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By Anthony De Franco  November 4, 2009, at 3:26 pm  Matt Soldano is creaming his pants right now.
It looks like we may finally get an inkling as to who will take on Kimbo Slice at The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale. Here’s what Sherdog has to say.
Houston Alexander was approved for re-licensure Wednesday by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, clearing the way for an anticipated bout with Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson at “The Ultimate Fighter 10” finale on Dec. 5 in Las Vegas.
Alexander spoke briefly before the commission, as he was required to undergo additional review as a potential participant that is 35 years or older. When addressed by a commission member, Alexander confirmed that he will be fighting on Dec. 5, but did not identify his opponent.
The heavily rumored Alexander-Slice bout is expected to be contested between 205 and 265 pounds.
It would have to be heavyweight because I don’t that Kimbo cutting weight would be a very pleasant sight. He might shoot a guy. Alexander used to fight in the UFC at light heavyweight.
For me, the most curious thing about this fight will be the amount improvement that Kimbo has made in his game since joining American Top Team a few months back. Has he developed some reverse wrestling? Has his striking gotten tighter?
Well, here’s one thing for sure: Alexander and Slice would NOT go to the ground. Kimbo would get to throw hands. Alexander should be the favorite.
By Anthony De Franco November 4, 2009, at 1:10 pm I’ve spent a bunch of times thinking about the Houston Texans today. Mainly the injury that was suffered by their all-pro tight end Owen Daniels.
This team is built around the idea that their remarkable offense will make up for the fact that they have a someone suspect defense, especially in the back end. We all saw what happened to that offense early in the season when you took away Kevin Walter. The team faltered against a Jets team that was debuting a new head coach and a new quarterback.
Now, Daniels is not Kevin Walter. Daniels is an amazing player. If I was to sit here and rank tight ends, he would be in the top tier with guys like Vernon Davis and Tony Gonzalez. Can this team survive without him making him respect the deep middle of the field?
Here’s whats going to happen now. Teams are going to roll their safeties over the top to double cover Andre Johnson. With Johnson double covered, Matt Schaub will have to find a new player to go to alleviate the pressure that will be put on him. I just don’t know if that player is on the Texans roster.
Typically, tight end is a premium position. One that is nice to have, but not necessary if you want to be a winning team. Unless of course, your second best offensive weapon is said tight end.
The Texans might be screwed.
By Matt Soldano November 4, 2009, at 12:46 pm Despite the 2009-10 NBA Season being a week old, I have come to the decision that Donnie Walsh blew it in June’s Draft when he had the number eight overall pick. I understand that Walsh had his hands tied when Stephen Curry and Ricky Rubio were already picked but I still cannot come to terms as to why Donnie Walsh believed that with their lottery pick Jordan Hill was the best option.
In my mock drafts, specifically leading up to the actual night of, I pegged the Knicks selecting Hill only because of the admiration the organization had for the former Wildcat. It is obvious though that there were two players that Walsh should have selected two guys before the thought of Hill crossed their minds. Ty Lawson and more specifically, Brandon Jennings, fit the Knicks plans and design and unfortunately, Donnie swung and missed…big time.
Hill has played in one game this year and has played a grand total of two minutes. Now no one thought he would come in and be a rookie of the year caliber type of player but no one thought he would be this far behind in terms of getting up to NBA speed and development. Compare those stats to Ty Lawson of the Denver Nuggets who is currently averaging 9 points and 3 assists in a backup role to Chauncey Billups in less than 20 minutes of play. I always thought Lawson would be a guy who could perfectly fit the bill with D’Antoni’s run and gun style. He is averaging a 5:1 Assists/Turnover ratio. That is how you play point guard folks.
Without Blake Griffin, Brandon Jennings has stolen the spotlight for this year’s rookies putting up ridiculous numbers for the Milwaukee Bucks. With a line of 22 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists, Jennings has stolen the show and makes the departure of Ramon Sessions a forgotten thought. While he drew criticisms for leaving Arizona to play in Italy, Jennings has proven the inconsistency shown overseas was all a fluke, and his American game translates much better.
So where does Jordan Hill fit? Mike D’Antoni has already converted Wilson Chandler to the 4 to play similarly to Shawn Marion when D’Antoni was in Phoenix and he has David Lee at center. With Gallo and Al Harrington also being able to play the 3 and the 4, the need for Hill is perplexing. If Donnie Walsh felt there was a pressing need for a big man, why did he not draft Brook Lopez over Gallinari in 2008? Has Gallo proven anything in the NBA besides the fact that 75% of his shots this season have been 3 pointers? If I wanted that, give me Jason Kapono for a fraction of the money and draft Lopez.
The track record for Donnie Walsh’s draft picks have been less than impressive. Here are a list of the first round picks since Walsh began drafting with the Indiana Pacers.
The Good: Reggie Miller, Rik Smits, Al Harrington, Danny Granger,
The Bad: George McCloud, Dale Davis, Travis Best, Erick Dampier, Vonteego Cummings
The Ugly: Malik Sealy, Scott Haskin, Eric Piatkowski, Austin Croshere, Primoz Brezec, Fred Jones, David Harrison, Jonathan Bender, Shawne Williams
The names don’t lie. Walsh has put all of his chips onto the table by acquiring expiring contract after expiring contract. If Walsh is unable to land Lebron James, what will the reaction be then from Knicks fans? With no 2010 first round pick (which would have surely land them in the lottery) when can the Knicks address the point guard situation? Can Toney Douglas actually assume the full-time position next year? Doubt it. All Knicks fans can do now is watch Jordan Hill continually disappoint hopefuls by sitting on the bench while Brandon Jennings continues to soar in Wisconsin. Who knows, maybe he will start to take Packer fans minds off of Brett Favre.
By Zach Schiff November 4, 2009, at 12:21 pm The last two times that the Edmonton Oilers faced the Rangers, the Rangers lost in a shootout. Last time, they fired 42 shots on net and scored on only 2 – on a backup goaltender. Ah, the Tom Renney era…
Well, tomorrow, the Rangers meet Tom Renney again, and while not many current players were there for a lot of his reign (Henrik Lundqvist and Michal Rozsival were the only ones there from his first full season in 2005-06), it should be an emotional night for him. Imagine if the game were at Madison Square Garden?
 While I rip on Renney a lot here, I do think he was a very good coach, and I’m sure he will be sometime soon. There are a few coaches who will “always be a Ranger,” no matter where they wind up coaching or working. Mike Keenan, though he only had 1 season, is one of them. Renney is another.
No coach could have done what he did after the lockout. He took a team destined to fail -at least according to the experts – and brought them into the playoffs, one point away from winning the division. He got 123 points out of Jaromir Jagr – a man who would have refused to return to the NHL if he wasn’t playing for Renney in New York, he once said. He turned a team of veterans – Rucchin, Jagr, Straka, Rucinsky, Kasparaitis, Nylander – and young no-names – Jay Ward, Ortmeyer, Dom Moore, Hollweg, Orr, Prucha, Betts – into a contender.
I still say that if not for the Olympics, the Rangers could have gone far that year. Jagr and Lundqvist came back injured – Jagr with hip and groin problems, Hank with headaches from grinding his teeth. And then there was Sandis Ozolinsh, who seemed like a good trade at first until he came apart in the Devils’ series and cost the team 2 games.
Still, Renney was a huge part of the rebuilding process. While they rebuilt, he brought them into the playoffs. He just wasn’t a good fit for the team last year and going forward. His style had stopped working, and he continued to play people based on their paychecks rather than skill (see: Wade Redden on the power play while Petr Prucha sat in street clothes).
For all the good he did, he will be remembered for 2 things: being fired when the team couldn’t score and for Game 5 in Buffalo, where Fedor Tyutin and rookie Dan Girardi were on the ice with 30 seconds left with a 1-0 lead. When they iced the puck, Tyutin and Girardi had to stay on, they couldn’t clear the puck, and Chris Drury scored.
Besides that being the one game that still upsets my stomach (and the only time I ever lost sleep over a sports event), you know that if they won that game and went up 3-2 in the series, they would not have lost Game 6 at MSG. I’m not saying they would have won the Stanley Cup – hell, they might not even have beaten Ottawa in the Conference Finals – but they would have beaten Buffalo. And maybe Chris Drury never would’ve been signed the following summer, and maybe everything would’ve been different.
But this is how it’s played out, and I wish Tom Renney the best in Edmonton – no matter how often I make fun of his healthy scratches or his power play.
By Zach Schiff November 4, 2009, at 11:39 am Ah, the dreaded Western Canadian Road Trip. Remember last time, in January of 2008 when they got 1 points in 3 games?
They ran into a red-hot Calgary team featuring Kristian Huselius, who had 4 points in the 4-3 game, including a goal from behind the goal-line that somehow sneaked past Henrik Lundqvist.
Steve Valiquette had no offense in a 3-0 loss to Vancouver.
And if not for Chris Drury scoring with 7 seconds left to force overtime, they would’ve left with 0 points instead of 1 (Edmonton was monstrous in the shootout in ‘07-’08, partially because then-rookie Sam Gagner was unstoppable in the tiebreaker).
Last night against Vancouver felt like that trip all over again. The Rangers applied little pressure, even in the 2nd period when the shot-counter went in their favor. Sure, they fired 14 shots in that frame, but how many were legitimate scoring chances? Two? Maybe just one?
They ought to have pounced on Vancouver, especially in the 3rd. They had, what, 4 power plays in a row, including a double-minor to end the 2nd period? And they couldn’t do anything with it. Vancouver was shorthanded for 8 minutes, had good players in the penalty box, had Henrik Sedin and Willie Mitchell playing at 40% because of injuries, and still, no good opportunities. Other than Chris Higgins, who worked hard for Goal #1, there were a handful of Rangers who actually showed up. Matt Gilroy was one of them; he looked fantastic. Mike Del Zotto wasn’t a standout but played good. Ryan Callahan played hard, again, and couldn’t score, again. And Brandon Dubinsky… is on the trading block?
You would have thought that the big brawl would have fired them up, but it really just jazzed up the Canucks as it seemed the Rangers were content bringing the game to overtime and settling for a point – or a shootout.
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I love that Dane Byers is in the lineup. As opposed to Evgeny Grachev or Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau, Byers is never going to light it up in the NHL, so he doesn’t need to “dominate the minors before becoming an NHLer,” and the old “it’s better to play 20 minutes a night in the AHL than 7 minutes in the NHL” adage doesn’t apply to him.
I would rather have Byers in the lineup over Donald Brashear any night. Maybe Brashear of 2003 or 2006, but not the 2009 version, where he is slow, shows the same hockey sense as Colton Orr, and doesn’t fight – and when he does, he loses. Byers showed fire last night. Sure, he didn’t win the fight, but he was out there battling, starting stuff, and showing that he belongs in the NHL. Even John Tortorella gave him a “good game” en route to the locker room – although Tortorella’s good game pat fell in an awkward spot.
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