107th Edition - 3/2/07

• Bears: Love Lovie, even if it's hard to show

Like an old married couple, staying together for the kids, Chicago Bears president Ted Phillips resigned Lovie Smith and Jerry Angelo to multi-year deals. The press conference was by-the-book boring. No excitement. No love. It appears Smith is just content. He got what he deserved. Good thing these guys just work together.

• Quick hits

**John Daly was distracted, halfway through a golf swing, by a camera clicking. So he stopped his backswing. That injured ribs and he withdrew from the Honda Classic. The woman who took the picture didn't know she wasn't allowed to have a camera, security missed it.

**The Saints released WR Joe Horn. The Bears should consider looking his way, even if he referred to himself in the third person...
"I just don't think [coach] Sean Payton wanted me back. I asked to be released because I felt betrayed by a head coach who wanted to prove he could win without Joe Horn."

**LeBron James had a great game against the Mavs last night... until the end. The Mavs won 95-92 because James missed two free throws and two 3s. Let's just hope this keeps up for the playoffs (right now, the Bulls are their projected first-round opponent).

**I'm starting my push for "LUKE WALTON SHOULD BE A BULL." He'll be a free-agent at the end of the year. Since the Bulls did nothing for the trade deadline, this would at least be something, and they can't afford a Vince Carter (thank god) or Rashard Lewis.

• Stuff

It's finally happening!!! Kids, dreams come true.
It's Friday, and that means ... real live movie previews by ME!

Wild Hogs

Zodiac

*I can't decide what hurt more, watching "Wild Hogs" or this clip of Travolta on the "Ellen" show. click here

*Trying to figure out what to have for lunch? Check this out - Wheel of Food. Simply enter your zip code and give the wheel a spin. I discovered this from one of my new favorite blogs - The Deets - give them some love too.

*This could be one of the most uncomfortable things ever. It's the Fonz and friends teaching kids about inappropriate touching. This is a must watch. click here

*The Cat in the Hat is 50-years-old today. It's not my favortie from Dr. Suess (Lorax), but I did find a Rich Auchion's tribute to The Cat in the Hat. He has synched his music with it and you can watch it. click here

106th Edition - 3/1/07

• Special Guest: Brian Schneckloth Hunt

This fits all too well. Brian is the biggest Hawkeye fan I know. He lives in Portland and makes sure to watch as many football and basketball games as possible. Even if it means driving 45 minutes to the one bar that is dead enough where they will let him watch anything. So, before last night the Hawks had two games left. On the road against Penn State (lost 13 in a row) and home against Illinois... That is when Brian wrote this, before the two point loss to the Nittany Lions.

How 'Bout them Hawkeyes

As a Hawkeye basketball fan since birth, I've become accustomed to the one, singular consistency with my beloved team: Preseason expectations never match up with actual performance. Essentially,whatever SHOULD happen...won't. At the beginning of the 05-06 season, Iowa was tauted as being a likely final four caliber team. They had the league's best rebounder in Greg Brunner, the best shot blocker in Erik Hanson, and Jeff Horner--the undisputed all around team leader for the last four years.

They were skilled, they were deep, and they were destined to be a disappointment. While the Hawks ended up getting 25 wins and a Big Ten Tournament title, they exited the NCAA tournament in the first round at the hands of "Who the heck is" Northwestern St, a game regarded as the biggest upset in the tournament. The 2006-2007 season began with much more promise, however. Before the first practice, Pierre Pierce was sentenced to prison; one of Iowa's more promising players and a former Mr. Basketball, Carlton Reed, quit the team; returning senior Mike Henderson and freshman Tyler Smith got busted for shoplifting, and Henderson later broke his finger.

The Hawkeyes only had 1 returning starter in Adam Haluska, who had so far underachieved in his two years at Iowa. They were picked by most publications to finish 8th or 9th in the Big Ten. I was thrilled. They SHOULD be awful. I immediately bought Directv and the season pass to watch every game. I knew this was going to be an exciting season. And it has been. They began with a 7-6 preconference record, including ridiculously embarrassing losses to UNI and Drake (the first lost to Drake since 1992). This hurt. But despite the pain in the early going, some bright spots began to emerge.

Adam Haluska's legit. He'd been in the shadow of Horner and Brunner and was a role player no more. With two games left in the regular season, he's the league's leading scorer, is a finalist for the Naismith award, and was just named Academic All-American of the Year by ESPN. Tyler Smith, though just a freshman, has the most talent on the team. He's the best player Iowa has had since the BJ Armstrong/Roy Marble era, and if Greg Oden had never been born, Smith would be Big Ten freshman of the year.

Other newcomers to the team have made big strides since those first13 games. This is only Kurt Looby's 3rd year ever playing basketball and he's starting to figure out that he's physically longer than everyone else on the court. Cyrus Tate was a Junior College All-American, and he's looking more comfortable playing in the Big Ten. Returning veterans Seth Gorney, Mike Henderson, and Tony Freemanhave been contributing more each game. Freeman will be a stud next year. JR Angle is the only player on the team that makes me nervous when he's on the court. Despite being one of the best high school players in Indiana 3 years ago, he just looks lost when he has the ball. Hopefully he can figure things out for next year but I don't see it happening.

So here we are with a week left in the regular season, and the Hawksare 8-6 in the Big Ten and 16-12 overall. If they win their last 2 games (scarily, 2 games they SHOULD win), they can do no worse than 3rd in the Big Ten. Alford's teams have always done well in the Big Ten tournament, and with another solid performance, they could get into the big dance. If that happens, everyone will expect them to lose in the opening round. That's when the Hawkeyes are most dangerous.

If we lose tonight, the whole conclusion to the article is worthless. Not sure what you want to do about that.

+++++++++++++

Added Thursday morning ...

so disappointed. penn st had lost like 13 in a row and they beat us.
i'll have to rewrite the ending of my thing. now the only hope is to win the big ten tournament again.
i hate that.

Poor kid. Good thing I wrote the Hawks off weeks ago, saved me the pain ... OK that's not entirely true, I thought they had a chance if they finished 3rd in the Big Ten. But I like the idea of them winning some NIT games this year.

105th Edition - 2/28/07

• The Weekly Bull (32-27, 6 games out of first)

This was an insane roller coaster for a Bull's fan. First, a win in Cleveland, then a win at home against the Wizards. Then a two point loss in Detriot and finally a seven point loss at home to the Orlando Magic. All of this plus no trades. I was feeling OK about no trades until I read Bill Simmons and realized he has some pretty good logic.

When the media guide for the No Balls Association is released, I demand that John Paxson appears on the cover. At some point, you have to roll the dice, right? Not landing Gasol was inexcusable; the Bulls could have made the Finals with him (and if it meant sacrificing Luol Deng, Ty Thomas and the Knicks' pick, so be it). Instead, they did nothing ... which means they overpaid Ben Wallace when they already had a younger version of him for two-thirds the money (Tyson Chandler), gave away Chandler AND J.R. Smith for an expiring contract (P.J. Brown) because they wanted a trading piece for the deadline, then never ended up making a freaking trade.
I mean ...
Where does that rank among the most bizarre/inexplicable/head-scratching game plans in recent NBA history? Near the top, right? And if that's not bad enough, Paxson should have sold high on the Knicks' pick in December -- once the Celtics, Bucks, Hawks and Nets started getting crushed by injuries and the Iverson/Philly situation fell apart, everyone and their brother could see a 35-win season for the Knicks coming. What was the purpose of holding on to that pick? Are we even sure Paxson is alive? Has anyone seen him in the past three months? If he's missing or dead, I apologize for the last three paragraphs.

But here's the thing, Simmons entire logic is based on what had happened. Now, keeping Chandler made sense, but he had underperformed, was often injured and was not a leader. Based on the team this second, Deng has the most potential. So ideally, you don't get rid of him. Keeping P.J. Brown is the oddity here, but even more odd is the numbers he put up against the Pistons. He had 19 points, 12 rebounds and 4 blocks, easily outshining Ben Wallace's return to Detriot.

The real problem right now is Andres Nocioni. In fact, this could be the reason no trade was made. He might miss the rest of the regular season. So if the trade would have happened, the Bulls would have been without a good small forward for the rest of the season, then team chemistry would have had to come together for the playoffs. Rolling the dice with this team seems to be the better option right now.

This week's schdule: WED - Warriors, FRI - Hornets, SUN - at Bucks.

• Cubs: Ron Santo is still not loved enough

I just don't understand why he can't get into the Hall of Fame. He has numbers, he is loved (at least in Chicago) and it clearly would make his life. The veteran's committee has been around for three years and still hasn't voted anyone in. It's high school popularity all over again.

• Ouch

Clipper's guard Shaun Livingston is done for the season. Just an awful knee injury. You can read and watch it here.

• Stuff

A little late, but here are some articles of mine... (yup, blatant self-promotion)

*Scorecard Review of "The Number 23"

*Quickcard Review of "The Astronaunt Farmer"

*Interview with Billy Bob Thornton

*Interview with Virginia Madsen

104th Edition - 2/27/07

No idea what happened today, but my post got messed up. I had Cubs and Big Ten basketball talk - but that disappeared. Life is trying to knock me down a bit. I'm going to let it. More tomorrow...

• Update: the running diary - Oscar Style

*Here's the running diary. It (the idea) is a work in progress, it will be better next time.
click to read

*Listen to the entire Arcade Fire album here.

*Saturday Night Live
Rainn Wilson hosted. Funny. Barely. For a 1.5 hour show, there was about 30 minutes of comedy, and it was almost entirely before the news. Wilson was great to see as himself. "The Office" skit was a little too easy. The digital short was good and then there was Arcade Fire. So good. By the way, I will be seeing them in May when they are at the Chicago Theater.

For the season: 8-6
Funny: John C. Reily, Hugh Laurie, Alec Baldwin, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Justin Timberlake, Jake Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore, Rainn Wilson

Not Funny: Dane Cook, Jaime Pressly, Matthew Fox, Annette Bening, Jeremy Piven, Forest Whitaker