Blame the Friars, not Keno

If you haven't seen, or at least heard about, the complete and utter collapse the Providence College men's basketball team suffered against visiting South Florida last Saturday, take a look. But I warn you, it's painful to watch.

The Friars led by 12 with less than two minutes remaining, nine with 45 seconds to go and five with 10 ticks left. And they still managed a way to blow that lead and lose in overtime. Give the Bulls credit, they knocked down the shots and put the pressure on the Friars, but the PC players are to blame. Missed free throws, turnovers and shots when the shot clock isn't even at single digits were a big contributing factor to this loss.

After the game, second-year Friars coach Keno Davis was unforgiving when speaking about his team, which fell to 3-4 in the Big East and faces its toughest stretch of the season.

"The team that we have right now is not good enough," he said in his postgame press conference. "It’s not good enough to fight through some miscues offensively or missed free throws or missed defensive assignments. We’re not as talented as we need to be in this league."

He's 100 percent correct. Providence has never been known as a tough team, but this squad takes that to a new level. USF came into the game averaging about 65 points against Big East competition this season, and they left the Dunkin' Donuts Center after scoring 109.

Some in the blogosphere were critical of Davis, saying he threw his team under the bus and that he should go. Are you nuts? Keno Davis is the best Providence College is going to do, and he hasn't had time to bring in too many recruits. He's still using Tim Welsh's softies.

Likely being pressured to do so, Davis is backing off his comments, telling the Providence Journal, "If anybody thought I was throwing our team under the bus, they're wrong. I take responsibility for happened at the end of the game."

Really? I don't see how Davis can take responsibility when he can't shoot the free throws and he can't run the offense. Sure, he could have called a timeout to calm down the players, but the bottom line is that a team with a senior point guard and two good scorers should be able to protect a nine-point lead with a minute to go.

Not only that, but a good public tongue lashing will be good for these kids. Our society tends to coddle today's athletes (everybody gets a medal!) and that's not right. They're all on scholarship and need to perform. I'm sure there's plenty of players waiting in the wings for that free ride through school.

The Friars host UConn - which beat then top-ranked Texas last weekend Saturday - tonight and if they don't get a little tougher, it's going to be long, long season.

Bowl-ing for controversy

I've made it no secret that I'm a fan of the Florida Gators, and obviously the face of the school's football program is Tim Tebow. Sure, he's a stud quarterback and I loved watching him play, but I don't always agree with what he says or does. He's very much a person with strong beliefs, one who is quick to thank God after every win (or loss) and wears scriptures on his eye black. And that's fine with me.

A Christian organization, Focus on the Family, will use Tebow and his mother as spokespeople for an ad that is anti-abortion and is scheduled to run during the Super Bowl. CBS, which is broadcasting the game, has reviewed and approved the script, which tells the story about how Pam Tebow was urged to abort her fifth child, Tim, who went on to lead the Gators to two national championships and win the Heisman Trophy.

Abortion is clearly a hot-button topic, and women's rights groups - the National Organization for Women, the Feminist Majority and others - have urged CBS to pull the ad.

"An ad that uses sports to divide rather than to unite has no place in the biggest national sports event of the year — an event designed to bring Americans together," Jehmu Greene, president of the New York-based Women's Media Center, told reporters.

Can we all just agree that last part is incorrect, seeing as though it pits two teams - and two fan bases - against each other? Anyway, Tebow addressed the controversy after Monday's Senior Bowl practice.

"I know some people won't agree with it, but I think they can at least respect that I stand up for what I believe," Tebow said to reporters. "I've always been very convicted of it (his views on abortion) because that's the reason I'm here, because my mom was a very courageous woman. So any way that I could help, I would do it."

As with most major issues in this country, I'm on the fence - the place that provides the best seat to watch both sides make fools of themselves. Besides, this isn't about me or my opinions. I just think that if someone wants to pay the $2.5 million it costs to run a 30-second ad, let them do it. Nobody is stopping the women's rights groups from doing the same.

Additionally, if your take on abortion does a complete 180 because Tim Tebow tells you it's inhumane, or against Christian beliefs, than you have far greater issues. And if you don't like what you're seeing, change the channel ... it'll only be 30 seconds.

Vintage Favre

EDIT: Because this seems to be a Favre-bashing kind of a day, I threw in this little gem, which made me laugh. -SB

The last pass Brett Favre threw as the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers was poorly thrown, intercepted and cost the Packers the NFC championship in the 2007 season. How poetic that, perhaps, Favre's last pass in the NFL is, again, a poorly thrown ball that was intercepted and cost his team the NFC championship.

As a Packers fan and Favre hater, I've pretty much trashed the guy all season, despite the fact that he's had one of the best years of his career. Words cannot describe my joy when he threw that last interception.
But one last time, I'm giving him some props for the way he played in the NFC championship game on Sunday in New Orleans.

Early on, it was clear that one of the Saints' defensive goals was to knock Favre around, and they succeeded. Favre got hit, and hit, and hit, and hit hard. One hit in particular, in the second half, sent him limping to the sideline after his first interception of the game. But he got his ankle taped and, on Minnesota's next possession, limped back on the field and kept playing.
I don't know if Favre is the toughest quarterback in NFL history, but he's unquestionably the toughest I've seen. A lot of QBs probably wouldn't have come back to the game in Favre's condition, and he's a man, he's 40.

And, as much as it pains me to admit it, I was wrong about Brett this season. I thought he'd burn out, like he did with the Jets last year. I thought he'd show his age. I thought the Vikings would be only slightly better with him under center.
But they were a whole lot better. Favre had the fewest interceptions of any season in his career in which he was a full-time starter. His 33 touchdowns were his most since 1997, when he led the Packers to a second straight Super Bowl.

Clearly he can still play this game at an elite level. I just wish that, the last several years, he's make up his damn mind more quickly that he wants to continue to play. Then again, if he had, he might still be the Packers quarterback. And I know Green Bay lost in the first round, but Aaron Rodgers has shown in his first two seasons leading team that he's nasty. But that's material for another blog entry ... next year perhaps ... when Rodgers takes the Packers to the Super Bowl. (Disclaimer: That's not an official prediction, yet. More of a musing.)

Favre's last play of the season is one of the key reasons most Packers fans don't miss him. In the coming weeks, and months, Vikings fans will learn another reason as Favre, yet again, ponders retirement. Don't expect a quick decision from the guy who's thrown more playoff interceptions than anyone in NFL history. He's going to hold the Vikings hostage, especially since he knows the Vikings don't have the guts, as the Packers did, to tell him his services are no longer wanted.

We all were witnesses this season to vintage Brett Favre. The unbelievable touchdown passes. The "what the hell was he thinking?" interceptions. The passion for the game. And now, the waiting to find out if he'll retire.

Good luck with that, Minnesota.

Thrown for a loss

If you read Thursday’s blog entry, you know that Josh and I settled a long overdue bet. It started last summer, when I inexplicably claimed I could throw a baseball 75 mph. I had pretty much conceded 75 going in, but my goal was at least 70.
So to settle this, we went to In The Zone Baseball Club in Fall River, Mass., where our friend Ron Westmoreland, the owner, hosted us.

We took a number of cuts in the cage as a warmup, and Josh and I threw around the baseball for a good 10-15 minutes before Ron put the gun on me. As you can see in the top video - not to mention I have a motion that is a cross between Kevin Appier, Keith Foulke and Daisuke Matsuzaka - I start off strong.

“64,” Ron says.
“67,” he said on my next pitch.

On my third clocked pitched, it wasn’t a strike. In fact, it hit a Rubbermaid barrel nearby, but more importantly, it was fast.

“69, and 30 dollars for the security deposit,” Ron Joked.

OK, I’m about five pitches in, and I’m 1 mph away from 70. From there, though, I topped out. I hit 69 twice more, as you can see in the top video, and then Ron wanted to give me a few tips.

He told me that I wasn’t getting enough power out of my push-off leg, and that I needed to gather all of my power in that leg before pushing off. Apparently, I was drifting forward and losing my power.

He was right, but the problem was this: Instead of concentrating on throwing, I was only concentrating on the tips he gave me, and I was losing velocity. Not to mention that, at 32 years old and as someone who hasn’t touched a baseball in six months, I was running out of gas in a serious way.

The second video is like watching a slow car crash. I’m going downhill and downhill fast. I don’t think I get above 67 in the second video, and I’m pretty sure I get as far down as 61.

Overall, I was disappointed but not discouraged. Josh may have won this round of the bet, but it’s not over yet. Here’s to hoping a little more throwing and conditioning, and I’ll get to that mark of 70.

On a side note, if you're serious about baseball or softball, or have a son or daughter serious about baseball or softball, check out In The Zone. It's not a far drive from Aquidneck Island, and it really is a top-notch, year-round facility.

Spouting off at the brain

A few random thoughts before Josh Krueger and I settle a long-standing bet - whether or not I can throw a baseball 75 mph:

- I like tennis, but not enough to watch it at all hours of the night. The Australian Open, the first major tournament of the season, is under way, but the marquee matchups take place while most of us are sleeping. And because I read the recaps in the morning, I have little interest to watch the tape-delayed version in the afternoon. In fact, the only time I can remember staying up to watch a live sporting event is when the Red Sox played in Japan a few years ago and the 2002 World Cup quarterfinal between the U.S. and Germany. And the latter is because I had yet to go to bed.

- To Scott Zack, the fan who repeatedly called Celtics forward Glen “Big Baby” Davis a “fat boy” and then filed a complaint with the league after Davis responded with an obscenity: Get a life. Or at least go back to your mother’s basement and play a little more World of Warcraft. You’re the annoying little brother that nobody likes. Davis could be both fined and suspended, and Celtics coach Doc Rivers called Davis’ actions “unacceptable.” While I don’t disagree with Doc, I’d have done the same thing if I were Davis. Punched him, too.

- I know I wrote about the America’s Cup yesterday, saying how ridiculous all this fighting has been, but Wednesday’s revelation took it to a new level. Alinghi president Ernesto Bertarelli accused BMW Oracle, the American team, of using a French boat. This comes on the heels of another lawsuit filed by the Americans, one that claims the Swiss boat had its sails made in Nevada, which goes against the Deed of Gift.
“I am in it for the sailing. I am not in it for the legal fight,” Bertarelli said. “Now we are on BMW Oracle’s ninth lawsuit. Our boat is Deed (of Gift) compliant, but if BMW Oracles continues to contest our sails, they should consider their own issues, beginning with the fact that the ‘USA’ is a French boat.”
Look, I don’t know what to believe anymore, but my patience is running thin with this whole thing. Let’s scrap it and get another Volvo Ocean Race going — complete with a Newport stopover.

- Tiger Woods, apparently, is in a sex rehabilitation clinic in Mississippi. So what? So the guy has issues. Personally, I hope he takes care of those issues and gets back on the golf course as soon as possible. And if anyone really cares about Tiger’s personal life so much as to buy the rags that exploit him, you should look up Scott Zack’s number. You’d be great friends.

- The aforementioned bet between Josh and I started last summer, when I was playing in a wiffleball league and Josh was a member of an adult volleyball team. We argued over which sport was cooler. I told him that I had a rocket for an arm, which led to this exchange:

Josh: What would happen if you tried to throw a baseball now? Would your rocket arm fall completely off, since a baseball weighs about 1,000 times more than a wiffleball?

Scott: If I warmed up my arm, I truly believe I could get high 70s

Josh: You're on crack. You'd hit 55 on the gun and throw out your arm in the process. Your wiffleball career would be over.

So today we settle the bet. Stay tuned.

Cup of tears

Because I'm apparently a "carpetbagger," I don't have too much experience with the America's Cup. I only know what I read. But I am very much interested in the competition for the oldest trophy in sports.

Then again, I might be the only one interested in the competition (at least outside of a courtroom), because that seems to be the last thing on anyone's mind. Thanks to a billion-year-old document, the Deed of Gift, the American team and the Swiss can't seem to come to terms on anything.

The latest flap is the fact that the Americans are concerned that the Swiss had their sails made in the United States, Nevada to be exact, and that is a violation of the Deed. Since Alinghi, the Swiss team, won the Cup in 2007, nothing but courtroom drama has occurred, marring what should be a good event, which is scheduled to start Feb. 8.

But should the fighting continue, and we have no reason to believe it shouldn't, that start day is in serious jeopardy. Personally, I think the BMW Oracle team, which sails out of Golden Gate Yacht Club, needs to stop crying, suck it up and just sail.

In a New York minute

What I love about the NFL playoffs is the fact that even the biggest so-called experts can’t tell you what’s going to happen. I mean, did anybody give the Vikings a chance on Sunday? How about the Jets?

Will anyone give the Jets a chance this week? Probably not. But why couldn’t they beat the Colts? They took down the Chargers, who had scored at least 20 points in every game this season. They confused Philip Rivers, who was playing as well as any quarterback in the second half of the season. Offensively, the Jets play smashmouth football and have a quarterback that simply manages the game. He makes the throws when they’re there, doesn’t when they’re not and minimizes his mistakes.

As a Patriots fan, I’m legally supposed to loathe the guys in green and white and have a pure hatred for Rex Ryan. But I don’t. Personally, this team reminds me of the first Patriots championship team, when Tom Brady was in his first season as a starter.

Now, Tom Brady did a lot more for those Patriots than Mark Sanchez does for these Jets, but they both play a very schematic defense that is based on speed and toughness. I can see them going into Indy and – much like the Pats did to the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI – containing the Colts.

New York will need a couple of big plays, say, maybe an interception return from Darrelle Revis, and another long TD run from either Shonn Greene or Thomas Jones, and it could be another missed chance for Peyton and the gang.