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Daily Sports Roundup 12/31/07

Danny Vinik Leave a comment

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” →

Daily Sports Roundup 12/29/07

Danny Vinik Leave a comment

A big day in sports today so here we go:

College Basketball:With school finals and winter break over, college basketball is back in full swing with 20 ranked teams playing today. There have been a lot of great games, but the best game of the night has yet to come with 18 Arizona travelling to 2 Memphis. A 3-pointer with 2 seconds by Michael Flowers of Wisconsin gave the Badgers a one point victory over 9 Texas. 19 Miami (FL) suffered its first loss of the season as Winthrop beat the Hurricanes 76-70. Just finished, Oklahoma defeated 23 West Virginia in double overtime. Those games and more are discussed in today’s earlier blog post.

UCLA Hires Neuheisel As Head Coach: The UCLA Bruins have hired their former QB Rick Neuheisel as their new head coach. The Bruins fired Karl Dorrell on December 3rd after five years as head coach. Neuheisel takes over a football program that went 6-6 and lost to BYU in their bowl game. The loss in the Las Vegas Bowl was tough as the Bruins had a field blocked as the time expired and lost the game by one point. UCLA was looking at their defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker for their coaching job and other schools will definately look at him to fill their coaching vacancy. Neuheisel has already stated that he hopes to keep Walker on the staff. UCLA had a mediocre season this year, ending in a tough loss, and they are hoping that Neuheisel will be able to take the program to the next level. Continue reading “Daily Sports Roundup 12/29/07” →

Daily Sports Roundup 12/28/07

Danny Vinik Leave a comment

A slow day in sports today so these stories are small, but interesting.

Frasor Out For The Year: North Carolina junior Bobby Frasor will miss the rest of the college basketball season with a torn ligament. He is a versatile player capable of playing many minutes and can play quality time while the Tar Heels rests its stars. He averages over 16 minutes a game and is a player that Roy Williams has valued over the last 2 years. Though it will not have an immediate impact, the loss of Frasor will shrink the Tar Heels bench and require Hansbrough, Lawson, and others to play extra time.

Rod Smith Needs Surgery: Denver Bronco wide receiver Rod Smith may have caught his last pass in the NFL. After undergoing hip surgery in February, three years after his hip began to hurt, Smith wanted to get back into the NFL by the second half of the season. Unfortunately, his hip didn’t agree and Smith has not played a single play this year. Smith revealed today that “It has not healed. It’s not healing at all. Honestly, I don’t even like walking on it. It’s that bad right now to me, and it’s a matter of the hip socket has been bone-on-bone for a while”. He is seeing a specialist in Los Angeles and will likely have a resurfacing of the joint in January. Smith is 37 years old and holds the NFL record for most catches, touchdowns, and yards than any undrafted wide receiver. In his comments today, Smith also spoke about how he wants to spend more time with his family, another remark that sounded as if he was going to retire. Rod Smith has been a great player over his 13 years in the league, and if he does retire, the Broncos and the NFL will lose a talented veteran. Continue reading “Daily Sports Roundup 12/28/07” →