NCAA Tournament Live Blog

Join National Featured Columnist Jameson Fleming for a Live Blog of Saturday night's NCAA Tournament action. He'll be discussing the following games:

Northern Iowa vs. Kansas: The Panthers try to slow down the Jayhawks enough to knock Bill Self's team out of rhythm on the offensive end of the floor. Kansas has rarely allowed opponents to slow it down out of its comfort zone which makes this game an even tougher matchup for Northern Iowa.

The Panthers have had a history of shutting opponents down for long stretches of time, but with so many options on the floor for the Jayhawks, chances are KU won't go cold for an extended amount of time.

Washington vs. New Mexico: West Coast basketball suddenly looks respectable after California, Washington, Gonzaga, and Saint Mary's going undefeated through the first two and a half days of the tournament. Washington is playing better basketball of late and could pose problems for a New Mexico team that isn't the most efficient team in the world.

Old Dominion vs. Baylor: Defeating Notre Dame shouldn't come as too surprising for Old Dominion since both of those teams play a similar style of basketball. Beating Baylor however would be quite a surprise. Baylor's size and athleticism should allow the Bears to dominate the paint and force the Monarchs into bad shots all game long. ODU is a tremendous defensive team, but they haven't faced scorers like Tweety Carter and LaceDarius Dunn this year.

Brigham Young vs. Kansas State: The Cougars are a hot shooting team, but may lack the big, athletic bodies to keep Kansas State off the glass and off the free throw line. Between K-State's guards and depth, it may be too much for a BYU that relies heavily on Jimmer Fredette.

Wake Forest vs. Kentucky: The Demon Deacons are No. 1 in the country in terms of defensive field goal percentage which could be enough to knock off Kentucky. The Wildcats sometimes take too many bad shots and Wake Forest's defense will exacerbate that. If UK does take good shots, Wake doesn't have the offense to keep up with the 'Cats and John Calipari's club will roll.

B/R Test Blog

This is a Bleacher Report Live Blog test. I'm attempting to use Cover It Live to see if we can live blog games during the year in order to generate more traffic and interest to the site.

This is a Bleacher Report Live Blog test. I'm attempting to use Cover It Live to see if we can live blog games during the year in order to generate more traffic and interest to the site.

This is a Bleacher Report Live Blog test. I'm attempting to use Cover It Live to see if we can live blog games during the year in order to generate more traffic and interest to the site.

This is a Bleacher Report Live Blog test. I'm attempting to use Cover It Live to see if we can live blog games during the year in order to generate more traffic and interest to the site.

This is a Bleacher Report Live Blog test. I'm attempting to use Cover It Live to see if we can live blog games during the year in order to generate more traffic and interest to the site.

This is a Bleacher Report Live Blog test. I'm attempting to use Cover It Live to see if we can live blog games during the year in order to generate more traffic and interest to the site.

Live Test

This is a Bleacher Report Live Blog test. I'm attempting to use Cover It Live to see if we can live blog games during the year in order to generate more traffic and interest to the site.

This is a Bleacher Report Live Blog test. I'm attempting to use Cover It Live to see if we can live blog games during the year in order to generate more traffic and interest to the site.

This is a Bleacher Report Live Blog test. I'm attempting to use Cover It Live to see if we can live blog games during the year in order to generate more traffic and interest to the site.

This is a Bleacher Report Live Blog test. I'm attempting to use Cover It Live to see if we can live blog games during the year in order to generate more traffic and interest to the site.

This is a Bleacher Report Live Blog test. I'm attempting to use Cover It Live to see if we can live blog games during the year in order to generate more traffic and interest to the site.

This is a Bleacher Report Live Blog test. I'm attempting to use Cover It Live to see if we can live blog games during the year in order to generate more traffic and interest to the site.

This is a Bleacher Report Live Blog test. I'm attempting to use Cover It Live to see if we can live blog games during the year in order to generate more traffic and interest to the site.

This is a Bleacher Report Live Blog test. I'm attempting to use Cover It Live to see if we can live blog games during the year in order to generate more traffic and interest to the site.

April Month In Review

April is always one of the best months in sports simply for what's going on. Baseball season is beginning, the NBA and NHL playoffs are just getting going, March Madness rolls over into April; for those of you in college towns, spring football holds their first practices and of course the NFL Draft.

With that said, a lot has gone in CuseAdelphia during the month of April. Six CuseAdelphia teams are in action and winning. Now this post comes in May, the day of the 76ers elimination from the playoffs, but the Sixers reached the playoffs for the first time in several years.

The 76ers, the Flyers, and Syracuse Lacrosse are all having tremendous bounce back years after terrible 2007s for those teams.

The 76ers completed only a five game turnaround, but their late season surge through March and April put them in the playoffs for the first time since 2005. The youthful bunch of players created some lasting memories with Andre Iguodala's thunderous slams down the lane and Thaddeus Young's emergence.

The Sixers under new GM Ed Stefanski reached the playoffs looking to pull off an absolute shocker by taking down the two seeded Detroit Pistons. Things looked good early for the 76ers after Game One. A frenetic comeback in the Motor City meant Philly would head into Game Two with a 1-0 lead.

Game Two ugly. Sixers lose badly.

Game Three. Things are much different. Mo Cheeks' crew figures out what they did in the second half of Game One and blow the Pistons out of the gym.

Then things got ugly. Really ugly again. For the next three games it would be terribly ugly.

The Pistons outscored the Sixers by 19 points in the second half of their Game Four win. Game Five was domination all game; Pistons by 17.

Game Six was the worst of all. The 76ers season was officially declared dead at 8:12 PM EST. A 10-0 lead for the Pistons was essentially as close as Philly would get the rest of the game, Pistons win by 23.

Syracuse Lacrosse has also made a very solid turnaround. After a 5-8 season in 2007, the Orange rebounded in 2008 in impressive fashion. SU finished April undefeated, beating their opponents on average 14-6.

The Orange have dominated behind the likes of Tewaaraton Trophy nominees Mike Leveille and Steven Brooks. Leveille has a team leading 61 points while Brooks has anchored the midfield all year. In goal, John Galloway has played increasingly well as the year has gone on.

The 'Cuse capped off the perfect April with an absolute handling of recent pain in the UMASS 16-3. The Orange scored the first nine goals of the game and scored more goals in each quarter than UMASS had the entire game.

Philadelphia's team in orange- the Flyers - also completed the best turnaround in the NHL this year. The Fly Guys were last, dead last in the entire NHL in 2007, but managed to reach the playoffs as the sixth seed in the East.

Being the sixth seed is one of the best seeds you can be in the playoffs. Often the third division winner is always barely worthy of the playoffs, and this year was pretty much no different. The Capitals needed a long winning streak at the end of the year to reach the playoffs, but that streak ended at the hands of the Flyers.

Seven games, several blown leads, one Alexander Ovechkin explosion, and one Daniel Briere goal scoring binge later the Flyers were moving onto the next round.

Now throw in four more games, three of which are Philly wins, lots of angry Canadians, some more blown leads, no Briere scoring binge, but rather one by R.J. Umberger and you get a 3-1 series lead against the Montreal Canadiens.

One CuseAdelphia team already has won a title. The Syracuse women's Lax team took home a Big East Championship in South Bend in dominating fashion. A 22-7 blow out followed by a 12-6 victory over rival Georegtown and the women have an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.

Basically every scoring record you think of, Tewaaraton trophy nominee Katie Rowan broke it.

Two CuseAdelphia teams used April to get off to extremely solid starts.

The Phillies finished out April 15-13. Now that doesn't seem too impressive, but when you look at their past four Aprils, it's rather impressive. 11-14 in 2007, 10-14 in 2006, 10-14 in 2005, 10-11 in 2004. You get the picture.

The Phillies did it in probably the most improbably way: great pitching from both the starters and bullpen. The entire staff has posted a combined ERA of 3.79, the lowest its been in years.

The relievers have been much better; the Phillies' pen ranks first in the National League in ERA. J.C. Romero, Brad Lidge, Chad Durbin, Rudy Seanez, and Tom Gordon (minus the first week) have been lights out.

Cole Hamels is throwing his name in the hat for Cy Young during the early season with his 2.70 ERA and 36 strike outs in April.

Chase Utley and Pat Burrell have provided MVP moments throughout the entire month as the two are near the top of practically every offensive category. Utley ends the month with a major league leading 11 home runs.

The team that plays across the parking lot, the Philadelphia Soul of the AFL has been blistering hot. Two QB's Tony Graziani and Matt D'Orazio have combined for astronomical numbers in leading the Soul to an undefeated record through April.

Bon Jovi's team finished off the month with a 57-28 romping over the previously undefeated Dallas Desperados. Philly held Dallas scoreless in the first quarter, a monumental task in of itself.

The other football team in Philadelphia just completed the 2008 NFL draft with some disputed success. The Eagles set themselves up for a monster 2009 draft with the acquisition of the Panthers 2009 first round pick. The Iggles also got another second round pick in the same deal when trading away their first round pick to Carolina.

Now the Eagles only got one player that will have an immediate impact this year with DeSean Jackson, but it's still a major accomplishment to get one of the most explosive players in the draft half way through the second round.

The Birds also grabbed DT Trevor Laws who's a workhorse on the defensive line.

The later round picks weren't anything special, but the Eagles overall had a solid draft.

No matter how good all of CuseAdelphia's teams did, there's going to be a few bad notes that cannot go unmentioned.

In the same NFL draft, no members of the Orange heard their names called for the first time since 1975. Taj Smith, Jameel McClain, DoWayne Davis, and several others eventually found a home, but it wasn't for NFL draft level money.

Orange fans also learned they might hear the name of one of the fabulous freshmen from the 2007-2008 seasons. Donte' Greene declared he's making himself eligible for the 2008 NBA draft, but he left some hope for Orange fans when he didn't sign an agent.

Greene's team also found themselves sitting at home from the NCAA Tournament and NIT Tournament finals which both took place in April.

Finally on a sad note, we remember John Marzano who was found dead in South Philly home. The cause of his death hasn't been revealed yet.

What's Going on in the CuseAdelph'

• Canada and Philadelphia are about to go war.
  
• Ryan Howard Beats Up the Dads
  
• Phillies-Padres Preview for 4/30
  
• Philadelphia Beats Dallas AFL style.
• Greg Maddux Wants a Milestone.
• 189 Days til Basketball.
• The Flyers Win.
• The Orange won't be going to a Bowl game in 2008.
• The ADD Show is my source right for Sixers Basketball. Stupid TNT is showing the games in Syracuse.
• Happy Birthday Kristof! [TNIAAM]
• Mike Lieberthal will be a Phillie again. [MLB.COM]
• A QB Controversy in Philadelphia? [Peter Bukowski on Bleacher Report]

Ryan Howard Beats Up the Dads

Ryan Howard breaks his slump at least for a day thanks to one very awful Joe Thatcher cutter.

He put the eighth inning pitch into the right field seats to break up a 2-2 tie. Howard also knocked home the Phillies first run of the game.

Howard doubled off former Phillie Randy Wolf in his return to Philadelphia. Wolf left the Phillies after the 2006 to head to his home state California.

Wolf pitched well against the Phillies potent lineup. He worked his fastball all game, finishing off seven Phillies for strikeouts using his deceptively good fastball. Wolf left the game after six innings allowing only two runs and striking out nine.

His counterpart Adam Eaton who started his career with San Diego, pitched just as well. Eaton started off shaky as five of the seven batters that reached based against him were in the first three innings.

The righty looked like his old self early in the game. He couldn't find the strike zone and when he did it was up in the zone.

Tadahito Iguchi looped a pitch up in the strike zone for a base hit. Adrian Gonzalez followed with a home run on another pitch up in the strike zone.

Despite his first inning blip, it seems like Eaton is finally getting the concept of high pitcher in Citizen's Bank Ballpark equals lots of home runs. He's only allowed three home runs in six starts this year as opposed to 30 in 30 starts last year.

Besides Eaton pitching phenomenally, the bullpen went three no hit innings to secure the Phillies win after Howard's homer.

Flash Gordon already has five decisions after he picked up the win to move to 3-2 on the season.

Adam Eaton has six starts and still no decision.

Brad Lidge threw the perfect ninth for the save.

Part of the reason the bullpen has been so good is because they aren't overworked. The Phillies starting pitching has gone six innings consistently. The bullpen has routinely only had to throw two or three innings a game which helps a lot.

It looked like Adam Eaton was going to make the pen work early because he had around 80 pitchers through four innings. Entering the fifth it looked like he was going to finish that inning around 95 and probably would have been done for the night.

Instead he went one-two-three and could give the Phillies a sixth inning.

I'll leave you with what my good friend Tony texted me after the game, "Phils are in 1st place!"

Danny Briere Line: Welcome to the Canadiens Series

For the first time since Game Two, the Danny Briere, Vinny Prospal, and Mike Knuble line found the back of the net.

Briere's goal couldn't have come at a better time.

With the clock ticking away in the third period in a tie game and all the momentum on Montreal's side, Briere showed why he's worth 52 million dollars. His power play goal gave the Flyers a 3-2 lead and the goal was his eighth of the playoffs, but only second of the series.

The Canadiens couldn't find the back of the cage for the first 52 minutes of the game, but once Tomas Plekanec scored, it took only 37 seconds for another Hab to tickle the twine. Saku Koivu redeemed himself for a previous penalty that led to a Flyers goal by beating Marty Biron to tie the game at two.

The Flyers crawled out to a two nothing lead as it took the R.J. Umberger seven minutes into the second period to score the first goal of the game and his sixth goal of the playoffs. Umberger hadn't scored goals in back to back games all year, but now he's done it in the playoffs.

In the third period, Scottie Hartnell notched the Flyers second goal after he followed the rebound of a Prospal shot that went out in front of net. Hartnell slapped into the right side of the net and the Flyers had their patented 2-0 lead.

Of course as we all know, no two goal lead is safe for the Flyers. They had already blown four two nil leads, losing three of those games. As mentioned above, a few minutes later Montreal had the game tied at two and Philadelphia scrambling to retake control.

More on the game later.

Flyers Try to Take Both Home Games Tonight

Philadelphia looks for a repeat of the Capitals series by winning both home games to take a 3-1 series lead.

Of course that will allow the Flyers to subsequently blow the next two games, put Flyers fans on the edge of their seats only to pull off a Game Seven shocker.

But let's hope it doesn't get to that point.

The 700 Level says Mike Knuble has been cleared to play, but also raises the question: where does he play and where do the Flyers move R.J. Umberger to? Umberger has been too good to knock him down to the fourth line so Knuble can move back with his linemates Scottie Upshall and Jeff Carter. It will be interesting to see what Coach John Stevens does with the lines.

The Flyers' attack no matter what way its shaped must go after Carey Price. They shook his confidence in Game Three so what better way to see what he's made of than aggressively going after him.

The Flyers have kind of laid back in the first three games and let the Canaidens come at them. It's led to a ridiculous shot advantage for the Habs, but it's something that hasn't hurt the Flyers because of the stellar play of Marty Biron.

This is Price's first year in the NHL, and Price has played a lot down the stretch. His struggling could just be a matter of some fatigue. Unfortunately Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau doesn't really have the option of benching him to give a rest until either Game Five or Game Six. Those games are back to back so I wouldn't be surprised if the Habs play Jaroslav Halak in one game and Price in the other.

The Flyers also need to stay off the penalty kill. Legitimate penalties here and there most fans can live with. But Derian Hatcher putting the Flyers down a man for five minutes that's 100% unacceptable. Dumb penalties will cost the Flyers a game just like in the first round it was almost guaranteed Alexander Ovechkin was going to single handily win a game for the Capitals.

Side Note: I didn't realize how much Canada as a whole hates the Flyers.

The Pension Plan Puppets Blog which is a Maple Leafs Blog linked to my game story yesterday and the comments in response were so anti-Flyers. Here's a taste:

Chemmy wrote, "What sort of Leafs fans root for Philly over Montreal?"

The response he got from a writer for PPP wrote, "

We all should. You can't put aside over 80 years of rivalry and hatred just because the Flyers have recently been a pain in the ass. The greater evil is the Habs getting past Philly. After this round, we can cheer against Philly again. Although, realistically, we're all cheering on the meteor."

Chemmy later wrote, "The thing is, Montreal already has 24 cups. If they win another one who cares? If Philly wins the cup this year we'll all have to hear about how they went from 30th to 1st in one season, and not about how they're cheapshot goons who injured a lot of players (Patrice Bergeron anyone?). Sorry, I don't want Montreal to win the cup, but their team isn't hockey cancer like Philly.

The poster by the name of Leosc named his comment Flyers=Satan and said this, " I don't even allow Philadelphia cream cheese in this house. Phillies, hate them. 76ers, hate them. F**king Flyers, hate them to the nth power. Philadelphia and Philadelphians show their crack, even on a bell. Philadelphia Flyers have been a bunch of goons all their life, it doesn't matter who they were before they don that stinking sweater. They won the cup twice by injuring the opposition. Because of them the NHL had to impose the anti-bench clearing rule. Bobby what's-his-name is the worse one. Once the other teams stood up to them, they disappeared from the playoffs. Now its time for the Habs to take them out."

There's even more comments to read here.

Plus The 700 Level also had this story from a Philly.com writer asking if the Flyers are playing Canada's team.

And of course we cannot forget the Pig Man for desecrating Philadelphia's Rocky Statue.

This is absolute war. Send out the war kittens!


This post just lost all credibility because of that but frankly I don't care.

189 Days til We Start Hyping Up the UCONN Game

College Basketball always begins around November 5th or so which means college basketball is approximately 189 days away. Everyday I will have a new reason to look forward to the 2008-2009 season. I started this countdown about 205 days before the season, so some of these are going to be lame, but hey I need 205 freaking reasons why you should be looking forward to the 2008-2009 season.

Reason 189: Hasheem Thabeet is returning to UCONN for the 2008-2009 basketball season. If both Syracuse and UCONN pan out to be top 25 and even top 15 teams, this game could be one of the best in the rivalry in recent memory. UCONN basically loses no one from the 2007-2008 team while SU only loses Donte' Green, but gets back Eric Devendorf and Andy Rautins.

Philadelphia's Ageless Wonder Gets His Turn Tonight

Last night San Diego's 42 year-old Greg Maddux took the mound for the Padres, but tonight it's 45 year-old Jamie Moyer.

Moyer will try to get better results than Maddux who went six plus innings, allowed three runs, and came away with a loss.

The slow throwing south paw will attempt to win the Phillies eighth game out ten and put Philadelphia at 16-12 which would be their best record in April since 2003. Considering the Phillies ended up around 88 wins the last four Aprils, it's a good sign the Phillies are off to even better start because of their tendency to get hot after the All-Star break.

Opposing Moyers is 6'10'' Chris Young who in starts has shut the Phillies down. He's 1-1, but has 1.46 ERA, .89 WHIP and 12 strike outs in almost as many innings.

Shane Victorino should be back in the lineup tonight. He came off the bench last night to pinch hit.

Tonight's projected starting lineup and career numbers vs. Chris Young:
1. Shane Victorino 0-3
2. Jason Werth never faced Young
3. Chase Utley 2-5
4. Ryan Howard 0-0 with three walks
5. Pat Burrell 2-6
6. Pedro Feliz 1-12
7. Chris Coste never faced Young
8. Eric Bruntlett 0-1

CuseAdelphia Prediction: Phillies 6 Padres 5. Chris Young has been awful since coming back from an injury last year. He's just 1-7 with 5.20 ERA in 15 starts since returning from a strained left oblique. The Phillies will make that number 1-8 after tonight.

Syracuse Isn't Going Bowling in 2008-2009

SU despite what looks to be a new and improved offense and well still a pretty sub par defense isn't going to one of at least 28 bowl games in the 2008-2009 season. Well that's according to Sports Projections.com

Sports Projections already has who they think will be playing in those wonderful bowls like the Papa John's Bowl and Pointsettia Bowl. Six Big East teams will make a playoff game with the only two being left out: Louisville and Syracuse.

Now it seems surprising that they are projecting six teams in bowl games this year from the Big East because this year is setting up to be an awful year for Big East football.

Pitt and West Virginia look like the only two teams that will consistently play Top 25 caliber football. After that Cincinnati and South Florida look like the next two best teams that could squeak into the Top 25 for a week or two.

A lot of projections have Rutgers and UCONN down towards the bottom of the Big East again in 2008. So at this point, it doesn't seem like more than five teams will be bowl eligible. The team that finishes sixth might squeak in with a 6-6 record.

Now SU probably isn't going to win six games, but it's a realistic chance in 2008. Look at the schedule: Northwestern, Northeastern, and Akron could easily be wins although Northwestern does look to be much improved in 2008 after having an okay 2007.

Penn State has a lot of issues on the field and off the field and everyone knows about Notre Dame's 2007, but of course the Fightin' Irish will also be much better in 2008.

SU could come away with three maybe even four wins out of conference if they can pull things together.

Then there is Big East play. Louisville is going to be very beatable, plus that game is in the Dome. UCONN and Rutgers also look beatable. If SU can take two of those three games and spring an upset against one of the top four teams in the league, they are suddenly bowl eligible.

Sean from Troy Nunes reported three more bowls are in the works with one of them having a spot for another Big East team. That means six spots would be guaranteed to bowl eligible Big East teams. Sean also pointed out that a team can use a win against a Divison I-AA team towards becoming bowl eligible once every three years.

The Orange becoming bowl eligible in 2008 is a distinct possibility. Will it happen? Better than 50% chance no. Is it a realistic possibility? 100% yes.

But for now, here's Sports Projections' Big East Bowl Projections:

Pointsettia Bowl: Utah vs. Cincinnati

Papa John's.com Bowl: Rutgers vs. Marshall

Armed Forces Bowl: TCU vs. UCONN

Meineke Car Care Bowl : Miami, Florida vs. South Florida

International Bowl: Bowling Green vs. Pittsburgh

Orange Bowl: Clemson vs. West Virginia

After looking closer at the projections. There's obviously a major flaw. There is no bowl given to the Big East number two team. Obviously they are forgetting Syracuse as the number two team in the Big East and left them out of a bowl game.

Haha who am I kidding?

Phillies Eighth Inning Explosion Downs Padres 7-4

The Phillies nearly blow an eighth inning lead, but instead blow up open the game in the bottom half of the frame.

Cole Hamels went seven very strong innings, but for the second straight game, he ran into trouble in the eighth. Against Milwaukee he surrendered a two run home run to Prince Fielder which cost Philadelphia the game.

Tonight, Hamels allowed a first and third situation with one out in the eighth with a 3-1 lead when skipper Charlie Manuel pulled him in favor of lefty specialist J.C. Romero. He walked the first batter he faced and was lifted in favor of Flash Gordon. He worked the outside of the plate against Tadahito Iguchi and Kevin Kouzmanoff to get both to ground out. One run scored, but the Phillies still held a 3-2 lead.

That's when the fun began. Three doubles, a single, and a walk later and the Phillies had four more runs on the board. Of course who better to start the rally off than Chase Utley who doubled on a fastball that hung out over the middle of the plate. He continued his MVP campaign with a 2-4 effort to raise his average to .364.

Cole Hamels put the Phillies in a position to win this game through his absolute stellar pitching. He allowed just two extra base hits, both to Scott Hairston Jr. who had a monster game with two home runs and a double. The Camel struck out six and walked just two. King Cole moves to 3-3 on the season.

Ryan Madson made things a bit interesting at the end allowing Hairston's second home run on the day.

It was nice to see the Phillies get a little production out of the bottom of the lineup. Pedro Feliz and Carlos Ruiz both came through in the eighth inning with hits and were both 2-4 on the day.

After Jason Werth, Pat Burrell and Chase Utley, the Phillies lineup has been severely lacking. Check out Phillies Flow to see how bad the rest of the lineup has been.

Tomorrow night will feature Jamie Moyer vs. Chris Young.

The Soul Dominates Desperados

Philadelphia absolutely pounds Dallas in the the battle of two AFL undefeated teams 57-28 in a game that showed the Soul can play some defense to compliment the explosive offense.

This game wasn't even close at any point. The Soul scored the first 21 points of the game and held Dallas scoreless in the first quarter.

One of the best quarterbacks in the history of league, Clint Dolezel had one of his worst games in his career. The Soul got to him on the very first play from scrimmage. Soul defender Mike Brown intercepted Dolezel to set up Philadelphia's first touchdown.

It wouldn't get any better for Dolezel the rest of the game.

The next series, the Desperado offense stalled and resulted in a turnover on downs. Philadelphia would score on the following possession.

The Dallas QB met his nemesis on the next series. Soul DB Eddie Moten took over the game intercepting Dolezel for the first of his three times on Dallas's third series.

The Soul rolled through the rest of the game behind QB Matt D'Orazio and the wide receiving tandem of Chris Jackson and Larry Brackins.

D'Orazio finished the game 20-29 with six touchdowns while the two wide receivers combined for 14 receptions and 160 yards.

D'Orazio's play is setting up a QB debate between he and injured starter Tony Graziani. I haven't watched enough of each to really have an opinion on who should start.

The announcers did make a good point last night, D'Orzaio has this offense running the best it has all year, so it does seem logical to keep with the hot hand. If D'Orazio starts to struggle, get Graziani and his veteran leadership back in there.

The most entertaining part of last night's game was the jawing that took place between Eddie Moten and Clint Dolezel. The two have a history going back to 2007 and continued their rivalry last night. Moten continued to get into Dolezel's face at every chance he took. Moten got in Dolezel's head to the point that Dolezel was called for an un-sportsmen like conduct penalty for spiking the ball after scoring.

Moten did show restraint when most thought that was impossible. After Moten's last interception, he went to rub in Dolezel's face but realized he was down injured. Moten stopped 15 yards away and turned to celebrate with his teammates after realizing Dolezel was injured after the play.

Maddux Goes for Milestone Win Tonight

The former Braves Cy Young hog Greg Maddux will try to pick up win number 350 tonight against the Phillies.Maddux set himself up to bring home the historic win during his last outing, but closer Trevor Hoffman blew the save. Tonight, the Phillies will try to prevent the game from even being Hoffman's hands.

Maddux has revived himself a bit during the early going in 2008. He's given up three earned runs or less in every start but one. Unfortunately for Maddux, that one start was a career high nine earned runs in his first attempt at win 350.

One reason for Maddux's resurgence is it seems like he's retuned two-seam fastball which was always one of his best pitches in the 90s. Every time he pitches, it seems like his two-seam fastball shows up on Baseball Tonight during the "That's Nasty" segment.

His pinpoint control is as good as its almost ever been. Maddux issued a mere 25 walks in about 200 innings in 2007, and is off the same strong start in 2008. The former Cy Young winner has just six walks in 2008. The Phillies have typically been very good at working pitchers and creating base runners so tonight the Phillies might need to manufacture an extra run or two because Maddux is going to keep base runners to a minimum.

Shane Victorino will most likely be back in the lineup tonight to face Maddux giving the Phillies another solid left handed bat.

Here's the projected lineup and how they've fared against Maddux.
1. Shane Victorino (1-3)
2. Jason Werth (0-3)
3. Chase Utley (1-4 with a home run)
4. Ryan Howard (1-3)
5. Pat Burrell (15-41 with two home runs)
6. Pedro Feliz (5-22)
7. Chris Coste never faced Maddux
8. Eric Bruntlett (1-7)

Cole Hamels throws tonight for the Phillies. He's been a hard luck loser twice this year which makes his 2-3 record not representative of how he's pitched this year. Manager Charlie Manuel left Hamels in the eighth inning to pitch to the heart of the Brewers lineup last time out and got burned.

Hamels's overall numbers are still very strong. He's got 30 strike outs in 36 innings and a phenomenal WHIP and ERA of 1.08 and .275. He's basically two bad breaks from opening the season 4-1 and in the early season Cy Young talks.

The Camel has pitched well against his hometown team in the past. He lost a tough start last year when Chris Young out dueled him 1-0 in San Diego.

CuseAdelphia Prediction: Phillies 5 Padres 3. The Phillies really like to bash pitchers who don't have a pitch with a ton of extreme movement. Ryan Howard hits another home run tonight (last time I predicted it, I nailed it right on the head).

190 Days Until Collegiate Roundball

College Basketball always begins around November 5th or so which means college basketball is approximately 190 days away. Everyday I will have a new reason to look forward to the 2008-2009 season. I started this countdown about 205 days before the season, so some of these are going to be lame, but hey I need 205 freaking reasons why you should be looking forward to the 2008-2009 season.

Reason 190: The start of basketball season means we begin a new countdown until Syracuse plays UCONN in women's basketball. I'm looking forward to it after getting a response from the director of women's basketball at UCONN almost four months after I emailed him my post on good old Geno Auriemma. Coach Eisenmann thanked me for my comments and appreciated my input. Overall the email was very nice and I don't want to criticize Eisenmann since he actually got back to me, but his email came off like he didn't read my post on Geno. Who knows, maybe Coach Eisenmann is just a really nice guy and really has nothing negative in response. Anyways, I really appreciated him getting back to me and hope he responds to the next email I sent him further explaining my stance.