BYU should beat Notre Dame today.

Does the Irish luck run out today?

Notre Dame is 6-0.  They're ranked #5 in the country.  And because they're "Notre Dame," the espn people having been talking all week about their chances of getting to the national title game.  They're not that good.  They've beaten a lot of mediocre teams by not very much.  Last week they probably should have lost to Stanford.

I don't usually write about college football.  I only follow it with a casual interest.  But this looks like one of those times in sports when a team goes on a bit of a lucky run, gets to the point where they become drastically over-hyped, then comes crashing back down to earth as soon as people start taking them seriously.  Notre Dame is favored by 13.5 over BYU today.  I think they'll lose outright.

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I think We're Ok Without Ray

The Celtics blew out the Nets 115-85 at the Barclays Center last night.  I know it was a meaningless preseason game, but it did actually have a little meaning.  It was the first nationally televised game at their brand new home, and New Jersey Brooklyn was actually trying to win.

Rajon Rondo dunked; which is something he never did once all last season.

Doc Rivers also made some comments to the Boston Herald that he is still disappointed about Ray Allen leaving, but that he's over it because of Courtney Lee and Jason Terry.  Lee had 18 points for Boston last night.  Terry hit all 5 of his 3-point attempts in 22 minutes.  Mr. Allen also played 22 min off the bench and took 5 threes for Miami yesterday.  He made 1.

And make sure to click on the links in bold to read my work on other sites.

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The guy with half a face from "Boardwalk Empire" is in a Guinness Black commercial... with a whole face.

Really that's all there is to it, the title says everything you need to know.  I saw this ad on TV yesterday, and it kind of freaked me out a bit to see "Richard" as a normal guy with a regular voice and fully functioning head.  In real life his name is Jack Huston, and apparently he's Angelica Huston's nephew.

As far as the beer goes, it's a little stronger (which in turn gives it more calories) than regular Guinness, even though it seems lighter.





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Awesome Old Song of the Week: "Only Wanna Be With You" by Hootie and the Blowfish

I've got to admit, I never really thought this song was that great, just ok.  But, the video is absolutely spectacular.  When I was growing up I didn't have cable TV, so it wasn't until I got to college in 1995 that Sportscenter became a part of my life.  Instantly I was smitten.  When Hootie and the Blowfish got the espn guys to appear in their Only Wanna Be With You video that same year, it became the coolest thing going.

While I'm on the subject, here's some of my favorite Sportscenter commercials.  And if you haven't read enough Celtics stuff from me lately, take a look at my second post for CelticsLife.com, Garbage Time Point Guard Options.

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Semi-serious Celtics Reporting

So I've got another writing gig, for CelticsLife.com.  And this one is big.  It's probably one of the two most popular Celtics sites out there, other than the actual Celtics website.  Over 43,000 people have "liked" it on facebook, and it's got 111,000 followers on twitter.  To put that number in perspective, it's more than the official sites of half the teams in the NBA.  Here's a link to my first post; if you read lucidsportsfan.com regularly you've probably already seen most of the content here.

Also, don't sleep on CLNS Radio.  It's getting bigger fast.  Here's my Celtics News Daily Links post from this morning, which I do 3 days a week, Tue-Thurs.  And last night they had me live on the air answering a couple questions and giving my Celtics season prediction.  Here's a link to that, jump ahead to the 47 minute mark.  Ok, I'm off to the first preseason game of the year at the Garden.

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Numbers Watch: Rondo FT%, Sanchez Completion rate, Tebometer

Despite going 11-18 yesterday, the Jets Mark Sanchez has still completed just 49.7% (88 of 177) of his passes on the season.  Teammate Tim Tebow had himself another 1-1 day, lifting the Tebometer back to 47.5%.

On a totally unrelated (but funny to compare) note, Celtics point guard (and much maligned foul shooter) Rajon Rondo is shooting 100% from the free throw line (11-11) so far this preseason.

I can't even fathom what kind of odds you might have been able to get in Vegas on a bet that after 6 NFL games and 3 NBA exhibition contests Rondo's FT% would be more than double Sanchez's completion rate.


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Unsullied Thoughts from the Patriots Debacle in Seattle

The Pats had no business losing a game they dominated.

From the instant the Pats game ended today I haven't watched a second of sports news, or read a single thing online.  I have two criticisms based solely on what I observed: One, I couldn't believe how badly they mismanaged the clock at the end of the first half.  On consecutive plays New England called a timeout, but not before letting the clock run for about ten seconds the first time, then another two seconds the next time.  This led to Brady having to throw the ball out the back of the end zone, which drew an intentional grounding call, which kept them from getting even a field goal when they started the drive at the Seattle 24 yard line.

And two, with a 6 point lead and 3:02 left to play, the Patriots tried to kill the clock.  They ran for a yard, ran for a yard again, then threw an incomplete pass and punted, giving the Seahawks the ball back with 2:38 remaining.  As CBS mentioned over and over again, New England has the #1 offense in the league; so why not try to win the game by going down field and scoring to put it out of reach?  Their lack of aggression on offense continues to disturb me.

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