My NFL All-Pro Team

While sitting back, watching some great NFL action this weekend, I composed my 2007 NFL All-Pro team, and that follows here. A couple of note prior to revealing the squad: first, yeah, I've got 12 guys on defense. I couldn't decide between a 3-4 and a 4-3, so I went with the ever difficult 4-4-4 defense, a defense I should probably patent. The quad defense. And certainly, if populated with the players on my list, an inpenetrable one.

Second, I'd like to briefly mention some of the guys who were the final cuts from my team. I had a tough time deciding on my tight end. Jason Witten certainly had a great year. Antonio Gates, while perhaps not as explosive as last year, was phenomenal as well. But, I couldn't keep from getting Tony Gonzalez on my list one more time, as he put together a great year.

Even with putting four defensive linemen and four linebackers on my squad, there were still some phenomenal performers left on the cutting room floor, starting with a couple rising stars in Texas, and perhaps not the Texas team you would expect. Both Mario Williams and DeMeco Ryans put together strong seasons for an up-and-coming Texans defense. While Williams was probably not deserving of a spot on this team, Ryans was certainly a tough guy to leave off. Likewise in the AFC South, Kyle Vanden Bosch put together another fine season for a team that was perhaps the strongest defense in the league when healthy. However, that Titan did not make the squad (although a couple others did).

Also, a special shout-out to several Patriots who did not make my squad. First and foremost, the entire Patriot offensive line. I couldn't bear to put one of you guys on my squad to the exclusion of the other four, but suffice it to say, I think the Patriot offensive line is a perfect distillation of the entire Patriot franchise: perfect team play. While there are certainly larger-than-life personalities and performers on the Patriot squad, the franchise is based around building a team, and the Patriot offensive line is just that, five guys, working in unison with the other more celebrated players who surround them, working together as five fingers on one hand to create an environment where players like Brady, Moss, Welker and the rest can succeed. Also, Vince Wilfork just missed being included here.

Anyway, now, without further ado, here is my MK-Ultra 2007 NFL All-Pro Team:

QB Tom Brady, New England
RB Adrian Peterson, Minnesota
RB Ladanian Tomlinson, San Diego
WR Randy Moss, New England
WR Reggie Wayne, Indianapolis
TE Tony Gonzalez, Kansas City
C Jeff Saturday, Indianapolis
G Steve Hutchinson, Minnesota
G Kris Dielman, San Diego
T Walter Jones, Seattle
T Flozell Adams, Dallas

DE DeMarcus Ware, Dallas
DE Jared Allen, Kansas City
DT Haynesworth, Tennessee
DT Kevin Williams, Minnestoa
LB Lofa Tatupu, Seattle
LB Patrick Willis, San Francisco
LB Shawne Merriman, San Diego
LB Mike Vrabel, New England
CB Antonio Cromartie, San Diego
CB Champ Bailey, Denver
S Bob Sanders, Indianapolis
S Ed Reed, Baltimore

K Rob Bironas, Tennessee
P Mike Scifres, San Diego
KR Devin Hester, Chicago

Offensive Rookie of the Year: Adrian Peterson
Defensive Rookie of the Year: Patrick Willis
Offensive Player of the Year: Tom Brady
Defensive Player of the Year: Albert Haynesworth

A couple notes about my selections:

Do I think Antonio Cromartie is one of the two best corners in the NFL? Not on your life, but given the year he had, he is impossible to leave off this list, and given the talent that he has, I don't doubt that he is capable of being one of the two best corners in the NFL at some point.

I put Kevin Williams here as my second defensive tackle, but that spot could just as easily have gone to his teammate Pat Williams.

I had a hard time filling that second offensive tackle position. In the end, Adams got the spot over Chris Samuels and perhaps Matt Light. Apparently Jason Peters also deserves consideration, but I only saw him play once this year, and while impressive, I just didn't feel comfortable putting him there.

I suppose DeMarcus "Every" Ware should possibly have been a linebacker, but that would have meant that I would have had to leave off Merrimann, and it just wasn't worth it to me. For what it's worth, if I had done that, Vanden Bosch would have been my next choice at defensive end. Sorry Patrick Kerney.

UCLA’s homestand vs the Washington schools

Following a nice road sweep of the Bay Area schools, UCLA returned to Pauley Pavilion this weekend for a two-game homestand against the Washington schools, with today’s game featuring a matchup between two schools ranked in the top five nationally when Washington State brought its gaudy undefeated record to town.

UCLA started the weekend right on Thursday night by knocking off Washington 69-55. After the a 14-12 start to the game, UCLA went on a 9-0 run highlighted by a few nice fastbreak layups, and all told, finished the 1^st half on a 27-11 run to take an 18 point lead into the locker room. While it is hard to single out one player on this Bruin team often, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute was perhaps the revelation in the first half, not only playing smothering defense on Husky three-point threat, Ryan Appleby, but adding some nice offensive contributions, including showing off his improved jump shot and adding some nice slicing drives into the lane.

While UCLA certainly did not keep up the same pace in the second half, the game was never really in doubt after halftime, and Darren Collison, who had already had a bout with food poisoning earlier in the week, was allowed to rest a bruised hip throughout the second half.

The Bruin victory, coupled with Washington State disposing of the USC Trojans, set up a terrific matchup between the Pac-Ten front-runners today. However, the Cougars got off to a rough start, with All Pac-Ten guard Derrick Low picking up two fouls in the first three minutes, failing to score a field goal until eight and a half minutes had passed. UCLA scored the first seven points, 11 of the first 12, and built the lead up as high as 26-8 before going into halftime up 35-22.

The second half seemed to be more of the same, until the Cougars cut the lead under 10 for the first time since that first WSU field goal of the game at the 11:25 mark of the first half. However, UCLA responded with a Collison layup, a couple nice plays by Mbah a Moute and then a strong layup by Kevin Love plus a foul on Aron Baynes, and UCLA seemed to have the game firmly in hand again with a 13 point lead with 2:30 remaining. But, the Cougars were loathe to let the game slip away and began a barrage of three-pointers, drilling seven in a row, to cut the lead to 77-74 with 12 seconds remaining. The Bruins did, however, take care of business at the free throw line and walked off with a 81-74 victory.

Kevin Love played perhaps his best game of his short career at UCLA, pouring in 27 points (including a couple threes), hauling down 14 rebounds and dishing out 4 assists. One area where you will see Love make a huge impact is down the stretch of tight games like this one, his ability to make free throws, to find open teammates, and especially to take the ball out of the bottom of the net after an opponent’s made basket, step out of bounds, and find a teammate stretching the opposition’s tight defense for an easy hoop.

While there is certainly a lot of basketball left to be played in a tough conference, this appears to be the most solid Bruin team of the Howland era, and a definite threat to be dancing in San Antonio come April.

Rhode Island @ Dayton

The A-10 is back. Riding strong non-conference performances by Xavier, Massachusetts, St. Joe's and others, including these two teams, the Atlantic 10 has created quite a bit of buzz about potential at-large berths come March. And, generally, the style of play in the A-10 is different than it was just a few years back, when it was largely a grind-it-out and defend type of conference. This is not your father's A-10. This ain't even your older brother's A-10.

Dayton and Rhode Island displayed this quite clearly in their A-10 opener Wednesday night. Both teams got out to strong starts and played an entertaining brand of ball, highlighted by each team's main offensive weapons: Dayton's Brian Roberts and Rhode Island's Jimmy Baron. Roberts finished with 23 for the Flyers in their 92-83 victory, while Baron (the son of head coach Jim Baron) had 26 in a losing cause. Will Daniels also added an impressive 25 points, mostly coming along the baseline, for the Rams, while the Flyers got more balanced scoring from its 10-deep rotation.

Just the first of many A-10 games that promise to be highly entertaining.

Arizona @ Arizona St

In what was really a very important game for an up-and-coming Sun Devil team, they trailed the vast majority of the game, by as much as 10 in the 2nd half, before coming back to tie the game at 55 with just over a minute remaining, getting into overtime, then getting some key plays by their freshman leader, James Harden, who wound up with an impressive 26 points in the Devils eventual 64-59 overtime win.

For a team that thinks it is a tournament caliber squad, this was an important game, not just because it was against the in-state rival, but because this was going to be ASU's best chance to get the Wildcat off its back: at home against a rival missing their freshman PG, Jarryd Bayless.

Harden was instrumental throughout the 2nd half, repeatedly driving to his left, getting in the lane and creating scoring opportunities. However, the Devils will certainly have to diversify their offense a bit as they move deeper into conference play. Big-man Jeff Pendergraph was rarely fed the ball in the post during the second half (which can partially be attributed to his foul troubles), Jeren Shipp was largely absent from the offense, and the Devils failed to get any serious scoring contributions from ancillary players.

Those are issues that will need to be addressed down the conference road, but in the meantime, a big win for Arizona State.

CBE Classic Review

For my money, the most impressive slate of teams in the semifinal round of a tournament so far has occurred in the CBE Classic, consisting of the #1 team in the land, a Big 10 favorite and two other major conference up and coming teams. Just a quick look at these four teams and what we learned about them in their play in Kansas City:

4) Maryland obviously had a rough time, running into a buzzsaw in UCLA in the first round and then having to match up against a difficult Missouri team a day later. While I still think Maryland has a strong chance at making the NCAA tournament, they have some major issues. Perhaps most important is their complete inability to hit the three-point shot, only hitting one in each game, and both of those coming at the end of games when they were scrambling to get back in it. I think this is going to be a season-long problem as I’m not sure anyone on their team is capable of doing that reasonably well. The second major problem for this team is taking care of the ball. Turning the ball over 44 times over the course of two games and only hitting two three-pointers is a sure recipe for failure against top competition. Certainly Gary Williams will get the most out of his team, but I don’t think this team has the necessary components to be a serious contender come March.

3) Missouri certainly gave their fans a fun time in Kansas City, and their fast-paced, high-pressure style is likely to give opposing teams fits throughout the season. They put together a furious comeback against Michigan State in the semifinal round, only to have it thwarted in crunch-time by veteran Drew Neitzel, but came back on Tuesday to handle Maryland. Missouri doesn’t have a lot of height, but they are a very athletic team that will pressure the ball full court from the opening jump to the closing buzzer, and their ability to spread the court offensively and get penetration from guards Stefhon Hannah and Keon Lawrence and knock down three-pointers with Hannah, Lawrence and junior swingman Matt Lawrence. Throw in athletic do-everything forwards DeMarre Carroll and Leo Lyons and this is a team that could cause serious problems late in the season.

2) Michigan State was perhaps a Drew Neitzel stomach bug away from winning this tournament, albeit at the expense of UCLA that had injury issues if its own. Regardless, the Spartans showed well in this tournament and given their young talent, figure to be a team that will improve over the course of the season. Freshmen Kalin Lucas, Chris Allen and Durrell Summers give this team a big more balanced scoring punch than they had last year, and that combined with Neitzel and talented sophomore forward Raymar Morgan could make for the best offensive Spartan team in some time. Throw in the typical Izzo grinders in the middle and these guys will be a tough out.

1) The coming-out party for Kevin Love is complete, and despite his excellent showing, these Bruins go home a runner-up were it not for the play of role players like Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Alfred Aboya, Lorenzo Mata-Real and Russell Westbrook. UCLA’s experience shone through in a tough second-half comeback against Michigan State Tuesday night, as they outscored a game Spartan team by 16 in the final 20 minutes, after a uninspiring first half performance. But, of course, the big story is Love, who really did live up to expectations, proving himself a phenomenal rebounder, a skilled passer, a wily scrapper in the post, a tough competitor and a player seemingly beyond his years. After the Bruin offense struggled in the first half Tuesday, the ball was rerouted through Love a bit more often in the second half, and the offense clicked, highlighted by a couple nice high-low passes from Love to teammates. Considering the success that UCLA experienced without point guard Darren Collison, UCLA definitely looks like a very strong contender to be dancing deep into March, and even early April.

ACC College Basketball Preview

Predicted Order of Finish

With the majority of a team that was a second-half fade away from a Final Four appearance back, North Carolina clearly remains the team to be in this conference. Beyond that, Duke and NC State look to be the only real viable contenders to the throne, but a notch below the Tar Heels. The next tier consists of a group of six or seven schools who will be competing for perhaps three spots in the Big Dance. I give the nod to Maryland, Virginia and Clemson there, but it certainly wouldn’t surprise me if somebody like Boston College gutted one out and snuck in, or if Jack McClinton led Miami to the dance.

1. North Carolina
2. Duke
3. NC State
4. Maryland
5. Virginia
6. Clemson
7. Miami
8. Boston College
9. Virginia Tech
10. Georgia Tech
11. Florida St
12. Wake Forest

Preseason All-Conference
First Team
F Tyler Hansbrough Jr UNC
G Jack McClinton Jr Miami
G Sean Singletary Sr Virginia
F Brandon Costner So NC St
G DeMarcus Nelson Sr Duke

Second Team
G Tywon Lawson So UNC
F Deron Washington Sr Va Tech
F James Mays Sr Clemson
G Tyrese Rice Jr BC
F James Gist Sr Maryland

All Freshman Team
F Kyle Singler Duke
G Taylor King Duke
G Jeff Jones Virginia
F JJ Hickson NC St
C Solomon Alabi Florida St

Top 5 Out of Conference Games
11/17 Virginia @ Arizona
11/28 UNC @ Ohio St
11/28 NC State @ Michigan St
12/20 Duke @ Pitt
1/1 Clemson @ Alabama

Top 5 In-Conference Games
2/6 Duke @ UNC
2/20 UNC @ NC State
3/2 Clemson @ Maryland
3/5 Duke @ Virginia
3/8 UNC @ Duke

Predicted NCAA Tournament Invites (6)
UNC
Duke
NC St
Maryland
Virginia
Clemson

Pac-10 College Basketball Preview

Predicted Order of Finish

This is always a crapshoot, but this season perhaps more than usual. I think UCLA is the clear-cut favorite, but I don’t think anyone would be surprised to see Arizona or Washington St or Oregon or Stanford win this thing. Further, beyond the one spot, everything is real tight. I expect teams one through nine to be tough outs every single time and legitimate contenders to make the NCAA tournament (although Arizona St, and maybe even Washington are a little bit longer shots than the rest) and I expect a strong six teams to eventually earn tickets to the big dance, with the seventh place team sitting on the fence with an argument as to why they should get in too. About the only real sure thing here is that Oregon St is the odds on favorite to finish last in the conference.

But, since meaningless conjecture seems to be the hip thing, I’ll throw my hat in the ring too.

1. UCLA – gotta be the favorite, but one key injury could certainly change things in such a competitive league.
2. Arizona – there is really no reason to pick this team for this spot given their recent history, but I think Chase Budinger is a special player and there is no doubt they have the talent to wind up here.
3. Washington St – most of the key pieces return for Tony Bennett, but these guys aren’t going to sneak up on anybody this year, not that they need to.
4. Oregon – arguably the MVP in last year’s conference is gone, but plenty of veteran talent remains.
5. Stanford – a big question mark in Brook Lopez and his academic situation, but an even bigger question at the point guard position.
6. USC – this may be a little low for this team, but somebody has got to finish down here. Lots of talent in OJ Mayo and Taj Gibson and Dwight Lewis and Daniel Hackett, but they sure are missing some key players from last year’s successful tournament run.
7. Cal – I’ll match Cal as the potential 7th place team in the Pac-10 against any other conference’s potential 7th place team. Hell, I’ll match them against a 7th place team in any other conference in any other year in history.
8. Washington – Coming off a very disappointing year last season, there is still a lot of potential up here if they can get more consistent performances from Justin Dentmon and their young players Quincy Poindexter and Adrian Oliver.
9. Arizona St – Herb Sendek has his first major recruit coming to Tempe in James Harden, and the talent level is definitely up from last year, however there is just too much talent above them in this conference for the Devils to make any significant move up the standings this year
10. Oregon St – the cupboard is more or less empty and Jay John is getting his resume prepared

Preseason All-Conference
First Team

G Darren Collison Jr UCLA
G Kyle Weaver Sr. Wash St
F Chase Budinger So Arizona
F Kevin Love Fr. UCLA
C Brook Lopez So Stanford

Second Team
G Derrick Low Sr Wash St
G Bryce Taylor Sr Oregon
F Quincy Poindexter So Washington
F Taj Gibson So USC
C Devon Hardin Sr Cal

All Freshman Team
G OJ Mayo USC
G Jerryd Bayless Arizona
G James Harden Arizona St
F Kevin Love UCLA
F Davon Jefferson USC

Top 5 Out of Conference Games

11/25 Arizona @ Kansas – the opener of the inaugural Pac-10/Big 12 challenge should be a battle.
11/29 Oregon @ Kansas St – we get to see Oregon on the road and the talented Kansas St freshmen.
12/2 Texas @ UCLA – UCLA’s most significant non-conference game.
12/4 USC @ Memphis – part of a rough three day stretch for USC that also includes a visit from Kansas to the Galen Center
12/29 Arizona @ Memphis – you gotta give credit to Arizona for consistently scheduling one of the nation’s toughest non-conference slates.

Top 5 In Conference Ganes

1/5 Washington St @ Washington – this game should give us a good preview of where these two teams, especially the Huskies, stand early in the season.
1/12 WSU @ UCLA – perhaps the two pre-season conference favorites hooking up in Pauley.
1/19 USC @ UCLA – the cross-town rivalry ignited anew behind two superstar freshmen.
1/26 Stanford @ Cal – this season’s Bay Area rivalry may be the most heated in years.
3/2 UCLA @ Arizona – as the season winds down and March starts up, the Pac-10’s biggest basketball rivalry tips off at the McKale center.

Predicted NCAA Tournament Invites (6)
UCLA
Arizona
Washington St
Oregon
Stanford
USC