Mighty's Mailbag: TV, NCAA, and More Ice

Well without football to anchor this columnist's attention I'll be taking The Cheney approach to answering question (i.e. shoot anything/anyone that moves). Here goes:

What's your take on the NFL TV announcers off-season?
Paul M. , unemployment line

Well Paul, it certainly has been an active free agent season for TV personalities. Disney substituted Mike Tirico/Joe Theisman team for the tried and true Al Michael/John Madden to head up Monday Night Football. They quickly moved to shore up the humor factor by calling in Tony Kornheiser of PTI fame. Finally to avoid over the cap fines, they traded Al Michaels to NBC for cash and a rabbit cartoon. I think it will be interesting to see if Sunday Night football with the big boys overshadows MNF. The other interesting question is Theisman and Kornheiser going to mesh? Kornheiser is the functional equivalent of sport's Woody Allen...funny, neurotic and self-admittedly temperamental. Theisman could barely stand rips from last year's Sunday Night crew so I assume by game 2 Theisman will strangle Kornheiser on air.


Which Conference might get two teams in the Final Four?
Jimmy the G, Vegas Baby

One of the big questions every year for the NCAA tournament is how does each conference stack up against one another. Good conferences can send ripples through THE TOURNAMENT (note read THE TOURNAMENT like one would say GINGIVITIS) by getting two to the Final Four. I have two conferences that could possibly do that this year: The Big East and The Big 10. Big East is the equivalent of the Borg. If you assimilate enough schools you’re bound to be strong. UConn, Villanova and West Virginia are the best of the best. They have experience, deep benches, prime time players and solid coaching staffs. Just below the big boys are Georgetown and Pittsburgh ...certainly either are capable of upsetting anybody as Georgetown demonstrated in its victory over Duke. This might be the deepest Big 10 since the turn of the century (yeah I know it wasn't that long ago). Iowa and Ohio State are two of the best 3 point shooting teams in the country. Nasty defense from Wisconsin and Illinois will keep them in most games. Tom Izzo's of Michigan State vial of Avian Bird Flu will enable them to make a tournament run. Would you mess with Izzo? He just has those crazy eyes. The ACC is down this year due to the massive draft migration. They will have to wait till next year before returning to the top of pile.

You said you liked the Winter Olympics, how is Team America doing?
-Dick C., undisclosed location

See the recent espn.com article by Jim Caple. It pretty much sums up a disappointing start by the Americans. If the Olympic hadn't added pot required snowboarding sports it would be pretty sad.