The NBA isn’t what it once was. The elegance and passion of Jordan, Bird, and Magic has been replaced with a thug-like game of flopping, where an impressive dunk or “breaking an opposing players ankles” is more important than winning. However the days of glory and beautiful basketball may be returning.

While LeBron, Kobe, Wade and Chris Paul make up the soul of today’s NBA (all of whom are tremendous players and not included in today’s stereo-type “And One” players) there is definitely a new super star on the rise; Chicago’s Derrick Rose. Rose is merely a lock for this year’s Rookie of the Year honors, but his immediate future holds much more. His single handed domination of the Boston Celtics at the Garden in game one of the opening playoff round was remarkable, the single greatest performance by a rookie in a playoff game to be exact.

I do believe the Bulls will eventually loose the series in six games, considering Boston is superior both in talent and experience. But Rose has definitely changed my opinion of  him. Living in New Jersey I haven’t seen him play much, aside from last year’s NCAA Tournament and a few highlights on Sportscenter, but his performance against Boston in game one showed his true talent and colors.

It could be early, but with Rose leading the Chicago attack, the Bulls could become a formatable force in the Eastern Conference as soon as next season, or this season, considering Chicago is currently leading the Celtics again in game two 59-56 at the half.

Cutler

What the? Who’s a? Whaaaaa?! Yeah it’s true, the heir apparent to John Elway has traded his oxygen tank for his wind breaker. The former savior of the mile high city is now the savior of the windy one, as the Broncos traded away Jay Cutler and a fifth round pick in this years draft to the Bears for two first and a third round picks in this and next year’s drafts and QB Kyle Orton. It was only a matter of time before the Broncos had a deal done for possibly the hottest young talent in the NFL after they announced Tuesday that they would actively pursue deals for trading away their 25 year old Pro Bowl quarterback.

McDaniels

There couldn’t be a more infamous, and maybe disastrous, way for Josh McDaniels to begin his tenure in Denver. Not only did he believe his own hype, but he successfully managed to alienate and jettison one of the best young players in the NFL, and the young face that his team was building around. Way to go Josh, you DB.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Broncos fan, but the fact that McDaniels came in and fee-fie-foe’d around like he was Bill Parcells while having been nothing but another coordinator under the “Rain Man” Bill Belichick (just look how well his first three proteges have fared; Weis, Crennel and Mangini) and pretty much spit in the face of the most talented player and leader on his football team. Kinda seems that Coach McDaniels is pretty sure his shit smells like Polo Sport.

It’s not all his fault though, Cutler could have been the bigger person and sat down face to face and patch things up with McDaniels…again. But when your not returning your real boss’s phone calls, the owner, then you had better believe that your time in that job is over. Just imagine if you had a problem at work, refused to show up, and then didn’t return the phone calls coming down from corporate trying to patch things up. You think you’d be fired? Yeah.

This will probably go down as the most ridiculous, and stupid, divorce in the NFL’s recent history, and maybe sports. McDaniels was an ignorant fool and Cutler was a spoiled brat. Can’t you boys just play nice, go make millions of dollars, try and win a pro sports championship and live lives any number of people would give their first-borns for? I guess not.

Congrats to the Bears, by the way. With Forte and Cutler holding down the back field, the Bears’ offense should equal if not surpass their defense in 2009, which could make for another Super Bowl run.

Well he did it. John Calipari was officially named as the new head coach of the Kentucky Wildcats this morning, did this suprise anyone? Yeah sure Cal made it clear that he loved coaching in Memphis, that his team was like “family”, but…it’s Kentucky.

Calipari accepting the head coaching job at the “Notre Dame of basketball” wasn’t a huge shocker to anyone, except for maybe the Tigers who are now left holding a bag that, by the looks of it, could be empty. When interviewed by ESPN earlier in the week on the possibility of Calipari accepting Kentucky’s offer, the nation’s number one recruit, and committed Memphis Tiger, Xavier Henry said he’d “wait and see” how the Calipari situation developed before deciding on whether to follow the coach that recruited him, or stay at the school that signed him.

As for Cal turning around the Wildcats, I wouldn’t look for a long painful over-haul here. Truth of the matter is that Billy Gillispie had solid recruiting classes each of his two seasons at UK. One of those player being Jodie Meeks, whom I’m sure Cal can’t wait to start grooming into his next Derek Rose. Gillispie, on the other hand, just wasn’t cut out for the gig. Gillispie was a very reserved, stand-off-ish guy who could never communicate his coaching style to his players or others in Lexington. Calipari, on the other hand, is a very personable individual who shouldn’t have a problem dealing with the spot light, and seems ready to embrace the Kentucky Wildcat traditions that Gillispie chose to ignore.

In the end, Kentucky and Calapari should fit together like awkward dancing at a seventh grade social. Can’t decide whether I’d call that fit good, or just plain natural, we shall see.

UConn has been by far the most dominating presence in the tourney so far, beating their first two opponents by a combined 80+ points. But who have they really played? Possibly the weakest 16 seed in the tourney in Chattanooga, who with out wining their conference championship, would have been snubbed by the NIT let alone the NCAA tournament with a very mediocre 18-17 regular season record in a weak non-BCS conference. What about their latest punching bag Texas A&M? While I expected a closer game than the 92-66 shellacking that UConn put on the Aggies, A&M is a very young team. With only two seniors on their roster and little to no tournament experience, the Aggies were clearly over matched and showed their inexperience by basically bowing to the Huskies in the second half of Friday nights game.

Let’s wind the clocks bag to March 6. If Louisville doesn’t win the Big East conference and tournament titles, Memphis probably gets that  fourth #1 seed in the tournament. There’s no question that Conference USA is weaker than big boys like the Big East, ACC and Big 12, but put Memphis in any of those conferences and there’s little question they would contend for a conference title each year. Memphis knows how to win games, period. They came into the tournament with the best record and hold it still as they’re the only team with 33 wins on the season to only three losses. John Calapari is perhaps the best coach at preparing his team for a game. Memphis plays a very fast paced trasition offense, with an emphasis on high percentage shooting. they cant literally out run almost any team in the tournement with the exception of maybe UNC.

UConn is exceptional defensively, but they aren’t fast. If one thing has been proven in the game of basketball, the team who plays productively at a fast pace wins. That will be the case when UConn and Memphis meet two weeks from now, as Memphis will simply use there speed and tempo to frusterate the Huskies, resulting in foul trouble for the lumbering Thabeet causing him to ride the bench for most of the important moments of the game. This leaves Memphis as the only none #1 seed in my final four, though the Tigers could have easily been a one seed if only a few games had gone different in that Big East Tournement.

Final Four: Louisville, Memphis, Pitt, UNC.

The one team playing tonight with probably two of the best young players in the country is Wake Forrest. Freshman forward Al-Farouq Aminu and sophomore guard Jeff Teague could possibly develop into one of the best player tandems in the country if the two decide to continue to play at Wake and for go the NBA for a while. The young looking, yet powerful Aminu, proves to be a solid force under the basket averaging nearly a double-double a game, with 13 points and 9 rebounds. While Aminu is still very raw, the way he can dominate under the basket and throw the ball down with tremendous force will allow him to develop into a premiere low post player by the middle of next season if not sooner.

His teammate Jeff Teague has posted equally impressive numbers for the Demon Deacons this season from the guard position. Teague has taken the reigns as Wake’s leading scorer, averaging 21 points a game. His tendency to take high percentage shots while completing 80% of his free throws makes him one of the nations most impressive young scoring guards.

While Wake may have the best young guard/forward combo in the country, they may not be able to save the their perfect season and #1 rank as Wake currently trails  un ranked Virginia Tech early in the second half, 34-24. Either way, look for the Deacons to make some serious noise at the tournament in March as a probable #1 seed.

Source: Steven Raichlen
Method: Direct grilling
Makes about 32 pieces, serving 8 as an appetizer
Advance Preparation: 30 minutes to 1 hour for marinating the wings

For the wings and marinade:

12 whole chicken wings (about 2 pounds)
2 cups wheat beer
2 teaspoons coarse salt (kosher or sea)
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup Thai sweet chili sauce (a good brand is Mae Ploy, available in the
ethnic section of larger supermarkets)
1/4 cup chopped pistachios (optional)
1/4 cup chopped peanuts (optional)

You’ll also need:

1-1/2 cups smoking wood chips or chunks

Rinse the chicken wings under cold running water and blot dry with paper towels. Cut the tips off the wings and discard them (or leave the tips on if you don’t mind munching a morsel that’s mostly skin and bones). Cut each wing into 2 pieces through the joint. Place the wings in a large nonreactive bowl or resealable plastic bag and add the beer. Let the wings marinate for 12 to 24 hours; the longer they marinate, the more pronounced the beer flavor will be.

Place the salt, pepper, paprika, chili powder, and celery seed in a small bowl and whisk to mix. Set the rub aside.

Drain the wings in a colander and blot them dry with paper towels; discard the beer. Place the wings in a mixing bowl. Add the rub and toss to coat the wings evenly. Add the olive oil and toss well to mix.

Set up the grill for indirect grilling and preheat to medium. If using a gas grill, place all the wood chips or chunks in the smoker box or in a smoker pouch and run the grill on high until you see smoke; then reduce the heat to medium. If using a charcoal grill, place a large drip pan in the center, preheat the grill to medium, then toss all of the wood chips or chunks on the coals.

When ready to cook, brush and oil the grate. Place the wings in the center of the hot grate, over the drip pan and away from the heat, and cover the grill. Cook the wings, turning periodically, until the skin is golden brown and crisp, and the meat is cooked through, 30 to 40 minutes. During the last 5 minutes of cooking time, brush the wings with the Thai chili sauce and sizzle on both sides. To test for doneness, make a tiny cut in the thickest part of one of the larger wing halves. There should be no trace of red at the bone.

Transfer the wings to a clean shallow serving bowl or platter. Sprinkle the chopped pistachios and peanuts over the wings, if desired, and serve at once. You’ll want to provide plenty of napkins to your guests.

Yeah sure the Yankees do spend money as if it’s printed in the stadium basement (which it kind of is) but so what. I admit that I am a Yankee fan, so I’m a little bias on the subject, but quit crying. The MLB is the only major pro sport with out a salary cap, which means any team can spend as much as they want on any given player as long as they’re willing to pay a luxury tax (the legendary Yankee luxury tax is more than most team’s payrolls). The Yankees are the most recognized and profitable sports organization IN THE WORLD. They are worth over a BILLION DOLLARS. If they didn’t take advantage of not being under a salary cap and not try and bring in the best available players, they wouldn’t be doing their job as the mega powerhouse club that they are.

Think about it from a business perspective. The Yankees are a business, the team is their product, the fans are their stock holders. If Microsoft decided to stop spending millions of dollars a year on computer research and development because Apple called them the Monopoly Man (or according to the commercials old, fat and out of touch) would that sit well with Microsoft stock holders, consumers, users, etc.?

The truth is that the Yankees are obligated to put the best possible team (product) on the field each season because of their great influence on the market, the game, and their fans (stock holders). This of course does not mean that because the Yankees spend a quarter billion dollars a year on salary that they’ll win. Look what the Rays and Phillies did with just a pinch of what the Yankees pay out each year. But they’re not the Rays, or the Phillies, or the Pirates, of even the Cubs, they are the God Damn New York Yankees. So for all you fans of broke, cheap, incompetitant teams who take more joy in rooting against the Yankees then for your own team because of your own petty jelousy, GET OVER IT. Or you can get on the band waggon, we just added acouple extra thousand seats for you across the street.

“Playoffs, we’re talkin about playoffs?! Playoffs?” Probably not the quote Jim Mora senior wanted to be remembered for, but never the less. It seems that the cry for a playoff system in college football has finally been legitimized this season, with four BCS Bowl winners, USC, Utah, Texas and the winner of Thursday’s “Official” National Championship Game between Florida and Oklahoma, making great cases for their place atop the pile.

We’ve seen this before, as LSU and Oklahoma shared the BCS title back in 2004. Is that fair? Two teams sharing one championship trophy? Gimmie a break. That’s like saying the winner of the Super Bowl has to share the Lombardi Trophy with the team who had the best record in the regular season. Thankfully every professional sport avoid these very debocals with a playoff system; its not that crazy an idea.

So why if it works for every other sport, including the other major collegiate powerhouse in college basketball’s “March Madness”, wont college football join the party. Let me give you a hint, his first name’s Mo and his last name’s Ney as in MONEY. The 32 bowls played annually generate millions of dollars of revenue for the colleges participating, some higher and lower than other depending on the prestige of the bowl in question.

This brings us to the BCS Bowl series which includes The Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and the newly added BCS National Championship. Each team that receives a bid to any of these particular bowls earns a multi-million dollar check for their school just for showing up. Why give up the change to earn a million dollars to just show up and play a game so we can have a playoff? Because it’s the right thing to do.

Is the Sugar Bowl champ and only undefeated team in college football Utah the best? Is it USC who stomped all over Penn State for their third strait Rose Bowl win or Texas who missed playing in the National Title game by a fraction of a computer poll point, even though the beat higher ranked Oklahoma earlier in the season? Or is the winner between the “Official” National Championship game between Florida and Oklahoma really the best like the computers say? Guess we’ll never know.