Maddux Sports Blog

I didn’t watch much of the Florida game today because Michigan was playing at the same time, but what I did see was less than thrilling. It was a typical SEC defensive battle. Maybe it’s a personal fault, but that style of football generally bores the hell out of me. TimTebow didn’t look particularly good in his return to action after his concussion, but he was far better than his counterpart and he got the win. Florida finally proved themselves against their best opponent yet, but I still don’t believe that this is the best team that there is.

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Holy Freaking Crap!!! As a Michigan fan that first half yesterday against Western Michigan was the second best thing to happen to me in the last few years (And I only say second best because I’d get grief from my wife if I didn’t at least pretend my wedding mattered more). It has been a very rough year and a half since we beat Florida in the Capital One Bowl, so the 31-0 drubbing we laid on Western Michigan in the first half yesterday was tremendous relief. For the first time in too long there was something beautiful on witness when we played – competence. Our defense was smothering, our offense looked pretty good and true freshman Tate Forcier threw three touchdown passes and looked far beyond his age. Glory days. So much for all those reports of division in the locker room and incompetence by Rich Rodriguez. I hope I’m not the only one who took the over on Michigan’s season win total this year.

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This whole Detroit-Free-Press-started, ESPN-fueled scandal about possible NCAA violations at Michigan is quite possibly the stupidest thing I have ever seen. The basic story is that a couple of journalists (or should I say ‘journalists’) at the DFP talked to several current and former Michigan players and allegedly discovered that the players were practicing far more than they are allowed to NCAA rules. Instead of applying a little bit of rational thought and a bit of investigative journalism, the writers ran with it for all it is worth. Unfortunately for them, there are several reasons why their story is thoroughly ridiculous:

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As you probably know if you have read this blog much I am a diehard Michigan fan – the kind that bleeds maize and blue.Given that you’ll have a sense of how much I have enjoyed the last year or two of football, and the last decade of basketball. I’m optimistic now, though – In Rod I trust. The being said, the press conference by coach Rich Rodriguez today pretty much terrified me.

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It has been more than 60 hours since it happened, but it still hasn’t entirely sunk in – Michigan is going to the tournament. Probably. Hopefully. Fingers crossed. For the first time in a long, long, long time. It would obviously help if we won a conference tournament game or two, but I think it would be a massive travesty for us to get bounced now given what we have accomplished so far and given the last win at Minnesota. Now I’m nervous. Not about how the team will do, mind you – I’m just thrilled we are there this year, so I’ll take whatever I can get. I’m nervous about how to act when your team is in the tournament. I was a much younger man the last time the Wolverines danced, so I feel lost.

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Ouch. I had a very, very, very rough day of Match Play forecasting. Of my picks for the final four yesterday only one – lowly Ian Poulter – is still standing it was a bloodbath. Tiger looked mortal. Actually, he looked like what he is – a guy coming off a major surgery who has been out of action for eight months. It was a lousy time for him to become human. The carnage means that I like Camilo Villegas more than ever right now. That means, of course, that he will get pulverized tomorrow. (more…)

So much for my theory that Matt Kenseth’s Daytona 500 win was a fluke. After not winning a race all of last year, and mostly looking pretty useless, Kenseth has two wins in two races this year. Last week he won thanks to some bizarre circumstances, but this week he was just plain faster than anyone else. He’s driving with a new aggressiveness, and is benefiting significantly from a new crew that brings a much more positive attitude to his operation. Kenseth was particularly strong in the pits. It will be very interesting to watch how long he can maintain this momentum. Kyle Busch also had a very good weekend. A historic one, in fact. On Saturday he became the first driver ever to win two NASCAR events on the same day when he won both the truck and the Nationwide event on the same day.

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Well, it took precisely one day for all the questions I asked about the Suns yesterday to be answered. Amare Stoudemire is out for eight weeks with eye surgery after suffering a detached retina on Wednesday against the Clippers. That essentially eliminate any chance they had of being relevant down the stretch. It seems like Steve Kerr is cursed. He certainly can’t catch a break as GM. I know a lot of people are really down on Kerr, but I’m not one of them. He has certainly struggled to get this team going this year, but I put a lot more of that on Terry Porter than Kerr. Sure, Kerr made the decision to bring Porter in, but that decision turned out to be much worse than it looked at the time. Mike D’Antoni had to go, the team couldn’t lay much defense, and Porter was respected, so it made some sense. I also think that not trading Stoudemire was the right move, even if it really doesn’t look like it right now. Picking up Jason Richardson was also a good move, and Shaq was a solid gamble.

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Most of the dust has cleared from signing day, and we have a pretty good sense of how things will turn out. As a Michigan fan I am reasonably pleased – we lost two defensive ends that we needed, but we gained three players we weren’t supposed to get including a promising QB prospect in Denard Robinson and a nice receiver. Given that we went an incredibly lousy 3-9 last year this is one heck of a class. We should end up about 7th overall. Rich Rodriguez never had a class at West Virginia anywhere near this strong, so I am feeling good. Hope things went as well for you and your team. Unless you like Ohio State, in which case I hope none of your recruits qualify academically, your current players all quit, and you are forced to use the tuba players in your band as the offensive line, and the drum major at QB.

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Apparently the Browns are committed to continuing their impressive legacy of losing. Eric Mangini?!? Really?!? Why in the world would you rush to be the first team to hire a new coach when he’s the one you are going to hire? You could have had an equally crappy coach weeks from now, and you could have held out hope in the mean time that a real coach would be available and interested. Terrible choice.

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