Archive for January 27th, 2010

WATERCOOLER CHAT: KENTUCKY #1 BUT NOT INVINCIBLE, RAIDERS BRING IN HUE JACKSON

BASKETBALL

John Calipari.JPGThe new #1 seed in college basketball is John Calipari‘s Kentucky.  They have an unbelievable team of recruits led by big man DeMarcus Cousins, and superstar, freakish athlete John Wall. Just this week, the Wildcats were pronounced the #1 team in the nation.  The undefeated Kentucky team was even greeted with a phone call from the president (because their team raised a lot of money for Haiti).  Needless to say… they’re really good.

So a game against unranked South Carolina should be easy, right?  Well, not so much.  South Carolina has a guard named Devan Downey who is a 5’9 speedster with some extremely fancy moves.  Not even Kentucky’s big guns could contain him.  The game was close the whole way, but in the end South Carolina just kept coming at them.  They got it done down the stretch, and made very few mistakes.  Suddenly, the buzzer sounded, and the Gamecocks had more points.  Wait a minute… did undefeated juggernaut that is Kentucky lose their FIRST game after being appointed the #1 spot?  Yes, yes they did.  And this is what’s great about college sports:  Once you become #1, you have a huge target on your back.  Instantly, lesser teams bond together with a common purpose to pull the ‘ultimate upset’ — they become great, even if just for one night.  South Carolina 68, Kentucky 62.

And things just keep getting worse for former #1 overall draft pick Greg Oden.  Oden was injured earlier this season, and must sit out the remainder of the year.  That’s pretty much 2 years off for Oden from a potential 3-year career.  However, the latest in the Oden saga is that, yes, naked pictures are circulating of him on the Internet.  It appears Oden took some naked photos of himself with a cell phone 1.5 years ago intended for a former girlfriend.  Not… smart.  They, of course, got online.  Oden had to issue a public apology for the photos, and called them very embarrassing.  Portland fans… you should have drafted Kevin Durant.

FOOTBALL

JaMarcus RussellFinally, in the NFL, with the season over for almost every team, it’s open season in the coaching market.  Well, the Oakland Raiders have brought Hue Jackson as their offensive coordinator.  The reason for this hire is simple:  Jackson used to be the quarterbacks coach for the Baltimore Ravens where he developed rookie Joe Flacco into a serviceable playoff quarterback. They are hoping that Jackson can work his magic again with the fledgling former #1 pick JaMarcus Russell.  The Raiders have a lot of money tied up in Russell, and they need production out of him.  Otherwise, they have to go QB shopping again.

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