Quick hits

• I guess Spain can't win at every sporting event: Bulls 18, Spaniards (and assorted tourists) 0
• Oh, it's OK, ex-Viking Darrion Scott wasn't trying to kill his two year-old son by putting a plastic bag over his head - he was just playing "Boogeyman" with him. Surprisingly, the boy's mom did not find this so assuming.
• Remember the Tour de France? Know what's crazy - they're still having it! In fact, it's going on right now - some German guy is leading it or something.
• Serious news alert: Rich Harden traded by the A's with Chad Gaudin to the Cubs for various cans of corn.
  

Posted by The Duke of Everything at 3:50 PM 0 comments  

Quick Hits

• The NBA-mandated replay of the final 51.9 seconds of the Heat-Hawks game is on Saturday. The NBA has ruled that players acquired after the game (such as Shawn Marion) can play for their new teams. But Shaq (who started the whole thing by being incorrectly ruled to have fouled out) won't be playing. Makes sense to me.
• So apparently, if you are a English soccer player and your brother is in jail for six years for a vicious assault that left the victim partially blind, it's poor taste to celebrate a goal by pretending that you are in handcuffs? Those Brits are so straitlaced.
• Sho Taguchi thinks that King Salomon is some sort of sushi roll. Hilarity ensures. Oh, those wacky Japanese..

Posted by The Duke of Everything at 1:36 PM 0 comments  

Quick Hits

• Jesus, McLane, you people in Arizona sure do take your liquor licenses seriously! Although I bet if you asked Bill Belichik if he could go back and convince this guy to open fire on the Super Bowl, in exchange for the game being canceled and the Patriots not losing, he'd have to think long and hard about it.
• If there's a giant patch of blood on the shoulder of his jersey next season, I'm calling bullshit.
• NBA announces "Day of Community Service" in New Orleans before the All-Star game; roughly one-quarter of all players call their lawyer to see if "this counts" towards their court-mandated sentences.
• Former Oilers All-Pro linebacker John Grimsley believes that guns don't kill people, people kil-BOOM! Whoops...I guess he should have spent some time watching Eddie Eagle teach him about gun safety.
• Apparently, training to be a sumo wrestler is like Green Beret boot camp, except with more beer bottles being smashed into your head and being attacked with baseball bats until you are dead. Those wacky Japanese...
  

Posted by The Duke of Everything at 4:22 PM 1 comments  

Quick Hits

• Former USC, Arizona and Missouri head coach Larry Smith died today in Tucson after a lengthy illness. He was 68. At least he lived long enough to see someone come along who would ensure that he wasn't remembered as the worst coach in modern USC history.
• Speaking of USC, I don't know if you got a chance to watch the game against Oregon on Saturday, but it was a doozy. USC "blew" a 14-point lead against the Ducks (and I put "blew" in quotes just because USC didn't play that mad down the stretch - Oregon was just unconscious from beyond the arc in the final three minutes), but still got off the deck to win in overtime. OJ Mayo scored 25 while dealing with persistent leg cramps (and having briefly been declared ineligible by the NCAA and then made eligible again after the whole free ticket mess), while Daniel Hackett and Dwight Lewis each had career-highs with 26 and 24 points each.
• Speaking of Oregon...coach Ernie Kent had to go out before the USC game and implore the student section to behave in an appropriate manner. This was on the heels of the game against UCLA on Thursday, which was the homecoming for Kevin Love. Needless to say, when Ben Howland uses the terms "vile," "inappropriate" and "disgusting" to describe the fans, it's pretty bad:

"One fan brandished a homemade placard alluding to the cocaine use of Love's cousin, Brian Wilson, of the Beach Boys. Others waved signs displaying the digits of Love's cell phone number or questioning his sexual orientation. And at one point, the entire sea of yellow-shirted Oregon students showered Love with profane taunts and screams of delight when he left the game after being poked in the eye."

I'm sure a lot of it was inappropriate and borderline awful...but referencing a coked-to-the-tits Brian Wilson? That's just funny. And terrible. But funny.

• And by "the luck of the draw," Premiership leaders Manchester United and Arsenal will face each other in the Round 16 of the FA Cup. It seems about as "random" as Triple H and John Cena drawing the Nos. 29 and 30 pills at the Royal Rumble last night - who knew Mr. McMahon was a soccer fan, much less ran the English FA?
  

Posted by The Duke of Everything at 3:25 PM 0 comments