The power of giving your team some space.

I, like most people interested in their tourney brackets, was watching the Carolina Georgetown game with much rooting interest sunday, and i noticed that the harder i pulled for Georgetown the longer they just stayed down. Basically if georgetown loses this game my bracket is busted, so you can imagine my passion for a team that i wouldn't otherwise give a care about. As the game progressed i noticed that georgetown was strangely tight, unable to just draw the game to even, the game just hovered at this seven to ten lead for carolina even though the hoyas were playing very well respectively. Every lose ball was going to carolina, every rebound seemed to fall to a tar heel to give them an extra try, and everything was going their way, thats when i realized it: the sports whammy was upon me, and i had to do something to shake it out of the game. Now there is a lot of research that has been done on the power of rooting for a team, and studies show that if you scream at a player loud enough on television he might just heed your advice to, lets say,"throw the dam ball!" in football or "shoot it!" when inevitably a player cant obviously see the shot clock in basketball but my technique was obviously not working today.
Then the idea hit me, i must remove myself from the game and much like superman changing the spin of the earth i must change the direction of this game fast. So i left with fifteen minutes to go in the game and refused to watch it until there was two minutes to go in the game. When i came back it was as if my strategy had worked to perfection, with me gone and the pressure off my team was able to relax and cut the lead to one. Had it worked? Had my team simply needed me to take a walk to win? I don't know, you have to decide it for yourself, but i know what i saw, reversal magic. With the karma seemingly reversed i could then push them over the top, three point to tie with thirty seconds to go, and then a domination in overtime, perfect...all according to plan. I'm not saying that i had everything to do with this wonderful comeback victory, but is this just a coincidence that when i left they came back strong? I don't know, but i do know that sometimes you have to kick in a little change up rooting karma: take a nap, go for a run, kick your dog, pin stick your voodoo doll, do something different when your team isn't responding and you too might just see some results.

The tournement..and why the nba is better to watch.

I, like most people, are swept up in the initial hype of the march bracket madness, but i am here to tell you the nba has more to offer. Most people get caught up in the abundance of games, wow look how many crappie games i have to watch...wowie! Sure there are the occasional good buzzer beaters that give the tourney its name, but, for the most part all you get is sloppy second rate tense college play...i might as well be watching the nbdl(the nba's developmental league). So all we have left are these networks that give us a large dose of hoopla (pardon the pun) and take all the money and run. Hey wait there's a bracket of college lacrosse on as well...wow cant wait to watch lacrosse madness...please. I want good quality basketball and i don't care if there are college cheerleaders on the sidelines...well i do a little. So if you want to fall into the hype trap and watch eastern niagra take on circusville st. then by all means try the tourney on for size, but after you watch it for six hours and second rate ball, terrible refereeing, and boring all around play dont say i didnt warn you. I will take a great nba game any day over the whole ncaa tourney, the whole thing. Is the arena league on tonight i gotta find something to watch.

Nash i'll never dobut you again.

On wednesday night the mavericks took on the suns in one of the best nba regular season games you are ever going to see. The suns went on to win it 129 to 127 in double overtime in a battle of the two best teams in the nba. I was watching it last night and with actually five minutes left and the suns down ten, the mavericks were up six with thirty seconds left as well, i turned the channel...never again. Thankfully i turned back to see the end, and to my suprise the suns came all the way back in crazy nashy fashion and won it. Even though this was just one game, this was a very symbolic, because, there have been a lot of debate over who is the nba mvp this year: nash or nowitski. You almost watched the game decide it right before your very eyes. They should have stopped the game and gave it to him right there. He is the one of if not the best point guard i have ever seen play the game. He does it all, scoring and play making as good or better then anyone ever. (magic you know i got love for ya). As far as dirk is concerned... forget it, you are not the nvp and as far as I'm concerned shouldn't be in the top five. He had two chances in the game to seal the deal and failed (missing a freethrow with six seconds left and not drawing the foul in the end as the player jumped on the fake and missing the game winning shot) an mvp doesn't consistently choke like that. I repeat, there is no way dirk nowitski should be or even be in the running for the most valuable player award. He is a big man who can't jump, defends ok, can't create for other players, and can't deliver in the clutch. Just because his team is having a great year, then he gets consideration...please.
Nash is amazingly clutch, he hits the game tying three pointer after getting a second chance at it, and then makes a great defensive play by stealing the ball off of jason terry and throwing the ball off his leg going out of bounds. He consistently scans the court, analyzing and distributing perfectly in a wonderful execution of basketball mastery. For all of you out there who think the nba stinks, i challenge you to watch the suns and tell me if you don't fall in love with there style of play. It is fast and smooth with everyone included and an emphasis on finding the open man...well of course it is nash that stirs that drink. I am now converted, i am now a true suns fan, formerly a die hard laker fan but i can no longer endorse a laker team that is about kobe and the other boobs. I find it very funny as well that dallas let nash get away in free agency to phoenix in trying to better defensively, this is a move that will never pan out for them...for in maybe getting better defensively they have sacrificed one of the best players i have ever seen with the basketball. Mr. nash here is your mvp trophy, and later this year you will get your nba championship trophy.

Cheap shot on tobacco road.

In one of the most heated rivalries in sports the duke blue devils took on the North Carolina tar heels on sunday and the rivalry just got a little more bloody. With fifteen seconds to go, and the game well in hand for the tar heels, Gerald Henderson landed a vicious forearm to the nose of Tyler Hansborough going after his own rebound. The bloody incident has now of course sparked all the debate of was is on purpose, or was it just a whoops i accidentally smashed your nose in move. Of course after the game you have both coaches taking both sides of the fence with duke claiming that maybe Carolina shouldn't have had some of their starters in, and the tar heels claiming that it was a cheap shot. Well let me tell you this, it was a clear dirty cheap shot at a player who is one of the more unlikable Carolina players. His nickname is mad dog after all. To even go through the motions of saying that maybe Henderson's elbow wasn't extended, and that he was in the air and out of control...please, don't even try it dukies. Anyone who has ever played basketball can tell you the difference between a foul, and a I'm going up to knock your ass out type of foul. He was obviously jacked up about losing to a bitter rival and decided to take out his frustrations on Hansborough, a player who goes inside hard and powerful all day long. I almost cant believe a fight didn't break out in this one, they are very lucky about that. After all that the duke university has been through with the lacross rape case you would think that they would lay low for a while, but no, they give more fuel to the fire to the question of who is the most hated team in all of college basketball. Remember Bobby Hurly, didn't you just want to punch that guy? See, duke you couldn't just lose with a little class...something that your coach always seems to emphasize...hmmm, something just isn't right at duke.