The Big Shamrock

Today the Boston Celtics officially announced the signing of Shaquile O'Neil. Sure many people might say that "Shaq" is too old and this is a bad signing, but I disagree. Peronally, I feel as though this is a good move for Boston. Not only is "Shaq" a proven winner, but he is also a great leader. O'Neil will be called on for his leadership in the paint, especially when last year's starting center Kendrick Perkins is recovoring from knee surgery. Also "Shaq" knows that at age 38, his body wont be able to take the wear and tear that it once was able to take, however he stil should be able to help the Celtics by playing about 18-22 minutes-per-game, and averaging about 10-12 points and grabing 8 rebounds, which should help them while Perkins is recovering from his injury. If he does that than my point will be proven that Danny Ainge made the right decision in bringing him in for the league minimim.

UVA tries to pick up the Pieces

A week after the tragic death of University of Virginia Women’s Lacrosse player Yeardley Love, both the Men’s and Women’s teams at UVA are both opening up NCAA Tournament play this weekend with the blessing of the Love family. The men’s team is hosting Mount Saint Mary’s College on Saturday, and the women’s team opened up Sunday against Towson University. Both teams had to put the tragedy aside over the weekend and focus on the sport Yeardley devoted her college career to.

Strangled to death in her Charlottesville apartment by her ex-boyfriend and fellow UVA Lacrosse player, George Huguely, he is now being charged with 1st degree murder. Both Love and Huguely were seniors who were set to graduate from a fantastic school with their whole lives ahead of them.
Huguely had a history of alcohol abuse and a violent nature. The press has uncovered numerous incidents that should have been clear warning signs: attacking a sleeping teammate who had kissed Love; arrested for public intoxication—so drunk that he did not even remember being tasered after arguing with a police officer; a few months before her murder, according to the Washington Post, Love and Huguely had to be separated by three UNC lacrosse players because he had allegedly been drunk and obsessive towards Love.

Another disturbing incident occurred during the Huguely family's stay at their South Florida winter home in December of 2008. Huguely got into a "very heated" argument with his father and cousin on the 40-foot fishing boat known as The Reel Deal. And according to the Washington Examiner, there were no blows, but "lots of yelling and screaming," deputies said. Huguely dove into the ocean and tried to swim the quarter-mile back to shore. Huguely's father radioed for help, and a passing vessel picked up the son. No arrest was made. It was Huguely's second run-in with police in Palm Beach County, where the family has a $2 million estate in Manalapan; one year earlier, Huguely was charged with possession of alcohol by a minor.

Clearly, Huguely was a disturbed individual. It is unfortunate that neither Love nor Huguely got the help they so desperately needed. UVA now is reaching out to students to speak out against domestic violence.

Donahue starts off in the right direction

Last week new Boston College Head Coach Steve Donahue signed his first recruit in Dennis Clifford, a 7-footer from Milton Academy. He transferred to Milton two years ago from Bridgewater-Raynham High School after three seasons, and then repeated his junior year at Milton Academy, where he played under former Harvard University Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach Lamar Reddicks. Clifford will enroll at Boston College in 2011-2012.

It remains to be seen how good Clifford will be at Boston College, but Donahue is in the right direction starting off by signing a local kid. In recent years, many of the area’s top high school seniors have chosen to leave the region for college, so now Donahue will likely be getting to know all of the local high school and AAU coaches in the area.
According to last Sunday’s Boston Globe, in order to repair the bad image that former BC Coach Al Skinner left, Donahue has contacted some local coaches and basketball former BC star and NBA Player Jay Murphy whose son oldest son Erik slipped away from BC and plays at the University of Florida. Murphy also has a younger son Alex who is sophomore at the St. Marks School in Southborough, and has received offers from UCONN, Kansas, Florida, as well as BC.

Another person who Donahue has reached out to Dave Lubick, the Head Coach at St. Marks whose son Nate is headed to Georgetown, another local recruit who slipped away. The St. Marks program is one of the best prep-school programs in the country, and they feature another sophomore in 7-footer in Kaleb Tarczwski who already has offers from Indiana, West Virginia, and the University of Southern California.

The next person Donahue contacted was Leo Papile the Assistant Executive Director of Basketball Operations for the Boston Celtics, who also runs the renowned Boston Amateur Athletic Club, which has helped numerous local kids get Division I scholarships, and even sent some to the NBA. One would have thought that with Papile in his own backyard, former BC Head Coach Al Skinner would have used this to bring talent over to the Heights, but in his tenure, Skinner only landed two kids from the BABC in Steve Hailey, who ended up leaving BC, and Jermaine Watson. It is disgraceful that Skinner let so much talent in his backyard slip away, so now not only does Donahue have to rekindle relationships, he also has to sign recruits for next year.

Donahue also contacted T.J. Glasson who runs the other top AAU program in New England--the New England Playaz. The Playaz is the program that has developed the Murphy brothers, Lubick, former BC player Rakim Sanders, and Jordan Williams who just completed his freshman season under former BC Coach Gary Williams at Maryland, and is a Connecticut native.

The final person that Donahue has contacted is former Celtics Head Coach John Carroll who has recently spent some time coaching the Playaz and whose son Austin played with them while attending high school at Worcester Academy, and then spending a post-graduate year at Brewster Academy, and will be playing next year at Rutgers.
Although BC is not a state school, they sure need to do a better job recruiting the New England area, and also have players with higher character than some of the ones Al Skinner and his staff brought in, such as Akida McLean, Jermaine Watson, Ryan Sidney, and Sean Williams. Coach Donahue seems he is willing to do whatever it takes to fix the poor image of Boston College that Al Skinner had left.

Listen to your father

On Monday, 17 year old Steve Consalvi was attending a Phillies game vs. the St. Louis Cardinals presumably with his friends when he decided to call his father at home before the 7th inning to get his thoughts on whether or not he should run on to the field at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Wayne Consalvi told the Philadelphia Inquirer "He said, 'Dad, can I run on the field?' I said, 'I don't think you should, son,'"Steve ran on the field and got arrested but what everyone is talking about is whether or not he deserved to be tasered.

The world we live in now, on the heels of the foiled NYC bomb plot, we just don’t know what is going on in people’s heads. Most likely he ran onto the field just to get on “SportsCenter” and the 11 o’clock news, but police proceeded as if he could have tried to attack a player from one of the two teams, which is exactly how they should have acted. Not unlike the 2007 bomb scare at Logan by a MIT student wearing electronics on their sweatshirt, there comes a time for teens when they need to be aware that pranks can have serious consequences. While this kind of event might have led to copycats, maybe some might refrain from doing this due to what happened to Steve.

Former local college coach gets canned a month into the job

Yesterday Hofstra University decided to part ways with former Providence College Head Coach Tim Welsh a month after they hired him, after he pleaded guilty following his arrest on suspicion of DWI in Long Island. In today’s athletic world, many coaches and athletes get in trouble with the law, but often times are not punished appropriately Athletic Director Jack Hayes, at Hofstra did a good job in making the move to force Welsh to resign from his position. This sets the tone by letting the Athletic community know that they are not going to tolerate any behavior like this from members of their athletic department. While Hofstra is a mid-major school, and they might not be as well known on the athletic field as a school like a Duke or a University of Texas, often times some of these smaller schools have higher ethics.
In 2009 University of Texas Baseball Coach Augie Garrido was only suspended four games after his DUI in Austin. Given that Texas is really the cream of the crop when it comes to college baseball, they had an opportunity to set a higher bar because their voice will carry further. But Welsh is not the first basketball coach to lose his job for suspected DUI. In 2004 former University Cincinnati Head Men’s Basketball Coach Bob Huggins was charged with DUI. A year later Cincinnati decided to part ways with the coach making him one of the first major college basketball coaches to lose their jobs due to drinking and driving.
Although I completely agree with Hofstra’s decision to part ways with Coach Welsh, I think that it would be taken differently if Welsh were at a big-name school because then the general public would take more notice. With Hofstra and Welsh parting ways because of these charges, whoever takes the Hofstra job will think about what happened at Hofstra with Coach Welsh before they put themselves or their careers in jeopardy.

Playoffs Preview

This Saturday, the Boston Celtics open up a 2nd round series in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavaliers are the favorite to win the NBA title, but no one should count the Celtics out. First off, the Celtics are healthy which is very important, and the Cavaliers’ all-world forward Lebron James has been bothered by a stiff elbow.

My prediction—the series will go seven games with the Cavaliers coming out on top. Although I am a Celtics fan, I just think King James is just too tough to beat. This year the Cavalier’s supporting cast is even better with the additions of Shaquille O’Neil and Antwan Jamison. Sure, the Celtics have a solid bench, but Cleveland’s is a little deeper because guys like Delonte West, Daniel Gibson, Anderson Varejao, and even Zydrunas Ilgauskas. West and Varejao are guys who easily could start on most teams, and always bring a spark off the bench.

As for the Celtics, I worry about Rajon Rondo, who sometimes plays down to the level of the player he guards. He always gets motivated against the top point-guards the question is how motivated will he be against Mo Williams. Also, the Celtics need to step up and do a better job on the glass, which means that Rasheed Wallace will need to step up and show us that he is worth the large salary that he earns. Personally, if I were Doc Rivers, I would play Sheldon Williams more than he does. I feel as though Williams will not only work harder but will also play smarter than Wallace does.

One of Wallace’s problems is that he often takes plays off, and he shoots way too many 3-pointers. When you are 6’11 - 7 feet you should be playing down low, rather than at the top of the key shooting 3-pointers. Rasheed also cannot always keep his emotions in check. That is not what you want in a player, because it could end up costing him and the Celtics a technical foul at the wrong time. If Rasheed and Glen Davis both can play smart emotionally, than the Celtics have a better chance than if they let their emotions get in the way of their play and cost the team dumb fouls.

Ultimately, this really is Lebron’s series to lose. If he can work through the elbow issues, than the Cavaliers will end up bringing the City of Cleveland their first professional sports title in 72 years. The supporting cast that Lebron has, such as Shaq, Delonte West, Varejao, and even Ilgauskas, will have to play a pivotal role. With Shaq, the Cavs finally a have quality big-man who has won a few titles with the Lakers, and knows what it takes to win a championship. Although Shaq is not the dominant player that he once was, his leadership and experience will make up for his old age. The same goes for Ilgauskas, never the talent that Shaq was, and often injury prone throughout his career. Varejao is a player who will score in the paint and rebound and basically cause havoc for either Kevin Garnett or Glen “Big Baby” Davis. Lastly, Delonte West could be the unsung hero of this series for his ability to shoot the three, score in bunches and often is a much need spark off the bench.

Even from the perspective of a Celtics fan, regardless of the outcome, this will be one interesting ball game to watch.

Broncos Taming Tebow?

Last week the National Football League had their annual draft in New York City, and the Denver Broncos surprised people by taking Tim Tebow in the 1st round with the 25th pick overall. This was a surprising pick to say the least — sure, Tebow has won two national titles at the University of Florida and the Heisman Trophy, but it’s still unclear how he will do at the next level. Many people don’t think that Tebow has the tools and mechanics to play quarterback at the pro level, and think that he might be better off at wide receiver; however, Broncos’ Head Coach Josh McDaniels said that Tebow will only play quarterback.

Despite the fact that the Tebow pick was by a team who already has both Jay Cutler and Brady Quinn at Quarterback on their dept-chart, this may turn out to be a good pick. Brady Quinn really has not done much at all in his three seasons, and who knows how much Jay Cutler has left in the tank. Head Coach Josh McDaniels is a solid leader but was a phenomenal Quarterback’s Coach in New England, who was responsible for developing Tom Brady into one of the best Quarterbacks in the NFL. In order for Tebow to be successful, he will have to have patience, and listen and learn from McDaniels, and I see willingness in Tebow to do this and prove others wrong who might have thought that he would not be a good 1st round pick.

Although Tebow was picked over Notre Dame’s Jimmy Clausen, who might be more ready to play right away, Tebow is more of a proven winner, which to me is more important. For example, Tebow led the University of Florida Gators to a National Title as an underclassman, and also won the Heisman Trophy as a junior, whereas Clausen did not make the post-season throughout his entire college career, and never won a Heisman Trophy.
Another factor about Tebow that I love is the fact that he was never in trouble for any off-the field issues as opposed to Clausen who was charged for distributing liquor to a minor while at Notre Dame. Finally, I think Tebow will prove a lot of people wrong, once given the chance.