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.

March 3 - Does $3.5 Billion Get You The Pucks?

So what is the NHL worth? Bain & Company, a highly respected Boston-based LBO shop, thinks the number is around $3.5 billion. That is what the firm has offered to pay for the league and all of its 30 franchises. I am assuming that for this money, Bain and their investment partners will get everything: the TV rights, the arena leases, the merchandising revenue, Hockey night in Canada, some sticks, a few pucks and a below-market cost dental plan. Hell for $3.5 Billion they probably want Gretzky to throw in his wife.

The Sportshaolic worked on Wall Street in his former life so he thought it might be instructive at this point to gauge the merits of the bid. With that said, what is the league worth? I guess the first assumption that has to be made is that Bain will be buying a league with some sort of buy-in from the players. Why is this the case? Because there is no way Bain can make this work under the old cost regime. The league has argued that its clubs have lost $500 million over the past two seasons, but lets assume they are exaggerating and the real number is 250. There is no way Bain is going to plunk down 3.5 billion for a league that losses $125 million each year. Without a new labor agreement, some would argue that the league, as a business enterprise, is worthless.

Ok, so Bain is going into this assuming that they can get the players to show up and play under a new salary structure, i.e. a cap. In order for this to work for Bain, the league would have to turn from a $125 million dollar loser into at least a $125 million dollar annual winner. The reason for this is simple. Lets assume Bain plunks down a billion of its own money in this deal and finances the rest with debt. They are going to want at least a 15 percent return on their investment (probably more like 20 percent) and that means roughly $150 million in net profits per year. Is that doable? That is the million dollar question. Is this league, run under a new cost regime, capable of generating those kinds of profits? I guess the boys in Boston think so and I suspect they believe that the real earnings power of the league is much higher. And why is that? Well, if that $150 million is correct, Bain's $3.5 billion dollar bid is probably high since it means the firm would paying roughly 24 times earnings for a enterprise that can only be generously described as a slow grower. That seems a bit rich to the Holic. With that said, the Sportsaholic believes the bean counters at Bain probably think they can shut some losing franchises and pull closer to $200 million out of the league each year. Under that scenario, Bain would be paying something closer to 16 times earnings and that makes a lot more sense. The question I have is whether the league, sans labor strife, has this kind of earnings power? That is the key question and only its resolution can confirm whether Bain's bid is fair.

The Sportsaholic wants to be frank at this point. There is almost no chance this proposal is seriously received. There are just too many complicated questions to answer. For instance, would local management just cease to exist? How would current franchise owners be compensated? Who would manage each team? Would the Stanley Cup be renamed the Bain Trophy? Regardless, there is one very important message that Bain sent yesterday and I am sure it is resonating with some team owners. The message reads: NHL team owners are sitting on assets that have depreciated greatly and will continue to do so at an accelerated pace so long as the this labor strife continues. Look no further then the bid price. Bain has offered $3.5 for the whole shooting match. There are 30 teams so this equates to just $116 million per team. Before the work stoppage, Forbes estimated that the leagues 30 teams were worth close to $5 Billion. So Bain's proposal marks a 30 percent markdown from just a year ago.

There is no doubt that some owners, such as those in big market towns like Detroit and Toronto will dismiss this proposal out of hand, but there are probably a handful of owners out there who wouldn't mind selling. Hey Disney just sold the Ducks for less then $70 million and I am sure that Disney is not the only disgruntled owner. Many others would probably jump at a $100 million dollar take out bid. The Sportsaholic agrees that yesterday's proposal is probably nothing more then a shot over the bow, and a weak shot at that, but it does send a signal. Hockey is on the precipice of ruin. Owners have plunked down small fortunes on these franchises and yet they cannot find a way to run them profitably. The cost structure is currently irreconcilable with the league's revenues and until the ledger can be straightened out, the league's assets will continue to depreciate. Who knows, a year from now Bain may march into league headquarters with a $2.5 billion dollar bid and the votes of 20 owners already in hand.

Do you remember that girl in high school whose looks were a bit controversial. During the school day, this damsel looks a bit tame and demure, perhaps laden down by a poor selection of eyewear and a pair of uninspiring cargo pants. When guys are sitting around ranking the school's top girls, she gets some mention, but nobody thinks she's going to start on opening day. In otherwords, she is serviceable. She would be a credible prom date, but guys aren't exactly trading up in March for a chance to snag her during the early "asking" period. But the girl at hand is not always so demure. She has a wild side and when she flaunts her alternative image, she suddenly moves up the charts. With contacts and a pair of tight jeans, the girl in question is not longer a utilitywoman. In fact, she is outstanding and guys are now scrambling to grab her attention. You know who this girl is? Her name is Georgia Tech. Last night against Wake Forest, the Yellow Jackets were the hot girl in the first half. The Jacket offense was clicking, albeit against a very porous Wake defense, and even the disappointing BJ Elder was getting into the act. More importantly, GT was playing solid defense, holding Wake guards Chris Paul, Justin Gray and Ty Downey to 3-12 combined shooting. GT led by eight at half and that was only because Wake was getting every call in the world. Well, in the second half, for some unexplained reason, our fair girl reverted back into a utilitywoman. Wake came out and blitzed GT on both ends of the court. GT guard Jarret Jack kept the Jackets in the game, but Ty Downey and Wake's token Lithuanian were too much for GT to handle down the stretch. People should keep an eye on Downey - he is Wake's most reliable player in the clutch. Unfortunately for GT, the Yellow Jackets are much closer to being the ordinary chick then the beautiful one. At times, like in the first half last night, they look pretty damn nice. But unfortunately, they are proving that it's just a tease. Like the rest of the ACC, the Jackets don't play great D and Luke "Carrot-top" Schenscher simply does not give them the physical presence they need inside. They are good enough looking to get invited to the prom, but they are certainly not in the running for prom queen. Some may disagree, but the Sportsaholic doesn't think Wake is contender for that crown either.

If you like offense, you should stay as far away from Athens Georgia as possible since you won't find it a Georgia Bulldog basketball game. Last night, the Bulldogs put up only 38 points in a blowout loss at home to Florida. This is coming off a 37 point abortion against Vanderbilt over the weekend. This is not some recent phenomena. The Bulldogs have scored more then 60 points in conference play only four times this year and they have failed to reach 50 on seven separate occasions. Leading scorer Levi Stukes is shooting 37 percent from the floor and he is not alone. The Bulldogs are only shooting 40 percent form the field and 63 percent from the line as a team. In fact, there is only one guy on the club who is shooting 50 percent from the field and his name is Dave Bliss. That is not a misprint - the Bulldogs actually have a guy on the team named Dave Bliss, although I will add there is no relation to the disgraced SMU coach. The Georgia debacle can be traced back to one man and one man only: Jim Harrick. In case you don't remember, Harrick was fired at Georgia after only two seasons. The reason for the firing: charges of academic fraud, fake expense reports and allegations of sexual misconduct - many of which have been confirmed. Harrick was the one who brought Tony Cole onto the Athens campus and let him play even though he knew the kid had sexually abused women in the past. Hey, I'm all for second chances, but Harrick gave a college scholarship to a sex offender. Selling dope is one thing, but I got to draw the line at rape? What's next - a place on the team for the Hillside Strangler? As a result of these actions, Georgia got slapped with four years of probation, although the team is eligible for tourney play. Thanks to Jim, the program is a wreck and that eligibility allowance is irrelevant. Thanks for the memories Jim!

What is this fascination people have with former Jet running back Lamont Jordan? For the past four years, Jet fans have pined for this guy, flooding radio shows with praise for the former Terp. The chorus to this song reads as follows: the Jets are squandering a great asset by not getting the multi-talented Jordan on the field more often. Like a Kelly Clarkson single, I thought this was a catchy tune although a bit overplayed. The book on Jordan is he is a big guy with a great burst. In limited time over the past two years, he has shown an ability to make big plays and hold on to the football. The same cannot be said for at least half of the League's starting running backs. Jordan's only problem is he played behind Hall of Famer Curtis Martin and there is no telling when Martin is going to slow down. The Jets finally ran out of time this year since Jordan's contract expired and he expressed an intent to test free agency. Fearing his departure, Jet fans clamored for the team to slap a "franchise" tag on Jordan, which in essence would have kept him in New York for another year at $6 million dollars. The thought here is that Martin may be done in another year and Jordan could then be handed to the keys to the car. Are these fans serious? Six million dollars for a backup running back is crazy. Sure, Jordan is the perfect candidate to replace Martin, but who knows when Curtis will be finished. That could take a couple years and there is no way under today's salary cap rules you can pay a guy $6 million a year to carry the ball a hundred times. So despite the misguided outcry from many fans, the Jets did the smart thing and let Jordan go. And who was there to pick him up? It looks like Al Davis and the Oakland Raiders. While not finalized yet, the Raiders are reportedly offering Jordan $27.5 million over the next five years to play in Oakland, with about 15 million guaranteed over the next three years. This is a pretty staggering contract for a running back who has never cracked a hundred carries in a single season. The Raiders are obviously enamored by Jordan's size and speed, but is he an every day back? Can he handle the wear and tear of a 300 carry season? He just may turn out to be a stud, but $15 Million is a lot to pay for a look. The Raiders, meanwhile, have now thrown a ton of money into their skill positions. In less then a month, they brought in Randy Moss and his huge contract, signed Jerry Porter to a big contract and made this deal with Jordan. Plus, they have a guy at corner who is guaranteed $10 million this year and wants nothing to do with the team. And what is the downside to this largesse. Well, it means that there are few resources available to improve a defense that was just about the worst in the league last year. Congratulations Al, you have just constructed a slimmed down version of the Indianapolis Colts. But Davis doesn't care since this is going to be the most exciting six win team in history. Commitment to Excellence? Commitment to fiscal lunacy is more like it.

If you like bad basketball, you should have tuned into the Hornets-Bobcats game last night. These teams have collectively won 24 games, a figure that does not exceed that of the lowly-Kincks. The question I pose is what would happen if you could merge these two teams into one, move them to Birmingham and rename them the Birmingham BumbleCats. This is what the team would look like. I guess Speedy Claxton would get the start at point, although Dan Dickau would have a word to say about that. Man child J.R Smith would get the default start at the shooting guard spot. Up front, you would have Brezec, Okafor and P.J. Brown. Perhaps Brown comes off the bench and the BumbleCats go with journeyman George Lynch. Gerald Wallace is probably a better player then Lynch, but I can't have a black guy named Wallace start for a team based in Alabama. That could cause some problems. Could this team play .500? I think its unlikely. In order to cross that threshold, I think you would have to throw the third leg of the Southern stool into the mix. If the BumbleCats had access to Atlanta Hawk Al Harrington, I think they could be a playoff team. Harrington and Okafor isn't a bad forward tandem. In case any of you care, the Hawks lost by 22 last night to the Jazz. That is not a misprint. For God's sake, its time for the Hawks to move back to St. Louis. The South just wasn't made for the NBA.

March 2 - Hoosiers Buzzed at the Buzzer

Its hard to imagine a team suffering a more painful loss then Indiana did last night in Madison. The Hoosiers, coming in with a three game winning streak, had to win last night in order to make the NCAAs. Despite this urgency, the Hoosiers did not play well for the first 30 minutes and found themselves down ten with ten minutes to go. But instead of going down meekly, the offensively-challenged Hoosiers began clawing away and finally grabbed the lead with 64 seconds remaining. After a couple of Wisconsin free throws, Indiana tied the game with 26 seconds to go. It looked like the game was headed to overtime when a last second Badger shot bounced out, but Alando Tucker was there for the putback as time expired. Tucker's shot was Wisconsin's first field goal in nine minutes, but it was enough to sink Indiana's NCAA tourney hopes. Mike Davis had been hoping to parley a couple of wins this week over Michigan State and Wisconsin into a tourney bid, but that went by the wayside the moment Tucker got free for his last second chippy. Nonetheless, Davis has a developing star in D.J White and if Bracey Wright returns for his final season, Indiana should be a lock for the tourney next year. Davis better hope that turns out to be the case or he will be relocating next Spring.

Jim Calhoun is going for this 700th win tonight and when he clears this barrier, he will gain entry into a fraternity of six current coaches who have amassed such a total. The others are Bobby Knight, Coach K, Jim Boeheim, Lute Olsen, Eddie Sutton and John Cheney. Congratulations are definitely in order for a guy who has built a terrific program in the sticks of the nutmeg state. When Calhoun took over in 1986, UCONN was the definition of mediocrity within the Big East, but within four years, Calhoun had the Huskies playing for a spot in the Final Four. With all the success Calhoun has had in recent years, its easy to forget that he once was criticized as a guy who couldn't win in a big spot. This reputation was really sparked in 1994 when Calhoun took a loaded Donyell Marshall led-team into the tourney but lost an overtime heartbreaker to Florida. Calhoun went on to suffer tough regional final losses in 1995 and 1998, before he was able to exercise his demons by beating Duke in the 1999 NCAA Finals. When Calhoun picked up his second championship last year, he cemented his entry into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Paul Allen finally pulled the plug on Maurice Cheeks today but does the Microsoft Mogul really think this move is going to make a difference to the beleagured Blazers? Granted, the team is sliding into oblivion, but this isn't Cheeks fault. The personnel on this team is very average and that is being pretty generous. Zach Randolph is a nice player, but Shareef and Darius Miles are garbage and its crazy to think the Blazers are going to compete with Damon Stoudamire, Nick Van Exel and Derek Anderson in the backcourt. This organization has imported a number of problems in recent years and it deserves what it gets. This is unfortunate since the Blazers were really one of the great franchises in the league since the days of Walton, Mo Lucas and Bobby Gross. I feel Portland's downfall can be traced back to game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals when the Blazers blew a 15 point fourth quarter lead to the Lakers. That team was a couple shots away from a World Championship and its been downhill ever since. Granted, the Blazers fielded good teams in 01, 02 and 03, but their window closed back in 2000 and it looks like they have now bottomed out. Its time for Paul Allen to admit defeat and sell this team to an ownership group that is committed to restoring this once proud franchise.

Here is a message for those baseball teams who are counting on free agency to improve their pitching staffs next year - you are out of luck. As it stands right now, the 2006 free agent pitching market looks woefully thin. With Tim Hudson signing an extension with Atlanta, the top pitchers available next winter figure to be guys like A.J. Burnett and Tim Penny. That is not a whole lot to get excited about. Making matters worse is the fact that a lot of the young guns due for free agency in 2007 and beyond are signing long term deals. Johan Santana already took himself off the market and now there is talk that Ben Sheets is about to do the same. While this past year's crop wasn't anything to get too excited about, it sure beats what lies ahead. The message here is if you want to improve your staff over the next two years, you better find the solution from within. And don't even think about trying to snag Burnett next year since he is likely to command about $50 million from the Yankees as they search to find a replacement for their broken down 42 year-old lefty.

Are the Patriots playing with fire? In the past week, the Patriots released Troy Brown , Ty Law and Roman Pfieffer in a series of moves that will free up about $16 million dollars in salary cap relief. None of these moves should come as a surprise since each player was due big money and the Pats have proven over the years that they will not overpay anybody and especially those who are slowing down. But the New England success story has always been premised on great team chemistry and one has to wonder if that chemistry has been upset with these moves. Law wasn't necessarily the most popular guy on the team but Brown and Pfeiffer were considered locker room leaders and their absence could be felt, especially if Teddy Bruschi can't go in September. Bruschi is the undisputed leader of this team, and if Teddy, Pfeiffer and Brown aren't on board to show the way, there is a chance this team becomes a bit more selfish and individualistic. This is probably a bit of a longshot since Belichek, Brady and 25 players who have won multiple championships are still around, but it is an issue to keep an eye on. I think the Pats probably realize this and that is why there is a decent shot Brown will be re-signed for a million plus after he tests free agency. The Sportsaholic hopes he comes to his senses because it won't be pretty to see Brown run out the string with a team like Minnesota or Cincy.

It amazes me that it took Gary Sheffield 16 months to figure out he screwed himself when he agreed to forego interest on a ton of deferred money he is owed. Before Gary negotiates his next contract, I think it would be wise for him to take a basic economics course at CCNY. Had he done this prior, perhaps Gary would have known that inflation tends to eat away at the value of a dollar as time goes by. Listen Sheff, you negotiated this contract and you signed it so there is nobody to blame but yourself. You didn't want to pay Boras a five percent representation fee and now you are facing the consequences. But look on the bright side - so long as real interest rates stay below what you would have had to pay an agent, you are probably better off.

I know the team is a bit banged up right now, but look at that team that started for the Sacramento Kings last night. Mike Bibby and Cutino Mobley in the backcourt, with Corliss Williamson, Brian Skinner and Kenny Thomas up front. It makes me wonder whether coach Rick Adelman is going to treat his new Philly arrivals like a hockey line where they all have to play together at the same time. "Hey Skinner, your line is up!" Unfortunately for Adelman, the line he inherited doesn't exactly conjure up memories of Gretzky, Kurri and Anderson. The strange thing about last night is the King's great frontcourt triumverate actually played pretty well, led by Brian Skinner's 16 rebounds. They weren't up against much, but they were presentable. Nonetheless, the Kings got run off the court by the lowly Bobcats and my guess is that if the Kings had to run that same lineup out for the season's final 24 games, they would win no more then 9.

Did anyone notice that yesterday's game between the Golden State Warriors and the Memphis Grizzlies was played at two o'clock in the afternoon? Has Memphis gone the way of MLB and started scheduling businessman specials? It turns out that was not the case. The game was bumped up five hours so 4000 elementary school kids participating in the city's "read to achieve" program could attend the game. The program is intended to get kids to read while they are at home, but I got to wonder whether a ticket to a Golden State game is much of a reward. Leave it to the Grizzlies to plug these kids with tickets to one of the five worst games on the schedule. Word has it that as part of the program, Duke grad Shane Battier tried to wean Stromile Swift of comic books by enrolling the forward in a Harry Potter book club.

March 1 - History Repeats Itself in Chestnut Hill

Does history repeat itself? In the case of Boston College it certainly appears as if it does. Last Fall, Boston College was on the verge of winning the Big East Football Championship and securing a bid to the Fiesta Bowl. All they had to do was dispatch a weak Syracuse team in their season finale. So what happened – the Eagles ended up getting torched and as a result, they ended up playing North Carolina in something called the Continental Tire Bowl. Well, it seems the same thing happened to the Eagles last night on the basketball court. BC entered last night’s game with Pitt on the verge of virtually locking up the Big East championship. And just like last fall, the Eagles came up small on the big stage. Pitt manhandled BC in the second half last night, and for the game, the Panthers out rebounded BC by a 40-26 margin. BC forward Jared Dudley had a particularly nice night going 1-8 in 36 minutes, but he was not alone as BC shot only 31 percent as a team from the floor. The win was the sixth straight for Pitt over BC and it helps secure a bid for the Panthers who were coming off three straight losses. Without a big showing in the Big East tourney, BC probably goes into the NCAAs as a three seed while Pitt looks like a 6 seed.

So where does Texas stand after getting blown out last night at home against Oklahoma? The Horns are now 8-7 in the Big-12 and 19-9 overall, with a finale against Oklahoma State looming this weekend. Texas won the first meeting between these two teams, but that was at home and with P.J. Tucker in the lineup. Tucker is now ineligible and so the safe bet is that Texas will lose and drop to .500 in conference. Is that enough for the Horns? Its close. They are ranked 47 in the RPI and they only have two wins against teams ranked in the top 50 of the RPI. The way I see it, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas Tech have four bids locked up for the Big-12. That leaves Texas, Texas A&M and Iowa State fighting for one or two spots. Iowa State was sitting pretty, but they have lost two straight, including one to Nebraska, and are probably in a worse spot then their southern brethren. Texas and intra-state rival A&M have very similar resumes. They have split their two games and so it may come down to the Big-12 tourney. Neither team has that great a resume and so it may come down to who wins an opening round game in the conference tourney. If Texas can’t get it done, Jenna may have to get her father to pull some strings with the selection committee.

We have a good old fashioned intra-city newspaper fight brewing down in Washington between the Times and the Post. This story started yesterday, when the Times reported that free agent cornerback Samari Rolle was at the top of the Redskins wish list. The venerable Post this morning blasted the story out of the water, claiming that a club source says the Skins have never considered going after Rolle. It seems the Times got bad info as they too pulled back from yesterday’s story in today’s edition. But the story doesn’t end there. The Times is out this morning saying that the Skins attempt to trade receiver Laveranues Coles to the Jets for Santana Moss is still alive and kicking. Conversely, the Post went with a story this morning that the trade is flatlining. Jody Foldesey of the Times has a lot riding on today’s story since he has already been roughed up once this week. I hope Jody double sourced his story today cause its clear his primary source with the club is not in the loop. If Coles is not a Jet tomorrow, Foldesy stands a decent chance of being assigned to cover Northern Virginia high school football next year.

If you want evidence of a reporter manaufaturing a story to satisfy his obsessive editors, look no further then a piece appearing in today’s New York Daily News on Red Sox centerfielder Johnny Damon. The headline and lead of the article, penned by former Yankee beat writter Anthony McCarron, implied Damon could be headed to New York when his contract expires after the 2005 season. This is basically the same story the News runs every year on each of Boston’s prospective free agents and McCarron went to the well on a slow news day. Unfortunately, there was absolutely nothing in the body of today’s article to support McCarron's headline and lead. The article repeatedly quotes the longhaired lefty as saying that he enjoys playing in Boston and would like to stay with Red Sox past this year. In fact, the story even makes mention that Damon thinks that he could agree on an extension in the near future. An objective reporter would have led with the prospect of a Spring Training contract extension. But that is not what you get when a New York paper assigns a beat writer to cover the Red Sox. Rather then any credible news, we get manufactured stories that are filled with useless innuendo and unsubstantiated conjecture. Someone should tell McCarron and his editors that every story coming out of Ft. Myers does not necessarily have a New York angle.

Are the Miami Dolphins looking to jump on the Gus Bus? The guys at Pro Football Talk are reporting today that the Dolphins are interested in bringing Gus Frerrotte down to Miami to compete for the starting quarterback position. It seems that new Offensive Coordinator Scott Linehan is a fan of Frerrotte and he wants someone to take the job from incumbent AJ Feeley. I am no fan of Feeley, but I would rather have Gus the kicking mule from the California Atoms than Gus Frerrotte. The mule was dangerous from midfield and the same cannot be said of Frerrotte, who was an abortion during his stint as a starter in Washington. That was several years ago, but I have a hard time believing that Gus aged well since those glorious years. The Pats have got to be licking their chops at the thought of playing six games against division foes headed by Frerrotte, Pennington and Lossman.

Well, its official. ESPN has named Olympic Gold Medalist Amanda Beard as its Hottest Female Athlete of 2005. I predicted this outcome a few weeks ago and did my part by supporting Beard's candidacy throughout the tourney. In the finals, Amanda took out Lokelani McMichael, a Hawaiian triathelete. I am a big fan of Beard, and I am predicting at some point she will take the money and go nude. She is first slated to head up a Speedo Campaign, but Amanda seems like a party chick and those Arizona girls often end up in porn. The other selling point for Beard is that she is one of the top-10 U.S. female swimmers of the past 30 years. That list includes, Beard, Shirley Babshoff, Tracy Caulkins, Mary T. Meagher, Summer Sanders, Natalie Coughlin, Janet Evans, Jenny Thompson, Brooke Bennett, and my old buddy Dara Torres.

There was a lot to discuss yesterday and unfortunately the heavy news-flow prevented the Sportsaholic from discussing one of the more interesting sports stories of the Winter. In case you missed it, and I am sure most of you did, Bode Miller failed to finish another Slalom race on Sunday and his lead in the World Cup has now shrunk to a meager 31 points with six races to go. Miller led Austrian Benjamin Raich by almost 200 points two weeks ago, but Miller has had trouble finishing races ever since. Aside from his failure on Sunday, Miller crashed during a Giant Slalom on Saturday and its becoming clear Miller has lost confidence in his ability to ski the sport’s technical disciplines (slalom and GS). Bode is still in decent shape because the tour now moves to Norway where Miller will get to ski a downhill and a Super G. Miller has a big advantage over Raich in these disciplines, and he should be able to extend his lead before the tour moves to Switzerland for its final set of races. Miller should be able to hold on for the America’s first World Cup since 1984, but he is making things interesting.

I am very disappointed by the fallout I am hearing concerning Cheney-Gate. As I wrote last week, I do not have a huge problem with Father John sending in a goon to mix it up with St. Joes last week. It was stupid, but its not something that gets me all that excited or agitated. My problem with Cheney goes much further then this incident as I explained last week. In my mind, Cheney has a vastly overated resume, but I guess I am virtually alone in this opinion. To hear the national pundits explain it over the last few days, Cheney messed up but he deserves a second chance because of his “great” track record. This cow-tailing is driving me crazy. Just this week, I have heard Dick Vitale, Andy Katz and Mike Francesa all crow about Cheney’s record, but these assertions are made without any supporting evidence. What record are these guys talking about? Vitale had the audacity to throw Cheney in with heavyweights like Knight, Dean Smith, Coach K, Boheim, Calhoun and Skin Flute Lute. This is complete lunacy. It is like throwing Bobcat in with DeNiro, Ed Norton and Sean Penn. Cheney, in my book, is third tier and should be grouped in with guys like Mike Montgomery, Rick Barnes and Gene Keady. I want someone to explain to me why this guy’s track record is above reproach. Is it because he invented the 6:00 A.M. practice or managed to get some poor kids a partial education at a glorified JUCO? Is it because he is an outspoken advocate for the those kids who don't test well? Save those sob stories for Bryant Gumble and the folks at HBO. Remember, Cheney’s only Final Four came in 1978 when he won the Division II national championship. And if you think Cheney should rank ahead of guys like Barnes and Monty, just remember those guys get guys to graduate and have taken Division I teams to college basketball's final weekend. Yeah, Cheney has won 700 games but he has also coached since the Nixon Administration. And you want to assess his game skills – what about that moment back in 1988 when he continued to call Mark Macon's number in a regional final against Duke even though it was clear Macon couldn’t shake Billy King and Robert Brickey. Macon ended up having a John Starks-like 6-29 game that afternoon as the number one Owls fell to Duke. As for player development, I can't go crazy over an all-time Cheney team that includes Eddie Jones, Arron McKie, Mark Macon, Tim Perry, Duane Causewell and Rick Brunson. I have simply had it with the broadcasting industry’s love affair with this guy. It is enough already.

Feb 28 - Foxx Plays Another Rae?

So Jamie Foxx won the Academy Award for Best Actor last night but few know that this story was drastically overhauled just weeks before filming. Originally, Ray focused on the life of Carolina Panther Rae Carruth, the football player who conspired to have his pregnant girlfriend murdered because he was hoping to avoid paying child support. This is not well known, but the screenplay was dumped at the last minute because Hollywood wanted a happy ending and the North Carolina appeals system would not oblige. I sometimes wonder late at night if Jamie Foxx would have been as good playing Carruth as he was playing Ray Charles. After all, Foxx was a quarterback in Any Given Sunday, but anyone can play a signal caller - just ask Keanu, Mac Davis, Kurt Russell, Anthony Michael Hall, Burt Reynolds, Scott Bakula, and James Van Der Beek. Even Helen Hunt got the job done in the 1983 classic: The Quarterback Princess. Playing a receiver is a much tougher roll, although there are a few who have shined including Nick Nolte in ND 40, Geoff Bridges in Against All Odds, Cuba in Jerry McGuire, and Charlie Sheen in Lucas. Could Foxx have stretched his abilities in Rae? Could he have run the deep post? Could he go over the middle and make a catch in traffic? I guess we'll never know, unless of course the Governor of North Carolina comes through with a pardon for Carruth and the project is resuscitated.

Even though the Sportsaholic is very pro-euthanasia (if the patient can't shrug, pull the plug), the Academy Awards, as always, were a snooze. The same, however, cannot be said for college basketball yesterday. We start in Kansas where the Jayhawks snapped a three game losing streak against Oklahoma State in what may have been the best game of the year. The game was tight throughout and surprisingly, both teams ended up shooting over 58 percent from the field. I got on Kansas forward Wayne Simien a bit last week but he responded yesterday with an enormous game. His 32 were huge for Kansas, but it was Keith Langford's 6-8 shooting that really keyed the Jayhawks come from behind victory. Oklahoma State guard John Lucas was 9-9 at one point in the game but he ended up missing a three at the buzzer that would have given OSU the win. As this classic was ending, UNC and Maryland had just drawn blood in what turned out to be a terrific game in College Park. It looked for awhile that UNC was poised to blow this game open, but Maryland would not die and kept coming back behind the hot shooting of Chris McCray and Mike "trigger" Jones. Unfortunately for the Terps, Sean May was just too much to handle down the stretch and the Heels prevailed when May swatted away a last second shot. May was heavily criticized during his first two years at UNC, but he has had a monster ACC season and I think he is the leading candidate for conference MVP. Fans of Chris Paul, Rashard McCants and JJ Redick may disagree, but I think May has been the best of the bunch over the past month and is now the guy. Meanwhile, Maryland is now in a ton of trouble. While losing a two pointer to UNC is no shame, the Terps have a spotty resume and next Saturday's game at Virginia Tech has basically become an elimination game. The loser of that game probably needs to win one, and perhaps two games in the ACC tourney to qualify for the NCAAs.

There are plenty of commentators out there who think the ACC is a dominant conference, but with one week to go in the year, only three teams have NCAA invites in hand. UNC, Wake and Duke have locked up bids, but after that, there are basically four teams fighting for what I think are two outstanding bids. GT may have locked one of these bids up on Saturday when it staged a big comeback down in Miami. BJ Elder was AWOL once again, but Jarrett Jack keyed the second half comeback with eight straight points. And somebody finally told GT coach Paul Hewitt that it was permissible to take some threes. On Saturday the Jackets launched 29 threes after only shooting five earlier in the week in a loss to Duke. Elder just hasn't been right since coming back from an injury and his mediocrity is holding this team back. After losing to GT, Miami appears finished unless they can some how get a win at Duke on Thursday. That leaves the final spot to the winner of next week's Maryland and Virginia Tech in Blacksburgh. In sum, the ACC has not had the kind of year that some of its supporters would like us to believe. It certainly was no 1986 when the all conference team had guys named Bias, Daughtery, Dawkins, Price, Kenny Smith and Mark Alarie. Mark who?

The Big East is a bit tough to sort out and this weekend did nothing to help out matters. The locks are BC, UCONN, Syracuse and Villanova. Pitt seemed like a lock ten days ago, but after losing to UCONN at home on Saturday, the Panthers have lost three in a row. They finish up with BC and Notre Dame, which are no chippies. What if they lose those games? The tourney selectors don't exactly smile on those riding five game losing streaks. Georgetown lost on Sunday to Nova and I think they have lost their bid to West Virginia. All West Virginia needs to do next week is beat Seton Hall and they are in while Georgetown is out unless they can somehow find a way beat UCONN. The interesting case now involves Notre Dame. Like Pitt, the Irish looked very strong ten days ago, but after losing on Sunday at home to UCLA, they are a bit of a question mark. Their hopes could come down to next Saturday when they face Pitt in a game that each team may need. Meanwhile, ND's loss was UCLA's gain. The Bruins really needed that game since it gave them a second win against a top-50 opponent and I believe UCLA is in so long as they take care of business next weekend against the two Oregon schools.

As we move Westward, Minnesota may have saved their season with a big comeback on Saturday at Purdue in Gene Keady's final game coaching in West Lafayette. The Gophers trailed by 15 in the second half, but Vincent Grier sparked a comeback to ruin Keady's finale. Minnesota should be able to pick up the Big-10's fourth tourney bid with a win at Penn State this week, but Indiana may have something to say about that. The Hoosiers looked absolutely dead two weeks ago, but three straight wins have got them back in the NCAA discussion. After beating Michigan State this weekend, the Hoosiers have nine conference wins, and if they can somehow beat Wisconsin and then take Northwestern, the Hoosiers will be 11-7 in conference. This may get them a bid, although it will still be dicey given the fact that the conference is so down this year.

The final game I will mention today occurred out in Seattle where Washington served notice that they will be a tough out for anyone come March. The Huskies won a very entertaining game over Arizona on Saturday, led by the much underrated Tre Simmons. Most Eastern pundits think this team is run by Nate Robinson but that is simply not the case. Simmons had 24 on Saturday and he is the clearly the best player on that roster. It’s possible that Simmons won the Pac-10 MVP on Saturday, since his prime rival, Salim Stoudamire, had a very quiet 15 with the Conference title on the line.

The most dominating performance in sports over the weekend was turned in by David Toms at the Accenture World Match Play tourney in San Diego. In case you didn't catch it, and most probably didn't since Tiger was not involved, Toms was absolutely unstoppable over the weekend. It began on Saturday when he made about eight birdies in a row while putting away Ian Poulter. He then went out the next morning and blistered Chris DiMarco during the first 18 holes of their 36 hole match. Toms never gave DiMarco a chance since he didn't miss any fairways and it was rare to see him outside twenty feet with any of his irons. The Shreveport native is one of the few Americans who have winning records over the past two Ryder Cups and he showed why this weekend.

The Atlanta Constitution is reporting that the Atlanta Braves are close to signing up newly-arrived Tim Hudson for the long haul. In December, the Braves traded Dan Meyer, Charlie Thomas and Juan Cruz to the Athletics for Huddy, but the catch for the Braves was Hudson is going into the final year of his contract. Huddy had told the A's that he would become a free agent if they didn't resign him by March 1 and I guess the same policy applied to the Braves after the trade. The Braves have seen plenty of talent bolt for greener pastures in recent years, but they couldn't sit idly by and let this homegrown cracker leave as well. Tim is only 29 and I believe he has the highest winning percentage of any pitcher in MLB other then Pedro. Although a bit under-sized and coming off a fairly pedestrian year by his standards (12-6 with a 3.5 ERA), Hudson is a frontline starter and merits a long term deal in the 4 year and $44-50M dollar range. Hudson is a bulldog and paired with John Smoltz, the Braves have two of the toughest competitors in baseball at the top of their staff. Braves fans should be encouraged by this news.

Am I the only one in America who is sick and tired of hearing about Maurice Clarett? What has this guy done to deserve so much ink? Ok, he had a real nice freshman year at Ohio State and he did wage a commendable war against the NFL and its labor policies, but enough already. Well, I may now get my wish because after two years of inexhaustible hype, the MC train was derailed on Saturday when Clarett crapped the bed at the NFL scouting combine. With the world watching via the NFL Network, Clarett was only able to run a 4.7 and a 4.8 in his forties. This is not good news for a guy who wants to make his living running the football on Sunday's. There are plenty of defensive linemen who runs 4.7's and I don't think Maurice did much to woo the scouts in attendance. I have subsequently heard people guess that Clarett has now fallen from a third rounder to a sixth or seventh rounder, but who’s to say he gets picked at all with those times. It makes me wonder why we spent so much time over the last two years discussing what now looks like an undrafted free agent. And this begs the question: will Clarett make more as an undrafted rookie then he did as a freshman at Ohio State?

Who would have thought that the Celts bring in Antoine Walker and go 2-0 on the road while the Sixers bring in Chris Webber and go 0-2. Its about a month too early to gauge the impact of the Walker trade, but the Celts win last night at Phoenix is nothing to ignore. Granted, the Suns were playing without Steve Nash, but the Celts seem to be energized by Walker's return. The Celts still have huge questions at point guard, but there is now a possibility that Gary Payton will rejoin the team once his contract is bought out by Atlanta. If Payton returns, the Celts may have enough juice to win the woeful Atlantic Division. After all, they have basically re-created the team that went to the Eastern Division final in 2002 and that is probably enough to handle the rest of the Atlantic. This is an important week for the Celts since they get the Lakers, Bobcats, Wolves and Hawks at home. Those are four fat marks and the Celts could be five over .500 when they play Detroit a week from Friday.

It’s now being reported that a prospective trade between the Redskins and New York Jets has been scuttled and is perhaps not revivable. The trade in question would have sent Santana Moss to Washington in exchange for Laveraneus Coles. The Redskin wideout was a Jet as recently as 2002 but he moved on to Washington when the Jets refused to match a very generous tender offered by the Skins. Well, Coles now wants out of Washington and it was reported on Friday night that a Moss for Coles trade was close to completion. But the Jets have now balked after hearing that Coles wants a raise. It seems that the only way this trade can work for Washington is if Coles agrees to significantly restructure his contract and Coles sees this as an opportunity to boost his payout. Man is this kid greedy. He leaves the Jets in 02 for a $13 million dollar signing bonus and now he wants bigger money after a one touchdown year? Coles is a nice player and would have been an upgrade over Moss, but he should think about boosting his productivity before seeking more dineros.

And speaking of the Redskins: Last week I questioned how the Indianapolis Colts could afford to throw so much money at their offensive all-stars, but the same thing applies to Washington. Case in point - there is a report in today's Washington Times that the Skins are close to giving former Titan cornerback Samari Rolle a $15 million dollar signing bonus to come to Fed Ex field. Where the hell do the skins keep getting this money? They already have a ton of money tied up in tackle Chris Samuels, linebacker Lavar Arrington and backup QB Mark Brunell, yet they still have money available to bring in Rolle? I understand schitzoid owner Dan Snyder is trying to give coach Joe Gibbs the pieces he needs to win but the Skins are creating big headaches for themselves down the road. The problem I see for the Skins is that by the time Pat Ramsey is mature enough to lead this team into the playoffs, salary cap issues could require that the team be dismantled. I guess Snyder is hoping that an extension to the NFL's collective bargaining agreement cannot be reached and the salary cap will go by the wayside in 2007.

Feb 25 - Not In This Temple

When the Celtics and Lakers were locked in their NBA Championship death struggles in the Mid-80's, I always wondered why Boston didn't resort to thuggery to tilt the playing field. The Lakers, quite frankly, were the better team and I always thought that coach KC Jones should have used some his bank benchers to stir things up on the court. For instance, why didn't Jones send in super-stiff Greg Kite to simply take a punch at Kareem or Magic. So what if Kite got tossed? If he took Jabbar or Worthy or even Rambis with him for a couple games, it would have been worth it.

Well, it seems like me and Temple coach John Cheney think along the same lines. In case you haven't heard, the other night, Cheney's Temple Owls were playing cross-town rival Saint Joeseph's. The game was fairly close, but Cheney apparently felt his team was getting short shrift from the officials. In particular, Cheney was arguing that St. Joes was getting away with setting illegal screens. After receiving a technical, the frustrated Cheney had seen enough so he inserted a seldom-used thug to "send a message." The "goon," Nehemia Ingram, ended up fouling out in four minutes of action, but not before he broke the arm of St. Joe's John Bryant. It should be noted that Ingram, who weighs in at 250 pounds, rarely plays and when he does see the floor, its usually during garbage time. Cheney would have put in the Hanson Brothers but two of them had fouled out and one was serving a one game suspension.

Cheney revealed his strategy to the media after Tuesday's game and then announced that he would sit out Saturday's game against UMASS as punishment for his actions. Subsequent to this announcement, there has been a fair amount of debate in the media on the subject, but there has not been a real consensus formed on the matter. Some ladies think what Cheney did is reprehensible and they are particularly gauled to see that neither Temple or the Atlantic-10 Conference has stepped in with stiffer penalties (Temple finally did). Others have been more dismissive, noting that this goes on all the time and Cheney's self-imposed suspension is more then adequate penance.

I don't feel too strongly one way or the other, but I do think this episode provides us with a long-overdue opportunity to examine one of the more overrated coaching resumes in college basketball today. In my eyes, John Cheney has been getting a free pass for far too long. He is older then hell and for one reason or another, the press has never felt comfortable laying a glove on this guy. Well, I turned in my press pass in 1998 and so here comes my critique.

The only thing more inflated then Cheney's record as a coach is his record as a "educator." But with that said, lets start with his coaching record. His supporters, like Vitale and Raftery, will point to the fact that Temple is hardly a basketball powerhouse, yet Cheney has taken his team to five NCAA regional finals. Five is a heady number, but Cheney has also lost each and every one of these games - Duke in 88, UNC in 91, Michigan in 93, Duke in 99 and Michigan State in 01. Now listen, he came up against a couple of real big teams, including the Fab Five in 1993 and a monstrous Elton Brand-led Duke team in 1999, but he still lost every one of those games. And another crucial point worth noting - without exception, Cheney's teams were helped along to those finals when higher seeded teams were knocked off unexpectedly and Temple got to play soft opponents in the second and third rounds. You don't believe me? How about 1991, when Temple got to play Richmond in the second round after the Spiders knocked off number two seeded Syracuse. The same thing happened in 1993 when Temple got Santa Clara and not Arizona. In 2001, Temple caught a break and only had to beat a woeful Penn State to advance to the regional final. The same thing happened in 1988 when 13th seeded Richmond was the foe in the Sweet Sixteen. Cheney certainly doesn't have a bad tourney record but lets be honest. There are no final fours and he has amassed much of his record against lesser teams who were coming off big upsets. Oh and another thing, Cheney hasn't even been to a tourney since losing to Michigan State in a 2001 Regional Final.

My problems with Cheney go well beyond simple numbers. I don't like his style and I cringe when people applaud his integrity and his commitment to his kids. This is a guy who will let just about any kid, regardless of his past, walk onto the Temple campus so long as the kid can board and play defense. He has never had a problem taking prop 48s or kids with rap sheets. I am not necessarily against all Prop 48s, but I think a good deal of them don't belong on college campuses. Cheney obviously feels differently and that is why he tends to sign questionable kids, many of whom never sniff graduation. I am not so naive to think others don't do this as well, but Cheney is held to a much different standard. When Tark went after these kids, he was called a mercenary. When Cheney does it, he is called a father figure. The fact of the matter is Cheney has brought some bad kids to Temple. Other coaches do the same thing at their schools but the difference is we rarely celebrate their legacies like we do with Cheney.

The last point I would like to make concerns Cheney's arrogance. I have always felt this guy conducts his affairs with a giant chip on his shoulder. Its always Cheney against the world even though the world has never once shouted back. And is it me, or does Cheney always appear angry? If he's not screaming at officials, he is threatening former adversary John Calipari. In a nutshell, I think Cheney is just an ordinary coach whose best years are long gone. He has had some success and I will not deny him that. But he has not had as much success as his supporters claim and he has achieved much of it via means that are far from exemplary. To me, Cheney is a lot closer to Harrick then the Hall of Fame.

Who is Nick O'Hearn and what is he doing beating Tiger Woods in match play? And what about super senior Jay Haas taking out Vijay Singh? Those are a couple of body blows for ABC which is televising this weekend's WGC - Accenture Match Play Championships, but shed no tears. There are still plenty of interesting matchups on the horizon, including a possible final eight showdown between Sergio and Phil. Given their Ryder Cup records, Sergio should be a healthy favorite in that match, but Phil is playing a lot better then he was last year at Oakland Hills and I think he can take out the Spaniard. And how about Kirk Tripplett? First he takes out Mike Weir and then he goes through Kenny "Bourbon Boy" Perry. I can see his run taking him past Robert Allenby, but I don't see Trips taking out The Goose. San Diego wasn't kind to Goose in Top Gun, but I am betting his namesake will fare much better at neighboring La Costa.

If you were an NBA GM, would you trade your starting five for the following: Gilbert Arenas Michael Redd, Manu Ginobli, Rashard Lewis and Carlos Boozer, with Van Exel, Voshon Lenard, Stephen Jackson, and Malik Rose off the bench. I think there are very few GM's who wouldn't gladly offer up their teams for this group and the thing is, it theoretically was available to every team in the league. Why is that? Because the team listed above consists entirely of second round draft picks who were selected over the past ten years. The NBA Draft is a bit of a crap shoot, especially outside the lottery, but the list above shows that there are some nuggets available when TNT turns off the lights.

The Sportsaholic was hard on Isiah Thomas yesterday and the rest of the world followed with guns ablaze today. In case you weren't watching, Thomas orchestrated two very peculiar trades yesterday. In sum, Thomas shipped out a serviceable and affordable center in Nazr Muhammed and his backup in exchange for two marginal power forwards, some questionable picks and a ton of salary. New York's tabloids simply crushed the moves in today's morning editions. The Post's Peter Vecsey was particularly critical, pointing out "once again the Knicks have exchanged two bad players with undesirable contracts - plus their one and only pro center - for a pair of fringe starters with longer and higher salaries." On ESPN, some of the commentary was even more harsh and one columnist even suggested that Thomas be considered the worst GM ever. WOW! That seems a bit strong given Elgin Baylor's track record, but the fact of the matter is that Isiah Thomas has been an unmitigated disaster. His moves are disjointed and reactionary. Worse yet, he has no strategy. One minute he wants to build with veterans and the next he is trading for future draft slots. Thomas has become a joke around the league and there are some in New York who are beginning to use the F word (fire) when discussing Zeke. And what does this say about Jim Dolan, the owner of the Knicks and the guy who hired Zeke? He now has the distinction of running both the Knicks and the Rangers into the ground. I am not sure Thomas is the worst GM in sports, but Dolan is right up as the worst owner.

We have a bounty of big games on tap this weekend and for once we will start out West where Arizona plays in a huge game up in Seattle. If the Cats can win that game, they will lock up the Pac-10 and put themselves in prime position to be the number one seed out west. Also on Saturday, the best of the SEC goes at it when Alabama faces off with Kentucky. Alabama has flown under the radar this year and Saturday's game will give the Tide a chance to show their colors. A couple of other games worth noting on Saturday include Georgia Tech at Miami and Texas Tech at A&M. The first game is basically an elimination game as far as I am concerned. Neither GT of Miami have any real shot at the tourney without a win so this one should be heated. Meanwhile, A&M is on the bubble, but with a terrible non-conference schedule, they need another quality win to get in. A win over the Red Raiders would help the cause.

Sunday's big game will take at place Kansas where the Jayhawks will square off with Ok State. Both of these Big-12 powers are coming off losses and this should make for an interesting game. Kansas is hoping to avoid its fourth straight loss, something that hasn't happened in Jayhawk country for a very long time. With a win, OK State gets itself back in the race for a number one seed and I still expect Eddie Sutton's team to be a factor next month. The other game worth mentioning on Sunday has UNC traveling to Maryland. As I have been saying for a couple weeks, the Terps have some work to do and a loss to UNC will put them in a do-or-die spot next week at Virginia Tech. Its probably too much to ask for this Maryland team to beat UNC, but they are at home and College Park has not been friendly to the Heels in recent years.

Feb 24 - A Whole Lot Of Trading Going On

I cant help myself. I spent about 600 words on C WEBB this morning and I thought that would tap me out on the NBA for a week. But there have been a flurry of deal this afternoon and I just couldn't wait to offer my thoughts.

My favorite trade of the afternoon has the Celts trading Gary Payton to Atlanta for Antoine. As a tepid Celts fan, I am not too happy about bringing the cancerous toine back to Boston, but I think its hilarious what Danny Ainge did to Payton. The Glove asked to be dealt to a winner and so what did Ainge do? He sent him to purgatory. As the immortal Johnny C once said, if the glove don't fit, it gets tossed in shit. I say there is a good chance Payton refuses to report. He thought twice about reporting to Boston last year and Atlanta is a much worse situation then Boston. I can't say I am too thrilled by Walker's return to Beantown. He was shipped out for a reason and I can't see how that reason has changed. Walker is a first class loser and I pray Ainge and Doc keep him as far away from Al "the future of the franchise" Jefferson as possible. On the flip side, this move allows Ainge to quiet those critics who say he got ripped off when he dealt Walker for Raef LaFrentz two eyars ago. Ainge now has both these losers and the only guy he lost in the process was another loser - Chucky Adkins.

So what else do we got on the transaction wire. How bout the Baron going from one terrible situation to another? Of course I am talking about Baron Davis getting shipped from New Orleans to Golden State in exchange for Dale Davis and Speedy Claxton. You know you were in hell when being traded to Golden State is considered a reprieve. Baron has built up some ill will in recent weeks and it seems the Hornets were getting real tired of his crap. So what did they do? They exported him to one of the most dysfunctional organizations in basketball. The Hornets are now left with the greatest collection of crap we have seen since Fred Sanford's junk yard was declared a Superfund site. Their backcourt is made up of Dan Dickau, Claxton and 19 year old JR Smith. That isnt exactly Byron Scott, Magic and Michael Cooper. And upfront, they now have Glenn Robinson and Dale Davis to pair up with PJ Brown and Jamal Magloire. That is the four horsemen of the apolypse if you ask me. At least Davis and his $10 million dollar contract expire at season's end and that may allow the Hornets to go out and get a bit of help. God knows they could use it. As for the Warriors, they will have a pretty good backcourt if and when Davis gets healthy. But the Warriors problem is really up front where they have no size and little skill. I think Mullin longs for the old days when he, Mitch Richmond and Tim Hardaway made do without much up front but somebody should remind Chris that those teams didn't scare anyone.

In other news, Keith Van Horn got traded again and when he suits up for Dallas, it will be the fifth team he has played for in four seasons. He was a Net, a Sixer, a Knick, a Buck and now a Maverick. Keith seems to be moving westward and so I am predicting his next stop will be in either Denver or his home state of Utah. Did someone in the crowd just say Van Horn for Mehmet Okur?

Lastly, the Knicks were active today and once again it looks as if Isiah Thomas doesn't know a thing about being a GM. The Knicks ended up making deals with Houston and San Antonio that netted Maurice Taylor and Malik Rose, some future picks and a whole lot of salary. To justify such a bounty, the Knicks parted ways with Nazr Muhammed, Vin Baker and some other guys whose mothers don't even know what they do for a living. Malik has to be fuming. He goes from the brink of winning an NBA Championship to four years at Rikers Island. I would equate being dealt from the Spurs to the Knicks to a porn star being dealt from Vivid to Joe's Wonderful World of Beastiality. And as far as Thomas goes, I have read Rose and Taylor have big money coming to them so the Knicks impossible salary structure just got worse. Moreover, the first round picks Thomas obtained and hopes to build around are from the Suns and Spurs. Unless Tim Duncan gets shot and Steve Nash losses his Visa, these picks will never end up being valuable lotto shots. Way to go Zeke.

Feb 24 - The Kings Split 10s While Dealing CWEBB

The Maloof Brothers - owners of the Sacramento Kings - seem to be pretty smart guys and the type of people who you want owning your favorite sports franchise. When they bought the Sacramento Kings, the team was about as irrelevent as irrelevance gets. But in just a few short years, the Kings rose from the ashes and were just a call or two away from playing in the NBA finals. As such, these guys have built up a lot of equity with the SACTO fans. Unfortunately for them, they gave back a big chunk of this capital last night when they split a pair of tens with the dealer showing eight.

I am still scratching my head trying to figure out last night's trade that netted the Philadelphia Seventy-Sixers Chris Webber and Matt Barnes in exchange for Corliss Williamson, Kenny Thomas and Brian Skinner. I nearly sharted myself when I saw this news hit the tape around 11 O"clock last night. The Sportsaholic is not a huge Chris Webber fan, but lets be serious. A package of Williamson, Skinner and Thomas is nothing short of a shit sandwich wrapped in tin foil. All three of these guys play for my "all-irrelevant" team and why the Kings felt the need to keep them together in Sacramento is beyond me. My initial reaction to this news is that Kings General Manager Geoff Petrie simply was absent the day that "salary dumps"were discussed in school. Its a little late now, but Geoff, here is the general point. When your goal is too dump a bad contract, you should do your best to not accept bad contracts and bad players in return.

Chris Webber has one of the worst contracts in the NBA and it was no secret that the Kings wanted out from under it. Its a seven year deal that will have three years and $60 million to go after the 2005 NBA season concludes. Webber can still play, but he had a major knee injury last year, he cannot defend his shadow and his best days are at least three years gone. Moreover, he didn't get along great with free agent-to-be Peja Stoyakovic and so if Webber wasn't dealt, it was assumed that Peja was a goner in the off-season. With that said, I understand why the Kings dealt Webber, but I still cannot believe that all they could get in return were Williamson, Skinner and Thomas. I may have traded Webber for Williamson when they were both sophs in 1993, but lets be serious, Corliss is a decent seventh or eighth man while Webber is arguably top-40 in the league. The thing that makes this deal so scary for the Kings is that the great triumverate comes to Sacramento with a collective contract that is pretty similar to Webber's. All three of these guys get paid and will continue to do so though 07 so if Sacramento was trying to free up some salary, they failed miserably. I guess the one positive for Sacto is that it might help them retain Peja, but the jury will be out on that issue until the offseason. And even if they are able to resign Peja, the incomming contracts will prevent the Kings from making any other meaningful roster moves. Moral to the story - the Kings are going to have some of the worst big guys in basketball through 2007.

So what does this trade mean on the basketball court. Well, for the Kings, I believe it propels them toward basketball oblivion. Peja and Mike Bibby will keep the team competiive, but because none of the guys coming aboard are frontline players, the Kings have pretty much taken themselves out of the running for the Western Conference Championship. It was going to be an uphill struggle with Webber, but without Webs, this team is one and done come playoff time. As for the Sixers, things get a bit interesting. Like I said earlier, Webber can still play. He is a legitimate 20 and 10 guy who can pass out of the low post and nail mid-range jumpers all day long. He is no Tim Duncan or Kevin Garnett, but he may be the second best power forward in the East behind Jermaine O'Neil. If he can get along with Allen Iverson and handle those insufferable Philly fans, the Sixers may have something going, especially if Shaq's injury proves serious and he is forced to sit out the year. If Shaq is out, why can't Philly with AI and CWEBB compete for the conference championship? ESPN's Tim Legler had perhaps the most asinine comment on this trade when he said this morning that Philly is now the leading contender to take the Atlantic Division. Sorry Tim, Philly GM Billy King didn't make this move to win the Atlantic. He made it in hopes of winning the East. And if Shaq is truly hurt, who other then Detroit is better then this team in the East? After last night's trade, Philly is once again relevant. The same cannot be said for the Kings.

Before I move on, I want to make it clear that I am not a huge fan of Chris Webber. He is a nice player, but he is a step - make that a giant step - below the elite guys in the NBA. Webb has always hung some nice numbers, but I never thought he was real athletic and he has a spotty record in big spots. Make no mistake about - Chirs Webber can pass and shoot. He has great hands and occasionally he will pick up an offensive rebound. But he doesn't have a signature low post move, he can't run and he often gets torched by more athletic forwards. And this should say it all - twenty years from now I will remember Webber for the following four things: dating Tyra Banks, lying to a grand jury, calling a time out that Michigan didn't have, and disappearing in game 7 of the 2002 Western Conference finals against the Lakers.

If last night's trade wasn't enough, Billy King did the unimaginable this morning. He found a way to dump Glenn Robinson and his $12 million a year contract on New Orleans. In return, Philly gets free-agent to-be Rodney Rogers and the one-legged Jamal Mashburn. Mashburn hasn't played this year and will likely retire at the end of the season. Nonetheless, this a good move for the Sixers. They get an expiring contract (and possibly two) whle they rid themselves of a grotesque cancer. Robinson has no business sitting on a winning team's bench and he is now going to a place where that won't be a problem. With these two moves, King is my early favorite for NBA Executive of the Year.

Well, I have hit my NBA quota so I will move on to college hoops and I will start in Atlanta where the Yellow Jackets came up small in a big spot against Duke. I have one suggestion for Yellow Jacket Coach Paul Hewitt - find someone who can explain the purpose of that arc that is 20 feet from the basket. You want the telling stat from this 60-56 Duke victory - The Devils made nine threes while GT made ZERO. Not only that, GT only attempted five long balls. BJ Elder missed three of them on his way to a big two-point night. Ismail Muhammed had a nice night as well with five turnovers in 20 minutes to go along with his four points. GT is really in a tough spot as we speak. They are 6-7 in conference with games remaining at Miami, at Wake and at home against Clemson. Assuming Clemson is a win, the Jackets have to steal one of the other games. I don't see it happening at Wake so the game at Miami looks to me like an elimination game. If Georgia Tech fails to make the tourney, it will be the first time that a national finalist failed to get an invite the following year since Seton Hall did it 1990. This will be a disgrace for Paul Hewitt since he had almost his entire club coming back from last year's team. During this past off-season, Hewitt's star shined bright. Today, it looks as if it may flame out.

Last night's other big game took place at Villanova where the Cats squared off with Boston College. The Cats were laying a bunch of points in this game and for good reason - they are brutally tough at home. Last night, Nova didn't shoot the ball like they normally do, but they made up for it on the glass, outrebounding BC by a ten spot. With BC losing, the NCAA is running out of candidates for number one seeds. Ok State and BC looked like good candidates coming into this week, but both lost and there are now two gapping vacancies. After Illinois and UNC, there really are about 8 teams bunched tightly. One team that could creep up on a top seed will be the winner of this weekend's Arizona-Washington game. Keep an eye on the cats - they are playing pretty well right now.

Elsewhere in college basketball, West Virginia picked up a huge win last night against Pitt and they look like they have played themselves into the tourney. They are only 7-7 in conference, but they should be able to close with wins against Rutgers and Seton Hall. The mounties swept Pitt this season and their late season run does not bode well for Georgetown. I think WVU is going to end up getting the spot that many had reserved for the Hoyas. The other team worth mentioning is Minnestoa. They looked like they had folded ten days ago, but wins over Ohio State and Iowa have the Gophers back in the picture. The Gophers finish with Purdue and Penn State and two wins get them to the 20 mark. That should be enough to earn Minnesota the Big-10's fourth and final tourney invite.

The organ grinders over at ESPN are just going crazy over this Randy Moss news. In a two hour period this morning, Mike Golic, John Clayton and Mel Kipper, all got down on their knees and praised the Raiders for this swift move. The conventional wisdom is the Raiders have now assembled an unstoppable air attack that will cause fits throughout the AFC. To the Sportsaholic, this just smacks of what is wrong with NFL commentary. As today proves, pundits are myopically focused on the skill positions. To hear some tell it, the game begins and ends with those guys who touch the ball for a living. Clayton is the worst offender. He loves to recite a teams skill players and spit out a conclusion based exclusively on this regurgitation. Clayton's belief is that so long as you got a QB, a back and two big receivers, the Lombardi Trophy is within reach. Nothing could be further from the truth as the Colts prove every year. Hey, as I said yesterday, the Raiders got a good deal on a great player. But that doesn't necessarily make it a smart move. The Raiders may score some points, but their story lies on the other side of the ball. The Raiders gave up 440 points last year. That is an abomination and it is a problem that Moss will not address. In fact, the addition of Moss will make it more difficult for the Raiders to address this problem since they now have so much salary committed to Moss and Jerry Porter. The Raiders tried to upgrade their defense last year and the experiment was a miserable failure. This year they are going the other way and while they may be exciting to watch next year, I don't think it will make much impact on their win total. But based on this morning's sample, you will hear a different tune when the boys at ESPN gather next Summer to offer their pre-season predictions.

Feb 23 - Moss to Raiders

The Minneapolis Star Tribune is confirming that Randy Moss has been traded to the Oakland Raiders for linebacker Napolean Harris, the 7th pick in this year's dradt and a low round pick in this years draft. The Star says that the trade has been agreed to but won't become offical until March 2. This deal was discussed Tuesday on Pro Football Talk but it looked as if it were a moot point after the Raiders agreed yesterday to re-sign Jerry Porter. I guess Raider Chief Al Davis can never have enough deep threats and so the trade was made. I have to scratch my head at this move. The Raiders gave up 442 points last year and they are trading away youth and defense for more offense. Moss comes with a big paycheck and the Raiders now have made a huge financial committment to their receivers. This does not seem like a wise move for an organization that has holes throughout its roster. This seems like a team that does not know how to priortitize. No wonder cornerback Philip Buchanon wants out. As for the vikes, the move allows Mike Tice to re-shape the team. He still has Marcus Robinson and Nate Burleson to catch the ball, and Harris gives the Vikes a solid outside linebaker. And with the pick, perhaps Tice can pick up a corner who knows how to cover and tackle.

Feb 23- Big-12 Busts

The Big-12 will be hosting this year's Final Four in St. Louis, but if last night was any indication, the conference won't have one of its own on the floor when that show comes to town. I probably shouldn't make too much out of Oklahoma State's loss last night to Nebraska, but it can't simply be swept under the rug either. Sure, Oklahoma State was probably looking forward to its Saturday matchup with slumping Kansas, but losing to the Huskers is still difficult to explain. Moreover, the Cowboys pride themselves on playing solid defense yet last night the Huskers were able to shoot 56 percent from the field. I cannot imagine Eddie Sutton was thrilled with that performance and it wouldn't have surprised me if the Cowboys had stayed on the court after the game for a little Herb Brooksian nightcap. And check out the line for JamesOn Curry last night: 1-4, 0 boards and six turnovers. He lost his ride at UNC for selling dope and based on last night, it looks like the store is still open. I guess that helps explain why Ricky Williams was sitting courtside.

Is there a streakier team in America than Iowa State? This is their recent history. They win four in a row, they lose six in a row and then they win seven in a row. Was last night's loss to Texas A&M the beginning of another streak to the downside? The Cyclones schedule would suggest otherwise, but this team cannot expect to get a tourney bid by simply limping to the finish line. They should feel confident of their chances with games against doormats Nebraska, Missouri and Colorado ahead, but they cannot afford to dump two of these games. After all, the Cyclones are only 15-9 and two losses would leave them at .500 in conference at seasons end.

Maryland is doing its best to play itself right out of the tournamnet. Ten days ago, the Terps were sitting pretty after sweeping the season series from Duke. But since that time, the Terps have lost to NC State, squeeked by Virginia and lost to Clemson. In last night's debacle at home, Maryland allowed Clemson to shoot 58 percent from the field. Does anyone in this conference play any defense? Furthermore, does this make any sense - Maryland has swept Duke but has also been swept by both NC State and Clemson. Losing two to the Wolfpack is understandable, but being swept by Clemson is another story entirely. These two losses have put a big crimp in Maryland's resume. They finish against UNC and Virgina Tech and the Terps are going to need one of these games to lock down a bid. If they lose both, the Terps will probably need a win - or possibly two - in the ACC tourney to secure an invite.

The big story in the NFL yesterday came out of Nashville where the Titans released a bunch of players due to salary cap restrictions. The news got me thinking - how long before the same thing happens to Indianapolis. In the past year, Colts GM Bill Polian gave Peyton Manning a huge check and handed out rich contracts to both Marvin Harrison and Brandon Stokley. They then signed right tackle Ryan Diem to a big contract yesterday and franchised Edgerrin James. Where is all this money coming from? The answer is that a good deal of the money we are talking about is deferred for a couple years. The Colts have basically leveraged their future in order to win right now. Manning's contract explodes in 06 and 07, and when it does, the Colts are going to face the same problems that confronted the Titans this year. The window is closing on the Colts and closing fast.

So I guess its just about certain that Drew Bledsoe will be playing quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys next season and nobody is more excited by that prospect then Philadelphia Eagle defensive coordinator Jimmy Johnson. JJ is a blitz addict and it doesn't take a guru to know that he now has one of the more "blitzable" quarterbacks in the NFL playing in his own division. Some have been quick to applaud this signing (ESPN's MIke Golic), but I think the only people who are truly pleased are those coaches in the AFC West who are scheduled to play the NFC East next year. With Dallas now headed by Bledsoe and Washington dumping receivers, I am not sure this dismal division will be any improved next year.

Nothing could please me more then to see Bledsoe headed to Dallas since it helps assure that Bill Parcells will fail in the third year of his three-year plan. I don't care that Dallas has some cap room to be active in free agency and the team has a couple of firsts in the upcomming draft. With Bledsoe at the helm, this team cannot possibly play with Philadelphia. The numbers support my thesis. Over the past three years in Buffalo, this guy threw 55 TDs and 43 interceptions. Those are hardly Cantonesque numbers. And more importantly, since 1997, Bledsoe has simply not won all that often. I have every confidence that this trend will continue in 2005. However, I will point out that there is one glimmer of hope in this signing. Bledsoe's best years in New England came while he was teamed with a terrific tight end in Ben Coates. Bledsoe relied on Big Ben to bail him out and when Coates went downhill, Bledsoe followed. Drew didn't have such an outlet in Buffalo and that possibly explains why he took so many sacks and threw so many interceptions. Perhaps the Cowboys' terrific young tight end - Jason Witten - can be Bledsoe's new safety valve.

I loved the exchange that occured late in yesterday's press conference between Barry Bonds and one his antagonists from the evil media. The reporter, whose identity I don't know, asked whether Barry thought it was "cheating" to use steroids. It was a generically-phrased question that sought to determine whether Bonds thinks the use of steroids is unsportsmanlike. Bonds answer was sheer brilliance. After a second of thought, Bonds moved forward with the classic: "I don't even know what cheating is?" You cannot make this stuff up. And if that weren't bad enough, Bonds made an interesting point yesterday when he menitoned that if critics want to scrub the sport's record books, they should start by going back to the 19th and 18th centuries. 18th Century? Did I miss something? I always thought that baseball was a Civil War-era invention but now I am told by Mr Bonds that it was alive and well during the Adams administration. I guess Alexander Hamilton was the first to come up with the idea of giving Baseball the anti-trust exemption that it still enjoys today.

Last week, I may have made a mistake when I said Emeka Okafor was my pick for mid-season Rookie of the Year. Okafor has been very solid, but there is a guy up in Chicago who is starting to dominate games. Ben Gordon may not start many games, but he sure finishes them, as we saw last night when the Bulls took out Miami. Gordon had 29 against the Heat, 15 of which came on fourth quarter and overtime three-pointers. He now leads the lead with 15 games of scoring 10 or more points in the fourth quarter. The Bulls should be a playoff team this year and Gordon is a big reason for the turnaround.

Congratulations to Florida Junior Ryan Lochte who shattered two American records at the Southeastern Conference Swimming Championships. First he took out the record in the 200 yard individual medley and then came back two nights later and took out the record in the 200 yard backstroke. For those of you who aren't familar with the sport, American records don't fall too often, especially if your last name ins't Coughlin or Phelps. What makes Lochte's performance so remarkable is that he was not rested for this meet. That will not be the case at next months NCAAs and so its safe to assume that Lochte's best is yet to come.

Feb 22 - Miracle on Ice

Today is the anniversary of the greatest sporting event in American sports history. It was on this day twenty-five years ago that the United States Olympic Hockey team skated past the heavily-favored Russains on its way to an olympic gold medal. In case any of you forgot the details of the game or haven't seen "Miracle," the U.S. trailed the Russians 3-2 in the third period of this classic, but goals by future Penguin Mark Johnson and Mike Eruzione put the stars and stripes up 4-3 with ten clicks to go. From there on out, American goalie Jim Craig was unflappable and the Americans were able to hold on for their historic victory. There is almost no debate in this country that this was the most memorable and inspiring event in U.S. sports history. Aside from just its sporting aspect, the game had plenty of political overtones and therefore it is revered as something that transcended sports. It was one of those rare events in history where people remember where they were when they heard that the US had won the game. But as great a moment as this was - was it the greatest upset in sports history? I think it gets a bit tricky at this point. The Russian hockey team was unquestionably the best in the world, but the U.S. had guys who could skate. Many of these guys went on to play in the NHL, and some even had lengthy careers. True, the Russians beat the US team 10-3 just days before the Olympics began, but I thnk its hard to argue that the US team didn't belong on the ice with the Russians. So what other upsets compare with this great moment. How about U.S. wrestler Rulon Gardner defeating Russian Aleksandr Karelin at the Sydney Olympics. Karelin was about as dominant as dominant gets, winning three straight Olympic golds going into Sydney. The Russian hadn't lost in over a decade when Gardner walked onto the mat in Austrailia. He walked off that mat with a 1-0 victory and an upset that ranks right up there with the US Hockey team. (I have a swimming upset candidate as well but I will spare the readers the details on that one.) And for those of you who want a big upset in a team sport - try this one on for size. In 1982, the University of Virginia lost a basketball game to NAIA also-ran Chaminade. Before you dismiss this as insignificant, you must realize that this Virginia team did not resemble the garbage that plays in Charlottsville today. Instead, Virginia was the top ranked team in the country at the time. They had played in the Final Four the previous year and were led by nation's 1981 Player of the Year Ralph Sampson. This was a team that shared the ACC 1982 regular season title with a UNC team that had Worthy, Jordan and Perkins. Chaminade, on the other hand, was basically a Oahu-based juco team led by a 6'6 center whose last name was Randolph. You want an analogy to this game? How about this year's Illinois team losing to a vocational night school? By the way, if you haven't seen Miracle, you should go out and rent it today. Aside from being inspirational, it represnts Kurt Russell's best work and that includes Overboard. My top-5 KR movies in order are: Miracle, Overboard, Used Cars, the Best of Times, and Unlawful Entry.

Somebody should tell Bill Self that losing three straight games in February is no way to impress the NCAA tourney selection committee. Self's Kansas Jayhawks, losers at Oklahoma last night, have now lost three straight and face a difficult test this weekend against Oklahoma State. To the Jayhawks credit, two of their losses have come in overtime and two were on the road. Nonetheless, Kansas has shown some weaknesses of late and it begins with spotty guard play. Arron Miles is routinely turning the ball over five times a game and J.R Giddens has suddenly found it difficult to make a shot. Moreover, during this recent streak, highly acclaimed center Wayne Simien has played a lot more like an all-conference player then an all-american. Ten days ago, the Jayhawks looked like a possible number one seed in the NCAA tourney. With a loss on Saturday, the Hawks will look a lot more like a three or four seed then a top seed.

Today marks the beginning of a very important period for NFL front offices. Why you may ask? Well, today is the first day that teams can start releasing veterans in advance of March 2, which happens to be the day that all teams must be in compliance with the Salary Cap. That also marks the beginning of the free agent signing period. So over the next ten days, a number of veterans will be released and a greater amount will have their contracts re-strucutred. Most fans and the pinheads at ESPN generally assume that the NFL draft reprepsents the big event of the NFL off-season, but the Sportsaholic believes that this upcomming period is much more interesting. This is when tough personnel deicsions have to be made and the succesful teams in the NFL are usually those that are willing and able to make the tough calls come this time of year. It is already shaping up to be a fascinating "release" season. A number of big names are already slated for relelase and the list could grow as teams come to grips with their 2005 payrolls.

According to the guys over at Pro Football Talk, the Raiders and Vikings had a deal in place as late as yesterday that would have had Oakland sending some picks and linebacker Napolean Harris to Minnesota for problem child Randy Moss. The deal, however, was scuttled today when Oakland was able to come to terms with thier own Jerry Porter. Minnesota's press department, at the request of their prospective new owner, publically removed Moss from the trading block over the weekend, but I guess the front office didn't get the word. Speculation is that Moss will continue to be shopped, although there are plenty of receivers available through free agency and so the potential universe of those willing to pay for Moss may be quite small.

One team facing devastating salary issues this off-season was the Tennessee Titans. As of last week, the Titans were aproximately $27 million over the salary cap. But rather then trying to massage the cap for another year, the Titans have decided to bite the bullet in 2005. As such, the team has released six players including the AFC's leading receiver Derrick Mason and corner Samari Rolle. Titans General manager Floyd Reese said yesterday the Titans wanted to mimic Baltimore's approach to the salary cap -- slash large salaries in one lump and, hopefully, limit any damage to one season. "We're done manipulating. Now we're going to fix this,'' Reese said. I think Reese has done the smart thing since his team could no longer stay competitive as it bled players every off-season. A season had to be sacrificed and Reese made the right call. But if 2005 is being tossed, why bring back Steve McNair? Is there any chance McNair will be a viable option come 2006? So long as Reese and the Ttians are starting anew, why not begin at quarterback? If Reese were truly interested in fixing the problem, McNair would be playing elsewhere next year.

The NBA trade deadline is fast approaching and Laker Lamar Odom seems to be at the center of the trade rumor vortex. One rumor has Odom going with Caron Butler to Utah in exchange for Carlos Boozer and Matt Harpring, while another has the forward headed to Sacramento in a deal that will net Peja Stoyakovic and Bobby Jackson. Is it really worth the time to discuss where Lamar Odom is going to end up next week? Lamar, although young and talented, is a starting forward on my "all who-cares?" team. Guys like Odom, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Jerry Stackhouse, Antoine Walker, Jalen Rose, and Donyell Marshall seem to get traded for each other every year and it never makes any difference to the teams involved. Guys like Odom are annual trade bait for two reasons - they are overpaid and they hang numbers without making their teams any better. This may be a bit unfair on Odom since he is probably a cut above Stackhouse or Rahim, but the truth is that Lamar has character issues and he has never been at the center of big winner. In Odom's defense, guys sometimes graduate off this list and end up contributing to championship teams, but the list is not exactly extensive. Bob McAdoo did it for the Lakers and James Edwards did it for the Pistons, but it doens't happen often. It doesn't look like Odom will get to join this club this year since the Lakers came out today and denied that anything involving Lamar is in the works.

Feb 21 - The Defense Rests

A couple of weeks ago, the Bush Administration submitted its Fiscal Year 2006 budget request to Congress and there was an important tidbit buried in the voluminous document. It seems that the Defense Department, tired of seeing their yearly appropriations go for naught, has decided to zero out funding for the Wake Forest Basketball program in the coming year. That's it - from here on out the Pentagon wants nothing to do with the Wake Forest Basketball program. And after Sunday night, who can blame Rumsfeld and crew for growing impatient with the way Skip Prosser's teams play defense. In a nutshell, there is absolutely nothing demonic about the way the Demon Deacons play defense and it showed last night in an embarrassing loss to Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Devils had their way with Wake Forest last night, burying uncontested threes all night long. When the smoke had cleared, Duke had shot almost 60 percent from the field while amassing 102 points. JJ Redick led the way with 38, while super stiff Lee Melchionni chipped in 15 on 5-6 shooting. And the Devils offense did not come exclusively via the longball. On many occasions, Duke got easy layups in transition and chippy 10 footers of basic screens. Wake Forest simply refused to put up a fight. Not a single time did Wake knock down Reddick. He was free all night as Wake's highly acclaimed backcourt trio of Paul, Gray and Downey proved once again that collectively, they have either no interest or ability to guard the basketball. Chris Paul, in particular, is an amazing offensive palyer, but he gives up at least as much as he gets and I am tired of hearing the Bristol Banshees sing his praise. The worst thing about all this is Prosser seems fine with his team's largeese. Last night, he was more interested yellingn at the officials then taking his lazy kids to task. This is not a new story at Wake. Last year, the same thing happened. Actually, its been happening ever since Skip Prosser stepped on campus before the 2002 season. This guy's phiosophy is we will let you score becuase we think we can score more. Its basically a watered down version of Paul Westhead's Loyola Marymount Treatise. Message to Skip - Westhead never won anything and either will you so long as you preach defensive benevolence. You got smoked by a reeling Duke team and after last night, I have lost faith. This team should make it to the regionals on talent alone, but it wouldn't shock me to see them lose in the second round. As for advancing past the sweet sixteen, the Sportsaholic does not see it happening without an emergency aid package from the Pentagon.

One team that is down on its knee and thanking god this morning is Georgia Tech. They got a gift yesterday that rivals any other bestowed this year. Down one with time running out at Florida State, Georgia Tech was kicking the ball around aimlessly. Finally, Jacket guard BJ Elder threw some crap at the basket that had absolultely no shot of going in. GT would have gone home a loser, but an official called a foul on the play with .4 seconds to go. Elder then went to the line and made the two winning free throws for the Jackets. This was the bail out of all bail outs and it makes me think the fix is in. With a loss, GT would have gone back to Atlanta in bad shape. A ntional finalist form a year ago, GT would have found itself 5-7 in the ACC with four to play. The Jackets now have a shot to finish the year at .500 in conferecne and that should be enough to secure a bid. GT coach Paul Hewitt should probably send that official a nice bottle of wine today given the fact that he saved the Yellow Jacket's season.

In Philadelphia yesterday, we saw one of the oddest coaching decisions of the year when Pitt coach Jamie Dixon continued to play zone while Villanova was sniping threes from outside the arc. Nova shot 52 percent from behind the line and much of the damage was done in the second half when Dixon had his team in a passive zone. The funny thing is that Dixon refused to switch it up even after Nova guard Allen Ray began to heat up. Ray can be a deadly shooter and he eventually knocked down five three pointers in the second half, many of them coming uncontested. Why Dixon didn't stick a man on Ray is a big question mark and it lends more ammunition to Pitt fans who are less then thrilled with Jamie's work to date.

While Pitt's loss on Sunday did nothing to worsen their tourney hopes, the same cannot be said of UCLA which got destroyed at Stanford. The Cardinal, playing without leading scorer Dan Grunfeld, broke open the game late in the first half and never looked back. Stanford point guard Chris Hernandez completely dominated the Bruins, hitting five threes and getting to the rim whenever he pleased. UCLA had come into the game shooting the ball well of late, but this trend didn't hold as the Bruins were held to 33 percent shooting from the field. The one thing that is interesting about the Bruins is that they seem to play particularly poorly when Brian Morrison is on the floor. He was out there during both of Stanford's first half runs, leading me to think that his plus/minus for the game and season must be awful. With the win, Stanford has now virtually locked up the number three spot in the conference having already swept UCLA. The Bruins, on the other hand, must win their final four games in order to get a tourney invite. I am not optimistic.

That pretty much takes care of Sunday and so we now turn to Saturday where a few games are worth mentioning. In the day's biggest upset, Iowa State knocked off Kansas in overtime after it blew a big lead late in regulation. The Cyclones are certainly the hottest team in the Big-12 after winning seven straight conference games and they have climbed their way back into the tourney picture. The Cyclones close with four easy games so its not inconceivable that they will carry an eleven game winning streak in the Big-12 tourney. I am pretty confident Iowa State will be a tourney team. In the Big East, Syracuse contineud its spotty play of late by losing at Boston College. Syracuse senior Hakeem Warrick went AWOL in the second half and without his scoring, the Orangemen didn't have enough to overcome Boston College's strength inside. Don't look now, but Boston College is on the verge of winning the Big East and becoming a top seed in the NCAAs. BC blew its shot at the 2004 Big East Football championship on the final day of last season, but I don't expect the same thing will happen this year in basketball.

I hate to bring this up since I spent part of Friday ripping those who enjoy watching dunking contests, but for my money, the greatest dunker of all time was . . . . . . . Mike Conley. Mike Who? For those who don't know him, Mike Conley was the second or third greatest long jumper in the world for about ten years during the 80s and early 90s. He didn't play organized basketball, but I do recall seeing him on some celebrity show where he was showing off his dunking skills. Conley was simply amazing. I have never seen a human being step onto a basketball court who had Conley's lift. Not a single one. This guy made Michael Jordan look like Billy Hoyle from WMCJ. Conley was so long that he made the Dr. J dunk from the free throw line look like kids play. At his peak, I am not sure Conley couldn't make a three point dunk. The guy could jump 28 feet in competition so why couldn't he make a dunk from 21 feet? /So the next time you hear Bill Simmons waxing on about Vince or Michael or Dominique, send him an email and tell him that the aforementioned couldn't carry Conley's jock.

The story out of Washington D.C. today is that the Redskins are planning on releasing wide receiver Laveranues Coles if a trade cannot be arranged. Is it possible that Coles could be headed back to the Jets where he enjoyed great success? The Jets are in the market for a bigtime receiver and Coles would seem to be a perfect fit, especially since he has a proven track record working with Chad Pennington (89 catches in 02). Coles ins't the only high-profile wide receiver who may become available later this week. Word out of Tennessee is that productive wideout Derrick Mason will be a salary cap casualty. Suddenly, the unrestricted pool of wideouts looks pretty impressive with Mason, Muhammed, Coles, Burress and Porter all available. With these receivers on the market, its unlikely that any NFL team will feel the need to match Minnesota's demands for Randy Moss.

Isn't all this banter concering AROD being blown a bit out of proportion? The New York tabloids just cannot get enough of this story so every day they report that another one of the Red Sox has insulted or slandered the Yankee third baseman. The trouble is, despite the claims of pundits and columnists, the sox really aren't saying a whole lot that is rancourous or inflamatory. In fact, other then Trot Nixon calling AROD a "clown," most of the reported material is a bit tame and innocuous. I think the bigger story here is that every New York newspaper has now assigned a beat reporter to cover the Red Sox. The only reason this story continues to linger is that these reporters have nothing to do but ask the Red Sox about AROD. The answers have not been too interesting so far but that hasn't stopped the tabloids from serving them up as fighting words.