Blake Murphy Sports Writing

Title: Weekend Preview
Date: March 29, 2007
Original Source: The On Deck Circle
Synopsis: Approaching one of the year’s biggest sports weekends, I took a look ahead at everything on the immediate horizon for sports fans.

I just wanted to throw up a brief blog to express my excitement for this coming weekend, truly one of the greatest weekends of the calendar year for sports. I’m considering the weekend Friday-Monday just because there are big events going down Monday as well. Use this as your primer for a weekend where nobody should really get off the couch. I really wish I had this beer launching fridge ( You Tube Clip ), but my two television plus PS3 set-up will have to suffice. The fridge is only a few steps away, and there’s always that exchange student living upstairs to get me stuff.

NBA
The NBA has a bit weaker of a weekend than other sports, although Friday night sees 24 teams in action, including a couple of key matchups. The Raptors face the Wizards Friday, praying for a win both so that the Wiz fall to the 6th seed and the Raps move to the 3rd seed, setting up a playoff showdown against a team we’ve faired well against this season. Utah plays San Antonio in what could be a 2nd round playoff preview. There are also several bad bad games on as teams jockey for the most lottery balls this May. Saturday, the Bulls face the Cavaliers in a potential playoff preview (first or second round), and then Sunday sees 24 teams in action again. The Raptors should get a win against the awful Charlotte Bobcats, while the Jazz have another tough playoff-calibre matchup against the Rockets. Most importantly, at 3:30 on ABC, the Suns showdown with the Mavericks for the final time this season, having split a pair of extremely tight games already this season. Nothing but MVP and playoff talk in this one, and it may be the most exciting part of a great weekend. For those of you considering an East team a playoff threat (I include myself in this group), the Heat showdown with the Pistons at 1:00 on ABC in an Eastern finals preview.

NHL
The NHL has a full plate this weekend as the playoff picture gets a little foggier. Seven teams jockeying for four playoff spots in the East, while the West is all but decided. Big weekend for Leafs fans as they face off against Sid The Kid and his Penguins Saturday night. Other games with big playoff implications over the weekend include: Montreal vs. Ottawa, Tampa Bay vs. Carolina, Islanders vs. Buffalo on Friday; Atlanta vs. Boston, Buffalo vs. Montreal, Ottawa vs. Islanders, and Rangers vs. Philadelphia on Friday. Those looking for a rivalry showdown or a potential playoff preview will want to look to CBC’s late game Saturday as the Canucks take on the Flames, always a good one. Finally, Sunday sees the Leafs battle it out with the Rangers in what could boil down to a playoff qualifying match, huge stakes here, 7:00 on TSN. One smaller subplot over the weekend is the race to 100 points, as the NHL could see as many as seven 100 point scorers for the second season in a row.

NFL
Nothing special going on in the NFL weekend, but if you haven’t seen it yet, you want to check out http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/nfl/index and find the On The Clock Feature. ESPN has been running down each NFL team, one per day, over the last two weeks and will continue to do so, culminating with plenty of time for you to get an idea of what’s going on in the draft. The breakdowns are pretty brief and you can find your favorite team really quickly and get gauge for the holes they may look to fill over the offseason. In other NFL news this weekend, Pacman Jones and Chris Henry are having an “All Weapons Legal” match at Wrestlemania, with the winner getting $81,000 in “Diva Bucks” they can use to make it rain on the WWE ladies with.

MLB
Yessir, it’s that time of year. The weather got nice this week, my Jays preview hit the internet, and I’ve got the draft for BOTH of my fantasy leagues this weekend (expect a review of my Rotisserie league’s draft sometime Sunday probably, the draft is Saturday at Noon Eastern). Sunday has the first glorious game of the baseball season, as Albert Pujols and the Cardinals square off against the ageless Tom Glavine and the New York Metropolitans. While not really an exciting matchup (I get the feeling most people reading this are much heavier followers of the American League), Monday should quench anyone’s thirst for summer. 13 games, 26 of 30 teams in action, and 13 teams get the pleasure of having their home opener. The Jays square off against the Tigers, look for Doc Halladay to be lights out. I’d say more, but I’m sure if you’re a baseball fan at all you know every running storyline for Monday and you’re just as excited about the start of the season as I am. Monday might be the best day ever – Jays are on at 1:00 pm on Rogers Sportsnet.

NCAA
Tonight is the NIT final between Clemson and West Virginia, with the winner facing the Memphis Grizzlies next weekend for Tier 2 supremacy. More importantly, it’s the Final Freakin’ Four. Two huge games Saturday followed by the game we’ve been waiting weeks for on Monday night. All games on CBS. Saturday at 6:00 we get Georgetown against Ohio State which could legitimately be a historical match up. Two of the best big men in the country (Oden and Hibbert) square off in a battle I’d love to have seen more this year (here’s hoping they both stay in school and we can see it again next year, in the Final Four again perhaps). Jeff Green, Mike Conley Jr., and Ron Lewis are also big names to look out for, but I’m going to say Daequan Cook acts as the X-factor in this game and leads OSU to the promised land with some late-game heroics. No basis for that, just a thought. Next, at 8:45, we get a rematch from last year’s final as Florida takes on UCLA. Normally in college ball a rematch from the prior season doesn’t mean much, but both of these teams returned the majority of their players, so it should be a really heated and dramatic battle. Florida has an obvious advantage inside, and you can look for Al Horford to get a lot of touches early, but UCLA’s hard-nosed D and strong shooting ability should keep it close. Both teams are extremely well coached and well polished, and this should be one of those games true basketball fans love. I won’t venture a prediction, but UCLA’s my team so Go Bruins. Then, the big one, Monday at a yet-to-be-announced time (probably 8:45) it’s the NCAA Finals, and I believe the Naismith Award winner is revealed as well (Durant, no brainer, although I’d accept Acie Law IV winning, too). Can’t say much about the finals here because we don’t know the competitors but really, if Florida beats UCLA you can repeat what I said for OSU/Georgetown, and if UCLA beats Florida you can repeat what I said for UCLA/Florida. Here’s hoping for a Bruins win, but moreso that anyone other than Florida wins it.

One other note about NCAA ball. The McDonald’s All American game was yesterday and Michael Beasely played out of his mind. OJ Mayo struggled but had good practices all week, hopefully he plays the role of floor general more than the role of chucker at USC. There is a huge influx of talent next year to the NCAA, and I’m loving this NBA age minimum as it really improves the quality of the college game. If even a third of the best players don’t enter the draft this season, next year could be the best college hoops has seen in a long time. For more on the high-schoolers entering the college ranks, check out Draft Express.

WWE
Sunday night is Wrestlemania, and yes I’m counting this as a sporting event over the weekend. I’ve watched Raw the past couple weekends to try and get into the flow, and while I can’t tell you much about the guys from SmackDown or ECW, I can tell you the show might be worth a watch (download?) if you’ve ever been a wrestling fan. The dual main events should both be fun, as Shawn Michaels gets one last shot in the spotlight against John Cena for the Raw Title. In the other, the Undertaker makes what could be one of his last Wrestlemania appearances and puts his 14-0 Wrestlemania mark on the line against Batista for the SmackDown Title. The latter probably won’t be a very fundamentally sound match but it’s the Undertaker and it’s Wrestlemania so the atmosphere will be there. Then there is the Vince McMahon – Donald Trump match, where each has picked a representative to fight for him and the loser has their head shaved. They’ve made Trump’s pick, Bobby Lashley, look like an absolute monster in the build-up to this match, and the spot where he dove THROUGH the cage onto Umaga was incredible. Umaga is Vince’s pick, and while I like the crazy Samoan character, it’s a foregone conclusion that he’ll lose because there’s no way Trump gets his head shaved. Even if the idea of Trump vs. McMahon is stupid, the match will be cool and it’s worth the price of admission to see Vince get his head shaved. The Money In The Bank match has been sweet each of the last two years, and ladder matches always have some cool spots. Eight guys battling for a guaranteed title shot with lots of high flying, can’t go wrong. I don’t know much about the undercard matches so I won’t say much else, but I’ll let you guys know if it was worth a download. Call me a loser, call me what you will, but as dumb as wrestling is, it’s entertaining and I feel obligated to watch Wrestlemania after being a fan all through my childhood.

So I think that covers this weekend. Obviously, some smaller scale sports have stuff going on. I’m sure there’s a golf tournament and a tennis tournament, and maybe Michael Phelps will set more swimming records this weekend (he has set 3 world records in the last 3 days), but these are the big events over the weekend. I apologize if I missed anything, but this is more than enough to fill my plate. Have a good weekend everyone, BOMP BOMP!