Friday, December 16, 2011

12/16 (Bowl Mania) Quickie

A DanShanoff.com holiday tradition! Match the name of the bowl with its sponsor. (Alas, the "Famous Idaho Potato Bowl" was ineligible due to its eponymous naming convention.)

Thursday, December 15, 2011

12/15 (CP3) Quickie

First, check out Quickish's "Best Sportswriting of 2011" list if you haven't seen it yet.

Next, the big news of the morning/day: Chris Paul being traded from the Hornets to the Clippers, where he will team up with Blake Griffin and instantly become the best point guard-big man combo in the league (unless/until we get Deron Williams and Dwight Howard).

Blake Griffin said it best: LA is going to become "Lob City," which might instantly take a spot as the coolest nickname in the NBA. The notion of the historically woeful Clippers as having more cachet -- and more top-level talent? -- than the Lakers is astonishing. It's not true, but the fact that we can even have an interesting discussion about it is more important than where it nets out.

Almost as important, it fixes the league's disastrous decision to rescind last week's trade of CP3 to the Lakers -- this is possibly a better deal, but if nothing else, it is roughly just as good. Given that the Magic seem intent on keeping Dwight Howard around as long as possible (if I'm the Lakers, I offer Gasol and Bynum for him, hoping that trumps the Nets' Lopez + every draft pick left this decade), the season seems settled enough to really get rolling.

More:

Tebow vs. the Pats: Highly recommend this read from Yahoo's Les Carpenter about the real secret to Tebow's success (hint: It's not religion -- it's... gasp... working harder than anyone else in the league.) My gut is that the Broncos are going to get steamrolled. But! I'm vastly overestimating the Patriots' defense, which is the worst of any playoff contender. I'm holding out that it stays close and even reserving a tiny piece of hope for a world-imploding Broncos W.

CFB Jobs: Wow, that Pitt (now Arizona State) coach is a jerk.

More later. Rolling on Quickish all day. Check it out! (And tell friends!)

-- D.S.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

12/14 (Best Of) Quickie

Yesterday, we published the "Best Sportswriting of 2011" list over at Quickish. Would love if you'd take a look. Some terrific folks are on there (with many, many more that produced awesome work this year -- captured on Quickish every day -- we couldn't fit on the list). If you're looking for some great writing to tide you over between now and the end of the holidays, definitely check it out.

-- D.S.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

12/13 (Closing In On Year's End) Quickie

Working on a terrific list for Quickish of the best "longish" reads of the year. In the meantime, this Dan Wetzel column about Tebow comes closer to articulating my own Unified Theory of Tebow than almost any I have read in the 4+ years of Tebowmania.

More fun year-end stuff coming over the next week. Sorry for the short post. More later.

-- D.S.

Monday, December 12, 2011

12/12 (Tebow...Again) Quickie

Ironically, Tim Tebow leading the Broncos to yet another seemingly miraculous come-from-behind win was only my second-favorite moment of the weekend.

My favorite sports moment of the weekend -- perhaps of 2011 -- was shortly afterward when I was sitting there with Mrs. Quickie and my older son Gabe watching NFL Red Zone Channel and irrepressible anchor Scott Hanson gave a shout-out to Gabe for Gabe's notion of calling RZ's day-ending touchdown montage the "touchdown massage." It was as jaw-dropping of a moment as I've had this year. I have it on video -- I'll try to upload it today. But it was so awesome.

Meanwhile: So...yeah...Tebow. This ride we're on now -- and it's not just Tebow fans or Broncos fans or NFL fans or the mere curious or even late-comers to the bandwagon, but pretty much everyone right now -- is as fun a stretch as I think any player has had in recent NFL history. (That it is Tebow, of course, makes a huge difference.)

I'm not sure what's left to happen -- I mean, beating the Patriots next week (and even the Tebow-haters will cheer him for beating the Pats) would be the most improbable feat yet, but here's how things are breaking for Tebow these days: The Broncos could get waxed by 40 and they still are firmly in control of their division and their shot at the playoffs. So, honestly, who cares what happens as long as the Broncos make the playoffs.

You can scroll down to get my take on the insane weekend -- Braun, Indiana hoops, Cincy-Xavier -- but the other big news this morning is Chris Paul potentially going to the Clippers. I don't know why the Clips are so reluctant to give up Eric Gordon AND their 1st-round pick in next year's draft from Minnesota, a sure-fire Lottery pick in the deepest draft in years. It's Chris Paul. To team with Blake Griffin. Even if it's just two years, who cares? It's a combination of relevance plus the opportunity to be a playoff team -- if not a title contender -- that doesn't come around very often, certainly not for the Clippers.

Oh, and by the way: My fantasy team will end the season on a 3-game losing streak that saw me go from first place to out of the playoffs by a smidgen. My opponent this week shattered the league's single-game scoring record, so at least I wasn't even close. Shouldn't have crowed about my success a month ago; it was all downhill from there.

-- D.S.