Sundays Belong to Tiger

No Sunday football to talk about this Sunday in more than 6 months, I'm pooped. 2 big stories of the day were in Individual sports. Also, a mini-review of Glory Road. Let's roll...

Tiger Back on The Prowl

In the first big event of the 2006 PGA Season, Tiger Woods proved to be automatic once again coming from behind to win the Buick Invitational, his 4th. Of course nobody is suprised he won it, when you see the name "Woods" anywhere within 10 shots of the leader you know he's going to make a charge in the final round. And when the pressure was on, all the also-rans (ie. Jose Maria Olazabal, Nathan Green, Sergio Garcia, Phil Mickelson) all crumbled and faded. You can excuse Olazabal and Green, both just happy to finish somewhere in the top 25. But Garcia and Mickelson have mastered the art of chocking when Tiger is in the hunt. It's like they all of a sudden forget how to play the game when Tiger makes his move. The problem is that they're so obsessed with what Tiger is doing that they forget that they're still playing. Watching the final round, Tiger wasn't spectacular, he made some good shots but some terrible ones too. Should be another good Tiger watching Golf season ahead.
*Photo from Yahoo!Sports

Are The Tears For Real??

Roger Federer won the Australian Open today, the first major Grand Slam of the 2006 Tennis season. Federer has been dominating Men's Tennis for the last 4 years picking up his 4th career major. He's making a routine of dispatching opponent after opponent with ease. But for the first time that we've seen, the usually stoic Federer let his emotions out with tears of joy after receiving the trophy. Hopefully this will be a sign of a more open and out-spoken Champion. There's a reason why Tennis, especially Men's Tennis has dropped in popularity especially in the US. Professional Sports is about entertainment. In the words of Ridley Scott's Gladiator "Are you not entertained?? Are you not entertained????". We want to watch athletes who are animated, who have something interesting to say. What gets people watching Tennis is the fist pumps, the flashy outfits, the arguing with the refs, and racket throwing. That is why sponsors have latched onto Andy Roddick and Rafael Nadal. They may not have skills like Federer, but they've got personality. I for one find it much easier to cheer for a Roddick and Nadal than Federer.
*Photo from Yahoo!Sports

Glory Road, What's It Really About??

Went and caught the movie yesterday. First of all, I couldn't catch it at my local theatre as it was already pulled. In fact, Glory Road did not even open in the Top 10 on it's opening Weekend here in Canada. In the US, it opened #1 on it's opening weekend, and was #3 last weekend. Goes to show you how popular College Basketball is here in Canada.


Back to the movie, I thought it was well done overall. It was widely inaccurate and the term "based on a true story" should be used loosely here. So what is Glory Road really about?? Many reviewers and historians say that the significance of the 1966 Texas Western Miners National Championship was that it was the first time 5 black players started, but that's completely false. There were plenty of teams that had black players that same year and prior to. In fact, in the movie we see that in the Semifinal match, Kansas' top player was black.

The significance of the 1966 TWU team was that it was the first time a team won the National Championship by "playing black". When I mean "playing black", I mean they played with style, creativity, and attitude. It was the first time a coach let his players win with playground moves and above the rim tactics. That's what changed the game of Basketball forever. Again, it wasn't about skin color, it was about style. Similar to how Canadians changed the game of Hockey in 1972 when they beat the Russians, by playing "Canadian". Glory Road focused way too much on the race factor and less on the style of play which was obviously done to make it more dramatic. But overall, I think it is an entertaining movie and a story that needs to be told.
*Photo from IMDB

What's on TV
NBA, Portland vs Seattle, 7:00pm PST on Sportsnet Pacific
NHL, Calgary vs St. Louis, 5:00pm PST on Sportsnet West
NHL, Toronto vs Florida, 4:00pm PST on Sportsnet Ontario
NHL, Boston vs Ottawa, 4:30pm PST on Sportsnet East

Picks of the Day
San Antonio Spurs -5.5 over Utah Jazz
Ottawa Senators -1.5 (-130) over Boston Bruins
Record YTD (31-36, -1073)