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NFL Draft 2010 – Round 4 #16- Baltimore- TE Dennis Pitta

The only reason I’m commenting on this pick is that this is second Tight End has taken in the 2010 Draft. At one of ESPN’s analysts liked the selections, stating that Baltimore’s GM was taking the best player available and that is why the Ravens are consistently good. The Ravens have been good, but over drafting at one position isn’t the way to stay there IMHO.

Also I want to make note how dumb the Dolphins are looking now. The Ravens have two tight ends selected, Miami is still looking for one. Depth on the offense line, aka the John Jerry, pick could have waited.

NFL.com writes on Pitta- Pitta is an older senior in that he has five years of football at BYU plus a two year mission which will put him at 25 during his rookie season. He is more of a receiving tight end than a blocking or dual purpose one and will need some time to get used to lining up in a three point stance as BYU generally flexes their tight ends out in a two point stance. He is not real explosive on his release and will need some work on escaping the press at the next level.

 

2010 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament 2nd round- March 20th

This post will remain at the top of the blog for the rest of today. To see newer posts, scroll down.

As results come in today, I will update this post. I’ll also include any related tournament news here.

St. Mary’s defeats Villanova 75-68
Tennessee beats Ohio 83-68
Butler beats Murray State 54-52
Stunner- Northern Iowa beats Kansas 69-67
Baylor beats Old Dominion 76-68
Kentucky beat Wake Forest 90-60
Kansas State beats BYU 84-72
Washington beats New Mexico 82-64

 

2010 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament- March 18th

This post will remain at the top of the blog for the rest of today. To see newer posts, scroll down.

As results come in today, I will update this post. I’ll also include any related tournament news here.

1st result- Old Dominion defeats Notre Dame 51-50
1st overtime game- BYU beats Florida 99-92 in double OT
Close call- #2 seed Villanova beats Robert Morris 73-70 in overtime.
First big upset- #13 Murray State beats Vanderbilt 66-65
Baylor beats Sam Houston St. 68-59
Kansas State beats North Texas State 82-62
St. Mary’s beats Richmond 80-71
Butler beats UTEP 77-59
Kentucky beats East Tennessee St. 100-71
Ohio beats Georgetown 97-83
Washington beats Marquette 80-78
Northern Iowa beats UNLV 69-66
#1 Kansas beats Lehigh 90-74
New Mexico beats Montana 62-57
Wake Forest beats Texas 81-80

 

2010 NCAA Men’s Basketball predictions

Here are my selections-

2010 predictions1

2010 predictions2

So you heard it here first. Duke and Ohio State in the finals.

Note- Starting tomorrow I will have a sticky post at the top of the blog featuring that day’s results. Feel free to make your own predictions in the comment.

 

2010 NCAA Basketball Tournament Bracket

Well here it is-

2010 bracket

I don’t have to say. Later in the week, I’ll take a shot at predicting the outcome.

 

No end in sight- Comcast/Versus dispute still unresolved

A game between two top 15 schools is scheduled to be broadcast on Versus this Saturday. From KRQE-

Saturday’s game between the New Mexico Lobos and the BYU Cougars may be the biggest game of the season and an estimated 1/3 of Albuquerque TV viewers will not be able to see it.

The No. 10/12 ranked Lobos are heading for a huge showdown Saturday in Provo, Utah against No. 13/11 BYU.

The regular season conference championship will most likely be on the line.

But, because the game will air on the Versus network, DirectTV subscribers will not be able to see it.

A money dispute between Versus and DirectTV has kept Versus off DirectTV.

On their network, DirectTV claims the parent company of Versus, Comcast, is asking too much money to carry the network on DirectTV. As a result, DirectTV does not carry Versus.

The Mountain West Conference’s tournament championship is scheduled to be broadcast on Versus next month.

I sympathize with Mountain West sports fans. This dumb dispute has dragged on far too long and NHL fans are about to get screwed even more than they have already been up to now. The playoffs are less than two months away and some of those games are carried exclusively by Versus.

The NHL’s decision to sit on its hands is mind boggling to me. The league doesn’t have a big United States fan base. Marginal fans are going to find something else to watch and perhaps permanently. Is Commissioner Gary Bettman too dumb to realize that or does he simply not care?

 

Utah Utes Marshall Henderson suspended for hitting BYU player

Things get pretty heated between Beehive State rivals. From AP-

Utah freshman Marshall Henderson has been suspended one game for hitting a BYU player in a game last week.

Utes coach Jim Boylen said Monday that Henderson will sit out Wednesday against Colorado State.

Henderson was ejected with 34 seconds left in BYU’s 82-69 win over Utah on Saturday in Provo for a flagrant foul on Jackson Emery.

Emery was following Henderson along the baseline after the initial play and had some words for the Utah player, who hit Emery in the face with a backhand.

Under NCAA regulations, fighting warrants an automatic suspension. Is one game sufficient enough a penalty? I would have gone for two myself.

Here’s the incident on video. Note that the person who posted it to Youtube thinks Emery exaggerated the impact of the punch he received.

 

Former BYU Golf coach Karl Tucker dead at 83

As coach of the Cougars for 31 years, he worked with Johnny Miller, Mike Weir, Mike Reid, Buddy Allin, and Bobby Clampett. All of whom went on to win on the PGA Tour. RIP.

Karl Tucker, who built BYU’s golf program into a national power and sent dozens of players to the PGA Tour, died Friday at his home in Orem. He was 83.tucker_k

A member of the Utah Sports Hall of Fame and the Utah Golf Hall of Fame, Tucker is best known for coaching the Cougars to the 1981 NCAA championship. His 31-year career, which ended in 1992, also was highlighted by two second-place finishes and 13 top-five placements in the national tournament, remarkable achievements for a cold-weather school.

“He’s just legendary,” said Bruce Brockbank, who played for Tucker, assisted him and then followed him as BYU’s coach. “There are so many people who were influenced by him.”

Tucker created strong loyalty, as evidenced by the way so many golfers have come back regularly for Cougar Day, joining in a fund-raising tournament for the program. He coached nine first-team All-Americans, including Johnny Miller and Mike Reid, who went on to long and successful tour careers. Mike Weir, a member of Tucker’s last team, won the Masters in 2003.

Known for trademark expressions such as “Just go play” — his way of telling golfers to disregard the weather or any other potential excuses — Tucker usually succeeded in getting the most out of each player.

“His great gift as a coach was he had such a keen understanding of the personalities of college kids,” Reid said. “He knew us so well. He probably never read it in a book, he just knew that everybody was different. Two guys would make the same mistake — one, he would chew out; the other, he would ignore.”

Citing Tucker’s outgoing nature, Reid one joked that nobody played golf for BYU “without learning how to talk.” Miller, Jim Nelford and Bobby Clampett became network broadcasters, while Reid went from being shy and withdrawn to a polished speaker.

“He put BYU golf on the map,” Miller said in a Utah Golf Association posting. “He had a great personality and was a great recruiter. He got people to come to BYU, even with the Utah weather.”

 

Are you ready for some bowling? II

No I’m not talking about some middle aged man propelling a ball at some objects at the end of a lane, but the games that climax every college football season. Bowl season officially starts this afternoon, here are the matchups for all the college football fanatics out there.

Note- I gave the shortened name version of all the upcoming games. Also I listed what broadcast network would be televising the game and what time they would be coming on the air. All times are Eastern Standard.

Dec 19

New Mexico- Fresno State vs. Wyoming 4:30 p.m. ESPN
St. Petersburg- Central Florida vs. Rutgers 8 p.m. ESPN

Dec 20

R+L Carriers New Orleans- Southern Miss vs. Middle Tennessee 8:30 p.m. ESPN

Dec 22

MAACO Las Vegas- Oregon State vs. BYU 8 p.m. ESPN

Dec 23

Poinsettia- Utah vs. Cal 8 p.m. ESPN

Dec 24

Sheraton Hawaii- Nevada vs. SMU 8 p.m. ESPN
Dec 26

Little Caesars- Marshall vs. Ohio 1 p.m. ESPN
Meineke- Pitt vs. North Carolina 4:30 p.m. ESPN
Emerald- Boston College vs. USC 8 p.m. ESPN

Dec 27

Music City- Kentucky vs. Clemson 8:30 p.m. ESPN

Dec 28

Independence- Texas A&M vs. Georgia 5 p.m. ESPN2

Dec 29

EagleBank- UCLA vs. Temple 4:30 p.m. ESPN
Champs Sports- Miami vs. Wisconsin 8 p.m. ESPN

Dec 30

Humanitarian- Bowling Green vs. Idaho 4:30 p.m. ESPN
Holiday- Arizona vs. Nebraska 8 p.m. ESPN

Dec 31

Armed Forces- Houston vs. Air Force Noon ESPN
Sun- Oklahoma vs. Stanford 2 p.m. CBS
Texas- Navy vs. Missouri 3:30 p.m. ESPN
Minnesota vs. Iowa State 6 p.m. NFL Network
Chick-fil-A- Virginia Tech vs. Tennessee 7:30 p.m. ESPN

Jan 1

Outback- Northwestern vs. Auburn 11 a.m. ESPN
Capital One- Penn State vs. LSU 1 p.m. ABC
Gator- West Virginia vs. Florida State 1 p.m. CBS
Rose Bowl- Ohio State vs. Oregon 4:30 p.m. ABC
Sugar- Cincinnati vs. Florida 8:30 p.m. FOX

Jan 2

International- South Florida vs. Northern Illinois Noon ESPN2
Papajohns.com- South Carolina vs. UConn 2 p.m. ESPN
Cotton- Oklahoma State vs. Ole Miss 2 p.m. FOX
Liberty- Arkansas vs. East Carolina 5:30 p.m. ESPN
Valero Alamo- Michigan State vs. Texas Tech 9 p.m. ESPN

Jan 4

Fiesta- Boise State vs. TCU 8 p.m. FOX

Jan 5

FedEx Orange- Iowa vs. Georgia Tech 8 p.m. FOX

Jan 6th

GMAC- Central Michigan vs. Troy 7 p.m. ESPN

Jan 7th

BCS National Championship Game- Texas vs. Alabama Jan. 7 8 p.m.

Some random notes on the above 34 games

*- 19 of the 34 games are not scheduled till Dec. 31st or later. I guess college football fanatics are expected to flip channels very quickly on those 3 days(Dec 31-Jan 2) when 15 games are being aired.
*- What a downer must it be for Oregon State players and fans. A few weeks ago they were one win from a Rose Bowl trip. Instead they lost to Oregon and are playing in a minor bowl before Christmas.
*- The NFL network televises a college football game. I guess that’s the cable sports equivalent of the Sci-Fi channel showing wrestling….
*- The bowls are now set where now certain conference finishers are locked into the same bowl games every year. I understand why the current system is done, but I prefer the day when bowl games would have greater variance from year to year. The Peach bowl would usually invite a ACC or SEC school but they could be creative, like when they invited Army and Illinois. Wouldn’t a SEC team against BYU or Wyoming be nice for a change?
*- Bobby Bowden’s farewell game is against the same school(West Virginia) that he left before coming to Florida State. I do know FSU and WV have played at least twice previously in bowls during the Bowden-Florida State era.

 

U of New Mexico soccer player Elizabeth Lambert suspended indefinitely

This for her actions in a recent Mountain West Conference semifinals versus BYU. From AP-

New Mexico women’s soccer defender Elizabeth Lambert has been suspended indefinitely after engaging in rough play — including hauling an opposing player to the ground by her pony tail — in the Lobos’ 1-0 loss to BYU in the Mountain West Conference semifinals.

Lambert is prohibited from taking part in practices, games and conditioning, coach Kit Vela announced Friday.

“Liz is a quality student-athlete, but in this instance her actions clearly crossed the line of fair play and good sportsmanship,” Vela said.

Video footage of the game shows Lambert, a junior, committing a series of excessively rough plays, including kicking, tackles, a forearm shiver to the back — in response to an elbow to the ribs — and yanking BYU forward Kassidy Shumway to the ground by her hair.

Lambert was assessed a yellow card during the 76th minute, apparently for tripping.

Lambert apologized for her actions.

Here’s a video of what happened. Warning the audio isn’t too good.

Her actions may have been provoked but are still uncalled for. I do think Lambert could have a future in another sport. How good is she at ice skating? Watch out Mountain West women’s hockey players.

 
 


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