A Big Saturday Night

ESPN is coming to San Antonio tonight, and it’s not for a Spurs game. Tonight is the High School Football matchup of San Antonio Madison and Cibolo Steele. More importantly, it is a chance for all of the world (or everyone with Cable) to witness the Best Running Back in America, Texas Commit Malcolm Brown, and highly ranked Madison Back Aaron Green. Both have been putting up enormous stats since their sophomore years, and should be poised for big seasons. It will probably be sold out due to the ESPN factor, but for anyone wanting to watch in person it will be at Heroes Stadium. It should be a close offensive shootout, but I'm predicting Madison will come out on top.

Season Almost Here, Hard Knocks, and a little Recruitin'

Got to start by apologizing to my faithful followers about the delay between posts. Two-A-Days just seem to drain my enthusiasm for blogging. Speaking of the dreaded double sessions, they mean football season is almost here! As any Hard Knocks (more on that later) fan knows, the NFL preseason has already started. If you're looking forward to games that actually means something, High School Football starts up this next week (along with school.. Yuck!), and College will start the first week of September.

Anyway, I watched the first two episodes of HBO's Hard Knocks and was surprised at a few things. Of course Jets Coach Rex Ryan's cursing jumps out. It seemed like it was pretty standard for the NFL, but it still offended longtime NFL coach Tony Dungy. You could tell that Rex tried to tone down the swearing in the second episode, but who knows if it was because of Dungy. The funniest part was probably Antonio Cromartie trying to remember his own children. I lost count, but it seemed like he had a baby mama in every state and a couple in Canada. Also, about half of them were three years old, which didn't make sense to me, but hey I'm no math whiz. If he is willing and able to support them all, then more power to him.

Lastly, there was some big football recruiting news. In today's recruiting world, a "commitment" means pretty much nothing.But it is still exciting that Five Star prospects James Wilder Jr. and San Antonio/Cibolo product Malcolm Brown have committed to Florida State and "The" University of Texas. It will be interesting to see how a big bulldozer back like Brown does in Texas' Spread Offense, but they have been doing more under center stuff, so we'll see. For all those interested Brown's High School Team will be playing Madison on ESPN August 28.

Image via Wikipedia

Heat Team G.O.A.T?

For all my non-LL fans out there, I am talkin' about the Miami Heat being the greatest basketball team of all time. The best ever. Former NBA Coach Jeff Van Gundy (a pretty knowledgeable guy when it comes to basketball) commented on how good the team will be , hyping them as breaking both the Bull's all-time record for wins in a season (72), and the Lakers record winning streak (33 Games in a row). I am not sold on the Heat this year but of the two records mentioned, the 72 wins are most likely. The Win Streak? Forget about it. The L.A team that year (1972) was a special group. It had such stars as Jerry West, Gail Goodrich, and Wilt Chamberlin. Just as importantly they had been together the season before, unlike this year's reassembled Heat. I like Miami, but they won’t be the greatest ever, they may not even get past the Celtics.And besides, Chris Bosh is no big dipper.

Wilt "The Big Dipper/The Stilt" Chamberlin

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Mississippi Masoli: Jevan Snead or Eli Manning?

The big College Football news over this week was disgraced Oregon QB Jeremiah Masoli's decision to accept Ole Miss' "invitation" (did he really have any other choices?)to join their football team. Unlike most Transfers, Masoli can play immediately this year since he has already graduated from Oregon. The big question is: Will he be any good? The last heralded Ole Miss QB was Texas transfer Jevan Snead and that didn't go so well. Masoli did dominate the Pac-10, but the SEC is a different animal.

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Baseball in Stretch Run, Agents, Cowboys, and Summer League

Rangers actually Good!
Everything is bigger in Texas. Gigantic Trucks, bulging waistlines, and up till now Texas Rangers’ ERA’s. (Not poetic I know) Surprisingly, the usually inept Rangers are actually leading their Division. They are closely followed by the always good L.A/Anaheim/California Angels, but still they are leading their division! They even have a winning record! Bolstered by freshly minted acquisition Cliff Lee, the Texas pitching is actually pretty decent, eighth in the AL in era. We'll have to see if the Rangers can hold up and make the playoffs. (Where they'll probably get beaten by the Yankees, but still!)

Nick Saban really doesn't like Agents
College Sports has always had an issue with whether its big time athletes should be paid or not. This past week's Agent incidents with many of College Football's big names only highlights this. I am with Bama Coach/Czar Nick Saban on this one. The NCAA clearly needs to take a stand on one side of the issue: either pay its athletes and not have eligibility rules, or get rid of agents altogether by fining/suspending any having contact with a college player. Also, the Author would like to propose that all high school athletes are paid, specifically those residing in San Antonio.PIMPS!


Jerry Jones to suck more money out of San Antonio
NBA Summer League, We Hardly Knew Ye
On a more local note, America’s Team is coming to San Antonio. They will start having open practice to the public Friday July 23rd. Though the Cowboy's practice is the most boring thing you will ever watch, (I recommend Jersey Shore instead) there always seems to be hundreds of people every year that go to the Alamodome  to do so. Also, the NBA summer league is officially over. I don't know how much you can learn from a league of scrubs and rookies playing 5 games where they can get up to 10 fouls before being ejected, but the Spurs did go 5-0.Go Spurs Go!

Fantasy Football Tips and Tricks

Note: Do not draft any of the players seen in this video, the video is not real.The heat and early optimism of coaches shows that football season is almost upon us. In fact the Dallas Cowboys training camp opens next week in San Antonio. But anyway, football season also brings an even more important season; Fantasy Football! Since ESPN ALREADY published their Fantasy Football preview, I figured lowly Sporting Wood should also. Here are some tips for when you're drafting.

1. Only draft Rookies far away from the ball

The only adage goes that rooks have to adjust to the speed of the game. Really, the bigger adjustment is to the strength of the game. Rookies are almost fresh out of college 21/22 year olds (some older some even younger) and are facing grown men older, physically more mature, and just plain stronger. This is why you rarely see Rookie Lineman, Running Backs, or Quarterbacks do well, they are just too close to the ball and the real men. That being said, Rookie Wide Receivers are often very productive. Recent examples include Eddie Royal, DeSean Jackson,and Michael Crabtree (when he actually played). So if you must draft a rookie, draft a receiver.

2. Ray Rice is my No.1 Running Back

Odds are that the first three picks in your draft will be AP, CJ2K, and MJD in some order. If you somehow end up with the 3rd or 4th pick grab the Ravens' Ray Rice. Not only does he have the combination of Joe Flacco and new receiver Anquan Boldin to take pressure off him, he also has a solid O-line led by Michael "Blindside" Oher. He is very durable, I can't recall him missing a game, and has none of the holdout/fumblitis/other back to steal his carries that the other top backs have.

3. Keep an eye on the Jets' WRs

Braylon Edwards and new acquisition Santonio Holmes have both shown they can have big fantasy seasons. The only thing that appears to be holding them back is inconsistent/young QB Mark Sanchez. I'm betting that Sanchez will be better with the experience, and hey he's used to playing with pro-level paid talent, he went to USC! I’m betting one of these guys will have a big season, I just can’t tell you which.

4. Winslow and Davis for TEs

Vernon Davis is young and just coming into his talent under Coach Mike Singletary, so you probably already know about him. A good sleeper pick is Kellen “Soldier” Winslow of Tampa Bay.KW did have a knee injury this offseason and has an inconsistent young QB in Josh Freeman, but I think he will have Top 5 Tight End production this year.

5. Jammal Charles is a good pick

The former UT star RB rushed for 1120 yards last season and caught 40 passes this last season. This is only his 3rd season, so he has not hit the RB age wall yet. Also, he has new offensive coordinator Charlie Weis and a more experienced Matt Cassel to take a load off him. He finished strong with 258 yards against Denver in the last week of the 2009 season, and I expect more of the same this year.

THSCA All-Star Game Coming Soon...

The Alamodome will be getting some use July 20(That's next tuesday btw). The Texas High School Coaches Associations All Star Game will be played on said date at 7:30 PM. The rosters consists some of the best of the recently gruaduated High School Football players.Also, Jordan Shipley's dad is one of the coaches for all my UT fans out there.Here are some of the local players in the game  and the colleges they'll attend.Click here for the full roster and other info.
San Antonio Ballers
Ryan Martin Smithson Valley H.S (Tarleton State)
Gabe Baker SA Macarthur H.S (Rice)
Kouri Jones Converse Judson H.S (Southern Utah)
Future UTSA Ballers
David Glasco Wagner (UTSA obviously)
Kam Jones Edna H.S
Chris Dorsey Rice Consolidated H.S
Devin Judkins Somerset H.S
Cody Rogers Brandeis H.S
Nick Garza McAllen H.S
Ethan Hiser Graham H.S
Future UIW Ballers
None!
Future Other SA College Ballers
Dylan Redding Robinson H.S.(Trinity)
There will also be many players attending the big Texas schools (Rice, A&M, UT, Tech,Baylor, SMU). It should be a football fan's dream.