Weekend Review

Once again, in my highly educated opinion, the Gopher hoops team didn't do enough to get into the Who was Awesome bucket, but also certainly didn't suck, so they won't be making an appearance in this Weekend Review. For all my thoughts on the win at Colorado State, see the post below this one.


WHO WAS AWESOME

1. Michigan Hoops. The Big Ten basketball pecking order was pretty well set, with Purdue, Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Michigan State in one tier, and everyone else in the other. Who would step up and take that fifth spot, and likely put themselves in the bubble conversation come season’s end? I had hoped it would be the Gophers, but after this week Michigan took a big step in the right direction with their 55-52 upset win over UCLA in the Coaches vs. Cancer semifinals. They ended up losing by 15 to Duke in the final, but that win will loom large if they end up on the bubble in March, not to mention it may serve as notice that the Wolverines are back to being a legitimate team.

2. Utah Football. I had mentioned BYU in this space before as a team that had a chance to come from outside the Big Six conferences to grab a BCS bowl bid, but they’re old news now, with Utah smoking them 48-24 to finish the season 12-0, winning the Mountain West and giving them a spot in one of the BCS bowls. Utah is no joke, as they have the most wins against Big Six teams for a team outside those conferences since the BCS began with 16, and are 10-3 against those teams since 2004, with wins over Michigan and possible Pac-10 champ Oregon State this season. They are going to give some BCS team a hell of a game this bowl season.

3. Michael Turner. The Burner rushed for 4 Touchdowns and 117 yards, kicking division leading Carolina right in their stupid faces and bring Atlanta to 7-4, just one game back. I've spent a lot of time writing about the Falcons here, and rightly so as it's a hell of a story. They are likely a playoff team and a dark horse super bowl contender, all with a rookie quarterback and a pretty much revamped offense. I'm sure Bogart's guy Mike Vick is having a great time in prison though, so that's good. His team will probably win the prison bowl, so that's a ring right there.

4. Xavier. The Musketeers won the Puerto Rico Tip Off Challenge after beating Missouri, Virginia Tech, and #13 Memphis in the final. An impressive run, particularly for a team I thought had lost too much from the excellent teams of the last few years to be anything other than an Atlantic 10 contender. Just like the last few years, they are doing it with a balanced attack; they have three guys averaging double figure scoring, and six who are at 7.8 ppg or better. The big key to this team is freshman point guard Terrell Holloway, who has stepped in for Drew Lavender and is keeping the team going. He doesn't put up great numbers and isn't particularly flashy, but he runs the offense well and keeps the game in his control in the final minutes, and his 96% free throw shooting helps immensely down the stretch. Two things about Memphis: it is impossible to keep Robert Dozier and Shawn Taggert off the boards, and free throws are still going to be a problem. Oh, and Tyreke Evans is really good, and perfect for that system.

5. Down with Goldy. I know what you're thinking, "DWG is always awesome, you don't need to put it in this list to tell us that, we all know." And it's true, DWG is always awesome, but we recently received some nice praise that I want to tell you about. A site called Learning XL, which gives tips, tools, and resources for lifelong learners, has included us in the Top 100 College Sports Blogs. We here at DWG are flattered, humbled, and bewildered by our inclusion. A big thanks to LearningXL and their parent, UniXL.com


WHO SUCKED

1. Gopher Football. Embarrassing. Anyone who calls this season a success should be stabbed in the face.

2. Pac 10 Hoops. Remember last year, when the Pac was arguably the best conference in the country? Yeah, that’s not happening this year. UCLA lost to Michigan. USC lost to Seton Hall and Missouri. Washington lost to Portland. Arizona lost to UAB. Oregon lost to Oakland. Oregon State lost to Howard. Essentially, the Pac 10 has lost every significant test they’ve had this season, other than UCLA’s win over Southern Illinois. There were arguments last season that the conference could have had 8 teams in the tournament; this year it looks like four would be lucky.

3. SEC Hoops. Not quite an embarrassment to the level of the Pac 10 this year, but SEC teams aren’t exactly lighting the world on fire right now either. Kentucky has that big loss to VMI and was embarrassed pretty good by North Carolina. Georgia lost to a horrible Loyola of Chicago team, Vandy lost to Illinois, Alabama and Auburn both lost at home to Mercer, Arkansas lost to Missouri State, and Ole Miss lost their only test against Utah. They aren’t quite down to the level of the Pac 10, and Tennessee and Florida should both be fine, but the conference has not impressed thus far.

4. Philadelphia Eagles. Stick a fork in the Eagles and Donovan McNabb, they suck - as I predicted. In what may have been the ugliest game by a team this year other than the Gophers, the Eagles got rolled by Baltimore 36-7, after turning the ball over five times including a 108 yard interception return for a TD by Ed Reed. McNabb was benched after putting up a 13.4 rating for the game, replaced by Kevin Kolb who was much better with a 15.3. Even worse, the 7 points they managed to score didn't even come from the offense, and was on a kick return by Quinton Demps, who I'm going to assume is the brother of Will. According to an article on yahoo what that I can't find the link to now, McNabb is likely on his way out of Philly. Welcome to Minnesota, Donovan. The good news here is that Baltimore was my defense in one of my fantasy leagues yesterday.

Weekend Review

I'm going to try to do this every Monday now. Odds are, it won't be very consistent. Oh well.

WHO WAS AWESOME:

1. Michael Turner. Jumped head first into his new starting gig, leading all rushers with 220 yards and 2 TDs and jump starting all three of my fantasy teams to victory. Scored a 66 yd TD on one of his first few carries and it was all easy from there. On a related note, the Lions tackle like the Gophers

2. Gopher Football. Speaking of the Gophers, awesome might be a tad strong for it but they are certainly better than I expected. Let's not pretend Bowling Green is the world's greatest opponent, but I figured they were set up to blow the Gophers out of the water, especially at home. The defense turned the Eagles over five times, and the offense was good as expected. Maybe there's a little life in these guys. They should go into the Big Ten season at 4-0 now, and could easily squeak out two wins and head to a bowl. A great accomplishment this season.

3. Willie Parker. I thought he was done. A lot of people did, possibly including his own team after drafting Rashard Mendenhall. Parker served notice that he's still the man, going for +100 yds and three TDs, while Mendenhall got ten carries, mostly in garbage time, and did pretty much nothing. Pittsburgh looks very, very good, and suddenly my sleeper pick of the Texans has me worried, Andre Johnson awesomeness (10 catches, 112 yards).

4. Camilo Villegas. Pretty much lead the BMW the whole way, and didn't fold in the end despite having Jim Furyk take the lead in the final round. Came back and held off Anthony Kim in a duel that was fun to watch to take his first ever PGA tour victory.

5. Britney Spears. Watched the VMAs. She's hot again.

WHO SUCKED:

1. Tom Brady. Well, sucked is maybe not the right word, but getting hurt for the season certainly sucks for Brady, the Patriots, all of New England, all the girls (and boys) who would like to make sweet, sweet love to Mr. Brady, and several million fantasy owners (suck it, Dharma Bum). Personally, I'm bummed. I want the Patriots to fail with no excuses, not have a built in reason for failure. At least they won for me in my survivor pool.

2. Indianapolis Colts. Sorry Sidler, and if you'd like to expound on this, please do, but they looked god awful. I know the Bears are a solid-to-great defensive squad, but that was embarrassing. I have no idea if it was because Peyton was out all preseason and their timing is screwy or what, maybe it's the new stadium. I don't know, but it was awful. With them looking awful, the Chargers playing poorly, and Brady's injury, the Steelers are looking like a good pick right now.

3. Ted Ginn. I know he's not exactly a great player yet, but I was expecting a bit of a splash. 19 total yards and a fumble is not a way to take a step forward in your career. I don't know, maybe I'm just an idiot.

4. West Virginia. This is more of a pro-East Carolina thing, but I already have five positives above. The Pirates have now beaten two ranked teams in West Virginia and Virginia Tech, and with a pretty easy CUSA schedule in front of them could be in line for a BCS bowl bid. As for the Mountaineers, they have a schedule left that leaves them plenty of opportunity to get back in the BCS picture, but it's pretty clear that Pat White is no Major Harris.

5. The Twins. Way to keep sucking bullpen, great job.

MINI RANT:

Why, why, why do people lie about insignificant things nobody cares about? Here at work we have six people, most of whom get in between 7:30 - 9:00 every morning. I'm one of these. We have one guy who always tells people how he gets in before 7, usually by 6:30. Now, with a baby, no matter how genius-level her intelligence, she does some weird things in her sleep schedule and sometimes I'm up really early so I just head into work. In the approximate 100 days I've worked this job, I've ended up going in before 7 probably ten times. You know how many of those times this guy has been there when I arrived? Zero. Dude, you aren't here every day by seven. Sure, maybe sometimes. Maybe most of the time, but I find it pretty suspicious that you haven't been in even once when I get here early. Why lie? It makes no sense. Just say you try to get in before seven, ass. Nobody is impressed, and you're a damn dirty liar.