Spring Sports Excitement

My focus has been on three areas: the NBA, college (men's) hoops, and England's Chelsea Football Club.

Starting with the college game, this appears to be another banner year for freshmen about to turn pro (although one of the "diaper dandies", Love of UCLA, seems to be sticking around). Not only that, though, this season is shaping up as a wide-open contest. I see 10 or more teams who could win the championship, and no clear favorite. As usual, I will eschew Duke and N.C., and I will predict a finals matchup of Memphis and UCLA (it's been done before). Despite their weak free throw shooting, I think Memphis may actually have the horses this year.

The NBA, similarly, has 11 teams capable of winning the championship. Nine of them are competing for eight spots in the Western Conference playoffs (the other two are Detroit and Boston). The mad scramble in the West is basically just to make the playoffs; seedings are not going to count as much as in the past given the parity that exists (recall Golden State over Dallas last year, the first time #8 ever beat #1).

New Orleans has been a huge surprise and is legitimately a contender; Houston has surprised and maintained its momentum since the injury to Yao. Some really good team is going to get eliminated, though: right now, I'd go with Phoenix or Golden State. Denver's the team looking in right now, but I expect them to get it together (with their broad talent) and squeak through.

In English football, Chelsea lost today in one of the most thrilling matches I've seen, on the road in the the 6th round (quarterfinals) of the F.A. Cup, 0-1 at Barnsley (a team--nicknamed the "Tykes"--that's one level down in league play). The F.A. has had a series of big upsets, driven partly by the fact that the top 4 teams in English soccer (Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, and Arsenal) are focused on the Champions' League and the Premiership itself--now none of them will make the final four. Of the six teams left, two are middle-level Premier squads (Portsmouth, and Middlesbrough, which has underperformed this year), three are in the "Championship" (Barnsley, Cardiff, and West Brom), and one is in "League One" (the third level)--Bristol Rovers.

In today's game Chelsea could push Barnsley all over but couldn't put it in. It looked like pinball for most of the last 10 minutes. Chelsea coach Evran Grant will get reamed for taking the risk by not playing some of his top players (Drogba, Lampard, Ashley Cole, first-string goalie Petr Cech), but I think he was right: he's got to put some of these others out there, in a game of importance, and see what they can do. Some looked up to the challenge (Essian, Terry, Joe Cole), others tried hard with little success (Wright-Phillips, Ballack, late reserves Kalou and Pizarro), and some looked as though they'd rather have been elsewhere (Malouda, Anelka, Carvalho).

Chelsea can now focus on the big games coming up in the Champions' League (through to the final eight) and the Premier League (home games coming up against both teams ahead of them in the standings, Man U. and Arsenal, which will give them a shot at a come-from-behind title.