fodeep.com

Wow, there are a lot of Iowa State fans on Mill. I saw maybe a handful of Minnesota fans and a couple of Huskers fans as well (should have bought them a beer). It would be nice to watch a bowl game with the Sun Devils playing but that didn’t happen. What to do? How about hiring Mike Leach to be the Devils offensive coordinator? At fanster.com they seem to think this is a good idea. “Sure, the baggage would be a little weighty. But frankly, this isn’t a program or athletic department without issues as it is, so what more could adding Mike Leach as this team’s offensive coordinator do for Arizona State’s public image? Erickson is reportedly close to making his decision. Sorry, but he needs to throw the previous candidates out with the bath water for the time being. Leach needs a look in Tempe.” Mmmm… I don’t know about that one. We definitely need an offensive coordinator. He doesn’t “need” a job, he will get $400,000 a year for four more years.

How about ASU basketball? Herb Sendek has a fun team to watch that has put together a decent record of 10-3. I believe the PAC-10 is wide open this year. Do we have the team to make a run for the PAC-10 title? From houseofsparky.com; “The Sun Devils, on the other hand, are a respectable 10-3 out of the gate. After a close loss to Duke in New York City, ASU has gone 6-2, with good wins against LSU and San Diego State, while losing close battles with Baylor and BYU. In reality, ASU is a decent team with glaring holes, mainly in the middle. Without a quality big, the zone can be penetrated and dismantled by good teams. With that in mind, will the Sun Devils be able to keep up with the rigor of the Pac-10 schedule, or will they fall back into mediocrity against these athletic squads?” This team is going to have to work hard to stay above .500 in the PAC-10. They start work’n today against the UCLA Bruins at Pauley Pavilion.

And speaking of ASU basketball, 10 years ago Sun Devil guard Eddie House scored 61 points against Cal. He matched Lou Alcindors PAC-10 record. Man that guy could light it up. Never afraid to take a shot. You can reminisce over at azcentral.com; “On Jan. 8, 2000, House turned in a performance that still is discussed around the Pac-10. Playing only 30 miles from his hometown, House made 18 of 30 from the field, including 7 of 10 from 3-point range. He also made 18 of 19 free throws. You’d have to search pretty hard to find a player who was in that kind of zone,” said former California coach Ben Braun, now the coach at Rice. “He was on a mission. Over the years, our players have joked about it. ‘We held Eddie House to 61.’ Nobody claims he was the one guarding him. I need to get the film out and go down the line. ‘He had 20 points on you, 20 on you and 20 on you.’ “

First I would like to say, what a great night! UofA loses the holiday bowl (sorry Frye) and the Phoenix Suns beat the Celtics! The Lakers and the Celtics in the same week! Good times. Yes the Celtics played without Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, but that could have set us up for a let-down coming off such a great game against the Lakers. Not going to happen. The Suns were firing on all cylinders tonight. Amare Stoudemire had the paint all to himself tonight and scored 18 in the first quarter alone. He finished with 26 points and 7 rebounds. Channing Fyre was dropping buckets scoring a season high 26 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Frye went 6-9 from behind the line. From valleyofthesuns.com; “It’s a win over the Celtics, I mean, we’ll take it,” said Suns head coach Alvin Gentry. “They don’t put an asterisk by it saying that Kevin Garnett wasn’t here, so we’ll take it any way we can get it.” Exactly. Getting this team to focus has been a concern this past month. Nice win to end an exciting year.

Nice try cats

I love beating LA. It is just so satisfying to shut those fans up. This game was damn near perfect. A 118-103 beat down. And yes it is only one game but how would people be talking about it if we had lost? From brightsideofthesun.com; “It’s one win. We would like to get five or six wins for this win but it’s one win against a real quality team so we’re happy about that. But basically that’s all it is. It’s not a statement game. It doesn’t say anything about where we are. It just says we played hard against a great team tonight and I’m real pleased with that,” said Gentry trying to manage expectations and keep fans from over turning cars and starting a celebratory riot. Which of course, might just be a holdover from his time in LA or Detroit. Everyone knows Suns fans are too chill to be bothered with mayhem.” A win is a win but some wins are more important than others. Every die-hard Suns fan went to bed with a big smile last night. How about that bench. This Suns bench continues to amaze me. It awesome to only have one starter in the game and still be able to expand a lead. From valleyofthesuns.com; “The benches also made a sizable difference. Gentry said the Suns’ bench played its best game of the season, as Jared Dudley tied his career high once again with another 19 points. The ever-confident Goran Dragic went for 14, LB 11 and Robin Lopez a surprising eight and five for a bench that combined for 52 points. Los Angeles’ bench could only muster 31.” Do you want some more numbers? How about Amare Stoudemire with 26 points, a handful of those came off rim-rocking dunks. Steve Nash had 16 points and 13 assists. Channing Frye had 11 rebounds and 14 points. Great game. Hard to believe this is the same team that lost to the Golden State Warriors. What’s up with that? Hey we beat the Celtics, the Lakers, the Magic. Who else wants a piece of this?

Still on a high from that last win. we play the Green Bay Packers for the final game of the season. Its been a long season for the Arizona Cardinals. The team has made it through pretty much unscathed. Mentally and physically unscathed. While other teams have suffered injuries and behind the scenes turmoil the Cards have held it together. From azcentral.com; “No one is saying the Cardinals don’t have issues. But the coaching staff has done a good job of not overreacting to drama, and the players have managed their frustration with off-the-field concerns – think contracts – in a way that hasn’t disrupted the locker room.” Yes the coaching staff have done a good job of keeping ego’s in check. Health wise the team has been lucky, Kurt Warner has stayed healthy and that was a big concern coming into this season, being that he is 65 years old. The passing game is solid. Nobody has been able to figure out how to cover all three of our receivers.  Anquan Boldin, Larry Fitzgerald and Steve Breaston are keeping defense coordinators up at night. Then there is the defense. They have been the backbone of this team. A major improvement over last season. Larry Fitzgerald is going to sit out the last game of the season with a bone contusion but will be ready for the playoffs and so will the rest of the team.

So was this a classic recipe for a Phoenix Suns loss. The end of a back to back, on the road. Excuses. We had an opportunity to win this game. From brightsideofthesun.com; “After two misses by the teams, Steve Nash threw an errant pass which resulted in a Suns foul on Monta Ellis who sunk two free throws. The Suns missed a golden chance to even things up or better. Still, after two Jason Richardson free throws, the Suns were only down one, 117-116 with 6.5 minutes left. the Suns still had a chance to steal this one. After  a Jared Dudley 3, the Suns were again only down two, 123-121. They managed a stop and a Stoudemire jam brought the game to a deadlock at 123. But the Suns, true to form, tonight couldn’t stop the opposition. Baskets were traded, turnovers were made, and suddenly the Warriors stood atop this trash heap of a game. Our interior defense is horrible, anybody gets into the paint they are going to score. The Warrior guards had their way with us. From valleyofthesuns.com; “The Suns struggled to defend the GSW starting guards — all four of them if you count Corey Maggette as a guard. Maggette and Monta Ellis tore the Suns’ sorry perimeter defense to shreds to the tune of 66 combined points.” The Suns are a basketball team with a really weak interior defense. If you can get to the basket against the Suns you are going to score or get fouled. And that’s how you whittle away leads and win close games against the Suns.

Its hard to believe the NBA playoffs will lead into triple digit temps, enjoy these cold winter nights while you can. Enjoy

This has been an exciting weekend, feel like I have been on a month long vacation. With so much going on I almost forgot to make my NFL picks this week. No chance of winning my pool but nobody wants to post a zero. The Arizona Cardinals have already clinched and they were facing the Rams who are 1-14. So what to expect? Did the Cards come out flat, did they have any energy left for the end of the regular season? Luckily they came out strong, and played a good game. They came out and handed an inferior Rams team a 31-10 loss. Job Done. It was milestone game for a couple of reasons. First, the Cards have a 10 win season for the first time since 1976! And secondly, Kurt Warner has thrown 100 touchdowns with the Arizona Cardinals. The Cards are the second team he has done that with and that’s kind of amazing. From eastvalleytribune.com; “Arizona’s 31-10 victory on Sunday, the 38-year-old quarterback joined Fran Tarkenton as the only players in NFL history to throw 100 TD passes for two teams. He had 102 with St. Louis in his rise from nowhere to league MVP and two Super Bowls. Cardinals wide receiver Anquan Boldin said. “From the moment he got here and started at quarterback, he’s done wonderful things.” He has got to be going to the hall of fame. He has had an amazing NFL career. The day wasn’t all about Warner. There was some impressive play coming from the other side of the ball. Cardinals safety Adrian Wilson dominated the Rams. From revengeofthebirds.com; “The defense held the Rams total offense to 238 yards, forced 4 turnovers, and had 4 sacks as well. The biggest note from the game was Adrian Wilson, who had a critical interception in the second half and had one sack, finally making him a member of the 20/20 club. The only touchdown allowed came off of a Cardinals offensive turnover in the third quarter.” That is awesome, 20 career sacks and 20 career interceptions. Wilson is one of the best out there. Lets hope we continue to play like this when we face the Packers next week. I like going into the playoffs strong.

Its been a long season, almost over.

Man I have been in a daze. So much eating and drinking. Non-stop TV, I’ve watched the entire Star Wars Trilogy 3 times and seen about 7 hours of “Cops”, damn cable marathons. That is why I was looking forward to this Suns game. I could get a little exercise pacing in front of the TV and yelling obscenities. That was a butt-kick’n. The Phoenix Suns defeated the Clippers 124-93 at US Airways Center. It was one of those games where the offense was hitting on all cylinders. 7 Suns players scored in double figures, the Suns made 12-24 three pointers, and out rebounded the Clips 45-40. It was great seeing Leandro Barbosa back in the lineup, he looked good coming of the bench. From brightsideofthesun.com; “The second quarter also marked the return of Leandro Barbosa, who looked like his old self, slashing and shooting his way to 6 points in a little less than 9 minutes. Leandro looked smooth, with no ill effects of his ankle or wrist injury. His first hoop was a self directed clear out in which he quickly pointed to his chest and then drove to the hoop for a bucket.” Jared Dudley turned it on, his three point shot looks so smooth. From valleyofthesuns.com; “The bench made solid contributions on a night in which a trio of reserves scored in double figures, led by Jared Dudley’s 18. Nine of Dudley’s 14 career 15-point games have come with the Suns as well as five of his eight career 17-point games. He tallied 12 crucial points in the Suns’ 37-point second quarter.” The team really came out focused. I now the Clippers suck but it this win does well for our confidence and ends our losing streak. Merry Christmas Suns fans.

Wow, after going undefeated at home, 10-0 this season season, the Phoenix Suns have lost two straight home games. WTF. The Thunder came into town tonight and proved to be too much down the stretch winning 117-113. I happened to be the first loss to western conference team at home this season. Kevin Durant was unstoppable, it didn’t matter who was guarding him. Durant finished with 38 points. Equally unstoppable was Amare Stoudemire. Stoudemire was a monster in the paint, scoring a season high 35 points and added 14 rebounds. We just couldn’t get the defensive stops we needed and missed some key rebounds in the fourth. From azcentral.com; “Twice in the final 70 seconds, Oklahoma City rebounded its own miss and scored. Green had a tip-in with 1:07 to go for a 113-110 lead. With Nash’s free throw making it 113-111, Durant missed a jumper against Dudley’s defense but former Arizona State standout James Harden scooped the rebound off the floor and Durant hit a dagger of a jumper for a 115-111 lead with 14.4 seconds to go.” This team needs to regain their focus and get back to basics. They need to put a better effort into rebounding, like earlier in the season. We are a small team and rebounding is always going to be hard for us. Lets get it together. I think we have lost our last four out of eight.

It wasn’t a pretty win. But a win is a win. ASU defeated USC 61-52. Thats USC Upstate. Not the to be confused with USC Trojans. It going to take a better effort to beat them. Jamelle McMillan had 15 points and Ty Abbott had 15 as well, his season high. We needed someone to pick up the slack on offense, Rihards Kuksiks was scoreless (wwwhhaat) as was Eric Boateng who got into early foul trouble. With Boateng seeing limited minutes Taylor Rohde stepped it up with a career high 12 points. From arizonastate.scout.com; “Eric wasn’t at his best today, so Taylor played more minutes,” Sendek commented. “He has had some good moments for us. Today he chipped in with 12 points and five rebounds. He got to the free throw line. He certainly made tremendous progress over the course of his time here. His rate of improvement has been outstanding.” Did you know the Suns are playing the Thunder right now. I wonder how James Harden will do tonight?

The Cavs have got our number. The Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Phoenix Suns 109-91 at US Airways Center ending the Suns home winning streak at 19 dating back to last year, 10-0 this year. Oh well time to start a new one. The Cavs and the Lakers have two things in common, they refuse to double team down low and there perimeter defense is the best in the NBA. It’s a formula that works well, no double teams down low, chase our shooters off the perimeter all night long. From azcentral.com; “Phoenix’s offense vanished amid the miscues that only got worse in the fourth quarter. The Suns’ 30-point first quarter outscored their first half in the teams’ first meeting in Cleveland on Dec. 2, when they had 15- and 14-point quarters in the first half. Monday night’s second half was not much better for Phoenix, scoring 22 in the third and only 16 in the fourth quarter for their worst period of the season. Cleveland, now 7-3 in the second games of back-to-back sets, has a four-game winning streak against the Suns, who again showed how hard life is for them without their 3-point shooting. Phoenix made only 4 of 19 3-point shots, making them 0-4 when they make five 3-pointers or less in a game. The Suns had been averaging 10.6 3-pointers per game at home this season and had made 47.5 percent of their tries.” LeBron James was his usual awesome self with 29 points and a filthy dunk over Amare. Shaq didn’t really have a huge impact in the game other than his presence under the basket. Shaq finished with 3 points. Steve Nash had 18 points and 10 assists. Amare Stoudemire finished with another double/double 14 points and 12 rebounds and absolutely no respect from the refs. 18 turnovers really killed us, can’t let that happen against one of the NBA’s best. Oh well, its time to start a new winning streak. Right! Right.

Ted Leo – HeartProblems

The Arizona State Sun Devils improved to 9-3 with a 69-52 win over UC Santa Barbara. Rihards Kuksiks had a great game scoring 24 points with 8 three pointers. 7 of those three pointers came in the first half. This guy is a pure shooter, keeps on shooting, hit or miss. From azcentral.com; “He had entered Monday in a shooting slump. Not just a “Kuksiks” slump, but a real, live, “What is wrong with Rik?” slump. Over his last four games, the forward had shot 30.4 percent, missing 25 of 36 from the arc. Consider the unlikely performance over. Shooters know only one cure for their ills, and that’s to keep firing, assuming the next will be the start of something special. The second half wasn’t as kind to Kuksiks. He missed 4 of 5 to finish 8 of 16 from the arc. The eight 3s matched the most in the Herb Sendek era. The 16 attempts were the second-most in school history, trailing only the 17 Stevin Smith put up three times in 1993. Smith also holds the school record for most makes, draining 10 on two occasions.” Derek Glasser entered the record books becoming the all time assist leader. Glasser has 461 assists and counting. He finished with 7 assists for the night. Great game and great night for the Sun Devils.

Yippee. We clinched Sunday. Does this mean the Arizona Cardinals are going to go on a two game losing streak to finish out the season? I hope not. This team has a split personalty. we have seen that play out over the course of the season. A positive win is followed by a dysfunctional loss followed by a win and redemption. On Sunday we saw that split personality manifest it’s self in the course of one game. From revengeofthebirds.com; “Mental errors and turnovers haunted the entire game. The Cardinals turned the ball over 3 times and the Lions capitalized by scoring 14 points. The Cardinals also committed 8 penalties for 65 yards. Two of them came from Bryan Robinson, for unsportsmanlike conduct penalties that resulted in 30 yards. Turnovers and penalties have plagued the Cardinals lately, and isn’t something they can continue if they want to make a run in the playoffs.” That third quarter was difficult to watch. From raisingzona.com; “The Cardinals played sloppy and left a lot of points out on the field on Sunday.  After jumping to a 17-0 lead, the Cards once again, rested on that lead and played down to the competition and allowed the Lions to tie the game at 17 and again at 24 before pulling it out with a touchdown with two minutes to go.” Beanie Wells had a great game, rushing for 110 yards on 17 carries. Kurt Warner threw for 233 yards and one interception but he redeemed himself with that game winning drive at the end. What are you going to do? Take it anyway you can get it. We clinched the NFC West and that counts for something!

I love it when the Phoenix Suns build a lead and hold onto it. Keep the foot on the gas and don’t let up. The Suns did just that blowing out the Wizards 121-95 Saturday night at US Airways Center. It was a great win and means the Suns remain undefeated at home 10-0. From valleyofthesuns.com;”Not only have the Suns bettered their competition in US Airways Center, they have dominated their opponents, winning each game by an average margin of 13.9 points per contest. Tonight was no different. After a tough loss in Portland two days prior, the Suns absolutely blasted a struggling Wizards club from start to finish. Coming into the contest the Suns were averaging 116.1 points per game at home, a byproduct of 51.7 percent field-goal shooting and 48.3 percent three-point accuracy. Although the Suns weren’t as deadly from beyond the arc tonight, 7-of-21 (33.3 percent), they converted on 51.6 percent from the field.” Protecting home court will go along way towards having a successful season. And it seems to me like we play better defense at home. Amare Stoudemire had 23 points and added 14 rebounds. That guy has had a double-double in four of the past five games. He is looking great. Steve Nash finished with 15 points and 15 assists. He only played 30 minutes and is averaging something like 32 minutes a game. Interesting game tonight against the Cavs. Shaq is making his first appearance in the valley since the trade. Game starts at 7:00, Should be fun.

Arizona State got a quality win Saturday against SDSU beating them 55-52. I like winning a close game against a tough opponent. The Aztec’s made a run at the end but the Sun Devils held them off. It was an important win early in the season. From azcentral.com; “We knew if we had any shot at making the (NCAA) Tournament that we needed this game for our resume,” senior guard Derek Glasser said. “LSU was a good win for us, but other than that, we really haven’t had any kind of a win where you can look at it and say, ‘OK, they beat a team that’s gonna be looked at in March for the tournament.’ This was our last chance before conference play.” Derek Glasser continues to have a stellar senior year. He had 11 points and 5 assists. with those 5 assists, Glasser is tied with Bobby Thompson in career assists at 454. From arizonastate.scout.com; “It’s a great honor but I couldn’t have done it if I didn’t have the teammates I had,” Derek Glasser said of his achievement. “Guys Like Jamelle (McMillan), Rik (Kuksiks), James (Harden), Jeff (Pendergraph)…just all those guys who can put the ball in the hole. It makes it much easier on me.” Awesome. This is one player who has taken advantage of every opportunity at ASU to make himself one of the best point guards in the PAC-10.

It’s hard being a rookie. Just look at the photos of the Suns rookies and what they had to wear for a night on the town. You think dressing as a banana is bad how about being left with a $29,681.79 bill!!! Thats how much Arizona Cardinals rookies had to ante up.  Courtesy of Darnell Docketts twitter;

“What they dew on our way to bomb rush the rookie party eat real good and leave them the bill! Lmfaoooo”

“Look at the seafood tower the rookie asses are in trouble lmfao each tower $450 we order 6 of em”

“8bottles of louie da 13th all billed to the rookies lmfaooo and can someone tell me why does Mascotto taste so damn good omg!”

“I’m gonna def twitt pic the bill OMG shit gonna be off the hook I’m taking 6bottles of mascato home off the Rip Lmfao kobe steak 125 a slice”

“DAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMN!!! Loook at the rookies bills. WTF!”