Maddux Sports Blog

The New York Rangers have become the latest NHL team to make a coaching change. This is getting to be an epidemic – the NHL revolving door is almost as big as the NBA’s . Some coaching changes make at least a temporary difference – Ottawa went on a nice positive streak before going back into the tank. This one is going to make no difference at all. John Torterella is perhaps a slightly better coach than Tom Renney, but not by much. The bigger problem is that the world’s greatest coach couldn’t have success with the overpriced, underperforming mess that is the Rangers. They are beyond hope, and that won’t change until GM Glen Sather is run out of town. That won’t happen in a hurry, so the Rangers are not a team worth betting on. It must be something in the air at Madison Square Gardens or something – no competence is allowed.

(more…)

Kudos to Pitt. That certainly wasn’t the outcome I was expecting last night. I had grown to respect UConn, and I had grown to doubt Pitt. Oops. Pitt came into town playing a very rough and tough game, throwing themselves around like crazy. DeJuan Blair played as well as I have ever seen him, scoring 22 points, adding 23 boards, and generally asserting himself as the best player on the court. I wasn’t expecting that. I also wasn’t expecting Pitt to be as effective at containing Hasheem Thabeet as they were. This will certainly make it easier for Pitt to get a number one seed. As for Connecticut, I’m not sure what it means. There isn’t much shame in losing to the fourth ranked team, even if it is at home. The biggest lesson out of this one, I think, is that the Huskies are going to miss Jerome Dyson quite a bit. They just didn’t have all the offense they needed in this one.

(more…)