Highlight of the Week

A little bit back I wrote a post remembering the life of Ereck Plancher, a football player at UCF who unexpectedly collapsed during practice and passed away.

Though the following clip isn’t exactly a highlight, It was very uplifting to find a video on youtube dedicated to Ereck.

I would just be reiterating common knowledge if I were to include in this post a description of the person Ereck was.

Hopefully this video can put a face with a name to those who didn’t have the privilege of knowing him.

RIP EP.

Eagles go down in history

No college in America has ever made it to the post-season in their first season as a division I program.

That is, until Florida Gulf Coast University came along.

This season, the FGCU women’s basketball team clinched their entry into the WNIT tournament when they defeated Cal.St. Bakersfield 64-54 in their regular season finale. In the first round of the tournament, they defeated USF in front of their always lively home crowd. Their Cinderella story came to an end in a hard-fought and very close game to the Florida Gators.

Never before has a team currently in the Atlantic-Sun conference won a postseason game. The lady Eagles did it in their first year.

To put things in perspective, think about all of the colleges known for their athletics around the country.

Not Florida, not Florida State, not Michigan, not Ohio State. None of the big names we know were able to make their way to the postseason in their first year.

Florida Gulf Coast will soon be one of those names that you mention when you think of the big-time.

It may not be within the next few years, but you can rest assured that a school with such quick success will be around for a long time.

They put together this unlikely run without their two leading scorers from the previous season. That indicates the high-quality coaching that the girls are receiving. As an influx of new recruits come into the system and more and more quality athletes decide to attend FGCU, the school will have an athletic program that they can be very proud of.

They already do, as they stand alone in the history books until someone else can join them.

Suns at Pistons LIVE

Phoenix Suns at the Detroit Pistons LIVE.

Feel free to chime in with your comments or questions.

Highlight of the Week

Shaquille O'Neal is one of the greatest players in basketball history.

His resume speaks for itself, He's won four NBA titles, being the MVP honors in the Finals three times.

He's a 14-time NBA All-star, won Rookie of the year when he first entered the NBA and was the MVP of the entire league in the year 2000.

He's maybe the scariest person you'ed ever meet and I certainly wouldn't ever pick a fight with him.

On this occasion... he... I won't tell you. Watch for yourself.



Crazy what this man was capable of when he was younger. Wow.

Suns at Pistons : LIVE

Monday night, March 24th, I will be conducting a live blog of the Suns/Pistons matchup on NBA TV.

If you would like some commentary on a possible NBA Finals preview, join me here on Monday as I recap the action as it happens. WAHOO.

SHAQ and the rising Suns against the all-around, championship proven Pistons. It should be a dandy.

Monday, be here or be square.

MVB Bracketology - Midwest and South

We're getting closer and my legs shake every time I think about it. ITS MARCH MADNESS BABY.

THE MIDWEST

Games you must watch : The first round in the Midwest bracket showcases two of the most intriguing matchups. First, we have the epic showdown between two of college basketball’s freshmen phenoms. Pro Scouts will be lining up at the door to watch when 6th Seed USC and 11th seed Kansas State show up to play. O.J Mayo and Taj Gibson are the two superstars on USCs roster but KSU freshman Michael Beasley is THE main man in college basketball. He will no doubt be one of the top three players taken in the upcoming NBA Draft. It’s Mayo vs. Beasley on the brightest stage of them all.

Also in the first round, Clemson vs. Villanova. Clemson has been very impressive in recent weeks. They took it to Duke in the ACC tournament and nearly pulled off a huge upset against the tournament favorite UNC Tarheels. The medias opinion and general consensus amongst people I talk to is that Clemson is for real. They are a Cinderella story waiting to happen. Villanova may have something to say to the Tiger bandwagon. Even though they wield a puny 12th seed, they have a lot of experience against good teams. Throughout the season, they played a team significantly better then Clemson on 8 occasions. Though they only won twice (1 point win vs. Pitt and 2 pt win vs. Uconn), they know how to play when it counts.

Underrated : Villanova. Nova has struggled recently but they have the players, the experience and a boatload of talent to do some damage.

Overrated : Vandy. Other then their win against Tennessee on their home court (If you’ve ever watched Vandy play at home, you know how big of an advantage it is), they have no quality wins whatsoever. Clemson was much more deserving of their seed.

The winner : Surprise here? Not really. Kansas is going to be the squad that comes out of the Midwest with their heads held high. Whoever they play in the Elite 8 will not be the type of team that can play with Kansas. They are too deep, can score insane amounts of points and really don’t have any weaknesses. They are the most complete team in the tournament and it would be no surprise if they were the winners of the entire thing.

The bracket :


THE SOUTH

Games you must watch : In all honesty, the first round of this bracket is going to be a doozy. Other then the possibility of my Canes getting uspet because they stink, there isn't anything to exciting going on in the south.

Underrated : Nobody. In this bracket, there are very strong 1-5 seeds and very weak 6-15 seeds. None of the teams with poor seeds intimidate anyone when they look at the bracket.

Overrated : Miami. It pains me to type this but it's true. The Miami Hurricanes are a terrible basketball team. They win when they show up and even then, they scare me. The reason they are in this tournament is their win over Duke. That game was a fluke. The Canes led by more than 20 at one point and still had me shaking when regulation was about to expire.

The winner : This is the toughest bracket to predict the winner. Memphis, Texas, Stanford and Pitt all reside in the bracket and it's very possible that we see a Pitt/Memphis matchup and Texas/Standford one as well. Those two games would be the type of game that basketball fans long for.

If I had to choose, my winner would be Memphis. After their loss to Tennessee, who many have going to the final four, they never lost again. The word lose was taken out of Memphis' vocabulary. They have too much firepower. Their freshman Derrick Rose is unbelievable and their senior leader Chris Douglas-Roberts can score on anyone at any time. They are ferocious. It's hard to pick them because of the insane road to the final four that they have, but I am confident that the Tigers have it in them.

The bracket :

Rest in Peace : Ereck Plancher

During my High School years at Lely High School, one of my best friends was on the football team. At lunch, we would joke about the coach and how much of a hardass he was. We would talk about the best players on the team and how some were going to big schools. We would make plans to go to the game and we would see cheerleaders walking around spreading the spirit. We would bleed orange and black.

Football was one of the things that you always remember about High School.

Today, one of our best was taken from us. Our RB1 is gone. Our Posta Boy is gone.

I’m sure some of you may have heard the news about Ereck Plancher, a football player who collapsed at UCF during conditioning. He was not just a football player. He was a friend to many, a wonderful boyfriend and a role model to his little brother.

Nothing can describe the shock that came upon me when I heard what had happened. A good friend of mine and I were out to lunch when his phone rang. His father broke the news to him and I could see the look of agony come across his face. Ereck was much more then a friend to him.

I sat at the table in complete disbelief, tears escaping as I tried to understand what had just happened. How could such a great young man die doing the thing he loved most? Playing the game he loved to play. I’m sure he wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Ereck, it was a pleasure to have played in gym class with you. It was a pleasure to be around your humble attitude and your contagious kindness. It was truly an honor to have been in your presence.



Rest in Peace. You will forever be a Trojan and I look forward to the time I see you again. You will live on in the heart of every single person you represented when you put on a jersey.

MVB Bracketology - East

March has begun and with it the madness has come.

Yesterday, the Brackets for the 2008 NCAA tournament were released. Now, people all over the country are frantically scribbling names on a bracket like they are insane. It’s funny what college basketball can do you to.

For the next three days, its going to be hard to sleep. It’s going to be hard to watch television, to go to work or to take a shower. It’s going to be hard to do all of the things I do on a daily basis because all that will be on my mind is the thought of Thursday’s basketball-fest.

The NCAA tournament takes over your life. Establishments have banned the tournament because they know their workers will ruin the internet connection at the office (All the games are available on-line for FREE!). It’s ridiculous.

So, while I am awaiting Thursday, I will provide an analysis of the tournament from my perspective. I’ll break down each individual bracket and let you know who will rise and who will fall. Who isn’t as good as advertised and who is much better then advertised. I’ve got it all.

I’m the same guy that predicted the Giants to win every game in the playoffs. Take my word.

THE EAST

Games you must watch : First off, any game that Louisville plays in this tournament is one to watch. When they play against Boise State and whoever they end up playing in the 2nd round, look for them to absolutely dominate. They play solid defense and played a tough schedule. They have lost their last two games and will surely come into Thursday hungry for an impressive win.

Another very interesting game to look out for is the potential 2nd round match-up of Butler and Tennessee. Butler is the kind of team that nobody really knows about. They don’t ever lose and when they do, it’s very close. They have a solid core of seniors who have played in the tournament before and play with a toughness that head basketball coaches around the nation have to be jealous of.

Overrated : Oklahoma. Something about this team just doesn’t sit well with me. They don’t have any stars good enough to carry the team, they don’t have ANY quality wins this season and have gotten completely dismantled on several occasions. They were given a 6th seed and I honestly don’t think they will make it out of the first round. There’s the first big upset, St. Joseph’s over Oklahoma.

Underrated : Butler. They were given the 7th seed, worse than Oklahoma and Notre Dame. Notre Dame is without question a fantastic team who played a very tough schedule but they still lost seven games. Oklahoma lost eleven games. Butler lost three. Their schedule is weaker than most but they have proven over and over again that they can compete with the top-tier teams.


Tyler Hansbrough

The winner : The Eastern Bracket of the tournament is home to North Carolina, literally. The games for the eastern bracket will all be played inside the state of North Carolina, making the probability that the tar heels are playing amidst a large number of their fans very high. For that reason, they are my favorites to make it out of this bracket. If their team is healthy, they are almost impossible to beat. Tyler Hansbrough could be the player of the year this season and Ty Lawson plays like he has rockets attached to his shoes. They are an unbelievable basketball team.

The Bracket :


P.S: Everyone join in on my yahoo bracket league. Leagueid #: 120955 Password: themvb

Highlight of the Week

The following highlight of the week is directly in conjunction with the previous post.

This could be one of the most memorable moments in NBA history.
Facing the San Antonio Spurs, the eventual NBA Champions of that season, the Rockets were down by TEN with 1:09 to go. The game appeared to be ever.

Enter Tracy McGrady.

It's unbelievable, watch the clip.



Just to put things in perspective, the highest point total in NBA history in a single game is 100. Had McGrady scored 13 points every 35 seconds in this game... he would've totaled 1150 points or so. Insane.

The Rocket Way

The Houston Rockets have won twenty games in a row. That’s right. Twenty games. 20.

It’s been 9 years since any team was even close to doing such a thing. The Lakers, led by the ridiculous duo of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, won 19 straight in 1999. That was Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, though. That was maybe the greatest coach in NBA History, Phil Jackson. That was Glen Rice and Ron Harper, fantastic veterans who could lead a team anywhere.

The Rockets are hardly the that team. Yao Ming, their starting center and leading vote getter in the NBA All-Star game, went down with an injury two weeks ago. Only two active players on their roster score over ten points per game. The average basketball fan can’t name anyone on their roster other than Yao and Tracy McGrady. There is no way that this team should be winning so many games. Yet, somehow, they have outdone those Lakers and the many teams before that tried to string together an unlikely string of wins. They are better than those teams and they are still going.

The reasons for this unbelievable streak? There definitely isn’t just one, but in my opinion, these are the big three:

1) Rafer Alston: ‘Skip to my lou’ is his alias, but he'll be skipping to the NBA finals if he continues playing the way he’s playing. During the streak, he has averaged double figures in scoring in all but three games. He runs the team better than Peyton Manning runs the Indianapolis Colts. His defense is stingy and he never turns the ball over (1.7 turnovers per game, unbelievable for the job that he does). Right now, there may not be a better starting point guard in basketball. Sounds stupid, sounds ridiculous, but how many other teams in the league are winning games with such ease? It all starts with the point guard.

Tracy McGrady is the team's inspirational leader.

2) Nothing will stop us : That is the mentality that the Rockets are playing with. They lose their leading scorer and rebounder in Yao, no problem. There is nothing that will stop the Rockets. Tracy McGrady has instilled that into his entire team. The team is a direct reflection of him. Imagine losing in the first round of the playoffs almost every year and being one of the best players in basketball. Imagine that frustration. It just doesn’t matter what happens, Tracy McGrady will not let himself lose. Not anymore. It would be ridiculously satisfying to watch Kobe Bryant square off vs. Tracy McGrady in the playoffs. We can only be so lucky.

3) Luck : Well, maybe not luck, but in the western conference this year, how could it be anything else? Since Yao went down, their schedule has been very helpful in their endeavor. The past eight games without Yao, they have only played two teams who are respectable. The Mavericks and the Nuggets. In those games, the amount of help they received was undeniable. Against the Mavericks, Dirk Nowitzki was inactive because he was suspended by the league for a foul he had committed the previous game. Against the Nuggets, Allen Iverson played maybe the worst game he’s played all season. Despite his 17 points, the Nuggets’ best player failed to score more than two points in the entire second half. That doesn't happen very often.

The feat that the Rockets have accomplished is without question the most impressive thing I’ve been alive to witness in professional sports.

To stand in front of hostile crowds night in and night out with a huge target on your back and continually quiet them is unheard of. To lose your best player and continue to win games in the tightest western conference race we’ve seen in ages is very impressive.

Nobody thought it could happen. Without Yao, the Rockets wouldn’t make the playoffs. Now it looks as if they will not only make it, but will flourish.

The Rockets have blasted off into NBA history.

Hello again

Let me apologize for the recent hiatus that the MVB recently took.

The cause : Spring Break.

Whilst I was gone for a week, the sports world didn't slow down. I have learned my lesson and will never again disappoint.

Like Paula Abdul, I'm back.