Quick Exit - Finland 4; USA 3

Well, that wasn't altogether surprising. I kind of suspected that we'd put it together for a game, and that we'd catch Finland on an off-day, but the Americans were outworked and outplayed until the final six or seven minutes, but by then it was too late. Undisciplined play, untimely penalties, and an inability to cover for those mistakes were the difference. Give the Finns credit. They play a boring style, but it's effective, and they beat us with their third string goaltender.

USA Hockey is really in a bit of flux right now. The heroes of the '96 World Cup, and even most of the guys that took silver in 2002, are no longer in peak form, and it really showed in this tournament. Somewhere along the way, there was a gap in the development of American born players, and most of our best talent is either over 35 or under 25. It's gonna be a few years before that talent develops to the world class level needed to compete with the best. Zach Parise, Phil Kessel, Eric and Jack Johnson, these are guys who may be ready in 2010, maybe not. Don't forget that the US won the World Juniors last year, and were favored to win it this year. Kings fans can probably look forward to seeing Tim Gleason and Dustin Brown on the next Olympic team, and quite frankly, Joe Corvo would have looked a lot better than Darien Hatcher in this one, especially with goal scoring at a premium.

One of the biggest deficiencies compared to the past teams the US has put together is between the pipes. Nothing against Rick DiPietro, who played admirably (and he *was* a #1 pick overall). He didn't cost the Americans any games, but he didn't steal any either. They don't have a Mike Richter. And that fact becomes clearer when you look at the goalies for many of the teams in this tournament. The Russians, Czechs, Canadians, Finns, Swedes, and Swiss all have better goaltenders than we do. Hell, the Czech, Canadians, and Finns all have at least two goalies better than we do.

The good news is that the US won't have to face any heat from the hockey press, because the Canadians just choked even harder than we did.

A regular 'ol comment thread broke out on the last post, so I might as well add that I have one crappy US jersey (Leetch), a crappy Ukranian jersey (Zhitnik), and a crappy Russian jersey (Zhamnov). I also have a Dynamo Moscow jersey (Maxim Kuznetsov). And that does it for the international jerseys. I'd still love to get a Slovakian jersey with #26 - Stastny on it. As for the NHL stuff, I have:

• Predators - blue (no name)
• Panthers - red (no name)
• Senators - original black (no name)
• Kings - old purple (#16 Dionne)
• Kings - old white (#71 Timonen - worn by him in training camp)
• Kings - old black (#15 Stumpel)
• Kings - new purple (#28 Deadmarsh)
• Kings - new black (#20 Robitaille)
• Kings - new white (#17 Visnovsky)
• Whalers - blue (#94 Shanahan)
• Nordiques - blue (#26 Stastny)
• Flames - white (#6 Housley)
• Capitals - old red (#4 Hatcher)

I'm pretty sure that's all the authentics. I also have a cool authentic throwback Illinois jersey that the hockey team busted a few times when I was there that's Orange with Illinois and a retro Chief on the front with a tie up neck and blue and white striped shoulder patches. Even though I'm a bleeding heart liberal, I'm too jingoisitic in international sports to be buying all kinds of internation jerseys.

And I agree, our jerseys suck. The ones from the '96 World Cup were good, but ever since Nike started making them, they're for shit. And these more form-fitting ones they've been wearing this year are awful. And don't get me started on the socks. They look like they're wearing their shin-guards on the outside.

Illinois 64; Michigan 72

For the second time this season, the Illini gave up over 70 points against Michigan. This time, however, the Illini scored 15 fewer points, and let a chance to gain ground in the conference with a road win get away. Defense has been their calling card this year, but they've had one problem. They tend to go through stretches where they completely forget about the defensive end of the floor. They did it tonight at the beginning of the second half, and they blew a 7 point lead as Michigan nailed five threes in a handful of posessions. That was the difference. It didn't help that Michigan refused to miss a free throw.

Daniel Horton was the obvious star, and quite frankly, it had to happen sometime. The guy is a good player, and he's been owned by Illinois his entire career to this point. And when he busts out, he really busts out. He went for 39 points, and while many of those came shooting free throws at the end, the 11 most important came in the first four minutes of the second half right after the Illini had stretched their lead to six. Included in the run were three pointers from Dion Harris and Ron Coleman, none of which were really contested. When the outburst was over, the Wolverines led by four, and although the Illini would tie the game one more time, they would never lead again.

Lost in the poor defensive performance were excellent offensive nights from James Augustine and Dee Brown, who added 23 and 20 respectively. Augie added 14 assists, while Dee pitched in 6 assists (albeit to five turnovers). Sean Pruitt also contributed nicely with 10 points on 5-7 shooting, including a fantastic drive from the perimeter that ended with a thunderous dunk. But the Illini got nothing from the bench. Literally. Zero bench points, two assists, and two rebounds. Jamar Smith was non-existent, almost moreso than the other night when he was benched by Bruce Weber. Speculation is that he has hit the freshman wall. Whatever it is, until he begins to contribute again, there's a big hole in the backcourt, especially with the recent spotty play of Rich McBride.

It's just one game, and it's not the end of the world, but the finish is tough. Iowa at home, then at MSU and at Minnesota. The good news is that this schedule presents a chance for the Illini to make a statement. As Bruce Weber has said a few times this season, it's up to the player to decide what kind of statement they want to make.

The Quarterfinals are set

I haven't watched the US game from today yet, but while the result stayed the same, we did manage to actually score 3 goals, which is more than we scored in the last two games combined. Anyway, the quarters are set, and here are my predictions:

Quarterfinals
USA over Finland
Canada over Russia
Slovakia over the Czech Republic
Sweden over Switzerland

Semi-Finals
Canada over USA
Slovakia over Sweden

Bronze Medal
USA over Sweden

Gold Medal
Slovakia over Canada

I think we'll see a lot of great hockey, but I think the Slovakian stars will rise to the occasion and frustrate the Canadians. It's pointless to say that I think the Slovaks have more talent, because they don't. But Canada has stuggled for much of the tournament, and the Slovaks have been playing great team hockey, and they have the best line in the tournament with Demitra, Hossa, and Gaborik. Their power play is excellent with Lubo along the blue line, and I think they're finally ready to show the world how good they are. They've been screwed by the format the last few years, forced to battle it out in the preliminary rounds with less than a full team, as most of those games would come before the NHL began it's break, and as a result, they inevitably failed to get into the secondary round robin. But they're loaded not only with NHL talent, but with NHL all-stars, and in some cases, superstars.

Of course, the man responsible for the whole thing is the greatest European player in the history of the NHL. Peter Stastny not only put this together as its general manager, but he's responsible for inspiring many on the Slovakian roster, as he was the country's first true NHL star, accumulating more points in the 1980s than anyone not named Wayne Gretzky. If they can continue their excellent play and take the gold, no one will be prouder than Stastny.

UCLA 68; USC 71

There have been a lot of bad performances by the Bruins this year, but until this game, they're only really poor loss was the Cal game. They looked worse against Drexel, Albany, Coppin State, and Wagner, but they found a way to win all of those games. Well, SC isn't great, but they're better than those teams, and they didn't give up when UCLA went on a 13-0 run to take the lead. They responded with a 13-0 run of their own, as the Bruins began to play as if they game was essentially over when they pulled ahead.

When you play this poorly, there's a lot of blame to go around. It was their first game in over a week, and it showed, although that's no excuse, and USC had that time off as well. The first four or five minutes was about as bad as it gets. The box score shows Farmar with only three turnovers, but that can't be right. I counted five in the first four minutes alone. There were at least two steals, a play where he stepped on the end line, and a play where he was unable to get the ball in on an out of bounds play.

Ryan Hollins took a step backward, as he had probably his worst game in the last month or so. He finished with no points, only four rebounds, and a turnover. He was really non-existent on the offensive end, and this came against a team with virtually no inside presence. USC only played seven guys and one of them only played 9 minutes, but they never looked tired.

Ryan Francis got into foul trouble, picking up his fourth foul with 16 minutes to go, but that didn't matter. His replacement, Duane Shackleford, lit up the Bruin backcourt, driving to the basket again and again. He ended the game with 12 points in only 21 minutes on 4-4 shooting and 4-5 from the free throw line. His line was indicative of the night the Bruin defense had. They were a step slow from the get go, and USC took advantage to the tune of 56% shooting from the field.

For the second straight game, one could argue that UCLA lost the game at the free throw line. They made only 10 of 18, with the normally reliable Darren Collison and Aaron Afflalo combining to go 4-9. They've shot only 62% from the line in their last two games, and when they're a fifth or sixth seed in the tournament instead of a third seed, they'll look back at those two games as reasons why. Although honestly, for the most part, this game wasn't as close as the score. USC led by 11 with about a minute and a half to go when the Bruins started making everything. Two three pointers by Roll, another by Farmar, and a couple of free throws by LRMAM (who had a repsectable 8 and 10, albeit on 3-8 shooting) helped pull UCLA to within the final margin before the poor decision making they showed early in the game returned. Michael Roll stole the inbounds pass with 4 seconds to go, and instead of taking the ball to the arc, he tried to hit Afflalo. The ball was knocked out of bounds, and the ensuing inbounds play never materialized, as Roll missed Afflalo again and threw the ball out of bounds. Game over.

There is time to atone for the last two games. They should get a little swagger back this week against the Oregon schools, but they missed a golden opportunity to take the lead in the conference after Cal lost to Arizona State at home. It's great to play such solid defense, but great teams get it done on both ends of the floor, and they aren't getting it done on offense. They can't outscore teams when the defense goes south. They're going to have to find a way to put the ball in basket more often, or their March run will be over very quickly.

Indiana 58; Illinois 70

Excellent efforts out of James Augustine and Brian Randle allowed the Illini to open up a big first half lead that they'd never really come close to relinquishing, despite some anxious moments in teh second half, mostly brought on by the collapse against Penn State. I've written all year about how the Illini, especially Brian Randle but it goes for Augie as well, need to attack the basket. Yesterday, they did just that, converting dunk after dunk (six according to ESPN's play by play). I counted at least four for Augustine, and while Randle only had one, it was thunderous and it was the signature moment of the game. He took his man off the dribble and flew to the hoop to throw down a monster jam, and completed the three point play at the line. Augie finished with 18 and 10 for his 25th career double double, while Randle added 12 points and five boards to go along with stifling defense that limited Robert Vaden to 9 points on 4-13 shooting.

The Illini have struggled with skilled big men this season, getting killed by Marco Killingsworth and Terrence Dials in earlier games this season. Part of the problem in those games was an inability to guard the perimiter while also limiting the inside game. Yesterday, they held Killingsworth to 15 points and 45% shooting. But they also held the Hoosiers down from the outside. Indiana hit just 4 of 22 three point attempts. That's less than 20%. Compare that with the 47% they allowed in their two games with Indiana and Ohio State earlier this year, and you can see what made the difference.

Illinois wasn't much better from beyond the arc (in fact, they were worse), hitting only 3 of 17 shots. But that didn't include any from Jamar Smith, who didn't play. According to Coach Weber, he "didn't take care of business". Let your imagination fill in the rest. Didn't matter. Illinois did their damage inside as their big men accounted for 51 of the their 70 points. That's the kind of scoring they're going to need from the front-line as the tournament approaches.

Four winnable games remain, but they're all losable as well. At Michigan tomorrow, followed by Iowa at home, and closing on the road with MSU and Minnesota, who has been terrific at home lately. Those four games will be the difference between a conference championship and a two seed, or a first round game in the Big Ten Tournament and a six seed. If this team is going to decide to be special, now is the time to do it.

Olympic Thoughts

Just watched us lose to Slovakia 2-1, despite outshooting them by ten, and a couple of things popped into my mind. First, Slovakia is now loaded with NHL talent. And I don't just mean NHL players, but NHL all-stars. Go up and down their roster, and right now on paper they're every bit as good if not better than the United States. Hossa, Demitra, Gaborik, Svatos, Bondra, Satan, Chara, and Visnovsky are all all-star caliber players. And that doesn't include Ziggy Palffy and Josef Stumpel, who would have been playing if not for injuries.

Second, we simply can't finish. We have a lot of great playmakers, but not too many finishers. The ones we do have aren't finishing. Gomez, Modano, Drury, and Weight are all terrific set-up guys, but Guerin and Tkachuk aren't getting it done. The rest of our lineup on offense is essentially a lot of good but not great players. The goaltending has been good, but even that's not as reliable as it's been in the past. This team is in trouble. At this point, the only way we get in is by besting Latvia in goal differential. We have a comfortable margin right now, and I can't see them passing us in that department, but if they get a fluke win over Russia, we're probably done.

In other Olympic news, Anonymous in a comment that has been deleted and resurrected at least three times now asks:

And on a side note, can any of our non-X-game athletes do something worth a damn this year? Bode? Out. Johnny Weir? Out. Women's hockey? Out. Michelle Kwan? Out (though Cohen should win a medal).

I'm glad you brought this up, Anonymous. Couple of things about this comment. First, you really gotta hand it to the U.S. When we realized that we couldn't compete in traditional winter Olympic sports like the biathlon and luge, well, we just made them add new ones that we could win. Problem solved! Old fashioned American ingenuity.

But the other problem is this: Most of those aren't sports. Sure, the boarder-cross is a sport, but half-pipe? Half-pipe takes a place alongside other Olympic non-sports like figure skating. No sport whose winner is determined by the subjective opinions of a panel of judges is a real sport. Are they athletes? Oh, God yes, they're tremendous athletes. But so are the perfomers in Cirque de Soleil. That's not a sport either. It's an exhibition. High school marching bands get judged and win medals too, but that doesn't make it a sport. For something to be considered a sport (by me, anyway), I need to be able to tell who wins by looking at some objective measure of performance like a clock or a scoreboard, and what it shows should roughly align with what I've seen. I shouldn't have to be an expert in the nuances of the sport to be able to tell who's won. Sure, it's easy to tell when someone falls, but at that level, laymen can't generally tell the difference between two pefectly executed routines. Indeed, often it seems that person who performed best doesn't win.

And I'm not just picking on figure skating and half-pipe here. The same goes for ski jumping. As long as there's a style component to the landing, it's not a sport. Just give it to the dude who goes the farthest. I don't care if he flails his limbs throughout the flight and lands on his head. If he went farther, he should win. When you're skiing down a 120 meter hill, there's already a pretty good incentive to land cleanly. Personally, I wouldn't need the carrot of style points, because there's already a damn big stick waiting for me if I don't land properly. I'm willing to extend this to boxing, too, a judged sport that probably leads to the most controversy. If they want to change the rules to say that you must knock your opponent out to win, I'm on board. I don't care if it takes 3 rounds, 30 rounds, or 300 rounds. If the winner is determined by a bunch of guys who think they might possibly have maybe seen a jab land, or not, that's not good enough.

Anyway, I'm still a little pissed about the hockey game, so I'm going to start drinking.

Blogger sucks

I had two posts up today, and both have now disappeared. In addition, it's eating comments. If you post a comment, it shows up. But then if I go to post a response, it eats the original comment. So I've done my best to put a couple back up that were eaten.

Random Thoughts

Missed the Illinois game last night. I really have no explanation for this, other than it was Northwestern at home, and I forgot all about it. I was watching my recorded copy of our (the U.S.'s) crappy tie with Latvia. But we won, so yay!

Speaking of the U.S. hockey team, good lord, what an awful second period that was. Not that I've played after flying from one continent to another, but I got a little worried when Emrick and Davidson praised the U.S. for their great first period. Even when you're tired, it's not unusual to start fast. It ALWAYS catches up to you in the second period, though. But they salvaged the point, and they looked great in the first period tonight against Kazakhstan. Still, we've lacked real good finishing so far. The playmaking has been fine, and the defense has been solid outside of the middle 20 minutes last night. Slovakia is going to be tough, though. I don't know how they beat Russia. Just going down Russia's lineup, man, they're stacked.

Speaking of Latvia, I still fucking hate Arturs Irbe.

And one last bit on hockey, but with only one or two NHLers on their roster, how the hell did Konstantine Pushkarev not make their roster? They can't have that many guys better than he is.

I haven't commented on the Jeff Weaver signing because I'm not really sure there's any more that can be said. Others have more or less covered it, but he adds depth to the rotation. Barring multiple injuries, I think they'll be just as strong as they were last year. The numbers will come down a bit just due to regression to the mean, but that's not unexpected. I see Colon being worse by a bit, Lackey and Santana being better, Escobar being better than Washburn was last year, and I'll call Weaver and Byrd a draw. Plus, Carrasco strengthens the pen, albeit for a lot of money.

Started playing floor hockey again recently. A lot easier at 25 than it is at 32. People who know me relatively well will be surprised to learn that I've only been in one almost-fight so far. That's way below my average. But the season is only half over, so I expect that number to climb. And I've lost some of my cheap-shotting touch. I used to be able to rake a guy's foot without bringing him down and drawing a penalty, but no such luck this week. The good news is that I've only knocked down one girl. I've been the very model of restraint.

I don't weigh in on politics very often, mostly because there are a lot of people already doing it, and they all do it a lot better than I possibly could, or at least half of them do. The other half all suck. Regardless, one glance at the sidebar will give you a quick glimpse of my political persuasion. Just wanted to comment quickly on this whole "Cheney shot an elderly man in the face" thing. Ultimately, outside of the comedic value, along with the unintentional comedy being provided by the completely whacked administration response, something's bothering me. Well, actually, lots of things are bothering me, like the whole canned hunting thing, which sounds pretty pathetic when you think about it. And frankly, I don't know if he was drunk, but he was probably drinking a lot more than they let on. Hell, I know I would be if I were out there, but that's probably why I'm not a hunter. Anyway, what's bothering me is this idea that Whittington was "peppered" with birdshot. My Montana cousins hunt, so I'm not anti-hunter or anything. But I can't imagine how the term "peppered" could possibly refer to being pierced by up to 200 lead balls, many of which remain inside the pepperee. Like I said, I don't have a lot of experience with shotguns, but I do have a lot of experience with pepper. Pepper doesn't really bore its way into your food. It sort of rests on top. I'm guessing "getting peppered" probably refers more to something like birdshot that falls out of the air and hits you on the way down after just about all of its energy is spent.

One thing about this incident that I *do* know is that I'm putting my money on Whittington to win the 2008 Tour de France.

My Bruin Blogging Days May Be Over

**UPDATED BELOW**

I apologize for not knowing this before I dared to comment on UCLA basketball from a fan's perspective, but apparently a prerequisite for being a Bruin fan is a complete and unconditional hatred of Steve Lavin. There I was, week after week, sitting on my couch and rooting for UCLA to win, often followed up with a few paragraphs on this blog with analysis of what I'd witnessed, all the while thinking that rooting for the Bruins to win would be enough to call myself a fan. But I fall short, and finally someone let me in on the secret:

Sure it is possible "to believe the guy was a horrible coach, and to be glad he's no longer the coach at UCLA, and not hate his guts." That wouldn't make you as much of UCLA basketball fan as any casual observer of ND football fan who harbors no ill feelings towards Davies or Willingham. UCLA basketball ... heck everything about UCLA is a religion to us. And Steve Lavin - if anyone who has followed UCLA baskebtall closely online last few years would know - HATES UCLA basketball and its fans. He hates us. And it is simple black and white - you are either with him or you are either with us. Right now from your posts it sounds like you are making excuses for his subtle digs at Howland. Kind of odd for someone who comes on here to claim himself as a UCLA hoops fan. Perhaps you should stick to blogging about the Big-10 and enjoy Lavin's commentary on those tough, grinding out, moving chains in the snow games.

Thank you, bluestreet. For the last 3-10 years, I've been living a lie. I've been telling myself that I really wanted UCLA to win, and when people asked to know of which basketball teams I considered myself a fan, I almost always told them "UCLA!". But now I know. I'm a fraud.

See, I used to think that someone could root for a team without hating their previous coach. I used to think that if Steve Lavin wore a red tie on television, it meant that he was wearing a suit with which a red tie looked appropriate. But now I know that the bastard was wearing in support of U$C the University of Southern California (gotta be nicer to them now that I'm in the market for a new team), and it was a total dig at UCLA, whom he hates, along with their fans. I used to think it was possible to think he was a bad coach, but wasn't a complete asshole worthy of the enduring hatred of anyone who dares root for UCLA.

Let me tell you, I'm glad I found out about this when I did. I may have sat down to watch Saturday's Sunday's game and pulled for UCLA. But I can't waste time with that. I've got work to do. I've gotta get crackin' on my Lavin hate. I'm having someone create a program that will show various images of Lavin for two minutes per day while playing a hideous, grinding noise, as of some monstrous machine running without oil. If that doesn't do it, I'm afraid I'll have to give up the Bruins forever.

Oh well, Go Illini.

**UPDATE**

Looks like I've got a long way to go. Lavin expects the same things from UCLA basketball as pretty much everyone else who has written about them in the last year, namely the potential to go the elite 8 this year, and to compete for a national championship next year. See, I read that and kind of that it jibed with my own expectations. But I was wrong. All he was doing was setting expectations for the Bruins that were too high so that they would inevitably fail. That guy is one clever bastard.

Stars 5; Kings 6

Alright, so I'm writing about the Kings again, but I did say I'd probably do it when they started winning again, and well, this is two in a row.

I'm gonna come clean. I gave up on the Kings after two periods. After allowing 3 goals in 5 minutes, I quit. I had to do some grocery shopping that I was leaving until after the game, but I figured I'd leave early and get back in time to watch the Olympics. Fortunately, today's television technology allows us to record programs with a touch of a button (and more importantly, delete them with a press of a button, making the whole thing vastly superior to VHS tapes). Anyway, I started recording and left to do my shopping. Decided I'd watch the third period at about 8x speed without checking to see what happened.

Sure enough, the Kings got an early goal on a beautiful three man play on which Frolov passed the puck to Demitra, who made a no-look behind the back pass to a charging Lubo Visnovsky, who slid the puck home to cut the lead to two. Minutes later, Nathan Dempsey jammed home a loose puck from a Demitra pass to bring the Kings within one. Less than a minute after that, Michael Cammalleri made a nifty move on the right wing boards to enter the zone untouched, moved to his left, and hit Luc Robitaille with a perfect pass. Luc, who skated in unseen from the left wing boards, ripped a wrister through an apparently drugged Marty Turco. You couldn't see his face, but I don't think that was necessary to know what Turco's expression was.

Back in the game at 5-5, I watched the rest in regular speed as the Kings finished off one of their best period's of the season. Not content with just being a crappy goaltender in the third period, cheap shotter Turco yanked down Jeremy Roenick as he skated in front of the Dallas net, leading to a power play. The Kings converted, with Derek Armstrong deflecting a Visnovsky shot between his legs. It went under Turco's right arm and trickled over the line for the eventual game winner.

Make no mistake, this is a tremendous confidence boost, and it's a nice way to head into the break. I don't want to make too much of that, because if you go the break on a winning streak, everyone says "what a great way to go into the break", while if you lose on in, people say "the break is coming at the right time." Silver linings, I guess, but it is a nice way to think about the next couple weeks without Kings hockey, and beating a good team, albeit a team they've owned this season, does leave a good taste in the mouth. Still, we should be concerned about the second period, and the fact that they gave up five goals again. Something has to happen on the defensive end to improve, or this team is going to go right back into a slide.

Still, for one afternoon, it was a lot of fun. And I'll probably watch that period a bunch of times over the break. Now let's hope the Americans can acquit themselves well in Turin.

Illinois 53; OSU 69

Alright, I really don't want to write very much about this game. Suffice to say, the Illini got their asses kicked. They didn't defend the perimeter well, preferring to focus on Terrence Dials. The problem is that Ohio State was pretty much making every outside shot they put up. Je'kell Foster and Jamar Butler combined to go 11-14 from three point range, and, well, you're not going to beat too many teams that do that. This, naturally, caused the Illini to intensify the focus on the perimeter, at which point Terrence Dials killed them, going for 19 and 13.

Look, it's a Big Ten road game, and most of the time, you're going to lose those, especially to good teams. This was clearly no exception. The disturbing part is that the Illini have looked downright bad in their last sixty minutes of action. As the Big Ten Wonk points out, they're giving up an extra .35 points on EVERY POSESSION over that period. That's just brutal, and with their offense, they're gonna get killed playing like that.

The next few games are winnable, and if the Illini are going to respond to Coach Weber's challenge to be a special team, now's the time to prove it. If they continue to falter, they're looking a 7-9 seed and possibly a quick exit from the tournament.

UCLA 67; Washington 70

If the Pac 10 isn't embarrassed about the quality of the officiating for which they are paying, then they truly have no shame. The officiating in the Pac 10 has been awful all season, but it reached a new low today, and I'm not talking about home cooking. It was bad both ways. It was horribly inconsistent. I defy anyone to explain to me what is and isn't a foul using that game as your visual aid. In the second half, they may as well have just given the Huskies two free throws, run 15 seconds off the clock, and given UCLA two free throws, and repeated the process. One of the big plays of the game was a dunk by John Brockman off a feed from Brandon Roy who was passing out of the double team. It was really the most shocking play of the game, because for the previous ten minutes, every touch by Roy was pretty much an automatic foul on the Bruins. My favorite was the fould called on Aboya who was standing on the OTHER SIDE OF THE BASKET and was knocked down by Roy landing on him AFTER he had laid the ball in the basket.

Aboya, for what it's worth, was fantastic. He was more heralded than LRMAM when this class enrolled, but surgeries on both knees slowed his progress, and he's just now beginning to make his presence felt. He led the Bruins with 15 points and added 8 rebounds (per the box score I'm using - subject to change). He's shown good quickness to the basket at times this season, and if he can get fully healthy, he looks like he can be a real force.

Ryan Hollins added nine rebounds of his own, but fouled out fairly quickly in the second half on some more brilliant officiating. Apparently a 6'10" guy can jump on top of Jordan Farmar to fight for a loose ball, but Ryan Hollins isn't allowed to battle with anyone on the Huskies for loose balls. Of course, Hollins should have been kicked out earlier, but he amazingly kept his cool after being bear hugged by Applewhite under the offensive basket ("inadvertantly" according to Mush Mouth). I've gotta think that if I were Hollins, Applewhite would have been missing a few teeth after that play.

Aaron Afflalo appeard to slip back into a slump, adding only five points on 2-10 shooting. Between the two of them, Farmar and Afflalo shot 4-23 from the field. Brandon Roy wasn't much better, shooting 3-11, but he was given 16 free throws, 13 of which he made. The key play of the game came on a Bruins steal with just over ten seconds to go. They got the ball ahead to Collison who had a chance to tie the game with a lay-up. He missed it, and was fouled, then missed his first free throw, and the Bruins were forced to take a three pointer the other end that Jordan Farmar rushed and had blocked.

And that was really the difference in the end. The Bruins shot just 65% from the line, while Washington shot 82%. The Bruins also turned the ball over 20 times, five more than their hosts. They made up for it on the glass, outrebounding the Huskies by ten at 32-22, inlcuding a 14-7 edge on the offensive boards, largely thanks to Aboya. The Bruins simply didn't shoot the ball well from the field, or the free throw line. Bruins not named Hollins and Aboya shot only 30% from the field. Somewhat surprising was that Michael Fey didn't get into the game, especially when you consider all the foul trouble that the Bruins were in.

It's a disappointing loss to be sure, especially with the opportunities they had. But there's no shame in losing to a good team on the road. This is the first road loss for the Bruins, which is kind of amazing when you think about it. It could have been a huge win, but it will end up being a learning experience. They have a week to get healthy before playing at $C, and with the Oregon schools travelling to Pauley for the next two after that, the Bruins really should win their next three before going to the Bay to end the season. If they can do that, and get a split up north, that should be enough for the Pac 10 championship.

BRMC w/ Elefant and the Morning After Girls @ the Metro - 2/8/06

First, let me just say that the title of this post is misleading, as I didn't actually see the Morning After Girls. I actually planned on catching a bit of their set, but events conspired against me. When BRMC was in town a few months ago, their show hadn't sold out beforehand, so I bought my ticket at the door and eschewed Ticketbastard's service charges. I figured I'd do the same this time. No such luck. But I'd already paid twelve bones for parking, so I figured I'd hang around outside and see if I could score an extra ticket from someone. After about 15-20 minutes of waiting in the 20 degree weather with nothing but a sweatshirt, Spike, who is touring with BRMC and playing some guitar and bass, walked by and offered to add a couple of us to the guest list. So I missed the Morning After Girls, but I got into the show for free. That's a trade off I was willing to accept.

Not long after I got inside, Elefant took the stage. First time I've seen them live, but I've listened to their debut album "Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid" a bunch of times. They sound a lot like Interpol. They have a new album coming out in April called "the Black Magic Show", so I was expecting to hear a lot of stuff that I haven't heard before, and I wasn't surprised. They played a few off of "Sunlight...". I know they played Bokkie and Love, and honestly, I think that's all they played from that album. They only played 8 or 9 songs, but they'll be touring in support of the new album this Spring, so I'll probably try to catch them then. The new album sounds like it be a little more rock oriented, but it's tough to tell from just a few songs.

When Black Rebel Motorcycle Club came to town a few months ago, Peter Hayes took the stage and played three songs solo acoustic before the rest of the band joined him. This show started in a similar fashion, with Hayes coming out and playing "Restless Sinner" but he limited the pre-set to that one song this time around. They lacked some of the energy this time that they've brought in the past, but word from Robert Levon-Been was that Hayes was sick. Indeed, prior to their full encore, Levon-Been came out and did a solo acoustic number in order to give Hayes a little more recovery time. Anyway, on to the Incomplete and Out of Order Setlist®:

• Restless Sinner
• Shuffle Your Feet
• Ain't No Easy Way
• Howl
• Stop
• Six Barrel Shotgun
• In like the Rose
• Love Burns
• Red Eyes and Tears
• Whatever Happened
• Awake
• Rifles
• Spread Your Love
• Promise
• Weight of the World
• Sympathetic Noose
• The Line
• Two I haven't heard before (although one sounded like a weird version of US Government)
  
• Heart and Soul

The set was a lot more rockin' than the one they played the last time they were in town, which I kind of figured. Their latest album, Howl, is a lot more stripped down, acoustic, bluesy and gospelly than the first two, which are pretty much straightforward rock albums. Search out some reviews and you can read why. Anyway, last time they played almost the entire new album, which I thought was great, but didn't set well with some in the crowd, or at least one dude near me who wasn't happy with the set. They were touring to support that album, so it wasn't surprising that they played what they did. I kind of figured they would play more of a mix this time around, and they did, with four from "Take Them On, On Your Own", and six from their self-titled debut, including Awake, which may be my favorite song from that album, and which I haven't heard them play since probably late 2001. Another highlight was seeing them close the set with Heart and Soul, which is a terrific closer, and another one that they didn't play last time (they may have played it back when they supported TTO, OYO, but I can't remember, and that show is a whole 'nother story that I won't go into now).

So ultimately, while the set was better, the show lacked a certain something. It was still a very good show, and I certainly got my money's worth. Maybe it was just the people I was around. A couple of guys in front of me talked during the entire Elefant set, and that was kind of annoying. But otherwise, a pretty entertaining evening. Even better, it got me away from the Kings game.

UCLA 50; Wazzu 30

For all of you nostalgic types, I hope you taped this one, because you got to see what scoring was like before the shot clock, and you almost got to see what it was like before the three point line was added. There were two three point baskets all night long. That's not a typo. 2. Count 'em. I imagine that since the three point line was added some 20 years or so ago, there has to have been games with only 1, or maybe even 0, but there can't be that many. And I'd be surprised if any of them featured a team in the top 25.

The defense was excellent yet again. You could tell that Coach Howland told them to keep the intensity up from the outset. The first few posessions featured tremendous defense, with virtually no separation for a WSU player at any time. The intensity transferred to the offensive end, as they scored on the first five posessions, moving the ball as well as they have all year, in running out to an 11 point lead. Before long, it was 14-0, and the spread was never smaller than 12 for the rest of the game.

On the scoreboard, Farmar and his injured ankle poured in 20 points on 7-13 shooting, but somehow went without an assist all night. LRMAM led the team in rebounds yet again, grabbing 7, while Ryan Hollins added 6. UCLA shot 45%, which isn't awful against Washington State, but the cougars only shot 28% themselves, including a painful 1-11 for Robbie Cowgill. I mean really, the numbers are shocking. Washington State had 50% more points in the second half than in the first, and THEY ONLY HAD 18 IN THE SECOND HALF!

One thing the Bruins are going to have to work on is lobbing the ball into the post when their big man is being fronted. I counted at least three times that they turned the ball over trying to make that pass tonight. But to be successful doing that, they'll need big men who can catch, and although they're making improvement, they aren't quite there yet.

Let's just hope that these two teams don't meet in the conference tournament. Not because I don't think UCLA will beat the Cougars a third time, but rather for my own health. I was able to resist the temptation to gouge my eyes out tonight, but another ten minutes, and it would have been close. This game was downright fugly.

Just Another Halo Victory

Well, the jury's in, and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are here to stay, at least until 2016 when Arte moves the team to somewhere that isn't Anaheim.

Personally, this is the verdict I was hoping for all along, as I'm no fan of Orange County or Anaheim. And quite frankly, when you sign a lease with a provision so clear, the fact that Anaheim got three jurors to agree with them is a credit to their attornies. But I was a little concerned for Arte. Not because the law was ambiguous, but because I don't trust juries to ever get ANYTHING right.

Arte has been pretty steadfast in refusal to sell any merchandise that identifies the team as being either from Los Angeles OR Anaheim, so it will be interesting to see if that was merely lip service, or if he was sincere. I'm kind of hoping it was lip service, as I'd like to wear an Angels jersey that say Los Angeles on the front, but that's probably because I live far from Los Angeles.

Anyway, that's behind us, barring an appeal or a decision by the judge to grant an injunction, which appears to be a long shot. Time to get ready for pitchers and catchers to report.

Kings lose again, and I'm done

This is the last you'll read of me writing about the Kings. I'm done. I see no reason to put any effort towards writing about a team that refuses to put any effort towards trying to win hockey games. If things turn around, maybe I'll be back. But for now, the Kings are dead to me.

It's over - Kings get their asses kicked again

Only saw the last three minutes tonight. I was actually going to watch the whole thing, but I hit a wrong button on the remote and accidentally sped ahead to live TV and saw a 5-1 score against and decided not to waste my time.

5 goals against, all coming on the power play. I've been saying it for weeks. Everyone wants to rail against the power play, which is bad, but not horrid. It's the PK that has killed this team. They couldn't kill a penalty if they signed Dr. Kevorkian. This team is D-O-N-E done.

But on the bright side, pitchers and catchers report next week.

Illinois debacle follow up

If I had a vote, I would not put Illinois in the top 25. If you can't beat Penn State at home, you are not one of the best 25 teams in the country. If you cannot beat Penn State at home, you do not deserve an at large bid to the NCAA tournament.

Illinois will get one, certainly. They'll be in the field of 65. I'm just saying, if I were on the committee, I would not have them in *my* field of 65. There are 35 at large bids to the NCAA tournament. If you cannot beat crappy teams on your home court, you do not belong in that top group of 35 teams.

**UPDATE**

Alright, now that I've had a night to sleep on it, I realize the above is hyperbole. But this loss still really stings. There were no mitigating factors. There were no injuries to key players, no horrible calls that fouled key players out. There was just one team that decided to play for the last ten minutes, and one team that didn't.

All good things must come to an end, but you'd like to see them end under more acceptable circumstances.

Worst game I've ever seen. Illinois loses.

My Illinois life started in the 1998-1999 season. That's when I moved back to Champaign to go to law school. There have been more than a few losses by the Illini in that time. This is the most dissapointing of those losses. A game at home against arguably the worst the team in the conferences, and the Illini failed to come out and answer the bell for the second half. The zone defense played by the Nittany Lions kept the Illini offense in check, and on the defensive end, the Illini were unable to keep their opponent under control the way they have for most of the season. Honestly, I'm completely distraught right now.

In the end, it will look like the Illini lost a game because they couldn't get a rebound of a three pointer against a team that they are much taller than, a team that they controlled on the boards virtually all night long. But they couldn't do it, and they not only lost the board, but they gave up a bucket that cost them the game.

Let's face it folks, they won a game this season the same way they lost this one. They beat Wichita State by a tenth of a second, but they lost this one by a horrible twenty minutes, where they blew a huge second half lead. There are no refs to blame. They have no one to blame but themselves.

I can't write anymore about this game right now.

Arizona 73; UCLA 84

First of all, let me start by saying that someone at Fox deserves to be shot. Repeatedly. Not only do they cut into the game because of freaking women's basketball games that have already been decided, but they also feel the need to take us through all of the post-game handshakes, then we need to see about five minutes of commercials, during which THEY RUN A PROMO FOR THE GAME THEY ARE CURRENTLY PRE-EMPTING!! Then, when they finally get us to the game, it's ONLY three minutes old at that time. Absolutely pathetic. Of course, this is only true for those of us outside of Southern California.

Some times, you don't have to do it with defense. Tale of two halves, really, as the Bruins opened a big lead in the first half before lackluster play in the closing minutes gave the Wildcats some life. The Bruins came out flying in the second half, stretching the lead to a game high 24 points before they decided to sit back and watch Arizona claw their way back into the game, as they trimmed a 24 point lead to 12 in less than five minutes. They didn't stop, trimming the lead all the way to seven points with less than eight minutes to play. But the Bruins finally put on a bandage on the wound and the Wildcats never got that close again. Honestly, after Arizona called a timeout with 18 minutes to go, it looked like the teams switched jerseys. UCLA mirrored Arizona's first half by turning the ball over possession after possession in the second half, which allowed Arizona to get back into the game. But in the end, the Bruins had too much, and the big lead they built was too much for Arizona to overcome. The Bruins improved to 19-4 on the season, 9-2 in the Pac 10. Their resume right now is tournament worthy, and they have seven regular season games plus the Pac 10 tournament left.

Aaron Afflalo has apparently shaken his slump. He netted a career high 27 points on 5-12 shooting, while going 13-16 from the free throw line. Good to see him taking the ball to the basket again. Farmar and Hollins also finished in double figures. But the most interesting line of the night belonged to LRMAM, with 11 points and 6 rebounds. On the surface, it's nothing special, but when you consider that he did it in 19 minutes, it becomes more impressive. Still, I question why the hell he was in the game with two fouls and a 19 point lead in the first half, where he promptly picked up his third.

The Bruins really struggled with Arizona's zone defense. They almost looked confused at times, content to pass the ball back and forth up top until they either turned it over, or the clock ran down, where they had to force something. A couple of times, Farmar was able to get the ball into a position for a kick out, twice leading to three pointers, one from Afflalo and one from Bozeman, his only three points on one of the two shots he took all night. Still, I thought Bozeman made a big contribution. He's arguably their best defender, and he moves the ball well on offense without getting in the way. He seems to be just about all the way back. Still, their disappointing play against the zone is the type of thing that other coaches can sniff out. Let's hope they work on that to the extent that they know how to deal with it a little better the next time, because I can guarantee you that they're going to see zone defense again before the season is over.

I've also noticed another trend I'm not to happy about. I don't like the way the Bruins respond to big leads. Last season they made big comebacks against Washington and U$C to win games in which they trailed by large amounts. This year they almost did the same against West Virginia. But their response to big leads that they hold has been a little disconcerting. Today marked the at least the third time they opened doors and let their opponent back into a game that should have not been in doubt. They already lost to Washington in a game where they held a big lead. they almost did the same against Washington State. They have a tendency to play to the level of their opponent, and that spells doom in a first or second round tournament game when they have a high seed target on their back. That's an intensity issue that Coach Howland will have to address.

Don't worry, Arizona fans. The last time you were swept by UCLA, you went on to win the National Championship. For some reason, I don't see that happening this year. But you could win the NIT. That's something, right?

High Comedy

Nothing gets a Friday started like hearing a hilarious joke first thing in the morning. According to this morning's LA Times, the Red Sox are apparently working on sceduling a gig at the Laff Shack if their recent offer of Manny Ramirez to the Angels is any indication. Get this. The Angels would get Manny AND ALL of his $57MM salary in exchange for the paltry sum of Ervin Santana, Chone Figgins, and two or three of the Angels top four prospects, which includes Brandon Wood, Howie Kendrick, and I'm guessing Kendry Morales and another one of the middle infield guys, or maybe Jeff Mathis.

That is fucking HI-larious. Apparently Theo spent his pouting period working on his stand up act.

The Angels are also interested in Jeff Weaver if he'll sign a one or two year deal. I could live with that. Put Carrasco back in the pen. Not a bad replacement for Paul Byrd. Gotta be kind of weird though when the team says "we don't want to sign you to a long term deal, because we need that spot for your younger brother."

Winning Ugly - ASU 60; UCLA 69

If you recorded this one with plans to watch it again, erase it. It was not pretty. It felt like the Bruins scored about half of their final total despite shooting almost 50%. It was just a very ragged game against an opponent that they should have beaten by about 20. But every time they had a chance to really close the door, they'd give up a three, turn the ball over, foul a guy, and the next thing you knew, it was back down to four. The only statistical category of any consequence that the Bruins didn't have the advantage was rebounding. Each team finished with 23. But still, the game was in a little bit of doubt with a minute to go until Jordan Farmar found Ced Bozeman for a three pointer from the baseline as the shot clock expired.

Farmar was unquestionably the Bruins' best player tonight, throwing in 18 points on 7-12 shooting. But he only had three assists, negated by three turnovers. LRMAM did not have what I consider to be one of his better nights, netting 8 points and grabbing 9 rebounds. He either needs to start hitting a three every now and then, or he needs to stop taking them when there's time on the shot clock. Aboya and Wright really didn't contribute very much, just two points and 2 rebounds between them. Aboya fouled out after only 8 minutes. Of course, those guys are freshmen, and they're going to have their ups and downs. Mike Roll also hit a couple of three pointers. Ryan Hollins added 6 and 4 while playing only 15 minutes, and Michael Fey got into the game for a couple minutes, scoring on a put back of an offensive rebound.

The slack was made up by Aaron Afflalo and Ced Bozeman, who were both terrific on the defensive end. Afflalo finally showed signs of emerging from his slump, hitting a nice jumper in the lane on a broken play, and draining a late three, followed by a turn-around jumper from the baseline. Bozeman added 10 points of his own, including the aforementioned three pointer. He did it on 4-5 shooting, and added three assists.

This was a bit of a trap game with Arizona upcoming (which is turning into a bit of trap game itself the way Arizona is playing). While there were bursts of energy at times, from what I saw, the Bruins never really got into a good flow. But another win is another win. The Bruins are now 8-2 in the conference, and 18-4 overall. They travel to Washington next week, which makes the Arizona game that much more important. Drop that one, and they could see the beginning of a three game skid. Let's hope the game is a little more attractive than tonight's. But if they need to get ugly to get another W, I can live with that too.

A quick answer

I was going to write a brief post about this in relation to the Kings game tonight, but Anonymous asked the question, so I might as well answer it here. A asks:

where is the coverage of the anaheim angels of los angeles and orange county in california angels trial?

My answer? Check the LA Times and OC Register.

I'm sorry, that's snarky, but honestly, that's where it is. I'm not attending the trial, so really anything I write would be just commenting on what they're writing, which isn't very exciting. My position is pretty clear. I'm on Arte's side. I've talked about in a few different places, and I'm not sure I've done a post on it here, but the lease says what it says. I honestly don't think that legally Anaheim has much of a case. I know the judge is allowing evidence of intent, but the key will be the jury instructions. He can instruct the jury that the lease isn't sufficiently vague and that they should give no weight to that testimony or something thereabouts. We'll see, I guess. I'll probably write up some personal thoughts on the matter when the whole thing is over, depending on what happense.

That leads me to tonight's Kings game. I won't be posting a recap because it's not on TV for some reason. I don't really feel like I can comment on what I can't see. I'll listen to some of it while watching the UCLA game, but I can't really come up with any personal commentary on something I can't witness. This happened during the baseball season as well. Hell, I can't see EVERY game, unless someone wants to start paying me. So I watch what I can, and I write about it most of the time.

Anyway, that covers that.

Illinois 66; Wisconsin 51

They might as well just call the place Assembly Hall North. After breaking Wisconsin's 38 game Kohl Center win streak last season, the Illini returned to the scene of the crime and did it all over again, this time with a stifling defense, timely shooting, and excellent rebounding. The numbers don't lie. A plus 14 rebounding edge, a plus five turnover edge, and a shooting percentage six points better than their hosts. Those numbers are a recipe for success, and you don't seem a team put those numbers up very often on the road.

Balance was a key for the Illini, as four player finished the game in double figures with Dee and McBride leading the way (16 each). In case any potential guard recruits out there are wondering if if they can flourish in Bruce Weber's offense (as if last year wasn't enough), take note that Jamar Smith threw in 12 points as well, six coming on clutch three pointers, one near the end of the first half which pushed the Illini lead to five points, and the second of which pushed the lead back to seven points not long after the Badgers had cut it down to two. Wisconsin was really never in the game after that.

Shortly thereafter, the teams exchanged free throws, and the Illini shut the door for good. Following an offensive rebound on a missed free throw, Dee fed James Augustine for crowd deflating (at least, whatever air was left) dunk, followed by a McBride three that stretched advantage to 12. Wisconsin would not get closer than nine the rest of the way. About that dunk, note to Bo Ryan, you got your sh** worked on that Augustine slip screen TWICE last year in your gym. You really ought to have been prepared for it this time. It wasn't quite as perfectly exceuted as the Deron to Augie play that sunk Wiscy last year, but that's mostly because Krabbenhoft wasn't as dog tired as Wilkinson was last sesaon when Bruce Weber unveiled it. But it's still a thing of beauty when done correctly.

Speaking of Bruce Weber, how good is he? I mean, seriously. He simply outcoached Bo Ryan in this game. Illinois ran the right sets at the right time, and Weber subbed beautifully considering the foul situation. He got Augie back in the game when the Illini were struggling, and protected him well enough to keep him out of heavy foul trouble the rest of the way. No lllinois player fouled out, which is kind of surprising at Wisconsin. Give some credit to the officials as well. I thought they were way too quick to call fouls on anyone within breathing room of Alando Tucker in the first half, but they let the teams play in the second half. When an out of control Jason Chappell bulled his way into Augustine three times early in the second half as Wisconsin tried to pick up that third foul, the refs swallowed their whistles and recognized the ploy for what it was.

A couple of other quick points: 1) Does Bo Ryan ever look happy? I mean, EVER? It must be awful being that guy. Bo, you're coaching at a major university in one of the best conferences in the country. You have a good team. Lighten the hell up. 2) Hey, did any of you know that today was Super Bowl Media Day? I was a little unclear after the first 78 promos, but around promo number 83, it started to sink in.

The good things from tonight? Dee continues to be a major factor even when he's not shooting well, as he added seven assists, grabbed four rebounds, and had two steals. The shooters (McBride and Smith) shot the ball very well, especially Smith (4-4), which is rare on the road. I liked that McBride took 10 shots, as he continues to assert himself. Brian Randle was a monster on the glass with 13 rebounds and three tip in baskets in the first half. More importantly, he continued to attack the basket on numerous occasions. McBride, Smith, and Randle are the weapons for next year's offense, so to see them take steps and make major contributions this year is very important and very encouraging.

The bad? Well, the free throw shooting is still awful. They missed their first five, and although they made nine of their next eleven, six of those came after the game was out of reach, with four coming from Smith and McBride, who don't shoot them all that often. At some point, that's going to be a big problem, and I don't know if they have the time to really do the volume shooting that they need to make some improvement in that area. They've already lost one game thanks in no small part to bad free throw shooting, so keep on eye on that area.

Aside from that, this was a near perfect performance from this team. This would not have been near perfect for last year's team, but this team plays better defense, so they can afford to be a little more ragged on the offensive end. It makes the Illini the true front runner for another conference championship, but there are still pitfalls along the way. Hold serve at home, steal another big road win, and they'll be hanging another banner in the Assembly Hall. Or rather, Assembly Hall South.

Sucks 4; Kings 3 (OT)

I've really lost the heart to write anything about this team until they start winning again. Lest I be considered a bandwagoner, keep in mind that I still watch virtually every minute of every game. It's just so disappointing to see them play so poorly night after night. When you know that almost every penalty is going to inevitably lead to a goal by the opposition, it's very frustrating.

In the last two weeks they've been outplayed in every facet of the game. They're being outshot, they're being outworked, they're being outskilled, and it looks like they're skating uphill on every single shift. I fear that we're seeing yet another late season decline in which a team in good position plays its way right out of the playoffs, and it's worse this year with the unbalanced schedule. There is very little scoreboard watching. When you're losing, it's almost always against a team chasing you or that you're chasing.

Of course, I'll be back in front of the TV for the next game, suffering yet again. This was easier when it was the Angels. They play every day. It's tougher when every game means twice as much, and there's a longer period in between opportunities to rebound.

Thought for an off day

My favorite commenter, Anonymous, asks "Do you think the Illini can make a legitimate run in the tourney this year?" I might as well cover UCLA here, too.

For the Illini, the answer, I think, depends on what you mean by legitimate. Do I think they have a shot at the title? Sure, insofar as any team that's probably a four seed or better has a shot, albeit an outside one. In the tournament, the teams that usually win are the teams that really have a lot of talent, and I'm not sure that across the board, the Illini have enough talent to take it all the way this year. I do think that they can get to the elite 8, and maybe even the final four, but they're going to have to have some guys make big improvements (Pruitt, Randle offensively, Chet Frazier), or they're going to need a couple of guys get really hot during the tourney, and that pretty much means Dee. He's been hot and cold this season, and if he can stay hot over a couple of weeks (not necessarily Michigan State hot, but 45% from three hot), he and Augustine can carry the offense. The defense is going to remain extremely solid, I think, and assuming they don't run into the foul trouble that has doomed them in the past (like against Arizona, Duke, and UNC), I think the defense might be enough to get them through a bad shooting game. The deeper you get into the tourney, though, the more likely you are to run into teams that are too talented to be completely shut down by good defense. Eventually, the great players are going to get theirs, no matter how good the defense is.

I think anything short of sweet 16 will be a disappointment, an elite 8 would be a good accomplishment, and final four would be fantastic. From there, anything more would be gravy. I put them at about 70% to reach the sweet 16, 30% to reach the elite 8, and 10% to reach the final four.

As for the Bruins, I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but their window is next year. They remind me a great deal (in terms of talent if not style) of the 2003-2004 Illini, who reached the sweet sixteen before losing to Chris Duhon's magic rib. The Bruins are young, talented, and maybe a little untested, and probably still need those few rounds of tournament experience before they're ready to go really deep into the tournament.

UCLA also needs an inside presence, and while they're getting production from a resurgent Ryan Hollins, he's not someone who will be the focus of an opposing defense. Hollins' problem is that he doesn't play strong. He doesn't hold the ball tight, and he can't catch well. The latter problem leads to obvious results, but the former is just as damaging in that he gets stripped, A LOT, when taking the ball to the basket. That's something he needs to work on, but they're running out of time. Ryan Wright, Alfred Aboya, and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute can all be effective inside, but not for long stretches. They lack the post moves and confidence right now to really draw more than one defender, and that means that teams can focus their efforts on Farmar and Afflalo. It's taking its toll on Afflalo, who has struggled a bit at the offensive end during conference season. Some of that is due to the tremendous defense he's played at the other end of the floor. A real key for them will probably be the health and effectiveness of Ced Bozeman. If he can give them big minutes and be a force around the basket at the small forward spot, that could free up some room for the guards. But to do that, he needs to produce offensively, and for the next couple of weeks, that means he'll have to step up and take advantage of the extra room created by the attention being paid to the guards. I think they're sweet sixteen team this year, but they'll struggle to get any farther, which wouldn't be inconsistent with the path that Ben Howland teams have taken under his watch.

What both of these teams have in their favor is depth. The Illini go five deep at the first two spots (Augie, Pruitt, Arnold, Carter, and Randle), and Randle's versatility allows him to play the small forward, while Jamar Smith and Rich Mcbride can operate at the two, or go small at the three, leaving Dee Brown and Chet Frazier to handle the point (Dee can also slide to the off-guard spot when Frazier is in the game). Randle also possesses the athletic ability to play shut down defense on either a power forward, small forward, or shooting guard as the situation dictates. That's nine guys who can give them significant minutes, with five of those at the big man spots in case of foul trouble.

UCLA on the other hand, has found something of a silver lining to their dark cloud of injuries, as coach Howland has had ample opportunity to give playing time to his five impressive freshmen. Farmar and Afflalo are entrenched at the guard spots, but Afflalo has the size and strength to play small forward, while Farmar has the scoring ability to contribute at the two guard when Darren Collison is in the game. Mike roll can play the three in a three guard scheme, or play the off guard when giving Afflalo a breather. Aboya, Wright, and Hollins will all spend time at center, with Aboya sliding to power forward when LRMAM is on the bench. LRMAM will spend most of his time at the four, but some time at the three in a big lineup. Ced Bozeman also provides some versatility, with the ability to play anywhere from point guard to power forward if called upon. So like the Illini, they can go nine deep, and they can mix and match as the matchup dictates. And if they're able to get Michael Fey back to any semblance of himself, that makes 10. They could also have Lorenzo Mata back for a tournament run depending on how quickly he heals.

So I see both teams acquitting themselves pretty well in March. The Illini have a little more experience, and that could make the difference in a longer run. But there's still a month and a half to go before tournament time, and both clubs still have room for improvement. I'd be content with both teams in the sweet 16, and I'd be thrilled if they each made the elite 8, but that's asking for a lot.

Purdue 58; Illinois 76

Well, the home/road Jekyll and Hyde routine continues as the Illini looked very good once again on their home floor, save for the first few minutes when they trailed by as many as nine. As I've mentioned before, it's just something I'm going to have to get used to, as last year, the Illini seemed to execute to perfection regardless of where they were playing, except maybe Ann Arbor and the last few minutes in Columbus.

Today saw the (let's hope) arrival of Richard McBride, who didn't seem content to hang out on the perimiter and launch threes. He finished the game with 19 points on six fied goals, only three of which were from beyond the arc. I'm not gonna pour through the box scores, but this is the first time I can ever remember McBride getting more points from non-three point areas on the floor than from long range. He even went 4-4 from the free throw line. Really! Four free throws! From McBride!! Just let that sink in for a minute.

Dee played OK, throwing in 12 points, and struggling from the field a bit. But he did put together about a 15 second hilight reel during which he made a terrific move and scored on a circus shot, followed that up with a rebound at the other end, which he proceeded to took down the floor before lobbing a perfect pass to Randle for yet another alley-oop. That wasn't the only monster jam of the afternoon, as Randle added another, and Augustine made a steal up top that he turned into one of his patented break away jams. Dee also added nine assists against only two turnovers, while Augie grabbed 12 more boards, extending his record as Illinois' all time leading rebounder.

So this closes the soft part of the schedule, and the Illini took care of business. The next stetch gets a little tougher, starting with Tuesday night's tilt at Wisconsin. Win that game, and the Illini ove into the driver's seat for the conference championship. But not everyone can be North Dakota State. Wins at the Kohl center don't come easy (they come easier than wins at the Hall for road teams, but still...). Coming off of two fine performances at home against teams that aren't very good, Illini Nation will be fired up for Tuesday night.

Sucks 6; Kings 2

For now, I'm going to stop caring abou this train wreck of team. Lord knows the players have stopped caring.

UCLA 63; OSU 54

For the second time this season, the Bruins went on the road and swept their Pac 10 opponents. That's something that you might expect to do once in a season, but twice out of four opportunities, let alone your first two trips, well, that's pretty special. I'll grant you, only one of those sweeps came while playing a very good team (Arizona, who admittedly is down a bit this year), and I'd be shocked if they swept the Bay Area schools and/or the Washington Schools. But they've beaten teams who have generally held their own at home (OSU beat U of A by 10 at home).

The key word for today's game was 'balance'. Four Bruins scored in double figures, and none of those four had more than 14 points (LRMAM). Three Bruins had seven or more rebounds, Aaron Afflalo leading the way with 10 as LRMAM failed to lead the team in boards for only the second time this season. And once again, the Bruins completey took their opponent out of their offense, holding the Beavers to only 24 points in the second half. Chris Stephens and Nick Dewitz, who normally combine for about 26-27 points combined for only 8 this afternoon. And although Sasha Cuic, who quite frankly acted like a little bitch after fouling Ryan Hollins, had 24 points, he was pretty much their only offense.

The second half of the Pac 10 season gets a lot harder for the Bruins. They travel to the Bay and to Washington in what will be their toughest road trips of the season. It's not outside the realm of possibility that they could lose all four games, though I think a split is more likely. Also, they play in the dark jerseys against U$C, which I hesitate to call a road game. They're 7-2 in the conference, and I think the team that wins the regular season will have to be 14-4, or possibly 13-5 at worse. That's a tall order, but these guys are road warriors, and with Bozeman working his way back in, they're certainly capable. Perhaps the biggest key will be Ryan Hollins, who had 11 and 7 today. He's had three straight games now where he has made significant contributions, which I think matches his entire Bruin career to this point. If he keeps it going, they will be tough to beat.

Oilers 5; Kings 3

It's frustrating watching a team that looks like they just don't feel like playing hard sometimes. I don't know what it is. I mean, I'm sure they are playing hard, but the Kings were completely outworked tonight, save for a short stretch in the second period when they popped in two goals to take a brief one goal lead.

They were playing a team who was on their second of back to back nights, both games on the road, and they failed to come out with any jump, taking a penalty on the first shift, and giving up, what else, another power play goal just seconds later. Other than that, there was really not much to say about this one. They were outplayed in virtually every aspect of the game. They now sit five points back of Dallas, who has three games in hand, and this recent slump is bringing them back to the Pacific Division pack. Not a good time to go into a slump.

Honestly, I have no idea how to read this team. But like I said the other day, when they win, it's a struggle, and when they lose, they go down without much of a fight. That doesn't bode well for the rest of the season.

UCLA 56; Oregon 49

The old adage says that the way to win the Pac 10 is to win all of your home games and split on the road. The Bruins have already lost two home games, so that means to make up for it, they need to sweep at least twice on the road. Mission accomplished in Arizona a few weeks ago. After tonight, the Bruins have a chance to sweep in Oregon.

This is the second time I've actually watched Oregon play this year, and I've come to a conclusion: Oregon is awful. This game would have been very embarrassing were the Bruins to lose. Their streaky shooters, they don't run a very attractive offense, and quite frankly, they look like a Lavin coached team minus the talent. Still, they were able to hang around with the help of about 15 extra seconds on the shot clock, officials who can only see jersey pulls when the jersey is yellow, and an obscure rule that says if you breathe on Ivan Watson, you get whistled. But ultimately, the Bruins began to attack the basket in the late stages of the game, they got to the free throw line, and they pulled out the victory, thanks in no small part to shutting the Ducks down completely in the last ten minutes of the game. Brandon Lincoln hit a three pointer with just under eight minutes to play, and that was the last field goal that the Ducks would make. Their last seven points came from the free throw line. I'd be remiss if I failed to mention that although Ryan Wright and Darren Collison took tiny steps backward, LRMAM continued to show that he is the best freshmen in this class as he contributed 15 points and 10 rebounds (leading the team yet again).

Let's just be fortunate that this one is out of the way and get prepared for Oregon State. Mac Court is a tough place to play, and although they didn't play that well, the Bruins were able to grab the victory. At 6-2, they lead the Pac 10 by a half game over Arizona, and full game over Washington, who lost to Cal. With a win at OSU, they can really take the reins in the conference race.

Gophers 53; Fighting Illini 77

Late this afternoon, my boss walked by my desk and struck up a quick conversation about the Illini with me and a colleague. They more or less agreed that the Illini are somewhat overrated in the middle of the top ten. It sounded about right at first, mostly because I think we're all still comparing this team with last year's team, and let's face it, we're not used to losing hardly ever. But just look at their resume. They're 18-2, with both losses coming on the road against teams who are either entrenched in or have sniffed the top 25. They have wins over Michigan State, at Oregon, Georgetown, at North Carolina, and Xavier. They have 10 wins of 19 points or more, and a few over 30. Sure, some of those came against no name opponents, but give them credit for taking care of business (ya listening, Wisconsin?).

So are they really overrated at #7? I think we see them play ugly games like at Iowa, and at Northwestern. We remember the one point win against Wichita State. We see them trying to force the offense a little too much, and we see them waiting for Dee to take bad shots at the end of the shot clock, and we can't fathom why they're rated so close to last year's near perfect team. Honestly, we might never see an Illinois team run an offense as smoothly as the they ran it last year. But the defense, by all accounts, may very well be better, as Bruce Weber believes. They're deeper, and Brian Randle is a true shut down small forward who can guard bigger players as well as smaller, quicker players, without missing a beat.

Tonight, especially in the second half, we saw just why they're ranked in the top ten. The moved the ball on offense. They passed out of the double team in the post. They worked for and hit open threes, and individually, they started playing like we've wanted to see them play. Sean Pruitt was more active in the post than his numbers indicate. Brian Randle, who finished with 10 points and five rebounds, attacked the basket on numerous occasions, including a high flying alley-oop dunk on a great lob by Jamar Smith. Smith was on fire himself, hitting 5 three pointers on 8 attempts and finishing with sixteen points. And like they must be for the Illini to win, Augie and Dee were solid yet again, Augie finishing with 13 and 9, while Dee added a team high 17 points to go along with five rebounds and five assists. The hilight for me was the lazer beam Dee threw to Augustine in the post from the top of key for an easy dunk. Now granted, Minnesota is not a great team by any means, and the Illini were at the Hall, where, for opponents, stealing a victory has become tougher than scaling Everest (I believe that's 32 straight).

This conference is going to be filled with battles night in and night out, as Iowa showed Indiana and Michigan showed Michigan State (who blew a 10 point lead in Ann Arbor). There's no shame in losing on the road. But tonight, the Illini showed that the pollsters are getting right so far.

Kings 1; Sharks 4

Let's face it. The Sharks just have the Kings' number this year. This game was truly painful to watch, as the Kings generated virtually no offense, and took penalty after penalty in the second period, including a roughing call on Avery which negated a break by Corvo, and resulted in a power play goal that more or less put the game out of reach. It's weird that some nights they can look like an offensive juggernaut, while on others, they look like they really need Demitra back in the lineup as soon as possible.

Corvo had the lone goal, a power play goal that he scored with a rocket shot from just inside the left face of circle, giving him 11 on the year. The production from the blue line has been a nice surprise, but their inability to stop their opponents power play has really killed them lately.

One thing I've been noticing recently, the Boston game notwithstanding, is that when the Kings win, they seem to be doing it in close contests, either coming from behind, or barely hanging on. When they lose, they've generally lost pretty handily. I haven't checked the recent scores or anything, so I'm just making this up as I go along, but it's my perception anyway. Hopefully that will change and they'll get to previous solid play when they get some guys, most notably Miller and Demitra, back from injury, which is looking more and more like it will be after the Olympic break.

By the way, is it just me, or is "Beat L.A." just about the most unoriginal chant ever? Of course, this was coming from arguably the stupidest fanbase in the NHL (per my experience), so it's to be expected.

Kings 3; Sucks 2 (F-SO)

Another night of Mr. Magoo meant another night of worn out paths to the penalty box. Although this game wasn't as penalty riddled as others, it had enough to kill a fair amount of the flow, and as a result, the game seemed disjointed at times. Alexander Frolov returned to the lineup for the Kings and made his presence felt with a second period short handed goal, which I believe gives the Kings 10 for the season. They've needed them, because they can't stop anyone on the power play, and last night was no exception, as the Ducks got the goal right back shortly thereafter, still on the double minor.

Undaunted, the Kings fought back to tie the score in the third period. Lubomir Visnovsky, just recently back in the lineup himself, made a great play to shrug off a check at the right point, got the puck to Derek Armstong who wheeled around to the right wing and fired a pass to Luc Robitaille, who had been charging right down the slot. Robitaille scored a classis Luc goal, re-directing home a perfect pass from Armstrong right from the door-step. Most of his best work has been at a range of about two feet.

The Kings wasted a power play opportunity at the beginning of the overtime, and from that point on, the teams seemed content to take it to the shoot out. After Garon stopped Chris Kunitz, Alexander Frolov rifled one through J.S. Giguere to put the Kings up one. Andy McDonald responded with a backhander to even it up, before Robitaille ripped one over Giguere's shoulder to retake the lead. Teemu Selanne evened it up yet again, while Michael Cammalleri fired one wide to send the shootout to extra rounds. Garon would come up with saves on Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf, with Giguere shutting down Craig Conroy before Joe Corvo stepped up. 14 stickhandles later, Corvo slid the puck past the prove Giguere, and the Kings beat the Ducks in a shootout for the second time this season.

That's three points in the first two games of this very important stretch of seven which continues with San Jose tonight, and includes games with Phoenix, Edmonton, and two more with Anaheim. If they could come up with ten of a possible fourteen points, that would be a nice way to go into the soft spot (Minnesota, Columbus, and Chicago) of the schedule before matching up with Dallas right before the Olympic break.

Ilinois 58; Northwestern 47

I'll be honest, because of the UCLA game and the Kings game, I didn't see a whole lot of this one, but I did notice a couple of things. First, the Illini aren't really going to be bothered by zone defenses. We have too many shooters, and they really move the ball well enough to get open shots. Second, man, that defense is awesome. When you hold the conference's leading score to one field goal, well, that's pretty good.

The box score will tell you that this was a step back for Pruitt and Randle, but don't let the numbers fool you. This was a zone defense team, and the big men just aren't going to get big points against those types of teams. Pay more attention to Vukusic's numbers, or lack thereof, where Randle is concerned. Remember, defense is going to be this team's calling card, and they did nothing to disprove that tonight.

This game opened up the soft spot in the Illini schedule, and they took care of business. Can't ask for much more.

West Virginia 60; UCLA 56

A tale of two halves. The Mountaineers shut down the Bruins offense, and pretty much had their way at the other end in the first half and for about the first five minutes of the second half as they built a 20 point lead. For the last 15 minutes of the game, Jordan Farmar took matters into his own hands, while Ryan Hollins actually showed up, and the Bruins cut into the lead, and had an opportunity to tie the game, down by three with six seconds to play, before Mike Gansey stole the ball from Jordan Farmar and salted the game away.

As awful as the Bruins played for the first 25 minutes, there were some positives to take from this game:

1. Aaron Afflalo and Mike Roll were a combined 1-17 in this game, and that's not going to happen again. Credit the Mountaineer defense for some of that, credit that pathetic Pac 10 officials for at least one of those, but that's not going to happen again. Sometimes you just don't have it, and today, they didn't have it.
2. The Bruins made a tremendous effort in the second half to get the game back to a point where they had a chance to win. It's possible, though perhaps unlikely, that these teams could meet in the NCAA tournament, and if that happens, the Bruins know that for a big stretch of this game, they dominated. Mentally, that's important. I could tell you why I think so, but you'd probably laugh, and and it would take a longer post.
3. Jordan Farmar is starting to shake his offensive slump.
   
4. I'm going to talk about this all year, but this team's window is next year. What we saw was a bunch of freshman and sophomores (and Ryan Hollins) playing a bunch of well coached seniors. This season presents the rare opportunity for the Bruins to compete while also learning a lot. This is just one more learning experience.
5. Finally, this isn't a conference game. Sure, it's national TV. It's important. But they lost to a higher ranked team, and they acquitted themselves pretty well. And ultimately, they still lead the Pac 10.

Once again, the Pac 10 officials show that they're just flat out incompetent. Not biased, mind you, just incompetent. A WVU guard slams into Ryan Hollins, not foul. Aaron Afflalo nailed from behind on a layup attempt, no foul. And the coup de gras, Ryan Hollins hammers Pittsnogle at the three point line, no foul; Darren Collison hammered on a drive, no call; Jordan Farmar breathes on Mike Gansey, foul. The lack of consistency, the lack of recognition of the flow of the game, and the flat out lack of competence. The Pac 10 is the worst officiated conference in college basketball (and yes, these were Pac 10 officials).

Finally, I need to make the following point. I really think this game is going to be valuable for the Bruins. It's not going to do a thing to their NCAA resume. It helps their strength of schedule. It doesn't affect their position in the conference. It provides a great learning experience and some valuable exposure. But let's remember, these are the types of games that Ben Howland, God love him, wants to eliminate. The extra game during U$C week. The intersectional battles against good teams. He didn't schedule these games at Pitt, and he's been reluctant to schedule them at UCLA.

So to sum up, a very poor first half, a solid second half, and a good learning experience at essentially no cost. There are reasons to be optimistic.

Thrashers 6; Kings 8

In the fall of 1986, the Kings next superstar, the heir apparent to Marcel Dionne, made his debut. Selected with the second pick in the 1986 entry draft, Jimmy Carson was the player that would lead the Kings into the '90s, the star around whom the team would be built.

Also making his debut that night was a left wing with gaudy numbers in the QMJHL, but who surely couldn't skate well enough to stick in the NHL. Despite scoring 85 points in 70 games as a 17 year old, Luc Robitaille wasn't drafted by the Kings until the 171st pick, the ninth round, five rounds after the Kings selected future Cy Young Award winner Tom Glavine. Robitaille responded with 339 points over his next two seasons with the Hull Olympiques before opening the 1986-1987 season in purple and gold. The kid who couldn't skate well enough to make an impact in the NHL scored 45 goals and added 39 assists in his rookie season and skated off with the Calder trophy. To his credit, Carson added 37 and 42 that season, and would score over 50 the next season. But the prodigy who was traded for Wayne Gretzky disappeared somewhere around 1994, while the slow kid kept scoring, and scoring, and scoring.

Almost 20 years later, Luc Robitaille has amassed 663 goals and 723 assists. He's the highest scoring left wing in the history of the NHL. He put together the greatest offensive season by a left wing in NHL history in 1992-1993 when he scored 63 goals and 62 assists for 125 points. He did that in a season where Wayne Gretzky missed a boatload of games with a back injury. Later that season, he helped lead the Kings to within three games of the Stanley Cup.

Tonight, currently in his third stint with the Kings after stops in Pittsburgh, New York, and Detroit, Robitaille scored the 550th, 551st, and 552nd goals of his career in a Kings uniform, passing Marcel Dionne, becoming the greatest goal scorer in the history of the Los Angeles Kings. They needed all three to hold off an immensely talented Atlanta team. In the first period, he laid a huge hit on Andy Sutton, and followed it up seconds later with a nifty move in front of the net to open the scoring, tying Dionne in the process. Seconds after that, Dustin Brown ripped home a rebound to put the Kings two goals in front. The lead was short lived, however, as the Thrashers took advantage of favorable bounces to tie the score. Jeff Giuliano put the Kings back on top late in the period. The second period was all Thrashers, as they scored three times to take a 5-3 lead before Tom Kostopolous redirected home a Matty Norstrom centering pass to cut the lead to one.

Nortstom continued to contribute offensively (he would finish with a goal and 4 assists) in the third with a rifle shot for a shorthanded goal that tied the score. A few minutes later, Mike Weaver made a perfect pass to spring Robitaille on a break away where he netted his second of the game, giving the Kings the lead, and making him the greatest goal scorer in Kings history. After a second Marian Hossa goal tied the score at six, Giuliano added his second of the night to retake the lead at 7-6, where it would stay until Robitaille capped the evening with a 140 foot shot at the empty net. For the 15th time in his NHL career, Robitaille completed the hat trick.

The win stops a two game slide where the Kings have looked fairly listless, and although they went through stretches tonight where Atlanta pretty much owned them, they fought back time and time again, and got contributions from some unlikely sources to turn back a Thrashers team that was on a roll. With five of the next six games against San Jose and Anaslime, the Kings needed to gather a little momentum. Garon will be back in goal on Saturday, and hopefully Visnovsky will have knocked off a little rust. They need to start skating a little better, and lordy do they need to cut down on the turnovers. But if they can win four of the next six, they'll be in fairly decent shape. The schedule softens up a bit before the Olympic break, when hopefully they'll get some of the wounded warriors back.

Luc made his debut when I was 13 years old, and over that time, he's been as close to a constant in the Kings lineup as anyone, save for his two forays into other uniforms. L.A.'s siren song has always called him home, and soon enough, his jersey will reside in Staples Center's rafters with Rogie Vachon's, Wayne Gretzky's, Dave Taylor's, and that of his mentor, Marcel Dionne. He's been a Kings since he made his debut, and every time he left, you always got the sense that it wouldn't be long before he was back in the Southland. Congratulations on a wonderful Kings career, Luc. Now if you can just play like that kid who wore the purple and gold again over the next 30 games or so, I think everyone will be very happy.

U$C 45; UCLA 66

This one was over early, as the Bruins raced out to an 18-2 lead in roughly the first ten minutes and never looked back. It's not often that you say a game wasn't as close as a 21 point spread makes it appear, but honestly, that's the truth. It was complete and utter domination on both sides of the floor for the Bruins. Stout defense that frustrated the women of troy at every turn, and a very well run half court offense that created a lot of easy baskets. Good interior passing by the guards on penetration, and big men who could actually catch.

Farmar got the scoring rolling with three early three pointers, and although he struggled somewhat after that, it really didn't matter. Aaron Afflalo added a very quiet 11 points. LRMAM, who is cementing his status as the jewel of this freshman class, led the team again with seven rebounds to go along with his ten points, two coming on a very impressive tip jam of a Alfred Aboya miss (who drove to the basket on the play, which led me to realize that when he drives from the perimeter, he gets to the hoop in a hurry). By far the relative best line of the night, however, belonged to Ryan Hollins, who added 9 points and 3 rebounds in 21 minutes. He was active, and at least two of those rebounds were on the offensive end. He also had a big blocked shot and a couple of dunks. He still has awful hands, but if he can contribute, that's a huge lift considering all of the injuries.

Pac-10 official watch: They blew at least 2 blatant out of bounds call, the first coming in the opening minutes when it was pretty clear to everyone who has ever watched basketball that it went out off of a U$C guy. Also, apparently there's a new rule that when you're down by 25, you get an extra two seconds in the lane, as the trojans twice scored points only after the shooter had enjoyed some smores, put out the fire, taken down the tent, packed up the truck, and left the campsite. Not that it mattered. I just marvel at how incompetent Pac 10 officiating has been this year (and seemingly every year, as the Chronicler will point out).

Big tilt with West Virginia this weekend. It would really help in the tournament seeding process, and serve notice to those on the East Coast that they still play basketball in Westwood.

Quick Hits

Lightning - 4; Kings - 1

This is starting to get very frustrating. I understand the team is suffering from injuries, but in the last two games, they've had almost no one show up. The PK has been downright awful now for a couple of months, and they don't seem to be doing anything about it. Now Garon may be hurt, but then again, after the goal he gave up in the first period, I'm not sure how much that's going to hurt. Avery failed to convert a penalty shot, and their power play was downright pathetic. Just like last season, this team can weather injuries to some guys, even stars like Demitra and solid defensmen like Miller. But this team cannot survive without Lubo. If he misses significant time, the Kings might be done.

Illinois - 60; Indiana - 62

Valiant effort against a good team on the road. Once again they were undone by poor shooting and ultimately foul trouble, as Dee and Brian Randle fouled out. But Indiana is good. The whole Big Ten this year is very strong, and there's no shame in losing to the #11 team in the country on their home court. And there were some silver linings. For starters, Sean Pruitt had 17 points and 7 rebounds, both tops on the team. Randle added 15 as he attacked the basket a lot more in the second half. Chester Frazier looked pretty strong as well on the defensive end. The Illini really need Randle and Pruitt to provide offense, because teams have been keying on Dee and James Augustine. Not only do those the team need someone else to put points on the board, they need someone to take the defensive pressure off of the seniors.

Remember that Bruce Weber was 3-3 in his first six conference games with the 2003-2004 team before they took off and won their last ten conference games. I don't think they'll make a run like that again, mostly due to the strength of the conference, but if this team can make it click, and I think that what we saw out of Pruitt and Randle is an indication that they can, this team can be very good this year.

And not to Indiana fans, when you're the favorite, and you beat a team who's barely ranked ahead of you, on your own floor, by two after almost blowing a 15 point lead, after two of their best players have fouled out, well, rushing the floor makes you look like something less than a team with a storied tradition and 5 national championships.

The NFL Playoffs

I suppose this probably isn't the right time to say this, lest I be called a front-runner. I don't talk much about the NFL, mostly because I don't follow it that closely relative to other sports I like (baseball, hockey, etc.), which is to say, I still follow it more closely than 85% of the population, just not as closely as I follow baseball and hockey.

Anyway, truth be told, I'm a Broncos fan. Yes, I watched the game the other day, and yes, I'll be watching this weekend, and no, I didn't just become a Broncos fan last week. As it happened, one of Montana cousins moved to Denver around 1983 or so, which is the same time they got Elway. Shortly thereafter, we went to Montana for a cousin's wedding, and I stayed around an extra couple of weeks because they needed a little kid for another cousin's wedding. I drove down to Denver with the cousin who had just moved there and stayed for a couple of days before going home. Something about that confluence of events turned me into a Broncos fan, to the point of even rooting against the Rams when the Broncos came to town (full disclosure, I like the Pats as a kid, too, but that wore off - oh, and I stopped liking and started hating the Rams when they left LA).

So anyway, if you see me gloating after the Broncos hopefully win on Sunday, keep in mind it's not coming out of left field. I've actually been a Broncos fan for over 20 years.