Spurs eliminate Hornets, Pens vs. Red Wings, Lady Coogs host ULL

Spurs eliminate Hornets

Well, as much as I love my Spurs, I didn't think they would pull off the series against the younger Hornets. Losing the first two to have a two game deficit didn't look good for the defending Champs. What it boiled down to is the Spurs experience against the Hornets youth. The Hornets are no pushovers. And I thought the Hornets would run the Spurs into the ground. In game seven, it was pretty much a Spurs controlled game. The Spurs dictated the pace of the game and never let the Hornets threaten until the closing minutes of the game. The Spurs bench also put in some quality minutes to help keep the lead large in the second and third periods.

Down the stretch, some of the Hornets took ill advised shots and some desperate shots when they really didn't need to. On the other end, the Spurs worked the clock and scored key baskets to keep the Hornets at bay. Greg Popovich made all the right adjustments through out the series. He solved the Spurs problems in the third period in time for game seven's third period.

Hornets and fans should be proud of their team. I certainly didn't see the Hornets being this good. They held their own against the Mavs and sent them packing. Then they take the defending champs to a game seven. No shame in that.

Stanley Cup Finals

Detroit Red Wings finished of the Dallas Stars to advance to the Stanley Cup playoffs. I'm looking for a great series. The Red Wings have experience and titles but the Penguins are very youthful. They are going to test the Wings defense. They are high flying. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are a powerful one two punch.

I'm not surprised the Pens are in the Cup finals. I am surprised they made it this year. I thought they were a least one year away. Instead youth has been served.

It's going to be a hard fought series and will probably come down to who is the hottest goalie. I'm going to go with the Pens in seven.

Lady Cougars host ULL in Super Regionals

The Lady Cougars will be hosting a super regional in softball as they take on Louisiana-Lafayette. It's a best of three series. The 53-9 Coogs will rid the arm of pitcher Amgel Shamblin. She was on fire at the regionals by pitching a 3-0 record with three hits allowed and one run scored for a miniscule .37 ERA.

LouisianaLafayette is no slouch. The come in sport a 49-12 record. The are coming off beating a higly ranked LSU team to reach the super regional rounds. It's going to be a though match up for the Lady Coogs.

Go Coogs Go!

Lady Coog Sofball, Spurs vs. Hornets

An outstanding season for some outstanding ladies. The Coogs won the regional on outstanding pitching by Angel Shamblin. SHamblin completed all three games posting a .33 ERA and 23 strike outs. The Lady Coogs season record improves to 53-9 and enables them to host a Super Regional. They will play ULL in a best of three series for a berth in the Softball College World Series.

For the season, Shamblin has gone 35-3 while the rest of the Lady Coogs have a combined record of 17-6. They also out scored the opponents 13-1. It's going to be a great match up in a best of three series.

Go Coogs Go!

It's do or die for the Spurs and Hornets. It's come down to the seventh game. Winner take all and loser goes home. No visiting team has won a game in the series. New Orleans is younger and faster than the Spurs. The Spurs counter with the screen and roll as well as kicking out the ball for the outside shooters. Neither team can afford to go down by a large margin in the middle third. I think it's pretty even. I'm tipping the advantage toward the home team to win the series.

Lady Coogs softball

Live to Fight Another Day

The Spurs, the Stars and the Flyer survived to fight another day. The Spurs were facing elimination at the hands of the New Orleans Hornets in game 6. The defending champs held off the upstart Hornets to force a game 7. The Stars held off a sweep at the hands Detroit Red Wings. The Flyers also staved off a sweep by the young Penguins.

In the Spurs vs. Hornets series, no team has won on the opponent's court. Game seven will be Monday night in Hornet. If San Antonio wants to keep defending their title, they need a victory in New Orleans. It's a tall order because the Spurs have been blown out in the three games in New Orleans. Duncan, Ginobili and Parker need to bring the A game and the supporting cast needs to throw in some points too. It's going to have to be a team effort to oust the Hornets. The Hornets have the advantage of youth and the home crowd in game 7.

In the NHL Conference finals, the Penguins were denied sweeping the Flyers. Dallas too survived to force another game. It's a tall order for the Flyers and the Stars to come from 1-3 deficits. Barring two miracles, it will still be a Penguins vs. Red Wings Stanley Cup Finals.

Is it too early for the Pens vs. Red Wings?

At the very bottom of this blog, you will find my sports allegiances and the teams I root against. The Pittsburgh Penguins are listed as one of my favorites. I've been following them since the Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Kevin Steves, Tom Borrasso, Kjell Sammuelson and Ulf Sammuelson Stanley Cup winning days. Actually I followed the team before the Cup wins.

Since then the club has gone bankrupt, was on the verge of folding or moving to another team. They assembled some young talent along the way. They added Sidney Crosby and a year later they added Evgeni Malkin. The Pens started playing some good hockey again and there was talk about them turning into an eventual Stanley Cup contender. The Penguins have a 3-1 lead over Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference finals.

I'm excited that the Pens have reached this point. I didn't think this would be the year they would make a Cup run. I thought the Malkin and Crosby were about a year or two away from being ready for the grind that is the NHL playoffs. Instead they've been tearing through the opposition. The only loss on the Pen's postseason record hasa been a loss to the Rangers.

With both the Penguins and the Red Wings holding 3-0 leads over the Flyers and Stars, respectively, we should see them in the Stanley Cup Finals. The Red Wings have been in the Finals four times since 1995. Losing the Cup in '95 but winning three times in '97,'98 and '02. The Penguins haven't been to the Cup finals since winning back to back titles in '91-'92.

It will be the young, up and coming Penguins against the grisly veteran team of the Red Wings. I give a slight edge to the Red Wings on experience. The Pens have youth and can skate and score at will. The Red Wings have been in the trenches and won't let the Pens skate all over them. Red Wings in six.

Uh Oh Spurs, Astros mediocrity, Fantasy football

I knew the Hornets were going to give the Spurs a run for their money. It's obvious because of the age difference in the two clubs. The Hornets can run up and down the court all day long against the Spurs. They out hustle, out gun and out shoot the Spurs. The Spurs definitely cannot keep up the pace of the first three games and hope to win the series.

They were absolutely run off the court in the first two games by a younger team that shows no fear of the four time champions. The Spurs aren't exactly the fastest team in the NBA but they've shown in the past that they could run and gun when they had to. Not this time around. The Hornets made the Spurs look like they were stuck in mud on top of a swamp. Game three does offer some hope that the Spurs can win the series but they need to slow the pace down.

The Hornets have shown proven they can hang with the big dogs. Can they deliver a mortal wound or do they let the Spurs right back into this series? If San Antonio wins on Sunday, they have new hope. The Hornets need to finish them off and the sooner the better. The Spurs aren't four time champs for no reason.

Well, I looked up long enough from the NBA playoffs to see what the Astros have been up to. Good Lord, they are playing .5oo ball. That's a lot better than I'd expected. As of tonight, Lance Berkman has been on a torrid place. I lifted this fact from Jose de Jesus Ortiz's Houston Chronicle blog. Berkman was coming into Saturday night's game batting 18 for 24. If he got a hit on his first at bat, he would have a 19 for 25 stretch for a .720 average. He ended up going 2 for 3 against the Dodgers tonight putting his average to .808 (21 for 28). Even if he doesn't get a hit, he's still getting on base. In his last 32 plate appearances, he's reached base 25 times. That's just a blazing pace.

I tried finding other stats that are driving the current Astros .500 ball pace. It definitely isn't the pitching. They are ranked 11th out of 16 in the National League ERA. They've given up more hits than anybody except the Pirates and the Rockies. They also have one the highest batting average against. They aren't shy about giving up homers either. The Astros lead both leagues in serving up the long ball.

So what's driving the Astros' march to mediocrity? The hitters offset some of the pitching woes. The batters like hitting home runs as much as the pitcher like giving them up. Batting average, RBIs and runs scored rank in the middle of the league. They just look like they are plodding along.

The Astros don't stand out in any one category. Other than Berkman's streak, the Astros seem to be just about average. It definitely shows in the .500 winning percentage.

As long as the Cubs don't win the World Series, everything will be right in the baseball universe.

With the NFL draft out of the way, you'd think I'd put football on the back burner for a while. Not a chance. Minicamps and organized team activities (OTAs) are in session or will be soon for most teams. Just like the real football GMs, fantasy football geeks like myself start paying attention to players, injuries and trades. Also I try to guess which rookie running back is going to make a splash. Last year I hit the jackpot in taking Adrian Peterson in the fourth or fifth round. I knew he was going to be good but I had no earthly idea he was going to go off like he did. Then again who did? He did well enough to propel me into third place in the Chem Plant league.

The Chem Plant league is a keeper league. What that means is you can carry over players from the previous season. The only rules are the players must be from different positions and a two year limit on a player. You can keep a player a third year but you must surrender a first round draft pick. For me that's too high a price for one player. Donovan McNabb and Rudi Johnson were my holdovers from 2006. I can't keep McNabb without giving up my first round pick nor do I want to. The other backs I have on my roster are batter than Johnson. It's a no brainer to keep Peterson.

So it comes down on whether to keep TJ Houshmandzadeh or Brandon Marshall. Both had excellent years but barring injury I'm going with Houshmandzedeh. If Chad Johnson holds out or is traded by the Bengals, that gives more opportunities for Housh. There is a flip side to Johnson's absence. Defenses will be able to key more on Houshmandzadeh. Marshall is coming off injury and doesn't have the past production that Housh has either.

It's a long way off but I just can't help thinking about next fantasy football season.

P.S. - I won the Spin Doctor's League thanks to a late season charge. I barely made the playoffs.

Bring on the Hornets!

Okay so I needlessly worried myself about San Antonio losing to Phoenix. They made quick work of the Suns to set up a Western Conference semifinal match up against the Charlotte Hornets. The experts on ESPN are picking the Spurs to win the series. How quickly their tune changes after one series. I think all but three or four pick the Suns to win. Now only one picks Charlotte to emerge.

As for myself, I don't see the series going past six either way. I think the Spurs should win it but it won't be easy. In fact I think it's going to be an all out war. I was talking to my friend the yesterday about the series. In discussing the obvious, we concluded that the Spurs would do well to get out of there with the split. I like the Spurs chances in the series if they come home 1-1. If they come home 0-2 then kiss the season good bye. The Hornets are a young team and going into the hole against them doesn't bode well for the older Spurs. The Spurs need to knock them back and daze them. The longer this series goes, the more it favors the younger Hornets. I'm predicting the Spurs in six.

How about the Atlanta Hawks taking Boston to the brink? Boston will come out on top in game seven. Who the hell thought the Hawks would go so far though? Give them credit holding serve and taking all three games at home. Now if they can just get that one win at the Garden. No doubt about it, this would be the biggest upset in NBA history. It would surpass Golden State's upending of Dallas last year. This definitely has to get the Celtics asshole puckering up. I guess now they realize they just can't waltz to the title. The Hawks though are playing like they have nothing to lose. And they don't. If they go home, everybody expected it. If they win, the will get all the accolades but nobody still expects them to get past the next round. Game seven tomorrow at noon. I'll be there!