ASU is so close!

Oh, how great it would have been for the Sun Devils to win Thursday night's game against Washington. Although I did almost had a heart attack when James Harden stole that pass with about 15 seconds left in regulation. It looks like the Devils will continue their string of never winning a Pac-10 title. The good news is we won't have to worry about winning a title in future years either, once Harden leaves ASU for the NBA (as he should). Now the Devils must win their final three Pac-10 games and Washington has to lose their final two for ASU to win the Pac-10 title. In short, Washington just won the damn conference last night. Nice work, John Brockman, you fat load, I hope you enjoy your last few games this year 'cause you sure as hell aren't playing in the Association.

Friday round-up

Why waste your Friday reading ENTIRE stories, when you can read just the good stuff!

U of A loses - A shocking loss for a terrible team (and school) on Thursday night as the Arizona Wildcats lose 69-53 to the Washington State Cougars. It's hard to top having your face stepped on, but this may be the most embarrassing moment of Arizona's season. Nah, it's still the face stepping.

Suns lose as expected - I feel bad for the Suns players healthy enough to have their asses beat down by the Lakers on Thursday. Then I look at my paycheck and go back to being angry at them. Final score: 1032-106 (yah, it was ugly).

Warner hasn't signed - In what will continue to be an interesting story, Cardinals QB Kurt Warner has yet to ink a deal with the Cardinals (or any other team for that matter). My bet is this situation will be resolved quickly and he will sign with the Cards. I have a great history on this kind of thing, too, I bet my life savings on Antonio McDyess resigning with the Suns and I think that worked out pretty darn well.

Free agency starts Friday

The free agency period in the NFL starts this Friday and, like many teams, the Cardinals really have their work cut out for them. They already took care of one of their big questions, which they solved by tagging Karlos Dansby. While their biggest priority is still to resign Kurt Warner, it was nice to get this issue out of the way (for now). And while free agency is a big part of the off season, the Cardinals still have the whole Anquan Boldin situation to settle. Needless to say I wouldn't want to be in Michael Bidwill or Rod Grave's shoes (probably because my feet are way too big for them, oh!). Sorry about that.

Below is a list of the Cardinals' free agents (from profootballtalk.com) with my expert opinion on what to do with each player. I know, I should be charging for this advice, but I'm in a giving mood.

QB Kurt Warner - Of course you resign him
TE Leonard Pope (restricted) - not a big priority to keep him, draft a TE or use Spach
DT Gabe Watson (restricted) - keep him, he's getting better and isn't fat as hell anymore
RB J.J. Arrington - If you can get him cheap, resign
LB Monty Beisel - Not a bad backup LB, saw him playing in the playoffs
DE Bertrand Berry - Should resign him, but may not
OL Elton Brown - Keep him for cheap if you can, otherwise find a new O-lineman
CB Ralph Brown - I'd rather have Rod Hood, but he's okay for nickel coverage
LB Karlos Dansby (franchised) - Now that Suggs is tagged, he's your best option by far at LB
P Ben Graham - He played much better than Dirk Johnson, pay him
CB Eric Green - Call a bus to get this guy out of town asap
LB Clark Haggans - He's been hurt way too often, keep him only if he's cheap
OL Scott Peters - No idea who this is, see ya
DE Antonio Smith - Keep him unless he wants Julius Peppers money, which he might
FB Terrelle Smith - Seems like a great guy but he's still a FB
QB Brian St. Pierre - Sure, why not?

Suns win, but wait theres more!

First off, the good news. The Suns beat the Bobcats Tuesday night 112-102 to exercise some of the demons from trade made earlier this season. If you remember, the Suns took a beating from these same Bobcats just weeks after trading them Raja Bell and Boris Diaw. This time, the new style helped the Suns to victory, which was led by Jason Richardson and Steve Nash (pictured above trying something called "defense").

Now the bad news. Both Richardson and Nash were hampered by ankle injuries they suffered during the Bobcats game, and had to leave at some point. The good news is both came back to contribute a bit more before the game was over, but that just adds 2 more to the Suns injury total for the season. It's getting to be ridiculous, the line for the trainer's room at U.S. Airways center must look like one of those clown cars where 30 people get out of a Volkswagen Bug.

Hayneswsorth is SO gonna get paid

Rumors are swirling today that the Redskins are going to give Albert Haynesworth more money than Scrooge McDuck has. From Yahoo!:

My source tells me to look for a contract that could break $100 million with an average of $15 million to $16 million per.

Wow, that's a hell of a lot of money to invest on a guy who got in trouble for auto-related incidents twice in one week and tried to peel the skin off Andre Gurode's face in 2006. Yah, he's had two amazing years but is that worth $100 million? Let's not forget this is the same Redskins ownership group that gave Adam Archuleta and Brandon Lloyd ridiculous money a couple years ago. Do me a favor, check the 'Skins roster and see if either of those players are still there (hint: they're not!)

As a Cardinals fan I'm happy to hear this for two reasons: It's not the Cardinals giving him $15 million a year and that the Redskins are not in the NFC West. If Haynesworth continues to play like he has in '07 and '08 I don't want any part of him.

A quick message from TGISports

Just a quick note, Anyluckyday.com is giving away a year membership to thebizwebcoach.com and it looks like a great opportunity. Anyluckyday is a website that gives away free items all the time and all that is required from you is a quick comment on the site. Hopefully the Biz Web Coach membership goes to someone who could really use the help (i.e. Me!) and is put to good use. Check out the site and contest here: http://anyluckyday.com/contest-of-the-day-thebizwebcoach-membership#more-729

Welcome to Suckville, population: U of A

The Arizona State Sun Devils just finished up their 4th straight win over the Arizona Wildcats, which came in a hard fought game from Wells Fargo Arena. Now I would love to berate the Wildcats and their fans for how horrible they are as a team and human beings, but they played a pretty darn good game and were actually pretty classy.

Back to the game. Led by (big shock) James Harden's 18 points, the Devils decided to make it interesting in the 2nd half by giving up a 17 point lead, only to take it back in the final minutes. Jeff Pendergraph and Rihards Kuksiks also added 16 and 17 points, respectively. Chase Buddinger, or as I call him "The Human Stairstepper" actually had a good game, scoring 13 points and snagging 9 rebounds. The-one-without-pigment seemed to be in on every big play for Arizona, although it wasn't enough to notch his teams's 8th straight win. Both teams head to Washington next week in what will probably determine their NCAA fate.

Oh, I just thought of another name for Chase Buddinger, Ab-white-ham Lincoln. Cause of the beard. Am I right, am I right?

Celtics stomp the Suns

After pounding 3 crappy teams this past week, the Suns proved Sunday they still have a lot of work to do. The KG-less Boston Celtics came into U.S. Airways Center on Sunday and treated the suns like a latrine, coasting to a 128-108 victory. Rajon Rondo (pictured above playing like Jordan, Magic, and Kareem all wrapped into one) scored a career-high 32 points for the Celts, who simply looked a step ahead of the Suns on a lot of possessions. I know losing Amar'e is a huge deal, but it was almost a fair trade (in more ways than one) seeing as Boston was without Kevin Garnett. Let's hope Alvin Gentry, or "Our Savior", as Phoenix has apparently annointed him, can actually beat a good team before the season is over (something the previous two coaching staffs had huges problems doing).

By the way, I'm looking at the box score right now and apparently the Suns have someone named Courtney Sims, who played 1:59 of the game. Does anyone in Phoenix know who this guy is? Are the Suns so desperate for players they're just picking them up off the street. If so, I'm available! I'll play for cheap too, just 500k this year with a 10k bonus for every time I get horribly embarrassed on the floor. It won't happen a lot, I swear!

The Suns still have a shot

Even though the news came down on Friday that Amar'e Stoudemire is out for 8 weeks after being poked in the eye this past week against the Clippers, the Suns still managed to pound Kevin Durant and the Thunder 140-118. Led by Leandro Barbosa's (pictured about to sing "Yeah" with Ludacris and Lil Jon) 41 points, the Suns reached the 140 point mark for an impressive third straight game. Let's hope this is a sign of things to come because Barbosa, Matt Barnes, Jason "no seatbelt" Richardson, Louis Amundson, Chris Dudley, and even Al McCoy all are going to have to step up if the Suns want to even sniff the playoffs. Talk about another terrible break for the Suns, who, as a franchise, now have reason to swear off coinflips, benches AND The Three Stooges (nyuck nyuck nyuck!).

Cardinals drama in full swing!

Dansby gets tagged - The Red Birds tagged Linebacker Karlos Dansby for the second straight year. Not a bad move by the Cardinals but I'm sure Dansby is not thrilled by it. How can a Superbowl team have so many disgruntled players? (not sure what I'm talking about, see below!)

Edge is grumpy - Edgerrin James remains a Cardinal despite the fact that both he and the team have shown signs that they will part ways (especially Edge). Apparently Edge hasn't even been to Arizona since before the Superbowl, moving all his stuff to Miami. Look, we get it Edge, you love Miami University, but your like 45 now, you're not a college freshmen looking for some young co-ed that you can impress by telling them your on the football team and could probably start this year, if you work really hard that is.

New coaches! - I'm not going to go into detail of all the Cardinals coaching changes, because I almost blew my brains out reading about them myself, and I'd hate to lose any loyal TGISports readers because of my ignorance. The gist is this, they lost both coordinators and hired NOBODY. A bold strategy, Cotton, let's hope it pays off.

ASU is UCLA's daddy

Last night, the Sun Devils did what has been near impossible the past few years, and completed the season sweet of UCLA by winning 74-67 Thursday night at Wells Fargo Arena. The only thing more surprising than an ASU team beating UCLA twice in the same season is if the football team beat ANY team from California. Ever.

And by the way, I want to congratulate whoever created the "If you touch the ball while the inbounder still has it, its a two shot technical foul" rule. I'm not downplaying the win at all, but without that call on Alfred Aboyo, the Devils would have had a much tougher time winning that game. Next up for the Devils is USC, who just finished coughing up a game to the U of A, who I'm sure will somehow manage to secure a higher seed than ASU in the NCAA tournament, despite the fact that they are terrible.

All hail king James

"Fools gold". It's what Shaq warned fans about after we routed the Kings but it seems our ineffective coaching, lack of effort, and inane desire to turn the ball over has got the best of us. Wednesday's 109-92 capitulation to the Cleveland Cavaliers is a sight oh too familiar to the followers of the Phoenix franchise. Granted the Suns were missing their two-time MVP Steve Nash the result is something that not even Zeus(Michael Jordan?) himself could overcome. Although the 28-23 Suns are only a half game behind the Jazz for the 8th spot in the West the problems that have been surfacing may be here to stay.

Suprisingly it wasn't King James that eviscerated us, but rather his under appreciated sidekick in scoring, Mo Williams. Mo lit us up for 44 points shooting 69% from the field and 7 for 9 from 3 point land proving to the league he deserves that All-Star stamp.

Terry Porter is everything thats wrong with the Suns. His inability to incorporate his two big men (Shaq and Amare) into the game compounded by the fact the Suns turned over the ball 25 times in the game only laments his inability to coach. I for one am sick of seeing the Suns wave the white flag after the 3rd quarter. The talent is definitely there but the execution of a plan, if there is any, makes my prostate groan. Terry Porter's only skills are that he bitches about calls, yells "Come On Guys!" while down 15+ points, and shines his bald head void of any intelligence. His lack of leadership is a direct result of his lack of respect from his players. The team does not want to play for this loser but the organization(Loser #1 Sarver and Loser #2 Kerr ) are too proud to admit to their mistakes. Instead of being the underdog rooted for by NBA fans we have become the joke of the league.

With all the trade talk and uncertainty surrounding Phoenix don't expect the Suns to get better any time this decade. All I have to say is that the idiots that got us into this situation are the same idiots we are going to have to weather the storm with. Trading away our talent is not gonna get us better anytime soon. So strap on your ponchos Phoenix, not because of the weather, but because the shits only beginning to hit the fan. In other news Lebron James is dedicating a park in Phoenix this All-Star weekend.



Noteables:
Amare Stoudemire 27 pts 6 reb 3 blk
Lebron James 26 pts 6 reb 6 ast
Mo Williams 44 pts 7 ast

-isocrazy