Fresno State | Danny Vinik

Happy New Years Eve to all of my readers. This New Years Eve has also seen a fair amount of sports news, so let’s get to it:

Ravens Fire Billick:The Baltimore Ravens fired head coach Brian Billick today, after the Ravens finished the year at 5-11. After a 13-3 season last year, the Ravens underachieved this year and Billick has taken a lot of the blame. The team even lost nine consecutive games before finishing with a 27-21 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday. Since the Ravens won the Super Bowl in 2000, they have won only one playoff game. Less than a year ago, Billick received a contract extension through the 2010 season and stated a couple weeks ago that he would be back for 2008. Owner Steve Bisciotti had other ideas. “I just changed my mind. I can’t explain it to you. It’s the toughest decision I’ve had to make” the owner said Monday. The Ravens were a disappointment this year and someone had to take the fall. Unfortunately, it was Billick’s turn.

McGrady Out For A Few Weeks:Though it looked like the injury would only need a couple days to heal, Tracy McGrady’s left knee has not gotten any better. The Houston Rockets are coming to a tough stretch in their schedule playing at both Boston and Orlando this week. It looks like McGrady will miss those games and more as he could be out as many as three weeks. Continue reading “Daily Sports Roundup 12/31/07” →

The last couple of weeks have seen very few college basketball games, because of schools finals and winter break. The hiatus is over and college basketball resumed today with 20 teams in the top 25 playing. Here is a quick rundown of the action:

Wisconsin vs 9. Texas: The best game of the day so far ended with Wisconsin guard Michael Flowers hitting a 3 pointer to give the Badgers the lead with 2 seconds left and then stealing the ensuing inbounds pass. A huge win for Wisconsin whose only two losses came to ranked teams in Duke and Marquette. These losses had forced the Badgers out of the Top 25 and left them in need of a big-time to win to prove that they were for real. They got that win with the 67-66 victory at Texas today.

American vs 8 Georgetown: Georgetown took care of business today at home versus American winning easily 78-51. The Hoyas dropped in the poles after losing to Memphis last week and they rebounded nicely with this victory. Though up only 10 at halftime, Georgetown put the game away with a 25-6 start in the second half.

Tennessee-Martin vs 15 Vanderbilt: Vanderbilt has had a great beginning to the year, starting 12-0, but I am not convinced. They have not played any good teams yet and have struggled against their opponents. They did beat Tennessee Martin today, but gave up 85 points in the process and only won by 7. This is the same Tennessee Martin who UNLV beat by 28, Maine beat by 4, and Central Arkansas beat by 3. In today’s game, the Commodores shot under 40%, but 10 three-pointers and 13 steals saved them. Continue reading “College Basketball Recaps” →