NCAA Baseball is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

We're now two days into the NCAA Division 1 Baseball Tournament, and my team has already lost. Luckily for East Carolina, this tournament is double-elimination. But if the Pirates hope to advance to the super-regional, they will need to win their next three games; two of them being today and one tomorrow.

After a 12-2 dismantling at the hands of South Carolina, ECU will play Binghamton at 2, and if they win, South Carolina at 6.

If they are to win both games today, they will play their fifth game in three days Monday against South Carolina, for a chance to advance. Rain postponed their Friday night game, moving it to Saturday morning at 10. They won that game 11-7 over Binghamton to advance in the winner's bracket.

The winner of the region will play the winner of the Chapel Hill region, which will likely be North Carolina. East Carolina and North Carolina split the two games this season, both teams winning at home.

Hopefully ECU can win their next three games and advance, but it will be a long shot. The way they played in their second game yesterday did not leave many fans optimistic, but today's a new day, it all depends on which ECU team shows up today and, hopefully, tomorrow.

Lakers, Kobe Secure Finals Spot

I was hoping to report to you all about Day 1 of the NCAA Baseball Tournament, but a band of thunderstorms ripped through the eastern part of North Carolina, knocking out power and postponing last night's game between East Carolina and Binghamton.

That game was moved to 10 a.m. this morning. East Carolina won 11-7 and will play South Carolina tonight at 6. Check back tomorrow where I will let you in on the experience.

As for the major event in the sporting world yesterday, the Lakers closed out the Nuggets in a game that was hardly interesting in the second half. That being the fault of the Nuggets who fell apart down the stretch, ending their season.

For the NBA, its a victory. Kobe will be in the Finals, now will LeBron's Cavaliers win their next two games and join them there? I wouldn't bet on it, but I've learned never to rule out King James, especially with the way he closed out game 5.

But as well as LeBron is playing, I see the Magic getting it done tonight. If Dwight Howard can keep from fouling out, Orlando will be tough to beat at home. I expecting a Lakers-Magic final.

LeBron and Laodicean

On a night where King James drops a triple-double to propel his team to a ten point win over the Magic extending the series to game six.

A night where a game between the Twins and the Red Sox featured both team's starting catchers and managers getting ejected arguing calls in the same inning.

On a night full of NCAA Division 1 Softball Tournament games.

I was tuned to the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Kavya Shivashankar of Virginia is your 2009 spelling bee champion, the new Akeelah if you will.

You know why I was watching the spelling bee? Because ESPN covered the first few rounds and the finals were on prime time ABC. I know what you're thinking... What was the deciding word? It was "Laodicean." It means lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics. Try using that in a sentence at some point throughout the day.

Enough with the spelling bee for now. Today I'm off to Greenville, North Carolina for the first round of the NCAA Division 1 Baseball Tournament. For those of you who don't know, I am currently a student at East Carolina University, who will be hosting Binghamton, George Mason, and South Carolina this weekend.

Check back tomorrow for news and notes from Day 1 of baseball's big dance.

Finals Rematch Great for NHL

The NHL got their wish: the most popular team in hockey, the Red Wings, will face Sid the Kid and the Penguins in a rematch of last year's Stanley Cup Finals in which the Wings won in six games.

The Pens will be fresh off their sweep of the Hurricanes, while Detroit is hoping to be healthy by the time game one rolls around.

Speaking of game one, congratulations to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman for actually doing something right, this is truly a rare occurrence. After all, he did cause the NHL to have a lock-out resulting in the loss of the 2004-05 season. Bettman had game one moved up to this Saturday, and will have game two on Sunday. A smart move to find time when the NBA Playoffs are off for a day.

To backtrack back to last night's game five between Detroit and Chicago, I must say it might have been the most interesting game of the playoffs. Yes, I know that Crosby and Ovechkin had hat-tricks in the same game, but defense wins championships, which is why I expect the Red Wings to take this finals series in no more than six games. Both Wings goalie Chris Osgood and Blackhawks goaltender Cristobal Huet were phenomenal. This could have easily been an offensive shoot-out, but both goalies stood on their heads time and time again. Christobal Huet made the save of the season with less than 15 seconds to go in regulation as he kicked his leg up while on his stomach to stone Detroit's Johan Franzen.

Darren Helm would eventually get the overtime winner giving Detroit a 2-1 win. Helm played an outstanding game. At one point while the Wings were short-handed, Helm carried the puck for 25 seconds while avoiding multiple Blackhawk defenders. He went under and around Chicago skaters and nearly scored on a wrap-around shot at the end of his shift. This resulted in a long standing ovation from the Detroit faithful.

It speaks volumes about Detroit that they won games five and six without their best forward in Pavel Datsyuk and their captain, Nicklas Lidstrom. They are the deepest team in the NHL.

So were two days away from the finals, can Sid the Kid and Evgeni Malkin stay hot and strip the cup from Hockeytown? I don't think so, but the games aren't played on paper. The fans are in for a treat over the next week or so to watch the two most talented teams in hockey square off with the ultimate prize on the line.

And Then There Were Three

In the first minute and 36 seconds, I can honestly say that I felt like a genius. Eric Staal scored on a wrap-around beating Fleury and giving the 'Canes an early lead. If you read an earlier post of mine, "Where's the Heart 'Canes?," you might recall that I predicted Staal would light the lamp.

A friend of mine before the series made an over/under bet with me regarding the number of points Eric Cole (who went the whole playoffs without a goal) and Rod Brind'Amour (who has found himself playing very limited minutes) would tally in the series. He said the number was three, and I, being the optimistic fan that I am, went with the over- meaning they would have to combine for four points.

Sure enough on Staal's goal, Eric Cole was given an assist, giving him and Brind'Amour a combined four assists for the series. So obviously at that point, I was feeling pretty good.

But of course the Penguins would storm back. Goals by Ruslan Fedotenko and Max Talbot sent the teams to the locker room with a 2-1 lead for Pittsburgh.

From there, it is appropriate to call the rest of the game, "The Marc-Andre Fleury Show." The 'Canes had tons of chances to score and tie the game up but just couldn't get past Fleury.

Then veteran Bill Guerin would deliver the goal that ended just about all hope of a comeback. An empty netter by former 'Cane Craig Adams would add insult to injury with just over a minute left.

The Penguins would go on to take the Prince of Whales Trophy for winning the Eastern Conference, and are ready to face most likely the Red Wings, who lead the series 3-1, but never count out a young and talented Blackhawks squad.

As for the Hurricanes, in the words of Leon of Cleveland's WEWS, "That's the way it goes sometimes. As dad always said, 'we'll get them next year.'"

Can They Live Up to the Hype?

The Kobe-LeBron NBA Finals has been hyped so much, that one cannot watch an NBA game without seeing the Vitamin Water commercial where people are debating whose better. These whole playoffs have been dedicated to getting a Lakers-Cavaliers all-star showdown for the ages.

Following a 120-101 loss to the Denver Nuggets, Kobe Bryant and his Los Angeles Lakers find themselves in a 2-2 deadlock in the Western Conference Finals.

Across the country, LeBron James and the Cavaliers trail their Eastern conference Finals series 2-1 to the Orlando Magic.

See the problem?

The Lakers should be okay, they now are in a best of 3 series with the Nuggets and 2 of the 3 games are at the Staples Center. But that's not a guarantee, the Nuggets have shown they can win on the road, and after last night's 19 point win over L.A., they feel they can win this series.

The Cavaliers on the other-hand? They're in trouble. Yes, they are only down 2 games to 1, but if LeBron's "shot that saved Cleveland" miracle 3-pointer doesn't roll in, they are in an 0-3 hole. Orlando has flat-out out-played the Cavaliers, and LeBron is receiving no help from his teammates.

That being said, it might just not be LeBron's time to win a championship. Yes, he is the best player in the NBA right now, he just doesn't have the help to carry him all the way. Maybe the Cavs will make a few good moves during the off-season to help LeBron and next year will be the year for King James to face Kobe in a legendary finals, but I think that this year it is just not meant to be.

Video of the Week!

Check out the scene from Cleveland News station WEWS, who are taping live when LeBron James scores with 1 second left to win game 2 for the Cavaliers.

Come On Ref, Let the Boys Play!

Happy Memorial Day Everyone! Hope you enjoy your day off, while remembering why we have this holiday!

On his quest for his first NBA championship of his career, LeBron James finds himself down 2 games to 1 to the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals. Nicknamed "King James," he is going to need some assistance if he wants to reach the NBA finals.

In Cleveland's 99-89 loss to Orlando Sunday night, the Cavaliers shot just 26-36 from the free throw line, just 74 percent. The Magic on the other hand, 39-51, for 76 percent. The officials have done their best to keep the game under control, and when 87 free throws are attempted in a game, it is easy to say that they have accomplished that. But when will NBA officials just let the boys play? LeBron himself shot 24 free throws, 18 of his 41 points came from the line. And Orlando's star player, Dwight Howard, was 14-19 at the line.

In a game where three players fouled out (Howard being one of them), and all three being centers, has it become impossible to play strong defense without fouling? Cleveland Coach Mike Brown said that the defensive strategy on Howard was to just foul him every time he went up for a dunk because the foul was going to be called anyway. Every Cleveland starter had at least 3 fouls in the game.

This needs to be stopped, 87 free throws in a 48 minute game is too many. Hopefully game 4 (Tuesday night in Orlando) will flow better and have less than 58 fouls called, well make that 60, if you include the technical fouls called on Howard and Cleveland's Delonte West. The game time for game three was 2 hours, 57 minutes. How can it take nearly three hours to play a 48 minute game?

The NBA Playoffs: Where an amazing amount of fouls happen.

Another Conference Finals Game: Another Blow-Out

When NBC signed on for Game 4 of the NHL Western Conference Finals they felt that they were going to be broadcasting a breath-taking game between the Red Wings and Blackhawks. What they got, was anything but breath-taking.

On the heels of back-to-back overtime thrillers in the series, a Blackhawks win would tie the series at 2 games a piece heading back to Hockeytown. Instead, the Red Wings dominated in all phases of the game, resulting in a 6-1 victory giving them a 3 games to 1 series lead.

The blow-out has been a common theme in the NHL conference finals. In the 7 games played so far in this round, 4 have been decided by 3 or more goals. And consequently, the Red Wings lead their series 3-1, and Penguins lead the Hurricanes 3-0 and will look to close the door on the 'Canes tomorrow night.

One could ask, "where is the parity?" With a rematch of last year's Stanley Cup Finals lurking, when will another team step up? Neither the Red Wings or the Penguins finished first in their conference in the regular season. The Wings finished second behind President's Trophy winner San Jose, and Pittsburgh finished fourth in the East, with Boston finishing first. But San Jose lost in thee first round to the Ducks, and Boston saw their season end in the second round to Carolina.

So here we sit, days away from what seems to be the inevitable, a rematch of the Penguins and Red Wings. So I ask, can the Blackhawks take the next four from experienced Detroit? Or can the "Cardiac 'Canes" pull the biggest miracle series win since 1975 and come back from 3 games to none? We'll find out soon.

Where's the heart, 'Canes?

Every NHL season brings a new underdog team that attempts to play the role of Cinderella and bring a Stanley Cup home for their fans. Up to this point, it had seemed that this year's team was the 6th seeded Carolina Hurricanes. After back-to-back miracle series wins over New Jersey and top-seeded Boston, Hurricanes fans (locally referred to as "Caniacs") were excited for a chance to play the Pittsburgh Penguins for a spot in the Stanley Cup Finals. Now, it is safe to say that the excitement has turned to disgust.

Three games in, and the 'Canes find themselves down three games to none. Not only that, but they have been doubled in goals (16-8) and flat-out out-classed to this point in the series. Evgeni Malkin has been the best player on the ice with 6 goals and 3 assists, and the 'Canes have had no answer for the Russian who has posted a plus/minus rating of 5.

But maybe what has frustrated Caniacs the most is the way that the 'Canes have lost these three games. In game 1, (a 3-2 loss) the 'Canes were inches away from tying the score in the final seconds when Eric Staal (who remains goal-less for the series) managed to shoot the puck nearly parallel with the goal-line from just atop the goal crease. The puck wound up under Penguin goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and Pittsburgh held on for the win.

Games 2 and 3 followed a similar path. Both games were in reach for the 'Canes in the third period, only to lose by a large margin. In both games the 'Canes scored first in the third period.

In game 2, young winger Patrick Eaves scored for the 'Canes to tie the game at 4, only to collapse and fall 7-4.

In game 3, an early goal by winger Sergei Samsonov less than two minutes into the final period cut the Penguins lead to 3-2. Only to see a massive fall and drop the game 6-2.

The 'Canes will play for their season Monday night at the RBC Center. It is safe to say that the Caniacs will do their best to will their "Cardiac 'Canes" to victory and force a game 5 back in the Steel City. Look for a desperate squad in red to crash the net and go for broke to keep their season alive.

My prediction: Eric Staal finally finds the twine. Keep in mind that the 'Canes have not lost a game this post-season when Staal lights the lamp.