The LeBrons of Cleveland Blow It Again

The Cavs lost game 7 to the Celtics today. LeBron showed up, put up about 40 points, but threw up a miserable layup try with about 20 seconds to go to seal the deal for the Celtics. Their offensive strategy of everybody standing and hope LeBron has a good game is only going to take them so far. About this far.

Whatever. It's just another Cleveland sports team getting close, but not nearly close enough. I'm actually pretty happy, now I don't have to suffer watching anymore NBA this year. Watching them stand, shoot and miss, and complain after every single fucking play no matter what happens is just painful to watch. I saw more complaining after foul calls in the last 3 games than I think I have seen in the last 10 years of college ball. It's just painful to watch.

And what warrants an "Intentional Foul"??? I saw PJ Brown put his arms around guys more times than you'd see on North Halsted. How the league warrants that not being 2 shots and the ball is WAYYY beyond my brain capacity. All it does is slow the game down to a snail's pace and make it that much more unwatchable.

Not to mention the Boston crowd screaming bullshit after every single call just got old. I'm pretty happy my 6 year old wasn't watching, let alone being at the game! I'm so tired of Boston and their fans.

Enough about that. More good news out of Cleveland. The Reds completed a sweep of the Indians today. Looks like Hafner is more of a mental case than we thought. He only got 2 plate appearances, an RBI base hit on Friday and a walk today. We really need him to get back into the groove. I see that he's raised the average up to .228, but he needs to hit at least .300 the rest of the way to help this team. The pitching has been solid, other than the 3 run jack Kobaishi gave up to Dunn in the 9th on Satruday. The starting pitching has been lights out. We have got to get some hitting!!

And Bill Belichick is still denying any wrong doing in the whole spygate thing. I honestly can't wait for this whole thing to disappear. Apparently now he is saying that he stretched the rules to make it alright to videotape the opposite sideline looking to pick off signs. What a dirtbag.

Not Good

So, I left work today in the snow and thought I saw the lights in the parking lots flicker on, but it was not the parking lights. Seconds later I heard the sound of thunder and realized that is was thunderstorming and snowing at the same time. I don't know what this means, but it can't be good.

I've been pretty bad lately, but between not feeling good, trying to get my post-employment life under control, and all the other messes I've been dealing with, the blog has suffered. Not that Pikus or Reynolds care, but that's another story.

The Boilers lost a heartbreaker to Xavier. Ho hum. Another year, another crushing defeat. But the future looks bright in West Lafayette. Painter really has the program heading in the right direction. They're a young team with quite a bit of talent. Next year should be a good one. Just like everything else, right?

Baseball starts this weekend, the 2nd of my fantasy drafts is this weekend and I can't wait! Nothing like a weekend in Indianapolis in March!!! This is a keeper league and lots of questions await the first couple of rounds, should be exciting!

The Sweet Sixteen starts tonight.

The first game is Xavier vs. W. Virginia. WVa is coming off a huge win over Duke. But I, along with a considerable number of others, thought that Duke was very overrated. But there is still something about beating Coach K in the postseason. And I didn't see much of the Purdue-Xavier game, sadly because I was at work, but from what I heard, Xavier really won that game. The line is even, I got Xavier.

Next is UNC vs. Washington St. I think the best question to ask is whether WSU can keep UNC under 100. UNC is playing some great basketball right now. I don't care who you are playing, putting up 100+ points in 2 straight games is impressive. They will continue the winning, but they won't put up 100. UNC is giving up 8.5, I got UNC

The first late game is Western Ky vs. UCLA. Hopefully UCLA doesn't keep getting the ridiculous calls they've been getting. But they win, they just have too much ability to lose this one. UCLA is giving 12, I think WKy keeps it close but UCLA pulls away in the last 10 minutes. I'm taking UCLA

And the nightcap, probably the best game of the night, Tennessee vs Louisville. This is going to be a great game. Great coaches, great players, high tempo, fun game to watch. Tennessee is getting 3 points, I'm taking the Vols and the points.

Happy Sweet Sixteen!

It looks like a blizzard outside right now. Why do I live in Chicago?

PTI just ended and Dick Vitale is talking about the NCAA tourney on SportsCenter, the DirecTV just went out, I've never been so thankful.

I Don't Know Why I Got My Hopes up???

This blogsite is in operation for one reason, well, maybe more than one reason, but the main reason is that the teams that we cheer for, you know who they are, NEVER WIN ANYTHING WHEN SOMETHING IMPORTANT IS ON THE LINE. It doesn't matter how good of a regular season they had. It doesn't matter that the greatest QB in football history, Bernie Kosar, is engineering the O, that one of the best lineups in baseball history hit .300 in '95. These teams always lose when the big game comes around. That LeBron James was the best player in the league and made everybody, including Coach Mike, better. It doesn't matter that you have CC and Carmona and Westbrook pitching the final 3 when the Indians are up 3-1 against the Sox. These teams, somehow, figure out a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

I'm not even going to talk about it. Just thinking about the last 5 mintues in regulation and the 5 OT minutes makes me want to get sick on the keyboard. 0-11 in OT?? The Freshmen finally played like freshmen. And Calasan needs to figure out the meaning of the word "shot selection". The worst defensive performance of the season. Painful.

Enough about that.

So the final game of the night IU lost in incredibly dramatic fashion against the Gophers. The last 10 seconds of that game were simply amazing. Ending on another Hoffarber shot. This is the same guy that hit that one from his butt to win a state title last year.

If you don't know the meaning of home cookin' all you have to do is watch the end of that game. I've never seen anything like it. With IU down 2, Eric Gordon gets fouled on a drive to the basket. And All-World, greatest player ever apparently has a tough time shooting free throws with his hands around his own neck. Misses both ends of the 2 shot foul to tie the game. The second rolls around the rim, just long enough for DJ White to shove every Minnesota player out of the way to get himself up in the air for a tip in and a foul. Where the foul was, I have absolutely no idea. Watch the replay, if you see it, let me know. So there was 3.6 on the clock and White on the line for the win. Of course he misses, long rebound, White runs after the ball, pulls his best Brian Cardinal flop, and somehow ends up flying backwards into the 3rd row. If there was a foul, the ref that made the call was the only person in the country that saw it. White back on the line with 1.6. Misses the first. Makes the 2nd. The rest is history. Or so I thought. That Hoffarber kid hit another game winning, amazing shot. I can't even put into words what happened... Just watch!!



A couple of other things, I was 3-1 against the spread in last night's Big 10 Games. If you're keeping score. Of course my Boilers screwed me. Again...

And I heard a story about the fact that the majority of the Selection Committe members has zero basketball history. They've never played, never coached, probably never watched. So I guess this is why the big names make the tourney when they should not. Since this is the case, teams like OSU and Florida, who have no business making the tourney, will probably be in. Now it's all making sense.

And lastly, Memphis won the C-USA tourney this morning. They beat the perennial powerhouse Tulsa Golden Hurricane by about 60. Memphis should be the only team that makes the tourney from that conference. How is a championship game decided by that many points??