WIAC Preview 2-a-days Part 1

For this week leading up to the beginning of the NCAA Division III football season I will be previewing one of the nations higher profile conferences, the WIAC.  Much of the notoriety of this conference comes from back-to-back National Champion UW-Whitewater Warhawks but the WIAC is more than UWW and a series of also-rans. The WIAC is a deep and talented conference.  Throughout this week I will take a look at 2 teams a day Monday-Thursday and then on Friday I will take a look at the conference as a whole and make my predictions for the season.  So let’s get things started with who else but the 6 time defending conference champs the UW-Whitewater Warhawks.

UW-Whitewater:

Fast Facts:

Head Coach: Lance Leipold; 5th season at UWW; 57-3
Starters Returning/Lost on Offense: 5/6
Starters Returning/Lost on Defense: 5/6
Returning All-WIAC: Greg Arnold (Sr., LB, 2010-Second); Matt Blanchard (Sr., QB, 2010-First); Levell Coppage (Sr., RB, 2008-First, 2009-First, 2010-Player of the Year); Kris Rosholt (Sr., Punter, 2009-Second, 2010-First)

2011 Schedule

2010 Recap:

Last year the Warhawks went 15-0 and 7-0 in the WIAC en route to their 6^th straight conference title and 2^nd consecutive national championship.  They were driven by a powerful running game with a trio of running backs that rushed for over 3,500 yards and 38 touchdowns on the season.  While Coppage, Anderson and Stanley were great talents the Warhawk O-Line really made that kind of production possible.  Aaron Rusch stood out a Wide Receiver catching 88 balls for over 1,000 yards and 14 touchdowns.  Matt Blanchard was the team’s Number 1 Quarterback but missed significant time late in the season due to injury and Lee Brekke was forced to fill in.  Blanchard threw for over 2,000 yards 21 TDs and had a completion percentage of 72.4 with only 1 INT.  The Warhawks scored 40.2 points per game and only allowed 11.8 ppg.  The defense allowed a miniscule 1.7 yards per attempt on the ground.  UWW’s opponents gained just over half of the yards that the Warhawks gained.  Obviously this was one of Whitewater’s best years even for its standards.

2011 Outlook:

UWW is looking to make it 7 consecutive conference titles and will likely meet up with Mt. Union again in the D3 championship game (AKA the Stagg Bowl).  I personally see no reason why this team won’t make it 7 in a row.  Levell Coppage is an extraordinary talent and might rush for 2,500 yards plus this season with his backfield makes from last year, Antwan Anderson and Booker Stanley, having run out of eligibility.  Blanchard is back and has a year of starting under his belt.  The defense returns starters at every level including 3 defensive backs.  All of the Warhawk’s specialists return for the 2011 campaign.  This looks to be another great year of Whitewater football.

Big Question:

How will losing 6 starters on each side of the ball affect the Warhawks bid for a 3-peat?

If there is one thing that UWW fans have to worry about this season it is the team’s losses to graduation. The Warhawks lose two 1,000 yard receivers as well as their starting tight end.  Those same players caught 27 of Whitewater’s 33 receiving touchdowns. On defense they lose 3 starting linemen, a linebacker and 2 DBs one of which was the team’s best defensive player and leading tackler in Lane Olson and the other lead the team in interceptions in Matt McCulloch.  In my opinion the biggest losses are on the offensive line. 4 of the 5 starters from 2010 are gone including All-Americans Robby Ustruck and Matt Weber.  As I said before last year’s O-line made those 3,500 rushing yards possible and also allowed only 8 sacks on the season.  I’m not saying there’s trouble in paradise but I’m sure all of this at least a small concern to Coach Leipold and his staff.

Player to Watch:

Levell Coppage

As I wrote above Coppage is a sick talent.  D3football.com has a great feature on him as well. He has rushed for over 2,100 yards the past 2 years and that was with the also talented Antwan Anderson with him in the backfield.  Coppage is good enough to make up for the losses on the O-line and has a legit shot to earn the 2,400 yards he needs to become the NCAA’s all-time leading rusher regardless of division.  That means Coppage has a real chance to end up with more rushing yards than this man.

Bottom Line:

At the end of the day despite their losses Whitewater is a team the reloads.  I’m sure there are very talented players who have been waiting and practicing hard to get their chance and they’ll get it this year and they’ll probably succeed.  If Coppage and Blanchard were not on the team or get injured I could see this being the year UWW would get knocked off.  But since that is not the case I can only conclude that UWW will win the WIAC and appear the Stagg bowl, again.

Part 2 will be out later tonight and will feature Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University, the UW-Stout Blue Devils.

TTFN

The Hiatus is over. Ready to go for a great fall.

Don't say I didn't warn you.  I told you my posting might tail off, especially in the summer and unsurprisingly it did.  But I'm back from camp and ready to hit on some of my favorite sports and topics heading into the new school year. Here are just some quick thoughts on the events that took place this summer.

• The NFL lockout was lame
• The NBA lockout continues to be troublesome
• I picked both the NCAA basketball and NBA Finals champions correctly at the beginning of their respective playoffs.
• The Badgers got Russel Wilson, awesome.
• The Brewers are absolutely rolling right now, thanks in large part to their pitching.
• The Packers look great.
• All in all Wisconsin sports are at an all time high in my opinion.
• The Little League World Series is the work of the devil.  Seriously I hate it.  It is exploitative and boring.  I have no interest in watching 12-year-olds from Louisiana and Venezuela play baseball against each other.  They haven't even hit puberty yet.  It really is the worst programming on ESPN.  The only time I will ever care about the LLWS is when Hawaii is playing and that is only because one of my best friends is Hawaiian and loves that team.  I have not watched 1 minute of the LLWS and I intend to keep it that way.

That's all I have for now.  I will be previewing the season for some UW-Oshkosh teams as well as looking around the entire WIAC for football.  I will also probably look at UW football and the Packers seasons as well.  I might post more about the Brewers but it's really hard to post about something that happens pretty much every day and about a team where the story is the same day in and day out. Which in this case is great because they just keep winning.  Honestly, I'm waiting for something new to happen like Carlos Gomez or Rickie Weeks coming back from injury and September 1st when rosters expand.  Until then Brewers baseball will somehow be both exciting and boring at the same time.  I might take a look at the state of the NCAA as well.  As always however I'll write about what I want when I want because I can.  Hope you had a good summer, I know I did and I hope for a great fall as well.

TTFN

How the American Dream relates to our role models and the rise, fall and possible rebirth of local sports.

Yesterday I finished my first week of summer camp for the year.  As I reflected on my week, before going to bed, I had an epiphany of sorts.  Through out the week my campers were talking about this guy named Tobuscus.  I don't pretend to be up on the latest pop culture fare (I basically only listen to music made before 1998, I watch mostly sports on TV and the only movies I'll watch in theaters are super hero movies) but I had no clue who this guy was.  This made the generation gap between myself and my campers abundantly clear.  I have often pondered in my quiet moments about how social media such as facebook and twitter has impacted the social relationships of my generation and the same holds true in its own way for youtube and people like Tobuscus.  My campers idolized this man but even after watching his videos I had no idea why.  So I visited his official website and read his "bio."  It confirmed what I had already thought, Tobuscus (AKA Toby Turner) was a comedian who made a couple "funny" videos and rode that success to some degree of fame.  The dude actually has an acting reel and I would say its mostly pretty bad. That does not matter though, because somehow he made it big.  Is that not the American Dream?  That anyone from anywhere can make it if they get a lucky break.  That dream is more realizable now than it ever has been before due to social and web based media.  I in no way fault or blame Toby for chasing after and fulfilling his dream, good for him.  What does concern me is that he is being looked up to by middle school boys.  Why would I want the youth of America to look up to him? What has he really done or accomplished aside from being famous? (I am using the terms fame and famous loosely in this article).  Maybe he has done some good things and I guess the same could be said for any comedian but the lack of filter from producer to consumer makes it so much easier to have an impact, positive or negative, on people's lives than ever before.  So how does this relate to sports? When I was growing up my role models, idols, heroes, whatever you want to call them were determined in large part by the TV.  Television is the dominant medium of my generation.  Growing up we watched the likes of MJ, Ken Griffey Jr., Brett Favre and Dale Earnhart and they became our heroes.  People in the media TOLD us who to like and force fed them to us. Conversely it was also able to pick and choose some of the better role models out there. Television allowed someone in Denver to watch his beloved Red Sox play the Yankees even though they were hundreds of miles away.  Television brought the world into our homes. Youtube brings our homes out into the world.  It allows people from all over to see what they want when they want it.  Just a few years ago if I missed an amazing play like this one pulled by my old high school baseball team the only media available to tell me what happened would be word of mouth.  Now I can watch that clip from a Madison TV station up in my house in Oshkosh.  It really is incredible if you think about it.  I mean without youtube only a hand full of people would ever know about one of the most incredible finishes I have ever seen in sports.  In my opinion the development of TV was a striking blow to local sports.  Ratings dictate reaching the largest audience possible meaning big cities. That then is who the networks pander to.  It is easier to reach that number of people in one area than the same number from across the midwest.  So networks show content that is appealing and relevant to people in big cities. When that is what is available, big time money making sports in large markets, that is what people consume and people care about.  It is a chicken and the egg scenario, does ESPN hype Duke/North Carolin because it is popular or is Duke/North Carolina popular because ESPN hypes it up (Being the good Catholic that I am I'd have to say both). In my opinion there really is no reason anyone outside of New York or Boston who is not a Yankees or Red Sox fan should give a blood nickel about any regular season series between those two teams.  If you love the game of baseball and love watching the game itself that's one thing, and that is not what I am talking about.  I am talking about the hype and coverage leading up to and following those games.  National games in and of themselves are really cool and if you are a local fan it is nice to know that people across the country get to see how good your team is but beyond the game it is just not necessary.  Much like the athletes I was told to like these are the teams and sports I am told to care about.  Now that doesn't have to be the case.  With the wide array of media available I can choose what I want to watch and who to care about.  I can see highlights of my local team, and so can someone in Tacoma.  Before Television, more specifically cable and satellite television, people cared about their local teams.  This is because of what I stated before, people will consume what is available.  Before cable television Oshkosh had a pro basketball team.  That was because people came to see the game and that was all that mattered, that is what was being sold, tickets to the game.  All there was to consume was the game itself and maybe some talk at the barbershop or at work but that's it.  No sports talk radio, no sportscenter, no youtube.  Just the game itself live or maybe on the radio, a summary in your local paper (which was all you got because you couldn't get the Wall Street journal online) and maybe some talk with your neighbors. Now people see big name franchises regularly on TV, radio and the web that is what they care about.  This nationalization of sports has nearly killed the local sports scene.  The web now offers new but different possibilities.  Listen, local sports will never be what they were but TV won't be what it was either.  With so many options one program will rarely if ever be able to grab as large a percentage of viewers as shows like M*A*S*H did back in the day. Niche marketing is the wave of the future.  People now are so divided, there are so few cultural touchstones, that now rather than trying to reach that large audience (although sports is the one place where this still survies so some degree) and be that larger cultural touchstone they try to be that for smaller subcultures, like Tobuscus is to the video game world. There doesn't need to be a large audience anymore just a niche, and hopefully local sports still have at least that. Like I said before youtube, and TV now in its own way, is bringing our living rooms out into the world.  Flipping through the channels this morning I had the option of watching Classic High School Baseball.  At one point in time that would have been thought to be inconceivable, what kind of market is there for something like that, but no longer.  If local sports and small universities, like my Alma mater UW-Oshkosh,  play there cards right and utilize this new media they might be able to experience a rebirth of sorts.  Personally I hope this happens.  I love local sports and I find it more compelling to follow a team and athletes in my community who might be less skilled or developed than  great teams or players who are miles away literally and figuratively.  High schools seem to be the the least affected by nationalization because of civic pride.  The high school quarterback might not be the hero he once was but I know that my sister as a stand out in high school and now at the college level had many little girls look up to her.  I hope that these other local sports, like minor leagues, home talent leagues and most of all small colleges are able to find a way to evoke the same kind of civic pride as these high schools.  Especially the colleges.  Because those great high school athletes you follow and care passionately about may go off and play at a division  2 or 3 school or maybe even a small division 1 school and then play in front of crowds smaller than the ones they played for in High School.  That just doesn't seem right to me. I would like to see a day when local TV stations broadcast local games live.  I'd love to see the Mallards, T-Ratts, Admirals and Wave on TV regulary. So while I'm not so hot on youtube making Tobuscus into an idol for our youth I do hope it provides an opportunity for those same youths to see Jared Jenkins, Jack Borski, Jeff Donovan, Luke Westphal, Christina Cahoon, Britta Peterson, DJ Marsh and Dane Seckar-Anderson because those folks worked hard to achieve their success and that is what the American Dream is really about.

TTFN

A look at the NBA finals

So I got a chance to watch most of game 1 last night and basically that game reinforced all my thoughts about the series which are as follows.  When it comes to this series my heart says Mavs but my head says Heat.  It is not that I hate the Heat.  I like the Heat, I like LeBron.  I just like Dirk so much more.  I've been a huge Dirk fan since 7th grade and would love to see him win a title.  I love guys who generally play below the rim because I play below the rim.  While it is all but impossible for me to be a reasonable facsimile of what Dirk does, it is impossible for me to do what LeBron does.  That endears me to Dirk and makes me in complete and total awe of LeBron.  I do want Dirk to get a title but I wouldn't be that upset if Miami won, because I also want to see LeBron succeed.  At the end of the day I don't really know what level Dirk elevates to with one title.  I think he's around top 25 all-time already and he will really only pass the Malones and Barkleys of the world.  Jason Kidd might actually elevate more with a title but still won't end up as high as Dirk.  But the history of the NBA shows that Miami will win this title and many titles to come.  With the exception of the 1970's when a myriad teams won just one title one or two teams have dominated each decade.  The Lakers in the 50s, The Celtics in th 60s, skip the 70s, Lakers/Celtics in the 80s, Detroit as a transition into the Bulls dominated 90s (with the Rockets thrown in) and then the Lakers and Spurs dominated the past 12 years winning 9 of the 12 titles with the Heat, Pistons and Big Three Celtics winning the other three.  For all intents and purposes the Heat will likely be the dominant team of the next decade with the Bulls and Thunder possibly sneaking in there for a title or two.  Every decade has had really fine, good teams besides the ones that won titles (60s Lakers, 80s Pistons, 90s Jazz, 00s Nets) but it is winning the finals and even more so winning multiple titles that separates very good teams from great teams.  I think the Heat are a great team.

TTFN

Back again but for how long?

I was very honest with you my readers from the beginning that after my initial burst of excitement and writing I would probably wane.  And that has proven to be the case.  It's been almost 10 days since my last post and so much has happened in sports. The Canucks moved to the Stanley cup finals, Dallas and Miami took commanding leads and the Brewers are on fire at home. I still have articles to write that I have promised as well.  All of that being said, I will be hard pressed to make any posts on a regular basis this summer due to my work at camp.  I have 2 hours of each day and live there all week with limited access to technology.  So obviously I won't be able to watch much of either the NBA or Stanley Cup finals.  I may be able to listen to brewer games at night.  The best you can expect is once a week and usually on the weekend, when I am off work.  I may be able to add updates on Capture the Flag games that happen on Tuesdays at camp we'll see what happens.  I start at camp in the beginning of June and may be able to use my time off to craft longer less topical articles rather than trying to keep up to date on the latest goings on.  We'll see.

TTFN

Channell Surfing 5/17

So I’m back and just going to jump right into it with some channel surfing. Priority goes 1) mavs/thunder 2) Brewers/Dodgers and 3) Bruins Lightning 

Mavs/Thunder Game One Western Conference Finals

1^st Quarter

10:50 2-2: First two baskets of this game are waved off, first for a travel and second for offensive goaltending.  Then Perk and Chandler get BS double techs, sorry refs this is the conference finals, things are going to get chippy, let it go.

9:23 8-2 D: Some nice ball movement early by the Mavs gives them an early lead.

6:24 13-12 O: Dirk has played really well so far but OKC getting out to the early lead. Chandler needs to step it up.

4:49 17-16 O: Corey Brewer with a nice bucket, I can never tell the difference between him and Ronnie Brewer.

3:47 19-16 O: Dirk goes to the bench early and the Dallas offense stagnates. Not a surprise.

2:56 19-16 O: Terrible fast break by Brewer. Tried to take on 2 guys while Peja just floated around the transition.

2:25 21-18 O: We head to our 2^nd break with OKC largely in control despite the slim lead.

17.6 25-20 O: Sick Alley-oop by Maynor and Harden.

End 27-20 O: Durant gets a transition bucket and OKC looks like a much deeper team so far.

2^nd Quarter

10:30 32-23 O: Daquan Cook with a bucket. If OKC wins the finals is he the most successful of the Buckeyes from that 07 final four team.

7:37 32-32: I tune back in just in time to miss a 9-0 Dallas run. But a few seconds later I do get to see a sweet shot by the Germanator. 

5:40 40-39 O: JJ Barea with a blow by.  How does he do it?

3:45 45-41 O: Great interior passing by Dirk. That always impresses me when guys are able to find teammates in traffic. It is just so difficult.

2:15 49-45 D: Huge run by the Mavs crowd really into it.

1:40 51-45 D: Dirk with a huge bucket, just shows why he’s so hard to guard.

End 55-48 D: Dirk really stepped it up in the later part of that quarter to give his team the lead. He really is a spectacular player.

3^rd Quarter

9:09 60-53 D: Tune in a little late from watching the Brewers and Hockey.  Didn’t miss much both teams on same pace to start the half.

8:42 61-53 D: Dirk is an underrated passer and that pass to matrix just showed that. 

8:02 64-57 D: Matrix really struggling with his nose injury.  Durant gets fouled by Chandler, that’s 4 on him. Durant gets his bell rung a little on the play.  The broadcasters discuss the merits of verticality, always a good conversation.

7:00 64-59 D: NEWS FLASH! Brendan Haywood is an absolute stiff.

6:24 64-59 D: Durant gets 2 quick fouls with Dirk posting up.  Interesting choice of strategy for Dirk to post Durant up.

6:04 66-62 D: OKC creeps back in with a sweet 3-point play by Westbrook. Taped one in and got the foul.

2:56 81-68 D: Dirk has been lights out in this game, but I just missed a good chunk watching the Brewers and Hockey, both of which were at important junctures.

1:51 83-71 D: This game is looking like my games in NBA live, just 2 scorers being basically unstoppable and any stop is huge.

53.6 85-75 D: Durant just looking a little flustered right now.  He did lead Team USA to a FIBA championship and is a great player but in college he only made it to the 2^nd round and didn’t even win the Big 12 tournament.

End 90-79 D: Harden just took a huge flop from Terry.  Got a tap in the face and fell like he got hit by Tyson, good to know the Arizona State drama program is alive and well.

4^th quarter

11:28 90-79 D: Dirk starts on the bench but quickly steps right back in.

10:45 92-83 D: What we’ve learned so far this quarter: One, Dirk loves to shoot free throws, two, Serge Ibaka can dunk when lobed to.

9:00 99-83 D: JJ Barea has sick moves.  Jeff Van Gundy then debates the merits of streetball etiquette with Mark Jackson.  Safe to say Van Gundy knows just as much about that topic as I do.  I’d defer to Jackson on this one.

5:00 104-95 D: The thing about shooting well is that it can lead to some dumb shots and that is what has happened to Dirk.  OKC on a run late.

4:18 104-95 D: Kidd tries to iso late in the shot clock. Not smart.  Dirk and Durant are making a living from the free throw line in this one.

28.2 119-110 D: The Jet comes out.  I’ve been watching the game but Dirk has been so good it has left me speechless.

Final 121-112 D: 48 Points for Dirk, 48.  The rest of the starters scored a TOTAL of 20 points, 20. Dirk more than doubled his fellow starters.  Durant did have 40 as well.  The difference in this game was that difference and the difference in the 2^nd and 3^rd scorers for each team.  Terry and Barea scored 45 while Westbrook and Ibaka went for 37.  Dirk can’t do this every game but the rest of his starters probably won’t go this cold either.  The same can be said to some degree for OKC.  Dallas leads the series 1-0, but game 2 should tell us more about how this series will go.

Bruins/Lightning (Tampa Leads Series 1-0)

2^nd Period

4-3 B: I tune in just in time to see LaCavilier score on a power play.  As much as it would probably be nice for my friend Chris who lives and works in Tampa to see the Lightning in the Stanley Cup finals I want Boston to win this series because I just think their tougher and better in goal. I also like Original 6 teams.  Since there is no NHL team in Wisconsin I am a fan of the Nashville Predators because their AHL team is the Milwaukee Admirals.  Since I need some rooting interest whenever I watch a game my next priorites are: 1) Teams with former Badgers, 2) American Teams, 3) Original 6 teams, and finally 4) the team with the better goalie.  So all that being said I want the sharks to win the cup.  In a trump over the previously set-up criteria next would be Vancouver because a) Tampa recently won a cup and b) Boston has won a championship in Football, Basketball and Baseball in the past decade.  They don’t need anymore championships.

3:08 5-3 B: Big goal for Boston.  The PA guy ends his announcement of the goal with a Ric Flair style “WOOO” which the crowd repeats. Just one more reason to root for Boston in this series.

End 6-3 B: I tune out of this game and miss another goal. I’m not having much luck here.

3^rd Period

14:24 6-4 B: There have been 10 goals scored in this one and I’ve seen 2 of them.  Just some terrible luck.

4:00 6-5 B: Missed another one but after being basically a blow-out this one just got interesting.

1:00 6-5 B: Get back to this one just in time for the Bolts to pull their goalie for the final minute.  I wish this game happened last night so I could have watched more of it.

Final 6-5 Boston Series now tied at 1-1.  Even though that got the win, letting up 5 goals is troubling for team that relies on defense and goaltending. Scoring 6 goals is nice but I’d rather see my team do what it does best rather than get a extraordinary production from an unusual place.

Brewers/Dodgers

Top of 1^st inning

This game got underway just before halftime of the Mavs/OKC game so I tune in with Fielder stepping to the plate and 2 runners on. He beats out the tail end of the Double play to keep the inning alive and bring C-Mac to the plate.  Big time hit but caught at the wall.  Good start for the crew hopefully they can keep it up. Tied 0-0

Bottom 1^st

Wolf Rolling through 2 batters brings up Eithier.  Eithier walks and Wolf quickly goes down 2-0 to Kemp and he hits a 2 run homer to give the Dodgers the early lead, obviously not what the Brewers need.  Maybe I should have said anything about how well Wolf was doing because now 3 have reached in a row.  Wolf gets the next guy out and now the Brewer bats need to get going. Dodgers lead 2-0

Top 3rd

Uneventful 2^nd inning while I was tuned out, LA still leads 2-0 and Wolf is up for the crew.  He promptly hits a lead-off double.  Way to help yourself out at the plate.  Brewers play a little small ball and move wolf to 3^rd for Hart.  Hart walks but Braun strikes out and Fielder flies out and the Brewers fail to score despite a lead-off double handing things over to the top of the order, unacceptable. 2-0 Dodgers

Top 4^th

Scoreless bottom 3^rd for LA, the rain is coming down pretty hard, I wonder how long they’re going to play in this.

Bottom 4^th

Wolf is running into some trouble with the bottom of LA’s order.  Gets out of a bases loaded jam with a 3-1 count. 2-0 LA

Top 6^th

Kemp steals extra bases from Fielder.  Man does Chavez ravine hold baseballs.  Overall it was an unproductive inning with some potential. 2-0 LA

Top 7^th

Bottom of the order goes 1-2-3.  Helps when you’re getting strikes a foot outside the strike zone, just saying.  Is there anything the Brewers can do about the bottom of the order or are they just kind of stuck?  If they are stuck that proves to be a problem for them. 2-0 LA

Top 8^th

Again the Brewers struggle despite getting a lead-off double.  Weeks does get to 3^rd with 2 outs and Prince coming up. He walks to bring up Casey who blows it.  I’ve been disappointed with him this season.  Is this the year he falls off after overachieving?  2-0 LA

Bottom 8^th

LA tacks on another run.  3 runs in this game is insurmountable. 3-0 LA

Top 9^th

Brewers go down without a whimper.  They failed to hit at all in this one and split the 2 game set with the Dodgers.  All together not too bad, with a two game series in San Diego next they have a legit chance to get back to .500 coming back for a home stand.  I am down with that.  I’m not saying settle for mediocrity, but you have to walk before you can run.  This team has some serious concerns in the bottom third of the batting order right now.  Again just sweep the Padres and come back home at .500 and we’ll go from there.

We’ll that does it for me a long but very entertaining night of sports.  I know its been a while since my last post and I do want to get back at it and stick with it here for the next few weeks. I will work on crafting my NFL lockout article and my how to improve the major sports leagues of the NFL, NBA, MLB and the NHL.  I really haven’t gotten any true articles up here or synthesized my thoughts into an article or review and I’d really like to do that.  Tomorrow night however I’ll basically be doing the same thing I did tonight.  We’ve got Sharks/Nucks, Heat/Bulls and Brewers/Padres so I’ll be all over those three tomorrow night.  Also be on the lookout for a UWO Titan baseball season review.  G’night y’all.

TTFN

Back again

I've been away for about a week again now this time due to having many projects and papers to work on for school.  This next week may mean more of the same as it is the final week of classes which of course means finals.  So just bear with me because after this next week I've got about 2 weeks before camp starts during which I have basically nothing going on so I'll be free to blog quite a bit during that time. Enough about me lets get to some sports:

  I won't have a series wrap on last weekend's UWW series or this weekend's series against UW-Superior for Titan baseball. I might get a wrap for the Superior series and will definitely have a regular season wrap and preview of the conference tournament sometime next week.  Suffice it to say the Titans did pretty much as expected against UWW this past weekend.  A sweep of the double header on Saturday with a big time comeback in the night cap was followed up by a blow-out lose on Sunday in the first game and a much more competitive contest in game 4 of the series.  Up and down series just like the up and down year.  Westphal did his thing and dominated meanwhile Rubens left game 2 with an injury that probably ends his career and Schreiber continues to struggle.  Simply put this weekend UWO needs to do better against a struggling UW-Sup team than UWL does against conference title contender UWW.  A simple task that should recquire no more than 2 wins but UWO should get at least 3 W's this weekend.  All UWO baseball games can be found on 90.3 WRST-FM and the wrst stream at wrst.org.  I will likely be on one of the calls on Sunday.

The NHL playoffs are intriguing right now, again due to my busy schedule I haven't been able to watch them outside of Nashville games and the Preds are down 3-1 heading back to Vancouver.  Not looking good.  The Caps bow out again even without having to play Crosby. No reason Boston shouldn't come out of the east at this point.  The west however is wide open.  Nashville can come back. Red Wings are done but the Preds Nucks or Sharks could get to the Cup finals.  If it ends up being Bruins/Sharks I'll have to tip my cap to my good buddy and On Wisconsin Sports hockey expert, Luke Meinholz.

The NBA playoffs have also been fun but I've seen almost none of this second round between school and did I mention I've been sick over the past week and gone to bed at about 9pm each night? Well I have so that makes watching sports really tough.  Obviously everything is still wide open.  The Lake show might be in trouble but the Celtics haven't played a game at home yet so just hold your horses on that one.

Oh yeah and the Brewers suck right now. And that is all I have to say about that.

Well that's in for now.  Again it might be another week before I post again but we shall see.

TTFN