March Madness Notebook: Day 2

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

We saw more failures than successes in last night's games involving bubble teams. Plus, BYU suspended its best player not named Jimmer.

But college basketball wasn't all doom and gloom Monday night. No. 1 Ohio State got a record-setting performance from its record-setting three-point expert. And, keeping in the Big Ten, can you imagine Purdue with Robbie Hummel this year? E'Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson might be the best 1-2 punch in the country. And don't forget to watch the video at the end of this post!

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March Madness Notebook: Day 1

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Welcome to the month of March, and welcome also to a new feature here on OGS called "March Madness Notebook." Each day through the NCAA Championship Game on April 4 we'll be dropping some bullet-pointed nuggets to help you navigate the best month of the year.

Ready? Good, let's get started:

Top Four Seeds
+ EAST — Ohio State: The Buckeyes will be the tournament's overall No. 1 seed.
+ SOUTHEAST — Duke: This could be a toss-up between the Devils and Pittsburgh by the time Selection Sunday rolls around on March 13.

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College Football Notebook: Don't Expect Another 2007

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Now that the No. 1 team in the country has lost for the second straight week, everyone wants to talk about 2007 and how crazy the second half of that season turned out to be.

Don't get your hopes up, Ohio State fans. History shall not repeat itself in 2010.

In addition to the Buckeyes' loss Saturday, fellow top 10s Nebraska and South Carolina also suffered setbacks at the hands of conference rivals. The new AP top 10 has two notable surprises through seven weeks:

+ Did anybody expect LSU to be 7-0?

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College Football Notebook: Martinez v Robinson, OSU Is Still Good & Players Pinched For Pot

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

ESPN College GameDay's Desmond Howard made a good point Friday about the difference between star quarterbacks Taylor Martinez and Denard Robinson.

Martinez, who led Nebraska's rout of Kansas State with 369 total yards and accounted for five touchdowns Thursday night, might have a clearer path to the Heisman Trophy than Robinson. Howard opined that Nebraska's redshirt freshman sensation doesn't need to press too hard to lead his team to victories because the Huskers defense is lights out.

Robinson, on the other hand, will continue to find

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College Football Notebook: Jersey Switch, Locker Talk & Pryor's Groupies

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Though Boston College suffered a 31-13 throttling at the hands of Notre Dame over the weekend, there was still some good to report from the Eagles' camp Saturday.

Alex Albright, a Cincinnati St. Xavier graduate now playing defensive end for Boston College, switched jersey numbers, from 98 to 78, to honor the late Matt James.

James was the St. X senior who died when he fell from a fifth-floor balcony at a Florida hotel last spring. He had signed to play on the offensive line for Brian Kelly at Notre Dame a month earlier.

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College Football Notebook: PAC 10 Playing Some Defense?

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

The PAC 10 has long been an offensive league with video-game scores every Saturday.

Through three weeks, three teams are among the top seven nationally in scoring offense, and four are ranked in the top 13.

But in addition to leading the country with 63 points per game, Oregon also leads the nation in fewest points allowed — 4.33 per outing. Arizona is seventh and Stanford is ranked 15th.

Surely none of these teams will maintain this type of defensive dominance once league play heats up, but it's worth mentioning that a pinball league can get some stops for a change. The PAC 10 race could be the most interesting one to watch this season.

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College Football Notebook: Week 3 Review

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

People need to start paying attention to TCU quarterback Andy Dalton.

The senior completed 91 percent of his passes — ninety-one — in the Horned Frogs' 45-10 thrashing of Baylor Saturday. He finished 21-of-23 for 267 yards and two touchdowns. Four of his completions covered at least 25 yards.

For the season, Dalton is 53-of-71 (75 percent) for 624 yards, four TDs and two INTs. Are they-earth shattering numbers worthy enough to make Dalton a shoe-in Heisman invitee in December? No, but the fourth-year starter is consistent and all he does is win football games. And right now his QB rating is 161.43.

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College Football Notebook: Week 2 Review

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Week 2 is in the books and I'm back in New York, fresh off my visit to Columbus to watch Ohio State's easy defeat of Miami.

Let's get right into the notes for today:

+ Through two games, Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson leads the nation with an average of 442 total yards per contest. Fifty miles down the road, the University of Toledo has amassed a total of 395 yards in its first two games.

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College Football Notebook: Bush, Boise & Butch Davis' Nanny

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

I know what observers are getting at when they say Reggie Bush deserves to keep his Heisman Trophy, that he won it because of his athletic prowess and not because he had some sort of unfair advantage resulting from the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

But when did it become a badge of honor to be a great athlete without the benefit of PEDs? Rules are rules, and if the Heisman Trust feels a violation of them is significant enough, then by all means, take Bush's trophy from him.

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College Football Notebook: Week 1 Review

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Here are a few takeaways from the first weekend of college football:

+ Don't get me wrong; I absolutely adore the Mark Herzlich story. So great to see the Boston College linebacker suited up and flying around on Saturday. But do you think his story would get as much attention if he was, say, a Miami wideout?

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College Football Notebook: OSU, Miami Shine In Tune-Ups

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

The first night of college football games is in the books, and here are my thoughts:

+ Ohio State's Terrelle Pryor helped his Heisman bid with a splendid performance in a blowout win over Marshall. But his passing mechanics still looked a tad gimpy on a couple of plays, and I'll be surprised if he enjoys similar success next week against Miami if he doesn't adjust. He threw one of his three touchdown passes from his back foot and heaved up some unusual third-and-long prayer that was nearly picked. Overall, though, he was close to excellent and it was nice to see Jim Tressel open things up slightly and call 25 passing plays for Pryor in barely more than three quarters' work. If it's true that players and teams make their largest improvements between Week 1 and Week 2, then Pryor and the Buckeyes should look pretty solid against Miami on Sept. 11.

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College Football Notebook: Aug. 22

Preseason Rankings, Playoff Logic And Gambling -- Oh My!

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Now that Boise State and TCU are enjoying their best preseason rankings ever, everyone loves talking about how important the August rankings are.

Oh, really? Perhaps you heard about Cincinnati, which was one slow Dallas second away from playing for a national championship last year. The Bearcats began the 2009 season unranked in both polls.

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Cavs-Celtics: Who's Saying What?

Rajon Rondo Carries
Boston To Game 4 Win

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Less than 48 hours after the Cavs torched the Celtics in Boston, the Cleveland team that so many people thought was a strong contender to win an NBA championship assembled a performance Sunday that was at times as flat as its embarrassing Game 2 loss.

And just when you thought Rajon Rondo couldn't hurt the Cavs any more than he had in the first three games, the Celtics' point guard played out of his mind in a 97-87 win that tied the Eastern Conference semifinals at 2-2. Game 5 is Tuesday in Cleveland.

Rondo had 29 points, 18 assists and 13 rebounds in 47 minutes Sunday. Here are some other notes:

+ Antawn Jamison is not getting it done. His numbers aren't bad, but he rarely plays with passion. J.J. Hickson is more aggressive and was enjoying a fine second season in Cleveland until the Cavs picked up Jamison at the trading deadline, forcing Hickson to the bench.

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+ The Celtics are playing with more heart. Sure the series is tied, 2-2, and it looks like each team will win its next home game to set up a Game 7 in Cleveland next weekend, but Boston is just two years removed from an NBA championship and still has most of that nucleus in tact. The Big 3 certainly are collectively older and slower, but a Game 7 -- even on the road -- scares me because that Boston team is a proud one.

+ I give Danny Ferry credit for trying to put the proper pieces around LeBron James the last couple of years, but this hardly looks like Michael Jordan's first championship team with the Bulls. Jamison is no Scottie Pippen, Mo Williams is inconsistent and Shaq will need to give more than 21 minutes and six rebounds if Cleveland wants to advance.

+ Cavs coach Mike Brown should have given some other guys -- Ilgauskas, Moon, Powe, Gibson -- more minutes in Friday's Game 3 blowout.

+ The problem still in LeBron's game is his sometimes erratic play. Jordan seemed to cherish the basketball more. Even Kobe doesn't throw the ball away as much or take as many bad shots. But James does follow up sub-standard games with excellent ones, so expect some electricity in Cleveland on Tuesday. LBJ followed his three previous lowest-scoring outputs this postseason (24, 19, 24) with 40, 35 and 38, respectively. He scored only 22 today.

And here's what some people were saying on Twitter after the Boston victory:

@sportsguy33: "Triple-double for Rondo in 3 quarters. After this 2010 playoffs performance his nickname should be 'The Big One.'"

@SI_PeterKing: "Just home from seeing Rondo the Magnificent beat the Cavs. Careful now. I might have to reconsider my diffidence for the NBA."

@PDcavsinsider: "Terry Pluto and I keep asking Mike Brown how the Cavs could play with such lack of fire and he basically keeps saying 'I don't know.'"

@GESmithJr: "I hope Mo Williams' mother has a bad mother's day."

@MikeAmmo: "It's not an overreaction by Cavs fans when you visibly SEE the lack of effort/focus."

@JamilSmith: "You know how much I love the Cavaliers. But they played today like they had rollover points from Friday's deluge. Frustrating."

@MrTrpleDouble10: "Once paul pierce returns from carbonite hibernation things could get interesting."

@celtsfan33: "All I can say is HOLY COW. What a GREAT GAME by the CELTICS. All Rajon Rondo - all Passion!!"

@Adel_C: "Um...If Rondo had the confidence to launch threes, I don't even want to know how much of a nightmare it'd be for the opposition."

@jalenrose: "(Esp in the playoffs)Celts Rondo has become the most all around productive PG in the NBA! (pts/rebs/assts/defense/wins/title etc)"

OGS Notebook: Catching Up After Derby Fever

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Learning of Ernie Harwell's death Tuesday night made me realize my recent Derby fever has kept me from following the rest of the sports world. But I'm back at OGS World Headquarters in Brooklyn, ready to talk about items other than horsies, so here are some notes to get back in the groove:

+ I just watched a replay of Saturday's Kentucky Derby for the first time tonight and the hair really did stand up on my arms watching Calvin Borel guide Super Saver down the stretch. Three Derby wins in four years for Borel. Truly amazing. (And I know that's still horse talk, but it really was a neat moment.)

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+ I texted my boy Pat Kuhl (@phkuhl) that I read Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari is interested in the vacant Chicago Bulls' job. Pat's reply: "Why? Then he'd have to worry about a salary cap." Reminds me of the old joke about those great Florida State baseball teams back in the day. With legendary Mike Martin at the helm, FSU's facilities were so luxurious that when players got drafted and began their minor-league careers, they were said to have been taking a paycut.

+ The U2 song "Magnificent" that plays underneath one of ESPN's excellent World Cup promos has gotten about two dozen plays on my computer today. It is, well, magnificent.

+ Does Bengals coach Marv Lewis have any say whatsoever in personnel acquisitions? And if so, Pacman Jones? Hasn't that franchise bitten into enough sour apples the last 10 years?

+ Tiger Woods missing the cut and Tiger Woods sleeping with many girls are two different deals. I thought it was kind of weak that some used one story last weekend to hint at the other.

+ Lame that the NBA puts three off days in between Games 1 and 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals between the Cavs and Celtics. I hope LeBron James and his Cleveland teammates use the time to figure out a way to play like there's a championship available six weeks from now.

+ I'm a big cause-and-effect guy. If there's no cause, you don't have to worry about the appropriateness of the effect. I certainly enjoy watching stupid fans run onto fields at sporting events, but I have no sympathy when they're tackled by security toughs. Nor am I feeling sorry for the clown who was Tasered at the Phillies game Monday. If you don't want to get Tased, don't run on the field.

OGS Notebook: Derby, Big Ben & Gretzky's House

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

A few topics made headlines in the sports world today. Here are some nuggets for you:

+ The Kentucky Derby should never be run at night. I understand the sport could use some new money, and an evening telecast certainly would address that issue, but the Derby is one of those events that should just stay where it is. Modernists love to rip the traditionalists who appreciate the pageantry of sport, but the tradionalists never get their way with anything. Just look at the NFL Draft, which was moved from Saturday at noon to Thursday and Friday evenings. I read today that it rated well and I'm sure the NFL pockets are deeper, but does it always have to be about the money? Is maximum profitability the only way to do it, or can just being profitable ever be enough?

+ Ben Roethlisberger said Monday he won't appeal the six-game suspension the NFL handed down last week. Smart move. The only way to climb out of the hole he's dug for himself is to do it slowly, and I think he will. He clearly had advisers write that statement for him today. No reason to think they'll abandon him going forward.

+ A buddy of mine called today to say he was in a restaurant recently and overheard a National League pitcher say, "Yeah, I met her at Gretzky's house. She was playing tennis and she was hot as hell." No link. Just funny.

+ I love how people are asking whether Kobe Bryant and the Lakers are losing their edge. Remember when the Cavs began the regular season 0-2 and ESPN was freaking out in November? Remember how the Cavs lost to the Bulls on Thursday and suddenly LeBron and company were being pushed to the limit? Remember how LBJ carried his Cavs to a Game 4 win in Chicago Sunday, putting his team one game away from advancing? Prior to both the Cavs-Bulls and Lakers-Thunder series, most folks said they wouldn't be surprised of the top seeds lost a game in the early round. I wish people would calm down, stick to their guns and quit changing their philosophies or abandoning rational thought just because of the outcome of one game. I realize the Lakers are tied 2-2, but the defending champions are still a very dangerous team in the Western Conference.

+ I'm embarrassed that I haven't watched much of the NHL Playoffs, especially considering I wrote this about the Stanley Cup back in December.