Tiger Does It Again

He is, without question, the greatest athlete of our generation.

Babe Ruth has long been the greatest athlete relative to his sport in history. Tiger, however, may change that before all is said and done. He's amazing.

The Tears of Unfathomable Sadness

Sweet 16 Predictions

No. 1 Connecticut vs. No. 5 Purdue
I've been unimpressed with Purdue each time I've seen them this season. And coach Matt Painter looks like he should be working at a Men's Wearhouse. I'm no Beau Brummel, but that guy dresses like an idiot.
UConn was my pick to win it all and I won't be backing down from that pick.*
Pick: Connecticut

No. 1 Pittsburgh vs. No. 5 Xavier
My esteemed colleague at The Dagger, Eamonn Brenann, thinks Xavier will give Pittsburgh a game. I think his judgment has been affected by having watched Indiana all season.
Pick: Pittsburgh

No. 2 Memphis vs. No. 3 Missouri
* If Memphis plays really well tonight, I'm totally backing down off that pick.
I'm starting to feel like the talking heads on the ESPN bracketology special who basically all chalk (with the exception of Memphis) into the Final Four. It may happen, but, come on. Live a little. Wake Forest was a great pick this tournament.
Pick: Memphis

No. 2 Duke vs. No. 3 Villanova
Here's how I know I'm starting to get old. When I saw that this was the 9:57 p.m. game tonight, I thought to myself, "damn, why is the game I want to watch most scheduled for 10 o'clock on a night before I have to get up early and make a long drive?" In the old days I'd have hopped in the car after watching this at a bar and made the six-hour journey to Charlotte in my sleep. Now, I have the coffee pot set for 6:53 a.m. and am praying this game doesn't go to overtime.
These two teams match up really, really well. Villanova is the Duke of the Big East, minus the floor-slapping, large-mouthed guards and assembled douchebaggery on the bench:


I root for Villanova in most circumstances because a good family friend is an alum, and they have a history that I wish Wake Forest basketball had. But, I think Duke wins tonight. (And, if that happens, look out for Duke to win it all. I say this not because I think they will, but because of history. As the same family friend pointed out to me last night (and as I just Twittered about), in three of the past four years, the team that has knocked Villanova out of the tournament has gone on to win the whole thing.)
As I wrote before the tournament, I think the Blue Devils are poised for a Final Four run this year. I'm not sure they're all that great, but they have almost no hype right now and, despite their lack of point guard or center, they have the other asset that a team needs in March: the player who can take over the game. Gerald Henderson will be the best player on the court tonight, and I think he leads Duke to victory.
But if not, I can't wait to see him cry about it.
Pick: Duke

All Chase, All The Time: I'm on Twitter

Because I don't feel their are enough adequate places on the internet at which you can read my opinions on things, I've created a Twitter account. (I think I may have borrowed that line from someone, but I can't think of who. Now I know what Dylan feels like.)
Over the past three months I've been using the "share" feature on Google Reader to, um, share links from around the internet that I find interesting. Usually, I'll attach a brief message to the share; something like this:

But, in doing this, I was only reaching an audience of, perhaps, a half-dozen. And when I make witty rejoinders to Peter King columns, I want to be reaching an audience of, at least, dozens.
So there you have it. I'm on Twitter. I'll be posting quick thoughts about things and sharing links that I find interesting. I have no idea whether I'll keep it up, but come along for the ride.

Follow me on Twitter
http://www.twitter.com/chaztopher

65 things we love about the NCAA tournament (plus, Goodell is killing the NFL)

Even though it sounds like an article that would be in Entertainment Weekly if Entertainment Weekly covered sports, I think me, MJD and Eamonn's list of all the things we love about March Madness is one of the best posts we've ever had on The Dagger. Check it out.
And, No. 66: The giddy anticipation of seeing Jon Scheyer breaking down in Nate James' arms after the Blue Devils lose to Villanova.

* In other blatant attempts to reroute my meager traffic to Yahoo! sports blogs, MJD passes on some disheartening news about the NFL, via The New York Times:

National Football League owners could vote in May on plans to lengthen the regular season to 17 or 18 games. The longer regular season, however, is unlikely to begin any earlier than 2011, Commissioner Roger Goodell said Monday at the N.F.L.’s annual meeting.

Adding at least one regular-season game while reducing the preseason schedule is a critical component of what Goodell called “increasing value” — the league’s attempt to find new revenue while remaining attractive to fans in the challenging economic climate. There is almost no chance that the regular season will remain at 16 games.

This couldn't be a worse idea. MJD nails it exactly later on in the post when he says that nobody has ever gotten to the end of an NFL season and said "I wish that were longer." (That statement is only reserved for girlfriends of JJ Redick.)
I've long said that Roger Goodell will be a pox on the NFL and I think this is the move that will do it. The best thing the NFL has going for it is its exclusivity. I've written that line on this site and Shutdown Corner a bunch of times. Watering down the product with unnecessary gimmicks like Thurdsay games and more regular season contests kills that.
Plus, in this economy, who's going to want to shell out more money to go see NFL games? There's a fine line between trying to make a league money and thinning out a product that's not in need of fixing (see: NBA and NHL expansion).

* And, No. 7 on the tournament list refers to the commercial where the little girl inadvertantly points at Howie Long's crotch. Here's the picture (and I have to credit my buddy Antzo for catching this ... It's about time his love of commercials paid off):

Don't hate the player, hate the coach named Buzz Williams

MJD wrote about this at The Dagger (which you should know by now, because if you're coming to this site, you should have The Dagger bookmarked too) -- the moment Marquette's Lazar Hayward stepped over the line on a crucial inbounds play, which led to a turnover and, eventuall, his team's loss to Missouri.

Of course Hayward gets the criticism and the reputation as the goat for the rest of his life, but the blame for this situation lies on Marquette coach Buzz Williams.
Red Auerbach always said that coaches who have to call timeouts in late-game situations are coaches who haven't done coaching during the week. Look at Gonzaga on Saturday. They saw Western Kentucky tie the score with 7.9 seconds left, the ran right down the court, caught an unsuspecting Hilltopper defense and laid in the game winning bucket with 0.9 remaining. It was picture perfect and only would have worked by pressing the ball and not calling timeout.
That's not to say that calling a timeout couldn't have led to a successful play ... sometimes they do. But the point is that a team should know what to do when they're down two points with 15 seconds left. They should have that play in their heads. They should know who to give the ball to, whether to push it, whether to play for a jumpshot ... all these things should have been coached during the week.
Instead, Buzz Williams calls a timeout, kills momentum and sets up a crappy play that saw none of his players come back for the ball. That's inexcusable.
Hayward may be the goat, but Williams is the ass. Coach your team better next season so that they'll know what to do in a late-game situation. And if you don't, don't put in a play that won't work.

* Also, I'm not going to look up names because I'm tired, but in the end of the same game with the score tied (I think), a Missouri player was fouled. He went down not too hard, but got up milking an injury, in a clear attempt to try and get the refs to assign somebody else to take the shots. He succeeded. Weirdly, the guy on the ground (a 75% shooter) was replaced by a 68% shooter, who hit both free throws. OK, that was shady enough. But then, after the second free throw was shot, THE ORIGINAL GUY CAME BACK IN THE GAME!!!! How is that possible? Was it because there was a timeout called after the free throws? They can't be serious with that rule. What a complete joke. If you can't take free throws, you shouldn't be able to come back in the game for five minutes. Maybe that's too much, but the only way a guy should be able to pawn off free throws on someone else is if he's seriously hurt, not if he just didn't want to take them (like the Mizzou guy).

* More on the tournament tomorrow. And, as always, GO TO THE DAGGER My normal rants about the NCAA tournament are appearing there this year. I still haven't had time to decompress from the Wake loss but I'll be ranting here soon enough. Plus more on Duke, UNC, the ACC and other thoughts on the Sweet 16.

The real reason behind Wake Forest's NCAA tournament debacle

I was at a baptism this morning and at the luncheon afterward, I was chatting with my priest. He's a huge (and knowledgable) UConn fan, which meant our conversation opened with Jim Calhoun and the Huskies' chances to go to win the title (which, if it happened, would be the only thing I predicted right this tournament). It then delved into the debacle from last night.
After I reminded him that I went to Wake Forest, Father Steve sincerely looked into my eye, grasped my arm like he was consoling a loved one at a funeral and asked, "what happened, brother?"
I shook my head. I didn't know. But he did.
"It was spiritual, brother," he said. Even though I wasn't quite sure how spirituality played a role in Wake Forest's inability to run any sort of offense or defense, I nodded. But then Father Steve explained.
"It wasn't athleticism. It wasn't height. It wasn't speed. It wasn't quickness. It wasn't talent. It was spiritual. And when it's spiritual, you can point the finger at one person ... the coach."
Father Steve, you see, knows his basketball. His comment about Wake's lack of spirituality didn't have to do with faith (or lack thereof) in a higher power, it had to do with the team's lack of faith in each other and their coach.
As I wrote last night and an outside opinion confirmed, the Deacs weren't playing for Gaudio. And even if they had wanted to, they weren't prepared by their coach to do so. There was no game plan. The motivation wasn't there. Wake's players had no heart and they had no desire.
It was spiritual.

Dino's Disaster: Cleveland State pounds Wake Forest in NCAA "upset"

It's all on Gaudio. He had no gameplan, he made no mid-game adjustments and his team looked disinterested, disspirited and like they had no intention of playing hard for their coach.
I wish I was surprised, but I'm not. I wish I was more angry, but I'm not. They just played their worst game of the year in the biggest spot of the year. It's what this team deserved.
They did nothing correctly, not offensively, not defensively, not anywhere. It was pathetic and laughable. Did the coaches not realize CSU was going to play a pressure zone? Could they not see that every time Wake tried to run a break there was nowhere to go?
Damn, it didn't take much to figure out what CSU was going to do. Yet when the game started, Wake's starters looked as if the Vikings players were actual Vikings wearing Speedos and Hula-Hooping. They had no idea what to do, even though CSU was playing the exact same defense they had been all season.
Wake's non-existant offensive play translated into its defense, where they were lackadiasical in rebounding, getting to loose balls and setting screens. (If there were, indeed, screens.) Even when Wake made its lame comeback to cut the game to six, they were doing so because of ill-conceived jump shots from non-jump shooters James Johnson, LD Williams and Al-Farouq Aminu. They made the first bunch of them, thus proving that Wake even failed at failing.
Of course, this set the table for these guys to keep hoisting shots all night. The early success boosted their confidence and all of a sudden they thought they were Larry Bird. And where was Dino to rein it all in? Looking calm and cool on the sidelines.
When the seedings were announced, the first thing I did was look at the Pomeroy Ratings and then I texted Greg saying, "we're going to lose". I wasn't afraid of them losing, I knew they'd lose. All the signs were there. It was a perfect storm; a team that thrives on creating turnovers playing a team that pops them out like Duncan Hines. And, somehow, Wake performed even worse than that! Jeez.
More from me tomorrow; I'm too keyed up to properly vent here. But, think on this: what would have been the worst result in terms of having Teague, Aminu and Johnson go pro? I think looking lifeless in a first round game and getting blown out is probably at the top of the list. I think they're all going to enter the draft, with maybe Johnson sticking around after testing the waters.
But there will be plenty more post-mortem coming tomorrow.
Balls.

Maryland holds off Cal; NCAA tournament afternoon recap

Well, that was a pretty boring first session. Other than the first 34 minutes of the Memphis-Northridge game, there wasn't anything remotely exciting going on over the first eight games of the 2009 NCAA tournament. Hopefully this means that tonight's session will pick up the slack.
Except for the final nine minutes of the game, the Terps didn't play all that well against Cal. But the Golden Bears played much, much worse in an ugly game that eventually saw Maryland cruise to a commanding win. Everyone is saying that because Memphis struggled today, they're vulnerable against MD on Saturday. Or you could say that because Memphis struggled today, they got it out of their system and will dominate.
I'm concentrating my duties over at The Dagger this weekend, but I'll still be posting here (and about Wake Forest, in particular). In the meantime, take a look at the best of a solid day of work from me, MJD and Eamonn:

Thursday evening viewing guide -- Breaking down the best viewing options for tonight's session.

Afternoon live blog -- MJD started things off and I took over after he got too drunk to continue had connectivity problems.

The Radford Highlander is awesome -- "Zeke Smith, via Skeets, says the Highlander looks like "Chuck Norris dressed up as Braveheart." That's pretty close. But does Chuck Norris have a way with kids?" Fantastic.

Watching Gus Johnson call the end of the UCLA-Gonzaga game should be a new NCAA tournament tradition -- Thanks to Spiro for the idea on this one.

Coach K calls out Obama's picks -- No way he was joking. He was definitely doing that snide, rat-like, read-between-the-lines Krzyzewski move, which I detailed last year on this site. There's a lot of comments on that post, and most of which are calling me a flaming liberal. So, in the past six months I've been called a racist, a Ravens fan, a North Carolina fan, a Duke fan, a flaming liberal, somebody who wants to "lick Dubya's b*lls" (that's a direct quote) and a racist about 5,000 more times. I love the Internet.
Nobody seemed to care that I said I agreed with Coach K solely to set up the joke that followed. I think it's fine for presidents to know about sports (even if Obama clearly didn't know anything about college basketball). You just can't have it both ways. People who want to rip on Obama for doing this can't complain if they defended Bush when he showed how knowledgable he was about baseball. And Democrats can't say it's OK if Obama fills out a bracket if they ripped Bush for the baseball thing either. Everyone, just stop being hypocrites and realize that just because you don't like a politician's policies doesn't mean that you have to hate everything about them.
Now, about how much I loathe Coach K ...

2009 NCAA tournament preview

My NCAA tournament picks are above. Yeah, that's Duke you see in the Final Four. I'll explain in a minute.
I decided to go with Connecticut because they seem to be an undervalued pick this March, and for good reason. They came up small twice against Pittsburgh, lost Potomac's own Jerome Dyson to injury and finished third in the Big East and lost in the tournament quarterfinal's. Still, everyone is picking Pittsburgh or North Carolina and I'm really not sold on Louisville. So, UConn fits the bill of the good team that has the talent to win and could lead me to a bracket victory should they pull it off.
West Virginia is my surprise pick in the Midwest. Of course, they could be out pretty early too. That region is so stacked though that I think it stands the best chance of having a surprise team break through. Wake Forest could certainly be that team. If the Deacs get by Cleveland State and Utah/Arizona, I think they'll go to the Final Four. However, I'm quite worried about tomorrow's game. My buddy Greg asked if if I think they'll lose or whether I'm scared that they're going to lose. Honestly, I think they're going to lose. I would have picked against them, but another friend told me that I was contractually obligated to never pick against my team in an upset.
As for Duke -- man, do I hate that pick. But I'm trying an offshoot of the Costanza "opposite" method and going against my natural instincts. I normally order chicken salad on white toast? I'm going with salmon on rye bread, untoasted. I'll be drinking Coors Lite, eating cauliflower and watching Oprah too.
When I looked at my picks and saw three Big East teams in the Final Four, I knew I couldn't have that. I don't think the Big East is going to get three teams. But because I liked the West Virginia pick and knew I didn't want to pick Memphis, Pittsburgh was the only choice to go. And, amazing at it sounds, I think Duke has its best shot in years to make the Final Four. This is the first time in years the Blue Devils have entered March without any hype. I still think they aren't very good, but neither is their side of the bracket. And Pitt is notorious for March flameouts. So, there it is. I need to hose off now.
The Syracuse sub-bracket was the toughest on the board. Oklahoma is my least favorite No. 2 seed, Arizona State is not a great No. 6, Temple has hype but has lost some terrible games this year, so I had to stick with the Orange.
In the Final Four, I went with Connecticut solely because I don't think a lot of people will pick them. Every top seed has a big problem: Louisville's point play, the lack of Dyson for UConn (and the very real possibility that Thabeet will pick up two fouls in the game's first few minutes), Carolian doesn't play defense and Pittsburgh ... well, Pittsburgh doesn't have the same weaknesses. They're probably the best team, but the best team doesn't always win. So, by default, it's Connecticut.
Chances are I'll hate my bracket just as much in four days as I do now. But maybe the fact that I think that means that, for the first time in years, I won't.

Strange things are afoot in Las Vegas; Handicappers Love Wake Forest

My buddy John is in Las Vegas and reports some mind-boggling Wake-related betting lines. Some selected odds to win the tournament at Caesar's Palace (the best sports book in town):

Wake 10-1
Oklahoma 15-1
Xavier 65-1
Syracuse 15-1
Villanova 25-1
Missouri 30-1
Kansas 25-1

Strange, he says, especially because Wake is only a -7.5 point favorite vs. Cleveland State in the first round. The Deacs' odds to win are much better than any No. 3 seed and a select bunch of No. 2s. How is that possible?
I have no idea, but I imagine that there was some heavy action early in the week when Wake's odds were lower and the line moved significantly. I still think it's pretty crazy though.
Picks to come later. And, as always, check out The Dagger for all your NCAA tournament needs.

Redskins re-sign Shaun Suisham, NFL's worst kicker in 2008

From Redskins Insider:

Shaun Suisham signs his tender: The kicker has signed his offer sheet and is under contract for 2009, the Redskins announced.

Of the 32 NFL kickers who attempted more than ten field goals last year, Shaun Suisham ranked 32nd in field goal percentage. Vinny Cerrato is happy to let guys who actually perform leave via free agency, but when he has an incompetent, game-losing kicker, he makes sure nobody else takes him. I'm sure there was a long line of semi-pro teams chomping at the bit for a shot at Suisham.

NCAA Tournament Thoughts

**** Wake Forest will play the late game on Friday night (appx. 9:45 ET). ****

* The seeding of Wake Forest, plus the that of their scheduled first round opponent, infuriated me for the first 90 minutes after the Selection Show. Now that I've had time to decompress ... well, I'm still pretty pissed. But -- serenity now -- there's some silver lining in all of it, I think.
As my buddy Spiro predicted (and which I took credit for on The Dagger), the Big East logjam at No. 1 created a situation where Villanova and Syracuse couldn't play in any region other than the South because of a potential match-up with a fellow Big East school in the Sweet 16. As a result, it seems that the committee just said, "screw it" and bumped the Orange to a No. 3, even though they were the sixth-best team in their own conference this year. Wake got bumped down a line to a No. 4 seed and, to add insult to injury, got placed in the same region as the top overall seed. To summarize: Syracuse, sixth in the Big East. Wake Forest, second in the ACC. Syracuse, No. 3 seed. Wake Forest, No. 4 seed. Yeah, the loss to Maryland hurt, but they lost to Maryland -- a team that earned a No. 10 seed! It's not like they lost to Baylor, KANSAS.
Not only that, but Wake got paired-up with a Cleveland State team in the first round that has an RPI of 55, higher than Boston College, which earned a No. 7 seed. In the irony of all ironies, Cleveland State actually beat Syracuse at the Carrier Dome back in Novemeber. Ridiculous.
Portland State was also a No. 13 seed, and they have an RPI of 117. You're welcome, Xavier.
Now for the bright side: All season, my worry has been that Wake would come out in the first round and disrespect its opponent. No matter what Dino Gaudio would say before the game, there's a good chance that the Deacs would have held a team like Portland State in low regard. But at least Cleveland State is pretty good. They beat Syracuse. They beat Butler, twice. In theory, Gaudio should be able to show his team that if they treat Cleveland State lightly, they won't be playing on the weekend.
Also, I'd rather Wake be a No. 4 seed in Louisville's region than a No. 3 in Connecticut or Michigan State's. Not to get ahead of ourselves, but in a theoretical match-up with the Cardinals, I'd like Wake's chances. They'd struggle against a Michigan State or UConn. Pittsburgh was my biggest fear and for a moment tonight I thought that's where Wake was. Louisville, I'll take.
And, finally, if Wake can get past Cleveland State, Utah isn't a bad second round game. (If Utah loses to Arizona though, eeeek. The Wildcats play a tough match-up zone. Me no likes.) Although, in looking at the other 5/12 matchups, there's not one frightening games. (Illinois is a No. 5 seed? Really?)

* It cracked me up that everyone on ESPN was picking Arizona to go to the Sweet 16. I mean, they have a fine shot at doing so. But the Wildcats lost six of seven to close the year and now Jay Bilas thinks they'll be able to just flip a switch because they got a bid? If it was so easy, why didn't they do so against Washington or Arizona State or Cal?

* Six anaylsts picked the Elite Eight, Final Four and national champ on ESPN. That's 40 overall picks for the Elite Eight. Only two of those 48 picks were teams that had a three seed or lower (one had Xavier, the other had Purdue.) Everyone else had all No. 1, 2 or No. 3 seeds in the Elite Eight. I mean, come on. (Everyone had Louisville and Carolina in the Final Four and four of the six had them playing in the title game. Way to go out on a limb.)

* Maryland may have been more safe than we thought. Had they lost to Wake, was there a chance the Terps still would have earned an at-large bid? The fact that Arizona got one suggests it's possible.

* I still can't get over the Cleveland State thing. Wake got tripley screwed. Damn. An RPI of No. 55 and a Pomeroy of No. 68. I guess they could have got Mississippi State, which may have pissed me off more.

* North Carolina's region is insanely easy. They get an overrated Oklahoma squad, Syracuse as a No. 3 and Gonzaga coming east for the Sweet 16 games (if they even make it that far).

* VCU plays statistical darling UCLA in the first round, for my money the best match-up of the first two days.

* The new Chris Paul commercial for Nike's Jordan Brand is everything you'd expect from a Nike commercial featuring a Wake Forest player; namely, that it's freakin' awesome:

(It's not the best quality, I'll embed a better version when it comes along.) The commercial is a little misleading though. Paul, though awesome (he had 29 points and six assists), didn't destroy Manhattan as much as Manhattan destroyed itself. The Jaspers had a 13-point lead in that game and tied up CP with the score tied and under 30 seconds remaining. But Wake had the possession arrow and CP found Trent Strickland (!) for a dunk with 11.1 seconds left. It was a second round game, by the way. Manhattan, a No. 12 seed, had upset Florida in the first round. The Deacs lost to St. Joe's in the Sweet 16 five days later.

* I'll have much more on the NCAA tournament throughout the week. And, as always, please check me, MJD and Eamonn Brennan out on The Dagger. I have no qualms in saying it's the best college basketball blog on the Internet and we're turning it into high gear for the next three weeks. If you notice any drop-off in the amount of content on this site this week, it's because I'll be tripling that output over at Yahoo!

Wake gets brutal first-round draw, No. 4 seed; nine-loss Syracuse gets a No. 3

What a complete joke.

ACC seeding projections

Some quick ACC predictions:

No. 1 -- North Carolina -- The Heels get the overall No. 1 seed in the tournament, as was expected at the start of the season.
No. 2 -- Duke -- If Duke wins today, they'd deserve a No. 1 seed over Connecticut, a team that won jacksquat in the Big East and lost in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament. But I'm assuming the committee already has the top lines drawn-up by now, and with Duke going to Greensboro regardless, it doesn't much matter whether they're a No. 1 or No. 2, seeing as how they'll be the "top" No. 2 seed.
No. 3 -- Wake Forest -- Syracuse's loss last night should have locked the Deacs into a No. 3 and a trip to Miami.
No. 4 -- Florida State -- Could the 'Noles pass Wake on the s-curve if they beat Duke today? Seeing as how Wake also has wins over UNC and Duke, plus wallopped FSU in their head-to-head matchup, they better freakin' not.
No. 6 -- Clemson -- That may be low for Clemson, but they really haven't done much in the past few weeks to deserve anything higher.
No. 7 -- Boston College -- Al Skinner's use of timeouts in the Duke game was abysmal. As I wrote on Thursday, there was no way Coach K was getting swept by Al Skinner.
No. 10 -- Maryland -- Those who think Maryland is a "lock" at this point might be fooling themselves. I think they deserve to be in, but their RPI is really, really low. And while everyoen talks about the great wins they have, you can't speak of the good without mentioning the bad: Morgan State and Virginia. Basically, the Virginia loss negates the Wake Forest win because it was equally bad as the latter was good. I still think the Terps get in, but if, say, Mississippi State wins today, they may be a lot closer to that bubble than they'd like to imagine.

Wake Forest beats itself; Maryland earns ACC tourney victory

In four of their five regular season losses this year, Wake Forest played woefully. They were worse than that tonight. Maryland didn't win their ACC quarterfinal with Wake nearly as much as the Deacs lost it, combining an abysmal offensive performance with a horrible defensive effort against a Maryland team that will likely sneak into the tournament as a double-digit seed.
It's a bad loss for Wake only because they had a chance to play in Greensboro for the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament, but now will be shipped to Miami or Philadelphia. They should be a No. 3 seed, but look for the selection committee to screw them with a No. 4. The Deacs haven't played well in the ACC tournament since 1996, so this wasn't altogether surprising. Maryland needed a victory, Wake didn't. They were a flat and uninspired squad playing against a Terp team that was keyed up to revenge their home-court loss last week.
The Deacs were out of sorts the entire night. They couldn't buy a layup, they took laughable threes and they allowed Maryland to have wide open looks on the offensive end. That Wake was within single digits late in the second half was absurd; they played so badly Maryland should have won by 25. (Indeed, the only time Wake played worse this year, they lost to Miami by 27.
If Wake could have bought a bucket in the last five minutes, that game could have swung very easily, mainly because Greivis Vasquez was hoisting ridiculous, contested three-pointers with the Terps up by double-digits. Tim Brando and Mike Gminski were all over Greivis, as announcers usually are, and he was certainly the catalyst for Maryland's great shooting night.
But, Greivis almost single-handedly sunk the Terps with a silly fourth foul, terrible late-game shot selection and unnecesary turnovers caused by his pace of play. He's like Slippery Pete. He's the best ... and the worst.
The win for Maryland is big, as it probably gets them into the NCAA tournament (although there are a lot of bubble-bursters out there in the A-10, Big 12 and out west) for the first time in three years. But it really means very little if they play poorly tomorrow or have a weekday exit in the NCAAs. I love Gary -- more than almost anyone -- but it's important not to overpraise this victory (the same way it was key not to bury him earlier in the season). Maryland is supposed to be able to compete with Wake Forest, especially when the Deacs shoot under 30 percent. (MD's defense played a role in that, of course, but it was more about terrible shot selection and execution.) And when they play well against a Wake team that plays horrible, they should be able to win with ease, as they did tonight. But in showing that they can hang with top ten teams, it only further demonstrates that the losses to Morgan State and Virginia were all the more inexcusable.
As for Wake, so much for my comparison to Florida in '06. The Deacs looked a lot like those Gators -- quick start to the year, struggling for a stretch in conference play, turned it on late in the season -- but Florida won the SECs (after a sluggish quarterfinal performance against Arkansas that they barely won) and Wake comes out and shoots 3-25 from three-point range despite the fact that they are incapable of shooting from beyond the arc.

2009 ACC Tournament Preview

Within the past four months, the ACC has held a football championship game in a half-empty stadium and began its premiere event, the men's basketball championship, in a dome filled to about 15 percent capacity. Way to go, John Swofford.
Thankfully, Swofford's bastardized version of the ACC tournament has concluded its first day and tomorrow the real action can begin. A brief preview:

#1 North Carolina vs. #8 Virginia Tech
Roy Williams doesn't like the ACC tournament. As much as I can't stand that, when his team plays well enough all season to clinch a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament before the conference tourney, it's his peroragative if he wants to treat like as a tune-up.
It seems like the Hokies will be a popular upset pick tomorrow. Between the fact that they need a win to get into the NCAA tournament (so many bubble teams have lost, I think one should do it), Carolina's apathy and the possibility that Ty Lawson won't play, VT is a logical pick.
That's why I think UNC will dominate out of the gate. For the past five years everyone has talked about how Roy Williams doesn't care about the ACC tournament, yet the Heels always seem to do alright. Saturday's game is the one to watch out for, I think Carolina is safe tomorrow.
Pick: North Carolina

#4 Florida State vs. #12 Georgia Tech
Will Clemson's loss to Georgia Tech finally convince people that the Tigers aren't all that good? Their much-vaunted press (which Len Elmore described earlier this year as "one of the best he's ever seen" -- seriously) is a complete joke that leads to so many transition baskets that sometimes it looks like Oliver Purnell's squad is playing a pick-up game down at the Y.
Pick: Florida State

#2 Wake Forest vs. #7 Maryland
Of all the matchups in the ACC tournament, this is the most lopsided. Maryland has no frontcourt size, Wake leads the country in effective height. But the Deacs play down to their competition and if they let Maryland hang around, those shots that Maryland will have to hit thanks to Wake's zone could start falling and put the Deacs out of the ACCs early, as usual. The last time they were a No. 2 seed was in 2005 when Chris Paul was suspended and they lost at the MCI Center to Andrew Brackman, Julius Hodge and N.C. State. I have a bad feeling about this one. That won't stop me from taking the Deacs though.
Pick: Wake Forest

#3 Duke vs. #6 Boston College
BC is like that TV show that's been on the air for a few years, gets decent ratings, yet you've never watched because you assume it sucks. Then you watch it and while the show doesn't really do anything to sway you, you realize that's it not as bad as you thought. But there's no way Coach K gets swept by Al Skinner.
Pick: Duke

Semifinals
#1 North Carolina vs. #4 Florida State
Toney Douglas isn't well-known outside the ACC. Hell, Toney Douglas isn't that well-known in the ACC. But he's the RDH (real deal Holyfield) and this will be his non-gay coming out party. If FSU does indeed win, they'll become a sexy pick to advance as a No. 4 or No. 5 seed in the NCAAs, only to flame out in the first round against a squad like VCU.
Pick: Florida State

#2 Wake Forest vs. #3 Duke
If Duke wins the ACC tournament, they'll get a No. 1 seed in the NCAAs. If Wake does, they won't.
Pick: Wake Forest

ACC Championship
#2 Wake Forest vs. #4 Florida State
I'lll pretty much be writing the same thing in three days about the NCAA tournament, but I think if Wake can get by the first round in the ACCs, they'll cut down the nets for the first time since 1996.
Pick: Wake Forest

* Swofford has an interview on the ACC Now blog on the News & Observer web site. He is to me as Cartman is to Scott Tenorman. Some choice excerpts:

Q: The tournament is not a sellout. On the other hand, the economy is in a difficult situation and you still get more revenue, I would presume (at the Georgia Dome), than you would in Greensboro. Can you break that down for me?

Swofford: It really relates to being in a dome at the same time we're in a down economy unlike anything any of us have seen before. It's that combination. If we were in Greensboro or Charlotte or any of the other venues we've played the tournament in, we would be over capacity in those buildings. I think it relates directly to the combination of big building, down economy.

Q: Do you know about how many tournament books you've sold?

Swofford: We’re going to be around 26,000, 27,000. Somewhere right in that area.

Q: And it was set up for 36,000?

Swofford: Yes, 36,000, and that was based on the last time we were here in 2001, when we basically averaged 36,000. It was the most any conference tournament has ever had in college basketball. It was a remarkable turnout in the first time we'd been in the dome. And it was a huge success.

But I really think you have to call this a success, too, considering where we are at this given time and the numbers compared to our normal numbers.

But it's in a dome because you put it there! That's like complaining about making car payments after buying a Ferrari. It's not the dome's fault, it's the ACCs fault for taking the tournament to Atlanta to play in a sterile dome and forcing people to buy tickets for four crappy Thursday games that nobody wants to go to.

The All-ACC teams are announced and I have little complaint

This was probably as difficult a year to vote for an All-ACC team as there has been in years. (I wrote about it on The Dagger a few weeks back.) So, when the teams were announced today, naturally, I was prepared to rant and rave about how badly the voters did in their selections. My lack of faith was misguided, as they did a pretty good job:

First Team
*Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina (228)
Toney Douglas, Florida State (226)
Ty Lawson, North Carolina (224)
Gerald Henderson, Duke (210)
Jack McClinton, Miami (188)

Second Team
Jeff Teague, Wake Forest (185)
Trevor Booker, Clemson (156)
Tyrese Rice, Boston College (151)
Kyle Singler, Duke (128)
Greivis Vasquez, Maryland (116)

Third Team
James Johnson, Wake Forest (100)
Malcolm Delaney, Virginia Tech (83)
A.D. Vassallo, Virginia Tech (81)
Danny Green, North Carolina (48)
Gani Lawal, Georgia Tech (46)

Honorable Mention
Wayne Ellington, North Carolina (41)
K.C. Rivers, Clemson (33)
Sylven Landesberg, Virginia (15)

All-Freshman Team
*Sylven Landesberg, Virginia (76)
*Al-Farouq Aminu, Wake Forest (76)
Iman Shumpert, Georgia Tech (70)
Solomon Alabi, Florida State (59)
Ed Davis, North Carolina (55)

Honorable Mention
Chris Singleton, Florida State (21)

All-Defensive Team
Trevor Booker, Clemson (67)
Toney Douglas, Florida State (67)
Solomon Alabi, Florida State (53)
Danny Green, North Carolina (28)
L.D. Williams, Wake Forest (26)

Honorable Mention
Ty Lawson, North Carolina (20)
Gani Lawal, Georgia Tech (17)
Courtney Fells, North Carolina State (16)
Gerald Henderson, Duke (15)

There's no problem with the first team. There's an argument to be made that Teague could have been on the squad ahead of Henderson, but there's no way voters would have a Duke-less first team.
If we're getting technical, I don't know why Hansbrough was unanimous while Lawson was the third-leading vote-getter. Lawson should be a shoo-in for ACC Player of the Year, but this result makes me skeptical that the voters will reward Hansbrough for his career rather than his year.
Back to Henderson: he's a first teamer, but if he didn't have a DUKE on the front of his jersey, he'd have been closer to the vote totals of McClinton and Teague. Frankly, it's ridiculous that he had more votes than McClinton, who should have been a sure thing on the squad.
The first major snub comes via the second team, with James Johnson getting bumped for Kyle Singler and Greivis Vasquez, among others. Vasquez played great down the stretch for the Terps, but he was their only option and his undisciplined play hurts the team as much as his scoring (which isn't as prolific as you'd think -- JJ averaged more than Greivis this year). Johnson was a more efficient scorer than Singler (though the Duke sophomore averaged one more point) and pulled down more rebounds. But, again, you learn to live with the pro-Duke bias in the press. (Sorry, Wolfman, no fire and brimstone from me today.) Plus, Johnson did this last night:

The biggest travesty comes down in the 3rd team, with Wayne Ellington getting left out in favor of Malcolm Delaney and Gani Lawal. I can't fathom how Ellington gets half the votes of Delaney and five less than Lawal. Maybe -- maybe -- you can make the case for Delaney over Ellington, but not at double the votes. That's baffling.
The defensive teams look good; I love that LD Williams got some first-team love. Trevor Booker is a great rebounder, I don't know if that really makes him a good defender though. The FSU guys are very deserving.
The All-Freshman team is solid as well; it should be interesting to see who gets the ACC Rookie of the Year award: Slyvan Landesberg or Al-Farouq Aminu. Landesberg put up more gaudy numbers, but did so on a bad team. Aminu played a vital role on a top ten squad. Frankly, I'd like to see them share the award. More on that tomorrow.

Wake beats Clemson, gets No. 2 seed in ACC tournament

* They were down ten late in the first half, but after a six-point flurry before heading to the locker room, Wake Forest snatched momentum from a Clemson team that had controlled for most of the game. The Deacs came out just as hot in the second half and defeated No. 18 Clemson 96-88 on Senior Night for Harvey Hale in Winston-Salem. Fantastic. It was a great regular season for Dino Gaudio's squad and the postseason could be a special one as well.

* Wake was 7-1 against the top half of the ACC. They were 4-4 against the bottom half.

* All the talk this week was about how Duke could still get a No. 1 seed in the tournament. Sports Illustrated suggested as much when they put Gerald Henderson on its eight-man cover. But, all of a sudden, the Blue Devils are the No. 3 team in the ACC after their loss to North Carolina and Wake's victory against Clemson. By virtue of the Deacs' win over Carolina, Wake earns the tiebreaker with Duke and the No. 2 seed in the ACC tournament.

* An underrated aspect of the win: Wake now plays at 7 p.m. on Friday instead of 9:30 which, if they were to prevail, is better than playing at 9 p.m. and finishing at midnight for the next day's game. If it's Wake-Duke on Saturday (I know I'm getting ahead of myself), then Duke will be on shorter rest.

* However, Wake plays the winner of Maryland/N.C. State. Had they lost tonight, they would have played the winner of Boston College/Virginia. I'd rather have seen either BC or UVA, because Wake dominated those teams this year, while they struggled with MD and State.

* Wake's defense looked suspect today (which is why I'm still weary of an NCAA first round loss), but they played an unconscious second half from the offensive side of the ball and cruised thanks to James Johnson's dominance in the paint.

* If the NCAA tournament started today, Wake would be slotted for a No. 2 seed and a trip to Greensboro while Duke would probably get bumped to Philadelphia or Miami (which, honestly, might be better for the Blue Devils. Going to Greensboro is convenient and close, but it will be overrun by Carolina folk, all of whom will be rooting vigorously against Coach K are company. Plus, Duke plays a ton of off-site neutral floor games each season, so it's not like a trip to Philly will be at that different than the four games Duke played at Madison Square Garden this year.) The hatred of Wake isn't on the same level that it is for Duke, so I think Wake won't have to worry about that as much.

* We'll talk plenty more about this later, but I'm really worried about the first round NCAA game. If Wake plays any low-seeded team with size, they could be vulnerable, particularly if Wake's FT shooting is off. But getting a No. 2 seed would go a long way toward =assuaging my fears. I feel like the difference between No. 14 and No. 15 seeds is one of the biggest gaps there is.

* Another thing that worries me: Because Wake has so much size and plays so much ball in the paint, the team gets a lot of whistles going their way. This is because undersized teams can't contend with Wake's height and have to compensate by playing aggressively, which leads to fouls. The problem is (and it happened in the first half of the Maryland game on Tuesday) that refs like to even out foul calls, even though Wake earns their trips to the line, while the other teams don't work inside as much and play the game on the perimeter, which leads to fewer fouls for the defense.

* They deserve a No. 2 right now, but the win tonight should assure the Deacs of earning no worse than a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament. At the moment they're ahead of Duke on the S-curve thanks to the Deacs' victory over North Carolina (while Duke lost twice to the Heels). There are still some very-plausible scenarios in which Wake would deserve a No. 1 seed, but that involves them getting to the ACC final and Oklahoma and Connecticut not winning their conference tournaments.

* The ACC tournament preview is coming up later in the week but, for the first time in my decade of being a Wake fan, I really like the Deacs' chances. Their athleticism bodes well for three games in three days. Their mental mistakes also bodes well for an early exit at the hands of Maryland.

Chris Paul's Buzzer Beater at N.C. State

It was four years ago today that Chris Paul hit a thrilling game-winner at N.C. State to close the 2005 regular season for Wake Forest. I didn't watch this game live and it remains the last time I was able to record a sporting event and watch later without knowing the final result. I used to do that all the time in high school when I would have swim practice during big college games, but with Blackberrys and 40 sports channels, I don't have the attention span to do that now. Plus, I remember that after I calmed down from celebrating that shot I thought it was weird to be cheering about something that had happened 90 minutes before. (Here's my take on that game from the next day.)

Still gives me goosebumps.
Amazingly, that's probably only the second most memorable Chris Paul moment from that game. This is the first:

Paul ended up getting suspended for one game for that (a loss to N.C. State in the ACC Tournament), Wake got a No. 2 seed in the Tournament as a result and then lost to West Virginia in what is still the most painful moment of sports-watching life. (I didn't remember what I wrote about that game, so I went through the archives to look. Not surprisingly, I eviscerate the late Skip Prosser. It's sort of a painful read now.)

That's His (Ex-)Teammate, That's His (Ex-)Quarterback

It's really unfair. It's really unfair. It's really unfair that Tony Romo is no longer Terrell Owens' teammate and quarterback, which ensures that every future viewing of this clip (beginning with this one) will be anachronistic. Those facts, however, don't make it any less hilarious.

Everyone, Please Stop With the Leonard Hamilton Love

I sort of like Leonard Hamilton. He was a solid coach back when Miami was in the Big East, he was in over his head with Michael Jordan here in D.C. but his Florida State teams are always a pain in the ass to play, no matter their record (which is usually quite mediocre). It's amazing that the Seminoles haven't been in the Tournament since he arrived in Tallahassee seven years ago because I can remember years in which they were pretty good (particularly in 2006, when an ACC opening round loss to Wake Forest sealed their NCAA fate). This year, the 'Noles are respectable once again and will coast into their first NCAA Tournament since 1997 despite the fact that they're not discernibly better than any of Hamilton's other squads. They'll likely be a 6 or 7 seed in the Tourney, average for a middle-of-the-road ACC team. Nothing special, right?
Yet, for some reason, I've seen Hamilton mentioned twice today as a potential National Coach of the Year, first in a column by Jason King (I agree with his top two choices, but not much other than that) and then during this brutal Illinois-Penn State game on ESPN when Steve Lavin included him on a list of seven potential candidates. Come on now.
Hamilton's team can finish fourth in the ACC, at best. They could potentially finish sixth. They took advantage of a super-soft schedule in doing so, with their lone "good" victories coming against Clemson during the Tigers' annual mid-season swoon.
So, for presiding over an average ACC team and leading them to an NCAA Tournament for the first time in seven seasons despite the fact that FSU pumps plenty of money into its basketball program, Leonard Hamilton deserves Coach of the Year? He's not even in the top two for ACC Coach of the Year, for crap's sake! Is he suffering from the low bar he's set for his team? Because finishing fourth or fifth in the ACC is what Leonard Hamilton was hired to do. He finally does it in a year that will see his team make the Tournament and for this he's a coaching savant?
I'm actually baffled.

The Redskins Won't Sign T.O. (He Says With Hopeful, Misguided Certainty)

The Wolfman has been a little disappointed of my new semi-Zen-like attitude towards the Redskins offseason spending spree. He says that while he is happy that I've managed to calm myself in light of $24 million guaranteed to the DeAngelo Halls of the world, he misses the venom I used to spew. I told him that when it comes to throwing money around to guys who may not deserve it, the unbelievable has become believable and it's hard to be upset anymore. It's like being mad at a elephant for having a trunk. It's just the way they are.
That being said, if the Redskins sign Terrell Owens I will pen a manifesto so lengthy and vitriolic that it would make Ted Kaczynski blush. (Unlike some others out there, I see no shot of it happening, which makes the prospects of its inevitability all the better for my long-winded rant against Danny and Vinny.)

Who Do You Root For When You Want To Root For Nobody?

As a sports fan, there's not much better than walking out of an opponent's arena after a win. I'll always remember triumphantly leaving Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia after the Redskins beat the Eagles to go to the '05 playoffs.
I was able to experience that high last night after Wake Forest's thrilling come-from-behind victory over Maryland and, let me tell you, it was pretty sweet. On my way up the stairs to the concourse from our seats, I spotted the only old gold and black shirt in the section (a young woman, probably still in college), made eye contact with her and exchanged a silent, crisp high-five without breaking stride. The bounce in my step carried me past dejected Maryland fans who were left to ponder another season in the NIT. (And, yes, it will end in the NIT. Despite what Mike Wise says, a win over UVA and one in the first round of the ACC Tournament won't be enough. It's not 1996. Going 8-8 in the ACC and winning a game in the tourney isn't what it used to be.)

* While watching the Duke-Virginia Tech game last weekend, my friend Russ was aghast that I was "rooting" for Duke to win. And, in retrospect, it was stupid because Wake would have been in great position for a No. 2 seed in the ACC Tournament had Duke lost. However, I really can't stand Virginia Tech and wanted to see them make the NIT again. (A ticket that was getting closer to being punched after the Hokies lost to UNC tonight.) Therefore, in my eyes, Duke winning was the lesser of two evils. Had Duke lost it would have been great, but it would have led to two weeks of hearing about how good Virginia Tech was. With Duke's win, the VT love in the D.C. area was eliminated. Did I feel dirty afterwards? Of course. Was it worth it? I think so.
It's always difficult when you have to root against two teams. Redskins fans were presented with a similar scenario in December when the Eagles played the Cowboys in a de facto playoff game. I told my friends I was rooting for the Cowboys because I preferred to see them fail on a big stage (the playoffs) and the thought of Donovan McNabb missing the playoffs delighted me. They told me I was crazy. They were right. After Philly blew out Dallas that day, I saw the err of my ways.
I was reminded of this today both because of the UNC-VT game and because I received a note from an old friend who had written about this very topic in January. Because I'm the worst at returning emails, I never responded, nor addressed the question here. His dilemma was choosing a rooting interest for the Eagles and Giants in the Divisional Playoffs. His email is below:

Your vitriol for Donovan McNabb is well-chronicled. (Speaking of
vitriol, the "Best Of..." from the comments section was my favorite
post of the year. Anytime you can induce such ardor, it's a job
well-done.) When the Eagles and Giants meet in the Divisional Round
this week, is it okay to feel a pang of sympathy for the left-for-dead
Eagles? Even from a Redskins-affiliation standpoint, doesn't it
legitimize our season to have the team we beat twice advance in the
playoffs? Or would that just convince Vinny he's been on the right
track all along, and he'd get down to the business of drafting the UNC
guy who made a behind-the-back catch in the bowl game?

Look, I'm disgustedly-mystified, just like you, when I see Donovan
tell people after a loss, "We were the better team." And yes, he
shouldn't still be sore about the benching in Baltimore, at least
outside the locker-room. But all that aside, the last thing I want to
see is Eli hayseed-ing his way to another Super Bowl. Maybe I have a
synthetically-imposed soft spot for Westbrook after owning him in
fantasy and seeing him go for 200 yfs in the first round of the
playoffs. But that little guy has heart. He's the most dangerous
weapon in the league. And I'd like to feel good about rooting for him
to knock off the Giants.

I think I felt the same way, figuring that the Giants actually had a chance to win the Super Bowl, but the Eagles didn't. Of course, once the Cardinals won, I figured either of those squads was bound to go to the big game.
Each situation has to be evaluated on its own. I still feel OK that I would have rather seen Duke win last Saturday, but should Tech make it to the Tournament anyway,
Anyway, thanks for the email to Joe. We shall bestow FOTB status on him as a result. Watch out, Becker.

The $500,000 'Prank' at Wake Forest-Maryland

I covered this on The Dagger earlier today, where I speculated that the guy knew about the prank. I'm nearly positive he had to. There were way too many loose ends not tied. (My buddy Russ is the announcer for the gag, by the way.)

Wake Comes Back To Stun Terps, Jason Taylor is Gonzeo

Just got back from the Wake-Maryland game in College Park. Going in I was telling everyone who would listen (and some who wouldn't) that, match-up wise, I wasn't worried about the Deacs at all. When 6'9 Dave Neal is the Terps best frontcourt threat, Aminu, Johnson, McFarland, Weaver and Woods should have dominated. In theory, it should have been a very winnable game for Wake, I assumed. But since the Terps needed the game to clinch at an at-large bid to the NCAAs, and it was at home and it was the senior night for a loveable guy like Neal, I thought Maryland would win a close one.
The game went pretty much as expected. MD had the fire early, Wake kept chipping away with easy points in the paint and the Deacs ended up with the W in a thrilling affair that saw huge runs, a resounding edge for Wake in rebounding and a late-game defensive switch (to a 1-3-1 zone) that left Maryland flummoxed and enabled the Deacs to go on an 11-0 run with under five minutes left . (After the Deacs had been similarly baffled by a Maryland zone switch.)
Wake outrebounded the Terps 50-32 and made their run at the right time. All game long it looked like Dino Gaudio was waiting for Dave Neal to miss his threes (he started with four straight) and, when he and Maryland started bricking open looks, Wake capitalized. When the Deacs were down 54-48 with four to go, a run of misses by Neal, Greivis Vasquez and Eric Hayes set up three scoring possessions for Wake, including this resounding dunk from Jeff Teague, one that may be the best you'll see all year. Comcast Center got as quiet as I've ever heard a stadium, except for the 150 or so Wake fans there (including myself) going nuts:

Then, down the stretch, they made their one-and-ones from the FT line and took the victory.
As Jamie from Mr. Irrelevant put it succinctly in an email after the game: Wake Forest is big Maryland is not. And it's basically as simple as that.
Great comeback by the Deacs, showing a lot of fight and heart in a game that they weren't as up for as they should have been. (The bigger game, in theory, was vs. Clemson on Sunday, but winning this one clinched an opening round bye for Wake in next week's ACC Tourney.)
The NCAA Tournament waters for Maryland are murky now. I think they'll have to win three straight (over UVA on Sunday and then in each of their first two ACC Tournament games) to get a bid. They weren't in before the loss to Wake, which means that beating Virginia doesn't put them in. And beating a team like NC State or Miami in the 1st round of the ACCs isn't going to put them over the edge either. The Terps will need a win against one of the big four; UNC, Duke, Wake or Clemson, to get a bid. Three straight wins and they're in. With the way they're playing of late, it's not out of the realm of possibility. But tonight would have nearly clinched it.

* Jason Taylor gets cut? Dog bites man. We gave away a second-round pick to get a former All Pro who was hurt, didn't play well when he was healthy and then chose to leave because he didn't want to do off-season workouts with the team. It's business as usual at Kramerica Industries Redskins Park. Good riddance, I say. But we really could have used that pick to draft a receiver.

!!! Bowden Out as Nationals GM !!!

Get on your Segway and get out. Jim Bowden resigned this morning as general manager of the Washington Nationals. He released a statement, a typical, self-serving ode to himself explaining "his" decision.
The only problem with this is that the Nats let Bowden go out on a high note, acting as if this was his decision when he was obviously pushed out of the door. Why give him the satisfaction? Fire his ass like he deserved.
There's been talk of hiring assistant GM Mike Rizzo, but the Nats should go in another direction. Anybody who was on the staff of Jim Bowden is tainted. Bring in some fresh blood (Tony LaCava) and start this thing over right.

Update: My cousin, George, thinks Rizzo is the man and likes the decision. I'll defer to him on this one. Rizzo was great in Arizona so let's see what he can do here. Plus, the possibilities for endless "R to the izzo" jokes excites me.

Update x2: Boswell: "A team that terminates a vital relationship, but won't man up and be candid about its causes, especially when those reasons are so obvious and far more than sufficient, is setting a poor standard for its own behavior." Perfect.

Which of These Doesn't Belong

Did Matt Ryan's brother make up this poll question?