Thursday, December 02, 2004
TIRE ME
Thursday today means Friday tomorrow. Of course, if you're out of work and/or school for a while, the days just start to blend together. The only way I know it's Friday are if the Tomahawks are playing, and tomorrow and Saturday they're at the local ice rink for two games against the Kootenai Colts. The Tomahawks currently stand with the best record in their league, an insane 20-2.
Time for the rest of the post...
BASEBALL
Unsurprisingly, a report in the BALCO case says that Jason Giambi was on the juice. Not that the year-to-year before-and-after photos weren't enough to convince people or anything.
David Andriesen chimes in with a Delgado-or-Sexson article. Andriesen does attempt to shoot down rumors of the Mariners possibly acquiring both players, though he still speculates on the repercussions if somehow they did obtain both players (i.e., fate of Randy Winn). Toward the end of the article, I'd have to say I prefer calling it Carlpalooza rather than Carlapalooza. The latter makes it sound like a gal named Carla is on baseball's free agent market. Frankly, if Carl Pavano and his agent came up with the version with the extra "a," I'd be surprised if Pavano didn't get some crap for it along the way.
SEAHAWKS
Looks like two articles about Bill Parcells are the bulk of what the print writers cranked out for today's editions. Other than this, Jerry Rice is really good on Monday nights, and Mike Holmgren will get a little testy if you question the passion of his team. In the non-print media (Northwest Cable News), I heard that Darrell Jackson's mother has told Darrell to stop doing interviews until he stops dropping passes. NWCN and Greg Bailey also said that Coach Holmgren had bared his soul to his players, and Shaun Alexander called it the best speech he'd heard in five years.
BASKETBALL
The Marvin Williams Watch
In North Carolina's 70-63 win at Indiana as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, Marvin Williams scored 4 points and had 12 rebounds, 3 blocks, an assist, a steal, 3 stitches above his left eye, and 1 stitch on his left eyelid in 22 minutes of play off the bench. He came back into the game after getting stitched up.
Upcoming for UNC...
Saturday vs. Kentucky
(a gap for what I'm guessing is finals week)
Sunday (Dec 12) vs Loyola-Chicago
Huskies
Art Thiel says Gonzaga just wanted it more. Getting outboarded and in foul trouble is never a good step toward winning either. Bottom line is that it's the seventh straight Husky loss to Gonzaga, but this one had a lot more expectations attached to it, and the Huskies were denied a 5-0 start to the season. The Huskies are at home for Eastern Washington on Sunday and San Diego State on Tuesday.
Sonics
For my take on the game, scroll down to the post below this one or click here.
Percy Allen notes that the Sonics had just had an implosion just 24 hours before this game. Danny Fortson had gotten tossed and Vlad Radmanovic was horrible. Fast-forward to last night, and the two played key parts in this Sonic victory. Vlad of course hit the three-ball to send the game into overtime, and Fortson had a key putback and didn't get ejected despite some very questionable calls down the stretch which he was visibly irked about. Though the strategy down the stretch never centered around getting the ball down low to Fortson, then having him put up shots and get hacked and fouled (he's a good free-throw shooter), just his presence and that low-post option are something the Sonics really need in the waning minutes of games.
Danny O'Neil has a pretty good description of the setup for Vlad Radmanovic's game-tying shot in the closing seconds of regulation. And hey, a crowd of 16066 saw the game, so the Sonics might be getting some homecourt advantage that they haven't seen for a while. I have to say I really didn't expect the Sonics to win this game because it didn't seem like they were getting enough bounces in the 4th quarter, and Utah was hitting everything (they scored on 10 straight trips down the floor). Also, how about back-to-back doubles by Luke Ridnour? That's some contribution. His line for this game almost reads like a typical Brent Barry night last year.
Even John Levesque has some words about the Sonics' 14-3 record. He believes. The worst the Sonics can be after 20 games is 14-6, and George Karl's final team in Seattle took that start, played .500 ball the rest of the season, and went to the playoffs (if baseball had that same playoff system, the Mariners would have made it in 2002 and 2003). Also, the starts of the past two years came back to earth by the 20-game mark. Two years ago, 8-2 turned into 11-9. Last year, 6-2 became 10-10. This year, it'll be no worse than 14-6. Did anyone expect this?
Upcoming...
Saturday vs. Portland
Wednesday at San Antonio
Next Thursday at Dallas
HOCKEY
No true NHL news, just reaffirmations that Gary Bettman does indeed suck. I guess I agree with the players' union on at least one thing.
Everett shut out Kootenay, 1-0. When you have a great defensive team like the Silvertips, the goalie might sometimes only have to face 19 shots a night. Mike Wall faced that amount last night for Everett and stopped everything, triggering the promotion where all the fans get free batteries. The defense did their thing even without the services of a suspended Mitch Love, one of their best defenders. Karel Hromas and Alex Leavitt teamed up on Torrie Wheat's goal, the only one of the game. The Silvertips outshot the Ice 25-19.
Portland beat Kelowna, 2-1. The Winter Hawks snapped the 10-game unbeaten streak for the defending Memorial Cup champions. Power-play goals from Brandon Dubinsky and Brendan Mikkelson in the first and second periods accounted for the Portland scoring. Dustin Butler stopped 29 shots, and the Rockets outshot Portland 30-19, indicative of Kelowna's defensive prowess. The recap at the Portland site is done by their play-by-play guy, Dean Vrooman, who cranked out a very informative set of paragraphs regarding the defensive teams of the WHL.
Upcoming...
Tonight: Cincinnati at Manitoba
Friday: Everett at Portland, Kootenay at Seattle, Kamloops at Vancouver, Kootenai at Puget Sound
Saturday: Vancouver at Kelowna, Kootenay at Portland, Swift Current at Everett, Binghamton at Manitoba, Kootenai at Puget Sound
Sunday: Swift Current at Seattle, Binghamton at Manitoba
---
Enjoy your Thursday, everybody. Stay warm. Bring chains and extra clothes if you're going over the pass and stuff. From personal experience, it helps if your car is a big hunk of heavy steel and is at least a front-wheel drive. Such a car got me through four years of back-and-forth from Ellensburg, and it's still a serviceable car.
Why did I just throw an automotive tip out there? I have no idea. Right now it's whatever time it says for the post time, and I'm insane.
Time for the rest of the post...
BASEBALL
Unsurprisingly, a report in the BALCO case says that Jason Giambi was on the juice. Not that the year-to-year before-and-after photos weren't enough to convince people or anything.
David Andriesen chimes in with a Delgado-or-Sexson article. Andriesen does attempt to shoot down rumors of the Mariners possibly acquiring both players, though he still speculates on the repercussions if somehow they did obtain both players (i.e., fate of Randy Winn). Toward the end of the article, I'd have to say I prefer calling it Carlpalooza rather than Carlapalooza. The latter makes it sound like a gal named Carla is on baseball's free agent market. Frankly, if Carl Pavano and his agent came up with the version with the extra "a," I'd be surprised if Pavano didn't get some crap for it along the way.
SEAHAWKS
Looks like two articles about Bill Parcells are the bulk of what the print writers cranked out for today's editions. Other than this, Jerry Rice is really good on Monday nights, and Mike Holmgren will get a little testy if you question the passion of his team. In the non-print media (Northwest Cable News), I heard that Darrell Jackson's mother has told Darrell to stop doing interviews until he stops dropping passes. NWCN and Greg Bailey also said that Coach Holmgren had bared his soul to his players, and Shaun Alexander called it the best speech he'd heard in five years.
BASKETBALL
The Marvin Williams Watch
In North Carolina's 70-63 win at Indiana as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, Marvin Williams scored 4 points and had 12 rebounds, 3 blocks, an assist, a steal, 3 stitches above his left eye, and 1 stitch on his left eyelid in 22 minutes of play off the bench. He came back into the game after getting stitched up.
Upcoming for UNC...
Saturday vs. Kentucky
(a gap for what I'm guessing is finals week)
Sunday (Dec 12) vs Loyola-Chicago
Huskies
Art Thiel says Gonzaga just wanted it more. Getting outboarded and in foul trouble is never a good step toward winning either. Bottom line is that it's the seventh straight Husky loss to Gonzaga, but this one had a lot more expectations attached to it, and the Huskies were denied a 5-0 start to the season. The Huskies are at home for Eastern Washington on Sunday and San Diego State on Tuesday.
Sonics
For my take on the game, scroll down to the post below this one or click here.
Percy Allen notes that the Sonics had just had an implosion just 24 hours before this game. Danny Fortson had gotten tossed and Vlad Radmanovic was horrible. Fast-forward to last night, and the two played key parts in this Sonic victory. Vlad of course hit the three-ball to send the game into overtime, and Fortson had a key putback and didn't get ejected despite some very questionable calls down the stretch which he was visibly irked about. Though the strategy down the stretch never centered around getting the ball down low to Fortson, then having him put up shots and get hacked and fouled (he's a good free-throw shooter), just his presence and that low-post option are something the Sonics really need in the waning minutes of games.
Danny O'Neil has a pretty good description of the setup for Vlad Radmanovic's game-tying shot in the closing seconds of regulation. And hey, a crowd of 16066 saw the game, so the Sonics might be getting some homecourt advantage that they haven't seen for a while. I have to say I really didn't expect the Sonics to win this game because it didn't seem like they were getting enough bounces in the 4th quarter, and Utah was hitting everything (they scored on 10 straight trips down the floor). Also, how about back-to-back doubles by Luke Ridnour? That's some contribution. His line for this game almost reads like a typical Brent Barry night last year.
Even John Levesque has some words about the Sonics' 14-3 record. He believes. The worst the Sonics can be after 20 games is 14-6, and George Karl's final team in Seattle took that start, played .500 ball the rest of the season, and went to the playoffs (if baseball had that same playoff system, the Mariners would have made it in 2002 and 2003). Also, the starts of the past two years came back to earth by the 20-game mark. Two years ago, 8-2 turned into 11-9. Last year, 6-2 became 10-10. This year, it'll be no worse than 14-6. Did anyone expect this?
Upcoming...
Saturday vs. Portland
Wednesday at San Antonio
Next Thursday at Dallas
HOCKEY
No true NHL news, just reaffirmations that Gary Bettman does indeed suck. I guess I agree with the players' union on at least one thing.
Everett shut out Kootenay, 1-0. When you have a great defensive team like the Silvertips, the goalie might sometimes only have to face 19 shots a night. Mike Wall faced that amount last night for Everett and stopped everything, triggering the promotion where all the fans get free batteries. The defense did their thing even without the services of a suspended Mitch Love, one of their best defenders. Karel Hromas and Alex Leavitt teamed up on Torrie Wheat's goal, the only one of the game. The Silvertips outshot the Ice 25-19.
Portland beat Kelowna, 2-1. The Winter Hawks snapped the 10-game unbeaten streak for the defending Memorial Cup champions. Power-play goals from Brandon Dubinsky and Brendan Mikkelson in the first and second periods accounted for the Portland scoring. Dustin Butler stopped 29 shots, and the Rockets outshot Portland 30-19, indicative of Kelowna's defensive prowess. The recap at the Portland site is done by their play-by-play guy, Dean Vrooman, who cranked out a very informative set of paragraphs regarding the defensive teams of the WHL.
Upcoming...
Tonight: Cincinnati at Manitoba
Friday: Everett at Portland, Kootenay at Seattle, Kamloops at Vancouver, Kootenai at Puget Sound
Saturday: Vancouver at Kelowna, Kootenay at Portland, Swift Current at Everett, Binghamton at Manitoba, Kootenai at Puget Sound
Sunday: Swift Current at Seattle, Binghamton at Manitoba
---
Enjoy your Thursday, everybody. Stay warm. Bring chains and extra clothes if you're going over the pass and stuff. From personal experience, it helps if your car is a big hunk of heavy steel and is at least a front-wheel drive. Such a car got me through four years of back-and-forth from Ellensburg, and it's still a serviceable car.
Why did I just throw an automotive tip out there? I have no idea. Right now it's whatever time it says for the post time, and I'm insane.
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