Roger Federer, quite simply, is the man. Federer won his third grand slam in a row today at the Australian and his 10th overall. He won all 7 matches in the tournament without losing a set. The last player to do that was Bjorn Borg. Pete Sampras’ record of 14 grand slams could very well be passed next year if Federer continues his domination. He is just amazing. And Serena Williams came out of nowhere to win the women’s as an unseeded player. I’m not surprised Serena won the final against Sharapova (even though I thought Maria would win), but the way she blew her off the court was surprising. It was like the Serena of old. Is she back? We’ll see in the coming months.

I saw this interesting article about Texas freshman Kevin Durant. Since the NBA put a rule in place that says players must be one-year removed from high school to enter the NBA draft, players like Durant and Greg Oden end up in college, at least for a year. Despite the press Oden has received, Durant has been the most impressive freshman I’ve seen this year. In the article, it mentions that Durant didn’t like the rule initially, but now is thankful it’s in place. Regarding making millions at such a young age, he says:

I’d have struggled, man. I would have wanted to spend all my money on stupid stuff. I’d have wanted to buy everybody else everything. It would have been a disaster, I think.

Granted, he’ll only be one year older next year when he likely will enter the draft, and still pretty young to be given that kind of money, but it appears the extra time to consider what lies ahead and how to deal with it has done him some good, and he’ll be better prepared when his moment comes. Hopefully, it will do the same for other players as well.

The ACC has admitted there was a error with the clock in the Duke-Clemson game on Thursday. In other words, the conference has admitted what everyone who saw the game or the highlights already knew. BC comes to Cameron tonight, where I suspect the clock will run without incident.

I said earlier this season Carolina will be the best team when March rolls around. Since their last loss at Virginia Tech a couple of weeks ago, they’ve won 4 games in a row by an average of nearly 24 points, two of those over ranked opponents and one over recently-ranked Georgia Tech. This weekend they went to Arizona and annihilated the Wildcats, giving Lute Olsen his worst home loss during his tenure as Arizona’s coach. They’ve looked human at various times during the season, and they’re still a young team so mistakes are sometimes made, but I still think they’re going to be the best team in another month, if they’re not already. However, I will admit that I haven’t seen Wisconsin or UCLA play yet.

Florida is the other “best team” candidate, but playing the SEC isn’t really helping them right now. Of course, it’s not their fault that the rest of the conference is sucking so far. Based on SEC play so far, Florida could actually go undefeated. However, their easiest road games are behind them, so that’s unlikely. They have 5 road trips remaining - Georgia, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, LSU and Tennessee - all of which could pull off an upset at home. Regardless, Florida is clearly head and shoulders above the rest of the conference. And, as a matter of fact, most of the country.

Of the six West division teams, exactly ZERO have a winning conference record at this point. Arkansas and Auburn are tied for first with conference records of 3-4, which, clearly, is pretty sad. I haven’t looked at the numbers and schedules, but at this point it seems possible that the winner of the West could have a losing conference record.

When the polls are released tomorrow, Florida could be the only SEC team ranked. After two straight blowouts (to Arkansas and Vanderbilt), LSU should drop out, even if they were to win at Goergia today. Alabama has now lost 4 of 6, including twice to Arkansas and a blowout loss earlier this week at Auburn. They were #12 last week, but I can’t see how losing 4 of 6, including 2 losses this week, can possibly merit remaining in the rankings. Kentucky, who this past week was #25 in the ESPN poll (and unranked in the AP), could be in one or both polls tomorrow with a win today. They lost earlier in the week in Georgia, but a win over Tennessee today could keep them in, but just barely.

For a conference that was expected to be very strong, it’s been unimpressive thus far. However, perhaps it’s because everyone is looking in the wrong place. Tennessee, LSU and Alabama have clearly been disappointments, but Georgia and Vanderbilt have been surprises that could continue to improve and make some noise in the end. Florida is the only team that has lived up to it’s expectations, but there’s still a lot of games to be played.

I missed this last week, but apparently there was a rumor that Terry Bradshaw had died in an auto accident circulating last Thursday or Friday. It’s not clear how it originated, but one theory is that a Shreveport radio station had reported an accident on Terry Bradshaw Passway, which was heard by some as “Terry Bradshaw Passed Away” in the wreck. On PTI, Michael Wilbon quoted Terry’s friend and former co-worker James Brown as saying he spoke to Terry, who was on vacation and responed to the rumor with “My golf game is dead, but I’ve alive.”