Another week and another Life, Love… Sport (Let’s Bounce Edition). Welcome back, readers and general lovers of the column. This was a week highlighted by the Florida Gators winning their second title and bouncing to the big leagues, Opening Day taking place, something unimportant happening in the NBA and the NHL, crazy coaching movement in college basketball and a very slow week in the NFL.
So let’s start by congratulating the Florida Gators in winning their second straight title, not since the days of Duke in 1991-92 has that, and the entire starting line-up (as well as some of the bench-players) leaving to go pro, happened. The game itself was memorable for only one reason: Greg Oden came out and went nuts. I know many people don’t really like him, due to his lack of aggression, etc., etc. but I am a believer that having a seven-foot center is much more valuable in the NBA than a 6-9 scorer. Guys like Kevin Durant come along every other year, everyone gets excited for them to come to the NBA, then they all get disappointed because he can’t drop 30 points every game. I’m not sure if people know this, so I’m going to go ahead and mention it: players in the NBA are all very good, they’ve been playing forever, there’s really not much difference between players. And while it’s cool that Durant threw down 37 points on Colorado, it’s not going to be a daily occurrence in the big boy league. Meanwhile, Greg Oden has been injured most of the year, probably held back a portion of his game due to the fear of re-injury, but in the biggest game of his life, he poured in 25 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks. If only he could shoot three-pointers, maybe Ohio State could’ve come out with a win. He will be a cornerstone center for some team for the next decade, or maybe three years, depending which on birth certificate you believe.
In regards to college basketball, there have been coaching changes made as teams finish their season and look to move on to bigger and better things. Kentucky has been pining for Billy Donovan like a little girl. Now that he has won two straight titles, his asking price might be north of $3 million a year, and the crazy thing is that Kentucky might be willing to pay it. It is a basketball school – the football team will never quite catch the imagination of the fan-base in that school. Seeing how they ran poor Tubby Smith out of town, it wouldn’t surprise me if they can the next coach after three years if they don’t reach a Final Four. One move irks me: Dana Altman going from Creighton to Arkansas and then changing his mind after one day. Are you kidding me? When has this become acceptable? Was I asleep? In every other job, you’re pretty much locked in if you accept an offer – you don’t get the ability to go back as if nothing happened. Altman probably got to Arkansas, realized “oh crap, I’ll never win anything in this hellhole, let’s bounce” and came back to Creighton.
Baseball started again. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think that this was the most important day of every year. But we all know that’s not true. I have it on good authority that the most important day is whatever day the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue comes out. If you believe that Opening Day determines the outcome of the season, then Gil Meche is going to be the next coming Nolan Ryan and the Florida Marlins will win the World Series. Although, I will say Curt Schilling does look like he’s been spending too much time at the local Dunkin’ Donuts. Lay off the fast food Curt, you don’t want to be the next David Wells.
A list makes a column just that much better. Seeing how this article is just borderline perfect, I think this week’s list will push it over the top. This is the best of the worst, predicting the worst baseball teams of 2007. Off we go.
Washington Nationals: I don’t exactly know how Major League Baseball, after taking control of this team, allowed it to get this bad. If you find someone who can throw the ball better than a fifth grader, you let me know.
Kansas City Royals: Don’t be fooled by Gil Meche and his awesome outing. He still sucks. As does the rest of the team.
Baltimore Orioles: They don’t have an ace or any real pitchers in general. It hurts me to say this, but maybe they will be worse than the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Final Fact:
In excess of 20 percent of men and 10 percent of women have stated that at least once they’ve forgotten their wedding anniversary. (Spare me your hatred, I know this has nothing to do with sports.)
Maystrovsky’s article appears weekly.Maystrovsky is a member of the class of 2009.
