The Starting Five

Just about two weeks are left before schools wrap up MVAL Antietam Conference action on Feb. 10 and right now, all sights are set on Tuesday (Jan. 31) when South Hagerstown visits Smithsburg.
At this point, South is in first place with a 10-0 record while the Leopards are next in line at 9-1. The only blemish was a 74-52 loss to South on Jan. 3.
Smithsburg is 13-3 overall while South is riding the crest of a 14-game win streak after opening the year at 0-2. The Leopards have equaled their win total from last year and are not far from reaching their most recent best overall record of 16-8 in the 2005-06 year.
Even though this is a midweek game I would suggest not missing the game. It could be a blowout, as the first meeting suggests, but I am going to go out on a limb and say it won’t be. I’m not saying Smithsburg will win but it will be a far more competitive game than the first.

We’ve just about reached the mid-point of the basketball season so let’s take a look at the boys in Washington County.
MVAL ANTIETAM: South Hagerstown is in control of its own destiny in the Antietam, as I expected they would be. Smithsburg is 1-game behind the Rebels in the MVAL standings, that loss was a 22-pointer to South.
SOUTH: Devonte Morel has been the top scorer for the Rebels and we’re still waiting for the real Devon King to step up to his potential. If everything comes together the Rebels could get through 3A and back to Comcast.
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Gee, you’d think I was out of the country. Maybe I have been but didn’t know it. Time to get back to this blogging thing, it’s only been a month since I did it.

Quick comments:
Tonight (Monday) My prediction is LSU 16, Alabama 13 in the BCS Championship.
My Notre Dame team (basketball) gets beat in D.C. by Maryland but goes on the road and beats a much tougher Louisville. Mmmm.
Loved every minute, well most of them, with Denver beating the Steelers on Sunday. The Towel can go into hibernation for another year.
I’m really wondering whether Colt McCoy is the answer for my Browns. How about getting Flynn away from Green Bay?
The PGA golf season is just around the corner. Will Tiger Woods win a major this year? If he doesn’t I don’t think he will reach Nicklaus’ record of 18. More importanly, will I ever get a hole-in-one.
The NBA season has returned …. so what !

Well, that’s it for now. At least I know where I can still blog. I’ll be back very, very soon. Gotta get all my boys high school basketball thoughts down.

Starting December 17 we begin the glut of 34 college bowl games. Don’t get me wrong, I love college football, but at this time of year the reward of playing in a postseason game becomes a little ridiculous.
That means 68 teams are playing and of that number, 29 teams were rewarded for a season in which they did no better than a 7-5 season.
There were 16 teams at 7-5, another 12 that hit the jackpot with a 6-6 record and even one school — UCLA — that gets a bowl game at 6-7. Unreal!
What powerful matchups there are ahead. Such as 7-5 Western Michigan vs. 6-6 Purdue; there will be 6-6 Mississippi State vs. 6-6 Wake Forest; 6-6 Texas A & M vs. 6-6 Northwestern and yes, even the real big boys fall into this category when 6-6 Florida plays 6-6 Ohio State on Jan. 2 in the Gator Bowl. The real winner is 6-6 Illinois vs. 6-7 UCLA.
And as a prelude to the National Championship game when LSU meets Alabama, our lips are moistened by the GoDaddy.com Bowl between Arkansas State and Northern Illinois.
Remember the old days … Jan. 1 truly was the granddaddy … What a mess.

Here we go … the first full week of December and that means the high school winter sports season is about to begin its fast and furious run. Where it takes anyone specifically is to be determined.
Washington County’s public schools finally get into the act this week. Can South Hagerstown’s boys make a return visit to the 3A championship? Williamsport, after a trip to the 1A championship game last year, moves up to 2A this year but was hit hard by graduation.
Here is a gutshot prediction on preseason ranking of all the boys teams in Washington County: 1. South, 2. North, 3. Williamsport, 4. St. Maria Goretti, 5. Smithsburg, 6. Saint James, 7, Clear Spring, 8. Boonsboro, 9. Broadfording, 10. Hancock, 11. Heritage, 12. Grace Academy. Don’t hold any guns to my head.
Top Washington County player of the year candidates? Right now on paper I would say, Devon King of South Hagerstown, Avery Wilmore of Saint James to name a couple but we all know, so much is to be played out. We’ll see.

So, on Thursday Major League Baseball announced that the Houston Astros would shift to the American League West Division beginning with the 2013 season. In addition, two teams could be added to the wildcard mix in the playoffs possibly for the 2012 season.
With 15 teams in each league that means interleague baseball will be played every day of the year. Can’t wait to see how screwed up the schedules will be in 2013. It’s bad enough how the schedule-makers have been over recent years and now they’ve got to figure this out.
I am a baseball purist. I don’t like having 30 major league teams but that’s the way it is. More than ever with interleague play looming every day, I think it is imperative that Major League Baseball revert in one aspect — get rid of the designated hitter. Let’s get back to pitchers hitting. And if they don’t, then it’s got to be unified everywhere with 100 percent use in all games. But I prefer the eliminating the DH.

Saturday night truly was an Irish invasion at FedEx Field — a Notre Dame invasion.
You can’t imagine, without being there, what it looked like all around the place. It was Notre Dame everywhere, beginning with the groves of tailgaters that were everywhere. You’d have thought it was a Notre Dame home gome in South Bend.
As it were, I would say the stadium was at least two-thirds Notre Dame fans. I know Notre Dame fans are everywhere but it was just amazing to see them all at a game locally. And of course, we were treated to a 45-21 victory.
The football team looked great in the green jerseys and the special shamrocks on the helmets, shining brightly under the FedEx lights.
And the band — stunning performance as usual beginning with the fight song in pregame and the halftime show, which at the end turned into a combined performance with Maryland to salute the service branches. It was a great show by the bands.
It just showed the Notre Dame travel power. Next year, Notre Dame opens against Navy in Dublin, Ireland and also plays one of its home games at Soldier Field in Chicago against Miami.
A great night for Irish fans.

The 10th and final week of the prep football season is about to roll in and we’ve got one assured playoff spot in Washington County and two others that would like to make the grade.
Of course, we have 8-1 Boonsboro going to Smithsburg on Friday. The Warriors are second in the Maryland A West Region behind Fort Hill (9-0) and will get a home game with a win Friday. It would probably come against Mountain Ridge (8-1), who is third.
Things are interesting for North Hagerstown in 3A after the victory over Boonsboro last Friday.
The Hubs (7-2) are in sixth place, two spots out of getting a playoff spot. Seneca Valley and Damascus are definitely in. Urbana is third and Linganore is fourth and both those 6-3 teams play one another Saturday. The loser might be out of luck. Thomas Johnson, at 6-3 and with a 7.00 computer average, plays Frederick on Saturday. They should win. But North must hope Boonsboro beats Smithsburg to pick up bonus points there and of course, the Hubs must beat rival South Hagerstown on Saturday to have any chance.
And then in 2A, believe it or not, the 4-5 Williamsport Wildcats are clawing. They play at Clear Spring, also 4-5, on Friday and could be in a good position with a win. They are currently tied for fourth with Winters Mill, who is 5-4. But Winters Mill won’t generate much in its expected win over hopeless Francis Scott Key. If Williamsport wins, it’s likely to get a thank you gift of a first round game at Walkersville.
Stay tuned.

I spent most of last night and the better part of today trying to figure out what went wrong with Baltimore last night in its 12-7 deflating, unimpressive, embarrassing loss to the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars. The short answer is the offense. That’s obvious. Offensively, things couldn’t have gone much worse. No first downs for the first 40 minutes of the game. 40 MINUTES! An offense with Ray Rice, Anquan Boldin, emerging young tight ends Dennis Pitta and Ed Dickson, budding receiver Torrey Smith and Joe Flacco who can throw a football through a bank safe couldn’t gain 10 yards to get one first down. That is down right pathetic.

So let me start breaking down exactly how bad the loss was. First, it came on Monday night in front of a national television audience. There were talks before the game about the Ravens being the best team in the AFC. Not after last night. Second, the team that beat the Ravens is a team that has to tarp off 14 sections of its stadium seating with advertisments so it drops the stadium’s capacity down to around 67,000 so it’s easier to sell out games an avoid television blackouts. Third, the Jags had lost five straight games going into to last night’s game. Fourth, they had a rookie quarterback (Blaine Gabbert) starting. Everyone — and I mean everyone — figured the Ravens would easily win that game. Well, almost everyone. I’m sure all 23 Jacksonville fans had faith. Yes, it was bad. (continue reading…)

We’re halfway through Randy Edsall’s first season at the helm of Maryland football and I think I’ve just now began to figure things out. It only took six uniform combinations, two quarterbacks and a laundry list of injuries to figure out.

When C.J. Brown stepped into the game against Georgia Tech when Maryland was trailing 21-3, I was very skeptical. Granted, Danny O’Brien had posted Rex Grossman-esque numbers, but he was the incumbent. He was the man. He was the 2010 ACC Rookie of the Year. And, unfortunately, he was the guy that couldn’t grasp Gary Crowton’s spread offense. Danny O. made some uncharacteristic mistakes all season, and it all started against Miami on Labor Day night. The Terps had marched down the field on their first drive and scored a touchdown to go up 7-0. On the second offensive possession, Maryland was poised to go up 14-0, but Danny O. tried forcing a pass that he should have never thrown. I watched that play about eight different times and came up with the same conclusion: just run it in. He had a less-than-stellar showing against West Virginia two weeks later where he threw three interceptions and then played possibly the worst game of his life against Temple. I’m not going include the Towson game in this because that was a gimme-game for the Terps. But even against an FCS opponent, it appeared Maryland struggled a little bit. Then, against Georgia Tech, everything hit the fan and Danny O. went a whopping 1-for-6 for 17 yards and an interception. (continue reading…)