January 23, 2006 Column

• I went down to the MCI Center for the Duke/Georgetown game on Saturday. Duke lost by 3, but in actuality the game was not that close. Georgetown was extremely well coached, and they executed flawlessly. I have never been a huge John Thompson III fan but he really had his team firing on all cylinders. The crowd was loud and very into the game. Nobody thought Duke could go undefeated this season, but it wasnevertheless disarming to be outplayed so thoroughly by a team that on paper the Devils are superior to. On top of the fact that Georgetown played well and deserved the win, Duke played lousy, with one exception. Shelden Williams had perhaps the worst game of his four year career, with only four points. The Duke defense was awful, getting backdoored for easy lay-up after easy lay-up, and it does not seem like anyone on Duke plays good on-ball defense. This was another game that Duke really missed DeMarcus Nelson. On the positive side, J.J. Redick is simply awesome. He scored 41 points, tying a career high, and almost single handedly willed his team back to a win that they did not deserve. J.J. offcially makes by All Dils College Hoops team of the last 20 years, which looks like this: Len Bias, Maryland, Johnny Dawkins, Duke, J.J. Redick, Duke, Tim Duncan, Wake Forest, and Eric "Hank" Gathers, Loyola Maymount. It will be interesting to see how Duke bounces back against a team that always seems to give them fits, as they travel to Blackburg to face Va. Tech on Thursday.
• The talent in the radio announcing field is thinner than Lindsay Lohan after a binge and purge session. When we were driving home from the Duke game, some guy named Mike Shoop (?) was on ESPN Radio, and he actually said (and he was serious) that he would rank Georgetown ahead of Duke because they beat 'em. So, Mike, I guess that means that the four teams that beat Georgetown would be ranked ahead of them, and so on and so forth. So according to the Shoop analysis, Duke would be ranked last in the country I guess. It is tough to lose one game any more, when on the Shoop scale you drop over 300 spots in the rankings.
• Kobe Brant scored 81 points last night. This is the second highest scoring output in the history of the league. This is after he scored 62 points in three quarters a couple weeks ago. If you ask me, this is illustrative of a) what a selfish player Kobe is and b) why in my opinion, it was a complete and utter mistake to name him to the Olympic team. We do not need prima donnas who shoot every team they touch the ball to win gold. We need unselfish basketball players who work together for the good of the team. Colangelo the ego-maniac is picking the team instead of letting Coach K pick his own players. It is disappointing that we have learned nothing during the embarrassing International performances of the past several years.
• The US sent a spacecraft on a mission to Pluto, which it will reach, if all goes according to schedule, in the year 2015. The cost of this mission is something like $700 million. Did I miss something, or does this country not have huge budget issues? At some point, shouldn't we start to try to trimming these deficits so that future generations are not completely crippled worse than Carolina's running game yesterday? I mean, I am sure space exploration is a "nice to have" and we will learn important things somewhere along the way, but shouldn't we cut programs like this so that we can at least make an effort towards fiscal responsibility?
• There were 11 openings in the NFL this offseason for head coaches. I think, to date, 9 have been filled. Of those, only Herman Edwards, who was already a head coach, is a minority. Of course, this is bringing out all the "Racial Inequality" cries that we have heard for so long in the NFL. I am simply not buying it. There is too much at stake at this point. These owners and GMs are hiring the most qualified candidates for these jobs, no matter what color, relagion, taste in music or anything else is attached to said candidate. I just see no evidence that would suggest there is a race issue at hand here. Do you?
• Time to get to the football games yesterday. I clearly am on the top of my game, as I drilled the Over in the NFC game. Actually, it is clear that I have no earthly idea what I am talking about. In general I thought both games were boring, as Championship games tend to be. For watever reason, this round typically produces double digit outcomes (something like 75-80% of the time over past decade or more).
• In the first game, Denver did a good job of controllnig the PIttsburgh running game at the beginning, but Ben Roethlisberger was good enough to beat them on his own. He was bailed out (no pun intended) early in the game when Champ Bailey dropped what would have been an interception for a TD (and a 10 point swing, since Pitts got a FG), and then played flawlessly after that. Speaking of Bailey, in addition to that 10 point swing just mentioned, he cost Denver another 4 points when he got toasted by Cedric Wilson (yes, Cedric Wilson) for a touchdown on third down, when they would have held the Steelers to a field goal had he decided to play defense on that play. Once Bailey got them into a hole, Jake Plummer did what he does best other than looking like a future porn star turned lumberjack: played like Jake Plumer. Fumbles, interceptions, it was like he was back in a Cardinal uniform again. Anyway, congrats to Cowher, one of the good coaches and good guys in this league, for gettnig back to the big one. We will see in two weeks if he can finally close the deal...
• The NFC game was even more lopsided and boring than the AFC game. Seattle got out early and often, with Hasselbeck just playing great football. He has really become one of the league's best quarterbacks this season. Remember, this is the same guy that two years ago got beat out by Trent Dilfer for the starting job! Seattle's game plan was great, putting about 9 guys on Steve Smith. It did not hurt when Nick Goings got what appeared to be a concussion and Carolina went with like their 10th string running back. Where is Samkon Gado when you need him? Anyway, Carolina was not ready to play, their players had nothing left, their coaches had nothing, they were just outmanned in al facets. They were so bad they should have played the Jim Mora, Sr. press conference at their own post game news conference. The highlight of the game was watching Steve Smith explode on the sidelines. The guy is awesome though, as he backed it up by finding a way to make an impact, returning a punt for a score shortly thereafter to try to make it interesting. Don't you feel like he could be the next O.J.? Hall of Fame career follwed somewhere along the lines by a murder trial? Maybe he could get legal advice from his old teammate Rae Carruth if that happens....
• That is all for now. See you tomorrow.