SU has been quiet for some time now.  Let’s face it: not a whole lot going on in the sports world of late.  But here’s what’s on my mind today:

• I am having A LOT of trouble getting excited about the Yankees for 2016.  With Greg Bird going down, there really is no young player to follow.  It sounds like minor league slugger Aaron Judge will start in Scranton for sure.  That leaves Brett Gardner (nursing a sore wrist), Jacoby Ellsbury (already planning which month he will get hurt in 2016) and Carlos Beltran in his final season roaming the outfield.  SU will be interested to see if this new guy Hicks is any good.  On the infield, Starlin Castro is a fresh face but as long as Chase Headley is at 3rd base, it just feels like more of the same of what we’ve seen the last few years.  My only hope is that Headley is ultimately replaced by Castro and Refsnyder gets to play 2nd base.  The starting pitchers are all injury-prone.  The bullpen is stacked but as of now, SU is unimpressed and unexcited.
• I believe the Mets will own New York for 2016 hands  down, and will push them on attendance.  And that has not been the case for about 20 – 25 years.  SU is not on the Mets band wagon but will be paying attention.
• On the other hand, March Madness is just around the corner and that does excite me.  Especially this year where about 15 teams have what it takes to win it all.  SU is already running the numbers and will come out with its predictions once the brackets are filled.  As much as I hate to say it (and believe me I hate to say this), Michigan State may be peaking at the right time.
• Carmelo Anthony is going to go down as the Adrian Dantley of his generation.  A one-dimensional talented scorer who never really won over the course of his career.  Melo really should remove the trade veto and allow the Knicks to find him a new home where he can get his ring.  I suppose it’s admirable that he wants to win in New York but this roster is far, far away from contending and they don’t have the draft picks or the cap room for a quick change (Kevin Durant is not coming here).  SU turned on the game last night in the late 2nd quarter where the Knicks were blowing out the Magic by 20.  I believe Anthony shot the ball on about 6 possessions in a row.  I was doing my triangulations and somehow that did not compute in terms of ball movement.  He finished 7 for 22 in a blowout win where everyone else shot well.  I just don’t think he is having any fun out there.  Perhaps in the off-season some deal will come his way and he will allow them to move him.  I believe this is very possible.

Anyone want to weigh in with an early NCAA prediction?

SU stumbled across the Peyton Manning story from the late 1990s while he was at the University of Tennessee over the holiday weekend.  I must admit that I have been a Peyton fan throughout his NFL career – he comes across as a good guy, has his head on straight, gracious when he wins and in defeat.  As the story goes, as a sophomore, he allegedly placed his genitals on a woman trainer’s head who was checking his foot for a stress fracture.  He claims he was mooning a teammate.  The teammate denied it and even wrote Manning a letter to ask him to man up and admit the truth.  This guy ultimately lost his scholarship.  The woman pressed charges and the case was settled.  OK, guys are young and do stupid things.

But then the Mannings (Archie and Peyton) wrote a book together in 2003 and went after this woman again in the book. She was no longer at Tennessee and pressed charges again.  Seems odd that he found the need to bad-mouth her several years later.  Apparently, there is now some new law suit and the legal records have been unsealed.  That’s why this has come up after 17 years.  I have never been one to place any player on a pedestal – you only get disappointed.  Hey, I like A-Rod – what can I say, and I always liked Tiger Woods.  The HGH story was never fully put to bed re Manning and now this.  Some are saying that he might now come back for another couple of years to take the attention off of this story and ensure he has the media focus to defend himself.  Anyway, I think it will be interesting to see how this plays out.  We go after guys like Cam Newton for less offensive things.  Does Manning deserve a pass?  Just a young guy making a mistake?

Don’t know if you saw it last night but ESPN decided to broadcast the Michigan – Ohio State game only using cameras at courtside.  The idea was to give the viewer a sense of the athleticism of the players.  SU says that anyone who has watched their share of kids’ games over the year sitting along the court knows that as they get taller, it becomes harder to see over them.  It’s not a great view.  I watched for about 12 minutes of the game.  Awful.  The ref blocks your view about half the time and you can’t see any of the flow of the offense and lose depth perception.  I mean, didn’t anyone at ESPN test this?  Someone on Twitter joked that they should have switched to the camera angle behind the tall guy sitting in front of you.  For basketball, the traditional view is just fine.  Back to the drawing board.

Finally, too bad Carmelo shot down the latest trade rumors.  It’s only been a year and a half and everyone now sees that the re-signing of Melo by the Knicks was a disaster.  Readers of SU knew this right away.  I think he becomes more and more untradeable as his health deteriorates with his knees.  He will fulfill the length of his deal and it will take that much longer for the Knicks to find a way to become contenders.  It’s their own fault.

SU made an appearance at MSG last night with long-time SU subscriber, J. Levine, to check out your New York Knicks.  I must say the fans do show up every night.  Kurt Rambis made his coaching debut.  The guy’s been around the block with the Lakers and the T’Wolves, and he’s also been an assistant for a number of years.  I am not saying being an NBA coach is the easiest job out there (although with 5 assistant coaches for 12 players, you do certainly have some coverage there).  But to the average fan like SU, there are times when it’s not that hard.

Case in point: in the first half, he benched Porzingis (who is the only player I want to see) mid-way through the 2nd quarter, and let him stew for a while at the end of the bench.  OK, he’s the coach – that’s his prerogative.  Porzingis then burns it up in the 3rd quarter: 14 points scoring every which way.  A couple of 3-pointers, lefty drive, post-ups, spin move for a dunk.  Knicks tie it up after 3 quarters.  But then, he sits Porzingis until there are less than 6 minutes left in the game.

Note to Coach Rambis: the Knicks are offensively challenged.  Porzingis, while a rookie, is one of your 3 players who can score and he is a fan fave.  PUT HIM BACK IN THE GAME.  Let him rest a couple of minutes but what are you doing?  He played 29 minutes in total.  Either Porzingis is now on a 30-minute pitch count per game (which could be true), or Rambis has no feel for the game and who to play.  Very frustrating.

SU is warming up in the bullpen.  Give me 5 assistants and I am there.

Many have emailed SU over the past several weeks complaining about Derek Fisher.  Losing a bunch of close games in a row will help to show you to the door.  At some point, you have to figure that coaching is worth 1 – 2 points per game.  If you ever listened in on a huddle, you knew that Fisher was not the x’s and o’s kind of coach.  Rather, he was more about trying to motivate and push.

The reality is that even with Steve Kerr who they tried to hire last year, the roster does not support a better record.  They run a certain offense in the triangle.  If you watch Golden State, Kerr is not running the triangle there.  They are run and gun with lots of passing, cutting and unselfish play.  In the end, they have a lot of talent – much more than the Knicks.

SU saw that Luke Walton’s and Brian Shaw’s names are out there now.  But they need some better players – let’s face it.  At best, they are a .500 team when clicking on all cylinders.  We will see if Kurt Rambis has a different view on playing style and substitution patterns.

Truth be told, SU likes watching Porzingis but that is it.  When he is out, hard to get excited.  It’s not like Phil Jackson passed over any obvious alternative coaching choices.  Tom Thibodeaux is out there but I am sure he has his own way of wanting to run things.

So, what do you think?

Congratulations to P. Bok and B. Davis for their reasonably close Super Bowl predictions:

• Brandon D.: 28 – 17 Denver
• PBok: 21 – 17 Denver

Of course, SU was also in the ballpark at 23 – 21 Denver and having Denver score on defense.  I was hoping that Carolina might go ahead in the 3rd quarter at 14 – 13 and then see if Gary Kubiak would go to Osweiler.  SU is happy for Peyton Manning but he is running on fumes.  How he was not ready to announce his retirement at the end of the game is beyond me.  Just watching the past Super Bowl MVPs limp onto the field one after another should have been enough for him to recognize that he does not want to risk a neck injury in his final season.

SU stumbled across Cam Newton’s press conference after the game.  He had his hoodie over his head and was basically mumbling one word answers to the usual questions.  He finally just got up and walked out as if questions like, “What were you thinking at the end of the game?” were just too tough to handle.  SU says that if you are a leader, you lead in good times and bad.  It’s easy to be the man and yuck it up in the days before the game, or when you are winning, run up and down the sidelines firing up the crowd.  When adversity hits, that’s when we learn about character.  And we learned about his last night.

No doubt he will do better next time and he is of course a great talent.  SU will now wait for William Rhoden of the New York Times to write a column on how the media are too tough on Cam and there was nothing wrong with his post-game stupor.  He will say that Cam is just a fierce competitor and cares so much about winning.  I must say that when he did actually put a series of words together, he made it clear that it wasn’t all on him.  SU was not surprised.

Enough of the hype: let the game begin.  SU has compiled the score predictions from our last post and here they are:

• SU: 23 -21 Denver
• Mark L.: 31 – 20 Carolina
• Shep 44 – 6 Carolina
• Brandon D.: 28 – 17 Denver
• Jeff: 31 – 13 Carolina
• Seth: 27 – 10 Carolina
• PBok: 21 – 17 Denver

There is still time for others to weigh in.  It’s your chance to shine and be admired by thousands of subscribers across the SU intergalactic base.  Or of course you can also be ridiculed for being way, way off.

Want to look smart at your Super Bowl party?  Long-time subscriber J. Levine offers up this Super Bowl triva question for you to throw out to the audience: “Who is the only football player in history to win a college national title, the Heisman Trophy, a Super Bowl and the NFL MVP?”

I could just show you the answer here but that ruins the fun of trivia.  SU has steered clear of putting triva questions on the blog as many of you (but not all) just google the answer.  Bad form.  I will do this: check comment #7 from the last SU blog entry and you will find the answer there.

There has been a steady drip of Carmelo Anthony trade rumors the last week or so.  Today’s story has him going to the Miami Heat.  Surely Phil Jackson wants to move him but given his current health it’s hard to see anyone wanting to take on his salary at 31 years of age.  Truth be told, he has been a good soldier this year and the team is much better with him in there.  But it’s time to start a new era and give Porzingis some touches on offense.  As Derek Fisher calls absolutely no plays, it’s up to the players to get him more involved.

Hey, did the Yankees sign any free agents of note this year?  Did I miss that?  Time to put in some extra padding in the recliner for watching Yankee games in 2016.  Met fans on sports talk radio are already in mid-season form – talking about who is going to be the back-up first-baseman (answer: Wilmer Flores).  SU is ready for baseball.  Pitchers and cathers are days away from reporting.

Enjoy the Super Bowl.

SU is not one to follow the hype leading up to the Super Bowl.  Let’s face it: it’s the silly season where hundreds of media people are grasping at anything to make it a story.  The Cam Newton drama of last week provided some good copy.  SU’s take on Cam: great player and having a great year.  Loves the attention and does everything he can to make sure the camera is on him all the time.  Even when he talks, any attempt to talk about the “team” is forced.  He is much more comfortable saying “me” than “we” (literally).  Does this make him a bad guy?  Is everyone up in arms because he is Black?

SU says get over it.  If Odell Beckham Jr. was here for the Giants, it would be no different.  There are a ton of players out there who are about themselves first and love the spotlight.  The NFL culture promotes this type of behavior and many step up to fill that role.  I choose not to listen to it and frankly, I don’t like it.  SU says act like you’ve been there before when you score a touchdown.  Low key is cool to me, not jumping into the stands and running up and down the sidelines by the stands drawing attention to yourself.  I am sure the Panther fans love him and a lot of others hate him.  It shouldn’t be a race issue – it’s the NFL culture.  Hey, if Donald Trump was an NFL player, don’t you think he would be doing the same thing?  Time to move on.

As for the game, SU says Denver will win 23 – 21.  They need to keep the score down as Peyton Manning can only have so much scotchtape applied to his body and still be able to throw the ball.  Denver will score once on defense in this game, and will win on a late field goal.  SU also predicts that Brock Osweiler will play a key role in the 2nd half and will play the last quarter and a half.  Manning will either be injured or ineffective and Osweiler will make the difference in the 2nd half and down the stretch.

A couple of other thoughts today:

• SU is a big Novak Djokovic fan and what he did last year and now in winning the Australian Open is really over the top.  This is the golden era of men’s tennis with so many great players.  For him to be dominating the game as he is now puts him in the conversation of Greatest of All Time.  SU will enjoy his run.
• SU caught the Michigan – Penn State day-night doubleheader at MSG on Saturday for basketball and hockey.  This was a great day and reinforces why I like college sports more than the pros.  It’s just a better atmosphere.  What could be more fun that spending a day watching games?  SU was joined by many members of the SU intergalactic subscriber base including L. Levine, B. Levine, S. Levine, S. Fink, J. Silver, J. Zaro, A. Cohen, A. Rosenberg, K. Rosenzweig, E. and M. Rifkin, and S. Taylor and his wife.  Truly a who’s who at the Garden.
• Finally, bad news for Yankee fans as Greg Byrd goes down with shoulder surgery and will miss the season.  True, he would have spent much of the year in the minors anyway but SU likes the young guys and will now have to watch the older version of the Yankees slog through another boring season.

OK, time for you all to step up with your Super Bowl score predictions and be counted.  SU will give props to whoever comes the closest come Monday.  Time to weigh in!