Hangover Ramblings...

UCONN looked like crap is right. 'Nuff Said! :(

I like Len Elmore, and I usually like Bill Raftery, but if he says "...and the KISS off the glass..." one more time, I'm going to kick my dog.

I cannot expand upon the excellent commentary by TILAM about NBA basketball. However, I do have an answer to his question... Who is the last "positive" NBA player? Grant Hill...

Hockey
Hmm, where do I start. That HOWLING you heard was the frustration on commentary by a non-NHL fan who last went to a hockey game when the Whalers played at the Mall in Hartford, CT. Hah, without cheating, name me the original 6!
Hockey has "the fight" as it's only selling point. BS. Back in the days of yore when hockey was played by the likes of a young Howe, Rickard, etc, hockey had "the fight" back then. Crowds were small, salaries were small, but the GAME was exciting and an occasional fight broke out (Thew has mentioned to TILAM that a brash young 18 year old named Gordie Howe actually dropped the gloves in his first all-star game). Hockey thrived, albeit on the fringe of sports, but thrived nonetheless. Oh, I agree, to hear the hoots and hollers when a fight breaks out (me included) I must concur that a fair portion of hockey entertainment is a good old fashioned knuckleduster. I'm not sure it's encouraged by the league (well, maybe behind closed doors the people who run the show know the value of fan interest), but yes, there are players who are recruited because of their prowess with the fists, not the stuck. But to say that hockey only generates interest for fighting, or at least to imply it, is ignorant, and shows the true ignorance of a lip service fan. You complain about the fight because you are NOT a hockey fan, and spout off about how that's the only way they are going to attract fringe fans. Spend some time at a real hockey game, you'll see how exciting it is even when there are no fights. People dog on hockey as a "thug" sport only because fighting has become an integral part of the game, as much a point of strategy at time as the power play. Oh, sure, there are guys who fight for the sake of fighting (Peat, Shelley, Danton, who's now fighting his way out of the clutches of a large inmate named "Bubba"), but for the most part fighting is not wanton and unpurposeful. Don't start about "emotions getting out of line", cuz I have 2 words...Ron Artest.
And PLEASE, don't start with me about using equipment as weapons. Soccer players kick each other with their cleats, baseball players have thrown bats/balls/helmets, football players have used helmets, etc. Oh sure, Marty McSorley completely sullied what was a decent career as Wayne Gretzky's bodyguard (oh wait, does TILAM even KNOW who Marty McSorley was before that last comment?), and there have been several minor league incidents with sticks, but hockey players aren't the only ones who use their tools as implements - stupidly, of course, but not the only ones.
Football players keep their cool? HAHA, pour yourself another beer! Kyle Turley, USC-CLEMSON, do I need to mention more? And boy, with a average of .64 fights per game last season in hockey (and only 41% of the total games in the NHL season actually had a fight), you can sure say it's an EPIDEMIC.

Tawk to me 'bout a sport you actually follow, silly boy.