No can dunk but good fundamentals

Well maybe Xavier's Dee Dee Jernigan should have worked a little harder on either dunking or her fundamentals because she missed two uncontested layups in the waning moments of her team's Elite Eight tilt against Stanford. Either would have given the Musketeers a two point lead, something that seems important given that Stanford's Jeanette Pohlen would race the length of the court for the game winning layup as time expired. Video of the disaster here. Much funnier video below:

Geno Auriemma is a prick

In the competitive world of women's college basketball there are nice guys and there are pricks. Geno Auriemma...he's a prick. He finds himself some girls that respond well to pricks (snicker) and he wins with ruthless regularity. Pat Summitt...she's a nice guy. Reporters love her, her players love her, even opposing coaches love her. It has worked for a long, long, long time, to the tune of 8 national titles. Brittney Griner of Baylor...well, she's a prick too. She's also really tall and good at blocking shots. She is so good she has done blocked Summitt's nice guys right out of the tournament. This marks the second consecutive year the Lady Volunteers have failed to reach at least the elite 8, the longest such streak of futility in their history.

Crosby v Ovechkin

Any time Crosby and the Penguins face off against Ovechkin and the Capitals and it's actually on TV I will be glued to the coachcouch. This gives you, the loyal reader (I assume there's at least one of you) the opportunity for a quick recap. After a slow first period that saw both teams feeling each other out, things picked up in the second period thanks to a fluke goal from Mike Knuble that broke the ice and gave the Caps a 1-0 lead. The Penguins would take a 2-1 lead by the end of the period setting up the dramatic third stanza. Capitals sniper Alexander Semin tied the game with a wicked wrister and after the Capitals took a 3-2 lead, Penguins star Jordan Staal evened the score again with a blistering wrist shot of his own. Following an exiting back and forth overtime, the game would be decided by a shootout. Here is Sidney Crosby giving the Penguins a seemingly insurmountable 2-0 lead in the shootout, followed immediately by Alexander Ovechkin scoring to begin the surmount. The Capitals would win the shootout 3-2.

This could go either way

Jose Reyes has been cleared by team doctors to resume baseball activities. I can see this going either way. On the one hand, after last year I expect the team and the medical staff to be extra cautious and not rush a player back to the field until he is completely healthy. On the other hand, after last year I have absolutely no faith in the training staff and part of me is more than a little nervous that Reyes will be the player who actually dies on the field due to their incompetence.

Why would anyone want to play for this team?

Now I am not saying this team is cursed. Hell I don't even believe in curses...but this team is cursed. Brad Holt, the 33rd pick of the 2008 draft, has thrown exactly one pitch in spring training thus far as shown in the video below:



Fortunately, Holt is not expected to be a contributor to the team this season, meaning the ball hit him in the ass and not the head.

This is news

The New York Giants will open their brand new $1.7 billion stadium on Sunday, September 12. The New York Jets will play their home opener in the same stadium on Monday, September 13. The Jets apparently got their frilly green panties in a bunch on the decision-making process here, and have gone public with their kvetching. It's a good thing nothing else in sports is going on this week, or else there's no way the morning sports talk radio shows would be able to ignore it all and talk about nothing else. It may be an overreaction, but people who spend more than 5 or 10 seconds worrying about the NFL in March should be executed. Just to be safe we should probably eliminate any direct relatives so they could not spread that defective DNA throughout the rest of the world.

In significantly more important news, Versus and DirecTV have come to an agreement allowing the channel to return to the satellite airwaves just in time for the impending NHL playoffs. This is good news for all NFL fans bemoaning the lack of sports in March as I am significantly less likely to stab them in the face. Unless they stick their face between me and the hockey playoffs on TV, in which case we can all agree they were asking for it.

Scott Walker rode the metro

This post from the D.C Sports Bog talks about how Scott Walker, recently acquired from the Carolina Hurricanes, took the Metro to the game the other night because his wife took his car back home to Raleigh. In the video Walker talks about his experience asking for directions and following the crowd. Missing from the video was Walker sucker-punching Aaron Ward when he jostled a man in a Capitals jersey while trying to squeeze through the door as it closed. That video, captured seemingly on a cell-phone camera, appears exclusively here.

I guess the refs didn't get the memo

Hey stripes, when you have Alexander Ovechkin on a national audience playing against US Olympic hero Patrick Kane and the high-flying Chicago Blackhawks, you might want to keep him beyond the 12 minute mark of the first period. It states VERY CLEARLY in the rule book (emphasis added):

"A player who dangerously knocks another player head first into the end boards should be assess a 5-minute boarding penalty and a game misconduct unless the player if marketed as the face of a league desperate to capitalize on the success of the recent Olympics."

Video of the hit is below, judge for yourself if it was a dangerous hit from behind or just an unfortunate result of a large man pushing another man whose razor-sharp skate gets caught in the ice. Your opinion probably depends greatly on your perspective.



Unfortunately, Brian Campbell suffered an upper body injury, likely a broken clavicle and broken ribs, and may be done for the season. Of course, he's a hockey player, so he's probably day to day.

Conflicting emotions

Is it hockey season yet? Wait, it's STILL fucking hockey season? Then how in the hell did the Mets season go to hell before the goddamned playoffs started?