Maddux Sports Blog

Very interesting result last night with Maryland beating Duke by a solid margin at home. The number one seed was Duke’s to lose, and a win in this game would have come close to clinching it for them. Now it is back in play – though the Blue Devils are still in decent position to grab it. More significant than the fact that Duke couldn’t clinch that, though, is the fact that they were unable to rise up in a game like this and come out on top. Maryland is a decent team, and the game was further proof of just how special Greivis Vasquez is, but the clear fact is that Duke is the better team, and should have been able to win this one. There have been some toughness issues raised around Duke this year, and this game did nothing to dispel those. They will have a bracket position soft enough t advance a few games, but this win does nothing to ease my questions about whether this is a team built to go deep.

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Great, great story out of Pittsburgh today – I love this one. Buffalo was in town to play the Penguins. Before the game began the returning Olympians were introduced to the crowd. Ryan Miller, the tournament MVP and star goalie of the American team was given a very loud standing ovation – even though he plays for the visiting team. Sidney Crosby, the biggest hockey hero in the league, and the biggest Pittsburgh has had since Mario, got an ovation that was clearly less rousing. It gets even better – when the replay of Sid’s goal was shown, the one that won the gold medal and made certain that Crosby will be a hero in Canada for eternity, he was booed. In his own house. Awesome. Just awesome.

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Olympic Bet of the Day - I had an easy win yesterday – I needed Finland to win by three goals, and they win by six. That means a modest profit of $83 on the day, and a loss up to this point of $242. Not great, but not bad all things considered. Today there is a lot going on, so I am going to do a big parlay to have a cheering interest in as much of it as I can. Here are the events: Sweden (-330) to beat France in men’s curling, Great Britain (-225) to beat the U.S. in women’s curling, Andrea Fischbacher (-110) to beat Fabienne Suter in Super G, Petter Northug (-205) to beat Dario Cologna in XC skiing, and Shani Davis (-400) to beat Chad Hedrick in 1500m speed skating. $100 on that will pay $568.

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There is a whole lot going on out there today, so we’ll quickly touch on a bunch of them:

1. Roger Federer – Federer closed strong last night to make the semi-finals of the Australian Open. Win or lose, it is the 23rd consecutive Grand Slam he has made at least the semi’s in. Just think about how stunning that is for a second – there are only four Grand Slams a year, so for almost six years in a row Federer has finished at least in the top four of the hardest, deepest tournaments in the year. That’s on three different types of surfaces as well, and they are spread out over eight months. I dare you to name another current athlete that has been that consistently dominant for that long. There isn’t one.

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Big Ten – ACC update – The Challenge is at 3-3 after six games, so things are looking decent for my Big Ten. The bad news is that Michigan State lost the coin flip game. The good news is that Northwestern won one of the games I had penciled in for the ACC. If everything else went according to expectations, then, Big Ten would win 6-5 and finally break the ACC curse. Here’s hoping.

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I’m deeply impressed by the Giants. They needed to come through in a big way this weekend to avoid letting the Rockies run away and hide in the wild card race, and they did that in a big way. They were three games back in the wild card race heading into this series, and now thanks to a sweep of Colorado at home they are tied. The Giants showed what kind of grit they have as well – they were down 4-1 to the Rockies on Sunday, but they fought back to win 9-5. There are still 31 games to play so anything could happen, but this race starts from scratch today, and I would certainly bet on the Giants to be the ones to go to the playoffs in the end. The Rockies have been flying higher than they should be lately, so I fully expect them to fall back to earth – they peaked too soon.

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Haven’t yet figured out why the Vikings signed Brett Favre? I haven’t really, either, but here’s a big part of it – in the 24 hours following the signing they sold 3,000 season tickets and 10,000 individual game tickets. They have 7,000 season tickets left, and you can only go to the Green Bay game with a season ticket, so they will certainly sell even more. The extra ticket sales and jersey sales alone will pay for the contract, and now the team won’t have to struggle with blackouts like they have in recent years.

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I this blog, I consider three guys who are totally committed to their sport and who have set high standards for their sport. Here’s a look at Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, the PGA’s Tiger Woods and NHL center Jeremy Roenick. 

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Of course I predicted that Miguel Angel Jimenez would be leading Tom Watson by one stroke after one round of the British Open. I mean, who didn’t? It was totally obvious. Bizarre. Only a couple of things made sense about the first round. Steve Stricker continued his hot play and is right in the mix. Camilo Villegas regained his lost form and is right there with Stricker. I’ll be annoyed if Villegas wins this thing – he’s been a choice for me in every major for the last couple of years, but I skipped over him this time because he has been so frustratingly ineffective. I think I’ll be safe, though. Oh, and what is it about Ben Curtis and this tournament? Bizarre.

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It was a pretty good day for a pair of friends today.

I had no doubt in my mind before today, but the argument has been made even more compelling – Roger Federer is unquestionably the greatest male tennis player of all time. If you didn’t see the match today then you really missed out. Andy Roddick, to his tremendous credit, played about as well as he could possibly have played. He was aggressive, accurate, and focused – three things that don’t always come in one package for the talented American. No matter what he did, though, Federer was there to match him. Roddick got close to a breakthrough a couple of times in the final marathon set, but whenever he pushed the Swiss star to the brink, Federer would fight his way out. Federer is so ridiculously creative – it’s almost as if he invents shots for particular situations, and as if he adapts his entire game to suit the needs of a particular situation. He wasn’t having an easy time handling Roddick’s blistering serve on Sunday, so he ratcheted his own serve up and, incredibly, almost doubled the number of aces Roddick had. It was a truly epic battle between two warriors, but you couldn’t shake the feeling from he very start that n matter what Roddick tried it wouldn’t quite be enough. Unbelievable.

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