Tuesday Morning Five-Pack

Frequent readers of this blog should be prepared for a steady dose of Bucknell and UW hoops in the coming months. In any normal year combined 8-1 conference records would be enough to talk about...add in how terrible 2010 was as a sports year for me and I am completely drinking the cool-aid. They lead off this week's five pack.

• My buddy Tim has had Bison season tickets for the past few years. At halftime he sent me this report...Up 9 at half. Offense runs every set within first 15-18 seconds of the shot clock. The motion offense is a thing of beauty. Bryson Johnson is the next Bettencourt. He is the first guy since KB who can get his shot off anytime he wants. Very quick trigger. Muscala is an offensive force but also a defensive liability. He needs to get stronger on the boards. Also, defense as a whole is a bit weak, but that's consistent with the Dave Paulsen era. The guy knows good O.
  I personally was unable to watch the game live on the CBS College Sports because of the Seahawks game, but I was able to catch multiple replays. I will give Holy Cross some credit - they battled back from a 13 point deficit to tie the game with less than 30 seconds left, but in the end, the Bison were victorious. My thoughts from watching on tv are the same as last week - Mike Muscala (18pts, 15 reb) cannot be stopped. Even on the last play of the game when every person knew who the ball was going to, he was able to get open and drain a shot for the win. I have been trying not to say this, but combined with Sophomore's Joe Willman and Bryson Johnson and Senior guard Daryl Shazier, this team reminds me a LOT of a certain squad that beat Kansas and came back the next year to beat Arkansas. I am absolutely stoked about where this could be headed.
• It's been a rough couple of weeks for the Huskies. Abdul Gaddy was lost for the season. The Seattle PD started an investigation on an still unnamed player on charges of sexual assault. Then they went down to Stanford and were upset in a terribly uninspiring game. Needless to say, I was interested to see how they would respond against Cal on Sunday. Would the Cardinal simply be a hiccup or the start of a rough patch...well, the answer was never in doubt as the Huskies simply rolled the Golden Bears by 21. Isaiah Thomas was amazing, dishing a career high 13 assists to go along with 27 points. Justin Holliday and Matthew Bryan-Amaning combined for an additional 45 points. They are so deep and if they get the game to their tempo, I'm not sure there is a team that can beat them.
• So the Devils went back to their losing ways on Saturday with a 3-2 OT loss to Florida, but then turned around and put another 5-spot on the board in a 5-2 win over the Islanders. That is now 18 goals in 4 games - a nice little stretch for a team that was averagin 1.8 goals a game. I was kidding the other day when I said they could make the playoffs, but if they can get two more wins in a row I will start to possibly believe it.
  
• No disrespect meant to the Seahawks - they put on a great show - but really can you get any better than Chicago-Green Bay in the NFC Championship game? Packers-Bears is the biggest NFL rivalry period and while they have played each other in the regular season well over 100 times, amazingly they have not played in the playoffs since the 1940's. I have been on the Packers bandwagon all season, but am shocked that the Bears are currently home dogs - that has to lead to a "No respect" game, right? On the other side of things, New York-Pittsburgh is a really interesting match-up that I think the Steelers will win. I'm sure the NFL is hoping for the ratings bonanza that would be Chicago-New York, but I think Pittsburgh-Green Bay would be just as amazing.
• I have been deliberately holding back on the Carmelo trade rumors because I refuse to believe he is coming to NJ until I actually see him and LaLa sitting in front of a Nets backdrop, wearing the gray and red. It has finally come to a point though where I have to say something. Carmelo, please, please just make a decision. Your Indecision is starting to drive me crazy. If you don't want to come to NJ, come out and say so. Don't keep waffling. Don't meet with Mikhail. Just say so and we will move on. Look, the Nets aren't a good team right now. We need Devin Harris, Brook Lopez, Derrick Favors and either Travis Outlaw/Anthony Morrow to be ON everynight in order to win. We cannot handle distractions right now. And even though I'm not in the lockerroom, I have to assume that Harris is distracted by the off the court stuff. He just isn't himself, which is a shame because the Nets are 7-4 when he scores more than 20 and 3-24 when he doesn't. Simply put, if Carmelo isn't coming, he needs to let us know so we can go on with our business.
  

Finally, I just want to say that Blake Griffin should be in the All-Star game. I think most people are focusing on his dunks, but the fact remains that he is averaging 22.5 pts and 12.8 boards a game and is starting to change the culture of the Clippers as a rookie. And while we're at it, rebounding leader Kevin Love (21.1 pts, 15.7 boards a game) should also be there, regardless of the T-wolves record.