See, Brian Roberts really did just use steroids that one time, but he learned his lesson and isn't going to ever, ever do it again. I mean, the guy is eating nothing but organic foods. He can't be a steroid cheat, right? Right?!?
Mar 13, 2008
Something like a Civil War
It was a pretty tense day here at Your Face is a Sports Blog - Arizona St. was playing USC in the Pac-10 Tournament. The Fightin' McLanes were looking to get off the NCAA tournament bubble with a win, while USC was looking to jump up a seed or more in the NCAA tournament with a strong run in the Pac-10 tourney.
It was a close game all the way. I missed the first half (thanks for starting the game involving the local team at noon, Pac-10!), but snuck out to McDonald's and watched the second half there (how I wish this wasn't true).
Here's what everyone is going to talk about after the game - this play and foul call on Arizona St.'s Jeff Pendergraft within the final 30 seconds and the Sun Devils trailing by two:
First, let me state for the record: that was a terrible call. Pendergraft simply outjumped Davon Jefferson and made a great play. I'd be ticked if it happened to USC, too. And certainly the pressure is on Pac-10 officials since their twin fuck-ups in UCLA's games over the weekend.
But here's the thing: Arizona St. finished the game missing their final 10 shots from the field. They didn't make a field goal in the final nine and a half minutes of the game. In short, the Sun Devils, with their season possibly on the line, completely fell apart. It's hard to make a case for a team that's on the bubble when that is how they handle pressure. SI's Stewart Mandel agrees - he has them out of the tournament as of right now.
A final thought - I saw at least three very ticky-tack fouls called against USC in the second half that led to Arizona St. free throws. But the bottom line is that people don't remember the dodgy call on a outside jumper with five minutes left - they remember the bad call on the game-tying slam dunk with 15 seconds left.
Another college basketball post-season tournament?
Looking on Fox Sports' Web site, I noticed a banner ad for something called the College Basketball Invitational, scheduled to start on March 18. Intrigued, I clicked on it (as you are welcome to do with my banner ads HINT HINT) and found this explanation:
"This event will feature 16 teams not playing in the 2008 NCAA Tournament and will secure an important opportunity for more deserving programs to have a postseason experience."
Don't we already have something like this called the NIT? Honestly, when you are the XFL in comparison to the freakin' NIT, you probably aren't that relevant. I can't really recall a lot of people saying "Yeah, the NCAA tournament is great, and I watch every NIT game, but I want more - if only there was another post-season tournament!"
Let's put it this way...after adding the College Basketball Invitational, there will be 113 teams involved in post-season play. That's out of a total of 341 Division I teams total. That means that almost one-third of all men's Division I teams will be playing in some form of the post-season this year.
But hey, it's good to know that those teams who were snubbed by the NIT will have a place to play in March. I'm sure they'll be extremely motivated.
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