Carleton Scott Explodes, Luke Harangody Watches, and Notre Dame Defines the Ewing Theory

In my sports fan life, the list of miraculous in-season turnarounds I've been privileged enough to witness as a fan of the team involved is incredibly short.

The 2004-05 Chicago Bulls started 0-9 before finishing the year winning 45 of their last 73 games, making the playoffs for the first time in 7 years.

The 2007 Chicago Cubs were as many as 8.5 games behind Milwaukee in late June before a 5-run comeback, capped by a walk-off Aramis Ramirez home run, propelled the team to the best 15-month stretch I've ever had in my sports-fan life, as the team ripped off the best record in baseball the rest of that season to win the division and the best record in baseball the following season to win another division. Typical of the Cubs (and for that matter all of my teams in important games), they failed to win a playoff game either time, but that's not the point.

Well, add the 2009-10 Notre Dame Fighting Irish to that list. And, incredibly, it all began with their best player (and one of their top 5 players ever) being injured - proving, again, the Ewing Theory perfected by Bill Simmons reader Dave Cirilli. This theory follows around players whose teams 'inexplicably' play better when they are injured or unavailable - but there are usually good reasons why. In Harangody's case, the injury forced Carleton Scott into the lineup full-time, forced Jack Cooley into Scott's spot as the 7th guy in the rotation, and made ND more athletic, bigger and better on defense. In addition, Mike Brey decided to go Princeton on us, slowing down ND's pace rather than trying to outrun people. It's a move that coach Mike Brey claims was in the works prior to Gody's injury, but because of the injury made ND a team that had more energy at the end of games.

It started with the Irish at 6-5 in the Big East going into the Seton Hall game. To that point, ND had been relatively disappointing, showing flashes of brilliance (an incredible 1st half that propelled them to a key win over West Virginia early in Big East season, for instance), but for the most part seemed, just like the 08-09 model, to be playing below their talent level. Stupid losses to Cincinnati (horrible FT shooting by a usually-good free throw shooting team) and Rutgers (RUTGERS?) had ND fans scratching their heads and wondering if it was OK to call for Mike Brey's ouster just two years after a 14-4 Big East season.

Naturally (because bad things just happen to the Irish hoopsters without explanation), Jeremy Hazell chose that game to shoot out his ass, making at least four wild off-balance three-pointers and scoring, I believe, 35 points on 20 shot attempts or something insane. The Pirates not only won, but their arena was the site of Luke Harangody's deep knee bone bruise when he landed wrong attempting to get a rebound. The injury would keep him out the next five games.

It looked like ND was screwed regarding its latent NCAA hopes. Even more so when the team managed to lose at home to St. John's, thanks to a horrid game from Tory Jackson, to fall to 6-7 in the league. Without Luke, the five games that remained - @Louisville, Pittsburgh, @Georgetown, UConn, @Marquette - looked like a gauntlet. The team needed 4-1 to even consider a tournament bid, it appeared. And 1-4 (or 0-5) looked a hell of a lot more likely.

Instead, Notre Dame did something neither I nor any other close observers thought possible - they toughened up on defense, they slowed down their pace, and they didn't miss a beat whatsoever. In fact, the Irish got better. A lot better.

I confess to having skipped both the Louisville and Pittsburgh games. They conflicted with what I thought were more important Ball State home games. Both teams would go on to make me look silly for feeling that way, but anyway. Herewith, a game by game recap of the team that (appears to have) changed everything.

Game 1: ND loses to Louisville in double OT

ND went on to fight their butts off against Louisville, losing only because 1) Ben Hansbrough missed 4 free throws at the end of regulation and 2) Samardo Samuels was allowed way too much latitude, resulting in every ND big man fouling out of the game. (This info is gleaned from the ND board I frequent, so take it with whatever sodium substitute you choose.) So many Irish fouled out that we were left with four people who were no taller than 6'2" in the game towards the end of double OT. The game sadly ended when ND failed to get a shot off on their final possession, stepping out of bounds. At this point the Irish were 6-8 in the league and were essentially out of tournament consideration. Only sweeping their final four games would even broach the attention of the selection committee - ND's nonconference schedule, as it has always been the last few years, was too weak for ND to be considered at 9-9.

Game 2: ND blows out Pittsburgh at home

Again, I skipped this game. Although impressed by the Irish's gutty performance against Louisville, I prioritized Ball State's game against Eastern Michigan - Senior Night - above this one. Pitt came in as the hottest team in the league and I assumed a beatdown was forthcoming for my Irish.

Instead, the Irish blasted Pitt. The final was 68-53, but 15 was about as close as Pitt had come the entire second half. The Irish physically dominated Pitt (a sentence that I never thought I'd write about a basketball game). Four Irish scored in double figures, and ND outrebounded Pitt by nine. It was a command performance by Notre Dame, but for the time being, it seemed to serve as little else but a reminder that these Irish should have been a lot better than they were. After all, ND still had two road games left against top-notch Big East competition, and they had to this point won exactly once at an opposing team's venue.

Game 3: ND handles Georgetown in Washington, DC

Georgetown played the toughest schedule in the league this year, their RPI is in the top 15, and as a big, tough team, they are a matchup nightmare for Notre Dame, a team that makes a living out of being quicker and getting open shots. This would seem impossible for ND against a bigger team. Austin Freeman was sporadic and ineffective - we would later find out he had diabetes - but this seemed like a minor stumbling block.

Notre Dame shot 57 percent from the floor and blocked 7 shots. I sat for much of the game in a state of shock. This was a Notre Dame team that was unlike any team the Irish had turned in since I had begun following them at the turn of the century. Carleton Scott was, quite simply, the best player on the floor, scoring 21, blocking 3 shots, absorbing a blatant cheap shot from Greg Monroe of Georgetown, and playing beyond his experience level. ND had 12 offensive rebounds. Georgetown had 12 defensive rebounds. Ben Hansbrough fought off the only serious Hoya threat late in the game by canning a 3. Suddenly, Notre Dame had two winnable games left (in fans' eyes), and a tourney bid was, impossibly, in our sights.

Game 4: ND earns revenge on UConn

UConn can be described using the old adage 'million dollar talent, ten-cent heads'. UConn is a talented team. UConn plays like a "bunch of retards trying to hump a doorknob out there", to quote Patches O'Houlihan. UConn chucked 14 3's, many long after it became obvious it wasn't going to work (they only made three). ND, of course, was 3/15 themselves, but they fought their butts off. Although UConn was so much bigger than the Irish that ND couldn't have a rebounding advantage, the Irish managed to keep UConn's advantage to 1.

Carleton Scott, so much a non-factor early in the season that he actually quit the team for a time (he missed the WVU game), had another double-double, with 12 and 14. And Tory Jackson, quite possibly the most unappreciated player in Notre Dame history, had 22 points in his final home game. Jackson has led the Big East in assists 3 times in his 4 years in South Bend. He has received all-Big East mention zero times. How is this? You tell me.

Game 5: ND pulls off a heart-stopping win at Marquette

I must confess something: At no point in this game did I think Notre Dame was going to win. At no point whatsoever. I wasn't comfortable with the way the game was going, Lazar Hayward is a ninny who always seems to save his best performances for us, Luke Harangody was back (which against all odds was not something I was looking forward to, considering the last two weeks), and Maurice Acker, who transferred from Ball State, is precisely the kind of player who would haunt Notre Dame. Acker already had by randomly lighting us up for 11 points in the 2nd half of Marquette's Big East tourney win over ND in 2008 that probably knocked the Irish down a seed line (or two).

ND couldn't shoot - again - so they were reduced to scrapping - again. Gody played but a few minutes, scoring 5 points and generally trying not to mess up his new team's flow. (I have to say, I admire the way Gody has handled all of this. It would be easy for a guy like him to get selfish after 3 straight years of carrying ND on his back, but when it was announced this weekend that he will continue to come off the bench the rest of the year, he was more than happy to do it. He knows that he has a chance to reinvent his legacy somewhat here at ND, and helping the Irish to a Sweet 16 bid - even not as the focal point - would simply add to his legend. Gotta love him.)

Tim Abromaitis hasn't been able to shoot in weeks, but showing why I love him so much, he powered his way to 18 points anyway. Tyrone Nash quietly had 13 and 9. The Irish outrebounded a bigger, faster, more athletic Golden Eagles team by TWELVE. Still, I doubted, doubted and continued to doubt, right up until the last four seconds, where, with ND down three and Marquette unbelievably refusing to foul despite plenty of opportunities, this happened.

The Carleton Scott 3 might end up going right in there with the Aramis Ramirez walk-off homer in 2007 and the Ben Gordon running floater at the buzzer to beat the Knicks in 2005 as moments that changed everything for me as a fan for quite some time. I've watched the clip of Jack Nolan losing his mind at least 15 times and I will watch it at least 30 more. From that moment, I knew ND was going to win, and sure enough, they did.

ND's now 10-8 in the Big East and pretty much a shoo-in for the NCAA tournament, barring some very surprising occurrences in Championship Week. It's an in-season turnaround that defied all description. And for once, it happened to my team.

Go Irish, and watch out, you 6/7 seed types that may end up drawing Notre Dame in round 1.

The Legacy of Clausen

The legacy of Jimmy Clausen is that of a missed opportunity in Notre Dame football history.

After all, he might well be the best quarterback ever to suit up in the Notre Dame blue and gold. And yet, he leaves without ever winning more games than he lost in a regular season.

Jimmy Clausen's brilliance has been well-documented. If the Heisman Trophy could be awarded in a vacuum, without paying attention to team records, Clausen would have a really good shot at winning it and would quite possibly be in New York City this weekend for the presentation. It sounds ridiculous because he plays for a 6-6 team, but the fact of the matter is, Jimmy was the best quarterback in America this year. It really wasn't particularly close.

Statistics can't tell the story of Clausen, but they're a start. 3,722 passing yards. 68 percent passing. 28 touchdowns. Four interceptions, two of which were tipped and the other two of which were catchable balls (if poor decisions). Stats, though, don't capture the fear of God that was put into any team when Jimmy had a chance to win the game. I can only imagine what USC fans probably felt like as Jimmy was dissecting the Trojans' defense on his team's final drive on October 17th, or the relief they probably felt after Duval Kamara slipped on his route to prevent Jimmy's perfect pass from hitting him between the numbers for a game-tying touchdown that may well have turned the tide of the Irish season.

That USC game did turn the tide of the Irish season - for the worse. Although ND escaped a mediocre BC team and clobbered a hideous Washington State team in the two weeks after that, the Irish were never the same. And it was because the shine was off Clausen. It wasn't his fault, but ND's failure to deliver a victory against SC at the end put a dent in Jimmy's aura of late-game invincibility that he couldn't undo.

If it weren't for his supporting cast failing at the end of all four November games, Clausen would probably have a 10-2 record and a BCS bid to show for his efforts, but he doesn't. Clausen won ND games they probably shouldn't have won against Michigan State, Purdue and Washington with three consecutive game-winning drives, all on a painful turf toe that he did his best to pretend wasn't there (the way he walked when not being chased by defenders gave him away). If his defense had a pulse, it would've been four, as Clausen engineered what should have been a game-winning drive at Michigan. For that matter, if his defense had a pulse, ND would probably be 12-0 - ND scored at least 21 points in all six losses this year.

November made things pretty bad for Jimmy. His offensive line was so pathetic late in the game against Navy that he ended up being sacked for a safety that locked up the game for the Middies. The following week against Pitt, Jimmy was chased around by the Pitt defense while attempting to lead his team back and ended up having the chance to win it being stolen away from him by a replay official who inexplicably ruled an incomplete pass that had been blown dead well before anyone from Pitt picked it up as a fumble - one in a long line of ridiculous replay decisions that have gone against ND in the Weis era. Against UConn, everyone but him seemingly screwed up, as two late-game fumbles by Michael Floyd and Armando Allen helped UConn to OT and ultimately to the win. And in the final insult, ND allowed Stanford to score the go-ahead TD because it was the only way to ensure a chance to win it with Clausen. Jimmy once again got betrayed by his O-line but got ND within striking distance before running out of time.

Clausen will probably be shredded by the media pundits for his team's poor performance, just like Brady Quinn was (and still is in Cleveland). They'll ignore that Clausen is one of the most insanely accurate passers to ever walk this earth - I swear that more of Jimmy's incompletions than not were the product of throwaways or receivers failing to make a play on a ball they needed to make. Ultimately, he'll probably get picked behind a quarterback he's obviously better than, like Quinn was, and he'll probably get pigeonholed by whatever team takes him and unfairly benched behind someone he's obviously better than, like Quinn was. And none of that will ever take away from my memories of him - just like with Quinn.

Why Notre Dame Still Matters

The haters want you to believe Notre Dame doesn't matter. Every year Notre Dame struggles, the haters race to anoint the Irish irrelevant.

"They don't matter," say the haters.

The haters are wrong.

The Irish may not be 'mattering' for the right reasons in the last decade, but they still matter.

Why else was it a huge story when Notre Dame axed coach Tyrone Willingham after three seasons because of poor performance and even worse recruiting? The haters came up with every racist excuse in the book to try and get on the Irish for the firing. Never mind that the 2007 season - when the players Willingham recruited (and didn't recruit) were the upperclassmen - was an exercise in futility, due mainly to the fact that the Irish were forced to play a talented but not-ready-to-play-these-games freshman and sophomore class almost exclusively. The haters don't care about that. The haters didn't care that Willingham didn't even bring the team's best running back (true freshman Darius Walker) on the trip to BYU for the 2004 season opener. ND lost, a humiliating performance. A week later, Walker ran for over 100 yards in about a quarter and a half when a desperate Willingham pulled him off the bench against Michigan. He led the Irish to an upset win.

That was the thing about Willingham. Even when he brought talented players in to ND, he didn't know how to handle them. Jeff Samardzija didn't catch a TD in his first two years at the school - under Ty. Brady Quinn, who only came to ND after Quinn's HS teammate Chinedum Ndukwe's father convinced Willingham to look at him while recruiting Ndukwe, was a 50 percent passer his first two years at ND. Walker saw the second-most carries, behind Ryan Grant, even though every Irish fan could plainly see Walker should be getting the bulk of the work. Walker went on to be one of the best backs in Irish history in '05 and '06.

When Washington axed Willingham halfway through his fourth season at U-Dub for hideously pathetic performance - the Huskies went 0-12 in his last season - there was almost no talk. No one dared call Washington racist. Because just like at ND, he basically ran the program into the ground with horrible recruiting and bad in-game decisions. It is a mark of Steve Sarkisian's skill as a coach that he has taken Willingham's players and beaten USC. Although the Huskies are 2-3, their losses are to LSU, Stanford and ND - the latter two on the road. All three are solid teams, and all three will probably play January bowl games this year.

Anyway, I could talk about Ty Willingham for hours. This article is not about him.

Why else does Notre Dame matter?

The Irish have essentially decided four Heisman Trophies this decade. Unfortunately, none have been ND players.

2002: Carson Palmer. Palmer shreds the Irish, then ranked top 10 under Willingham, to separate himself from the field (Brad Banks, Larry Johnson, Willis McGahee). If you ask me, just looking at the numbers, Banks or Johnson would've been better picks. But the media hype machine surrounding ND and its opponents carried the day.

2004: Matt Leinart. Leinart shreds the Irish in Willingham's last game as ND coach to separate himself from the field (Adrian Peterson, Jason White, Alex Smith, Reggie Bush). If you ask me, Peterson should have won, but he was a freshman, so he was basically ineligible. Once again, the voting distribution was small enough that one can assume that the media hype machine surrounding ND carried Leinart to a Heisman.

2005: Reggie Bush. Bush ripped ND to shreds in the biggest game of the regular season, USC's 34-31 escape at South Bend. Media pundits, once again, caught up in the ND hype machine, basically announce the Heisman decided. Vince Young and Matt Leinart never have a chance, and Brady Quinn, the best quarterback on the field in that ND/USC game, is eliminated for his defense's failings. Now, this season, Bush probably is the best player. One can make an argument for Young, but Bush was phenomenal. But is he good enough to justify the biggest voting differential from 1 to 2 in Heisman history?

2006: Troy Smith. Smith didn't play ND in 2006. But he did play the Irish in the Fiesta Bowl the year before and enjoyed a solid performance thanks to ND's pathetic defense. The hype machine began for Smith almost immediately. Because Ohio State didn't lose a game in 2006, Smith was given the Heisman by a ridiculous margen over Darren McFadden and Quinn. Smith, facing actual defensive pressure for the first time all season in the BCS title game Jan. 8th, submits one of the worst performances in the history of the quarterback position against Florida.

In addition, Notre Dame made JaMarcus Russell the No. 1 overall draft pick by allowing LSU receivers to get wide open against them in the Sugar Bowl following the 2006 season. Russell, despite doing nothing but chuck the ball deep for wide-open receivers the entire game, despite the fact that LSU's own fans wanted Russell benched for Matt Flynn at points in the '06 season, is made the No. 1 pick by the hype machine. Brady Quinn struggles against a real defense and free-falls to pick 22. Russell is currently one of the biggest train wrecks of a quarterback in the NFL. Quinn...well...let's not talk about it.

Notre Dame still matters. They're still on NBC for all their home games. They still get talked about, year in and year out, more than any other college program. Not one, but both of ESPN's studio analysts for college football coverage are essentially there to wage war about ND (May and Holtz). And when an ND signal-caller plays as well as Jimmy Clausen has this year, they are (albeit bedgrudgingly) placed in the thick of the Heisman race.

No, Notre Dame is not irrelevant. The day the Irish win a game and no one complains or whines about it except the opposing team, or the day ND loses and the only team fan base that's happy about it is the opposing team's - that's when they'll be irrelevant.

Don't hold your breath.

Late Night Last Night

Sorry about no post this morning. Didn't get back from my 'other' job until nearly 3 am.

In the meantime, how about Pete Carroll basically tossing Mark Sanchez under a Hummer at his jumping-to-the-pros presser? I'm reading a lot about it and I'm kind of surprised. Mr. Player's Coach turning on a player? Especially a QB when USC is absolutely loaded with them? There's got to be more to this story. Keep your eye on it...

The Rundown: January 15th, 2009

NCAAB: Loads of Top 25 action.

Nothing overly notable happened last night in the world of college basketball, but there was a boatload of ranked teams in action, and it made for a great night of hoops. Syracuse fell to Georgetown in Big East play, while Pitt and Wake Forest remained undefeated.

Top 25 scores:

#1 Pittsburgh 75, South Florida 62
#2 Duke 70, Georgia Tech 56
#3 Wake Forest 83, Boston College 63
#12 Georgetown 88, #8 Syracuse 74
#10 Michigan State 78, Penn State 73
Texas A&M 84, #21 Baylor 73
Illinois 66, #24 Michigan 51

Stephen Curry also had 39 points in a Davidson win over Elon. Ho-hum.

Tonight's action: Three national games tonight. None of them are particularly great matchups, but all involve Top 20 teams on the road. So you never know. Watch UConn/St. John's and UNC/Virginia in a doubleheader on ESPN at 7, or catch Purdue/Northwestern at 7 on ESPN2.

NFL: Lots of news for a day off.

Leading it off, obviously, is talk from Cowboys' and league sources that T.O. may be cut for chemistry reasons. Ironically, T.O.'s theatrics in Dallas are probably less severe than anything he did in SF or Philly. The clear follow-up question: Where does he go next? (Plax's future in New York is also in question.)

Scott Pioli, the new Chiefs' czar, says that Herm Edwards may be back as head coach. The entire Chiefs' fan base would like to respectfully offer to chug a gallon of brake fluid if that turns into reality.

Anquan Boldin practiced Wednesday and plans to play in the NFC title game.

I caught a very odd blurb in Awful Announcing about Michael Irvin having a gun drawn on him, then proceeding to get sucked into a friendly discussion on the Cowboys with his assailant. This world is crazy sometimes.

In draft declarations: Sam Bradford back to OU, Mark Sanchez off to the NFL.

MLB: Owners calling for a cap?

Oh, boy. Maybe baseball would or would not be better off without a salary cap, but it seems calling for one just because the Yankees signed a ton of free agents again (literally if you include Sabathia) would strike many fans as penis-envy. In any case, nothing is likely to be done about it now: The collective bargaining agreement ends after 2011, so maybe something will happen then. I'll have forgotten about it by that point, of course.

The Last Word:

The NBA won't fine Portland for threatening to sue the hell out of anyone who signed Darius Miles (Memphis did). Let's hope that's the last time the league has to rule on "should we punish a team that threatened lawsuits against any team that picked up our horrible contract?".

The Rundown: January 14th, 2009

NCAAB: Meeks-mania!

I confess when I woke up this morning I didn't know a damn thing about Kentucky star Jodie Meeks. Considering he had already had a 46-point game, I should have. I am failing my duties as a sports fan these days.

But I sure know who he is now after he broke Dan "Go Drink Another Beer" Issel's single-game Kentucky scoring mark with FIFTY-FOUR at Tennessee to move the Wildcats to 2-0 in SEC play, 90-72. It was the highest SEC scoring game since Chris "Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf" Jackson dropped a double nickel for LSU 20 years ago.

The most remarkable thing about this performance - which got Meeks mobbed on a road court by his teammates, which was an odd sight to see on live TV - was that it was insanely efficient. Meeks attempted only 22 shots, which is fewer than your average leading scorer in a game. Meeks was aided by a red-hot 10/15 showing from the 3-point line and he netted all 14 free throws. He's top five in the country in scoring. Maybe it's time to throw this guy in with Curry, Harangody, Hansbrough and Griffin in the National P.O.Y. discussion.

Oh yeah, and Ohio State clobbered IU. Like you didn't know that would happen.

Tons of Top 25 action for Wednesday night. Three games are nationally broadcast and unfortunately, the two really worth watching will both happen at the same time. If you have to pick between #2 Duke at Ga Tech (7 pm, ESPN) and #8 Syracuse at #12 Georgetown (7:30 pm, ESPN2), watch the Big East game. Obviously. But check the Duke game at breaks. Top-ranked Pitt hosts USF too, but that should be an easy one.

Hot Stove: Braves sign Lowe for 4 years and $60 million. Wow. That's a lot of money, especially for the Braves. Not sure about that move at all for the long term, but Lowe should be pretty good - he's a ground ball pitcher in a pitcher's park (Turner Field). For now, he'll be fine. Also, Guillermo Mota signs with L.A. (the real ones, not the ones who changed their name to L.A. for no reason) and Jay "Monkey-Face" Gibbons will sign a minor league deal with Florida.

NFL Draft Declarations: Texas Tech WR Michael Crabtree, Ball State QB Nate Davis (Sniff, Sniff). Percy Harvin and Mark Sanchez are also expected to go (via ESPN), Colt McCoy, as you already know, is supposedly staying, but Sam Bradford is still undecided. Interesting.

And in other NFL news, Scott Pioli jumps to K.C. Of course, he was supposedly headed to Cleveland early this off-season. ESPN.com thinks this means the end for Herm Edwards (he should've been out anyway), with Giants' defensive wizard Steve Spagnuolo probably the favorite to replace him (he'd be a great hire).

The Last Word:

To delve away from sports, does anyone watch How I Met Your Mother? It's probably my favorite show - it's the sitcom that's not a sitcom. It's a half-hour comedy with a laugh track, but it's above most typical sitcomminess, and its callbacks to prior episodes are the best way possible to reward longtime viewers.

Last night they had an interesting episode, where Ted and Robin, exes who now live together, decide to solve their roommate arguments by having sex casually. This is a typical sitcommy plot, and I was worried that HIMYM (him-yim) would revert to typical sitcomminess with it. However, they spun it beautifully into more of a story about Barney's newfound affection for Robin than anything else, and as the narrator - older Ted - said, "Someone did get hurt. It just wasn't one of us."

I love that show. And I just bored 80 percent of anyone who reads this, but you need to watch it. Give it a look, soon.

The Rundown: January 13th, 2009

NCAAB: A very Big Monday.

It was just another Big Monday on ESPN last night, as ND and Louisville battled into overtime and Oklahoma dispatched Texas.

Louisville clobbered ND in overtime to get a much-more-impressive-than-it-really-was 87-73 win over the Fighting Irish. The Irish were clearly gassed, scoring just one field goal in overtime after scoring only four in the final seven or so minutes of regulation. Mike Brey loves to never play his bench, but clearly, something needs adjusting. ND will get worn down by teams like Louisville every time if that keeps up. Luke Harangody put up a Herculean effort again - 28 and 13 - but didn't score in the final 11 minutes of the game. The Irish fall to 3-2 in the Big East, and both those losses could and should easily have been wins. Louisville is 3-0, one of four unbeatens in league play.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma cruised over Texas 78-63. The Horns got as close as four early in the second half but never competed after that. Blake Griffin 'only' had 20 and 10, but it was good enough for his 14th double-double, and for the Sooners' first win over Texas in seven tries.

Those were the only two top 25 games last night. Tonight we don't have any ranked teams in action, but if you'd like, ESPN has a Super Tuesday doubleheader of Indiana/Ohio State and Kentucky/Tennessee starting at 7 pm.

NFL: Dungy's gone.

Tony Dungy retired Monday. I've always thought his firing in Tampa was completely unfair - he turned a laughingstock into a contender and damn near brought them to the Super Bowl in 1999. He then took the Colts and won 87 games with them in seven years. That's productivity. I liken him to Phil Jackson, in that yes, he had probably the best player of his generation (Peyton Manning in this case) and a great supporting cast to work with. However, few coaches can keep such a group hungry enough to be a contender year in and year out. Under Dungy, the Colts went to the playoffs every year. The Colts won six division titles in his first six years. A home playoff game was almost affixed to the end of the team's schedule each year.

Tony Dungy is something that seems almost impossible to become in the NFL these days: an institution. You think of the Colts, and you will think of Dungy. For a long time to come. It's no small feat.

Other news: Marvin Harrison may or may not have been holding a gun during that shooting incident from April...Jeff Fisher calls the missed delay of game call in Saturday's Titans loss to Baltimore "unacceptable". I bet this becomes a reviewable call in 2009.

MLB: About time for Jim Rice.

Jim Rice finally made it into the Hall of Fame Monday. Along with Rickey Henderson, which of course was a foregone conclusion. Rice was a great player. I didn't watch him, so I can't make any real observations or judgments, but at this point, with idiots like Phil Rizzuto and Bill Mazeroski in the Hall of Fame, borderline guys might as well be in. What Rice's selection really does is leave Ron Santo as, pretty much indisputably, the best player not in the Hall. I join the rest of you in awaiting Rickey's induction speech, of course.

No real Hot Stove news to report. Gabe Kapler signed with the Rays, and Mike Scioscia signed a contract extension with Anaheim.

NBA: Pierce and the Celts are back?

Paul Pierce scored 39 and Boston (gasp) won a game, over the Raptors. It's a start. The Bulls got Kirk Hinrich and Luol Deng back and it did no good as they lost again. And T-Mac will be out two more weeks to rehab his injury.

The Last Word:

Ok, I'm a Ball State alum, and the snakebitten bad luck of the men's basketball team is getting ludicrous. Peyton Stovall, the best player I had the privilege of watching suit up for our team in my four years, missed an entire season due to injury. The Cards lost an incredible ten games by seven points or less last year, many that came down to the last second, and lost them in just about every way imaginable. Among the close losses was a nine-point defeat to Georgetown at home in which BSU had the ball down six with a minute to go, and ended up losing by nine, with no one taller than 6'4" (or taller than me, to put it in perspective) on the floor. Considering everything that happened when we tried to hire a Thompson to coach Ball State, I can honestly say it was probably as proud as I've ever been to watch a Cardinals team play. And that still stands true now, even after the football team won all 12 regular season games this year.

Anyway, our best player, Anthony Newell, has broken his leg and will miss the rest of the season, and his career. Newell also broke a bone in his foot last year and missed most of the non-conference slate. The poor kid has been robbed of essentially a whole season of his career and won't get it back. BSU might actually have had a shot of winning the pathetic MAC this year (they're 6-7, 1-0 in the MAC), but won't do anything without Newell. At least they won't set another team record for losses, as they have the last two years in a row.

Thanks for dealing with the venting. Back here tomorrow.