Friday Morning Five-Pack

The weekend is almost here, so to get you prepared for what should be a nice little weekend of hoops, here are 5 pre-games shots to enjoy.

• The end of an era or a blip in the radar? That is what I am asking myself after seeing Gonzaga lose at home to St Mary's last night, bringing their conference record to 3-3 and their overall record to 13-8. At the beginning of the year my boy Nat told me this was the team that could do deep into the tournament because of their depth. When they lost some of their early out-of-conference games to highly ranked teams (SDSU, K-St, Notre Dame, Illinois), I figured they were just starting slow. But then losses to Santa Clara and San Francisco sounded the alarm. With an RPI above 60, they might just need to win the WCC Tournament if they want to avoid missing the tournament for the first time since 1998.
• So let's talk JerseyShore. First off, it just saddens me that Sammi, the one original cast member actually from Jersey, is the worst character on the show. I can handle her being a bitch, but can she do something besides simply lying around in bed? Second, the show has definitely morphed over the two years, as now the cast are straight-up celebrities. The girls and guys they bring home aren't necessarily interested in them, but rather want to be the ones to score with Snoooki or Vinny. And what is up with Situation? Has the celebrity really gone to his head? I'm not sure I have seen him all season. Finally, news spread yesterday that their next season will be taped in Italy. Say that again - the cast of Jersey Shore is going to Italy next year. I am soo stoked because it is going to be a train wreck. The fact is that this whole Jersey Guido/Gorilla Juicehead culture that they have helped spark is not an Italian thing. They are going to be way over their heads with the culture shock. AND I don't think any of them can speak a lick of Italian.
• The NHL All-Star game is this weekend and in case you hadn't heard, they are trying out a new format this year. Instead of East-West or North America-World, they have selected two captains who then get to pick their teams. It is an awesome idea that is a tribute to how sports are played by children all around this country. I think it is a great idea, but I have two minor complaints. 1 - Instead of having a live draft on Friday night, how about you take everyone's sticks, throw them into a pile and blindly select them one at a time? 2 - The chosen captains, Nicklas Lidstrom and Eric Staal, don't exactly reak of excitement. I understand why they chose those two, but they could have done better.
• Thanks to my boys at the page 2 podcast who alerted me to the fact that Packers NT BJ Radji is actually bigger now than William 'The Refrigerator' Perry was during his hey-day. It's a pretty amazing concept when you think about it because the Fridge was considered this novelty because of how big he was. We had never seen a man this big be good at sports and naturally the nation took to him. Fast forward 25 years and huge football players are now the norm. Our country is getting bigger every year and while I will be the first to laugh at a 'fat man doing a fat man dance', it's a very disturbing trend.
• Finally, let's talk about Jimmer Fredette. The guy can simply make buckets. His range is out of the gym good and he appears to be loved by all his teammates, not to mention all the media. I got to watch the last 5 minutes of the SDSU-BYU game and I was able to come to the conclusion that he is the real deal. Most people are now trying to decide whether he can make it in the NBA and who he reminds them of. Instead of jumping forward to the NBA, though, I would like to stay in the present and talk about the prospects of this BYU team. They are 19-1 and are the top rated RPI team. Their best wins are over SDSU, Arizona, St Mary's and UNLV while their lone loss was to UCLA. The Mountain West is undoubtedly up this year, but their out of conference schedule did not exactly set the world on fire. I worry that a physical team from the Big East of Big 10 might present match-up problems for them. I also worry whether the rest of the team will be able to contribute anything from the field. It was an amazing display by Jimmer the other night, but lost was the fact that the rest of the team scored 28 points on 11-32 shooting. I know that on the season they are 6th in the country in the scoring (84.5) points, but against the best team on their schedule, his teammates were no where to be found.