Monday, January 17, 2005
KING ME
Whoa, that post title works on two levels. I should note that if I'm ever trying too hard for post titles, it's because I watched way too much of Win Ben Stein's Money when that show was still airing on Comedy Central.
Before we start here, three huge cheers to Marine Lt. Col. Dick Francisco (Ret.), who is putting together an athletic equipment drive for the children of the tsunami catastrophe. If you read the article, you'll see that this definitely isn't the first time the colonel has done something like this. What a guy. You can't say enough about these kinds of people.
Also, the KJR site's got a much-needed new look. I wasn't sure how much longer I could deal with the dominant red and the datedness of the whole thing. Now it's sleek.
Now, the usual...
MARINERS
There's just under 31 days remaining until pitchers and catches report as I'm writing this. Giddy be me. Over this paragraph is.
SEAHAWKS
Count Clare Farnsworth as a member of the Bring Back Randy Mueller crew. Much like Jeremy laid out, a hire of Mueller would just make too much sense. While if they didn't hire him for some odd reason, I could chalk it up to being typically Seattle, I don't want to have to do that. The Mariners made some big huge moves this offseason, and dang it, now I'm expecting more out of my sports teams. The Mariners just had their biggest offseason ever, and now it's time for the Seahawks to have theirs, and Whitsitt getting canned was just the beginning. A hire of Mueller (and hopefully a hire back of Mike Reinfeldt as well) would bring some harmony and some pride back to the brass of the Seahawks and gear them up for the tenuous offseason ahead in terms of player moves.
BASKETBALL
The Marvin Williams Watch
The Tar Heels are at Clemson on Wednesday.
Huskies
Does it seem like Brandon Roy has missed nine of the Huskies' 17 games this season? Well, he has. I remember I was sitting in my car outside the local Rite-Aid running an errand, but stalling while I listened to his clutchness in that NC State game. I know we'd be talking about Roy's injury a lot more if the Huskies were losing a bunch of games, but they're making up for Roy's absence as best as they can, and they seem to be doing a solid job of it.
To follow up on the condition of Oregon State coach Jay John, who left the game Saturday night complaining of shortness of breath and chest pains, he was released from the UW Medical Center. Doctors said John had a "hypertensive event," and he was to return home last night.
The Huskies are home against Washington State on Sunday (FSNNW).
Bulldogs
The Zags go to the Bay Area to face the Dons of USF on Thursday (KONG 6/16 broadcast).
Sonics
For my take on last night's game, scroll down one post or click here if you're in the archive.
Before I get to the meat of the Sonics' part of the post here, let me just say I'm so glad the Sonics have a TV deal with FSNNW this year. This isn't just because I'd been complaining about having no Sonics television coverage for four years out in Ellensburg. It's sort of because I was reminded of something when I was looking at this, which is what some places in Vancouver do when the Canucks have a pay-per-view game on television. This of course made me harken back to my youth, when the Sonics were good, but NONE of their home games would EVER be televised on anything but Sonics TV pay-per-view. I swear to you once KeyArena opened up, I don't think I even knew how the floor was painted until the playoffs came around and NBC actually had to show the home games, probably with Barry Ackerley begging and pleading for them to black the games out or something, and then turn around and try to put it on pay-per-view. I can't remember if they blacked out TNT games to the Seattle area so Ackerley could show them on PPV.
Ray's more than likely on to something with this fourth quarter thing, and he's been drilling it into the heads of his teammates. An additional amount of clutchness was provided by two of the x-factors on this team, Vladimir Radmanovic and Danny Fortson. Also a big thing were free throws, which I gave many a word to in my game post.
And here's even more press given to Radmanovic. Hooray for having 6'10" guys able to rain threes. Take it from LeBron, it's hard to guard a guy that's playing the 4 when that guy is bombing threes and hitting them. When you run someone out there to guard him, well, that leaves one less tree or semi-tree in the lane.
Ray Allen answered LeBron James' three late in the fourth quarter with a three of his own to basically seal the deal for the Sonics. What's amazing is that Ray Allen's first basket in the second half came with 4:30 left in the game. After that, he hit two more. Of course, Allen's long dry spell in the game is the reason why he said, "[t]hey did a good defensive job on me tonight." I'd hate to see what happens is somebody doesn't do a good job on him defensively. More than 27 points? There's also a bit in the article about the big run in the third quarter coinciding with the presence of Danny Fortson. Evidently Zydrunas Ilgauskas wasn't really digging the whole contact thing with Fortson. If David Locke or someone out there is keeping plus-minus stats, I'd like to see what Danny Fortson's plus-minus numbers are this year. They were incredible tonight.
Art Thiel has more on the LeBron James Experience. He scored 12 of Cleveland's final 14 points, but Thiel points out that the Cavaliers had the same problem the Heat did -- the four other guys on the Heat sat and watched when Shaq got the ball, and it appears that Cleveland was the same way when LeBron was getting the ball and doing his work. Basically, they let LeBron have his points, along with Drew Gooden and a dash of Zydrunas Ilgauskas. However, the Sonics didn't give up much else, as the bench comparisons indicate.
Rashard Lewis sat out his second straight game with knee tendinitis. The Sonics won without him, but one wonders what kind of job he would have done defensively on LeBron. Oh well. They won. Heal up, Rashard.
By the way, when you see the upcoming schedule here, keep in mind the fact that Nene (fka Nene Hilario) of the Denver Nuggets and Michael Olowokandi of the Timberwolves will be serving suspensions. At first glance, this should mean a couple of bigger games out of Danny Fortson and maybe even a double-digit scoring night for Jerome James, though I know that might be a stretch. But he got eight points last night.
Upcoming...
Tomorrow vs. Denver
Friday vs. Minnesota
Sunday vs. Utah
HOCKEY
Coming up on Wednesday at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver is the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game, featuring the top 40 ranked prospects from the Canadian Hockey League (the Western Hockey League, the Ontario Hockey League, and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League). This game would have a lot more meaning if an upcoming NHL Entry Draft was a sure thing to actually take place. Nonetheless, featured from the WHL teams covered on this page are Scott Jackson of Seattle on a team coached by John Davidson, as well as Gilbert Brule of Vancouver, Chris Durand of Seattle, and Portland teammates Brendan Mikkelson and Mike Sauer on a team coached by Don Cherry. Also featured are Sidney Crosby (consensus #1 pick in an upcoming NHL draft) and badass Tri-City goaltender Carey Price, who had three shutouts in a short span of something like four days last month.
To the games...
Seattle shut out Vancouver 1-0. Vancouver is 5-0 against Everett, but they're now 0-5 against Seattle this season. Ryan Gibbons' goal came early in the third period, and it was the only goal of the game after a scoreless first two periods of play. An ill-fated clearing attempt led to the puck ending up on Matt Hansen's stick, who fed Gibbons for the goal. Both teams killed off 5-on-3s in the second period, and the Giants outshot the Thunderbirds 13-6 in the period. Still, the Giants have only managed 3 goals in their five games against Seattle. Shots were 24-15 in Vancouver's favor. Adam Jennings stopped 14 for the Giants, and Bryan Bridges stopped all 24 for his 9th shutout this season to lead the WHL.
Everett beat Spokane 3-1. The Silvertips broke their four-game skid thanks to two goals from Alex Leavitt and another by captain Torrie Wheat. Wheat tallied his goal on a very early Spokane hooking penalty just 2:37 into the game. Leavitt also scored on the power play, just past the nine-minute mark of the middle period, which was good for the game-winner. Leavitt iced the game with an empty-netter in the final period. A side-note to the game was a boarding penalty on Everett's Mike Wuchterl which resulted in stitches for Chris Bruton of the Chiefs. Spokane coach Al Conroy was promising that league offices would "get a copy of the tape," and was expecting a suspension. This isn't the first time the Silvertips have been involved in this sort of incident this season, as then-Silvertip Barry Horman slashed Portland's Brandon Dubinsky, resulting in a loss of a flesh chunk off Dubinsky's fingertip. Horman got a one-game suspension from the league. Back to this game, shots were 26 apiece, and Leland Irving stopped 25 in the Everett net, even though Mike Wall was on the ice for the exact minute that Leavitt scored the winner, so he gets the win for being on the ice for one minute. Crazy.
Manitoba beat Houston 3-1. The Moose swept their three games in Texas and have gone 14 road games (12-0-1-1) without a loss in regulation. Peter Sarno scored just 1:47 into the game, and the Moose added two more goals in the second period thanks to Josh Green. The only goal by the Aeros was on a 90-foot shot by Mikko Koivu (yes, he's Saku's brother). Alex Auld's got a little Cloutier in him after all. Houston badly outshot Manitoba 39-22, but Alex Auld stopped 38 shots other than the long goal by Koivu, giving him his sixth straight win.
Upcoming...
Tomorrow: Wilkes-Barre Scranton at Manitoba
Thursday: Seattle at Prince George, Wilkes-Barre Scranton at Manitoba
Friday: Portland at Kelowna, Everett at Spokane, Vancouver at Tri-City, Manitoba at Edmonton
Saturday: Portland at Seattle, Everett at Kootenay
Sunday: Vancouver at Portland, Manitoba at Edmonton
---
Have a great day and a great start to the week, and if it's a day off for you, remember for at least an instant that it's not only a day off.
Before we start here, three huge cheers to Marine Lt. Col. Dick Francisco (Ret.), who is putting together an athletic equipment drive for the children of the tsunami catastrophe. If you read the article, you'll see that this definitely isn't the first time the colonel has done something like this. What a guy. You can't say enough about these kinds of people.
Also, the KJR site's got a much-needed new look. I wasn't sure how much longer I could deal with the dominant red and the datedness of the whole thing. Now it's sleek.
Now, the usual...
MARINERS
There's just under 31 days remaining until pitchers and catches report as I'm writing this. Giddy be me. Over this paragraph is.
SEAHAWKS
Count Clare Farnsworth as a member of the Bring Back Randy Mueller crew. Much like Jeremy laid out, a hire of Mueller would just make too much sense. While if they didn't hire him for some odd reason, I could chalk it up to being typically Seattle, I don't want to have to do that. The Mariners made some big huge moves this offseason, and dang it, now I'm expecting more out of my sports teams. The Mariners just had their biggest offseason ever, and now it's time for the Seahawks to have theirs, and Whitsitt getting canned was just the beginning. A hire of Mueller (and hopefully a hire back of Mike Reinfeldt as well) would bring some harmony and some pride back to the brass of the Seahawks and gear them up for the tenuous offseason ahead in terms of player moves.
BASKETBALL
The Marvin Williams Watch
The Tar Heels are at Clemson on Wednesday.
Huskies
Does it seem like Brandon Roy has missed nine of the Huskies' 17 games this season? Well, he has. I remember I was sitting in my car outside the local Rite-Aid running an errand, but stalling while I listened to his clutchness in that NC State game. I know we'd be talking about Roy's injury a lot more if the Huskies were losing a bunch of games, but they're making up for Roy's absence as best as they can, and they seem to be doing a solid job of it.
To follow up on the condition of Oregon State coach Jay John, who left the game Saturday night complaining of shortness of breath and chest pains, he was released from the UW Medical Center. Doctors said John had a "hypertensive event," and he was to return home last night.
The Huskies are home against Washington State on Sunday (FSNNW).
Bulldogs
The Zags go to the Bay Area to face the Dons of USF on Thursday (KONG 6/16 broadcast).
Sonics
For my take on last night's game, scroll down one post or click here if you're in the archive.
Before I get to the meat of the Sonics' part of the post here, let me just say I'm so glad the Sonics have a TV deal with FSNNW this year. This isn't just because I'd been complaining about having no Sonics television coverage for four years out in Ellensburg. It's sort of because I was reminded of something when I was looking at this, which is what some places in Vancouver do when the Canucks have a pay-per-view game on television. This of course made me harken back to my youth, when the Sonics were good, but NONE of their home games would EVER be televised on anything but Sonics TV pay-per-view. I swear to you once KeyArena opened up, I don't think I even knew how the floor was painted until the playoffs came around and NBC actually had to show the home games, probably with Barry Ackerley begging and pleading for them to black the games out or something, and then turn around and try to put it on pay-per-view. I can't remember if they blacked out TNT games to the Seattle area so Ackerley could show them on PPV.
Ray's more than likely on to something with this fourth quarter thing, and he's been drilling it into the heads of his teammates. An additional amount of clutchness was provided by two of the x-factors on this team, Vladimir Radmanovic and Danny Fortson. Also a big thing were free throws, which I gave many a word to in my game post.
And here's even more press given to Radmanovic. Hooray for having 6'10" guys able to rain threes. Take it from LeBron, it's hard to guard a guy that's playing the 4 when that guy is bombing threes and hitting them. When you run someone out there to guard him, well, that leaves one less tree or semi-tree in the lane.
Ray Allen answered LeBron James' three late in the fourth quarter with a three of his own to basically seal the deal for the Sonics. What's amazing is that Ray Allen's first basket in the second half came with 4:30 left in the game. After that, he hit two more. Of course, Allen's long dry spell in the game is the reason why he said, "[t]hey did a good defensive job on me tonight." I'd hate to see what happens is somebody doesn't do a good job on him defensively. More than 27 points? There's also a bit in the article about the big run in the third quarter coinciding with the presence of Danny Fortson. Evidently Zydrunas Ilgauskas wasn't really digging the whole contact thing with Fortson. If David Locke or someone out there is keeping plus-minus stats, I'd like to see what Danny Fortson's plus-minus numbers are this year. They were incredible tonight.
Art Thiel has more on the LeBron James Experience. He scored 12 of Cleveland's final 14 points, but Thiel points out that the Cavaliers had the same problem the Heat did -- the four other guys on the Heat sat and watched when Shaq got the ball, and it appears that Cleveland was the same way when LeBron was getting the ball and doing his work. Basically, they let LeBron have his points, along with Drew Gooden and a dash of Zydrunas Ilgauskas. However, the Sonics didn't give up much else, as the bench comparisons indicate.
Rashard Lewis sat out his second straight game with knee tendinitis. The Sonics won without him, but one wonders what kind of job he would have done defensively on LeBron. Oh well. They won. Heal up, Rashard.
By the way, when you see the upcoming schedule here, keep in mind the fact that Nene (fka Nene Hilario) of the Denver Nuggets and Michael Olowokandi of the Timberwolves will be serving suspensions. At first glance, this should mean a couple of bigger games out of Danny Fortson and maybe even a double-digit scoring night for Jerome James, though I know that might be a stretch. But he got eight points last night.
Upcoming...
Tomorrow vs. Denver
Friday vs. Minnesota
Sunday vs. Utah
HOCKEY
Coming up on Wednesday at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver is the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game, featuring the top 40 ranked prospects from the Canadian Hockey League (the Western Hockey League, the Ontario Hockey League, and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League). This game would have a lot more meaning if an upcoming NHL Entry Draft was a sure thing to actually take place. Nonetheless, featured from the WHL teams covered on this page are Scott Jackson of Seattle on a team coached by John Davidson, as well as Gilbert Brule of Vancouver, Chris Durand of Seattle, and Portland teammates Brendan Mikkelson and Mike Sauer on a team coached by Don Cherry. Also featured are Sidney Crosby (consensus #1 pick in an upcoming NHL draft) and badass Tri-City goaltender Carey Price, who had three shutouts in a short span of something like four days last month.
To the games...
Seattle shut out Vancouver 1-0. Vancouver is 5-0 against Everett, but they're now 0-5 against Seattle this season. Ryan Gibbons' goal came early in the third period, and it was the only goal of the game after a scoreless first two periods of play. An ill-fated clearing attempt led to the puck ending up on Matt Hansen's stick, who fed Gibbons for the goal. Both teams killed off 5-on-3s in the second period, and the Giants outshot the Thunderbirds 13-6 in the period. Still, the Giants have only managed 3 goals in their five games against Seattle. Shots were 24-15 in Vancouver's favor. Adam Jennings stopped 14 for the Giants, and Bryan Bridges stopped all 24 for his 9th shutout this season to lead the WHL.
Everett beat Spokane 3-1. The Silvertips broke their four-game skid thanks to two goals from Alex Leavitt and another by captain Torrie Wheat. Wheat tallied his goal on a very early Spokane hooking penalty just 2:37 into the game. Leavitt also scored on the power play, just past the nine-minute mark of the middle period, which was good for the game-winner. Leavitt iced the game with an empty-netter in the final period. A side-note to the game was a boarding penalty on Everett's Mike Wuchterl which resulted in stitches for Chris Bruton of the Chiefs. Spokane coach Al Conroy was promising that league offices would "get a copy of the tape," and was expecting a suspension. This isn't the first time the Silvertips have been involved in this sort of incident this season, as then-Silvertip Barry Horman slashed Portland's Brandon Dubinsky, resulting in a loss of a flesh chunk off Dubinsky's fingertip. Horman got a one-game suspension from the league. Back to this game, shots were 26 apiece, and Leland Irving stopped 25 in the Everett net, even though Mike Wall was on the ice for the exact minute that Leavitt scored the winner, so he gets the win for being on the ice for one minute. Crazy.
Manitoba beat Houston 3-1. The Moose swept their three games in Texas and have gone 14 road games (12-0-1-1) without a loss in regulation. Peter Sarno scored just 1:47 into the game, and the Moose added two more goals in the second period thanks to Josh Green. The only goal by the Aeros was on a 90-foot shot by Mikko Koivu (yes, he's Saku's brother). Alex Auld's got a little Cloutier in him after all. Houston badly outshot Manitoba 39-22, but Alex Auld stopped 38 shots other than the long goal by Koivu, giving him his sixth straight win.
Upcoming...
Tomorrow: Wilkes-Barre Scranton at Manitoba
Thursday: Seattle at Prince George, Wilkes-Barre Scranton at Manitoba
Friday: Portland at Kelowna, Everett at Spokane, Vancouver at Tri-City, Manitoba at Edmonton
Saturday: Portland at Seattle, Everett at Kootenay
Sunday: Vancouver at Portland, Manitoba at Edmonton
---
Have a great day and a great start to the week, and if it's a day off for you, remember for at least an instant that it's not only a day off.
/ Click for main page
