Braves Update - May 27

Two weeks ago, we were anxious to see what the Bravos would do on a 14 games in 14 days with 4 contenders stretch, and how far they could separate themselves from .500. After finishing off by giving Brandon Webb an early exit yesterday, the Braves went 9-5 on that stretch, including 8-3 at home after losing the series at Philadelphia to open the run. The Braves took two of three from Oakland in interleague play, emphatically swept four from the Mets, and then split with the NL-leading D-Backs to get to 28-23 and an NL best 22-7 at home. They're currently 2.5 back of the still hot Florida Marlins, who lead the NL East and now have the best record in the senior circuit after the Braves beat Arizona yesterday.

What's more, Atlanta continues to get this done with a rotation of Tim Hudson, Tom Glavine, Jair Jurrjens (whose name I no longer have to look up to spell correctly), Jorge Campillo and Jo-Jo Reyes. It ain't what you thought it'd be on Opening Day, but right now it's enough.

So the task at hand moves ever forward to the next day, as it always does in baseball. This week is as good of an opportunity you're going to get to prove you can win on the road - a six game swing through Milwaukee and then Cincinnati, the two bottom teams in the NL Central. And they'll need to keep it up, because on the tail end is a four game homestand with the Marlins followed by three with the Phillies. All told, the Braves will play 21 games in 20 days during this stretch barring any rainouts, with no days off between May 19 and the next one on June 9.

51 games into the season, here's a look at the numbers:

STARTING PITCHING
Tim Hudson - 11 starts, 7-3, 2.97 ERA
Jair Jurrjens - 11 starts, 5-3, 2.86
Tom Glavine - 9 starts, 2-2, 4.76
John Smoltz - 5 starts, 3-2, 2.00
Jo-Jo Reyes - 5 starts, 2-2, 5.84
Chuck James - 5 starts, 2-3, 8.22
Jorge Campillo - 2 starts, 1-0, 0.86

BULLPEN
Jeff Bennett - 40.1 innings, 0-2, 3.57, 1 save
Blaine Boyer - 29.2 innings, 1-3, 3.94, 1 save
Manny Acosta - 25.2 innings, 3-1, 2.81, 3 saves
Will Ohman - 20.1 innings, 1-0, 3.10, 1 save
Chris Resop - 18.1 innings, 0-1, 5.89

Team Pitching - 3.61 ERA (2nd in NL), 196 runs allowed (1st in NL), 8 saves (last in NL), 41 HR allowed (4th in NL)

HITTING
C Brian McCann - .333, 9 HR, 32 RBI
1B Mark Teixeira - .267, 5 HR, 31 RBI
2B Kelly Johnson - .297, 5 HR, 22 RBI
3B Chipper Jones - .416, 12 HR, 35 RBI
SS Yunel Escobar - .310, 4 HR, 22 RBI
LF Matt Diaz - .248, 2 HR, 14 RBI
CF Mark Kotsay - .294, 4 HR, 21 RBI
RF Jeff Francoeur - .262, 5 HR, 32 RBI

Team Batting - .283 (2nd in NL), 46 HR, 246 total runs (4.8 per game)

You can make arguments that the Braves will ultimately come up short again in the playoff chase. But if you want to be optimistic like I do, there's a lot out there - the still insane 2-12 record in one run games, the road woes that could get better, and the soon and probable arrival of John Smoltz, Rafael Soriano and Mike Gonzalez to the Atlanta bullpen, which has performed tremendously in makeshift fashion since losing Soriano to the DL and Peter Moylan for the season. The Braves have strong upside in a division that appears to be wide open - no one believes in the Fish, the Mets are imploding right now (though that could certainly change) and the Phillies and Braves are both five over .500.

This road swing can be a nice change of pace in getting that away record up, and good teams should go on the road against lesser competition and perform well. The Braves still have plenty of doubters top to bottom, but this week and beyond are more and more chances to prove them wrong and keep up the long push towards October.

Video Game Nostalgia: Introduction, RPGs & EarthBound

(Note: This is the first in a series on classic video games. Longtime readers shouldn't worry - though this may appeal to an entirely difference audience, the vast majority of time and space here will still be spent on sports. There's no timetable or countdown with this series, but in the continuing interest of writing about what I love, from time to time we'll look back at some old video game memories. And so as I'm off for Memorial Day and taking it easy, we start here...)

Introduction
One of the great things about my generation, the kids who grew up in the 80s, is that we got in on the ground floor of the video game industry. That industry has grown so much in the last 25 years that a few weeks ago, Grand Theft Auto IV made $310 million in its first 24 hours. By comparison, the fastest-selling theatrical release of all-time is Spider-Man 3, which made a paltry $60 million on its first day. The last installment of the Harry Potter series made $220 million in its first 24 hours. New entries in modern classic video game series like GTA and Halo have the potential to be the most lucrative entertainment format in the world.


Lots of those copies were probably bought by teenagers and parents of younger children - which raises a whole different set of questions when it comes to Grand Theft Auto - whose first experience with video games came on a PlayStation 2. And it's hard to go back - for example, I know several people who really enjoyed 2001's Final Fantasy X on the PS2, but when I recommended that they go back and play Final Fantasy VI (Super Nintendo, 1994) or even Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation, 1997), both of which are widely considered to be among the greatest video games of all time and unquestionably the two best in the Final Fantasy series, a large percentage of them scoffed at the notion simply because of the inferior graphics.







(VI on top, X on the bottom)

The older I get, and the more it becomes apparent that video games are clearly not a fad, but a multi-million dollar forefront industry that offers interaction that books and movies cannot and something that is without a doubt here to stay, the more I continue to be thankful that I can remember unwrapping a Nintendo Entertainment System and a boatload of games (thanks grandma), wrapped in aluminum foil, back in 1986.

I can't remember much about Intellivision or Atari before that, though we had them in our household as well. But I do remember going up the street to my friend's house in first grade and seeing Super Mario Bros, and then begging my parents to jump on board.

It's a unique perspective we have, because it makes you appreciate everything. I remember how much cooler Mega Man 2 was than the original. Whenever someone younger than me talks about "the most anticipated video game of all time", I tell them they have no idea what it was like to go see The Wizard just to get a glimpse at Super Mario Bros 3. Kids today who are on Madden Nation can't possibly appreciate Tecmo Bowl, which means they really couldn't appreciate Tecmo Super Bowl, which might be the most progressive sports game of all time. The lineage from 10 Yard Fight runs through Tecmo Bowl, Tecmo Super Bowl, Madden 92, Bill Walsh College Football, and to all the NCAAs and Maddens we enjoy today. There's a reason that while I'm waiting for the July 15 release of NCAA Football 09 on my XBOX 360, I find myself biding time playing Tecmo Bowl on the Wii's Virtual Console.

You've come a long way, baby.

And so I would argue that no greater progressive leap is found from system to system, generation to generation, than the one between Nintendo and Super Nintendo (and the Sega Genesis). Because sure, Super Mario 64 looks a whole lot better than Super Mario World. But the difference there isn't as great as it was from Mario 3 to Mario World. And it is mainly for this reason that the old SNES is still my favorite video game system of all time.

The Genesis got a head start, though it took almost two years between the Genesis' release and the arrival of Sonic the Hedgehog, which made you pay attention; the same way I remember going to my friend's house and seeing Mario for the first time, I remember that Putt-Putt Golf and Games had a couple of Genesises (that might be a new word there), and my friends and I all had our birthday parties there just to get the chance to spend a few minutes with Sonic and Lakers vs. Celtics and the NBA Playoffs. It was the appeal of that particular game that made me want one, and so we got one. But by this time, my parents were getting worried that I was spending too much time playing video games, and apparently I was writing about them a lot in school, so they enacted the "weekends only" rule, and also refused to buy a SNES when it was released later that same year, because we already had a Genesis. Glad to see their efforts to curb my video game writing and enthusiasm worked.

So for me, Super Nintendo became the Holy Grail. My friends had one, but my parents would not relent. So while I developed an attachment to games like Streets of Rage on the Genesis, my best memories were still of Mario, and most of all, The Legend of Zelda.

Where the appeal of Mario is that almost everyone will pick it up and find some level of enjoyment, the Zelda franchise is a different animal. From the beginning with its first incarnation back on the NES in 1987 (in America), it required patience and thought on a level that Mario did not. And those hallmarks have only gotten stronger through time. It's not for everybody, but it was for me.

So with the release of a new next generation Zelda game imminent in the year following the SNES launch, I had to be able to play it. We lived in Knoxville, but my grandparents lived in Memphis. And it's to their credit that I have such a deep love for video games, though I'm not sure if they'd be honored or horrified by that. What I do know is that good grandparents spoil their grandchildren, and so I'm pretty sure that I had 100+ NES games thanks to them. So we went back to the well in the summer of 1992 - my grandparents have a huge farm that's still my favorite spot on earth, and when my sisters and I were growing up we'd spend weeks and weeks down there during summer vacation. In 1992, we started going to Blockbuster and renting a SNES for the duration of my visits. And it was via these means that I was able to get my hands on The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

Again, the gap between 8 and 16 bit was more noticable than any other generational difference. Take a look at the original Zelda, and then go play Link to the Past. Point being: if you loved the original NES games, Link to the Past was like you had died and gone straight to heaven. Depth and storyline and gameplay and soundtrack and graphics and all of the above. If you asked me to pick my favorite video games ever, and then asked me the even more difficult question of the greatest video games ever made, Link to the Past is going to be in the top three on either list. There was just nothing like it, or the experience, at the time.




Again, Zelda isn't for everyone. It's what I'd call an adventure game that toes the line of a role-playing game. And as strong as the SNES was for individual titles like Super Mario World and Link to the Past, what it did for RPGs changed the industry.

RPGs
Ask any RPG fan what his or her favorite game is, and they're either going to say Final Fantasy VII, or something on the SNES. FFVII changed everything in a different way that I'm sure we'll get to one of these days, because I still believe that it's the greatest video game ever made and a definitive watershed in the industry. But a lot of people love that game because it was something new to them. Everyone else fell in love with the genre years earlier.

You might find a few people who played the original Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest games on the NES and will tell you they loved them back then. Among the 100+ NES games I owned were both Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, but I never really got deep into them. For one, they required even more patience than Zelda, and as I was nine years old when I played Final Fantasy, I just don't think I had it in me. But more than that, it was still an eight bit game, and so there was no story.

I mean, there was a story - light warriors save the world, all that jazz - but there was zero character development. I could deal with this in Zelda because as an elementary school child, I could still walk around with a sword and some bombs and do some damage. But when you're reduced to text based "Fight - Magic - Item - Run" options and there's no real story or character there to save it...it didn't do it for me.

Because of this, and the SNES-in-Memphis issues, I skipped Final Fantasy IV (II in the US) when it was released in 1991. If I had given it a chance, this story might be different. But instead, I didn't give RPGs another try for a long, long time. No FFIV meant no FFVI (III in the US) when it was released in 1994. By this time, I'd won the battle of the SNES - my parents were going to make me switch schools in seventh grade, and the bargaining chip to get me to agree was moving the SNES to Knoxville. After four days at the new school, they decided to let me return to Alcoa. That's what we call a win-win-win situation.

But the weekends only rule was still in effect, which would've hurt my chances with any RPGs anyway. So I stayed the course with games like Street Fighter II that you could enjoy in small doses. And I kept up with things - in the pre-internet days, Nintendo Power and Electronic Gaming Monthly were must-have publications. And so it was in one of those that I started seeing these advertisements for a new game, in 1995.

EarthBound
Anyone who knows and loves this game has a story that goes with it. EarthBound may not be the greatest video game ever made, but it is definitely my favorite. And so this is mine.

Actually, there were two games being promoted at that time. One was EarthBound, which seemed quirky and interesting to me. The SNES was still making the treck to Memphis in the summertime, and my grandparents were still taking me to Blockbuster, where for two weeks every year I sampled about a dozen SNES games in short bursts. Which also would've been bad for RPG play. For whatever reason, I skipped over EarthBound at Blockbuster when it was released that summer.

The other one was Chrono Trigger.

Somehow, Chrono Trigger managed to sell itself like Zelda - and we hadn't seen one of those on the SNES in four years - while disguising the fact that it was really an RPG, which would've turned me off. I saw the picture on the box of this redheaded guy and a sword on fire jumping at some creature, and I had seen the graphics and a cryptic advertisement in Nintendo Power or EGM about time, and it really sold me. My birthday is in October, and so that year I got Chrono Trigger.

Some other day, we'll come back and do it justice. But Chrono Trigger opened the world of RPG back up for me. I remember being mad the first time I got in a fight in the game and saw that old familiar "Attack - Magic - Item - Run" box pop up. But then, thanks to the graphics and the already involved story by the time you fight at the festival, I stayed invested. The random encounters were on screen, and even though it seemed a little boring to push "Attack", the animations were so good and better than anything I'd ever seen, it kept me entertained. By the time I got to the courtroom scene just a few hours in, I was absolutely hooked. And the rest, like we said, is for another day.

As video games continue to rise in popularity, you can see RPG elements in games outside the genre. Because the driving point behind any format of entertainment always comes down to story. And as technology improved over time, the ability to tell a good story and one you could interact with has done likewise. You can take some of the best RPGs of all time and put their stories up against novels and films, and they will stand the test of time. New era games, most recently BioShock, combine the best of RPG elements and modern technology to create better and better experiences. But it all started with the SNES.

When the summer of 96 rolled around, I was 14 years old and had enough patience to deal with RPGs, even though they weren't all going to be Chrono Trigger. But when I headed back down to Memphis that year, and found myself at Blockbuster again, I was open to new ideas.

And so I came across EarthBound again. In that giant box with the player's guide (though not at Blockbuster, of course). And so I decided to give it a try.

It's surprising what can draw you into games, the little things that you remember. I remember the music that plays while you're naming your characters, and how cool I thought it was. Can't even tell you why - it was unique - but I really liked it.



The main characters are kids - Ness is supposed to be 13, I think - and being 14 myself in that summer of 96, I liked the way it presented that aspect. It's also a modern setting - all other RPGs at this time were still dungeons and dragons, but EarthBound was set in modern culture, with baseball bats instead of swords, while still capturing magic and powers and a chance to save the world. EarthBound is unique.

It almost lost me right away - the first encounter I got in and the battle screen pops up, I see that all those cool animations I loved about Chrono Trigger aren't going to be present in this one: I can't see Ness hit somebody with a baseball bat, and even the magic spell animations are pretty lame (I say to myself at the time). Then it almost loses me with sheer degree of difficulty - an early boss with with Frank was incredibly tough, especially when you don't know to dig through trashcans to find extra hamburgers to give you life (yeah, it's that sort of game).

But I push through, and just the way it looks keeps growing on me. This game has charm, in look and feel, in soundtrack and especially in story. It doesn't ring of epic the way Chrono Trigger or Link to the Past do from the very beginning, but instead, it rings of fun.




I keep going until eventually I reach a particularly difficult section called Peaceful Rest Valley. You're still plodding along by yourself as Ness at this point, enemies are getting cruel with status ailments the way they always do in RPGs, and I'm struggling to stay alive. There's no map and I keep walking in circles and dying. And then, I run into this:


And get so mad with the ridiculous nature of this game, that it goes back to Blockbuster and I go back to Knoxville.

A year passes. And for some reason, I can't get this game out of my head. I keep trying to figure out why there's a pencil-shaped iron statue there, and what I missed to not be able to get past it (which was, of course, go back to Twoson). The look and feel of the game stays with me. And just as importantly, I don't fall in love with any other RPGs during that year - I still stay away from Final Fantasy and just to back to playing Mortal Kombat with my friends.

But when summer 97 rolls around, I can't wait to get back to Memphis to give it another go. It came around at the perfect time in my life - I'd start working the next summer and lose the sense of total freedom and no responsibilities that kids always take for granted with summer vacation. When I got back in the game and got past the statue, I found that the sense of fun and charm I had about this game would only continue to grow, and that it would also grow into something epic.

Beyond that pencil statue are a village of cultists who want to paint the world blue, a zombie-infested town that takes the game on the brilliant turn of shifting the entire scene from Ness and Paula in Threed to Jeff in Winters, another shift later that introduces Poo - because if I was a karate master, I'd want to be named Poo - Fourside and Moonside, and a billion other things that grow on and with you as the game progresses. The game builds upon itself without ever taking itself too seriously, and without ever losing its identity or its sense of just pure fun. It's a game where you save the world and have more fun doing it than anywhere else.

EarthBound is not for everybody. I think today some people make the mistake of thinking that it is and then wondering why people don't get it. The road is narrow. But for those who do love and appreciate it, everybody has a favorite something when it comes to this game. Everybody has a story. For me, the game transcended the moment I had to put the controller down and wait three minutes. EarthBound broke down the wall between the game and the player with things like this - later asking me, you know, the one holding the controller, to input my name. Years later, at the end of Metal Gear Solid 2 when the game turns upside down and really plays a clever trick on you, it felt vaguely familiar because EarthBound had already mastered the wink and the nod that yes, it knows it's a video game, and it's okay with that.

It was also okay with fart jokes, which at 14 (and yes, at 26) I enjoyed. The same way that the courtroom scene in Chrono Trigger (and the more famous opera house scene in Final Fantasy VI) took you out of your routine and made you feel like you were a part of a bigger world in this game, sitting down at a club and watching The Runaway Five in EarthBound gave a similar experience. Going back and playing through the game again as an adult, the humor in the game is both elementary and very smart. It's just a very unique total package.

In between all that is a chase for Pokey, who's on an opposite journey than Ness and the good guys. And EarthBound includes a great detail that we always love about great movies and video games - when you're really enjoying it and you think it's about to end, you find that there's in fact much more there. After collecting the final piece of the melody you need and expecting to then take on the game's true villain, Giygas, the game first transports you Magicant, a level in Ness's subconscious, then returns you to Onett where the game began for more enjoyable fighting before you take the final journey to meet Giygas. The game keeps giving.

And then there's Giygas, who pulls off a rare feat in video games: he's never seen nor heard from directly until you finally come "face to face" with him/it at the end, but still manages to inspire terror. As a 15 year old kid playing this game, hearing Pokey talk about turning off the Devil's Machine and revealing the true form of Giygas scared the crap out of me the first time I went through it. Pokey provides all the personality of the villain, but Giygas provides the real fear.

The final battle is also very unique and satisfying. The fight with Pokey just before also includes some of my favorite music in all of video games, and then facing Giygas and finally beating him is one of my favorite memories from playing any video game. The extended, "this'll go on as long as you want it to" ending just caps the whole experience. At the time, I thought EarthBound was one of the most unique and most enjoyable video games I'd ever played.

After beating it, we took the game back to Blockbuster, and then went right next door to Wal-Mart, and I bought it.

Since then, I've played thru and beaten EarthBound from start to finish more than any other game. First on the dying SNES, and later on various emmulators. And every single time, I find something new and I enjoy it more, which I'm not sure I can say for any other RPG. It goes beyond replay value - this game is ingrained in my childhood and has become ingrained in my life. It doesn't get old and it keeps getting better. This game is just special. And the thing is, for all the explaining and the stories and everything...you really just have to play it to understand.

And so it comes to this today - I want to tell other people about this game and give them the chance to experience it. And one of the greatest selling points of the Wii is the Virtual Console, that allows you to go back and download old NES/SNES/Genesis/N64 games and play them again.

But 18 months after the Wii's release, EarthBound still hasn't found its way to the Virtual Console. Which should really come as no surprise based on Nintendo's history with the EarthBound/Mother (the series' name in Japan) community.

There's an original Mother that was released in Japan on the NES equivalent, was translated into English but never released in America. Mother 2 became EarthBound in 1995. A sequel was planned back in 1996 but eventually scrapped after a long and torturous history for the Nintendo 64. It was then reborn for the Game Boy Advance and released in Japan two years ago. And in the last two years, Nintnedo has made no move to bring it to the rest of the world.

There's more than a decade of waiting involved here. Carrying the torch during that time has been Starmen.net, a site I've checked at least weekly for the last decade and daily since Mother 3 was announced, waiting every day with hope of either Mother 3 in America, or at least EarthBound on the Virtual Console. 10+ years of waiting for a sequel has created the strongest and most proactive "cult" video game fanbase in existence - the folks at Starmen have launched several innovative campaigns to get Nintendo's attention and bring some love our way, but thus far, no dice. There's recently been hope, as EarthBound was rated by the ESRB for what should be an impending Virtual Console release, but Mondays keep coming and going and still no EarthBound in the weekly VC update.

The only glimmer of hope has actually been the much more popular Super Smash Bros. series, which has seen Ness as a playable character in all three installments, and recently saw Mother 3's Lucas in the Wii incarnation, as well as a stage from Mother 3. If you've ever played SSB: Brawl and wondered who those two kids are...that's EarthBound. And still...we wait.

But if there's one thing positive about the waiting, it's that I think it's actually made the EarthBound/Mother community both stronger, and it's made us all love and appreciate EarthBound even more.

There’s a certain percentage of the video game community who already knows about EarthBound’s plight, but I still think there are countless others who’ve never played or even heard of it, who would enjoy it. In 2008, EarthBound is arguably most famous for the struggle between Nintendo and its fans, moreso than the game itself. And maybe in some twisted way, the long struggle would be the best thing that ever happened to EarthBound, if it’s eventually released on the Virtual Console to an entirely new audience. If a community is willing to hold out this long, there must be something to it right? Its fans will certainly do everything imaginable and then some to ensure it reaches the masses - which is in very small part one of the aims of this post in the first place.

This game is special and fun, and today I consider it not one of, but the most unique and most enjoyable video game I've ever played. Next week is the 13th anniversary of the game's US release, which will be another day that EarthBound fans try to find a reason that this will be the week we finally see some light from Nintendo. We'll see. But no matter what, EarthBound stands on its own merit no matter what Nintendo does. This game stinks. And you should definitely check it out.

Random Thoughts - Saturday May 24

98 Days/14 Saturdays
It'll be here before you know it...but in the meantime, ESPN.com wrapped up their BCS at 10 feature this week, including a great story from Chris Low on how the BCS has affected the SEC. In that piece, he picks the Top 10 players, games, teams and moments from the BCS era in the SEC, which is another one of those lists that evokes strong nostalgia and emotions.


Chris Low's picks:


Best Players
1. Darren McFadden RB Arkansas
2. Glenn Dorsey DT LSU
3. Champ Bailey DB Georgia
4. Tim Tebow QB Florida
5. Jevon Kearse DE/LB Florida
6. Al Wilson LB Tennessee
7. Eli Manning QB Ole Miss
8. Shaun Alexander RB Alabama
9. Cadillac Williams RB Auburn
10. David Pollack DE Georgia


Best Games
1. 2007 - Arkansas 50 LSU 48 (3 OT)
2. 1999 - Alabama 40 Florida 39 (OT)
3. 2006 - Florida 17 South Carolina 16
4. 2002 - LSU 33 Kentucky 30
5. 1998 - Tennessee 20 Florida 17 (OT)
6. 2005 - West Virginia 38 Georgia 35 (Sugar Bowl)
7. 1999 - Michigan 35 Alabama 34 (Orange Bowl)
8. 2002 - Georgia 24 Auburn 21
9. 2007 - Tennessee 52 Kentucky 50 (4 OT)
10. 2003 - LSU 17 Ole Miss 14


Best Teams
1. 2004 Auburn
2. 1998 Tennessee
3. 2003 LSU
4. 2006 Florida
5. 2007 LSU
6. 2002 Georgia
7. 2007 Georgia
8. 2001 Tennessee
9. 2001 Florida
10. 2006 LSU


Best Moments
1. 2003 - Slyvester Croom becomes SEC's first black head coach
2. 1998 - Roy Kramer creates the BCS
3. 2004 - Undefeated Auburn left out of title game
4. 1998 - Clint Stoerner stumbles and fumbles against #1 Tennessee
5. 2005 - Steve Spurrier returns at South Carolina
6. 2007 - Nick Saban returns at Alabama
7. 2002 - Alabama placed on probation, blames Phillip Fulmer
8. 2007 - Tim Tebow wins the Heisman Trophy
9. 2001 - Georgia beats Tennessee with a hobnailed boot
10. 2005 - LSU goes 11-2 in wake of Hurricane Katrina


Meanwhile, on the home front...former Alcoa High School star and Florida State transfer Brandon Warren was admitted to the University of Tennessee and will begin classes during the summer sessions. The next and biggest step is for Warren to earn a waiver from the NCAA to gain eligibility - he was not released from his scholarship at Florida State. If he's granted a waiver, he can start practice in August and get on the field this season. If not, he'll have to wait until 2009. The Vols had good luck recently getting instant eligibility from Tyler Smith, who had a similar situation in dealing with an ailing parent, but circumstances were easier because Iowa did release him.


It will be difficult for Warren to both get the waiver, and then to jump into the mix at tight end and see any meaningful action right away. However, I continue to stand by my opinion as the former play by play announcer for Alcoa High School, having watched this kid throughout his high school career, that once Warren gets in and gets accustomed to the system, he can be a difference maker for Tennessee.



Detroit, what?! - Part One
LeBron James - and I'm sure he stole it from someone else - liked to say that the playoffs don't really start until the road team wins a game. So I'm glad after those first sixteen warm ups, the Celtics can finally start taking things seriously tonight in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals.


Boston lost Game 2 in surprising fashion, giving up triple digits to the Pistons and failing to play defense at the same level as their sudden offensive outburst from each of the Big Three. So as the series shifts, it's going to become incredibly important to win one of the next two games - going back to Boston down 3-1 and hoping it suddenly all comes together isn't a position anybody wants to be in. The C's have never really looked good on the road, even in the games that were close. The Celtics need to come out hot and show they can go step for step with these Pistons for the duration of the series. Which might be a little bit easier tonight in Auburn Hills, because further south tonight...



Detroit, what?! - Part Two
Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals begins at Joe Louis Arena...thirty minutes before Game 3 in the Pistons/Celtics series begins at The Palace. And while if you're living in the city and were worried about getting tickets to one of these events, it might be good for you, if you're a serious Pistons and Red Wings fan, this is a bittersweet evening. Of course, it'll turn into a great story if both teams win. And hey, I'm sure there are good seats still available for that Tigers/Twins showdown at Comerica.


But for the rest of us...even though I'll only go there during the Celtics/Pistons commercials tonight, this is a real chance for hockey to make a dent in the national sports conscience. The sport had us there in the early 90s, peaking with the epic New York Rangers/Vancouver Canucks seven game finals in 1994. The Rangers win would be the first in what's become a fourteen year/thirteen team (remember the lockout? that's right, you've forgotten even why you've forgotten about hockey) run of American teams winning the Cup. Back in 94, Canadian teams had won 8 of the last 10 cups, a run broken only by Mario Lemieux's Pittsburgh Penguins in 91/92, but hockey's run during that time featured dominant teams and players from Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers, some dominant Montreal teams, and guys like Lemieux and Mark Messier.


Here's a good example: here are the starters from the 1994 NHL All-Star Game, let's see how many names you recognize: Chris Chelios, Paul Coffey, Pavel Bure, Brett Hull, Wayne Gretzky, Brian Leetch, Mark Messier, Ray Borque, Eric Lindros, Alexander Mogilny. Raise your hand if you went 10 for 10.


Now, here are the starters from this season's NHL All-Star Game: Zdeno Chara, Andrei Markov, Vincent Lecavalier, Daniel Alfredsson, Ilya Kovalchuk, Dion Phaneuf, Nicklas Lidstrom, Jarome Iginla, Pavel Datsyuk, Rick Nash. I recognize three of those names and call tell you that Iginla plays for Calgary. That's it.


The biggest name there, of course, is missing: Sidney Crosby was injured during the All-Star Game and did not play. But it's his Pittsburgh Penguins who are in the Stanley Cup Finals, which is the best news the NHL has seen in a long time.


After the Rangers won in 94, the NHL had a run of both bad luck and bad decisions. A lockout shortened the following season in 1995, which killed mainstream fan appeal. Then, a string of four straight sweeps in the Stanley Cup Finals - starting with the New Jersey Devils and the zone trap that took a lot of offense out of the game, and followed up with three years of "whoever wins Colorado-Detroit in the Western Conference Finals will win the Cup". Still, during those years, I remember being big in the Colorado camp, for reasons we'll get into momentarily.


Hockey was still popular in the Dallas Stars/Buffalo Sabres "in the crease" finals in 1999, and carried that appeal through probably 2001 in a seven game Colorado/New Jersey finals. But from there, things started slowly going downhill. The last four seasons, the Stanley Cup Champions have been the Tampa Bay Lightning, followed by the lockout, followed by the Carolina Hurricanes, followed by the Anaheim Ducks. And even though all three of those series had the USA vs. Canada factor, the total lack of name recognition for those teams didn't make it happen.


But now...with Crosby and Evgeni Malkin for Pittsburgh, and with arguably the most recongized team in all of American hockey, the Detroit Red Wings, lined up on the other side...the NHL has a real chance to be marketable and good. What they really need now is for both Crosby to explode, and for the series to go 6 or 7 games. After the first two games on Versus, Games 3-7 (if necessary) will be shown on NBC in primetime. Hockey has a real chance here.


And here's the best part - for me, it's easy: I'm pulling for Pittsburgh. Why? Because even though I couldn't tell you anyone off the top of my head who plays for Detroit (after looking, I see that Lidstrom is the captain and Chris Chelios is on the roster, and Chris Osgood is the goalie, I know all those guys)...my memories of Detroit are from those Colorado/Detroit wars in the late 90s/early 00s. And the reason I picked Colorado then?


...this is going to sound really stupid and childish, but it's absolutely true: Detroit was full of Russians. And Russians are supposed to be the bad guys. Not because I'm racist or xenophobic. Because that's the way guys in their mid-20s today were raised back then. When Detroit had that Red Army lineup of Larionov, Fetisov, Koslov, Konstantinov (thanks Wikipedia), and Sergei Federov (thanks Will's memory), and then they started winning...how could you not see how this happens? They even had other guys like Steve Yzerman, who, if you don't know his first name, could easily be confused as another Russian. Look, I'm just being honest, and that's just the way it was.


And so today, I don't know how many Russians the Red Wings have, but it doesn't matter - they're still the bad guys. It's so bad in my mind, if Detroit played a team from Canada, I might just cheer for the Canadiens.


But it's good for the NHL that I care, no matter how screwed up the reasons. So yeah, let's go Pens! And maybe, just maybe, America will have a good reason to care about hockey again. Because anyone who remembers those early 90s years and owned a Sega Genesis, deep down, still misses it. We need it back. Here's our chance.



That 11-1 drubbing from the D-Backs yesterday kinda taints it, but...
The Braves swept the Mets earlier this week in a four game series, not even really being threatened in three of the four contests. Atlanta is now 26-22, and has gone 7-4 thus far on the big 14 game stretch against four contenders, with three left to play this weekend against Arizona. Chipper Jones is hitting .415, and opened today's contest with a single off Randy Johnson in a game that's currently airing on Fox.

What's still fascinating to me is how some people can still be underrating the Braves. I read in someone's power rankings last week that it was amazing the Braves were even hovering around .500, which I guess I can understand from their road woes (6-16) and the rampant injuries to the pitching staff. But then today on Fox, when I hear someone talk about how runs scored vs. runs against is one of the truest measures of a team, obviously...then I continue to question how you can discount Atlanta. The Braves are +50 in that category, still behind only the Chicago Cubs and their foes this weekend from Arizona. We've said it for three weeks, but once again - if the Braves could've won just half of their one run games, they'd be the best team in the National League.

Baseball continues to be an everyday sport with plenty of reason for hope, both if you're the Florida Marlins at a stunning 27-20, or if you're the sub-.500 Yankees, or even still for teams like 20-28 Detroit, with still months and months of calendar space available to get it together. But that doesn't mean we don't celebrate the present as well - between Chipper and the record being what it is despite the pitching situation, the Braves continue to be right there at the front of the NL pack. They're right where they need to be on Memorial Day Weekend.

EA Sports NCAA Football 09 Team Ratings

Speaking of 101 days, we're just 53 away from the release of NCAA Football 09, and as stated earlier this week, the guys at EA Sports and ncaafootball09.com continue to generate excitement every weekday. This time, they've released the team ratings for all 120 FBS schools. Here's a rundown of the top teams in the game:

(Keep in mind: these are the team ratings, not the team rankings (like #17 Tennessee in Athlon), nor the player ratings (like "Tim Tebow is a 99 overall"). I would assume those will be released in the future before the release date, however...)

NCAA09 Team Ratings
99 overall
Georgia (99 OFF - 99 DEF)
Ohio State (99 OFF - 99 DEF)

96
Oklahoma (99 OFF - 94 DEF)

94
Florida (96 OFF - 94 DEF)
Florida State (92 OFF - 99 DEF) (LOL! EA's trying to sell more copies)
Missouri (96 OFF - 92 DEF)
USC (90 OFF - 99 DEF)

91
LSU (88 OFF - 96 DEF)
Penn State (88 OFF - 94 DEF)

89
Clemson (90 OFF - 92 DEF)
South Carolina (86 OFF - 92 DEF)
Tennessee (88 OFF - 92 DEF)
Texas (88 OFF - 92 DEF)
Wisconsin (92 OFF - 89 DEF)

86
Arizona State (88 OFF - 87 DEF)
Miami (83 OFF - 92 DEF) (once again, let's sell some copies...)
Texas Tech (92 OFF - 85 DEF)

84
Alabama (88 OFF - 82 DEF)
Arizona (86 OFF - 82 DEF)
Auburn (83 OFF - 87 DEF)
Cincinnati (81 OFF - 89 DEF)
Michigan (81 OFF - 89 DEF)
Ole Miss (86 OFF - 87 DEF) (WHAT?!)
Purdue (86 OFF - 82 DEF)
Virginia Tech (79 OFF - 89 DEF)
West Virginia (90 OFF - 80 DEF)

Okay, so as stated these aren't the team rankings - you won't see Ole Miss in the Top 25 - but these are actually a better measure of which teams are better than others, because like The Matrix, it's a system built on rules, and players are only as good as they're rated on this game. So while FSU and Miami fans get to continue to enjoy online success they don't deserve, other teams (Illinois is an 81, Oklahoma State and South Florida at 79, Boston College at 77...with Duke) are apparently getting the real shaft. Which is what happens every year...but still.

Either way...you can check out all the rankings at the above line on a handy .xls spreadsheet. My mind absolutely has to go back to thinking about the Celtics now or I'll lose the healthy balance I've enjoyed for the last six weeks. Enjoy.

Ranking the 10 BCS National Champions

The 10th Anniversary of Tennessee's 1998 National Championship also means it's the 10th Anniversary of the BCS. ESPN.com has been running an entertaining "Best of the BCS" series for the last few weeks, highlighting the best players, games, coaches, moments and more from the last ten years. A new poll asks the reader to rank the 10 BCS champions. This corresponds with Mark Schlabach's excellent piece that does just that in great detail.

Schlabach's rankings:
1. 2001 Miami
2. 2004 USC
3. 1999 Florida State
4. 2005 Texas
5. 2000 Oklahoma
6. 1998 Tennessee
7. 2003 LSU
8. 2006 Florida
9. 2002 Ohio State
10. 2007 LSU

SportsNation rankings (with 16,000 votes as of this morning)
1. 2004 USC
2. 2001 Miami
3. 2005 Texas
4. 2000 Oklahoma
5. 2003 LSU
6. 2006 Florida
7. 2002 Ohio State
8. 1999 Florida State
9. 1998 Tennessee
10. 2007 LSU

It's no surprise that you find 98 Tennessee and 99 Florida State so far down on the fan voting list, because lots of people who voted in this thing were just kids when they won their titles 10 years ago.

I think there's clear separation when looking at these teams - that 07 LSU has to go at the bottom because they're the only team here with two losses (though both in triple overtime, agreed). Likewise, I think the next two teams have to be 03 LSU and 06 Florida, because they each lost once.

Among the remaining seven teams, the general perception seems to be that four of them were truly great teams, and the other three got lucky. And while there's more than luck involved if you go undefeated, I do understand the logic.

If it were me, I'd put 07 LSU at the bottom, followed by 06 Florida and then 03 LSU at #8, giving them the advantage simply because 06 Florida won so many games by the skin of their teeth. And at the top, I think there's clear separation between 01 Miami, 04 USC and 05 Texas, and then everyone else. Those three - especially the first two, and then Texas gets to tag along because of Vince Young and that epic Rose Bowl - will be remembered as the truly, truly great teams of this decade.

Meanwhile...I can't put 1999 Florida State ahead of 1998 Tennessee. With or without Chris Weinke, lined up against each other I have no reason to believe that the outcome would be any different than it was when the Vols faced the rough equivalent of that FSU team in the Fiesta Bowl.

It's an easier call to dismiss the Buckeyes, playing in a soft Big 10 and still needing lots of end of game breaks. You forget 00 Oklahoma more easily because it's further removed, and those Buckeyes had the memorable title game with Miami. But that Oklahoma team did blast some good teams in the regular season before putting the lockdown on Florida State in the title game. I think 98 Tennessee and 00 Oklahoma are very close...but I'd still give a slight edge to the Vols for having slightly more offensive firepower. Don't throw OU's numbers at me, we play in the SEC.

So I'd have the 98 Vols at #4 on this list - which is much more reasonable than you probably thought I was going to be, which is why I must bring up the fact that I think if you lined the 98 Vols up against 01 Miami or 04 USC, the x-factor about the 98 Vols would still carry over - but on paper, you just can't go against those two teams. However, I do think people can tend to underrate the 98 Vols; keep in mind, of the SEC's 4 BCS National Champions in the first ten years, the 98 Vols are the only ones to go undefeated.

While you can see it play out on Sundays to a degree, 2001 Miami vs. 2004 USC would be a treat. However, I have to give the edge to Miami - their defense (Ed Reed and Phillip Buchanon in probably the best secondary in the history of modern college football, along with a ton of other Sunday guys) is just better than what USC put out there, with an even dream matchup on offense (Ken Dorsey/Clinton Portis/Andre Johnson/Jeremy Shockey vs. Matt Leinart/Reggie Bush/Steve Smith).

SESB Rankings
1. 2001 Miami
2. 2004 USC
3. 2005 Texas
4. 1998 Tennessee
5. 2000 Oklahoma
6. 1999 Florida State
7. 2002 Ohio State
8. 2003 LSU
9. 2006 Florida
10. 2007 LSU

101 days...

NCAA08 vs. NCAA09 Video Comparison

The hardworking folks at EA Sports continue to update NCAAFootball09.com every weekday with lots of alternate uniform screens and some designer blogs, leading towards the July 15 multiplatform release. This week, they've included a sharp looking video comparing the updated features in this year's game with how they looked in last year's version, which gives some new appreciation, along with some brand new features in action. Check out the video here.

Random Thoughts - Tuesday May 20

Where we're literally counting down the hours...

"You want to see it open just as well as I."
Even with the Celtics taking their playoff run to the distance thus far, I still feel the pull in the back of my mind to turn my full attention to fall Saturdays. In the meantime, you can check out Tony Barnhart's incredibly informative Mr. College Football blog from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution website. Among the nuggets of wisdom on there is talk of ESPN GameDay heading to Atlanta for the season opening Alabama vs. Clemson neutral site battle in the Georgia Dome, which, according to Barnhart, is back open for business following the March tornadoes. It's really a disappointing August 30 schedule compared to opening Saturdays from years past, but the biggest game of the day should actually be another neutral siter, Missouri and Illinois in St. Louis. Expect the GameDay crew at one of those two sites. Also from Barnhart is talk to have David Cutcliffe's Duke Blue Devils take on the Tide in a similar game in the Georgia Dome in 2010.

"He's got friends in every town and village from here to the Sudan, he speaks a dozen languages, knows every local custom..."
There is no rest for Bruce Pearl.

VolQuest.com is reporting that Tennessee has emerged as one of four finalists for Nigeria's Emmanuel Negedu, a 6'6 225 wingman who's been playing his high school ball in New Hampshire (who knew). Negedu was rated as the #41 overall player in the Rivals 2008 ranking, and signed a letter of intent to play for Arizona. However, the report today is that he's been granted a release from that letter, and that he's now considering four schools: Georgia Tech, Indiana, Tiger High...and yes, Bruce Pearl's Big Orange. The departure of Ramar Smith and Duke Crews could soon be "solved" ("Solutioned?" That should be a word. Paging Bert Bertelkamp: "Did you see that Bob? He Solutioned him!") with Bobby Maze and now Negedu. Negedu's parents are making their first ever trip to the United States to see him graduate high school, and so hopefully Brucie (sorry, been playing Grand Theft Auto) will have a chance to get in good with the fam, and bring home another stellar recruit. Stay tuned...

"Don't worry, this is kid's play."
The Celtics didn't exactly make it look easy tonight, as I kept looking at the scoreboard and then doing a double take, stunned we weren't up more because it felt like they were playing so well. But it was certainly enough, including an excellent close out 4th quarter performance and more signs that when this team is firing on all cylinders, they really might be the best team in the league. Behind a strong performance from Kevin Garnett, and another great all around basketball night from Paul Pierce, the Celtics show no signs of slowing down or fatigue, beating the Pistons to take a 1-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals. And while no Celtics fans will breathe easy until the C's win one on the road...tonight was a very good start. Michael Wilbon said it was the most impressive Boston had been since the Game 7 destruction of the Hawks in round one, and he might be right. More of that would be a great thing.

"In this sort of race, there's no silver medal for finishing second."
Meanwhile, the Lakers and Spurs get set to roll starting tomorrow night, which means a conference final game on television every single night for at least the next week. This may not be what TNT fully wanted, even though they got the Lakers...but San Antonio is just flat out stubborn. First they take out Shaquille O'Neal and Phoenix, the best storyline to go against LA. Then they flirt with elimination for a solid week before flipping that championship switch to beat New Orleans, bumping off America's Team and the potential MVP showdown between Kobe and Chris Paul. However, for me, it still rings true that to be the man, you've gotta beat the man. And so it seems natural and really right that the Lakers have to go through San Antonio to get to the Finals.

In their last regular season meeting, the Lakers absolutely destroyed San Antonio, playing with Gasol against them for the first time. But while it may not be as sexy as Kobe vs. Shaq or Kobe vs. Chris Paul, the Kobe vs. Duncan matchup will have more to do with the outcome than any of the others. Because it comes down to this: can San Antonio do a better job stopping Kobe than the Lakers can do stopping Duncan?

The Spurs have the experience top to bottom, and Greg Popovich is on the short list of guys who are even in a coaching matchup with Phil Jackson. The Lakers have some playoff experience as well between Kobe and Derek Fisher...but in the aforementioned matchup, I like San Antonio's chances of slowing down Kobe with Bowen and Ginobili better than I like Gasol and Odom's chances of slowing down Duncan - Gasol especially can be a scoring machine, but you question that more against Duncan, and he'll really have to step up his own defense to put the brakes on Timmy's big game potential.

But then again, gut beats head all the time on this blog...and while Boston still needs three more wins to get there, and while having the chance to end the San Antonio run would be great too...I want the Lakers. So yep, we'll give a wink and a nod and go with LAKERS IN SIX.

"It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage."
Tom Glavine took the mound in game one of a doubleheader between the Braves and Mets today. It started rough, as Glavine struggled to get out of the first inning. But from there, #47 strapped it on and retired the last 17 batters he faced. Mets fans who kept expecting him to rip open that jersey to reveal a tomahawk underneath in his final start last season had to really enjoy it today, as he absolutely shut down NYM, and then the surprising Braves bullpen finished the job.

Even with Smoltz still questionable and Mike Hampton more of a myth every day, the Braves keep finding a way. There's talk that Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz may all retire together at the end of this season, and if that's the case, the years have been pretty good...but there's still good mileage left to be had out there. Atlanta got what they needed from Glavine this afternoon, then backed it up with the second career MLB start from 29 year old Jorge Campillo, who followed the good work from earlier in the day with six scoreless innings of his own, as the Braves won the nightcap as well to move to 24-21 and second place in the NL East, a game and a half behind those pesky Marlins. Hopefully, there's plenty more mileage left in Glavine and Smoltz for Atlanta for the remainder of this season.

"Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory."
This year's WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony featured two memorable performances, one from The Rock and one we'll get to in a minute. Unfortunately for you and me, USA cut the ceremony down to the hour they had alloted for television, so the only way to see the entire event was to buy the WrestleMania XXIV DVD when it came out today. So that's exactly what I did.

Seeing The Rock do his thing again brings back memories, no doubt. Rock is one of the few, few examples of a guy who leaves on top, and really the only one I can think of who does so of his own choice instead of by injury. No matter how many times people call him a sell out, you can't deny his charisma. The Rock is money.

So when I see and hear him teasing the fans who are chanting "ONE MORE MATCH!", when he's teasing Stone Cold Steve Austin, who is an injury casualty...see, I don't want to wonder. I don't want to hope. WWE doesn't need Rock to survive...but just one appearance, just one match, just one interview is worth any sum of money.

But in his own quest for his own fortune and glory, it seems like he's playing wrestling fans. I think he respect for the business that comes through in the Hall of Fame segment is genuine...but I also know that in the trailer for Get Smart, he's not called "The Rock" one time. He's Dwayne Johnson. He's done enough in movies and been gone enough from wrestling long enough - and those two things are of equal importance for establishing yourself in Hollywood, I'd say - to where he's just no longer The Rock. And to him, as the movies keep coming in, and with them the dollars...would there ever be anything worth it enough to him to put on the tights one more time? Because see, I just don't think so. And time is a factor, because you don't want to see Rock-E in "ONE MORE MATCH!" in 10 years when his star has fallen along with his body. Right now, he could get in the ring with anybody and you'd buy it. But what's most likely is that those days are all behind us. WrestleMania 25 is 10 months away, and I'd say that's your best and only shot. But don't hold your breath.

"It belongs in a museum!"
And then there's Ric Flair.

The WrestleMania XXIV DVD is worth it just for Flair's last match on tape, which I feel like I'll be glad to have 50 years from now. And because it's Flair, you really buy that it's his last match, and that the ending was so perfect you wouldn't dare taint it (note: we're cutting off the Indiana Jones allusions here). Like I said, USA cut the Hall of Fame stuff down to an hour, but on DVD right now I'm watching the fourth full minute of Flair's standing ovation and it shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.

Maybe one day Rock-E will go on this list, but they just don't make them like Flair anymore. I saw him on TV during Game 7 of the Hornets/Spurs - which speaks to his commitment, sticking with the team that used to be in Flair Country in Charlotte - and it was just so good to see him. I don't want to see him wrestle again, but I don't want him to disappear completely either. Wrestling needs Flair, even pushing 60. Honestly, part of me is worried about a Bear Bryant scenario, since most wrestlers don't make it past 45 anyway. But Ric Flair - even for a guy like me, who came to wrestling in 1997, late in Flair's game - is, as people much more knowledgeable than me have spent the last few months saying, irreplaceable.

Watching him run through all the other superstars you know and love and say such personal things about them, about his family, about his life...there's no one, not Hogan, not anyone, who could pull this off the way Flair has. He deserves every minute of it. And hopefully, on camera he's neither gone nor forgotten.

Celtics-Pistons Series Preview

Just the same way that Celtic fans really want the Lakers in the finals, the matchup that inspires the most nostalgia and the best basketball for the conference finals has been this one all along - the two teams with the best records from the regular season, and with a brief but violent past. Boston and Detroit tip it off in the Eastern Conference Finals starting tomorrow night (and thankfully running every other day for the duration).

The history here is best defined by Game 5 of the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals, one of the most memorable seven game affairs in NBA Playoff history, and another one of those "home team wins every game" deals. The lineups from that era are still etched in stone in the memories of not just Celtics/Pistons fans, but basketball fans in general: DJ, Ainge, Bird, McHale and Parish against Isaiah, Dumars, Dantley, Rodman, and Laimbeer. The Celtics dominated the Eastern Conference in the early and mid 80s, winning the title in 1981 and then going to the Finals four straight years from 1984-1987. But by 87, the Pistons had emerged as a real threat to the Celtics. They came up just short thanks to "and now there's a steal by Bird!" in Game 5, and the Adrian Dantley-Vinnie Johnson headbutt of doom in Game 7. But the following year, the Pistons gained unlikely revenge winning the conference finals in six, including taking two games in Boston in what's probably Larry Bird's worst playoff series of his career. That set up the first of three straight Pistons trips to the Finals, and Bird would soon be out of the league with injury.

What makes it even more exciting was the level of violence in those series - especially in 1987, where Bird and Laimbeer were ejected for fighting in Game 3, and then Parish received the first playoff suspension in NBA history for straight up punching Laimbeer in Game 5. Johnny Most, the legendary Celtics play by play man, had this to say live after the Laimbeer/Bird incident in Game 3:

"And there is a violent, violent knockdown by Laimbeer, and Bird just crashes! The yellow, gutless way they do things here! They have been called a dirty ballclub, and I can see why! This is a typical, typical display, a disgusting display by Rodman, Laimbeer, and Isaiah Thomas!"

You can see the Game 3 incident starting at the 0:45 mark here:




...and the classic end of Game 5 here:



Now, of course, this was 21 years ago and it means nothing on paper today. But the history is there. And when you combine it with what is on the court today, you have the potential for greatness.

They may not be the Bad Boys, but these Pistons will trot an equally impressive lineup onto the floor: Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace, Antonio McDyess. And so while you won't see LeBron this time around, you will see what is without a doubt the best starting five in the NBA. Detroit has been to the Eastern Conference Finals six years in a row now, and there's a reason. Even this season, with the East much improved, they sported the second best record in the NBA behind Boston.

In three meetings this year, first the Pistons went into Boston and became the first team to win there, 87-85 on December 19, behind 12 4th quarter points from Billups, including two free throws with 0.1 left to win it. Boston returned the favor in Detroit (see, we can win there) in a 92-85 win that was the arrival of Big Baby Davis, who scored 20 points to lead the C's. In the rubber match, Boston won 90-78 at home to take the season series, behind 31 points from KG and a stunning 20 rebounds from Kendrick Perkins.

Look, based on what we've seen, you should expect seven. But for Boston, they can't have all these irregularities. Pierce isn't going to score 41 every night, no doubt, but against this lineup and this experience, the Celtics absolutely need Rondo, Ray Allen, and somebody in the paint to show up every single game. A two man effort will probably get you swept.

Boston will be tired, but confident. And confidence is so incredibly important. Detroit will be poised...but poise didn't get them past LeBron last year. So maybe the Pistons are more ready this time around and the Celtics don't have the firepower. But what I also expect is that you'll get a Game 7 atmosphere every time out in this one. You may not see fistfights...but you will see high energy and drama.

That being said...I'm sticking with Boston. Home court advantage is worth more than gas these days, and that'll certainly help. And yeah, I still want to see Boston go into Detroit and win one, and if the C's lose Game 1 or 2 it could be very damaging to a potentially fragile team. But Boston keeps finding a way at home, and that's been enough so far. Two good things, but I think Boston keeps rising to the occasion and keeps finding a way to play better as they play deeper. More drama to this already great NBA season, which you'll see again tonight in New Orleans...but I'll take CELTICS IN SEVEN.

"And then Jack Nicholson says...

I hate being wrong, but at least if I'm going to be wrong, we might as well all enjoy it. And today, boy did we ever.

Yesterday, I said based on the evidence from the first six games, there was no way to expect a breakout game from LeBron combined with a Celtics offensive awakening, and that none of us should anticipate the exciting, memorable Game 7 that everyone at ESPN/ABC was hoping for. Instead, we got all of the above - an epic performance to add to the growing legacy of LeBron James, an equally assertive moment of ascension from Paul Pierce, and the most entertaining NBA Playoff game I've seen in a long time. In the end, the Celtics go home happy 97-92, and their season continues to the Eastern Conference Finals with more of this season's story to be written. But in the long term legacy of both of these teams, this game will live on for a long, long time.

The duel - because that's exactly what it became, and credit both guys for knowing and living in the moment, best visualized by that little Bird-Magic fist bump at the start of the 4th quarter - will go down as the best Game 7 showdown since Bird vs. Dominique in 1988, when Human Highlight had 47 (the highest total in Game 7 history) but Bird scored 20 in the 4th quarter to finish with 34 and give the Celtics the win. We just haven't seen something like this since then between Jordan having no equal, a lack of meaningful Game 7s and just the simple fact that stuff like this doesn't happen every day. The last thing even close was the Allen Iverson vs. Vince Carter showdown in the 2001 Eastern Conference Semifinals, but while that played out well over the course of the entire series (AI 54 in Game 2, Vince 50 in Game 3), they didn't have a night like this one where both guys went at it, and not in Game 7.

And these numbers aren't padded by a ton of shots and low percentages. LeBron shoots 14 of 29, 14 of 19 at the line, hits three threes and finished with 45 points. The Truth - and this is the first time we've been able to really call him that and have it mean something in quite some time - shoots 13 of 23, 11 of 12 at the line, and a scorching 4 of 6 from behind the arc for 41 points. And most importantly, Pierce and the Celtics got the win.

This thing kept building and building, and you could see it happening from the first quarter. And I kept waiting for it to fall apart and one of them to get cold. Didn't happen. Both men played at such a high level for four quarters. And fitting to the occasion, both men were in on its finish.

For Pierce, it was unconventional but incredibly necessary. He outhustled LBJ to a loose ball off a jump with the Celtics up three. LeBron's chance to pull the Cavs closer ended up in a glorified contested airball (and it says a lot when every other LeBron highlight on ESPN features the anchor saying "no foul is called"...but hey, no complaining tonight). And then Pierce - whose last chance at tangible greatness was whisked away when he missed the front end of potential game tying free throws in Game 4 of the 2002 Eastern Conference Finals - tapped into those Ghosts of Celtic Past to get the friendly home bounce on the clinching free throw. Boston goes on, LeBron goes home.

Pierce did have some help - his ability to finally assume command and put this team, offensively, on his back, freed up Kevin Garnett to continue to play incredible defense and get big rebounds and play without pressure, which made him hesitate less. And it was the Ghosts of Celtics Present that helped tip the scales - those background guys who step up who make all the difference in Game 7. It was Eddie House in the first half and PJ Brown - 4 for 4 - in the second. For Cleveland, Delonte West continued to inspire...but there was no one else. If I wanted to kick Cleveland while they were down, I'd start calling him Ben Worthless. Why don't you whine more while continuing to do nothing? 30 minutes, 3 points, 4 rebounds, 1 block, 5 fouls. Good luck at Steve & Barry's.

Look, it feels good when you write "Pierce needs to take control" and then he goes out and does just that, no doubt. But more than just being right about that part, it was just so rewarding today to see him do what he did. Because as we said, Pierce is the only continuity we have. He's been our guy for 10 years, from the day he was drafted and we knew he was a steal. He's been our guy through bad teams and bad coaches, through the stabbing that almost took his life, through the unexpected bliss of the 2002 playoff run and those two free throws that could've put Boston up 3-1 on the Nets...and now today, he's put the Celtics back to that point. When Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen showed up, people questioned who would take the last shot in crucial situations, but all Boston fans assumed it would still be Pierce - because no matter what, this is still his team. We may not have seen it all year...but today, with backs against the wall and the season on the line, Pierce took command. And the Celtics play on. To see him do that on a day when a bigger superstar had an equally epic performance, and Boston still advances...I'm really happy for Paul Pierce.

So...onward. The Celtics and the Pistons renew playoff hatred starting Tuesday night. And at this point, I've seen enough to believe that Detroit could sweep it. But I also saw enough today to swing my shaky playoff faith back the other direction - today Boston played like champions. They'll need it every night from here on out. It's taken seven twice, but the Celtics are back on the doorstep. With Pierce on top of the world and the rest of these guys following behind him, Boston has every opportunity to kick that door down and play for a championship right now. You want him on that wall. You need him on that wall.

Celtics-Cavs: Pre-Game 7 Thoughts

The inevitable comes to pass tomorrow afternoon at 3:30, when the Celtics will play their fourteenth postseason game in the first month of the playoffs, still just trying to make it to the conference finals. And while it's true that the two best words in sports are usually "Game 7", and the drama will be high, it lacks the assumed level of anticipation because the basketball in this series has been both predicitable and, well, bad. It's a shame that the New Orleans-San Antonio Game 7 (by the way - how does it make sense to play Game 6 on Thursday and Game 7 on Monday in that series?! David West's back appreciates it, no doubt) isn't going to get as much hype as tomorrow's, because while that series has been just as predictable home and away, the quality of play has been much higher, and because it's the Spurs and their dynasty on the road, you feel like the odds are about as even as they can be (I actually think San Antonio is going to win, though I don't want them to selfishly so I and everyone else can see Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant play for the real MVP trophy). Boston-Cleveland gets hype because it's Boston and LeBron, but unless something dramatic changes, this game isn't going to be as entertaining as everyone at ESPN/ABC wants to make it out to be. This morning on SportsCenter, I saw clips of these classic Game 7 performances from Bird and Jordan. First of all, LeBron isn't Jordan. And secondly, what have you seen in this series, between Boston's lack of killer instinct and LeBron shooting 41 of 126 - that's 32.5% - that makes you think that all of a sudden LeBron's going for 50 while Pierce and Allen both wake up and Kevin Garnett decides to grow a pair in a game that ends with both teams scoring in the 90s?

And while we're here...look, I love Garnett. I love almost everything about him. But it absolutely boggles me as to how he can be so intense, so focused, so obsessed with winning at times...and yet in the clutch, he can be indecisive at best.

There was a point last night in the final minutes of the game - and granted, he had swished an 18 footer a few moments before hand - where the Celtics penetrated and then the ball got kicked back around to Garnett, who got the ball at the top of the circle. Standing in his way was Delonte West - the point guard, who's 6'4" 180lbs and a step out of position - and then Joe Smith was trapped all the way under the basket, locked up with Kendrick Perkins. It was the kind of hole a running back dreams about. It was the kind of hole where LeBron, Kobe, and the majority of the guys in your rec league see it open up and then explode to the hole. It's the kind of opening where, if I could dunk, my eyes would light up. And when it happened, I stood up out of my chair and said "oh DUNK THAT!"...

...and instead, we got a hesitation dribble or two and then an awkward five footer that rimmed out.

A few minutes later, he got the ball in the paint again, and again hesitated, and this time got called for traveling. And maybe he did and maybe he didn't, and maybe Paul Pierce should've never been called for that charge on LeBron James (though an astute observation by Dan Shulman, that 50/50 block/charge calls all depend on the referee's viewpoint from where he's standing, and from where the ref was it looked like a charge because Pierce was apparently block the view of both of LeBron's feet moving). And maybe the Garden crowd will continue to inspire and carry the Celtics to victory.

But the larger point is, and this has been true since Game 3 in Atlanta - the Celtics have no killer instinct. They can't go for the throat because Garnett won't, Ray Allen is ice cold and Paul Pierce, for reasons unknown, hasn't seen the ball or a meaningful shot in a crucial situation in the final minute of a game in the playoffs this season.

What's so maddening about this whole thing is, not only is it out of nowhere after a 66-16 regular season, but you expect the Celtics to be able to finish teams off or at least make big plays down the stretch because you've seen it before. The knock on Garnett is that it's not there, and so maybe I'll have to keep throwing my hat when I see him turn down a chance to dunk on the other team's point guard. But there's got to be somebody on this team with the intestinal fortitude to want the ball with the game on the line and then make it happen.

Don't think it's possible? Ray Allen used to be that guy before he turned into a cold spot up shooter who can't play defense (it's tough love today, kids). I realize this was seven years ago, but you talk about wanting the ball and making it happen? Witness Allen dunking on Tracy McGrady to tie the game with three seconds left in the 2001 Playoffs:






(I was watching this live, and when he did that I remember saying "That's the greatest dunk in NBA history." It's not, I know, but it was one of those thunderous moments that the Celtics are so in need of today.)

You know what this Celtics team really needs? Antoine Walker.

Not the 2008 model, but the 02-03 version. Yeah, he took some bad shots. But he wasn't afraid. He would look for the ball and make it happen in crunch time. And in the huddle, he took command. It was him calling out the whole team in Game 3 of the 2002 Eastern Conference Finals when they were down 27 to the Nets that sparked that whole comeback.

And he rubbed off on Paul Pierce, who's the only strain of continuity Celtic fans have (something all sports fans really need). He made Pierce mean. Not the sort of mean that throws up a gang sign when rookie Al Horford of the 8 seed Hawks runs his mouth off at you at the end of Game 3. The sort of mean that would've gone for 40 points in Game 4. Witness the 1:59 mark of this clip from the 2003 Playoffs, at the end of the third quarter against Al Harrington (or watch the whole thing if you're a Celtics fan feeling nostalgic about when Boston played with an edge):





I know Allen and Pierce aren't as young as they used to be, and Ray Allen really doesn't dunk at all anymore...but Pierce showed throughout the regular season (and last year too, when the C's were awful and he still showed up) that he can still be the man. But in the absence of 'Toine and in the presence of KG, Pierce looks like the guy who got transferred to another department and he's not the top gun anymore. Right now, what Boston needs is for Pierce to take control.


Actually, what'd really be nice is for Ray Allen to warm up, because that honestly would solve a lot of problems. But in the middle of all of this is Doc Rivers, who should've been fired after last year. He can blame the refs for Game 6, he can blame whomever for whatever, but if things go south tomorrow, there will be lots of questions and few answers.

People will make all of these points again and say "they need a go-to guy." Sorry, the roster isn't going to get any better than this. And when you're 66-16, you don't need a better roster. A coach in the NBA is almost an oxymoron at times, but one thing he should be able to do is figure out the above problems - when there's nobody who's willing to step up and make it happen down the stretch, he needs to address that problem, designate and design to make it happen from the top down. Instead, he blames the refs and says little to nothing negative about Pierce, Garnett or Allen. If the Celtics lose tomorrow, Doc Rivers should be fired on a cumulative effort basis. They'll say you can't fire the coach of the team with the NBA's best record. I'll say you can't extend the contract of a man who loses 18 straight games, but since we've already proved ourselves wrong once, we might as well go ahead and make it twice.

Maybe Rajon Rondo will continue to play Jeckell at home. Maybe Allen heats up. Maybe the Celtics continue to smother LeBron and prevent one of these defining moments from happening at their expense in their building. Maybe the Garden crowd is enough - and although I'm all for entertaining, based on the evidence at hand I don't see LBJ going for 40 and I also don't see the Celtics all of a sudden figuring it out and then playing like it. I see Boston grinding and the home crowd carrying them to an ugly win of less than 10 points with a score somewhere in the low 80s. That's the way it's been done so far in Boston in this series, no reason think that formula goes out the window just because there's a 7 after the "Game" this time around.

But you know what the biggest crime here is? This is the first time Boston's been this deep into the playoffs in five years, and if they win tomorrow it'll be their first time in the Conference Finals in six years, and only the second time since 1987. For people like me, it's only the second time as an adult Celtic fan that we're getting to see this, and the first time Boston's ever been this good in our adult lives. And no one - not us, and not the players - no one is having any fun.

Even if Boston wins tomorrow, the pressure is getting heavier and heavier. Detroit is an even matchup even without any pressure. But instead of going into this series and enjoying ourselves, this season, and an old-school Boston-Detroit showdown - just four wins away from a potential Celtics-Lakers Finals - everything is a struggle.

It's a familiar animal - Tennessee just played this game last fall, looking incredibly human and at times simply terrible while courting a championship that they would eventually win. The difference is, the Vols weren't supposed to be the best team in the SEC, and they also weren't an overnight "success" story like the Celtics this season. And as Bill Simmons and others have pointed out in the last month, we see the new Big Three talking about championships and greatness and we see KG in that Gatorade commercial and we start taking things for granted...and these guys are talking about winning, and none of them have ever really done it before, including Doc Rivers. This is supposed to be the time where they earn the right to talk about it, and instead we all took it for granted along the way, and now not only are we not enjoying it, we're 48 minutes away from it being over.

So let's hope we can have some fun on Sunday. And then let's hope that somehow, that carries over to Detroit. That despite the weight of all this struggle, that Boston still has home court advantage and is still good enough to win it all. The obstacles in the way are not insurmountable, and if the Celtics get it together they might start playing like they remember that they're the ones who are supposed to be insurmountable.

But one way or another, winning cures anything. So once again, as we go to Game 7, pretty or ugly, Big Three or Rondo, LeBron for 50 or LeBron for 15...win. Survive. Advance. And maybe, just maybe, the Ghosts of Celtic Past will show up to carry it forward one more day.

CollegeFootballNews.com Bowl Projections

It's still early, and I know this - but that still didn't keep me from checking the local "bookstore" and Wal-Mart today just in case some college football magazines somehow slipped thru the cracks early. Alas, they did not...but I can offer you the early bowl projections from the always fun CollegeFootballNews.com:

BCS BOWLS
BCS Championship - Florida (SEC) vs. Ohio State (Big 10)
Sugar - Georgia (at-large) vs. Virginia Tech (at-large)
Orange - Clemson (ACC) vs. Texas Tech (at-large)
Fiesta - Missouri (Big 12) vs. West Virginia (Big East)
Rose - USC (Pac-10) vs. Wisconsin (at-large)

OTHER SEC BOWLS
Capital One - Auburn vs. Penn State
Cotton - Tennessee vs. Oklahoma
Outback - LSU vs. Michigan
Chick-fil-A - South Carolina vs. Boston College
Independence - Arkansas vs. Nebraska
Music City - Alabama vs. Wake Forest
Liberty - Mississippi State vs. Tulsa

Here's a good question, two weeks into May: would you be satisfied with this if you're a Vol fan? These projections more or less imply Vol losses to Florida and Georgia, as most of the nation is projecting, and maybe another one along the way. In what we saw last year is an increasingly competitive landscape, would 9-3/10-2 and a January 1 date in Dallas fall on the right side of the line?

The thing that kept the masses at bay last year was the chase for Atlanta, which the Vols were able to stay in and then win despite carrying three losses on the Third Saturday in October. If the Vols have the same record but are removed from championship implications, the hammer will come down much harder. And sure, it's hard to pick out exactly how you'd feel about 10-2 because you don't know who or how the 2 will pan out. Nor the 10. But on paper, I'd say these projections are about right, and like anything else, there's room on both sides for movement.

...and then I saw these

This is the most awesome thing I've seen in awhile...

(From onedroohill.com)

Holding Serve

I go to teach our high school youth here in Ceres tonight in my Braves hat and a green button down shirt, supporting both my causes tonight. We talk about listening, and being aware of both their attention span and my pressing television engagements...well, we don't make them listen very long.

I get home and turn on the TV to find the Braves up 8-0 (in a game they would hold on to win 8-6 to even their series with Philly, after falling to 1-11 in one run games last night). And I figure it's too much of a good thing, because when I turn it over to the Celtics and Cavs in the second quarter, LeBron James has come to life and the Cavs are padding a seven point lead.

The crowd is quiet and the lead keeps building. I'm cooking dinner and watching in between with the volume turned up so I can hear it in the kitchen, but at one point Cleveland goes up 14, and all of a sudden it's getting very real, and Boston fans are feeling all sorts of combinations of angry, dismayed, and that tangible sense of impending doom. I get mad and retreat to the kitchen for what I think will be the remainder of the first half.

Then, while cooking, I hear "Rajon Rondo, for THREE!" And then a few moments later, I hear it again. The second time, it startles me so much that I'm pretty sure I gave myself a third degree burn from the skillet on my index finger. But I step into the living room in time to see the proof in replay: Rondo hit two threes, the Celtics close the first half on a 14-3 run, and we've got some fight in us yet.

Boston spends the second half responding to LBJ's 23 first half points by finally employing the "no layups" rule - I'm convinced that PJ Brown is on the team specifically to enforce it - and took out Delonte West, Anderson Varejao and LeBron on multiple occasions, making them earn it at the line and ensuring that there will be no posters on sale after Game 5 (LBJ did, to his credit, put in a couple of great layups despite the heavy contact in the first half).

Cleveland got to the line 41 times, but only shot 68% - a percentage that dips to 60% if you take away LeBron's 11 for 13 - and it was instead Kevin Garnett who put in the thunderous dunk(s) in the 4th quarter to keep Boston at a safe and healthy distance. Add to that some other inspired moments, including an uplifiting performance from Big Baby Davis. It wasn't perfect, but the Celtics get it done 96-89, and move to a 3-2 lead in this series going to Cleveland on Friday night.

LeBron finally woke up, true - 35 points in 45 minutes - and this was the worst defensive performance in the Garden (edit: I know it's not the real Garden, but I keep thinking if I keep calling it that some of the magic will seep through) by the Celtics thus far in the playoffs. But on the other end, performances were encouraging.

Kevin Garnett assumed more command of things, with a very healthy line of 26 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocks and no turnovers. Paul Pierce wasn't what I'd call hot, but he did what he needs to do - 29 points and got to the rim and the free throw line (11 of 13, equaling LeBron). This is the Pierce we need and remember from the '02 Playoffs and from the '08 regular season. Ray Allen went 4 of 11 and that might count for his best performance of the series, if only because he made a key offensive rebound in the game's final minute.

And as Bill Simmons I'm sure was thrilled to watch, Sam Cassell played only 5 minutes and Rajon Rondo stole the show, getting 42 minutes and responding with 20 points, 13 assists and one turnover. If there's one player who defines Boston's playoff run thus far, it's Rondo - in Boston's seven home playoff games and seven home playoff wins, Rondo averages 13 points on 51% shooting, with 8 assists per game. In Boston's five road playoff games and five road playoff losses, Rondo averages only 10 points on 39% shooting and 5 assists per game. On the road he can look lost. At home, he's been a critical element in inducing runs with his passing and his shots in surprising fashion, and tonight Boston doesn't win without him.

So for Cleveland, while LeBron's performance has to be encouraging and Delonte West has played inspired basketball all series against his former team...the worry shifts back over to their side. The Cavs had the Celtics right where they wanted them for about twenty minutes tonight, that this would be the game they would steal in Boston and then wrap it up Friday night at home. But then they let it get away, lost it in the third quarter and couldn't get it back. Even if Boston can't win Friday night in Cleveland, the Celtics know they're coming home Sunday. Hopefully, Boston plays loose in a good way on Friday, not conceding because they don't believe they can win on the road and taking a Game 7 win for granted, but not with a real road complex either. Cleveland will feel the elimination game pressure Friday, then the "can we win in Boston?" pressure Sunday if they pass the first test. So while I'm not overly excited about championship potential, especially while Detroit and Chauncey Billups just keep resting, I do feel better about Boston's odds in the immediate present.

(And by the way, and Avery Johnson - who hopefully finds a coaching role, but if not I'd listen to him over most as an analyst, if only for that voice - made part of this point at halftime, but if you're Cleveland when do you pull the plug on Ben Wallace? He's just there...but it's like he's not even there at all. Tonight: 27 minutes, 4 points, 4 rebounds, 1 block. He hasn't pulled in double figure rebounds in any game this series and is averaging 3 points per game against Boston. He was supposed to be the centerpiece of that trade, and before that the final piece for the Baby Bulls, and he's just disappeared. And maybe it's poor taste to make fun of him for being listed on the injury report before Game 3 as "Questionable: Allergies" after his dizzy spell in Game 2. But I'm doing it anyway. This is the Playoffs. You don't help the other team's guy up off the floor, and I make fun of your "injury".)

Here's what I know: Boston needs to win Friday. Detroit just made the Eastern Conference Finals for the sixth straight year with a roster full of guys who've been to the Finals twice and have a ring from 2004. Whoever comes out of the West will be deadly in four different ways depending on who it is. The last place Boston needs to be trying to figure it out is in the NBA's Final Four. You absolutely do not want to carry this "can't win on the road" business into Detroit, who's certainly good enough to win in Boston and will present an even bigger challenge than the pretend one in Atlanta and the real one in Cleveland. If you win Friday, we move on to the conference finals and don't have to answer eight billion questions about why we can't win on the road. If you lose on Friday, you roll the dice again with Game 7, and then even if you win, the all important confidence will be smaller against a Detroit team that's full of it right now. Don't wait. Carpe diem. Win on Friday.

And I'm not going to lie - right now I'm watching the Lakers take on the Jazz, who've stolen the Titans' powder blues and look just as ridiculous in them. No professional sports team should ever wear that color. Do you think it's coincidence that the Kansas City Royals never win anything these days? You might as well just wear pink like a big boy. Crikey.

Anyway...I'm watching the Lakers, and despite all of Boston's problems...in the same way I'm glad it's Detroit up next, I want the Lakers. New Orleans might be the most fun team to watch in the NBA in my opinion and Chris Paul would destroy the Celtics. San Antonio is the dynasty that I'd love to knock off. And Utah, even wearing those unis, is very very good too. But I want the Lakers. Both teams are in dogfihts right now. But here's hoping both teams hold up their end of the bargain. That way the NBA can stop sweating that Detroit-Utah Finals, and we can all get what we really want.

First thing's first - win Friday.

Random Thoughts - Tuesday May 13

Stunningly, a story about the WNBA had no impact on our influx of visitors to this site.

Vols #17 in Athlon
You can read a bare-bones account at Athlon's website - I'd expect to find the Vols anywhere between 12-20 in all of these preseason publications, so 17 doesn't raise too much of an eyebrow, other than the 1% of me that always thinks we're underrated and disrespected because we're not ranked #1. Athlon hits newsstands on June 3, Lindy's a week before on May 27.

Speaking of polls...
Offering more proof that the NFL continues to be the nation's only true year-round sport, ESPN and Sports Illustrated have released their first Power Rankings for the 2008 season. The Patriots, who remain on top but will carry the burden in 2008 of the Super Bowl loss, SpyGate, and the ghosts of last season's perfect regular season, will be a very interesting study come fall. No team has ever walked into a season with more pressure combined with more talent. And I can see them making a run at perfection again...but I can also see them falling apart. Meanwhile, the rest of the league tries to play catch up.

This is what happens when you don't foul LeBron:




(Note: yeah, I'm upset that this happened and that Kevin Garnett had to smile for the poster in another Celtics road loss that we'll get to in a second. But first...wow. And second, this is why Kevin Harlan is one of the best in the business at calling basketball. Spot off, he comes out with the "No regard for human life!" line that fit the moment perfectly. There are guys like Mike Breen who do a good job, but it's guys like Harlan and Gus Johnson who put emphasis and emotion into their calls that really bring the game to life. Kudos to Harlan and Doug Collins for doing a great job with the game last night.


Now...the Celtics fall to 0-5 on the road in these playoffs and have the Cleveland series even at 2-2. No team in NBA history has ever lost their first five road playoff games - teams that lose their first four typically go home in the first round. There are some issues that are similar - the points allowed on the road continue to be alarmingly higher than what happens in Boston. The smothering defense the C's played at the Garden didn't translate well in Cleveland. What continues to be even more alarming is the fact that LeBron James, really until the 4th quarter last night, hadn't been LeBron James. Then, while the Celtics played "clank!" for 12 minutes and got no 4th quarter points from KG or Ray Allen, LeBron hit a key three to put Cleveland up six, then buried Boston on that dunk.


So now we go back to Boston for pivotal Game 5, and the pressure continues to mount. I fear that the road woes are becoming a real complex for the Celtics, a team with a lot of good players but no real battle tested playoff experience outside of Sam Cassell, and that may not be enough. The knock on Pierce, Garnett and Allen has always been that they couldn't carry their team through to the Finals, and so the question looms - can this team pull through this? Every home game now carries an immense pressure that gets greater every week, because the mindset is becoming "we can't win on the road, but we've got home court advantage, so we're okay." LeBron has played as poorly as he can play already in this series, and it's still just 2-2. Right now, this team doesn't look like a title team, they don't look like a group that can take out Detroit in the next round, a team that absolutely knows how to win in the playoffs. And I think everyone in the East, Boston to Orlando, is scared to death of the Lakers right now.

But more than anything else, can the Celtics even get out of this one alive? The Boston crowd will help as they do on Wednesday night, but will that continue to be enough? You want to see improvement - witness Game 7 of the Atlanta series, which restored faith. Maybe the defense that showed up in Game 2 of the Cleveland series will make a return appearance for Game 5. Maybe Boston will continue to do what Washington did to LeBron and not eat another one of those dunks. And it's still a survive and advance business - Boston needs to find two wins in three games and move on. But these outside issues of confidence and inability to win on the road are becoming very real. The team with the best record in the league is now playing with a greater sense of fear than anyone else. If Boston can't use that fear to get better and continue to advance, this whole thing is going to come crashing down very soon.

A big stretch for the Braves
As baseball nears the quarter pole, the Braves are 19-18 and another interesting case study of home and away: 14-4 at Turner Field, best in the NL, and 5-14 on the road. The Braves are also 1-10 in one run games...so maybe we're better than we think, especially given the pitching injury catastrophes.

But lots of questions are going to get answered in the next two weeks, with 14 games in 14 days (including one day off and one doubleheader) against four contenders. Can the Braves sustain success against good teams?

It starts tonight with a three game series in Philadelphia before the Braves come home for a huge homestand: a weekend interleague set with AL West leading Oakland, Monday off before a Tuesday doubleheader to open a four game set with the Mets, followed by a four game weekend set with Arizona. In two weeks, I think we'll have a much better idea just how good the Braves really are.

While John Smoltz continues to work his way back and Mike Hampton remains in perpetual limbo, can a rotation of Tim Hudson, Tom Glavine, Jair Jurrjens, Jo-Jo Reyes and Chuck James get the job done? Hudson has been lights out (6-2, 2.54), and Glavine has pitched well although he still doesn't have a win. The other guys have had their moments, good and bad, and the jury's still out. But the jury will be closer to a decision soon.

Meanwhile, the Braves continue to get an MVP performance from Chipper Jones (.406, 10 homers) and pleasant surprises from Yunel Escobar and Mark Kotsay. Brian McCann continues to prove his worth. If the Braves can get more production from the guys who were supposed to be doing it in the first place - Kelly Johnson, Mark Teixeira, Jeff Francoeur and Matt Diaz - combined with health in the bullpen, I think this team is very much a player for the postseason. Now will be a good time to find out.

A tip of the cap to Sergio Garcia
Quote of the week: Garcia, after winning at TPC at Sawgrass: "First of all I want to thank Tiger, for not being here."

Of all the once and future contenders against Woods, and all the potential rivals to cross his path, Sergio Garcia has always been the best possible option. David Duval was always too cold and ultimately faded, Vijay and Goosen couldn't maintain either, and even though Phil Mickelson has a sense of dividing people between he and Tiger, he's just not as much fun as Garcia. Because none of those guys would've said that after winning Sunday. Sergio Garcia is fun, and he makes Tiger more fun and less stone cold killer in the process.

Garcia's name still goes on that "best player to never win a major" list, though the TPC is as big as it gets outside of those four. He had his shot at the British last year and was tragically betrayed by his putter. So while Woods is rehabbing and on schedule to tee it up at the US Open next month, here's hoping that Garcia can give him a run for his money somewhere along the way, and that we'd all enjoy it when he does.

An exercise in missing the point

This commercial is so almost good, it's terrible.

If you're the WNBA and you're willing to take the step of acknowledgement that most of America doesn't care about your product and run with it in advertising, kudos. If you're willing to go that route and potentially alienate/disrespect the women who are currently in the league (and there are two commercials similar to this one that feature current WNBA players and not rookies like Parker), then you'd better take advantage of the opportunity you're creating.

Instead, while this commercial does part of its job in getting people like me to talk about it that normally would only use the letters "WNBA" as the punchline, it misses out on its most important part: getting people to actually watch. Because this commercial doesn't even make me an iota more interested in watching a game.

The "She wouldn't say that. Would you?" text is the worst idea in the history of professional sports marketing. Because yes, I would say that. I'm saying it right now. And so would you and everyone else. That's exactly what everyone is saying. It's an excellent acknowledgement of it to have Candace Parker say it too - and it boosts her image as a rookie coming in if you sell it as "I'm going to help change all that" - but then you negate the whole thing by having text come up that says "She wouldn't say that."

Or you could just cut the ad off where she says "Does this league have a future?" Because she is the future (not to be confused with Kelley Washington). But then you lose that point when she adds "Not that I see." Which again gets ruined by the text.

Look, the WNBA is a niche sport, and anyone with half a brain will tell you that. It's not even like the NHL, where I find myself watching Pens/Flyers highlights and wishing it was on ESPN instead of Versus. It doesn't have mainstream appeal and because it's women's basketball outside of the alma mater context it probably never will. The best you can hope for is to make a little noise - and hey, it's an Olympic year, now's a good time - and so a commercial like this and a player like Parker can do that for you...if you don't include that text.

If you cut it short, it's at least planted somewhere in the back of my mind that the WNBA wasn't afraid to admit they were unattractive (remember when those Hardee's commercials started several years ago when they admitted their own mistakes and then started promoting the six dollar burger? And Hardee's is still open today.) and therefore it's planted somewhere back there that maybe Parker and a new image would make some difference. And in an Olympic year, where we'll all get a little involved, you can build for the future.

Instead, this commercial basically says "Hey, here's what everyone is saying about us. We know it's true. Here's our new superstar saying it. But...wait, she wouldn't really say it. And hey, you seem like a nice guy, you wouldn't really say it too...would you?"

Gaining publicity when the publicity brings up how inferior your product is and how incredibly stupid your attempt to change that is is not good publicity. It almost was. But instead, it's just another step down for the WNBA, making this the first and probably last time we write about it here. Good luck to Candace Parker, and maybe she'll dominate...but the league isn't doing her, or themselves, any favors.

Links - Wednesday May 7

- CollegeFootballNews.com has started their individual team previews for the 2008 season, where you can read about the other side of the home opener in UAB, and our old SEC friends down at Auburn.

- Ramar Smith out, junior college All-America Bobby Maze in. You like to hear a certain level of confidence/arrogance in quarterbacks, kickers, pitchers and point guards, so feast your ears on several of Maze's lines in this story, including "Stevie Wonder could see this is where I needed to be", "They've called me 'The Solution', so you do the equation: what better place could I be?", and most importantly: "I know basketball is a real big deal here." Yes, Bobby, you're right...now it is.

- More perspective from Game 1 of the Celtics/Cavs series from Gene Wojciechowski.

- An informative piece from SI.com on the future of Braves 1B Mark Teixeira, who will be a free agent at the end of this season. Atlanta has won four straight to get back above .500 at 16-15, has the best home record in the NL (12-4), and are just 1.5 games back from that dubious Florida/Philly duo atop the NL East.

- Texas Tech coach Mike Leach is a pirate.

The Shape of Things to Come

Watching Game 1 between Boston and Cleveland, you kept waiting for one of two eventualities: either LeBron James was going to snap out of it and take over, or he wasn't and Boston would certainly pull away.

Instead, you got a third outcome, one that still produced a win for Boston while still preserving a level of anxiety we've become uncomfortably comfortable with over the last two weeks: LeBron James went 2-for-18 from the field with 10 turnovers - arguably the worst game of his NBA career - and the Celtics won by four points.

On the good news front, let's credit Kevin Garnett. On a night when the pace and the play lulled the Garden crowd to sleep until the game's final moments, and with no one else able to carry any of the load for Boston, KG not only filled the stat sheet the way he does (28 points with only two free throws, 8 boards, 1 foul), not only did he score 37% of his team's total output, but the intense end-of-game KG that was absent in Atlanta showed up in a big way tonight, hitting a clutch jumper to tie it up late, then knowing the moment and the night well enough to get the ball inside and do his thing in putting the Celtics up for good. When no one else could tonight, KG took the leadership role and carried us home.

Other than that and the final score - which is, of course, more important than anything else - the good news may be stopping there.

"No one else could" is an understatement. Paul Pierce's line will be overlooked because of two things, the first of which being LeBron's, but he was 2 of 14 with 4 points. The second of which is Ray Allen, who scored zero points (first time that's happened since he was a rookie), and has been playing below his regular season output throughout the first eight games of these playoffs.

Now, as Charles Barkley and Chris Webber are mentioning right now, Allen and Pierce aren't going to go 2 for 18 the whole series. And yes, the Celtics can play defense, and it surprised me how often they went to the double team on LBJ and how poorly the Cavs responded to it.

But what I also know is that this may've just been one of those John Calipari Will of God games for LeBron, who had at least four shots go in and out and then missed a game-tying layup by inches at the end. He'll be back, with a vengeance. I also know that Cleveland, despite scoring only 72 points, got good play from Zydrunas Ilgauskas and inspired play from ex-Celtics Delonte West and Wally Szczerbiak (even if it's not showing up well on the box score, but then again, tonight who is?). I know this game was in Boston and the Celtics were supposed to win anyway. And so I know that Cleveland, especially since this was only Game 1, has to be feeling about as good as you can feel after a loss (unless LeBron just goes into some intense depression over his performance, which I doubt).

What seems more likely - LeBron bouncing back, or both Pierce and Allen doing the same? If the rest of the Cavs continue to play within themselves and play well - and especially since we have zero evidence of Boston's playoff success on the road - I think Cleveland's got every shot to win this series. So the Cavs are feeling game, the Celtics are still feeling anxious...but Boston's up 1-0. Stay tuned.

(The best question to ask on this blog at this point would be some form of "If the Vols were as bad as the Celtics have been for the past two years before this one, would I be proportionately pessimistic?"

Probably not.)

Celtics-Cavs Preview

You get the idea.

Starting tomorrow night, the second round opening matchups conclude with the top half of the Eastern Conference bracket, with the Celtics, who don't look as good as you thought they would at this point, and the defending conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers, who just looked significantly better against the Wizards than most thought they would.

In four meetings this season, the teams split and everyone won at home. The first question when dealing with Cleveland is, of course, LeBron, so it's noteworthy that LBJ scored 32.3 points per game against Boston in the regular season, although he missed one of the four contests with his injury. Boston just showed vulnerability, getting torched at different times by Joe Johnson and Josh Smith in the Atlanta series, but also showed a capacity for incredible team defense, locking down the Hawks cold in Boston, where they averaged only 77 points per game, including just 65 in Game 7. However, in Atlanta it was a different story, with the Hawks winning all three games at a 100.6 PPG clip. That's an extreme difference, and something that'll be very interesting come the weekend and Games 3 and 4...

...but you don't need to wait for the weekend for interest and entertainment value in this series. Like all the second round matchups, you've got two very good teams going against each other and they all look extremely competitive on paper. And unlike the other three matchups, where ABC went 0-3 on Houston, Phoenix and Dallas winning in round one to boost TV ratings down the line, the Celtics vs. LeBron story could end up being the best one of the playoffs.

Even though Cleveland traded half their roster at the deadline, this is still a savvy team. The knock on them was that they were around .500 since the trade, and many, including this blog, picked the Wizards to knock them out in the first round. However, if they've picked now as the time to come together, they've done it exactly right. Fact is, Cleveland was a no call and the front rim away from beating Washington in five games, and then closed the door on the Wizards in incredibly impressive fashion in Game 6 on the road. This is not a team that has no experience winning on the road, and this is not a team that will fear The Garden or Boston.

Part of me always felt bad for all of those Celtics who got shipped away under Danny Ainge, as Paul Pierce is the last man standing in the organization who was a Celtic the day Ainge took over. However, it's not just the few guys who've been drafted under Ainge who've been lucky enough to stick around who are now enjoying the fruits of KG's labor: Delonte West and Wally Szczerbiak have made their way to Cleveland, and will be announced in the starting lineup tomorrow night, alongside LBJ and two bodies the Celtics will have to deal with on the glass: Ben Wallace, who has a ring, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who together accounted for nearly 17 rebounds per game in the regular season (LeBron actually led the Cavs in rebounding in the Washington series, and tried to average a triple double at 29.8, 9.5, 7.7).

One important difference between Atlanta and Cleveland, aside from talent and experience, which obviously are also huge, is the outside shooting factor. The Hawks got a boatload of points in ATL with Johnson and Smith slashing to the basket, and Ray Allen unable to keep up. But Atlanta doesn't have a go-to three point shooter, and shot just 32% from behind the arc in the series. They couldn't make the Celtics pay on the perimeter, and especially in Boston where points were at a premium, couldn't make up the difference.

However, Cleveland can put two guys on the floor, in Szczerbiak and Daniel Gibson, who can hurt you from behind the arc. With LBJ being LBJ and the bodies inside, Cleveland is a team, if they're hot, who can beat absolutely anybody. And with Boston still apparently struggling to find a rhythm and a go-to at the end of games...this is why Celtic fans were a little nervous about playing Cleveland even before the Atlanta series went seven, because if it's tied with 2:00 to play, I know LeBron can make it happen and I'm not sure who's going to stop him in green. But on the other end...who's going to make the shots?

And yeah, we love Ray Allen and he's a great shooter. But when Pierce fouled out of game six and several of the guys deferred to him, he went ice cold and couldn't hit. Garnett continues to be the definition of unselfishness, which is sometimes more than what we want from him. But I do remember Paul Pierce in the playoffs in 2002-2004. I remember him staring down Ron Artest when he was with the Pacers, telling him what he was going to do, and then doing it. Pierce, not Allen, is the guy I want with the ball if the game's on the line. It may be Garnett's team in the nation's eye, but for me it's still Pierce's. And when push comes to shove - and odds are, in this series it will: in the four regular season meetings combined, the Celtics outscored Cleveland 389-380 - I think Pierce is the best option to try and answer LeBron.

The nation is divided: with 12,000 votes this afternoon, ESPN's poll on "who will win?" is split right down the middle, 50/50. We've reached the point in these playoffs where records go out the window, and now it's every possession counts. I'm terrified of Cleveland coming into Boston and coming out with a win in Games 1 or 2, because then the pressure will really fall hard on the C's to go to Cleveland and get one back. Even if they didn't win it all last year, you learned not to doubt LBJ in the playoffs when he beat Detroit by himself last year. I forgot that lesson in round one, and now that I've remembered it I'm in high anxiety mode.

The other series in the second round, again, can offer great basketball - New Orleans/San Antonio won't draw any TV ratings, but real basketball fans have to love this series. I like watching Orlando just to see if they can take the next step. And when I watched Utah/LA yesterday, I already started having doubts about the Celtics - because even Jerry Sloan will tell you, Utah can't stop Kobe. The league MVP dropped 38 points in Game 1 - and by the way, all of us who said he was in the Allen Iverson "shoot 300 times per game" mold and would be his entire career and could never transcend owe him an apology, since he shot 50% from the floor yesterday and hit 21 of 23 free throws...though I'll stand by my argument that Chris Paul should've been MVP - but when you see Kobe getting those numbers and getting to the line that often, I worry you're going to see LeBron do the same thing. These are the only two guys in the league who can still take over and win games by themselves, two guys in a league of their own.

If Boston can win this series, they'll go a long way to making me and everyone else feel better. I think they'd be even more locked in against Detroit, and we'll talk about the Finals when it becomes more realistic. Right now, they've got to stop LeBron and they've got to find a way to play the same defense on the road that they play in Boston. LeBron will be the best player on the floor, but the Celtics are the better team no doubt, and will need everyone who sees the floor to make their contributions - it's going to take James Posey, Eddie House, Sam Cassell, Kendrick Perkins, Big Baby, Leon Powe, and Rajon Rondo, who is the epitome of Boston's wins at home and struggles on the road, to beat Cleveland. I'll go with the best team over the best player, and nervously take the Celtics in seven, as this team continues to learn how to win in the playoffs...but I expect you'll see greatness from both sides for the duration.

That's more like it.

Confidence may not be fully restored...but that helped.

I was tied up at church until around 1:30. By that time, midway through the second quarter, Boston was already up 18, and the game was never, ever in doubt from there. Boston goes on to win 99-65, and en route does a great job of quieting, if not silencing, the critics, and putting the focus simply on the Celtics-Cavs series instead of large questions about Boston's vulnerability. At least until Game 3.

A couple of observations, aside from saying "Boston played really well." First, do the Hawks just go down as a dirty team? I'm inclined to think so because I'm a Celtics fan, but if you're just a casual observer watching these games, and you see the antics from Al Horford in Game 3, Zaza Pachulia in Game 4, and the only reason I know his name now is because he got the business end of Kevin Garnett, finally, on a vicious screen of vengeance with the Celtics up 30...and this only after Marvin Williams was ejected, and rightfully so, for attempted murder on Rajon Rondo, apparently confusing defense with a double midair forearm shiver...they're a subpar team who got exposed today, and ultimately weren't good enough to ride this petty stuff anywhere outside of Atlanta...and so for me, when the Celtics see them next year, I'm going to associate them with a dirty, immature team. And it's hard for me to see how you can do otherwise.

Also...in broadcasting, there's a fine line between entertaining and informing. There are way, way, way too many guys in all three sports today who go for the former first, and that's way wrong. Even when it's done well - because I think Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy are legitimately humorous - if it's at the expense of the information or the product, I don't like it at the end of the day. So even in a game that had all these moments:

- Van Gundy questioning whether or not Sam Cassell pays rent for living with Kevin Garnett

- The (possible) revelation that Mark Jackson's middle name is, in fact, "Action", which he reacted strongly to by saying "I'm a man, and my name is Mark", but apparently not so strongly that it kept him from naming his son Mark Action Jackson II. Wikipedia can neither confirm nor deny, but we're going with it here because I want it to be true so badly.

- Mike Breen - who does an admirable job of leveling these guys out and an excellent job of being lighthearted about it all - saying the Celtics were up "almost 40", and then being called out immediately by Van Gundy because he couldn't do math and see that Boston was up 35.

- Bonus points from a game in the Lakers-Nuggets first round series where Mark Jackson called Allen Iverson "possibly the greatest pound-for-pound player in the history of the NBA" and Van Gundy absolutely would not let it go.

I enjoyed all of these moments. And in a Lakers-Nuggets game or anything else not involving the Celtics, I'd probably want this team calling the action. But when it's my team, or when it's the Finals, that's too much entertainment. Give me Hubie Brown. Please. I'd like to watch the game and focus on the game without my attention being diverted somewhere else, even if it's to somewhere funny.

But that's neither here nor there. Boston blasts Atlanta, wins the series, and moves on. So while the Lakers and Utah play it out (SESB pick: Lakers in six), the Celtics move on to LeBron and the Cavs. And they'll need to move on quickly and come right back with the same authority they showed tonight. Hopefully, what we saw tonight isn't a mirage or only what happens in Boston (even though, of course, if the Celtics go undefeated at home and winless on the road throughout the playoffs, they'll win the title). But either way, our hope as Celtics fans that was damaged and questioned over the last two weeks in this series has now been restored. And we carry that hope forward.

And now, the bad news version...

I'm going to find the PA announcer at Phillips Arena and commit assault and battery.

It's embarrassing just to begin with to lose to a team that chants "SEVEN! SEVEN! SEVEN!" as if just making it back to Boston would be a success. It's even more frustrating when Paul Pierce gets fouled out on a terrible call, then gets a T for agreeing with me a little too much in the crucial moments of the 4th quarter.

But to see the Celtics run around like chickens with their heads cut off - a point never more clear than when Rajon Rondo, he of the non-existent jump shot, dribbles down on the final possession down 3 with plenty of time to set something up, and waits, and waits, and panics, and panics, and then jacks up an air ball at the buzzer. Well done.

And I'm worried that I'm not worried. It still breeds only anger and not fear, and that breeds fear. Because my brain hasn't processed the fact that all the good things that've happened to the Celtics since November could somehow now inexplicably be over in 48 hours, were the Hawks to win game seven in what would be the greatest postseason upset in the history of professional sports.

So let's not even talk about stopping LeBron, or the fact that Kevin Garnett gets huge offensive rebounds and nine times out of ten turns and kicks right back out instead of asserting his will like the man he should be, or the way that, especially without Pierce, everyone looks scared, half of them won't shoot and the ones that will jack contested threes quicker than Chris Lofton...

...and speaking of Tennessee Basketball, did you know Duke Crews and Ramar Smith are kicked off the team?

Random Thoughts - Friday May 2

They're booing LeBron James every time he touches the ball in Game Six in Washington. Which makes me wonder: did Jordan ever get booed the way LBJ, Kobe and the stars of today get treated by opposing fans, or was he so good he just transcended that level? It's like Pat Summitt - I'd be much too afraid of the consequences to boo.

IGN: Hands-On Preview - NCAA Football 09
Among the highlights on this two page preview are in-game footage (though they'll have to replace ol' #11 QB for the LSU Tigers, as Ryan Perilloux was finally kicked off the team today for more conduct unbecoming, and saves me and everyone else from having to spell his last name again), news that you can use both the left and right stick to make juke moves in the open field (add this under the growing list of "will it be awesome or will it suck?"), the inclusion of an in-game minigame: if you throw an interception, you'll be presented with six images of defensive coverage, and you have to identify the right one or your QB's rating will drop (see above list; I understand why, as coordinators have their QBs look at images of coverage in real life, but will it be good or distracting?), a mascot mode that's supposed to play more like NFL Blitz (a great idea to include essentially two games in one for two different audiences), and as mentioned in brief before, the ability to upload MP3s onto the hard drive and trigger them to play after certain events. This means if I want the authentic Pride of the Southland version of Rocky Top to play after a touchdown - after Fight Vols Fight and Down the Field, of course - I can do so. Virginia Tech fans will be firing up Enter Sandman. And if I could re-create my friend's Southwest Hispanic University from our college dorm days and have Speedy Gonzalez run for a second Heisman, we could create some festive atmosphere for him as well.


More thoughts on Chris Lofton...
A couple of things to put in the "not to take away from the context of his life-threatening cancer, but..." file:

Good for Chris Low. He's been the best writer for Tennessee sports for as long as I've been old enough to appreciate him, for Nashville's Tennessean and for Rivals, and now covers essentially SEC football and basketball for ESPN.com. With the exclusive story, I've heard his name more on ESPN in the last 24 hours than most others. Hopefully this leads to more good things for him...just nothing that takes him away from writing about the Vols.

And second, to continue the one discussion I've had about this more than any other: how in the world did they keep this quiet? In 2008, with a player of Lofton's magnitude not only at Tennessee but in all of college basketball, with a team that was ranked #1 in the nation at one point and won the SEC, and especially with Lofton's slow start which now makes total sense...how did everybody stay quiet? That's an amazing feat in a world where the NFL Draft isn't nearly as fun as it used to be because we've got two dozen reporters per team trying to tell us what direction they're going, and where - thanks to the internet - I haven't been surprised by something in wrestling in about five years. Apparently secrecy, honor and heart are still very real. I can't add to Lofton's character with my words. His jersey will be in the rafters where it belongs.


The other side of the Titans argument
While investigating when other college football publications were coming out - and now having become quite concerned that The Sporting News has merged with Street & Smith's, and neither of them are advertising a college football handbook this year - I did find a column on Sporting News' website promoting the direction the Titans are moving in.

I see and hear all the points that Vinnie Iyer is making here: that Vince Young has a significant number of wins under his two year old belt, that Jeff Fisher might be the best non-Belichick coach in the NFL, that Mike Heimerdinger's return and his past experience with a similar Titans' offense is a good thing. I want to believe.

But when you watch the Titans play, it's just so grinding. Eddie George was an MVP-level back for several years, and LenDale White doesn't belong in the same breath right now. George made the same vanilla offense look so much better, and opposing defenses had to respect him enough to free up Steve McNair to use his limited weapons to the best of their ability. And yeah, these Titans are young on offense and still made the playoffs last year, but running this offense with these weapons, you have to be very lucky. If you rely so heavily on defense, ball control and the potential for making Rob Bironas the first kicker drafted in your fantasy league this fall, one turnover carries such a greater weight: when you're scoring 18 points per game, one mistake is enough to get you beat. When I hear all those points, they sound good and they're all real. But when you watch the Titans play, a ceiling is visibly apparent with this roster. The Titans are good enough to beat the Colts, Patriots, etc. every once and awhile if they play for and make the breaks...but if they played those teams 10 times, I'd give the other team the advantage at least 8 of them. You can only go so far this way, and I think we saw that limit last year. And in the NFL, the breaks have a way of evening out. Jeff Fisher gets the most out of whoever's in front of him, and I'm sure 2008 will be no different. I'd just rather have that ceiling a little higher on offense, and you need players for that.


NBA Playoffs: Conference Semifinals Preview (Part I)
With three Game Sixes going tonight, the second round begins tomorrow with the two series we have down pat: Detroit-Orlando in the East, and New Orleans-San Antonio in the West. And since it doesn't happen often, let's give this blog some credit for nailing the Hornets-Spurs matchup when it seems like everyone else was picking the Suns or the Mavs, or both. And no, I don't care if they were both the higher seeds anyway.

The saying about needing to see it before I believe it will still run true with the Spurs. Tony Parker might've been underrated going into the Phoenix series, where he got the better of Steve Nash. Now we'll see if he's overrated, because Chris Paul is simply the best point guard in the NBA. The Hornets beat Dallas in a way that looked easy and loose, and they'll continue to play that way, methinks. And they've got homecourt advantage. However, it's the Spurs. Outside of Dallas in 2006, only the Shaq/Kobe Lakers have gotten the best of them this decade. I don't see New Orleans joining that group. It'll certainly be slower than Phoenix/Dallas would've been, but the quality of basketball will be better. I love New Orleans...but only two things will make me pick against San Antonio: the Celtics, and the possibility of the Celtics playing the Lakers. SPURS IN SEVEN.

I'm torn about the other series, and the thing I feel most certain about is that it'll go long. Detroit continues to flirt with the on/off switch, and Orlando - a team they swept out of the playoffs last year - may not inspire enough fear to make them come out to play from the opening tap of Game 1. But they're still good enough, when they do hit the switch, to win the title: Philly was up 2-1 and up 10 at halftime of Game 4 at home. And Detroit did something in the halftime locker room, and the series was never competitive again. As for the Magic...nobody watched them handle Toronto really well, and we're all still a little too busy to have noticed Dwight Howard...but showing up big in this series will make him famous for something other than the dunk contest. And remember: Ben Wallace is on the floor in a Cavs jersey right now. And before that he was in a Bulls jersey. Who's going to stop Howard? I'd be fine with either team winning here - if the Celtics make it there, a Pistons-Celtics conference final is old school glory, while if it's Orlando it allows some friendly fire between me and my buddy who's been waiting for this since Shaq left. Sorry Kory. PISTONS IN SEVEN.


John Smotlz returns to the bullpen...
...when he returns, that is.

Losers of four straight and now 0-9 in one run games this year, the 12-15 Braves are the unluckiest team in baseball through one month. And it's May 2, so there's no panic, as neither the Mets nor Phillies have run away with anything. And Chipper Jones might've had a better month than anyone in baseball. But...

For a team that came into the season excited about the prospects of Smoltz-Hudson-Glavine-Hampton-whoever, three of those names have hit the DL (Glavine returns Sunday after his first stint on the DL ever, while if I read tomorrow a story about Mike Hampton injuring his pinky in a toaster accident, it wouldn't surprise me), and Smoltz' shoulder injuries and issues are now apparently pushing him back to an already questionable bullpen.

When he was a closer, John Smoltz was the most dominant closer in the National League. I'll argue that all day long. The reason I can't write "in baseball" there is he never got the opportunities Mariano Rivera did in the playoffs: the best excuse for brining him back to the rotation is that he wasn't a factor in the postseason, because the Braves couldn't get to him with the lead thanks to the thinnest starting rotations they enjoyed in their divisional title run.

But now, even with Smoltz back, the starting rotation burden falls heavily on Hudson (in a great matchup tonight with the Reds' Edinson Volquez, who's 4-0 at 1.23), and then question marks: Glavine, the ghost of Mike Hampton, and the who's who of Braves pitching over the last few years, including Chuck James, Jo-Jo Reyes, and Jair Jurrjens.

Again, you need to be lucky, but over 162 games you need to be more good than lucky. Can this rotation sustain itself well enough to even get to Smoltz, and will he be his same old dominant self coming out in the 9th? And as stated, Hudson-Glavine-Hampton-question marks is probably more sound than Ortiz-Hampton-Thomson-Ramirez when Smoltz was closing before. And can this team snap out of it and win some close games? Stay tuned...

You need to read this.

There's absolutely nothing I can say here to add to the magnitude of what this piece is all about.

From Chris Low and an ESPN.com exclusive: Chris Lofton secretly faced and beat cancer in 2007.