San Diego Chargers, the NFL Draft, and Manti Te'o

I know that the Spurs are playing the Lakers in the first round of the NFL Playoffs, but up 3-0 and with a Lakers player seemingly going down to injury every game there isn't much to talk about on that subject.

I could talk about the Angels, but that's just too depressing right now.

So it's the NFL draft this week and in the first round the Chargers (11th pick) filled a big need at offensive tackle with D.J. Fluker who was part of the Alabama's national championship o-line.  The 3 tackles that were rated ahead of him by NFL.com went 1-2-4 (the first time ever OTs went 1-2 in an NFL draft or three of the first four).  As Mike Maylock said on the NFL Channel broadcast, the Chargers didn't have a legit starting OT on their roster before drafting Fluker...so this was big for SD.

I wasn't so thrilled with the selection of Manti Te'o in the 2nd round...and no it's not because of the Catfishing incident or the bad showing at the combine.  Personally, I think combine performances are overrated.  During his college career, Te'o won the Nagurski Award, Lombardi Trophy, the Bednarik Award, the Maxwell Trophy and named the Walter Camp National Player of the Year, so regardless of the combine there's a lot of people out there who think he has skills.  The Catfishing thing has nothing to do with his on field performance and he's considered a high character guy.

So why am I not thrilled?

Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

Recently, I had the privilege of seeing this out of the ordinary orchestra consisting of eight Ukulele players from Great Britain called...The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.

How eight Uke players found each other in Britain (or that there are eight Uke players in Great Britain) is, in itself, pretty amazing to me.

What surprised me even more was that the group has been playing since 1985 and has performed with as many as 12 members (and as few as six).

With eight Ukuleles ( a mix of 3 Concerts, 4 Sopranos, and one Bass Uke when I saw them, but they have used different combinations) they can produce some complicated compositions and even sound effects as displayed in their rendition of The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.  They play all types of music including rock....like Nirvana's Smells Like Team Spirit. They are equal parts comedians and musicians....which makes them great to watch live. 

I saw them in the Holland Center in Omaha, NE which has some great acoustics (they sound amazingly better live than on youtube).  Some of the songs they performed that I can recall off the top of my head (it was a 2 hour show so there was a lot of songs performed) was Johnny Cash's Orange Blossom Special, the Talking Heads', Psycho Killer, Isiah Haye's Shaft, David Bowie's Life on Mars, the Sex Pistols' Anarchy, and the theme from the Beverly Hillbilly's...as you can see all over the musical genre map.  They even performed a medley of pop songs displaying their vocal talents by singing them individually, then combining them one by one until they were singing simultaneously (like how you sang Row, Row, Row Your Boat in grade school, only in their case it was 5 different songs instead of one). 

I came out of the Holland with a big smile on my face and we talked about the different performances throughout the entire drive home.  I would highly recommend seeing them if you get the chance.

Spurs 91, Lakers 79

Although the Spurs got a relatively easy win, (never trailed after the Lakers made the first basket of the game) I was still somewhat disappointed with the Spurs' performance.  They shot just .376 from the field and let LA hang around even though none of the Lakers were shooting well from the perimeter (even with Dwight Howard making 8-12, the Lakers shot just .411 as a team and .200 from 3-point range). 

Tony Parker didn't look like he was 100%.  He did play 37 minutes, but couldn't finish in the paint like he normally does and didn't shoot the ball well (8-21 from the field, 2-4 FTs).  As a team the Spurs shot just .376 from the field...and it didn't look like it was because of the Lakers defense.  They won the game due to the Lakers turning over the ball 18 times (Spurs had 85 shots vs. the Lakers 73 attempts) and Manu Ginobili providing a big lift at the end of the 3rd quarter scoring 8 straight to give the Spurs a 70-57 lead heading into the 4th.   To me, it looked like the Spurs where sleep walking through most of the game until Manu did his thing (Ginobili scored 18 points in 18:53). 


Kwahi Leonard wasn't involved much in the offense (8 PTS, 3-8), but he made his presence felt on defense (11 REB, 2 ST, 2 BS).  I thought that, without the burden of guarding Kobe Bryant, Leonard would do more. Tiago Splitter was a non-factor (0-4, 4 REB, 1 PF) taking some ridiculous shots for a 7 footer (one an underhand scoop shoot).  Splitter is still to tentative on offensive.  Really no one on the Spurs shot well for the game.  Duncan started off well enough, scoring 8 in the first quarter, but had just 13 at the half and 17 for the game on 6-15 shooting.  Parker led the Spurs with 18.

With Howard (20 PTS, 15 REB) and Pau Gasol (16 PTS, 16 REB), the Lakers still had the advantage inside, but despite the numbers they didn't play particularly well.  Most of Gasol's points came from jumpers...why he didn't post up more when Matt Bonner was guarding him is insane (although I was happy to see it).  The Lakers didn't pound the ball into Howard either, he only had 12 attempts.

I should be encouraged with  a 91-79 Spurs win, but the Spurs didn't put a "they can't beat us" stamp on this game...in fact the Lakers have to be thinking, "if we can cut down on the turnovers and shoot a little better we have a shot."

But, as I said in my last post, the Spurs have more ways they can win...tonight they won by taking better care of the ball and playing good defense. 

San Antonio Spurs - NBA Playoffs

I usually type out a post on Sunday nights while I settle down and relax for the evening, but since the Spurs are playing tomorrow night I figured I would put out my thoughts on the Spurs-Lakers series.

This one has me worried, and it's not just the fact that the Spurs have played terrible down down stretch (3-7 over the last 10, losing their last 3 games) and the Lakers have played their best ball of the season (8-2 over the last 10, 5 straight wins including a win over the Spurs in LA).  The biggest weakness the Spurs is their low post defense.  While Tim Duncan is having a renaissance year he no longer can bang with the physical low post centers...in fact, most of the time the Spurs have protected Duncan from having to fill that duty.  Defending the low post big bangers was David Robinson's job, then Resho Nesterovic's job, then Nazr Mohammed...not until the 4th Championship was Duncan the main low post defender.  Duncan is still a very effective off ball defender (that's how he gets the majority of his blocks these days), but he no longer can effectively deal with a power player in the post.

Case in point was the 91-89 loss to the Lakers in their last meeting.  In the past, you knew Kobe was going to put up somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 shots...more if he was feeling it.  The low post options for the Lakers where secondary.  If the ball went into the post, it wouldn't stay there long, and if it came out, it wasn't likely to get re-posted.  Don't get me wrong, if the game gets down to the end and it's close, I'm going to be glad that Kobe isn't there, but if you watched the last Spurs-Lakers game, they went low post and ran everything off of Howard...and if the ball came out and Howard fought for position, the ball went back to him.  The wing players only shot when they were open, which was often because Duncan couldn't handle Howard on his own, forcing the double-team.  Pop is going to have to dust off the old Spurs defensive rotations from when the Lakers had Shaq.

More Spurs...and Tracy McGrady?

There's some un-Spur like happenings in San Antonio.  The team that is the model franchise of team play and good behavior is having some chemistry and off court issues.

Stephen Jackson was just flat released Friday.  According to this article on Yahoo by Adrian Wojnarowki, Jackson was released because of disagreements with Popovich over playing time and his overall role on the team.  After the release Jackson tweeted "Thanks to all my fans for the support and love,...I would never say a player is better than me when I know their (sic) not.  Not for no one."  Not sure what Jackson meant by that, but I'm guessing he didn't like the fact that one of his teammates was getting more playing time then him. 

With Manu Ginobilli still out, Boris Diaw recovering after surgery, and Tony Parker still not 100%, the Spurs once deep team is now short on players....not a good thing with the playoffs starting this weekend. 

So today the Spurs came out of nowhere with a surprise move by signing Tracy McGrady.  Yes, that McGrady, the same one that left the league after 2011-12 season after suffering knee injuries. 

My first reaction was, "What the heck are they thinking?"  McGrady is now 33 and averaged 5.3 points, 3 rebounds, 2.1 assists in his last NBA season playing for the Hawks.  McGrady can't possibly contribute to a playoff run this season...could he? 

San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Angels

With the NBA season coming to a close and the MLB season just starting, my favorite teams from their respective pro-leagues aren't exactly making me feel good about them. 

With a resurgent season from Tim Duncan, Tiago Splitter much improved from last year, Tony Parker having his best statistical season, and Kwahi Leonard building on his rookie year, I thought Spurs could make it back the Conference Finals.  Even their defense has been much improved over the recent past.  But since the calendar changed to April, the Spurs have gone 3-4 and I'm beginning to have doubts.

The Spurs have won their three home games (Magic, Hawks, Kings), but lost the 4 away games (Grizzlies, Thunder, Nuggets, Lakers).  Going back to last month, the Spurs have lost 6 straight road games (they lost to the Rockets and Timberwolves in March).  This April swoon has cost the Spurs the #1 Seed in the playoffs. 

I watched the game in LA vs the Lakers on Sunday.  Duncan had another throwback game (23pts, 10 rebounds), but he got little help from his teammates.  Leonard and Parker combines for 2-15 shooting. Parker may also have re-injured himself, sitting out all but 3 minutes of the 4th quarter.  The Spurs still could have won the game, but the offense in the last several possessions was out of sync and missed three forced 3-pointers.  With just under a minute left, they wasted 20 seconds just getting into their offense.  Without Parker (and with Parker not playing well) the Spurs aren't the same offensively.  They shot a sickening bad 37.1% from the field.

Their defense wasn't that much better, giving up open shots all night.  Steve Blake took advantage of that, hitting 8-16 for 23 points.  Despite the spotty defense, they did hold the Lakers to 36.5% shooting, but gave up 16 offensive rebounds. 

Remember this was a Laker team that was playing without Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash.
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  The Angels are off to another slow start...deja vu from last season...and now they also have to deal with the loss of #1 starter Jered Weaver.  Reports are saying he'll be out for a month after breaking a bone in his left arm diving off the mound to dodge a hot shot up the middle in Tuesday's game against the A's.  Angels lost that game, 5-9 on the way to getting swept in a 3-game series at home.  Angels also started the season losing 1-2 to both the Reds and Rangers.  They finally got their first series win over the lowly Astros, 2-1, winning two straight after losing the opener.  Astros have moved to the AL West this year and are tied with the Angels in last with a 4-8 record.  Not exactly a great start for the Halos. 

Slow starts by new comer Josh Hamilton and Mike Trout has hindered the offense and the starting pitching has been terrible.  C.J. Wilson is leading the starting rotation with a 4.00 ERA...and now they will have to do without Weaver.  At least it's Weaver's non-pitching hand which should mean he should be able to pitch effectively as soon as he's able to field his position.  Garrett Richards, in his 2nd year in the Bigs, got the start on Saturday.  He went seven innings and left the game down 4-1.  Luckily the Angels managed to score 2 runs in the 8th and 2 more in the 9th for the comeback win.  Pujols came up with the 2 RBI double with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th.  At least Pujols is off to a better start than last year (.293, 2HR, 7 RBI).

Hamilton isn't hitting well (.234, 15 Ks), but at least got the power stroke going, hitting a homer in the Angels last two games.  Trout is hitting .269 and has only 1 stolen base (he does lead the Angels in Runs with 8).  The offense needs to get things going and fast...the Angels are already 4.5 games down to the AL West leading A's and they are likely not getting much help from the starting rotation. 

I was already worried about the rotation with Weaver anchoring it.  Now the Angels are going to have to slug their way to wins or it will be 4 straight seasons of missing the playoffs.  Right now, I don't see any of the starters giving the Angels a chance at winning consistently in low scoring games (although Wilson and Tommy Hanson have the potential to do it every once in awhile). 

I'm left wondering if the Angels would have been better off locking down Zake Greinke (Yea I know he's out with a broken collar bone, but if he was still in Anaheim he wouldn't have gotten into that fight).  Would the Angels really be worse keeping Kendrys Morales and maybe trying Trumbo out in left.  Sure he would be a liability on defense, but Trout and Peter Bourjos can cover a lot of ground.

Maybe this is just early overreaction on my part (I hope so).  The Trout-Pujols-Hamilton-Trumbo line up still has the potential to put fear in opposing pitchers.  If those four can get hot it will make me forget about how bad the starting pitching is right now. 

Final Four, Danica Patrick, Brittini Paiva

This weeks trio is in no way related in any way, but it's the stuff I saw that caught my attention the most this week....

So Louisville is in the Championship game.  While that may not be a surprise, the fact that Wichita State almost sent them home is.  I'm guessing that more than a few columnist out there were trying to figure out a "Shockers Shock the World" headline before Louisville mounted that late game comeback.

You have to start believing in faith when stuff happens the way it does.  Louisville's Kevin Ware horribly breaks a leg against Duke.  Ware's injury gives a walk-on like Tim Henderson a chance to play in a Final Four game.  Henderson's stat line this season:  3.8 min/game, .348 FG%, .300 3P%, 0 FTs attempted, 0.1 Assists, 0 Blks, 0.8 pts/game.  It also gave Luke Hancock a chance to be a star.  Hancock averaged 7.7 pts/game.

With Louisville down 47-25, Henderson knocks down back-to-back threes to start Louisville's comeback, but it was Hancock who saved the game scoring 20, 11 coming during the comeback.  He hit the go head three that gave the Cardinals a 56-55 lead with 6:18 to play and another three to put Louisville up by 5 with 2:08 left.  Hancock was also responsible for the two assists on Henderson's threes.

Getting some made for TV movie basketball performances by Henderson and Hancock makes me think that Louisville is destined to win the National Title....that and the fact that they were considered the best team coming into the tournament.
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 Yea, Danica Patrick came in 12th...not even a top ten, but she made as many, if not more, passes than anyone on the track. 

Patrick started the race at Martinsville 43rd...last on the grid due to a motor swap after qualifying.  Many of the drivers, including her boss Tony Stewart, felt Patrick's first ever race at Martinsville was going to be "a long day."  Dale Earnharht Jr. recalled his first race at Martinsville, saying that he ran into every car including the pace car and ambulance on the way to a 36th place finish.  Even her crew chief Tony Gibson said, "I figured we could finish top 25 and be a couple laps down..."  Needless to say, all the drivers feel it's a tough track to race.

Patrick started passing cars from lap one, getting down to 27th before she was spun by Ken Schrader which put her 2 laps down.  She kept picking off cars and after a couple white flags got back on the lead lap.  She got down to 11th, but got bump passed by Brian Vickers on the final lap.  She even passed her boss, Stewart, on the way to her best driving performance in a Sprint Cup car (yea, she had a higher finish at Daytona, but this was a better performance of driving skill).

Remember that this is a lady who supposedly doesn't know how to drive.
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Who the heck is Brittini Paiva?

Paiva is a ukelele player from Hilo, Hawaii.  On one of her early albums she did a rendition of Santana's "Samba Pa Ti," one of my favorites when I was a kid.  In February Santana played in Honolulu's Blaisdell Arena.  During the concert, Carlos Santana called Brittini onto the stage.  I saw the video for the first time this weekend.  They start off a little rough, not quite in sync, but got it together to make musical magic.  The video starts blurry but clears up around the 1:19 mark.

Paiva and Santana, Samba Pa Ti Duet.
 

March Madneess, Final Four, and MLB Opening Day,

My bracket is busted…completely, utterly destroyed.  In retrospect I should have believed in Louisville.  I should have listened to those people talking about Wichita State…including one of my coworkers.  I shouldn’t have dismissed Michigan.   I shouldn’t have gone the homer pick with Kansas (although they should have beaten Michigan if they could have taken care of the ball at the end of game or hit one more free throw).   

Hindsight might be 20/20, but it also wants to make you kick yourself in the butt for looking at things with your heart and not your head. 

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Of the Final Four teams, Louisville has been the team that has looked the best...which is obviously why they where the overall #1 and guys like me shouldn't have picked against them. If that wasn't enough, now they have the incentive to "Win it for Kevin."

A co-worker and I were talking about Syracuse today and wondering why teams where having so much trouble with their defense.  After all it's just a 2-3 zone, a defense that you learned to play when you first played organized ball.  Just goes to show you that if you have athletic players that know how to play together as a unit they can make a coach look like a genius.  Not to take anything away from Boheim, he's a great coach, but you're not doing anything special playing 2-3 zone. 

The team that has surprised me the most is Michigan (thought I was going to say Wichita State didn't you).  Coming into the tournament they weren't playing good basketball and didn't play tough defense.  They've got some streaky guys (Tim Hardaway Jr. & Trey Burke) that can light it up from the outside though.  Can they come through for an entire 6 game tournament?  I would bet not.  Despite playing zone, Syracuse closes out well against 3-point shooters and because of that zone, I believe this is the game that Hardaway and Burke struggle to find a way to get it done offensively.

Wichita State is a very solid team.  They look very balanced on offense with a disciplined, good rebounding defense.  I think they would beat Syracuse or Michigan...unfortunately they're playing Louisville.  They'll give Louisville a game, but in the end I think the talent on Louisville gives them the edge.  

So I have Louisville vs Syracuse in the Championship game with the Cardinals solving the Orange 2-3 zone and win it all.  I just don't see a 2-3 zone beating a talented club coached by Rick Pitino. 

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My favorite MLB, the Angels, open the season today against the Cincinnati Reds.  It’s  an odd coincidence that Josh Hamilton, the Angels big offseason signing, started his MLB career in Cincy (he was originally drafted #1 overall by Tampa Bay in 1999, but had several off field issues which eventually got Hamilton suspended.  He was picked up in the 2006 Rule 5 draft by the Cubs, who traded him to the Reds for cash).   Acquiring Hamilton in the off season, just like picking up Pujols last season, has made the Angels a preseason favorite to win the World Series…of course we all know how that turned out last season.  Both Texas and Oakland finished ahead of the Angels, who missed the Playoffs for the 3^rd straight year.  The combination of Pujols-Hamilton gives the Angels one of, if not the best, 3-4 combo of hitters in the league.  With Trout leading off the Angels shouldn’t have problems scoring runs  (unless Hamilton repeats Pujols start last year).

Speaking of Trout, a lot of sports media folks are wondering if he will have a down season.  How can he not have a down season?   Trout didn’t get called up to the big leagues until the end of April and still did something no other major leaguer has done (steal 45 bases, score 125 runs, and hit 30 homers in the same season).   If you projected his stats to a full 162 games it would look like this:  .326 BA, 150 Rs, 97 RBI, 35 HR, 57 SB.  He also had a .564 slugging % and .963 OB % (that’s with a slump at the end of the year, hitting just .257 in September).    Yea sure, like he’s going to be able to surpass that this year.    I’ll take 80% of that and call it a good season.

My concern is with the starting pitching. 

Jeff Weaver had another good year (20-5, 2.81 ERA), but faded towards the end of the season (6.14 ERA in his last five starts). Weaver and C.J. Wilson are the only two returning from last season's starting rotating. I thought Zack Greinke might stay, but he signed with the Dodgers.  Dan Haren is in Washington and Ervin Santana is in Kansas City. Greinke was a late season pickup, Haren lost it last year, and Santana was always inconsistent.  Their replacements are Tommy Hanson, Joe Blanton, and Jason Vargas.  Don't know if those are upgrades or not. 

In the end, Mark Trumbo may determine the Angels' destiny.  Hitting 5th behind Pujols & Hamilton he should see more people on the bases when he comes up to bat.  Last season, Trumbo was outstanding before the All-star break (.306, 22 HR, 57 RBI), then faded in the 2nd half (.227, 88 SO).  Trumbo is the wildcard of the Angels offense, potentially turning them from good to great if he swings the bat well.  With Torii Hunter and Kendrys Morales gone, I don't see anyone else in the lineup that can give the Angels extra offense outside of Pujols and Hamilton.