Wie

The Clarion Content had not even gotten the chance to congratulate long time whipping post Michelle Wie on winning her first professional tournament before she pulled another stunt. The much hyped, minimally accomplished Wie followed her first LPGA tournament victory with a "withdraw." She ostensibly turned her ankle in an encounter with an overzealous fan. She quit after one round leaving the fans, sponsors, and the cratering L.P.G.A. at the Houstonian Golf and Country Club without her marquee name. She shot an even par 72 in windy conditions, six shots behind thirty-time LPGA tour winner Lorena Ochoa.

The Good and the Bad of college football

This weekend is a perfect exemplar of the good and the bad of college football. In Durham, North Carolina, the staff of the Clarion Content is hanging on breathlessly hoping that somehow, some way the Duke Blue Devils can pull out a road upset against the all-world athletes of Miami of Florida. Were Duke able to pull off the win, they would remain bowl eligible going into their final game of the season against Wake Forest.

This is the good. The argument is that every game matters. Michigan versus Ohio State today, records aside, the game still has serious bragging rights at stake. Just because coach Rich Rodriguez is a trainwreck at Michigan does not make the game less valuable to the Big Blue alumni. You think Ohio State's fans want to win any less just because Michigan is terrible? The fact that Michigan is about to complete it's first back to back sub .500 seasons in more than 40 years would just make it all the more frustrating for Buckeye backers were their team to lose.

Despite our interest here in Duke, and the great rivalry game the midwest, or even other matches of consequence like North Carolina vying for bowl seedings versus Boston College in Chestnut Hill, or Arizona and Oregon meeting in a PAC-10 match-up, there is a problem. It does not infect the great PA battle between Lafayette and Leigh, which has the Lafayette Leopards hoping for a big win to secure an at-large bid into the Division I-AA, playoffs. And there it is! The geniuses that run the BCS refuse to allow any semblance of on the field battle for the national championship of Division I.

This beauty contest/gymnastics/figure skating method of voting for the best team rather than deciding it on the field incentivizes awfulness. This weak, whoops, week, #1 Florida is playing Florida International of the Sun Belt Conference. #2 Alamaba is playing Chattanooga of the Southern Conference. As of this moment they lead by a combined 80 to 3. Cupcakes for all! Even Texas with a potentially more legitimate opponent from the Big 12, has lucked into, the 1 up and 5 down in conference, Kansas Jayhawks. There is but a single match-up of top 25 teams, the Stanford-Cal game. This is the bad of college football. And its pretty putrid, because...

The faux national championship is securely in the hands of the judges. Boise State and TCU may be preemptively ruled out. Sorry. The winner of SEC conference title game is guaranteed a spot, allegedly. Cincinnati is be punished for being from the least favored of eligible conferences. Who is the best team? How would anyone know?

The Clarion Content would love to watch the coaching savvy of Georgia Tech's Paul Johnson in an eight team playoff. Too bad.

Break up the Hawks?!?

Talk about a sentence we never thought we would write, break up the Hawks? But, believe it or not, the Hawks are hottest team in the NBA right now. Does anyone in the sports apathetic city of Atlanta care? Who knows.

But the Hawks, led by Joe Johnson, are rolling. They own the NBA's best record at 9 wins and 2 losses. The ended Portland's six game winning streak last night in OT. (A streak that incidentally coincided with the Clarion Content's criticism of the Trail Blazers.) The Hawks have now beaten Portland twice. Last night they dominated Portland's highly touted inside duo, LaMarcus Aldridge, the fourth player drafted in 2006, and Greg Oden, the first player drafted in 2007. Aldridge and Oden combined for 29 points and 16 boards. The Hawks Al Horford and Josh Smith had 35 points and 26 boards. The Hawks outscored Portland 56-38 in the lane.

Atlanta has also beaten the Eastern Conference favorite Boston Celtics this season and blew out another quality opponent, the Denver Nuggets.

The Knicks are so awful

Cool enough by itself?

The Knicks are terrible. As the Clarion Content warned preseason this Knicks team could challenge for the worst record in franchise history. They are already off to the worst start in franchise history, an ignominious 1 up and 9 down. They are so bad, Knicks fans can hardly gain any pleasure in smirking at the even more putrid Nets, who lost last night on a D-Wade buzzer beater to fall to 0 and 10.

So the Nets suck worse. But when one's team hardly tries, plays no defense, and lacks a cohesive plan on offense, it is hard to watch. The Knicks allow opponents to shoot better than 50% from the field. They have yet to have a single game where they have topped the 50% mark for their own shooting percentage. The Knicks are getting stomped by more than ten points per game. Mike D'Antoni has been an unmitigated disaster as coach, General Manager Donnie Walsh should have seen that coming. D'Antoni rode Steve Nash's coattails in Phoenix, and was consistently overmatched and outcoached in the playoffs.

The tragedy is that the Knicks, without a first round pick, are pinning their hopes for the future on their ability to recruit free agents. When your franchise stinks to high heaven, how are you going to talk the best people into coming there? Strictly because the Garden is the coolest arena in the league? And New York City is the coolest city in the land? We hope so.

It is a tough time to be a Knicks fan.

Yuri Foreman wins 154lb title

The New Champ

Yuri Foreman spent a quiet Sabbath day in his Las Vegas hotel room, no television, no phone calls, no work. After sundown he went out and whipped the favored title holder, thirty-four year-old southpaw, Daniel Santos of Puerto Rico. Foreman is now an undefeated 28 and 0. He won by a three to nil decision. Rousing the crowd waiting on the main event, Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto, he knocked Santos down in the second round and again in the final round, when the veteran Santos, trailing on the judges' cards, knew he had to go for the knockout.

Interesting Sports links

We have a couple quick interesting sports links for your perusal, dear readers. They both come from the New York Times. The first was sent our way by a reader, recently returned to the Durham area from a sojourn to Boston. He must of known it would hit our spot, because the article is both about politics and the Yankees!

Did you know that the Yankees last eight World Series victories took place on the Democrats’ watch, during the terms of Presidents John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton? Or how about that they never won the World Series during the terms of President Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Bush I or Bush II? Remarkable coincidence? We dunno, but we might have changed our baseball predictions had we heard this stat preseason. It surely makes sense that an Obama presidency would propel a Yankees run to the title.

Read the article by King George II's former press secretary, Ari Fleischer here in the New York Times.

From an article by a Jewish guy, to an article about a Jewish guy, the Times published an interesting piece about (believe it or not) a Jewish boxer fighting for the World Boxing Association championship at 154 pounds Saturday, on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto match at the MGM Grand casino in Las Vegas.

Yuri Foreman is 27-0 as a professional fighter. He lives in Brooklyn, but has traveled a long road, growing up poor in Belarus and immigrating later with his family to Israel. He learned to box in the slums of Haifa. Readers of the late Red Smith will attest that Foreman is neither the first, nor the best Jewish boxer ever. Who can forget "Battling" Levinsky, Charlie Gellman, Abe "the Little Hebrew" Atell, Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom, Barney Ross and Ruby Goldstein? It has however been a long minute, the Golden Age of Jewish boxers was before WW II, since we heard that one was fighting for a world title.

Read the whole story here.

Michigan, not much to like

The Clarion Content found one more reason to dislike the University of Michigan athletic department yesterday. Two different students reported incidents with retiring Athletic Director, Bill Martin. The school's department of public safety reported a brusque Martin shoved past one and in an another case grabbed a student's windbreaker.

The Associated Press report says,

Michigan student Jackie Turner says she told Martin he needed a pass to enter the regents guest area of the press box Sept. 12 during a game against Notre Dame. She said he pushed her shoulder and walked past her.

"Honey, I am the athletic director," Turner quoted him as saying, according to a university report on the incident.

On Oct. 17, Eastern Michigan student Arif Khan said he told Martin and a female companion they needed passes to enter the area after a game against Delaware State. Khan said Martin grabbed his jacket.

"I am the athletic director, I can go in," Khan quoted Martin as telling him.

Sounds like a nice guy. This is the jerk who brought in the slimeball football coach, Rich Rodriguez. Well, it is not like one might expect anything low out of the Michigan athletic department.

Ole Miss tries to ban chant

The University of Mississippi long considered a bastion of the old South is trying to change a tradition. Ole Miss was the site of a bloody standoff, less than fifty years ago, when in 1962 it admitted its first black student, James Meredith. The university still has to address its reputation and legacy. Six years ago the university got rid of its on-field mascot, Colonel Rebel, a white-haired old man who carried a cane and resembled a plantation owner. Now the school is trying to mover further out of the shadow of its old image.

The school is trying to ban the chanting of the phrase, 'The South Will Rise Again,' at the end of the marching band's medley 'From Dixie With Love.' The school's chancellor has suggested replacing the traditional chant, with 'To hell with LSU.' No luck yet. Some students are willing to go along with change, others are resisting. The medley played by the school band is based on the Confederate Army's fight song, "Dixie," blended with the Union Army's "Battle Hymn of the Republic." The song itself may have to be banned to end the chant.

Read the whole story here.

Oden over Durant

Is there anyone out there still defending the drafting of Greg Oden ahead of Kevin Durant? The Clarion Content hopes not. Oden is averaging a measly 6.8 points per game. He is grabbing a handful of boards, 9.8 per game, and blocking a couple of shots, 2.2 game, but if that is what he is!?! A defensive rebounding specialist who's career peak is below that of Ben Wallace. Egads, what an egregious decision to draft him ahead of the electric Kevin Durant. 25.3 points per game last year, a contender to win the scoring title this year, even if hasn't shot a lick yet.

It says here that Trail Blazers mini run peaked last year at a first round playoff loss. Portland coach Nate McMillan is already calling out Oden and the team for a lack of effort, "We're not playing as hard as we need to win games." And he lit up his interior players for their lack of defense rotation and hustle,"We broke down and they were able to get to the paint and get layups without our bigs stepping in to help." McMillan indicated it was a problem morphing into a bad pattern.

See ya back at the lottery Portland, and don't do anything dumb like picking Oden over Durant or you will be right back here again.