I've been pretty good picking the bowls now that we've gotten to the bigger time bowls

I called NC State, UNC, and Florida State winning. I called Clemson losing. Miami laying a total turd against Notre Dame is the only one that's gone against me the last couple days. We'll see if my picks keep working out.

blah

Way to go Clemson and Miami. You are why ACC football can't have nice things.

UConn's women's 90 game winning streak is over

Stanford beat UConn 70-59 at home to snap the 90 game winning streak. That is the longest streak in basketball history, 2 more than UCLA's famous streak in the Wooden era. Stanford was also the last team to beat UConn in 2008.

While I'm not a big fan of women's basketball 90 games is a long streak. That did include 31 games against Top 25 teams. UConn plays at a high level and got teams' best shot every night, so almost 3 full seasons of winning in any sport is a hell of an accomplishment.

For the record, I'm all for girls and women playing basketball. In terms of me watching it though, the watchability is....ugh...unless you're watching it at the very highest levels, like the US Women's basketball team, or UConn or Tennessee.

some good bowl games today

The Army-SMU bowl game early today was a good game. Both programs have been on hard times of late, with Army always working to overcome a lack of raw talent with their triple option scheme and disciplined play. They hadn't won a bowl game since 1985 and had not been in one since 1996.

SMU is just now starting to recover from the first, and so far only, Death Penalty ever imposed by the NCAA in the late 80's. SMU won a bowl game last year and were trying to win bowl games in consecutive years for the first time since the 40's.

Army won it 16-14. They converted a gutsy play on 3rd and 8 with about a minute to play. Having completed only 1 pass all game they threw on third down rather than running and letting the clock run. They completed the pass, moved the chains, and were able to seal it with kneel downs.

The first ever Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium pitted Kansas State vs. Syracuse. This game was back and forth all game, with big plays, trick plays, and both teams pulling out all the stops. Syracuse won it 36-34. Kansas State scored with under a minute to play but the receiver was flagged for a celebration penalty for saluting the crowd after the TD. That backed their 2-point conversion attempt back to the 18, and they couldn't execute. The celebration wasn't over the top and it was a tough call at that spot in the game.

In the Music City Bowl, Tennessee flashed their own custom salute after every TD, their QB flashed shooter fingers and crossed arms to the sidelines after a bunch of big plays and that was okay. But UNC came back to win it 30-27 in double OT. UNC marched down the field to kick a field goal as time expired to tie it. They were aided by Tennessee penalties, including a 30 yard pass with a 15 yard penalty for launching. Still UNC almost blew it when they botched a running play for a few extra yards, then squandered about 9 seconds without spiking the ball. The clock ran out but a review ruled (correctly) that Yates spiked the ball with a second on the clock. UNC got a 5 yard penalty for too many men, since half the field goal team hadn't gotten the memo about the spike and had run on the field and couldn't get off.

UNC still made the field goal. In the second OT, Tennessee threw a pick. UNC then kicked a short field goal on their possession. Good game!

man, Maryland is piling it on ECU

It's 50-13. The announcers are playing up the beef they have about their bowl spot. Maryland does have a beef but the announcers have mentioned "a team like NC State that finished below Maryland and lost to them" in terms of teams that got an unjustifiably better bowl.

I admit that Maryland got the short end of the stick a bit. But their fans don't travel well. The fact that they finished ahead of State was a tiebreaker. They had the same record. State also lost a close game. It's not like State was 7-5 or something and lost by 40 to Maryland. Maryland did deserve a better bowl, but State handled the Big East co-champions pretty easily last night, so they too made the statement that they needed to make.

In terms of Maryland taking out their frustrations on the other team, it couldn't happen to a nicer team than ECU (well except for Notre Dame).

NC State beats West Virginia 23-7

In the process they finish the season 9-4, earn Tom O'Brien his 100th career coaching victory, and become the first team all season to score more than 21 points in a game against West Virginia. West Virginia was the last FBS school to have not allowed more than 21 points. Russell Wilson was 28-45 for 276 yards with 2 TDs and no picks. He also rushed for 41 more yards, in what could be his last game for the Pack. I'd be very surprised if it wasn't. He has his baseball contract with Colorado and also graduated in May.

West Virginia turned the ball over 5 times in the second half. State kept setting for red zone field goals and missed a field goal to allow the Mountaineers to hang around. But then West Virginia muffed a punt inside the 10 and State recovered. State finally scored a touchdown when Russell Wilson scrambled for about 10 seconds, avoided 3 arm tackles that about took him down, and finally found Jarvis Williams in the middle of the endzone wide open for the icing score. His previous TD was back in the first quarter to Mustafa Greene out of the backfield.

State never played poorly but couldn't run the ball at times in the fourth when they could have worked the clock. They also dropped a couple big drive extending passes in the second half while the game was still a single digit lead for the Pack.

State finishes 9-4, the second most wins in team history. If this is the end for Wilson he'll go down as the second greatest QB in NC State history, behind only Philip Rivers.

State fans can now feel that Tom O'Brien has achieved what he was brought here to do. But the question will be sustaining it if in fact they have to re-tool with Mike Glennon at QB, a guy with tons of talent but little testing. They'll also experience losses at tight end, wide receiver, and Nate Irving on defense, who will definitely be playing on Sundays next season.

Chammps Sports Bowl

Finally NC State has put the game away, after West Virginia has given them about five changes in the last quarter and a half.

the Chammps Sports Bowl

I think West Virginia just wants it a little less than NC State at this point...

NC State hammered Alabama A&M this afternoon

It's odd to have a 4 PM game on a Tuesday, but I assume the game was moved so State fans could watch the basketball game and the Champps Sports Bowl which kicked off at 6:30 PM. Alabama A&M is a team that even a decent ACC school should beat by 20+ State did their job there, winning 82-51.

The bigger news was that Tracy Smith didn't play again. I hope he's at least practicing. If he's not even practicing yet I worry about his fitness, heading into ACC play. If it takes him until March to be back at full strength then State has no chance of anything other than bottom tier of the league if Smith is a shadow of his former self.

We'll see.

Today Scott Wood scored 18 points, including 4-6 behind the arc. CJ Leslie had 14 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Ryan Harrow scored 14 points and had 6 assists. CJ Williams added 10 points on 4-4 shooting. State is now 8-4 on the season with the start of ACC play 3 games away. That ACC opener is against Wake Forest, who has lost to VCU, UNCW, and Presbyterian. So if State can't handle that one that could be a bad, bad sign.

Trouble In Buckeye-ville

The NCAA has come down on a number of Ohio State players for receiving improper benefits. Quarterback Terrelle Pryor, running back Daniel "Boom" Herron, receiver DeVier Posey, offensive tackle Mike Adams and defensive lineman Solomon Thomas have all been suspended for the first 5 games of next season. Oddly though they're all eligible for the bowl game against Arkansas.

I'm not sure how that works. The NCAA said that playing in a bowl game is a "unique opportunity" that they hesitate to take away. I saw at about the same time that 3 West Virginia players will be missing their unique opportunity against NC State and 4 Georgia Tech players theirs against Air Force, due to academics. Those penalties weren't deferred until next season.

The sad thing is that the players sold awards and personal items in exchange for free or discounted tattoos. Pryor sold a sportsmanship trophy from the Fiesta Bowl a couple years ago, his Big Ten Championship ring, and his Golden Pants piece of jewelry that Ohio State gifts team members who beat Michigan.

To me those would be keepsakes that would be more valuable than money. Especially the Big Ten Championship ring and, as a Buckeye, the Golden Pants for beating Michigan. I'd imagine there will be some members of Buckeye Nation who will be indignant that their tradition was pawned away for a few more tats.

I'd have to think most of these guys are going to opt to enter the NFL draft since they'll miss half the season. Suddenly the shape of the Big Ten and the national picture is radically changed. Ohio State will play 5 games, 3 against decent teams and one Big Ten game against Michigan State, without its starting QB, leading rusher, second leading receiver and all-conference offensive lineman.

But man, I still can't get over just selling those items, even if the story that Ohio State hadn't adequately explained that they weren't allowed to resell the items they received. If I was a Michigan player and I received something to commemorate beating Notre Dame or Ohio State that would be one of my most prized possessions.

Maybe growing up in poverty made these guys do something they wouldn't otherwise consider. But this is something of a shock, having come out of the blue.

NC State survived a serious scare from Delaware State

State played with little energy. The home crowd had little energy since students are home for Christmas break.

Scott Wood scored only 2 points in the game, on 1-7 shooting, but his offensive rebound and putback of a Ryan Harrow 3-point miss with 2.1 seconds left was the winning basket in a 72-70 nail-biter.

Richard Howell had a career high 16 points. Deshawn Painter had a career high 14 points along with 8 rebounds. CJ Leslie had 15 points and 9 rebounds. Javier Gonzalez and Ryan Harrow each added 8 points.

State again played without Tracy Smith but he is scheduled to return finally after the Christmas break. State is now 7-4 on the season.

Rest In Peace Bob Feller

Bob Feller passed away over the weekend at the age of 92. He won 266 games for Cleveland in a career that spanned from 1936-1956. Feller enlisted and served in World War II for 4 years in the prime of his career, so his stats are a bit misleading. He'd have been a shoo-in for 300 wins.

Feller was the dominant power pitcher of his era, leading the American League in strikeouts 7 times and throwing 3 no-hitters. His 18 strikeouts in a game stood as the record until Nolan Ryan surpassed it in 1974.

Feller was part of the starting rotation for Cleveland's last World Championship team in 1948, though he lost both of his starts.

"Rapid Robert" was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962.

also while I was gone Detroit resigned Magglio Ordonez

After Adam Dunn signed with the White Sox and Jason Werth with the Nationals Detroit's top priority to solidify right field for next season became re-signing Magglio Ordonez. They'd allowed him to become a free agent by declining his $15 million option for this year. But they resigned him at $10 million for one year. Ordonez showed he had something left. He was on pace for a 25 homer, 100+ RBI season when he broke his ankle sliding into home plate in July and missed the rest of the season. He was still 5th on the team in RBIs with his 59. That's more of a tribute to how little balance Detroit had behind Miguel Cabrera, that only Brennan Boesch, Brandon Inge, and Ryan Raburn were able to pass him.

I think Ordonez is their best option in right field. The pop in his bat is sufficient now that they'll also have Jhonny Peralta for a full season and have added Victor Martinez. Maybe they'll have the Ryan Raburn who perhaps found himself as an impact major league player in left, along with a Brennan Boesch who is closer to First Half Brennan Boesch and not Second Half Brennan Boesch.

At any rate, I'm glad Maggs is back. Philadelphia and Boston both had significant interest in him, along with Texas I think.

In the Tigers favor were the fact that Maggs is loved by the Detroit fans, having won a batting title in Detroit, and also hitting the walk-off home run in the 2006 ALCS against Oakland to propel them into the World Series. Also, Ordonez is Venezuelan. Venezuela does not produce a ton of major league players, like the Dominican Republic. But he has fellow countrymen on the Tigers in Carlos Guillen, Miguel Cabrera, Armando Galarraga, and now Victor Martinez.

Mags is also one of the few holdovers from the 2006 AL Champion team. Justin Verlander is the only starting pitcher left now. Joel Zumaya is the only reliever left, and they still have to choose to re-sign him though rumor says they will. I think Brandon Inge, Carlos Guillen, and Ramon Santiago are the only other players left, and Santiago had only 80 at-bats in 43 games on the season.

first live sporting event for the blog

The reason for the downtime in blog posting was that I was in Florida.  The main event of the trip was my first ever NFL game.  We'd had our sights set on the Tampa Bay-Detroit game ever since the NFL announced that Detroit would play in Detroit, before the official schedule was even out, back in about June.  When we found out the game would be December 19th we jumped on it.  Florida in December? Hell yeah!

I've always thought Raymond James Stadium is a nice stadium.  I enjoy the pirate ship firing its cannons when Tampa Bay scores.  Our view was outstanding, in the upper level above the corner of one of the endzones.  Most of the game's scoring happened in the endzone in front of us.

The game was well played and there were no turnovers.  The crowd was really into it in the second half as the Bucs took the lead, then broke a tie later with a field goal inside of the 2 minute warning.  But Detroit worked their strategy well, used its timeouts to save more time for their offense, and held the Bucs to a field goal.  They t then drove down the field, largely at the hands of Calvin Johnston, who ran wild all game, and after a shot into the endzone for a win in regulation, settled for a game tying field goal as time expired.

My first NFL game went to overtime.  Detroit won the coin toss and marched down to kick a game  winning field goal.  The Lions won 23-20 to break a 29 game road losing streak.  They've also won 2 games in a row and are 4-10 on the season.

The view from our seats.

Me and our view

Lions win! Lions win! They're undefeated in games I have attended.

things were different when Arizona came to town

State had one final chance for a resume building win outside of the ACC when Arizona came to Raleigh for the back end of a home-and-home series.  Last year Arizona barely escaped at their place with Tracy Smith suspended for one game.  Smith was out again for this game, and State again lost.

Arizona pulled away with a 10-0 run mid-way through the second half to win 72-62.  State shot 31.8% from the floor and continues to be one of the worst shooting teams in the country.  They desperately need Tracy Smith's consistency inside because they're not a good outside shooting team with the exception of Scott Wood.  CJ Leslie, Richard Howell, and Deshawn Painter have gotten manhandled inside at times.  Leslie needs to add some muscle.  Howell and Painter just aren't explosive leapers and don't have polished inside games so they get shots swatted at times.

Scott Wood hit 4 3-pointers and had 16 points.  He tried to keep State in the game but it didn't work out.  Lorenzo Brown had 14 points.  Richard Howell had 12 points and 7 rebounds.

Ryan Harrow however had only 6 points on 1-9 shooting.  CJ Leslie was even worse, with 2 points on 1-14 shooting.   He did have 11 rebounds, but it's hard to win when 2 of your top scorers combine to shoot 2-23 from the floor.

As a result, State is now 6-4 on the year.  They have, I think, 4 more non-conference games.  They'd be expected to win them all.  But they need Smith back, and their best rotation needs to gel in a hurry in ACC play.  I'd think with 10 wins going into ACC play 9-7 would be a must at this point to avoid the NIT yet again.  That would make for 19 regular season wins, though they need some ranked teams on that list.

This isn't the chemistry debacle of J.J. Hickson's lone season, but it's a talented bunch of young players lacking the steadying go-to guy who was supposed to be the glue and bring the best out in them and lead the team.

While I was away NC State beat Youngstown State

State got off to a terrible start in the game and was down by 18 with 3 and a half minutes to play in the first half.  From there it was all State however, and they outscored Youngstown State 46-16 in the second half to win 67-50.

Things are still rocky, and Tracy Smith is still out.  But CJ Leslie scored 14 points and had a career high 19 rebounds.  Ryan Harrow had 14 points.  Javier Gonzalez had 11 points.   The win, uninspired though it was, improved State to 6-3 on the season.

Cliff Lee is signing with Philadelphia

Reports are saying that Cliff Lee is signing with Philadelphia, where he pitched in 2009, exiting via a trade to Seattle right as Roy Halliday was coming over.  Now the two of them will be in the same rotation, along with Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels.  Assuming that foursome stays intact with neither Oswalt or Hamels being used as trade bait for another bat, that could be the best starting rotation ever if all four pitchers perform to their standards.  All four are All-Star and Cy Young level pitchers.  That's an impressive collection of arms for the Phillies, and has to make them the favorites again in the N.L. East.

State cruised past USC - Upstate yesterday

State stepped back to some easier competition where hopefully they can work on streamlining their execution and getting consistency out of their very talented freshmen.

Against USC-Upstate at least the freshmen responded.  Tracy Smith had been targeted to return but did not.  Ryan Harrow scored a career high 20 points on 10-13 shooting.  Lorenzo Brown scored a career high 17, along with 6 assists and 5 rebounds.  He disappeared against Syracuse, one reason they lost.  All three freshman are too pivotal this year to allow themselves to vanish in games, as Brown did with that 2 point game.

CJ Leslie scored 13 points and  had 7 rebounds.   Scott Wood added 9 points on 3-4 3-pointers and State won 79-60.  This was the annual Heritage Game at Reynolds Coliseum.  State improved to 10-0 in regular season and NIT games at Reynolds since they left it as their full time home to move to the RBC Center beginning in 1999.  Granted, they don't schedule big time opponents in Reynolds. with a capacity of 12,400 if memory serves, when they can put over 22,000 butts in the seats of the RBC Center.  Having seen many games at Reynolds over the years and 4 or 5 at the RBC Center, while it's nice the RBC Center just doesn't have the same heart and soul as when Reynolds was rocking.

Next up will be Youngstown State, when Tracy Smith is now expected to play, before a showdown at home against Arizona.  Last year State lost at Arizona inside of the last 10 seconds of so in a game when Tracy Smith was serving a one game suspension after criticizing the officiating for a game against Wake Forest earlier that week.  Hopefully he's back this time and State can get a non-conference win that could add to a potential NCAA Tournament resume. That's jumping way ahead though.  State's got 9 ACC wins to get before that can happen, and they need a healthy, productive Tracy Smith and consistent play from the freshmen game in and game out to get that.

Urban Meyer steps down again?

Man, he must really mean it to resign a second straight off-season.  I'm thinking No Takesies Backsies on this one.  The ol' "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice..." adage is in effect.

So Florida will be moving on with a new coach.   Let the debate begin as to what coach of a high profile mid-major program they're going to target.

TCU?

Boise State?

Utah?  (again)

But I give Urban Meyer two seasons tops on the sidelines before the itch to coach returns.  He seems like the type to find a particular rebuilding job that will inevitably come up too enticing of a challenge to pass up.

Speaking of rebuilding projects, Michigan has probably ALREADY called him just to see if maybe there's some interest.

Rich Rodriguez and Michigan

The speculation continues to swirl as to whether Michigan fires Rodriguez or not.  Whether they  have a quick trigger or not depend may well depend on Jim Harbaugh.  With his Michigan ties, success, and system philosophy he'd be an obvious candidate as a coach.  Standford however had preemptively made an offer to sweeten his contract.  They say he intends to sign it.

These days that doesn't mean anything until you actually start the next season with a guy as your head coach.  See Nick Saban and Lane Kiffen in the recent past.  If Harbaugh decides to stay with the program that gave him his big coaching shot as opposed to his alma mater, I'd be surprised if they axe Rodriguez.  That would mean going back to the drawing board again with an offensive system.  You wonder then if Denard Robinson would be the QB for a non-Rich Rodriguez offense.  His throwing has gotten a lot better from last year but he still runs way better than he throws.  Who know, maybe the throwing will improve even more so he would be productive in a system where he wasn't going to carry the ball 25 times for 150 yards every game.  They already changed systems once, which made Ryan Mallett obsolete so that he moved on to become one of the best quarterbacks in the nation at Arkansas.  If Michigan changes coaches and systems again they could find themselves going back to a system that was Mallett friendly while the kid is still in school at Arkansas.  So you lose a Heisman caliber quarterback, and the new system that made him expendable doesn't even outlast his college career?  That would be stupid.  And you're also making your Heisman caliber quarterback in Rodriguez's current system obsolete as well.  So that would look twice as dumb.

If they could get Harbaugh, given he's a direct link in the Bo Schembechler-Lloyd Carr coaching chain, that would probably be worth it.  Anyone else, and good question.

I am still very uneasy about Rodriguez's offense.  The Big Ten has some of the most stout and physical defenses in the nation.  When Pat White was running wild at QB for West Virginia some years ago, making Rich Rodriguez and his offense look spectacular, White also wasn't getting drilled on a regular basis by linebackers as big, physical, and fast, as what the Big Ten featured, with all due respect to the Big East.  White also had an elite running back in Steve Slaton who took part of the load and was an equal ground threat to White.

Robinson doesn't have that yet.  So for the most part it's a very heavy dose of him, and he's taking a pounding.  He's already been knocked out for segments of 4 games this season.  At present, Michigan's backup QBs just can't run the QB heavy offense as prodigiously as Robinson can.  Given that the defense is an embarrassment and can't stop anyone, if Michigan isn't scoring 50 points they're not winning.

So as it stands right this moment, Denard Robinson has 50 some plays where he's being exposed to taking big hits, between the runs and the drop backs for passing.  He's pretty much the entire offense.  Their defensive "scheme" right now is pretty much to give up one less point than the offense and get out of town.

All that is very shaky and no solid blueprint for a football program, regardless of how good the offense looks when everything is going well.  So something has to change.  First with the defense.  Also, more threats within this offense in the running game so Robinson can hand off to someone else who can threaten any defense they face, not just the bad ones.  Maybe that change needs to be Harbaugh.  If he wants the job I wouldn't complain.  I don't dislike Rodriguez.  He just has some glaring flaws.  Some stuff that worked in the Big East doesn't seem to be as viable in the Big Ten perhaps.  If he does stay on I can't see him surviving after next season if they still have pretty much the worst defense in college football, which parks Michigan decidedly in the second tier of the Big Ten, far behind Ohio State, Michigan State, and Wisconsin.  That would also put them one serious Denard Robinson injury from being at the bottom of the Big Ten again.  They improved this year solely because Denard Robinson ran the offense better this year than the combination of Tate Forcier and Robinson did last year.  The defense is still horrible.  The special teams is horrible.  It's pretty unacceptable at this level of football to totally give up on kicking field goals because your kicker has no chance of hitting something unless it's within 25 yards right in the middle of the field.  They have no capability to do the little things to win a game, on defense or special teams, in the event that the offense isn't piling up 500 yards of offense and 50 points.   In the Big Ten there are too many good teams and good defenses to expect the offense to be that good week in and week out.

NC State's bowl matchup

NC State will be taking on West Virginia in the Champ's Sports Bowl.  That should be a good matchup.  This is the third time they two teams have matched up in a bowl, following the 1972 and 1975 Peach  Bowls, but the first time they've played since I've been a member of Wolfpack Nation.

Michigan is back in a bowl game

Michigan will be making its first bowl appearance of the Rich Rodriguez era against Mississippi State in the Gator Bowl on New Year's Day.  New Year's Day has lost a lot of its luster to me since most of the premiere bowls are now played after the first to get exclusive prime time coverage.  But I'll have one of my teams playing on New Year's Day.

I guess we'll see if Rich Rodriguez is actually coaching the game, embattled as he is.  I would be very surprised if he was fired before the bowl game.  That's because Jim Harbaugh is the guy that rumor has it that they want.  It would make sense, but I just can't see Harbaugh leaving Stanford and not coaching them in a BCS game.  So if it happens it would be afterwards.  And if Harbaugh won't bite I don't know that Michigan would make a coaching move.  They could keep working on Harbaugh that way.  Harbaugh played under Bo Schembechler though and now uses that classic Michigan style, which has worked well for Stanford this year.

But one way or the other, Michigan has Mississippi State.

A stat from the Lions latest loss today...

One of the Lions wide receivers guaranteed a victory today.  I can only fathom two explanations for this:

1)  He got tired of guaranteeing a loss and decided to mix it up a bit.
2) He forgot what team he plays for.

Again Detroit was competitive, but again they lost.  Guaranteeing a win against the Bears when starting your third string QB is not good odds.   With the loss comes my  stat:

The Lions fell to 2-10 when leading at halftime since the start of 2008.

This is a shocking stat.  Detroit's actually been leading at the half in 12 games since 2008.

NC State is still not quite ready for prime time

Yesterday took them to the Carrier Dome to take on Syracuse. State did play better overall than I expected. Syracuse's 2-3 zone has frustrated teams for 25 years or however long Jim Boeheim has been there. NC State's outside shooting other than Scott Wood has been suspect. Tracy Smith wasn't going to be operating in the middle of the zone.

State gave a solid effort but too many turnovers, some missed free throws, and some other mistakes got Syracuse off the hook. The Orangemen escaped with a 65-59 win.

Scott Wood had 18 points on 6 3-pointers. CJ Leslie figured out how to operate on the interior of the zone and notched his first career double-double and the best game since his first. He had 13 points and 11 rebounds. But the two of them didn't get enough help. Javier Gonzalez had 9 points and 4 assists, but Lorenzo Brown disappeared. He had 6 assists but only 2 points. State fell to 4-3 but they return home to some lighter competition to continue to find their rhythm and Tracy Smith may only miss one more game.

State played pretty well without Smith in the win against George Mason but they've been rocky in the other games, and it's not just because the quality of competition elevated.

I think their problem is that they have a bunch of very good athletes, probably the most athletic team since I've been watching them hands down, but that shines most in the open floor.  So they need to get out on the break, force turnovers, and run more.

When they get to the halfcourt set they bog down.  It's very obvious they need someone to run the offense through.  That needs to be Tracy Smith.  Smith would have done some major damage on the interior of  Syracuse's zone last night.  State did finally figure out how to attack the zone.   CJ Leslie figured out where to operate on the floor.  State also got the ball inside to Jordan Vandenberg.   But he isn't Tracy Smith and he's not an offensive threat, so the response of Syracuse's zone was zero.  The ball went in, the ball came back out, reset.  If Smith was catching that ball, the defense would have come to him opening up some lanes, and freeing up some outside shooters for a good look on the kick.  So they need him back.

Without a go-to guy Ryan Harrow has had some trouble making forced passes, penetrating too deep or getting stuck in the air with nobody to pass to, and turnovers commence.  He's very talented but defenses have figured out how to contain him a bit and there's still a learning curve here.

CJ Leslie also needs Smith.  Prior to yesterday he's been pretty aimless out there in the half court set.  He either forces a bad shot, takes something outside of his range, or takes it into traffic and gets swatted.  If he's going to freelance a bit to take advantage of his athleticism he needs Tracy Smith down low as well to draw double teams to give Leslie room to cut and drive to the basket.  In time he'll develop an ACC grade jump shot (one hopes) but not yet.

Am I panicking or thinking State's freshmen are overhyped?  No, they'll all gel.  But as good as they are they need Tracy Smith to be the centerpiece off the offense and play off of the offensive threat he provides.  He scored only 10 against Tennessee Tech in the season opener, as I think he deliberately deferred in a game he wasn't needed to get the freshman comfortable and in a rhythm in their debut.   That's leadership.  But then he went down with the knee tweak 6 minutes into Game 2 against ECU.

even the Big East mascots are thugs

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5883226&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

This does beg the question as to why there is a backup Bearcat on hand?  I have visions of a ratty old moth eaten cat suit with the tail half torn off, being held together by large amounts of duct tape.

I guess if you can't win the game win the snowball fight/riot....or not.

But what I really want to see is these two guys getting disorderly:

The National Championship picture is set

Auburn put to rest any thoughts of South Carolina spoiling their perfect season in a rematch game for the SEC Championship.  They hammered SC 56-17, scoring on a Hail Mary on the last play of the first half to go into halftime up 28-14.  They never looked back in the second half.  Cam Newton had 4 TD passes and ran for two more.  The Heisman Club in New York City will be handing him a trophy in a couple weeks.

Along the way I think Auburn sent a message that they can play with Oregon, in answer to some critics saying that only TCU would be able to hang with the Ducks' explosive offense.  Any way you cut it that will be a hell of a game.

Oregon took care of Oregon State in the Civil War to uphold their end of the anticipated national championship game.   I'm not sure why that intrastate rivalry got the title The Civil War, but Oregon State handled it as well as the Confederacy. 

All this means that TCU is stuck out in the national championship cold, but TCU vs. Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl, if it does indeed fall that way, will also be a hell of a game, given that Wisconsin has been the best looking team in the country over the last month or so.

TCU will probably get theirs though once they move to the Big East though.  Automatic BCS berth and Big East football is pretty much about the same degree of difficulty as they're facing now.

By popular demand, Jeremy has a sports blog

It's possible that was more of a demand of "Get this sports crap off of your Facebook statuses" but anyway, here it is.

Like the title says, serious sports, serious snark.  I'm a very serious sports fan.  The Detroit Tigers winning the 1984 World Series still resonates as my happiest sports moment. The Tigers losing the 2006 World Series to the Cardinals is way up there among my bitterest sports memories, along with the Twins beating the Tigers in both the 1987 ALCS and in the 2009 one game playoff.

So serious sports fan.  But I also have a sense of humor.  I'm a Detroit Lions fan so I have to have one.  They've been the punchline of the biggest joke in the NFL since about 1950.  I'm an NC State alumni and love them to death, but they manage to find ways to lose, underachieve, and come up short every time there's a chance to climb another rung up on the ladder of respect.

The Tigers, even in their recent run of respectability, have still found a way to break my heart.  Prior to 2006 they had about a 12 or 13 year run of being the worst team in baseball, even at one point coming within a game of having the worst record in baseball history, settling instead for the worst record in American League history.

I remember when the Red Wings were called the Dead Wings.

All that requires a sense of humor, though not quite the level that  Cubs fans needs to avoid strangling themselves in the Wrigley Field ivy, to end their long suffering and Steve Bartman prolonged pain.

So amid the serious sports talk I'm not afraid to make fun of the teams I don't like.  And your teams.  And even my teams.  Not even the home team is safe.