1. Well last night was the Super Bowl and it was far from "Super"...your reaction to the game and its final outcome?
Spencer-
I shouldn't gloat and say I called it cause I didn't
really call it, but I called it. Maybe not the score per say, but I said that this Seahawks defense was just too good to move the ball up and down the field on. Obviously there were the turnovers that helped them but the two interceptions for turnovers were created by the defensive pressure from the front four so those two I credit to great defense. If the defense creates a turnover like that lets not mark it down as a mistake by Manning. Good defenses create those mistakes. Bottom line is the Broncos couldn't find any rhythm and when they did, turnovers hurt their cause. Entering the second half I thought we'd see an attempt at a comeback but I think the Harvin kick return sealed their fate. Again for me, I imagined Denver would struggle with the Seattle defense, just not as bad as they did. Sucks such a highly anticipated match-up turned out to be a laugher but hey, that what makes sports fun...they are truly unpredictable.
Ty-
This is what sucks about waiting 2 weeks for the Super Bowl. Everybody was anticipating a great game from what people thought was the best 2 teams in the NFL. In all reality though it was not the case. The Broncos did move the ball on the Seahawks at points but cost themselves with turnovers. The opening safety set the tone and Percy Harvin finished it. My brain said to go with the Seahawks but I thought Manning was going to be special. It wasn't Manning's fault they lost, The Seahawks probably just played the best game they played all year. Now it's time to worry about next year. In the mean time I'm going to be moving on to basketball.
2. Everyone is going to be talking about Peyton Manning's "legacy" now that he is 1-2 all time in Super Bowls and nearing the end of his career. What do you think his legacy should and will be when he decides to hang it up?
Ty-
I'm not one to call people dumb but it's not a very smart thought to place so much burden on Peyton Manning for losing 2 out of 3 Super Bowl. Peyton Manning is one of the all-time great players in NFL history. The Seattle Seahawks were the absolute better team. People look at all the great quarterbacks and give them so much credit for Super Bowls when it is an absolute team sport. Putting it on one guy to win a championship is dumb even in a sport like Basketball. Football is the ultimate teams sport! People forget that Tom Brady won his first Super Bowls really early in his Career. Tom Brady has been a better quarterback in the years since his last Super Bowl win and still has yet to win one again. Tom Brady was close but his team was not good enough. Championships are way to hard to get and take so much luck to validate somebodies legacy.
Spencer-
Look anyone who thinks Manning's legacy is a bust is ignorant or not a true football fan. The guy has 5 MVP awards, will have his name on a handful of NFL records when it's all said and done, has played in three Super Bowls (so far) and won one. Dan Marino played in one Super Bowl in his ROOKIE season, NEVER won one and nobody ever questions how great of a QB he was. Let's not forget how hard it is to win the Super Bowl, and when you do win it takes all aspects of the game to usually do so. In now way did Manning lose that game to Seattle on his own. The Broncos lost that game cause they didn't do anything well! Not one facet of their game looked like a Super Bowl worthy team last night. Manning is one of the greatest to ever play the game PERIOD. He is a first ballot HOFer and that's that. Don't get so caught up in this legacy stuff.
3. Now that the NFL season has come to a close what sport are you most looking forward to devoting your time to? Why?
Spencer-
February signifies the start of Spring Training for baseball, which gets me excited for the season to start and for Spring to come...buuuuut as fun as it is to get caught up in the predictions and see the rosters take form no one wins the World Series with games played in March so I'll wait on that till April. That being said it's college hoops for me. My Orange are now the number one team in the country and got a tough stretch of games coming up to close out the season and then obviously we got everyone's favorite distraction from work March Madness. It is going to be a great run up until them with some great games so I am excited to watch that a little more and see how it all comes together come tournament time.
Ty-
Basketball hands down. It's time to focus on the NBA and College hoops. I'm not worried about baseball at all. I feel like baseball just ended and I'm really not giddy for spring training in a sport that plays a 162 game regular season. The NBA All-Star weekend is coming up and it will be time for teams to get serious and make a playoff push. This is when teams begin to kick it in to gear. Then in College hoops it's hard not to get excited for the conference tournaments and then the NCAA tournament. The conference games in February have always been great so I'm excited to focus even more on basketball.
4. Saw a lot of upsets this weekend in College Hoops, with the regular season winding down over the next month who are your favorites to be the four number one seeds come NCAA Tournament time?
Ty-
More things can happen so it is very hard to say who will be there for sure. I think it can really be decided in the conference tournaments. Although I think that the Big Ten and the Big Twelve are the two best conferences in the country they have been beating up on each other throughout conference play. So I think the Syracuse should get a number one seed although I don't necessarily believe they are the best team in college. Syracuse would deserve a number one seed for the way they have been playing although the ACC didn't turn out to be as good as it was last year. This can always change because of this, if they drop a few games to a mediocre ACC team and lose to Duke in the rematch than they might drop.
Arizona would probably drop a little bit because of Brandon Ashley's injuries but they can also slide Aaron Gordon to the PF slot and play a more guard heavy rotation or play Hollis-Jefferson more. Either way, I believe that they can continue to win in the Pac-12 and should be able to get a seed.
Kansas should be able to secure a number one seed. Although they have dropped a couple of games, Kansas has played the toughest schedule in the nation and have continued to get better. I think that they can end up being the best team going into the tournament. Wichita St will probably be hurt by being a mid major honestly. While I think that a team like Wisconsin might go further in the tournament I think that Michigan State will get that last top seed.
My top 4 seeds:
Syracuse
Arizona
Kansas
Michigan St.
Spencer-
Obviously it is still a little too far out to know for sure but I think there are some great candidates that are in a top spot in the rankings that could end up with a number one seed in the tournament. I'd like to think the Syracuse will be one even if they lose a game or two but I think they need to win the ACC and at least make a run in the conference tournament. A lot of times being a number one seed is based off of how a team is playing at that time of year, which is another reason Cuse can't rest on their laurels right now. Outside of that I think the Big Ten winner will be a number one seed no doubt. That conference is hands down the best in all of college hoops right now and every team in it, it seems, can beat any other team in it. I think playing in the toughest conference and coming out on top will speak numbers to how good of a team they are. So for the my second number one seed I'll just fill it in with "Big Ten Winner." Next I think you got to like Kansas and not because of the Wiggins hype and all that, but because before this weekend slip up against a solid Texas team, they were playing their best basketball. I think they will get back to that and close out the season with key wins over ranked teams like Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State and push their way into the tournament with a high ranking. Also Kansas has held a number one seed with less talent before so I see them stepping up when they need to. Lastly, I'm going to take Florida as my last number one seed. From what I have seen from them so far, they are a great team and they play as one unit. I think that is a recipe to win their conference, even though they still have to play Kentucky twice, and stay in the top of the rankings long enough to be a number one seed.
To recap my four number one seeds are:
-Syracuse
-The "Big Ten Winner"
-Kansas
-Florida
Notable absences: Wichita State: I think they are obviously a solid team, but not number one seed worthy, even if they do go undefeated in their awful conference.
Arizona: I worry about Arizona with Brandon Ashley gone for the season. He is important to what that teams been doing and with him out I think we will see Zona notch a few more losses that will drop them in the rankings.
Look forward to re-evaluating these as tournament time gets closer!
What did we learn in sports this past week?
Spencer: Defense Still wins Championships.
Okay, so I didn't really learn this it was more just a reassertion of it but as we saw in the Super Bowl and great offense is nice but a great defense well, that's what you need in the NFL. Seattles defense forced Denver to make mistakes, it was the only team all year to pressure Peyton Manning, they made stops and they absolutely shut down the Broncos dump and run type offense that dominated teams all year. We saw, especially in the second half, what made that offense work all year and it was throwing short passes and relying on YAC. Seattle had other plans. They don't miss tackles in fact they were the number one team in the league this year at making the tackle at first contact.
On the other end the Broncos defense, which was awful all year, stayed that way, which made what I learned even more true. I know the turnovers by the offense didn't help their case but even in those cases the Denver defense had the Seahawks in third and five yards or more, four times and didn't come up with the big stops a good defense needs to, to keep their team in the game. Nowadays for me a good defense is just one that gets the big stops when they need to in the biggest moments of the game. Denver couldn't even make those and are therefore nothing more than a mediocre defense. Which I guess makes the Seahawks defense elite then cause they got stops just about every time they were on the field.
It boils down to this, if you have a good defense you have the makings to be a championship team and all you need is a competent enough offense to get you there. So to the Browns and Bills fans out there...the future looks bright!
Ty- There are to many All-Star NBA players in the West.
The NBA released the full rosters of the all-star teams this last week and there were a lot of talk about snubs. You can easily make the case that Kyle Lowry or Lance Stephenson should have made the All-Star team over guys like Joe Johnson and Joakim Noah. In the western conference it is not really that clear.
Anthony Davis, Goran Gragic, Demarcus Cousins and even Serge Ibaka have all had All-Star caliber seasons. But who do you take off of the western team? Dirk Nowitzki maybe but he has played great all year too. The west is obviously better than the east and there is always going to be people who feel like they were snubbed but this is the first year in a long time where there were so many All-Star caliber players in the running.
If it were up to me I would take out Dirk Nowitzki for Anthony Davis but i am fine with the case Dirk has to be in the game. There is still an opportunity for players to get spots because Kobe Bryant doesn't plan on playing and Chris Paul might still be hurt.
Newly appointed commissioner Adam Silver will be the one to decide who replaces those guys.
I think that Silver will pick Goran Dragic and Anthony Davis if those two are out because they will need another guard and because Anthony Davis is the hometown kid with the game being played in New Orleans.
Key Additions: DE DeMarcus Ware, CD Aqib Talib, WR Emmanuel Sanders, rookie WR Cody Latimer
