Trail Blazing

The Portland Trail Blazers do not look like much of a threat sitting in 7th place in the West only seven games of .500 with a 32-25 record. But the Blazers have suffered injury problems as they do every year it seems. Their best player, Brandon Roy, as only played in 24 games and just returned from arthroscopic surgery on both knees. Their best rebounder, Marcus Camby, has been out for weeks due to knee surgery as well and is listed as day-to-day. Their former #1 pick, Greg Oden, is out for the season with a broken kneecap too. So for this team to still be in the playoff hunt is a minor miracle to start off, and then they went out and made a pretty decent sized splash in the trade pool yesterday

Portland's General Manager, Rich Cho, brought in a guy that can do a little bit of everything. The guy is 3-4 man Gerald Wallace formerly of the Charlotte Bobcats. Wallace is averaging 15.6 points per game and 8.2 rebounds per game in 39 minutes per game. He is a great finisher around the rim, can shoot mid and long range jumpers, and it's a beast on the boards. I know what casual NBA fans are thinking: "Wait, since when does getting 8 boards a game make you a beast on the boards?" Well for a taller man that is average, but when you are only 6-7 like Wallace then that is pretty impressive. Wallace also will bring more energy to this team. But now the Blazers have a problem. Who's going to start, Wallace or Nic Batum?

To me, this is a no-brainer. Batum, while averaging about 7 minutes less than Wallace, is averaging 4 points and rebounds less than him. 7 minutes less time on the basketball court and could make up the difference, but I think Wallace is the better player than Batum. He is the older, more experienced player who is definitely the better boards crasher. They are probably even scoring wise. Since Camby is out right now, I think Wallace should get the nod over Batum. When Camby returns to the starting lineup is where I see a tough decision between Batum and Wallace.

In conclusion, keep an eye on the Trail Blazers towards the home stretch of the regular season and in the postseason, if they make it. With Roy back, Camby most likely returning soon, and the addition of Wallace, the Blazers are all of a sudden a formidable and very dangerous team. They have plenty of scorers and plenty of guys that can grab rebounds. They are so talented that even their second team could put up big numbers on you. Even if they have a disappointing finish to the season, you should still watch because they have three of the most exciting players in the NBA in Wallace, Batum, and Rudy Fernandez. All three know how to finish with style, and there is a good chance all 3 could be on the floor at the same time as well. In the end, look for Portland to blaze a trail to the Finals...or at least look great trying.

References

http://espn.go.com/nba/standings/_/group/2
http://espn.go.com/nba/team/stats/_/name/por/portland-trail-blazers
http://www.nba.com/blazers/news/injuries.html
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=6155334
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/1026/gerald-wallace

Johnny Comes Marching Home Again

Earlier this afternoon, the St. John's Red Storm men's basketball team won an exciting thriller over #4 Pittsburgh at Madison Square Garden. Johnny star, Dwight Hardy, put in the winning bucket off a layup with just seconds remaining in the game to the Storm up 60-59. Pitt then missed the half court heave as time expired, which put the game in the books. St. John's beat a ranked team at the Garden yet again. Since then #4 Syracuse blew them out on January 12th, St. John's has not lost a game at MSG. This feat becomes even more impressive when you look at the teams they beat and by how much. Today's game was just the second close game at Garden against ranked opponents; the other being St. John's first upset versus then #13 (now #9) Georgetown, 61-58, on yet another final second shot made my second leading scorer, Justin Brownlee. The Johnnies other three wins at the world's most famous arena consisted of no less than 15 points, all of course versus ranked foes. On Jan. 16, the game after the loss to the Orange, St. John's defeated then #11 (now #7) Notre Dame 72-54, a whopping 18 point victory, which is the largest this year at the Garden. The Red Storm's next victory came against then #3 Duke two weeks after the Notre Dame dismantling. This time they won 93-78 in what was the Johnnies highest scoring output of the season. The most recent blowout victory for the former Redmen came a little over two weeks ago against then #9 Connecticut. It was a 17 point beat down, 89-72. The Storm are 7-1 at MSG this season.

What does this mean you ask? Well for starters it is going to help St. John's become ranked for the first time in several years. This is not official information due to the new rankings coming out on Monday, but St. John's is almost guaranteed to join the Top 25 due to their current 4-game win streak against some tough opponents in UConn, Cincinnati, Marquette, and Pitt. The big wins at MSG also solidify St. John's bid for the NCAA Tournament this year. The biggest factor of St. John's performing so well at the Garden is that the Big East Tournament is played annually at Madison Square Garden. The Johnnies domination at the MSG can only mean they have to be mentioned as favorites to win the that tournament.

To conclude, St. John's basketball recapturing Madison Square Garden has been great for the university as well as the city of New York. New York City has always had great pro teams, but did not many great college teams. Back in the day, St. John's basketball used to run the city until some incidences in the early 2000's made the program rebuild basically. But now that St. John's is winning again the city is back on the map and hopping with St. John's chatter. St. John's grabbing big wins this season is great timing as their fellow MSG tenants, the New York Knicks, have not had the season that was unexpected after having a busy off-season. St. John's is making MSG the place to see good basketball. Johnny has truly come marching home again.

References

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=310502599
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/_/id/2599/st-john-red-storm
http://www.redstormsports.com/sports/m-baskbl/archive/stjo-m-baskbl-archive.html

Pujols Predicament

The agreed upon deadline between the St. Louis Cardinals and star first baseman, Albert Pujols, to work out a contract extension ended yesterday in failure. Strange, really, both parties want Pujols in a Cardinals uniform for the rest of his career, and yet they could not agree. Shades of the Jeter/Yankees earlier this winter. The difference being that everyone fully expected Jeter and the Yankees to agree on something eventually because Jeter is old and would get significantly less if he went to another team. With Pujols though, he is young and still very much in his prime, meaning a lot of teams will be interested in trying to sign him once he files for free agency. You'd think the Cardinals would have just given him what he wants now so that they'd avoid competing with other teams this fall. The Cards offered him what was said to be a 200 million dollar deal that spanned nine or ten years last week that Pujols rejected. Other offers included a share of the Cardinals organization itself.

Pujols rejecting these deals really makes you think if he is interested in staying with the Cards, or cashing in on a monster contract. The offer the Cards made him is not that bad, but it is said that Pujols wants A-Rod money, as in 10-yr, 275 mil. Technically speaking, Pujols should be able to demand whatever he wants because he has been the best hitter in baseball since he came into the League in 2001. He has never hit less than .312. His lowest home run and RBI totals are 32 and 103, respectively. He hit 49 home runs, his career high, the year he played the least amount of games, 143. He has also struck out more than 70 times once since he struck out 93 times as a rookie. The man is a hitting machine, and no one has seen anything quite like him, which brings me to the Cardinals.

The St. Louis Cardinals know they have the best hitter in the game right now, and they know he supposedly wants to finish his career in St. Louis. They also know that he took a home team discount for his last contract, as it was only worth what ended up being 8-yrs, 111 million due to the Cardinals picking up the option for 2011. They knew this day would come eight years ago too, and yet they failed to get the job done. Now it looks like the Cardinals will have to complete with Pujols other suitors these fall. The Cardinals now will most likely have to pay even more than they wanted to due this competition with the likes of the Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers, LA Dodgers, and LA Angels.

Personally, I cannot see Pujols in any other uniform than a Cardinals uniform. Pujols is like the Derek Jeter of St. Louis. If the Cardinals don't keep him, the city of St. Louis might riot. Think about it, what does St. Louis have besides Pujols and the Cardinals? They have the St. Louis Blues of the NHL and the St. Louis Rams of the NFL, and both teams are mediocre at best and nowhere's near a championship like the Cardinals are. The Cardinals are in quite the predicament, quite the Pujols predicament.

References

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2011/news/story?id=6131069
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/stats?playerId=4574
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/4201009/

Payton/Jones Reunion Coming?

It was announced on the 9th that Sean Payton, head coach of the New Orleans Saints, is moving his wife and two daughters to a house in Dallas, and that will be there permanent home. The Saints management has signed off on this as well. The fans are less enthused. Why? Well probably because Payton was a former assistant coach for the Dallas Cowboys and still remains close with owner/general manager, Jerry Jones. The Cowboys current coach is Jason Garrett, who hasn't even coached a full season yet. Payton's contract with the Saints after the 2012 season. You see where I'm going with this?

Now I'm just stirring the rumor pot here, but it does make a lot of sense. Payton's contract in New Orleans being a few more years allows Jones to have a trial run with Garrett as coach. If Garrett works out, then Jones won't go after Payton. But if Garrett doesn't work out, I can bet almost anything that he will go hard after Payton. Coaching for the Dallas Cowboys is obviously the more prestigious and high paying job. The Cowboys will also be a lot younger than the Saints after the 2012 season. Not mention there is all the stuff mentioned in the first paragraph that makes it a good fit as well.

Of course this can all be prevented if New Orleans offers Payton another contract extension. He would not reject an extension because even if he wanted to coach the Cowboys, there is no guarantee Jones will be calling him in for an interview in 2012. Payton is also the man that the Saints their first Super Bowl, and so he knows he is loved there. Also you never know, Payton might move his family back to New Orleans someday.

In conclusion, I think Payton will be staying with the Saints. I think it'd be too hard to leave a team you've gone so far with. Payton is also a huge Dreew Brees fan, and Brees will most likely finish his career in New Orleans. While the move to Dallas makes for a good rumor, I think that's all it will turn out to be. My answer to my own article title? No, there will not be a Payton/Jones reunion coming anytime soon.

References

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=6102666
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3587182

Performance Enhancing Draws

Usually here I give you mostly informational pieces with my a little of my opinion at the end, but in this article I'm going to something a little different. I'm going to tell you how betting has enhanced sports for me. When I say performance enhancing draws, I'm obviously just spoofing the common sport topic of performance enhancing drugs. Here draws don't me ties. They simply mean bets. Yes, it is an actual synonym of bet; I looked it up on thesaurus.com.

It all started last month. One of my best friends, and now fellow sports blogger Kyle Picano, started telling me all about the bets he does. So one day I finally started asking about betting in general. He told me one of his websites you have to put money into and the other is free and costs you nothing. I was quite intrigued by the idea of betting at no risk, which is essentially what the free site was. I joined the site, its called centsports if anyone is interested, and started making bets. How the site works is that it gives you 10 cents, paid with by the ads on the site, and you can bet that 10 cents however you want. If you bet it all and lose? Well then they give you 10 more cents. They also have bonus offers that will give you more money if you do surveys, join certain website, and other things like that. I found out I early on in my betting career that I like to have money on a lot of games. This would always annoy Kyle, who believes in betting it all to gain more money before betting on multiple games. Sometimes I did just bet it all, but most of the I would divvy it up 2, 3, 4, or even 5 ways.

At first, I did not win much because I was still learning how to bet. I also was betting on teams that had huge payouts but were heavy underdogs. But I think a month has past since I started betting and I finally broke through. Yesterday I won over 6 dollars on two 5-line parlays, which means 5 games or matches in one bet. My previous high was about 43 cents. Today was the first day in which I had dollars in a play instead of cents. I started off the day with over 7 dollars in various bets with the chance to win over 30 dollars. When you have the chance to win 30 dollars betting on a variety of different sports, this obviously makes sports way better.

When you have money on the line, it forces you to align yourself with whoever you bet on. So it turns a game or match that you wouldn't normally care about into something you'll stay up all morning following just to see if you won some cash. I never used to follow the sports of tennis and soccer. Dating back to the day I started betting, tennis has been the sport I have watched most and soccer is one of the sports I've won the most money on. As you can see, betting as widened what sports I follow. Money talks and sports betting is a great example of that. I'm all for performance enhancing draws.

PG-AWOL No. 1

The man who replaced Tiger in October for best golfer in the world will not be playing in this weekend's tournament. Lee Westwood is not literally AWOL, that was just to make for a catchy title, but he did miss the cut today and will have to sit out the Qatar Masters. Martin Kaymer, who recently overtook Tiger for number two in the world, did make the cut however. If Kaymer finishes first or second, then he will overtake Westwood as the number one golfer in the world. He is currently 10 shots back.

Westwood missing the cut at Qatar is the follow up to a 64th place finish in the European Tour's event in Abu Dhabi last month. He says his struggles are mainly to do early season rust, but it does make you question whether he is truly the best golfer in the world. Yes, a few months ago it certainly looked like he was when he dominated the field in South Africa at the Nedbank Challenge. Don't get me wrong the best can struggle at times, but when you start out the year with a 64th place finish and a failure to make the cut that is a lot of struggles. Lee Westwood is definitely not the golfer that we thought he was when he overtook Tiger at the end of last year, especially now that is position as the top golfer is being threatened after a mere 3 months.

In reality, Kaymer will probably not take overtake Westwood at the Qatar Masters. He shot a 70 today and is 10 strokes back, as stated earlier. This means that he would have be nearly perfect throughout the weekend to have a chance at first or second. Even if he doesn't overtake Westwood this tournament, having a good weekend will get him that much closer to the number one spot, and with Westwood back to the range to figure out what he's doing wrong, it could only be a matter of time before we crown Martin Kaymer as the number 1 golfer in the world.

All this uncertainly at the top must make golf officials very unhappy. The sports is bound to flop if there is no de facto number one, or at least some excellent players fighting for it like Nadal, Federer, and even Djokovic in tennis. In the good old days of golf there was Tiger Woods as the unquestioned best golfer in the world and everyone else was trying to catch him. Nowadays Woods is falling faster than the chances of the Lakers 3-peating and it it seems that the other golfers are just golfing and if they manage to do well enough to take the number one spot then so be it. Golf needs a star to emerge and take the number one spot. Golf needs another Tiger Woods.

References:

http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=6089963
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Westwood#PGA_Tour_wins_.282.29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Kaymer