Monday, March 01, 2010

Flash Facts: Ah Crap


#1 The Cavs Could Be In Trouble
Unfortunately Glen Davis' attempt to hurt Shaq worked. The Big Cuyahoga will be out for the next 6-8 weeks. While the Cavs have Leon Powe now and will soon get Z back, it will be a much tougher ride for the Cavs. Shaq's presence is necessary for the Cavs to beat the Magic or Lakers in the playoffs so they'll need to hope they can reintegrate Shaq on the fly (i.e., in the playoffs)


Not Again!

#2 Syracuse is #1
Over the weekend the race to the #1 overall seed was all but decided. While KU, Purdue and Kentucky all slipped up, Syracuse had probably the most impressive win of the year. 'Cuse transition offense was too much to handle for the previously #7 Villanova. Short of a major crash and burn, Syracuse will be the #1 seed in the tournament.

#3 Out with the Old
While uncapped is the headline for the upcoming NFL season, the real story is there is no cap floor either. John Clayton has been reporting that a number of teams are expecting to cut $30-40 million off their payroll. The easiest way to do that is replace old veterans with rookie free agents. The trend of cutting old players (Tomlinson, Westbrook, Thomas Jones, etc.) should continue.

#4 The Hard Sell
It's hard to imagine it but coaches are already in fast and furious mode for football recruits for the 2011 class. Texas is King of the hard sell. They already have amassed 14 highly quality recruits. That's 14 for the 2011 class. Mack Brown's has been a recruiting machine the past few years - which should mean Texas will remain the creme della creme of the Big 12.

4 comments:

MJ said...

1) Do people really call Shaq "The Big Cuyahoga" now? Is Shaq just "The Big ____" wherever he goes? So if he played in Tijuana, he'd be "The Big Diarrhea"?

I want the Cavs to win the title this year but, man, I am dreading the 38% increase in Shaq's already plus-sized arrogance if he wins his fifth championship.

2) Nah, I don't think 'Cuse locked up the #1 overall seed in the tourney. Not only will conference tournaments play a big role (and 'Cuse could easily lose to G'Town or 'Nova in a rematch) but I've detected a certain national bias in favor of KU and UK. The last time those teams lost (within 48 hours of eachother in January), suddenly they were both #1-#2 again with no regard for the other teams right behind them in the standings. In some ways, in-season college hoops rankings are even more ridiculous than college football rankings.

3) It will definitely be interesting to see how teams behave without a salary cap floor. Who will be this year's version of baseball's Florida Marlins?

As far as cutting Tomlinson/Westbrook, those were justifiable football decisions based on age, injury and productivity. The Jets cutting Jones represents everything that I hate about the NFL and why I think the player's union is absolutely idiotic.

Gutsy Goldberg said...

1) no one actually calls shaq "big cuyahoga." the local newspaper has used a slew of nicknames, and some are funny, but the only thing that still works are: shaq, shaq-fu, shaqtastic, and the diesel (more or less).
2) i also don't think the #1 seed is locked... they are swayed a lot by the conference tourneys.
3) there will be lots of young RBs this year in the NFL, not that it's entirely surprising. i'm not sure which teams will have the lowest payrolls, but it will be interesting. it should be like the NBA - where only maybe 7 teams will go crazy and sign tons of players and go way over.

Hitman said...

I'm pretty sure that "Shaq Diesel" refers to the discharge from O'Neal's plumbing system into Lake Erie.

MJ said...

@Hitman - You're saying Mr. O'Neal's penile discharge has the consistency and appearance of diesel fuel?