The NBA Season Is Rolling Along, And I Couldn't Care Less

What ever happened to the NBA that was of the 1980's and even the 1990's? The days when players played a strong defense and showed a lot of teamwork.

Today's NBA seems like a bunch of really good players who are just competing for themselves.

Just recently LeBron James and Dwyane Wade took the court against each other. It wasn't even about the matchup of the Cavaliers and the Heat. The media and the average fan was more concerned about just two players: LeBron and Wade.

I just can't muster up the energy to watch an NBA game anymore. It's all full of sloppy defense and ball hogging. You don't believe me? Watch the next game on TNT or ESPN and tell me that the superstar on each team doesn't hog the ball.

The main play that is used by every team in the NBA these days is the isolation. The play where the superstar gets the ball, clears out the rest of his team, and attempts a shot. If he doesn't make the shot then he's normally fouled thanks to a league that his trigger happy behind the wistle.

Half of the time when I'm watching an NBA game I feel like I'm watching a free throw shooting contest, not a basketball game.

There are still some great players in the NBA who don't just rely on hogging the ball. Steve Nash is a great example, and so is LeBron James in some cases. There's several more but the NBA still needs a lot more. It's losing it's popularity compared to the other sports.

As of right now the NHL is saying to the NBA, "Come on down and see how it feels to be at the bottom".

Not only is the NBA filled with no teamwork, but it's also turned into a league with very little parody. The same teams are in it every year. A monkey could probably make a prediction for the two conference champions and have a great chance at being correct.

That's my rant about the state of the NBA these days. Take it or leave it. Whether you agree with me or not, the NBA is slowly declining into a sport that no one really cares about until the playoffs roll around.

Roddick Comes Up Short Again in Aussie Open

There might not be an easier athlete to root for in all of sports than Andy Roddick.

This guy always seems to give his best effort and yet he seems to always come up just short of a major, almost like Dan Marino or Ken Griffery Jr.

Last night marked another time of falling short by losing to Marin Cilic in five sets in a quarterfinal matchup of the Australian Open. Roddick found himself down two sets to none but fought his way back to tie the match with two sets of his own.

During the entire match Roddick was seen being treated by his trainer for what was found out to be a sore shoulder. He was getting massages and was obviously hindered from playing to his full ability.

He went on to say that his power was fine but that his accuracy was compromised due to the injury.

It's really too bad that we couldn't end up seeing a rematch of Roddick and Federer. That would be appointment viewing for myself even if it was at 11 at night.

Roddick still sits at just one Major championship for his career which came in 2003 at the U.S. Open.

He's only 27 so there's still plenty of time to cement his career into one of the all-time greats in tennis history.

Kentucky The Only Thing In Vandy's Way

Keving Stallings has the Vanderbilt Commodores on cruise control after a 4-0 start in the SEC, something that hasn't been done since the 1965-66 season.

There's still one major obstacle that is obviously in Vandy's way of an SEC East crown and that's the No.1 ranked Kentucky Wildcats.

Vanderbilt has climbed back in the top 25 once again this season as they sit at No.21 in the AP poll.

Some of you UT fans are probably upset that I haven't mentioned No.14 Tennessee as an obstacle. They might be a minor obstacle, but Vandy is the better team and should at least split the season series.

Now back to Kentucky. This team is easily the best team in the country right now and I'm not sure if they can be beaten by anyone, much less Vanderbilt. It hurts me to say that, but you have to be realistic.

I'm definitely not counting out the Commodores however. Stranger things have happened in college basketball before.

The first thing that Stallings has to be telling his team is to not let one loss destroy the rest of the season. Even if the Commodores lose Saturday at Rupp Arena, they're still in great shape.

The SEC just isn't much of a threat this year. In fact, the SEC might be even worse than it was last year. Not to mention the Commodores are way better than last year's 8-8 team in the SEC.

It should also be pointed out that the Commodores can beat anyone in the country when they're playing at Memorial Gym. Over the last four seasons Vanderbilt has five wins over ranked teams, including two wins against No.1 ranked teams (Florida and Tennessee).

Kentucky has a few strides on Vanderbilt right now in the race for the SEC East, but this is a marathon, not a sprint.

Next Three Games

• @ No. 14 Tennessee
• @ No.1 Kentucky
• Miss. State
  

Ryan and the Jets Close to Conquering the Impossible

If anyone has told you recently that they knew the Jets were going this far when the playoff bracket was first set then their probably lying to your face.

The Jets have stumped the so called "experts" for two straight weeks now and they'll have to do it again if they want to reach the Super Bowl.

When coach Rex Ryan said his team should be the Super Bowl favorites when the playoffs began I thought he was out of his mind. I'm all for having self-confidence, but I thought it was a little arrogant.

Now the entire team has this swagger that some are saying is over the top. That swagger might be just what they need to do to beat the Colts.

I'm through counting out the Jets completely. The Colts will still take home the victory in my mind, but the Jets defense does has me thinking that what seemed like the impossible might happen.


If the Jets had a solid veteran quarterback then I would be all over the their bandwagon, but they don't. They have a rookie quarterback that has put up pedestrian numbers over the first two games. He's due for a bad game and what better place for it to happen than in Lucas Oil Stadium.

The Jets still have a lot of work to do before they reach the impossible, but they most certainly have my undivided attention.

Stockstill Turns Down East Carolina Opportunity

During a year that has been showered by shady head coaching changes, it's good to see that there's still some very classy coaches left in college football.

One of those coaches resides in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and that coach is Rick Stockstill.

Stockstill was given the opportunity to possibly take the head coaching job at East Carolina, which is a very respected program. Unlike so many other coaches, however, Stockstill withdrew his name citing reasons of it being so late in the recruiting process.

"I have decided I will remove my name from consideration at ECU. I could not look into the eyes of these recruits and their families and tell them the things I believe in and then leave Middle Tennessee with only two weeks left in the recruiting process," Stockstill said in a statement that was released earlier today.

This all comes less than a week after Lane Kiffin ditched Tennessee after one just one year, leaving their program scrambling for a new head coach during such a crucial time.

Kiffin could learn a thing or two about how you conduct yourself in a classy manner.

In the long run I think this decision will benefit Stockstill. The Middle Tennessee football program is growing in a substantial way right now. He's taken this program farther than was ever imaginable in just four years at the helm.

Recruiting is only going to get better now that the program has gotten some national exposure over the past two seasons.

As big of a surprise as this success has been, it should've been perceived. Stockstill comes from a great coaching tree that includes Steve Spurrier and Lou Holtz.

Eventually Stockstill will probably leave Middle Tennessee for a bigger program, and you can't blame him for that. As long as the Middle Tennessee football program continues to grow, the demand for Stockstill will grow even greater.

Whether that happens or not, we do know that Stockstill will leave in a classy manner that has almost been abandoned in the rest of college football.

Don't Sleep on the Commodores in the SEC East

Kevin Stallings has always put together solid teams during his ten seasons at Vanderbilt. The team he has this season may be one of the best he's ever put together.

Even though Vandy lacks a dominant scorer like Shan Foster or Matt Freije, they still have one of the most balanced teams in the SEC.

The Commodores can beat you with so many different players that it's almost unfair to the opposing team. There are currently four players averaging in double figures in points per game.

The Commodores have jumped to a 3-0 start in the SEC and 14-3 overall at the midway point of the season. The hardest portion of their schedule is coming up with road trips to Kentucky and Tennessee just ahead. If Vandy can win at least one of those two games then they will be in great shape to make a run for an SEC East title.

It's hard to name just one player that has contributed the most to the first-half success of the season but you have to go with Jermaine Beal. Not only can he provide scoring when needed, but he rarely turns the ball over. He's become a leader on the court and never seems to lose his cool. That's what you need in a point guard.

Other players like Jefferey Taylor, Festus Ezeli, and of course A.J. Ogilvy have also contributed greatly to this hot start.

Vandy should have no trouble at all at making the NCAA tournament this year. The SEC is still a very average conference and outside of Kentucky and Tennessee, Vandy is easily the best team.

You also can't forget that Vandy is extremely tough to beat at home so that will also pad their record and boost that tournament resume in March.

Ochocinco Shows Again Why He's Good For the NFL

Chad Ochocinco will replace the injured Wes Welker on the AFC Pro Bowl roster, and with that came another uplifting gesture.

Ochocinco agreed that he would race Chris Johnson of the Titans and the loser would have to give their Pro Bowl paycheck to the Haiti relief effort.

How can anyone have a bad thing to say about this guy? Critics use to call him a distraction to the NFL, but I think he's a breath of fresh air.

Life is too short to be serious all of the time and Ochocinco gets that. Just the fact that I'm calling a guy "Ochocinco" proves my point.

He was very deserving of his sixth Pro Bowl selection as he had nine touchdowns and over a 1,000 yards for the seventh time in the last eight seasons.

It's been a very tough year for Ochocinco as he lost one of his close friends in Chris Henry when he was thrown from the back of a pick-up truck. The death of the wife of defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer also hit the franchise extremely hard earlier in the season.

Despite all of that, Ochocinco hasn't missed a beat and he's still trying to do great things for his community and other communities around the world.

Kiffin Ditches Rocky Top for Sunny SoCal

So that's what that nasty odor was that had been in Knoxville for the past 14 months. This whole time I thought it was all the players that couldn't stay out of trouble, but I was completely wrong. It was Lane Kiffin.

This is another clear example that college football is sadly not about the athletes anymore. It's about how much money a school is willing to pay their coach. The coach's desires comes first, and then the students thereafter. That seems backwards to me.

I'm reminded time and time again about that NCAA commercial that says "Most of us will be going pro in something other than sports". That means that most of these kids are getting their last chance to play their sport before they become a person in the real world. Don't they deserve the best experience they can get?

Instead of getting a good experience, many of these players are getting a good idea of what betrayal tastes like.

What's going to come of the nine verbal commitments who chose Tennessee thanks to Kiffin. Is Kiffin going to bring them with him to Southern California? I doubt it.

Kiffin has a whole new recruiting pool he can dip his hands into once he gets to the west coast. Sadly enough, these nine recruits will probably get lost in the dust and be left with one of two options. Unless they chose Tennessee for a reason other than Kiffin, then they're stuck at a school that they really didn't want to go to. If they do decide to leave they'll be left scrambling for a new school.

What really makes Kiffin look like a snake is how he left. People are saying that Kiffin gave a very brief statement to his players that basically said "USC is my dream job and I couldn't pass it up". It has also been reported that many of the players got hostile and had to be calmed down by the interim head coach.

Not only is he leaving Tennessee without a head coach, but he's also taking his daddy, Monte Kiffin, and the recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron.

Oddly enough, Kiffin is still setting himself up for a lot of scrutiny. He still hasn't proven that he's that great of a coach and now he's inheriting a program that hasn't experienced a losing season since back in the 90's. If USC becomes an average program than Kiffin will easily be to blame, and it's my every hope it happens that way.

I can't blame Tennessee fans for feeling betrayed and I guess they're finding out that the fall from grace is a long way down.

Big Mac Finally Admits What We Already Knew

Not sure why Mark McGwire is even bothering to admit his use of steroids back in the 90's. The confession isn't really all that admirable when it's already over ten years later.

Nonetheless, McGwire admitted today that he used steroids numerous times throughout his career including the 1998 season when he broke the single season home run record. He finished with 70 dingers that year.

McGwire went on to say that he had bad years while using steroids and good years while using steroids. Doesn't that just hurt your credibility even more as a baseball player if you still had bad years despite the aid of steroids?

To me McGwire is one of the most overrated baseball players of all time. Sure he could hit the crap out of a baseball. However, he reminded more of that gigantic guy that plays on the company softball team and just walks up and swings away at every pitch.

He was never a great hitter outside of the home run ball. He was very prone to flying out and to striking out. His fielding was nothing great either.

McGwire will be returning to baseball next season to be the hitting coach for the Cardinals. Instead of using a guy who cheated to teach guys how to hit, just make Albert Pujols the hitting coach. After all, he's a way better all-around player than McGwire ever dreamed of being. Plus he did it the legitimate way.

The NBA Finally Makes a Discplinary Statement

The NBA hasn't exactly lived up to the "no nonsense" NFL standards over the past years. Very rarely do you see an indefinite suspension in the NBA, but it happened today.

Just days after news broke out that Gilbert Arenas was keeping a gun in his locker during games NBA commissioner David Stern laid down the law. He hit Arenas where the sun don't shine, and that's his bank account.

Arenas is indefinitely suspended without pay, and rightfully so. There's no room for bringing firearms into your line of work.

His excuse for the incident made me laugh, but not in a good way. He basically said that he was just kidding around and that he's a kind of guy who has a big sense of humor. Another part of his defense is that the guns were unloaded, but people have been killed a countless number of times in this country by guns that were previously thought to be unloaded.

You may think you're funny, but your teammate Javaris Crittenton didn't think so. Neither did the NBA.

It couldn't have come at a worse time for Arenas either. He was averaging over 22 points per game to go along with over seven assists per game. He bid a farewell to the NBA last night with 19 points and 14 assists in a win against the 76ers.

The NBA has to start becoming just as strict as the NFL is if they want to shed their "thug-like" image that much of mainstream America has on them. Bringing guns to the locker room and pointing them at teammates to settle a poker dispute isn't the best way to go about that.

Arenas's image has gradually been going down hill for a while now. Who knows where this road may end up for Arenas. Unless he gets some serious jail time then Arenas will get his chance to redeem himself.

Ron Artest went on a rampage in the seats and now he's got a chance at an NBA ring with the Lakers.

In the NBA you pretty much have to assassinate the commissioner for them to toss you out of the league, so Arenas will be back sooner or later.

Vanderbilt's Non-Conference Report Card

It seems like the college basketball season just started and yet already the Commodores are heading into conference play for the remainder of the season.

They finish the non-conference slate 11-3, which is a solid start.

Vanderbilt hasn't exactly played the most challenging non-conference schedule, but they definitely played some formidable opponents. Two of the three losses came on a neutral site with the other loss coming on the road to Illinois.

There has really only be one disappointing loss to start the season and that's to Western Kentucky at the Sun Belt Classic. The Hilltoppers have my respect, but Vanderbilt is the better team and should've won that game.

Vanderbilt has notched three very impressive wins in my book. Those wins are against St. Mary's, Missouri, and Arizona. All three of those teams have a pretty good chance at making the NCAA tournament, with Arizona maybe being a long shot.

Don't be surprised to see Vanderbilt leap frog Tennessee for second place this year in the SEC East. Obviously Kentucky is the best team in the SEC and it will be hard for anyone in the country to stop the Wildcats, as we've already witnessed so far this season.

Vanderbilt starts the SEC schedule off against a Florida team that has had a roller coaster of a season so far. The Gators started off hot before dropping three in a row, with two of those being against South Alabama and Richmond.

My early season award for best player is freshman John Jenkins. He's shooting 47% from behind the arc and is fourth on the team in scoring with limited minutes.

On the flip side, my disappointment so far this season is sophomore Brad Tinsley. He's only shooting 32% from the field and has only three games where he has scored in double figures. The Commodores need more production from him if they want to make another trip to the Sweet Sixteen.

The record looks good, but the Commodores have looked sloppy at times. Even in the games they have eventually blown out their less talented opponents they have looked very sloppy. However, the SEC isn't the strongest conference in basketball so there will be plenty of opportunities to make a run towards March Madness.

Big Wins: St. Mary's (road), Missouri (home)
Disappointing Losses: Western Kentucky (neutral)

Final Grade: B-

Chris Johnson To Possibly Race Usain Bolt?

One things is for sure, Chris Johnson is the fastest man in the NFL. He's also only the sixth player in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in a season. With that said, is he faster than the world's fastest man, Usain Bolt?

That question may be answered in the near future.

This is all speculation, but sources close to both men are saying that talks are being made to set up a race between the two speed demons. The proceeds of the event would go straight to charity which is always a good thing.

This seems similar to the possibility of Shaq fighting that giant Korean guy that knocked out Jose Canseco a while back ago. Everyone was excited about that back over the summer and it never happened. Unfortunately, this probably won't happen either.

The problem here is that Bolt doesn't come off as the type of guy that's going to do some big publicity stunt that could distract him from his own sport. It would be extremely fun to watch, but the risk of being injured for both men is not worth it.

Bolt's agent has already went on record of saying that Bolt wouldn't do this. Bolt has a strict schedule to follow and doesn't even really follow the NFL.

If the two were to race, Bolt supporters have said he would prefer a longer race. As much as I love Johnson, I think Bolt would beat him pretty convincingly thanks to that freakishly long stride he has. The shorter the race, the more it would probably benefit Johnson because he does accelerate faster than anyone I have ever seen.

This isn't the first time that the possibility of Johnson racing an athlete from another sport has come up. Just a little over a month ago rumors boiled up about Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics challenging Johnson to a race. Johnson said it would be easy money, and he's probably right.

This is a fun water cooler story, but I'm sad to say that Bolt has bigger fish to fry than Chris Johnson.

Just Call Them the Tennessee Thugs....

Once again Tennessee has an athletic department that's in the news for the wrong reason. This time it's the men's basketball program, which as of late has been the best team the university has to offer.

Four players have been suspended indefinitely for gun, alcohol, and marijuana charges. Of the four players that are suspended senior Tyler Smith is by far the biggest name out of the bunch.

The other three players are junior Brian Williams, junior Melvin Goins, and sophomore Cameron Tatum. All of these guys were averaging over 15 minutes a game, so this will be a huge loss for Tennessee from a basketball standpoint.

Bruce Pearl has already made a statement saying how disgusted he is by the actions of his players and that it's an embarrassment to the university.

What is it with Tennessee signing all of these guys that just simply can't stay out of trouble. All of this comes just a few months after three football players were charged with armed robbery. Two of those players were kicked off the team.

At least Tennessee is taking action immediately when things like this are happening. Both Lane Kiffin and Bruce Pearl showed zero tolerance for actions of this nature and that's at least somewhat comforting if you're a Tennessee fan.

If things like this continue then recruiting will take a major hit. The athletic department will be associated with nothing but bad things and that's never a good recruiting tool.

The basketball program is continuing to be a regular in the top 15 and the football program is gradually starting to climb its way out of the abyss. With that said, coaches have to start getting more control over their players to keep negative things like this from happening anymore to the University of Tennessee.

Bruins Win the NHL Winter Classic, But Does Anyone Care?

The 3rd Annual Winter Classic ended up being a thriller inside historic Fenway Park today after the Bruins tallied a goal late in overtime to beat the Flyers.

Call me cynical, but the NHL could've picked a better day to have this other than a day when college football is notorious for having a slew of games on tap. There were two bowl games airing at the time of the game.

If it wouldn't have been for the ESPN ticker flashing at the bottom of the screen the score of the game then I would've never realized it was even on. I'm guessing many others were in the same boat as me.

Next year the NHL should have it on a slow sports weekend because I do think it's great for the NHL. You just have to get people to watch it.

I got the opportunity to see the last minute or so of this game and I have to say it was very exciting. The Flyers were firing shot after shot in front of the Bruins goal only for the Bruins to quickly advance it up ice and score the game-winning goal.

Hopefully the Predators will eventually get an opportunity to participate in one of these games. Sadly it's very unlikely because the Predators are not a very marketable team for the NHL outside of Nashville. Teams like the Flyers, Bruins, and Penguins have nationwide appeal and you can't blame the NHL for showcasing these teams for it's Winter Classic.