The highs and the lows

Lousy times, this weekend, if you were one of "my teams." Unless you're the Lakers! Couldn't have asked for two better games than the last pair. First, smashing Iverson and the so-called improved Nuggets (yes, I know Carmelo is still yet to return, but it's always fun to rag on A.I.) into oblivion while having five Lakers in double figures and none of them being Kobe. Absolutely brilliant performance, but it was last night's win over the uber-hot Mavericks that was clearly not just the best game of the weekend in the NBA, but in all of the sporting world! And what a result if you're a Lakers fan. Trailing for pretty much the entire second half, right until the end, getting hopelessly outrebounded, particularly on the offensive glass where Dallas made a living on second chance points, and then pulling it out while riding the shoulders of your superstar and the hot hand of (brace yourself for this one) Sasha Vujacic! Now, Sasha probably doesn't deserve that kind of stick because, in his defense, he has played pretty consistently this season and his step-up performance last night was well needed especially in the light of Brian Cook and Vlad Radmanovic having awful games. The key to this latest win streak for LA (going on four games, now), hasn't been Kobe necessarily, but the fact that the supporting cast have been able to step up and produce. Bynum has been white hot since Kwame went down (no surprise there, more minutes for the youngster=more confidence) and if it's not Cook nailing shots, it's Sasha or Mo Evans or Farmar's ability to find the open man or Turiaf's spark off the bench. Even short-handed, there is a legit team here. A legit team that just needs to shore up their defense before they can be considered serious contenders for the championship.

If the Lakers represent my ultimate highs for this weekend, then Liverpool's mauling AT ANFIELD (unstoppable at home, no more) at the hands of Arsenal, 3-1, in the FA Cup 3rd round was surely the lowest low. Got up early to head down to Ye Olde King's Head Pub for the match, too, and had the gross misfortune of sitting directly across from a bunch of Arsenal fans as sloppy defending and the Gunners' efficient counter-attack knocked the confused and unimaginative Cup holders out of the competition. John Arne Riise needs to spend at least one match on the bench, and no, tomorrow's Carling Cup versus Arsenal doesn't count. He's just horribly off form and largely at fault for the first goal conceded (a gem from Rosicky). I want a complete refund on Fabio Aurelio who is just a total liability as soon as he steps on the pitch. Steven Gerrard's presence was missing for extensive portions of the match and, if not for Dirk Kuyt, we probably wouldn't have created a single decent chance on goal. I'm shooting an icy stare in Rafa Benitez's direction, too, for 1) not putting Robbie Fowler on the subs bench when he knew that Bellamy was never going to be fit enough to play and 2) not understanding what so many physical teams in the Premiership understand so well: Arsenal are a finesse team that can be thrown off it's game if you play them physically. If anyone, it was the French Whiner's side that played physical/border-line dirty. For these reasons, I eagerly anticipate Lucas Neill's arrival at Anfield.

To the college hardwood, a flat out awesome game between Oregon and UCLA on Saturday morning. Just awesome. The last 30 seconds were of March Madness quality. Props to both schools. The Bruins are still easily a 1-seed in my eyes and Oregon showed a lot of metal, bouncing back from the let-down loss to USC two days earlier.

Disappointing: Arizona falling at the hands of Washington State with an opportunity to take sole possession of first place in the Pac Ten on the line. Granted, it was OT and it was in Pullman, but this was the first challenging away game (proper away game -- Louisville and Illinois were at neutral sites) for UofA since the season-opening three-point loss to Virginia. On the bright side, however, it definitely looks like the Wildcats will be able to chalk this up as a "quality loss" on the NCAA resume as Wazzu is looking more and more formative with each passing day. The Oregon schools come to Tucson this week. Ducks v Wildcats on Saturday. Giddy-up!

The NFL playoffs yielded four intriguing matchups for next weekend. That would be four out of a possible four! Each game has the potential for upset (more on that later this week). The sparkling highlight from Wild Card Weekend? Without question, it has to be the botched field goal attempt by Dallas that ended their season in the most spectacular fashion. If Big Tuna returns next season -- and I expect he will -- I cannot imagine T.O. returning to the team. We shall see. In the meantime, I wonder where all those bandwagon Cowboys fans are? Those fans who were touting Tony Romo as the next messiah, where are they?

Lastly, tonight is the game that makes every other bowl game completely irrelevant based sheerly on it's title: The National Championship game. Ohio State is a touchdown favorite. I'm sticking with my prediction from earlier of Buckeyes 36 Gators 22. I think Ohio State has to make a lot of mistakes and that the Florida offense -- the same Florida offense which the Gators got to the national title game in spite of -- has to execute flawlessly. It's not going to happen. Florida gets a couple of scores late to make it look respectable, but this one is never in doubt. Quite a year for Troy Smith.