Tuesday Morning Five-Pack

Here is a 5-pack of sports bubblies to get your morning off on the right foot:

• This is a sports blog. I occasionally will delve into pop culture, but that is more an exception than a norm. Politics are never discussed. With that being said, please allow me me take this opportunity to put down my thoughts on Osama bin Laden's death. News of his capture and killing was met with widespread excitement around the country. Live feed from outside the White House showed young Americans in a U-S-A! U-S-A! chant and on Facebook, their was open mocking of bin Laden. I believe that all Americans are allowed to react in whatever way they want to, especially if they were personally effected by the 911 bombings. I will not tell you how to feel. I, however, will not be openly cheering anyone's death, no matter how many people he killed. In my opinion bin Laden deserved to die, but I am not going to sing Na-Na-Na-NA Hey Hey Hey Goodbye. A person losing their life is nothing to celebrate. Instead, I will save my cartwheels for when this world is completely free from racial, social and religious hatred.
• OK, let's get back to sports, shall we? Anyone been watching the second round of the NBA Playoffs? If so, can you please tell me what is going on? (I only got to watch the 4th quarter of the OKC-Memphis series) The Hawks, Grizzlies and Mavs up 1-0? Very interesting to say the least. Now, I'm not sure if any of these three have a real shot at winning a 7-game series, but the favorites are definitely in a hole. Now comes the time for D-Rose and the Durantula to step up and take the next step.
  
• Like OKC-Memphis in the NBA, could their be a worse series than San Jose-Nashville in the NHL? I know several things still have to happen (Nashville winning both home games to go up 3-1 and SJ winning one of the next two on the road to also go up 3-1), but would this not be equivalent to hockey apocolypse? I mean, the Hockey Gods have to give us Vancouver-Detroit instead...right?
• We have been hearing about it for weeks now - Bill Simmons' new sports/pop-culture website that he will be editor-in-chief of. Up to now, the names of the authors (besides one of my favorites, Chuck Klosterman) and the name of the whole site has been under wraps (or at least to me they have been). Finally, yesterday on ESPN.com, Grantland.com debuted with two introductory articles from Molly Lambert and Katie Baker. My first impression - definitely someplace I am going to visit multiple times a day. Is it just me though or is the name a little boring? I realize it is in honor to Grantland Rice, but it's not exactly eye-catching or sexy. Maybe it will grow on me, but for now it makes me think of the Civil War.
• I am hoping to post volume 2 of Obscure Sports Friday this week, but in the interim would like to say something about Bucknell Lacrosse. I know lacrosse is a obscure sport to most, but anyone who has ever played it (D-Lib) or watched it knows how 'cool' the sport is. In it's most fundamental state, you have one team trying to score on another team. Nothing special, I know. Well add in a stick (that you are allowed to hit your opponents with) and keep them off of ice and you have an amazing sport to watch....anyways, the BU lacrosse team has been a fringe top-20 team for the past decade (10-5 in 2008, 11-4 in 2007, 10-4 in 2001, 12-0 in 1996) but have always seemed to come up short in the Patriot League Tournament. Since 2004 they have made the league tournament (top 4) 7 of 8 years but had failed to win it until this past Saturday when they routed Colgate 10-3. They are 14-2 on the season and ranked #12 in both polls. I'm not sure how we will fair against the rest of the country, but will be excited for the first round of games on the weekend of May 14. Ray Bucknell!