Two Stories I'll Be Really Glad Not to Hear About in 2011

Number one: The UConn women's winning streak. For starters, why are we comparing it to the UCLA men's streak? Men's basketball and women's basketball are not the same game; they don't even use the same rules. (I happened to notice, as I was watching the UConn women "break the record" on Tuesday night, that there's no 10-second violation in women's hoops.)

Don't get me wrong. Maya Moore is a great basketball player. Diana Taurasi was a great basketball player. Tina Charles, Sue Bird, Svetlana Abrosimova -- all great basketball players. The women's game is not worse than the men's. It's not better, either. It's just different. Do we compare softball records to baseball marks? Even Geno Auriemma had the good sense to say, "I'm not John Wooden and this isn't UCLA. This is Connecticut and that's good enough."

But the whole male/female thing is far, far from my main reason of thinking of "The Streak" as a totally bogus story. My real beef comes with the numbers. Forget the fact that only two out of the 89 games in the streak were decided by 10 points or less. The truly mind-blowing stat is that the average margin of victory has been 32.5 points! As I said in a previous post, could games like that really be fun?

It gets to the point where you hear Doris Burke reduced to saying nutso stuff, as she did in the UConn Florida State game: We're going to find out something about these two teams. Will Florida State keep competing, even though they're down by 335 points? Will UConn keep competing, even though they had the game won at the opening tip? Who gives a _ _ _ _? Just cause you're still "competing," it doesn't mean there's a competition going on. (Does the pre-ordained nature of the UConn games remind anyone of the Harlem Globetrotters vs. the Washington Generals?)

Number two: Brett Favre. Grizzled, battered Brett, with his Minnesota wool cap pulled down to his eyes like a good ol' boy. Ohmygod, have I ever seen enough of that face!

Sure, he'll go down as one of the greatest QB's of all time -- and he is. He's a sure-fire, first-ballot Hall of Famer -- and he deserves it. His career passing yardage could get us to the moon and back. And career TDs? He's got Peyton Manning beat by more than 100.

But please! The Great Gunslinger has hung around a few years too long. He's played for two teams too many. He's "surprised" us with way too many comebacks, and has been behind way too many coaching controversies. He's gotten far too much prima donna treatment, and his career has turned into far too much of a soap opera. Oh, and he's shown his penis around the internet one time too many.

So Brett, glad you're finally riding off into the sunset. Though I can't help thinking that, like some monster with his head cut off, he'll still rise up from the lagoon. Just when you thought it was safe to go back and watch ESPN.

So bring on 2011, and let's focus on some real sports stories. Like Rex Ryan's foot fetish.

-Hank

Knicks Fever

I've been told by a reader that this blog is too Jets-Dolphins oriented. Maybe so. But I can't let the Jets' last two games go by without commentary. First they decided not to show up against the Patriots, losing 45-3, and the following week, Chad Henne and the Dolphins tried everything possible to let the Jets win, and Mark Sanchez kindly declined. The Jets are terrible, and as long as this guy is their quarterback, they always will be.

Now that that's off my chest, it's time for the topic of the day: Knicks-Heat. My big Hannukah present was 2 tickets to this event (calling it a game would be degrading), one for me and one for my friend Chris. LeBron's first trip to New York as a member of Miami Thrice should be pretty interesting.

From the second LeBron decided to take his talents to South Beach, everyone talked about his December 2 Cleveland reunion. How it would be a night that no one would ever forget. How the Cavs fans will make him feel as though leaving Cleveland was the worst decision of his life. How he would be verbally abused by everyone in the arena. And how his old teammates would do everything possible to make him regret divorcing them.

To me, it didn't quite live up to that. Yeah, 'Bron was booed every time he touched the ball, but that's high school stuff. There were no cruel chants, no objects thrown on the floor, and most importantly, no effort by the hometown Cavs to ruin his homecoming. Mo Williams, Anderson Varejao and company gladly let Lebron and D-Wade walk all over them en route to a 118-90 drubbing.

Tonight, it's gonna be different. The 2010, new-look Knicks are no pushovers. Coming off 13 wins in their last 15 games, Amar'e has this team back in the spotlight, and Madison Square Garden comes alive for home games like it did during the Ewing era. I've always wanted to like the Knicks, but as a little kid, I never really got attached to a team that would celebrate a 30-52 season. It was hard to watch a team that never had a star who could take over games single-handedly. Maybe it's front-runnerish, but I am human.

Amar'e provides matchup problems for the virtually center-less Heat, and Raymond Felton should be able to take advantage of Mario Chalmers, Carlos Arroyo, or whoever else the Heat run out there at point guard. Stopping Wade and LeBron could be tough, but I don't see the Knicks being stopped too much either.

But the real reason I've been counting down the days is because of what I assume the atmosphere in the Garden will be like. With all due respect to Cleveland, their fans just aren't like us here in New York. New Yorkers hoped and prayed that LeBron would pair up with Amar'e and take this team to the promised land, and he turned his back on what now looks like an amazing opportunity. And don't think Knicks fans have forgotten.

As I posted back in the summer, I fully respect LeBron's decision to go where he thought the best opportunity was to win championships. But I think I will probably be in the minority tonight. And I'm excited to see the results.

-Robby

How 'Bout Them Huskies?!

Whew -- pretty venomous stuff, that last post from my son! "When the Jets head out to Gillette Stadium on Monday Night, I want them to get brutally destroyed in every facet of the game." Sounds like he really hates my team. I think I liked it better when he was three years old, and he called the team from Foxboro the "Pay-tweets."

Well, good for him, he got exactly what he wanted. And for Jets fans, obviously, the less said about that 45-3 loss to the Pay-tweets, the better. The good part for Jets fans is that we have the Dolphins this Sunday, and I can't think of a more delectable opponent for a bounce-back game. (Oh, and note to my co-author, who took the Jets to task for "celebrating a three-point win against the Browns like it's the Super Bowl": At least we beat the Browns, which a certain team I know from South Florida wasn't able to do last Sunday . . .)

But I'm going to move on here, and ask: How 'bout them Huskies?! (And no, I'm not talking about the women, winners of 7,942 games in a row. Can that really be fun?) I'm talking about Jim Calhoun's Huskies, picked pre-season to finish in the mid-to-lower depths of the Big East, and now ranked sixth in the country! Eight wins, no losses -- including victories over top-ten powers Michigan State and Kentucky!

And how 'bout Kemba Walker?! Who knew he could be this good??? One of the TV college analysts last night called him, along with Duke's Kyrie Irving, one of the top two guards in the nation! The way he's playing right now, who knows -- he could turn out to be the best Husky ever. Yeah, yeah, go ahead and hoot and holler, but over the first eight games of the season, he's averaging better than 28 points, shooting 53% from the field, and 88% from the line. I sure can't remember any Husky going on a tear like this.

And the team as a whole -- playing hard, playing fast, playing scrappy -- this is how UConn basketball is supposed to be! You've got a whole litter of freshmen fighting for playing time, and it's a pleasure to watch. Certainly nothing like last year's forgettable edition.

I have to say, ever since my Mets stopped playing in July (and yes, I know, the season actually dragged on into October), things have been going pret-ty well for my teams. The Huskies. The Jets -- 9-3 even after the Patriots debacle. My hometown Staples Wreckers, who bowed out a week-and-a-half too early, in the quarter-final round of states, but who had a great 9-2 run nonetheless. And even my Knicks (yes, the Knicks!!!): 14-9 and winners of their last six in a row.

Ah, it's good to be a sports fan again . . .

-Hank

Go Patriots?

Go Patriots. Two years ago, if someone heard me say that phrase, they would probably think I was fatally sick. For the first 13 years of my existence, I hated the Patriots more than the Yankees. More than Duke basketball. More than scrambled eggs. But now, I kinda like them. And it's all because of the new-look Jets.

Prior to the Rex Ryan-Mark Sanchez era, I didn't mind the Jets. They had respected, classy veterans like Chad Pennington and Curtis Martin. They had Herm Edwards, who was at least good for some funny press conferences (Hello? You play. To win. The game.) And maybe it's just because I didn't listen to as much sports radio back then, but it seemed like Jets fans actually knew how to keep their mouths shut.

Insert the new Jets. The self-anointed Super Bowl favorites, and best team in the NFL. The team led by a 24-year-old hotshot quarterback who feels the need to fly around like a jet after every single touchdown he throws, despite the fact that he has thrown the same number of interceptions as touchdown passes over his career. And the team that now has the most outspoken fan base in the NFL, who celebrates a 3-point win against the Browns like it's the Super Bowl.

This team has every ingredient of a team to hate, and hate them I do. Due to the fact that the AFC is the strongest conference in years, and that the NFL referees really want to see the Steelers in the playoffs (see my post "What Keeps The NFL From Being Perfect?"), my Dolphins are pretty much out of the playoff race. Thus, I don't feel too bad rooting for the Patriots, the Dolphins' division rivals.

Especially this week. When the Jets head out to Gillette Stadium on Monday Night, I want them to get brutally destroyed in every facet of the game. And then I will happily listen to paranoid Jets fans call in to 660 AM the next morning.

Last time I had a post dedicated to the Jets losing (Come On, Ravens), it worked out pretty well for me. So as weird as it feels to say, GO PATRIOTS.

-Robby