Tournament Pick 'em results

The tournament isn't over yet, but determining the willweeverwin bracket champion almost is. The current leader, SuckaSteve, will win if Duke makes the championship game. If West Virginia makes the final, Tarheels All The Way, will be champ. Ronscrappypicks can move into second if West Virgina beats Duke. Everybody else is stuck where they are.

Minor props to "Trade Carter" who actually picked Butler to make the Final Four. He got the other three wrong though.

Philadelphia Union debuts

As many may know, somewhat big time soccer is returning to the Delaware Valley this year as Chester's Philadelphia Union begins play in the MLS. The Union will play most of their early schedule on the road as the DRPA stadium is still under construction (please feel free to make a "union issues" joke). Anyways, The Union's debut match versus Seattle is being televised on ESPN 2 tonight. Read more about the Union on Philly.com's soccer blog or turn on sports talk radio to hear dudes call up to say that they hate soccer almost as much as the Dallas Cowboys.

Fake, phony fraud of a "Philly" team falls in the NCAA tournament

As I explained last year, Villanova is not a Philly team and no real Philadelphian should root for this mainline rich kid's playground of a school when all four of the other Big 5 teams (plus Drexel) are actually located in the city. Also Jay Wright wears thousand dollar suits like Pat Riley junior. Villanova lost because, as was the norm this season, they could not stop a proficient big man from schooling them. Omar Samhan had 32 points for St. Mary's. Jay Wright offered some platitutes.

“Our journey was not an easy one. It was a tough one. I thought we were playing hard at the end. We probably played the hardest tonight that we played all year. That’s what we want to do, be the best we can be at the end of the year. But we understand the expectations were much higher for this team. And we have to take what comes with that. We do. That’s part of being an athlete these days. It’s part of being a team at this level that gets this type of attention.”

The real joke is on the selection committee which rewarded these frauds with a number two seed. Or maybe this was all part of the NCAA's master plan to get Duke to the Final Four? Perhaps. I do know that real Philadelphia teams the Phillies or the Flyers will lead the sports section for the next few weeks. Here is a report on the game.

The correct way to determine a champion in college sports

Bracket registration closes at tip off of the first game of Round 1 on Thursday, March 18.

Once again I set up "team" willweeverwin over at Yahoo! First go to Yahoo's Tournament Pick'em page and click "Join a Group". On the next page click the "Join a Group" button again. If you have a Yahoo account, login. If not, follow the instructions and get one. Once logged in, enter the info below.

Group ID#: 38876
Pass: check the comments of this post (Notice that the comment system for the blog has changed. It wasn't my decision. Haloscan was taken over by this new thing and I haven't fully figured out how to set it up better.)

Where it says "Bracket Name" is where you would put your bracket's name. I cleverly chose "ronscrappypicks" again for mine. Finish filling the required stuff out and make your picks by the first game on Thursday. I decided to use the default Yahoo! scoring system again because it's simple.

The champion will receive accolades from me in a blog post and some self-satisfaction, but that's all.

Olympics

Saturday Night, after the Flyers destroyed the Montreal Canadiens, I switched over to NBC's broadcast of the Winter Olympics. The coverage slanted towards grunge rocker/dancer with the stars Apollo Ohno and his soul patch's quest to become most medalled US Winter Olympian of all time. The short track speed skating is pretty exciting, what with all the crashes. I suppose that is why the skaters have to where a helmet (and sometimes bandannas), unlike the neoprene headed real men of olympics past. Of course instead of allowing dudes to throw 'bows like roller derby, the IOC has to ruin yet another sport with judging. Here the judges determine if a skater negatively interfered with another skater. But Ohno did not need the judges help as he picked up a silver medal thanks to two South Koreans colliding and falling down on the final lap.

Up in Whistler, where the rainstorms did not get the message that global warming has been proven a socialist hoax by the 40 inches of snow in Washington DC, sloppy conditions plagued the women's moguls event. Apparently moguls skiers perform best in colorful all over print potato sacks designed by Steve Aoki. American Hannah Kearney won the contest, proving that ours is still the raddest and most extreme country on earth.

While enjoyable, I thought Saturday's coverage was a bit slow. I can only hope that things pick up when the fabulous Johnny Weir takes to the ice.

Congratulations Saints

The Saints had only won 2 playoff games prior to this year and they win it all. Makes me cherish Andy Reid's, Joe Banner's, and McNabb's record of "success" even more. Go Eagles!

Discuss the Super Bowl and the terrible, painfully bad ads in the comments if you wish.

Akers and Dawkins Named to All Decade Team!

Thrilling!

Meanwhile, #5 is in Ft. Lauderdale practicing with the Stars. Haven't seen Andy down there yet.

Mission accomplished

Like I said last week when it happened, "That's great. Keep showing it. Everything Bush touches turns into a catastrophic failure."

At least this time it was for the good of the country.

///

Although I was rooting for the Jets, let's be realistic - The Chargers, aka the AFC Eagles, lost that game, the Jets did not win it. Next week Stover will not miss 3 field goals and Manning will not float a ball up for grabs from his own endzone. And I certainly hope no team will be as stupid as the Chargers were, headbutting people and kicking challenge flags. Colts will win by double digits and Ryan can put his XXXL sweater vest into storage or donate it to Haiti to temporarily house a family.

The other game is harder to predict. I was a Favre fan this past Sunday, but I still can't stand him. And while Jared Allen is a great player and named his kid Rowdy after Rowdy Roddy Piper, he is also a serial drunk driver and has a mullet on purpose so I'm against him too. But then I reflexively root against coaches that wear visors and teams with players named Shockey, future Dirtbag Hall of Fame first ballot inductee - maybe he and Allen can have a pre-game white trash off. Oh, the actual teams... The game is a toss-up with two really good offenses with the Saints getting the edge and one outstanding defense, but I'll go with the home team eking out a victory setting up a Manning, father and son, media love fest for the Super Bowl.

Dalembert does good

While it is sometimes difficult to get behind Sammy's inconsistent play on the basketball court, everyone should back Dalembert's efforts to help the victims of the Haitian earthquake. Dalembert ...

... will present a personal check of $100,000 to Caryl M. Stern, President and CEO, of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, to help aid relief efforts in Haiti, before the Sixers host the Sacramento Kings at the Wachovia Center tonight.

In addition to his personal contribution, Dalembert has also pledged to match the amount of money donated by Sixers fans at the UNICEF table on the concourse during the game on Friday, January 15.

More information can be found here.

Quiz time

Dallass sucks

Even worse than 6 days ago. Supposedly this week was going to be different and they were going to correct things. What did they fix? Even the same type of plays turned out to be the catalysts for the Cowboys success. A complete bullshit pass interference call on Sheldon Brown once again gave the Cowboys the momentum they needed which they never let go of, and a bad QB fumble, this time by Vick, was the nail in the coffin that ended the game before halftime.

McNabb was brutal. In the first half when the game was decided, he had a grand total of 34 yards passing. His first completion was for 2 yards half way into the second quarter. And once again he could have run several times and instead threw incompletions or took a sack. Maclin I guess had a decent game, but the rest of the offense followed McNabb's lead.

The defense was also brutal. They were hanging in there though until the refs blew the Sheldon Brown interference call which was a 50 yard penalty and gave the Cowboys a gift TD. And after Vick and Maclin's big play tied it and they almost got a huge interception from Sean Jones that was overturned, they folded. They gave up third and long the rest of the game. This was their main undoing. They never stopped the slant play or that stupid wide receiver screen that killed them in the first regular season game. The usual positional play by the linebackers and safeties was terrible, but Samuels and Brown also were bad. Did anyone stand out on the positive side of things for the defense?

Reid was outcoached TWO weeks in a row by Wade Phillips and ignominiously became his first victim in the playoffs. He can put that trophy up on his mantle next to his "being the first coach to lose a Tampa team when the temperature was below freezing and the franchise's first ever championship game," his "lost to Carolina coach in his second playoff game ever and that franchise's first ever championship game," and his "losing to a rookie head coach and Arizona's first ever championship game" trophies. He can put it in the space he's saving for the Eagles first Lombardi Trophy.

Sav Rocca was the best player for the Eagles. Pathetic.

Dallass sucks

1/03 4:15 PM ET	Opening	betED	Bodog	5Dimes	SPORTSBETTING
Philadelphia @ Dallass	45 -4	45 -4	45 -4	45 -4	45 -4

Matchup • Expanded Odds • Line History

Bonus Question: Is the line "telling us something?"

Dallass sucks

Well, that was a waste of time.

Why did the Eagles bother to even get on the plane to Dallass? The Eagles were dominated at pretty much every facet of the game by the hated Cowboys, and it really doesn't get any worse than that.

The defense was pathetic from the start and they allowed Dallass to set the tone for the entire game - domination. Romo didn't get touched until late in the second half and I don't think a Cowboy running back was tackled for no gain or a loss until the second half as well. I'm still waiting for someone to tackle Felix Jones. And while the secondary and linebackers were letting the usual suspects of Witten and Austin shred them, they also let the mediocre Crayton have the biggest day of all of them. So to sum up, the defense got blown off the line, couldn't cover anyone, had no pressure on Romo, took too many chances that didn't work, and had the usual terrible day of tackling.

The offense matched the defense in atrociousness and maybe exceeded them since they were shut out. McNabb was the infuriating player we've all come to "love." One pass is right on the money and perfectly thrown, then the next is overthrown by 5 yards. Then the next is 100 mph bullet whizzing behind a wide open receiver. Then the receivers started to drop everything. And it wasn't just one guy, it was guys like Avant and Jackson who never drop anything that were stumbling and bumbling. I don't get it.

Then we have the Eagles stupidity playing a big role in the game. The usual horn o'plenty of dumb penalties, the wasting of a timeout on a punt play when a delay of game would have even been a good thing, and the return of the bungling two minute offense at the end of the half where that wasted timeout would have come in handy. Then Reid tries a 53 yard field goal on 4th and 2 early in the second half to put a cherry on top of a terrible job. When it was 3rd and 2 everyone I was watching with said, "This is 4 down territory." Apparently we lack the football genius that Reid has.

Other notes:

• Rocca had a good punt (or two).
• Samuels should have knocked down the pass on Witten's TD by using the reach the arm around the back technique instead of trying to run in front for the pick.
• Samuels in general needs to just knock the ball down and stop taking so many risks. It really cost them this game.
• Brown was terrible and caught flat footed on Crayton's TD.
• Safety play was terrible again.
• Celek was the only Eagle that showed up.
• When McNabb fumbled that low snap that was the game. And I blame McNabb for that, not Cole.
• I thought Westbrook's legs were supposed to be fresh.
• If you remember, Spencer is who Dallass drafted thanks to the Eagles draft day trade two years ago.
• Akers shouldn't have been attempting that field goal, his longest of the year, but he tried too hard and "overkicked" it.
• Romo outplayed McNabb. (obvious)
• How dumb was it that Romo was still in the game late in the fourth? Of course McNabb was still in there too.
• Who is stupider, Reid or Phillips? Who is fatter?
• Eagles went from being the 2 seed all the way down to the last seed. Good work.
• Eagles game is at 8pm next Saturday.
• It will be sweeter now when the Eagles win it.

Dallass sucks.

Flyers blow the game that's just like pond hockey

Kerry Fraser and the rest of the refs were pleasantly invisible for most of the game and seemingly were "letting them play." But late in the game with the Flyers holding on to a 1-0 lead, Fraser decided to make a call on Timonen that was weak. This helped to decide the game in Boston's favor because they tied the game on the ensuing power play and then went on to win in OT, 2-1.

But the Flyers really only have themselves to blame for losing the game by blowing so many breakaways and odd-man rushes:

• Asham made a really nice read to steal the puck and went in alone with a man trailing to get a rebound. Asham brilliantly shot high to the corner and the puck went behind the net.
• Asham later repeated his brilliance with TWO teammates coming down the middle for a rebound opportunity.
• Giroux had a breakaway but probably tried to get too tricky for his own good and Thomas poke checked his stick to thwart the effort.
• Gagne screwed around on a 2 on 1 with Giroux and then stupidly tried to feed a well covered Richards who was trailing.
• Hartnell had a 2 on 1 and missed the net completely with his shot.
• Briere fed Carter on a 2 on 1 and Carter hit the side of the net with his shot.
• In OT Briere came out of the box and went in 2 on 1 and was stopped by Tim Thomas. But at least he got his shot on net.

The Bruins tied the game shortly after Carter's miss. And after Briere's miss, Boston won the game on their ensuing rush during which Boston had too many men on the ice but it went uncalled.

Even though the Flyers didn't come through, I thought the game was fun to watch and I was entertained. NBC recycled the whole pond hockey thing and beat it to death, but I didn't really mind. The Flyers fans represented well and were very vocal. I'm surprised NBC didn't have more crowd shots during the "Let's go Bruins/Flyers" chants. I've been tired of Mike Emerick for a long time now so I just turn the sound down so he doesn't grate too much. Pang had a good hair joke bust on Hartnell. Boston embarrassed themselves with that terrible Dennis Leary led song they sang. (Also, Dennis Leary isn't funny and neither is his fat guy friend in the women's clothing - mom jeans and a tacky fur.) Carcillo won the first ever Winter Classic fight, gave the crowd the double devil's horn salute and then we got to hear the explanation for his dirt stache which was the best feature NBC had all day.

Delaware Parlay Play Picks for Week 17

Pick 3 games in the comments to win! Get the odds from the official 1/2 point parlay card.