Friday, April 3, 2009

Friday Pic O' tha Week

Let me take you to flight school! The 2009 MLB Regular Season starts this Sunday with the defending champs hosting Derek Lowe and the Braves. Then Monday has a full slate of games highlighted by Red Sox/Rays and Angels/A's. The Final Four also starts tonight. Gotta keep pulling for Nova. The Celtics are still battling for the second spot in the East with four of their last six games being at the Gahden. Dwayne Wade became the first player in NBA history to record 2,000 points, 500 assists, 150 steals and 100 blocks in one season. And looking at his team's record down the stretch, he might as well be playing 1 0n 5. But our pic o tha week is dedicated to the whiniest of whiners, the 25 year old man baby and new fav here at SPLP, Jay Cutler. Good luck getting destroyed by Green Bay and Minnesota's defenses buddy. Oh, and extra points for the sick-rad-bro tribal tattoo. The Sunshine state...GORGEOUS!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

I know this is probably common sense, but...

if you have time to shine your lights at someone because they walked in front of your car, doesn't that also mean you had time to make the most reaction-based move possible in that situation...slam on the breaks?

Shining your lights is something you have to think about, and is also something cars usually do to signal GO.

Slamming on the breaks is something you do before you can even start thinking, and is also something cars usually do to NOT KILL A DUDE.

The more you know.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Out until the playoffs...

From everything I've read today, it looks like Leon is shut down for the rest of the regular season in the hopes that he can rehab his knee and make it back for the first round of the playoffs. Details are still pretty vague as it seems like the Celtics front office have recently attended classes at the New England Patriots Injury Information Chokehold University. This obviously sucks but considering the way the top of the Eastern Conference is looking, Danny and Doc might want to consider doing the same with KG. Watching Leon put up those great numbers while Garnett was out makes this harder to take. Leon's contract is also up the end of the year so going into free agency with an injury history isn't going to help his chances on landing a sweet deal. (On boston.com's sports section right now, there is a local interview with Leon discussing his injury and the team's overall health that's over seven minutes long. I tried posting here but the media player didn't fit properly. Also the audio is pretty wack. But do check it out if you're trying to kill the last 14 minutes of your workday...)

By the way, I REALLY don't want to see the Heat play the Celtics in the first round.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Final Four!

This is my official "I am happy that UConn made it to the Final Four" post. They played a brilliant game against Purdue, and had one of the best games of the season yesterday afternoon against Missouri.

I had Missouri losing to UConn in my bracket, so it was no surprise when they beat Memphis. I'm a firm believer that Memphis will always be overrated no matter how talented they are until they get into a stronger conference. Either that or Conference USA gets competitive. What if Tulsa or Marshall decide to give Memphis a run for their money and just go all out on recruiting? That might give the Tigers some clout. But instead, they just come off as a big fish in a small pond.


For the record, I have one Final Four team (Duke) out. However, UNC and UConn, who are meeting in the finals for me, are both very much alive, AND everyone who's competition for me had Pitt in the finals. They all also had Louisville in the Final Four as opposed to my pick of Michigan State. If UNC and Michigan State win tonight, I wins myself some cash money. Expect a "Hooray I'm rich!" post very soon.


Back to UConn. Missouri is a better team than they've been given credit for, and I knew they'd be a challenge. UConn shot brilliantly the first half, and they played great defense, but it didn't matter. They'd have 3 hands in their face, and Missouri guys would still be hitting shots left and right.


I hate when fouls are called on Hasheem Thabeet, because 90% of the time they're not fouls, but the refs had let him slide on another foul that should've been called earlier, so you can't argue too much. The announcers yesterday, as during the entire tournament, kept harping on the fact that Hasheem Thabeet is a disgustingly good Scrabble player. I'm considering challenging him on Facebook. How many points do you get for "2009 National Champion UConn Huskies"?



There was one play where they called a travel on Jeff Adrien. The amazing part of this was that HE DIDN'T HAVE THE BALL. There was a loose ball, he and a Missouri player were both trying to gain possession, and before he ever got possession, a travel was called. The next play, a reach-in was called on Thabeet which left Jay Bilas baffled, saying "I have no idea where that foul was".

However, my boy Kemba Walker stepped it up and hit his stride. So begins the Kemba Walker era. With A.J. Price going into the NBA next year, how does UConn replace that void? Oh, just by finding an even better point guard. I expect Walker will go down as THE BEST point guard in UConn history. He's got that much natural ability, he just needs to learn the mental part (which, as he showed yesterday, he's doing quite well with).


So UConn held off Missouri, and frankly I think that Missouri is a tougher matchup for UConn than either one they'll face next round. I'm looking forward to Michigan State upsetting Louisville, and for UConn to then stomp all over their dreams of playing a home championship game.

The women's team is currently delivering a second half beatdown to California after looking slightly human the first half. Tiffany Hayes is pulling off a female Kemba Walker performance, and frankly these women just can't be beat.

In other women's basketball news, Michigan State got boned by the referees at the end of the game last night. They blew an 8 point lead in the last minute of the game, but when throwing up their final shots of the game and attempting to get a rebound off of the miss, they got hacked to all hell. I have a slight crush on their coach, Suzy Merchant, which is why I mention this. The no-call was disappointing to see, and Iowa State squeaked by with a win they might not have deserved.


Time to tune in to the end of Louisville's run.