Wednesday, June 24, 2009

CWS, Crappy US Soccer, Twolves, and the Draft

The LSU Tigers just took down the Horns from Texas in Game 3 of the Championship Series for the College World Series, Phew. A great series to say the least. I think Paul Molinari's (LSU's coach) wife got more airtime than he did and for good reason, she is pleasing to the eye. It's always interesting to see how players react to a little adversity when the game is just about over. Two Texas players got caught looking at strike three in the 9th inning. I will never understand how guys will continue to get caught looking at strike three, especially when it is away. I'm pretty sure this will not be the last time you see either of these teams heading to Omaha.

I am going to continue to badmouth US soccer because they are all of a sudden playing much better after my rant (and many others). Like I said previously, the US needed to slow the tempo down and makes runs when Spain least expected it. Though, the US won 2-0 I don't think they played the way they should of. Spain totally controlled the time of possession and the game. The US got lucky in part because they played aggressive and with confidence. I can't wait to see how the US reacts to whoever they play in the Championship Round, either Brazil or South Africa. I do know that the US' confidence will be sky high after beating the #1 ranked team in the world. I don't see them having a shot against Brazil but I don't know enough about South Africa to make a prediction.

Once again Demarcus Beasley was on the bench for the whole game. Great decision by Bob Bradley. I'll figure it out for everyone, the score when Beasley is on the pitch the US is 5-1, when he is off the pitch, we win 5-0. Hmmmm. Don't play him next one either. Once again the US defense did a superb job and got themselves out of sticky situations, there can't be sticky situations against the Brazilians. Benny Feilhaber needs to see more minutes. He is a spark off the bench and we always seem to score or at least attack more efficiently when he is in the game.

Michael Bradley, who is basically the Saul Smith (Tubby's son) of national level soccer. He gets overly ridiculed by everyone and sometimes the critics are right. Today, he got screwed. He got a red card for a tackle that he clearly got a piece of the ball. Now, he will be forced to sit out the Championship. Hopefully Feilhaber gets the start and maybe an appearance by Freddy Adu. We shall see...

Let's go the Twolves. They just traded Mike Miller and Randy Foye in order to get three useless bigs along with the #5 pick. Now, they have the fifth, sixth, 18th, and 28th picks in the first round. Rumor has it they want Hasheem Thabeet and Ricky Rubio. We'll see how they end up packaging those picks in order to get a higher pick, preferably the 2nd. David Kahn, the Wolves' new GM wants to pull something similiar to what his former team, the Blazers, have done over the last five years. They need to get rid of the rif-raf and bring in a lot of young guys and a couple of veterans that will be patient with these young guys. Blazers did it with Brandon Roy, Travis Outlaw, and Greg Oden and surrounded those guys with veterans like Joel Pryzbilla and Steve Blake. The only problem the Wolves might have is, who wants to live in Minnesota during the winter (I know I live here but it's not the nicest place on the planet during January and February).

Blake Griffin will not be the best player in this draft. Too many holes in his game right now. He lost a game of HORSE to Jared, The Subway Guy, and they were shooting nothing but jumpers. I hope for the best for him but I'm not exactly sure the Clippers are the right franchise to help him get to the next level. Jordan Hill will be a role player his whole career and isn't worth a top 10 pick, period. Stephen Curry will be a stud if he plays for the Knicks, perfect system for him. Jonny Flynn is going to be a great pro, regardless of who he plays for. Earl Clark will be the next Lamar Odom, kinda of an enigma. He has a ton of talent but we'll never know when he is going to bring it. Not a huge fan of James Harden or Tyreke Evans, but I think they will both be in the league for a long time, plus both are only 19 right now. We'll see how the pieces of the puzzle fit into place tomorrow night.

I'm off to Sioux Falls, SD tomorrow morning to check out an AAU tournament.

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