March

It’s funny how this blogging thing works: you get on a roll posting every day, or multiple times a day, and it starts to become a part of your regular routine, but you only have to take a couple days off to fall right out of that routine and suddenly you’re not sure what all the fuss was about. Anyway, a planned short break turned into a week-long hiatus here at Brats & Beer during which there were several things I could have posted on, but didn’t. In the NCAA tournament, all three contending Badger State teams got bounced in the first round and I didn’t really feel the need to post any sad epitaph to those seasons. Wayne Morgan got the boot as coach of the ISU men’s basketball team (hereafter known as Mistake #1) and subsequently my alma mater hired former UNI coach Greg McDermott (to be known as Mistake #2), and still I was unmoved from the couch to post my misgivings. Japan won the World Baseball Classic in a pretty exciting game, but I didn’t really see the point of rambling on about it in this forum.

Finally, though, I am back at the keyboard, aroused from my blissful slumber by the Green Bay Packers, who yesterday signed Billy Cundiff as their replacement for kicker Ryan Longwell. It was bad enough that they couldn’t come up with the scratch to keep Longwell around, being that he’s only the leading scorer in team history and maybe one of the best kickers we’ve ever had, and it was just salt on the wound that he signed on with the hated Minnesota Vikings, but it boggles my mind that Ted Thompson thinks for a minute that picking up the former Drake Bulldog place kicker is going to be anything but a disaster.

Cundiff has made 73% of his field goal attempts during three full seasons and part of last year (before sustaining a season-ending hip injury) with the Dallas Cowboys, with his longest being 56 yards. Longwell, by comparison, leaves Green Bay after nine seasons having made almost 82% of his attempts. Looking just at attempts from 30 to 39 yards (the bread and butter for kickers), Billy made 73% of those kicks while Ryan managed an 87% success rate. Cundiff doesn’t even offer an upgrade on kickoff duties as his 61.2 yard average is nearly identical to Longwell’s career average. And let’s remember, Cundiff played half of his games indoors. (Okay, technically Texas Stadium is open to the elements, but compared to Lambeau Field the Cowboys are effectively a dome team.)

What’s even more frustrating is that the Packers signed Cundiff after entertaining Adam Vinatieri, maybe the best kicker in the league right now. His meeting with the team was described as “very positive” by coach McCarthy, but the former Patriot signed with Indianapolis instead. How do you let a guy like that, a guy who hit game-winning field goals in two Super Bowls, slip through your fingers? And how do you then fool yourself with the idea that Cundiff is the obvious answer? Heck, even though the guy is a jerk, I would have been happy had they signed Mike Vanderjagt.

It’s a story as old as the Internet itself, which admittedly isn’t very old at all. A group of friends get fed up with the content/service the old media companies are offering, decide they can do it better on their own, and start building a community. Dan at ArmchairGM sent me a note the other day letting me know about their project, and it sounds pretty cool: they are building a wiki-based sports community cover all the major sports leagues and college conferences, complete with news, commentary and franchise histories. It’s build on MediaWiki, the same platform as Wikipedia and many other wikis, so anyone and everyone is free to contribute. The Green Bay Packers section is looking a little sparse, so any of you Green & Gold boosters with a little spare time should head over and start filling in the gaps. (Say Dan, when the VC money starts rolling in, maybe you’ll remember the little people?)

So yesterday I was watching the Japan vs. USA in the World Baseball Classic. Actually, I wasn’t watching it because ESPN chose to show college basketball and MLB.com wants $19.99 to watch the few remaining games online (bastards!), so what I was watching was the real-time game data. Anyway, in the eighth inning I swore I saw Japan go up 4-3 but then when I looked back it was again tied 3-3. Eventually the US won the game on a run batted in by Alex Rodriguez. Today I awake and read the news that run Japan scored on a sacrifice fly was ruled an out because the umpire said Tsuyoshi Nishioka left third base before the ball was caught. And now comes the video which clearly shows Nishioka did in fact tag up and the run should have stood. Deadspin has posted the video (with Japanese commentary), so take a look for yourself. Hurray for the USA?

Well, the conference tournaments were pretty disappointing but now the NCAA tourney is set to begin. Wisconsin, which got booted in the quarterfinals after losing to Indiana 61-56, made the #9 seed in the Minneapolis bracket. They play on Friday against #8 seed Arizona and would advance to play Villanova, the top seed in that bracket. Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which beat Butler to win the Horizon League title, is the #11 seed and plays Oklahoma on Wednesday. Marquette, meanwhile, earned the #7 seed in the Oakland bracket and plays #10 seed Alabama on Wednesday. A win would probably send the Golden Eagles against UCLA, the #2 seed in that bracket. Sadly, though not unexpectedly, my Cyclones were shut out on the post-season invites, not even the NIT wanted them around. On the bright side, though, they are a pretty young team and should be returning a lot of starters from this year.

I was glad to see that the Packers managed to come to terms on a deal with defensive end Aaron Kampman. Just hours before free agency started Friday, the two sides finally agreed to a new four-year deal that will provide the seed for an improved defense this season. Kampman had a career-high six-and-a-half sacks last year and could be playing opposite from Mario Williams if Green Bay takes the NC State standout in the first round of the draft. Meanwhile, though, the Packers let place kicker Ryan Longwell escape to the HHH Dome in the Twin Cities. It’s bad enough that they could not come to terms with the team’s all-time leading scorer, but to allow him to now become a Viking is inexcusable. So now begins the long search for someone who can put the ball through the uprights at Lambeau Field in late December.

In other news, the Javon Walker soap opera started up again with the Pro-Bowl receiver telling ESPN he’d rather retire than play another season for Green Bay. Walker, coming off a knee injury last year, wants to be traded and has even said he’d pay back an $850,000 bonus to get out of his contract. No one has talked to Brett Favre about this yet, but in order for him to admonish Walker again in the press, he’ll have to come off the fence and decide to play another year.

The Wisconsin men’s hockey team swept Michigan Tech this weekend at the Kohl Center, advancing to the second round of the WCHA tournament. On Friday night the Badgers recorded a 4-1 victory with four different players reaching the net. Three of those came early in the game against goalie Michael-Lee Teslak, who was replaced after the first period. Wisconsin goalie Brian Elliott had 21 saves. Saturday night the Badgers won 1-0 as Elliott notched his fifth shutout of the season with 19 saves, while Joe Pavelski extended his scoring streak to 11 games with his 19th goal of the year. UW will play their semifinal game in St. Paul against an opponent to determined today as other teams complete their best-of-three series.

Over in women’s hockey, the Badgers blew away St. Cloud State 9-0 at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis to advance to the WHCA championship game. They’ll play Minnesota this afternoon for the title, a rematch from last year’s championship game which UW lost in overtime.

Enough fooling around with regular season conference games, it’s time to get serious. The Big 12 and Big 10 tournaments get started this week and I’m looking for good things from both my Cyclones and my Badgers. Okay, neither team was looking real sharp coming down the stretch, but a guy can still have hope. Iowa State comes into their tournament as the #10 seed after losing to Colorado 82-84 this past Saturday to close out their season with a 16-13 overall mark and a 6-10 conference record. They play Oklahoma State (16-14, 6-10 Big 12) in the first round, a team they beat 68-52 just a couple weeks ago, so I’m hopeful the Clones will get into the second round on Friday. If they do advance, the Cyclones will have to play #2 seed Kansas.

Over in the Big 10, Wisconsin gets a pass on the first round as the #4 seed, despite closing out the season with a two game loosing streak. The Badgers (19-10, 9-7 Big 10) play #5 seed Indiana (17-10, 9-7 Big 10), who was ranked #24 when the Badgers beat them 72-54 at the end of January. A win against the Hoosiers will most likely send UW against #1 seed Ohio State.

To be honest, Marquette probably has the best chance to go deep in their tournament, being the #4 seed in the Big East. The Golden Eagles get a bye on first round action and will play the winner of the Georgetown (a ranked team they beat) vs. Notre Dame matchup on Thursday, which will probably send them up against UConn (another ranked team they beat) on Friday.

There has been a void in my life since the Olympics ended, but finally I have a reason to get up in the wee hours to watch sports from the other side of the globe. Okay, sarcasm aside, I am pretty excited about the World Baseball Classic, which starts tonight (or tomorrow morning, depending on your location) with the first round of games in the Asia bracket. ESPN is broadcasting the games live from Tokyo as Korea starts against Taiwan and Japan takes on China. I’m mostly interested to see the Japanese fans because they go nuts for their baseball, with organized cheering sections complete with brass bands, drum lines, and lots of flag waving. The Japanese are pretty convinced that their ball players are the best in the world (as I suppose we are about ours), so we’ll see what they can put together in this worldwide tournament.

By the way, three Brewers players are taking part in the tourney, but none for the US team. Jorge De La Rosa is playing for Mexico, Corey Koskie made the Canadian team roster, and Carlos Lee will take the field for Panama. The rest of the Brew Crew will be playing in their first exhibition game of spring training today against the Giants.

Marquette had their three-game winning streak broken last night by Louisville, losing to the Cardinals 67-60 in overtime. The Golden Eagles made a furious run in the second half with Steve Novak scoring 20 points and Dominic James hitting a three-pointer at the buzzer to tie the game in regulation. In the extra period, though, Marquette’s guns went silent as Taquan Dean hit two free throws and a three-pointer to put Louisville in charge for good. The Golden Eagles drop to 19-9 on the season and 9-6 in Big East play with their final game of the regular season looming against Providence (12-14, 5-10 Big East) on Saturday.

As with everything else, the Winter Olympics kept me distracted from how the Bucks are doing (well, the All-Star break also helped), but I guess I can’t ignore them any longer now that they’ve lost four of their last six since the break and are now at the .500 mark. Milwaukee dropped a 123-110 decision against Phoenix last night, opting to try and outscore the top scoring team in the NBA rather than attempt any defense. (Oops, this is the Bucks we’re talking about. Sorry.) Andrew Bogut said after the loss, “It’s kind of hard to adjust to their style of play.” Isn’t the mark of good teams the ability to force the opponent out of their normal game? Anyway, Michael Redd scored 37 points, while Bogut added 15 with nine rebounds. TJ Ford scored 13 points and Charlie Bell put in 12 more. The Bucks are now 29-29 and are hanging on to eighth place in the Eastern Conference, trailing Detroit by 18.5 games. They host New York (15-42) on Saturday, so hopefully there’s a win in our future.