Is Louisville's Take Down of Baylor the Biggest Upset Ever in Women's Hoops?

Shoni Schimmel ain't skeered of Brittney Griner
photo:  Sue Ogrocki, AP

In 1985, John Thompson's Georgetown Hoyas were a sight to behold. They didn't just win. They weren't merely satisfied to beat teams -- they destroyed them. I mean this in the nicest possible way, but they were like the Roman Legion descending. Nobody would admit it, but other teams were scared. And even if those teams weren't scared, their fans were. They gave up all hope upon seeing the dreaded G'Town on the schedule. Your team was going to lose to the Hoyas. The question then became -- how bad of a loss did it have to be to cross over into embarrassment territory?

Sid Crosby Has Broken Face; Out Indefinitely

photo:  Chaz Palla, Tribune-Review

Reports today are that Sidney Crosby has a broken jaw after taking a 90-some-mile-per-hour Brooks Orpik slapshot to the face.

Just when Pens GM Ray Shero had loaded the team up for a serious Cup run, the best player in the world is out. Indefinitely. Talk about going from ecstasy to agony.

Can somebody in my life tell Brooks Orpik to never, ever, ever shoot the puck. Like, ever. Thanks. That's all.

Sixteen Reasons to Watch the Women's Sweet 16

Yup, that's RG III
photo:  Doug Feinberg, AP

Four Behemoths -- Baylor, Notre Dame, UConn and Stanford. Depth has grown by leaps and bounds in women's basketball over the last five years. For my money, the second round games with 32 teams remaining are some of the most entertaining you'll ever see. That said, Baylor, UConn, Notre Dame and Stanford are in their own category of greatness. I can't see any of them losing in this round (I could see Stanford being a bit shaky in the Elite 8 ...), so if you like seeing dynastic teams, if you like watching the monsters of the sport, the Baylor Bears are for you.

Penguins GM Ray Shero, the Ersatz Cold War Warrior

photo:  The Canadian Press, Jeff McIntosh

Yesterday, my phone beeped a few minutes before 7:00 a.m. Strange time to be getting texts. I grabbed my phone:  "HOLY HELL, WE GOT IGINLA." And with that, I was stupid happy all day long. I was silly, giddy, punch-drunk, I was like a dog going to the park or a kid on Christmas morning. Nothing phased me all day long.

To the old lady who took way, way too long to order her coffee in line in front of me, I simply smiled and thought, "Jarome Iginla, baby. It's cool."

To the wanker who cut me off in traffic, I simply waved and mouthed, "Dude, the Pens got Iginla!"

When the spot I wanted to eat lunch was closed, I just walked on to another destination, thinking, "Jarome Freaking Iginla."

2013 NCAA Tourney: the Round of 32 in Review

photo:  www.lsusports.net

-- Adrienne Webb, LSU. With just seven players at her disposal and with an injured star in Theresa Plaisance, coach Nikki Caldwell turned to senior guard Adrienne Webb. Boy howdy, did the kid ever deliver. For a moment, forget that she dropped 29 points on Penn State. And forget that she drained a 3-pointer in the waning minutes. What she did that blew me away was take Maggie Lucas completely out of the game. Lucas is Penn State's best player and the best player in the Big 10; she is one of the best players in the country. I've been watching basketball long enough to know that sometimes even the best shooters have a cold stretch. Lucas started the game on what I thought was a cold stretch, but it became apparent as the game wore on that it wasn't Lucas being cold. Webb froze her out -- she turned Lucas cold. Though Caldwell was running a zone, it was often Webb who was right in Lucas' face. And I mean, In. Her. Face. It was so bad that with time ticking away, Penn State didn't even try to get the ball to Lucas. Maggie Lucas not taking the last shot? Crazy! To my mind, Webb was the player of the tourney in this round.

Next up for the Tigers? A Cal team that looked pretty shaky against South Florida on Monday night.

The 2013 Women's Hoops Tourney -- Round 1 Review

from USF's athletic site

Who helped carry their team through the first round? What player who you never heard before showed up big under the big lights? This is by no means a complete list, but through the first two days of the tournament, these players jumped off the screen for me.

-- Inga Orekhova, South Florida. In the most exciting game of the first day (as Baylor coach Kim Mulkey put it, 'best dang game of the day'), the South Florida Bulls pulled off an upset of Texas Tech, on the Red Raider's home court. As much as I enjoy watching the Smith twins play, it was the pride of Sevastapol, Ukraine, Inga Orekhova who led her team down the stretch, hitting a huge 3-pointer with about a minute to go to tie the game. In all, she had 20 points (5 of them inside the last two-minutes) and her team fed her the ball with confidence.

Sunday Recipe: Swiss Chard and Potato Ravioli

Every Christmas and every Easter, I make ravioli from scratch, as my great-grandmother did. Gram was from the tiny village of Pietransieri, in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Her ravioli are stuffed with cheese (ricotta, parm, romano, egg and parsley.) I grew up eating those ravioli and only those ravioli. Cheese or Bust! [I tried, once or twice, ravs filled with meat and never liked them, but have had more success in recent years with meat filled ravioli, in Rome and in Buenos Aires.] And so, I grew up making Gram's ravioli with my grandmother and when she died a few years ago, the tradition passed directly to me.

Working in my own kitchen with all day (or several days) to prep, I decided to experiment. While I always make a batch of Gram's cheese filled ravioli (recipe here), in the last few years I have also made:  ravioli stuffed with pear and mascarpone cheese, ravioli stuffed with chicken livers and swiss chard, and ravioli stuffed with mushrooms (recipe here.) All were delicious, by the way.

This Christmas, I got La Cucina, the ultimate compendium of all the foods from that glorious geographical boot known as Italy. The recipes contained therein are for cooks who know their way around the kitchen. They don't give very specific instructions. Or maybe it only seems that way because some of the recipes in this 2,000 page collection are so basic and simple or maybe they're just guidelines, realizing that food varies not only from region to region but from kitchen to kitchen.

Thus armed with an idea more than instructions, I set to work to make ravioli filled with swiss chard and potatoes. They were such a smashing success this Christmas, I've decided to bring them back for an Easter encore.

10 Women to Watch in the 2013 NCAA Tourney

Delle Donne:  www.caawomenshoops.wordpress.net

10.  Gennifer Brandon, Cal. The Cal Bears don't have one great player; there is no single, singular talent that jumps elevates an entire team, but they do have a collection of really good players. My favorite of the bunch is junior forward Gennifer Brandon, who is a rebounding machine and was a significant force in all of the team's signature wins this year -- once over Stanford and twice against both UCLA and Colorado. Make no mistake, the Bears won't make it far without Layshia Clarendon, either, but when Cal is at their best, they are a tremendously physical team. That physicality starts on the boards with Brandon.

Sunday Recipe: Killer Butternut Squash Tacos with Salsa Verde

I'm always trying to think of new ways to eat tacos. I never tire of wrapping things in tortillas with some lime and some heat. I've filled tacos with beef and pork and chicken and fish and turkey. I've roasted meat and grilled meat and cooked it stove-top. I've cooked black beans and pinto beans and pidgeon peas for taco filling. And so, not surprisingly, I was thinking about how to make a vegetarian taco that had more vegetables.

Butternut squash to the rescue. I like to serve these with salsa verde, so I've included that recipe, too.

Let me say here that I made this dish for my cousin and her kids (both aged 16). All of them loved it. The point being -- serve this to your family and they won't mind at all missing meat for one night. In fact, I'm having a hankering right now.

Matt Cooke's Baggage

For a decade, Matt Cooke was among the dirtiest players in the NHL. He had a game beyond the cheap stuff, but still, if there was a questionable hit to be thrown, he threw it. If he could take a guy out, he did. When he arrived in Pittsburgh in 2008, I was torn. I absolutely loved the rest of Cooke's game, but the head-hunting bothered me. Watching him over the years, I loved his energy and the way he crashed the net. I loved how hard he played. But the flagrant elbows to the head and the reckless disregard for player safety troubled me. I wrote about how much it bothered me a number of times, in a number of places, but the two I remember writing were after Cooke's hit left Marc Savard positively lifeless on the ice and after he threw a flagrant elbow to the head of Ryan McDonough. Those were some of the worst hits I've seen, the kind of hits which need to be completely eliminated from the game.

After Cooke missed the remainder of the 2010-2011 season (serving the suspension of the McDonough hit), he was basically on notice by the team. Pittsburgh Penguins GM Ray Shero told him -- one more strike and you're out. In the summer of 2011, Cooke did some soul searching. He sought advice from a number of sources. He decided to play the game differently and worked hard to learn how to do just that.

Would No Halftime Entertainment at SB XLVIII Be Such a Bad Thing?

As I look out my window at the freezing rain, landing quite nicely on the already icy snow blanketing my yard, I can't help but think:  Yippee! The Super Bowl will be played in weather just like this next year! (That's Super Bowl XLVIII [or 48 for you non-ancient Roman types.])

As a television event, the biggest game of the year is not aimed at nor produced for actual football fans. It has become an event designed to gin up interest in the sport, sell stuff, create a raging river of revenue and appeal to the non-football fans. For those who actually attend, the Super Bowl is an event which is decidedly not designed for people of my ilk, which is to say, football fans. Nay. The Super Bowl is for the suits, the corporate ticket holders and such of that ilk. If they freeze in a snow squall or freezing rain? Well, fine by me.

What if Alex Ovechkin Hired Randy Moss as a Life-Coach?

Randy Moss and Alexander Ovechkin walk into a bar. They sit at table and order drinks. What follows is an exact transcript of their conversation.

"Hey," says Alex, "sorry about the Super Bowl and everything."

"Thanks, man. That does hurt. But you know, I didn't ask you out because of the Supe. I wanted to say something to you I've never said to anybody else."

Alex is puzzled. He gives Randy his best rakish super-villian grin and waits.

"You know, you remind me a lot of me," Randy says.

"I didn't know you watched hockey."

"Nobody knows I do. I keep that on the DL. You know, I have a Hershey Bears sweater? Don't tell anybody, right? Anyway. I really wanted to tell you that ... well, you know how on media day I said that I was the best receiver ever?"

"Heard that."

Randy takes a deep breath, "What I meant to say was that I was the most talented receiver ever."

"I grew up in Moscow and even I know that Jerry Rice does hold the record for most receiving yards," says Alex, flashing that playful KGB grin again.

Best of New Orleans, the 2013 Report

Last year, I made a week long walking, dancing and eating pilgrimage to New Orleans. This year, I returned, for a much shorter trip and the difference from January, 2012 to January, 2013 is remarkable. It feels like, finally, after Katrina and the federal flood, the city has turned a corner. I was hoping to revisit some of the joints I went to last year, particularly Liuzza's (for the world's greatest gumbo) and Parkway for the astronomically great Po'Boys. However, there is only so much eating that one can pack into a short trip, so we hit all new spots.

If you're in New Orleans for the Super Bowl insanity, or will be there for the Mardi Gras insanity, or are planning a trip just because (as I do), these are the some of the highlights of my recent vigil.

Cake Bakery

Cake Bakery. This trip was not the first time I've been to Cake Bakery. It's right around the corner from where I stay in the Crescent City, but proximity is hardly the main recommendation for me. It's a charming little joint full of a diverse clientele -- ordinary looking workaday folks, older people, tattooed crusty punks, transgendered people and even David Simon. (Seriously, we chatted at Cake last year.) But although the clientele is fun, it isn't the main recommendation:  the biscuits are.

Freshly baked biscuits as big as your head, with homeade jam, which is not overly sweet, but rather is very fruity and tart and perfect on these amazing biscuits. Just a biscuit, jam and a side of bacon is plenty of breakfast to get you going all day long.

Favorite Moments from the 2012 NFL Season

I know something amazing might happen today, the final regular season week of the NFL, but the following have been the most entertaining moments of the season for me. Hey, one team which shall remain nameless (but is spelled 'J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets') makes the list three times. Three!

10.  The Resignation of Fireman Ed as the ad hoc head cheerleader for the New York Jets. Can you actually resign from this sort of thing? Is there a letter or some formal written notification that must be submitted? Did Fireman Ed call up Woody Johnson and tender his resignation? How did this go down? I want to know.

Ad fucking hoc

Aggressively Mediocre: Your 2012 Pittsburgh Steelers

The 2012 Steelers give even the great Ryan Clark a headache

I have watched less talented teams in my lifetime in black and gold, but I have never watched a more disappointing team.

Oakland 34, Pittsburgh 31.
Tennessee 26, Pittsburgh 23.
Kansas City 13, Pittsburgh 16. (Yeah. I know they won. But needing OT against the Chiefs? In Pittsburgh, for cripes sake? C'mon.)
Cleveland 20, Pittsburgh 14.
San Diego 34, Pittsburgh 24.

No team with those five games on their resume has any business at all in the post-season. And so, the season is over, golf course reservations are made and, frankly, some long soul searching needs to happen at Heinz Field. Not to overstate this, but the Steelers have some things to figure out. Every time they were presented with an opportunity this season, they fell short -- sometimes by a hair and sometimes by a country mile.