and LSU. Carolina played without Ty Lawson against Radford and ran them out of the building. Shortly before tip-off against LSU it was decided that Lawson would start. While he struggled in the first half he proved to be the difference maker in the second half. As I feared LSU was a more than capable opponent for Carolina and a tough draw for the Heels to have to face in the Secound Round. The game was back and forth before Lawson began to look more like himself and took over. Ed Davis also provided a spark off the bench, Tyler Hansbrough played well, and Wayne Ellington continued to shoot lights out. Danny Green has been strugg a ling as of late and he needs to break out of his funk starting Friday night against Gonzaga. On Thursday and Friday, I will have previews and predictions for all of the Sweet 16 games and then the potential Elite Eight games.

Sunday was a momentous day for me as I played in my first competitive athletic event since college. It was the kickoff of flag football season as my team, Ron Burgundy took on the Ninja Turtles. I avoided playing on the defensive side for every series except one so I was able to focus my skills on the offensive side as the team's center. While to many the job of a center gets overlooked, he is one of the most crucial players on the field. Without him being able to properly snap the ball to the quarterback a play can never materialize and eventually become effective. Then if you have the quarterback lining up in the shotgun position every play it makes the center's job that much harder. Every snap was spot on and our offense was able to move the ball pretty well. We lost our starting quarterback early in the second half when he went down with a knee injury. Drew Verbel stepped in and played well, hitting Mike Schulz for a TD pass to give us the win 16-14. Mike made a great catch as he had to tap both feet inbounds and grab the ball over the defenders head. Our season continues this Sunday when we meet Doomsday Machine.