penn st holds on to beat wisconsin 36-33

even though it's almost believable to think the endless bowl season might still be going, this is in fact a men's basketball score.  there are so many ridiculous numbers from this game i don't even know where to begin, but here's a few of the weirdest:

- penn state's leading scorer had 9 points. he shot 3 for 18

- only 3 of wisconsin's starters scored, and their 3rd leading scorer had 3 points 

- penn st had 0 bench points

- wisconsin made 2 of 21 three point attempts, and only 1 free throw total

- penn st led 18-2 after 10 minutes.  then they only scored 18 more points.  and yeah, they won

kenny mayne is awesome

i need to figure out how to drop twitter bombs from the sky.

kemba walker. whoa.

look at the guy "defending" him as he buries the jumper to beat top seeded pitt.  and in case you can't tell, he's the one falling over in the opposite direction.  uconn wasn't even supposed to be any good this year.

i'm really sick of trick shot videos

michelle beadle on sportsnation is mostly to blame.  for a while now they've been showing clips of people making crazy basketball shots during the opening of the espn2 afternoon sports/pop culture talk show.  and now everybody and their mother is filming themselves making crazy shots, including college quarterbacks.  these videos are all the rage on youtube right now.  well i've got some news for you: they are totally unimpressive.  i can make a shot from the stands behind the basket.  i can make a shot from the roof of my garage.  i can throw a football into a trash can from really far away.  the only difference is i don't feel like filming myself for hours while i try 67 times until it goes in.  show me an unedited video of a guy making the same absurd shot multiple times in a row and then i'll be impressed.

celtics lose game they shouldn't have, i'm pretty sure nobody cried though

some notes from last night's celtics loss to the clippers:

     - boston started the 2nd quarter down 30-17 with a lineup on the floor of green, krstic, murphy, arroyo, and pavlovic, 5 guys who'd never played together before and who'd all been on the team for less than two weeks.  it was pretty clear at that point that doc didn't care about winning the game, he just wanted to play around with his new bench to see what he has.

     - with the celtics down 60-40 late in the 2nd quarter, the guy sitting in front of me was playing "ANGRY BIRDS" on his cell phone.  seriously.  that may be the most depressing thing i have ever seen at a live sporting event.  and it wasn't a kid or a bored wife or girlfriend, it was a mid 20's guy in a celtics hoodie who appeared to be a real fan.  disgraceful.

     - boston made a game of it late, cutting the deficit to 3 with 5+ minutes to go, but the clippers kept hitting 3's just when it mattered most. 

     - the blake show was mostly uneventful.  he had one impressive dunk late, and from my knowledge of the rules it should have been followed up with a technical foul.  as you can see in the pic above, after he dunked he grabbed the ball and tossed a behind the back pass to the ref.  garnett has been T-ed up twice this year for illegally touching the ball after it went through the hoop.  apparently that is only a violation for him, and it irks the HELL out of me.  it's a rule that is NEVER enforced, but whenever the refs are annoyed with KG they are at liberty to call it as they please.

jersey U loses fixed game to st. johns at MSG

the st. johns player is standing out of bounds holding the ball.  the clock shows 1.7 seconds left.  you tell me. sorry rutgers.  also, i'm not sure why i have so many new york related posts lately.

watch out NFL, tiki barber is coming back

memo to tiki: there may not be much of a market for 36 year old running backs who've been out of the league for 5 years, especially those with a reputation as a team killing locker room cancer.  also, i heard somewhere that there may be some sort of NFL work stoppage?  i'm pretty sure espn did a story on that.  so maybe look into other ways to pay for your divorce and child support on the off chance this doesn't pan out.

in other news, i'm also making my return to the NFL at wide receiver.  ok, so i never actually played organized football on any level, but i'll only be 34 next season, and i'm pretty tall with good hands.

3 random and hopefully interesting sports facts from yesterday

- justin morneau played in a practice game for the twins, which is worth mentioning because he hadn't played in ANY game since he took a knee to the head on july 7 last year.  my completely un-expert medical opinion is that 8 months is a crazy long time to take to recover from a concussion.  i'm definitely not drafting him in my fantasy league

- the slumping villanova wildcats were eliminated by south florida in the first round of the big east tournament.  they have fallen a long way since being ranked #7 back in january. after starting 16-1 they are 5-10 since, and are looking to be the first team EVER to make the big dance while in the midst of a 5 game losing streak

- a certain NBA team in south florida (that i will make an effort not to rip on yet again today) also lost their 5th in a row, possibly because they got 69 of their 96 points from only two guys, and only 3 of 37 made field goals from their less than stellar bench

for the record, blogging is hard

since i started doing this i've been writing about one or two entries before i go to work each day, and one or two more after i get home each night.  i know it doesn't look like much, but i've been sleeping about 2 hours less a night because of it.  yesterday i took off and went to NYC for the night.

breaking news: heat continue to be exactly what they are

despite what you may have heard, yesterday was just another average day for the miami heat, in which they did everything they normally do:

1. lose to a good team:  miami is now 10-18 vs teams with winning records, 0-9 vs the top 4 teams in the NBA, and 0-6 vs chicago and boston, the 2 teams ahead of them in the east

2. lose a close game:  the heat are now 5-13 in games decided by 5 pts or less (0 for their last 5), and 1-16 in games decided on the last possession.  wait, ONE AND SIXTEEN?!? wow.
3. blow a lead because they don't know what to do on offense in the 4th quarter: maimi has lost 4 of their last 6 games despite double digit leads
4.  miss big shots: in just the last 11 days alone lebron has missed 4 times with a chance to win or tie the game in the last 10 seconds.  and here is the craziest stat of all; for the season the heat as a team are 1 for 18 in that situation with the game on the line.  THAT'S NOT EVEN 6%!  i think i could shoot 6% from half court with my eyes closed (seriously. give me 18 tries and i'll make at least one.  i know it.)

P.S.  i really didn't intend for this blog to be so heat-cetric, but this past week has just been like one long marathon monday

NYC restaurants that only do what they want to do

i really like this article a lot: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/nyregion/05puritans.html?_r=2&src=me&ref=general  if you don't feel like taking the time to read it, the gist of it is that there are a number of restaurants in manhattan that don't always accommodate their guest's requests, sometimes they only serve things the way they want to (which has basically been my dream for the past ten years that i have been working in restaurants.  my manhattan bar would only serve grey goose and bud light, but that's a whole different blog for another time).  generally accepted principles of hospitality would suggest you can't do this and be successful.  but here's why you can in new york.  there's about 2 million people on the 23 square mile island of manhattan.  when i lived there the thing that most amazed me about it is that it has EVERYTHING.  there is so much variety there that no matter what you're selling, there is somebody who wants to buy it.  in NYC you could open a restaurant that only served peanut butter and pickle sandwiches, and if you did it well, people would come.

miami point guard quits because team is underachieving, decides to play for boston instead

carlos arroyo, the former starting point guard of the miami heat, is pictured earlier this season asking rondo for permission to come to boston and be his backup.  ok, so that's probably not really what he said.  and yeah, i made up the headline too.  but it's pretty funny that the heat cut arroyo just a few days ago, and now he's on his way to boston. http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/nba/news/story?id=6184793  even though it will most likely have little to no impact, and he may not even make the playoff roster, it does add more drama.