Sports Smorgasbord

Too many choices to blog about this week, so I'll give you a good variety:

1. Iowa Football--As a Cyclone fan, watching last nights Orange Bowl was downright scary. I'll give the Hawks credit in this one; they dominated that game. I've been skeptical all season long with their unconvincing wins against teams like UNI, Arkansas State and Indiana. But last night, there was no doubt--this defense is as nasty as they come, and the scary part (as a 'Clone fan) is that most of that defense (and offense) will be back next year. Boy, do I hope Adrian Clayborn changes his mind and decides to go pro! On the flip side, that was a PERFECT match-up for the Hawks. Georgia Tech is too one-dimensional, and that one dimension played right into the hands of that tenacious run-stopping Iowa defense.


2. Iowa State Basketball--In the next 30 days, we'll find out if the Cyclone Men's basketball team is good enough to make the tournament. It all begins tonight with a clash against the 12-1 Duke Blue Devils, rated #5 in the nation. Next Wednesday the Cyclones face #2 Texas, and ten days later: #1 Kansas. Doesn't get much more difficult than that. The way I see it, ISU needs to get at least one win out of those 3 games in order to make the NCAA Tournament. Two wins against three of the nations top ten could be the makings of a special season.


3. Mike Leach and Texas Tech--I'm not a Texas Tech football fan, but this story is one everyone is talking about. What Mike Leach did was stupid; plain and simple. You can't lock anyone (especially someone who's suffering from a concussion AND whose dad is a national television analyst) into a "closet" or "shed" in the year 2010 and expect it to go unnoticed. 50 years ago, maybe, but not today. Whether it was a fire-able offense or not is not so plain and simple. Both the "shed" and "closet" were quite large, and the player was in no threat of any kind of danger. From all accounts, Adam James is a spoiled, rich, son of a former NFL running back, who thinks the world should serve him everything on a silver platter. After all the complaining (allegedly) his father and ESPN analyst, Craig James did to Coach Leach to try to get his son playing time, you can't blame Leach for WANTING to give James his college discipline version of a "timeout" by putting him in those places. But wanting to do something like that and actually DOING something like that is what got him in trouble. In my mind, it all comes down to money. Leach was in the first year of a huge contract that Texas Tech decided they didn't want to pay, and this was their "out." Consider this: Texas Tech Athletic Director Gerald Myers is the same AD who HIRED Bob Knight to coach the Red Raider basketball team back in 2001. Talk about a double standard.

4. Colo Nesco Basketball--There was no sluggishness to be found on this basketball team after a long holiday break. The Royals crushed Collins-Maxwell Baxter on Tuesday night, 82-34, behind a season high 27 points from Travis Guy, 20 from Brandon Eley, and 10 points/7 assists/6 rebounds/6 steals from Austin Larsen who had his best game of the season. After a busy holiday schedule, I'm excited to get back and watch the upstart Royals.