Weekend Bright Spots for BC

To this point in the young academic year, there haven't been a whole lot of success stories coming out of the Chestnut Hill sports scene. But after a weekend where the national champion men's hockey team withstood a scare from Merrimack and the football team rose to the occasion for a big upset over Clemson, things are looking a bit brighter for the maroon and gold.

10/29 NBA Recap: Top 5?

Well last night, the Celtics beat the new and improved New York Knicks, thanks in large part to Rajon Rondo's impressive triple-double, including 24 assists, second-only to Bob Cousy for a Celtics record. Here are some of my random thoughts for the game:

-I'm 94% positive that the TD Garden uses Madden's soundtrack for house music. It's not a bad thing, I generally don't get enough of "Crazy Train" while playing Madden, so the 12 times they play it during Celtics games get me up to par.

10/28 NBA Recap: "Rootforability"

It was a relatively slow night for the NBA last night, as only two games were showing, and both games were never really close.

The first game had the Orlando Magic vs. Washington Wizards, notable for being John Wall's first career NBA game. Wall put up fourteen points and nine assists, not a bad performance. However, I noticed he looked lost on defense at times, which he'll definitely have to improve on, though that may be attributed to first-game jitters. Also, his team lost by nearly thirty points (actually twenty-nine points), which can be somewhat blamed on Gilbert Arenas' ankle injury, but mostly due to poor play all-around from the team. Wall was picked to lead this team; can he get over rookie nerves to take the reigns and lead this team to meaningful victories?

Role Reversal

Four years ago, Tyler Seguin was a 14-year-old kid likely familiar with plenty of faces in the NHL. Back then, Phil Kessel would be recognized as a Boston Bruin. As for himself, Seguin would have been dreaming to one day play for his hometown heroes, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Tonight, it's an intense role reversal for the Bruins promising young rookie talent.

10/27 NBA Recap

Last night, the NBA’s youth displayed some flashes of brilliance while the Celtics floundered against a LeBron-free Cavaliers team. Here is the first (of many) NBA recaps.

I’m not one to jump the gun, or over-hype somebody, but Blake Griffin is going to be a special player. I (and many others) knew he was cut from a different cloth while tracking him when he played at Oklahoma. And last night’s performance shows how good he can be. Griffin put up twenty points, fourteen rebounds (a double-double), and shot 57% from the field in a loss to the Portland Trailblazers. Also, nine of his rebounds were on the offensive glass in a game where an offensive rebounder is a hot, yet rare, commodity.

Delay for the Stylization

So I guess this is mainly an apology to the UB readers who may have been checking into the site over the past day or so. Haven't been doing much sports posting. But you may be noticing some changes. We now have two columns besides the posting columns. Isn't it so sophisticated? Semi-transparent layers enabling you to see more parts of our awesome background? It may be cool and stylish, but it's been giving me headaches. Codes like you see here. That's how I make changes, and it can be frustrating. But do you like the layout? Does it look sleek? Was it worth the delay that resulted? I mean, all I really missed was Game 1, which was a pitchers' duel gone wrong between the Giants and Rangers. Leave your thoughts anyway. And don't worry -- we've got an Ed B basketball post coming your way in just a little bit.

Searching for a Title

Well then. That was pretty sweet. The Celtics played a great game. The 20 turnovers weren't great, but we can overlook that (for now).

In an attempt to avoid ESPN's obsession with underachieving teams, I'll talk about both squads in last night's contest.

The C's did good things. Offensively, Ray and Paul did their jobs, while Big Baby picked up some slack off the bench. Pierce, Shaq and KG crashed the boards. Rondo had an off night scoring, but I think 17 assists make up for that. (Seventeen? Seriously?).

C's Take Down Heat in Opener

After watching ESPN for the past four months, you likely thought the Heat were getting ready to raise their championship banner tonight. Back here on planet earth in good, sweet reality, though, the Celtics hosted the Heat at the Garden and gave them a nice little taste of what championship basketball has been and always will be about.

Celtics Dumping on Heat Live Chat

Trade in the Works?

The start to the Boston Bruins season has been pretty promising to this point, and many will point out the fact that the team will get back talented veteran forwards Marc Savard and Marco Sturm once they return from long term injuries. What many fans may not know off hand, however, is that the Bruins will need to clear off $7.5 million in cap space before Savard and Sturm can return to the NHL squad. Their options? Blake Wheeler, Michael Ryder, and Matt Hunwick are all names that keep surfacing in the rumors swirling around the black and gold.

Sox Lose Farrell to Jays

What most were suspecting this morning has finally become official. The Toronto Blue Jays are set to introduce former Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell as their new manager, ending Farrell's four-year stint as Terry Francona's right hand man. Farrell has previously turned down several managerial offers in the interest of staying with Boston, but after missing the playoffs in 2010, he felt it was time to make the next step in his career.

Farrell played a huge role in regulating and developing several of Boston's young pitchers over his time here. He jumped straight into a world series championship in 2007, and despite going without another ring the rest of his tenure, he progressed this staff leaps and bounds from where it was in 2007.

As for how the team will move forward without Farrell, that remains to be seen. GM Theo Epstein and Francona will likely begin interviewing potential candidates to fill the void left by Farrell in the coming weeks. Francona acknowledged in an interview with ESPN that having such a close friend [Farrell] truly helped get through the bumps in the road of a long season and that it will be difficult to go against him 19 times next season. Still, Francona and everyone else involved knows that it is a business and that Farrell made the choice that was best for his career. Thanks for your service, John. Good luck -- but not too much -- in Toronto.

Tumbling Vikings

For those of you who missed the Brad Childress press conference last night, there's some tension building (surprise!) between the Vikings quarterback and head coach. Childress essentially called out Favre, saying that you can't afford to give the ball away via interceptions in games like their loss to the Green Bay Packers last night. He criticized why Favre was even looking in a given direction on one of his picks, because the play called for something entirely different. It seems like Childress has always been unable to willingly give Favre the full responsibility of that offense, and the tensions are potentially reaching their boiling points as the Vikes prepare for a Week 8 battle with New England.