March 4 - Showdown at the Congressional Coral

Just when you think Congress in useless, they come up with an idea that has merit. In case you missed the news, the House Government Reform committee, chaired by Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), has invited seven current and former baseball players to testify on steroid use in baseball. I don't know what steroids have to do with government reform, but lets not get bogged down with details. The fact of the matter is the players - Jose Canseco, Rafael Palmeiro, Mark McGuire, Jason Giambi, Sammy Sosa, Frank Thomas and Curt Schiiling - will now have the opportunity to testify under oath whether they took steroids. Talk about being backed into a corner. The invitees now have the following options. They can go up there and tell the truth, they could perjure themselves in front of Congress or they could simply decline the invitation. I don't think door number three is much of an option, but I think it is the one that many invitees will select. If a player declines to participate, it will speak volumes about his past statements and will lead the public to suspect he was a steroid abuser. And although this would be a PR disaster, I guess it beats going to Washington and lying to Congress. Guys go to jail for that offense and that would surely get in the way of Rafael Palmeiro's quest for 3000 hits. I want to know what is going to happen when Canseco gets up there and says he shot steroids into McGuire's ass and Mark follows up by saying Jose is a clown. Is McGuire going to go with such a claim with attorneys from the Justice Department looking on? Its one thing to lie to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, but its another thing entirely to mislead Congress. If you don't believe me, just ask Oliver North.

The one thing I cannot figure out is why this particular group was selected. Why are Barry Bonds and Gary Sheffield not on the invite list? (I suspect they were not invited because their testimony could damage the BALCO investigation.) And why are Frank Thomas and Curt Schilling on the list? Those guys may be self-centered pricks, but they aren't the steroid types. The one thing you can take to the bank is that Curt will show up. This is the type of exposure he craves and he will not pass up this once in a lifetime opportunity. This is too bad since nobody wants to hear Curt wax on anything let alone steroids. If I chaired that committee, and I may someday, Curt and the Big Hurt would be staying at home and Brady Anderson and Greg Vaughan would be coming to Capitol Hill.

One team in college basketball that seems to be flying under the radar is Louisville. While Louisville is ranked ninth in the country, they are rarely mentioned by the network pinheads as a team that can win four games in this year's tourney. I am not sure why this is the case other then the fact that the Cardinals do not play in one of those leagues that are joined at the hip with ESPN and CBS. But that shouldn't erase the fact that this team is very solid, as was shown last night when they dismantled Charlotte. It was senior night at Louisville yesterday, and Cardinal senior Larry O'Bannon - no relation to Ed and Charles - did not disappoint. He nailed his first five threes on the way to scoring 33. He was helped along the way by Taquan Dean who had 27 points in only 22 minutes. Dean was diagnosed with mono a few weeks back, but if last night is any indication, he is well on his way to recovery. The Cardinals have now won five in a row and fourteen of fifteen since losing at Houston on January 5th. Along the way, they beat Cincinnati twice and Marquette by 47. And last nights win against Charlotte was no gimmie. Charlotte is very well regarded despite what happened at Freedom Hall last night. This is not as deep a team as the great Louisvile teams from the 80s, but Dean, O'Bannon and Francisco Garcia are a dangerous trio that can cause a lot of problems for opposing teams, and especially those that have trouble defending the perimeter. This is a real solid and mature team and just imagine how good they would have been if Sebastian Telefir had decided to stop by for a year on his way to the NBA.

Someone should tell Stanford that losing at home to Washington State in the penultimate game of the regular season is no way to impress the NCAA selection committee. The Cardinal were just terrible last night, shooting a meager 30 percent from the field in the loss. The line of the night goes to point guard Chris Hernandez who was 3-16 with five turnovers. That is not exactly the stuff of legends. And senior center Rob Little better hope there were no scouts in attendance because his five points in 29 minutes sure didn't impress anyone. Stanford appeared to have locked up an NCAA bid two weeks ago after beating UCLA, but losses to Oregon State and Washington State had clouded the picture. They are now 10-7 in conference with a game remaining against Washington. Assuming that is a loss, the Cardinal will finish fourth in the Conference. On the plus side, Stanford still has a good RPI ranking, despite the fact that their best non-conference win probably came against San Francisco. The resume is now a bit spotty and that is why a win against Washington is critical.

The same cannot be said for UCLA which has now pretty much wrapped up a third tourney bid for the Pac-10. The Bruins were tested last night at home against Oregon State, but they managed to play just well enough down the stretch to secure the win. UCLA was led by Jordan Farmar's 23, but the real key to the win was the Bruins ability to protect the ball. UCLA only turned the ball over seven times last night, which is a remarkable figure given the Bruins carelessness all year long. You know things are going well when "Brian "hot apple" Morrison is only guilty of a single turnover in 28 minutes. It should be noted that Morrison was also 1-7 during those 28 minutes so I don't think its time to change those all-conference selections just yet. With that said, the Bruins are now 10-7 in conference with a game remaining against Pac-10 doormat Oregon. Assuming Stanford losses to Washington, the Bruins should be able to finish the season in sole possession of third place. This is not a great team and I wouldn't expect too much out of it in the tourney, but coach Ben Howland definitely has this program headed in the right direction.

ESPN announced their college basketball all-america team this morning and, for the most part, I think they have hte right guys. There team is as follows: Andrew Bogut at Center, Sean May and Wayne Simien at Forward and Chris Paul and J.R Reddick at guard. I'll start by saying I love the May selection. May has dominated ACC play this year and he was clearly the best player on the country's second ranked team. I am sure some people in upstate New York will claim there was another forward better the May, but I didn't see any evidence to support this theory. The other selection at forward, Wayne Simien, probably cemented his spot with a huge game last Sunday against Oklahoma State. Simien hasn't had a great season, but he did enough to merit this selection ahead of guys like Hakkim Warrick and Francisco Garcia. The center of ESPN's team, Andrew Bogut, is a no brainer. He was terrific last Summer at the Athens Olympics and he has kept it going all year long. Things are a little less clear when you get to ESPN's backcourt selections. For some reason., ESPN is just enamored with Chris Paul. I just don't see it. Paul is a real nice player who can be nearly unstoppable on the break. But Paul is prone to dissappear at times and he plays some of the worst defense in the ACC. He is a second teamer on my team, one spot behind Deron Williams from Illinois. Williams had a terrific year for the top ranked team in the country and he is my guy. That brings us to Reddick and this is where things get a bit complicated. I hate doing this, but I think I am going to agree with ESPN on this choice. He is not the best player at his position, but Reddick's contribution to Duke cannot be overstated. That team would have died without Reddick - end of story. Salim Stoudamire, Tre Simmons, Rashard McCants, and Luther Head all had great years, but none were as central to their team's success as Reddick.

Kudos to ESPN for launching a new channel dedicated exclusively to college sports. ESPNU debuts tonight and I expect I will be watching a lot of this channel in coming years. According to ESPN, the channel will offer a heavy dose of football and basketball, but non-revenue sports like baseball, volleyball and wrestling will be covered as well. I think the channel will be particularly nice in the fall when it will show a bunch of college football replays throughout the week. The Sportsaholic is usually too drunk to remember what happened in every ABC game on Saturday and this will allow me an opportunity to catch some things I may have missed. The other interesting thing about this channel is that it will be anchored by Mike Hall - the guy who won ESPN's first dream job contest. I thought that guy was buried doing overnights on ESPN News, but I guess he impressed someone at the network and he is now going to be ESPNU's point man. I think Chris Fowler would have been the better choice, but I guess Chris put in his time doing Scholastic Sports America in the late 80s and he didn't want to take a step back.

One of the big questions of this NFL off-season is whether we have seen the last of Brett Favre. The Sportsaholic really hopes the answer is yes, but all indications point to Favre's return. But that is not to say that the Packers are making this an easy decision for the Legend of Lambeau. Why is this the case? Well, just this week, two members of the vaunted Packers offensive line have bolted town and Brett now has to wonder what his pass protection will look like come opening day. First, guard Marco Rivera told Green Bay he would not accept a hometown discount to stay with the Packers and ended up signing a fat contract with Dallas. The Packers other starting guard from a year ago, Mike Wahle, then followed Rivera out of town and ended up signing a big deal with Carolina. I understand that guards are very replaceable, but these guys were both highly regarded and it strikes me that there will be an impact from these losses. The Packers offensive line has been amongst the best in the league in recent years, but it now looks like they will head into 2005 with at least a few question marks. This cannot make Brett Favre too happy. The Packers were just a bit above mediocre last year and I cannot believe Favre is pining to come back for an eight or nine win farewell season. In fact, it looks as if the NFC North will be a bit improved next year and there is no guarantee that the Packers will even be a playoff team. Despite this week's defections, it seems that Brett has intimated to the Packers that he will return. The team has made no effort during the free agent signing period to bring in another QB and that suggests to me that Green Bay is confident that Favre will return. If I were a Packers fan, I would have mixed emotions on this issue. While there is no denying Favre's great contributions to this franchise over the past decade, his skills have clearly diminished in recent years. He can still put up big numbers, but unfortunately for Packers fans, those numbers also include a ton of interceptions, many of which came in recent playoff losses. In case you have forgotten, in the past four years, Favre has thrown 13 interceptions in Green Bays four playoff defeats. The numbers don't lie. Since 2001, Favre has come up small more times then not and the time has come for him to bid adieu. I am sure such talk is sacrilegious in Wisconsin, but given the current state of the Packers, it time for number four to hang em up.