The Weekender

Matt Kenseth won a rain-shortened Daytona 500 yesterday. I watched none of this race and the fact it was shortened doesn't bother me. I gots TV to watch on Sunday nights, mofo and NASCAR seems to be laughing in the face of the very people tha support it. I guess it's like the Republican party that way, huh? Thousand dollar tickets to watch 40 cars burn a billion gallons of gas/oil.

That's a bit harsh, I know. I actually have a passing interest in motor sports every now and then - I'm just still bitter about there being no football.

Griffey might be a Brave! Sweet, I guess. I'd like to break .500 this season, please - no matter who you have to get to do it. As Jinx put it: I'd buy the steroids for A-Rod if he'd play in ATL.

Side-Note: I hope A-Rod 'Roid rages on Madonna and kills her. I mean, talk about past-your-prime-self-importance.

The Slam-Dunk Contest is always a lot of fun. But, it would be so much better if the stars still jammed. Lebron sat court-side and goofed and mugged - which is fun and all - but, I want to see him in the skills test and Dunk-off.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to take anything away from Nate Robinson. And, it was great to see last-year's winner, Dwight Howard, help him get the title. But, I remember when the BIG guys were in this thing. MJ vs. Nique, for fuck's sake.

At least LeBron has committed to compete next season.

Even though I don't care much for the NBA now, I can respect the fact that it's, at present, the cleanest of the big-3 sports. The NFL has more criminals per-capita than Congress and the MLB will quite possibly never fully recover from Juice-gate and the pall it's cast for the last few seasons.

But...

The Coolest Sports Moment this Weekend: Georgia beat Florida in roundball!

Georgia B-ball is, according to Clay Travis, the "worst men's program in the modern era." He's not far off. His Vols certainly ass-pounded us all-night last Wednesday. I think that makes the win over Florida that much more awesome. It's our first SEC win and it came against slick-Billy Donovan and the hated Gators. Nice job. Now, let's find a coach.

Monday College Football Notes:

I just listened to Ted Miller try and sell me on Cal's Pac-10 Championship chances for '09. I'm not buying it. He referenced what is going to be "a rebuilding year" for USC as one of his reasons. I hope he's just looking for stories in a relatively dead period of cfb, 'cause "rebuilding" at USC doesn't mean anything. Nobody knew Carson Palmer and his no name team mates before 2002 - the re-ascension, if you will - and they kicked ass without the benefit of four years of Carroll recruiting. USC's got nothing but 4 and 45 stars and 30 All-Americans on the 2-deep. I think they'll be OK.

How much pressure is there on Missouri to keep winning? Realistically, none. Daniel was overrated and so is Pinkel. What's underrated is the shit-tastic level of play in the Big-12 North. Nebraska's coming back, so don't expect Mizz to be back in the B12CG. The biggest reason? Maclin. That kids was the REAL reason that Missouri was able to just explode on people.

Ole Miss: Number 6?! No way. They'll be an 9-4 team in the mid teens. Their season will be similar to this one, but since they'll be pre-ranked so high, they'll fall further.

I think, conversely, that Georgia will benefit from that same paradigm. With "no one" returning (seriously, it was just 2 guys that left), they'll be fairly low to start, struggle early in a difficult non-conf, right the ship and glide into a top-14 finish.

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UPDATE: Oh yeah, Kiffin fucked up - Again.