Larry Brown Sports

Feel free to come back and ridicule me later after the Bruins get their rumps handed to them. But until that point, here are five reasons why UCLA will beat Florida in the Final Four.

5. Florida is just way too cocky. They haven’t played with determination, grit, and intensity all year long. Anyone else notice that they had a supremely easy draw? What team truly tested them? Why didn’t they win more games in SEC play when they were far superior to anyone else in the conference? They’ve lacked the focus all year long, and the distraction hovering around Billy Donovan does not help them at all.

4. UCLA is much tougher inside. So Ryan Hollins may have turned things on a bit in the tournament last year, but for his entire career until that point, he was softer than Cinemax at 11pm. Lorenzo Mata might not be able to hit a J from farther than three feet out, but at least he’s gutsy and aggressive inside. Couple that with an older and tougher Luc Richard Mbah A Moute, an Alfred Aboya who isn’t nearly as lost on the floor now as he was a year ago, and the five fouls Ryan Wright can give away, and it spells much more tenacity inside for the Bruins. (of course, should Mbah A Moute and Mata incur three fouls prior to halftime, it’s over)

3. Arron Afflalo can hit the big shot. We already know that Florida has go-to-guys inside. We also know that Florida has shooters who can hit big shots on the outside (trust me, I have nightmares of Lee Humphrey three’s haunting me in my sleep). But this year as opposed to last year, the Bruins have a player who can hit the game-winner, the buzzer-beater. They have an option when it comes down to the last-second shot. Afflalo sunk one to beat USC, and he hit several buzzer-beaters against Kansas last week in his best game ever. Whether or not Afflalo hits the big shot against Florida is uncertain — what is certain is that he has proven he CAN do it, which is enormous for the mental confidence of a player when that moment arises.

2. Darren Collison is better than Jordan Farmar. Sure, Farmar may have been the only player to show up for UCLA in the championship game last year (sort of), and yeah, he’s diming to Kobe on a nightly basis in the association, but the honest truth is that Darren Collison is a much better fit for UCLA’s system. Collison is much quicker, just as good of a shooter, and he’s a more relentless defender. He’ll give the Florida shooters more hell on the perimeter than Farmar did.

1. Ben Howland has had a whole year to figure out how to win this game. If I know Ben Howland at all, I know this: as soon as UCLA got blown the **** out by Florida, he went straight to the film room to begin studying the game tape and understand what the team needs to do to beat Florida. I guarantee Ben’s been preparing a game plan for this exact situation for the past 300 days. He knew UCLA would be back in the Final Four, and he knew Florida would be standing in their way of national title No. 12. And he thought long and hard, about the proper strategy: pressure defense up front, heavily defending the entry passes down low, and hope the team hits their jumpers and free throws. Besides, of all the teams in the Final Four, UCLA has looked the most impressive on their way to Atlanta. The Bruins never struggled with Pitt, and they dismantled Kansas. If you noticed a trend, Howland made excellent in-game adjustments. His brilliant mind will lead UCLA to the win over Florida and vault the Bruins into their second title game in a row.

When he leaves Duke for the NBA (prematurely).  Although I have a feeling that won’t be McRoberts’ only premature action after he sees these fans sitting courtside

There you have it, the breast best things about Duke all in one picture.

Click here to watch the entire video, it’s well worth it, courtesy Hoops Odyssey.

(chest bump SportsbyBrooks)

And the Winnars of the 2007 Men’s NIT Tournament…

The West VirGINA Mountaineers!!

Who were for the record, better than about 20 teams in the big dance.

Chest Bump NCAA FanHouse)

There are some things in the sporting world I just don’t understand. Probably right at the top of that list would be Carl Pavano starting the 2007 season opener for the New York Yankees. Yes, I understand that Chien-Ming Wang got hurt, but please, Carl Pavano wouldn’t even beat out Dontrelle Willis to start opening day for his previous team, the Marlins.Â

To give you a perspective on the Yankees, you would be lucky if your entire fantasy baseball roster was full of them. Think about it — it’s an All-Star at every position — literally. Matsui, Damon, and Abreu in the outfield are as solid as it gets. Going through the infield you have A-Rod, Jeter, Cano, and Doug Ment-kay-vich?!?!? at 1B, Posada behind the dish, and Giambi DH-ing. I said it last year — you’d be hard pressed to find a better lineup than that, probably ever. Those guys combined for over 30 All-Star appearances, just think about that.

But man, when you consider the pitching in the rest of the division, you have to wonder how the Yankees rotation became so pathetic. Let me say this, there is at least one pitcher on every other team in the AL East I’d rather have starting Opening Day than Carl Pavano. Give me Kazmir, give me Bedard, give me the Red Sox No. 3 Josh Beckett (let alone Schilling and Dice-K), and of course I’ll take Roy Halladay, and even AJ Burnett, all over Hot Carl.

It’s this type of thinking that makes me wonder — why isn’t Mike Mussina starting the opener? What has he done wrong? Has he not earned his Yankee stripes? How can he possibly be held with more contempt in the eyes of the Yankees than Carl Pavano? Andy Pettitte’s a better option than Pavano, but he just came over to New York, so I understand how it would be somewhat disrespectful for him to be up there. But why not the Moose? This is insane.

When you look at the Yankees and see the incredible offense, it’s enough power to guarantee 95 wins. But when you look at the starting pitching (and I realize this has been the problem for quite some time), it’s very average. There’s no wonder the Yankees haven’t won a World Series since the days Brian Cashman didn’t have donuts under his eyes.

Unfortunately for New York, it’s not fantasy baseball. Real baseball is all about the pitching. And when you have Carl ‘effin Pavano starting your season opener, you better pray (and pay) to get Roger Clemens, otherwise you’re toast. Memo to all fans of the Bronx Bombers: unless you sign Clemens and pull off a serious trade, you can kiss 2007 off, just like the past six years.

Recently at MLB Fanhouse:

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Last year’s record and finish are in parenthesis with projected improvement/decline indicated by plus or minus.

Milwaukee Brewers (75-87, 4th in NL Central) +4 games

Get Crunked: Ben Sheets is a fireballer and dominates when he’s not dealing with his bad back. Francisco Cordero came over in the Carlos Lee deal from Texas to shut NL teams down as the closer last year. Bill Hall surprised people by slugging 35 HRs (35!) in ’06, and has been moved to CF. Rickie Weeks appears to be on the cusp of stardom as long as he can shake his wrist injury and defensive woes from a season ago. Prince Fielder is a slugger in the making, who isn’t as stationary as his father was.

Party Foul: Geoff Jenkins’ power fell off completely last year, he’s a crucial bat for this team and needs to turn it around. Derrick Turnbow imploded last year as the closer, now he must find himself as one of the setup men. Youngsters J.J. Hardy and Corey Hart must seize their opportunities in the everyday lineup.

What’d my GM do: Signing World Series star Jeff Suppan to a 4 year $42 million deal was expensive but it shows Doug Melvin is committed to fielding a competitive team. He traded Doug Davis and Dana Eveland to Arizona for Johnny Estrada, Claudio Vargas, and Greg Aquino, which should work out well for both teams. Craig Counsell was signed to a two-year deal, and his experience makes him a good insurance policy in the infield.

Lay it on me Straight: This is a very solid squad all the way around. The rotation is good, the fielding is pretty good, the bullpen is decent. The only problem is nothing about the offense really wows you, and the pitching isn’t dominating enough to the point where it can overcome a lack of run support.

So where my boys gonna finish right now: Near the .500 mark, but probably a bit below it, closer to the ’05 finish rather than the ’06 one.

Can we be better than that: If this team turns it on somehow (Hardy, Weeks, Hart), they could easily do better than the projection. Like I said it’s a very solid squad that’s been built nicely given the payroll, just don’t expect the playoffs.

And you thought Andy Reid’s kids were messed up? Wait til you read this. Over the weekend their was a shooting inside the dorms at UNC-Greensboro. While two men were already arrested, a third man, 21 year-old Sidney Lowe Jr., has now been arrested as well. He also happens to be the son of N.C. State’s basketball coach, Sidney Lowe. My point here is not to diminish the elder Lowe. Rather, it’s to point out how ridiculous the charges against Lowe Jr. are. As far as crimes go, this has to take the cake:

University of North Carolina at Greensboro police said the 21-year-old Sidney R. Lowe Jr. was charged with nine counts, including a felony of aiding and abetting attempted armed robbery in connection the shooting of a man in a campus dorm Saturday.

[Lowe's attorney Locke] Clifford said Lowe is charged with six counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon, six counts of second-degree kidnapping and one count of assault inflicting serious bodily injury. He said Lowe and another man are accused of going to a house with six people in it and striking one of them on the head with a bottle.

The other charges filed by UNCG police include: two counts of possession of a weapon on educational property; possession with intent to sell and deliver marijuana; maintaining a dwelling for the keeping and selling of a controlled substance; possession of between a half an ounce and 1.5 ounces of marijuana; and three counts of stolen goods or property.

Dude, Sidney, what didn’t you do that night? That is incredible. While my condolences go out to anybody who was adversely affected by Lowe’s actions that night, I’m still in utter shock at the laundry grocery list of charges.

Last year’s record and finish are in parenthesis with projected improvement/decline indicated by plus or minus.

LA Angels of Anaheim (89-73, 2nd in the AL West) -4 games

*Disclaimer: This is my favorite team, therefore I will be exceedingly critical

Get Crunked: On paper, it’s one of the best rotations in all of baseball, but you know what you can do with that piece of paper. Vladimir Guerrero still pounds the crap out of the ball and is an MVP candidate year-after-year. Howie Kendrick is a newcomer at 2B with a ton of promise (a career .361 minor league average). Franky Rodriguez is one of the top closers in the game, and along with Scot Shields, and free agent Justin Speier, forms one of the best bullpens in baseball. John Lackey has grown into the ace the Angels thought they had after ’02, his rookie season.

Party Foul: It’s not even April and this team is crushed by the injury bug. Bartolo Colon enters his fourth season with the club, still hampered by a partially torn rotator cuff he decided to let heal on its own in favor of surgery. Kelvim Escobar recently tweaked his back and is always good for a trip to the DL. Jered Weaver who dominated AL hitters last year is already hurt with a biceps injury that could sideline him for a month or so. Speedy Chone Figgins broke his finger and will miss at least a month. Juan Rivera broke his leg in Winter ball and will miss part of the year. The team defense was awful last year, and still is brutal with Garrett Anderson and Vlad holding down the corner outfield spots. Not to mention, there’s that Gary Matthews Jr. guy who created an entire steroids/HGH controversy during spring training.

What’d my GM do: He sat back like usual and kept his acquisitions few and far between. His big “splash” was alleged HGHer Gary Matthews Jr., click here to find out what I thought of the move. Justin Speier replaces Brendan Donnelly in the pen for a hefty $18 million over four years. Shea “This is a sinking ship” Hillenbrand was brought over for $6.5 million on a one year deal, a pretty good bargain if he doesn’t wreck the chemistry. Meanwhile, Darin Erstad, Adam Kennedy, and JC Romero were all let go, but I don’t think anyone noticed.

Lay it on me Straight: This team is decimated with injuries right now — rendering the team only partially recognizable. The injuries are so bad that I think they’ve created enough of an uphill battle that will prevent the Angels from making the playoffs. A few questions must be asked: can the youngsters like Casey Kotchman, Kendry Morales, Robb Quinlan, Mike Napoli, Dustin Moseley, and Joe Saunders finally contribute? Will Garrett Anderson find his old stroke? Can Matthews Jr. play enough defense to make up for Vlad and GA? How long will the pitchers be hurt? This team already has the appearance of a mid-August beat-up club.

So where my boys gonna finish right now: A few games above .500 because they have Vlad, Franky, Shields, Lackey, and Ervin Santana who won’t allow them to do worse. Luckily the entire division except Seattle is worse, so they’ll still have a fighting shot.

Can we be better than that: If all breaks right — meaning people become healthy and shake off their rust quickly (usually it takes a while to get back to form after returning from an injury), or the fill-ins absolutely dominate, then yes. Otherwise, you can already write off ’07 as a lost cause unfortunately.