Thursday, October 14, 2010

10/15 Quickie: Doc, Freak, Favre, Ben,
Buckeyes, Ron-Ron, Midnight, Unsilent

Today's Names to Know:
Roy Halladay and Tim Lincecum!
Brett Favre and Ben Roethlisberger!
Brutus Buckeye and Bucky Badger!
Bobby Petrino and Gus Malzahn!
Texas and Nebraska!
Ron Artest and Gilbert Arenas!
Midnight Madness and Duke's title defense!
"Unsilent Majority" and Sarah Schorno!
And plenty more.

Pretty terrific sports weekend ahead:

*Doc vs. Freak: The headliner is baseball -- not the NFL or college football -- and, surprise, doesn't involve the Yankees. It's the NLCS Game 1 match-up between Roy Halladay (coming off a playoff no-hitter) and Tim Lincecum (coming off a 14-K shutout performance that was arguably just as good as Doc's).

*Favre Watch: Will he play against the Cowboys, with that fussy arm problem? It's not an inconsequential question; Favre has an unmatched "ironman" streak of starts on the line. My bet is that he tries to start, is as ineffective as he was at the end of the Jets game, then sits down. Record intact, but he saves the wear-and-tear on his body. It would be another typical "me-first" moment for Favre.

(My favorite part about Favre at this stage of his career is that I no longer get hate email from Packers fans when I rip on him, Vikings fans know in their heart that they agree with me and the rest of the fans completely agree.)

More NFL Week 6: My 5 Favorite Storylines
*Game of the Week: Ravens at Pats.
*Big Ben is back: Expect him to throw for 400.
*Do or die: 1-3 Vikes vs. 1-3 Cowboys.
*Ultimate "prove-it" game for 3-1 Bucs: vs. Saints
*The bye week with fewest fantasy implications? Bills, Bengals, Cards, Panthers.

*CFB Weekend Preview: Some interesting games on tap with potential to shake up the national-title outlook, headlined by Ohio State at Wisconsin, in the toughest game the Buckeyes will have this season. Anyone outside of OSU fandom NOT rooting for OSU to lose? (Pick: Wisconsin. Damn you, Quickie jinx!)

More: Arkansas at unbeaten Auburn (pick: Auburn, in a wild shootout between Bobby Petrino and offensive guru Gus Malzahn)... Texas at Nebraska in the Huskers revenge game (pick: Nebraska, but not by much)... Upset Special: Florida at home over Mississippi State. (Ha. Ugh.)

*Looking ahead to 2012: Denard Robinson as a senior against what will be a typically awesome Alabama defense will be one of the games of the year.

*Leave it to Ron Artest to say something kind of awesome: He says the best player in the NBA is Kobe. He says the 2nd-best NBA player is Kevin Durant. He then refused to go deeper on a ranking, with the glaring omission of LeBron. Presume Artest has been added to LeBron's "list."

*Gilbertology: Injured, for real this time. He played 3 minutes last night before leaving with a groin injury -- a real one, not a faked knee injury (which didn't offend me nearly as much as other kneejerk scolds in sports media). Given the fragile state of his health, I suspect the Wiz shut him down for the rest of preseason, not unlike the way the Heat are treating Dwyane Wade. (By the way, in those 3 minutes he was solid: 3 steals, a rebound, an assist and a block.)

*As predicted, the NBA's new rules about technical fouls for excessive griping are causing players to... gripe. Nevermind the players actually restraining themselves (and, yes, I know the refs have been too touchy about it), expect the rule interpretations to re-correct in the other direction, allowing some whining, but certainly not the KG-LeBron variety. (But what happens when your biggest stars are your biggest gripers?)

*Michael Jordan says he could have scored 100 points in a game under today's rules. MJ is smoking something, but the claim will undoubtedly lead to some great analysis from the basketball blog world about whether this is actually possible.

*College Hoops: Midnight Madness! The favorite is for Duke to repeat -- and why not, given that they return Kyle Singler, Nolan Smith and the Plumlees, then add incredi-frosh PG Kyrie Irving. But I think they'll miss Jon Scheyer -- and Greg Zoubek even more. I usually am a sucker for picking the defending champ to repeat, but I think Duke WON'T repeat. I'll take Michigan State.

*The Arizona Fall League starts today, with the biggest headliner: Bryce Harper.
*Biggest congrats to Jack "Unsilent Majority" Kogod and Sarah Schorno on their pending nuptials this weekend.

-- D.S.


2 comments:

Goberry said...

I'm not a tOSU fan (went to BC) and am not rooting for them to lose. Would love to see the SEC have a one-loss champ, Oregon get a loss, and the other unbeatens lose in their CCG's, opening the way up for an all Big Ten National Championship Game between unbeatens tOSU and Sparty.
Would love the whining that would come out of the South.

Precourt said...

You are smoking something. If Kobe can score 81. Jordan could score 100. If Jordan says he could do it, he could do it. What has he ever done on the basketball court that would make you doubt him? He imposed his will on anyone at anytime. Jordan couldn't score 100 points against one of these bottom feeder NBDL teams posing as NBA teams? Come on.