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The Places We'll Go
Posted by pblackwell | 01/01/09
So we're into 2009 now, and while it's impossible to really know what will happen, we can mark the sports calendar by the locations.
New Year's Day doesn't mean what it used in college football, but Pasadena and the Rose Bowl remains special simply because it was first, more than a century ago. It's also become something of a USC Invitational in years past.
Still, the most important football games in the next month take place in the Sunshine State. First it's Miami on Jan. 8, where the Gators and Sooners settle the college crown, then Tampa on Feb. 1, where the two NFL survivors play a title game with "Super" and Roman numerals involved. A few people might watch...
CATEGORY: General Sports
TAGS: 2009, New Year, venues, events
Milestone Week
Posted by pblackwell | 01/02/09
Before and after the calendar turned to 2009, a pair of fine boys basketball coaches reached big milestones.
By winning the Red Creek Tournament on Tuesday afternoon, Hannibal's Ken Sturges got career win no. 450. Without a doubt, Sturges is a unique and special presence on the bench.
Until recent years, Sturges may not have been fully appreciated by the larger CNY basketball community. But back-to-back Section III Class B championships for the Warriors, plus a trip to the state final four in Glens Falls in 2007, changed that in a hurry.
Could there be a three-peat? Since an opening loss to Marcellus (who is still unbeaten), Hannibal has reeled off nine in a row...
CATEGORY: Basketball
TAGS: Coaches, Ken Sturges, Pat Donnelly, milestones
Weekly Column: Injustice for the Utes
Posted by pblackwell | 01/04/09
Exactly 48 hours into 2009, we already had our first full-blown sports controversy of the year, one that might not get topped. Then again, when it concerns college football and the BCS, controversy, disdain and disbelief is the norm.
Here stands the University of Utah, perfect at 13-0. It laid waste to non-conference foes, survived challenges from TCU and BYU to conquer the Mountain West Conference, then came to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl and thoroughly outplayed mighty Alabama from the mighty SEC.
And for that, the Utes get….a top-five ranking. Maybe top three if they’re lucky. Thanks for playing, Utah, here are your nice parting gifts, but the “real” national championship will get settled in Miami Thursday night, even if both participants have (gulp!) a loss...
CATEGORY: Football (American)
TAGS: Utah, BCS, unbeaten, denied, controversy
Weekend Recap
Posted by pblackwell | 01/05/09
Really, the hint that this weekend might not exactly follow the script got offered not in a big NFL stadium or massive college arena, but in a modest-sized hockey rink in the Syracuse suburbs.
At Shove Park, West Genesee, 12-0, no. 1 in the state and rarely scored upon all season, met 4-4-4 Gates-Chili, yet another non-league foe designed to be served up to the hungry Wildcats in their Camillus lair.
Except that Gates-Chili scored first, last and once in between, prevailing 3-1. In truth, WG's aura hid the fact that it wasn't finding the net all that much. At some point, that was going to hurt, and better now than at some point later, when there's less time to recover, learn and adjust. WG and F-M have a big showdown Tuesday night at the Twin Rinks in Cicero...
CATEGORY: General Sports
TAGS: Upsets, WG hockey, North Carolina, NFL playoffs
A Stand-Up Guy
Posted by pblackwell | 01/06/09
On Sunday, Trenton Sparks turned 18. On Monday night, he joined his Corcoran indoor track teammates at Manley Field House for the Jack Morse Relays.
It's what happened in between that makes this rather ordinary chain of events a bit extraordinary.
Walking to class Monday afternoon, Sparks detoured to break up a scuffle in the hallway involving a friend. Somewhere along the way, he took a knife wound to his left arm, not realizing it until he got to class and saw that arm covered in blood.
So Sparks goes to the hospital, gets seven stitches, and proceeds to Manley anyway. Not only that, but he helps Corcoran finish second in the team standings with a second in the 4x200 relay and a fourth in the 4x400 relay...
CATEGORY: General Sports
TAGS: Trenton Sparks, Corcoran, track, basketball, hockey
Brace Yourselves..
Posted by pblackwell | 01/07/09
So after SU's dismantling of DePaul tonight, the Orange stand 3-0 in the Big East, and have a good shot at 4-0 since it plays Rutgers Saturday night in the RAC - never that easy, but certainy one that should be won.
But after that, folks, it gets downright frightening.
First, the positive parts, and there are plenty of them. Everything, except one half-court Cleveland State shot, has broken right for SU this winter as it has zoomed to 15-1 and its first spot in the top 10 of the polls in four years.
With fewer minutes and more energy, the Niagara Falls connection of Jonny Flynn and Paul Harris are as good as advertised, a year older and more basketball-savvy. You can count their poor efforts on one hand...
CATEGORY: Basketball
TAGS: SU, basketball, hot start, tough schedule
Weekly Column: The Tao of Tebow
Posted by pblackwell | 01/09/09
Maybe you didn’t notice the moment when the Florida Gators won this year’s version of the national football championship.
It didn’t come with the rout of Georgia, the rain-soaked drubbing of Florida State, the gritty conquest of Alabama in the SEC title game or the high-wire handling of Oklahoma in Thursday night’s finale in Miami.
No, it occurred on Sept. 27, in the vaunted Swamp in Gainesville, a place where the Gators are close to invincible. That hot day, a missed extra point, plus enough other mistakes to last a month, cost Florida in a 31-30 defeat to Mississippi.
Now the Rebels turned out to be a top-15 team, but no matter. Florida was never supposed to lose at home, much less to someone like Ole Miss...
CATEGORY: Football (American)
TAGS: Tim Tebow, Florida, special player
Two Friday Spectaculars
Posted by pblackwell | 01/10/09
Thanks to a spectacle on the male side and a major showdown on the female side, this proved to be one of the most glittering Friday nights of the winter. At least the snow stopped long enough for the show to go on.
CBA and Jamesville-DeWitt drew an overflow crowd to J-D's gym, just as they did in December 2007, the last time the Red Rams lost, 29 games ago. They filled the bleachers and ringed the track above the court - but had to wait a while for all the drama.
Despite being far from sharp due to CBA's intense defense, J-D still led by 18 late in the third quarter and appeared headed for yet another convincing win, something fans of the defending state Class A champs have become used to...
CATEGORY: General Sports
TAGS: J-D, CBA, Corcoran, CNS, basketball battles
Birds In Full Flight
Posted by pblackwell | 01/11/09
The NFL is down to its final four. A week from now, we'll know who will make the ultimate journey to Tampa, and what makes this season so much fun is that it keeps surprising us.
Four teams had first-round byes. Only one of them, the Pittsburgh Steelers, is still playing, joined by three different types of birds. Forget making any further assumptions, since the old ones turned out to be false.
First, the weekend's games. Tennessee had already done enough to take itself out against Baltimore (three turnovers, all in the Ravens' red zone) before that odd delay-of-game-that-wasn't-called on a third-down completion to Todd Heap set up Matt Stover's winning field goal...
CATEGORY: Football (American)
TAGS: NFL, playoff games, Ravens, Cardinals, Eagles, Steelers
Honors And Class
Posted by pblackwell | 01/12/09
Rickey Henderson got the obvious vote for Cooperstown. Jim Rice got the sympathy vote. No one else got enough.
Such will be the Class of 2009 for the Baseball Hall of Fame, as determined by a bunch of entrenched writers who, at least once each year, get to play God. It's quite a power.
Any breathing mortal could have seen Rickey Being Rickey getting in on the first ballot. Henderson obliterated the record for stolen bases, scored the most runs, had 3,000-plus hits and was by any measure the greatest leadoff hitter of all.
Sure, Rickey could be a wee bit egotistical, but the career was too blinding. But if Rickey goes, why not Tim Raines? At times, he was just as good during his prime...
CATEGORY: General Sports
TAGS: Hall of Fame, Rickey Henderson, Jim Rice, Tony Dungy
Think They Were Mad?
Posted by pblackwell | 01/13/09
Look at what happened over the weekend to a couple of fine basketball teams. Then look what happened tonight when they returned to action. One is definitely related to the other.
Back on Friday, Cicero-North Syracuse's girls, unbeaten at 9-0, got beat for the first time by Corcoran, 67-48. That did not suit well with Breanna Stewart and her mates.
So on Tuesday night, the Northstars came home and faced West Genesee. Understand, WG is a good team, 10-2, strong on defense, a star in Alyssa Sutherland nearing 1,000 career points.
Then read the final score - 75-23 CNS. Yes, it was that lopsided, too...
CATEGORY: General Sports
TAGS: CNS, girls, Bishop Ludden, boys, turnarounds
A New President..A New Hero?
Posted by pblackwell | 01/14/09
You might have heard that we are less than six days from the start of a new presidency. A couple of people may show up for it - no, make that a couple of million.
There's got to be a reason for this, beyond the sheer and overwhelming history of an African-American taking the oath of office in the shadow of a Capitol partially built by slaves more than two centuries ago.
In both real life and mythology, when faced with deep crises, people look for heroes. That's inevitable, really, and the only question is from where, or even if, those heroes will arrive.
That's how Washington, Jackson, Grant and Eisenhower, to name a few, rose to the presidency...
CATEGORY: Government
TAGS: Presidency, Inauguration, heroes, Barack Obama
Weekly Column: An Empire In Ruins
Posted by pblackwell | 01/15/09
In the time spent on this job, the summer is, for me, a mostly quiet period and a chance to recover and recuperate from a 10-month high-school season whose pace is relentless from late August until early June.
Yet for one week at the end of July, the pace would quicken once more as hundreds of local athletes ventured to the Empire State Games, the oldest competition of its kind in the country.
Whether it was soccer or tennis, track or wrestling, basketball or lacrosse, the ESG provided a singular chance to see a wide spectrum of the best athletes in the state. Regional pride was at stake, to be sure, but the camaraderie and good times were just as important...
CATEGORY: General Sports
TAGS: Empire State Games, cuts, past, future, questions
Still Bearing the Standard
Posted by pblackwell | 01/16/09
This statement is not uttered too much - tonight I went to the hockey rink, to warm up.
Loud, raucous Shove Park proved far more comfortable than any single second spent outside in that minus-10 (and that's being generous) wind chill. Oh yeah, a great game to offer between West Genesee and Baldwinsville, with Division I supremacy at stake.
B'ville has made terrific progress since that 5-1 defeat to the Wildcats early in December at Lysander Arena. It's got a deep lineup, a solid defense and a fine goalie in Nick Leader. Plenty to be pumped about, right?
Yet WG remains the Division I head honchos. Though B'ville had a fair share of offensive rushes tonight, it still couldn't get anything past Evan Mazzoni...
CATEGORY: General Sports
TAGS: Hockey, basketball, big games, preview
Games...and Much More
Posted by pblackwell | 01/18/09
So it's Pittsburgh vs. Arizona in the Roman Numeral affair in Tampa. One team was supposed to be there. The other....well, not.
The Cardinals, underdogs in the NFC title game against Philadelphia (just as it had been underdogs to Atlanta and Carolina) dominated the first half against Philadlephia, then blew that big lead in the second half. Cardinal teams of the past would have melted away.
But not these Cards. Kurt Warner led a seven-minute drive to what proved to be the winning touchdown, and it ended 32-25. Six decades of franchise futility ended in Glendale, all so that Arizona can be an underdog. Again.
Pittsburgh was a bit more conventional taking Baltimore out in the AFC title game...
CATEGORY: General Sports
TAGS: NFL, title games, college basketball, inauguration
Some Things Stay the Same
Posted by pblackwell | 01/21/09
A few days since I've written anything here, about which much more will be explained later. Let's just say it has to do with the new administration in power, even if it took two tries to get the proper Oath (Chief Justice Roberts had to go brush up on his Article II of the Constitution - oops).
Even with the vast changes going on in our nation at large, some truisms remain, especially in the sports world.
One huge truth - no one might ever go through a college basketball season unbeaten again. Wake Forest, no. 1 so briefly, was the last one to take a blemish, thanks to Virginia Tech. Looking ahead to Duke?
Another truth - don't ever, ever be the team that's the victim when a long losing streak comes to an end...
CATEGORY: General Sports
TAGS: college basketball, unbeaten, Boldin, Cardinals, J-D, high schools
Weekly Column: America's Proudest Day
Posted by pblackwell | 01/23/09
Sometime just after 8 p.m. on a frigid Monday night, a couple of packed buses pulled out of a grocery store parking lot. They returned after 2 a.m. on a frigid Wednesday morning, off to catch precious sleep before getting back to work in a few hours.
In between, the passengers on those buses spent a chilly Tuesday afternoon amid the splendor of the nation’s capital, part of the vast panorama of humanity bearing witness as Barack Hussein Obama became the 44th President of the United States.
Any regular reader of this column knows that I was an active volunteer during the epic 21-month campaign that led to an election that shook the entire world. As it turned out, Nov. 4, 2008 was not going to be the end of that story...
CATEGORY: Government
TAGS: Inaguration, Obama, trip, thoughts
Special Kay
Posted by pblackwell | 01/24/09
This next blog entry was supposed to be about the frantic wave of events in high school basketball and other spots this weekend.
But they all got pretty irrelevant when the news flash appeared across the screen Saturday morning. Kay Yow, long-time women's basketball coach at North Carolina State, had died at age 66.
That single sentence relates the fact, but doesn't even begin to skim the surface of Kay Yow's story. She is as remarkable a fighter and spirit as has ever been seen in American sports.
First, the numbers. She coached 37 years at the college level, 34 of them at N.C. State, winning 737 games, a quartet of ACC titles, going to the NCAA Final Four in 1998 and coaching Team USA to the Olympic gold medal in Seoul in 1988...
CATEGORY: General Sports
TAGS: Kay Yow, cancer, courage, fight, high schools
Where They Stand
Posted by pblackwell | 01/26/09
Time to take stock of where we are in the college hoops scene nearing the midway part of conference play. By now, we have a pretty good idea of what's good, and what isn't.
In that context, Syracuse is at its first crossroads. Yes, 5-3 in the brutal Big East is okay, but 6-3 at the halfway house would be better. That Providence game is crucial, if only to erase the stain of back-to-back defeats and pick up a road marker amid a tough gauntlet.
The consensus is that Pitt and Connecticut are on top. Yet Marquette is 7-0 after winning at Notre Dame, and we saw Sunday how tough Louisville is. In other words, too soon to call a clear favorite...
CATEGORY: Basketball
TAGS: College basketball, report, conferences
Steelers or Cardinals?
Posted by pblackwell | 01/28/09
At some point during the week before the Super Bowl, it becomes mandatory for a person that covers sports for a living to try and figure our what will happen when they finally get to the darn game on Sunday night.
And here is no exception. True, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals don't evoke the same kind of emotions as the Giants and Patriots did a year ago in Glendale, when perfection got thwarted and David Tyree earned the right to free meals in Manhattan for the rest of his natural life.
Plus, we're in a far different economic state than 12 months ago. Any kind of frivolity seems a bit tasteless, and usual Super Bowl excess has been, thankfully, toned down...at least until NBC's six-hour pre-game show...
CATEGORY: Football (American)
TAGS: Super Bowl XLIII, Steelers, Cardinals
Reaching the Peak
Posted by pblackwell | 01/30/09
When the regular season timetable starts to wind down in the high-school scene, it's time to find that "peak" form - and some are more adept at this than others.
This was about the time a year ago when Bishop Grimes began its big push to the Section III Class B-1 title. Guess what - it's happening again.
On successive Friday nights, the Cobras have knocked off fellow Class B favorites Marcellus and Westhill. Granted, the Mustangs didn't have Will Fiacchi or Zach Barbaro, but the Warriors had everyone present and accounted for, and had just been Hannibal a week ago.
Grimes still got them, 60-55, with super soph Mike Stone taking over - 14 of his 27 points came in the fourth quarter, with everything from 3-pointers to clutch steals and free throws...
CATEGORY: General Sports
TAGS: High School, basketball, hockey, volleyball
Canton Calls
Posted by pblackwell | 01/31/09
The best of all moments during Super Bowl week involves the announcement of the Hall of Fame selections just one day before the main event. And for all Buffalo Bills fans, today was doubly sweet.
We knew Bruce Smith was going in first-ballot. Even if sacks didn't become a statistical category until 1982, the fact that Smith tops the list was reason enough. He also did this mostly within a 3-4 defense, much tougher than Reggie White or Michael Strahan's sack totals. Put simply, he scared people and is the greatest defensive player in Bills history.
But seeing Ralph Wilson finally get his due was wonderful, too...
CATEGORY: General Sports
TAGS: Hall of Fame, Bills, Bruce Smith, Ralph Wilson
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