Azalea time

Going into this year’s Masters Tournament a lot of people were writing this one off as another Tiger romp through the azaleas like a child’s romp to the candy store…but there are a few things that make me pause prior to anointing him the winner of this first major of the year…

Reasons why he will fall short include: Phil Mickelson’s birdiefest at the BellSouth last week, Stephen Ames’ powerful players win, and Earl (Tiger’s dad) is in poor health. The result is that this week is not exactly an easy prediction because Tiger will either be a man distracted or a man on fire. I’m really not sure how well he will do.

Now before I start making prognostications which will be horribly incorrect let me tell you what I know about the Masters. For 65-70% of North Americans the Masters is the time of year where you dust off the clubs and try and emulate whatever shot becomes synonymous with the tournament, like Tiger’s chip or Weir’s knee knocking 6 footer. The Masters is a rite of spring and I like every golf fan will probably declare it their favourite tournament.

The familiarity of the venue, combined with the quirky way it is shown to the public, makes the Masters a cult-like experience. The Masters is a tournament so steeped in its history it makes it fun to watch…every time you get to the 12th hole you remember a Greg Norman meltdown or a great tee shot by Mickelson to set up a key birdie. Or at 18 you remember DiMarco’s near birdie chip. The fun of the Masters is seeing that beautiful setup year after year.

Finally a lot of people have said the changes to the course this year have ruined the spirit of the layout…Saying it plays too long for the short hitters to win and taking all but 20% of the field out of contention. To which I’d like to say that is pure folly…A shorter hitter can still make birdie on the par 5s and is usually better on the par 3s, as long as they can manage some of the treacherous 4s they should still be in good shape.

I see the changes made to Augusta National not as a negative but as the tournament that is so steeped in history and tradition, preparing itself to not become redundant like other courses can…It is preparing for the next generation of players like J.B. Holmes, Bubba Watson, and Camilo Villegas that literally pound the ball a mile off the tee. 5-10 years from now the golf course will still be a very tough test as it should be. People are saying it could be better protected by growing out the rough and making it play tighter…but the course was not designed for long rough and smallish fairways it was designed to be played with good iron shots into tight, fast greens. That is how the course should play, if they need to make it longer so people can’t play wedges into it all the time then that’s what should be done.

All in all in reviewing the field for the tournament I think the top 5 will be as follows.

The tighter, longer courser puts the premium on good ball strikers. However, the greens will run fast…so there will be a premium on good putting too.

1.Retief Goosen – The Goose got goosed last year as he laid down some pretty terrible final rounds in the majors last year. He’ll jump that mental hurdle and a Masters to his two US Opens.
2.Vijay Singh – perennial contender at Augusta, he putts well here for some reason.
3.Tiger Woods – I think he will be distracted this week, and will be oh so slightly off his game, but this is almost his home course still finishes top 5.
4.Mike Weir – A shortish hitter, but ranks 2nd in putting right now and knows Augusta pretty darn well. (as a Canadian he’s my sentimental pick)
5.Phil Mickelson – on fire last week, and he is putting real well right now…there is no way he is not top 5 this week.

The one player that could change all that.

Sergio Garcia – still has the good vibes from the tournament 2 years ago when he was so hot on Sunday. After missing the cut last year he could get those vibes flowing again which makes him a possibility to win his first major. Especially when you consider that he is such good a ballstriker if he gets just a little bit hot with putter he will win. Either that or he will miss the cut entirely.

These are my Master's thoughts...and predictions...I know I took the fairly easy route out in picking my top 5 and sleeper...but I could have really taken the easy route and picked Tiger or Phil...Respect people come on. Plus I really like the way Goosen is hitting the ball and I think THIS Masters will be more US Open like. The course will play long and pretty tight which should favor the Goose.

Reflections on a B+ tournament

With Florida beating UCLA 73-57 on Monday night, I have to say that I am largely disappointed in this year’s March Madness tournament. My disappointment mainly stems from my failure to man-up and place a wager on the finals (wagers which would’ve won in hindsight, and helped recover the losses from my terrible performance in the tourney pool. Who would’ve thought these two defensive teams with sub par offenses would beat the over/under for the halftime and final score??!?!?!?). However there are less selfish reasons for my disappointment. This year’s tournament had the makings of one of those “greatest of all time” events yet the final weekend was absolutely terrible.

The first two weekends of the 2006 March Madness tournament were amazing. The sweet 16 and elite 8 in particular were wildly entertaining. That whole weekend was a blast, especially since the Habs crushed the Maple Leafs consecutively in a back to back like the US crushed Iraq twice in a row (1991 and 2003)… without that whole insurgency business. From the buzzer beaters to the surprise match-ups (Brad - Pitt), everything was in place to make this the best tournament ever…then the Final Four happened. George Mason showed everyone why it was such a surprise they even made the tournament in the first place while UCLA beat LSU like they were the Toronto Maple Leafs. Honestly out of all the final four teams, I thought LSU were the favorites and I also thought that the UCLA/LSU match-up was gonna be must see TV. I treated Saturday night like the equivalent of a big boxing PPV fight night and it turned out to be the equivalent of watching back to back episodes of 7th Heaven on a Saturday night. Teams like Gonzaga, Texas, BC and all the #1 seeds must be killing themselves because they know they could’ve done better than this Final Four. The four top teams in the Big East would’ve crushed this Final Four squad!

Other random NCAA observations disappointed me as well. I thought Florida handled their victory like amateurs. I know they’re a young team and all that but honestly…Did Taurean Green carry a homemade championship belt on his shoulder after they won??!?! (I will be the first to admit, I loved Rasheed’s idea of carrying the belt as the Pistons defended their championship last year but that was a nice WWE/boxing belt… Taurean’s belt was homemade with fake gold in the shape of dollar signs with gator symbols on it). Florida also kept scoring during the final minute, throwing down dunks, instead of running the clock. This is not only a sign of disrespect but it also hurt many who bet on the under of 127 points for the final score.

I have other examples of Florida being immature (including someone giving a shout-out to Grandma Bojangles while Billy Packer was trying to get back to Greg Gumbel but that was more a case of adrenaline and joy than anything) but there is something else even more disappointing about the Final Four; CBS’s recap of the tournament to One Shining Moment. That was the worst montage ever!! I’m not a video editor and in no way have any sort of expertise in the area of video editing but isn’t the whole point of that montage to recap the NCAA tournament? CBS basically showed clips of player’s faces to Luther Vandross music. I think I saw about 3 or 4 seconds worth of basketball clips during One Shining Moment. I haven’t been that disappointed since Lindsay Lohan’s upskirt pics ( http://www.egotastic.com/image?path=0604/lindsay-lohan-ass-slip-01.jpg&info=Lindsay%20Lohan%20Ass%20Slip%20Pictures ).

Enough with the negativity and onto actual sports thoughts. Actually this can be disappointing depending on your point of view but I think that this was one of the last tournaments we’ll see where there was parity between every team in the tournament. With the NBA setting an age limit on players entering the draft, more big time high school players will play in big time college basketball programs. The mid majors will still play well and I still feel a 16 seed can eventually beat a #1 seed but I’m also expecting more of the top seeds to look like UCONN and not Iowa or Tennessee.

No one played better in this year’s tournament than Joakim Noah. He’s a great player, full of energy and shows skill that NBA scouts are certainly drooling over. A look at the bottom feeders in the NBA standings show many teams (Atlanta, Chicago – they own the Knicks pick which will be a column topic for another day) could use someone like him in their roster right now. That being said, I feel it would be better for him and the NBA if he stayed another year at Florida. It’s true he has nothing more to accomplish in college and he is definitely ready for the pros, especially when you compare him to some of the players who do come out and declare themselves draftworthy, but at the same time his offensive moves are the equivalent of Shaq’s rap skills. His points come off putbacks and dunks, Noah has no post moves and his jump shot is weird looking (overall he is weird looking). The NBA is not the best place to be to learn offensive moves; they don’t teach jump shooting, drop steps and hook shots in the NBA. The best comparison I can make here is with Tyson Chandler. Chandler’s longer, bigger, more athletic than Noah and they play the exact same style of basketball yet after 5 years in the NBA Chandler still does not have any moves in the offensive end. For every Chandler, there’s a Kevin Garnett or Amare Stoudemire and Noah could be another exception but the point is the NBA is not the best place to learn fundamentals. His parents are already millionaires so money won’t be the primary factor as to whether he stays or declares for the draft and he also seems to be enjoying himself in college. Whatever decision he makes, I’m sure it’ll be well thought out since his father is a former star athlete and Joakim probably has the right people around him but consider me someone who thinks he can use more grooming in college before an NBA teams invests $9M in lottery money on a project because that is what he is.

The last weekend of March Sports heaven

It was a big weekend in sports with the best yet to come…As the last days of March just passed its time to reflect on the month all sportslovers wait for year long and will now have to struggle through another 334 days before we get that epiphany again…

The playoff races in the NHL and NBA have cleared up a little bit, Opening day in baseball is almost here. And the golden jewel of March the NCAA tournament is coming to an end, with two unlikely teams left…Florida and UCLA.

In retrospect there were some great moments in March…here is my favourites..

7) The World Baseball Classic – designed to showcase the stars of the Major Leagues, it ended up showcasing the stars from around the world…as one team with almost no major leaguers on its roster (Japan) and a team with no major leaguers and almost not allowed to play (Cuba) squared off for the title. Finally won by baseball loving Japan.

6) The stirring March run of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks who since their 1-15 start have been the hottest team in the league. That continued in March as they went from lottery contenders to a playoff force to be reckoned with.

5) The NCAA Elite Eight was full of awesome games, probably the most exciting of which was giant killers, George Mason, beating UConn in overtime….The remaining games were almost as entertaining but simply couldn’t match that Rocky-esque battle

4) The NCAA sweet sixteen…memorable matchups included the the Texas-West Virginia, Duke-LSU, Villanova-Boston College, and the best of all the UCLA-Gonzaga.Can you imagine if UCLA didn’t make the 10 point comeback in the last few minutes.

3) Spring golf – dominant performances by Ames and Mickelson…paired with a great performance the next dominant golfer, Michelle Wie…who at 16 is beating all but 2 grown women. For a moment on Sunday I thought I was going to see history. Instead I saw the exuberance of youth as she missed ever so slightly winning outright and then the putt to be in a playoff.

2) The even more improbable run of the Florida Panthers…prompting nearly every sports team to petition to have Florida in their name. Considering two Florida teams (Panthers and Gators) were a combined 21-2 in their last 23 games!

1) Finally the number 1 thing in March is that it has led to the beginning of April…where on just the 3rd day of April we have the bulk of opening days in baseball, several super important NHL playoff battles and most importantly the NCAA title game.

All in all it was a fantastic final weekend in THE month of sports, MARCH, and I can’t wait for the next 331 days to pass so I can do it all over again. For the time being I suppose I will just have to survive on April and the the first men’s golf major of the year, the NHL and NBA playoffs, MLB baseball, and the countdown to the World Cup in Germany.

331 days and counting…