GarageGabs

Ok, before the peanut gallory chimes in & tells me this was just a dunk on NCCU realize this.  Any hope with NC State basketball is a good thing.  Johnny Thomas (dunker) is a redshirt freshman who sat out all of last year with an injury.  There was some speculation that he may never return.  Well, he’s playing this year (limited minutes) but has sown some promise while on the floor.  Any hope is good hope.  Hopefully Thomas will be part of the future of NC State basketball.

PS: Yes, I know Phelps hitting the bong is POTW worthy……I just decided not to go there.

Just like Mike: LeBron ties Jordan for 50s at MSG

Just two days after Kobe Bryant dropped 61 on the Knicks, LeBron stepped out and dropped 52….oh yeah, along with 10 boards & 11 dimes.  The argument continues as to which player is the best the NBA has to offer.  My money is still on LeBron.

No. 10 Clemson tops No. 4 Duke 74-47

Fire Coach K?  Ok maybe not, but Duke was yet again HORRIBLE on offense shooting just .308 from the field and turning the ball over 16 times.  Of course a lot of their woes had to do with brilliant Clemson defense but Duke is starting to make bad shooting performances a trend.  Perhaps some concern is cropping up over in Durham….if they shoot 30% vs. UNC they’ll lose by 30+.

Picture of Santonio Holmes With 2 Feet Down For Touchdown

Holmes Says That Both Feet Were Down

Getting a LOT of still shots lately showing Holmes with 2 feet down & 1 foot down.  At some point folks have to realize that no still shot from that tight is going to show if Holmes had possession of the ball at that given point.  So, CHILL with the still shots.  They are useless.  It’s pretty obvious that at one point he had his feet down & another point he didn’t.  If it’s THAT close then the call on the field should stand…which was the case.  Touchdown Pittsburgh.

Sorry, I’m not big on Roman Numerals.  My son was born on 1/25 thus my absence over the past couple of weeks. He was able to enjoy his first Super Bowl this weekend & it was an enjoyable & entertaining game to watch.  More than likely if you are reading this, you already know that Pittsburgh won their 6th overall Super Bowl, defeating Arizona 27-23 Sunday night.

Let’s be clear here.  It was a VERY good game.  Very entertaining to watch.  However, it was NOT the “best Super Bowl ever”.  It was a good Super Bowl with an amazing ending.  Best ever?  Hardly.  Seems several of the media pundits are going as far as calling it the best ever & frankly, they should be ashamed.

For example take this excerpt from  Morning Rush: Game for the ages:

Think about it: If you had a friend from another continent, another culture or another planet, and you wanted to show him/her/it why football was cool and gripping and transformative, could there have possibly been a better illustration than this three-hour, 38-minute masterpiece?

Well, ummm, YEAH!  The first 3 quarters of this game were a penalty mired, bad call, review laden MESS!  Pittsburgh received several iffy at best calls that kept drives alive.  Arizona was busted with a bogus late hit on the QB, a pointless “roughing the holder” call, a bad chop block call, and several holding calls (that all appeared to be somewhat valid) that thwarted drives.  Not to mention this game was a shining example of not really knowing when to cheer…..by this I mean TONS of reviews…..you never really can cheer on the actual play because you know a review is coming.  You literally have to wait for a booth review before you can cheer…..  I’d go as far to make this quote:

If I had a friend from another continent I’d show them this 3 hour 38 minute attempt at football so they could see what’s gone WRONG with the NFL.

I mean really, how can the writer of the above linked article call this entire game a “masterpiece”?  James Harrison running a pick back 100 yards as all 11 members of the Cardinals failed to catch him is compelling?  Granted, it was a major momentum swing, but somebody shoulda tackled that fool.  Also, it was a bit frustrating to see Carlos Dansby flagged for roughing the passer when Harrison got away with punching a Cardinals player in the head while he was on the ground.  I’m not in the camp that feels Harrison should have been ejected, but it’s odd to see that Dansby’s “crime” was the same as Harrison’s in the ref’s eyes……although, Harrison’s penalty really only resulted in the loss of about a half yard (half the distance to the goal). It was just a rough game to watch….up until that 4th quarter.

The 4th quarter was one of the best in Super Bowl history.  Watching the Cardinals pull off a safety (although again aided by a somewhat questionable call) & then take the lead thanks to the brilliance of Larry Fitzgerald was amazing.  Is there any doubt now that Larry Fitzgerald is the best WR in the game?

The Steelers answer to the Cardinals go ahead TD was just as nice.  I mean, they faced a 1st & 20 inside their own 10 and ended up going the length of the field.  Big Ben & Santonio Holmes were both amazing on the final drive.  Watching Ben elude tacklers & keep plays alive was a thing of beauty.  The Holmes game winning catch rivaled some of the great Lynn Swann catches….notice I said rivaled…it didn’t top them.

We live in a sports society where each year has to be the greatest ever.  We’re always trying to top the previous year….honestly, sounds like a bad drug habit to me.  Always trying to get that high again.  Let’s just go on record and admit that Super Bowl 43 was a good game with an amazing fourth quarter.  Lastly, & I hate to add this, but wasn’t the Steelers last Super Bowl victory (vs. Seattle) mired with questionable calls, most of which the masses felt were advantageous to Pittsburgh?  Hmmm.

Larry Fitzgerald reacts to Tim Hightower’s go ahead TD & a pending Super Bowl appearance for the Arizona Cardinals.

Well, it’s been a busy week.  I haven’t had a chance to post since last week, so I wanted to get in a quick wrap-up of what’s going on.

Last Friday I attended a high school basketball game between Middle Creek & Panther Creek.  The game pitted two of the area’s top recruits against one another; Middle Creek’s Garrius Adams (Miami FL), & Panther Creek’s Earnest Ross (Auburn).  The night belonged to Panther Creek 60-48.  Panther Creek did a really nice job defending Adams who scored just 11 points.  Ross only notched 6 points but contributed much more than scoring as he played an excellent floor game.  Panther Creek moves to 16-1 with their lone loss coming to Ravenscroft in the GSK tournament.  Middle Creek fell to 14-3.  I like both teams to make nice playoff runs.  Since I’ve already posted photos of Ross, I’ll just put a couple up of Adams.

I worked in the garage all day Saturday.  So much so that I completely ignored NCSU picking up their first ACC win of the season, 76-71 over Georgia Tech.  I was glad they finally won one, but in all honesty….Tech just isn’t that good.  I’ve been saying for the past couple of weeks that I feel Duke is currently the best team in the ACC.  They took another step towards proving that on Saturday, topping Georgetown 76-67. Duke would go on to defeat NCSU Wednesday night at Cameron, 73-56. The Pack led for much of the game but fell apart down the stretch.  I’m beginning to see a theme there.

I’m not necessarily saying that Duke will be the best team in the league come March…but for now, they are tops in the ACC to me thanks to their defense.  Low post scoring could eventually be their achillies heel.  Speaking of Heels, UNC is rebounding nicely from their 2 game “losing steak”.  Carolina knocked off Miami 82-65 on Saturday & then dispensed of overrated Clemson Wednesday night 94-70…the 54th straight time the Heels beat them in Chapel Hill.  Carolina will be just fine.

I mentioned last week that a drop in the polls would be coming for Wake Forest.  Obviously, there is nowhere to go but down once you reach the top.  The Deacons had reached #1 nationally by beating Clemson on Saturday only to fall Wednesday night to Virginia Tech 78-71.  I think Seth Greenberg is a great coach & has a knack for winning big games.  This was bound to happen to Wake Forest.  They’ll lose a few more between now and March, but I believe by then they’ll be in position to make a nice tournament run.

I enjoyed both NFL Conference Championship games on Sunday.  I’ll leave out the details, I’m sure by now you know it’s Arizona vs. Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl.  I’m going to pull for Arizona, I love an underdog & I love how they’ve come to play in these playoffs.  They’ve brought it physically & intellectually in each game by pulling out all the stops.    I was also pretty proud of former Pack standout Adrian Wilson who cried in the post-game interview. I’m gonna go ahead and go on record and call this Super Bowl for Arizona.

Tuesday brought the snow to NC & along with it a trip to the hospital for my wife & I.  We’re expecting our first child this month & we thought he was coming on Tuesday.  We were sent home Tuesday evening and are now in a waiting/suffering phase as we wait on our new edition to arrive.  With the arrival of my son so close, I’ve got a feeling my posting is going to slow down just a bit.  I’ll update as soon as I can.

Sorry not much activity today, been pretty busy.  Here are a couple nice videos for your viewing pleasure:

Knight Watch:  Officiating

Sorry I couldn’t embed this video, but it’s a must watch.  Bobby Knight breaks down the traveling violation….his example?  Tyler Hansbrough.  Go figure!  People have been calling Tyler “the traveler” for 4 years now, but he rarely gets called….here, Knight catches him taking FIVE steps with a no call.

In the next clip, UCS head coach Pete Carroll makes a complete fool of himself in dissing Mark Sanchez’s decision to go pro.  Pete may very well be right, but going on a several minute rant about it at Sanchez’s presser was uncalled for and classless.  However, if anyone knows anything about failing on the pro level…..it’s Carroll.

Ok, I’m not usually into reviewing toys, but this one is worth a look.  The reviews are hilarious.  Here is just a taste:

Of course, since the playmobil Dad could not remove his shoes or other clothing items, unlike the Barbie, the playmobil security agent became suspicious and after waving her wand wildy a few dozen times, called her supervisor to wisk the Dad into a special body-cavity search room, (which incidentally led to quite an embarasing and interesting discussion with my twin daughters about personal hygiene and a slight adjustment to the rules we had them memorize about touching by strangers).

Amazon.com Playmobil Security Check

Anderson, Marbury, Bosh…Favors!

Derrick Favors did indeed announce his intentions to attend Georgia Tech last night.  The commit pushed Tech pretty high in the ‘09 class rankings (I’d guess top 5) & will probably push them pretty high in the ACC next year.  I’m excited to at least have the opportunity to watch Favors play a few times in the ACC even if he isn’t attending NCSU.  Favors joins an impressive Tech class that was already ranked in the top 25. State still has a solid class coming in & of course the class could get better with the potential additions of John Wall & DeMarcus Cousins.  For those that aren’t in the know about Cousins, he originally gave a soft verbal to UAB but has since opened himself back up.  Apparantly he wanted something in writing saying that if Mike Davis were not the UAB coach next year he could opt out of his commit.  UAB balked at this so Cousins opened things back up.  On most sites he is the #2 big man behind Favors.  From what I’m hearing the Pack has about as good a shot at him right now as anyone.  I’ve also heard that State is pushing VERY HARD for Cousins…..even before word came down about the Favors decision.  Despite what I’m “hearing” I haven’t seen that State has officially offered.

Pressure increases on Lowe

Right on cue we get this wonderful quicky from the News & Disturber in regard to the Favors commit.  Just another sky is falling piece from our hometown paper, go figure.  In all seriousness, those that followed it closely knew State had an outside shot at best for Favors so writing pieces calling his commit to Tech a “big miss” is pretty speculative in my opinion.  Also, while I agree the kid is a big time recruit the comment “would’ve have been one of the biggest recruits ever to sign with the Pack” is a bit lacking in regard to history.  State has signed some pretty big recruits over the years; thing is, these days, thanks to the internet, recruits become larger than life. If Favors had the potential to play college ball for 3-4 years (doubtful) then you might make that speculation; as it is, he’s probably one & done.

No. 3 Duke beats Georgia Tech 70-56

The Yellow Jackets had a ball game to play last night after hearing the good news & that didn’t turn out quite as well.  Tech hung tough on a poor shooting night for Duke but turned the ball over 18 times & shot poorly from the line, losing 70-56.  Duke shot 39%.  The defensive effort is another reason why I think this might be a special Duke team.  In years past, slow down Duke’s offense and you pick up a W…..this year they’ll scrap with you.

Georgetown 88, Syracuse 74

An impressive win for the Hoyas, but keep in mind they were out-rebounded (32-25) yet again.  Syracuse managed 18 offensive rebounds.  Georgetown shot near 60% from the floor & 12-21 from 3.  Translation?  They aren’t going to shoot that well night in and night out.  Georgetown plays AT #3 Duke this Saturday which in my opinion will be a huge litmus test for both of these squads.

Spurs beat Lakers in Western finals rematch

This was the TNT game last night & I hope you got a chance to watch it.  San Antonio withstood a late rally from the Lakers to win 112-111 in an old school offensive shootout.  All the stars played & played well.  Gasol dropped 21, Bynum 18, Kobe 29 & a go ahead dagger of a 3 pointer with 12 seconds to play.  Duncan & Parker dropped 20 each for the Spurs, & Ginobli was ON FIRE with 27.  Roger Mason Jr. of all people won the game hitting a jumper while getting fouled with 10 seconds to play.  Just a fun game to watch.  Those folks that think regular season NBA games are boring needed to watch that ball game.

76ers win season-high fifth straight

Elton who?  Are the 76ers a better team without Elton Brand?  Probably not, but they seem to have found themselves during Brand’s injury.  This team belongs to Andre Miller & Andre Iguodala & they are better when they can get out and run.  Brand is getting close to returning, & it will be interesting to see how he is incorporated back into what has become a very good flow.

Pierce leads Celtics past Nets

Three in a row as Boston appears to be getting back on track.  Appearances can be deceiving as Toronto, Toronto, & New Jersey can sometimes help teams “get back on track”.  Boston gets the Nets again this weekend, so look for the streak to continue.

Irvin calmly chats with gunman about Cowboys

This made the blog rounds yesterday.  Apparently, a car pulls up beside Irvin & the driver rolls down the window.  Irvin does the same thinking it’s one of his many admirers.  To his surprise the driver is a Plaxico Burress wanna-be & pulls out a gun.  Irvin becomes scared.  Someone else in the gun toting car notices Michael Irvin & notes how much they love the Cowboys.  Rather than robbing Irvin, the gunman & Irvin discuss the Cowboys and later just drive off.  Just a few observations here.  Who rolls their window down if someone you don’t know pulls up & rolls their window down?  I dunno, maybe I would.  Also, rather than have a conversation I’d probably have just punched it.  I’m not getting robbed if we are both in motor vehicles.  You might shoot me….rob me you will not…at least while I’m alive.  Kudos to Irvin for making it out alive because we all know Joey Porter would have shot the other guy.

You Have No Idea

Speaking of guns, this article about the “other side” of Marvin Harrison is a great read.  Who knows if any of it is true but reading it makes me think of Marvin being the “King of Philadelphia” or something.  Scary stuff if true.  I’ll reserve judgment until I learn more….writers have been known to embellish.

S. Atlanta’s Favors to announce college choice

Derrick Favors, rated as one of the nations top recruits will announce his college choice tonight at 6:30 pm at the ESPN Zone in Buckhead.  Favors is down to Georgia Tech, Georgia, & North Carolina State.  Based on a few circumstances, I’m gonna go out on a limb & say he chooses Georgia Tech.  Why?  The last game he attended was Georgia Tech beating Georgia.  Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt attended the last game Favors played in.  Finally, Georgia Tech plays host to Duke 30 minutes after the announcement.  If kid goes anywhere but Tech I’ll become a vegitarian  (for a day).

Pack collapses against FSU, 78-65

N.C.State didn’t do themselves any ‘Favors’ last night, losing to FSU 78-65.  In an intersting turn of events State built a 4 point lead with mostly reserves on the floor.  When FSU tied the game at 63, Costner and McCauley were brought back in after a 10 minute rest.  Florida State then went on a 15-2 run the rest of the way.  WOW.  It’s time to let the young guys play.  Julius Mays, C.J. Williams, Johnny Thomas, and Tracy Smith should all see EXTENDED minutes (I’m talking 25+) through the rest of the season.  They all play hard & are going to be part of the FUTURE of NC State basketball.  Courtney Fells, Brandon Costner, and Ben McCauley are not.  I’m not sure what has happened to these 3 guys but they haven’t shown much emotion or desire as of late.

How telling is this quote:

“The line-up we had in was just playing hard from the end of the first half,” Mays said. “Defending, getting stops, not letting them get offensive rebounds or second chances. We made a couple of substitutions and it changed a little bit.”

Meeks scores 54, ‘Cats beat No. 24 Vols 90-72

It’s a pretty big deal when you set the single game scoring record for a team with the history of Kentucky.  Meeks was amazing hitting 15 of 22 field goals & 10 of 15 from 3.  The ten 3’s was a record as well.  Yes, Meeks is in the POTY conversation now.

Scores & Schedules: Jan 14

Top 3 teams in the Nation (Pitt, Wake, Duke) all in action tonight.  Headline match-up is probably # 8 Syracuse @ #13 Georgetown.

“LeBrowns” Leaked Photos

Some photos have been leaked of LeBron James in a Cleveland Browns uniform.  Word is the photos are legit & were taken during filming of a commercial (for the Super Bowl I believe) where LeBron dreams that he is playing for the Browns.  Nice dream…were it true I’d think the Browns were instant contenders…LeBron has to be better than Braylon Edwards.

Speaking of LeBron, he dropped a triple-double last night.