The Olde 320 Pub

Mr. Hanton's

2011-06-16T12:17:00.001-04:00

Today I opted to venture out to the 5th & Race food truck area to pick up a burger from Cafe de Wheels. Parked next to The Burger Truck was a food truck I had never seen before. The food truck craze is relatively new to Cincinnati so there are new trucks popping up frequently. This truck is named Mr. Hanton's and they specialize in a wide variety of sandwiches and hot dogs, including Cincinnati style cheese coneys. Mr. Hanton's will now be added to the quest and joins Mr Gene's Dog House Weenies on Wheels as the 2nd food truck on the quest.

I chatted with the owner for a minute and he informed me they can be found at 5th and Race on Thursdays & Fridays and are at Party at the Park on Wednesdays. Judging by their twitter feed (@MrHantons) they are occasionally in Mt Adams late night.

We both like a lot of the food trucks that have opened in the past year and look forward to trying Mr. Hanton's.

New Blog Up, Time to close the pub

2009-04-05T01:37:00.002-04:00

I have officially launched the new blog. Although right now it could still be considered in a beta stage. I might make some tweaks here and there, but for now I am happy with the look of the site. The new name is "The Triple S Xpress" which is explained in the welcome posts and I now have posts about the Final Four and the Cyclones.

The Triple S Xpress

new blog update

2009-04-04T20:33:00.003-04:00

After toying around today in the "blogosphere" I have decided that I will likely host the new blog on wordpress.com. Blogger.com and wordpress.com both have its benefits and drawback, but overall I feel that wordpress is the best. Eventually I would like to have my own domain and use wordpress.org.

The next step will be creating a new name for the blog. And after that I don't see any reason why I shouldn't be able to officially re-launch next week, but we shall see.

Final Four Game 2 Preview

2009-04-04T19:36:00.001-04:00

*Note- this is a test blog from my cell phone

Game 2 tonight features North Carolina and Villanova. There should be some exciting guard play in this matchup. Ty Lawson has played great despite his toe injury. Scottie Reynolds has had an up and down career for the wildcats so a lot could depend on which Reynolds shows up.

My Pick: I have Carolina winning it all and am sticking with that pick. I was hesitant before the tournament to make that pick but now that Lawson is lighting it up I have a lot more confidence in the heels. Tyler Hansbrough will also be extra motivated to make up for last years loss vs. KU and he came back his senior year to win a title. UNC 86 Nova 73

Final Four Game 1 Preview

2009-04-04T17:27:00.000-04:00

*NOTE- This is just a test, I am testing out the various blog hosting sites on the internet for my new blog.

Tonight from Detroit the Final Four tips off with Michigan State and UConn facing off in the first game and Villanova and North Carolina in the late night matchup. First I need to brag as I correctly picked 3 out of the 4 teams, only missed out on UConn (picked Missouri). So for once I will have a rooting interest, if MSU-UNC make the championship I will win the big pool I am in, if UNC wins it all but its against UConn I finish in 2nd. So GO HEELS! With my luck UConn and Nova will win tonight, so if you are gambler put your money on the Cats and Huskies. Now that I am done patting myself on the back, time for a short preview of Game 1.

#2 Michigan State vs. #1 UConn

Out of the 4 teams left in the tournament, UConn has looked the strongest. However one could argue they have also had the easiest road to Detroit. They have also had to deal with some off court issues regarding the recruitment of Nate Miles. Michigan State on the other hand has had a tougher road. They squeaked out victories vs. USC and Kansas, but dominated the 2nd half in their Elite 8 victory over the overall #1 seeded Louisville Cardinals.

There are two matchups that I will be keeping an eye on tonight: Gorat Sutan-Haseem Thabeet and Kalin Lucas-AJ Price. Thabeet is the best defensive big man in college basketball, but Sutan has been very impressive in the tourney against some stiff competition (KU's Aldrich and UofL's Samuels). I actually like Sutan in this matchup because of the range in his offensive game. He has a good outside shot which will have to draw Thabeet out from under the basket which should open up the lane for his Spartan teammates. But if Sutan's shot isn't falling MSU could be in deep trouble. Kalin Lucas is the Big 10 MVP and has also had a good tournament thus far. So far his toughest competition has been KU's Collins, while Lucas didn't shoot well he did a good job of getting to the line (7-7 from the line) and finding open teammates (7 assists). AJ Price is a score fist point guard (has scored in double figures in 18 of the last 19 games) but also has good vision (averages 4.8 assists per game). I like Price in this matchup as Lucas doesn't have as much expereince going up against agressive and savy veteran PG's like Price. The only game where Price struggled this tournament was vs. Mizzou, but MSU favors a slower, half court pace while Mizzou likes a full court, pressing style.

MY PICK:

Even though UConn has been quite impressive so far this tournament, I picked MSU to get to the championship and I am not backing off now. I like Sutan to have a big game which will open up a lot of things for his teammates and with the game being in Detroit the crowd could be a big X factor for the Spartans. Michigan State will need to force their slower style of play and if they do they will be moving on to the championship. MSU 68 UConn 64

don't call it a comeback?

2009-04-02T22:34:00.003-04:00

Ok it has been a long, long, long time since I have blogged. I doubt anyone still has an RSS feed for this, but figured I would post an update anyway. Unfortunately I had to suspend operation of The Olde 320 Pub a couple of years ago due to having a busy job where I just didn't have time to keep up with the sports world during the day and when I came home the last thing I wanted to do was spend time in front of a computer. But now I have a new job where I have a little more time to keep up with the outside world which has led me to think maybe its time to re-open shop. I am going to do some restructuring though. First of all not sure if I will stay on blogger or go elsewhere. I will probably do a whole redesign (new name and look). Also I will have some contributors so on days where I am slammed at work and have no energy, my contributors can pick up the slack. Nothing is set in stone yet, I am going to work on this over the weekend and hopefully sometime Mid-late April I will be fully back into the sports blogging world.

Out of Hibernation

2007-05-22T23:11:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow the Olde 320 Pub will reopen and come out of hibernation. Just one thought about tonight's Reds game before the official return tomorrow: was anyone surprised that Felipe Lopez hit the game winning grand slam? I am pretty sure every Reds fan knew this would be the outcome as soon as Felipe came to the plate.

Bengals cut Sam Adams

2007-05-14T18:27:00.000-04:00

Today the Bengals announced they have cut DT Sam Adams. Adams was in the middle of a 3 year contract. Today the Bengals also announced the signing of DT Kenderick Allen.

I am a little surprised by this news. With the draft pick of Matt Toeaina and the free agent signings of Allen and Michael Meyers, I figured someone would be cut but I thought it would be John Thornton not Adams. I also thought Adams and Thornton would get a chance to compete for a spot in training camp. This raises questions about the status of Adams' knee and if him not being in the best of shape played a role in this decision.

The Hunt for a Red October 5/14

2007-05-14T17:49:00.000-04:00

I didn't think things could get much worse than they were in last weeks Hunt for a Red October, unfortunately things are getting pretty bleak in Redsville. Last week the Reds dropped 3 of 4 to Houston and went to Los Angeles and were swept by the Dodgers. The Reds record now stands at 15-23 and are in the cellar of the central division 10.5 games back of the Brewers.

I think Reds fans have officially started the Homer Bailey watch. Many would have liked to seen Bailey brought up for Sunday's game at LA (to replace Eric Milton who is on the DL). The Reds however went with Bobby Livingston, who had an ok first start going 5 1/3 IP and gave up 4 ER but gave up 10 hits and 4 walks. I am not sure how soon we will see Bailey. Before the season I predicted mid to late July. However if the woes continue I have to believe we will see him up before the All Star Break.

Time to take a quick look at the good and bad of the past week.

GOOD

Ken Griffey Junior. Junior remains on fire and has won NL Player of the Week honors. When healthy Jr usually produces unfortunately being healthy has been his big problem since coming home to Cincinnati. Hopefully he can stay healthy the rest of the year because he is fun to watch when he is playing like he is right now.

BAD

Bullpen. I don't really need to go into too much detail since its been the running theme of the season. The bullpen is struggling and continues to be the main reason for the Reds struggles. I really don't understand why Todd Coffey continues to see the mound.

Player of the Week

Ken Griffey Junior. This is the 2nd week in a row that Junior gets my nod for Player of the Week and as stated above he won the NL Player of the Week. Griffey has hit .405 with 4 homers and 10 RBI's in the last 10 games. Also here is another reason why Griffey gets my vote for Player of the week: In Saturday's game in LA, Junior gave a heckler a special gift. Nicely played Junior!

Upcoming Week

The road trip for the Reds continues as first they travel to San Diego for a 3 game set then to intrastate rival Cleveland for a 3 game weekend series. Once again, I am not too optimistic about the upcoming games. I predict the Reds lose two of three to the Padres (I think they will win the Harang-Wells matchup. The finale with Arroyo and Peavy going at it should be a great pitchers duel but Peavy will get the win) and I think the Indians will sweep the Reds. If this happens it would mean the Reds will have gone 1-8 on the 9 game road trip and I have to believe that Castelini will do something and not just sit around while the Reds stink.

Reds win finale vs. Stros/Edwin sent down

2007-05-10T18:13:00.000-04:00

I was busy at work today but I knew it was a good day for the Reds due to the ammount of fireworks I could hear from my desk. The Reds avoided being swept by Houston with a 9-5 win today. The offensive stars were Ken Griffey Junior and Adam Dunn who both homered and Dunn even had a triple. Aaron Harang got his 5th win of the season by going 6 2/3 IP with 2 K's and gave up 5 ER. The Reds will now hit the road and face the Dodgers.

The other big news of today is the Reds have sent down 3B Edwin Encarnacion and brought up IF Jeff Keppinger. This is off the heels of a two error game by Edwin that resulted in 3 runs for Houston. I am a big Edwin fan, but this is the correct move. He has had many problems in the field and at the plate so far this year and its obvious he lacked confidence in himself. Edwin is still young and a hard worker so I think he will be ok and back to being one of the best young third basemen in the MLB.

Bullpen and Narron still suck

2007-05-08T22:19:00.000-04:00

Reds lose another game where they held the lead, this time losing to Houston 7-6. Eric Milton had a shaky start, giving up 4 runs in 5 and a third innings, but the Reds were winning when he went out. Brad Salmon gave up two runs in the 7th inning to give the Astros a 6-5 lead and David Weathers gave Houston an insurance run in the 9th. Brandon Phillips hit a homer in the 9th to bring the Reds within 1 but that would be it.

A decision by Jerry Narron in the 9th made no sense: Reds down one and are facing right handed closer Dan Wheeler. For some reason Jerry thought it was a good idea to keep Jeff Conine in to face Wheeler even though Conine doesn't hit righties particularly well and kept Scott Hatteberg, who is a lefty, on the bench. Conine strikes out, ball game over. Brilliant.

RIP Diego Corrales

2007-05-08T20:29:00.000-04:00

Former Boxing champion Diego Corrales died in a motorcycle accident last night. Corrales was only 29. My thoughts are with the Corrales family. I will always remember Corrales fondly for one of the best fights I have ever seen. His first fight against Jose Luis Castillo was epic. Below is the 10th round of this fight and if you are a boxing fan and have not seen this fight, you need to find a way to see it. RIP Diego.

The Hunt for a Red October 5/8

2007-05-08T18:29:00.000-04:00

Not a good week for the Redlegs who dropped 2 of 3 games to both the Astros and Rockies and have started this weeks series vs. the 'Stros with a loss. The Reds record stands at 14-18 and find themselves 8 games back of the division leading Brewers. Being 8 games back is more than at any point in 2006. As I said in my post last night, Wayne Krivsky needs to do something before its too late. Now time to take a look at the good and bad of the past week.

Good

The offense. One of the reasons for the poor start by the Reds is a lack of offense. In the past 5 games offense has not been a problem. One reason for the recent offensive surge is the return of Ken Griffey Junior to the lineup. Another reason is the sudden offensive emergence of Alex Gonzalez.

Josh Hamilton. Josh is showing no signs of slowing down. So far this year Josh is hitting .292 with 8 HR, 17 RBI's and an OPS of 1.022. He is also getting it done on the field showing the league that its best not to test his arm.

Starting Pitching. You can't blame the losses on the starters. So far this season the starters have usually done enough to get the win. Unfortunately their records don't reflect how well they have been due to the early season offensive woes and the recent bullpen woes.

Bad

The Bullpen. I only need to list one thing in the bad category and it is the bullpen. The bullpen has been horrific and it is regularly costing the Reds games that they should be winning. Todd Coffey and Mike Stanton have been the two biggest offenders out of the pen. I don't think anyone would be too upset if Coffey were sent to AAA and Stanton were DFA'd. The Reds desperately need Bill Bray, Eddie Guardado and Gary Majewski to come back ASAP.

Player of the Week

Ken Griffey Junior. This was a tough one to pick and it could have easily gone to Alex Gonzalez or Josh Hamilton but I'm going with Junior. Griffey had been battling some illness earlier in the season but has come back on fire. In the last 10 games Jr is batting .371 with 4 home runs, 7 RBI's and 6 runs.

Upcoming Week

The Reds are in the middle of a 4 game set vs. Houston and then will travel to Los Angeles for a weekend series vs. the Dodgers. So far this season Houston has owned the Reds with a 5-1 record. The Dodgers have started the 2007 season very well with a 19-13 record which is good enough for 1st place in the NL West.

Unfortunately I don't see this week going well for the Reds. I predict the Reds split vs. Houston (lose tonight and take the last two games) and will go on to lose 2 of three to the Dodgers (win the opening game of series but lose next two).

Team Outlook

The state of the Reds is not good right now. It is way too early to pack it in but the bullpen needs to be fixed ASAP. I still have some hope because I doubt Bob Castellini and Wayne Krivsky will just sit around and do nothing while the Reds blow game after game. I also am not confident that the Brewers will continue their torrid start (although they do have the look of this years surprise team like last years Tigers and the 2005 White Sox).

Send Coffey Down!

2007-05-07T22:16:00.000-04:00

Once again the Reds bullpen is awesome in the 8th inning as the Reds lose the opener to Houston 5-4. Todd Coffey gave up a 3 run homer to Luke Scott to give Houston the win. Coffey has been terrible so far this year and really he has never been the same ever since his short stint as closer last season. How much longer does Coffey have to struggle before the Reds send him to AAA or at the very least stop sending him to the mound in close games?!?!?! The positive news from tonight's game is Alex Gonzalez continues his hot hitting by hitting two homers tonight. But this is another tough loss for the Reds and I don't know how much longer Wayne Krivsky can sit around and do nothing to the bullpen before the season slips away. Yes, I know its still early, but I am sick of this bullpen.

Big Sports Day

2007-05-05T15:30:00.000-04:00

Today is always one of the biggest days in sports as it is Derby Day. I am not a huge horse racing buff or anything, but I always enjoy the Kentucky Derby. Today has become and even bigger sports day as tonight is the biggest fights in years, Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather square off in Vegas. I am a huge boxing fan and I hope maybe this fight can reignite some interest in the sport among the casual fans (I doubt it will though).

My predictions are: Scat Daddy wins the Derby and Mayweather wins a split decision.

Reds bullpen

2007-05-04T20:01:00.000-04:00

Currently the Reds-Rockies game is tied 2-2 in the middle of the third. I swear if the Reds bullpen blows another one, especially in the 8th inning, I am going to go ballistic!...I don't have anything else to say at the moment, just wanted to point out that I am tired of our bullpen sucking. Ok, back to the game.

Go Warriors!

2007-05-04T19:48:00.000-04:00

Congrats to the Golden State Warriors for pulling off the biggest upset in NBA Playoff history by defeating the #1 seed Dallas Mavericks 4 games to 2. It's not often I post about the NBA since I am more of a NCAA Bball fan, but I do like watching the NBA Playoffs. The Warriors-Mavs series was a fun series to watch, especially the games at Golden State. The Warrior fans were terrific and brought a college like atmosphere to the games.

Now I don't think the Warriors will go on to win it all (IMO whoever wins San Antonio-Phoenix will go onto winning it all), but I hope they can continue because I like watching them play.

This series also showed that no way does Dirk Nowitzki deserve to be NBA MVP. Dirk, you are 7 foot tall, try backing someone down instead of shooting nothing but perimeter shots. Sure, Dirk had a very fine year but if I had a vote it would go to Kobe Bryant. I hate the Lakers, but if you don't think Kobe is the best player in the league then you are crazy.

College Basketball rule changes

2007-05-03T18:59:00.000-04:00

Looks like there will a couple of changes in College Basketball for the 2008-09 season. The two big ones are the three point line will be moved a foot back and officials will be allowed to check replays to see if a foul should be ruled flagrant.

I like both of these changes. I have always thought the three point line should be moved back, only thing I might have done differently is making it the international distance (20' 6" instead of 20' 9"). Since I am a Xavier fan, I am obviously a big fan of the replay for flagrants rule, this rule really should be called the Greg Oden/Justin Cage rule since I am sure the Oden incident in the 2nd round game vs. XU is a big reason for this change. Too bad we can't go back in time and have this rule in effect for the OSU-XU game (someday I will get over it).

Josh Hamilton NL Rookie of the Month

2007-05-03T18:23:00.000-04:00

Congrats to Cincinnati Reds OF Josh Hamilton on being named the NL Rookie of the Month for April. I never expected Hamilton to start off as well as he has and who knows if he will be able to keep it up, but so far there hasn't been too many better stories than Josh Hamilton. Good job Josh and keep it up!

New Best Dunk Ever

2007-05-02T18:24:00.000-04:00

A while back a I posted a video from a European dunk contest where the dunker pulled a woman from the crowd to dunk over her, but he ended up kneeing her in the face. I proclaimed that the best dunk ever. Well that now has some competition. I am not sure you can call this a dunk since he didn't get to the rim, so I guess its really the best dunk attempt ever. During halftime of the Warriors-Mavs game a lucky fan got to jump on a trampoline and dunk the ball. Well this guy tried to be fancy and do a helicopter move, but he ends up a bit short. Enjoy.

Arroyo gets first win

2007-05-01T23:52:00.000-04:00

Finally, the Reds offense has showed up for a Bronson Arroyo start as the Reds defeat Houston 11-2! Another quality start for Bronson as he goes 7 innings only giving up 1 run on 3 hits. The offensive star for the Reds was Ken Griffey Junior who went 3-3 with a HR and 2 RBI's. Now lets up the offense has saved some runs for tomorrow's game vs. Roy Oswalt.

Reds to retire #13

2007-04-30T19:13:00.000-04:00

The Reds have announced they will retire the number of former Reds great Davey Concepcion. There will be a ceremony before the July 28th game vs. the Cubs. This is a very cool honor for Davey. Since I was born in 1982, I only got to see the tail end of Davey's career and was really too young to remember it, but my dad would always tell me stories about how great Davey was. Based on the highlights I have seen and the stories that my dad and other Reds fans have told, I believe that Davey should be in the Hall of Fame. He is one of the best defensive Shortstops ever and was an big part of one of the best teams in MLB History. Hopefully one day he will be enshrined in Cooperstown, but for now this is a good honor.

The Hunt for a Red October 4/30

2007-04-30T18:24:00.000-04:00

Last week was an up and down week for the Reds. The Reds opened the week with a three game set at St. Louis and dropped two of three to the Cards. The Pittsburgh trip went better as they won 2 of three in the weekend set vs. the Pirates. The Reds finish the month of April with a 12-13 record, tied for 2nd place in the Central 3.5 GB of Milwaukee. Time to look at the good and bad of the past week in Reds Nation.

GOOD

Alex Gonzalez. The Reds acquired Gonzo for his glove but this week his bat came alive as he slugged 1.040 with 13 hits, 3 HR's, 6 RBI's, 9 R's and 26 total bases. I never thought I would be posting those kind of offensive numbers for Gonzalez.

Matt Belisle. Matt pitched a gem vs. Pittsburgh on Saturday throwing his first complete game, only giving up 1 ER on 5 hits with 5 strikeouts. Belisle and Kyle Lohse have shown glimpses of being quality starters, the question with them is can they be consistent?

Edwin Encarnacion. It has been a rough season for Edwin so far but he is showing signs of getting out of his slump. EE went 5 for 8 with 4 RBI's in his last two games and in the first game of the Pitt series he hit some good balls but was unlucky. Edwin is now above .200 for the first time since April 13.

BAD

The Bullpen. Same story, different year. Once again the Reds bullpen is struggling mightily, especially in the 8th innings. Once again another quality start by Bronson Arroyo was ruined by a poor effort from the bullpen. Seems like every time Bronson goes out there the offense doesn't show up and the bullpen implodes.

Adam Dunn. Dunn hasn't been terrible so far this year, but he has cooled off from his hot start. In his last 10 games he is only batting .161 and only 3 RBI's and has 14 strikeouts. I predicted a career year for Dunn so he isn't making me look to good right now, but I think he will turn it around.

Player of the Week: Alex Gonzalez

This one was an easy one as not only does Gonzalez get Player of the Week nods here, he was also named the National League Co-Player of the Week (sharing honors with Chase Utley).

Upcoming Week

The Reds will being the month of May with a three game set at Houston. Last time the Reds were lucky enough to avoid facing Roy Oswalt but unfortunately won't receive that same luck this time around. Here are the pitching match-ups for the Houston Series.

Game 1: Bronson Arroyo (0-2, 2.86 ERA) vs. Matt Albers (0-0, 3.75 ERA)
Game 2: Kyle Lohse (1-1, 2.88 ERA) vs. Roy Oswalt (3-2, 3.43 ERA)
Game 3: Eric Milton (0-4, 4.71 ERA) vs. Chris Sampson (3-1, 3.55 ERA)

Series Prediction: I predict that Arroyo will finally get his first win of the season but unfortunately I see the Reds losing the final two games since they will be facing Reds killer Oswalt in one game and Milton pitches the finale.

After being on the road for 9 games the Reds will return to the friendly confines of GABP to face the Rockies. So far the Rockies are having their typical season, average at home and bad on the road.

Game 1: Matt Belisle (3-2, 3.45 ERA) vs. Jason Hirsch (2-2, 3.41 ERA)
Game 2: Aaron Harang (4-0, 4.23 ERA) vs. Aaron Cook (0-1, 3.83 ERA)
Game 3: Bronson Arroyo (0-2, 2.86 ERA) vs. Josh Fogg (1-1, 5.79 ERA)

Series Prediction: I am going to go crazy here and predict that the Reds get their first sweep of the year.

RIP Josh Hancock

2007-04-29T19:14:00.000-04:00

Sad news today in baseball as St. Louis Cardinals Pitcher (and former Reds pitcher) Josh Hancock died this morning in a car crash. Tonight's game vs. the Chicago Cubs has been postponed. Just a couple of years ago Cardinals Pitcher Daryl Kile also died before a game vs. Chicago. This is very sad and my thoughts are with the Hancock family.

Bengals Draft Day 2

2007-04-29T18:23:00.000-04:00

Once again the Bengals surprise me and many other fans with a surprising pick in Round 5. Lets take a look at today's picks.

Round 4: FS Marvin White (TCU). The Bengals need some depth at safety with the departure of Kevin Kaesviharn. I like this pick and I like what I have read about him in this article on bengals.com. I hope he is right about himself because the Bengals could use a big hitter in the secondary.

Round 5: QB Jeff Rowe (Nevada). This is the real surprise of the day for the Bengals. Many fans would prefer the Bengals get some more bodies on defense. Others would have liked to have seen Troy Smith (OSU) or Jordan Palmer (UTEP) if they were going to go with a QB in Round 5. This means Doug Johnson will be the #2 and Rowe will be #3. It goes without saying that the Offensive Line better protect Palmer better next year because I am not confident in Johnson or Rowe as backups.

Round 6: DT Matt Toeaina (Oregon). The Bengals run defense was better last year but they could use another body on the D Line and thats what they get with Toeaina. Before the draft current Bengal Domata Peko talked about how he would like to see the Bengals draft Toeaina and it looks like he gets his wish. Sounds like a pretty good pick in Round 6 for the Bengals.

Round 7: OG Dan Santucci (Notre Dame). The Bengals offensive line last year struggled with injuries and in the offseason the line took a hit with the loss of Eric Steinbach to Cleveland. If the line stays healthy we shouldn't see too much of Santucci next season but its always good to have some depth on the OLine.

Round 7: FS Nedu Ndukwe (Notre Dame). The Bengals finish their draft with their 2nd Notre Dame player in a row, this time going with Safety Nedu Ndukwe. I wouldn't expect too much out of Ndukwe. If he makes the team it will be on special teams.

Some overall impressions of the Bengals draft:

I really like the Leon Hall pick. I think he is the best CB in this years draft and I am happy he fell to us at #18.

I still would have preferred defense in the 2nd round. I think Kenny Irons can be a good change of pace back, I just think we had bigger needs especially that early in the draft.

This isn't Bengals related, but I am not happy that the Steelers took my "cousin" TE Matt Spaeth. I will not like seeing my last name on the back of a Steelers jersey.

The Bengals did not take any linebackers in the draft. This makes me think that Odell Thurman will be back in a Bengals uniform in 2007.

Another position the Bengals didn't pick was Tight End. I would have like to have seen a receiving TE selected as a backup for Reggie Kelly who is a good blocker. But I guess Marvin feels comfortable about the depth at TE.

Overall I would give the Bengals a B-/C+. I like the Hall, White and Toeaina picks but question the Irons and Rowe picks.

NFL Draft thoughts

2007-04-29T15:28:00.000-04:00

I figured I would take a second to take a look at the non-Bengal related items in this years draft.

Randy Moss traded to New England for a fourth round pick. Wow, did not see this one coming. On paper the Patriots are very very scary. Tom Brady with a Wide Receiver that has the talent of one of the best in the league will give other teams nightmares. This combined with additions like Donte Stallworth and Adalius Thomas makes New England the pre-season favorites for the Super Bowl. It remains to be seen how all the new faces in New England will get along.

Brady Quinn falls to #22 in the draft. As someone who does not like Notre Dame and feels that Quinn is overhyped I really enjoyed watching his free fall. But I will admit Cleveland did a good job not only getting the best tackle in the draft but also getting the QB they wanted. It was also a good trade for Dallas because they will get Cleveland's #1 next year and the Browns will probably have a Top 10 pick.

Miami passes on Brady Quinn for Ted Ginn Jr. Even though I am an OSU Football fan and don't like Quinn, this was a bad move by the Dolphins. Ginn is really fast but I have questions about his route running ability and hands. I wonder if Devin Hester didn't have such an impact last season if Miami makes this decision. If Quinn actually does live up to the hype then he will have a good career and I don't see Ginn becoming a top tier WR.

JaMarcus Russell is the #1 pick. I like Russell alot, he could be another Daunte Cullpepper (well the healthy Minnesota version of Pep). Unfortunately he has to play in Oakland which could be a death sentence for Russell. He has no help in Oakland, their line sucks, their running backs suck and their receivers suck. If he gets thrown into the fire early it could be a long season for Russell.

Calvin Johnson goes #2 to Detroit. Well former Bengal QB Jon Kitna will certainly have some nice options to throw to with Johnson and Roy Williams. The Lions will probably still be a bad team but that will be a nice WR tandem for Kitna and 2nd round pick Drew Stanton.

Picks in the first round that I really liked: Adrian Peterson (Minnesota), Jamaal Anderson (Atlanta), Amobi Okoye (Houston), Patrick Willis (San Fran), Marshawn Lynch (Buffalo), Reggie Nelson (Jacksonville). The picks I question are : Ginn (Miami), Justin Harrell (Green Bay), Michael Griffith (Tennessee) and this one isn't first round but I have to include Kevin Kolb (Phily).

Bengals Draft Day One

2007-04-28T20:18:00.000-04:00

The Bengals are done with day one of the draft as they only had 2 picks today. In the first round they took CB Leon Hall from Michigan and in the second round they took RB Kenny Irons from Auburn.

I was surprised that Leon Hall fell to the Bengals as most mocks had him going much earlier. Some scouts believed that Hall was the best CB in the draft as others felt that Revis was the best. So going into the draft I would have been happy with either of them.

I don't know how I feel about the Irons pick other than being completely shocked. The Bengals needed a change of pace back but I am still pretty surprised they used a 2nd round pick on RB. This pretty much means that Chris Perry is done as a Bengal. I would assume that all of the defensive players that Marvin targeted for the 2nd round pick were gone so he went best player available.

Tommorow the Bengals day will start with the #15 pick in Round 4 (pick #114 overall). I would assume the Bengals go defense the rest of the way unless Marvin finds a Tight End that he likes, but as we see from the Irons pick who knows what to expect.

Pat Forde on Cincinnati

2007-04-25T17:49:00.000-04:00

ESPN.com columnist Pat Forde has an article about the arrests of Bengal players and how it relates to the city of Cincinnati. When I saw the front page blurb of the story I said to myself, oh no, not another article bashing my hometown. But actually its a pretty fair article. I've heard many people talk about how Cincinnatians act like they live on their own island and ignore the rest of the country, usually I don't like this comment but Forde does a good job of backing up the statement. Forde tries to compare the sagas of Chris Henry and Josh Hamilton but I agree with Paul Daugherty's response that its two completely different situations. But I do find it hilarious that the person Forde talked to who defended Henry was a stripper from a Covington strip club.

Cincinnati is definitely one of the quirkiest big cities in America. As Forde points out, we are a big city that thinks its small. Along with Daugherty and Katie the stripper, Forde got some quotes about the City from XU AD Mike Bobinski and UC Basketball Head Coach Mick Cronin (who point's out a very unique aspect of Cincinnatians and the school they went to). There are also some quotes from Bill Cunningham's radio show that are presented in a negative light of Cincy, but I would like to think (and hope) that no one in Cincy really takes Cunningham too seriously.

Reds Update

2007-04-25T17:27:00.000-04:00

Well my internet has sucked the last couple of days so I could not tend to the blog. During this same time the Reds have struggled. I prefer to do my "Hunt for a Red October" post earlier in the week, so this will just be a mini update on whats going on in Redsland.

I got to attend Friday night's game vs. Philadelphia so I was lucky enough to get a Ryan Freel dirty shirt and see the Reds win. I would like to think the Reds won that game due to my presence and the players were inspired by my dance moves on the jumbotron.

Lets take a quick look at the happenings with our beloved Reds.

In the last week the Reds offense has struggled. The offense was brutal in the weekend series vs. Philadelphia. I said all off season long that the Reds needed to add another bat and it's looking like that statement is true.

Starting pitching has done well while the offense struggled. Kyle Lohse and Eric Milton both had good outings last weekend. I am still not sure if Lohse will be consistent and keep up this good start to the season, but he has good stuff. I suspect Milton will get back to giving up HR's in bunches once the weather heats up, but if the Reds can get some good starts from him maybe they can find a team foolish enough to take him.

Junior returns with a blast. Griffey Junior missed a lot of last week with an illness but returned to action on Tuesday with a homer. With Hamilton as hot as he is the Reds need to find a way to keep him in the lineup but maybe another benefit of his fast start is that it will push Junior even more to produce when he is in the lineup.

Edwin Encarnacion is one of my favorite players but he is struggling. Offensively he is batting below .200 and he has had some problems in the field. Jerry Narron doesn't seem to love Edwin like me and some of the other bloggers do, so Edwin will need to pick it up before our brilliant manager benches him in favor of Juan Castro. I do have to point out that EE's batting average has increased by 40 points in the last three games so he is showing some signs of coming around.

And finally, last week I mention how well the Bullpen had been so far but in the last week the bullpen of 2006 returned. In one of the few games the Reds had offense, the bullpen went out and blew a 5 run lead. If the Reds are to contend this year they cannot have the bullpen problems they suffered last season. Hopefully the eventual returns of Bray, Majewski and Guardado can help out.

Reds blow another one

2007-04-19T22:10:00.000-04:00

I cannot believe the Reds lost this game tonight, but once again the bullpen sucks and cost the Reds another game as Houston wins 8-6. This is starting to look very similar to 2006. Do the Reds just hate Bronson Arroyo? Bronson went 7 innings only gave up 2 runs on 5 hits. Then the bullpen gives up 5 runs in the 8th to give Houston the win. Why won't Narron let the starters keep going if they are pitching well? Lohse should have had a complete game on Sunday and both Harang and Arroyo were lifted too early the last two games. Once again the highlight of tonight is another homerun by Josh Hamilton. A very frustrating loss.

Reds fall to Astros 7-2

2007-04-18T23:20:00.000-04:00

In the last Hunt for a Red October, I mentioned how well the bullpen has been. Oops, I guess I have spoke too soon as the bullpen has struggled so far this week. Todd Coffey has had a really rough week, getting beat up tonight and in the first game vs. Milwaukee. Real Cormier was also bad tonight as he and Coffey both gave up 3 runs. It really made no sense to take out Aaron Harang after only 6 innings. Harang only gave up 1 one run and had 8 strikeouts. One positive from tonight's game is Josh Hamilton hit another homer, his fourth of the season.

Bang Cartoon: PacMan

2007-04-18T00:29:00.000-04:00

Bang Cartoons have their latest cartoon up and it features Pacman Jones and our very own Chris Henry. Bang rarely dissapoints and this is no exception. So I guess at least some good has come from the stupidity of Henry. Go here for the cartoon.

Great Moment at Fenway

2007-04-18T00:08:00.000-04:00

At a Red Sox game this week two fans got in argument, apparently about pizza. So later on in the game one of these fans attempted to catch a foul ball. After he missed catching the ball the other fan that he was arguing with nailed him with a slice of pizza. Its one of the greatest things I have ever seen. I am not sure if this makes me hate Red Sox fans more or like them a little more. Here is an article with a full description of the event and below is a video of what happened.

The Hunt for a Red October 4/17

2007-04-17T23:33:00.000-04:00

Ok, its time to look at the past week in Reds baseball. An up and down week as we saw the opposite of what we are used to: good pitching and bad offense. The Reds stumbled in the beginning of the road trip, dropping 2 of 3 to the Diamondbacks. Then the Reds went to Chicago and took 2 of 3 from the Cubbies and if you look at the offensive stats its pretty amazing they won a single game vs the Cubs. The Reds wrapped up a 2 game set tonight against Milwuakee and split the two games, tonight we saw the offense return as the Reds won 11-5. The Reds record now stands at 8-6 and are atop the Central standings. Lets take a look at the good and bad of the past week.

Good

The pitching. The Reds pitching so far this season has been outstanding and that goes for the starters and relievers. Surprisingly last week the only starter to have a bad outing was Aaron Harang who struggled in his start against the Cubs. Kyle Lohse was outstanding in his start going 8 innings and striking out 12 while giving up 0 runs.

Ryan Freel gets a two year extension. I like this move as do most Reds fans as Freel is a fan favorite. With Freel you know you are going to get great defense and 110% effort every game. Its also nice that Freel can play so many positions and he is a menace on the base paths.

Josh Hamilton. Speaking of fan favorites, Josh Hamilton is off to a great start. He is batting .318 with 3 HR's and 7 RBI's and right now is showing that the Reds need to get him in lineup everynight. Now I don't know how long he will be able to keep it up, but so far he is exceeding the expectations I had for him.

Bad

Edwin Encarnacion. EdE is one of my favorites, but last week was not a very good week for Edwin. Offensively Edwin went into an 0 for 22 slump. To make things worse in a game vs. Arizona he did not run out a pop out (Edwin says he didn't know where the ball was and thought it was foul) so Jerry Narron pulled him from the game.

The offense. I can't just pick on Edwin for his slump because the offense as a whole was abysmal aside from Josh Hamilton and Jeff Conine. In the last game of the Cubs series the Reds were lucky that Kyle Lohse was so dominant as the Reds only had two hits in the game.

The catchers. The Reds have three catchers on their roster and unfortunately they are all struggling offensively. Javier Valentine is a really good pinch hitter so I won't be to harsh on him. Chad Moeller only has 6 plate appearances but he only has one hit (personally I would get him off the big league roster and bring up Norris Hopper). David Ross is off to a really really slow start with only 3 hits in 28 at bats. If Ross keeps it up I might actually start to miss the Jason LaRue days.

Player of the Week

Kyle Lohse. As I have mentioned Lohse was phenomonal in his start vs. the Cubs. 8IP, 0 ER, 12 K's. Lohse has shown in the past that he can have performances like this but he has not shown that he can do it on a consistent basis. Lets up he can string together a couple of quality starts and not follow up this great game with a bad one like he did last season.

Upcoming Week

The Reds homestand continues with a 2 game series vs. Houston and a 3 game weekend series vs. Philadelphia.

In the series vs. Houston the Reds will have their aces Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo going. After losing their first 4 games of the season, Houston has played well as of late winning four of their last 6. But with the top of the rotation going for the Reds and not having to face Oswalt, I am going with the Reds in both games.

So far Philadelphia has been disappointing with a 3-9 record. The only player that has really shown up on offense has been Jimmy Rollins while young superstar Ryan Howard has really struggled. I could see a Reds sweep but Eric Milton is pitching game one of the series and I am still not confident in him despite his last start which was decent. So I will take the Reds winning 2 of three.

Gates choses UC

2007-04-16T12:27:00.000-04:00

Withrow standout PF Yancy Gates has chosen to go to UC for college. While I would have liked Yancy to go to Xavier, I knew it wasn't very likely (XU was in the running at one point but all the news I had read in the last month pointed that Gates was likely heading to UC and XU wasn't a candidate anymore) and I wish him the best at UC. Looks like Yancy's final choices were between UC, Ohio State, Indiana and Georgetown but he chose Cincinnati because he likes Head Coach Mick Cronin and Assistant Coach Tony Stubblefield. It also looks like UC is in good shape for the 7 foot center Anthony McClain from Maryland. Mick Cronin is doing a pretty good recruiting job so far for the Bearcats.

Jackie Robinson Day

2007-04-15T19:19:00.000-04:00

Today was Jackie Robinson Day as Major League Baseball celebrated the 60th anniversary of Jackie breaking the color barrier in the MLB. It was great that Ken Griffey Junior suggested that MLB take away the restriction of wearing #42 for today's games. Also mlb.com has a very nice page full of information about Jackie Robinson Day (thanks to Redleg Nation for the heads up).

FanIQ

2007-04-15T19:12:00.000-04:00

Recently Daniel "Lazy Tuesday" Solzman sent me a link to a site called FanIQ. It just got started on it but it seems pretty neat from what I have seen so are. Its kinda like MySpace but for sports fans. There are different groups dedicated to teams that you can join, you can predict games and other sporting events and compete against others, you can blog, post polls and I am sure there is some more stuff that I haven't explored yet. So I guess if I end up liking this site then it will become another internet addiction along with myspace and facebook.

Kyle Lohse terrific in Reds win

2007-04-15T17:06:00.000-04:00

Another game with a poor offensive performance but Kyle Lohse was phenomenal as the Reds win 1-0 and take 2 of 3 from the Cubs. Lohse pitched 8 innings, struck out 12, only walked one and didn't give up any runs. The Reds got their one run in large part due to aggressive baserunning by Brandon Phillips. With Jeff Conine up to bat BP stole 2nd then he was off and running for 3rd as Conine hit an RBI Single to left field. The Reds only had two hits today (and only 3 players reached base) but because of Lohse's great game they come away with the victory. Up next the Reds come back to Cincinnati for a 2 game series vs. Milwaukee.

Mock Drafts

2007-04-14T23:55:00.000-04:00

Its almost Midnight on Saturday Night and tonight was a lazy night for me so I figured no better time to check out what the mock drafts say about the Bengals. If you would like to go to a site that has all of the mock drafts of the internet, go to hailredskins.com where they have a link to 169 mock drafts. I did not look at all of the drafts but here are the results of the 40 most recently updated mocks that I did look at.

(Player, Position, College, number of mock drafts that have the Bengals selecting him)

Darrelle Revis, CB Pitt - 9
Adam Carriker, DE Nebraska - 5
Leon Hall, CB Michigan - 5
Greg Olsen, TE Miami - 5
Lawrence Timmons, OLB Florida State - 3
Paul Posluszny, OLB Penn State - 2
Jarvis Moss, DE Florida - 2
Alan Branch, DT Michigan - 2
Reggie Nelson, S Florida - 1
Amobi Okye, DT Louisville - 1
Patrick Willis, LB Mississippi - 1
Jon Beason, OLB Miami - 1

From what I have seen and read I would be happy with the Revis selection. I would be furious if they selected Greg Olsen, but I am not worried about this happening since I am pretty confident that Marvin will go defense with the first two picks. Leon Hall's stock has risen throughout the year so I don't see him falling to 18. I honestly don't know a lot about Carriker, but I would rather the Bengals get any other defensive position with the first pick since the Bengals seem pretty set at DE. One mock has us getting Amobi Okye but I would be shocked if he fell to 18 although I would have to celebrate if he did. I like Reggie Nelson a lot so I would be pretty stoked if the Bengals selected him. Really as long as Marvin doesn't shock us and go with offense with the first pick I should be ok with the selection. The Bengals need a lot of help on defense and this years draft has a lot of options.

No support for Arroyo again

2007-04-14T15:34:00.000-04:00

Why do the Reds bats always go silent when Arroyo pitches??? Bronson went 6 2/3 IP and gave up 2ER but the Reds go on to lose the game 7-0. On Friday Aaron Harang had a bad game but the Reds win 6-5. Also in today's game our brilliant manager intentionally walked Daryle Ward with 2 outs and Alfono Sorriano on deck. Obviously Sorriano gets an RBI Single. Good call Jerry. Tomorrow is the rubber match with Lohse going up against Ted Lilly. Lilly dominated us the last time so lets hope the Reds can reverse their fortunes this time around.

Reds finally beat DBacks

2007-04-12T00:23:00.000-04:00

The Reds finally took care of Arizona and won the series finale 3-2. In the first two game the Reds found ways to lose the game (i.e. not coming through on offense) but today they did the opposite and came from behind and won. The two big stories of the game are Edwin Encarnacion getting benched for not running out a pop out (there is debate if EE knew the ball was in play or not, but he still should have ran to 1st) and Josh Hamilton hitting his 2nd HR of the season.

NFL releases schedule

2007-04-11T18:54:00.000-04:00

Today the NFL has released the schedule for the 2007 season. Apparently the networks love the Bengals as they will have 4 national prime time games. Those game are Baltimore (ESPN MNF) and New England (ESPN MNF) at home and Pittsburgh (NBC SNF) and San Francisco (NFL Net) on the road. Here is the full schedule (courtesy enquirer.com):

Mon., Sep. 10	BALTIMORE	7 p.m.
Sun., Sep. 16	at Cleveland	1 p.m.
Sun., Sep. 23	at Seattle	4:05 p.m.
Mon., Oct. 1	NEW ENGLAND	8:30 p.m.
Sun., Oct. 7	— BYE —
Sun., Oct. 14	at Kansas City	1 p.m.
Sun., Oct. 21	N.Y. JETS	4:05 p.m.
Sun., Oct. 28	PITTSBURGH	1 p.m.
Sun., Nov. 4	at Buffalo	1 p.m.
Sun., Nov. 11	at Baltimore	4:05 p.m.
Sun., Nov. 18	ARIZONA	1 p.m.*
Sun., Nov. 25	TENNESSEE	1 p.m.*
Sun. Dec. 2	at Pittsburgh	8:15 p.m.*
Sun., Dec. 9	ST. LOUIS	1 p.m.*
Sat., Dec. 15	at San Francisco	8:15 p.m.
Sun., Dec. 23	CLEVELAND	1 p.m.*
Sun., Dec. 30	at Miami	1 p.m.*

Henry Suspended

2007-04-10T18:02:00.000-04:00

Cincinnati Bengals WR Chris Henry has been suspended for 8 games. Henry can be reinstated after the Bengals 8th game if he meets the NFL's conditions. Tennessee CB (and also a fromer WVU Mountaineer) Pac Man Jones will be suspended for the whole 2007-08 season.

Everyone expected Henry to be suspended but no one was really sure for how long. Eight games doesn't surprise me. I figured it would be somewhere between 5 and 10 games. Although Henry is a pretty good deep threat, the Bengals are pretty deep at WR and I don't think losing Henry will make or break the Bengals. This has to be Henry's last chance. If he screws up again he will be suspended for a long time and I can't imagine the Bengals or any other team giving him another chance. I really hope Henry has finally learned his lesson and has matured, but unfortunately I doubt it. I hope he proves me wrong.

The Hunt for a Red October 4/9/07

2007-04-09T18:21:00.000-04:00

Time for the first edition of The Hunt for a Red October. Overall a pretty good first week of the season for the Reds as they are tied with Pittsburgh atop the Central standings with a 4-2 record. Lets take a look at the good and bad of the week.

Good

The bullpen was one of the biggest weakpoints of the 2006 team but so far it has been a strength. Until Sunday's game the bullpen had not given up an earned run. I really like what I have seen from Saarloos so far. The Reds will be faced with some interesting roster decisions once Bill Bray and Gary Majewski are available to return.

Adam Dunn is off to a strong start batting .381 with 3 HR's, 6 RBI's and an OPS of 1.357. This means its time for me to remind everyone I predicted a career year for Dunn. Of course when he goes into a slump I will just conveniently ignore that prediction.

Aaron Harang is off to a 2-0 start. Harang was really sharp on Opening Day going 7IP without giving up an earned run and striking out 5. He wasn't as sharp in his second start giving up 5ER in 5 2/3 IP, but I blame that more on the bad weather in Cincinnati. Maybe this will be the season Aaron will get the recognition he deserves.

The first base platoon is working pretty well so far. Before the season I wasn't sure how I felt about the Conine signing and its still too early for me to make a judgment, but I can't argue with the results of the first week.

Bad

Eric Milton has not appeared to shaken off the rust as he had a rough first start giving up 10 hits and 4 ER in 5 2/3 innings. We were probably lucky that it was cold on Sunday so the ball wasn't flying out like it normally does at GABP. This wasn't a horrible effort by Milton though so it won't be the last we see of him.

No run support for Arroyo. Bronon went 7IP, gave up 4 runs and had 9 strikeouts but the Reds only scored a run. Midway through last season it seemed the Reds bats would go silent whenever Bronson pitched. Lets hope that trend does not start again.

Slow start for Brandon Phillips. Offensively Phillips struggled the first week, only recording 3 hits in 22 AB's. Only the first week of the season, which was played in unseasonably cold weather, so I am not worried about BP yet.

The Reds will be on the road this week first traveling to Arizona then a weekend series at Wrigley.

Reds vs. D'Backs pitching matchups:

Bronson Arroyo vs. Doug Davis
Kyle Lohse vs. Edgar Gonzalez
Matt Belisle vs. Micah Owings

Prediction: I like the Reds to once again take 2 out of 3. I have faith in Bronson, just hope the bats show up, which I think they will vs. Davis. Kyle Lohse didn't have a bad first outing (only gave up 2 ER in 6 1/3 but he did give up 10 hits) but you never know what you are going to get with him and I for some reason see the bad Lohse showing up on Tuesday. Matt Belisle looked really strong in his first start on Friday and I see that continuing on Wednesday.

Reds vs. Cubs pitching matchups:

*I will edit in the pitching matchups once I can find them online, which could be later in the week*

Right now, without knowing who the Cubs starting pitchers are I will once again predict the Reds will win 2 out of 3 (I believe Harang and Arroyo pitch Sat/Sun so I will predict the Reds win those games but lose Milton's start on Friday).

So far spirits are high for the Reds and their fans. Even though we are only starting the 2nd week of the season it is always nice to be in first while St. Louis and Houston are bringing up the rear. Lets hope the good fortunes can continue in Week 2. Go Reds!

Reds go for sweep

2007-04-08T11:11:00.000-04:00

The Reds are alone in first place and will be going for a sweep vs. the Pirates today. Unfortunately Eric Milton makes his return today, so I guess 2 out of 3 ain't bad. I kid, I kid. Hopefully Milton can put that terrible spring behind him and have a solid performance today. Unfortunately I will miss most of today's game to spend time with family on Easter (speaking of which, Happy Easter everyone!). Hopefully at some point tonight or tomorrow I should have my first edition of "A Hunt for Red October" and hopefully this week shouldn't be as busy and I can get back to regular blogging.

More Coaching Carosel

2007-04-06T16:50:00.000-04:00

There is some more news in NCAA Coaching changes. It is getting hard to keep up with all of the moves.

Billy Gillispie will be leaving Texas A&M for Kentucky. Although UK fans can be tough, I think this is a good move for Billy, although this isn't the Billy that UK fans had in mind. He is getting a lot of money, reports are 2.3 million a year for 7 years, and who knows how good A&M will be next year without Acie Law IV.

Frank Martin will be coach of Kansas State. This is a pretty bad move for KState in my opinion. The only reason they are making him the hire is because that is the only chance they have at keeping Michael Beasley and the rest of the recruiting class. Martin is a inexperienced head coach and after next year when Beasley and Walker leave for the NBA (assuming they stay at KState) I have a feeling that Martin will be completely overwhelmed in the Big 12.

The Coaching Carosel continues

2007-04-05T17:51:00.000-04:00

A lot of big news today in College Basketball. I am not sure if I can remember so much coaching move drama as I have seen in the last month. Let's take a look at today's headlines.

Billy Donovan will be staying at Florida. I knew some UK fans that were pretty confident that they would land Donovan for some reason. Everyone outside of the state of Kentucky knew that Billy D would have to be crazy to leave Florida especially for UK.

After only one year at Kansas State, Bob Huggins is leaving and has taken the head coaching job at his alma mater, West Virginia. Now the questions are will Bill Walker and Michael Beasley try to follow Huggins to West Virginia. I think it would be dumb for Walker to since as long as he stays healthy next season he will enter the draft. Beasley really had no interest in Kansas State and only went there for Huggins. Huggins stole him from Charlotte and his friend Bobby Lutz, so obviously he would have no problem taking him from KState. It remains to be seen if KState will let Beasley out of his LOI. I don't feel sorry for Kansas State at all, they knew what they were getting with Huggins and now they have to deal with the consequences. With Huggins at West Virignia looks like the football team will have some competition in the police reports. I am also interested in seeing all the moron Huggins fans show up to the Shoe when West Virginia plays UC.

Reds win Opening Day

2007-04-03T17:32:00.000-04:00

I know, I am a day late on the opening day post, but yesterday was a busy day for me: Opening Day baseball, fantasy baseball draft, NCAA Championship game. Now with a day to catch my breath, I can finally get back to posting.

The Reds won their first game of the season 5-1 against the Cubbies. So as of now the Reds are in first place, so I will go on to predict the Reds will go wire-to-wire since their first win of the season came against Lou Pinella. Its destiny!...ok I am not being serious, but the Reds looked good yesterday. Some notes on the game:

In earlier posts on here and in the Roundtable I predicted Adam Dunn would have a career year. Adam got off to a great start on Opening Day belting 2 HR's. I obviously still hold on to my prediction about Dunn and will constantly remind all the Dunn haters that I was right if it does happen.

By looking at yesterdays game you would have never known that Griffey Junior was out a majority of spring with an injured hand. Jr went 2-3 with a run. Since he is one of my favorites of all time I really want Junior to have a healthy, productive year.

Aaron Harang had a really rough spring but showed no signs of it yesterday as he pitched 7 innings with 5 strikeouts and gave up no earned runs. Despite his poor spring I was never worried about Harang and if he repeats the season he had last year and doesn't get any Cy Young votes it will be a crime.

It was good to hear Pete Rose on the broadcast. Although I am not a huge Rose for the Hall supporter, I do enjoy listening to him talk about baseball. It is obvious that he does love the game and the Cincinnati Reds. Its ashame that he will never be allowed to be a part of it again, because of his love for baseball he could be a good ambassador for the game, but I don't feel sorry for him since he has no one to blame but himself.

Looks like I am not the only one rooting for Josh Hamilton as he received a huge ovation in his at-bat. I don't expect Josh to be as good as he was in the Spring but I hope he can produce and stick around.

I really like the Reds new home uni's. They look sharp and much better than the vest look of the past. Eric Davis was looking pretty sharp in his suit as well.

And finally, Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory threw the worst first pitch I have seen since Carl Lewis' attempt in Seattle. The look on ED's face is priceless.

I will have my baseball predictions post later in the week. Although I am sure the Reds will end up disappointing me somehow, I do love the optimism on Opening Day.

Milton to the DL

2007-04-01T18:21:00.000-04:00

John Fay is reporting that Eric Milton will be placed on the DL. I never wish injuries upon anyone but I can't say that I am too broken up about this one. Hopefully this means that Bobby Livingston will be put on the major league roster.

Reds Roundtable

2007-04-01T13:30:00.000-04:00

Last week me and some of the Reds bloggers got together for an online roundtable to discuss the upcoming season. The participants were me, Shawn (Cincinnati Reds Blog), Blade (The Cutting Edge), Tim Mo (RAREMADEV), Daedalus (Church of Baseball), and Chris (Redleg Nation).

Here is part 3 of our discussion. It is about my favorite player, Eric Milton.

sweaver: OK, time to segue to Q3

sweaver: What happens to Eric Milton this year?

320Pub_Clint: hopefully he gets sent packing

Tim Mo: in reality, he probably stays

Blade: wow, loss for words or are we shut down

sweaver: If so, when?

Tim Mo: maybe he can sneak his way onto the DL

Blade: I say Eric Milton surprises everyone and is mediocre this year instead of a laughing stock

daedalus: according to fay, he has to accept options or get released. and if he's released, we don't have to pay him - i don't think i'm wrong. i don't see a downside. why not put your best team on the field?

sweaver: I do not expect Milton to be in a Cincinnati uniform in August

sweaver: If Milton is released, the Reds are still on the hook for his contract...all of it

sweaver: If that was true, he'd have been released already

320Pub_Clint: i would rather the Reds pay him to get off the team instead of paying him to lose games

sweaver: I would guess that Wayne Krivsky is working very hard to trade Milton. I doubt he is having any success.

Tim Mo: he's certainly not a fan favorite, but he might be mediocre, i mean compare his spring to Harang's - but nobody is worried about Harang

Blade: That's a tough contract to unload

daedalus: yeah, he was paid to win games, right? so if we get rid of him and win the games he would pitch, it's the same thing!

Blade: Then again, the Cubs traded Neifi Perez to a contender last year so anything can happen

sweaver: Well, sort of

320Pub_Clint: yeah but at least Harang showed us in the past that he is a good pitcher, Milton has showed us nothing since he came to Cincinnati

Chris @ RLN: He is 87-80, career.

Chris @ RLN: Nobody wants him in trade though.

sweaver: In my BBMogul league, I finally managed to dump Milton, and not pay too much of his salary

daedalus: harang did not give up 5 longballs in 6 innings to the pirates A team.

sweaver: To be fair, the wind was blowing out that day

320Pub_Clint: the only way we would be able to trade him is if some team makes Dan O Brien their GM for some reason

Blade: Hey, Bowden got a job

sweaver: About the only team that could use Milton is actually the Nationals, with their sorry pitching and big park.

sweaver: Sorry, Daedalus

Chris @ RLN: I don't care what the wind was doing. It was a class A team.

Tim Mo: i'm not trying to compare milton and harang too much, just that they both haven't had good springs

daedalus: no, it's too bad that krivsky played the majewski thing badly -- i think bowden would take milton, because there is absolutely NOTHING for the nats starting rotation. one of the guys they chose is hurt. nats would take him

daedalus: ha, shawn, i was writing the same thing!

320Pub_Clint: unless the winds were at hurricane level, there is no excuse for a major league pitcher to give up that many homers to a single A team

sweaver: heh

sweaver: If it was up to me, I release Milton today. But it's not my money

Chris @ RLN: Milton could actually survive in RFK, too.

daedalus: at the very least, the reds should put him on the DL to start the season and pitch him a few minor league rehab games.

Blade: maybe he was tipping his pitches and it was a hitters park :-)

sweaver: I figure, he pitches bad, he's released at midseason. He pitches decent, he gets traded unless the Reds are in front or very close

Tim Mo: that's what i was talking about, daedalus

Blade: Yeah, they'll see what he can do. If he has a decent April and May, maybe they can unload him

sweaver: The way he's pitching, I wouldn't be surprised to see him open on the DL

sweaver: Badly inflamed ERA.

daedalus: RFK is not as bad as everyone says. i mean, look what soriano did last year. and i saw plenty of homers by oppposing teams, including the reds!

Chris @ RLN: The money doesn't matter. Really, it doesn't. Milton either gets paid to pitch badly, or he gets paid not to pitch. Keeping a jersey on his back doesn't make him any less expensive. Of course, that's a hard concept to grasp when you are paying the money, and someone says, "well, maybe..."

320Pub_Clint: yeah that is the most likely scenario shawn, although I hope if he is pitching badly the Reds don't wait until midseason to release him

sweaver: I agree, Clint, but the guys paying the bills often don't

320Pub_Clint: true true

Here are the links to the other parts of the Roundtable

Part One - Church of Baseball
Part Two - Reds Cutting Edge
Part Four - Cincinnati Reds Blog
Part Five - Redleg Nation
Part Six - RAREMADEV
Part Seven - Redlegs Rundown

Reds make roster moves

2007-03-29T19:23:00.000-04:00

Today the Reds have come closer to finalizing their Opening Day roster with some moves.

Turns out the injury to Chris Denorfia is pretty serious. Deno will go under Tommy John surgery and will be out for six months. Good luck to Deno, I hope you have a full recovery!

Pitchers Gary Majewski and Bobby Livingston were optioned to AAA. Majewski didn't play much this spring due to recovery to an injury. Livingston had an outstanding Spring, most Reds fans would have him on the big league roster but unfortunately thanks to Eric Milton's ridiculous contract he gets to stay.

Jeff Keppinger, Elizardo Ramirez and Bill Bray are put on the DL and will be in Florida to rehab while Denorfia, Jerry Gill and Eddie Guardado are on the DL and will be in Cincinnati.

This leaves one more position player roster spot, the 5th spot in the rotation (which will likely go to Belisle) and two bullpen spots to be decided. I swear if the Reds give the position player spot to Chad Moeller I will be furious.

Kenny Frease commits to Xavier!

2007-03-27T23:39:00.000-04:00

Huge news from Xavier as Massillon (OH) Perry Center Kenny Frease commits to Xavier. Frease is a 5 star recruit and regarded as one of the best centers in the nation. According to Dustin Dow's blog Kenny wants to be Xavier's Greg Oden. So far this is becoming a great recruiting class for Xavier. Frease joins PG Brad Redford and combo G Mark Lyons in the 08' class that has verballed to Xavier. The next name that many Xavier fans would like to see commit to X is Withrow PF Yancy Gates. From what I have last heard (i.e. read on various message boards and recruting pages) Xavier and Cincinnati are in the running for Gates but there are other major programs after Gates as well. Even without Gates this is probably the best recruiting class in Xavier history but it would be awesome if X could get Gates. A great job by the Xavier staff in making sure that Sean Miller stays long term.

Reds Roundup 3/27

2007-03-27T18:04:00.000-04:00

Spring Training is winding down and its almost time for Opening Day! This will probably be one of the last "Reds Roundup's" and once the season begins I will bring back "The Hunt for a Red October".

The big story of the past week was Dice-K vs. the Reds. As expected Dice-K fared pretty well against the Reds although I am sure Sox fans would like to see him cut back on the walks. But on the other side Bobby Livingston continued his outstanding spring by only giving up one hit in 5 scoreless innings. Oh yeah, the Reds won 5-0.

Unfortunately there was also some bad news when it comes to the Reds pitching staff. Eric Milton was rocked by the Pittsburgh Pirates SINGLE A TEAM. If you can't tell by the all-caps, yes this is not a joke. How in the world does a major league pitcher give up 5 home runs to a Single A team?!?!? I could probably make this its own post, but ill keep it in here for now. How can the Reds really justify keeping Milton in the starting rotation over Livingston or Saaloos??? The only reason Milton is still on the roster is because of that ludicrous $9 million contract he has. Thanks Dan O'Brien!

Speaking of pitching, it looks like we might not know who will win the battle for the 5th spot in the rotation until Opening Day. Matt Belisle is the favorite for the spot while Saarloos will likely be sent to the bullpen and Livingston to the minors. If it were my decision Belisle and Livingston would be in the rotation, Saarloos in the pen and Milton would be sent packing.

Gary Majewski is trying to prove that he can still pitch after an injury plagued 2006. I think Majewski can still be a valuable arm in the bullpen. It was pretty obvious that he was damaged goods coming to Cincinnati last season. But I do have to add that unless he and Bill Bray are lights out then it was still a really, really bad trade by Wayne K.

We will know its officially baseball season when the Findlay Market parade kicks off. My favorite player of my childhood, Eric Davis, will be this years Grand Marshall. I will take in some of the parade during my lunch break and who knows maybe I will have a chance to run into a former Reds great (last year I got to see Tom Browning who was across the street from where I work at but unfortunately he was busy and I didn't get a chance to talk to him).

The Reds made some cuts to the roster this week. Mark Belhorn, Dewayne Wise, Ryan Jorgensen and Anderson Machado were cut. Belhorn can report to the minors or accept his release. None of these moves shock me.

Johnny Wolf granted release from Xavier

2007-03-27T17:49:00.000-04:00

According to Dustin Dow's blog, Johnny Wolf has asked for and granted a release from Xavier. This will be Wolf's Junior season but he will have to sit out the upcoming season if he does leave Xavier. Johnny started at the end of his freshman year after Dedrick Finn's dismissal but he did not get many minutes in the 2nd half of his sophomore season after Drew Lavender's excellent play. I have heard rumors about Butler and Dayton being possible locations for Wolf.

I am a little surprised that the rumors about Wolf leaving are true. Although he won't get a lot of playing time next season he would be the favorite to be the starting PG his senior year. But if he wants to get a lot of minutes for both his junior and senior season then it is understandable that he wants to leave and its no guarantee that he would start his senior year since XU has received verbals from 2 point guards in the 08' class.

XU will now have to find a backup point guard for next season as Drew Lavender is the only true PG on the roster. Lavender will probably see at least 35 minutes a game so I am not hugely concerned about the PG position. I would think that Miller will be going after a JUCO PG since he already has a pair of guards in the 08' class. Wherever Johnny decides to go I wish him the best of luck.

Chris Henry is still an idiot

2007-03-27T17:40:00.000-04:00

If anyone had March 27, 2007 in the when will Chris Henry would be arrested again pool, then you are the winner! Henry was ticketed for driving with a suspended license, failing to use a turn signal and not wearing a seat belt on the 1100 block of Vine Street.

Normally not using the turn signal and wearing a seat belt isn't a huge deal, just pay the fine and move on with life. But not when you are Chris Henry. What in the world is he doing driving around town? With all the legal problems Henry has had you would think he would be smart enough to actually start abiding the law. Chris, if you really need to get somewhere there are other options besides driving without a license. Get a cab or call a teammate to help you out. It isn't that hard.

I would be shocked if Henry doesn't begin the season suspended for at least 4 games. Is it really that hard to stay out of trouble? Chris Henry is a very talented player but how many times will he screw up before Marvin gives up on him? It is getting annoying and frustrating to continue to hear Henry's name in the news like this.

Bengals host Monday Night opener

2007-03-26T18:28:00.000-04:00

It has been announced today that the Bengals will host the Baltimore Ravens on the Monday Night Football opener. This is pretty sweet since it wasn't too long ago when the Bengals didn't get any nationally televised games and now they get the Monday Night Opener.

Sweet 16 late game recap

2007-03-23T00:38:00.000-04:00

Ohio State and UCLA will be heading to the Elite 8 after their wins tonight. I can't really add any commentary on the UCLA game as I didn't see any of it. Ohio State climbed back from a 20 point deficit to win by a point. Greg Oden was in foul trouble again and the Buckeyes actually played better with him on the bench. I was hoping the Vols would pull it out just so I wouldn't have to watch OSU any more and think what if. What surprises me the most about tonights games in two game winning/tying situations two of the best shooters in the country, Law and Lofton, didn't even touch the ball. If you are in that situation you have to get the ball in their hands.

Sweet 16 early evening games recap

2007-03-22T21:56:00.000-04:00

Both games went down to the wire as Kansas and Memphis advance to the Elite 8. I made 2 bracket this year. Tonight in one bracket I had S. Illinois and Tex AM advancing and in the other I had Kansas and Memphis advancing. So either way I was going to be happy with the results. Anyway here is some key points in the games.

Southern Illinois caught some tough breaks from the refs tonight. First they missed a shot clock violation on a Kansas dunk and then later they incorrectly called a shot clock violation on Southern Illinois. But Kansas was pretty bad from the foul line and the Salukis had their opportunities tonight.

Texas AM had a one point lead in the last minute of the game. It looked liked it would increase to 3 when Acie Law went for a layup but he missed. In the last 30 seconds of the game Memphis had about 5 shots because Texas AM was not aggressively going for rebounds and then with 3.1 seconds left the refs called a pretty ticky tack foul on AM on a Memphis put back. Memphis hit both to leave AM 3.1 left down by a point. Memphis deflected the inbounds out of bounds but the clock did not start so the refs reviewed it and somehow came up with 2.0 seconds remaining in the game. Then to top everything off for some reason AM did not get the ball in Acie Law's hands to win the game. Seriously, how do you not get the ball in the most clutch shooter in college basketball in this situation???

Reds Roundup 3/22

2007-03-22T18:46:00.000-04:00

With the Tournament in full swing I haven't done a lot of Reds posting but I figured now would be a good time for another Reds Roundup.

Most of the media attention is focused on Ken Griffey Junior's move to Right Field. Here are some links to the many stories covering the move.
CBS Sportsline (this is actually the AP story)
ESPN.com's Jayson Stark
The Enquirer
Lonnie Wheeler's Column
Dayton Daily News

Ok, now that should cover the Griffey stories, lets move on with what is going on with the rest of the ballclub.

The Reds beat the Yankees 8-7 today as my guy Edwin Encaranacion hit a game winning double in the 9th. Kyle Lohse struggled against the powerful Yankees lineup giving up 5 ER (6R total) in 5 IP.

Ryan Freel is still going to go all out in Center Field. I love that Ryan plays 110% every play but I often do worry about him hurting himself and others with his style of play. Here is another angle on this story from The Post. Oh and here is one more angle this one from DDN.

Eric Milton has struggled this spring but says its no cause for alarm. I wish I could believe him but quite honestly Milton isn't good. I still can't believe how much money Dan O'Brien gave him. With my luck every game I go to Eric Milton will be the starter, but I guess the good news would be if I have outfield seats then I have a decent shot at catching a souvenir.

Ok so really I guess I should have named this edition of the Roundup the Griffey and Freel roundup since that is what almost every story from the media is about. Surprisingly I couldn't find any new stories about Josh Hamilton, so that should tell you how much the media is loving this Griffey to right field story.

NCAA Sweet 16 day one preview

2007-03-22T18:24:00.000-04:00

Today is the first day of the Sweet 16 and there are some pretty intriguing matchups tonight.

Kansas-Southern Illinois. I picked the Salukis in my bracket and I am sticking with this pick. Not because I think Southern Illinois is better (they aren't) but there is always a surprise mid major in the Elite 8 and I went with the Salukis this year. But then again with how Kansas is playing I could see them winning by double digits.

Texas A&M-Memphis. This should be a fun game to watch. I expect a close game that will go down to the wire. In a close game I have to go with A&M for one reason, Acie Law IV. There isn't a player in college basketball who is as clutch as Law and he will be he difference. It also helps that the game is being played in Texas.

Pitt-UCLA. Overall UCLA is one of the most talented teams in basketball, if not the most talented. However Aaron Gray and Pitt could provide a lot of match up problems for the Bruins. I picked UCLA to go to the Final Four and am sticking with it but they are going to have to contain Gray to move on past tonight.

Tennessee-Ohio State. This is going to be a hard one for me to watch. The whole time I will be thinking that it should be Xavier playing and I am sure they will mention the Oden foul and Ron Lewis shot more than a couple of times. I also have no idea who to root for, I hate Bruce Pearl and Tennessee, and normally Ohio State is one of my favorite teams behind Xavier but these are different circumstances. So I will just hope for a close exciting game. I am picking Tennessee to win, they came close to knocking off the Bucks in the regular season and Xavier showed the blueprint on how to beat Ohio State.

The Coaching Carousel

2007-03-22T18:14:00.000-04:00

A lot of news today in College Basketball coaching moves, especially in the tri-state area.

Looks like Xavier fans won't have to worry about Sean Miller pulling a Matta and leaving for the Big 10 as Xavier has extended Miller's contract to 2016 and made him the highest paid coach in the A10.

The big story today is Tubby Smith will be leaving Kentucky and will become the head coach at Minnesota. I think this is a good move for Tubby and by Minnesota. By this move alone the Gophers will be contenders in the Big 10. As for Tubby he will not have to feel so much pressure. Even though he has won a championship and gets to the tournament every year that was not enough for many UK fans. If he duplicates this at Minnesota he will be a God there. Of course time to speculate who will take over at Kentucky. Many want Billy Donovan but I don't see why he would leave Florida for UK. Rick Pitino's name will be brought up but I don't see that happening. John Calipari seems pretty happy at Memphis. Travis Ford is a fan favorite but I don't know if he has enough head coaching experience. So I really don't know what is going to happen in Lexington.

Reds release Wilson

2007-03-21T20:37:00.000-04:00

Today the Reds released P Paul Wilson. Wilson has battled injuries his last couple of years and was battling for the #5 spot in the pitching rotation. Wilson was pretty inconsistent in Spring Training and pitchers like Matt Belisle, Kirk Saarloos and Bobby Livingston had better Springs.

This doesn't really surprise me at all since I felt Wilson was a long shot to make the club. I like Paul and it would have made a nice story but he has had too many injuries and faced too much competition to really have a chance. It was a good effort to get back as far as he has though. I wish him the best of luck in whatever he decides to do after this.

Xavier lands 08 recruit

2007-03-21T18:04:00.000-04:00

Xavier received a verbal commitment from the class of 2008. The player is Mark "Cheeks" Lyons a guard from South Kent, CT. Rivals and Scout both have Lyons as a 3 star recruit. I think he will probably end up playing PG for Xavier although he is more of a combo guard. He is drawing comparisons to former XU guard Lionel Chalmers since they are both combo guards from the same area of the contry. From what I have read about him it sounds like a good pickup for Xavier. It also helps me feel a little more comfortable about Sean Miller staying at Xavier because I can't really see a recruit committing to a school if he isn't sure if the coach will be there.

Here is a video of him dunking

Keep Miller

2007-03-21T17:46:00.000-04:00

Since Xavier's loss to Ohio State the other big story aside from the game is will Miller stay at Xavier. Two jobs in the Big 10 have opened up, those two being Minnesota and Michigan. Both schools can offer Miller more money than Xavier could and it would obviously be an upgrade conference wise. But Xavier has excellent basketball facilities, seems to have more care and attention to the basketball program than either Minnesota and Michigan, and Xavier should have a pretty good team next year. Right now there are rumors that Minnesota will name Miller head coach. Miller is denying these claims (sound familiar XU fans?).

From all reports and stories that I have read about Miller, it seems like he is very happy at Xavier and would like to stay here. But if Minnesota offers a lot of money I understand it will be hard for Sean to pass up. Mike Bobinski is trying to find different ways to get Miller more money. I don't think Xavier could match a Big 10 school money wise, but if they could offer a more competitive salary then maybe that will be all it takes to keep Miller for a couple of more years.

Personally I don't think Miller will leave for Minnesota or Michigan. But then again I didn't think Thad was going to leave for OSU since you know, he said he wasn't. I know Miller will leave at some point. When that time comes I will be ok with that, but I hope he stays here longer than 3 years. I am used to X being a stepping stone for coaches but I don't want it to become a revolving door.

Xavier needs to do whatever it can to keep Sean Miller. Miller has faced some criticism from XU fans (although I don't think it is as bad as some people make it out to be) but I think he is a good coach and can become a great one. Miller has made some mistakes that young coaches tend to do but he has improved every year and his teams play the best at the end of the year when it matters the most. I plan on sending Miller an email telling him how much I appreciate the job has done so far at Xavier and one to Mike Bobinski telling him I support Miller and the administation needs to do what it can to keep him. I also will check the funds and see if I can make a contribution to the All for One fund since it is programs like this that are vital for smaller college athletic departments. I encourage more Xavier fans to do the same.

If Miller does leave I just hope it is with more integrity and honesty than Thad.

Griffey to play in Right Field

2007-03-19T19:21:00.000-04:00

For the past couple of years many have felt that it would be best if Ken Griffey Junior to switch positions. Junior has always said that he feels that he is better off playing in Center and not really interested in changing positions. Looks like he has changed his tune about changing positions. If Jr can go on Opening Day he will be starting in Right Field.

Jerry Narron would like Griffey to be able to play in Center but because of his offseason injury and how long it took to recover from they didn't have any other option other than putting Jr in Right. Jerry also likes Ryan Freel in center and feels that the defense up the middle is better.

I am actually surprised that this is going to happen. Griffey is one of my all time favorites but I always felt he was a bit too stubborn about the possibility of changing positions. I also agree with Narron (don't get too used to me saying that) about Freel being a better option in Center. I think this move will be better for the Reds and for Ken Griffey Junior.

Doosh Bag of the Week #3

2007-03-19T19:04:00.000-04:00

The first 2 D.B.o.t.W's have been pretty easy calls but this one is a bit tougher. Joey Porter tried making a late charge by punching Levi Jones at a blackjack table in Vegas. However I am going to go with a tie: Greg Oden and the refs of the X-OSU game. I do have to note that I do not blame the Oden foul for the Xavier loss (there are many other reasons why Xavier lost), but it doesn't mean that he and the refs aren't doosh bags' for it.

I usually go into detail about why I chose whoever I did for this prestigious award, but you can go to my previous post. Oden could have at least made it look like he was going for the ball and the refs should have had the balls to make the correct intentional foul call.

If you want to see video of Greg Oden's foul on Justin Cage go here.

Xavier-Ohio State recap

2007-03-19T18:05:00.000-04:00

I have avoided writing about this game for two days now. Partially because I haven't been around a computer too much, but mostly because this is the most painful loss I have witnessed as a Xavier fan or maybe even a sports fan in general (I was only 6 years old for Bengals-49ers Superbowl XXIII so I don't exactly remember how I felt after the game but I surprisingly remember a lot about that day). Even though the loss to Duke in 2004 cost X its first Final Four this has been much harder to swallow because of how Xavier loss. Lets take a look at how Xavier lost this game.

Gotta start with the obvious, The Greg Oden foul. Its a foul no Xavier fan will ever forget. I don't blame Xavier losing because of the lack of an intentional foul called but it was obviously a hard intentional foul. Greg Oden was frustrated, knew it would be his fifth foul, probably felt the game was over, so he fouled Cage as hard as he could and didn't even go for the ball. Yes I know, if Cage makes both foul shots then the no call is irrelevant. But I will not put any blame on Justin Cage for the outcome of this game. He is a warrior and played on hell of a game and is easily one of my favorite players to ever put on a Xavier jersey. I absolutely hate that Cage has to end his career like this.

The last 9 seconds. I think Sean Miller coached a great game but I probably would have done two things differently at the end. I would have had people on the lane to try to rebound in case Cage missed a free throw. I also would have fouled before Lewis got off a shot. However neither of these would have guaranteed a victory either. Say Xavier fouls and OSU misses the 2nd foul shot but gets a rebound and nails a three to win the game. Everyone would be ripping Miller for fouling. Some people are trying to compare this to the Tennessee-Virginia game where Tennessee fouled in a similar situation, but people conveniently leave out that Tennessee did not foul the 2nd time Virginia got the ball and got a three off at the buzzer. The only difference is OSU's shot went in and Virginia's did not.

One more reason why this loss is so tough is Xavier had an 11 point lead with 5 minutes to go. The players tightened up a little bit and became too passive. We have seen it many times, when you play not to lose instead of playing to win most of the time it costs you. This was the case for Xavier. They took too much time on offense which forced some bad shots with time running down on the shot clock and the turning point was the steal off the inbounds which ended up giving OSU 6 points in 30 seconds.

There are some more reasons why X should have won this game but I am going to try to move on from this. One note I have to add is this loss is not Sean Miller's fault and any "fan" that is angry and hopes Miller leaves is an idiot. Miller devised a perfect gameplan to beat Greg Oden and Ohio State, unfortunately X didn't get the breaks in the end. I think Miller can become a great coach and Xavier should try its best to keep in as long as possible.

Whenever a UK fan would annoy me I would joke around and bring up Christian Laettner. But I won't be doing this anymore because now I know how UK fans felt after that game and it feels awful. The Greg Oden foul and Ron Lewis' shot are two memories that will go along with Montana to Taylor as images I will never forget.

I will never forget the great memories that Justin Cage, Justin Doellman and Brandon Cage have provided us during their careers. It sucks that their college careers end like this but they haven been parts of some very good Xavier teams, I thank them for all of their accomplishments and wish them the best in whatever they do in their post-college lives. (I would also like to add this note, students at Xavier gave Cage a standing ovation when he entered class today. That is a great gesture by the X students.)

Xavier-Ohio State Previews

2007-03-17T02:21:00.000-04:00

Once again looked around the internet for previews of the upcoming Xavier-Ohio State game and here is what I could find. As you will see most of the talk is about Thad Matta.

Pat Forde column on Matta's departure from Xavier

CBS Sportsline Preview

Sporting News on Matta's departure from Xavier

GoXavier.com

MusketeerMadness.com

OhioStateBuckeyes.com

AroundTheOval's preview

The Enquirer's Xavier page

The Dispatch.com's OSU page

Xavier-Ohio State

2007-03-17T02:00:00.000-04:00

A game that Xavier fans have been waiting three years for. This is the most excited I have been for a game since the Duke game in 2004. I don't hate Thad Matta for leaving X for OSU. He would have been insane not to. I did not like how he left. He could have handled it with a little more class like Gillen and Prosser did when they left. But all of that is in the past and I have moved on and forgiven Thad and cheer for him, but Saturday he is the enemy and I hope him and his Buckeyes go down.

Now onto the game itself. Outside of Cincinnati no one is giving Xavier much of a chance. It would be one of the bigger upsets in recent tournament history. I do think XU can win this game. Sure, OSU is a great team and the odds are heavily in OSU's favor, but its possible. My head says Ohio State wins by 12 but my heart says Xavier by 5. If you saw my bracket then you know I am going with my heart.

The main thing that worries me about Ohio State isn't Greg Oden. Oden will get his 20+ points and 10+ rebounds. I am more worried about OSU's outside shooting. Ohio State is a great perimeter team. Xavier can't afford to be so preoccupied with Oden and allow Ohio State wide open three's.

On the other side X will need to hit their outside shots. Stanley Burrell will need to show up because if he lays another goose egg then no way Xavier wins. Lavender-Conley is an intriguing matchup between two of the best point guards in the tournament. Another key for Xavier could be Josh Duncan. If he can come into the game and hit his outside shots then Greg Oden would be forced to come out and guard him which could open up the inside for Xavier. One other thing Xavier has going for it is experience. Ohio State is a young team while Xavier starts 3 seniors and 2 juniors.

No matter what the outcome is I expect a close game. I just don't see the three seniors letting Xavier get blown out. Xavier has won 3 out of its last 4 against the #1 ranked team in the country. Lets hope they can make it 4 out of 5.

LET'S GO X!!!

NCAA Tournament Day 2 recap

2007-03-17T01:46:00.000-04:00

A good day for me and my bracket as I went 15-1, of course the team I would have like to lose the most, Kentucky, is my one defeat today. Overall the games were much better today than yesterday but still a pretty tame first round compared to most tourneys. Here are the highlights of todays action.

Winthrop pulled the biggest upset of today knocking off Notre Dame. Most of the media has pegged Winthrop as the mid major with most potential to make a run. I agree and think they can beat Oregon.

Miami came up just short against Oregon. It looked like Oregon was going to run away with it toward the end but Miami went on a nice run in the last couple of minutes but just couldn't pull it out. Good season for Miami though.

I have Wisconsin in the Elite 8 but they struggled today against Texas AM-CC. I think Wisconin's defense is good enough to get them to advance in the tourney but that offense is shaky. Wouldn't surprise me at all if the Badgers lose to UNLV.

Creighton and Nevada went into OT with the Wolfpack getting the win. If Nevada can slow down Memphis I see them winning. I wasn't too impressed from what I saw out of Memphis today against North Texas.

Illinois blew their game against Virginia Tech. I am pretty sure every time I saw Illinois play this year (besides the XU game) they blew the game in the final minutes.

Dick Vitale has been going on and on about how good Arizona is and how they will give Florida trouble. From what I saw of Zona this year I was not impressed at all and I thought Vitale was insane. Turns out I was right as they couldn't get past Purdue tonight, so yeah I am pretty confident that Florida would have handled Arizona with ease.

NCAA Tournament Day 2 preview

2007-03-16T12:17:00.000-04:00

Time for day 2 of the Madness. I am sure everyone is hoping for closer and more exciting games to make up for yesterdays games. Here are the games I am most interested in.

Virginia-Albany. This game was a toss up for me on my bracket but I went with Virginia. I wouldn't be surprised if Albany pulled it out though. *edit* Virignia is killing Albany so good thing I suck with the Cavs

Winthrop-Notre Dame. This is the game that I have as my big upset of today. Although I am not sure how big of an upset it would be because a lot of the country feels the same way that I do. I really liked what I saw from Winthrop this year and I am not big on the Irish. Of course this means Notre Dame will probably blow them out now.

Creighton-Nevada. Another one of those toss up games for me. I went with Nevada because I think Fazekas will be too much for the Bluejays. I think whoever wins this game has a good chance of knocking off Memphis in Round 2.

Miami-Oregon. I am rooting for Charlie Coles and his Redhawks but unfortunately I don't see them being able to beat the Ducks.

Illinois-Virginia Tech. I got the Hokies winning this one because I think they are too athletic for the Illini and I don't like Illinois' backcourt. But an upset could happen if Va Tech lets the Illini frontcourt dominate the game.

Villanova-Kentucky. Another one of those that I consider a toss-up. Villanova finished the season better than UK so I am going with Nova. I think Sumpter and Nardi will have big games for them.

Other games today (winners in bold): UNLV-Georgia Tech, North Texas-Memphis, Long Beach State-Tennessee, Wisconsin-Tex A&M CC, Niagara-Kansas, Purdue-Arizona, New Mexico State-Texas, Holy Cross-Southern Illinois, Florida-Jackson State, Arkansas-USC

"This is why Duke Sucks"

2007-03-16T01:49:00.000-04:00

Seems like an appropriate time to post this video.

NCAA Tournament Day 1 evening update

2007-03-16T00:05:00.000-04:00

Great basketball night for me. The evening games were better than the afternoon and its always good when Xavier wins and Duke loses.

Xavier-BYU was a great game. Drew Lavender struggled for a lot of the game then all of the sudden in the last 5 minutes he was unstoppable. Derrick Brown was amazing especially since it was his first tournament game. For BYU Young and Rose were terrific. Even with a player right in his face Young hit some very tough shots. Rose hit a lot of big 3 pointers. I was nervous but I knew the game would turn out like it did. Oh yeah, Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale can suck it!

Duke-VCU was the game of the night. Duke jumped out to an early lead but VCU did not go away and hit some clutch 3's to get back in it. Down the stretch Duke killed themselves with turnovers and Maynor for VCU was amazing.

Ohio Stat won with ease against CCSU. CCSU had no answers for Greg Oden or OSU's fantastic 3 point shooting.

Other winners tonight were Indiana, Marquette, UCLA, Pitt, UNC. I didn't pay as close attention to these games as I did the others so no real insight from me on them.

NCAA Tournament Day 1 late afternoon update

2007-03-15T17:16:00.000-04:00

With only one afternoon game in progress (GW-Vandy) there has not been any upsets so far today.

Penn gave Texas A&M a battle today and had a lead late in the game to scare me and many others who have A&M in the Final Four. But Acie Law and the Aggies finished the game very strongly to give the Aggies the win. I am still about nervous about them playing Louisville in Kentucky.

Butler and Old Dominion played an ugly, boring game. For about 32 minutes it was a close game but Butler caught fire at the end to run away with the victory. This is the one game I got wrong so far and I thought this would be the year I would have the perfect bracket. Damn! Oh well, maybe next year.

Belmont started the first five minutes of its game vs. Georgetown really well and then the Hoyas dominated after that for an easy 25 point victory.

By looking at the final score you wouldn't know it but Oral Roberts actually led at halftime vs. Washington State. Washington State dominated the 2nd half for the 16 point win.

So far not too much excitement in the first round. The Maryland-Davidson and Texas AM-Penn games have been the best. But hey, even with no upsets so far, this is much more enjoyable than being at work!

NCAA Tournament Day 1 mid afternoon update

2007-03-15T14:24:00.000-04:00

In the Cincinnati area we were stuck watching the Louisville-Stanford blowout, luckily I signed up for the March Madness On Demand so I could watch all the games. So here is what happened in the early games.

As noted, Louisville routed Stanford (technically the game is still going but this game was over by the first TV timeout). Stanford definitely did not make a good case for their controversial tournament bid. Jim Boeheim is probably crying and typing a myspace bulletin about how his Orange should be there instead of the Cardinal.

Boston College took care of Texas Tech. Jackson never got going for TT and Dudley was too much inside for the Raiders to handle. Only bad thing about Tech going out early is today is the only opportunity for crazy/hilarious Bobby Knight press conferences.

As I expect Davidson gave Maryland all it could handle but the Terps came away with the hard fought victory. Maryland pulled away in the last couple of minutes as Davidson became sloppy and couldn't hit their shots.

In the next slate of games I look forward to Old Dominion-Butler the most.

NCAA Tournament Day 1

2007-03-15T11:25:00.000-04:00

This weekend if my favorite of the sports year. The first two days of the NCAA Tournament are the best time in sports. Luckily this year I was able to get Thursday and Friday off so I could watch all the games. Here are the games I expect to be the best ones of today.

Davidson-Maryland. I have the Terps winning this one but Davidson will be tough. I almost went with the upset but aside from the loss in the ACC tourney the Terps finished the season hot and I like their backcourt

Texas Tech-Boston College. I like the Eagles in this one. I think TT is too one dimensional with Jackson and Bobby Knight doesn't like Mid Majors and thinks the tournament should just be 32 teams so I just can't go for the Raiders.

Old Dominion-Butler. I hate that they put two of the top Mid Majors up against each other in the first round. Its as if the NCAA is trying its hardest to avoid another "George Mason" although everyone will agree that was the greatest part of last years tourney. I am picking ODU because I don't like how Butler ended the season and feel they are a bit overseeded.

George Washington-Vanderbilt. Yeah I am an A10 guy so that plays a part in this pick but I am going with the Colonials in an upset win. I like GW's athleticism and don't like how Vandy plays away from home.

VCU-Duke. I'll be honest, my pure hatred for Duke is why I am picking VCU. The Rams are a good team so this really isn't too far fetched.

Michigan State-Marquette. I am going with Marquette because of Dominic James but the Spartans will be tough because of Drew Neitzel.

Xavier-BYU. Shockingly I am picking Xavier. I am going with the Musketeers for three reasons: 1. I am a homer 2. I like Xavier's balance on offense and 3. BYU won't be able to stop Drew Lavender. BYU will be hard to stop inside though.

Other games today with my picks in bold: Louisville-Stanford, Oral Roberts-Washington State, Belmont-Georgetown, Penn-Texas A&M, Ohio State-CCSU, Weber State-UCLA, Wright State-Pitt, UNC-Eastern Kentucky, Indiana-Gonzaga

My NCAA Tournament Bracket

2007-03-14T23:47:00.000-04:00

Here is how my Bracket looks. Obviously I am going with my heart when it comes to the Xavier selection. With Xavier I always pick with my heart. In 2004 it worked as X made the Elite 8 (I picked them to go to the Sweet 16). In 2003 it backfired as they lost in the 2nd round to Maryland (I picked Final Four). If I were going with my head I would have them losing to OSU in the 2nd round. But I rather lose my pools because I picked Xavier to go too far and not because I didn't pick them to go far enough.

Click here to see the full size version of my bracket.

Xavier-BYU Previews

2007-03-14T23:07:00.000-04:00

If you are looking for previews for the Xavier-BYU game, I have searched around the internet and here is what I could find.

ESPN.com Preview

CBS Sportsline Preview

CNNSI's Seth Davis' 1st Round previews

Cincinnati Enquirer's XU Page

Cincinnati Post's XU Page

The Daily Herald's BYU Page

MusketeerMadness.com

GoXavier.com

CougarBoard.com

BYUCougars.com

Another reason to hate ESPN

2007-03-14T17:45:00.000-04:00

ESPN has announced that it will be airing the USA Rock, Paper, Scissors League Championship. First I was shocked to find out there was a rock, paper, scissors league but I really wasn't too shocked to find out that ESPN is going to air its championship. This is yet another reason why ESPN has become a huge joke over the last 10 years. We really can't be too far off of what happened in the movie Dodgeball and having an ESPN 8 (aka The Ocho) that airs niche sports like dodge ball. If I ever win the lottery I am going to get in contact with Mark Cuban and Bill Gates and convince them to help me form a new sports network to take on ESPN.

Pete Rose admits to gambling on every Reds game

2007-03-14T17:30:00.000-04:00

Pete Rose was on ESPN radio with Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann on EPSN promoting the Rose Exhibit in the Reds Hall of Fame and he admitted to gambling on every Reds game. He did bet them to win every time though.

This really isn't too surprising or earth shattering. I pretty much always figured that Pete bet on a majority of the Reds games since he was a gambling addict. Of course ESPN and the media will jump all over this and act like its huge news. All it really reveals is that Rose wasn't a good gambler.

I don't think this hurts or helps Pete's chances of ever getting into the Hall. At this point I am pretty indifferent if he ever gets in (I doubt he ever will). Aside from the gambling problems he will always be remembered as a great player and him not being in the hall doesn't take away the memories fans have of him.

Bengals lose KK and Washington

2007-03-13T23:53:00.000-04:00

The Bengals have lost a couple of their Free Agents this week. Kevin Kaesviharn has signed with the New Orleans Saints and WR Kelley Washington to the New England Patriots.

I don't blame Kaesviharn for leaving. He is getting more money and is going to a good team. A couple of years ago I never would have thought that I would miss KK, but I will. He had a decent season and now that he is gone we are pretty thin at Safety. Behind Madeiu Williams and Dexter Jackson, the Bengals don't have a lot of experience at safety. I would not be surprised to see the Bengals go safety with their first pick in the draft, but they have a lot of holes on defense so I could see them picking any defensive position aside from DE with their first round pick.

Kelly Washington had some pretty big expectations when first drafted but never lived up to them. The Bengals are deep at WR and this shouldn't be a big loss. I will miss the squirrel dance though.

Reds Roundup 3/13

2007-03-13T23:17:00.000-04:00

Time to take a short break from NCAA Basketball to catch up what else has been going on in sports in the tri-state area. Of course once Thursday comes around I'll probably go back to only talking about NCAA Basketball unless something big happens.

The Reds beat the Yankees 6-3. Sure its only Spring Training, but you always gotta love beating the Yanks. Brandon Phillips hit another HR and Aaron Harang looked solid.

Pete Rose is in the Hall of Fame!...well not that Hall of Fame but there is an exhibit in the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum dedicated to the Hit King. While I am one of the few Cincinnatians that is on the fence on if Pete should be in the hall, I will always respect his play on the field and I will want to check this exhibit out.

If camp ended now it looks like Matt Belisle and Dustin Hermanson would make the roster. Belisle's spring success doesn't really surprise me, I always felt he could be a solid pitcher. And I am not too surprised by Hermanson either since if healthy I knew he can boost the bullpen.

Todd Coffey is showing a lot more confidence than he has in the past. Last year as a set up man Coffey showed some really dominating stuff but he really struggled as a closer. I think he could be a good closer if he could get over that mental hurdle, but if he is more comfortable as a set up man and pitches well in that role then I am fine with it.

The Reds made their first cuts of spring. Honestly the only player out of this bunch that I really knew anything about was Phil Dumatrait.

Ken Griffey Junior is getting closer to live game action. Junior has been taking part in Kyle Lohse's simulated games. Sounds like Junior's bats don't stand up very well to Lohse's changeup.

In a couple of days Joe Nuxhall will have to go back to the hospital for more treatment. All the health problems in the world can't stop Nuxie's love for the game of baseball though. Joe is also holding a fundraiser for the Joe Nuxhall Hope Project on April 5 at Jungle Jim's.

Deadspin has their season preview for the Reds. If you are familiar with Deadspin (my favorite sports blog) it is snarky and cyncial as you would expect. The writer does bring back a lot of memories of my childhood recounting stories of Davis, Larkin, Hatcher and Sabo. But I have to disagree with his assesment that it makes "zero sense" to build the Reds around pitching. Its pitching that usually kills the Reds so they obviously need to improve it and Homer Bailey is a big part of that. So really it makes "zero sense" to think the Reds will ever get better if they don't concentrate on pitching.

Xavier faces BYU in the first round

2007-03-11T22:29:00.000-04:00

Xavier received a 9 seed in the South and will face BYU in the first round. The intriguing thing about Xavier's placement is that if XU wins against BYU most likely former coach Thad Matta and his Buckeyes would await in the 2nd round. A good thing about XU's placement is the first two rounds are in Lexington, KY. Xavier fans typically travel pretty well and it would be easy for XU fans to get to Lexington especially compared to BYU. Right now I don't know a whole lot about BYU except they have a pretty solid inside game, which scares me since that is XU's biggest weakness.

Other local teams in the tournament are Miami with a 14 seed against 3 Oregon, Louisville is also playing in Lexington as a 6 seed and will face Stanford, Kentucky has an 8 seed and will face Villanova and Indiana is a 7 and gets a rematch with Gonzaga.

Doosh Bag of the Week #2

2007-03-11T20:46:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to Jay Bilas for winning the this weeks Doosh Bag of the Week Award. During ESPN's Braketology progam that aired after the selection show, Jay Bilas went on a rant about how Xavier did not deserve a bid to the tournament. Although Xavier wasn't even on the bubble, and was selected as a 9 seed, somehow this was all undeserved. He felt it was a travesty that a team like Xavier got in over Syracuse and Drexel. Lets take a look at Xavier's resume and see how in the world could Bilas say that XU shouldn't be in

RPI: 28
Record in last 10 games: 9-1
Wins over Illinois, Kansas State, VCU, Miami (OH), George Washington, Villanova

Jay Bilas completely ignored that part of Xavier's resume and focused on the losses to UC and Duquesne. Dick Vitale chimed in and said that put Xavier in the ACC and no way would they compete. Umm Dick, a team what was below .500 entering the ACC tournament made its way to the ACC finals, so yeah good argument. But that wasn't it, Reese Davis added his 2 cents by saying maybe we shouldn't have given a free pass to Xavier after losing to Rhode Island.

I felt like I was on crazy pills when the Xavier bashing was going on. How is Xavier being in the tournament more controversial than Arkansas, Stanford and Illinois? Drexel and Syracuse probably deserved to make the tournament, but not at the expense at Xavier. I have never in all my years of watching the tournament seen so much outrage over a #9 seed that was nowhere near the bubble. Just add this to my list of reasons why ESPN has become unwatchable.

I end this post with a quote from the movie Billy Madison. This sums up how I felt while watching Jay Bilas rant like a lunatic about Xavier.

"...what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."

Championship Week Day 6 evening update

2007-03-11T01:58:00.000-05:00

Another crazy night in College Basketball and we are getting closer to Selection Sunday. Here are the results from the late afternoon/night games.

Congrats to Charlie Coles and his Miami Redhawks. Miami beat Akron 53-52 in a wild finish. Akron went to the line up 2 and a chance to put the game away. Cedrick Middleton missed the front end with 6.6 seconds left and Miami came down the court and Doug Penno hit a off balance 3 with 1.3 seconds left. It looked like the game was over and Miami was heading to the dance but the officials had to check the replay to see if the shot was in time and if anytime should be left. Akron's coach felt more time should have been run off the clock. He was right as the clock started a second after the tip off the miss foul shot. This left the Zips with .6 seconds left. Akron didn't have a good inbounds pass and Miami holds on for the win. Charlie Coles is a great guy so I am happy for him.

NC State is still lurking to take away an at large spot from someone. The Wolfpack beat Virginia Tech to move on to the ACC Championship and face UNC. A lot of teams will be cheering for the Tarheels on Sunday.

Texas and Oklahoma State went back and forth in the 2nd half but the Longhorns hold on for the 69-64 win. Kevin Durant hit a big three with under a minute left to seal the win. They will face Kansas for the Big 12 championship.

George Washington will be going to its 3rd consecutive NCAA Championship as they defeated Rhode Island for the A10 title. GW did a great job of keeping Jimmy Baron and Kevin Seawright in check who both killed Xavier in the semifinals.

Georgetown dominated Pitt the whole game winning the Big East title 65-42. The Hoyas will be a popular pick to go a long way in the tourney.

Other teams who punched their ticket are UNLV, Florida A&M, Jackson State, New Mexico State, and Long Beach State.

Championship Week Day 6 afternoon update

2007-03-10T16:08:00.000-05:00

A couple of automatic berths were claimed today. Memphis won the CUSA championshp by easily beating Houston 71-59. Vermont had home court advantage in the America East championship but lost to Albany 60-59. I am sure former coach Tom Brennan will probably cry on ESPN about how Vermont somehow deserves a tourney big (note: I actually like Brennan but sometimes his love for mid majors is a little too strong).

In the SEC there was a battle of bubble teams in the Arkansas-Mississippi State matchup. The Razorbacks were victorious 81-72 and will most likely take on Florida for the SEC Championship. I still think Arkansas is on the outside looking in and will need to win the SEC to get in.

Greg Oden was dominate in Ohio States 63-52 victory over Purdue. Oden finished with 17 points and 19 rebounds and after a big put back dunk he terrified women and children everywhere with some sort of beastly scream.

Kansas State had opportunity after opportunity to get back in their game against Kansas but the Jayhawks held on for the 67-61. Huggins and his Cats are firmly on the bubble and will probably be one of thost Last 4 in/out teams.

Championship Week Day 5 late night recap

2007-03-10T02:01:00.000-05:00

Time to recap tonight's wild night in the Conference Tournaments. After some of tonight's losses there are some pretty nervous bubble teams right now.

As I posted earlier Xavier fell to Rhode Island which most likely makes the A10 a 2 bid league and takes away an at large from somebody.

The WAC is for sure a 2 bid league now that Utah State upset Nevada 79-77. Utah State won two foul shots with 2.5 seconds left in the game. For some reason Utah Stat just has Nevada's number. I still like Nevada and think they could make an upset in the Tourney.

The wild ACC tournament continued tonight as NC State knocked off Virignia 79-70. The Cavs led by 14 at halftime but the Wolfpack dominated the 2nd half. Bubble teams will be cheering hard for Virignia Tech tomorrow, although I don't think there is too much to worry about, I really can't see NCST beating VaTech and UNC/Boston College.

Oklahoma State is taking advantage of the Big 12 Tournament being hosted in OK City as they shock Texas A&M 57-56. So go ahead and add the Cowboys to the list of teams that bubble teams will be cheering against. They will face Texas who had a tough time with Baylor tonight. On the other half its Kansas/Kansas State. Right now KState probably isn't in but a win vs. the Jayhawks would change things.

In the Big East we will see Georgetown and Pitt face off for the championship. The Hoyas just barely took out Notre Dame 84-82 while Pitt came back from an 11 point halftime deficit to beat Louisville 65-59.

USC upset Washington State 70-61 to earn a spot in the Pac 10 Championship. They will face Oregon who easily took care of Cal 81-63.

The MAC is a one big league no matter what happens and Charlie Coles has his Miami Redhawks in the championship after beating the #1 seed Toledo Rockets 58-53. There they will face Akron who beat Kent State 61-54.

Illinois has to feel a lot better about its tourney hopes after defeating Indiana 58-54 in OT. Before tonight Illinois has been one of those considered as one of the last 4 in so this will give their resume a big boost. A team they are competing for an at large is on the other side of the Big 10 bracket, the Purdue Boilermakers (who face Ohio State tomorrow). Right now Purdue and Illinois are probably both in, but if a couple of more upsets happen maybe only one of them do.

In the SEC Arkansas defeated Vanderbilt in a mild upset. The Razorbacks will face Mississippi State who is probably on the wrong side of the bubble right now. Florida will face Andy Kennedy's Ole Miss Rebels, another bubble team. So all the non SEC bubble teams will be rooting for Florida to take the SEC crown.

Not surprisingly Memphis is rolling through the CUSA tourney, routing Tulane 71-49 and will face Houston for the championship. Houston winning is CUSA's only chance for 2 bids so a lot of the country is hoping for another Memphis blowout, which should happen because Houston doesn't come close to the talent Memphis has.

Holy Cross defeated Bucknell to earn the Patriot League automatic berth.

Xavier falls to Rhode Island

2007-03-10T01:09:00.000-05:00

Well I honestly did not see this one coming but Xavier played its worst game since the Duquesne lost and are coming home early from the A10 Tourney. Rhode Island pulls off the upset 79-71. Although XU players, coaches and fans might be a little nervous the next two days, Xavier should be in the tournament. The two major "braketologists", Joe Lunardi and Jerry Palm, say X is fine. I am thinking Xavier ends up somwhere in the 10-12 range. I would actually prefer a 11 or 12 over a 10 because you would then avoid a game vs a 2 seed in the 2nd round. With all this said I will still be biting my fingernails until they call Xavier's name on selection sunday. Now onto the ugly reasons for Xavier's loss today.

Drew Lavender was the only player for Xavier to show up tonight. Drew finished with 18 points and 9 assists. It seemed like everytime Drew drove the lane he made a layup or got fouled or both. But in the last 6 minutes of the game Rhode Island did a good job of closing the lane and not allowing Lavender to beat them.

Xavier shot really, really bad from the perimeter and it cost them. They had plenty of good looks but only made 2 of 21 three pointers in the 2nd half. I didn't like them shooting that many 3's but they really weren't bad looks. Lavender had a couple that looked like they were going down but would pop out. On the other side Jimmy Baron hit the clutch shots when Rhode Island need them the most. It seemed like whenever it looked like XU was going to go take control of the game Baron would come down and make a shot to end any Xavier momentum.

Xavier's low post play was terrible. Brandon Cole had his worst game as a starter, Justin Doellman was plagued with foul trouble all game and the defense down low was non existent. Justin Cage wasn't bad and I thought he probably should have gotten more touches on the offensive end. However since Rhody knew XU wasn't hit their threes they knew they could collapse on Cage and let Xavier kill itself on the perimeter.

For the first time in a while Xavier got beat at the foul line. Rhode Island made 17 of 23 free throws while X only made 10 of 16. But when you are content to shooting from the outside you won't get to the line too often and you have to convert when you do get there.

Now Xavier must sit and wait. The A10 league office must be ecstatic because this should mean 2 bids to the tournament. Xavier finished the last 10 games of the season 9-1, has quality wins over teams like Illinois, Villanova, Kansas State and VCU and has an RPI of 32 so I would be shocked and outraged if they aren't selected. Rhode Island will face George Washington for the title. If Rhode Island can dominate inside and slow the game down I think they will win, but if GW can get out in transition and keep the game at a fast pace then it will be the Colonials.

UC Football Player suspended

2007-03-09T17:47:00.000-05:00

The University of Cincinnati has announced that a football player has been suspended in the investigation about the alleged sex tape involving members and recruits of the UC football team. The player (not named for privacy reasons) told at least three different stories about the incident. This violates UC's code of conduct so he will be suspended for three games.

Championship Week Day 5 afternoon update

2007-03-09T17:32:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately I was stuck at work all day and had to miss all of the afternoon games so I am just now catching up. I am definitely glad that I was able to take next Thursday and Friday off so I can watch all the games.

Ohio State took down Michigan and probably ended the Wolverines tournament hopes with a 72-62 win. Greg Oden led the way with 72-62. Also in the Big 10 Purdue destroyed Iowa 74-55 as the Boilermakers keep their tournament hopes alive.

Florida State never could get going against North Carolina as the Tarheels won 73-58. Florida State is most likely out of the NCAA Tournament. Miami almost pulled off another upset today taking Boston College to Overtime but the Eagles held on 74-71.

Tubby Smith might have to make a deep tournament run to keep his job as UK lost in OT to Mississippi State 84-82. UK was on its way to winning in regulation with a chance at the line to go up by 4 with a couple of seconds left but a lane violation cost them that shot and Miss State comes down the court to tie the game at the buzzer. UK had a chance to tie at the end of overtime but turned the ball over trying to inbound the ball.

The Kansas teams were victorious in Big 12 play as the Jayhawks beat Oklahoma 64-47 and Kansas State beats Texas Tech 66-45. K State and Texas Tech are on the bubble and the Wildcats might have the edge now. I really really hope Kansas State doesn't make the tournament or you will never hear the end of it here in Cincinnati.

Championship Week Day 4 late night update

2007-03-09T00:06:00.000-05:00

This is the final update before I go to bed. There is still some games going on right now, Washington-Washington State could be good, but I won't be able to see it because its a tad too late for me.

The marquee match up tonight was Marquette and Pitt. Aaron Gray was too much for Marquette as the Panthers won 89-79. Gray had a double double with 22 points and 10 boards. This sets up an intriguing matchup vs. Louisville.

As I type this Georgia Tech and Wake Forrest are in Overtime. Considering what has happened so far today in the ACC, it would be appropriate for the Deacons to win this game.

Tennessee's struggles away from home continued as the Vols were defeated in OT 76-67 by LSU. Glenn "Big Baby" Davis had a huge game with 25 points and 16 rebounds.

USC and Stanford also went into OT with the Trojans pulling out a 83-79 victory. With UCLA going down this tournament is wide open. Also Stanford is a little more nervous on Selection Sunday, I don't see them making it.

Illinois kept its tournament hopes alive by beating Penn State 66-60. Up next for the Illini will be Indiana and for some reason I see Illinois winning and securing its tourney bid.

Championship Week Day 4 evening update #1 aka The Upset Edition

2007-03-08T21:28:00.000-05:00

Wow, what a crazy night in college basketball so far. I was going to wait until the late games were done to do the recap but so much has gone on in the last 3 hours I could not wait. Nights like tonight are why you have to love March. Lets take a look at what happened.

I thought UCLA losing to Washington was just a bump in the road and they would recover quickly. Ooops guess not as UCLA falls to Cal 76-69. This loss could cost UCLA a #1 seed, playing close to home or both.

Miami got the upsets started today by defeating Maryland and NC State is continuint what the Canes started as the Wolfpack takes down Duke in OT 85-80. There isn't a team that is more overrated than Duke and they are going nowhere in the tournament.

I thought we were heading for an upset in the Big East as the West Virginia and Louisville went into double overtime but the Cardinals prevailed 82-71. The Mountaineers probably would have secured a tournament spot with a win but now they will be sweating it out on Selection Sunday.

In the Atlantic 10 UMass' bubble popped tonight as they lost to Saint Louis in OT 79-76. UMass fell onto bad luck as soon as they got to Atlantic City as the team got hit with the flu bug. Things did not get better as Rashaun Freeman fouled out with 6:29 left in regulation and no one on UMass could really get going offensively.

Out in the Mountain West Wyoming knocked off Air Force 67-62. Air Force has stumbled down the stretch losing their last 4 games. So they are now among the bubble teams who are a little nervous from now until Sunday. I think they are probably safe though as their RPI is at 32 and most "bracketologists" had them around the 8-9 range before tonight's game.

Championship Week Day 4 afternoon update

2007-03-08T17:05:00.000-05:00

With all the conference tournaments officially underway it was a busy day and here is what has gone down so far.

As reported earlier today, XU dominated Dayton. In the 2nd A10 game today Rhode Island outlasted Fordham by 4. Foul trouble to Dunston, Green and Stout really hurt Fordham down the stretch. Xavier will face Rhode Island tomorrow at 6:30.

Fear the turtle? The first big upset of the week happened today in the ACC tournament as Miami defeated Maryland 67-62. No one saw this one coming as the Terps were one of the hottest teams entering Championship Week and Miami was pretty bad this season. Also in the ACC Florida State kept its tournament hopes alive while Clemson's bubble has burst as the Seminoles won a 67-66 nailbiter.

The Big East held to form as Georgetown defeated Villanova and Notre Dame took care of Syracuse. G'Town almost blew a 19 point halftime lead but they held on at the end. There are two big games in the Big East tonight as West Virginia tried to boost its resume vs. Louisville and Marquette faces Pitt.

The Big 10 Tourney started today as both Michigan teams won. The Wolverines started off slowly but took care of business vs. Minnesota 49-40 (would have hated to be in attendance for this snoozer) and now will get another chance vs. Ohio State in the next round. Northwestern made it a lot closer than I thought they would but Michigan State hit their free throws at the end to win the game 62-57.

In the PAC 10, Oregon easily took care of Arizona 69-50.

In the SEC, Kentucky didn't have much of a problem with Alabama as the Cats win 79-67. I can't believe the Crimson Tide will be going from being a Top 10 team to a team that probably won't make the tournament. In other SEC action Arkansas kept its dim NCAA hopes alive with a blowout win vs. South Carolina.

In the Big 12 as I type Texas Tech has a 5 point lead over Colorado. Even if they hold on and win, they shouldn't be struggling this badly against the woeful buffaloes. Also Oklahoma ended their 6 game losing streak with a win vs. Iowa State. Yawn, Awake me when Texas, Texas A&M and Kansas take the floor.

For some reason they allowed Idaho to take the court against Nevada, the result an 88-56 win for the Wolpack.

The Miami Redhawks rolled in their MAC Tourney game today, winning 70-51 vs. Ohio. Although I can't stand most Miami students, I want Miami to win the MAC Title. I have always like Charlie Coles and if Miami wins they could end up in the Top 100 RPI and would give XU another quality win.

Reds Roundup 3/8

2007-03-08T16:20:00.000-05:00

The Reds have lost their first game of the Spring. Darn, just when I was really starting to believe the Reds would go undefeated! (sarcasm, I'm a homer but I'm not that foolish) The Reds fell to the AL Champion Tigers 11-9. Aaron Harang did not have a good outing going 3 innings and giving up 4 runs on 7 hits. While Harang might not repeat the year he had last year, I am not worried about him.

In last nights game with the Yankees (which ended in a 1-1 tie), Bobby Livingston had a good showing and made a strong case for the #5 spot in the rotation. Looks like Livingston or Saarloos have the best shot for the spot. Also in this game relief pitcher Jarred Burton showed some toughness against the heart of the Yanks lineup.

B randon Phillips got a chance to meet Reggie "Mr. October" Jackson. Even though he is a Yankee, I have always liked Reggie. Maybe its because of his outstanding cameo in the classic movie Baseketball.

Go here to register for a drawing by hamiltoncountyohio.gov for a chance to win free tickets for a Reds game in their suite at GABP. Drawings will be held monthly throughout the season. On second thought, I don't know why I publicized this since this could mean more people will register and I will have a lesser chance of winning.

If you go to GABP and are a smoker looks like you will have to wait until you leave the stadium to light one up. GABP is now entirely smoke free and you wont be able to re-enter if you want to leave the stadium to smoke. So far I have not noticed any chance in Ohio since the no smoking in public places law was passed, but this will probably be successful since Reds ushers are known for being sticklers for the rules.

Davis Ross has to have the smarts to go along with athletic ability. I agree that catcher is one of the hardest, if not the hardest, position in all of sports. I like Ross and I hope he can improve defensively this season.

Adam Dunn is getting back to the basics this spring. It sounds like Dunn and new hitting coach Brook Jacoby have a solid relationship. As I said in an earlier roundup abut Dunn, I am predicting a career year for him. Yes, I do love the false optimism of Spring.

Looks like Eddie Guardado's recovery is progressing better than anticipated. March 16 is when he will throw off the mound for the first time and June 22nd is the targeted return to action date. I still have my doubts but if Eddie can recovery to close to his old form then it will be a huge midseason boost to the bullpen.

SS Paul Janish is learning alot in his first big league camp.

Aaron Harang has flown under the radar and still relatively unknown to many baseball fans. Harang is definitely underrated and after the season he had he deserves more props from the media and fans. But unless you are a Yankee, Red Sox or Cub, you will be ignored by the national media.

Xavier beats Dayton in A10 Quarters

2007-03-08T14:04:00.000-05:00

Xavier defeated Dayton today in the A10 Quarterfinals in a convincing fashion 72-51. From about 10 mintues left in the first half until the final buzzer Xavier dominated. As usual it was a balanced attack on offense for the Musketeers as 5 players scored in double figures led by Justin Doellman's 19 (Burrell, Cage, Lavender and Duncan were the others in double figures). Xavier's defense was phenomenal as well. Brian Roberts scored 22 but was held to only 7 in the 2nd half and Charles Little was the only other player with more than 5 points for the Flyers as he finished with 11 and was nowhere near as dominant as he was in the last meeting between the two schools.

Up next for Xavier is the winner of Fordham-Rhode Island. I am hoping for Fordham to take that one as they have the better RPI (107 compared to RI's 123). Speaking of RPI XU's moved up to 27 after today's win.

Tom Brady: the baby making machine

2007-03-08T13:39:00.000-05:00

Screw doing a tournament pool, we need to do a pool on what ridiculously hot woman will Tom Brady knock up next. First it was Bridget Moynahan revealed she was pregnant with Brady's child and now a Brazilian website is reporting that Gisele Bundchen is pregnant with Brady's child as well. Phil Simms is totally jealous of Bridget and Gisele right now. And Tom Brady is quickly rising on my most hated athlete meter. He went to Michigan, plays for the Patriots and gets around with the hottest women in the world. But with the millions of dollars he makes he should invest in some birth control of some kind before he becomes the Larry "Grandmama" Johnson or Shawn Kemp of the NFL.

XU up 33-27 at half

2007-03-08T12:51:00.000-05:00

Xavier started the game a little slow but have dominated the last 10 minutes of the half going on a 21-6 run to close out the half. Brian Roberts is keeping UD in the game while Lavender has 7 points and 5 assists. So far Burrell's shot is falling as he has 8 points on 3 of 5 shooting.

Championship Week Predictions

2007-03-07T23:48:00.000-05:00

Here are my predictions for the conference tourney champions this week.

A10: Xavier

Big East: Georgetown

Big 10: Wisconsin

Big 12: Texas A&M

PAC 10: UCLA

MWC: UNLV

SEC: Florida

CUSA: Memphis

MAC: Akron

WAC: Nevada

Championship Week Day 3 late night update

2007-03-07T23:36:00.000-05:00

A quick update of what has happened in the conference tourneys tonight before I go to bed.

Central Connecticut State and Weber State have earned bids to the tournament by winning the NEC and Big Sky tournaments. They should both be a 15 or 16 seed in the tourney.

In the Big East, West Virginia easily took care of Providence 92-79 and will go on to play Louisville tommorow. St John's put up a good fight against Marquette tonight but fell short 76-67. Marquette will face Pitt tommorow.

In the A10 St. Louis and St. Joes won, in the MAC Central Michigan and Western Michigan won, the winners in CUSA were Marshal, Southern Miss and Tulsa, and Cal won in the PAC 10.

Marvin: Free Agency started for us last season

2007-03-07T20:33:00.000-05:00

Marvin Lewis spoke to the local media for the first time since Free Agency started and you can read all the details in todays article in The Enquirer. The main point Marvin made is the Bengals made their big and important free agent signings during last season. The players he is speaking of are Levi Jones, Willie Anderson and Bobbie Williams.

I do agree with him that it would have been very difficult to sign all three of those players after the season especially with how much money is being tossed around this free agency period. It is good that 9 of 11 starters on offense will be back (lost Steinbach to free agency and Braham to retirement).

The problem is the defense though. Marvin better be drafting defense with both picks on the first day of the draft since that is how he is going to have to improve the D. A lot of good teams do build their teams in the draft and not free agency so I don't really have a big problem with this. However I would like to see a capable vet added to the D since we lose a valuable player and leader in Brian Simmons (and we still could lose another valuable player in Kevin Kaesviharn).

If the Bengals want to get back to the playoffs then the defense has to be better. Will the current defense (plus whomever we draft) improve enough to get back there? That is the question that everyone will have about Cincinnati until the season starts.