Filed under: NFL Media Watch, Super Bowl, ESPN

Notes on a trip to the Super Bowl.

At ESPN’s Super Bowl headquarters in Scottsdale, I told Skip Bayless of ESPN First Take that I thought it must be hard to always be the guy who has to come up with the contrary argument on every issue. But Bayless looked surprised that I was suggesting that he tries to be argumentative.

“I’m not looking for contrarian arguments,” Bayless said. “I’m just saying what I think. I try to be the conscience of our show. Everybody tends to overreact to the news of the night. I try to sit back and see the bigger picture truth. You can ask anyone I work with, I’m going to say what I feel.”

Bayless has been a frequent subject of criticism among bloggers, but when I asked him what he thinks of blogs, he said he doesn’t read them. “I’m afraid I don’t have any perspective on that,” he said.

In fact, Bayless said he has a general policy of not reading anything anyone writes about him.

“If I read everything people write about me, I would go crazy,” he said. “If I’m not already.”

The structure of First Take is such that Bayless spends his mornings debating a revolving roster of opponents, from Jemele Hill to Jalen Rose to the 2 Live Stews. But Bayless says his toughest adversary is former NBA player Greg Anthony, whom he described as “well-versed in a wide range of sports,” “confident on the air,” and “astonishingly stubborn.”

Sounds like a good description of Bayless himself.

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Competing with our party tonight: A “Cancer Blows” charity event in Glendale hosted by Sean Salisbury and George Foreman. A noble cause, but we wonder how they will grill all that food. [PR Newswire]

Filed under: NY Giants, NFC East, New York

The truth comes out! An unidentified Giants player said what most people were wondering: if Tiki Barber were still around, would the Giants be in the Super Bowl?

“Tiki was all about Tiki,” said a key Giants player, who asked not to be identified, speaking recently about the former Giants runner. “I don’t get why people make this so complicated. If he was still on the team, we wouldn’t be here (in the Super Bowl). Trust me on that. It would be a different locker room.”

By different the player means more splintered, more finger pointing, less unified.

By different, he means worse.

“It’s not a coincidence that he’s gone and we’re here,” the player said. “You’re a fool if you think it is.”

And there it is. Earlier this week, FanHouse blogger Michael David Smith talked about how the Giants don’t want him around and this player put that thought into stone. How can you blame them? The first thing that came out of his mouth was slamming former coach Tom Coughlin and ex-teammate Eli Manning. Now with the Giants in the Super Bowl without him, he’s got a little egg on his face.

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The College Basketball Closer is written by the gang at Storming The Floor.

By now, most of us have come to terms with the fact that Dr. Naismith’s game has gone international. A collegiate bench without an Aussie, Russian, Brazilian, or Senegalese player is a rare sight indeed.

Lost amongst all of those towering specimens are the vanguard of a very unlikely Asian invasion - K.J. Matsui and Taishi Ito are the only Japanese-born players currently suiting up for Division I teams. Matsui arrived first, following coach Stu Vetter to Maryland’s Montrose Christian prep school after the educator taught a series of Nike-sponsored basketball clinics in the Far East. A year later, point guard Taishi Ito came along as well, and eventually teamed with Kevin Durant and Grievis Vasquez to create a rampaging Godzilla of a high school team.

Since then, the two have been a bit more like Godzukey. The six-foot-two Matsui is in his junior year at Columbia, where he averages 8.4 points per game while starting at two guard. A continent away, Ito has had a very rough sophomore season, missing several early games while attending his father’s funeral in Japan, and clanging a buzzer-beater that gave Eddie Sutton his lone win at USF.

Basketball players may always lag behind video games, comic book illustrators, and affordable compact cars in terms of popular Japanese imports. But when Matsui and Ito have consumed their eligibility, I’m predicting that America will be hungry for more.

Soon.

Pullen the Upset. Kansas State 84 - Kansas 75. Definitely the most exciting Gamecast I’ve ever watched. This game was on ESPN Plus, so the vast majority of America missed a clash of Titans that served notice that Kansas is no longer alone atop the Big 12 North. We saw Beasley and Walker coming, but fellow frosh Jacob Pullen dropped 20 as well, helping the Wildcats counter the four Jayhawks in double figures.

Can’t Touch This. Memphis 89 - Houston 77. The Cougars were ahead for ten glorious minutes, before the Tigers methodically marched back and dismembered them without remorse. The Tennessee game on February 23 looms large, but for now the Tigers are undisputed heavyweight champs. Big ups to the underrated Congolese Democratic Republic Chris Douglas-Roberts, who led all scorers with 30, and to Joey Dorsey, snatching loose basketballs like they were biplanes and he was King Kong. He ended the game with an incredible 22 boards.

Rebel Yell. Ole Miss 74 - Vandy 58. The best thing about this game was that one of these previously unbeaten teams was going to end the slide, and it was no surprise that it turned out to be the home team.

Domination in College Station. Texas A&M 80 - Texas 63. This is why I don’t write a gambling column. Yesterday I said “make mine burnt orange, please.” Ha. Josh Carter went for 19 points and 10 rebounds, even making four out of seven treys.

Mid-Major Spotlight. Drake 75 - Creighton 65. Josh Young was six-of-eight from downtown Omaha, notching 24 points and helping his team to a season sweep of the Blue Jays, who have been amongst the cream of the crop in the MVC for years.

Seton Hall also slapped down Rutgers by a score of 84-71 in OT, but the real story of the night was the setting of a new Guinness World Record. The CBB Closer would like to congratulate Rutgers and the city of Piscataway for breaking the long-held mark for most Zubaz pants at a sporting event, previously held by the 1991 Chiefs/Raiders Wild Card playoff game.

Tonight’s Big Game

Indiana (17-2) at Wisconsin (16-3).Yes, there’s more than one good game on, but this is definitely the most interesting, just based on the style differential. Throw in national rankings, and the drive for each team to rebound from recent losses, and this should be a goldmine. Plus, I just like saying Krabbenhoft.

Eric Angevine writes about college hoops at Storming the Floor, and is a regular contributor to Chicago Sports Weekly. He can be reached at stormingthefloor@gmail.com.

Filed under: Soccer, Breaking News, MLS, Premier League

Well, so much for this conspiracy theory.

Sky Sports is reporting that Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan has been denied a UK work permit today, which will effectively block his $4 million transfer to Aston Villa. The rejection means Guzan will probably return to Chivas USA for the 2008 MLS season.

According to Sky Sports, Guzan’s work permit application was rejected because he hasn’t gotten enough caps with the U.S. national team in the last year or so. He’ll need to get more international experience before he can reapply — which will be tricky with Everton’s Tim Howard, Blackburn’s Brad Friedel and Reading’s Marcus Hahnemann in the mix and MLS not stopping its season for international tournaments.

Now we know why Chivas didn’t bother to search for another goalkeeper during the offseason. They probably knew this was coming. The good news for Guzan, though, is that at least he knows the starting job at Chivas is his. That wouldn’t have been the case at Aston Villa until August.

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The NBA Closer is written by Matt McHale, who is in no way related to Kevin McHale and who has taken the necessary legal steps to ensure that it stays that way. When he’s not memorizing Gheorghe Muresan’s Wikipedia entry, he can be found curing cancer at Basketbawful. Enjoy!

• “They’ve got nothing to lose.” That’s what Hedo Turkoglu had to say about the Miami Heat after the Magic mocked their ugliness with a 107-91 smackdown. But you know what? He’s wrong. The Heat still have 38 more games to play, which means there’s plenty of losing ahead of them! That, my friends, is what I call a glass half full. Of poop. Anyway, the Turkish Terror led Orlando with 27 points (8-for-13), 12 rebounds, and 5 assists, while Dwight Howard chipped in with 16 boards, 13 boards, and 4 smother chickens. The Heat were missing Dwyane Wade (painful embarrassment), Shaq (fell and still cannot get up), and Udonis Haslem (hair appointment), so only Ricky Davis was left to lead them (25, 5, and 4).

• Your hate makes you powerful. The Raptors were pissed about the previous night’s overtime loss to the Wizards, but a rare quirk in the schedule gave them an immediate shot at a revenge game. Said Jose Calderon: “We were mad about (Tuesday) night’s game so we just came out and played our basketball game by being more aggressive.” (You could almost make out Emperor Palpatine standing behind Jose, urging him on, “Good, use your aggressive feelings, boy. Let the hate flow through you!”) In the end, Toronto transformed their hate into a mighty 122-83 beating. Voodoo priests were brought in to resurrect Andrea Bargnani’s game, and the Italian Stallion rose from the grave to score a game-high 19 points. Chris Bosh was content to coast his way to 16 points and 4 rebounds. On the other side, DeShawn Stevenson was the only Wizard who remembered to bring his wand to the game (I swear that’s not a double-entendre); he scored 16, grabbed 5, dished 4.

• You know a team sucks when…they let an 18-28 team beat them by 43. That’s what happened to the Milwaukee Bucks last night when they lost 112-69 to the Philadelphia 76ers. Despite leading by lots and lots throughout the game, the Sixers just kept pouring it on; they entered the fourth quarter already leading by 30, then dumped another 35 points on the hapless, hopeless Bucks. I know the enemy deserves no mercy and all, but jeez. Said Andre Iguodala: “You can’t have any sympathy for them.” It wasn’t quite an Ivan Drago “If he dies, he dies” moment, but it was damn close.

• My eyes…they burn! I recently stumbled across the personal Web page of a man who spent three months building a life-size replica of Han Solo frozen in carbonite. Out of LEGOs*. At the time, I honestly thought that it was the saddest thing I’d ever seen. Then I watched the Bulls play the Timberwolves in Minnesota. Now I realize that I never knew what true saddness was. The teams opened the game shooting a combined 0-for-18 and the score was only 3-2 after almost seven minutes. Yes, you read that right: 3-2. The T-Wolves scored 8 points in the first quarter and shot 36 percent for the game…and they won by 16! Al Jefferson bitchslapped the Bulls with 26 points, 20 boards, and the back of his big, black hand. Ryan Gomes played the “Mini-Me” to Jefferson’s “Dr. Evil” by dumping in 25 points and 10 boards. Captain Kirk Hinrich beamed down 14 points and 9 assists for the Bulls, who also got 14 points from Thabo Sefolosha.

*I know that yesterday I claimed to be building a life-size replica of Dirk Nowitzki out of LEGOs. But I was only kidding. As far as you know.

• Not so fast, young fella. Chris Paul might just be the best point guard in the NBA right now - and he certainly played like it last night - but Baron Davis isn’t some smelly bum carrying around his urine in a jar and begging for spare change. Despite a chorus of boos from the thirty or so New Orleanites in attendence, B-Diddy drilled five three-pointers on his way to 23 points and 9 assists. Paul countered with 28 and 12, but Davis got more help from the hot-shooting Warriors (52 percent shooting as a team) who won going away 116-103. Stephen Jackson gave the Golden Staters 26 points and his usual spoonful of crazy, while Peja Stojakovic had a double-double (20 points, 10 rebounds) for New Orleans.

• There’s a new fourth quarter assassin in town. And his name is LeBron James. Not only did he have a typically kingly stat line - 37 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists - LeBron put in a reverse layup with less than a second left to beat the Trailblazers 84-83 in Portland. No other Cavalier scored in double figures, but Lebron doesn’t need teammates. He doesn’t even need water or food. The man runs on pure awesome. Brandon Roy (16 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists) and LaMarcus Aldridge (16 points, 9 boards) did what they could, but the Blazers couldn’t avoid a royal execution.

Filed under: Michigan Football, Ohio State Football, Oregon Football, Penn State Football, NCAA FB Recruiting, Breaking News

Right: a certain subset of Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State fans.

National Signing Day — which is a holiday for that guy in your office who’s constantly muttering about his stapler — is February sixth. On that day, virtually every high school recruit in the country will sign a binding letter of intent to attend a particular college.

Those who hesitate risk being left out in the cold, unless you’re the nation’s #1 recruit:

“I’d say it’s about 50-50 that I’ll push things back,” Pryor said.

Aw, Jesus. More waiting? More bated breath? More pictures with Corvettes? Pryor’s stated reason for the delay is a potential visit to spread-friendly Oregon. This would seem to refute the rumors that Pryor is an Ohio State lock… though not much.

Pryor’s visit with JoePa went “OK” according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which in normally effusive recruit-speak means “get that crazy old man away from me.” Meanwhile, even Ohio State fans are getting on the preemptive sour grapes bandwagon.

Where’s he going? Tune in Wednesday! Or sometime after Wednesday!

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What you missed after hearing “Crank That” one too many times …
• College basketball: The last time Kansas State won at Kansas Kansas State won at home against Kansas, Matt Leinart had not yet been born.
• NFL: No mention of Tom Brady’s ankle on Patriots’ injury report. Belichick, in fact, denies Brady has an ankle.
• NBA: How often do you see an NBA game decided on a layup at the buzzer? LeBron, Cavaliers beat Blazers 84-83.

Filed under: Soccer, Featured Stories, MLS, Premier League

UPDATE: Guzan’s UK work permit application was rejected. Click here for details.

Aston Villa is putting the finishing touches on its $4 million transfer deal for Brad Guzan today. All the Chivas USA goalkeeper needs now is a UK work permit, and he’ll be able to join the Birmingham club as early as this weekend.

At first glance, it didn’t look like Villa needed a goalkeeper. All signs pointed to Scott Carson’s loan deal from Liverpool becoming permanent this season. However, Liverpool’s shaky financial situation may have prompted Villa to make their bid for Guzan.

Follow me on this. As I wrote here, Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks admitted that the club will have to service annual interest payments of £30 million. That’s money that comes out of the club. It’s also the approximate amount the club got in TV money from its Champions League run last season.

That’s all well and good until Liverpool doesn’t qualify for the Champions League. That looked more like a real possibility last night, too, after a late penalty gave West Ham a 1-0 victory over Liverpool, dropping the Reds to 7th place, 3 points adrift of the 4th and final Champions League qualifying spot — and one point behind 5th place Aston Villa.

Continue reading How Liverpool’s Situation Affected Brad Guzan

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With all the rigmarole about the Super Bowl and what-not, we almost forgot that we were supposed to be on a book tour. The whole big shebang kicks off tonight at the Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe. We will not be wearing our Jenna Bush mask. (By the way, the book she’s reading there is not “My Pet Goat,” so you know.

As we’ve mentioned, most of the book tour will involve collective experiences with alcohol afterwards, but because we’ve got the Deadspin Super Bowl Party tomorrow night, we’re gonna pack up after the reading tonight.

But we’ll be there with Roger Director; we’ll be the one without gray hair, who slouches.

To remind, the reading is at:
Changing Hands
6428 S McClintock Dr
Tempe, AZ 85283

If you’re around for this Super Bowl business, you know, come by.