“Phun, Phun, Phun” -- Philadelphia to Phoenix

The NFC #6 seed, Philadelphia Eagles, comes to the Valley of the Sun to battle the NFC #4 seed, Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals were a higher seed than the Eagles because they ended up the weak Western Division champions. Philadelphia actually had a better regular season record.

The Eagles dropped the NFC #1 seed, New York Giants, by the score of 23 to 11, and the Cardinals plummeted the #2 seed, Carolina Panthers, 33 to 13. The two unheralded teams will meet in the NFC Championship game next Sunday. Go Cardinals!

The experts predictions must be classified as “failed predictions.” Some experts even broadcast that Arizona should not be in the playoffs and some said that they were the worst team ever to play in the playoffs. What does that say about the teams they beat, Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers? Too bad experts! Get a real job.

From the Arizona Republic, Bob Young's Heat Index reported these negative statements against the Cardinals:

1. Fox Analyst, Daryl Johnston's commented at halftime of the Arizona-Carolina game when the Cardinals were up 27-7 that the Cardinals could have a horrible second half.
2. NBC Analyst, Cris Collinsworth at halftime of the Arizona-Carolina game called the Cardinals the worst playoff team in history.

Other questionable remarks included:

• Deion Sanders claimed that he would give up Super Bowl tickets if the Cards made it. Yeah right!

Many Cardinal fans are guilty of calling the Cardinals weak or other such negatives. But the 2008-2009 Cardinals appear to be real.

The University of Phoenix Stadium will stage a massive party next Sunday. Cardinal fans in Arizona have waited 20 years for a team they could cheer for. There will be “Phun” in Phoenix and the Valley of the Sun. That prediction will not “phail.”

As far as predicting a winner, I will leave that up to the "experts." As some people have said, "The Cardinals are as likely to go to the Super Bowl as a black man is being elected President of the U.S."

Update: HOORAY! The cardinals are going to the Super Bowl to play the Pittsburg Steelers.

Updated 1/21/2009

Kerr, Porter must go

The old saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” applies to the Suns current dilemma. Steve Kerr tried to fix the Suns, rather than fine tune them. Kerr brought Terry Porter in to fix the defense, but too much emphasis on change of an elite team created a lackluster, average team. Shaq and Porter won’t fix a fan-drawing playoff team that had a 65% winning percentage and that peeled off 15 and 17 consecutive wins. An NBA team only needs a defense that allows the other team to score one point less that the offense. Mike D’Antoni’s offense was better than the defense of all but a couple of NBA teams. And the team was much more fun to watch. Put the blame where it belongs. Get rid of Kerr and bring back D’Antoni as general manager and head coach.

Cool. We passed. We ran. We won!

Arizona State dominated Stanford in passing and almost all other facets of the game. ASU led not only in passing, but rushing and defense. The defense stopped Stanford's running game. Overall, the Sun Devils played super.

The crowd was big with 59,441 fans and the largest student section I have seen in some time. ASU (2-0, 1-0 Pac-10) has allowed Stanford only 23 points in the last three years, having scored 120 points against Stanford. Their next opponent is UNLV (1-1), who lost to Utah 42-21.

Keegan Herring and Shaun DeWitty entered the game for the first time this year, but Carpenter overshadowed them. Carpenter threw for 345 yards and was sacked only twice, four sacks less than the Stanford game last year.

The play of the game came with 52 seconds left in the first half. Stanford's Travis Golia kicked off out of bounds after the Cardinal scored a field goal to close within 3 points. The Sun Devils had already used their three time outs. The out-of-bounds kick off gave the Devils the ball on the forty and stopped the clock. The Sun Devils went for a touchdown rather that settling for a Thomas Weber field goal. The big play happened after the Cardinal were penalized for roughing Carpenter. Carpenter rolled right and found Kerry Taylor. Taylor outran cornerback Wopamo Osaisai, Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Week, for a 45-yard touchdown and a 20-10 lead.

ASU dominated this game. Carpenter is going great now. It seems as though he is on a mission and if he keeps going, he will be a first round pick. After next week's game with UNLV, ASU dives into probably one of the hardest schedules in all of college football: four ranked teams in a row, not to mention #1 and #2 in the mix.

Stanford is going to be a big game for many other PAC-10 teams this year. This was a great win for the Devils.

Game Photos

A tour of ASU Sports Facilities

Recently, Jim invited me along with his employee, Gabe, to the Tempe Diplomats’ tour of the Sun Devil Sports Facilities.

The tour started in the Wells Fargo Arena Wells, the home for Sun Devil men's and women's basketball as well as volleyball, gymnastics and wrestling, is one of the nation's finest collegiate arenas. Constructed in the spring of 1974 at the cost of $8 million, the 14,198-seat facility also plays host to graduation ceremonies and a variety of concerts and shows.

We were then led to the Ed and Nadine Carson Student Athletic Center. On the first floor is the Hall of Fame and trophy cases of all the trophies won by the Sun Devil sports teams. On another floor is the center is the state-of-the-art 16,000-sq. foot weight room at the Lawrence Strength and Conditioning Center.

In the football locker room is a view of Sparky, the symbol of Sun Devil athletics.

The tour ended with a buffet at Karsten Golf Course Club House. The Karsten Golf Course is home to the ASU Golf Program, which turns out winning teams year after year. Many touring professionals have honed their skills on the fairways and greens of this classic Pete Dye, Scottish links course.

USC Too Powerful

The Arizona State Sun Devil football team played like they had eaten too much turkey this Thanksgiving day. The tryptophan from the turkey took its toll on the team causing them to play sloppy almost the whole game.

In past games, the Sun Devils were noted for their lackluster play in the first half but outscored their opponents by a huge margin in the second half. Tonight was a different matter. USC was sharp throughout the whole game, but ASU played sloppy the whole game. Final score was 44-24 in favor of USC.

The atmosphere was fun though. Shelly and Craig Foster, Jim and Margie Beaton’s daughter and son-in-law, were seated next to me cheering for their Sun Devils; Little Richard together with backup from the Sun Devil Band provided half-time entertainment, screaming out, “Good Golly Miss Mollie” and a couple of his other hits; and Charles Barkley stood on the sideline in support of what he called, “my Sun Devils.”

Signs in the student section read: “O.J. Stole My Other Sign” and “We Beat Stanford.” O.J. was a star for USC. Stanford beat USC but lost to ASU 41-3.

ASU has a very slim chance of going to the Rose Bowl. For ASU to stand a chance of spending New Year’s Day in Pasadena, USC must lose to UCLA; Oregon must lose to Oregon State; and ASU must beat Arizona. That’s a tall order.

ASU versus OSU

It looked like the Sun Devils had played lower division teams in the first three games when Oregon State started the game with nineteen points in the first quarter. That’s right, 19-0 right off the bat. Whew! It was scary. How could they ever oercome a nineteen point deficit? But that they did.

Over the next three quarters, the Sun Devils outscored the Beavers 44 points to 13 to end up with a final score of 44-32. Like the Colorado game, the Devils came out flat in the first quarter. In both games Rudy Carpenter threw an interception to set up a touchdown. However, ASU intercepted the Beavers a few times too...five as a matter of fact.

The fans are louder with fewer boos this year than last year. It is easy to get invoved in the game with this exciting team.

Jake Plummer attended the game as he was inducted into ASU’s Hall of Fame at halftime.

Thanks again to Jim and Margie for allowing me to go in their place.

Congratulations to Champions Phoenix Mercury

The Phoenix Mercury captured their first WNBA crown on Sunday to become Arizona’s third professional champion behind The Arizona Rattlers and the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Mercury handily beat Detroit by a score of 108-92.

Coach Paul Westhead in his second year as head coach was the brains behind the winners. Diana Taurasi, Penny Taylor and Cappie Pondexter carried the team in the championship series. Cappie was the most valuable player.

Diana Taurasi writes in her WNBA.com Blog, “People doubted the running game, they doubted Small Ball, they doubted the Rover defense and we say YES to all the naysayers, doubters and haters. We are Phoenix. We run-and-gun, we shoot the three and we win championships.”

Something to Cheer About

The ASU football team looked very good last night in their game with San Jose State. It appears we have a running game to go with the passing game, and we finally have a defense. The crowd was noisy. I hope it continues.

The band looked snazzy in their new uniforms. Pants are black which makes them look astute and shapely. And I like the white extenders on their caps. It makes them look tall and proud.

Maybe we have something to cheer about.

ASU marching band: Larger, louder

No Harm No Foul

As my grandkids would say, “Stern is a dork.” But I would say, “The only thing that is worse than a lawyer is a lawyer who is an administrator.” Everyone who passed the third grade can read the rules, but an administrator should evaluate the rules and justly apply them. His suspensions of Stoudemire and Diaw were equivalent to a fourth grade kangaroo court. He was trying to be objective, but he should not use objectivity when it doesn’t make sense. His referees are frequently subjective and know that an infraction is not always committed when no harm is done. Thus, no harm no foul.