No funny pictures. No observations. No "look on the bright side" stuff. The Mavericks are playing horribly and unless they find a way to stop the Warriors for the next three games, this will be an incredibly short post-season. Fucking sad. I don't get it and I haven't decided if I'm confused or just really pissed off.

In today's decisive game of the three-game Tennessee at LSU series, televised on ESPN2, Vols' pitcher Monica Abbott was just a little too wild and not quite sharp enough to prevent the Tigers from putting up three runs in the second inning, a total that held up for a 3-2 LSU win. Dani Hofer came in to get the final two outs for LSU, earning a save in relief of Emily Turner.

The fateful second inning unfolded as follows (quoting from the above-linked LSU game article):

[Leslie] Klein led off the second with a six pitch walk, coming back from an 0-2 count to draw the free pass. Freshman Rachel Mitchell then earned the second walk of the inning as she also battled back from an 0-2 count to take her base and send Klein to second. Junior Killian Roessner was then hit by a pitch to load the bases.

After junior Erika Sluss came in to pinch run for Roessner at first, junior Tayl'r Hollis came to the plate. With a 3-1 count, Hollis was awarded a ball by home plate umpire Rodney Roth after Abbott continued to take too much time in the circle. The result was a bases loaded walk by Hollis for the first run of the game.

[Kristen] Hobbs then came through with a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Mitchell from third and sent Hollis and Sluss to second and third. With two outs, freshman Jazz Jackson earned her second RBI of the weekend on a single down the left field line just over the head of the Tennessee third baseman, giving LSU the 3-0 lead, which would eventually hold up.

Abbott, having struck out 13 LSU batters in her Saturday appearance, needed just six more today to break former Texas pitcher Cat Osterman's NCAA career strikeout record. Abbott got five today to tie the record, but it will take another outing to surpass the mark.

In the Big 12, Baylor bounced back to split its two-game stint with Missouri, once again leaving these two teams tied for first in the conference standings at 12-3.

Had Oklahoma been able to sweep Kansas, the Sooners would have been tied in the loss column with three losses; instead the Sooners only split with the Jayhawks, so OU finishes conference play at 14-4.

Texas Tech, which has struggled mightily in conference play, knocked off Texas A&M by a 6-2 score in College Station, earning the Red Raiders only their second Big 12 victory of the season. The Aggies, now 12-5, suffered major damage to their regular-season conference-title hopes.

Here are the remaining Big 12 conference games (from the official Big 12 softball page), before the conference tourney May 10-12 in OKC. Most (if not all) of the schools are in the Central time zone, so I would guess the following times are Central.

Tue., May 1, Texas A&M at Baylor... Waco, Texas 6:30 p.m.

Thu., May 3, Texas at Baylor... Waco, Texas CSTV 6:30 p.m.
...............Oklahoma State at Oklahoma... Norman, Okla. 7:00 p.m.

Sat., May 5, Kansas at Iowa State... Ames, Iowa 2:00 p.m.
...............Nebraska at Missouri... Columbia, Mo. 2:00 p.m.
...............Texas Tech at Oklahoma State... Stillwater, Okla. 2:00 p.m.

Sun., May 6, Kansas at Iowa State... Ames, Iowa 12:00 p.m.
...............Nebraska at Missouri... Columbia, Mo. 1:00 p.m.
...............Texas Tech at Oklahoma State... Stillwater, Okla. 3:00 p.m.

If you're a fan of high-scoring action (or of any scoring), today's Arizona at Stanford game (televised by CSTV) would not have been to your liking. The game ended as a 0-0 tie after 12 innings; no further play was possible because the Wildcats needed to catch their flight home.

Finally, in Big 10 play, Ohio State (12-2) took two from Indiana, putting the Buckeyes in position to win the regular-season conference title. Penn State visits Columbus next weekend. As noted in this article, Northwestern has completed its league slate at 15-3, so even one Buckeye loss will give the title to the Wildcats. The regular-season conference title carries added importance, as the winner gets to host the conference tournament.

Tennessee and LSU have split today's doubleheader, making tomorrow's single game the decider of the three-game series (2:00 Eastern/1:00 Central on ESPN2).

Each team held out its top pitcher from one of today's games, so there was no battle of the aces. Top Vol Monica Abbott pitched in Game 1 against the Tigers' Dani Hofer, a contest won by Tennessee, 2-1. Then, in the nightcap, LSU ace Emily Turner went against the Vols' Megan Rhodes, with the Tigers emerging victorious, 5-1.

I would expect Abbott vs. Turner in Game 3, but we'll have to tune in to see!

In the battle for first place in the Big 12, Missouri has captured the opener of its two-game series at Baylor, 4-3.

Ohio State has swept its Friday-Saturday two-game series against Purdue to remain in first in the Big 10 at 10-2. If they're to win the conference's regular-season title, the Buckeyes can't afford a loss, as Northwestern (13-3) keeps winning, having just swept Iowa. Michigan (9-3) is still in contention, but a split with Minnesota is not what the Wolverines would have wanted. Each Big 10 team gets a new opponent for a Sunday doubleheader (Ohio State hosting Indiana, Northwestern hosting Illinois, and Michigan hosting Wisconsin).

Despite a 3-2 loss to Stanford today, Arizona (11-3) retains a two-game lead over its nearest Pac 10 opponent, ASU (9-5). A Sunday rematch of the Wildcats and Cardinal airs on CSTV at 1:30 Pacific.

I'm excited about tonight's game. I also am getting the Friday afternoon antsy-pants. I also wanted to share this picture. I wouldn't mind a beer right now, either. That's all. No blog until Monday because my laptop hates me and it's not like no one will know if the Mavs won or not unless I post a blog. They just won't get the semi-clever synopsis of the lesser points of the game. Until Monday. If I can remember all the "witty" things I wanted to say. This will be fun. It will be like a game. I mean, other than the actual game that's happening tonight.

A little poetry for this weekend's featured games...

In the Big 12, Baylor and Mizzou,
Are tied atop the standings at 11-and-2,
Saturday and Sunday in Waco they'll meet face-to-face,
To see who will remain in first place,
But only one game behind is OU.

In the SEC, Tennessee leads the East and LSU, the West,
The two teams will play three in Baton Rouge in a major test,
With Abbott and Turner, some great pitching will be on display,
But because of the conference's format of divisional play,
We'll have to wait for the SEC tourney to see who's the best.

Two games of the Tennessee-LSU series will be televised on ESPN2. Also, ESPN.com has a story about two LSU seniors who have overcome serious injuries.

For further details on this weekend's games, please check the various conference and team websites in the links section on the right.

Ejector Seat Reservation

We'll go ahead and get the bad stuff out of the way. Dirk, please come back. I don't know where your game went but please spend today looking for it. MVP does not stand for Mildly Valuable Player. For all the other Mavericks, let's try to work on those three pointers. Only hitting one three point shot in a game is sad.

Ok, now for the fun stuff. Fuck. Yeah. More than the actual victory, I am pleased as hell about the clear psychological effect the Mavs had on the Warriors. It's no secret that Nellie's biggest weapon in his arsenal is his acute grasp of mind games. His two big scorers losing their cool and getting ejected shows the cracks in the armor of Golden State and is a blueprint for the Mavs breaking them. Possibly even better than Baron Davis getting tossed for sarcastically clapping in the face of an offical after what he perceived to be a bad call was Stephen Jackson almost certainly assuring that he will be suspended from game 3 for refusing to leave after being ejected. Watching players that had 30 minutes prior been playing like the scrappy underdogs out to prove they can defeat a giant turn into bad-tempered louts was like that movie Blind Date where Bruce Willis takes a seemingly rad Kim Basinger out on a date only to find out that a few drinks turns her into a human tornado. The Mavs seem to slowly be gathering steam and finding ways to stop the Warriors' (or as Charles Barkley prefers, "those midgets") small but quick attack.

There is a chance that playing at home and being angry about the calls and ejections that sealed their fate could energize the Warriors. But I think it will instead leave them open to the possiblity of the Mavericks goading them into foul troubles and technicals. If the NBA would like to put together a reel displaying how to completely lose your cool, might I suggest it consist of the third and fourth quarters of last night's game.

The winners of the four games I highlighted in my entry this morning (below) are, respectively, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Washington.

***

Intrastate rivalries highlight tonight's action.

Texas A&M plays host to the University of Texas at 6:30 Central, a game that will be televised on CSTV. Also in the Big 12, Oklahoma's at Oklahoma State.

In the Pac 10, Oregon State hosts the University of Oregon in a late afternoon showdown. Also today, UCLA visits Washington, in the conference's makeshift "natural" rivalry (because USC and Washington State don't field teams).

At the risk of stepping onto the turf of the sports uniform blog, I wanted to comment on how a couple of teams' softball helmets are designed to imitate football helmets.

Traditional softball (and baseball) hats put the team abbreviation or logo at the front, above the bill. As shown in the montage below, however, the University of Wisconsin softball helmets adopt the football style of putting the "W" on the side, with a stripe from front to back, over the top.

Meanwhile, Oregon State's softball helmet bears a resemblance to the Michigan football helmet's design, with the winged pattern in front and stripes going toward the back.



I don't really know what to make of this, other than to say that athletic directors and softball coaches and outfitters apparently feel free to experiment a little with their uniforms. Softball is not the only place this happens, however. The Michigan hockey team also borrows from the football helmet design.

Update: I posted a message on the discussion board at Ultimate College Softball, asking if anyone knew of additional teams that had football-like or other unconventional helmet designs. A participant with the moniker "Pudge" listed the following: "Oregon and the two big O's on the side. Florida State with the spears on the side." Indeed, if you go to these teams' official sites (Oregon, in the player montage at the top of the page; Florida State), you can see these examples.

As much as I appreciate everyone's enthusiasm about the Mavs taking the Golden State series in five games, I had a bad feeling about this series. I still think the Mavs will advance but last night's game was all my nightmares come to vivid life.

First off, I have to agree with Charles Barkely (besides his assertation that Dwanye Wade should not be in his "My Five") that Dallas fucked up by trying to match Golden State with a smaller lineup. While I love Devean George, not starting with Dampier or Diop was an awful call. Golden State has an amazing ability to cut through to penetrate the basket and get rebounds. Second chance possions killed the Mavs last night. Forget the long layups and get the big guys in there around the basket to draw contact or drive to the basket.

Dirk? Wow, maybe a day of shooting some practice shots may be appropriate today.

Don Nelson makes me sad now. It seems as if someone has replaced his scotch IV drip with Lithium or Zoloft or something and now all I see is the dead eyes of one of my heroes. True story: during Nelson's last year as Mavs head coach when he was letting Avery slowly take the reigns, I saw the greatest piece of footage ever put to tape. On one of the Sunday night sports shows, a reporter bravely decided to turn up uninvited to Don Nelson's house on a Saturday afternoon to get his thoughts on some trade or something. As the reporter and cameraman were walking up the driveway of Don Nelson's house, through the open garage door emerged the ever-awesome Nelson. He was carrying a case of Miller Lite (partially consumed already) on his shoulder, his shirt had some wet spots and was buttoned crooked. He clearly had not really planned on doing an interview and proceeded to stare at the camera, microphone and reporter with the same expression my cat makes when he tries to watch TV. Also, I believe there was a lawn sprinkler in the background that was stuck and therefore just shooting water straight up into the air. I miss those days.

I was watching something on CSTV a few hours ago, and there was a "crawler" or "scroller" moving across the bottom of the screen, reporting scores and other news items in collegiate sports. After the summary of today's softball scores went by, I realized that conveying the results would be quite easy. All I have to say is that all teams in the USA Today/NFCA poll's top 10 won today. Thank you, and good night!

Actually, I do have a little to add.

What today's dominance by the top 10 means in terms of the Big 12 conference is that Oklahoma, Texas A&M, and Baylor all won, leaving a tight race at the top of the standings...

Baylor....... 11-2-0 41-11-0
Missouri..... 9-2-0 33-19-0
Oklahoma..... 12-3-0 47-5-0
Texas A&M.... 10-4-0 37-7-0

Earlier today on ESPN2, Arizona State outlasted Oregon State, 8-7 in 11 innings. In the bottom of the 11th, the Sun Devils' Bianca Cruz drove in the winning run with a single, a "Cruz Missile" that appeared to land just in front of the Beaver left-fielder. In driving in that run, Cruz broke the school record for most RBI in a season.

After a somewhat disappointing non-conference part of the season, Oregon State has been doing better than I would have expected in Pac 10 play. Now 6-5 in conference, the Beavers had won the first game of their weekend series with ASU. One factor that appears to be contributing to the Beavers' steady performance in league play is the emergence of pitcher Ta'Tyana McElroy, to complement Brianne McGowan; both are seniors.

At 10-2, Arizona is at least two games ahead of every Pac 10 opponent.

Ohio State split with Iowa today, leaving the Buckeyes tied with Michigan atop the Big 10 at 8-2 (Northwestern is just percentage points behind at 11-3). Ohio State's conference games are all at home the rest of the way.

As can be seen from my earlier postings this week, I thought Wednesday night's action would probably overshadow this weekend's docket of games. Today's contests have turned out, however, to be quite eventful -- and the weekend isn't over.

For starters, LSU's Emily Turner threw her first career no-hitter, in Game 2 of a doubleheader sweep of Arkansas (the scores were 5-0 and 7-0).

In the Big 12, Missouri -- a team with 17 non-conference losses so far this season -- got another big win in its improbable drive for a regular-season league title, with a 5-0 victory over Texas A&M.

True enough, a good share of Mizzou's non-conference losses have been to A-list teams, such as Arizona, ASU, Northwestern, and LSU. Other losses, though, have been to unranked teams Western Illinois, Memphis, and Pacific.

Oklahoma and Nebraska have one of football's great traditional rivalries. Today, they played an "instant classic" on the softball diamond. The home Sooners entered the bottom of the seventh trailing 9-6, narrowed the score to 9-8 and then, with two outs, got a two-run walk-off homer from Savannah Long to take the game, 10-9.

Over in the Big 10, Ohio State has opened the weekend with two wins at Illinois, leaving the Buckeyes atop the league standings at 7-1.

Penn State, which also entered the weekend with only one conference loss, has been swept two games at Iowa. It thus looks like traditional conference powers Michigan and Northwestern will be the main teams giving chase to Ohio State the rest of the way.

Once again, this weekend, the Big 12 appears to be where the hottest action is. As of this morning, the top teams in the standings are as follows (taken from the official conference softball page).

Missouri..... 8-1-0 32-18-0
Baylor....... 9-2-0 39-11-0
Oklahoma..... 10-3-0 45-5-0
Texas A&M.... 9-3-0 36-6-0
Nebraska..... 7-4-0 34-13-0

The importance of two Saturday/Sunday series -- Texas A&M at Missouri and Nebraska at Oklahoma -- thus becomes evident.

FUCKING RETARDED

Seriously?

Dallas v. Golden State in the first round of the playoffs.

Yikes.

Late Night

Call them the "Broomer Sooners," as Oklahoma has now swept tonight's doubleheader from Baylor.

In the Big 12 standings, we now have Missouri at 8-1, Baylor at 9-2, and Oklahoma at 10-3. To borrow one of Dan Rather's homespun expressions, "This race is hotter than a Rolex in Times Square."

The Pac 10 race has also tightened, with Arizona State beating Arizona, 6-3. The Sun Devil offense pounded out 12 hits, which is unusually high for such elite competition. However, the Wildcats did not use their ace pitcher, Taryne Mowatt, who had baffled ASU in the teams' prior meetings this season.

Evening

Oklahoma has taken the first game of its doubleheader with Baylor, 3-2 in eight innings. It is the Bears' first Big 12 loss of the season.

Afternoon

I'm calling today Wedge Wednesday. Three games tonight (a single game and a doubleheader) are not only more important than typical midweek fare; tonight's games may be among the most important of the entire season for determining conference regular-season titles.

The reason I have coined the term "Wedge Wednesday" (after combing through the W section of the dictionary for alliteration possibilities) is that certain teams are in a position to drive a "wedge" between themselves and other leading contenders in their leagues.

Take the Arizona at ASU (single) game, which is close to a sell-out. According to the official Pac 10 softball page (see links section on the right), the top of the standings are as follows:

Arizona...........7-1 31-8
Arizona State.....5-3 39-10
Oregon State......5-3 33-13

A win by the Wildcats would thus drive the aforementioned "wedge" between themselves and the Sun Devils in the standings, whereas an ASU win would make it a new race.

Also, in the Big 12 (see standings in last Sunday's entry below), Baylor could virtually end Oklahoma's chances with a sweep of tonight's doubleheader in Norman.

I'm sure I speak for the entire collegiate sports community in extending our thoughts and condolences to everyone at Virginia Tech and their families. The school has created a special website for information related to the tragedy.

The laugh that caused two technicals and one ejection. The Spurs game was one of the more life-affirming games of this season. I love the in-state rivalry almost as much as I can't stand Tim Duncan. I would love to sit here and discuss how the official doesn't actually know for sure whether or not a player is mocking their calls or just laughing about a joke that he remembered from a few days ago but I can't because nothing makes me happier than replaying the astonished face of Tim Duncan when he was ejected. The police escorts were like a cherry on top of my techincal sundae.

I can't believe we're already to the last game of the regular season tonight. I'm gearing up for what will probably be a pretty rad playoff season. And nothing does my heart better than, after the commentators spent 70% of their on-air time talking about how San Antonio was THE team to beat and how they are practically kissing the Finals trophy right now, Dallas won. I don't know who the Spurs are offering sexual favors to but seeing them knocked out of the playoffs in the second round will be incredible.

Your weekend wrap-up...

Big 10

Make it four teams (at least) in the race for the Big 10 title, as Penn State went to Northwestern today and split a doubleheader. Ohio State had also split with Northwestern earlier in the weekend.

Michigan, on the verge of a doubleheader sweep at Illinois with a 3-0 lead in the seventh inning of Game 2 after winning Game 1, saw the Illini tie the game in the seventh inning of Game 2, then win it in the eighth.

The top teams in the Big 10 standings (from the conference website) are as follows...

Ohio State... 5 1 0 .833 22 14 0 .611
Penn State... 3 1 0 .750 19 13 0 .594
Northwestern. 8 3 0 .727 33 9 0 .786
Michigan..... 4 2 0 .667 32 7 0 .821
Illinois..... 5 3 0 .625 26 15 0 .634

Illinois still has games left with Ohio State, Penn State, and Northwestern, so the Illini will have its work cut out for it to stay in the upper half of the standings.

Big 12

Here, too, another team joined the ranks of the contenders, as Missouri split today's doubleheader with Oklahoma. Nebraska's also lurking on the outskirts of contention, thanks its sweep of fading Texas in a two-game series.

The leading teams in the standings are as follows...

Baylor....... 9-0-0 39-9-0
Missouri..... 6-1-0 30-18-0
Oklahoma..... 8-3-0 43-5-0
Texas A&M.... 7-3-0 34-6-0
Nebraska..... 5-4-0 32-13-0

Elsewhere

Arizona stayed in command of the Pac 10 race, sweeping the northern California schools this weekend and upping its conference record to 7-1; all the other teams have three or more conference losses.

Nothing really jumps out at me in tonight's SEC summary.

Just some quick Saturday news and notes...

Northwestern earned a split of its two-game series with Ohio State, behind two homers from Garland Cooper. The games were mirror images of each other, with each team winning one of the games by a 5-3 score.

Today's scheduled opener of the Oklahoma at Missouri series was just the latest weather-related casualty of the season; the teams will try to play a doubleheader on Sunday.

Baylor needed a major rally in the bottom of the seventh to beat Oklahoma State and remain undefeated in the Big 12.

Evening

Softball observers who've considered the Big 10 to instead be the "Big 2" of Northwestern and Michigan (and I count myself among them), may now have to make room for another team, Ohio State. The Buckeyes stunned Northwestern, 5-3 in extra innings, in the opener of the teams' series today.

In fact, Ohio State nearly had the game in hand earlier, yet remained unfazed by a Northwestern comeback. Quoting from a game article, "Northwestern's Erin Dyer hit a two out, three run home run in the sixth inning to tie the game at 3-3 and force extra-innings..." After a clutch home run in last year's World Series (against Alabama) by the same player, I coined the term that Northwestern had been rescued from "Dyer straits," and it happened again today.

This time, however, Ohio State had its own hero as, again quoting from the article, "Sophomore Courtney Pruner homered twice, including a two run shot in the top of the ninth inning..."

The two teams go at it again tomorrow.

Talking about clutch homers, Michigan got one from -- who else -- Samantha Findlay, en route to an extra-inning win over Iowa.

One other team that might be poised to join the elite of the Big 10 is Penn State. Due to the ubiquitous weather problems around the nation, Penn State has played only two conference games thus far, sweeping Wisconsin, but the Nittany Lions come in to play Northwestern in a Sunday doubleheader and thus have a chance to enhance their resume (Penn State also owns a win over Michigan in the Fullerton tournament).

Morning

The biggest theme I could glean from this weekend's softball schedule is that, in two major conferences, an upstart, undefeated team (in league play) will have a chance to show whether it's a legitimate contender for the conference title.

In the Big 10, Ohio State (21-13, 4-0) heads to Evanston to take on last year's national runner-up, Northwestern (31-7, 6-1). The Buckeyes have swept two games each from Minnesota and Wisconsin, but have had inclement weather put the kaibosh on their last eight games, including a pair with another Big 10 power, Michigan.

Meanwhile, in the Big 12, Missouri (5-0, 29-17) hosts Oklahoma (7-2, 42-4, ranked No. 2 and 3 in the two national polls). Mizzou's conference wins have come over Texas (twice), Oklahoma State (twice), and Texas Tech (once, with the other game of the series cancelled due to weather). In addition to Oklahoma, the Tigers still have to face conference powers Baylor (7-0 in league) and Texas A&M, so whether they can maintain a gaudy Big 12 record for long remains in question.

No Kevin Garnett. No Dirk. No Dampier. No Stackhouse. No problem.

Baylor continues to roll along, with pitcher Lisa Ferguson blanking the Texas Longhorns, 6-0, in a game nationally televised from Austin by CSTV.

From the FoxSports article on the Mavs clinching the #1 seed in the NBA last night:


Nowitzki and Stackhouse were Dallas' leading scorers in a 96-86 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night that sealed the top seed this postseason, then coach Avery Johnson announced right away that they wouldn't be joining the club on a road trip to Minnesota.

"I told them if I see them on the plane, I'll fine them," Johnson said.

If Stack and Dirk have the night off, someone should let them know that they are welcome to come watch the game at my place. But they have to bring the beer. And not that Bavaria shit because it's not like you're gonna fool me into thinking that you shelled out a lot on some fancy imported Bavarian ale. That shit's always on sale.

The CSTV (College Sports Television) cable network gives us two midweek games this week (schedule). Tonight, Utah travels to UNLV in Mountain West Conference action. Then, Wednesday night, we get to see Baylor play at Texas. Baylor certainly is one of the surprise teams -- if not the surprise team -- of the season, sitting atop the Big 12 standings with a perfect 6-0 conference record (Missouri is also undefeated in conference). The Longhorns, in their first post-Cat Osterman season, are in the middle of the pack within the Big 12. See the official Big 12 softball page in the links section on the right.

HOME COURT ADVANTAGE

The Mavericks must read my blog because if I ever needed reassurance, last night's game was the game in which to deliver it. And they completely delivered it and secured home court advantage in the process.

Diop gets the gold star from me for his ferocious defense last night. And Devean George is coming back strong. I hold to my previous assertation that Devean George will be a key piece of the puzzle especially with Dampier's nagging shoulder injury.

On a completely different subject, I have disliked Chris Kaman for a while now but last night sealed the deal. I only regret that the widely ciculated story about him raising chickens for Christ is not true. I know I should go easy on him as it can't be easy going through life looking like the byproduct of a gang bang between Edgar Winter, Danny Elfman and Jim Gaffigan. But when asked about having his testicles grabbed and pulled by Reggie Evans in a game against the Nuggets, he said the following:

CK: Ah, how did I know you were going to bring that up? Yeah, I did. My first thought was, What the heck happened? The second was, Man, if I punch this dude, I'm going to get a fine and miss games. I wish I had now.

Because if I were a guy and some other guy grabbed and pulled my nether regions, I would first thing to myself "What the heck happened?" Holy mackrel! Gee golly!

Alright, I've slacked a bit on the whole blogging thing but I have to admit that I'm pretty stressed and the Mavs aren't helping me out any. Strangely, my equally Mavs-obessesed friend Brian asked me on Friday afternoon if the Mavs were scaring me like they have been scaring him. I took the Pollyanna route and said "oh no, I think they're just slowing down to rest up for the playoffs."

Then there was the Denver game. What an embarassing game. Even for Denver but at least they managed to win.

Then there was the Portland game. I'll admit that I was only able to watch the first half of the game but I listened to the second half on the drive up to Denton to see The Undoing of David Wright. We won. But again, the scores were pretty low. I know Avery was resting his "stars" which is a fabulous idea. And I did see that crazy dunk Mo Ager got in the first half. But seeing the Mavs scoring in the 70s and 80s doesn't really make me totally comfortable. Theoretically, a team like the Clippers could rally in the fourth and win over the Mavs in the first or second round when the scores look like that.

This all should also probably be taken with a large grain of salt since I'm pretty stressed out about something more stress-worthy than basketball for the next month or so.

Tennessee, the nation's No. 1-ranked team, completed a three-game sweep against Georgia in Athens today, in a game televised nationally across various Fox Sports Net cable channels. As noted in this article from the Tennessee athletics website, this was the first time UGA had been swept in a three-game SEC series at home since 2001. The first two Lady Vol wins came in a Saturday doubleheader, which included a perfect game in the opener by Tennessee's Monica Abbott, albeit in a five-inning run-rule situation, as the Vols prevailed 10-0.

Late Night

Arizona has just beaten Arizona State for the second straight night, with a 1-0 score each time. Unlike last night, however, the Wildcats' run came early (in the second inning, if I recall correctly). U of A's Taryne Mowatt followed up her no-hitter last night with a two-hitter tonight (both by ASU's Kaitlin Cochran). A fact I learned from ESPN 2's telecast tonight is that ASU has never beaten U of A at the Wildcats' home facility, Hillenbrand Stadium, which opened in 1993; the Sun Devils are now 0-26 there. For game articles and box scores, you can check the two schools' team pages in the links section on the right; either later tonight or by tomorrow, stuff on tonight's game should be up.

Afternoon

The cold blast giving us "Winter in April" throughout much of the country has forced the postponement or cancellation of numerous softball games. Below the weather-map screenshot from a U.S. government page, is a sampling of headlines from university athletics websites, from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Lubbock, Texas:


Cold Wipes Out PSU Series; Sunday DH [with Ohio State] Pushed Back (Michigan)

Wildcats and Boilermakers Saturday Game Canceled (Northwestern)

Gopher Softball Games Against Iowa Cancelled (Minnesota)

Snow Forces Cancellation of Baylor-[Texas]Tech Softball Game

[Friday night, in freezing temperatures, the Bears overcame an early 7-1 deficit to beat the Red Raiders, 14-9.]

***

Arizona and Arizona State began their two-game series last night (see previous entry) and, as can be seen from the weather map above, seem all set to go forward with their nationally televised game on ESPN 2 tonight.

Tonight's game against archrival Arizona State had to be doubly gratifying for University of Arizona fans. Not only did the Wildcats defeat the Sun Devils on a single in the bottom of the seventh that produced the game's only run. Also, U of A pitcher Taryne Mowatt tossed a no-hitter in the process!

As I noted in my entry immediately below, Saturday night's game between the same teams will be televised on ESPN 2.

Dirty Old Town

Well, I'm stoked about the playoffs but I will miss one or two games because I'm going to be in London from May 10-15. The playoff schedule will be announced after the last regular season game on April 18. The Mavs are completely important but this trip is equally important. More information to follow.

The feature series of the weekend would appear to be Arizona State's visit to Arizona for a pair of games, one each on Friday and Saturday night.

Depending on which national poll you look at, Arizona and ASU are either the No. 5 and 7 teams, respectively, or No. 6 and 9. More important, I would argue, is that the Wildcats and Sun Devils are the top two teams (at the moment) in the powerful Pac 10 conference and this weekend's series could give either team some momentum toward winning the conference title (less so, of course, if there's a split). The Pac 10 does not have a conference tournament. A robust discussion of the upcoming ASU-U of A series is taking place on the Ultimate College Softball boards.

The Saturday game will be televised on ESPN 2, with former Texas pitcher Cat Osterman serving as color commentator. Each game starts at 7:00 pm local Arizona time. A perennial source of confusion is that Arizona spends part of the year in Pacific Time and part in Mountain Time (click for further detail). I'm on Central Time myself, here in Texas, and my TV listing puts the game at 9:00 pm, so Arizona evidently is on Pacific Time at the moment (in other words, the game should be on at 7:00 pm on the West Coast and 10:00 pm in the East).

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ASU-Arizona is not the only game on national TV this weekend, as long as you have a pretty extensive package of cable sports channels. CSTV will televise Saturday afternoon's North Carolina at Maryland action (only the first game of their doubleheader). Also, Fox Sports Net will carry Sunday's game with No. 1 Tennessee visiting Georgia (Saturday's doubleheader between the Vols and Bulldogs will be shown regionally, on Comcast Sports Southeast).

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In the Big 12, Baylor is atop the league standings with a 5-0 conference record (dare we call them the "Good News Bears"?). Four of the wins have come over Nebraska and Kansas (two each). However, just this past Wednesday in a game that eluded my attention, Baylor beat highly ranked Texas A&M. Baylor comes into my backyard (figuratively) to play Texas Tech (winless in conference) this weekend in Lubbock. Cold weather is expected for the weekend (including a predicted high of 35 degrees on Saturday, with possible snow showers), so the Texas Tech team page in the right-hand column should be consulted for possible scheduling changes (the Texas Tech baseball team, also at home this weekend, has announced changes for its games).

Ummm, Coach Johnson I ummm, think I have...

I can't stop laughing about Dirk's "food poisoning" related no-show last night. Apparently I am not the only one as every time it's been mentioned on tv both last night during the game and this morning on the news, the delivery went something like this: "Dirk Nowitzki not playing due to (insert slight chuckle) food poisoning." Back when I worked at a soul-crushing job as a licensed private investigator, I had quite possibly the largest number of sucessive cases of food poisoning. My well-known love of sashimi lent an air of credibility to my stories but had I actually had that many cases of mysterious one day food poisoning, I doubt I'd have much of my small intestines left. So I totally get the "man, the seafood salad at the buffet was probably not a good idea" excuse. It's a good one.

I'm glad he was out since the slightest breeze causes his ankles to buckle or twist and it allowed the Mavs to prove that they are fully able to win without Dirk's help. And it proved that Josh Howard's spot in the All-Star lineup was deserved as he scored 29 last night. Seeing Devean George slowly return to the fine form he was in before the knee injury does my heart good.

I also find this piece of information in Mike Bibby's Wikipedia entry very amusing:

Nickname: Bibbinator/Bibbalicious

Apparently, Rob Schneider was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule of filming 18 Deuce Bigalow sequels to go to Sacramento and bust out the old Copier Guy character to in order to bestow a few nicknames upon Mike Bibby. Strangely, Wikipedia's entry for Ron Artest says his nickname is Ron Ron which is much more pleasant than my nickname for him. Because who wants to be known as Ron "I beat my girlfriend and starve my dog and start fistfights with fans in the stands" Artest. Also that's a lot harder for any future girlfriends who may be stupid enough to ride the Ron Artest Abuse Train to get tattooed on their nether regions, I suppose.

Wow, I'm pretty speechless. What happened? The Mavs stuck around through the third then crumbled. Even trailing by 5 at halftime, the Mavs seemed to be prepared to match the Suns on the other end of the floor. The Mavs three point shooting was nearly flawless (again, I'm just talking about the game up to the third quarter here).

The Suns killed the Mavs in the paint and under the basket. Devean George choked. Dirk had choke-like moments too often. Dampier got to sit on the bench and watch the mass choke-a-thon which could not be the most pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon. And Dirk's Fabrege ankle came into play again. Deep down I know that Dallas is, in my opinion, a better team than the Suns but there's something psychologically about Phoenix that throws Dallas off their game. I'm not big on conspiracy theories but the past three defeats the Mavs have been dealt were either at the hands of Don Nelson or Steve Nash. Spooky and rather unsettling.

I'm pretty bummed about the Mavs performance and I'm pretty sure this will stoke the fires of the MVP debate. But just mostly, I'm disappointed that something happened and the Mavs never caught fire and just let Suns bury them in the fourth.

If you had to describe this weekend's featured two-game sets in a single word, that word would be splitsville.

Texas A&M took a 9-4 victory over Oklahoma today, gaining a split of the two-game series between the Big 12 and national powers.

Over on the left coast, the University of Arizona and UCLA likewise took a game each in their two-game series, the U of A winning today, 11-2. ASU and Washington divided up wins, as well, with U-Dub prevailing 1-0 today to gain the split.

In Big 10 play, Northwestern earned a split of its two-game series with Michigan, edging the Wolverines 4-3 on Saturday. The Wildcats opted to start Lauren Delaney, but after UM got back-to-back homers from the Findlay sisters, Samantha and Angela, in the first inning, NU put in its leading hurler, Eileen Canney, and order was restored.

Finally, here's today's SEC round-up. The format in the SEC is for teams to play three-game series during a typical weekend of conference play, so splits are not possible.

So the Knicks game was another close one. Same final score as the Bucks game. Another game decided in the final minute. If this were earlier in the season, I might be lamenting the fact that teams like the Bucks or Knicks are keeping these games so close down to the wire. But I want 70 victories and I want to get to the playoffs when true hysteria starts. I suppose the fact that these teams are still trying to secure themselves a playoff spot means they are going to have a little more fight in them.

But none of that matters today. During the Knicks game, I was discussing the possibility of Dirk and Steve Nash having an MVP trophy polishing party this summer. I have already discussed my apathy regarding the MVP race but if (as even Mike D'Antoni has said this week) Dirk is truly the most deserving player in the league he has to prove it today. I like the Suns, I think they're a great team and there's not a single player on that team that has done anything but earn my respect. That being said, the Mavs need to wipe the floor with them and then throw them aside in a crumpled ball of defeat today. If the Mavs can pull off a comfortable margin of victory against Phoenix today, I will have no doubts in my mind that they have the ability and drive to take the title this year.