At the sports desk: favorite teams update

No good news coming out of the Detroit Pistons camp--they seem tired, and sluggish, without much fight in them, and lose to New Jersey 111-98.

But the Dallas Mavericks got some defensive stops late, and made some big shots late, and beat Miami 98-96. They can still move out of 8th place in the West...

At the sports desk: favorite teams update

Well, the season came to an end--perhaps mercifully--for the Notre Dame men's basketball team, as they lost to Penn State in the NIT semifinals, 67-59. It was a familiar story for the Irish--against strong, athletic teams like Penn State, they got off to a poor start, couldn't make shots, and couldn't contain the inside game of their opponents. Oddly enough, the ND team always claimed to love playing in Madison Square Garden, but they haven't played well there in years--they've lost 8 of their past 11 games in New York City.
So the off-season begins for Mike Brey and his boys; 4 seniors graduate, but Luke Harangody should return, along with point guard Tory Jackson, and two transfers--Ben Hansbrough from Mississippi State and Scott Martin from Purdue--should help. But the Irish had talent and high expectations going into this year, but they couldn't achieve them. It's a disappointment.

In other news: the Detroit Pistons lost again, on the road at Cleveland 79-73.
It's no shame to lose to the front-running Cavs. But the Pistons led in the 4th quarter, and held down LeBron James well. Yet they lost, and Allen Iverson is complaining about his role coming off the bench. It's hard to see this team doing anything in the playoffs.

At least the Dallas Mavericks, with Josh Howard back in the lineup, beat the hapless Minnesota Timberwolves on the road, 108-88. It was a game the Mavs should win, and they did. But maybe Howard can stay healthy...and with him playing, the Mavs are better...can they somehow escape 8th place, and avoid playing the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs...?

At the sports desk: favorite teams update

Some good news...Michigan State makes it to the Final Four, beating Louisville, 64-52.
Honestly, before the game had you asked me who I'd pick to win it, I would have gone with Louisville. They looked so dominant against Arizona. But MSU's defense--their trademark, something they'd been good at all year, really came through for them. As you can see from the article linked to above, those truly happy about this include those in Detroit--it's big, and a happy thing, for Detroit to have a local team coming as it hosts the Final Four.

Other news is so-so. The Detroit Red Wings have been a bit sloppy lately, and lost again yesterday to Nashville (the day before, they lost to the lowly Islanders.) I guess the playoffs can't start soon enough.

On the other hand, the Detroit Pistons are playing a bit better, and have Allen Iverson back--yesterday they beat Philadelphia 101-97.
As difficult as the second half of the season has been for the Pistons, they're probably still a lock to make it to the playoffs.

But the Dallas Mavericks had a bad game on the road against one of the league kingpins, Cleveland, losing 102-74. Too many jump shots for the Mavs--they've got to start getting to the rim.

At the sports desk: favorite teams update

Well, 3 cheers for the Notre Dame men's hoops team--they beat Kentucky 77-67 and advanced to the NIT final four.
No, it wasn't what the program or we fans wanted at the beginning of this season. Yes, this team has flaws, and the Big East regular season exposed them. But you had to feel good at the way the team executed last night, for the most cutting and screening well, making shots, and staying in front of the Kentucky guys defensively. They hung in there and fought. Now they have a chance to win something in New York, in Madison Square Garden. Not a bad thing.

In other news...the Dallas Mavericks beat the defenseless and wounded Golden State Warriors 128-106. The Warriors had only 9 healthy players. The Mavs meanwhile shot well, and still have a chance to move up their playoff positioning in the tightly-bunched Western Conference.

At the sports desk: favorite teams update

The Notre Dame men's hoops team survived in the NIT, edging a tough UAB squad 70-64. It was a bit of a choppy game, but I was glad to see that ND played hard, came back in the second half from a deficit, and got some big defensive stops. It was too bad that the home crowd was so small--only about 2000 showed up in the JACC for the game. But that's to be expected--this team had a disappointing year, and the NIT just doesn't excite (at least at first). Still, this team has a chance to earn some respect by getting to New York. At least they still have a chance to do that.

Meanwhile, the Detroit Pistons lost to Dallas, 103-101, on the road. Certainly no disgrace--the Pistons were without Richard Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, and Allen Iverson. Mavericks-watchers should be concerned about such a close win against a shorthanded opponent, and they are--the Mavs especially are giving up too many offensive rebounds these days.

The Detroit Red Wings played well, though, and beat the Philadelphia Flyers at home, 3-2. The Wings outshot the Flyers 48-26. Wow...

At the sports desk: favorite teams update

Neither Michigan or Michigan State, though, went too far in their conference tourneys.
Notre Dame's men's hoops team is in the NIT. Notre Dame's women's hoops team will be in the NCAAs, and will get to play at home--ND is hosting the first and second rounds of a regional.

The Detroit Red Wings meanwhile played real well yesterday in beating Columbus on the road, 4-0. That avenged a bad beating Columbus gave the Wings a couple of weeks ago, when the Wings gave up 8 goals.

And the Dallas Mavericks once again played the LA Lakers tough--they've played them tough every time they've played them this season--but lost, 107-100, in LA. Still, the Mavs have a chance to move up in the standings in their final 15 games--9 of those are at home. They'll need to take that opportunity. They don't want to finish 8th in the conference and play LA in the first round.

At the sports desk: favorite teams update

The Detroit Red Wings played solidly, beating Colorado 3-2 on the road. They now have the most points in the Western Conference.

The other night, Michigan State's men's hoops team survived a scare, beating the hustling Indiana Hoosiers 64-59. That earned the Spartans the outright Big 10 championship, which they deserved. Remember this--Raymar Morgan appears to be healthy again. MSU is 18-1 this season when he plays at least 20 minutes in a game. They may be ready for the NCAAs...

And the Dallas Mavericks came back after a horrible performance the other night and beat San Antonio, 107-102. It was a big win for them--clearly the team responded to all the criticism they'd taken. But can they be a dangerous playoff team? The jury is still out...

Overall, not a bad night.

At the sports desk: favorite teams update

Good news and bad news. Some good news: the ND women's hoops team won, beating West Virginia 72-66. Coach Muffet McGraw wanted the team to have played better, but 1] the team was coming off a tough road game just two days before, and had to play an unusual day game. The key was, they won, executed well offensively, were tough defensively when they had to be. The Irish women hoopsters are 21-7 on the year--not bad.

The bad news: the Notre Dame men's hoops team, playing later that evening in the same arena, lost badly to #11 Villanova, 77-60. Bad all the way around--the game was key to Notre Dame's slim remaining NCAA tourney hopes, but most agreed they got out-hustled, out-competed, couldn't get key stops, couldn't make key buckets. It's pretty much NIT for sure now for ND, and that's very disappointing, given the high hopes going into the season. The only thing the Irish can do now is at least save some self-respect by winning a game or two in the Big East tournament. Bad news there is, they have a terrible Big East tourney record--they've rarely played well in New York.

Bad news for the Dallas Mavericks last night, too--they played horribly for most of the game, and lost to the undermanned Oklahoma City Thunder on the road, 96-87. This despite the fact the Thunder were without two of their best players. You've got to be focused and play hard every night--you wonder why players don't get that memo.

At the sports desk: favorite teams update

You really saw the ups and downs, the joy and heartbreak, this past weekend.
The Notre Dame men's hoops team played well at #2 Connecticut Saturday--but came up a little short, losing by just 7. Now they face a must-win situation tonight at home vs Villanova to keep their NCAA hopes alive. If they can make shots and defend a little bit, they can still do it. But consistency in those areas just hasn't been there...

The ND women's hoops team got a needed win on the road Saturday, though, beating Providence 65-56. That gets them to 20 wins; they have a quick turnaround, playing again this afternoon. But they should be in good shape for the NCAAs, and they seem to be peaking at the right time; they've won 3 of 4, and both offensively and defensively they seem to be coming on.

The Dallas Mavericks played well in beating Toronto 109-98; and now their sixth man, Jason Terry, has returned from injury. Offensively they seem to be clicking.

Michigan State's men's hoops team won another big game on the road, beating Illinois 74-66. They're now very near a Big 10 title; they deserve it.

And what's gotten into the Detroit Pistons? Two straight wins without Allen Iverson in very difficult places to win, the latest being Boston, where the Pistons beat the Celtics 105-95.
The Pistons have got to get Iverson to buy into, and fit into, the old Piston way. Hey, it still works.

But Michigan's men's hoops team played hard and tough at Wisconsin, but lost 60-55. Some scoring droughts and questionable shot selection late doomed the Wolverines, and so they're definitely on the NCAA bubble.

A lot of ups, and down, and hopes hanging by a thread...

At the sports desk: favorite teams update

In recent action from favorite teams, the ND men's hoops team needed a strong second half to beat Rutgers, 70-65. But they got it, with a strong defensive effort and a big half from Luke Harangody and Tory Jackson. The Irish will probably need a good Big East tournament run to make the NCAAs. But at least they still have a chance.

But the Detroit Pistons lost again, a close one on the road to New Orleans, 90-87. 7 losses in a row. Looks like Allen Iverson needs to come off the bench, but I don't know if the team will have the guts to do it.

Michigan State's men's hoops team is struggling offensively; but they still beat Iowa, 62-54. They still have time to fix things; I think their fans should be optimistic.

The Dallas Mavericks had a good bounce-back win, beating Milwaukee 116-96. They needed that after their previous night's debacle against San Antonio. Still...one worries that the Mavs struggle against good Western Conference opponents.

There was better news elsewhere, though. The Detroit Red Wings played solidly, and especially got a good game in goal from Ty Conklin in beating the top seed in the West, San Jose, 4-1. They continue to have a good shot at making a Stanley Cup run in April...

At the sports desk: favorite teams update

A mixed bag on Tuesday night. The Notre Dame women's hoops team played well and won, beating Syracuse 90-79. Most encouraging was how well the Irish executed their offense, and focused well coming off the Connecticut game. The Irish once again are close to 20 wins, and pretty much have an NCAA berth sewn up.

On the other hand...the Detroit Pistons continued their slide, losing to Miami 103-91. The Pistons are now under .500. The key: the Pistons can't stop teams. Analysts seem to agree that Allen Iverson is a huge defensive liability that messes up the Pistons' entire defensive scheme. They sure couldn't stop Dwayne Wade last night...

And the Dallas Mavericks gave everyone a miserable effort on the road at San Antonio, losing to the Spurs 93-76 despite the fact that San Antonio was missing both Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan. The Mavs got out-worked. They need to rally, and fast.

At the sports desk: favorite teams update

There's mixed news today. On the one hand, the ND women's hoops team battled #1 ranked and seemingly-invincible UConn, on the road, very hard--losing only by 10, 76-66, and leading at one point in the second half (the first time UConn had trailed in the second half all year). A very good effort.

And the ND men's hoops squad got a much-needed boost this past Saturday, blasting Providence on the road, 103-84. When the Irish make shots, as both Ryan Ayers and Kyle McAlarney did, they can play with anyone.

But...the Detroit Pistons, playing poorly and with inconsistent effort, got blasted by Cleveland, 99-78. How low can they go?

And the University of Michigan men's hoops team blew a late lead, and lost in OT at Iowa--who's having a down year. Another blow to Michigan's NCAA hopes.

At least Michigan State's men's hoops team rallied to beat Wisconsin, 61-50. But the Spartans once trailed by 12 in the game and looked flustered. Nice rally, but...they need more consistency.

At the sports desk: favorite teams update

Another bad loss ("bad" in this case means really hurting their NCAA tourney chances) for the ND men's hoops team, on the road to West Virginia 79-68. Again, the Irish failed to rebound, failed to get enough loose balls, and didn't defend well enough. This season looks right now like it's heading towards being a big disappointment.

But that's the thing about following team sports--you don't know how it's going to turn out, even when it appears at season's start that you have a good team. You don't know it will have a happy ending. You hope it will. But it might not. That's why the wins, the good seasons, are so sweet...and really need to be enjoyed when they come.

The Detroit Red Wings were on their game last night, though, blasting the Nashville Predators 5-2.
The Wings scored 5 power play goals. Interesting, Wings' star Marian Hossa got into a fight. He acquitted himself well, but the best stat to me was this--it was the first time a Wings player got into a fight in 36 games. Kudos to the NHL for largely removing fighting as a big part of the game.

At the sports desk: favorite teams update

The ND women's hoops team got a big win last night, beating South Florida on the road, 86-79. USF had built up a 14 point lead in the first half. So it was an impressive Irish rally, keyed by better rebounding and a big game from Lindsay Schrader. South Florida had 18 wins, so this is a quality win. The next game will be much tougher, though--at #1 UConn.

The news wasn't so good for some other teams. Michigan State's men's hoops team got whipped 72-54 by Purdue. The Spartans were sloppy (over 20 turnovers) and Purdue had a great defensive effort at home. MSU continues to seek consistency.

And the Detroit Pistons continued to fade, losing again (at home!) to Milwaukee, 92-86. The shooting, the focus, the intensity--just not there.

At the sports desk: favorite teams update

It's not getting any better. The Detroit Pistons managed to lose again, at home, to Atlanta last night, 99-95. Again, they can't seem to play a complete game.

And the ND women's hoops team lost a tough one at home, to highly-ranked Louisville, 71-66.
The Irish fell 14 points behind in the second half; they made some good runs at them, but were down too far. The Irish must shoot better--they shot only 38% for the game.

At the sports desk: favorite teams update

The Detroit Pistons blew another one, unconscionably letting a 15 point lead with 8 minutes to go get away from them, and they lose to the Chicago Bulls on the road. The Pistons remain just an average team right now.

Meanwhile, Michigan State's men's hoops team dealt the University of Michigan's NCAA tourney hopes a big blow, beating the Wolverines last night 54-42. It was a great show of defense by MSU; Michigan almost never got a good look at the hoop all night.

The Dallas Mavericks continued their surge, beating Sacramento last night 118-100.
It was good to see Josh Howard have such a good game; they'll need him, given Jason Terry's injury.

At the sports desk: favorite teams update

A little better news today. First, the ND women's hoops team beat DePaul, 62-59. A good win for the Irish--DePaul had won 5 in a row, was ranked in the top 25, and ND had to rally in the last two minutes to pull the game out. But they did, making clutch shots and locking down on defense at the end.

And the Detroit Red Wings played very well in a hostile environment against a good team, beating Pittsburgh 3-0 on the road. The Wings got good goaltending from Ty Conklin.

But the Detroit Pistons frankly played very poorly, at home (again!...they've lost 5 of their last 6 at home) and lost to Phoenix 107-97. Way too many turnovers and poor shot selection. The Pistons right now are an average team, at best.

At the sports desk: favorite teams update

The University of Michigan men's hoops team showed some big-time life last night, defeating Penn State at home, 71-51. The win was key in keeping their NCAA tournament hopes alive. The team shot better last night--let's hope that continues.

The Dallas Mavericks, however, tired due to having to go to Utah and play there for their second game in two nights, lost badly to the Jazz by nearly 30 points. They just don't play well there, especially on the night right after a tough home game. Oh, well...

At the sports desk: favorite teams update

On the whole last night, my favorite teams did OK. But there were disappointments...
Such as the ND men's hoops team--which lost again, at Cincinnati, by 10; 6 straight losses.
Again, lack of defense, an inability to get Kyle McAlarney going, and really a sign of the team losing its composure were the key problems for the Irish (that's two straight games in which they've given up 90 points or more).
ND fans might further note that, in the Cincinnati Enquirer today, the U of Cincinnati beat writer noted that the Bearcats committed a season-low 5 turnovers against a rather "passive" ND defense. That about sums it up.

But...the Detroit Pistons managed to scrap their way to a 3 point win over Miami last night, with Rodney Stuckey leading the way. That's how this team will have to win--with scrap, and with some tough defense.

And...the Detroit Red Wings won their second straight game, despite some shaky goaltending.
Fortunately, they have stars like Niklas Lidstrom to pull games out in the end.

And the Michigan State Spartans men's hoops team looked like their old selves, blasting Minnesota 76-47. I think they lose focus when they play games at home that they're "supposed" to win. When they focus, attack, and play defense, they can be really good. Can they be that team when the NCAAs come next month?

And I've been following the Dallas Mavericks some--watch out for them. They've won 4 in a row lately, 3 of those against teams with winning records. Jason Kidd is playing very well, as is Big Dirk; and their defense has improved. Last night they beat Portland.

And cheer up, University of Michigan football fans--Scouts Inc. has their recruiting class this year ranked 10th in the nation. Watch out for QB Tate Forcier--he very likely will be the Wolverines' starter in '09.

Saturday stuff

It appears that the Obama administration is deliberately avoiding using the words "war on terror."
They don't like the phrase. One expert probably familiar with administration thinking says:
"The thinking has evolved, he said, to focus on avoiding the kind of rhetoric "which could imply that this was a struggle against a religion or a culture."
But, question: who on earth could believe that the phrase "war on terror" was directed at a particular religion? Why would those in the Middle East believe that? No religion is mentioned.
Could some Arabs be protesting a bit too much? Could they have a bit of a guilty conscience?

Unfortunately the ND men's hoops team lost yet again today, at #3 Pitt, 93-80. It's no shame to lose at Pitt. But unfortunately the Irish have lost 5 in a row, they're going to fall out of the top 25, again they give up a ton of points and just can't nail teams down defensively, and they're in real danger of not making the NCAAs this season (they were seen as a lock before the year began). That's why, as I've said before, the season is in crisis right now, and it's got to be tough on the Irish players. Can they rebound? Or will they just melt down?

No good news for Detroit Piston fans either--they lost again to Boston at home, 86-78. They fought hard, and battled, and were in the game for much of it...but couldn't come away with a win. Can this team really be a factor in this year's NBA playoffs? Right now it doesn't look like it. Only good news is--the playoffs remain a ways away...

Meanwhile, in Iraq, their most recent election is hailed as a great success:
?Iraqis held their most peaceful election since the fall of Saddam Hussein on Saturday, and voting for provincial councils ended without a single major attack reported anywhere in the country. "No security breaches took place during the election. Things went as we planned and as we hoped," Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Mohammed al-Askary said."
Kudos for the Bush administration, anyone?

On the Obama "stimulus" package, Ben Stein today makes good points, and introduces important perspective we're not hearing from many:
"Only 10 percent of the "stimulus" to be spent on 2009. Close to half goes to entities that sponsor or employ (or both) members of the Service Employees International Union, federal, state, and municipal employee unions or other Democrat-controlled unions. This bill is sent to Congress after President Obama has been in office for seven days. It is 680 pages long. According to my calculations, not one member of Congress read the entire bill before this vote. Obviously, it would have been impossible, given his schedule, for the president to have read the whole thing. For the amount spent, we could have given every unemployed person in the United States roughly $75,000."

The Republican National Committee has a new chairman--an African-American, Michael Steele.
National Review's man on the scene is, well, hopeful--but he knows it's a tough job:
"What will Republicans be getting in Steele? Maybe the ideal television presence, a dynamic and energetic speaker who cheerfully brings a Republican message to communities that aren't always initially receptive. The contrast with Duncan's seemingly invisible media presence will be clear. But Steele's bid was hindered by questions about whether he would excel as much at the parts of the job that aren't in front of the cameras—the day-to-day management and fundraising. In the coming year, Republicans will learn one way or the other."
As for me, I'm hopeful--we need energy and dynamism, and Steele can bring that.