My weekly review post of Sports and My Thoughts as they pertain to the "D" and Beyond for the week ending Friday 05.06.16 . This was a week filled with all sorts of drama and ups and downs. In the "D":
Lions: The Lions had their draft selections this past week in the NFL Draft and received a solid B from Me in regards to how well they drafted. They Lions under GM Bob Quinn's first draft, took 2 players that will help immediately in the first 2 rounds. They took OSU OT Taylor Decker in the first round and in the second took Alabama DT A'Shawn Robinson. These 2 picks added some much needed girth in the trenches and both enjoy mixing it up at their respective positions. The rest of the Lions picks had many people including myself, scratching our heads and will need some time to see if they work out down the road.
Red Wings: The Red Wings again are sitting at home watching the later rounds of the playoffs as they have been accustomed to do the past years. This off season will be a big test for the Red Wings and GM Ken Holland to see if he will what is right and do a huge overhaul of this team. Gone is Pavel Datsyuk and a few other players have asked for a trade which should help with cap space as well as bring in fresh blood to a stagnant locker room The new name of the Red Wings arena which is scheduled
to open for the 2017/2018 season is The Little Caesar's Arena. I thought Pizza Pizza Palladium would of been a better name.
Pistons: The Pistons ended their playoff run getting swept in 4 games by the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Piston team lacked playoff
experience, needs to develop mental toughness and has to play some
defense if it intends to get anywhere in the future NBA playoffs. This will be something they can build on during the off season and hopefully continue growing and winning more games in the 2016/2017 NBA season.
Tigers:
The Tigers have started the season off at 14-13. Detroit is coming off a 3 game road trip to Cleveland after winning their past 5 games in a row. For the second time in this young season, the Tigers were swept by the Indians and are 0-6 against them this season. The Tigers continue to struggle with their starting pitching and hitting and scoring is sporadic at best. Also the
Tigers again are having base running issues and not doing the little
things like hitting the cutoff man or making the best decisions on
defense as well.. Pundits have the Tigers finishing 3rd behind
the Royals and Indians. The Tigers who were a huge
disappointment last year have retooled their offense and pitching and
look to be ready to contend again. The AL Central is arguably the
toughest division in all of baseball so winning 88 games will be a
challenge this year for the Tigers. It is also equally important that
the Tigers stay healthy this season and that the pitching and bullpen
can hold up, something that hasn't happened the past couple of
seasons.
Spartans: The
Spartan basketball team which lost out on the Josh Jackson sweepstakes
still had a Top 5 recruiting year and will look to be another March
Madness favorite next season. Congrats to Coach Tom
Izzo for being inducted into the
Naismith
Hall of Fame for College Basketball. Also congrats to Denzel Valentine,
USA Today's, Sports Illustrated, and also the AP, College Basketball
Player of the Year! The Spartans football
team is
readying itself for the 2016
season and signing day was last week. The Spartans had another great
recruiting class finishing 3rd in the B1G and #12th Nationally. The
Spartans relish being the underdog and this year in the early preseason
polls are ranked anywhere from #15 to #10.
Wolverines:
Michigan's basketball team is retooling and hoping for another NCAA run
next season.
Harbaugh and the
Football team are getting ready for next season and are had the #3
ranked recruiting class in the Country. Harbaugh who pushed the envelope
for satellite camps was dealt a set back when the NCAA ruled that this
was no longer going to be allowed. It looks like Uof M has given him
full reigns to
spends whatever money he chooses and has now placed athletics over
education. U of M is #3 in the nation is spending on college athletics.
While it looks like Harbaugh is
turning around the football program, he is raising many eyebrows with
the way he is doing so, including sleeping over 5 recruits homes to get
them to sign with his team and also had a Signing Day event that many,
including myself thought was more for His huge Ego than for the school
or the recruits. Many say he is developing the U of M football brand but
to me it is Harbaugh being Harbaugh and stroking his ego first and U of
M football second. To me this is absurd and I question this tactic, but
this is what recruiting and having to win at all costs now does to
football coaches.
Sports beyond the "D":
NFL:
The NFL Draft has concluded and the draft was very interesting to say the least. Outside of the first 2 picks who everyone knew were QB's, the guessing of who would go where started immediately on the 3rd pick of the draft. I rated this draft in a blog post recently on how all 32 NFL teams did in addressing their needs against the players they drafted. No one knows for sure how many of the draftees will preform in the NFL The
off season has been filled with numerous Black Eyes for the NFL from
Player misconduct to the admittance by a senior NFL official that there
is evidence of a link between CTE and the NFL Players. The bigger issue
is the ploy of the NFL to not use the top researcher from Boston to
engage the current study but they tried to discredit him using a
marketing game that blew up in their face. In front of a Congressional
meeting, Congress has demanded answers from the NFL as to why they did
what they did. Even crazier is some Owners have come out and said they
do not believe there is any evidence to support this. For the NFL and
the Owners it is all about the $$$$$ and the Owners are all greedy and
do not want to part with their money. As if the Owners and the NFL do
not have enough money, the NFL is now going to play games in China as
well as the UK and Mexico. The NFL should concentrate on making the game
better and dealing with its current issues instead of trying to dilute
the game and water it down with thoughts of global expansion on the
horizon just to make more money
MLB Baseball: Its been an interesting 6 weeks since Opening
Day has kicked off the 2016 Baseball season. The Cubs have the best record in all of baseball and the White Sox as of now have to be the biggest surprise in being in first place in the AL Central. Excitement is in the air,
but the MLB has
some tough decisions to make. MLB wants to expand again to possible
cities like Vancouver and Montreal but yet cant even fill stadiums for
Opening Day in places like Miami and TB and attendance is bad in a few
other cities as well. Rockies shortstop Reyes who allegedly
assaulted his Wife in Hawaii was charged but now the charges have to be
dropped for Reyes Wife who called the police on Reyes is no longer
cooperating. This is becoming all too common with athletes and
celebrities who allegedly hit or beat someone up. The victim, whose
pictures show have been visibly hit and are often bruised as well will
no longer testify against the defendant. Usually it is because they have
been paid hush money. In this case, MLB already has all the facts and
needs to step up and do the right thing and keep Reyes suspended. The
Players Association in All major sports seems to think that if the
Player is no longer prosecuted or if the charges are dropped then their
should be no punishment or discipline for the Athlete. The Players
Association doesn't care about the victims at all, they only care about
the player and their monies. They are to Blame almost as much as the
Player themselves and this is just so sad in today's society! MLB
decided to uphold the lifetime ban of the greatest hitter of all time,
Pete Rose in a decision that is both idiotic and dumbfounding to Me. No
one questions what He did but the lifetime ban is just wrong in so many
ways. He has been punished long enough and it is an abuse of power by
the MLB Commish to take this stance. I know many of you will disagree
with Me on this, but I do not care if you do or not. I feel very
strongly on this issue!! Barry Bonds is getting support from some ex
players saying He should be in the HOF, but I think there are still many
questions about his alleged steroid use that will need to be answered
before he can even be considered for the HOF. Based on voting the past 4
years for the HOF those voters seem to be thinking as I am, and it
reflects in his still not getting in at this time.The off season started
off with a bang as the
biggest contracts ever in free agency being given out. The Owners seem
to think they are playing with Monopoly money in signing these free
agents but once again it will be the fans who will pay the price for
this outlandish and foolish spending in increased ticket prices, parking
prices, concession and team apparel. When will it ever stop? Also teams
seem to only care about what a player can do on the field to help them
win and not what kind of person the player is off the field.
NCAA: The NCAA continues to be its own worst enemy in allowing schools who have broken NCAA laws to continue on while investigations take longer than they should and the back door dealing when the schools are caught for reduce discipline continues on. A recent college athlete while on stage at the NFL draft, tells a reporter that he received money to play at Ole Miss. I am sure the NCAA is looking into this alleged allegation as I write this but time will tell if they do anything or not. Two other schools, North Carolina and
Syracuse are questionable as to should they even be allowed to be in the
Tournament at all. Both schools have had serious violations from the
NCAA and many, such as Myself think it is a disgrace that the NCAA
allowed them to even be playing in the NCAA Tournament at all! The
NCAA which over the past few years has become powerless against the
bigger schools when it comes to levying sanctions and penalties for
violations seems to have their hands full right now. The Bigger Schools
and Conferences are the ones who tell the NCAA what if anything will be
done for Schools who have violated rules of the NCAA. It is now a joke!!
Southern Miss and
Ole Miss were hit with numerous serious violations by the NCAA and as
all Colleges do, they deny any wrong doing even though they know they
have committed violations. The University of Tennessee was the latest to
be charged but besides serious alleged violations within their
football program they were also charged with and also sued for a Hostile
Sexual Environment and Sexual harassment. Again, they have denied any
wrongdoing but as it was with the University of Oregon, we are seeing a
pattern of Colleges brushing these incidents and violations and sexual
harassment under the rug and also going after the victims and not those
who were responsible in the first place! Even more absurd is the
announcement by the University of Louisville announcing they are giving
themselves a self imposed post season ban for the pay for sex with
escorts relating to their basketball program. The Head Coach, Rick
Pitino still denies any wrong doing even though the University who just
months ago said the allegations were made up, now think imposing a slap
on their own wrists will be enough, should be looking over their
shoulder as the NCAA should do what is right and give the school a 3
year ban, lose of scholarships, at least a year long suspension to
Pitino and more.The NCAA also has to take a hard look at how a Coach
lures recruits to a school and the promises they make just to get a kid
to sign a letter of intent. Too many kids decommit after committing and
that is a problem. Also Coaches sleeping over recruits houses is just
plain wrong!!!
NBA and NHL:
Both the NBA and NHL seasons have just started their playoff seasons.
The NBA playoffs are into the second round and some of the games have been boring with big blowouts occurring. The Warriors who are seeking consecutive titles are playing without G Stephen Curry who injured his knee in the first round. A couple of Coaches were let go in a league that firing and hiring coaches is the norm. I wonder why the GM's who hire these coaches aren't let go as quick as the Coaches they let go?
In the
NHL, the Playoffs are in full swing and already the officiating is being
called into question. In some of the series, the refs have swallowed
their whistles and let the teams play and in other series, the refs are
calling everything. NHL disciplinary practices are also being questioned as it seems to many that the Penguins are getting special treatment when it comes to their players getting suspended for an illegal action compared to what the NHL did to punish the opposing teams illegal actions. Also explain to me how there is not a single Team
from
Canada in the playoffs this year, sad day for my friends from the
North.. Wonder what Don Cherry thinks of this sad event!!
Miscellaneous; Brad Keselowski wins at Talledegal Speedway . Brian Stuard wins the TPC Louisiana
See My MLB and NFL Draft updates www.cupofjoeinthed.blogspot.com
@cupofjoeinthe
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