89 is not 88

First off, I want to say "Congratulations" to the UConn women's basketball team for winning 89 straight games by defeating #20 Florida State this past week. It is an unbelievable streak that tops the 88 game streak John Wooden's UCLA teams put together from 1971-1974. Of course, ESPN has covered the streak nonstop and I have seen analysts debating which streak is greater. I've heard it both ways but here's my take on the whole thing: I believe UCLA's streak is far more impressive but at the same time the two are not comparable. It's apples and oranges.

UCLA won 88 games in men's basketball during the early 70's which is a remarkable feat that may never be topped. I don't think UConn's streak will be broken for a long time unless Geno can do it again...if they ever suffer a loss. The reason UCLA's streak is so much more impressive is because the men's game is far more competitive than the women's game. Often the 25th ranked team can beat a top 10 team in men's basketball but in the women's game there is no parity. Year in and year out, UConn and Tennessee stay at the top of the polls and a handful of schools such as Stanford, Baylor and Duke remain competitive but UConn has never had a real threat. Baylor gave them a game at the beginning of the year but in UConn's last two games against ranked opponents they beat #10 Ohio State and #20 Florida State by 30+ points. The women's game just isn't as competitive as the men's game and that's why UCLA's streak will always stand out as the premier winning streak in college basketball.

That said, these two streaks are hardly comparable. The men's and women's game are two different things and therefore they are both impressive in their own sense. I can't stand to see people say UConn's is more impressive because the final number isn't everything. What's impressive is the competition the team played and where they won them at. So in my mind, John Wooden's teams still hold the honor for the most impressive win streak.

Seeing Kobe In Person

I'll admit it: I used to be one of those Kobe-haters that hated the guy just because. Just because he was good and I hated people comparing him to Michael Jordan, my favorite NBA player of all-time. However, things have changed and I am no longer a Kobe hater and here is why: the guy is a winner and he plays the right way. Do I think he will ever be as good as Michael? No but I do think he is right up there and he is definitely the best player in the game today. Go ahead and make your case for LeBron but at the end of the day Kobe wins that debate.

Kobe is 32 years old and in his 15th season for the LA Lakers. He is going for his sixth ring this season and the Lakers look like the favorite in the West once again if they can hold off the Spurs. So far this season he is averaging nearly 27, 5 and 5 but rarely has the attention been focused on him. Instead, the media has flocked to Miami to cover the Big Three's every success and failure or headed to Denver to see when Carmelo will be catching a flight to New York. Meanwhile, Kobe and the Lakers have gone about their business out West, compiling a record of 19-7 which is good for first place in the Pacific Division.

What sets Kobe apart is his determination and want to win, which makes him like Jordan. LeBron just doesn't seem to have that. Kobe takes over a game with an assassin's mentality and plays through pain. Never has he allowed people to even think that he quit on his team like LeBron did last year in the playoffs. That could be the reason Kobe has five rings while LeBron is still in pursuit of his first and felt the need to go down to Miami and team up with Bosh and Wade. Much like Jordan, Kobe loves to be the man and relishes the moment when its time to takeover the game.

On Wednesday night I had the chance to go the Lakers-Pacers game down in Indianapolis and it was my first time seeing Kobe in person. In a word, it was incredible. He was quiet in the first half but then there was a stretch in the second half where you could just see him turn it on and by the end of the game he had 31 points and Conseco Fieldhouse was going crazy everytime he put another one in. Two plays stick out in my head from that game, the first being a three from the top of the key where he caught the ball and thought about shooting but then decided against it. He stood there with the ball for about five seconds and then in the blink of an eye he put it up and swished a three. Shooting a shot after thinking about it is not the easiest thing but Bryant made it look easy. Later on in the second half he caught the ball a good five feet above the three point line at the top of the key and without hesitation just drained it. He smiled and ran down the floor as if to say, "This is what I do everyday."

I respect the way Kobe plays the game because he plays hard and plays on both ends of the floor. I have changed my opinions on him and without a doubt he is head and shoulders above LeBron or anybody else in the league. Scary thing is...Kobe is only 32 years old. There are many more years of this domination to come.

The Greatest Pitching Staff Ever Assembled

In the most surprising news of the baseball off season (sorry Jayson Werth, your insanely large contract with the Nationals that was a couple million too much isn't as big as this) Cliff Lee signed with the Philadelphia Phillies for 5 years and $120 million dollars. Lee rejected bigger offers from the Yankees and the Rangers to join Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels in arguably the greatest pitching staff ever assembled. The best thing about this deal is that Lee took a smaller deal even though the Yankees dangled more money in front of him. Lee had played in Philly for half a season in 2009 and loved the city. The Phillies let him go after that 2009 season and signed Halladay but Lee loved Philly enough to take less money; refreshing to hear in this day of "who can sign the biggest contract."

With the signing of Lee the Phils have four legit number one starters in one rotation. Some teams in the MLB would kill to have just one of those guys. With this signing, it cancels out the loss of Werth, and makes the Phillies the clear cut favorite for National League. Looking at the Phillies on paper is unbelievable. Here are some samplings from 2010 of the newly dubbed, "Phab Four."

Halladay: 21-10, 219 K's, 2.44 ERA, Perfect Game, Playoff No-hitter, NL Cy Young Award

Lee: 12-9, 185 K's, 18 BB's, 3.18 ERA, Led Rangers to World Series

Oswalt: 13-13 (7-1 w/Philly), 193 K's, 2.76 ERA

Hamels: 12-11, 211 K's, 3.03 ERA

Assuming that Zack Grienke is traded from the Royals in the last big deal of the offseason, the Royals number one starter at this point will be Kyle Davies. Davies is a 26-year-old righthander who posted an 8-12 record with an ERA over 5.00 last season. You think the Royals would love to have one the Phillies starters? The Miami Heat had an impressive offseason by signing Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh but the Phillies offseason may be more impressive with this one signing. It's that big of a deal.

 

Consider that in the NLDS, which the Phillies are almost sure to make, a team only has to win three games to move on to the NLCS. That means that if there was a sweep, Hamels wouldn't even see the mound. This is by far the most impressive pitching staff since I've been born but can they produce the results expected of them? The pressure is on but these four are hardly ever phased by it. Out of the four, Hamels is the only one with a World Series ring but Oswalt and Lee have both been there. Halladay has two Cy Young awards to his name while Lee has one. In the Phillies World Series year Hamels won the NLCS and WS MVP award and Oswalt won the 2005 NLCS MVP award. The group comes in with impressive credentials and it won't be surprising to see them rack up many more in years to come.

Why I Hate College Football Bowl Season

We couldn't get through a year of college football without a heated debate about the BCS vs. a playoff system and this year is no different. This year that one unlucky team that got left out is TCU who went 12-0 but never had a chance of being invited to the BCS Championship Game in Glendale because of all the factors working against them such as their weak conference schedule and their starting position in the BCS rankings. I am a huge college basketball fan and there isn't a better time of year than March Madness. 68 teams (don't ask me about that 96 team tournament thing or I'll get really mad) come together and play a tournament where anything can happen and teams like Butler can become a national sensation. College football doesn't have that and they never will. Bowl season lacks the suspense and the fun that college basketball brings to the table.

Starting on the 18th, bowl season will be off an running and it will last nearly a month, but the funny thing is only three days really matter. Nobody cares about the GoDaddy.com Bowl or the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. There are plenty of pointless bowl games and it has become so watered down that its really not even fun anymore. Boise State lost one game to this season to Nevada and because of that they weren't invited to a BCS bowl. Instead they will be playing in the Las Vegas Bowl...how prestigious. I also read that in Sports Illustrated this past week that Nevada cost each WAC school 1,000,000 dollars by beating Boise State because, had the Broncos made a BCS bowl, they would have earned roughly 10 million dollars for the conference which would have been divided evenly. So to me, Nevada punished themselves for winning a game. How dumb is that?

If I ruled college football there would be a playoff system of 16 teams like many have suggested. It makes more sense to give the top 16 teams a fair shot at the title rather than telling 14 teams to go play in another bowl with no reward except pride. Take Virginia Tech for example: they stumbled twice at the beginning of the year and never had a chance to be mentioned for the championship game but they reeled off 11 wins in a row and are playing some really good football. College football doesn't know the term "Cinderella" and that's because they don't allow themselves to. There is rarely a chance for the small school to beat the big school in a postseason game but in college basketball that is all the rage.

It's amazing how every professional sport and college sport has a playoff system but college football can't seem to figure it out. I hope they do soon though because teams will keep getting cheated year after year and the computers will decide teams fates unfairly. The game is supposed to be played on the field...why not let the athletes decide it out there?

Dissecting LeBron's Return

Thursday night on TNT LeBron James made his much anticipated return to Cleveland where he spent seven seasons before leaving the Cavaliers for the Miami Heat. When LeBron announced his Decision on ESPN in an hour-long special with Jim Gray, there was an immediate backlash at James and fellow stars Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. No team in my lifetime has ever received the press that the Heat have so far and, as one could imagine, with every loss comes more speculation as to why they aren't winning.

Of the Heat's Big Three no one has received as much hate as LeBron has since they joined forces. Why is that? Some say LeBron did nothing wrong because he is allowed to leave in free agency. That is true but there are so many reasons why LeBron is wrong. It seemed like a dream situation for LeBron and for Cleveland on Draft day back in 2003; the kid from Akron who had dominated the high school scene and taken over the nation already was going to be drafted number one overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers, a franchise desperate for a star player and wins.

LeBron lived up to the hype for the seven years he was in Cleveland, leading the Cavs to the Finals once and rewriting the franchise record books. At times it seemed like he was the only guy the Cavs had on the roster and he single-handedly would propel them to wins but then this summer...he left. He left Cleveland, the city that loved him with all they had. Go to Youtube and watch a clip of LeBron before a game when he was a Cavalier. Fans would mimic him as he threw the powder into the air and teammates would joke around and share a laugh before, during and after the games. With James in a Cavs uniform, Cleveland really did rock. Listen...I've been to Cleveland and it sucks. There's nothing to do and the city is just depressed but LeBron was that bright spot. Many in the city are unemployed, the Browns look like they will never be good again and the Indians seem to have forgotten what winning is but LeBron and the Cavs brought life to the city and to make it even better he was a hometown kid. He was a hero.

Few men have ever experienced the love that LeBron had in Cleveland. Sure, every city loves their star player but not like Cleveland loved LeBron. He was their savior. He was going to bring them a championship and he even went on the record saying that. He wouldn't stop until he got it he said and we believed him. Life was a party with LeBron.

Everything has changed. He betrayed the city and that's not an unfair assessment of the situation. He was a hometown kid who said he would bring a championship to the city and he made a mockery of the city and the team on national television by announcing his Decision for all in a truly selfish fashion. He deserved the chorus of boos that he received from his once loyal fans and he deserved the signs and t-shirts with anti-LeBron phrases and pictures. Never again will LeBron be accepted in that city and I'm not sure he understands that yet. Yes, he scored 38 points but he came out of Quicken Loans Arena a loser in my mind. Maybe he finally understands that the fans aren't joking and that their anger wasn't just one night. They really do hate him.

The hero that the city of Cleveland loved is suddenly the villain that the city of Cleveland hates with all their heart.