SU did its due diligence last night and tuned in to catch some of the Knicks’ game against the defending champion Cavaliers.  SU, a life-long Knicks fan up until the Isiah Thomas era, really needs to be won back over to the orange and blue.  And truth be told, as long as Carmelo Anthony is here, it’s unlikely to happen unless he decides to change his game and become more team oriented.  SU’s early, early season thoughts:

• These guys have never played together before.  It’s a total makeover.  This is going to take some time.
• I really couldn’t tell exactly what the Jeff Hornacek style of play is.  There was some Mike Woodson in there (give it to Melo and have 4 players do their statue imitations) and some Mike D’Antoni (get the rebound and run).
• The problem is that Hornacek is supposed to be more like D’Antoni and if that’s the case, we all know that Carmelo does not like to play that way.  Something has to give there and if the team is smart, a trade could be in the offing.
• I thought Derek Rose looked good in spurts but as long-time SU subscriber T. Potter pointed out, he had 1 assist in 30 minutes (and he took 17 shots).  Not the formula for success.
• Porzingis had a few plays run for him but not enough for my taste.  SU cannot watch this team unless he is featured.
• I did like what I saw from the two new European players: Kuzminkas; and Hernangomez (we need Clyde Frazier to come up with some shortened nick names for these dudes and soon).  As a fan, I would much prefer to see them log more minutes – youngsters with upside who will probably even pass the ball.
• Noah beat the rush and is already hobbled with injuries.

Bottom line: you need to give it time but it’s hard to see where the scoring is going to come from.  If that is the case, then Melo will take it on his shoulders to score more which then creates a lot of other problems which in the end equals “unwatchability.”  But we won’t know until January what you have here.

Meanwhile, Golden State got blown out by the Spurs at home.  SU says too many All-Stars on one roster will ultimately turn into discontent.  Me thinks that team will also need some time to hit their stride but of course, that is just a matter of time.  But they will miss Andrew Bogut’s passing and the loss of some key role players.

Finally, Terry Francona is either really smart or he is now reading the Joe Torre handbook on how to mis-use your relief pitchers (see Tanyon Sturtze and Scott Proctor).  Andrew Miller threw about 45 pitches last night.  SU thinks he knows tonight’s game will be rained out and thus will have an extra day of rest before game 2.  If so, he’s a genius.  If not, it would be dangerous to put him out there again tonight.

Let me preface this by saying that I am all in on Michigan sports and I love Trey Burke.  As a subscriber to the NBA Season Pass, SU has the opportunity to watch every NBA game every night.  For the past few years, I have watched Trey Burke on the Utah Jazz as much as possible, and I will continue to do so now as he is on the Washington Wizards.  But I came across this story about his time at Michigan and how he doesn’t think he was effectively prepared by Michigan to enter the NBA.

http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2016/10/trey_burkes_full_comments_on_m.html

As a fan, his attitude bothers me as he is there for school (in theory) and not as a preparatory experience for life in the NBA as a professional.  On the other hand, this is his perception and Burke is a bright, level-headed kid who was not a top recruit in high school given his height.  It makes you feel like these athletes should just be paid to play and don’t even worry about the education or the college experience.  I can see both sides of this.

SU subscribers: what say you?  Are his complaints valid?  Or is he out of bounds here?

SU is looking forward to this week’s World Series between the Cubs and Indians.  For MLB, they have really lucked out after what have been 3 weeks of low drama series.  Yankee fans are excited as we have provided each team with its closer – a small contribution to this year’s post-season.

If you look at the Cubs’ roster, it’s interesting that they went young for their position players but have mainly put the pitching staff together through free agency and trades.  Is this the model for other teams?  If you look at what Cashman has done of late, he seems to be following the Theo Epstein model in Chicago as most of the prospects appear to be position players (although I suppose some could be traded for pitchers in the future).  The Indians are a bunch of no-name younger players who play together as a team.  On paper, you have to give the nod to the Cubs but it feels like this series will go 6 or 7 games as the Indians have that lights out bullpen.  If nothing else, it’s a welcome distraction from other things for a week or so.

SU watched a lot of NFL football yesterday.  My takeaways:

• The Giants must be the worst 4-3 team in the NFL.  Winning ugly is too kind for them.  They have no rhythm offensively and their defense struggles with getting off the field on 3rd down.  As a fan, you take it but it’s hard to see them going anywhere this season.
• You have to feel bad for Geno Smith.  Dude finally gets his shot and then goes down to injury.  The Jets should go with one of their youngsters for the remainder of the season as Fitzpatrick is only a stop gap and this season is already lost.
• Whatever happened to the sure thing NFL kickers?  Did you see the end of the Seattle – Arizona game?  Each kicker missed short field goals to win the game in overtime.  It almost feels like the veteran kickers (Matt Bryant, Adam Vinatieri, etc.) can kick into their 40s like left-handed relievers in baseball while the young guys don’t have the nerve to be successful in the NFL.
• The quality of play league-wide is lacking.  Seriously lacking.  And is it just me, or have the refs stopped calling pass interference when the defender grabs the arm of the receiver before the ball arrives?  I feel like there were a ton of these no-calls over the weekend and the announcers basically just agreed with the refs.

The NBA starts this week and SU will be coming out with its fearless predictions soon.  All eyes will be on Golden State and their stacked roster but as we know, stuff happens and Draymon Green is a bomb waiting to go off.  If anything can derail the Warriors it’s him.

Finally, how does Ohio State lose to Penn State?  Nothing against the Nittany Lions, but they are not a good team this year.  And all of a sudden they are ranked in the top 25?  Wow.  Ohio State’s loss shouldn’t impact what will hopefully be an exciting match up with Michigan in November as they can still go to the Big Ten Championship game.  But their roster is stacked – hard to see how they lost over the weekend.

Most Yankee fans were sorry to see Andrew Miller be traded in July as Brian Cashman went to the youth movement.  SU had no issue with the trade.  You need to move talent to get talent, and the hope is that the youngsters acquired in that deal from the Indians will be up in the Bronx soon.  But he has been amazingly dominant in the post-season so far and has established himself as a real difference maker in these first two rounds.

The Indians are a great team to root for.  A bunch of contact hitters who seem to have a game plan with their at bats.  It’s such a contrast with the 2016 Yankees whose hitters took their at bats in a vacuum.  You don’t see the Indian hitters futilely hitting into the shifts over and over again.  You know Joe Girardi is losing what little hair he has on his head watching the Indians.  They are basically trying to get a small lead through 6 innings and then turning the game over to a dominant bullpen.  The Yankees had that for the first half of the year but the combination of Chase Headley, Slugger Ellsbury, Brian McCann and Mark Texeiria just didn’t allow for any offensive production or flow.  The fact that they contended in September was just a function of Gary Sanchez, not these dudes.  While this season was an opportunity lost due to offensive ineptitude, as a Yankee fan, it’s all good as Cashman is blowing up the team now.  But you still wonder about what could have been with that All-Star bullpen.

The Jets hit a new low last night and you can already see the QB controversy developing.  But their season is already over.  The Giants are still in the mix at 3-3 but are deeply flawed and fooling no-one.  The League has so many mediocre teams this year.  And is Dallas that good?

SU is worried about long-time fave Novak Djokovic who melted down in China last week in the semi-finals of a tournament in Shanghai.  Tore off his shirt in the middle of a game and broke his racket in an upset loss.  He is struggling with motivation right now.  Andy Murray won both China tournaments and has a real shot to finish #1 this year.  SU has some new found respect now for Murray who has always been a nut job on the court yelling at himself and his team in the box along the court.  He was quoted as really understanding what Djokovic is going through after winning the French Open this year and how hard it is to maintain a high level of passion and motivation year after year.  He also spent time talking to Kyrgios about learning how to be a professional at 19 years of age and acting like an adult on tour.  I must say that Murray has evolved as a player and as a person.  Impressive.

We are one week away from the start of the NBA season.  Knick fans have high hopes.  SU has not watched any of their preseason games but unless Porzingis is featured in the offense, I will wait to get on board.  I will also wait to bash Carmelo as he may surprise us all this year and look to be a distributor on offense with a stronger roster around him.  Or not.

Wow, let’s face it.  Five games into the 2016-17 NFL season and we basically have 2 unwatchable teams in New York.  SU is struggling.  Lifelong NFL fan and I can pretty much watch any sports event on TV.  But I am not being entertained by the NFL this season and especially the NY teams.  The Jets should be better than they are – especially given their defense but they come up short week after week.  The Giants just don’t have the personnel and that’s on the GM.  The defense can’t get off the field on 3rd down and OBJ is just a distraction on offense.

Even the other games that I have watched this season are yawners.  I know the NFL’s ratings are down so far this year – not sure if that’s a blip or not.  But I find myself looking forward to the start of the NBA season and college basketball more and more.

Speaking of the NBA, Jeremy Lin’s Brooklyn debut on Thursday night featured 21 points in 15 minutes.  This will be SU’s new adopted team for the season.  The roster is Development League quality – and that is almost an insult to any D-League team.  But Lin will run the show and it’s refreshing to watch a pass first point guard who wants to get everyone involved.  SU checked on line and there are still seats available on the Nets bandwagon – you can even upgrade to extra legroom for no extra charge as there is no one on the bus.  I am sure he will be dissed by all of the other NBA players (See Jarrett Jack’s tweet when Lin’s 3-year, $36 million deal was announced and Jack was cut: “Hahahahahahaha.”)  But Lin has paid his dues playing with James Harden and Kobe which run counter to his team-first roots.  Good for him and good for SU.

The baseball playoffs have been equally dull.  I suspect the Red Sox will make a run here and force a game 5 vs. Cleveland and that once the Cubs move on, interest will pick up.

Finally, watching Michigan’s 78-0 throttling of Rutgers over the weekend makes you wonder if Rutgers should be in the Big 10.  It’s not fair to the players and they are years away from being competitive.  Michigan only threw 2 passes in the 2nd half and just kept running the ball.  It appeared that Rutgers’ defense quit and that’s hard to watch.

First, SU wishes a happy and healthy new year to its intergalactic Jewish subscribers.  We start with Wild Card week and SU believes it’s always good to first re-visit the preseason predictions to see how things are playing out.  Here is what SU said back in early April:

“Let’s start with the National League.  SU can barely find room on the Mets’ bandwagon.  Way too crowded and everyone is picking them to win the NL East.  SU is not so sure.  Some teams play better under the radar and have a harder time coping with expectations.  On paper, the young pitchers have more experience under their belts and the young hitters should be that much better.  But….sometimes young players take a step back before they are ready to make the big step forward.  SU believes the Nationals will be a worthy adversary in the East but of course, having Stephen Drew on the roster will ultimately bring them down.  He is a difference maker.  The Mets will win the East but it will go into September and be closer than you think.

Lots of love out there for the Cubs to take the next step and win it all.  SU will agree on that one but the SF Giants win their world championships in the even years and last time I checked, it’s 2016.  Giants win the West, Cubs in the Central and the Nationals and Cardinals take the wild cards.

In the American League, the AL East is a toss-up.  Many predict the Toronto Blue Jays will win the division and the World Series this year.  SU disagrees.  The Jose Bautista contract will become a bigger and bigger distraction as the season unfolds and if any of their starters goes down, they are just a good hitting team with limited pitching.  They may win the East but they won’t make it to the World Series.  Btw, former Yankee phenom Jesus Montero is now in their farm system.  How the mighty have fallen.

The Yankees will contend but YES ratings will be way down along with attendance.  This roster is a snoozefest.  All 5 starters will find their way to the DL during the course of the year.  Texeiria is in his walk year (and he will walk with Greg Bird ready to assume 1st base next season) and he should be motivated for that reason.  Expect harder outs into the shift this year as opposed to softer outs in the past.  Castro will be a guy to watch along with Hicks in the outfield.  He is going to take at bats away from both Ellsbury and Gardner.  The Yankees will make one of the Wild Cards.  The Royals are still in good shape but getting to the World Series 3 years in a row is very hard.  Texas wins the West and the Royals and  Yankees are the Wild Cards. Watch out for Detroit to make a comeback this year and get to the World Series where they lose to the Giants in 6 games.”

OK, as always, a mixed back with SU on the predictions but nothing ventured, nothing gained.  Jayson Stark of espn.com says a number of MLB executives are feeling the love for the Red Sox to go all the way given their line up and under-rated pitching staff.  However, most of the experts are looking for the Cubs to end their streak.  SU says if Toronto beats the Orioles, check out the Texas-Toronto first round series – these teams truly hate each other and there is bad blood from last year’s series and the fight between Odor and Bautista this year.  Bad blood is good for baseball and a welcome change from the hugfests that we often see.

In the NL, the Mets – Giants wild card game with their aces rested is must see tv.  Games like this always come down to the bullpens and SU believes the Mets should have the advantage there.  But neither team is getting past the Cubs I suspect this year.  A Boston – Cubs World Series would generate big ratings but these things rarely work out that way.  SU hates the Red Sox but they are the best of the relatively weaker AL teams.  Cubs over the Red Sox in the World Series.  Your thoughts?

Glad to see Robinson Cano fail to make the post-season again in Seattle.  Take the money and rest in October – it’s a way of life.

SU caught a fair amount of the Ryder Cup this weekend.  It was good stuff for golf.  The fans in Minnesota were very into it and were not your usual golf gallery.  The European players took a fair amount of abuse but for SU, golf could sure use more of this.  It was good to see the Americans finally win one.

The Jets are who they are at 1-3 and the Giants are likely to get blown out tonight in Minnesota.  NY football will be lucky to produce a team over .500 this season but hey, we are generally used to that.