College football kicked off this week and started with a bang. It’s hard to imagine a better opening weekend. Arkansas won - which was certainly nice, and Michigan and Notre Dame were embarrassed at home. It was nice to see Tennessee lose, and would’ve been a near perfect weekend had K-State held on at Auburn.
It’s no secret I’m not a fan of the Big 10, and Michigan is the team I love to see lose the most. So, obviously, it was great to see them not only drop their home opener, but to a 1-AA school like Appalachian State. Granted, they’ve won the last to national championships in their division, but that doesn’t mean you go into Ann Arbor and come out with a win. But they did, and I loved it. I have to think that if Michigan loses to Ohio State this year, Lloyd Carr my be on his farewell tour this year. He may be anyway, but that would seal the deal.
If you missed the highlights, check out the last couple of minutes here.
Arkansas had a decent game, with McFadden and Jones having very good numbers. I said elsewhere that the key for them this year would be defense, where they lost some significant players, and the passing game, which needed some improvement from last year. The defense appears to have been relatively solid except for the second quarter, where they struggled. They can’t afford that going forward. Casey Dick didn’t exactly have the type of game that will strike fear into future SEC opponents, but it probably didn’t help that primary receiver Marcus Monk is out for a few games. Still, I’m not having a lot of faith in their passing just yet.
Troy has proven to be a dangerous team in past years, and with the news of Appalachian State’s win at Michigan earlier in the day, you certainly want to just get out with a win. A solid performance for an opener, and hopefully they’ll improve a little as they get into the flow of the season.
The U.S. men’s basketball team has stormed through the FIBA championships this week. They annihilated Puerto Rico for the second time this week in the semi’s yesterday, and will take on Argentina again in the finals tonight. They should finish undefeated and take the title with ease. Nobody’s been close to them. They are clearly a different team than the recent U.S. teams. They have the best players, for one thing - guys like Jason Kidd, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony - and very good role players (Michael Redd, Tayshaun Prince, etc.) And, for a change, they have guys who can shoot to ball. I also like to think the coaching staff - led by head coach Mike Krzyzewski - have made a difference as well. They all seem to be more focused this year, and are actually playing like a team instead of a collection of all-stars. Hopefully that will carry over into next year’s Olympics and we take back the gold.
The U.S. Open has been fun during the first week. The best match I’ve seen was Thursday’s match between James Blake and Fabrice Santoro, which went to 5 sets before Blake advanced. Blake had never won a 5-set match, and so it was nice to see him get that monkey off his back. He had another solid match, beating Stefan Koubek last night. The best match of the tournament, perhaps, was one I did not see because it was Friday afternoon while I was at work. Novak Djokovic, who I predicted to win the whole thing, had to work hard to take down Radek Stepanek in five - 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5), 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (2). I really would have liked to have seen that match. Apparently it was amazing.
I look forward to watching my two favorites to win - Djokoivic on the men’s side, and Justin Henin on the women’s - play on USA tonight.
My favorite new commercial that they’ve been showing during the Open is the AmEx commercial featuring John McEnroe and the “umpire from the 85 U.S. Open.” If you haven’t seen it, you can find it here at this USTA site (click on “The Art of the dispute with John McEnroe” and then “Watch The Commercial”.)
I did, however, run across this one on youTube that I’d not seen. This one features McEnroe and Bjorn Borg, and is pretty good as well.