Author: clay

Categories
New Orleans Hornets

Around the Rim: Changing of the guards?


1. Jason Kidd. Meet Jason Kidd 2.0
It’s hard to say that a guy who misses a triple-double by one rebound is playing second fiddle to a youngster in the point guard department, but last night it was true. Jason Kidd finished with nine rebounds, 10 assists and 14 points, but, like they say, he scores last scores best. At least, that’s the motto Chris Paul is living by after his lay-up with less than three seconds in the game gave the Hornets an 84-82 victory over New Jersey. CP3 has been playing out of his mind over the opening act of the season and last night was just one more chapter in the book. Paul paced his boys with a team-high 29 points to go with six rebounds, seven assists and three steals.

2. The Chosen `One’

The Nuggets proved the old adage of “two is always better than one” again last night as Denver’s dynamic duo combined for 59 points during their team’s 122-100 victory over Cleveland. LeBron James wasn’t the only Cav on the court, but he was doing all the heavy lifting and it didn’t work out to well for the defending Eastern Conference champs. Behind LeBron’s 27 points, Ira Newble was the second leading scorer with 17 and it took him 15 shots to get that. In all, Cleveland shot the ball pretty well, 36-86 for 41.9 percent, but the Nuggets were rolling. Keyword being Nuggets, accent on the s. Anthony finished with 22 points and Iverson racked up a game-high 37. And if three is a crowd then Denver has a fetish for hordes because J.R. Smith came off the bench to chip in 29 more.

3. Those aren’t “Booos,” they’re “Boooz”
Carlos Boozer must be getting coached up by Mike Gundy on the side because there’s no doubt he’s a man! The Booze went off for 32 points and 10 rebounds, giving him his seventh double-double in eight games. Perhaps the most important number of all is the team’s six wins in those eight contests. Last night, Boozer led the Jazz as they savaged the poor Kings 117-93. As if having a 6-foot, 9-inch, 266-pound of man meat at your disposal isn’t enough, try throwing in a side of coach-hating Russians to the mix. The previously disgruntled Andrei Kirilenko almost got himself a triple-dip with 15 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.

Monday’s Player of the Day: Allen Iverson vs. Cleveland 35 min, 37 pts (FG: 14-20, 3FG: 2-4, FT: 7-8), 3 reb, 8 ast, 2 stl

Tuesday’s Game to Watch: Los Angeles Lakers (3-2) @ San Antonio (6-1)
It’s been a while since the LA/SA rivalry was really heated, but make no mistake about it, these two teams still can’t stand one another. Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich might not come out and say it, but they’re still fuming over Phil Jackson’s “asterisk” comment in regards to their 1999 championship which was won in a shortened season. But when you tune into this game, the real animosity to concern yourself with is between Kobe Bryant and Bruce Bowen. Bryant is a point-hungry scoring machine and he’s been known to throw a few cheap shots in order to get his fix. Unfortunately, nobody keeps perimeter scorers jonzing more than Bowen and his tenacious D. These two have exchanged plenty of heated words in the past and both take this match-up as a personal challenge. Bring your cups with you, because this could get testy.

Buzzer Beater: We can kind of understand why Bulls fans would start chanting Kobe Bryant’s name when the Mamba comes to town. After all, it’s not too hard to want a guy who you’re watching him put on a clinic first hand. But what’s up with Chicago fans chanting his name during a game against the … Raptors?

The United Center sellout crowd of 22,467 lost its patience midway through the third quarter. With each turnover and each missed shot, the chorus of boos grew louder. Ditto for the chants of ”KO-BEE … KO-BEE … KO-BEE …” Then in the fourth quarter, the remaining fans passed the time by doing the wave.

Really, there was no other way to react to the Bulls’ embarrassing, humiliating — pick an adjective, any adjective for bad — 101-71 loss to the Toronto Raptors on Saturday night.

Oh, yea; 1-5 record. Right.

Categories
General Sports

Jaws and T.K. with their modern day `Who’s on first?’ routine

Who said that Tony Kornheiser and Jaws would never have any chemistry?

C’mon, it was the Niners and the Hawks; you didn’t expect us to be paying attention to the game, did ya?

Links:

[Awful Announcing]: Um Guys, You’re Arguing About The Same Exact Thing

Categories
College Football

Honestly Joe, we don’t even remember your apology


A pretty embarrassing situation went down in the Mountain West Conference over the weekend. Wyoming head ball coach Joe Glenn, who guaranteed victory earlier in the week, got a wee frustrated after Utah tried to run up the score by attempting an onside kick while winning 43-0. But he didn’t throw his clipboard or let little wads of spittle smack a ref in the face as he unleashed his unhappiness. Nope, he just decided to calmly give the Utes a finger (guess which one) and on Monday he apologized for it.

I met with my team on Sunday and apologized to them for the gesture I made toward the Utah bench during the game,” Glenn said in a statement.

“I also want to apologize to all fans for that action. Football is an emotional game, and I let my emotions get the best of me,” he said. “I felt it was appropriate for me to let my team and all fans know that I am truly sorry for that emotional moment.”

Mountain West Conference officials planned to review videotape of the game. According to the conference handbook, obscene gestures or language are subject to at least a reprimand for a first offense.

After the loss Saturday, Glenn said he didn’t remember giving the finger.

“Honest to God, I can’t even respond to it,” he said at the time. “Maybe, I don’t know.”

It was an embarrassing week for Glenn.

He had publicly guaranteed a win over Utah (7-3, 4-2 Mountain West Conference). Late in the game, the crowd of 42,000 in Salt Lake City began chanting “guarantee.”

“I got emotional last week and got my big Irish mouth going and made the guarantee,” Glenn said. I’d probably like to have it back now. I wouldn’t do it again. Find the crow and I’ll eat it.

Couple things. First, you “met with my team on Sunday and apologized to them”??? Shouldn’t you be apologizing to a completely different locker room of players?

Second, don’t make guarantees if you don’t want to get hell for it. Especially when you’re on the road. We don’t care if you’re sitting in an igloo in the artic circle with just a polar bear. That bear better be a rug if you guarantee a victory in front of him. You got exactly what you deserved.

Third, did you seriously expect to get away with the whole wrapped-up-in-the-moment, amnesia defense? Football coaches remember every second of every game and every play on every down, but yet he can’t remember what happened after the onside kick? About the only person dumb enough to buy that would be someone dumb enough to guarantee victory on the opponent’s turf.

Links:

[MyFoxAustin.com]: Wyoming Coach Apologizes For Giving Finger To Utah

Categories
College Football

Macho Harris’ crib gets the Swiss cheese makeover


Virginia Tech’s Victor Harris, better known to pigskin junkies as “Macho”, was involved in a shooting early Sunday morning. Well, at least his apartment was.

Nobody was injured during the hail of gunfire and police who responded at 3:49 a.m. are still trying to put together the pieces of what exactly happened. But we do know that Harris lives alone in the apartment, although three other students were in his apartment at the time, and we do know that if we were Harris, our nickname would be changed from “Macho” to “Titty Baby” following this incident.

An initial investigation by officers recovered evidence that seven shots were fired from a 9-millimeter handgun, and a single shotgun blast hit the face of the apartment building, the release said.

An attempt was made Monday to interview Harris after Tech’s football practice, but the athletic department didn’t make him available for interviews. Tech coach Frank Beamer didn’t have much information on the incident.

“We’re still gathering information on that,” Beamer said. “They were just in there minding their own business the way I heard it. I don’t know a whole lot about it myself other than what (players) told me. They were there and then all of a sudden stuff started.

Uh, duh, coach. Of course they were just sitting in there minding their business when the 9-milimeter and shotgun calling cards came knocking. You need to be worried about what they we’re doing before the bullets hit the walls. And if this isn’t some sort of retaliatory action, then Hokies fans are about as backwards as they come. Virginia Tech is coming off a smashing of Florida State; seems like if there would be a drive-by going down, it would at least coincide with a losing streak. Even then we’d say it’s probably a tad overboard. Hell, Bobby Bowden only gets “For Sale” signs stuck in his yard after the Seminoles stink it up.

Links:

[DailyPress.com]: Shots fired into apartment of Va. Tech’s “Macho” Harris

Categories
Philadelphia Flyers

Hockey fight! Hockey fight! Hockey fight!

Our reactions were a bit delayed in getting this video of the Riley Cote/Aaron Asham fight posted, but kinda like our participants’ duel, it’s totally worth the wait. It takes a second for these guys to get going, but once they do, it’s like they’re holding jackhammers to each other’s face.

Links:

[The700Level.com]: Riley Cote, Bam! Kapow! Splat!

Categories
General Sports

Frank Caliendo’s Barkley is "t-r-b-l"

We’ve been dying to get this footage to you since we watched it last Thursday on Inside the NBA, but, unfortunately, we had to wait until sportsrapp did all the hard work. If you can make it through another Frank TV promo then there’s some really funny stuff in store for ya. Make special note of the Chuckster’s reaction to Frank Caliendo’s impersonation of him.

Everyone keeps talking about the Charles Barkley imitation, and we do admit that it’s dead on, but we were blown away by the loquacious manner in which Caliendo personified the rare and enchanting qualities of a man whose journeys took him from small town La Mesa, California, all the way to a glorified hardwood pedestal which was chiseled of the finest marble from the rural lands of Egypt offered unto their gods of sound and fury. It was a trip befitting a young, muy alto, red headed, lost wanderer traversing across the boggy, rodent-laden marshes…

Categories
NBA General

Around the Rim: Seattle’s Bust



Still choking after all these years.

1. Missed it by that much
The rooks came out to play last night and gave the Bad Boys all they could handle, outscoring them by eight points over the final 24 minutes, but it wasn’t enough to get the SuperSonics their first win of the season. Kevin Durant struggled again from the field (7-20) but managed to finish with a team-high 19 points while Georgetown’s Jeff Green racked up 17 points and eight rebounds off the bench. But unless you have a guy named Michael on your team, a 15-point deficit at the end of the first quarter is usually pretty tough to overcome. Paced by Rip Hamilton’s 32 points and Antonio McDyess’ 1996esque 15 and 15 double-double, the Pistons held on for a 107-103 victory. And if a 0-7 start, the worst in franchise history, isn’t bad enough, the Sonics can look forward to an upcoming road trip that includes five games in seven days.

2. Badda-Boom! Badda-Ming!

Life is good for Yao Ming. In 2008, the big fella is set to earn close to $14 million in salary alone, on Friday he got the better of end of the deal in the Yao-Yi showdown and on Sunday against the Bobcats he put up a season-high in points. Yao had 34 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three blocks as the Rockets squeaked by Charlotte 85-82 in the Bobcats den. Houston is now 6-1 on the year behind Yao’s double-double average (22.3 pts, 10.8 reb) and his 2.7 blocks per game. Memphis and the Lakers are the only two tune-ups left on the Rockets schedule before they head to San Antonio for a big-time, early-season face-off against the champs.

3. Wizards break losing spell
The Wizards finally got off the losers’ bench as all five starters finished in double figures as Washington rolled over Atlanta 101-90. It took a while for Washington to grab that first victory of the season after losing their first five games, but Atlanta has a way of making every team look like winners (unless you happen to be the Suns or Mavs). Gilbert Arenas was 5-of-15 from the floor for 18 points, but Caron Butler (24 pts, 8 ast) and Antawn Jamison (23 pts, 15 reb) more than made up for his off shooting performance. Unfortunately for Washington, Miami also grabbed their first victory, so the Wiz still own a share of the title “Worst Team in the East.”

Sunday’s Player of the Day: Richard Hamilton @ Seattle 41 min, 32 pts (FG: 11-21, 3FG: 3-6, FT: 7-9), 4 reb, 5 ast, 4 stl

Monday’s Game to Watch: Cleveland (4-3) @ Denver (4-3)
2003 was a pretty good year to be drafting superstars. Well, at least the bookends of the top three selections panned out successfully and on Monday we get to see the old friends renew their rivalry once again. The Nuggets are riding a two-game win streak after dropping three consecutive games. The duo of Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson have led the team in points and assists in every game thus far while Marcus Camby ranks in the top five in rebounds (14.3) and blocks (3.14) per game. LeBron James is coming off the wrong end of a Finals sweep and his team has been a bit funky so far, but other than that, he’s already in postseason form. Last night in a win over the Clips, LBJ had 22 points, five rebounds, eight assists and six steals while Big Z went 18 and 17 upside their heads in a 103-95 win.

Buzzer Beater: Last week, Gilbert Arenas was begging for your vote. No, Agent 0 wasn’t trying to do early All-Star campaigning. He was trying to become the ” Best Celebrity Blogger” at this year’s Weblog Awards and he needed your help to do so. Well, enough NBA fans responded to the Hibachi’s pleas and he just beat out Wil Wheaton of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame by .9 percent of the vote. We’re happy for Arenas’ big victory, but what makes us even more excited is seeing that Mark Cuban only rang up a measly 630 votes (2.4%). Listen Cubes, quit trying to be the best celebrity dancer or the best blogger and just get your boys to stop being the best postseason floppers in the Association.

Categories
College Football

The Pirate Master is not a happy sailor


In case you thought that Mike Leach’s harsh comments didn’t extend beyond the four walls of the team locker room, guess again. The Texas Tech football coach went off in another press conference tirade on Saturday as he questioned the officials’ official officiating during the Red Raiders 59-43 loss at Texas.

Last year in this incidence, I bit my tongue and I regret it,” Leach said. “This whole, ‘Do everything status quo’ and ‘Oh my gosh, the conference might fine you’ – you know, sometimes it’s just the right thing to do. Sometimes nothing’s going to get changed until someone steps up and says something.

“I don’t know if this will impact anything or not. I want to make sure that I do my part to impact it the best I can. I’ve got players out there – we work hard, we try hard for years, days, weeks. There’s no defense if somebody doesn’t stand up and say something. People have to know. People have to be aware, and people have to quit being afraid of fines. People have to say something.

Leach was really ticked about a third quarter drive that saw numerous official reviews and calls go against Tech.

Unless this can change, the Big 12 Conference needs to take a serious look at having out-of-conference officials officiate the Texas-Texas Tech games and perhaps other games where there is proven to be a bias by officiating,” Leach said. “It’s unfortunate, and does the bowl picture enter into it? I don’t know. Does the money enter into it? I don’t know.

“Am I condemning the crew? Hell, yeah, I’m condemning the crew.”

Leach said Tech got “atrociously bad calls” in a 35-31 loss to Texas in Lubbock last season, in which the Longhorns erased a 21-point deficit.

“Perhaps there’s [a bias] for Texas,” Leach said. “Perhaps somebody that’s higher bowl-wise gets preferential treatment. I don’t know. I can’t guess the motivations, but I’m convinced it needs to be solved. If we get nicked like this again, we’ll have another talk.

Leach was even defensive about a referee who resides in Austin and who just so happens to have also officiated the game.

That can be argued in a variety of directions,” Leach said. “Maybe it is something as simple as guys sitting over the water cooler in their office, in Austin, talking to their friends about the great game they are going to see, the great players they are going to see. Perhaps a preconceived notion has developed how it’s going to come out.

Players, fans, staff, media, refs: nobody is safe from irate Big 12 coaches this year.

Links:

[Statesman.com]: `Incompetence or bias?’
[DallasNews.com]: Tech’s Leach rips officials after loss to Texas

Categories
College Football

Jump on in, the dumpster sludge feels great this time of year!

We know that different people have different hobbies and we try not to judge other people too harshly based on what they do in their free time, but when it comes to Boston College safety Jamie Silva we’ll make an exception. Dude, you’re gross.

Ewwwww!

So, because Silva is a freak, some sideline reporter has to jump into a dumpster and fish around for hair gel? Hey, at least it is somewhat refreshing to know that the women aren’t the only ones at ESPN who get treated like, ahem, garbage.

Links:

[Awful Announcing]: Quint Kessenich Is A Team Player, Jumps In Dumpster

Categories
College Football

Tim Tebow is running over the Heisman competition


After the Gators suffered their third loss of the season and slipped in the SEC East standings, it appeared as if the Ducks’ Dennis Dixon had slid into the role of the nation’s best dual threat quarterback and the leader in the Heisman race. Well, seven touchdowns and a romping of the Ol’ Ball Coach have a way of making someone forget about `quality losses’ to Auburn, LSU and Georgia.

Tim Tebow did everything but throw a touchdown pass to himself during Florida’s 51-31 thumping of the Gamecocks. Superman racked up 304 yards and two touchdowns on 22-of-32 passing to go along with his five rushing scores and 120 yards on the ground. The sophomore signal caller has scored a rushing touchdown in 11 consecutive games which is a school record and the longest such streak in the nation. His 19 rushing scores are the most for a quarterback in SEC history and he smashed some guy named Emmitt Smith’s school record for rushing touchdowns in a single season, which was 14.

It’s pretty hard to imagine that a major school can actually survive when only one player is responsible for almost an entire offense, especially in such a difficult conference, but that is exactly what the Gators are doing. Against South Carolina, Tebow accounted for 424 of Florida’s 537 total yards of offense! That’s 80 percent!

And this is nothing new for Urban Meyer’s winner. On the season, Tebow has personally accumulated 3,250 yards of offense (2,532 pass, 718 rush) and 42 touchdowns. Florida as a team has 4,502 yards and 53 scores on offense. In other words, Tebow’s good for 72 percent of their yards and 79 percent of their scoring. That’s as close to a one-man-band as you’ll find in today’s game.

The insanity of the season should level the playing field, seeing as how there will probably be no clear-cut `best player on the best team’ excuse for voters to fall back on. This is a good thing because we were starting to hear some `Todd Boeckman for Heisman’ chatter. Instead, this could be the year in which the trophy is actually given to truly the best player in the nation. And in that case, you can start engraving Tim Tebow on the name plate right now.

Links:

[AJC.com]: Tebow has career-high 5 rushing TDs to lead Gators