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 18th update

Wednesday spotlight: Eli Manning

• When the Super Bowl takes place in a little over 2 weeks in Peyton Manning's hometown of Indianapolis, there's a good chance that a Manning will be playing for the Super Bowl championship, but it will be Eli, not Peyton.
• After years of languishing in the giant shadow cast by his brother, Eli is starting to come into his own. Although many people called his Super Bowl win a few years ago a fluke (as the team barely snuck into the playoffs that season and then took advantage of David Tyree's miraculous catch) he's now beaten the two best regular season teams of the past decade in the playoffs, downing the 15-1 Green Bay Packers in addition to the 18-0 New England Patriots, the Giants' opponents that year in the Super Bowl.
• At the beginning of this season, Eli boldly stated that he should be mentioned in the same breath as Tom Brady and the general public's reaction was mostly derision (or questioning why he wouldn't name his brother as the standard bearer instead of Brady). But after a season in which he threw for 4'933 yards beating his career total by nearly 1'000 and a figure that would lead the NFL in most seasons as well as throwing for nearly twice as many TD's (29) as interceptions (16) it's time for people to start taking Eli seriously. The Green Bay Packers certainly will. And with Peyton's career in question after missing this entire season due to a neck injury, the time may have come where Eli is the predominant Manning in the NFL.
• Eli faces a big test this week, going to San Francisco to face the 49ers and one of the best defenses in the NFL this season.


Big Year at Baylor

• As previously noted here, the Baylor Bears had a very good football season. Led by Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III, the Bears finished 10-3 with a victory in the Alamo Bowl (one of the more exciting of the bowl games this year). But despite winning arguably the most coveted individual award in college sports, Griffin has some competition for the title of big man on campus, even if in this case it's not a man who he's competing with.
• The Baylor women’s basketball team is currently undefeated at 17-0 and ranked #1 in the nation. Led by superstar center Brittney Griner, the Lady Bears have not really been tested yet this year, through no fault of their own. There just hasn’t been anybody who can compete with the talent that head coach Kim Mulkey has assembled.
• Not to be outdone, the men’s basketball team is also undefeated at 17-0. If not for a fast start by the Syracuse Orange the Bears may be #1 in the Men's poll too. Led by super sophomore forward Perry Jones, the Bears have been tearing there way through Big 12 competition. Jones had the option to go to the NBA last year, and opted for another year under coach Scott Drew. Baylor's recent success has gone a great deal to making people forget about the major scandal that rocked Waco, Texas just 5 years ago.