Not a good weekend for me. First CU loses, and then the Bears finally prove to be "who we thought they were." Hell, even my first attempt at a cheesecake came out all fucked up this weekend. Just overall bad Juju. In the bag today I'll take a look at the CU and Bears losses, size up CU's remaining Tourney hopes, quickly glance at the Superbowl match-up, and, to wash away the losing taste in my mouth, briefly touch on Soxfest.
Click Below for the bag....
Buffs lose in Norman, OK - It's amazing how quickly things can turn around in sports. Seven days ago the entirety of Buff Nation (myself included) was slightly more than giddy about CU's 3-0 start against some pretty tough Big XII foes. With 2 winnable road games on the horizon, and, finally, some national attention, it looked like the Buffs were in a position to take the basketball world by storm. Then came back-to-back losses against weaker opponents; the cherry on top of the shit-pile being a demoralizing 67-60 defeat to Oklahoma, the second worst team in the conference, on Saturday. It's never easy to win on the road in the Big XII, but damn did that one hurt.
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| OU streaked past CU on Saturday. From: the Oklahoman |
CU continued a run of poor shooting, and finished the game 1-10 from 3-point range. In addition, for the second straight game, CU allowed their opponent to shoot over 50%. That staunch defense which had befuddled 3 pretty good teams to start conference play all but abandoned CU over the past week. OU even kept CU in the game by shooting a paltry 64% from the free throw line, but CU couldn't take enough of an advantage. In essence, CU didn't score enough and didn't play defense well enough to win; basketball is an easy game to figure out when you boil it down like that.
The Road ahead - What had incredibly started as a 3-0 dream beginning to conference play has quickly turned into a slightly above average 3-2. At the beginning of conference play I said that a 3-2 start, with a following win over Kansas, should pave the way for a CU run at the dance, and by no means do I think that 2 road loses kill that Tourney opportunity. However, any 3-2 projection I ran included a win at OU. Sure, CU hasn't won in Norman in over 30 years, so any expectation of a win came with historical oversight, but I guarantee you that the selection committee will not look to kindly on the loss to struggling Oklahoma. That game, along with the USF loss in November, will be stamped on CU's resume in big red letters come Selection Sunday.
So what does CU have to do in order to have a chance? Well with the Buffs pitiful non-conference strength of schedule (#317 on kenpom), it'll take a lot of wins over highly ranked teams down the stretch in conference play. Luckily for CU, it has that opportunity, and has it at home. Highly ranked Kansas, Texas, and A&M all come into Boulder. I don't want to say CU needs to sweep those 3 games to have a shot at the Tourney, but 2 of 3 is a must.
Overall, CU will need at minimum a 10-6 conference record. With 6 home games remaining, CU certainly needs to win at least 5 of them. That would put the Buffs at 8 conference wins, which would leave 2 more road wins to grab. Assume Texas Tech on Feb 23rd (I can assume that, right?); that leaves @ Baylor, Mizzou, Kansas, and Iowa St. None of those will be easy, and I consider them probable losses. Even should CU grab the 10 wins, I think they still may need at least one win in the Big XII tournament. Long-story short (too late), CU needs to play a lot better than they showed this past week.
The Bears lose; Pack to the Superbowl- Woof, was that game ugly. Other than the Packers opening drives, neither team really had any offensive rhythm. It certainly didn't help the Bears cause when Jay Cutler was forced to the sidelines with an as yet undisclosed knee injury. As a result of the injury, I had to watch the Bears fight for the Superbowl behind the immortal former CSU Ram QB Caleb Hanie; to say I was uncomfortable with this would be a massive understatement. Hanie played alright, but after the Packers successfully avoided Hester on that final punt I never really thought the Bears had a chance.
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| I may not be able to stand the guy, but his presence on the sidelines killed the Bears Sunday. From: the Trib |
Oh and the Pack get into the Superbowl after going 3-0 on the road; I don't give a shit. I certainly don't care about the Steelers, either. While I expect the game to be entertaining, I can't cheer for either team.
SoxFest - Ah, the eternal optimism of a new year in baseball. The annual White Sox winter convention wrapped up yesterday, just in time for all the Sox fans to rush home a watch the Bears lose. Over the weekend Ozzie got an extension, everyone was happy with each other, and we got a peek at Mark Buehrle's wine (the quaintly named "Buehrlot"). All in all a good weekend. Recently with the Sox these conventions have become all about Ozzie and Kenny trying to refrain from firing hate missiles at each other. With some new cash being thrown Ozzie's way, and $30 million more being poured into the roster than was expected, it's hardly a surprise that the weekend was one of smiles and good feelings. We'll see how long that lasts after the inevitable bout of piss-poor hitting settles in during April.
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| Danks, Dunn, and Beckham were all smiles over the weekend. From: the Trib |
Happy Monday!
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