2008 Woodie Awards
Duke all the way
Clayton Ruley
Issue date: 3/21/02 Section: sports
- Page 1 of 1
|
The NCAA basketball tournament is in full throttle. With the Sweet 16 approaching (which is the best time of the tournament in my eyes) my pick for the next rounds are as follows:
Duke over Indiana, Kent State over Pittsburgh and then Duke over Kent State in the South region.
In the East Region, I like Maryland over Kentucky, UConn over Southern Illnois and Maryland over UConn in the Eastern final.
In the West Region, I like Arizona over Oklahoma, UCLA over Missouri in a nailbiter and UCLA over Arizona in the Western final. Arizona had a great run, but their lack of outside shooting will mark the end against a tough UCLA team that is hungry from the PAC-10 regular season and conference tourney.
Finally, in the Midwest Region, I like Illinois over Kansas because I see no Kansas guard being able to stop Frank Williams. Kansas does not know what to do this time of the year anyway. From there, Oregon over Texas, and Oregon over Illinois in the Midwestern final.
In the Final Four, Duke will defeat Oregon. Maryland, despite the pressure to get to the final for the all-ACC match up, will lose to UCLA, setting up a Duke/UCLA final. Duke will repeat because of their guard rotation, despite the fact that Gadzuric is a monster down low and will cause problems for Duke and Coach K.
The Bruins have lost guard Rico Hines for the Sweet 16 round and possibly more and have not played with steady point guard play all season, a big problem when you face Duke.
NFL Transactions
The NFL is open for business despite not being on the field. With the draft approaching and the free agent period upon the NFL, teams are scrambling to find those pieces that alluded them last year to get to a Super Bowl.
A couple of teams have caught my eye as they make that difficult push.
Miami recently acquired Ricky Williams, finally getting them the running back they haven't had since Larry Czsonka in the 70s. He is a brick wall with cleats and will be a welcomed addition in Norv Turner's system. He just has to hold onto the pigskin and that team may actually worry about more than beating the Jets this season. To go along with Williams, they got Leon Searcy, a guard from Baltimore, and resigned important free agents: safety Brock Marion, quarterback Jay Fiedler and Tim Bowens on that defensive line.
The Redskins and Lions have also made good moves. The Skins brought in wideouts Reidel Anthony and Jacquez Green from Tampa Bay and Jessie Armstead from the Giants. The Lions brought in wideouts Bill Schroeder and Az-Zahir Hakim from Green Bay and St. Louis, respectively, and safety Brian Walker from the turnover hungry Dolphins. I also like the addition of Blaine Bishop for the Eagles. It brings a hard hitter and good cover guy to a secondary that was arguably already the best in the league.
A Husky Feat
The UConn women's basketball team is trying to go undefeated this year and now sits at 35-0 going into its game with Notre Dame this weekend. That is amazing, despite the fact that in the women's game, most powerhouse teams face limited competition in their own conference. UConn lost two All-Americans in Shea Ralph and Svetlana Abrosimova to graduation, but kept on rolling and now look to win its first title since 1995, when Rebecca Lobo and Kara Wolters were patrolling the lane for the Huskies.
The expertise of 400-win coach Geno Auriemma has to be commended. The play of these women has been rivaling Tennessee for the last decade and doesn't look to stop.
The Flyers tying up loose ends
The Flyers, among several others, made moves as the NHL trade deadline rolled past.
By acquiring Adam Oates, the Fly-guys hope to insure themselves just in case Keith Primeau or Jeremy Roenick are out because of injuries suffered recently. They also hope to energize a powerplay that has struggled.
Oates is the league leader in assists, so he won't overstep his bounds. He is an excellent point man, and can play on the wing and brings another cagey veteran into the clubhouse.
Clarke gave up prized goalie Maxime Ouellet and first, second and third round draft picks in the 2002 draft, but is going for a Stanley Cup in the near future. For that, Philly fans must give thanks.
No More Knight Commercials, Thank You!
The Bob Knight biographical movie, "A Season On The Brink," was done in poor taste by ESPN. Not because it showed Bob Knight in a negative light (most would say he did that himself), but for the overexaggeration of expletives and the underrating of Bob Knight as a coach and person.
The aura of Knight isn't questioned. He can be intimidating and old school, but instead of showing one season or one set of isolated incidents, they should have shown how and why Knight was the way he was. It is easy to say that a man is defined by his actions, but what happens when you don't show the people the total picture? Those actions create misconceptions.