It is truly the most boring 2 months of the calendar … I do not care about Olympics, so the only thing to look forward to now, is the football (pro as well as college) season to start.
Let’s get it started already!
Sports
USC wins and surprise surprise they can pass!
John David Booty had a monster game passing the ball this past weekend against Wazzu, but I will repeat – I don’t think he is the guy I would put the ball with at the end of a tight game. I would rather draw up a nice run play with Stafon to bail us out.
JDB’s passes are so abrupt and even this past weekend they were tipped or batted down – something just not right there.
Another important game coming up this weekend at Washington … let’s see how our pass rush does against the phenom QB up in Seattle.
Is it USC’s year?
Sure did not seem like it in the first game. Idaho was an underdog by 46 points! And USC won 38-10. I would not say it was the most dominant performance, but on the other hand Sark was saying that they tried to keep the gameplan simple.
But even with a simple game plan, JDB did not inspire much and I do believe (at least at this point, and through the last year) that he is not the guy you would expect to bring you out of trouble. Yes, if the going is good he will carry forward with the momentum, but on 4th and 9 from the opponents 26-yard line, will JDB be able to make a 63-yard throw? I don’t think so.
But of course, I hope I am wrong and he wins the Heisman this year. 🙂
Nadal still king of clay and San Antonio will be kings soon
It was a relatively busy sporting day for me today, starting with an early morning DVR-ed version of the French Open finals, mid-morning DVR-ed Canadian GP (on Fox, thanks a lot!) and then the Game 2 of the NBA finals in the evening.
I watched the first one almost completely. I could not resist the “30-second skip” on the DVR for some of the boring points in the match, though there were not too many. Nadal is too strong and Federer has only himself to blame for not winning this one. He (Fed) had so many break chances, and if he had converted even a fraction of the chances he had, the story would have been completely different.
But he did not, and Nadal continues his mastery of the French Open. Can’t believe he has not lost a single match at the French Open!!
And then it was on to the F-1 race. Frankly, I am not surprised why I have not missed F-1 so far this year. There is no real “hero”. Excluding the new kid Hamilton, there is really no positive storyline this season. Maybe it is the transition season from Schumy to the next generation, and I certainly hope that is the case, but frankly, Alonso and Massa are just too boring. Kimi has some color and a wild background to make things interesting but after the first race, he has steadily disintegrated and has shown that the last couple of years may not have been McLaren’s fault but actually his.
Of course this Canadian GP was quite eventful and Kubica’s crash was simply unbelievable. With that big a crash, for him to survive and be quite ok in the hospital, shows how far the technology and protection mechanism has come to in the past many years.
In the end it was the new hero in F-1 who won a convincing race – Lewis Hamilton. Congratulations to him, and all the best for the rest of the season!
And finally, the NBA finals. The Spurs are looking just too good and too methodical to create too many problems for themselves this year. Horry is going to get another ring in his collection and the Spurs are going to be the true dynasty in the NBA today.
The Warriors win! The Warriors win!!
I am so excited that the Warriors knocked off Dallas tonight!!! I am more excited of course that Dallas lost than that the Warriors won, but both happened, so I am happy!
Isn’t Golden State a fun team to watch? It is unbelievable – you just cannot blink when they are playing (well). Long passes, big threes, fast ball movement.
Awesome, awesome, awesome!
(btw, I called it!)
Australia deserving winners
Australia won the World Cup convincingly, and they deserve all the praise for doing a marvelous job, going unbeaten now for two entire World Cups! What an achievement that is! Granted, the team is almost the same, but to do it and that too without a key bowler, is fantastic.
It was always going to be an uphill climb for Sri Lanka after Australia, riding on Gilly’s masterful knock, got to 280+ in 38 overs. Speaking of a masterful knock, how amazing is it that Australia always finds a way to have one or two such brilliant performances in the big games? They are just too good.
Jayasuriya and Sangakarra gave me some hope of a Sri Lankan fightback, which there was a hint of. But I also knew that once one of them got out, the momentum would be stopped and it would be the end of the chase.
And that is exactly what happened. Sri Lanka ultimately could not keep up with the required run rate and Australia had another final wrapped up.
The question now is, who can challenge Australia? My thought is Australia A. I think Australia’s A team would be better than most, if not all, international teams. Australia/Australia A would be boring to watch for people who follow stars, but would be very exciting to watch for the true cricket lovers.
Just my thought.
One ball to go, 3 runs to win
Recently I have started playing some cricket at work with some of the guys who try to play every week. I have played for 3 weeks now. Last Friday, the team who we play against (a neighboring company), chickened out at the last moment and so we decided to play an internal friendly.
We split the 11 of us into two teams of 5 each and the 11th person being the “jack” who bats and fields for both the teams. Everyone fields all the time except for the two batsmen.
We were able to play two matches – the first one was 8 overs each and the second one was 6 overs each.
In the second one, I opened the batting needing 32 to win from 6 overs. It came down to 7 off the last over and I was on strike.
I got 2 off the first ball to make it 5 in 5.
The next ball, I gave it a mighty heave and got the ball on my leg and because of that, I missed a wide ball. 5 in 4.
The next ball I got another 2. 3 in 3.
The next ball was sadly a dot ball, with me trying to do something unnecessary. 3 in 2.
The next ball was another dot ball, and now I could not forgive myself for the missed opportunity in the previous ball. 3 needed off the last ball.
I had made up my mind to go for it no matter what. Luckily for me, it was a Chetan Sharma-style full toss on the leg stump which I swung over mid wicket for a four.
A FOUR OFF THE LAST BALL! To win the match!! Yay!
Granted, the game was rank amateur level, and the seriousness was half of what we show when we play a true “match”, but still. A game is a game and I was playing the captain of our team in that final over.
Felt good to end the Friday on that note.
And so the semis are set
Finally, after what seems like ages, the round robin crap is over and the semi finals are set in the Cricket World Cup 2007.
I pick South Africa upsetting Australia (have to stick to my earlier prediction of South Africa winning and Australia not even making it to the finals!) and Sri Lanka beating New Zealand.
I know I am going against the tide by picking SA over Australia. But it is a matter of one day’s play. And I think SA will play to win whereas Australia will play with their minds set on the finals and lifting the cup again.
New Zealand will lose to Sri Lanka on the mental front. Once again, I have to stick to my perception of the New Zealand team – that it is great one day team on its day, but it has very few days on big game days.
So, Sri Lanka-SA will set up a repeat of the exciting game that happened earlier, with Malinga creating a riot!
SA will win …
Surprise, surpise – LSU fans bitter against USC
Sigh, the LSU fans are bitter. Against USC. Again. They just could not swallow the fact that their prized recruit, #2 ranked in the country, was going to go to USC instead of LSU.
There was some noise recently about recruiting violations, that Reggie Bush got on the phone with Pete Carroll in trying to get Joe McKnight to come to USC.
And now, Pete Carroll who normally does not name names has openly stated that LSU fans are the ones creating such stupid rumors!
LSU fans, just remember – this recruiting business is a dirty game. Les Miles has probably done the same thing to many other coaches that Pete Carroll ended up doing with you and your team. Its all a fair game though not clean. Take what you have and play with it. You’ve got to watch out for Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, etc. before you dream of playing USC.
So shut it and move on! Oh yea, and act like adults, not freaking 5-year olds!
Another blockbuster class at USC!
Leave it to Pete Carroll to finish strong. After a somewhat less-than-superb recruiting season, Pete Carroll and his buddies climbed up rapidly and now have what seems to be the second-best or the third best class in the country!
Who else thinks we have the deepest roster at running back? And will all of them get decent playing time? Is McKnight the next Reggie Bush?
What about fullbacks? Looks like Martin Coleman may be converted to fullback. With Lane Kiffin gone, I wonder if the fullback will have as big a role as it seemed to be this year. Maybe if there is a game-breaker like McKnight, the game plans may change?
Let’s see – can’t wait for the season to start!!
Details on the final rankings at MSNBC, among others.
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