The Monday Rundown: January 12th, 2009

NFL Playoffs: Um, what?

Three of the four road teams won in the divisional playoff weekend. Two six seeds beat the top seeds for the first time ever. The unanimously considered worst team in the playoffs absolutely plastered one of the believed-to-be playoff-readiest teams. Home teams have won 3 of the 8 games so far.

Yeah, it's a weird NFL season.

So here we are. The Arizona Cardinals are hosting an NFC championship game. Baltimore and Pittsburgh will meet up in the AFC title game. I think one thing you can say is that these both look to be entertaining, up-in-the-air matchups. Right now, my gut's telling me all-Pennsylvania Super Bowl. But that could change.

The Panthers were clearly not ready to play for whatever reason. It took Steve Smith nearly three quarters to get a reception. Jake Delhomme had five interceptions and probably could have had ten. The Cardinals threw to Larry Fitzgerald with impunity because Carolina was more than happy to single-cover him and see what happened, even though Arizona didn't have anyone else worth covering on their team (don't give me Breaston - as my friend Mark would say, he is a 'prospect of the system'). Gotta give Arizona their due though - they played hard-nosed defense, forced Jake into some horrid decisions, and took advantage of the mistakes. They've proved a lot of people wrong this postseason.

The Chargers game was the only one that went about as expected. San Diego didn't have the answer to Pittsburgh's defense's question: How can you beat us? Expect the under on that AFC game (33 is the O/U right now).

Off the field: The Broncos are allegedly about to hire Josh McDaniels, offensive wunderkind from New England, as head coach. Gutsy move. Smart move? We'll see.

NCAAB: UNC 0-2, ND 45.

North Carolina's now 0-2 in the ACC. How about that? This one wasn't nearly as surprising as the BC defeat - Wake Forest is a top 5 team and is unbeaten. But this is still incredible. Everyone's pick to go unbeaten has gone USC football on us and dropped two in a row. The Tim Tebow of football (good player, charismatic, horrendously overrated by absolutely everyone), Tyler Hansbrough, went 3/12, but did shoot eleven free throws to tally a 17/11 double-double. Somehow, I'm not remotely surprised that "Psycho T" won his points from the line. He's basically Luke Harangody except the refs call fouls against his opponents.

Speaking of Harangody, his team stretched their nation's-longest home court winning streak to 45 games over the weekend by staving off Seton Hall by nine. The Irish were helped immensely by a stupid play by the Pirates' Jeremy Hazell. After putting Seton Hall up by four on the second of back-to-back steal-and-layups, Hazell yelled at the Irish's Ryan Ayers for no reason, drawing a technical. ND proceeded to sink two free throws, then a bucket, to tie it back up, and Seton Hall never gained control. Harangody struggled mightily at times from the floor, shooting 8/23, but scored 30 points, grabbed 16 rebounds (7 offensive) and earned himself a prickly defense from his normally easygoing coach, Mike Brey.

Brey talked after the game about the general media opinion that the national player of the year race is essentially down to Hansbrough, Oklahoma's Blake Griffin and possibly Davidson's Stephen Curry. He said, "It pisses me off. How the hell is that possible?" (Gotta say, the dude's got a point. The man's averaging something like 28 and 15 in conference play so far.)

In other business: Duke overcame a 19-14 first half (yes, that was the score) to beat FSU on the road...Clemson is still unbeaten too...Louisville edged Villanova on the road (they host ND tonight at 7 pm on ESPN)...Purdue finally won a Big Ten game over Wisconsin.

Watch tonight: Both Big Monday games on ESPN. Louisville will host ND at 7 in a huge Big East game for both (kicks off a stretch of five ranked teams in the next seven for the Irish), while Texas and Oklahoma go head to head at 9. Get a good look at Griffin, who is more than deserving to be in the discussion with Harangody and Hansbrough for national player of the year consideration.

NBA: The Bulls stink.

I'll be honest, the NBA is rapidly approaching NHL levels for me, only it's on TV so I can't avoid it. I follow the Bulls because I always have, but I can't stand to watch them these days because it's Derrick Rose and a bunch of crap. Actually, the rest of the Bulls sully the good name of crap. Chicago managed to lose - at home - to two of the worst teams in the NBA this week, Minnesota and Oklahoma City. They managed to beat two other bad teams, the Kings and Wizards, in the middle of that sandwich, but they're a joke. They've gone from team that was largely favored to win the East to complete laughingstock in just over a year. Good job, Paxson. Good job.

Other news: Al Horford's out a while with a knee bruise...a proposed three-team deal with the Mavs, Bobcats and Thunder seems to have fizzled.

Hot Stove: No real news. Pedro's talking with the Marlins, but they were supposed to get Manny too. Michael Young's apparently demanding a trade from Texas, but we'll just see what happens with that.

The Last Word:

Tim Tebow's coming back. Good for him. I was hoping he would. As I alluded to above, I think Tebow is very overrated, but it's always nice when a college star stays in college. I've grown to love college sports far more than their professional counterparts, and guys like Tebow - who, let's be honest, won't ever be a traditional quarterback in the NFL - are the reason. College allows things like Tim Tebow to happen. You can say it's lesser-quality football, and bemoan their lack of a 'true' national champion, but damn it, it's just entertaining.

Florida should be prohibitive favorites to win the national title again with Tebow back, especially if Percy Harvin comes back too, which some reports say he's leaning towards.

Happy Monday...