December 26, 2024

What is Up with Big Men in the NBA?

Forget whoever Portland drafts as their center of the future will eventually get hurt and generally in their rookie year. Also, forget that Yao Ming was one of the tallest and most versatile players we have seen in the NBA in years. Where have all the true centers gone?

It’s almost like the Heavyweight Division in boxing because what has really happened since Mike ‘the Bite’ Tyson left? The sport went out the window just the centers have done in the NBA.

OK Dwight Howard you say? The guy can’t hit a jumper further than 5 feet from the rim. Pau Gasol maybe? He gets muscled out of the paint by Big Baby Davis. So where are the studs that dominated the paint like Shaq, Kareem or even Patrick used to do?

The NBA has become a guard oriented league with little regard to the front court. With all of the slashers and jumpers getting drafted as ‘Athletes’ this sport can be hard to watch. I’m not sure if the game will revert back to true big men, but in my opinion it really needs to do so.

Trump Set for Flight

Last night was one of the most anticipated Monday Night Football games in recent memory, but it ended up being a complete bust. The Patriots embarrassed the Jets 45-3 and the game was basically over with before the half. There was actually an entertaining moment in the game when ESPN showed a shot of Donald Trump sitting in Robert Kraft’s luxury box. For just an instant doesn’t it look like Trump could take off when the gusts of wind get under his heavily hair sprayed lid?

Sharapova Soon to Be Off the Market

Tennis star Maria Sharapova and Laker guard Sasha Vujagic have announced they are engaged. Vujagic made the engagement public before his preseason game last night against Golden State. He said he popped the question at his home on the one-year anniversary of meeting Maria at a friend’s barbecue. Obviously Sasha is a VERY lucky man because Sharapova is currently number two on the Top 14 SU.com Sports Babes list. Hat tip Sasha and we wish you two love birds the very best.

New SU.com Sports Babes

We wanted to make you aware that the SportsUnderground.com Top 14 Sports Babes have been updated today with two new deserving women. Sadly we have to say goodbye to poker player Jennifer Tilley and WNBA star Lauren Jackon, but we give you Spanish sporter reporter Ines Sainz and Danish tennis player Caroline Wozniacki in return. Enjoy!

Ines Sainz pictures:

Ines Sainz

Ines Sainz

Ines Sainz

Caroline Wozniacki pictures:

Caroline Wozniacki

Caroline Wozniacki

Caroline Wozniacki

Survey Says

College football kicks off tomorrow evening and it should be another fantastic year. Here are my predicitions for conference champions and the national champion.

ACC
Florida State, Miami and North Carolina are all veteran teams. If UNC has player suspension issues that linger for too long look for Florida State to win the Atlantic and Miami to win the Coastal.

Prediction: Miami beats Florida State in the ACC Championship

Big East
Cincinnati lost their QB and head coach while UConn, Pitt and Rutgers have gained another year of seasoning and are ready to win this wide open conference. While some may say that West Virginia is always in contention the Rich Rodriguez days are long gone. Upstarts UConn and Rutgers have skill players back and great coaching in order to win tight games. Pitt may has a Heisman hopeful, but they still have a coach who chokes in more big games than Marty Shottenheimer. South Florida has a nice offense coming back but the defense is the weakest in quite some time for the Bulls.

Prediction: Rutgers to win the Big East

Big 10
It is almost unanimous that Ohio State, Iowa and Wisconsin have some of the best teams in all of football this year. OSU plays at Iowa and Wisconsin and at home to Miami, Penn St and Michigan. Iowa has most of their tough games at home, but the Arizona game on the road in Week 3 could be a pitfall. Wisconsin has to go to Iowa which will more than likely be their demise.

Prediction: Ohio State wins

Big 12
This year is the last hurrah for Colorado and Nebraska. Unfortunately it doesn’t matter because Nebraska will win the North Division in a landslide. Texas and Oklahoma will once again play the Red River Shootout for conference supremacy. Oklahoma may have a Heisman hopeful at RB in DeMarco Murray and Texas could be good, but they lost a lot.

Prediction: Oklahoma wins the Big 12 Championship

Pac 10
Lots of good QBs, a death penalty and many other young talented players are heading up this conference. Arizona gets Iowa, USC, Washington and Oregon State at home. Oregon State has to open up at TCU and then 2 weeks later goes to Boise State besides back-to-back road games at Arizona and Washington. USC can’t win anything tangible, but have the talent to make a huge statement. Washington Heisman hopeful Jake Locker is a true playmaker and should keep the Huskies in most games. Stanford has the offense, but will need a defense to make anyone look at them as contenders.

Prediction: Arizona wins the Pac 10

SEC
Tim Tebow is gone, but Florida continues to reload as usual. Alabama is coming off a dream season, but have issues with the Heisman winner Mark Ingram getting banged up plus they have a lot of new faces on defense. Auburn has a pretty easy path to their tango against Alabama in the season finale while Arkansas and South Carolina should have explosive offenses. You can’t count out LSU, but in the end Florida wins SEC East and Auburn in a stunner wins the SEC West.

Prediction: Auburn wins the SEC

Sleeper Teams:
Middle Tennessee State, NC State, UCLA, and South Florida

BCS Championship
The BCS Championship game will not have a WAC or Mountain West team in it even though there is a lot of preseason hype that Boise or TCU will make the big game. The usual suspects Ohio State and Oklahoma will battle for the title with Terrelle Pryor and Ohio State gutting through a great game for the win.

Congrats Caroline

Caroline Wozniacki defeated Nadia Petrova 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 yesterday in the Pilot Pen Tennis finals in New Haven, Connecticut. Wozniacki won her fourth title of the year and has won three out of the last four tournaments on the tour. She is definitely one of the favorites to win the 2010 US Open that gets underway tomorrow.

While that is exciting stuff we actually think pictures of Caroline are a lot more interesting. Enjoy!

Caroline Wozniacki pictures:
Caroline Wozniacki

Caroline Wozniacki

Caroline Wozniacki

Caroline Wozniacki

How good is Green Bay?

Are you kidding me? I watched their preseason NFL game last night against the Colts which by no surprise was in front of a sold out crowd at Lambeau Field. Aaron Rodgers and the Packers dropped 59 Points on Indy and looked stellar.

Is this something we can look forward to in all the NFL games this year? Has this turned into a 7-on-7 game?

Yes I know it is freaking preseason, but the game between Indy and Green Bay was a joy to watch. If you didn’t watch the shootout then I can only guess you were watching Snookie get arrested? I mean football is almost here and the third week is when you really get to see the starters play for at least a half so make sure you enjoy the rest of the games this weekend.

What a great time of year! Fantasy drafts are taking place, NCAA football is less than a week away and the NFL regular season is just two weeks ago.

This is why we endure the 100% humidity through the summer in order to reach the fall and football baby!

BYU Set to Bolt

The Mountain West Conference has experienced some highs and lows this summer and it appears the roller coaster ride isn’t over yet. Back in June the MWC celebrated the announcement of Boise State joining the conference, but then days later Utah accepted an offer to join the Pac-10 which was a major blow. Now there are reports that BYU has decided to go independent in football and will rejoin the WAC for all other sports. The move would leave the Mountain West with only two football powers in TCU and a pissed off Boise State. The main reason I see BYU going independent in football is so they can be the sexy chick at the party when a major conference like the Pac-10 wants to grow again. I think this is only the beginning of many more changes in the coming years to the college athletics landscape. The mega conferences ultimately will come to fruition because the money is just too enticing.

Preseason Week 1 and My Thoughts

We are only in week 1 of the preseason and it is already obvious there are teams that have ZERO chance of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy in February. Here are the teams that won’t win 6 games this year.

In the order of worst to still incredibly crappy:

1. St Louis Rams – OMG!!! $50M for a QB that has no offensive line to protect him. You think Matt Stafford had a tough time in Detroit?  Wait until Sam Bradford takes the field as a starter after AJ Feeley gets jacked up early in the season. This team is in a major rebuilding era and will not win more than 2 games which is actually 1 more than 2009. How bad were the Rams in 2009? Keith Null was their starting QB for the last 5 games. They were 29th in overall offense with no thanks to over 1,400 yards rushing by the 2nd best RB (Steven Jackson) in the NFL. The Rams got shut out twice including the season opener and scored 10 points or less in 8 games. If it wasn’t for teams with Jamarcus Russell, Brady Quinn and Ryan Fitzpatrick the Rams would have been last in overall yards. Their only win was against Detroit in front of the lowest attended 2009 NFL game with a putrid 40,000 fans in the stands.  Maybe 2 wins for the lowly Rams this year.

2. Buffalo Bills – Buffalo has not been to the playoffs since 1999 and they won’t make it there any time soon. No QB, no WR’s and their top two running backs are already hurt for at least a month. They may be the first NFL team to play in Canada on a full time basis because the owner is losing money and needs a new audience for this poor display of a football team. Trent Edwards, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Brian Brohm and Levi Brown are the current QB’s on the roster which is depressing to say the least.  Draftee CJ Spiller will have to run back a punt per game to get this team points because they are in huge trouble offensively. 30th in total offense in 2009 and it could even be worse this year. Maybe 3 wins for the Bills.

3. Denver Broncos – Look for Tim Tebow to start by week 5 and I think he will be a good quarterback. He has all the tools and a great attitude in order for him to be a long time fixture in the league. All their RB’s are hurt and really don’t impress me overall anyway. Heck they even picked up Justin Fargas recently because they are so decimated. The loss of Brandon Marshall hurts very bad because just imagine Eddie Royal or Jabbar Gaffney as Kyle Orton’s number one target. Elvis Dumervil is out for the year which is a huge blow to the Broncos ability to pass rush. Champ Bailey is still a stud, but he can’t do it all on defense. Don’t forget the Broncos lost 8 of their last 10 games last year and their struggles will continue. Maybe 4 wins for the Broncos.

4. Kansas City Chiefs – Their QB never took a snap in college and signed a huge contract after leading New England to 11 wins when Brady got injured. That team was coming off a Super Bowl so it was really a plug and play more than anything else. The questions surrounding Cassel along with no real formidable running backs or receivers could lead to scoring problems. The Chiefs are very young on offense and don’t forget last year they were 26th overall in offense. One positive is KC only plays three teams from the 2009 playoffs plus they play St. Louis and Buffalo so anything is possible. Looking like 5 wins for the Chiefs.

5. Carolina Panthers – The loss of Julius Peppers is devastating from the #9 overall defense in 2009. Peppers was the Panthers big name defensive lineman who anchored the defense with tons of sacks over the last several years.  His replacement has 15.5 sacks in his career and the defensive line has been completely overhauled. The new everyday QB Matt Moore took over in game nine last year for Jake Delhomme and looked decent overall. The issue for Moore is outside of Steve Smith they have no other proven talent at the receiver position. The good news is their RB’s are total studs. Both Stewart and Williams had over 1,100 yards rushing last year, 17 total touchdowns and finished as the #3 rushing team in the NFL. The Panthers will struggle to score and with so many questions around their defense things don’t look promising. Maybe 6 wins for the Panthers.

6. Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Tampa lost their first 7 games in 2009 and 12 of their first 13. That being said, they did beat 2 playoff teams and the Super Bowl champs which is promising. Josh Freeman looks like he could be the real deal, but the Bucs receiving corps is really weak. Cadillac Williams when healthy is a top 10-12 RB, but he just can’t stay healthy. Tampa did draft 2009 All-Americans Gerald McCoy and Brian Price so they are starting to shore up their defense. Ronde Barber is still there in center field with a core of second and third year corners who were 10th overall against the pass and 9th in INT’s. The problem was they were dead last against the rush. Maybe 6 wins.

Laettner and Davis Down-and-Out

Based on court records in Maryland San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman is suing BD Ventures for a substantial amount of cash. BD Ventures is backed by former Dookies Brian Davis and Mr. NCAA Christian Laettner. Merriman’s company extended a loan back in 2007 to BD Ventures that should have been paid in full last year, but wasn’t and now S.M. Real Estate (Merriman’s company) is requesting $3.64 million along with $998.76 a day in interest. Laettner has testified in a deposition that he knows they owe Merriman money, but stated that isn’t possible to pay up right now due to the economy.