Monday, February 28, 2011

02/28 Quickie: Oscars, Knicks, Combine

We had a ton of fun over at Quickish last night during the Oscars. Check out the best-of here and see the entire stream here.

Here is the biggest sports implication: Given the Oscar haul for "The Fighter" -- BOTH "Best Supporting" awards -- where does that nudge the ranking of the movie among all sports movies?

(BTW: Released a really cool little tech enhancement this weekend: "Endless Scroll." That's where you get to the bottom of the page and more posts load effortlessly. Theoretically, you could go back all the way through the month, through the launch and see the month of test posting I did before Quickish launched. Yes: Re-live that Cliff Lee signing! Or Urban Meyer quitting!)

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Knicks beat Heat in Miami: It was kind of awesome last night when everyone en masse switched from the Oscars to the final minutes of the game.

That final big play -- Carmelo guarding LeBron and, contrary to his rep as a soft defensive player, forcing him (arguably fouling him) into an awkward shot that Amare swooped in and rejected -- was as good as regular-season NBA gets.

Welcome your new meme: The Knicks are legit; the Heat can't beat good teams in big games.

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RIP Duke Snider. As a Brooklyn person -- not just recently, but going back more than a decade (not to mention an entire half of my family going back in Brooklyn to the early 20th century) -- Snider holds a place that neither Mays nor Mantle has. I remember rolling through Flatbush -- god, it had to have been 14 years ago -- and having my late grandfather point out Snider's old house. A bit different than reading profiles of Jeter's mansion in Tampa.

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College Hoops Weekend in Review: BYU. I am fully 100% aboard the bandwagon, to the point where I was watching that BYU win over SDSU on Saturday afternoon and completely convincing myself -- regardless of what happens between now and a week from Sunday -- that I will be picking BYU not just to make the Final Four, but win the national title. BOOM. This is either the most brutal Quickie jinx I have ever applied -- or its exorcism.

Good for VA Tech -- they earned that win over Duke. And even if Duke is a wee bit overrated, it's a win that should put VT on the right side of the Bubble (as long as they don't screw it up against inferior comp over the next week).

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NFL Combine: I'm still drafting Cam Newton over any other QB and find his long-term prospects to be thrilling. But this isn't the NBA, where a single player can turn things around -- even an elite QB. If he does go to the Panthers or Bills or Bengals or Redskins, it's on the team to match futher talent upgrades with a game-plan that maximizes his talents, not fit him into some orthodoxy of what an NFL offense should be. If this sounds remarkably like what I said about Tim Tebow a year ago, it's because the same rules apply -- and Newton is even more talented.

Oh: That Oregon State guy putting up the 225 bar 49 times was absolutely riveting.

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I don't want the month's end to slip by without thanking you, sincerely and effusively, for your support of Quickish, which saw a really big jump in traffic from January's hot start to February.

More about the future tomorrow, but I have audacious goals for March: Doubling February's number of visitors. I think between some new social-sharing tools we're launching imminently, some distribution partners, some good PR, expanding the editorial staff and -- of course -- the NCAA Tournament (which is like Quickish's ultimate moment of the year), it is doable. And I'm going to be counting on you to help spread the word.

What's the point in doing this if the goal isn't to go all freaking in and build an incredible experience that every fan would enjoy? As excited as things were with January's launch and February's growth, I am more excited about Quickish than ever.

I'm really really glad you're in this with me and thank you again for your support.

-- D.S.

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