Friday, November 02, 2012

11/02 (ATH) Quickie

Some of you -- very some -- will remember that glorious stretch in the summer of 2004 where I appeared on "Around The Horn," accumulating a stellar record of 0-4.

It went no further. I was the "Moonlight Graham" of sports TV punditry (although, technically, being "Moonlight Graham" would be appearing on a single show, and having it pre-empted by a live game running late, pushing the show to ESPNews, where no one would watch it).

Anyway! To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the launch of Around the Horn, being celebrated by the show today, I wrote about that experience for Quickish. Please take a look.

More:

Big weekend in college football: LSU vs. Alabama, although for all the "Game of the Year" bluster, can we just remember that the two teams played a year ago in the regular season and the result DIDN'T MATTER AT ALL.

Things might be slightly more clear this year: If Alabama wins, LSU's national-title hopes are over. If LSU wins, they keep Alabama from playing for the SEC title (as they did a year ago), but the presumption is that an unbeaten Oregon or K-State or Notre Dame would out-point a one-loss Bama in the BCS standings... even if Bama would throttle any of them. One-loss LSU would deserve to be in the national-title game ahead of all but the highest-rated of the O/KSt/ND trio, even if all three were unbeaten.

I wish people would stop talking about USC-Oregon as a big game -- Oregon is going to mop the floor with USC. As if maintaining its position for the national title game isn't big enough (and Oregon really really needs to destroy USC to prop up its otherwise paltry schedule strength), you have to believe Oregon wants to make up for last year's loss to the Trojans. If Chip Kelly reads the BCS dynamics correctly, he'll try to score 100 on USC in LA.

The rest of the schedule is kind of meh: Oklahoma State isn't beating Kansas State in Manhattan. And Notre Dame certainly isn't losing to Pitt.

NFL: 5 Storylines I Like And/Or Love
*Game of the Week: Steelers at Giants
*Could unbeaten Falcons drop Cowboys to 3-5?
*Dolphins-Colts: For playoff position? Really?
*Cam Newton vs. RGIII: Worth watching closely
*Gabe was Newton for Halloween - can't believe we aren't going to the game while Newton is in town.

NBA: Do the Thunder miss James Harden? If Harden is on the team, they probably don't lose to the Spurs at the buzzer last night. The question really is whether they will miss him in a seven-game series with San Antonio in May.

Tonight: Clippers-Lakers and Heat-Knicks as the headliners? Give me the NBA debut of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist for the Bobcats, against the Pacers. To the free preview of League Pass!

MLB Hot Stove: Dan Haren to the Cubs? Does that make them a contender? No.

NYC Marathon: I'm torn -- I think an event like that would help lift the city's spirit a bit. On the other hand, the media tent is using enough power to help 40 houses in Staten Island. I can understand the frustration.

-- D.S.

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