How is Michigan (basketball) Not Top 25

With college football's regular season coming to a close you may not have noticed college basketball is in full swing. In that case you certainly would not know that Michigan has been excluded from the most current top 25. At 6-2 this isn't unfathomable until you take a closer look and when you do I think you won't be able to do anything else but scratch your head.

I have no love for Michigan Sports, C-webb blowing the national finals for the Maize and Blue didn't bother me one bit. That being said certain things in sports don't make sense to me and this is one of them.

Michigan as I stated is currently 6-2. Who have they lost to? At a neutral site to Duke who is 8-1 and the current number 7 team in the nation and on the road at Maryland a fellow fringe top 25 team. So neither of them were particularly bad loses.

So no bad loses how bout big wins? How does winning their second meeting with Duke who was in the top 5 at the time sound? How about a neutral site victory versus the then top 5 and current number 15 ucla bruins? Those sound like pretty nice wins to me.

So they have no big loses and a couple big victories, but that doesn't mean much if the rest of the top 25 can also make that case. They can't. Take number 25 Kansas their only loss was a neutral site loss to Syracuse who is currently number 13, so not a bad lose even if 'Cuse was unranked at the time. However who's their biggest win against? Washington? not an awful team, but not great either or maybe Kent State? New Mexico State?

Or how about number 24 Marquette who's 7-1 as well, and beat a very quality team in Wisconsin. However they also lost to Dayton, not a pushover, but not a borderline top 25 team either.

I could go on but I'll just add one more team they could easily be ahead of… UCLA. I know that's silly after all UCLA is much better right? But uh UCLA lost to Michigan, UCLA lost to Texas and you know who UCLA has beaten? NO ONE. I think everyone knows UCLA will end the season ahead of Michigan and yes early season rankings don't matter but I don't understand how they deserve a top 25 spot and Michigan doesn't.

Was it Really That Bad? Sean Avery Addition

So I read Sean Avery was being suspended for his comments the other day and I was shocked. Mostly because it’s not the playoffs yet so I didn’t know the NHL season had started, but also because he was suspended for comments.

Don’t get me wrong I can understand why the comments themselves were offensive to women, and shouldn’t have been said. As a guy I can’t fully understand how offensive they were but I understand they were offensive.

In all honesty I doubt a good percentage of women where all that offended and this yahoo article details that.

But I don’t want to argue about how offensive the comments are or are not, I’m willing to concede that they are offensive. However offensive they are though they’re still just words, comments, etc. Don’t we usually just fine people for comments? I mean in the NBA people get fined for all kinds of comments about referees and other things. I don't recall anyone getting suspended in this way for just comments.

The NHL has players elbowing each other, fighting each other, taking each other out at the knees and doing all types of reprehensible acts and this is what makes news? This is what warrants a 6 game suspension?

As far as I can tell the NHL made this a much bigger situation than it warranted by suspending him. There’s a good chance if they had just fined him and moved on no one outside of Dallas and parts of Canada would have even known he said it in the first place.

I’ll finish by asking this simple question: Sean Avery was suspended by Gary Bettmen and the NHL. Is it a coincidence that Sean Avery is also the same guy who basically said the NHL didn’t know what it was doing and didn’t know how to market itself?

The Giants Are Just Cooler Than You

Cool has a lot of meanings in our society. It could mean you’re just plain cold because the weather out is frigid. It could mean you’re the epitome of what’s “happening” or what’s “hip” or it could simply mean you don’t get rattled. If you haven’t guessed by now which cool I’m talking about in terms of the New York Football Giants it’s clearly the latter.

The Giants are not an exceptionally talented team. They have good players all around but I don’t think anyone would argue they have the QB, running back, LT, etc in the league. They had one of the better receivers in the league, but are currently 2-0 without him. One can’t really say they’ve been all that fortunate. They’ve had injuries to cornerbacks, Osi has been out all season, Brandon Jacobs has been out a game, and Plaxico is now suspended for the rest of the season for being the dumbest player in the league.

Yet despite all this they’re 11-1 and increasingly the biggest reason is they’re just plain cooler then you.

Perhaps it stems from the coaching staff, which demands complete focus no matter what’s going on around you. Or maybe it stems from their QB who once was criticized for being too unemotional, when in fact it’s his calm demeanor through the bad and the good that has been his biggest asset the last two years.

Whatever the case may be the Giants this year have been plain unflappable. Whether it’s the Plaxico suspension or the Plaxico self-mutilation, whether it’s a horrid loss against Cleveland on Monday Night or a schedule that features 10 straight winning teams to finish the season, the Giants just keep rolling along.

There’s still a lot of football to be played and still four more good teams in the regular season, but as a Giants fan I couldn’t be any more pleased with how they’ve played this year. I’m not going to predict the future I’m simply telling you where they are now and how they got there. Simply put they’ve shown that teamwork and coolness are probably the most important things that separate the 11-1 teams from the 0-12 in the NFL.