Tune in to the Sportaholic Show this Saturday!!

  

Adam Douglas

Tomorrow on the Sportaholic Radio Show we speak with Adam Douglas sports reporter of the Tigersportreport.com which covers Memphis Tigers basketball. He is also the food and drink reporter for the MicroMemphis.com, a hyper-local news website produced by the University of Memphis department of journalism. He helps us makes sense of the madness that is March with his expert in-depth analysis and of course he will talk about his Memphis Tigers.

We also hit on Peyton watch as Manning gets ready to pick his next team. We talk to a few experts and sources to get the most complete up to date info on Manning’s next move. It would be a travesty for us not to speak about all of the antics that went on the day of the Manning visit including local Shoney’s offering free pancakes for life, the state of Tennessee taking out a resolution in honor of Manning and the circus like atmosphere at Baptist Sport Park.

All this as well as the latest NFL free agency, NBA trade dead line moves, and the Nashville Predators’s pursuit of Alexander Radulov. It will be a great show as you can see so make sure you tune in to www,Beatknockin.com from 10 A.M. to noon as take your calls, tweets and FB questions live on air!

Sportaholic Weekend Rundown 03/12/2012

Weekend Rundown

The field of 68 has been set:

The madness that is March is officially here as the NCAA tournament field has been set. No really big surprises here with the top seeds as Kentucky was named overall number one even with its loss to Vanderbilt in the SEC tourney finals. North Carolina was in the same boat after narrowly losing the ACC tournament to Florida State and still receiving a one seed. Syracuse didn’t even make the Big East final (Which is really a shame with this being their last year in the Big East) and again with this reoccurring theme they received a one seed. As a matter of fact Michigan State was the only one seed that won its conference tournament in the Big Ten. You can really see that the conference tourney doesn’t mean much to the big boys who had already clinched a high seed.



And what’s a good tournament conversation without talking about the snubs. Marshall probably has the biggest gripe after beating Big East conference tourney runner up Cincinnati in OT, taking Syracuse to the wire with a 62-56 loss and beating Iona who slipped into a tournament. Drexel also should be angry after winning 25-2 down the stretch with the CAA conference title, the committee didn’t see the Dragons strength of schedule in the 220s as a team deserving of a bid. As long as there is a NCAA tournament there will always be a team that gets snubbed and those two teams have a legit beef.



Now that the field is set get ready to get inundated with multiple bracket requests from all your friends from every website. Its March madness baby, the best three weeks on the sports calendar so get ready to fill out those brackets and miss a few days of work if your school is playing.

Bud Adams throws the kitchen sink at Peyton Manning

Bud Adams has reportedly said he will do whatever it takes to sign four time NFL MVP Peyton Manning to the Tennessee Titans. Adams said that he has contacted Manning’s agent, Tom Condon, in hopes of setting up a visit to Tennessee. Manning has recently visited the Denver Broncos and the Arizona Cardinals in his quest to find the team that best fits him after being released by the Indianapolis Colts. Adams has gone as far as saying he would offer Manning a job in the front office. Now lets be realistic here Titan fans before you get your hopes up too high. Manning will go to a team that he feels can compete for a Super Bowl if he comes in as the last piece of the puzzle. I don’t believe the Titans fit that description. Also he has made it clear that he only has a list of three teams on his list in Miami, Denver, and Arizona. Don’t get his ties to the University of Tennessee twisted in this mess as I seriously doubt that Manning has any loyalty to anyone in this state besides those who reside in Knoxville. I don’t care what Adams throws at him it just not likely to land Peyton in powder blue.



Vanderbilt upsets Kentucky to win SEC Tournament

As I was eluding to in the beginning of the column, March madness is in full bloom and the first shocker so far for me was seeing the Vanderbilt Commodores finally showed that they have what it takes to beat a quality opponent the caliber of top ranked Kentucky. The Commodores had played the Wildcats tough in their previous two meeting losing by a combined margin of just 15 points. The Wildcats had been running over all its other SEC opponents as it defeated all comers until yesterday. Vandy played tough rugged defense not allowing the Wildcats to score over the final 8:04 of the game. Vandy’s wing duo of Jeff Taylor and Jeff Jenkins combined for 35 points as the Commodores sealed the win with a 16-2 run over the final 5 minutes of the game. John Callapari has never been a big fan of the conference tournaments and his team appeared not to care much either in this one but none of that mattered to Vandy as they clinched their first SEC tournament title since 1951. Congrats to them and good luck in the NCAA’s as they drew a tough match in their first round opponent in Harvard.

Tiger injures Achilles in WGC tournament

Tiger Woods suffered yet another setback in his latest tourney. Woods said he felt discomfort in his lest Achillies that caused him to withdraw from the final round of the WGC-Cadillac Championship. "I felt tightness in my left Achilles warming up this morning, and it continued to get progressively worse," said Woods, who made three bogeys and no birdies during the final round. "After hitting my tee shot at 12, I decided it was necessary to withdraw. In the past, I may have tried to continue to play, but this time, I decided to do what I thought was necessary." Tiger will likely shut it down until the Masters now after this latest injury. Woods actually had the same injury last year at the Masters as well so this turning into a chronic problem. My guess is that Tiger wants to go into the Masters as healthy as possible and lets hope he is as close as can be to 100% once Augusta gets going.

Bynum late hook shot helps Lakers take down Celtics in latest version of heated rivalry

You expect nothing less than a close game from these heated rivals and that’s exactly what you got in this one. Kobe scored 10 of his 26 in 4th quarter and even suggested that Andrew Bynum take the last shot with everyone in the building looking for Bryant to take it. “Andrew is too big. You can’t teach that,” Bryant said with a grin. “I knew it was going to be a high-percentage shot.” The teams had battled the entire game with one time making a run only to have to the other do the same. Rajon Rondo had 24 points and 10 assists. He would miss horribly on a desperate tie attempt for the Celtics. The Lakers have been nearly unbeatable at home winning for the 18th time in 19 tries at home. This game was important in the sense that it could be the last time we see this current version of both teams square off against each other. The Lakers have been in constant flux of trade rumors with Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. Boston has also been rumored to be ready to break up the Big 4 of Rondo, Garnett, Allen, and Pierce. If this was the last one then between the two at least they gave us one last classic to remember.

Pearl Pushed Out By Tennessee

I clearly regret having to post this article because I am a Bruce Pearl fan but his time with UT has come to an end. Pearl was gregarious and his high energy personality rubbed off on everyone around him. He embraced Tennessee culture and did things that made us Tennessean’s embrace him. Pearl finished with a record of 145-61 as UT’s head coach and also led them to six straight NCAA tournaments. His resume speaks for itself but Pearl was more than just win and losses. He put UT basketball on the map as he led them to their first ever number one ranking. Who can forget Pearl showing up at the Lady Vols game with his torso camouflaged in Vol orange? Pearl’s endearing antics surpassed those of all the coaches in the SEC. It rubbed most the wrong way but it you are a Vol fan, you loved it.

You can tell how much he meant to the program as news of his firing has dominated the sports scene here locally. People in Tennessee have a certain type of infatuation with him. He cam from the northeast but was able to adapt to Tennessee and from what I hear is not an easy thing to do. The ramifications of Pearl ouster are huge. Players such as Tobias Harris and Scotty Hopson are all but done in a UT uniform at this point. Incoming players are asking for permission to speak to other teams in wake of Pearl’s ouster. And with an NCAA sanction hanging over the UT program, how can they expect to land a good coach? The program is left with more questions then answers at this point. Mike Hamilton seems incapable to handling bad situations. His ill-advised interview before the NCAA tournament had to make other AD’s around the country cringe. Hamilton should be on shaky ground as well now as two of his hires in Pearl and Lane Kiffin both have come under fire from the NCAA are no longer at UT. If Hamilton knew he was going to fire Pearl then he should have done it immediately. There was no point of creating the circus that was UT’s men basketball season. There was no point of docking Pearl’s pay, suspending him and publicly backing him for the entire season only to dump as soon as it was over. Hamilton’s interview seemed to be nothing more than him distancing himself away from Pearl in an effort to set up the fan base for his firing.



Futhermore on Pearl, he had built a reputation as an upright and what you see is what you get coach. His persona has been that way since he blew the whistle on Illinois and their involvement with former recruit Deon Thomas. Dick Vitale called the Thomas situation career suicide but Pearl made it through that debacle. Now it does seem ironic if not prophetic that Pearl career is stalled because of NCAA violations. As much as I like Pearl, don’t get me wrong, he was wrong for the things that he did. The most stunning part of the allegations is the reported “Bumps” that the NCAA found out after they had met with Pearl in September. Pearl held a tear filled press conference soon after his meeting with the NCAA but according to reports, he and assistant Tony Jones illegally had contact with a prep athlete. Pearl disputes this and says it was a cordial greeting of the player but at this point it doesn’t matter. Once you’re the crosshairs of the NCAA, they are relentless. Pearl had a chance to come clean and he didn’t which is no one’s fault but his own. But when a coach like Jim Tressel of Ohio State does in what amounts to basically the same thing if not worse, then you begin to realize how unfair this fallout was to Pearl. Everyone knows the story now of Tressel as he knew all along about his players selling their memorabilia in exchange for tattoos but instead of turning the players in, Tressel played them and rode them to a Sugar Bowl victory. How can that not be more offensive than what Pearl did? Highly hypocritical but the NCAA has been this way for years.

Pearl became a victim of his own success. He was a diamond in the rough that finally had a big-time program at his dispense. He did what most coaches are doing at this very moment. Some say Pearl was set-up for those reasons I mentioned earlier in this article, I don’t know if I can agree with that. I do think that he became drunk with his own prosperity. They say it is only cheating if you get caught but that doesn’t even correctly objectify what is going on in college athletics these days. And when you think about coaches like John Callapari, who has took two programs (UMass and Memphis) to the final four only to have those banners taken down because of allegations, it does make one think Pearl may have been duped one way or another. Pearl’s ambition drove him to do whatever it took to stay on top. If that meant 100 calls to a recruit so be it. If that meant throwing a cookout for future players, so be it (even though I still don’t understand why he would allow anyone to take photos of the event). Pearl is just the latest casualty in the NCAA world of rules. Pearl will resurface after a year of two. He is too charismatic and too good of a coach not to. It’s just a shame that he won’t be back on the Tennessee sidelines anymore.