college
Saturday was a bad day for the Tar Heels. Every defeat stings, but the way the loss to N.C. State unfolded was especially painful. This has to be the last “wake up” game of the season for UNC. Teams with title aspirations – and surely the Heels would be in this group – don’t go down the stretch still looking for toughness, passion, intelligence and “want-to”. Had Saturday’s game been against a better team, the margin of defeat would have been much, much larger.
by Trevor Freeman
There are two sets of college basketball fans. There are the diehards who tune in for the full season and there are those who jump in feet first immediately after football season ends so they can get their love of the game back…….or so they can do an ample amount of research before filling out their NCAA Tournament brackets. Many purists dislike this second group, but I for one think they provide the NCAA Tournament with the gusto it needs to remain with the Super Bowl as one of the two greatest sporting events on the planet (for those of you who just said, “Wait a second what about the World Cup”…feel free to board a Concorde and fly back to France).
The month of March is coming up soon. You know what that means. March Madness is waiting for us, along with many cinderella sleepers. George Mason went dancing last year, and many will follow in their footsteps. Let’s find out who will be dancing when it comes tourney time and who will get ousted quickly.
The Clash couldn’t figure it out, yet the answer seems crystal clear to me. Imagine, for a moment, that you are a 20 year old college student without a job who just happens to play a little football. One day, a man in a suit strolls up to you and says “Hey kid. I got a proposition for you. If I said that you could stop going to class, stop writing papers, stop taking exams and come play a game for me all day long, would you do it?” Then, before you can answer, he adds “Oh yeah, and I’ll give you $3 million a year to do it.” What would your answer be?
by Trevor Freeman
So I was sitting at my holiday party conversing with my colleagues on a variety of important issues ranging from the NFL playoffs to Jenn Sterger’s ta-tas to “Rocky Balboa”. It was at the end of the conversation when the debate between the NBA and college hoops began. Of course I led the majority in putting forth reasons as to why the NBA is Selma Blair to the NCAA’s Salma Hayek. It was midway through my argument when I realized, “Trevor….the 25 reasons you listed two years ago just isn’t good enough…..you need to up the ante”. Up the ante I have as we updated our list and extended it to a full 37 reasons. That’s right. Buckle your seat belts and enjoy yourselves as we are about to breakdown why the NCAA trumps the NBA.
How do two teams with two losses finish ahead of Boise in the final rankings? The only logical culprits are our friends that developed the BCS several years ago.
After Troy Smith and the Ohio State Buckeyes lost to the Florida Gators Monday night, it all has come to me. Troy Smith will be mediocre in the Sunday league, at best. But that isn’t anything new for draft experts like Mel Kiper Jr.
Now that the NCAA football season is over, it’s time to take a final look at the AP “top 25” teams in the country. “Top 25” is in quotes because one must remember that this poll is a popularity contest and nothing more. Forget preseason rankings, and even rankings up to this point. We’ll examine each top team individually to see if their ranking is justified.
Mention Notre Dame football, and a few things come to mind. You either love them or hate them. They do not belong to a conference. They aren’t the team they used to be. The Irish have been through Bob Davie and Ty Willingham without the great success the Irish was once familiar with. In 2005, in walks the “offensive guru”, the man with five Super Bowl rings. Charlie Weis takes over the football program in South Bend. OK, now Notre Dame is headed for the national title within the first three to five years. Some publications thought he would have the Irish in the big game in his second year. Two completed seasons down. What has Weis done with the golden domers?
So, Nick Saban’s at Alabama. People might call him a liar, a cheater, and everything else under the sun. I’m not going to rip on him, because his college coaching record, at 48-16, isn’t bad at all. He’s also won a National Championship in the toughest conference in the country, but now he’s going to a program still suffering from crippling NCAA recruiting sanctions only recently back to full strength.
So what can Saban can do to improve a program that’s doing its best to make Bear Bryant a distant memory?