Pros and Amatuers

There is always something interesting going on in the pros. The Oscars were on last night. The show itself stunk, but there were also some firsts. Sandra Bullock, Jeff Bridges, Christoph Waltz and Mo'Nique each won their first Oscar. "The Hurt Locker" won six Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. Kathryn Bigelow, director of "The Hurt Locker" is the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director. "Avatar", the highest grossing film of all time, won three Oscars including Best Achievement in Cinematography, Best Achievement in Art Direction and Best Visual Effects. "Up" won two Oscars, which include best Animated Feature Film of the Year and also won Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score.
As awesome as the Academy Awards ceremony is, there were sports that were played. Boston Bruins center, Marc Savard, sustained a concussion from an elbow to the head by Pittsburgh Penguins left winger, Matt Cooke. Savard at one point was unconscious and had to leave the ice on a stretcher. Hockey is a sport in which for the most part, any kind of violence is part of the game. There is fights and big hits that leads to injuries and there is nothing you can do about it. It's one thing if Cooke made a check on Savard and he got hurt, but it's another thing to elbow check someone in the head and give him a concussion. A concussion is an extremely serious injury and it has continus to reoccur time and time again. The worst part about the hit was not only a penalty was not called, but Cooke was not even ejected. Cooke knew what he was doing. If he did it by accident, he would have tried to move out of the way. He knew that it was a close game against an average team and the best way to win that game is to strike the best player on the opposing team so hard that he leaves the game and the opposing team is powerless. The NHL better grow a pair and suspend Cooke for at least two games. If there is no punishment, it will just be another reason why I have lost more respect for NHL Commissioner, Gary Bettman.
In College Basketball, there isn't truly a championship team. Kansas was #1 for the first eight weeks and lost and have held on to the ranking for five of the last six weeks. Syracuse, a team most people think is the best in the country, was #1 last week and lost to Louisville on Saturday. Kentucky was #1 and then lost to South Carolina the next day. Texas was #1 and started out 17-0, but have been 6-8 since. If anyone has followed College Basketball this year, so far Kansas has been the most consistent team. Every week there is a new top ten and even top 25 for that matter. Rankings do not mean anything until you get to the NCAA Tournament, but you still have to play good enough to receive a high seed in the tournament. The conference tournaments start this week and selection Sunday is on March 14th. If a team win the conference tournament, they receive an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. For teams that are in the bubble and needs to fair well in the conference tournament would have to be UConn, Wake Forest and Florida. There is an abundance of other teams that are in the bubble, but those are the three teams to me that has to get in for the sake of their programs. Each of these respected program have faced failure for the past three seasons and have to step it up to earn fans' respect.
For all you Red Sox fans, spring training is going good for the hometown team. The star free-agent pick-up, John Lackey, pitched two perfect innings in his first outing. Josh Beckett pitched two quality innings in his first outing; he is on the last season of his contract. Daisuke Matsuzaka is scheduled to three a 60-pitch bullpen session, which he is rehabbing a strained back. Top pitching prospect Casey Kelly pitched two quality innings in relief and got a victory the other day. Mike Cameron hurt his groin last week but he should be able to play today. Baseball season is here, finally.