Sports Updates

Alright, it's been awhile since the last blog so there's a lot of catching up to do. First off, a story close to most of our readers homes, Vander Blue. The Junior, Madison Memorial guard recently withdrew his oral commitment to the Badgers. Usually the Badgers Basketball don't get much national publicity, but I found a great article about it on CBS Sportsline. It's definitely worth checking out. http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/11776517
As a Badger basketball season ticket holder, Blue was the first recruit I've been excited about since Alando Tucker, and it appears that us, (The Fans,) played a large role in Wisconsin losing him.


A couple NFL Power Rankings were recently released and here's how they shaped up:

Peter King's (Sports Illustrated) Power Rankings:

1. New England
   
2. Pittsburgh
3. New York Giants
4. Chicago
5. Indianapolis
6. Philadelphia
7. San Diego
8. Baltimore
9. Dallas
10. Tennessee
11. Atlanta
12. Arizona
13. Houston
14. Green Bay
15. Minnesota
16. New York Jets
17. Miami
18. Carolina
19. Seattle
20. Denver
21. Jacksonville
22. Buffalo
23. Washington
24. New Orleans
25. San Francisco
26. Tampa Bay
27. Oakland
28. Cincinnati
29. Kansas City
30. St. Louis
31. Detroit
32. Cleveland

ESPN's Power Rankings:

1. Pittsburgh
2. New England
3. New York Giants
4. Philadelphia
5. Indianapolis
6. Baltimore
7. San Diego
8. Tennessee
9. Arizona
10. Carolina
11. Atlanta
12. Chicago
13. Dallas
14. Minnesota
15. Miami
16. New Orleans
17. Green Bay
18. Houston
19. Washington
20. New York Jets
21. Buffalo
22. Seattle
23. Cincinnati
24. Jacksonville
25. Denver
26. San Francisco
27. Tampa Bay
28. Cleveland
29. Kansas City
30. Oakland
31. St. Louis
32. Detroit

Personally I am more in favor of the ESPN poll, let me know what you think...

Next up, a little college hoops talk. Memphis has the NCAA investigating some violations that occurred while Coach John Calipari was there. I feel terrible for Tigers fans; as if it wasn't bad enough that Calipari took all their recruits with him, now this happens. There is a good possibility that Memphis will have to forfeit their NCAA Final Four banner and games, and I think Calipari needs to take a lot of the heat. This is the second time major violations have come down on his programs, just as he moves onto the next one. Calipari was alerted of the violations via a letter from the NCAA before he took the job at Kentucky. That might have made the decision to leave Memphis even an easier one than it already was. He needs to be punished just as much, if not more, than the University of Memphis should be. He may be one of the best recruiters of all time, but how often does he cut corners and break rules to do get athletes?

The single thing I am looking forward to this coming college football season, is watching Lane Kiffin and the Tennessee Volunteers. I have never sat down just to watch Tennessee before in my life, but after seeing all the drama and bad-blood Kiffin's caused just in the off-season, I can't wait to see what happens when players actually start getting their pads on and hitting each other. He's already stolen great coaches away from other SEC teams, grabbed recruits from other SEC teams at the last minute, and called out other coaches and programs (Even if the program didn't do anything wrong, cough, Florida, cough.) Just when I thought things had died down for awhile, audio has been released of a confrontation between South Carolina coach, Steve Spurrier , and Lane Kiffin while waiting for an elevator. Its nothing too spicy, but still worth a listen:
http://www.4shared.com/file/108262296/a3d5ac06/Spurrier_asked_about_Kiffin_apology_remark_confronts_him_by_elevator.html
As if SEC football already wasn't the most fun conference to watch, the addition of Kiffin just makes it that much better.

Stay Ferocious,

Riles P