thomas andrew duval's blog

Apparently losing in the first round of the tournament is enough to get yourself a pay raise and contract extension.

Kansas coach Bill Self signed a 5 year extension through 2011 which also results in a pay raise that will pay $1.375 million a year.

I know that in the basketball circles I watch games with (read: bars in Chicago), Self often gets trashed by fans of teams other than Illinois and Kansas.  He often is seen as an overrated coach who inherits talent but struggles to help it reach its full potential.  Read More »

1. Kobe haters - He may win a ring this year.  He may not.  Even though the scales are leaning more towards may with the level of competition that's showing itself in both conferences right now, he is the undisputed all-around best player in the league.  you know the stats, you've seen the games.  A clever nickname does not make you the real King.

2. Steve Nash's chances of a three-peat - It was improbable from the start, but Pheonix's slow start and the off the wall play of LeBron James, Kobe and Dirk there is no way the powers that be are going to put Nash in Jordan's company.

3. Dallas's hopes of winning the Division or beating the Spurs come playoff time - I really don't need to say more than to mention that Tony Parker is now engaged to Eva Longoria and plans to wed after this season.  He will be playing like a man possessed.  Read More »

As the new NBA season started, the main stories were the new ball and the crackdown on arguing with the officiating. While there was complaining early, it was assumed that eventually it would die down.

Nope. The union filed a grievance with the National Labor Relations Board on Friday.

First off, I doubt the NLRB is going to have much sympathy for the players. A new basketball and having to whine less probably doesn't make the list of worst working conditions of the year. Whether or not this grievance is necessary, it's not going to endear the players with the public, especially those with blue collar backgrounds.  Read More »

UCLA 13 USC 9 Well, doesn't this make things interesting? We know one thing now -- USC will not be in the National Championship game.  UCLA definitely stepped up in this one and played the Trojans hard every second of the game.  If they would have just played that way in the last few minutes of the Notre Dame game, think about the season they would have had (8-4, 3rd place in Pac-10, anyone?).  This secures USC in the Rose Bowl playing a yet unknown opponent. Michigan and LSU are the most likely suspects.  Read More »

 
Let's say you wanted to go out and get the "hottest" set-up man on the market. Would it be wise to do so?

Linebrink, Zumaya, Rincon, Speier, Kiko Calero, Tankersley and Howry I'm assuming would be prohibitively expensive or impossibilities.

Not sure about Brandon Lyon, that would be tough.  Read More »

My point is I can see why Pujols is upset about losing out on a number of MVP awards he probably should have won.

Yeah it would be nice if he'd be quiet. But he wasn't and now it's time to evaluate the truth behind his statements.

My point about the soundbyte is it's obvious that sports journalists have a way of trying to create the story rather than report it. Reading that article it seemed to me he was prodded into commenting.  Read More »

After being incredibly discouraged after losing to Maryland and fairly upbeat about the loss to Arizona, I think it is time to hear what the rest of you think about our chances in the Big Ten.

This year, the split scheduling pairs us with OSU, Wis, Purdue & PSU only once. We play Mich, Iowa, MSU, Minn, Ind & NW twice each.

Certainly favorable scheduling with OSU & Wis (given their strength). Not so favorable with Purdue & Penn State, I'd like two shots at both of these teams.  Read More »

He's already recruited some and he'll continue to do so.

Our problem lately has been that we are missing a 4-star and a 3-star that are out with injuries, not to mention Semrau (who would have been a 4-star but for an injury in high school) who we've missed for 3 games now with the flu and a practice injury.

We would not win many games in the big 10 with our current lineup -- the problem isn't the quality of players, it is the number of players. We have good enough players to beat someone for part or most of a game, but we'll get worn down by deeper teams if we don't get more of our players back. Fortunately we have some easier games and some time to practice for the next month and I think it'll do a lot to improve the team.  Read More »