Sioux Win WCHA, ESPN and NCAA Both Suck

What a weekend for the UND Fighting Sioux hockey team at the WCHA Final Five...

They had to play last Sunday the 3rd (of a best of 3) game against the Minnesota Gophers to advance to the Final Five...which they won. That meant if UND wanted to win the WCHA Tournament they would have to play (and win) Thursday night, then against the #1 team, Denver, on Friday and then again on Saturday. They beat Duluth Thursday night, played a great game against Denver on Friday night and then fell down 2-0 in the first minute of play against St. Cloud on Saturday but the Sioux ended the first period tied at 2 and went on to win 5-3 to secure the championship.

So many folks thought that UND might garner a #1 seed in the Frozen Four, or, at the very least, be within driving distance of their fans...but like usual, the NCAA hates UND (probably their nickname more than anything) and put UND in the Northeast region, which is in Massachusetts, and of course make sure Boston College is in the same region as well...essentially securing home ice advantage for B.C. In the meantime, not 1 single WCHA team in the Frozen four is even in the west region playing at the Xcel Center. Are you kidding me? Alabama-Huntsville is in the Midwest region but UND isn't, which sure isn't the Xcel Center but it's at least Indiana. Don't have to look to hard as to who the NCAA is favoring and who they are not...it isn't much more blatant than that...

Then let's go to ESPN's fine coverage...instead of showing the UND game live they are going to tape delay it until Sunday...so what's on the ESPN channels while UND will be playing hockey, here's your lineup: ESPN: Sportscenter and then WSOP reruns, ESPN2: 30 for 30 rerun and then drag racing and finally ESPNU: the one station they are airing hockey games...but of course only one region and of course not the Sioux game.

The NCAA and ESPN have done their best to make sure no one can follow or care about this hockey tournament at all...and I am amazed that WSOP reruns would get better ratings then tournament hockey...

Chargers Trade Whitehurst To Seattle

The Chargers traded their third string quarterback, Charlie Whitehurst, to Seattle yesterday. Seattle must see a lot of upside in Whitehurst, swapping 2nd round picks this year with the Chargers and giving them a 3rd round next year. Next year the Chargers have garnered 2 additional 3rd round picks (1 possibly a 2nd rounder pending Cromartie's play with the Jets) which can give the Chargers some leverage if they wish to seek out a player to work a trade for...or, worse case is that the Chargers will use the picks and bolster their squad up.

Whitehurst is a player that has been in the NFL for some time now but just hasn't had the opportunity to play in the regular season because he is behind Rivers and Volek. He has virtually no wear and tear on his body and what NFL teams typically do to young quarterbacks...let them sit on the bench for a few years to get the hang of the NFL and then give them a chance to start.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I'm not Irish, I won't be going out and getting drunk tonight but since I haven't had an entry in a while I figured I might as well wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day.

ESPN: Total Schills

I'm really not breaking any new ground with my latest rail against ESPN but just want to continue to point out that most of their live, non-sports related content (ie: Sportscenter, First Take, PTI, etc.) are really no more then commercials for ESPN and ABC Sports.

What had set me off this morning is the whole UConn women's basketball team. Yes, good for them that they won 71 games in a row and they do deserve the media attention that they are getting...BUT what gets me is that ESPN has literally gushed over women's basketball, a sport with virtually no television ratings and have breakdowns, analysis and discussion regarding this feat...but then won't even show many, if any, NHL highlights... which will most certainly be placed towards the end of a 3 hour Sportscenter marathon...couple of highlights from one game then run down the scores from the rest of the league. And then, to add to my dislike, I tune into Mike & Mike this morning and Greenberg couldn't stop babbling about how great this UConn team is, how they have people actually watching their games, etc, etc, etc... essentially trying to get people to start watching women's basketball...and why? Of course, it's on ESPN. I don't recall anytime this past year I have heard the Mikes talk NHL at all (of course I don't listen to them for that long or that frequently because the repetition is too overbearing) but here, they spent a good 15 minutes raving up the UConn women, live interviews, the whole ball of wax.

Sure, when ESPN had hockey they would push the NHL to the deuce over virtually any college basketball game ... but at least ESPN put the minimal amount of effort into covering the NHL when they did indeed have it on their station. But what really irks me is that ESPN calls themselves the "Worldwide Leader In Sports" yet piratically ignores hockey altogether. ESPN doesn't even mention one college hockey game all year long until the national tournament and why? Oh that's right, the Frozen Four is on ESPN....they only care when it's on their station(s), just like every other sport.

Oscars: Boring Television

At one time I actually would watch and even cared about the Academy Awards show, but I think it was in the early 90's when I grew increasingly bored and tired of the Oscars. At first I began to sour on the Oscars because it seemed as if none of the movies I felt should win would win...or even get nominated...and then came the show itself, which after only a couple of years worth of watching had extinguished any desire for me to watch it again. It is an award show that seems to get longer and drag on and on until a person finally gets to see what they've waited for 3+ hours to see...some rich director/actor/film folks win a prize given to them by other rich directors/actors/film folks. I was long asleep before the Oscars even concluded last night and I don't think I had seen a single movie that was nominated for any of the awards but reading the write-up this morning details much of my sentiment about the Oscars each year...which is funny, because the write-up for the Academy Awards have all been very similar in the past few years...a stuffy, unfunny, stiff and extremely long (and boring) awards show...not sure how much longer it will continue to garner large audiences, but I would guess that is more dependent on the quality of the films more then this boring award show.

There is probably nothing on television right now that a person rightly needs to host a 'party' to make something on television enjoyable. The Oscars will cleverly place a "worthy" award about every half hour or so during it's ceremony because if the awards were simply handed out at the end of the show no one would watch any of the rest of their program. And that's why one of the new 'popular' things to do on the evening of the Academy Awards is to host or go to a 'party' to enjoy the show with others. I have yet to attend such a party but I would love to be invited just to observe what people are actually doing during the show... I'm willing to bet that for 90% or more of the show people, attending these parties, aren't paying attention to the show...but when the one person that is actually watching the show calls out that the best actor, movie, director or any of the big categories are coming up, everyone scurries from the snacks and drinks area to huddle around the television...as soon as a winner is announced many will stand up and resume whatever else they were doing and the others will quickly join. Several of these parties, to try and add any entertainment value to the program, will have a pick'em game or something that resembles gambling to try and keep people interested but it really doesn't help...most people don't know or don't care about who is nominated for the best make-up assistant for a documentary adapted for screenplay based on a novel shot in black and white. When the party-goers see that they are just randomly selecting answers it quickly loses any value it had.

Another reason I have grown tired of the Academy Awards is all the extra coverage that goes along with it...there are pre-award shows, red carpet shows and of course post-show shows...all of which go over every second of an almost 4 hour evening ... strike that because actually most of these shows dissect everything surrounding the show and very little of what happened at the show...it's more about what expensive clothes is someone wearing and where did they go to party afterwards then anything that happened on the stage...which really does reveal how much of the actual 'pageant' is relevant in the minds of the people that 'cover' Hollywood. Doesn't every "Hollywood Story" regarding the Oscars start out with so and so just won the best actor award and after accepting the award headed to so and so's party on the strip where they partied the night away...

Breaking News: Favre Doesn't Know If He'll Play Or Not

Brett Favre, not picking an ideal time to try and be the media whore that he is, surprised everyone (not) by announcing on last night's Tonight Show that he doesn't know if he will play next season or not.

Ok, so it isn't a surprise to anyone and it will surprise no one when he announces in late August that he will come back and play next season and the Vikes will roll out the red carpet for him...again...

Not sure if Brett has checked out the opponents for next season but they include the AFC and NFC east ... won't be the cakewalk they had last season in the NFC West and the AFC North.

Cro A Jet

The Jets have acquired Antonio Cromartie from the Chargers...the Chargers will get a 3rd round (possibly a 2nd rounder) in 2011.

Not sure if the Jets coaching staff was paying any attention to the playoff game when they beat the Chargers, but it was Cromartie that had a chance to hit Shonn Greene before he got into the hole (behind the line of scrimmage) when he took off on his td that sealed the win for them...instead, Cromartie pulled up and didn't even bother to make a play on Greene...

Really not a surprise to me... Cromartie has been soft for some time now...if he can't make a play on the ball then he won't make a play.

Sproles To Stay, Chargers Release Jamal Williams

The Chargers, who first appeared as if they were going to let Sproles become a free agent have now put a tender on him and instead, cut Jamal Williams. (Story here)

I did post that cutting Jamal might be an option for the Chargers because of his high salary, 1 year left on his contract and being injury prone since '06 has really cut his value with the team.