NY Boston Fan

Tonight at 8, forget about Lost. We've got the McDonald's All-America game on ESPN, and a World Cup Qualifier for the US against Guatemala.

Look out for Andrew Bynum, the 7-footer who will potentially replace Villanueva in the starting line-up next year, if he's ready. Would be great to have a front-court of the twin towers and Gay. I'm already excited about next year, since the whole team is coming back against Villanueva, and presumably Kellogg who has a bit of a drug problem. I haven't been this excited about an upcoming season in, well, two years!

As for soccer, the US should have no trouble in their game, but Guatemala can't be taken lightly. This is a must-win for the US, as they have to beat lesser opponents at home. It's as simple as that.

Not just blogger, which erased my last post today, which pointed out an article in the Boston Globe about how Harvard kids have no fun.

Also testing Mozilla out, which if this works, then see ya Netscape!

edited to add: Hey it worked, and my last post wasn't erased!

News flash: Harvard kids don't have as much fun at school as kids at other top schools.

An internal Harvard memo, obtained by the Globe, provides numerical data that appear to substantiate some long-held stereotypes of Harvard: that undergraduate students often feel neglected by professors, and that they don't have as much fun as peers on many other campuses.

The group of 31 colleges, known as the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, or COFHE, includes all eight Ivy League schools, other top research universities like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford, and small colleges like Amherst and Wellesley. ''Harvard students are less satisfied with their undergraduate educations than the students at almost all of the other COFHE schools

This isn't really shocking. There's a tremendous amount of pressure, and a bit of isolation despite being in a city that should offer lots of social options. I'd be interested to see the whole report, and I wonder who the 4 schools that were below Harvard are.

I'd guess Cornell (suicide capital) may be there. Chill, you think your alma mater might make it?

Looking good (although it was mostly kids playing).

122 hours until the first pitch...it feels a little different that I didn't end last season saying "wait 'til next year." But that said, I still can't wait!

Interesting article on ESPN.com (this is definitely the kind of stuff I'd like to write if I were paid to do so), asking what would happen if high schoolers and college kids couldn't go pro early?

The Lebron love is a LITTLE excessive, and the stat-lines are more realistic for video games than they are for real life, but it's still fun to read and think about.

I had a similar thought last year, wondering what the Final Four would have been like if it were Duke with whatever clowns they had lost early in previous years, UConn with Caron Butler to go with Emeka and Gordon, Syracuse with Carmelo, and Lebron on whatever team he went to.

And in my opinion, Lebron doesn't get by any of those teams they play in the fantasy ESPN tourney in that article.

How much do I dislike Duke? I knew that their loss on Friday night would have a negative impact on my bracket, which was still in first place at the time. I even had mixed emotions about UNC beating Wisconsin since I knew that sealed my fate. But I was genuinely excited when Duke lost, despite the bracket ramifications. Simmons sums it up perfectly here, although him saying he didn't care who won or lost until a certain point makes me question his sanity:

(oh, and btw, the guy I know (barely) is still alive in the Simmons intern contest, which is down to the final 5 candidates)

4. Duke losing on Friday night
I didn't care what happened in this one until Jim Nantz started with his, "Coach K was saying this week that, no matter what happens, the Duke students and alumni will remember this team for the rest of their lives, the way they kept battling back from so many injuries, how they handled adversity and blah blah blah" routine (I'm paraphrasing). Yeah, what a bunch of courageous underdogs -- instead of relying on players who were top-10 national recruits in their high school classes, they had to rely on some of the guys who were just in the top 30. I feel horrible for them. It's such a chore to play Shavlik Randolph big minutes when he was the No. 1 recruit from that 2002 class. Check out this column from Dick Vitale from October, 2001. Really, I'm supposed to feel bad for Duke? Ever?

So Charlie Villanueva is discussing with his family whether to enter the draft of not.

Wonder if he'd like any advice from UConn fans, I'm sure they'd be of one mind on this one.

I really think that he isn't ready. He can rebound, and would be able to hold his own against power forwards or big small forwards in that category. He can definitely block shots. Assuming he would play the 4, he's got some nice range.

But the NC State game showed scouts a lot, and what it showed was that Calhoun, who sees this guy every day in practice and has produced consistently good pros, saw him as a liability on defense and would sub him out every chance he got. Then, there's the "conventional wisdom" that Charlie was inconsistent, which was repeated over and over again even when he put together a monster string of games.

All in all, I think Charlie Villanueva could make a decent pro. But clearly he needs to work on two things: his decision making when he has the ball and plans on doing anything other than score, and his defense.

I think another year at UConn would help him immeasurably. He would come back with something to prove, and the potential to lift his stock from a 20th pick to a potential lottery pick. It's even possible he could see some additional time at small forward with the big kid they have coming in. Villanueva, if he could do it, could be a very attractive big small forward in the NBA.

But as a power forward, with the skill set he has right now, I don't see him as more than a Maurice Taylor type. If you're saying, "who?" then maybe that's another reason he should stay.

Let Gay go, take some of his minutes at the 3 to go along with becoming an even better 4, and get taken 10th next year. More money, a better game, and CT will love you if you take them back to the final four.

Some people might look at 3 Elite Eight games going to OT and say what a weekend, but for me it was a terrible sports weekend:

Last night, UConn women got beat up by Stanford.

Yesterday, the US men lost in a World Cup qualifier at Mexico. They've
never won at Mexico, at least not in the last 60+ years.

Arizona's monumental collapse on Saturday night may have cost me $100s of dollars. Instead of first place in my office pool (by a margin as big as the points given for a correct pick in the next round), I am now 1 point out of the money, and done.

And, as we look forward to my favorite sport, Curt Schilling got knocked around and will start the season in AAA.

Good thing that in non-sports areas I had a great weekend, or I'd really be depressed.

I know that Sox and Yankee fans can get along, I have seen it happen.

So this story is kind of interesting:

Yankees fans and Red Sox fans were relentlessly taunting each other, and the fun of Boston's comeback win in the 2004 ALCS was being lost. As school officials worked to calm the students, they had a radical idea: Why not extend their peacemaking efforts to the big league level?

Their project to get the Red Sox and Yankees to shake hands before the opening-day game April 11 at Fenway Park has since been endorsed by Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.

Red Sox manager Terry Francona called the school to tell officials he liked the "The Merriam School Handshake Project," though he added he won't force it on the players.

That's all nice, but I have one question. How are there enough Yankee fans at a school in Acton, Mass to make this an issue? Shouldn't the 120 Sox fans have just pummelled the 2 Yankee fans and taken their snack packs from them? Apparantly, the Yankee influence has spread to our youth, even in Sox strongholds!

My ability to win some cash will largely come down to 2 big games tonight. I'm well in reach in various paying pools (1st in a pool of 22, T-9th in a pool of 99, and 2nd in a pool of 8), but had UConn winning it all in the first two.

But where I differentiate myself from others is I have Arizona and Louisville in the Final Four. If they can both get there, I have a shot. If not, then the loads of people who have Illinois and UNC there will easily pass me.

The Washington-Louisville game (7:10 tonight) and the Arizona-Oklahoma State game (9:55 tonight) are clearly the best games of this round, and I'll have an extra rooting interest in both.

Beyond that, go West Virginia! They have the ability to knock out a. Bobby Knight and b. a Texas team, while c. putting a Big East team in the Elite 8.

My fiancee pointed out the new "Boston (212)" bar opening in the city. It's apparantly looking to compete a bit with Riviera Cafe, and based on the lines at Riviera on game day, there is certainly a market.

But more importantly to me, it is a block from my office, and I know it is within a 4 minute walk of our reader Chill's apartment.

Not an ideal spot for a bar, but I'm sure it will be a good draw. We'll see how it does after the baseball season.

Dick "The Monster" Radatz has passed away. In reading the Red Sox Century, he was one of the most interesting and exciting players that I didn't know much about beforehand.

His best years were in Boston, where he broke into the big leagues in 1962. He was 49-34 with 104 saves, applied under modern rules because saves weren't recorded as a statistic in those days, in four-plus seasons with the Red Sox. He was an All-Star in 1963 and 1964.

Radatz regularly pitched multiple innings of relief, long before pitchers evolved into one-inning specialists. "He was a setup man, closer, finisher all in one," said Bill Lee, a former Red Sox pitcher and good friend of Radatz. "He was the best reliever of all time, for a short period of time."

As my tribute to him, a few weeks back I named my closer in my ongoing Baseball Stars (NES) season after him. Next time I bring him in it will be with a bit of sadness.

Been a while since I posted about baseball. This is kind of the down period to me, not close enough to take spring training seriously, but not far enough away to be going nuts talking about what could be...especially when other people do it much better than me.

But I was looking at the Sox roster, and it seems to me they are going to have some very difficult decisions. Let's assume they start the season with 12 pitchers. And let's assume that they keep the following 11 for sure:

28 Doug Mirabelli
33 Jason Varitek
12 Mark Bellhorn
15 Kevin Millar
11 Bill Mueller
16 Edgar Renteria
18 Johnny Damon
7 Trot Nixon
44 Jay Payton
24 Manny Ramirez
34 David Ortiz

That leaves 2 spots for all of the following players:

78 Hanley Ramirez
23 Ramon Vazquez
20 Kevin Youkilis
25 Adam Hyzdu
62 Kelly Shoppach
36 Shawn Wooten
10 David McCarty
70 Simon Pond

OK let's assume that two guys who are getting a lot of time, but who have uniform numbers in the 70s, are going back down.

If they want a 5th outfielder (uh, good idea!) then they probably keep Hyzdu. If they want a utility infielder (uh, great idea!) they keep up Vazquez. I assume that Vazquez is pretty much a sure thing at this point.

So that means no 3rd catcher, no McCarty, and no Youkilis. Personally, I'd like to see them keep up Youkilis, who can play at 1st, and use Millar as the 5th outfielder when necessary. Then you can choose between a 12th pitcher, and Hyzdu.

If they take the pitchers that I think are sure things, and only take 11 in total, then there is only one roster spot to be won by either:

B.K. Kim
Lenny DiNardo
Mark Malaska
Anastacio Martinez
Jeremi Gonzalez
Denny Tomori

I have no idea who has the upper hand, but it woud surprise me if it was anyone other than DiNardo or Tomori at this point. But then again, I forget to listen to the games every day.

Fennis Dembo bracket:

6. Maryland vs. 11. Georgia Tech

Maryland: Steve Francis, Juan Dixon, Laron Profit, Joe Smith, Chris Wilcox
Bench: Steve Blake, Tony Massenburg, Obinna Ekezie

Georgia Tech: Kenny Anderson, Stephon Marbury, Matt Harpring, Chris Bosh, Jason Collier
Bench: Jon Barry, Travis Best

This might be the most even matchup of the bunch so far. You've got two teams that can actually field a decent roster, with a bit of depth. Maryland has one glaring weakness, at small forward, as they are a bit guard- and center-heavy. Georgia Tech has a few too many guards, but could do a four man rotation up front with Barry, and a three man rotation in the back with Best.

Georgia Tech wins this game up front. The ability to move Stephon Marbury to the two-guard, where he can really score, can possible give a slight edge to Ga. Tech in the backcourt, despite Steve Francis's star power. The Marbury vs. Francis matchup would be a good one. But Georgia Tech has two guys up front who can score, where Maryland only has the disappointment known as Joe Smith, and Chris Wilcox who is still developing in Clipper land. Georgia Tech's strength on the bench with Barry would be enough to solidify a victory in a tough matchup. This would be the first "upset" we've had so far.


3. Kansas vs. 14. Cincinnati

Kansas: Kirk Hinrich, Paul Pierce, Drew Gooden, Raef Lafrentz, Scot Pollard
Bench: Nick Collison, Greg Ostertag, Billy Thomas, Jacque Vaughn

Cincy: Nick Van Exel, DerMarr Johnson, Ruben Patterson, Danny Fortson, Kenyon Martin
Bench: Tony Bobbitt

Sadly, it is very tempting to give this one to Cincinnati. You'd think Kansas would put together a better team than this. They have a solid starting lineup, but it includes guys playing a bit out of position at forward, and a guy who starts at center only when his teammate punches people and has to sit out.

Cincy field a pretty decent starting 4, plus DerMarr Johnson. But if we add in that Cincy has no bench, is undersized, and Fortson isn't very good any more, Kansas sneaks through. Michigan would have beat Kansas. Them's the breaks, the 11 seed Ga Tech will be able to give Kansas a run.

Next, will be the Danny Ferry bracket, featuring Dahntay Jones, Sean Marks, Luke Walton, and Mateen Cleaves. Stay tuned!

Someone needs to look up the definition of FICTION.

Expanding on an email I got from a good friend last night:

How can UConn be a 2-seed when they are clearly not considered one of the best eight teams in the land? They were ranked #13 by the final AP poll.

Meanwhile, Louisville is a 4 seed...which fits in just perfectly with how they are ranked by the AP. Or not, they are ranked #4 overall. In other words, the AP would have been thinking about putting them as a #1 seed. I'd say they got hosed, but at least they got put in the same octet with Washington, clearly the weakest #1 seed.

Here are the final AP rankings, with seedings in parenthases:
1. Illinois (1)
2. UNC (1)
3. Duke (1)
4. Louisville (4)
5. Wake Forest (2)
6. Oklahoma St. (2)
7. Kentucky (2)
8. Washington (1)
9. Arizona (3)
10. Gonzaga (3)
11. Syracuse (4)
12. Kansas (3)
13. UConn (2)
14. BC (4)
15. Michigan St. (5)
16. Florida (4)
17. Oklahoma (3)
18. Utah (6)

On to the next bracket:

Over in the Mark Macon bracket:

This blog's two favorite college teams (OK, second and third - I don't think we should really count my alma mater). could meet in the quarterfinals.

4 UConn vs. 13 Iowa State
UConn: Ben Gordon, Ray Allen, Rip Hamilton, Cliff Robinson, Emeka Okafor
Bench: Caron Butler, Donyell Marshall, Kevin Ollie, Jake Voskuhl

Iowa St.: Jamal Tinsley, Fred Hoiberg, Marcus Fizer, Jackson Vroman, Kelvin Cato
Bench: Paul Shirley

If Iowa State had any forwards at all, they could be a real sleeper in this tourney. Tinsley is probably among the better true point guards that make it here, and Hoiberg is one of the best shooters out there. Cato is passable as a big man, but those forwards are atrocious. UConn would blow this team out of the building, as it really has a better player at every position. They could sub in Butler and Marshall, and still have the best player at every position. If you did a Dr. Jack breakdown, it would be completely one-sided.

In case that starting 5 and Butler don't score enough, Marshall is still a weapon at his advanced age. He knocked down a record-tying 12 three pointers yesterday. Wow.

5 UNC vs. 12 Michigan:

UNC: Jeff McInnis, Vince Carter, Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace, Brendan Haywood
Bench: Antawn Jamison, Scott Williams, George Lynch

Michigan: Jamal Crawford, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Maurice Taylor, Chris Webber
Bench: Bernard Robinson

This is an interesting matchup. For sheer star power, UNC is going to be difficult to top. We'll see if their lack of a great point or center will hurt them in the long run. But Haywood is serviceable taking up space, and against a team (Michigan) with no true center, would do alright. If you could bring back 2002 Chris Webber for this game, it would be a great matchup. But Michigan has too many head cases (why is that?), even when Rasheed is on the other team. Crawford occasionally goes off for about 35, but even in those cases, his team generally doesn't win. I just don't think they can outscore UNC's team, especially with Jamison coming off of the bench for the Tar Heels. Too bad, because I imagine they could have beaten a lot of the other teams out there.

UNC rolls. The UConn matchup should be fun. If this were a real tournament, all the pundits would be lamenting that the Mark Macon bracket is too difficult. Kind of like they are right now with the Syracuse bracket, which coincidentally includes UConn and UNC.

OK, let's set this up tournament style. Seeding is done first by number of players in the NBA, then by alphabetical order. It's only fair - what's the point of ranking them then re-ranking them?

For teams that are a bit "short," let's assume that any holes would be made up of guys who are good enough to play in Europe/former CBA, but not quite good enough for the NBA. In other words, if they did play in the NBA, they would be 12th men. Or the water boy.

First round matchups: Pervis Ellison bracket:
1. Kentucky vs. 16. Alabama. Hey, no 16 seed has ever beat a 1 seed in the real NCAA's, but to be fair I guess Alabama is truly a "4" seed, since we're starting at the sweet 16.

Kentucky:
Tony Delk, Ron Mercer, Tayshaun Prince, Antoine Walker, Jamaal Magloire.
Bench: Nazr Muhammad, Jamal Mashburn, Waltah McCarty, Keith Bogans, and more...

Alabama:
Maurice Williams, Gerald Wallace, Latrell Sprewell, Robert Horry, Antonio McDyess
Bench: buncha waterboys.

Kentucky rolls in this matchup. Besides the fact that Alabama really features three small forwards, some really old knees, and no bench (which would kill these old guys), they are overpowered at all the front-line positions. And I LOVE WALTAH!

As deep as Kentucky is, their guard play will probably hold them back in this tourney.

8. UCLA vs. 9. Stanford

Wow, an all Cali matchup in the first round.
UCLA:
Baron Davis, Reggie Miller, Jason Kapono, Trevor Ariza, Dan Gadzuric
Bench: Earl Watson, Matt Barnes
Stanford:
Brevin Knight, Casey Jacobsen, Josh Childress, Jarron Collins, Jason Collins
Bench: Mark Madsen, Curtis Borchardt

First of all, look at Kapono's picture on nba.com. That out of the way, after looking at UCLA's terrible front line, I thought Stanford would be able to beat them. But UCLA has 2.5 players that are deserving of starting minutes in the NBA, while Stanford has two halves. Unless Childress could find a way to dominate, even dancin' Mark Madsen couldn't save the Trees in this one. Baron Davis and Reggie Miller could probably outscore the Stanford five on their own. UCLA wins, to face Kentucky. And looks like another easy matchup for Kentucky.

My old high school makes the papers, and not for high test scores!

Five high school athletes have been arrested on charges they brought steroids back to school from a vacation in Mexico. The students were suspended from Daniel Hand High School and face possible expulsion. Police said they expect at least one more arrest.

See this is why we need a Congressional witch-hunt, I mean a Congressional hearing, on the subject of steroids in baseball. Won't somebody think of the children?!?!?!

Via Oxfam, via Pandagon, a cool little list to put together (cool for yourself, and cool to see what others come up with). If you have Itunes running on full and are reading this post, go to ITunes and write down the first 10 songs that come up on random.

Mine:
1. City of Blinding Lights - U2
2. My Favorite Things - Andre3000
3. The Hypnotic - The Roots
4. Paid for Loving - Love Jones (Swingers sountrack)
5. Tricks of the Shade - The Goats
6. Ain't Talking 'Bout Love - The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
7. Could Well Be In - The Streets
8. Buck Tha Devil - Da Lench Mob
9. B!tc# - D12
10. Oh No - Mos Def (featuring Pharoah Monche)

I could barely come up with a more "random" list if I was trying to fabricate it, but I guess that's the point. What'cha got?

The Big East tourney seeds are set, and as the #2 seed UConn obviously has a road that doesn't look too bad.

Games start on Wednesday, and the match-up of interest is the middle game, which puts Georgetown up against Seton Hall. The winner will face the Huskies at 7pm on Thursday.

The only risk for UConn is that Georgetown has more to play for than UConn. If Georgetown can get past Seton Hall, they will face a situation where if they beat UConn they will certainly make the tournament. If they lose, their recent slide may force the NCAA committee to leave them out.

But it's not as if the Huskies would be taking a Big East tournament game lightly, so they shouldn't have much problem in setting up a rematch of this weekend's game with Syracuse on Friday night.

Remember when Georgetown was a scary opponent? Then Iverson graduated.

Unless my ear's deceive me, I think the CBS guys just said that Duke is the leading shot-blocking team in the country.

Didn't think that was true, and it isn't, UConn has 62 more.

Not a big deal, but I took the time to look it up so thought I'd share. 9.3 blocks per game for UConn. Whew.

I have been thinking about how strong a program UConn has become, not just in terms of winning the Big East and making the tournament every year, but in how it is moving players to the pros where they are succeeding.

The latest example of this comes from this year's rookie of the year race, which by all accounts is coming down to Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon at this point, two thirds into the season.

Now this isn't really unexpected, they were both high lottery picks, and high lottery picks that weren't coming straight from the senior prom at that. But Calhoun seems to be particularly good at getting college kids ready for the pros, and can use that as a real selling point to high school kids who are considering entering the draft. Rudy Gay and Charlie Villanueva are great examples. He can say to them, "Do a year or two in our program, and you can go from an early second round pick to a lottery pick - just look at what we did for Ray Allen and Caron Butler. Oh, and while you're here, you just might get to hoist some trophies."

So with all that in mind, I got to thinking, which NCAA program currently has the best stock in the NBA? If you put them together on a court, who would win? I haven't decided how far I can go with this, as a lot of my NBA interest goes only as far as the connection I make between it and the NCAA's. But to start, I've come up with a few bits of information as I investigate that:

Unofficial count:
20 colleges have 5 or more players currently in the pros.

The kings:
13 - Kentucky
10 - Duke
9 - Connecticut
9 - Kansas
8 - Arizona
8 - Maryland
8 - North Carolina

Of the 20 teams, four of them could only yield enough for one side of a pick-up basketball game. Villanova and Xavier would sport some real scrubs in that lineup, while Florida is disqualified by having to start Andrew DeClerq. Alabama fields a decent team, though they would be a bit undersized with McDyess, Sprewell, and Horry up front. But we'll substitute them in for Georgetown which has 6 powerforward/centers and only one guard (Iverson).

So that brings us to a field of 16. I have a feeling that the teams with the larger output above (except Maryland), would be the ones to beat, but I'll look more at that later.

At least FleetCenter sounded like it might not be named after a big business.

But TD Banknorth Garden?

"Hey Smitty, I got us great seats at TD Banknawth to go see Walkah and the boys tonight!"

The only silver lining is that it can be referred to as "the Garden" again.

Who cares if the Mets lost today...Spring Training games have begun!

It isn't necessary yet, but I think a $14.95 purchase of MLB internet radio is in my near future.

For the Mets, the good news at this point is that Kaz Matsui looked really slick in the field at second base. He got a lot of action (7 assists I believe), and made a couple of tough plays, according to MLB Radio's piss-poor announcing tandem.

The Red Sox play tomorrow night, and if you're home you can watch them for free on the internet here.

Best friends 4-eva!

Two bits of news on UConn.

First, with the way the standings are shaping up, it is pretty much a lock that UConn will hold the #2 or #3 seed in the Big East tournament, with Syracuse holding the other seed. It would require BC losing at Rutgers for anyone else to have a shot at the #1 seed. It's too bad that BC was able to win one last regular season title before ditching the conference, but hey, at least we have their second round loss in the NCAA's to look forward to.

More importantly, UConn would be able to avoid the #4 seed, which means they won't have Pitt or 'Nova as their first matchup.

So as of now, their path to the championship looks something like this: bye, then (G'town or WVU or Notre Dame), then Syracuse, then BC. Of course, if history is any indicator, BC will lose to Pitt, and UConn would have to battle it out with the Panthers one more time for the title, which would be the 4th year in a row.

The other cool news is that checking on the McDonald's All-American game rosters, UConn has a guy in it, making that game a bit more interesting to watch.

That might not be big news in itself, but the guy is a monster: 7 feet tall and 300 pounds. Here, he's listed as 6'11" 270, where it ranks him as the #2 Center prospect in the country. UConn also has a guard and a forward listed in the top 52 by RivalsHoops.