The Boston Pro Sports Blog

Georgey is up to his old antics again. This time, not even a week into Spring Training, the temperamental and often volatile Yankees’ Boss is playing psychic, pompously declaring that the Yankees are going to win the World Series in 2006. “We’re going to win it this year,” Steinbrenner grandiloquently expressed Wednesday. “We’re going after it.”

The second statement isn’t all that prophetic considering the $220 million payroll pretty much spells out the fact that George and the Yankees organization is “going after it.” However the first statement is what ruffles my feathers a little bit. Yeah I understand that, similar to our beloved left fielder, this is probably just another example of “George being George” and perhaps I should pay it about as much attention as a Manny trade demand. But it still bothers me. And the more I think about it, the more it really bothers me.

Maybe its just my undying abhorrence with anything Yankee but if I were a Red Sox player I would pin this up in the locker room. Just like in any sporting event from MIAA Division 6 Water Polo to the NFL SuperBowl, goading quotes from the opponent can serve as a great motivation to bring forth your most competitive game. In the greatest rivalry in sports, it shouldn’t be any different.

I am sure that some people, including sports fans from other cities and even some Red Sox players themselves, are probably sick of hearing about the Sox-Yankees and are probably thinking “great, here we go again” with less than entertained scowls on their faces. But you never know, this subtle but obnoxious quote may serve as an adequate reason to get out on the field during one of the dog days of August.

And for many Boston fans, myself including, we really don’t need any or snide comments or specific reason to get amped for the Red Sox, particularly when they are playing against the Yankees. And we certainly don’t need any more reason to hate them. I can think of 40 roster reason and 26 pieces of jewelry to start. And that’s not even including the 3,276 Yankee fans I encounter each season who constantly feel the need to jam these reasons in my face simply because I cheer for my team. Judging from this, you would think that I would be as ambitious to bury the rivalry myself.

However it just might be impossible for me to do this. For something that has been ingrained in my head for so long, something I have been raised to do, something I have grown up with and has become part of my culture, religion, and creed, it probably is impossible to abandon now. And despite the unwanted anger, hatred, and disgust that continually brews perennially throughout each April to October, this something has become a part of who I am, part of my identity. Which is why George’s comments make me so mad. And which is also why, although it might not be the Red Sox clubhouse, this Steinbrenner excerpt will get posted up by my computer. Perhaps in the dog days of August, it will help me type faster, cheer louder, and throw my remote across the room harder. All part and parcel of being an avid Red Sox fan I suppose.

Yankees Suck.

theaveragefan@bostonprosports.com

So Manny will be late for Spring Training this year. I don’t think anyone should be surprised. I would bet that Manny was voted “most likely to be late for his own funeral” in his high school yearbook. Also did anyone buy into the “Manny is in Florida completing an extensive training regimen and is prepared to have an exceptional season” If by “completing an extensive training regimen” they mean “watching cartoons while eating Fruity Pebbles out of the box with a coloring book and some crayons.” He could also be playing with bugs in the back yard, or microwaving spoons. In any event, as Big Papi will attest to, he is tough to get a hold of. “He doesn’t pick up the phone,” Ortiz said. “I’ve got a better chance of reaching you, and I don’t have your phone number.”

To be honest, I don’t think any of us know what Manny is doing, or where. Except that we know he is probably not doing an extensive training regimen. Considering Manny’s desire to be traded was attributed to some extracurricular marital activity resulting in an unexpected present from Mr. Stork, I could also see Manny on his front lawn with a hand painted booth made out of plywood that said “Baby for sale” with a backwards ‘e’.

Whatever Manny is doing, I think we not that it is not an extensive training program. Unless, as Bronson Arroyo explains, Manny is training to avoid the government. Arroyo is quoted as saying that “On the outside, he’s happy-go-lucky, but on the inside, he’s got a lot of conspiracy theories. I’d say Manny might be one of these guys when he’s 50 years old who might be in his house with all the blinds shut, looking out like the CIA’s after him. You don’t know what’s going on in the interior with him, so you don’t worry about him.” Can anyone else picture Manny in his backyard with a metal pot on his head and a toy gun, crawling around with shifty eyes. In any event, I guess I am not supposed to worry about it. No worries here.

Quick Olympic Bits & Pieces…

Is anyone else having a hard time getting into the Olympics? Not only have I had a hard time, I am starting to count the moments until they are over. I care more about the World Baseball Classic, which just shows you how much I care about the Olympics, because, y’know, I don’t care about the World Baseball Classic at all. So there.

Yeah so also there is this skater in the Olympics and her name is Irina Slutskaya. That’s really her name. Slut-skaya. I really which it where Slutskata because then in a Boston accent it would sound like you were saying Slut-skater only it would come out Slut-skatah. If that was the case and I were in charge of the network airing any figure skating competition with her I would mandate two guys with heavy Boston accents from Somerville or somewhere fill in as the broadcasters for the competition. And every time they wanted to they could just bust out a really loud and long “Slut-skataaaaaaa”. Man that would be funny. It would probably boost the dismal ratings as well. Sometimes I feel like I should be in charge of my own network. It would like combining Spike TV, ESPN, Comedy Central, Spice, and Telemundo all in one. Awesome.

NBA All-Star Leftovers….

Did anyone know that the bulls cheerleaders are called “loveables”. It’s a play on words. As in Love-a-Bulls. Or probably Luv-a-ables, which spelt out like that looks more like a diaper brand. But seriously that’s what they are called. I never knew that. Does anyone else find this hilarious or is it just me?

Can anyone explain these Lebron James family commercials to me? Is that his real family? Where is his mom? And also they all look exactly alike. How come the other ones aren’t playing basketball. The little guy looks like he might play. Why isn’t anyone hyping him up as well? I am confused.

theaveragefan@bostonprosports.com

If any of you watched the NBA All-Star Skills competition on Saturday evening, you probably saw a familiar face to Celtics fans introduce the challenge. Former Celtic and leading Tommy-point winner Walter McCarty, who now plays for the Clippers, showed off his pipes by singing the National Anthem. I think good old Waltah was a little nervous though since the rendition was certainly not the best I have witnessed. I give him credit for getting up there and doing it though. He was probably doomed from the start knowing that Destiny’s Child was doing the Anthem before the actual All-Star Game. By the way, their a cappella version was one of the best National Anthems I have ever heard. The only thing that could have made it better would be a Tommy Heinsohn “I LOVE BEYONCE!!!” at the end of it. Actually nevermind. That probably would have ruined it.

The All-Star weekend overall was just ok in my opinion. I actually enjoyed watching the skills competition. Obviously the Dunk Contest has faltered in recent years. It has been a sharp decline since Vince pretty much set an impossible to top performance 7 years ago. His show at that dunk contest is like the oldest child being the star athlete and then going to Harvard. No matter what the younger children do they are not going to top that.

I did thoroughly enjoy Andre Iguodala’s behind the backboard dunk though. And little Nate Robinson did well for himself, especially with the over-the-Spud Webb dunk. Obviously everyone is upset that Robinson got to take 50 chances to finally get his dunk right. I understand the point that the crowd wants to see a great dunk rather than an easy-gimme-because its your last chance dunk but I am pretty sure everyone agrees that giving Robinson that many chances is pretty ridiculous. I do agree that it was absurd and seemed a little fixed, but is anyone completely surprised and disgusted by this? C’mon people it’s the 2006 NBA Dunk Contest. Does it really strike people as the kind of event that’s completely uncorruptable? They probably just needed to give Knicks fans something to cheer about or be proud of. It is a big market you know.

The only other thing that really upset me(the sloppy play and bad basketball is pretty much expected), was actually just one person. I think I actually got nauseous when Kobe was announced and people cheered. Seriously though, I almost threw up. I was totally shocked that people actually cheered for this guy? I don’t think I realized how much I actually hate Kobe Bryant. I mean I really hate him. There are no other active professional athletes that disgust me more than Kobe. I don’t care that he is a good basketball player. He is one of the most classless athletes I have ever seen. Is this guy fooling anyone? It really bothers me that people might actually believe he is a good person/teammate. On my Professional Athlete Hateometer, Kobe has successfully surpassed Jason Kidd to join the ranks of Barry Bonds and Warren Sapp. Good company. I think I actually hate him more than the Yankees at this point. Ugh I have to stop typing this before I vomit on my keyboard.

Lastly, its hard for me to believe its only the All-Star Break. I usually equate the All-Star Break with the mid-way point of the season. However with all the frustration that has consumed me as a Celtics fan, its kind of hard to believe this has only been a little more than half a season. I have been more upset than any fan should be over half a season. Yet I still can’t stop rooting for these guys. Well, maybe not until April 3rd. But seriously, can they turn it around? Is it possible for them to transform into a playoff caliber team? I am still hoping. But I guess only time will tell. I guess it’s a good thing that the phrase isn’t “it ain’t over ‘til the former sixth man sings”.

theaveragefan@bostonprosports.com

Not that the Red Sox Nation needs anything “official” but tomorrow officially begins the first stage in the 2006 Boston Red Sox season: the reporting of pitchers and catchers. Its just in time too. I was starting to get impatient. After the Gonzalez signing sealed the position spots and the roster seemed to stabilize, there was a significant decrease in the action. I almost started watching Bruins games.

I did, in fact watch a few Celts games. I can’t help but to root for these guys. Even though they are not showing many signs of improving, I still can’t help but to check the newspaper in the morning to see how many games back in the Atlantic we are. By the way did anyone else think the game the other night epitomized our entire season? Pierce out playing the all-star on the opposing team(LeBron) on his way to 50 points and yet we still lose. Oooo I am so frustrated. But…just…can’t…get…into…draft…pick…mode… arrrrgghhhh….

Anyways back to the Sox. Of course, even though pitchers and catchers report tomorrow, there still is a substantial lack of action. I mean, how many times can we ask “How will Foulke respond to last year?” or “Will Schilling return to his past form?” The answers aren’t so proverbial as to be blowing in the wind, but we do have to wait at least another 8 weeks before we begin to get some concrete results.

Leave it to Red Sox fans to start next year’s hot stove before the beginning of spring training of this year. Already I have heard a bunch of rumors that the Sox might try to get Andruw Jones as a free agent next offseason. That, I suppose would be what we do with the extra Johnny Damon money since we didn’t exactly splurge to get Gonzalez(or any of our free agents for that matter). Considering Trot’s age, obtaining Jones and moving Crisp to right would possibly give us the best outfield in baseball. Well, maybe not defensively…ahem Manny. But lets not get ahead of ourselves here people. The only way that could happen this year is if Atlanta doesn’t think that a)they are contenders or b)they can afford to compete for Jones, then they might try to deal him before the deadline. And since I am not so sure Atlanta would be willing to concede their NL East domination so quickly this probably isn’t happening. So lets stay grounded shall we?

You don’t need me to tell you but coming into this spring training there are a lot of ‘if’s. The amount of offseason moves adds to the one big ‘if’ that relates to how this team will gel. It’s pretty much a fact that recent Red Sox teams rely on chemistry more than BALCO(there’s actually two ways you could read that sentence but I will leave it up to you). There has been a big change in the clubhouse this year. New faces. New personalities. New hitters in a lineup. It seems like the only two stable people in the clubhouse as of right now are Ortiz and Varitek. Even the 40 year old Timlin has some question marks, especially if the enigma that is Keith Foulke flops.

Although for the amount of uncertainty that exists, there is also an incredibly high ceiling of potential as well. Just imagine if this team reached even half its potential. With the start of pitchers and catchers tomorrow, let me be one to say I like our pitchers and I like our catchers. Despite his age, Varitek is coming off his best season yet. The Beckett trade was one of the most important acquisitions of the offseason and it gives us possibly two legit number one starters and an incredibly deep rotation(as of today). The best news however is that our bullpen is significantly improved. Time will tell exactly how much improved but if things stay relatively the same personnel-wise, I think its safe to say we wont be finding ourselves in the same situation as last year when we almost called up little leaguers to pitch for us.

I do kinda wish pitchers and catchers was more exciting. Although with all the new faces on the 2006 Red Sox, these next few weeks should be a good time to get acquainted. Now that I think about it, for the fans this spring training is kind of like a first date. Everyone is mostly excited about it but also kind of nervous. It’s a good time to kind of get acquainted with a new persona. You try not to put in too much effort but then you can’t help it. And the whole time you are just thinking if its going to end in a champagne bath with a bunch of half naked male professional athletes. Uhhh…well maybe those are just my first dates. I’m going to go now.

theaveragefan@bostonprosports.com

So as part of my “Patriots lost to Broncos and are not in the SuperBowl this year” coping mechanism, I made some impulse purchases to help cheer myself up. One of which was a DVD entitled City of Champions: Best of Boston. It was a little more expensive than my SuperBowl XXXVIII DVD but I was hurting too much to care. I am since over it(seeing as pitchers & catchers is three days away) but didn’t actually have a chance to watch the DVD until this weekend.

The DVD itself was just about what you would expect. It showed just about every highlight clip from every important or big Boston sporting event. The opening reel, set to “O Fotuna” successfully gave me goose bumps and was about as inspiring as the first time you ever heard “Eye of the Tiger”.

The following format of the movie consisted of a musical highlight reel focusing on a particular motif(e.g. championships, the retirement of Boston sports stars, etc.), then interview clips with certain Boston sports figures discussing a particular person or team, and then finally clips of that person, team, or event. Pretty much every clip or event that you would want is featured in some aspect on the film. Some are given more time and effort than others though.

My main complaint with the DVD is that it didn’t seem to have much rhyme or reason to when each clip or highlight reel came up. It was also pretty random in terms of which events were given a lot of coverage. It seemed that they just sort of combined a few Boston sports clips in no particular order sometimes, hoping that the viewers will be so excited to see highlights of their favorite Boston sports figures that they won’t care what order they are in.

One thing that I did really enjoy and found pretty original was the format of the interviews. They used interviews from about twelve or fifteen Boston sports personalities including Peter Gammons, Theo Epstein, Tommy Heinson, and Doug Flutie. However, rather than solely include each person’s comments on their own sport or team, they primarily use comments of these sports figures on the other sports franchises or people. For instance Jerry Remy comments on the Patriots, Theo talks about the Celtics, Doug Flutie on the Sox etc. It kind of seems awkward at first but then you realize all these people grew up around Boston. It also unifies all the Boston sports teams in a certain way, which gave me one of those warm fuzzy feelings and really made me proud to be a Boston fan.

Its also obvious that the producers of the movie are from Boston or at least consulted with Boston fans during the making of the movie. There is no crap about the Curse of the Bambino and they even include interviews with Peter Gammons, Jerry Remy, and Theo dissipating the phony myth. The movie also includes footage of some real local stars including Rocky Marciano(no Lou Merloni though). It was refreshing to have a local spirit to the movie rather than come cookie cutter or professional take.

One thing I realized was how lucky we have been to be Boston fans. The movie was over an hour long and I still didn’t think it even came close to fulfilling its potential as an all encompassing Boston sports documentary. This disappointment eventually turned to pride as I realized that no 108 minute documentary could ever fully cover each memorable Boston sports moment, team, or player. It literally would take a mini-series or DVD box set to fully cover the sports history in the Olde Town. I look at cities like Tampa Bay, Seattle, or Milwaukee and think that their all encompassing DVD highlight film could be limited to a SuperBowl run, dunk highlight reel, or intramural softball tournament that they and some of their drunk buddies came in third place in.

In any event, the movie itself was slightly disappointing but not necessarily by its own fault. The opening highlight clip is worth checking out although it would be better for a few people to chip in and buy it. It was also make a pretty good gift for big Boston sports fans, especially dads because they would probably appreciate it more and because they never had cool “D-V-D-s” when they were young to constantly rehash Boston sports triumphs at the click of a button. Final Grade: B

If you haven’t heard the move from the Red Sox minor league farm system, it doesn’t involve a player. Last week, the Red Sox Class A affiliate Lowell Spinners launched a campaign to ban the team name ‘Yankees’ from Little Leagues across New England. To promote this proposition, the Spinners have even offered to pay for the new uniforms of any local league that does in fact banish the Yankee name.

Spinners’ general manager Tim Bawmann says children in New England are often devastated when they are assigned to be on a team called the Yankees. I for one, agree with this proposition. I don’t like going out on a Saturday afternoon and seeing a group of happy little youngsters parading around in their Yankee t-shirts with ice cream all over their faces. They make me sick. I don’t think I could even stomach cheering “GO YANKEES!” at my kid’s ball game. I would just be one of those parents that only roots for their kid. Although that eventually turns into the angry parent that loudly berates their child in public after the game for not trying to go opposite field, which then turns into the parent that can only visit their child on weekends and can’t go within 1000 feet of a school zone. It probably would be easier for everyone if each town adopted the Spinner’s idea.

I would suggest that you could collect all the old Yankee Little League uniforms and mail them to the illegitimate children of Yankee players all over the country. All shirts west of Worcester go to any child with the last name “Sheffield”.

This Spinners idea is definitely worth a closer look. If there is a ballot I would vote in favor. Maybe I am being a psycho Boston fan but I bet I am not the only one. Its not like I am picketing outside the fence of any 10 year old’s ball game or anything. Yet. Seriously though, it may sound nutso but I like they idea a lot. Like my roommate from New Jersey said…“only in New England”…

theaveragefan@bostonprosports.com

So I guess I can be happy without feeling like a complete jackass. The Pittsburg Steelers did win SuperBowl XL and I don’t feel so bad, despite the fact I was rooting for Seattle. The reason is that Big Ben Roethlisberger posted a laughable 22.6 passer rating for the game. In no previous SuperBowl has the winning Quarterback had such a dismal rating. And even though he got his ring, no one in their right mind would say that Ben had a lot to do with it. Yes he was good in the playoffs. But in the big game he soiled his diaper. Which ultimately means that Roethlisberger, pending numerous SuperBowl victories in the future, will not succeed Tom Brady in the “young stud QB who could possibly be the best of our generation.” Yeah I know. Both have a lot of career left(assuming they don’t pull a Carson Palmer) and a lot could happen in the future. But as of now, Tom Brady still reigns as #1 QB overall. And that’s the stat that counts in my book.

In other news, I am still trying to figure out how Seattle lost Sunday’s game. Yeah I know the refs sucked and blah, blah, blah. But no one in their right mind can blame the refs in a professional sporting event. Especially one of this caliber. I didn’t blame the refs in New England’s loss to Denver despite a horrendous pass interference call. I didn’t even blame them in Boston College’s loss to Duke even though Sheldon Williams shot way more free throws than the entire BC team. You just can’t blame the refs. You can certainly criticize them. If you are from Detroit or Philly you can even throw this at them. But I don’t think you can fully blame them. And as far as the game being fixed? C’mon. Faces of Death is more believable than that.

In almost every statistic I looked at Seattle won that game. I am so glad I am not a real Seahawks fan right now. I probably would have gauged my eyes out with my bottle-cap opener watching that game. Seattle forced 2 turnovers to Pittsburgh’s 1. They had 6 more first downs and were more efficient in the red zone. They had more rushing yards, passing yards and total offensive yards. It seems like the only thing they didn’t do is score more points. I don’t get it. I am just glad I can leave to this column and never speak of it again. Time to go bow to the magic fridge.

P.S. Tom Brady set a SuperBowl record for hottest coin flip ever. Unless the MVP of Lingerie Bowl does the coin flip in the future, I am not so sure this record will be broken.

theaveragefan@bostonprosports.com

I gave a thorough rationale regarding what teams to root for in the NFL Conference Championship games a couple weeks ago(“Now Who” January 18th), however I feel I should finally hop on the overcrowded SuperBowl media wagon and make some sort of pick or something.

As a hardcore Boston sports fan, I find it hard to root for the Steelers. It just feels icky. I have spent too much energy rooting against them and can’t really find any reason to passionately root for them. Obviously when they were playing Peyton it just came naturally. My hatred for Jake Plummer grew enough so I rooted for Roethlisberger and the Steelers in “The Battle of the Beards” as well(can you bet whether or not Plummer will be panhandling outside the stadium before the game? I haven’t checked). But now it just doesn’t seem right. I just can’t get myself pysched up about rooting for the Steelers. The only problem is, its tough to root against them as well. Jerome Bettis’s homecoming is a decent story(albeit a grossly over-covered one). Bill Cowher is the hardworking coach that the franchise has stayed loyal to. Big Ben seems like the cool guy you would want to have a beer with. The city passionately cares about its sports franchises no matter how terrible them may be(*ahem…the Pirates). In a SuperBowl that your team is not involved in, that might be enough. However as a hardcore New England fan, I have a few reasons not to root for the Steel City in SuperBowl XL.

Firstly, Ben Roethlisberger is young and good and is an emerging star. And I know I am going to sound like a psycho-possessive ex-girlfriend when I say this but, I don’t want him to steal Tom Brady’s thunder. Tom Brady is suppose to be the young, attractive, and talented QB stud that wins SuperBowls. I am sorry but I can’t root for anyone to take that crown from him. Peyton will enter his 30s and soon become a grizzled veteran that could never win the big one. That’s fine. But I DO NOT want some 23 year old bearded snot-nosed punk coming in and being the next biggest thing under 25 years old. I know that last paragraph sounded immature and potentially like I have two X chromosomes. But I can’t help how I feel. I love Tom Brady.

Secondly, as hard as it is to root against this Steeler team, it may be even harder to root against the Seattle Seahawks. If there ever were a town that needed a Championship team, it’s Seattle. I really can’t think of a sports town that has been as plagued with mediocrity as badly as Seattle has. The SuperSonics, the Mariners, AND the Seahawks? I know that Seattle isn’t known for being an intensely passionate sports town, but the history of those three franchises has to have you feel for their fans. And with the Seahawks’ home crowd emerging as one of the loudest transforming the stadium into arguably the most hostile environment in the NFL(unless you’re Santa Claus, in which Philly wins hands down), you have to think the Seattle fans deserve a Lombardi Trophy.

Thirdly, Seattle has a couple local boys on their team as well. And not only are they on the roster, but they are two of the Seahawks’ top 5 players. Wrentham native and defensive extraordinaire Lofa Tatupu, and QB Matt Hasselbeck who grew up in Westwood and went to Boston College. If the scales were balanced between rooting for these two teams, I think this may have tipped them.

Ordinarily, in these kind of match-ups where I can’t decide who to root for, I just root for funny commercials and chicken wings and cold beer and stuff. Unfortunately the halftime show is starting to resemble an old school country club ever since the NFL and TV networks practically banned women. Normally I would be rooting for boobies(can’t you always root for boobies?) but since the Rolling Stones will be headlining the halftime festivities, I think I am going to pass on rooting for some T&A.

The good thing about this SuperBowl is I am not going to be upset over watching one of the teams win at the end(like XXXVII with Tampa and Oakland). I will still be rooting for commercials and beer. Woohoo! Yay beer! Goooo beer!

My pick: Pittsburg 34, Seattle 30

theaveragefan@bostonprosports.com

Last night the hottest ticket in town wasn’t the Celtics hosting of the Phoenix Suns. And despite Paul Pierce’s 40 points, including 33 in the second half, the most exciting basketball didn’t involve the Green.

Perhaps the best basketball game that has taken place in Boston this side of the new year took place a few miles down the road in Silvio O. Conte Forum where the 14th ranked Boston College Eagles hosted the 2nd ranked Duke Blue Devils.

Yeah I know. This is a “pro sports” blog. However, with the amount of Boston Professional Sports names attending the game, it would be hard to talk about anything else today. Attending last nights game at the Heights were Sports royalty Mr. Bob Craft, Larry Lucchino, Bill Belichick, Brad Faxon, Tim Russert, John Harrington, and of course Mr. Doug Flutie.

Announcing the game was Mr. College Basketball Dick Vitale, which at first almost made me sick to my stomach. Having Dick Vitale announce a Duke basketball game is like sitting next to one of those parents who ONLY cheers for their child at youth sporting events and would never admit that he or she ever makes mistakes. Sometimes when Dick even talks about Duke University I can barely hear him. Someone should tell him he needs to take the Blue Devil cock out of his mouth before he announces their games. However, to be fair, I was pleasantly surprised. Mr. Vitale did a very good job staying objective and calling the game in a fair manner. He even went as far as saying that Duke was definitely second best to UConn this year. Although he did say he would pick Duke in a head to head game.

The game itself was nothing short of thrilling. Aside from the final minute, the first half was pretty much even. In the final minute, coming out of a timeout, Duke capitalized on a pair of BC turnovers to increase their lead from 5 with 1:05 left in the half to 10 by halftime. Sean Marshall, who had the daunting task of covering J.J. Redick, gave the Duke star fits in the first half, keeping the prolific scorer to under ten points before the break. Marshall brought a great physical presence and incredible intensity to his duty guarding Redick and solidified his role as BC’s top defensive specialist.

In the second half, BC slipped a little finding itself down 18 points at one point to the Blue Devils. The Eagles really showed some testicular fortitude, however, playing balls to the wall defense and clawing their way back with a 16-4 run. They fought back to a 6 point then eventually a 3 point deficit with less than three minutes left in the game, proving to Duke and the raucous crowd at Conte Forum that the Eagles can contend with the best in the country. Despite two questionable foul calls that removed Craig Smith and Sean Marshall from the game, BC still found themselves with chances to tie the game with under a minute left in the game. However, it was Duke’s near perfect free throw shooting that eventually sealed the game, as well as a horrendous no-call on a blatant Sheldon Williams foul on a driving Tyrese Rice in the final seconds of the game. The refs didn’t completely blow the game, but it certainly would have been an interesting final ten seconds had the correct call been made.

Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with the Eagles’ tenacity and ability to compete with the Blue Devils. I was even more impressed at the intense environment that was created by the BC fans at Conte Forum. Despite the loss, BC proved it can and will compete with the best of the best both on the court and off. The Eagles’ basketball team showed its true colors in the 83-81 loss while the BC Superfans showed that Conte Forum is slowly but surely becoming one of the most hostile environments in the ACC.

Now if only the Celts could warrant that kind of praise…(sigh)…

[quick sidenote: Did anyone watch SportsCenter directly following the game? If you did you might have seen a commercial for Black History Month(February) starring Derek Jeter as the featured professional athlete. Now I don’t mean to insult Mr. Jeter’s ethnicity or cultural background, but I was a little confused as to why they chose him to be the spokesperson. Isn’t that kind of like having John Wayne Bobbit be the spokesperson for Viagra? Or like buying Rupaul a Mother’s Day card? I mean, out of the 6,382,096 African American professional athletes they chose Derek Jeter? I am confused.]