Archive for January 22, 2011

St. John’s chokes away game and possibly their season

Posted in College Basketball, St. John's on January 22, 2011 by sammywestside

STOP SMILING STEVE!

Its been a rough Saturday for me. I’ve spent my entire day watching College Basketball, which is what I love. Bad News, every game is going the opposite I want it to. It couldn’t have been more evident in St. John’s-Cincinnati game that just ended.

Forget the fact that Cincinnati led most of the game, all you need to know is St. John’s was 12-26 from the free throw line. That wasn’t the worst part, they could have put it away after taking the lead under a minute to go, but instead finished 3-9 at the line in the last few minutes of the game. What is it? Inexcusable!

St. John’s had a chance to move to 5-4 in Big East play with another solid win over a now 17-3 Cincinnati team. I knew St. John’s could and should win this game coming in because Cincinnati is 100% overrated. 17-3 my ***, they have beaten nobody! Their best win is now St. John’s, but previously I couldn’t quite find a good one, maybe Xavier (who isn’t very good this year) at home?

The rest of the season looks bleak for the Johnnies now. Maybe five wins are left out there in the competitive Big East, which would give them a 17-13 record overall, reeks of NIT (at best) again.

Here’s the box score to see the atrocity for yourself…

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Isles Claim Evgeni Nabokov Off Waivers

Posted in Islanders on January 22, 2011 by EAST SIDE RYNO

UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP)—Evgeni Nabokov left Russia for the chance to play with the Detroit Red Wings. Instead of landing in Hockeytown, the veteran goalie is taking an unexpected detour to Long Island. Nabokov lost his chance to join the Red Wings on Saturday, when he was claimed off waivers by the New York Islanders. While he might have dreamed of making a long playoff run with title-contending Detroit, Nabokov will now play out the string with New York, which entered Saturday with the third fewest points in the NHL. The Islanders nabbed him two days after the 35-year-old Nabokov signed a one-year contract with the Red Wings. He had spent this season with SKA St. Petersburg of the Russian KHL and hadn’t yet played for Detroit. The NHL’s collective bargaining agreement states that anyone who plays in a professional league before signing an NHL contract must clear waivers.

That’s what I’m talking about! Garth Snow is finally making some moves. This definitely puts the whole goalie situation to rest. Evgeni Nabakov is a veteran goalie who knows how to win in this league. Not only will he provide the Isles with some consistent goaltending, he will also mentor the young goalies Kevin Poulin and Nathan Lawson. If you compare Nabokov to Roloson, I would say Nabokov is slightly better. Plus, with the Roloson trade, the Isles received Ty Wishart, a solid young defenseman. For the first time this season, the Isles’ front office is starting to make sense. After a solid two goal performance by Michael Grabner last night in a 5-2 victory at Buffalo, the Islanders will take on the Sabres at home tomorrow afternoon at 3pm.

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An Early Look at the 2011 College Football Season

Posted in College Football on January 22, 2011 by sammywestside

As the snow piles grow larger across the country, we are approaching the last weeks of the important 2011 recruiting season. On the first Wednesday of February the recruits will sign pledges to their school of choice and then it will be time to prepare for the 2011 season.

The 2010 season might have just ended this past Monday night, but it’s never too early to look to next season. This week the most important underclassmen are deciding whether to go to the NFL or come back to school for another year. There have been surprises like Andrew Luck returning to Stanford, and moves that were expected like Cam Newton and Nick Fairley running off to the NFL.

Next year should be another entertaining season, and perhaps the best part is that there is no clear preseason number one team. Over the last decade its seemed like every year there was a team or maybe two that stood out before the season started. While many times they have proved to be incorrect choices preseason, there has always been that team or two.

As we look ahead to 2011 I see alot of teams that could compete for a National Title, and none that stand out to me above the others. Lets take a look at each of the major conferences and some of the key non-BCS conference teams.

Pac Ten (12)-

The Pac Ten next year should be quite top heavy. Oregon looks to be a top five team again coming off their appearance in the National Championship. Stanford gets a huge boost with the return of Andrew Luck, but still lose Jim Harbaugh and some seniors from an extremely good team in 2010. Past that, the sexy pick for third place is Arizona St. The Sundevils return almost everyone from a mediocre 2010 team. While they might be improved I’m not sold of them being better than an 8-4 team in 2011. USC figures to be decent as they still retain many of the skill players from 2010, but they will once again not be considered for postseason bowls. The interesting part of the Pac Ten in 2011 will be the additions of Utah and Colorado to the conference. While I agree with the decision to expand to 12 teams, the additions of Colorado and Utah will not immediately effect the Pac Ten in a positive way. Colorado is a team that has struggled alot over the last few seasons and they aren’t looking much better next year. Utah has been a great member of the Mountain West, but this season they proved to be a bit overrated and will probably settle into the middle of the pack next year in the conference.

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