I really need to rant on the Suns and the Astros...

...but the Sun Devil hoops team keeps bringing me joy. No Pac-10 had swept UCLA in a season series over the past 3 seasons, until last night when the Devils dropped the Bruins 74-67.

Some may say "big deal" as the Pac-10 and UCLA are down this year but I really don't care. People who haven't followed this program cannot appreciate the ineptitude that Sun Devil nation has endured over the past 30 years with respect to our hoops team.

I can't ever remember a time when ASU fielded a basketball team that could probably hang or beat any team in the country right now with maybe the exception of Duke and UNC. Most teams who turn the ball over 17 times, like the Devils did last night, particularly against a Top 10 team, are probably going to get buried. Also, to see them do it on a nationally televised ESPN game in front of a packed house at WFA and then to watch the students storm the court, frankly I got a little choked up. It's kind of that same feeling I get when I know that a dual-core server I bought back in 2006 would be easily refreshed with quad- or six-core processors in 2009 without any chipset or board changes (sorry, shameless work-related self-promotion.)

Back to the Sun Devils, hopefully they helped hoops fans in the Valley forget for the weekend about how awful the Suns are and helped remind all of Arizona (and the Pac-10) that you have officially now seen a changing of the guard in Arizona college hoops. Sorry Tucson, as Lute goes, so goes your program.

Rants and randomness

• A-rod alledgedly used steroids in 2003. Yawn. I'm so ready for the media to turn the page on steroids in baseball. Dont they have better things to focus on such as why Bud Selig gets paid $18 million per year for overseeing a league full of juicers?
• I will say this about Selig, whether this is his doing or not, I for one am glad there seems to be some new blood in the World Series each year and we have some decent parity in baseball.
• My son is going is wearing his YMCA hoops jersey from last summer to bed tonight. Not sure what that's all about.
  
• Favorite song in my ipod this week is "Sometime around midnight" by the Airborne Toxic Event. Check out awesome performance from last month on Letterman show.
  
• Sun Devil hoops swept the Oregon schools this weekend. Unfortunately so did Tucson which diminishes the achievement. At least the Devils got back on track after their lost weekend against the Washington schools. Nice game from Harden in Eugene against Oregon and Jamelle McMillan stepped up for injured Derek Glasser. Hope that is a sign of things to come from the sophomore and he didn't play well just because the Portland Trailblazers coach was in attendance.
  
• Survived my long weekend as a single dad. Wasn't too bad. Kids were pretty good for the most part. It did suck being away from Tricia on our anniversary. 11 years in the books as of yesterday.
  
• Someone asked me today at church if I thought the Cardinals were a one-hit wonder. My initial reaction is I think they are. Until the organization proves that they are willing to step up and keep the nucleus together. Both offensive and defensive coordinators are gone, Boldin says his relationship with team is not fixable and Warner is on the fence about coming back. With that kind of activity already in the first week post-Superbowl, initial indicators are a quick slipslide back into mediocrity. I want to be an optimist, I really do, but as long as Bidwell family remains in charge, I'm afraid I have to err on the side of pessimism. Funny how you haven't heard a peep out of the Steelers this week.
  
• If this year's version of the Cardinals were a computing platform, I'm pretty sure they would be AMD's "Dragon" platform. You have the QB (Warner) who despite not being the overall raw performance leader, gets outstanding results and is the right fit for the team. Oh and he was the 15th highest paid QB in the league. You surround him with all-pro receivers and a good enough running back and offensive line and you have the NFC champs. Think of this way: Warner = Phenom II, Fitzgerald and Boldin = Radeon HD 4870 X2 and strong core of RBs are the 790 GX chipset. Hey, I have to figure out some way to get mileage out of my post-graduate sports management schooling.
  
• Took the kids to see Paul Blart: Mall Cop yesterday. Didn't suck that bad. Kind of like Home Alone in a mall.
  
• I'm so disgusted by the play of the Phoenix Suns and the direction of the organization, I foresee a much longer rant on them this week. Sad that the All-Star game will be in Phoenix too and the fans there can't get excited about the home team.
  
• I'm trying really really really hard to get excited about the Astros this season.
  

The Lost Weekend...

It's the morning after the weekend in which will probably go down as one of the most memorable and yet forgettable ones for sports fans in Phoenix.

First and foremost, there is the Cardinals. What can you say, it was one of the best and worst Superbowls ever if you were a Cards fan. The range of emotions that myself and other Cards (and probably Steeler fans) experienced in those final 15 minutes were turbulent to say the least. Right after the game was over, I really wanted to lay this one all on the refs, but frankly, the Cards were their own worst enemy and plagued themselves with numerous mistakes and missed tackling. Despite, all that, they were still in a position to win the game when many teams may have folded. The loss stings and it hurts, but as Deadspin's Will Leitch put it, it's a good hurt.

For me personally, I was glad to have been able to be in Phoenix during the Cards Superbowl weekend. To ride that roller coaster together with friends (thanks Goodell family for hosting) who all have the same rooting passion, that's one of the things I will always remember about the Cards first Superbowl.

Now, on to the Suns, who really aren't even worth writing about given how awful they are right now. Friends, this is what happens when you let U of Tucson alums take control of an NBA franchise. Robert Sarver and Steve Kerr have managed to take the franchise from the league's elite to riding on a bullet-train to Clipperland. Nice job against Chachi and the woeful Bulls at home this weekend.

As for the Sun Devil hoopsters, I'm trying to stay optimistic that their back to back home losses to the state of Washington was their low-point of the season and they will get back to playing the smart, somewhat mistake-free ball they were playing earlier in the season. I've always felt Herb Sendek was one of the smartest coaches in the Pac-10, but he was outcoached by Bennett and Romar these last two games.

Two steps back

Not even going to give the Sun Devils hoopsters credit for taking one forward with their previous wins over UCLA and Tucson. Regardless of whether or not they have Superbowl fever, you just dont lose at home if you are truly a Top 15 team, much less lose by 10. Apparently entering the week as the top-ranked team in the Pac-10 was too much for the Herbivores to handle.

I didnt get to watch the game last night as Fox Sports chose to show a team from Tucson that had lost three Pac-10 games in a row and barely beat some scrubs from University of Houston recently. Apparently Washington State (who I now believe is probably the best team in the country) has some freshman son of a former NBAer that dropped 28 points on the Devils. The Devils have a sophomore who has a dad that played AND now coaches in the NBA as well as the best player in the country this side of Hansborough. Doesn't that automatically make the Devils better on paper?

Please drop-kick the doggies from Washington on Saturday and prove to me Devils that you are not a paper tiger.

Clancy bustin' a move at his Xmas program

The title says it all. Fear not grandparents, I will post the a version with the boy actually singing later this week.

Clancy (5yrs) reads his first book

Clancy read his first book to us last night. It was really exciting to see how much he has learned in Kindergarten in just a short time. I think we made him read it three times last night, once for mommy, once for daddy and once for the camera.

A Padawan no more

During our trip to Disneyland, Clancy was selected to participate in the Jedi Academy show. I'm pretty sure this was the highlight of the visit for him. He takes after his dad in his love of Star Wars movies and I will never forget him running up to me after he was done and giving me a big extra-long hug. I'm pretty sure that was his way of expressing to me that only I understand how cool this all was for him.