A view form the chair

Time to answer one comment on my blog. Mary Ellen asked why I don’t mention the UConn women's basketball team? First off I enjoy women’s basketball a lot more than the men’s game because it is played below the rim. I don’t mention them because they have won 61 games in a row and beat all of their opponents by 25 or more points. It is like one sportscaster said this weekend, ho hum, they win again. Every time we think they’re going into a tough game, like Stanford or North Carolina, they keep it close for the first half then pull away in the second half. In the past I have talked about Head Coach Geno Auriemma. I happen to think he is overrated. This month on ESPN College Gameday Geno gave great insight to why the program is so successful and kind of changed my mind about him. He said that they practice for every game and don’t over look any opponents. He also recruits players that want to be great and not just good. For a good source of information I would direct you to the site sox and dawgs. I have posted the link in the links section of this blog. Each day they have daily links to all the beat writers around the state that cover the UCONN women. Without access I can just write what I see. If you have questions about a team or event that you head about on the news or on the radio, send me an e-mail at jdlazaroff@yahoo.com, I would love to hear from you.

Congratulations to Kelly Kulick for being to first women to win a Professional Bowlers Association title. Kulick beat Chris Barnes to win the prestigious Tournament of Champions event. You go girl!


Two big events last weekend were the Strikeforce MMA event on Showtime Saturday night. I talked about this stacked card about a month ago so I wont go further. I do want to talk about Bobby Lashley’s opponent UFC veteran Wes Sims. Wes will not be an easy win for Lashley. This will be a very interesting fight. The other interesting person who is making his MMA debut is 1982 Heisman Trophy win Herschel Walker. At first I thought this was a joke but in recent interviews Herschel has stated the he is very serious about this and is training every day for this fight. How will a 47-year-old man do in a young man’s game?
Update: It was very interesting; Herschel Walker beat his younger opponent in the third round via a TKO. From what I have seen and heard he was very impressive. In his post fight news conference, Herschel said that this was just a one-fight deal and he’s done with MMA. Good job Herschel you did it and won now leave the stage.
The other event is the NFL Pro Bowl. This is the first year it was held one week before the Super Bowl. When this was first announced (the Pro Bowl is usually the week after the Super Bowl) I thought this would not work. It is not a very well played game because there’s nothing to play for. I now think it is a good idea. After the Super Bowl a lot of people consider football season over. You now have the NFL’s best (minus the players in the Super Bowl) on the same stage as the Super Bowl.
Update: I watched and I now think whenever the Pro Bowl is played it is a bad idea because like any All-Star game there is no defense played in the game and this makes it boring.

Update on the story I brought you last time about the Togo National Team being attacked on their way to the African Nationals Cup Soccer Tournament in January. The new news is that the Confederation of African Football has banned the Togo Team from the next two African Nations Cup tournaments for withdrawal from this year's tournament in the wake of a gun attack on their team bus. My question is why are they being banned? They did nothing wrong, and were not even the target of the attack. Two members of their delegation were killed in the ambush; I would leave the tournament too to bury my friends. I think this ban is insensitive and just wrong.

What I’M looking forward to this weekend

Sunday is the Super Bowl at 6:25 on CBS. The year’s game is the Indianapolis Colts against the New Orleans Saints. I think the game will be a shootout as you have two of the best quartbacks in the league, with Peyton Manning of the Colts against Drew Brees of the Saints. I will be having my party of one on Sunday.

I think this will be the first time the Six Nations (England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France and Italy) Rugby Championships will be on America TV and the best part is it will be Live. The first game will be this Saturday at 12 noon when Wales takes on England from London. It will be on BBC America. I can’t wait!!

Next week I hope to have my Winter Olympic preview.

Jamie Lazaroff