Iowa State Bailed Out? Timing is Very Bad

 Iowa State Basketball is probably at the worst point it can be in. It was bad yesterday, and today its even worse only because its April 27th. Usually when you lose a basketball coach its in March or early April. That is probably why Creighton took him so fast, their coach (Dana Altman) took the Oregon job on Saturday and Creighton contacted Greg McDermott on Sunday. ISU has only 6 scholarship players on the roster at the moment, and high expectations this past season to only win 4 conference games. Plus kids keep transferring from the program. They even go as far as saying they are only leaving to be close to home, and then pick a school even further from home than ISU was. They need to get some JUCO's or some High Schoolers for whatever reason haven't signed with anybody. This is not a good time to not have a coach. Kids will be leaving school soon for summer break, and its going to be interesting to see what they do in Ames. Nick Nurse was just hired on as the top assistant as he was the head coach of the Iowa Energy NBA-D League. The owner of Iowa Energy states that Nurse could have his job back, but I would think Jamie Pollard will maybe make him the Interim Head Coach for a year to make things easier, its not like their is a lot of coaches available right now that don't have baggage. Plus its not like coming to ISU will be a great job with only 6 players, you can't even practice with 6 guys. McDermott left for Creighton because he realized that things were not working at ISU, and he has a good track record in the Missouri Valley Conference when at University of Northern Iowa. Creighton is one of the top mid-major schools in the country. The play in a nice arena, huge following, and they pay very good as they are a private institution. Plus he will have decent team next year that just happens to be playing Iowa State at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines next year, the storyline for that just got a little better. So McDermott takes the Alford Flee and gets out of dodge from a BCS school for a mid-major saving face from a firing next year.

What are the Vikings doing in the NFL Draft?

The Vikings gave up their draft pick in the 1st round to the Detroit Lions to take Detroit's 2nd pick in the second round. Along with that the Vikings swapped places with the Lions in the 4th round as the Lions had a earlier pick, and the Vikes get the Lions 7th Round pick. But the real story is they traded with the Lions, their NFC North opponent, and allowed the Lions to get a speedy quick running back that they will see twice a season. Are they not aware that you do not want your inter divisional opponents to get better. Maybe today the Vikes can trade their 2nd pick in the 2nd round to Green Bay or Chicago. Seriously Vikings!!!

Their is this great debate if they should take Jimmy Clausen (QB Notre Dame) or not with their pick tonight. The Vikes do need a QB, lets face it, Favre has one year left maybe, and then we need a QB. This is the perfect time to draft a guy, and let them sit back a year and watch and learn. So I think the Vikes should take a QB, but which one. Clausen has all the tools to be a good one, but his very cocky and can be lazy. Colt McCoy (QB Texas) works very hard and is accurate, but is not very big. It will be interesting to see what they do with the pick tonight, hopefully they don't trade it away.

Roethlisberger gets 6 game suspension, maybe 4

Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers will have a 6 game suspension for breaking the NFL's personal conduct policy. If Ben has good behavior, it could be shortened to 4 games. Has the NFL become the Penal system. Is Roger Goodell (NFL Commissioner) really just a Prison Warden or Director of Parole. Michael Vick had the same kind of suspension. If you have good behavior, you can come back sooner. This is the NFL, not Pelican Bay. Do they all sit around the Gatorade cooler and state how they are all innocent, they just took the deal so that they could get a shorter sentence. So as long as Ben Roethlisberger stays away from college town bars, and motorcycles he will probably only miss 4 games. But the Steelers have traded for Byron Leftwich who played for Pittsburgh previously, and the Steelers have been listening to trade offers for Big Ben. So really the true sentence for his actions could be the loss of playing for the Steelers and having to start all over with a team like the Rams or Buccaneers. I think you should get a suspension, and it should be tough. I think the 6 game suspension is strict, and I don't like the motivational clause that if he does good he can come back after 4 games. These are grown adults here. Because if he would mess up again, its a whole new incident, so he would get an added suspension to the 6 game suspension. So really the 6 game suspension is really a 4 game if behavior is good and if not it will be 6 games plus whatever else is handed down. If Ben has another incident, Roger Goodell isn't going to say just complete the 6 game suspension.

Slacker Sports it is.

The final verdict is that Bac's Sports Talk was imploded for a new improved blog called Slacker Sports. The subject matter will not change one bit. Some things in the works to be coming will be a Sports Bucket List, the top 2 worst and best uniforms of the big 4 sports (NFL, MLB,NHL, NBA), the highly anticipated Big Ten Football preview, and I am thinking of doing a Slacker of the week poll question. Right now the poll question is all about the Chicago Cubs, and at times it will be the slacker of the week poll question. The poll is on the right side of the blog. I think Jason Marquis (Nationals) would be the Slacker this week anyways giving up 6 runs in the 1st inning to the Brewers. He couldn't retire the first 7 batters. No worries though, he is making $15 million for 2 years and is 0-3 with a 20.52 ERA so far this year.

Lets get down to business. What in the world has happened in the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Capitols are the #1 seed and down 0-2 going to Montreal where Hockey is a birthright.
If you didn't believe me on the San Jose Sharks sports curse, you do now. They lost game 3 in overtime to Colorado by their own player scoring a goal on his teamate Nabokov. Yes, 51 seconds into overtime, Dan Boyle defenseman for the sharks backhanded the puck by the boards to clear it expecting it to go behind the goal, but instead it slipped between Nabokov's pads and the goal pipes. San Jose is down 1-2 in their series as they are the #1 seed in the West. Don't worry Boyle, my son who is 4 likes to kick the soccer ball into the other teams goal too. I guess whatever goal is closer and easier is the best option a the time.

Thinking of a New Title

The picture has nothing to do with this story other than its a great picture of what you may think is a great seat when looking at the ticket until you find your seat at Fenway Park in Boston. I have been thinking of changing my blog title from Bac's Sports Talk to Slacker Sports. No I'm not changing it so I can call it Formerly Known as Bac's Sports talk like Prince who I don't even recognize as a recording artist because he weirds me out. I think the title is fitting mostly because I am like most people who blog, I have a real job, this is just for fun. So I only do stories when I have the time due to family, job, and other stuff that goes on. So If I have time to announce right when Notre Dame hires a football coach or Iowa hires a basketball coach I do the story. But their are times when a story is big news and if I don't have time to due a subject on it, I just let it go. Like Tiger Woods at the Masters, for one you are at the wrong place if you think Golf is getting covered, I try not to be the 9am Storytime speaker at the local library. But anyways I am not going to shove a subject down your throat that ESPN, FOX, and every other news source has done already. Slacker sports would be fitting just because someone who would follow this for all sports news and then turn on Sportscenter would think whoever is in charge of this blog is a slacker, so that is why I think it would be a great change. But in all changes in life, their needs to be a vote. Sometimes in society, money dominates things like Sec Taylor Stadium in Des Moines is known as Principal Park now. It was a money issue, people didn't get to vote, Principal offered the Iowa Cubs a great amount of Money to have their name on the stadium, and that helped the Iowa Cubs make improvements to the stadium. If someone wants to offer me money, I will change it to whatever you want me to, but that's not happening, so we will vote on it instead. I want opinions so it doesn't turn out like Wrigley Field becoming AIG Field and nobody having a say. Please have a say by posting a comment.

And P.S. Slacker Sports wouldn't mean that Curling and Fishing would be the main topics.

Stanley Cup Playoffs Have Begun

Its that time of year. The second season has begun for the NHL, and like every year their are surprises already. Both the #1 seeds for the East and West have lost game 1 to the #8 seeds. The Washington Capitals lost in overtime last night to the Montreal Canadiens, and the San Jose Sharks lost to Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night. Alexander Ovechkin didn't even get a shot off in the game, but don't expect that to happen again this series, he is only the best player in the NHL. I still expect the Capitals to win the 7 game series. The Sharks tend to underachieve every time they make the playoffs when they are a good seed. Back when they were #8 and #7 seeds they use to knock off the Redwings, but its like a curse. The Sharks do have bad karma, or a sports curse of some sorts, and I have felt it. When I started liking hockey, the San Jose Sharks came into the NHL and the marketing for them was genius. Sharks gear was everywhere, so I hopped on that train. During the early years of my Hockey fascination, I would attempt to have seasons with the Sharks on my Sega Genesis or Sony PlayStation, and for whatever reason I could never finish a season because something would happen and erase it. So I guess that maybe the Sharks are just cursed in the sports world. I was very impressed with the Phoenix Coyotes in Game 1 as they beat the Redwings, scoring all 3 goals on power plays against a team that is very good on penalty killing. Anytime a team beats Detroit they are a fan of mine. Plus it was cool to see all the folks wearing white T-shirts for a whiteout, keeping the tradition going that started when the Coyotes use to be the Winnipeg Jets. Coyotes play very physical, and fly across the ice. Its a very exciting style and it has worked for them as they are #4 seed when they were not very good just a year ago. I think the team to watch starts tonight, and that is the Chicago Blackhawks. They are absolutely loaded with talent, and the only issue they have is goaltending, but they were able to lock in the #2 seed, so we will see if the goaltending can be good enough throughout the playoffs. I think the Blackhawks will skate right through the Nashville Predators onto the second round.

Monday Morning Quick Hits: Baseball Begins, Butler, & McNabb

The grass is green, the season is changing, and that means its time to start baseball. On Opening Day, all the stadiums are full, and everybody is in first place today (well actually the Yankees are in last due to their loss last night to the Redsox, that's too bad). Its time for families to come together, get hot dogs and sodas to enjoy this American past time. Nothing is better than enjoying the outside weather and taking in a baseball game. The Chicago Cubs will take on the Atlanta Braves today at 3:10pm Central on ESPN. This will be their first game of their journey to the NL Central Title. I can't wait to hear "Go CUBS Go"!

Butler will take on Duke tonight for the National Title game. Yes, Butler from the Horizon league is playing an ACC team for the National Title. This is what the NCAA tournament is all about. Nobody is saying Butler doesn't belong, because they do. They were a top 10 team in the country at the beginning of the year. They beat their opponents to get to the title game. Its not like NCAA D-1 Football where Boise State beats up on WAC opponents and then is mad that they don't get a shot at Alabama. Nobody wants to see that. If they had a playoff, everybody would accept it because they would have proven themselves against good talent, like Butler has in the tournament.

Donovan McNabb was traded to the Washington Redskins last night. Nothing like trading your 11 year star QB to a team in your division. But Redskin fans don't get too excited. Its only for one year, then he will take over for the Vikings when Favre retires. That's what the Vikings do. In the past the Vikings have had Jim McMahon, Warren Moon, Randall Cunningham, Gus Frerotte, and now Favre. All at the end of their careers. Vikings don't know how to develop QB's, they leave that up to the rest of the NFL.

Barry Bonds signs 1 year, $10.5 Million with Cubs

The Chicago Cubs just threw in all their cards at the poker table with the Cardinals. Cubs said if you think your lineup is tough, wait until you see ours. Yes the Chicago Cubs, under new management have signed Barry Bonds to a 1 year $10.5 million dollar deal. Its actually a steal for the Cubs as he was making $20 million a year when he was in San Francisco. Bonds may not be a great outfielder anymore, but he can still swing the bat. Plus it can't get much worse that Soriano's crow-hop before he catches the ball style in Left field. Cubs expect that Bonds will get quite a bit of playing time, and will be a pinch hitter late in close games when needed. Cubs will be the team to beat in the NL Central as long as the pitching rotation is strong and the bats are swinging. Bonds was asked if he will be a distraction to the team with his federal cases and allegations of using steroids. Bonds stated, "Are you kidding me? They had Milton Bradley on this team last year." "This City has more things to worry about like the White Sox Manager being a hot-head, and the Bulls still looking for an identity since MJ left." Bonds hit 28 home runs and had a batting average of .276 in his last season to play in 2007. This story can only be found here, and have a great April 1st. P.S. The Cubs will win the NL Central regardless cause next year is HERE!