2012 - Page 6 of 114 - Last Word On Sports

Hammer Radio: Review of UFC on Fox 5, Rousey Fight Preview

Posted on December 13, 2012November 5, 2021 by Ben Kerr

The Boys at the Hammer feature weekly coverage of all things MMA. This week they are back from Montreal with a new episode recapping the experience at UFC 154 and you can listen to the archived podcast by clicking here. Hammer Radio 123.

“Not only did the UFC put on one of the best fight cards of the year last week in UFC on Fox 5: Henderson vs. Diaz, but they are following it up with two promising Ultimate Fighter finales on this weekend. As a result, our show is going a little long this week.

We also cover all of the week’s MMA news including the first ever UFC women’s fight in February and all of the drama surrounding it already, some Bellator news, and the unexpected retirement of top Canadian fighter Mark Hominick.”

The Hammer features LastWordOnSports’ own writer Greg Persson, long time internet superstar Steve Jeffrey, and is hosted by MMA aficionado Dave Abraham.

The Hammer has had interviews with some of the biggest names in MMA over the years, including BJ Penn, Dan Henderson, Sean Sherk, Mark Coleman, Rory MacDonald, Brendan Schaub, Mark Bocek, John Makdessi, Mark Hominick, Martin Kampmann, Johnny Hendrix, and others. They continue to bring unparalleled, independent coverage of all things MMA to fans of the sport.

They’ll give you the straight goods and the Last Word.

Don’t forget to tune into “Friday is MMA Night” on Last Word Radio from 9-10pm EST. If you miss the show, it will be available in our archives or on iTunes for podcast download.

Also, check out our BRAND NEW sports forums!

Jack'd off: The Bills in Toronto Series

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Jack Stone

You know what Jack’d me off this time? The Bills playing their annual “home” game in Toronto.

I was debating about going to the game this week until I found out it was in Toronto instead of Buffalo. Why? Well there are many reasons, some of which are football related, while most others are issues are atmosphere-related.

In Buffalo: When the game is in Buffalo the police are incredibly lenient and care little even if you drink a beer right in front of them on the street. This makes for a great tailgate. I’m not suggesting that drinking in the streets alone makes my day complete, I’m just saying that the more laid back atmosphere as a whole does, and drinking in the streets just happens to be a perfect example of that. To me the best part of the day is the tailgate party at the Ralph. I also enjoy the drunken Americans from Tonawanda, Hamburg, Lockport and Cheektowaga that you can only get at the Ralph. They give a good laugh and put up with my teasing – overall, they provide good entertainment and are great people.

In Toronto: Conversely, in Toronto you don’t have the freedom of drinking beer in the streets – something about public displays of intoxication – blah blah. This certainly puts a damper on the tailgating. Again, not just the drinking in the streets, the atmosphere… stay with me. There is also the lavish ticket prices and parking costs in Toronto, which for the same price would fetch you a small apartment in downtown Buffalo.

All and all when I go to an NFL game, I want to wake up at 7:00 am, start slamming some brews while I wait for my driver to show up (No, I don’t take turns – I don’t feel the need to offer to take a turn driving). I like to get to Buffalo around 9:00 and find a variety store to buy my tailgating beer…unless I can convince my chauffeur to stop at the Duty Free. I throw my steak on the Charcoal grill, and throw the pigskin around while slamming back a few more. I chat it up with a few thousand other fans, and then enjoy my football game.

Photocredit: Wladyslaw, Wiki Commons

Coaching Options in the Wake of the George Cortez Firing

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Carl Mostacci

Before I start, I’m happy to be back writing for Last Word On Sports after an extended leave to deal with personal issues. During my hiatus all went wrong in my football world (though I’m not necessarily correlating the two). The Hamilton Tiger-Cats went 2-5 down the stretch, falling well short of pre-season expectations, and were eliminated from playoff contention in their last regular season game by the hated Toronto Argonaut team that was playing their third and fourth string players. McMaster University, my alma mater, lost the Vanier Cup to Laval, and the Argonauts won the Grey Cup thanks in-large part to Kevin Glenn and the Calgary Stampeders not showing up for the game. It couldn’t get worse.

The 2012 Hamilton Tiger Cats season can simply be summed up in one word. Disappointing. They signed the off-season’s biggest free agent Andy Fantuz, and traded for veteran quarterback Henry Burris. They also bagged prize receiver Sam Giguere. I thought they would have made the Eastern Final for sure. If you would have told me prior to the 2012 season starting, the Cats would not have made the playoffs I would have laughed in your face. Now people are laughing in mine.

The Cats had the best offence and worst defense in the 2012 CFL season. Ultimately the the old motto “Defence Wins Championships” rings true. Hamilton’s defence cost them at least five games this past season. The offence on most nights would put up in the neighbourhood of 30 points per game, usually plenty enough to win a CFL game. The problem is the defence would give up more.

Coaching changes had to be made because the current staff didn’t get the job done. The defensive co-ordinator had to be addressed. Casey Creehan helped take care of that last week by bolting back to Winnipeg in a lateral move. I didn’t expect the Tiger Cats to fire Cortez because he had three years remaining on his $300,000/year contract, and I know the Cats can’t afford to pay a coach to sit at home. I thought he would have been given half of the 2013 season and his fate would be decided on how the team was performing at that time.

Cortez struggled as coach in 2012. He often seemed confused on the sidelines, didn’t know what was going on, and made poor decisions (like not challenging the S.J. Green catch against Montreal in late August – inexcusable). For these reasons, I feel Hamilton made the right decision yesterday. Now here are candidates I feel the Cats should hire to fill these vacant positions:

GM: Eric Tillman– He struggled in Edmonton, and got himself in trouble with “other” issues. He has built winning teams in BC, Edmonton and unfortunately Toronto, so he definitely has success and experience on his side.

Head Coach: Paul LaPolice– I’m sure he knows how to count by now. Even though he allowed that stupid Swaggerville thing to go on in Winnipeg last year, he can put together a winning football team with the pieces the Ticats have. News has circulated the team is interested in Kent Austin, but we will need to validate the rumour before seriously considering it.

Offensive Co-ordinator – George Cortez– Now you may think I’m nuts, but Cortez has been a multiple Grey Cup winner, building teams on the offensive side of the ball, most recently with the Calgary Stampeders in 1998. Again the Cats had the best offence in the CFL in 2012 – it was the defence let them down.

Defensive Co-ordinator – Rich Stubler and Don Sutherin are two other defensive co-ordinators that struggled as head coaches and then swallowed their pride only to return again as successful defensive co-ordinators. My pick, however, is Greg Marshall. He had the best defence I’ve seen in this town since the Don Sutherin days. I know he could make this defence better with the pieces it already has, and upgrades to the secondary unit.

What do you think?

My Pint Runneth Dry on Diving Culture

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Michael Kovacs, ADMIN

There is not a shortage of blokes highly critical of “diving” as being nothing short of an epidemic. I am one. While you can Google “diving in football” and be directed to quite literally millions of articles, blogs, videos, podcasts and whatever newfangled piece of digital literature is available these days. So why then am I insisting on adding one more to the lot? Well, I just think it (diving) is much like water in a pasta pot that is splattering over the rim, ready to cause havoc on your new flat-burner stove. It needs to be carefully controlled so as not wreck the integrity of the noodles (the game) inside, yet save dinner (the culture at large). The difficulty I face, as do so many others, is that I’m hungry and I rather like pasta. And while I also enjoy a fine ale with my pasta (as I do with most other things), my pint once again runneth dry. In fact, it’s 3/4 empty, leaving me hanging by a single noodle. Yet there is light at the end, which you shall see if you will only indulge me a few minutes…

This past weekend we had two incredibly blatant episodes of diving. One from Serie A and another from the Prem. First up, Arsenal were in a precarious situation as they limped into a match with West Brom after having lost points in the previous hundred matches (give or take). My Gunners (yes, I consider myself a shareholder seeing as how I spend a near fortune on Gunner swag) brought a mostly complete first team (minus Giroud) to face WBA. I’m not sure if I can sum it up any better by saying the performance was despicable. Piers Morgan, who as critical of the team as they come despite claiming to be a huge supporter, was for once spot on – how can we not be blaming Arsene Wenger?

I digress.

As the score was knotted at zeroes, Santi Cazorla was in the box and went down easily. As soon as I saw it I was hoping a reply would prove my suspicions wrong, but that wasn’t the case. There was no contact, yet he fell. Ugh, I hate that. I really like Santi but that made me cringe. The result was an easy PK, which was enough to win the match for AFC. They did add another penalty goal later on, but that wasn’t a horrible call at least.

I like to think I am at least somewhat unbiased, as difficult as that can be sometimes. This was a ~~bad~~ ridiculous dive that was the eventual game winner. Something should have been done then, and after having seen the video footage umpteen times, some discipline should have been handed out since. Yet life at London Colney moves forward all the same (relatively speaking – I’m not sure Arsene Wenger would agree).

So the Cazorla dive was bad, BUT it wans’t the worst, as what is being touted as one of the worst ever offences of diving occurred in the Serie A in a match between Juventus and Palermo.

Juve were up 1-nil when Leonardo Bonucci ran the length of the pitch and came face to face with Palermo’s keeper. When his motion was stopped, he flopped. Badly. Actually, he even fell backward despite not even being in the same area code as the keeper. His bluff was called, and rightly the referee stepped in and sent him packing for the afternoon, and as a result will miss the next match as well. That was the silver lining in case you didn’t pick up on that.

But our story doesn’t end there. We all remember the unfortunate instances surrounding Piermario Morosini last year. The Serie B player fell to the ground in a match last year and minutes later passed away. It is my belief that the referees didn’t stop play straight away as a direct result of diving in football culture. When he fell (which obviously wasn’t a dive) it was not taken as seriously, and the time between when he fell and when medical staff were allowed on the pitch was far too long. Whether they might have revived him if allowed on earlier I obviously have no idea, but there is that possibility. I mean no disrespect in saying that, I’m just pointing out a growing concern.

There are two ways to look at this situation – there are those who believe it is just part of the game and culture, and others who more fiercely want to see it curbed. While Serie A officials reacted, Premier League officials did not. What needs to happen is immediate, more severe discipline. While tying the offender up and kicking him in the gonads until he agrees to refrain from diving ever again might seem like a good idea, a better one might be:

a. Penalize the offending team either monetarily or by losing points

b. Penalize the player by adding suspensions for repeat offences, increasing in severity

For me the choice is between penalizing the player or the team. What do you think?

Have your say by adding your two cents/pence/euros below, or join thousands of footy fans on a rapidly growing football community – Reddit Football!

NHL Happy Hour: CBA Leaked-News Prohibition

Posted on December 12, 2012November 5, 2021 by Maksim Vasilyev

Hello and welcome to the Internet.

Or the boring version: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Internet_map_4096.png

Once you Visit the internet you will never leave and sometimes you are here without even being aware of it. It is a place filled with infinite knowledge, gossip, trends, and news that all spread faster than a fire in a room filled with newspapers soaked in gasoline inside a house made out of paper and dry pine. This place can shock you, make you insensitive to gore/pornography, and even be dangerous if you’re too naive. It is a place full of ugly and plenty of beautiful. The biggest “IT” about the inter-webs is that this place is addictive, like special K and Blue Sky (for our Breaking Bad fans) addictive. Nothing is really private on the Internet and nothing ever gets deleted, it can only be lost.

Much like a bar scene in a big city. You have your good spots and your iffy spots and some locations you try to avoid at all times. You’re reading this because, like me, you are a hockey fan and like me you probably scowl at your girlfriend’s tabloid magazines, while in reality you are hungry for gossip yourself. Your heroin mix is not filled with glitz, glamor, and bikini shots, but filled with mustaches, blood, and guts. You think so anyway.

Hockey news, or any sport news, is still mostly gossip and speculation and while we used to turn to newspapers, radios, and Sportcenter years back, we get our fix on the Internet these days. Our beloved stream of whispers is mixed in with opinions and detailed statistical breakdowns. It is faster than older or more traditional mediums and leaves lots more room to speculate, guess, and participate in the said speculation and guessing. The Internet is awesome for gossip as it can take a rumor to myth then to legend status in minutes, not years (see: “Gangnam Style”). Twitter and other forums are just a huge scale of broken telephones games, and while some of you will point to reliable sources, most can’t help to get baited and be exposed to the rumors and arguments or conversations that keep the gossip machine pumping. (See Michael Kovacs’ take on Premier League Soccer Gossip)

Sometimes we even get our skirts and boats shots.

The point? Well this lockout is quite frustrating to those who are sucking on the info tit. It’s frustrating because while we may be aware of all the details and whereabouts of what celebrity had who at whichever NYC hotel with pictures to boot, we could barely get any leaks of these god damned negotiations. I mean not even a blurry pic of Bettman at a table or any significant recordings of negotiations behind the closed doors. We have Presidential candidates being taped secretly during their election campaigns, but not Donald Fehr or Gary Bettman? C’mon Man!

To me this is a failure on the Internet’s part (Looking at you, imaginary investigators). I really expected in this day and age where people can find everything about a girl who let her dog poop on a train based on a few clips of YouTube, to come through with some real info leakage. Instead we are baby fed crumb by crumb of details through your McKenzies and Dregers. It is both frustrating and infuriating. I know these are private negotiations, but damn it, they are our teams. It would be nice to know the details, the true conversation vibes, and the true causes for lack of hockey right now, instead of the speculations and blame games we seem to be participating in. Not to mention the sort of media warfare that both NHL and NHLPA are playing to win/lose fans’ grace.

It must be said something about the trust and secrecy from both parties. The amount of information, or lack thereof, that is being leaked is impressive. You have conference calls with hundreds of players and we do not have access to any of it. It would be nice as a paying customer to judge these “bright” minds in what they are doing and their true intentions. I understand that these negotiations cannot be made public, than again I can see a great benefit to it, but the fact that not much has been exposed is frustrating. I would love to get my hands on some of the private e-mails between the players and maybe a few messages between Gary Bettman and Jacobs. Those would be immensely intense pieces of information that could help us clear the air and shine some bright consumer justice light into these negotiations. The few leaks here and there seemed to be carefully placed crumbs for us to find that help shift the opinion of the fans and media alike. It does all seem rather forced and not as genuine or transparent. We are being left out of these negotiations no matter how much both sides plead with us about how much fans matter.

The type of leaked information and news that I would want to see would be along the lines of this. This article from sun-sentinel.com goes over some numbers that you would usually assume about a Florida based hockey franchise, they are a poor team struggling to pay the bills. Then we get government audits of one of the NHL’s poster boy poor franchises, and low and behold… they make money. Interesting, no? While the execs at the NHL head office preach about poor teams, yet NHL is setting record revenue, when we put some of the numbers under the microscope, things change.

“It is difficult to assess what the lockout is costing the Panthers. But the county audit shows that arena profits dipped to their low point of $1.024 million when the 2004-05 season was lost to a lockout, and jumped to $11.7 million the next year when the NHL returned.”

So this makes you wonder right? What are the true financial numbers and who is really losing money? It is obviously clear that if a team owns their own stadium, or at-least the teams owner owns the stadium the team plays in, they make money not just from Hockey Related Revenue. Beer, parking, hot-dogs, and everything else that ends up in the arena coffers is helping the owners of these teams come out in the black. The fact that some of these franchises are losing money will probably help them with their tax breaks from the government, but does not change the fact that it still ends up profitable for these corporations to continue to own hockey teams. This information is what we need leaked and it has been tightly locked away from the general public.

It also, for the lack of a better term, stinks that our hockey gossip has been filled with nothing but a single topic of the damn lockout. Experts that are sharing thoughts and expertise on this topic have popped up everywhere someone can write something worth a penny or two (We have been busy bees ourselves). While our minds have already been conditioned over the past 7 years or more to expect news, results, and information at almost instant rate, the lockouts delays or the filter each side is using is quite frustrating. There is not much to know and not much that we can do. Not Anonymous (not one is a hockey fan?), not older players (@Jeremy_Roenick), and not even fan made videos have had an impact, and while we usually have an impact as a world wide Internet community on issues impacting our daily lives, we are being withheld and slightly shunned from this process.

So while this was a rather dry Happy Hour, which is highly irregular, for hockey fans it has not been that happy either.

photo credit: bridgetds via photopin cc

College Spotlight: West Coast Conference

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Alex Ivic

Welcome back to another College Spotlight. This time we take a quick peak at the West Coast Conference. If you missed last week’s installment on the Mountain West Conference, or my look at the dominant ACC, definitely check them out.

The WCC is a 9 team conference based out of… well the West Coast. There are three teams in the WCC that could make the tournament and make some noise while they are there. There is a substantial drop in talent after the top tier however, so expect a few blow-outs during the conference schedule. Overall the WCC is on the rise, with the overall talent rising every year, so expect a deeper conference and big things in the next 2-3 years.

1. Gonzaga- the established power and class of the conference. They have been in March Madness for the last 14 years, winning the WCC tournament 10 times in the same span. With a talented frontcourt in Elias Harris & Kelly Olynyk, and the best backcourt in the conference featuring Kevin Pangos & Gary Bell, they should come out on top once again.

2. St. Mary’s- my head tells me to pick BYU here, but my heart is saying St. Mary’s… This team will struggle some nights as they are not very deep, but their starting five can score in bunches and have good fundamentals all around. Led by Australian Matthew Dellavedova, a crafty guard that is scoring over 18 ppg, and percentage wise is shooting the holy grail of 50/40/90 (FG, FT, 3PT).

3. BYU- This a nicely balanced team, with established role players to complement the two big scorers. After completing two years of missionary work, Tyler Haws has returned mature and torching the mesh at 20 ppg, while senior Brandon Davies complements him well in the post at 18 ppg.

4. Loyola Marymount- Another high scoring team led by Anthony Ireland, they could have 5 players scoring in double-digits by years’ end. Will challenge the top teams, and is knocking on the door to make this a 4 team race in the next couple years.

5. Santa Clara- senior leadership, contributors at all positions, and solid coaching. The problem is they just do not have the talent to really challenge the top-tier teams. Will score a ton of points and beat up on the weaker teams, but should be outclassed with the larger programs.

6. San Diego- surprised many critics last year, finishing 6th in the WCC. Have their core players back and should be able to make a little noise with the extra year of seasoning. Could move up to 4 or 5.

7. San Francisco- Don’t expect big things from the Dons, as intimidating as their name sounds. This is the real unknown in the conference and could finish anywhere from 5-8. They had a number of established eligible players leave after last season, and have replaced with some solid if unspectacular players, so they are a tough to team to evaluate over the season right now.

8. Pepperdine- with Lorne Jackson returning from a season-ending injury last season, many expect the Pepperdine team to rebound into the middle of the conference, I am not one of those people. They have an extremely thin front line, and I am not a big believer in Jackson staying healthy through the conference schedule after his ACL tear last season.

9. Portland- The Pilots will struggle this year, and will be lucky to match the 7-24 record of last year.

There you have it, the West Coast Conference. Don’t forget to check back here next week as we look at another conference as things rev up in College Basketball. Until then, kick your feet up and watch some roundball.

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Week 14 Top and Bottom Power Rankings

Posted on December 12, 2012August 3, 2022 by Jack Stone

The NFL season is winding down – only three games left to go! For some teams it’s a critical one game at a time mentality, where as for others three games might seem like an eternity and wish they could just get to their vacation homes or bury their heads in sand. But for us, to the battle for last place we go!

28. Philadelphia Eagles – Finally! A win! But hey, rookie QB Nick Foles looked great. The only smidgeon of redemption this Eagles team could have is if Foles can keep up the good work. It is definitely gonna be an interesting off season in Philly.

29. Oakland Raiders – Again, we can’t have four teams ranked 32 unfortunately, so the Raiders get 29 basically by default. They continue to lose, but others seem to just lose by more. They have the Kansas City Chiefs this Sunday coming up, and if they can’t win that game, they will never ever win another game, possibly ever.

30. Arizona Cardinals – I finally get to throw them in my Bottom 5 and that 58-0 loss to Seattle on Sunday was just what I needed to slam them down to 30. Their remaining schedule is: vs Detroit, vs Chicago, and @ San Francisco. Could they possibly start the season 4-0 and finish 4-12… Thats unheard of, yet entirely possible.

31. Jacksonville Jaguars – Their 17-10 loss to the New York Jets was pretty damn boring football, but they were only good enough the second most embarrassing team of the week.

32. Kansas City Chiefs – They got blown out 30 – 7. By Cleveland. The Cleveland Browns. * cough cough * I didn’t even think the Chiefs were that bad but they’ve proven me wrong. I hope the draft is good to them!

And now to the Big Deals, where that big Pats/Texans Monday Nighter and Falcons loss played some major factors on some big change in our rankings!

5. San Francisco 49ers – Suddenly the 49ers have a battle for their division. They play @ New England next, and follow that game @ Seattle. Basically the 49ers playoffs begin this Sunday, so it’s time to see what tricks Harbaugh has been hiding!

4. Denver Broncos – The Broncos are playing in Baltimore this Sunday. That’s a tough building to get out of alive, let’s see how they do because it could mean a ratings swap. That said, the Ravens don’t always play well in big games at home.

3. Houston Texans – After being slapped around on Monday Night Football, they need to win out the remaining three games to keep that home field advantage for the playoffs. This is a team that needs home field to make it to the Super Bowl. God knows they don’t want to see Foxboro ever again!

2. New England Patriots – Beating the hell out of the Texans was impressive, but they have another tough battle on home turf with the 49ers. A loss for the Pats could see them drop in the standings, as Baltimore and Denver are breathing down their neck.

1. Atlanta Falcons – Bad loss to Carolina, and playing the Giants next could result in a 2-game losing streak. Something they definately don’t need near playoff time. However they remain number one because they can afford to lose another game and still win the NFC, securing home field for the playoffs. I’m venturing to guess this might not be a popular choice, but I hope Matt Ryan will prove me right.

Some shifting going on in the ranks, but wait until next week. It’s worthy to take a look at the schedule we have upcoming – Broncos @ Ravens, 49ers @ Patriots, Giants @ Falcons, Colts @ Texans…. Oh and let’s not forget the game of the week, Kansas City @ Oakland! Now that will be “entertainment”.

Don’t forget to catch “The Fastest 30 Minutes in the NFL” every Sunday at 8pm on Last Word Radio. Catch archived shows at our Radio home, on iTunes or in our main page sidebar. And don’t forget to tune in every weeknight from 8-10pm EST to “Beyond the Field” as the boys from Tailgate Radio invite some amazing guests for lively banter.

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photo credit: Keith Allison via photopin cc

My Pint Runneth Dry on Transfer Chatter

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Michael Kovacs, ADMIN

We’ve all fallen for it. Some of us love it, and others cringe yet still fall for its sex appeal. You’ve Googled or Bing’d it whether you’d admit to it or not. You’ve secretly wished it to be true in some cases and in others hoped like hell it wouldn’t come to fruition. It is of transfer chatter that I speak of, and that has left my pint 3/4 empty.

Insane transfer speculation is so engrained in our everyday footy daily routines that we barely lift an eyebrow at even the most ridiculous theories. How about the one this past week that had Sir Alex Ferguson on his way out to make room for Jose Mourinho? Jesus, really? You couldn’t think of something more realistic? How about three different teams said to have locked up Pep Guardiola for January (two of them from the EPL and one from Bundesliga)? I won’t bore you with headline after headline, most of which would either leave you with headache or cause you to be so intrigued that you’d forget all about me and head to Google. Either way, it’s not in my best interest. Already I have lost 20% of those who started reading who are now on some stupid blog that is claiming Sir Al was spotted in Munich. Good riddance.

Here’s the thing, I actually get why people dream up these scenarios – they’re trying to sell something, obviously. Whether it be newspapers, magazines, books, or their own soles to the devil, amateur writers (which I am one in case you didn’t already figure that out) are in an incredibly competitive market. Some are willing to do whatever it takes to get noticed and either become the next big thing or else sell some ad space. Either way, there is a motive other than pure and utter lunacy – though I suppose both could be true.

Do these people serve a purpose? I suppose they do seeing as how they are still running their sites. Some are so good at it that they have lucrative jobs that pay them to dream this garbage up. So who’s the sucker, them or us? Look, if I see a headline that reads, “Messi spotted in London Colney With His Agent” I would have to put my head between my knees for fear of passing out (in a good way) or may just go play in heavy traffic. I would certainly read it – I’m not trying to be hypocritical here. I just think “reporting” has become so out of control that nothing surprises me, and I’ve grown to not trust anything I read. So if we can’t trust anything we read, what’s the point in reading it in the first place?

We read it because a) it’s fun to dream, and b) it’s a story-starter. That is, footy fans congregate. They gather together whether at the water cooler or via Twitter or on some message board. Football fans love to talk and what more interesting thing to talk about then transfer talk? All of our teams are involved, and each, if you believe those “reporters”, have some big plans that are just around the corner.

Finding those few credible sources is important, however, and when you do it’s helpful to share and give kudos to those responsible journalists. There are several who I follow very closely, some directly reporting on Arsenal, and others on the Premier League and the football world as a whole. I have found them to not always be the first to report a story – that is not the important part for me. What I have found them to be is respectful, up front and candid in their transfer reporting. Most importantly though, they are accurate, and that’s what I appreciate most.

So while I drain what’s left of my rapidly depleting ale, I tip my hat to those responsible journalists and snub those who are reporting that Jack Wilshere is set to leave the Emirates. Bugger off!

What do you think? Feel free to leave comments below, or join thousands of footy fans on a rapidly growing football community – Reddit Football!

Follow me on Twitter – @PintRunnethDry

photo credit: thesportreview via photopin cc

College Basketball Lecture Notes: Games of the Week

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Alex Ivic

There was some good basketball in college hoops this past week, but no compelling story lines or upsets. This is evidenced by the fact the AP Poll Top 25 contains the exact same teams as last week, with only a few changes in spots. The truth is that while there are a few solid games every week in December, it is good for college hoops to have a little lull before conference play begins in January. It allows these students to focus on exams and complete the semester, and it allows coaches to work through any issues their team is having and add some new wrinkles to their playbook. The result as a whole is that we have rested, sharp, and eager basketball teams ready to go at a high level on January 1.

Games of the week

#5 Florida @ #8 Arizona– This is a battle of two established high-scoring teams. The Florida Gators are a legit final four contender, and are coming off a very convincing dismantling of Florida State. When Bradley Beal left early for the NBA, the overall firepower of this team noticeably dropped. This team reminds me of Billy Donovan’s national championship teams in 2006 and 2007. They are an aggressive team that plays full court defence, which creates a bunch of easy offence for them every game. Their half court offence is just as scary with a deep group of guards, a dominant big man in Young, and a match up nightmare in Erik Murphy. Murphy is 6’10” that can score in the post, mid-range, from three, and is smart enough to take whatever the defence gives him.

Arizona is a completely perimeter-oriented team, with the vast majority of their scoring from their wing players. They rely on their post guys to clean the glass, clog up the lane, and score around the rim on put-backs. This game will largely come down to Arizona’s ability to stay composed in the face of Florida’s full court pressure, if they can do that they have a shot. Even with the advantage of playing at home, Arizona will probably fall to the Gators this week.

#1 Indiana vs. Butler – On paper this may seem like a huge mismatch, and it could very well be, but there is potential here for an excellent game. This is a neutral site game and is part of the Close the Gap Crossroads Classic. This yearly event showcases Indiana basketball, and the importance it has on the culture there. The four most iconic schools in Indiana (Butler, Indiana, Notre Dame, and Purdue) face-off in a pair of games, with the match-ups rotating each year. The atmosphere of obsessive Indiana basketball fans is exactly the sort of non-conference rivalry games that will continue to grow the game. Indiana is a complete team and deserving of the #1 spot (or maybe #2). They have skill, size, athleticism, and play together extremely well. Even with the loss of Austin Etherington for the season with a broken patella, Indiana should be able win against Butler and remain undefeated going into their Big 10 conference schedule in January.

Butler on the other hand has had an average start to their season. They do not have the overall talent level of the last few years, but have excellent guard play at times. When you combine perimeter scorers, gritty defence, and a desire to beat the in-state rival… you can very often throw out the rankings and just enjoy a great basketball game!

There you have our Games of the Week. Check back next week and we’ll give you a glimpse into the games you cannot afford to miss. Just kick back, put your feet up and enjoy some roundball!