Poll Voting and Darryl Strawberry

When Jerry Izenberg is on, I like him a lot. I thought today's column really captured Darryl Strawberry, as the fallen star's name appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot.

I've started to read Rick Bozich more lately. He wrote a strong column on being an A.P. Football voter and the responsibility that goes with it, amid his own frustrations about the BCS. I liked it.

Poll Week IV

1. Georgia Tech
2. Wake Forest
3. Kansas
4. Syracuse
5. Illinois
6. Oklahoma State
7. Kentucky
8. Duke
9. Pitt
10. Connecticut
11. Maryland
12. Mississippi State
13. North Carolina
14. Washington
15. Michigan State
16. Alabama
17. Notre Dame
18. North Carolina State
19. Virginia
20. Iowa
21. Louisville
22. Texas
23. Boston College
24. Florida
25. Arizona

First of all I think I may have sold Florida short in the preseason. They played well against Providence, who is hard to figure out. I wrestled back and forth with leaving Arizona in. Usually if a team is No.23 and they lose, that's instant bounce out, but they hung with Wake so I left them in.

Carolina is much better with Ray Felton, which is of course obvious, but I may have dropped them too far after the Santa Clara loss.

Maryland looked great against Memphis, but I'm wondering how good Memphis really is. Both the Terps and Heels might be better than Duke.

Is Iowa for real? Virginia? I'm watching Cincy and Marquette with curiosity.

Thanksgiving leftovers

Philly.com's Bob Ford and the Indy Star's Bob Kravitz have good Thanksgiving pieces.

Sheridan defends beer

Phil Sheridan's column is funny on one level, but its a well-thought out response to a lot of knee-jerk reactions to the fans and beer after the Artest brawl.

Gary Lundy 1954-2004

I dindn't know Gary Lundy, but I've heard good things. I'm some of you know him or have Matt him. My condolences.

The Knoxville coverage is here.

Ron Artest

You sure don't need Good Reads to find columns on Ron Artest and the Pacers-Pistons brawl. I'm pretty sure the yellow-smily face guy had a column on it in this week's Wal-Mart circular, so I'm not going to post a bunch of them.

I am going to poist Jason Whitlock's. He takes a racially controversial stand on the topic that is sure to spark some discussion. Enjoy.

Ron Artest

You sure don't need Good Reads to find columns on Ron Artest and the Pacers-Pistons brawl. I'm pretty sure the yellow-smily face guy had a column on it in this week's Wal-Mart circular, so I'm not going to post a bunch of them.

I am going to poist Jason Whitlock's. He takes a racially controversial stand on the topic that is sure to spark some discussion. Enjoy.

My Poll III

1. Georgia Tech
2. Wake Forest
3. Kansas
4. Syracuse
5. Illinois
6. Oklahoma State
7. Kentucky
8. Duke
9. Pittsburgh
10. Louisville
11. Connecticut
12. Mississippi State
13. Maryland
14. North Carolina
15. Alabama
16. Michigan State
17. Texas
18. Notre Dame
19. North Carolina State
20. Washington
21. Virgina
22. Gonzaga
23. Arizona
24. Wisconsin
25. Boston College

I moved Syracuse up, past Illinois, who has dropped two spots without losing in the past two weeks. I don’t like to do that, but before I was guessing, now I’m watching and I think Syracuse is better than I thought.

I dropped Carolina a lot. Santa Clara is not that good although they’re in my file of teams to consider now.. I only dropped Mississippi State a little, because they were supposed to lose to Syracuse and they did it with a-far-less-than-100-percent Lawrence Roberts.

NC State got a little boost too. I think I underrated them early. Virginia is my first new entry. I'll almost guarantee they'll have a bad loss within the next 10 days and I haven't even looked at their schedule. Memphis was hard to bounce considering they only lost to Syracuse, but I wanted to get Virginia in.

* * *

If you missed Santa Clara upset coverage, it's here in the San Jose Mercury News.

Plaschke on Hank Gathers

Bill Plaschke has a nice Hank Gathers piece.

SI Preview and a couple of links

Sports Illustrated annually likes to make its preseason hoops picks a little unusual. This year is no different with North Carolina picked to be No. 1. The Tar Heels are very talented, but their chemistry could be an issue. They remind me a little of Missouri last year, albeit with a much better coach. All the online stuff is here.

I was wrong about GW staying within 10 points of Wake but I thought the Colonials played well for most of it.

Links:
Ian O'Connor tells Joe Pa to keep fighting the good fight.

Mike Bianchi is enjoying Dwight Howard's exuberance.

This is a fun walk-on story. You may recognize one of the characters if you read The Last Amateurs.

Zo

I enjoyed this NY Daily News story about Zo and his cousin who donated a kidney to him.

1. Georgia Tech
2. Wake Forest
3. Kansas
4. Illinois
5. Syracuse
6. North Carolina
7. Mississippi State
8. Oklahoma State
9. Duke
10. Kentucky
11. Pitt
12. Arizona
13. Louisville
14. Connecticut
15. Maryland
16. Alabama
17. Michigan State
18. Texas
19. Notre Dame
20. Memphis
21. Washington
22. Gonzaga
23. NC State
24. Wisconsin
25. Boston College

Notes: Everybody that was in my poll last week either won or didn't play. I made one switch. I flip-flopped Kansas and Illinois. I had gone back and forth between these two in the preseason and Illinois' loss of Randle was enough to make the switch for me.

Fearless predicition: I'm not courageous enough to pick GW to beat Wake Monday night, but I bet the Colonials give them a game. I think it'll be closer than 10.

Simers takes tennis to task on its objectification of Sharapova.

NY Times on Alonzo Mourning

I'm admittedly a sucker for stories like Jeff Jacobs column on an instance of sportsmanship in high school swimming.

Memphis' Geoff Calkins examines the headscratcher that is the robbery of Tigers' apartment. Plenty of fur jokes mixed in.

Finally a familiar name made an appearance in Traveling Violations, Dan Wetzel's annual romp through college basketball's heartland. You have to appreciate a tradition that's continued through Wetzel's third job.

A.P. Preseason Top 25

My Motivation for getting the tabs aligned here is nonexistent. Here's the actual poll.

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1 Kansas (25) 24-9 1,697 16
2 Wake Forest (22) 21-10 1,680 17
3 Georgia Tech (10) 28-10 1,567 14
4 North Carolina (10) 19-11 1,558 18
5 Illinois (2) 26-7 1,457 13
6 Syracuse 23-8 1,452 20
7 Oklahoma St. (2) 31-4 1,342 4
8 Connecticut 33-6 1,281 7
9 Kentucky (1) 27-5 1,177 2
10 Arizona 20-10 1,061 22
11 Duke 31-6 981 5
12 Mississippi St. 26-4 913 8
13 Michigan St. 18-12 910 --
14 Louisville 20-10 876 --
15 Maryland 20-12 765 19
16 Texas 25-8 671 12
17 Pittsburgh 31-5 596 9
18 Alabama 20-13 510 --
19 N.C. State 21-10 490 15
20 Notre Dame 19-13 429 --
21 Wisconsin 25-7 378 10
22 Washington 19-12 355 --
23 Florida 20-11 337 --
24 Memphis 22-8 283 24
25 Gonzaga 28-3 215 3
Others receiving votes: Stanford 90, Michigan 74, Charlotte 37, Providence 32, S. Illinois 31, Utah 31, Cincinnati 30, Oklahoma 28, Boston College 7, UTEP 7, George Washington 6, UAB 6, Xavier 5, ETSU 4, LSU 4, Tennessee 4, Toledo 4, UCLA 4, UNLV 4, Iowa St. 2, Oregon 2, Rice 2, DePaul 1, Indiana 1, Va. Commonwealth 1, Vanderbilt 1, Vermont 1.

Shaughnessy column

Dan Shaugnessy wrote a fun column about Sunday's Patriots win.





The Indy Star's Mike LoPresti lays out a potnetial disaster for the BCS, aka potentail great news for people that want a playoff.


Bill Reynolds has a good column in Jim Baron


Bob Ryan on Dan Duquette still being excited about the Sox winning.


Wetzel's annual preseason romp through college hoops has begun. Check it daily here.http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/expertsarchive?author=Dan+Wetzel

One of the good guys is walking away

Vermont coach Tom Brennan is one of my absolute favorite guys in college basketball. He announced Thursday that he's going to hang up his whistle. The game will miss him


Here's the Burlington Free Press' account of his decision.

USA Today did a feature on him the day before the announcement.

Love that dirty water...

There aren't enough columnists, who incorporate great reporting into their column. Plaschke is always an exception.

He chronicled The Standells' trip to Boston to play their one hit Dirty Water, which has become a Red Sox anthem.

Finally Right

Woj has a nice overview piece.

Leigh Montville

I can't read Leigh Montville and not wish he was still a regular column presence in Boston. I still miss his work.

His guess column Sunday about the Red Sox winning the World Series was so full of joy and so devoid of cynicism, which is such a rarity in this business, or anywhere really.