Maddux Sports Blog

I love college football for a lot of reasons, but one of them is how quickly things can change. Take Boston College, for example. Two years ago they were totally secure in their quarterback situation with Matt Ryan – probably the best QB in the country. Now their QB situation is an absolute shambles. It was already going to be ugly, but things got really bleak yesterday. Dominique Davis started four games as a freshman last year, and he was likely to be the starter at the beginning of this year. He was the only quarterback on the team who had ever thrown a college pass. Now he’s gone. He was suspended by the team for academic reasons, and the situation was serious enough that he decided to transfer instead of sticking it out and fixing the problem. Now the Eagles have just two guys -redshirt freshman Justin Tuggle and junior college transfer Codi Boek . I already wasn’t at all optimistic about BC in the ACC this year, but his only serves to further cloud their prospects in my eyes.

I don’t follow women’s college basketball very closely, but I do follow it enough to have been intrigued last year by the story of Elena Delle Donne. She was the national player of the year in high school last year, and she signed with UConn, the pre-eminent program in the country. She wasn’t happy as soon as she got there, though, and thins quickly got worse. She decided she was burnt out and she quit basketball. She also left UConn, transferred to Delaware, and joined the volleyball team. Legendary UConn coach Geno Auriemma tried to convince her that she was just homesick, but she wouldn’t listen. Fast forward a year, and all has changed. She realizes she was just homesick, she’s returning to basketball, and Delaware just became relevant one year removed from a 15-15 season. Things like this must drive a coach like Auriemma crazy. Of course, he doesn’t have to lose too much sleep over it – his team went 39-0 and won the national championship without Delle Donne last year.

I can’t help but watch Joba Chamberlain. He’s such an incredible talent that he’s captivating, and his transition to starting has been so rocky that you can’t help but watch. I still think he’ll end up back in the bullpen eventually, but his start last night could prove me wrong. He was brilliant over eight innings, allowing just four hits while allowing two runs and striking out five. Most impressively, his fastball was measured at 97 miles per hour in the eighth inning. With that kind of stamina maybe he is cut out to be a starter after all.

Quick hits:

• Orlando players are saying that Jameer Nelson will play in the finals, though the team isn’t publicly acknowledging it. I still remain pessimistic about this idea.
• Memphis has finished their investigation, and they say they have found no proof that Derrick Rose cheated on his SAT. I’d like to believe that, but it seems a little too convenient. It seems odd to me that this would have become a story at all if the NCAA didn’t have compelling proof. That’s obviously not the case if Memphis was able t disprove things so quickly. This story isn’t over.
• The Cowboys released linebacker Greg Ellis today, choosing to save $4.15 million in salary at the expense of veteran leadership and a reliable pass rush. Ellis complains a bit more than he should, but he’s a good player and a leader on a team that needs all the leadership it can get. I don’t totally get this move, but then I gave up trying to figure out this team’s personnel moves long ago.
• I hate the cliche idea of a ‘must-win’ game, but Pittsburgh really must win tonight.

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3. Thoughts On A Wednesday Afternoon It’s

Tags: boston college, Derrick Rose, Elena Delle Donne, Greg Ellis, Jameer Nelson, Joba Chamberlain, Memphis Tigers, Pittsburgh Penguins

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 at 5:22 pm and is filed under Baseball Handicapping, College Basketball, College Football, Hockey Handicapping, NBA Handicapping, NFL Handicapping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.