The Chris Bourque Experiment

The Pittsburgh Penguins have been to back to back Stanley Cup Finals. In this time frame, the franchise has undoubtedly gotten bored. Honestly, there's really nothing to get excited for in the regular season anymore when your team has been to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. An overtime point against the Islanders was cause for a parade three years ago, now it is cause for complete apathy. Who even knows that there is a Penguins game on today at 2 versus the Islanders? If Martin Biron is in net, it will only look like he had no idea there was a game going on. So, the Pens have decided to engage in a few pet projects here and there. They already have been well documented. Trying to keep Eddie Johnston alive, saving the last remnants of Paul Steigerwald's hair, paying off the FCC so Bob Errey won't get in trouble for saying pickle-stabber, and the Michel Therrien Rosetta Stone experiment. The most fool-hardy and challenging project has been trying to turn Chris Bourque into anything resembling a National Hockey League player. It has failed miserably.




















Sometimes, father just ain't like son. If Chris Bourque's name was Chris Smith, he would be playing throwaway games up in Rochester. It boggles the mind that the Penguins organization seems so absolutely hell-bent on getting this kid playing time when he has shown not one ounce of talent. Even during the broadcast, Steigerwald and Errey go to great lengths to defend this guy. Who can forget the yawning net that he completely missed against Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils? Steigerwald chalked it up to Bourque being at a bad angle. If a bad angle is being two feet away from a wide open net with a puck on your stick, I better go back to Geometry class. I don't care if the Penguins have to pry Kevin Stevens away from snorting coke every other day, this franchise needs a winger that will ensure that Bourque is either sent to the minors or commits suicide from sucking.

There are two assurances that I will make about Bourque right now.

1. He will never score a goal in a Penguins uniform.
2. He will undoubtedly score a goal against the Penguins with another team.

Baskeball-a-Thon

All over the map baby!

If you turned on ESPN at any time on Tuesday you saw college basketball. And when I say any time, I mean any time. From the time the Cal St. Fullerton/UCLA game started at 12am on Tuesday to the end of the TCU/Arizona St. game at 130am on Wednesday there was continuous basketball on ESPN (and some games on ESPN2). Some of the games were crap, such as the Monmouth/St. Peter's game, but at least half of the games were wildly entertaining. Gonzaga gave #2 Michigan St. a hell of a game in the Izzone, Temple should have knocked off Georgetown in DC, and Memphis was a buzzer-beater away from knocking off #1 Kansas on a neutral court.

Naturally the premier match-ups were primetime games and the small-school games were on during the wee hours of the morning, but the idea in general is very intriguing. Before Monday night I could not have cares less about the upcoming college basketball season, because Pitt is not a top-level team this year and I am at Drexel (no offense). But the second-annual college basketball marathon got me pumped up. There were so many entertaining games and even the games that featured #1 and #2 vs. unranked teams went right down to the wire. Kansas, Michigan St. and Kentucky all played unranked teams the last few days, going 3-0 but only winning by a combined 8 points. Maybe that means that the unranked teams they were playing were better than expected, or maybe the top-tier teams are worse than we thought.

I love the idea of this marathon and I think there should be one of these days every month, instead of every year. An ESPN channel that just has continuous basketball, 24/7, from mid-November until conference tournaments would be incredible. Of course that would entail ESPN hiring about 40 more broadcasters and hundreds of crew workers, but it would be revolutionary for sports television and I am sure it would be popular with current sports fans and ESPN followers. It is a distant wish, I guess, because it will never happen; but could you imagine?

The Slovakian Rocket Reborn

Marian Gaborik has come out flying for the start of this season. This is what the Rangers have been waiting for sometime now; a true number one scorer. Nikolai Zherdev was a failed experiment in NY, but plan B with Gabby is making Glen Sather look a genius. Sather is the General Manager who gave Gaborik a huge contract even with his history of injury problems.

So far this season the Rangers lived (and died) with Gaborik. The two games he missed the team lost, but with him NY is 9-4; very impressive. So for right now Gabby is king at MSG and the NY hockey media will hold him to that title and expect him to play through more injuries than he has in his past. The team needs him too.

I have always thought of Gabby as a potential 50 goal scorer and with the chemistry that has formed between him and Vaclav Prospal, this milestone seems very achievable. The talent is there and now it just all on Gabby's body to hold up.

Xavier Basketball Tip Off

Last night Xavier basketball started off its season with an exhibition game against Rollins College, a Division II school from Florida. This wasn't supposed to be a test but a warm up game for an exciting Xavier basketball season. As the Sean Miller era has now ended with a Sweet 16 appearance, Chis Mack takes the team that has lost its top three scorers which included their top rebounder from a year ago. So now a new group of players have to step up big time which include the new transfer star from Indiana, Jordan Crawford (we all know why he is so well known), senior big man Jason Love, and junior guard Dante Jackson. With yesterday night's convincing win over Rollins College, you got to see a glimpse of what is to come this season.

Jordan Crawford had a sloppy first half with a couple forced drives to the hoop that resulted in bad shots but rebounded to have a great second half with a couple pretty bounce passes to Kenny Frease in the paint for dunks and proceeded to score a game high 16 points. Also Dante Jackson had really good game, scoring an effortless 13 points by including 2-3 from beyond the arc. As for our big men, Jason Love and Kenny Friese dominated a small Rollins team inside with a combined 13 rebounds and six blocked shots. Kenny Friese also showed some quickness guarding their center that was more of a three-point shooter and driver. This is also not to mention Jamel McLean who showed a sweet jumper to go along with all the athletic ability he has. My surprise of the game was Mark Lyons, 6'1" freshman point guard from New York, who showed lightning quickness (three steals) and the ability to create off the dribble by either dishing the ball or making a lay up. If Lyons develops any kind of shot, he is going to be a star point guard in the making and starting in no time. Plus, experience will give him more patience at the point guard position. The highlight of the game came from Jeff Robinson, a 6-9 freshman from Indianapolis, who dunked the ball over a Rollins player...

This is just small sample of what it is to come on this unknown season. But things are only looking up for this team. Their next exhibition game will be this Saturday at 7:30 against Northern Kentucky at Cintas Center on the campus of Xavier.