Thoughts for this week

Steve Lavin, the next coach of St. John’s. I like this hire. I personally would have preferred a Pitino or Knight, but Lavin is an excellent choice. St. John’s is finally acting like the big time college program it once was and as the only major college basketball program in the NYC area, should be.

Speaking of college basketball, this year’s tournament only further validates my view that the NCAA tournament is one of the best sporting events in the world. St. Mary’s, Butler, Cornell, Baylor and Northern Iowa? Come on, I knew some of these teams were good, but nobody expected this! At this point, i’m still hoping for a Big East champion, but Butler has been very impressive.

Brittney Griner is the most dominant female basketball player I have seen since Chamique Holdsclaw played for Tennessee. She was a high-school sensation two years ago, and has continued that in college. If you’ve never seen her play or watched women’s basketball, you need to watch this girl play.

Sunday afternoon she and the Baylor team goes against a UConn squad that has not lost in 70+ games. Don’t be surprised if Baylor wins-Griner is that good. Of course, it’s not a game of 1 on 5, but it will be an entertaining match

Looking at the rosters of both the Knicks and the Nets, it’s hard to believe, but the Nets have more talent on their roster than the Knicks do. The Nets have an All Star caliber point guard, a very good power forward/center in Brook Lopez who will be an All Star very soon, and decent role players-Lee, Yi, Dooling & Douglas-Roberts. If they manage to attract even one top flight free agent, they will be a force next season. Of course, the Knicks will be getting Lebron + one, so they will be instant contenders also. Next season promises to be a very good one for the local NBA and college teams.

I’m not a big Manchester United fan, but I hope Wayne Rooney recovers quickly from his most recent injury. No fun if Chelsea beats them and they’re not at full strength, considering Chelsea has been battling injuries all season long.

The New York Mets suck! They should have fired Minaya and kept Randolph. They have no chance of being a contender this season, which is a shame considering they have one of the five best pitchers in baseball as their ace.

I hope they finally wise up this year and trade the perennial underachiever Jose Reyes-he’s dogged it before and he’ll do it again. Rebuild the Mets, please.

I think the one team that no one’s looking at that will be a major contender this season is the San Francisco Giants. They have one of the top three rotations in all of baseball and if they manage to add another bat to their lineup, this pitching will keep them in contention all season.

I don’t need to explain why the Yankees will win again this year, right? Well lets start with this; they have the best rotation, closer and lineup in baseball, as well as the best owner in sports, an owner who is committed to winning and puts his money where his mouth is.

If you don’t like Steinbrenner and the Yankees, think about this-baseball has a luxury tax system where every dollar above the threshold means you pay a likewise amount in taxes/penalties. It was meant to deter the teams like the Yankees from outspending every other team. What happens also is that the tax money is distributed among all the other teams in baseball. So all the other owners are getting FREE MONEY every time the Yankees or Red Sox go out and spend hundreds of millions.

So what are the other owners doing with that money? If you’re a fan of Kansas City, Milwaukee, San Diego or another of the teams that lose consistently, what’s your team doing with all that money? I can tell you they’re not upgrading the talent on the field. And that is why Steinbrenner is the best owner in sports. He is determined to win, and will spend the money to do it. Sometimes he loses, but 28 World Series and countless playoffs shows that a lot of times he wins.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the owner of YOUR favorite team acted like that too?

March madness & Alexander the Great

I'm on record as saying that the NCAA tournament is not only one of my favorite sporting events, I think it is one of the the greatest competitions in all of sport, right up there with the European soccer's Champions League, and the annual Penn Relays. I am also proud to say as a huge fan of college basketball, that I have chosen the champion correctly three years in a row (Florida, Kansas & N. Carolina.) I'm hoping to make it four in a row, but this time, I have some upsets going. This is how I see the tournament going:

1st round upsets:
G. Tech over Ok. State, Minnesota over Xavier, Louisville over California and Houston over Maryland

Sure bets:
Purdue will win their first round game, but they won't get out of the second round. Louisville will run Duke out of the stadium in the second round. The Big East will have at least two and I believe three of the final four teams.

Final Eight:
Kansas, Georgetown, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Villanova, Texas A&M, W. Virginia & Kentucky

Final Four:
Syracuse, Georgetown, Kentucky & Villanova

Finals:
Georgetown v. Villanova

Champion:
Villanova

NCAA is all about superior guard play, and while I do like Kansas, I can't see them getting by a Georgetown team that matches up well strength for strength. Kentucky's team is ridiculously talented, all possible 1st round NBA draft picks, but the best team ever with three or more freshmen was Michigan's Fab Five, and at a crucial moment in the biggest game they lost due to immaturity. Kentucky will lose to Villanova. Scottie Reynolds, MOP.

I saw the hit Alex Ovechkin put on Brian Campbell last week, and yeah it was a hard hit, and warranted a major penalty. My question is this: If Campbell had sent Ovechkin into the boards and to the sidelines for 7-8 weeks (broken collarbone & fractured ribs) would Campbell have gotten two games, or would he have gotten more?

Ovechkin is my favorite hockey player, but he also needs to be mindful of his position as the biggest star in the NHL-yes, bigger than Sid Crosby-and act accordingly. Maybe he should reflect on the last great hockey superstar who liked to play tough guy and ended up being a shell of himself; Eric Lindros.

Thoughts for this week

Arsenal showed the heart of a champion today-they rebounded from the loss at Porto and are now challenging for 1st place in England and they routed Porto today. Samir Nasri scored one of the best goals i've seen this year.

Great win, I hope they keep this form up.

70 wins and counting-but does anyone really care about Women's College basketball? I admit, I watch it on occasion, and I think what they may lack in athleticism, they make up for in fundamentals, but it's clearly a sport with only three or four real dominant powers (UConn, Tennessee, Rutgers and in the past, UCLA) and as such.....is it really relevant?

It does beg the question though-is this the most impressive team winning streak?


I must admit, AC Milan v. Manchester United-David Beckham's first game in England against the team that made him a star. I think this is going to be even better than the first game 2 weeks ago. Ronaldinho, Beckham, Rooney, Eto'o, Alex Pato...this is going to be something special

And on the subject, I think the Champions League is by far the greatest sports tournament in the world. I think the NCAA Basketball tournament is a close second, but for completely different-one celebrates the best teams and best players in their sport in a tournament within a tournament. The other is fun because of the classic David vs Goliath scenario; the underdogs who make it there and challenge the big boys.

The Lakers don't look like the best team in basketball anymore. Odom is playing like garbage, Gasol is playing soft (AGAIN) and opposing guards a driving past Fisher like his name is 'EZ Pass'

This week

The Olympic hockey finals was the most exciting hockey game i've ever seen, live or on television. I still think USA v. Russia would be the ideal gold medal game scenario for many reasons but this was just as good if not better and lived up to the hype.

Unfortunately, within a month, hockey will still be a second tier sport.

Ashley Cole's hurt, his backup refusing to play on the English team with John Terry, turmoil and scandal everywhere.....I think this series of events could spell doom for England in the World Cup.

Tiger Woods will come back to golf this year prior to The Masters and I think he will have one of his better years.

The St. Louis Rams, who were awful last year, will pick either Sam Bradford or Jimmy Clausen with the No 1 pick in the draft, not any of the defensive players being touted.

A team from the Big East-hands down the best conference in college basketball, top to bottom-will win the NCAA tournament this year.

After watching Chelsea get dismantled by Manchester City this weekend and picked apart by Mourinho's boys from Milan a few days prior, I think they are in big trouble in the Premiership. Their defense has been exposed, and with the upcoming lineup of games in the Premiership (West Ham, Blackburn, Portsmouth, Aston Villa, Manchester United, Bolton & Tottenham) they could go 3-4 and fall out of the top four.