Joe Soriano
O.J. Lewis3/22 Sports Review: More NCAA Tourney
I could not make a 3/21 review, so sorry about that. There were two huge upsets in Kansas and Villanova. Both were forseeable, but Kansas's upset was shocking.
My Michigan State found their way into the sweet sixteen from a buzzer beater against Maryland. Deja vu is sweet Greivis. Superstar Kalin Lucas was injured, but the man in his place hit that 3. Korie Lucious took them to an 85-83 win.
Wesley Johnson decided to be "selfish". Whatever it was, it certainly helped the Orange. Johnson had 14 rebounds and 31 points as Syracuse routed Gonzaga. Cuse also shot well from the arc. Looks like Jay Bilas sort of knew what he was talking about. Cornell destroyed Wisconsin and will be in the Sweet 16.
Bad news. Lucas's injury is a torn ACL. That means he is out for the tourney. Sadly enough, MSU must face a dangerous Northern Iowa team. Remember, Northern Iowa beat Kansas. Chris Kramer is an awesome defender, but his clutch offensive overtime play got Purdue the victory. Many people said that without Hummel, Purdue could not make the Sweet 16. They just did. His late drive to the hoop was the difference in a 63-61 victory over Texas A&M.
Duke, Ohio State, and West Virginia all won their games. Jordan Crawford keeps on rolling. He punished my Pittsburgh team with 27 points as Pitt was ousted. Xavier are a very good under-the-radar team. If you overlook them, you will pay dearly.
Here is a huge baseball news-bit. The Minnesota Twins got a new deal done with the best catcher in baesball. 184 million dollars over eight years will be paid out to Joe Mauer. That is about 23 million dollars per, and a well earned 23 million for Mauer. He was MVP last year, is the best player on the Twins, and he is on the cover of MLB 2010 the Show. Mauer is such a nice guy that he offered a 3 million per year discount. He knows he could have gotten much more on the open market, but he really wanted to keep playing with the Twins. Joe got his wish.
It gets worse. Joe Nathan will miss the entire season with an elbow injury. The Minnesota Twins have the daunting task of replacing him. Nathan is the second best closer in baseball after Mariano Rivera. This hurts me because Nathan is the closer on my fantasy baseball team.
After signing Eric Gagne to a minor league deal, the Los Angeles Dodgers released him soon after. Gagne is awful. Gagne used to be a premier closer, but now he is some fat guy that should just retire. In fact, Gagne asked for his release and the Dodgers gladly granted the gift.
Andrew Bynum is out two weeks. This hurts the Lakers a lot. Bynum is incredibly important to the team. Without him, Pau Gasol has to play out of position, they lose defense in the frontcourt, and just look at the last time Bynum did not play for stretch of two weeks.
The Atlanta Hawks will be in the playoffs after beating the San Antonio Spurs. Another Crawford had a big day. This will be the first time in Jamal Crawford's ten year career that he is on a team in the playoffs.
The Phoenix Suns beat the Portland Trail Blazers in a close and important game amid the playoff races. Andre Miller had 22 points and 9 assists for the Blazers, Brandon Roy had 23 and 8 boards, and Aldridge had a 16 point, 9 rebound game. For the Suns, Amare Stoudamire once again had a huge day. STAT accumulated 14 boards with 18 points. Grant Hill also had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Steve Nash had 17 points and 8 assists. That was just a little recap in the 93-87 Suns over Blazers victory. With that win, the Suns pushed themselves to the fifth seed, and the Thunder were bumped down to the sixth seed. The Blazers are in the eighth and final seeding and stand 5 games clear of the ninth seed Rockets.
The Rockets pounded the Knicks, and best of all, Tracy McGrady. The Indiana Pacers did marvelously in topping the Oklahoma City Thunder in a huge upset. They even held Kevin Durant to just 16 points. Beno Udrih led the Sacramento Kings to a win after an amazing Nash-like performance. He had 20 points with 17 assists. The Washington Wizards lost their eleventh straight game of the season. At least it was against the Lakers.
Selanne scored his 600th goal. That is a huge milestone. He is just the 18th person to do so. The Coyotes won their ninth straight while the Sharks lost their sixth straight in a 5-1 blowout against the league-worst Oilers. Pavelec had 44 saves to lead another Atlanta team to a win.
The Predators rallied past the Blues 3-2 by scoring 2 late goals. Kobasew scored 2 goals to help the Wild beat the Flames. The Bruins beat the Rangers and won a rare home game win. Hecht pushed the Sabres past the Hurricanes.
Today's MDA award is tough. There were so many great performances like Selanne, Pavelec, Udrih, Lucious, Mauer, Kramer, and Johnson. I love Michigan State, I love substitutes for injured superstar players winning games on a buzzer beater, and I love buzzer beaters. I will barely go with Lucious.
My Michigan State found their way into the sweet sixteen from a buzzer beater against Maryland. Deja vu is sweet Greivis. Superstar Kalin Lucas was injured, but the man in his place hit that 3. Korie Lucious took them to an 85-83 win.
Wesley Johnson decided to be "selfish". Whatever it was, it certainly helped the Orange. Johnson had 14 rebounds and 31 points as Syracuse routed Gonzaga. Cuse also shot well from the arc. Looks like Jay Bilas sort of knew what he was talking about. Cornell destroyed Wisconsin and will be in the Sweet 16.
Bad news. Lucas's injury is a torn ACL. That means he is out for the tourney. Sadly enough, MSU must face a dangerous Northern Iowa team. Remember, Northern Iowa beat Kansas. Chris Kramer is an awesome defender, but his clutch offensive overtime play got Purdue the victory. Many people said that without Hummel, Purdue could not make the Sweet 16. They just did. His late drive to the hoop was the difference in a 63-61 victory over Texas A&M.
Duke, Ohio State, and West Virginia all won their games. Jordan Crawford keeps on rolling. He punished my Pittsburgh team with 27 points as Pitt was ousted. Xavier are a very good under-the-radar team. If you overlook them, you will pay dearly.
Here is a huge baseball news-bit. The Minnesota Twins got a new deal done with the best catcher in baesball. 184 million dollars over eight years will be paid out to Joe Mauer. That is about 23 million dollars per, and a well earned 23 million for Mauer. He was MVP last year, is the best player on the Twins, and he is on the cover of MLB 2010 the Show. Mauer is such a nice guy that he offered a 3 million per year discount. He knows he could have gotten much more on the open market, but he really wanted to keep playing with the Twins. Joe got his wish.
It gets worse. Joe Nathan will miss the entire season with an elbow injury. The Minnesota Twins have the daunting task of replacing him. Nathan is the second best closer in baseball after Mariano Rivera. This hurts me because Nathan is the closer on my fantasy baseball team.
After signing Eric Gagne to a minor league deal, the Los Angeles Dodgers released him soon after. Gagne is awful. Gagne used to be a premier closer, but now he is some fat guy that should just retire. In fact, Gagne asked for his release and the Dodgers gladly granted the gift.
Andrew Bynum is out two weeks. This hurts the Lakers a lot. Bynum is incredibly important to the team. Without him, Pau Gasol has to play out of position, they lose defense in the frontcourt, and just look at the last time Bynum did not play for stretch of two weeks.
The Atlanta Hawks will be in the playoffs after beating the San Antonio Spurs. Another Crawford had a big day. This will be the first time in Jamal Crawford's ten year career that he is on a team in the playoffs.
The Phoenix Suns beat the Portland Trail Blazers in a close and important game amid the playoff races. Andre Miller had 22 points and 9 assists for the Blazers, Brandon Roy had 23 and 8 boards, and Aldridge had a 16 point, 9 rebound game. For the Suns, Amare Stoudamire once again had a huge day. STAT accumulated 14 boards with 18 points. Grant Hill also had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Steve Nash had 17 points and 8 assists. That was just a little recap in the 93-87 Suns over Blazers victory. With that win, the Suns pushed themselves to the fifth seed, and the Thunder were bumped down to the sixth seed. The Blazers are in the eighth and final seeding and stand 5 games clear of the ninth seed Rockets.
The Rockets pounded the Knicks, and best of all, Tracy McGrady. The Indiana Pacers did marvelously in topping the Oklahoma City Thunder in a huge upset. They even held Kevin Durant to just 16 points. Beno Udrih led the Sacramento Kings to a win after an amazing Nash-like performance. He had 20 points with 17 assists. The Washington Wizards lost their eleventh straight game of the season. At least it was against the Lakers.
Selanne scored his 600th goal. That is a huge milestone. He is just the 18th person to do so. The Coyotes won their ninth straight while the Sharks lost their sixth straight in a 5-1 blowout against the league-worst Oilers. Pavelec had 44 saves to lead another Atlanta team to a win.
The Predators rallied past the Blues 3-2 by scoring 2 late goals. Kobasew scored 2 goals to help the Wild beat the Flames. The Bruins beat the Rangers and won a rare home game win. Hecht pushed the Sabres past the Hurricanes.
Today's MDA award is tough. There were so many great performances like Selanne, Pavelec, Udrih, Lucious, Mauer, Kramer, and Johnson. I love Michigan State, I love substitutes for injured superstar players winning games on a buzzer beater, and I love buzzer beaters. I will barely go with Lucious.
In for Lucas, and in at the buzzer
