Durzblog

I guess now that it has been a week (officially in 6 hours) of mourning for the Huskies -- its time to get back to the sports world.

Monday I will be unveiling Durz's first annual MLB preview (I can't believe the baseball season is here)...the baseball season feels like a slow death to me most of the time -- but the beginning is always exciting and who knows.

The first Sox-Yanks series is only a couple of weeks a way, you can forget about Duke and UNC Hoops, that is the best rivalry American sports has to offer (in my unbiased east coast opinion).

Its not going to be all bad for the city of brotherly love this summer, come August there will be a brand new Phils fan in the world (whether Kris likes it or not this kid is going to be a cheese steak eating phitin's fan!)

News and Notes
NHL hockey, regular season is winding down and the Rangers are putting themselves in some decent shape in a jammed Eastern Conference. A home and home with the Islanders next week is going to tell a bit on where the blueshirts position themselves. Washington, Philadelphia and Boston will battle it out for the last two spots with only a handful of games to play. Nashville and Edmonton are chasing Vancouver for the final spot out West. UConn Football, Leon Kinnard, a 5-9, 180-pound quarterback from Baltimore, MD gave an oral commitment to UConn Thursday according to scout.com. Kinnard, who runs a 4.4 forty with great all around athleticism, also had an offer on the table from Maryland. Kinnard is the second oral commitment of the 2009 signing class, joining Seymour linebacker Mike Osiecki who committed earlier this month.

Husky Hoops, AJ price goes in for surgery today on his torn ACL in Farmington. The recovery time is expected to be six months. Godspeed. In addition yesterday Jimmy decided to open up the vault at Gampel and let out some juicy information. Calhoun says that at least two players (not including Thabeet) have played their last game at Uconn. For one it is a playing time issue (Curtis Kelly I suspect) and the other for conduct and academics (likely Doug Wiggins). There is an uproar on the message boards about how we don't want to lose our spark plug in Doug. I cannot stand his offensive game -- so I am really not going to miss him all that much. Calhoun's candor in talking about this is odd and certainly opens him up to criticism, some might see him sounding more like an NBA GM than a college coach. Be that as it may, I suspect Kelly to go looking for some minutes at another school and Dougie to actually get released from his scholarship because he absolutely refuses to learn from any mistakes and second chances that the Uconn basketball program has allowed him. Ater Majok is reportedly ready to step in and fill one of these new spots. Again this is all speculation as to specifics...but it looks like Wiggins is a goner and I don't mind. Matt Brady, in kind of a shocker (originally) -- Brady has left my old alma mater and has been named the head coach of James Madison University. Brady did well up at Marist and was a good hire by Tim Murray (now lets make it two in a row). As opposed to some weak whiny comments in the Poughkeepsie Journal, I wish Brady well -- he put the Foxes into the upper echelon of the MAAC and the Dukes have made a strong hire. PGA, it was nice to see Tiger not win at Doral last week! Nothing against Mr Woods but its nice to see winning a PGA tour event is not the easiest thing in the world as he has many causal viewers believing. Augusta is two weeks away and it would be awfully nice to see Tiger battling with Phil as they did in Boston last year. This week the Tour is in New Orleans and next week they go to Houston before heading to the year's first major. A tradition like no other...I actually just get excited thinking of listening to Clampett and Kratz calling the action around Amen Corner.

Fußball, The USMNT won at 3-0 at Poland on Wednesday, giving them consecutive victories in Europe for the first time ever. The Yanks play exhibitions at England on May 28 and at Spain on June 4. The U.S. starts World Cup qualifiers against Barbados on June 15 at Home Depot Center, then play at Barbados the following weekend. U.S. soccer completed plans Thursday to play Argentina in June at Giants Stadium. Speaking of Giants Stadium, Colombian forward Oscar Echeverry signed with the New York Red Bulls on Wednesday. Liverpool co-owner George Gillett revealed (to the BBC) that his relations with partner Tom Hicks (business partner that is to say) are now unworkable. Real Madrid's Bernabeu Stadium has been chosen as the venue for the 2010 Champions League final. Big Dance, the final four will be set this Sunday. Nova battles the Kansas Jayhawks tonight -- hoping to have two Big East teams in the elite 8. Odds don't seem great granted. I would look for Texas and Wisconsin to get comfortably into the next round, but I really don't know what to make of the Memphis/Michigan State tilt. Can the Spartans force a half court game on the Tigers? Saturday's Louisville/UNC game could be the event of the weekend -- my brackets are on life support and a Cards win could remedy that rather quickly. At least it would take me to the top of the standing with regards to the in laws...Congrats to Sean Miller and the Xavier Musketeers for getting to the Elite 8 last night -- great game, good to see a coach stick by a program in a non "power conference". Kansas and UCLA are looking like the best bets to get through, but you never know -- it is March after all. All the game are good.

Thats it for now, enjoy the weekend

Good luck greycat