Well, it took precisely one day for all the questions I asked about the Suns yesterday to be answered. Amare Stoudemire is out for eight weeks with eye surgery after suffering a detached retina on Wednesday against the Clippers. That essentially eliminate any chance they had of being relevant down the stretch. It seems like Steve Kerr is cursed. He certainly can’t catch a break as GM. I know a lot of people are really down on Kerr, but I’m not one of them. He has certainly struggled to get this team going this year, but I put a lot more of that on Terry Porter than Kerr. Sure, Kerr made the decision to bring Porter in, but that decision turned out to be much worse than it looked at the time. Mike D’Antoni had to go, the team couldn’t lay much defense, and Porter was respected, so it made some sense. I also think that not trading Stoudemire was the right move, even if it really doesn’t look like it right now. Picking up Jason Richardson was also a good move, and Shaq was a solid gamble.
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Tag: Michigan Wolverines
Most of the dust has cleared from signing day, and we have a pretty good sense of how things will turn out. As a Michigan fan I am reasonably pleased – we lost two defensive ends that we needed, but we gained three players we weren’t supposed to get including a promising QB prospect in Denard Robinson and a nice receiver. Given that we went an incredibly lousy 3-9 last year this is one heck of a class. We should end up about 7th overall. Rich Rodriguez never had a class at West Virginia anywhere near this strong, so I am feeling good. Hope things went as well for you and your team. Unless you like Ohio State, in which case I hope none of your recruits qualify academically, your current players all quit, and you are forced to use the tuba players in your band as the offensive line, and the drum major at QB.
If you have read this blog or any time at all then you know that I bleed Maize and Blue. If you have eyes, you also know that this has been a very, very ugly time to be a Michigan fan. After years of underwhelming futility and disappointment at the end of the Lloyd Carr era, the football team redefined just how bad a season can be in Ann Arbor this year. I am certain that things will get better, but that assertion is more than just a small test of my faith. Same basic story in basketball – Tommy Amaker led us to bland underachievement, then the world imploded last year in the first season under a new coach from West Virginia. We have had many glory days in both sports, but they seem just a distant, practically impossible memory now. Us Michigan fans deserve a break, so you can forgive my gloating now as I say this – Michigan may be the greatest basketball team in the history of the sport!!!
Another week, another set of simulations from the PS2. It’s not the best way to pick games, but then it has probably at least as much merit as the methods used by most of the betting public. That’s why sportsbooks make lots of money.
Ohio State at Michigan State – I am surprised by what happened here, but in a very pleasant way. I really, really hate Ohio State, so any time they lose it is a good thing. That makes this a great thing. Michigan State jumped out to a quick lead when Javon Ringer broke a long TD run, and they never really looked back. The final score was reasonably close – 35-31 – but Michigan State never gave up their early lead, and Ohio State made it respectable only by scoring the last ten points. Terrelle Pryor was just okay, not putting up any of the eye-popping numbers that we are going to have to get used to in coming years unfortunately.
Missouri at Texas – I think my machine has a man-crush on Chase Daniel. That’s the only way I can explain what happened here. Daniel threw for seven touchdowns. Yes, seven. Colt McCoy had a pretty gaudy day himself, but it was nothing next to the Mizzou super-stud and, if the game has anything to say about it, future Heisman winner. Needless to say, Missouri was able to pull out the win behind that showing, coming out 59-35. The PS2 doesn’t have much respect for either of these defenses. My favorite stat to come out of ths one was that Daniel was bombing so much that he was making his defense work – the Longhorns won the time of possession battle by quite a bit.
Continue reading “WWMPD – Now What Would My PlayStation Do?”
It’s time for another look at the key games of interest this weekend from among the top 25. As always, I haven’t picked these out because they necessarily represent the best bets, and I am not representing them as picks. They are merely the ones with the storylines that I find most interesting this weekend. Without further ado: