First things first, my original NCAA tournament Final Four
teams are as follows:
UNC, Michigan State, Kentucky and the now departed Florida
State. With the benefit of knowing prior to posting that FSU is out, I believe
the winner of OSU v Cincy will advance to the Final Four. The matchup between
Jared Sullinger and Yancy Gates (L) will probably decide that game.
The Champions League and the English Premier League battles
are heating up. The matchups for the Champions League include AC Milan, leaders
of the Italian Serie A, versus Barcelona, the defending champions of Europe. In
all there are two teams from Spain, one from Germany, France and England, as
well as a Cypriot team and the legendary Benfica of Portugal, a shadow of the
team that set UCL standards over a generation ago.
What does it say though about the state of English football
that they have only have one team-Chelsea, who have been playing middling
football all season-in all European competitions?
I think its an aberration not a sign of a decline as some
others have stated. The English game is still flush with money and talent, they
just had a bad year. I still have Madrid winning the Champions League title
this year, as well as La Liga. Chelsea, after ditching their first year coach
Andres Villas-Boa, seemed to have more urgency in their recent games, and even
Fernando Torres (R) is scoring again. They may yet prove a formidable foe in
Europe this season.
Speaking of the English Premier League, thoughts and well
wishes go out to Fabrice Muamba of Bolton. He collapsed from an apparent heart
attack during an FA Cup game against Tottenham and had to be revived on the
field. Let’s hope this 23 year old pulls through this.
NBA season is in full gear, and while my Knicks struggled
early under Mike Antoni (no ‘D’!)I stand by my preseason thinking that this
team-the deepest in the East-can compete with the other two top tier teams,
Miami and Chicago.
Every radio and television announcer prefaced commentary
about D’Antoni with ‘He’s a really nice guy, but…”
He was a nice guy who was incredibly stubborn in thinking his
no defense, run and gun philosophy could win in the NBA, even though it never has. He fought against any changes to his style and failed to mesh the
talent he never had his first two seasons over the last season and a half.
To most the kiss of death for him was when he would not
change his style for Knicks star player, Carmelo Anthony. To me the kiss of death was his interview
last season where he defended his shoot in 7 seconds or less style and said coming
within a game of going to the Finals is proof that it can be successful.
Nice guy or not, this team has tremendous talent which you
need to win in the NBA, and with a coach that requires team defense, they are
playing better already. I see them doing well in the playoffs.
On a more serious note, 17 year old Trayvon Martin was shot
and killed while walking home from a convenience store on the evening of
February 26th. His murderer has still not been arrested or charged
with a crime.
Criminals are criminals and deserve to be dealt with
appropriately by the law, but a 17 year old with no history of any violence or
criminal activity who was doing nothing besides walking home should not be shot,
harassed, intimidated or killed by some trigger happy wanna be cop. And I say
this whether the victim is black, white, Asian, Hispanic or any other ethnic
group.
There is only one criminal in this tragedy. That criminal is his murderer, some dirtbag named George Zimmerman. He should be arrested,
charged, convicted and sent to jail where he belongs.
