By Jim Coffman

Mike Davis, Mike Tisdale and Demetri McCamey wrapped up their Illini careers on Sunday with yet more long stretches of incompetent basketball, especially in the clutch. They won’t be missed.
The final nine minutes of their 73-59 loss to Kansas was a perfect illustration of why that is the case. It started with a Kansas miss after which Davis and Tisdale not only failed to secure the rebound, they failed to even contest it, giving one of Kansas’ Morris twins the chance to grab an offensive rebound and put in an easy layup for a six-point lead.
A few minutes later, there was the seven-foot Tisdale taking a ridiculous 10-foot hook shot that Kareem wouldn’t have even considered and missing badly. Davis had no chance for the offensive rebound but still tried to reach over someone’s back and was called for the foul. During this stretch, McCamey was nowhere to be seen – except for two measly points with two minutes left and his team down by 15.
Tisdale soon had a chance for a tip-in, tried to dunk it instead of just tapping it over the rim and through the hoop, and missed. He took another hook and shockingly, missed again. Davis grabbed the offensive rebound and . . . threw it right to a Kansas defender.

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Posted on March 21, 2011

By Thomas Chambers

You wish the mare could talk.
Life At Ten would have told us herself she didn’t want to run, but her lethargy before last November’s Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic was the only language she knows and the people around her weren’t listening.
They probably just wanted the whole thing to go away, but the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission had to do something. After deciding that there was “probable cause” that jockey John Velazquez and Chief Steward John Veitch violated racing regulations, commissioners released their report and said they would investigate whether formal charges should be brought.

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Posted on March 18, 2011

By Dan O’Shea

The ranks of relief pitchers are thinner than ever.
Everyone’s least favorite fantasy baseball category features last year’s American League Rookie of the Year – Neftali Feliz – who by all rights should get top billing, but Texas (and Feliz himself) may be intent on making Feliz a starter.
The good news is that he would earn the vaunted SP/RP classification, so you can slot him as an RP and get extra wins and strikeouts. But that also leaves the question of what to do about saves.
Among other problems in this category, Brad Lidge and Andrew Baiuly are injury-prone; the two Jonathans – Papelbon and Broxton – are increasingly unreliable; and Francisco Rodriguez is – still Francisco Rodriguez.
Into this mess rides a jug-eared, blue-capped hero. With a stellar second half last season, the Cubs’ Carlos Marmol is unquestionably the best reliever fantasy money can buy.
Here’s my full list (I’m not including Feliz, though Texas at last report was still undecided about his role):

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Posted on March 16, 2011

By Nick Shreders

I wonder if some people on the committee know whether the ball is round.
– Jay Bilas
I have to agree. This is by far one of the weirdest brackets I have ever seen.
* Colorado beat Kansas State three times, and beat Missouri and Texas; each is in the tournament. Colorado isn’t. Yes they lost some bad ones, but they did muster a 21-13 record (8-8 in Big 12 play). Meanwhile, USC got in with a record of 19-14 (10-8), which has NIT written all over it.
* UAB (22-8, 12-4 in the mighty Conference USA) and VCU (23-11, 12-6 – good for fourth place in the Colonial Athletic Association) made it and Alabama (21-11, 12-4 in the SEC) didn’t.
* Florida is a two seed (overrated). Texas is a four seed (underrated).
* The Big 12 only gets in five teams while the Big East brings 11 of its 16 teams.
* The East Regional is totally overloaded.
All of which makes me wonder what was going on behind the scenes with the selection committee, as none of the above makes any sense.

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Posted on March 15, 2011

By Jim Coffman

The Blackhawks blew last week’s road trip in the first period of their first game.
Sure, they rallied and actually earned a couple of impressive points in Tampa on Wednesday and Washington on Sunday, but the 3-2 setback against a bad Florida Panther team (“Florida Panthers Stun Streaking Blackhawks,” the Miami Herald blared) last Tuesday in the first of three games out East set the tone. And that game was lost when the Hawks just didn’t show up early on, allowing all three Panther goals before the first intermission. A missed opportunity for what should have been an easy win.
The road trip’s bad vibe grew worse in the following game against Tampa when Dave Bolland, who does so much of the dirty work (checking opposing stars, goading guys into penalties) for this team when he isn’t busy making slick plays to generate offense and winning a tone of face-offs, found himself on the wrong end of a brutal cheap shot to the head from opposing forward Pavel Kubina that sent him to the bench. He was still sidelined as of Sunday and there was no timeline for his return.

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Posted on March 14, 2011

By Thomas Chambers

As badly as many things seem to be going in Chicago, where on earth would this city be without Eric “E-Z” Zorn?
He knows just what to do with local TV news: more of the same! He’s able to explain to us simpletons just what the Blagojevich sentencing gambit really means. And in just 268 words and a video link he tells us e-books are coming and even touches on the true meaning of traditional libraries.
I’ve never really read or paid much attention to Eric Zorn, and I’m not really angrily seething at him here either (he doesn’t seem worth it), but when he talks about horse racing, it’s part of this gig to notice. His overall efforts seem inconsequential, unless they’re just meant to rile up people and keep the site hits coming. He just seems like a general interest pages’ Jay Mariotti.
So upon returning from Las Vegas – more on that later – I see Zorn’s blo(b)g hitting the fan.
In what really appears to be a bald-faced ploy to generate hits and comments, Zorn arm-chaired it and used a report by the Sun-Times’s Natasha Korecki and Dave McKinney on the declining state of Illinois racing to eat up bandwidth and regurgitate a column he wrote in the early 1990s to bash horse racing and its fans and to explain the essence of sport.

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Posted on March 11, 2011

By phtv4

With the flu, hangovers and other injuries behind them, maybe so!

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Posted on March 10, 2011

By Dan O’Shea

Ranking outfielders is not as much fun as it used to be.
It’s a deep position for obvious reasons, and seemingly filled with multi-stat fantasy threats, but in recent years there have been too many guys who peaked early (see Grady Sizemore) too many guys who could never quite realize their potential (see B.J. Upton) and too many one-year wonders (see Matt Kemp, maybe).
That said, my top-ranked outfielder would also be my top-ranked player overall in most leagues.
After that, it gets pretty dicey, and I think you could make a good argument for shuffling my rankings in multiple ways. Ultimately, I like my outfielders to contribute stolen bases, and they need to hit well regardless of their power numbers.
Here’s my top 20:

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Posted on March 9, 2011

By Jim Coffman

LeBron James signing with the Heat instead of the Bulls has worked out pretty well so far, eh?
Only a fool would attempt to compose a comprehensive chronicle of what would have happened if King James had brought his talents to Chicago. But a few conditionals are undeniable.
First, if the Bullls had signed LeBron, Derrick Rose would not have become the tremendously exciting all-around player he has become in a tremendously small amount of time.
Second, fans would have had to watch Luol Deng reach his potential with another team (in order to sign sidekick power forward Chris Bosh – which the Bulls would have done – they would have had to dump Deng and his contract).
And third, if the Bulls had signed James, they would have become the symbol of NBA excess that the vast majority of fans have so enjoyed rooting against so far this season.
Instead, the Bulls are a fan’s dream:

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Posted on March 7, 2011

Degenerative Disease Discovered

“For 16 seasons, Bob Probert’s fists were two of hockey’s most notorious weapons, winning most of his 246 fights and feeding the N.H.L.’s fondness for bare-knuckle brawling,” the New York Times reports.
“But the legacy of Probert, who died last July of heart failure at 45, could soon be rooted as much in his head as his hands. After examining Probert’s brain tissue, researchers at Boston University said this week that they found the same degenerative disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, whose presence in more than 20 deceased professional football players has prompted the National Football League to change some rules and policies in an effort to limit dangerous head impacts.”

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Posted on March 3, 2011