Tsportsworld

Nuggets Still In It

tsportsworld — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:30:47 +0000

The Nuggets are currently tied at 1-1 with the Utah Jazz in the first round series of the NBA playoffs. Both of the first two games were played in Denver, and the Nuggets didn’t take full advantage of it. They looked good the first game, but seemed to struggle in the second. The Jazz currently have a lot of injuries to key players, and they’re still able to hang in. I believe that the Nuggets need to step up their game tonight and win by a fairly large margin so that they make a statement that they are one of the top teams in the NBA, and no one should want to mess with them.

On a side note, I hope that the officiating is better because the last game was terrible on both sides. It’s the playoffs, and the referees need to let the players play. Don’t call those little nit picky fouls, it just delays the game and frustrates everyone.

Nuggets in the Playoffs

tsportsworld — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 23:22:36 +0000

Well, we all knew that the Nuggets would make the playoffs. The question was what seed. For most of the season, the Nuggets were always one of the top two teams in the Western Conference (the other, as always, the Lakers). Recently, the Nuggets have been struggling to win games. Ever since coach Karl started missing games for treatment, they stopped playing like one of the most dominating teams in the NBA.

Now that the playoffs are finally here, the Nuggets can hopefully pick up their game again and start whooping up on teams. All of the losing that they have recently done has caused them to drop to the number 4 seed and play the tough Utah Jazz for their first round. I think that if they can pull through the first round, then they will gain some momentum that will hopefully lead them to the championship game. I guess we’ll see what happens. It seems like every other team (above the Nuggets) is going into the playoffs hot, so it’s gonna be one hard road to the championship.

The Master(s)

tsportsworld — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 22:59:19 +0000

I would like to take a quick pause on my writing about basketball and talk a little bit about the golf world. Currently, the Masters Tournament is going on and there has been lots of great golf already. In case you hadn’t heard, Tiger Woods is back from his long absence from his social life mishaps. No one new how he would play, or how the fans would recieve him. Well, it’s almost as if he has come back from a long vacation of just playing golf because he is playing better than any Masters he has played in before, and the fans are cheering for him more than ever.

Personally, I’m glad he’s back, just so the competition is greater (that and he’s one of the most fun golfers to watch). So far, Tiger is tied for 3rd, only two shots back from the leaders Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood. This has got to spark fear in the leaders and anyone within range of them because Tiger is known for his huge (normally) comebacks. If he can play at the same level that he is know for playing on Saturdays and Sundays, then he should end up dominating the tournament. I hope that this isn’t the case, and that the final decision comes down to the final hole (maybe even a playoff). To watch live footage of the tournament and check the leader board, visit this Masters’ site.

There’s nothing like watching golf on a nice Sunday afternoon, and is it just me, or does watching even just one hole being played make you want to go out and play a round, even if it’s around freezing wherever you are at?

NCAA Basketball- Final Stands

tsportsworld — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 20:21:15 +0000

The NCAA March Madness Tournament is coming to an end. We have reached the Final Four round and it looks like both match-ups will be exciting to watch. Although my tournament bracket was destroyed early on, with the losses of Georgetown, Kansas, and eventually Kentucky, I still watch the tournament with tons of enthusiasm. Even though I no longer have a team to “root for”, I somehow still find a new team that I want to win. In this case I hope Butler will go all the way. Who doesn’t like the underdog? I’m not sure if they will, but I think that they have at least a decent chance of beating Michigan State, to make it to the championship game. Butler is still on a winning streak that is now up to 24 games. On the flip side, Tom Izzo (coach of Michigan St) has brought his team to the Final Four for the second year in a row, and would like to get another chance at winning the championship.

Everyone, lately, has been talking about Michigan States large variety of offensive plays that confuse the other teams by always keeping them guessing. Apparently, all of the other teams that have lost to Michigan St. can’t stay with the players, and when they do, they get picked and their man becomes wide open, and if they switch on the pick then it leaves another person wide open somehow. I’ve noticed that the players on the other teams (such as Tennessee and N. Iowa) seem to become lazy (give some distance between them and the man they’re supposed to be guarding) when the ball is on the opposite side. This is generally a good thing in basketball, because they are sagging to the middle so they can help out if need be. My suggestion to Butler is to just make sure to match up man on man, and play their men tight no matter where the ball is. This may allow a couple of easy baskets because they are sometimes beat, one on one, but I think that it would still decrease Michigan St.’s total number of wide open shots, and sometimes there’s just nothing a team can do to stop a player when they are hot. The following ESPN video clip demonstrates this by showing Draymond Green’s ability to put the ball in the basket.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EuQCQogoys

I’m not saying that this method would work for sure, but at least it’s something different than what the other (losing) teams tried doing. Tom Izzo (coach of Michigan St) has brought his team to the Final Four for the second year in a row, and would like to get another chance at winning the championship.

These final few games are always very entertaining to watch because they are always very close, and teams normally bring their best game to the table. The games are so close, that they often come down to a “buzzer beater” shot. Plus, it’s fun to have the guys over to watch the games, maybe place a litte wager on them, and eat tons of appetizers.

Wonderous Fiascos

tsportsworld — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 23:48:03 +0000

So the first rounds of March Madness is over and it seems like everyone’s brackets are destroyed. There have been upsets galore in both rounds. The first upset that I would like to talk about is the Ohio over Georgetown. This was the first of many games that began the destruction of my bracket. Georgetown went into the tournament fairly hot and was expected to make it into at least the second round. They had one of the poorest games that I’ve ever seen in the tournament’s history for a number 3 seed by losing 97 to 83. At least every other upset was a close game and fun to watch.

Even after all of the first round upsets, many brackets were still standing strong going into the second. That is where almost everyone’s brackets completely fell apart. The two biggest upsets were St. Mary’s over Villanova and Northern Iowa over Kansas. Many people could have predicted the St. Mary’s upset because of Villanova’s inconsistency throughout the season. The N. Iowa win over Kansas was one of the biggest upsets in tournament history. It was one of the more exciting games of the tournament with Kansas’ almost comeback at the very end of the game. The outcome of the game ended up helping my bracket tremendously, since I had Kansas losing in the Elite eight and many people had Kansas winning it all. Highlights of the game can be seen in the following CBS sports video clip.

With Kansas out of the picture, I believe that Kentucky has a clear path to winning the tournament. It would be a great thing to see St. Mary’s against N. Iowa in the championship. Who doesn’t love the underdogs, but we all know there is a slim to none chance of even one of the teams making it. My predictions for the next round is for Michigan State to overtake N. Iowa by just a couple and Baylor just crushing St. Mary’s.

CSU Fails to Surprise

tsportsworld — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:25:27 +0000

Last night, the Colorado State University men’s basketball team fell to San Diego State University 72-71. For the first time in a while, the Rams almost made it to the semifinals of the Mountain West Conference Championship Tournament. The key problem was their inability to finish off the game. The Rams looked absolutely awful in the final minute of the game. They had two chances to come away with a victory and completely blew it. One was a pass to no one and the other was an attempted last second shot that did not come remotely close to the hoop. I blame this appalling finish on coach Tim Miles. The team obviously has had little experience in these situations, and I think that Miles should have prepared them better. To check out the game recap, go to the following ESPN site: CSU.

Goodbye Rams, we’ll see you next year.

Rollin in Hot

tsportsworld — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:08:35 +0000

All teams in every sport hope that they have a lot of momentum going into the playoffs/postseason. This means that they would like to have a few wins that their can build from going in to the tournament. In the current world of college basketball, only one of the top five teams seems to be doing this- Syracuse. Syracuse has dominated its opponents during its past three games, winning by at least eight points. Their final game will be this Sunday, and it will be against Louisville. Louisville is no pushover, but if Syracuse can play as well as they have in the past couple of weeks, they will roll into the NCAA Tournament with huge momentum.

On the flip side, the other top 5 ranked teams aren’t doing so well. These teams, Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, and Kansas State, have each lost one of their last two games. one of these losses could have been predicted (Kansas State losing to Kansas), but the others were very unexpected. Kansas losing to Oklahoma State was probably one of the biggest upset out of all of them. This could probably put a little stunt in Kansas’ momentum, but they should be able to fully rebuild it with a win over Mizzouri (Sunday) and then over whatever 16 place seeded team that they will play in the first round of March Madness (NCAA Tournament). The team that will probably be most affected by their recent loss is Duke. The reason why Duke’s loss could be so detrimental is that they have not only lost some of their momentum, but it could also lose them the number 1 seed in the Tournament. I guess we’ll have to wait to see what happens in after this weekend of final games is over. To check when teams are playing this weekend, click on the following link: ESPN.com.

Rankings

tsportsworld — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:14:46 +0000

In college basketball, teams can qualify two different ways to take part in the NCAA Tournament, March Madness. The first way to qualify for the Tournament is by winning a conference tournament. The other way is decided by an NCAA selection committee, who also choose the rank of each team in the tournament. I feel that this method of deciding each team’s rank can be inaccurate and insufficient. I believe a mathematical process should be developed, that way a team’s fate is not left up to a person’s opinion of them. This mathematical process would have to be fairly complex, but would be impartial to one team or another. The current rankings can be found on ESPN’s “Men’s Basketball Rankings” page. Although I disagree with the method of choosing the rankings, I agree with what the rankings currently are. I belive that the top team is either Kansas or Kentucky, but I still think that it still should be decided through a mathmatical process instead.

Coaches Win Games?

tsportsworld — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 01:20:55 +0000

There is no doubt that coaches are key to a team’s success or failure in any team sport. Coaches are the ones who come up with a team’s practice strategy and all of the team plays. They organize the team so that they work together and build a team chemistry. Coaches normally create an atmosphere where they generate each players highest work ethic. I’ve always felt that coaches are essential for preparing the team for games and calling plays and making well thought out substitutions when needed.

When it comes to basketball, coaches can call some plays, make some substitutions, and call time outs, but it’s the players that are really in control of how the game is going. I found out this past week that this type of thinking is wrong when it comes to NCAA basketball. I never really realized how much of an effect of just a coach’s presence can have on a team. There were two teams that demonstrated this during this past week. The first was when rumors were made of Louisville’s head coach, Rick Pitino (right), possibly talking with the New York Nets (NBA) about a head coaching position. After this news, Louisville, one of the top teams in the Big East got embarrassed by St. Johns, 74-55. It seems that the only reason for this blow was that the Louisville players were disappointed at the time, and could pull together to play even a decent game. After the upset, Pitino denied the rumors and the team has been doing very well since, beating #5Syracuse on Sunday, and then Notre Dame on Wednesday.

The other example that I would like to point out is UCONN’s coach head coach, Jim Calhoun, missing seven games because of medical problems. UCONN lost 4 out of the 7 games, when they had only lost five the entire season before Calhoun’s absence. Calhoun returned to the team this past Saturday, where UCONN got crushed by Cincinnati, but then bounced back to have a huge win at #3Villinova. The clip below is and ESPN clip that demonstrates the potential of UCONN, especially when Calhoun is on the bench.

Now being a Denver Nuggets fan, I hope that this current trend is false. The Nuggets head coach George Karl announced that he had throat cancer on Tuesday. He will have to go through radiation treatment and chemotherapy as part of his treatment for the cancer, and will probably have to miss a few games and practices. This could be very detrimental to the Nuggets, who hold only a one game lead in the Northwest. I am confident that the Nuggets will make it into the playoffs, but I think that they need all of the momentum that they can get. One possible outcome from this concerning news, is that the team could rally behind George Karl’s illness, and try to win for him. I believe that either way, the absence of Karl will definitely have an effect on how the team plays, but if it is a negative affect, hopefully it will not be enough to keep them from continuing to win, eventually leading to play in the finals.

Keepin It Competitive

tsportsworld — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:48:17 +0000

This week has been college basketball’s rivalry week. There have been a lot of intense games that have taken place, but there are two games I would specifically like to talk about. UCONN vs 3Syracuse and UNC vs 7Duke. The UNC/Duke rivalry is always one of the most heated battles in the NCAA basketball league. Personally I am not a fan of UNC or Duke but if I had to favor a team, I would go with Duke because I have a lot of respect for their coach Mike Krzyzewski, especially after what he was able to do with the Olympic team. This past Wednesday, UNC went into the game against Duke loosing seven out of their last ten. Their defense has been one of the main contributions to their poor season. The thing I love about great rivalries is it brings out the best in teams. Although Duke didn’t necessarily shoot very well, North Carolina played very good defense and kept the game really close until the end.

Then we have the UCONN at 3Syracuse game, which was another close one during rivalry week. UCONN also had a rough couple of weeks leading up to the game, loosing six out of their previous ten games. Syracuse ranked 3^rd in the NCAA, played pretty well throughout the entire game. This game got off to a bad start for UCONN, but they ended up coming back in the second half to make it an exciting game, despite loosing in the end. This is just another example that shows how a rivalry can make teams come out to play.

One more thing that I’d like to discuss is free throws. I believe that free throws are one of the most important aspects that are always overlooked in basketball. The only time that you hear about free throws on the news is when a team misses some crucial ones at the end of the game. You never hear about a team shoot ninety plus percent free throws and winning a game, unless the free they are the deciding factor at the end of the game. On the flip side, you never hear about a team that barely looses who shoots less than seventy percent during the game, again unless they are missed attempts at the end of the game. A great example of this is the UCONN/ Syracuse game, in which UCONN was 11 for 17 (~65%). If they had made only three more free throws, they would have been shooting about 82%, which I think is very reasonable, and it would have had a huge impact on the game. Yeah there are also other things that could have contributed to the loss, such as UCONN’s lack of depth in their roster, but free throws are a basic fundamental that could have drastically changed the outcome. Since free throws are so important yet so basic, I believe that at this playing level, players should be expected to shoot at least 70% from the free throw line.

Before watching the pilot episode of NBC’s Friday Night Lights (FNL) I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Would this show just be about high school football? Would it just develop the players that were trying to go pro like the movie or would there be more to it? I decided to go online and see if I could find some reviews or trailers of the show so I would have a better idea what to expect. After the traditional Google search, I found Metacritic.com, a site that had plenty of reviews from 2006, when the show’s first season originally aired. All of these reviews mimicked what my media professors said, this show is worth watching. Sure, a bunch of critics think this show is good. Movie critics also thought that Atonement was good, and I didn’t think that it was a quality movie. The site also housed reviews from fans, which gave me some confidence that the show was not going to be a complete waste of time since the average rating out of ten was nine. After this initial research, I figured it was time to finally sit down and watch the first episode.

FNL is very much about high school football, but it is also about the relationship of the team to the town. It takes place in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, a town that revolves around the Friday night games during football season. Dillion’s news is the team. The pilot focuses much of the episode on the week of preparation before the team’s first game with their new head coach, Coach Tyler.

The one thing I noticed most about the show was the way that it was filmed. They used a very shaky camera movement, which “fit” the show. FNL has the feeling of being a window into the world of Dillon and this camera movement emphasizes that. The emotions are very heartfelt, especially the last few minutes of the episode, where the star QB goes down. These emotions are portrayed through both the acting, as well as the music. The end of the pilot leaves the audience wanting more. I want more. I want to know what happens to Jason Street, the star QB that gets injured. I want to know how Coach Tyler reacts to the town. There are plenty of storylines that could be exposed throughout the rest of the season and I’m interested to see what happens. This pilot did its job and now I’m excited for the rest of the season.