Saturday, December 22, 2007

12/22 (Very) Quickie: CBB Hoops, FAU, Simpson, Blazers, MMA-weather, More!

For the however-many of you checking the blog or your RSS feed today and this holiday weekend...

CBB: What a day today! We get what is arguably the non-conference game of the year (Georgetown vs. Memphs), another battle between Top 10 teas (Michigan St vs. Texas) and a rematch of last season's national title game (Florida vs. Ohio State).

CFB: Florida Atlantic beats Memphis in the New Orleans Bowl (which I overlooked yesterday in my weekend bowl preview). QB Rusty Smith and FAU looked solid when I saw them play Florida; it's a great win for FAU in their first-ever bowl game. Howard Schnellenberger once again proves himself a program-maker.

NFL Tonight: Cowboys vs. Panthers. The most intriguing storyline is how many fans will show up with Jessica Simpson heads on sticks to try to "distract" Tony Romo.

NFL: Taylor to Pro Bowl? Word around Jacksonville (where I am this weekend) is that Fred Taylor will get Willie Parker's Pro Bowl spot after Parker asked Taylor to fill the role after his injury. (Taylor was also first-alternate, but Parker's gesture was extremely gracious.)

NBA Stud Team: The Blazers win their 10th straight. Yes, 10th! And they beat the Nuggets, a division leader. Heading into the league's Christmas Day milestone, is there a bigger surprise this season than the Blazers' success? No, including the Celtics' success.

Stud Player: Kevin Durant scores 27
in Sonics beat Raptors. Hadn't talked much about Durant since the season's first weeks, but he is quickly establishing himself as every bit the scorer he was projected to be.

MLB: Josh Hamilton traded from Reds to Rangers. Hamilton was one of the great baseball comeback stories of the decade. Apparently, the Reds felt they got enough of the "back."

MLB PED Scandal: Sid Fernandez and Pete Rose Jr. were linked to Kirk Radomski. You'd think Rose would be linked to... gambling, naturally. As for El Sid: Steroids? That would explain some things... if a side effect of steroids was turning you into a fat-ass.

More CFB Bowl News: If you had Tennessee winning their bowl, you might want to reconsider now that three starters are academically ineligible for the game. Three bowl games today. Enjoy!

Boxing: "MMA-weather?" Is Floyd Mayweather going to switch to MMA? Needless to say, it would be the biggest news in the sport's history. And, to amp it up, Mark Cuban is going to back him through his HDNet Fights promotional company.

AP Male Athlete of the Year: Tom Brady. Thank you, AP! How much more sensible and smart is that pick than, say, Brett Favre. Brady is a deserving winner (although, like SI, the AP would have been better served picking the Florida starting 5 as AthleteS of the year).

(AP Female Athlete of the Year: Lorena Ochoa. Didn't the AP once pick Marion Jones as their Female Athlete of the Year? Do they want to say anything about that now?)

Deadspin Xmas Poem, 2nd Annual: If you missed it on Deadspin yesterday. So which DSCommenter.blogspot.com contributor is going to send me the poem working in all the main DSCommenter names?

-- D.S.

2 comments:

A.P. Boynton said...

It would have been better served to select Roger Federer as athlete of the year.

Matt T said...

Thanks for the shoutout in the deadspin poem.

Good stuff.