NBA Draft

With the NCAA Tournament coming to its final weekend of madness, players are beginning to declare for the NBA draft or will be making their decisions soon enough.  The big names to declare so far are Kentucky's Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Duke's Austin Rivers.  Two players with loads of potential that aren't ready for NBA competition.  I've always felt that the one and done rule the NBA implemented is a joke.  They did it only to shut the college basketball world up because of all the players who leaped from high school to the NBA and fell off the face of the earth.  Two years of college would be better and would force players to do their school work for at least one full year.  However, three years is most appropriate because it still allows players to declare early and gets them close enough to graduating that they're likely to finish school during the NBA off-season or sometime shorty after entering the league.  This would not only benefit player education, but would also assist in developing players on the court and ready them for the physically demanding NBA playing level.  Sure there are the occasional freaks like Lebron James that can make the leap from high school no problem, but the overall and best scenario for the vast majority of players would be to allow them three years of academic focus before basketball and then give them the final year to decide on making the leap.  Sure, some players might hurt their draft stock, but once they've joined the NBA and are playing better then they would've if they'd declared out of high school or nowadays after one year of college, their long-term success will make up for any loss of draft stock or money.

Peyton to Mile High

I was a little surprised to see Peyton choose Denver over Tennessee last Monday.  I figured Denver had to be the favorite but not once Tennessee entered the picture.  Manning is loved just about everywhere, but especially in Tennessee because of his remarkable stint in Knoxville before being drafted by the Indianapolis Colts.  Having gone to school there and being from the southeast, I would've put my money on Manning ending up in Nashville playing for the Titans.  On top of his history there, Manning would be playing behind a tough offensive line that allowed few sacks last year and have an all-pro running back to relieve him of constant pressure.  Manning never had a great running back in Indy, with a possible exception to Edgerrin James for a year or so.  It seems though the competitive nature of John Elway once again prevailed, as Manning announced he was gonna be throwing for the Broncos this upcoming season.  Like Tennessee, Denver certainly has promising talent and a lock down defense, especially in the secondary.  Peyton should enjoy not having to throw five touchdowns per game to guarantee a victory.  Throwing to Demytrius Thomas will be a bright spot, despite losing wideout Brandon Lloyd to the New England Patriots.  I'm sure by the end of this season, Manning will turn some no name receiver into a household name like an Austin Collie or Pierre Garcon.

Redskins Draft Pick

The Redskins traded their 6th pick, two future first rounders, and this year's second round pick for one draft pick.  A lot of people keep telling me the Skins are nuts for trading so many picks for just one.  Their case is that the pick could easily be a bust and that Robert Griffin III will just end up being another mistake under the watch of much hated owner Daniel Snyder.  I do understand their logic and with the Skins' recent years of unsuccessful teams, picks, coaches, coordinators and of course arguably the worst owner in the NFL as of today.  But, the Redskins haven't ever drafted a proven quarterback with this much potential and skills so early in the first round of the NFL draft in the past 20 years.  Griffin's complete arsenal consists of a powerful and accurate arm along with an impressive burst of speed outside the pocket.  With a new coach and an abundance of potential talent, Griffin could grow up really fast under Coach Mike Shannahan.  The Skins signed stand out Wide Reciever, Pierre Garcon, who could prove a reliable target for Griffin, and allow wideouts, Santana Moss and Anthony Armstrong to thrive in a less compressed aerial attack.  The offensive line is a work in progress but their are bright spots and Trent Williams is one of them at Left Tackle.  The Running Back attack of Roy Helu, Ryan Torrain, and Tim Hightower should also provide Griffin relief during his learning curve in D.C. over the next couple of years.

Marshall's Wrist

Going into the NCAA Tournament, UNC was considered a heavy favorite to win the national title, behind only Kentucky.  In terms of talent, the Heels were the only team that seemed to have a legitimate shot at knocking out the Wildcats in the title game.  That was all before point guard Kendall Marshall broke a bone in his wrist in a third round match up against the Creighton Blue Jays.  Marshall played through the pain and finished the game.  However, it wasn't until after the victory that Marshall realized something was wrong and the pain kept getting worse.  Later the night of the victory, he'd be diagnosed with a broken right wrist.  In the midst of a title run, the Heels have potentially lost the most irreplaceable player on their roster.  The general that averages nearly 10 assists per game and leads an offense that ranks second in the country in points per game could potentially miss the entire rest of the tournament and devastate any hopes a title Carolina fans around the country had hoped for after all the returning talent from last year's team.  While they may be able to take out Ohio in their Sweet 16 match up, I doubt Carolina has any hopes of a title as much as the next analyst you've likely seen talking about the subject on CBS and ESPN's family of networks. 

Bounty Scandal

An article on ESPN by writer, Ashley Fox claimed that Sean Payton deserves to be fired for not doing anything about the pay players to injure opponents bounty.  I think she's wrong.  This is simply another idea a coach had to motivate his players.  It was only a few years ago that football didn't have all this injury conservation protect the quarterback at all costs because he's more important than others rules.  Goodell has done a great job of sucking the fun out of football and fining players for tackling the opponent.  In the 90's, there was none of this.  Just football players hitting each other like they did every other play.  If there was a facemask it was called, that was it.  Now, if you grab it to hard or someone decides your hit wasn't gentle enough, then you get fined and suspended for playing football. I thought that's what the facemasks and helmets were for?  If you don't want players getting hit, take away the pads and we can all play touch football together for the Super Bowl.  Players know the dangers of playing football, especially in the pros.  They are getting overpaid millions of dollars because they take that risk everyday.  It bothers me that all these player and administrative complaints are making the NFL soft.  Sean Payton shouldn't be fired for this player coach bounty, in fact, no one should.  Gregg Williams was motivating his players, and unlike in college sports, coaches can give and buy whatever they feel like rewarding to a player.

NCAA Tournament #1 Seeds

March Madness is great so I'm going to write about it again.  There's nothing better in sports at all...... if you ask me.  With conference tournaments wrapping up for mid-majors and Big 6 conferences beginning their tourneys later this week, there are a number of NCAA seeds at stake and up for grabs.  As of now, Joe Lunardi has the number one seeds being Kentucky, Syracuse, UNC and Kansas.  These seeds could change as easily as they could stay the same.  There is a significant drop off in talent from the 1 to 2 seeds, but that's not saying they're capable of knocking out one or multiple of the one seeded foes.  Missouri beat Kansas twice already this season, so one more shouldn't be anything Frank Haith and his guard heavy line up is scared of.  In fact, Kansas is probably a lot more worried because of the match up problems Missouri poses.  Kentucky is really the only seed that will remain the same know matter what happens.  Their 30-1 record leaves little room for discussion that they don't deserve the overall #1 seed.  Syracuse is in the Big East, which is why they'll need to be careful in the conference tournament.  In the Big East, multiple teams can play with anyone in the country.  Marquette, UCONN (though not as of late), Notre Dame and West Virginia all have solid line ups with star players leading the way.  As for North Carolina, they earned their seed this past weekend by throttling dook (that's not a typo I'm just a UNC fan) in nearly every aspect of the game.  However, dook thrives in the ACC Tournament and tends to care about it more than any other team in the league.  UNC Coach Roy Williams regards it as some what as an annoyance before the real tournament begins.  But nevertheless, UNC must come prepared to fight if they want to hold on to the #1 seed, because dook is right behind them waiting to strike.