January 4th update

Wednesday Spotlight: Arian Foster

• Houston Texans running back Arian Foster’s story is one of rags to riches. After a storied high school career in San Diego, Foster chose to attend the University of Tennessee. After a redshirt season, Foster became a 3-year starter for the Volunteers. He had an impressive career and after his Junior season, Foster was graded as a second round pick in the NFL draft, but he chose to come back to college to try and improve on that.
• A poor senior season, and various off the field issues, made Foster’s draft stock to plummet. A poor showing at Tennessee’s pro day (a day each big school has to showcase their draft eligible players) caused Foster to not get drafted in the 2009 draft. A free agent after the draft Foster decided to sign with the Houston Texans.
• After not getting much attention in his first season, Foster came on like gang busters in his second year. In Week 1 of the 2010 season he rushed for 231 yards (a franchise record) and didn’t look back. Foster won the rushing title (for the most yards) and made the pro bowl in 2010. A injured hamstring which he famously posted an MRI of on twitter, labeling the injured portion "anti-awesomeness" (That's the picture above in case you were wondering) slowed Foster down in 2011, but he still made the Pro Bowl. Foster is one of the best Running Backs in the NFL, proving that the draft is not everything.


Black Monday sees substandard activity

• The first day after the end of the football’s regular season is called Black Monday, due to the fact that it's when lots of teams who underperformed during the season start to clean house. Generally a handful of coaches are fired in the first few days of the offseason but this year’s activity has been a little lighter than normal, with some owners who were presumed to be putting their houses up for sale getting votes of confidence from their bosses.
• The St Louis Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers will begin next season with new coaches as Steve Spagnuolo and Rahim Morris, respectively, were fired. The Rams went 2-14 this year and have only won 10 games in the past 3 years and the Bucs have not won since Halloween weekend, a big drop for a team that is only a year removed from barely missing out on the playoffs. St. Louis also fired their General Manager Billy Devaney and the Chicago Bears fired their GM Jerry Angelo. Perhaps the biggest surprise was the ousting of Indianapolis Colts Chairman and GM Bill and Chris Polian respectively. Bill Polian (father to Chris) was the architect of three winning franchises and he was grooming his son to take his place. Surprisingly, Colts owner Jim Irsay decided that after locking down the #1 overall pick in the draft, he wanted new personnel in his front office handling the future.
• Surprisingly a few coaches rumored to be on the proverbial hot seat were told they would be back next year. San Diego Chargers coach Norv Turner, whose teams continually underperform and Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid, whose star studded team thudded this season, were both given a reprieve for this year's disappointment.


NFL Draft begins to take shape

• The top of next year’s NFL draft has began to take shape. The teams that fail to make the playoffs will have the first 20 picks of the draft in order of their record (from worst to best). The Indianapolis Colts locked in their chance to draft Andrew Luck by losing this weekend. The St Louis Rams also lost and lock in the second overall pick. Since Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo was fired (as pointed out above) the door for a new QB to be taken atop the draft and for Sam Bradford to be traded might be opened.
• The rest of the top 5 will likely look like this: Minnesota Vikings at #3 (whose coach Leslie Frazier was not axed mainly because this was his first full season), the Cleveland Browns at #4 and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at #5.
• As for the top candidates to be drafted, a number of underclassmen have either declared or are reported to have declared. In addition to Luck, USC offensive tackle Matt Kalil and Baylor QB Robert Griffin III have declared for the draft and are likely top-5 picks.

December 30th update

Bowl season heating up

• It might be cold outside but the bowl season is warming up as it's finally getting to the time of the year where exciting matchups are being played. With the current landscape of college football, nearly any team with 6 wins can make a bowl (as is evidenced by this sterling matchup) but most of the mediocre games are played earlier in the bowl season and now we have better games remaining, most of which begin in January.
• On Thursday, Florida State used a suffocating defense to recover from a 14-0 deficit to defeat Notre Dame 18-14 and are now the only team to win a bowl every year from 2008 to 2011 and Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III led Baylor to a comeback win over Washington.
• On January 2nd you could spend all day watching great matchups as there are 6 games and except for Ohio State vs Florida (two national powers having a down year) every team playing is ranked. The best game will likely be the Fiesta Bowl which matches up high powered offenses; Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon of Oklahoma State against Andrew Luck's Stanford Cardinal, but the Rose Bowl claims the Pac-12 winner against the Big 10 winner (Oregon and Wisconsin respectively) and that game will be very entertaining as well. After the 2nd, there will be a few more games but no more than one per day and Sportico will preview most of those as well in a little more detail.


Trouble in paradise?

• In our Wednesday spotlight on Kevin Durant, we mentioned the fact that he plays alongside all-star point guard Russell Westbrook. The relationship between the two budding superstars has been reported to be strained. Durant is the more well known star, but Westbrook wants more attention for the work he does, which manifested itself a bit in the playoffs last year when Westbrook was criticized for taking (and missing) far too many shots.
• This strain bubbled over Wednesday night when the two stars got into a shouting match on the sidelines after Westbrook’s anger at a third teammate's shot selection spilled over. Both players downplayed the incident (as did Thunder coach Scotty Brooks) however it remains to be seen if this tension will continue to cause a schism on one of the best young teams in the league.
• Thursday night (as the NBA continues to play an absurd amount of games to fit as many games into their lockout-shortened schedule) Durant hit a game winning 3-pointer to defeat the Dallas Mavericks 104-102 in a rematch of last year's Western Conference Finals. The Thunder are 4-0 and will have a day off before playing again on New Years Eve.


NFL Playoff Picture clearing up

• The easy division: the NFC – The Packers have run away with this regular season. They have lost once, but have clinched the first round seed in the NFC. Both the San Francisco 49ers and New Orleans Saints have clinched their divisions, and will be the 2 and 3 seed depending on this weekend (if the 49ers win they have it, if the Saints win and the 49ers lose the Saints will be the number 2 seed). The two wild cards (5th and 6th seeds) have already been clinched by the Detroit Lions and Atlanta Falcons. The one spot left to be filled is the 4th seed. The Dallas Cowboys travel to the New York Giants in a winner-take-all game.
• The AFC is a bit more confusing: The New England Patriots have clinched at least the #2 seed, and will be the #1 seed if the current #2 team (Baltimore Ravens) lose. If they win, they will clinch the #1 spot. The Ravens will clinch the #2 spot with either a victory or a Pittsburgh Steelers loss. The Steelers are currently the 5th seed (as the first wild card team) but can leap to the #2 seed if they win and the Ravens lose.
• The Houston Texans have clinched the #3 Spot. The #4 spot will go to the Denver Broncos if they win, or the Oakland Raiders lose while the Raiders will take it if they win and the Broncos lose. The 6th spot comes down to four teams. The Cincinnati Bengals have the inside track, if they win they have it, however they play the extremely tough Baltimore Ravens who, as we've noted, still have something to play for. The New York Jets, Tennessee Titans and Raiders each have a chance if a LOT of different things break their way. We will have a full recap of the weekend, and preview of the playoffs on Monday’s Sportico.

December 23rd update

"Unlucky" win for Colts?

• For most of the season, it has been assumed that the Indianapolis Colts would finish with the worst record in the NFL and gain the top pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, which would almost be certainly used on star QB Andrew Luck of Stanford either as trade bait or as a replacement for Peyton Manning. As the Colts were losing games left and right, the prevailing thought is that they would be fortunate just to win a game much less win enough to put that #1 pick in jeopardy. But after Thursday night's win over the fading Houston Texans (who are 0-10 all-time in Indy now) the Colts have as many wins as the St. Louis Rams and Minnesota Vikings and the question is obvious: "What is the tiebreaker?"
• The answer will be a relief to Colts fans as it will be very hard for the Colts not to gain the first pick as long as they don't win their final game in Jacksonville. The first tiebreaker involves strength of schedule, so if team x plays 16 games and each opponent won 12 games, their tiebreaker figure would be .75.
• If the Colts had lost to the Texans, the best their strength of schedule could be at the end of the season would have been .5469 and if the Vikings lose their final two games, the worst their strength of schedule could be also is .5469. However since the Texans now have one less win (and it's calculated twice since Indy played Houston twice) the Vikings have an outside chance of sneaking by on the tiebreaker. Basically the Vikings need the teams they've played this year to lose a lot. The Rams' strength of schedule could be at worst .5586, so they cannot land the No. 1 pick if the Colts lose a 14th game because Indy's best strength of schedule would be lower than the worst possible for St. Louis.
• In addition to Luck still likely going to Indy, other teams in need of a QB dealt with the bad news of seeing Matt Barkley of USC announce that he will return to USC for his senior season (who says kids these days don't value education?!?). Barkley was the next best QB in the draft and would probably be the #1 pick any other year (possibly the reason he decided to wait until 2013 to enter the NFL draft).

NBA Preview: Western Conference

• Now that we've covered the barrage of Big 3's in the East, it's time to move over to the Western Conference, which undoubtedly houses a more competitive group of teams from top to bottom. It all starts with the defending champion Dallas Mavericks and all-around superstar Dirk Nowitzki who will look to hold off a bevy of contenders including two teams from L.A.
  
• The Lakers are actually looking pretty weak and here at Sportico we would highly discourage any big bets being made on Kobe Bryant and the Lake Show capturing their 4th Western conference championship in 5 years. Let's count the reasons:
  

1. Kobe Bryant is already injured, plus he's dealing with emotional baggage as his wife just filed for divorce.
2. Lamar Odom, a highly productive and underrated player was given away to the Mavs after the botched Chris Paul deal hurt his feelings (for lack of a better phrase).
3. Phil Jackson will be watching from home or a mud hut in Argentina or wherever he decides to go in his retirement as opposed to the Lakers bench.
4. There are just too many good teams in the West.

• The Clippers have made the biggest strides this offseason, adding Chris Paul, Caron Butler and Chauncey Billups to their core group of players led by Blake Griffin and while they may not be ready to win titles just yet, they should be a fixture in the playoffs for years to come. Another young team a year or two ahead of the Clippers pace is the Oklahoma City Thunder, led by one of the games best players (Kevin Durant), one of the game's best young coaches (Scotty Brooks) and not to be discounted, the best classic rock entry song in the NBA by far.
• The Memphis Grizzlies, San Antonio Spurs and Phoenix Suns look to make some noise as well but time will only tell which team can put itself in a position to make a run to the NBA Finals this year in a shorter, but condensed 66 game season.
  

December 12th update

RG3 strikes the pose

• Saturday night the Downtown Athletic Club awarded the 77th Annual Heisman Trophy award, for the best player in college football. Robert Griffin III, the quarterback from Baylor University, received the award, being the first player from his school to win the award.
• Griffin III is an athletic freak who, in addition to being one of the best college football players around, is an All-American and NCAA Track and Field champion. Griffin III, who is a Junior, has already graduated with a 3.67 GPA in Political Science. Griffin III is the picture of what a student-athlete should be.
• Stanford QB and preseason Heisman favorite Andrew Luck finished second in the voting. Luck will have the last laugh however, as he will be drafted #1 in next year's NFL Draft (OK, that's not official but it's a near certainty). Alabama running back Trent Richardson finished third, Wisconsin RB Monte Ball finished fourth and LSU cornerback/return specialist Tyrann "Honey Badger" Mathieu finished fifth.


Braun tests positive

• Just when you thought the steroid issue in MLB was beginning to die down, one of the game's best young players failed a drug test when it was determined that his body had well above the normal levels of testosterone and that it was not produced naturally.
• It's a huge blow not only for the Brewers, who rode the 1-2 punch off Braun and Prince Fielder to the NLCS last year and now face losing Fielder to free agency and Braun to a 50 game suspension, it's also a blow to the MLB in general who sees one of it's best young marketable stars take a permanent hit to his reputation. Braun who was the NL MVP this season hit .332 with 33 HRs and 111 RBIs and already has 161 HR's for his career despite playing for less than 5 full seasons, but now the question is how many of those statistics were obtained with help?
• He is the first legitimate star who came into baseball after drug testing was implemented to test positive (which makes this even worse, as unlike some older players, he wasn't around for the days when steroids were basically as easy to find as vitamins in a MLB clubhouse). Braun will appeal but these tests are rarely incorrect and it looks like one of Milwaukee and baseball's best players over the past 5 seasons and and one of its potential cornerstones for the next decade will be forever playing beneath the shadow of the steroid asterisk.


College Basketball Brawl Mars Rivalry Game

• The inter-Cincinnati rivalry of University of Cincinnati and Xavier University is always heated but on Saturday it boiled over in an ugly melee. At the end of the first half of the game, a Cincinnati player started jawing with a player on Xavier’s bench. The players got in each others faces but were separated by coaches and other players. This would set the tone for most of the second half.
• With 10 seconds left in the game and the outcome long decided, the smack talking hit a pinnacle. Exactly what was said is unclear but the benches for both team cleared and fists began to fly.
• The Cincinnati coach gave a very impassioned speech about the lack of maturity on both sides of the situation. On Sunday, each school suspended 4 players in reaction to the incident. Further penalties may come down the line if the NCAA determines that the school's penalties aren't harsh enough.

November 11th Update

Update on the Penn State Situation

• After our post Wednesday morning, Joe Paterno announced he would retire at the end of the season because of the situation with former coordinator Jerry Sandusky. However, this was not enough for the Penn State Board of Trustees. Wednesday night they announced that Paterno, who had been the head coach for 46 years, would be fired effective immediately. Tom Bradley, who replaced the accused Jerry Sandusky as the PSU defensive coordinator, will take over as head coach on an interim basis.
• Penn State students rioted after news of Paterno’s firing was announced. Taking to the streets and flipping news trucks as they chanted, yelled and cried about losing their football coach and patron. Penn State plays their last home game of the season this weekend against Nebraska. It remains to be seen how the students will react during this game.
• The scandal has potentially since grown with rumors that Jerry Sandusky would “pimp” out young boys to potential donors to the program. We want to stress these are currently unconfirmed reports. Mike McQueary, a current assistant coach who was the original "whistle blower" is being asked not to appear at the game against Nebraska for fear of his personal safety.


Non-Penn State Story Lines this Weekend

• Can New England recover: New England Patriots at New York Jets – a rematch of a game from just a month ago, where New England defeated the Jets, occurs while the Patriots are in the midst of a rare two game losing streak. The Jets have won three straight games since their last matchup with the Patriots. The winner of this game will have at least a share of the lead in their division.
• Many other great NFL games: The New Orleans Saints travel to Atlanta to take on the Falcons for supremacy in the NFC South Division. The Houston Texans travel to Tampa Bay to take on the Buccaneers as the Texans face one of their biggest tests this year. The Oakland Raiders defeated the San Diego Chargers in the first Thursday night game of the season, sending the Chargers to their 4th straight loss. For the rest of the regular season there will be one game on Thursday night.
• NCAA Game of the Week: Oregon Ducks and possibly the best RB in the nation (LaMichael James) travel to Stanford to take on possibly the best QB in the nation in Andrew Luck and his the Cardinal. If Stanford wins, they will likely move to #3 in the BCS Standings but both teams are undefeated in the Pac-12 and the winner will play in the first ever Pac-12 championship game. It's the only matchup of top 10 teams this week.

October 14th update

NBA Lockout officially causes games to be canceled

• Big news was made in the NBA this past week when it was made official that the first two weeks of games would be canceled, the first time NBA games have been missed in 12 years. The biggest game during that span was the New York Knicks @ the Denver Nuggets, which would have been Carmelo Anthony's first ever visit to Denver as an opponent (he was traded to the Knicks last season).
• Missing two weeks of games would be the best-case scenario for the league though. A federal mediator has been called in to attempt to draw the sides closer on Tuesday but every talk so far has apparently been a complete failure and there's talk now of having to cancel the Christmas Day games which are basically the NBA's equivalent to Thanksgiving Day games for the NFL.
• There's a possibility that the entire season could be canceled, especially as many players have signed contracts to go play overseas, meaning they will not feel pressured to settle for a subpar deal, such as the one the NFL players were forced into to end the NFL lockout (for what it's worth, I sided with the players in the NFL but the owners in the NBA).
• We're big NBA fans here at Sportico but we think that the fans should become more vocal in speaking out against this silly lockout, where both sides are looking for a bigger slice of a $4.3 billion pie amidst a struggling U.S. economy. And we're not alone.



NFL Week Lacks Marquee Games, Compensates with Storylines

• How legit are the 9ers? The San Fransisco 49ers are coming off of a 48-3 smack down of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that turned a few heads. This week they face another big test as they travel to the Motor City to take on the undefeated Detroit Lions. New coach Jim Harbaugh looks to continue his astonishing 4-1 start against a potent Detroit team. It should be noted that the Bucs won on Monday Night Football the week before they played San Fran just as Detroit did last week.
• Who will win the shootout in New England? When the Dallas Cowboys travel to New England to take on the Patriots don’t expect much defense. Both team feature highly effective offenses and equally inept defenses. This mix, along with the offensive wizardry of their coaches should make this a fun game to watch.
• Suck for Luck: The big prize in this coming year’s NFL draft is expected to be Stanford Quarterback Andrew Luck. Supposedly the most polished quarterback prospect coming out of college since Peyton Manning. As the first pick in the Draft goes to the team with the worst record many fans have been hoping their team “Sucks for Luck.”
• There are currently three teams with no wins, and 6 more with only one. Now some of these teams (the St Louis Rams and Carolina Panthers for instance) would not select Luck because they have established young quarterbacks, but they would expect to get a lot in the trade market for such a coveted prospect. The Dolphins may be the best destination for luck as they play in a big market and have tons of talent on offense with Brandon Marshall, Reggie Bush and Jake Long (one of the best linemen in the game to protect Luck).


NCAA's Week 7 Should Answer Questions

• How good are the Oklahoma State Cowboys? The 5-0 Cowboys are less hyped than their in-state rivals, the Oklahoma Sooners, but they are ranked #6 in the country and are lead by stud wide receiver Justin Blackmon. They have been wiping the floors with their opponents throughout the season (defeating Kansas 70-28 this past weekend), but a trip to Austin to take on the Texas Longhorns should prove to be a slightly more telling task.
• Who’s the best in Michigan? The Michigan Wolverines travel to take on their instate rivals Michigan State on Saturday. The undefeated Wolverines are ranked #11 while the Spartans of Michigan State are ranked #23. The Wolverines, lead by Sophomore quarterback sensation Denard Robinson began the season unranked, but are now in contention for a conference title, their first in over a decade.
• Can Oregon recover? After a tough defeat to start the season (to what is looking like the best team in college football in the past 5 years, LSU) the Oregon Ducks have been unstoppable. Never scoring less than 40 points, and outscoring their opponents by 151 points in the past 4 weeks. Currently ranked #9 in the country, the Ducks are trying to reclaim their spot as a championship contender, it will take more than a few wins, as there are a number of undefeated teams that may take precedence at the end of the day and they may have to do so without superstar RB Lamichael James for a game or two as he is nursing an arm injury.

September 21st update

Wednesday Spotlight: Mariano Rivera

• It’s not often that somebody who excels at one thing is considered the best at that thing well before they are statistically at the top. This is the case for Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees. Rivera has long been considered the best closer in the history of Major League Baseball. Rivera got his 602nd save (which is the term for finishing a game when the player's team had 3 runs or less lead and maintaining that lead) which put him ahead of Trevor Hoffman in career saves.
• Rivera has long been considered the best closer due largely to his success in the post-season. Rivera was originally supposed to be a starting pitcher, but quickly moved to be a reliever. After the 1995 season, where the Yankees won the World Series, Rivera took over for John Wetteland as the closer for the Yankees. Over the next 16 years the Yankees won 5 more World Series with Rivera closing four of them.
• The thing that makes Rivera’s successes all the more impressive is that he has done it with basically one pitch. His “cutter” is a fastball type pitch that moves about 5 inches to the left at the last possible second. It is one of the most dominant pitches any player has. This pitch has continued to befuddle batters for almost 2 decades and according to Rivera basically just appeared one day while he was playing catch with Panamanian countryman Ramiro Mendoza.


Big in and out of conference NCAA games loom in week 4

• A number of terrific games headline week 4 of the NCAA's season. The best is probably a matchup of top 8 Big 12 teams Texas A&M and Oklahoma State. While both teams are still in the Big 12, this may be their last chance to make a title run as part of this conference as it may be breaking up soon.
• SEC superpower, #3 ranked Alabama plays #14 Arkansas who has a great team despite losing superstar QB Ryan Mallett to the NFL this past season. Another SEC team, #2 LSU takes on #16 West Virginia in what should be a defensive struggle.
• In the ACC, two ranked teams clash as Florida State will look to rebound after a close loss to #1 Oklahoma against Clemson, who last week became the first team to defeat Auburn since 2009. Additionally, the power running game of Georgia Tech meets possibly the most NFL-ready defense in college football of North Carolina as dark horse ACC title contenders meet to try to remain perfect.
•Rounding out the top 5, #1 Oklahoma plays Missouri, #4 Boise State plays Tulsa and Andrew Luck can take the weekend to shop for suits to wear to the 2012 NFL draft (where he will almost certainly be the #1 pick) as #5 Stanford has a bye week.