Weekend Wrap
December 31st, 2007 by Lucas DwyerThe Sportstruth’s senior editor, Lucas Dwyer, provides his observations and thoughts from the weekend that was.
On Saturday, one of the greatest days of television programing ever was aired. Starting at noon, ESPN2 ran the following college basketball games back to back to back (to back to back to back): Wisconsin vs. Texas, San Diego University vs. Kentucky, Tennessee vs. Gonzaga, Oklahoma vs. West Virginia, Pittsburgh vs. Dayton, and capped off the night with Memphis vs. Arizona. Wow. If anyone caught all six games, we need to hear about it.
Unranked Wisconsin shocked No. 9 Texas 67-66 on Saturday off of Michael Flowers’ game-winning three at the buzzer
Speaking of those games, here are a few thoughts from what I caught during the day:
- Kentucky is a mess and we now know why Tubby Smith abruptly left to go coach Minnesota. First-year coach Billy Gillespie said before the game that he felt San Diego did not have anyone who could take his defenders off the dribble. Gillespie’s team is worse than he thought - Brandon Johnson attacked the basket whenever he pleased.
- Tennessee looked phenomenal against Gonzaga. Christ Lofton is the star of the team, but he was very quiet on Saturday (11pts on 4 of 13 shooting) and Tennessee still dominated the game. It wasn’t as close as the 82-72 score suggests.
- Tennessee has three players with the last name of Smith. Tyler, JaJuan, and Ramar.
- West Virginia completely collapsed in their game against Oklahoma at the end of regulation. Ahead by three points with less than thirty seconds to go, Alex Ruoff (who otherwise had a fabulous game) stole the ball and rather than hold it and get fouled (he’s an 81% FT shooter), he attempted the lob the ball ahead to a teammate. The errant pass was intercepted and Oklahoma hit the game tying three to send the game into overtime where Oklahoma eventually won in double overtime. West Virginia was also a horrendous 5 for 24 from beyond the arc. Wow.
Perhaps I’m just a spoiled New England Patriots fan, but I can’t remember a more lackluster end to a season than the last two weeks of the 2007 season. Obviously the Redskins and Titans will disagree with me, but beyond the Patriots run at 16-0, did weeks 16 and 17 matter much at all? Heck, even with the Titans and Redskins, does anyone really think either team matters at all in the playoffs? I say the Chargers are the only team that have a chance of knocking off their likely second round opponent (the Colts) and even that’s unlikely.
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady hugs linebackers coach Pepper Johnson after the Patriots defeated the New York Giants 38-35 to complete the first 16-0 season in NFL history
Speaking of being a spoiled Patriots fan, even I am sick of the absurd over-coverage of the Patriots run to go 16-0. Everyday we get an update from Foxborough on God knows what and it’s just way too much. As cool as 16-0 is, none of it matters unless the Patriots win the Super Bowl. I sound like I played on the 72 Dolphins.
This could be more Boston sports bias here, but the popularity of the NBA seems to be surging. Obviously the allegorical nature of the Celtics impressive season has given me the impression that the NBA is on people’s minds more, but as an avid basketball fan (college, NBA, or otherwise) the game is more fun to watch now. I still struggle to watch the Heat, Pistons, and Spurs, but beyond the Celtics, I always try to watch the Suns (who started this revival four years ago) and the Warriors are a blast as well.
Did anyone outside of Tennessee want them to beat the Colts on Sunday? How could you not root for the Browns? It is a shame that we’re not going to get to watch Derek Anderson in the playoffs and they’re a team that could have given the Chargers trouble in the first round. One way to beat the Chargers is to get ahead and force Philip Rivers to throw. San Diego has not played well from behind this year.
The Celtics just wrapped up their vaunted four-game West Coast trip where they “finally played somebody” going 4-0 beating Utah and the Lakers on back-to-back nights. I’m not saying that the Celtics are the best team in the NBA (though I find the argument that the Pistons are because they beat the Celtics once by two-points, but whatever), but can we all finally be quiet about the Celtics not playing anyone?
Next week we’ll address the worthless wild card games from the NFL. No 1 and No 2 seeds win close to 80% of the Divisional Round games as it is, but this year makes these games next weekend even more meaningless.
