The Basement View

Recruiting Wire- The end of the world What is there to say when 70% of the Top 10 teams lose in a week. It all started last Tuesday when the Mountaineers beat the #2 Kansas Jayhawks. Upsets in college sports, especially basketball because of how exciting the upset itself is. The good thing about upsets is how the game expands and you see more than just the top teams in the country. Tennessee and Georgia Tech. have become legitimate dark horses if they make the tournament to bust some brackets. Another team that showed a ton of heart is the University of Virginia. The Cavilers have been a good team for the past 2 years and for everyone sleeping on them—welcome back Virginia. Now getting into the “brand new” Top 25: 1.       Gonzaga 2.       Baylor 3.       Kansas 4.       Villanova 5.       Arizona 6.       Louisville 7.       West Virginia 8.       Kentucky 9.       Virginia 10.   Wisconsin 11.   UCLA 12.   North Carolina 13.   Oregon 14.   Cincinnati 1

Fresh Start_162: Child’s play in Chi-Town We all like hanging out with our close friends, because well that is when the best times seem to come out and memories are made. And when you look back at those times years down the line, you loan for the days that you had with those friends. Well, in the NBA Dwyane Wade is currently looking at old photos of him and Lebron in Miami winning championships. Wade is currently in Chicago (his hometown) and is barely holding onto a playoff spot. The Bulls are currently tied for the 7 th seed in the East with Charlotte (23-25) and are struggling both on and off the court. The Bulls are on a 2-game losing streak and are 4-6 in their last 10 games. Not to mention, the locker room has been in an uproar over this past week. Locker room comments have been the source of news this past week in the NBA, and in Chicago, the Bulls are acting like a 7 th grade modified basketball team. Wade and Jimmy Butler had some comments about the feelings around th

NY 500 #21 What a crazy weekend in New York. From everything that went on Saturday with the protests at JFK airport, to the stuff that happened on the court and ice. Starting off with some stuff that didn’t happen on the field, the Jets finished their search for an Offensive Coordinator agreeing to a deal with former New Orleans Saints Wide Receiver coach John Morton. Morton has had success in both of his jobs in the NFL. Morton was the Wide Receiver coach in both New Orleans and San Francisco. The success that players like Cooks, Thomas, Crabtree, and Boldin had older the coaching of Morton is exciting news for Marshall, Enunwa and Decker. It will be interesting to see what type of plays he draws up for the running backs and how he handles the quarterback situation. On the court, the Knicks are still struggling. Having two terrible losses to Phoenix and Dallas. Not to mention the tough loss in Atlanta last night in quadrupole overtime. The game was a classic, but with the strug

Fresh Start_161: Ask me anything! Reading columns over the weekend and listening to podcasts as I get my homework done for my classes, I have thought of an interesting way to move forward for 2017. Being a journalist, questions come up for readers that they want the people they read to answer. Some journalists comply and start a mailbag series where people email in questions and the questions get answered. With all the content that I have been producing at the start of 2017, I want to do that for this blog. I am extremely interested to see what this community has on their mind and I am intrigued to see what type of questions are asked and what is on people’s minds. The email that you can send your questions to is thesportsmailbag@gmail.com . Make sure you include your name and where you are from in the question. I will be doing a mailbag article for the “Fresh Start” collection of articles every 2 weeks or so. Go ask away! Don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe, and sha

Fresh Start_160: McGregor Mayweather This fight needs to happen. Floyd “Money” Mayweather needs to except the challenge from Connor McGregor and get this fight off the ground. The fight would be a boxing match, and this fight will be the best thing to happen to the sport of boxing in a long time. These are the best two fighters on the planet, and they need to declare who is truly the best. Not to mention that Mayweather is currently undefeated at 49-0 tied with Rocky Marciano. This would be the fight that Mayweather could stand alone as the greatest holding the undefeated title and retire after beating McGregor. For Connor McGregor, this is a situation where he could become an American fighting icon. What McGregor would do is be the “best” in 2 fighting leagues. There is no question that McGregor is the best UFC fighter on the planet, being the lightweight and featherweight champion. The fight against Mayweather would give McGregor some credit as a legitimate boxer. This fig

Fresh Start_159: Who even cares anymore? The status quo around All-Star games are that they don’t matter or mean anything. In the NBA’s All-Star game over 300 points between the 2 teams. In the NBA, there is no defense being played and nobody really cares what happens in the game. The NBA is really just about dunks and the 3-point shot and that is what is presented in the game. Very few NBA fans actually care about defense, and that is represented by the following question. That question is: Do you know the Defensive Player of the Year from 2012? That question can be asked and you just insert a year to see if you know. Those few people care about defense in the NBA. Moving to the MLB, which was the only game that mattered because of home field advantage in the Fall Classic. With the new CBA home field advantage rule disappeared and the game is just for the spectacle of the game. The All-Star game in Major League Baseball is the only game that can actually seem like the actual ga

Fresh Start_158: Phil Jackson Magic It seems that the New York Knicks are done with Carmelo Anthony. The guy that they sold their team to get and build their franchise around, is now being rushed out the door in New York. The catch here is; he is still in New York. Melo has been a Superstar player since he has come into the league, and the way he plays is isolation. Phil Jackson and the Knicks have seen enough of iso basketball and want to get the ball flowing to their other emerging star; Kristaps Porzingis. The Unicorn is one of the most electrifying young stars in the league, and it is clear that Jackson wants him to be the face of the franchise. But, where the Knicks have set themselves up for failure is giving Anthony a no-trade clause when he signed his most recent contract (summer 2015). This no-trade clause was an unnecessary due to the fact of how much money the Knicks gave Anthony in the deal, they undoubtedly knew they would have to restrictor or trade Melo at one point i

Views from far far away- Craziness is why we love the NBA Crazy week in the world of the Association, probably the best week of the season. The week that was, is around the time that the NBA starts to hit the forefront of the sports media, and what an introduction to have. The Washington Wizards have won 14 straight wins at home, also introducing a “rivalry” with the Boston Celtics. Wearing all black to the game against the C’s to having an old school ball game (without a huge brawl) is refreshing for the NBA. Even with everyone on either side saying that the rivalry doesn’t exist. This is the closest thing to a rivalry that the NBA has, and it is good for the league. Hatred in sports feeds fans, the media, and makes the games that much more memorable. After the Wizards-Celtics game, you have Russell Westbrook continuing his amazing play and proving everyone wrong. Lebron James has been a TMZ reporter for the NBA stirring up the pot with his comments about his team. Jimmy Butler an

Fresh Start_157: Urgency is national part of the game Athletes in professional sports, have a certain shelf life. It is widely known, that running backs in the NFL have most likely the shortest shelf life out of any professional sports player. That is due to the demanding responsibilities of the position. Two players that have come up in the news that are worried about the rest of their career in their respective sport is Ben Roethlisberger of Pittsburgh Steelers and Lebron James of the Cleveland Cavilers. Roethlisberger was in the news on Monday about comments he said on the local radio station 97.3 The Fan in Pittsburgh about his retirement. Roethlisberger said “I’m going to take this offseason to evaluate, to consider all options, to consider health and family and things like that and just kind of take some time away to evaluate next season – if there’s going to be a next season.” These comments are most defiantly an overreaction and raw emotion following a brutal blowout los

Fresh Start_156: Where’s Roger? I have been saying that there needs to be change at the head of the NFL office, and after a season like this, why wouldn’t you keep thinking that way. After Roger Goodell didn’t end up in Foxborough this past Sunday. Goodell hasn’t shown his face since the ridiculous Tom Brady suspension—and he might not want to for a long time. The Patriots mission from the beginning of the season has been to get Roger Goodell to hand Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, and the Patriots the Lombardi Trophy. It would only be fitting in the crazy minds of the Boston sports fans. I don’t like the fact that the Jets arch rival is gearing up for yet another Super Bowl, but I would laugh if Goodell had to give the team he punished for no reason the trophy at the end of the year. I also would bet on the prop bet that Brady hits Goodell on the top of the head with the Lombardi Trophy. I’d hope everyone would know my stance on Goodell and his office. From the way that he handl

Recruiting Wire- Beginning of Bracketology As January slowly winds down, and the Bracketology “experts” start to make their cases for 1 seeds in the tournament, I start to ask myself who should get the key position out West. The only 2 teams at the moment that I have in mind is Gonzaga and Arizona; now you know my opinion on the Zags, but Arizona is an interesting team. I really like Arizona’s head man Sean Miller, but his team is in an odd position because of one of their players. Allonzo Trier is a guard that is suspended because of a failed drug test, were he had one of the NCAA banned medication. The NCAA has said that he can play when the drug is out of his system, but Arizona doesn’t know when that will exactly be, in fact nobody does. Trier hopes to be back before the tournament, and if they can keep the 18-2 pace up until then, Arizona will be a dangerous team come March Madness. Getting into the Top 25, a few new teams enter this week. It looks like this: 1.       Vil

Fresh Start_155: They did it again… At this point, I don’t know what to do with ESPN. I honestly don’t like seeing news that has a negative undertone to it when it comes to the company. As foolish as it may be at this point, I still have hope for the company. Even with everything that I have disagreed with over the past 24 months or so, I still hold in there for a company that a grew up adoring. ESPN announced yesterday that they will be canceling “The Sports Reporters” in May of 2017. The shows slot will be substituted with a bigger instalment of “E:60”. I like “E:60” but it is no Sports Reporters. With the passing of the host John Saunders in the latter months of the year last year, the show has never really been in the same. On top of that ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” will have an increased role in the “E:60” program, which to me is going to an interesting spot for long time employee Bob Lee to take. To be clear, I wasn’t a huge viewer of the Sports Reporters but I liked the jo

NY 500 #20 I don’t know about you, but a weekend like this past one, makes me long for baseball season. Multiple times throughout the weekend, I just felt nostalgic the entire time watching sports, wishing I could buy Yankee tickets and go to the stadium. Even with a weekend that had the Nets scoring 143 points in a win (yeah that happened), the Rangers winning both games they had, and putting the Knicks in a closer situation were Carmelo is no longer in New York, all I could think about is baseball. Let’s start with the best moment of the Brooklyn Nets season, which happened Friday night. The Nets scored 143 points against the Pelicans and amazed every single Net fan. The team has lead by the 2 vets, Brook Lopez and Bojan Bogdanovic. Lopez had 23 and 8, while Bojan had 23 and 6 against an Anthony Davis lead Pelicans team. Davis had 22 and 9 in a losing effort, while regretting his decision to sign with New Orleans long term. On the other side of the city the Knicks have been st