NBA scoops! Kenyon Martin of the Denver Nuggets was diagnosed with a knee problem that requires surgery and he'll be out for the season. James White is on the active roster of the San Antonio Spurs.
At mid-week, the Bengals' injury report is the longest its been all season and the longest in the league. Put the City of Cincinnati on the injury report as well. Its suffering from depression.
UC is still waiting on eligibility confirmation for their two big men. Neither has played yet this year. If the NCAA doesn't rule favorably for one or both of them, UC will go from being a good sized team for the Big East to being very small. They are off all week.
The Bengals got another blow when on Thursday, Bobbie Williams, the starting right guard, had to have an emergency appendectomy. He'll be out about 4 weeks. Stacy Andrews will replace him. In his third year, Andrews has very few pro minutes under his belt. This should be interesting.
Xavier met Virginia Commonwealth on Friday in the first round of the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands and prevailed 70-67. This was a good test for X. They played pretty well. There are several good teams in this tournament. There can't be a much better spot for an early season tournament than in the Virgin Islands.
Colerain met St Xavier for the regional championship of division 1 football at Nippert Stadium on Friday night. These two schools were ranked in the top twenty nationally by USA Today. Colerain took the advantage early in the game and actually won rather easily, 24-7. The big school state champion has come from the Cincinnati region the last four years -- Elder won in 2002 and 2003, Colerain won in 2004 and St Xavier won in 2005. Colerain is now in the final four and will play at Dayton's Welcome Stadium next weekend.
Armein Kirkland who played for UC had hopes of playing in the NBA. He blew out his left knee in a game against Connecticut near the end of last season and was not ready for NBA tryouts in the summer. Now he has blown out his right knee in a tryout with the Fort Worth team of the NBA development league. He's probably down for another year.
UC will have another signing for next year's basketball team this week. Kenny Belton, 6'8" post player from Greensboro, NC appears ready to sign his commitment papers.
UC had a huge football meeting with undefeated and 7th ranked Rutgers University on Saturday night before almost 30,000 fans and a national ESPN audience. The Cats pulled off one of the biggest wins in school history with a 30-11 trouncing of the stunned Scarlet Knights. This is the highest ranked team UC has ever beaten. They played four other top rated teams this year, all on the road, and lost all four. The Bearcats' starting quarterback, Justin Grutza couldn't go tonight and little used senior back-up Nick Davila took over and did a magnificent job in his first start. This win will probably vault UC into the post season bowl picture. They are now eligible with six wins.
Rumors are starting to get pretty solid that the Reds will announce the $14 million signing of free agent Alex Gonzalez early next week. He is a light hitting shortstop with a great glove who came up with the Marlins and played for Boston last year. I like the move. The Reds just had to do something about their defense. A good team must have strong defense up the middle.
Even though it didn't play, UC's basketball team took a blow on Saturday as it learned from the NCAA that their top recruit is not eligible to play any more college basketball. Hernol Hall, of Costa Rica, played only two years of junior college ball but cannot play any more because he played in two different calendar years for the Costa Rican national team after his 21st birthday. The NCAA considers each of those years a year of eligibility. UC asked for a waiver and it was denied. The case of their other foreign big man, Adam Hrycaniuk, has yet to be decided.
Sunday afternoon, the downtrodden Bengals traveled to New Orleans to take on the Saints in the Superdome and came away with a much needed 'W'. They used their old formula of explosive offense and defensive turnovers to muster a 31-16 win. Chad Johnson had three touchdown catches and three different Bengals had interceptions. Drew Breeze passed for an unbelievable amount of yards (513) for the Saints in the loss but the turnovers did him in. Bengals rookie wide receiver Ethan Kilmer, playing defensive safety in his first chance to play in the NFL, intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown. Pretty neat.
Xavier met Villanova in the second round of the Paradise Jam on Sunday night and played an exciting, back-and-forth game that went down to the final buzzer with the Musketeers winning 71-66. This is a big win for X. It will be important at NCAA tournament time because Villanova will end up with a good record. Stanley Burrell led Sean Miller's crew with 26 points. The Muskies now face Alabama Monday night in the tournament finals.
Interesting sidebar to the Ohio State-Michigan game...the evening pick four in the Ohio lottery for Saturday was 4239...the score of the game.
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