Hope springs eternal for teams in the spring

After the winter we’ve been having, this would be the perfect year to be going to spring training, but I’m not.  I’m staying back home in the midwest, watching as the ice and snow slowly melt away and preparing to watch a lot of basketball in the coming weeks.

At the same time, with opening day barely a month away, I can’t help but let my thoughts drift south to green grass, the smell of a new ball glove and the crack of bats from the cages and the practice fields.  This is without question, the best month in sports.

In the coming weeks, we will live and die with our college teams as they fight to get into the NCAA tournament, or battle through each round of the tourney in search of the elusive national title.  

We’ll raise our expectations and hopes for our baseball teams that really don’t have a chance, but hey it’s spring and that rookie sure looks good at second base and this is the year our veteran starting pitcher who’s never been more than a .500 pitcher is going to have that breakout season on the hill.

Many of us will listen closely to analysts as they try and tell us who is going to be our favorite NFL’s teams top pick in the upcoming draft and we’ll lament the release of a veteran player who’d been one of our favorites.

Yes, flowers will start popping up and trees will have buds on them getting ready to bust out and just like the crocus that blooms when there’s still snow on the ground, we each believe that this is the year for us and our team.  Considering the hard winter most of us have experienced and the hard economic times that have met many across this country,  it’s a great time to see spring and all the hope it brings with it.

You see, I’m a glass half full kind of guy.  Even when the facts are pointing elsewhere, I have to believe my team is going to be better, my life is going to be better.  That’s who we are as Americans.  Eternal optimists.  Even when our politicians are taking a dump on us, I can always find hope in sports and in spring. 

KU and K-State ready to make a statement in the NCAA's

Wednesday night in Lawrence, Kansas was all about Sherron Collins, the winningest player in KU history playing his final game in Allen Field House.  But it was also about Kansas finding their way to the form that’s makes them one of the top favorites to win the national title.

Just four days after delivering their worst performance of the season against a fired up Oklahoma State squad, the Jayhawks came back to slap down their in-state rival Kansas State in the biggest game between the two since their meeting in the regional finals in 1988.

With a deafening home crowd behind them, Kansas shook off a tough and talented Wildcat team and won going away 82-65.  While the margin was a large one in the end, I still came away very impressed with K-State’s team and their ability to go deep into the NCAA tourney.

Guard play will usually take you a long way in the tourney, which is one reason both KU and K-State have a chance to go far.  On a night when Collins went 1-9 in the first half and had the teams only two turnovers, the Jayhawks managed to win in large part because guards Tyshawn Taylor, Brady Morningstar and Tyrell Reed stepped up big.  Morningstar made the biggest shot in the game when he hit a three after K-State had tied it in the second half.  Kansas has the depth to overcome an off night from one of their guards.

K-State doesn’t.  But Jacob Pullen and Denis Clemente are a one two scoring punch from the guard spot that’s about as good as anyone in the country.  When they’re hot, they can be devastating.  But what Kansas exposed in the Wildcats was their failure sometimes to distribute the ball, as evidenced by just 4 assists in the game.  K-State has the talent to put points on the board from the inside as well, but their guards have to distribute the ball and not just shoot.

The two schools have proven they’re the best in the Big 12 this season.  Soon they’ll get the chance to show the rest of the nation just how good they are.   

Gold medal hockey game was everything and more

I don’t think there’s much more to add after watching the men’s gold medal hockey final.  It was simply one of the greatest sporting events ever and while the U.S. fell in overtime, it could be a seminal moment in the history of the sport.

The victory by Canada was a culmination of a tremendous two plus weeks of Olympic action.  It was also simply put, a great hockey game and considering that it could be seen live all over the world may have more impact the any previous game in the sport.

Sidney Crosby was already a Canadian superstar, but he’s now reached icon status thanks to his overtime goal.  Much as Americans who are old enough remember where they were thirty years ago and the name Mike Eruzione from the Miracle on Ice team of 1980, Canadians will always remember where they were today and the name of Sidney Crosby.  It will go down as the most important sporting event in Canadian history.

It was an awesome game, played to the level you want to see any sporting event played.  If you weren’t a hockey fan before today and saw this contest, I can’t believe you didn’t become one.