March 28th update

Wednesday Spotlight: Britney Griner

• The Baylor Bear’s women’s basketball team has been head and shoulders ahead of their competition this year. They entered the tournament 34-0, and have added 4 more wins in the tournament to get to the final four. The star attraction for the Lady Bears has been junior center Britney Griner.
• Griner, the #1 recruit coming out of high school in 2009, chose Baylor to play for in college. Griner became only the 7th woman to dunk in a college basketball game (and this year became only the second to dunk in the NCAA Tournament).
• Griner and the Lady Bears were the odds on favorites to win the championship, but there may be a major bump in the road. In their Elite 8 games Griner and another teammate left the bench during a scuffle on the floor. This is grounds for suspension. The decision should come down in the next few days, and it could change the landscape of the tournament.

Soccer Update

• Lionel Messi last week scored his 233rd career goal for Barcelona (along with 2 others, giving him yet another hat trick). This milestone goal makes Messi the all-time leading scorer for this storied soccer team. The Argentinean who is still only 24 years old has been named the FIFA player of the year the past two seasons, and looks to continue put distance between himself and the previous top of the Barca scoring list.
• The US Men’s soccer team failed to qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics after tying with El Salvador in an Olympic qualifying tournament. Needing only to kill a few more seconds in order to win and take a step towards qualifying for the Olympics, US goalkeeper Sean Johnson (not to be confused with Shawn Johnson) could not stop a long shot by Jamie Alas near the end of stoppage time. Johnson misplayed the ball and that lead to the goal that caused the tie and as a result, the U.S. men's team will be watching the Olympics from home.

January 11th update

Wednesday spotlight: Lionel Messi

• Here at Sportico, we've recently been made aware that a good portion of the world refers to football as a game primarily played with your feet instead of your hands; a game which Americans know as soccer. To this point, the best soccer player in the world is a diminutive Argentinian named Lionel Messi so we're going to do our best to highlight his career so far.
• Messi has won the last 3 Player of the year honors in EuroCup play after scoring a staggering 37, 48 and 53 goals respectively the last 3 seasons. He also led his team in scoring in all 3 Champions league finals that Barcelona won under his leadership and the team has won 5 La Liga (the main league in Spain) titles as well. None of these honors come close to having your very own Sportico spotlight but they're none too shabby.
• Messi was the top scorer of the 2005 FIFA Youth Championship with six goals, including two in the final game. Soon aftewards, he became a member of Argentina's senior international team. In 2006, he became the youngest Argentine ever to play in the World Cup and he won a runners-up medal at the Copa America tournament the following year. At the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics he won his first international honor, an Olympic gold medal, with the Argentinian team.
• For those of you wondering why he plays internationally for Argentina but for a Spanish team in league play, it's simple: Europe is where the (soccer) money and prestige is just as America is with basketball.


Skier in coma after fall

• Sarah Burke, a 29 year old Canadian freestyle skier with eight Winter X game medals to her name is in a coma after a fall during a training run in Utah. According to Canadian team CEO Peter Judge, "It wasn't anything that looked like a catastrophic fall, so I'm a bit mystified," but nonetheless she is currently not conscious and is under observation after the training accident that occurred after a trick.
• Burke has won an ESPY for best female athlete and additionally was the first woman ever to land a triple spin (or 1080) in a competition. With halfpipe making its debut in the 2014 Winter Olympics she was considered one of the early favorites and may still be, depending on how bad her long term prognosis ends up being following this accident.
• Her husband, skier Rory Bushfield, and Burke’s mother are trying to find someone willing to let them use a private jet to shorten the travel time to Salt Lake City. "Sarah is a very, very strong human and she will be fine," Bushfield said in a statement. We hope he is correct and that this incident will be nothing more than a footnote during Burke's competition at the 2014 Olympics.


Boring Title Game leads to Questions

• The Alabama Crimson Tide defeated the LSU Tigers 21-0 in Monday night’s NCAA Football Championship game. While there game was slightly higher scoring than the first game, the level of offensive play was still atrocious, especially from the #1 and undefeated LSU squad.
• The lack of offense was probably due in large part to the talent both teams had on defense. Until the final minutes of the game, LSU was able to hold Alabama to multiple field goal tries and the Alabama defense, which has been historically good, made the LSU offense look silly, keeping them off of their side of the field until well into the 3rd quarter. Both defenses have a plethora of future NFL players on their roster and were able to shut down the opposing offenses that averaged 30+ points a game this season.
• This victory throws the BSC championship into major question. While Alabama won the national championship game, LSU ended the season with one additional victory (13 to 12), a conference championship (Alabama didn't even play in the SEC championship game) and a victory earlier in the year against Alabama. The Associated Press (who have the second most widely recognized poll) gave Alabama their #1 spot by a wide margin but LSU or even Oklahoma State could stake claim to the top spot given the vague standards used to determine who is best.