SPORTS HITS

Donovan McNabb and the Philadelphia Eagles will get another shot to get back to the Super Bowl as they beat the New York Giants by a score of 23-11. McNabb threw for 217 yards and one touchdown and made the plays when he had to while his counterpart Eli Manning struggled and could not seem to get into any kind of rhythm. The Eagles defense played well again and forced three turnovers to help Philly get the win. Up next for the Eagles is the Arizona Cardinals who beat Carolina yesterday. If someone would have told me that Arizona and Philadelphia would be battling for a chance to play in the Super Bowl I would call them crazy.

In the other game the Pittsburgh Steelers got 146 yards rushing from Willie Parker and the Pittsburgh defense held the San Diego Chargers to just 15 yards rushing who played with out  L.T. who sat out with a groin injury. Ben Roethlisberger who had a concussion two weeks ago played well and threw two touchdown passes in the Steelers 35-24 win over the Chargers. This sets up the battle that everyone has wanted to see for all the marbles. The two best defenses in the NFL will do battle in Pittsburgh as Baltimore comes to town. I am sure the trash talking will be at an all-time high for this game.

I finished up 2-2 for picking games this weekend. I hope I do better this coming weekend.

If you look in the Top 25 in College Basketball you will find out that nine of the teams listed come from the Big East and you would say isn’t that great. Well hold on it does have it’s good points and also it’s bad points. It is true it is always great to have your program recognized as one of the best in the country, but sometimes that also comes back to bite you. Through the years Big East basketball has been some of the best around and many teams have made NCAA appearances and done well in the tournament. The biggest problem I see with all the great teams coming from this conference is they are not as fresh as other teams entering the tournament.

By having to play so many quality teams in your own conference it makes it tough when you do get to the Big Dance in the NCAA Tournament. Sure you are ready for any type of competition that it has, but you are just not as quick as you would be if you had a much easier schedule or conference to play it. With playing the best in the country night after night you never get to rest your starters much. Take a conference with only one or two top teams it means your top stars have more rest and are ready to play in the NCAA tournament come March. This is a big advantage and helps out in the end.

UCONN was the last school to win the NCAA Championship from the Big East and that was before it got much tougher. With Louisville entering the mix right now it will be even tougher. So, in truth Big East Basketball is probably the best in the country, but also their worst enemy in some respects.

Today hopefully my predictions are better than they were yesterday as I was 0-2. Today we will start with the Philadelphia Eagles traveling to the New York Giants. The Giants had the bye and they should be rested and ready to go. Eli Manning and the crew look to defend their championship and are 7-1 at home. Meanwhile Philadelphia has been on a roll and playing very well lately since the benching of McNabb. I like the Eagles in this game because they are playing better than the Giants right now and I think the bye will hurt the Giants. Take the Eagles 31-21.

In the late game the San Diego Chargers take on the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Chargers have been playing real well but will be without L.T. and Darren Sproles will need to play big once again in the game. These teams played earlier in the season with the Steelers winning in a defensive battle. For the Steelers they will get Big Ben back who suffered a concussion in the last game of the season. protecting him will be something the Steelers must do if they want to win. This games looks to be close again, but I like the Steelers at home and the number one defense pulling out a 21-17 victory.

I think it is time I believe in the Arizona Cardinals after watch them dismantle the Carolina Panthers. Carolina turned the ball over six times with Jake Delhomme being intercepted five times and the Cardinals offense was in high gear as they easily won 33-13. I will be the first to admit I thought the Panthers would be able to run the ball against this Cardinals defense, but that did not happen. In fact Carolina was only able to gain 75 yards rushing against them. I also never thought that Carolina would turn the ball over as much as they did.

With Arizona’s win it makes me wonder if getting a week off is such a good idea. It did not work well for the Tennessee Titans either. It seems Arizona was sharp and Carolina just never got it going. Now Arizona will have a home game or traveling to New York to take on the Giants depending on who wins tomorrow. Can you imagine it is possible that Arizona could host a NFC Championship game. Who would ever thought that when the season started.

If Rick Pitino knew it was going to be this tough in the Big East he would have never signed up for all this torture. Right now their are nine teams ranked in the Top 25 so almost on any given night you will be playing a ranked team. Today Louisville got a scrappy Villanova team that is pretty good and they battle and gave Louisville all they wanted, but missed some crucial free throws down the stretch that cost them. Louisville’s Ed Clark had 16 points and 11 rebounds in the win for Louisville, while Villanova’s Dante cunningham tossed in 21 points in a losing effort.

Saturday, January 10th

2 Duke 66 Final
Florida State 58

5 Connecticut 81 Final
Cincinnati 72

6 Oklahoma 61 Final
Kansas State 53

Iowa State 67 Final
7 Texas 75

9 Syracuse 82 Final
Rutgers 66

Providence 75 Final
10 Georgetown 82

NC State 51 Final
11 Clemson 63

Kansas 62 Final
12 Michigan State 75

Seton Hall 79 Final
13 Notre Dame 88

22 West Virginia 53 Final
15 Marquette 75

Oregon 58 Final
16 Arizona State 76

21 Louisville 61 Final
17 Villanova 60

Detroit 50 Final
20 Butler 54

Texas Tech 61 Final
23 Baylor 73

Miami (FL) 77 Final
24 Boston College 71

25 Tennessee 86 Final
Georgia 77