Jeff: What a weekend!

A few things to mention as we head into the Easter weekend.
1) Thoroughly enjoyed the college hoops national Final Monday night. Good to see Greg Oden finally have a game where he looked like the dominant force he’s supposed to be. Of course I question why he doesn’t play like that every night, but really there’s no need to worry about his pro potential since 99% of the guys in the NBA don’t play hard every night either. He’ll fit right in. This is the most fun I’ve had watching basketball since the Fab 5 were wearing baggy shorts and taking money from boosters at Michigan, and I hope Oden, Durant, the UCLA guys and everybody else sticks around for another year. It had been so long since we saw college hoops played at a high level, that I forgotten just how much better it is than the NBA. Besides the fan intensity and that the kids actually play hard every game (well except Oden), it’s nice to see TEAM basketball where they actually run an offense, work it around for the best shot and mid-range jumpers. Even though Florida was in control for most of that game, it was so enjoyable to watch because they ran their offense so bloody well. They always seemed to make the extra pass and find the right guy, and when that didn’t work Lee Humphrey would bomb away from 25 feet out. Seriously how impressive was he? The guy was an absolute assassin, but hey, we have no room for that kind of player on the next level. He busts his ass on both ends, and shoots the lights out. Nope if you don’t have the desire to go 1-on-5, refer to yourself in the 3rd person, and want to make it all about you, you’re not going to be an NBA player (the Suns, Mavs and KG being the only exceptions).

Can you tell I’m down on the NBA right now? Since my Sonics are going to Oklahoma next year, and I can’t stand watching the Wolves anymore, I’m now without a team. (By the way here’s the courtesy link to ESPN.com’s interview with KG. Minnesotans, enjoy him for the last 2 weeks because after this year he’s G-O-N-E. Notice in the article his only comments to the “will you ask for a trade?” is that his only focus is on finishing out the season strong. Sure he doesn’t say he wants to be traded, but not ONCE does he say he’s coming back and does NOT want to be traded despite being given every opportunity to in the interview. Not once. KG’s done everything you could possibly ask a superstar athlete to do, and he should be sent out like a hero. Hopefully this summer Freddy Hoiberg can start to clean up the awful mess Kevin McHale has made).

Admittedly my buddies Ben and Joel and I tried to adopt the Charlotte Bobcats as our favorite team (all three of are Canadians, and all three of us hate the Raptors. Yet none of us have given a crap about the NBA this year). So I’m hoping that as many good players as possible stay in school so that college hoops will be that much better.

As for Luke's comment about Billy Packer...

The only thing on Saturday night that annoyed me more than Joakim Noah's girliness is Billy Packer MANY times referring to a very questionable call and saying that it was "unquestionably" a foul or "unquestionably" not a foul. Who is he paid by? Is he so authoritative that nobody can question his judgement?

...well that’s just the tip of the iceberg. To say Packer’s a little set in his ways would be like saying Tom Cruise has gone a little crazy. Read this story the Sports Guy linked to from USA Today and you’ll understand just how great Billy thinks he is. He does no research on the team’s he’s covering and DOESN’T EVEN BOTHER TALKING TO THE COACHES BEFORE THE GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who else could possibly get away with that? As the SG has mentioned numerous times over the past few months, he doesn’t like Packer and doesn’t know anyone else who does. I agree. I can’t stand him and none of my friends (at least to my knowledge) like him either. Why can’t Bill Raftery have that job? He’s my favorite analyst in any sport and perfectly captures the excitement of college basketball but still does an excellent job of telling you what’s going on AND WHY (that always baffles me. When they show replays color commentators so often just give a play-by-play of what happened rather than telling us WHY it happened. Don’t do the play-by-play guy’s job. Do yours!).

Finally I’d just like to say how thankful I am that the Masters falls on Easter weekend, since I have nothing better to do Friday, Saturday and Sunday than watch (said in a whisper) “The Masters.” Between that, Mariners baseball (3 games in and we’re STILL above .500! May wonders never cease!), the Canucks trying to clinch the Northwest division (if you think Minnesota loves the Wild, multiply that by about a billion and you’ll start to understand how much people love the Canucks here. I suppose that’s what happens when you’ve got a metropolitan area the size of Seattle or the Twin Cities with ONE pro sports team.), AND 20 degree Celcius temperatures predicted, this is shaping up to be a nice little weekend. Maybe Bed, Bath and Beyond…I don’t know if we’ll have time.

Happy Easter everybody.