NBA Predictions

Place all your bets on these biased, uneducated guesses:

East (Borrrriiing)
Atlantic Division- Boston Celtics
Central Division- Cleveland Cavs
Southeast Division- Miami Heat

West
Northwest Division- Utah Jazz
Pacific Division- Phoenix Suns
Southwest Division- Dallas Mavericks

Playoffs
East Champ- Cavs over Pistons (in 6)
West Champ- Mavs over Suns (in 7)
Winner- Mavs over Cavs (in 6)

Biggest Surprise
East- Bulls
West- Rockets

Awards
Rookie of the Year- Randy Foye
Most Improved- Yao Ming
Sixth Man of the Year- Bonzi Wells
Coach of the Year- Mike Brown
Defensive Player of the Year- Andrei Kirilenko
MVP-
1. LeBron James
2. Dirk Nowitzki
3. Pete Chilcutt

Oh yeah, and names:
Andrei, Mike, Randy, Josh and Pete

(Notice I didn't rule out LeBron)

Weekend in Awesometown 10/30

Things are busy these days in Awesometown, USA.

I returned Saturday night from my short trip to Surprise, AZ (Phoenix area) for a big grand opening festival for one the company's new dental practices. The day was a huge success as far as business was concerned. Not much exciting to report about the trip except that I got to drive a new Dodge Charger while I was there. Nice car, but the stinking windshield was so low that I had to slouch in order to see the road. I also stayed at the spring training hotel home of the Texas Rangers. I knew Tom Hicks was cheap, but I didn't know he was that cheap. Also, don't go the Phoenix area unless you have at least two days to do nothing but play golf.

I'd like to send a shout-out to Daylight Savings Time. Thanks to him and DVR, I was able to get home Saturday night, watch the Sooners victory, and still get enough sleep to wake up early before church and watch the Texas game. A side note: Colt McCoy scares me a bit. This is suppose to be his year of paying dues, not leading his team to Vince-like comebacks. Also, imagine the level Paul Thompson (the biggest surprise of the season) would be playing at, had he already had a year under his belt. Stupid Corky Bomar.

The baby boy is already trying to do great things. Yesterday during church, he was trying to kick his way out as the preacher was calling for a young boy to rise up and follow God. So what we know so far: He loves the Sooners (at his first game he was kicking like crazy when they took the field against Washington) and he's ready to follow God. I'm a proud father already.

Allison is doing great. She's over 7 months along and is feeling good, even though the boy insists on jabbing her in the ribs several times a day. We should have some good pics of her to post very soon.

We're both very excited about seeing family and friends this coming weekend, especially my Yankee sis who's coming all the way from snow-covered NY. We have a baby shower and a move on the calendar in the next week, so there should be plenty of blog-worthy moments.

Here a few names for the weekend and one for today:
Paul
Tony
Colt

Watch Out for the Rockets

I'm not going to make any bold predictions and say that the Rockets are going to win the NBA title this year, but they have a chance to be a very good team. Here is what I like and dislike about the Rockets this year:

Pros:
-Yao and T-Mac appear to be healthy. If both can stay on the court the whole season, they should have the opportunity to compliment each other very well. I look for Yao to have his long-awaited break out year as the dominant center in the league. With lots of double teams forced on Yao it should also free up a lot of opportunities to score on the outside. If T-Mac stays healthy- he'll be T-Mac. (bold- I know) In order for the Rockets to do something more than just make the playoffs, he has to stop being Peyton Manning and putting up huge numbers, and start being Tom Brady and leading his team.

-Bonzi wells is the 3rd scoring option. A guy who has the talent to lead a team in scoring is the Rocket's 3rd choice. Lets not forget that last year he averaged 23.2 points and 12.0 rebounds in the playoffs, with five double doubles in six games against the Spurs. He took a much smaller deal to come play in Houston, which tells me he wants to win. If he can handle playing a role and not cause problems in the locker room, he'll help make this team very dangerous. He'll also need to really step up on off-nights for T-mac (especially if he misses time due to injury).

-Defense. I think JVG has finally got a team that can guard. With the addition of Battier (when they traded Rudy Gay for him- I thought they were crazy. Maybe not any more) they have a lot of size, and several guys who can defend very well.

Cons:
-Too many unknowns. Can these guys finally make it through a whole season healthy, and actually learn how to play together? If not, it could be bad news. Can Bonzi Wells play a role? Hope so.

-Lack of speed. They're not a slow team, but they can't run with Dallas and Phoenix. They'll really have to learn how to slow down the game and make those quicker teams play at their pace. If they can't do that, good luck catching up.

-Lots of youth. Hopefully all of these young guys are as good as people are saying. I'll be watching for Novak, Hayes, and Spanoulis to do something significant.

-Point guard. Every great team seems to have a very solid point guard. I'm pretty sure Rafer Alston is not going to be great, but we just need him to not turn the ball over. Look for some flare from Vassilis Spanoulis, who can drain from the outside. (You may have seen him help Greece to beat up on the US this summer)

Overall I have high hopes for the season. Look for my NBA predictions some time next week. Any predictions for the Rocket's season are welcome on my comments.

Also, I've had some complaints about the quality of names that I've been eliminating in my little game. In order to make up for that I'll eliminate several today. Here goes:

Yao, Tracy, Rafer, Bonzi, Juwan, Dikembe, Luther, and oh yes, Vassilis.

Weekend in Awesometown

I realize that it's Tuesday and the time for retelling weekend events has nearly passed, but a few things over the weekend were just too blog-worthy not to mention.

I attended my fourth, and most likely final Sooners game of the season on Saturday night in Norman with my brother and parents. I always love the first cold game of the season. It doesn't get much better than freezing your tail off in 30 degree weather with 85 thousand other crazy OU fans. The Sooners made a pretty good showing - especially on defense, which really seems to be coming together. I was also impressed with the Sooners running game against a decent Colorado rush defense. Allen Patrick stepped in nicely with 115 yards on 35 carries, and overall it was a good win considering we just lost the best back in the country.

I would also like to take a minute to brag about my 6-year-old niece and her heroics. If you haven't heard, my sister-in-law was taken to the emergency room over the weekend after passing out and hitting her head while cleaning. We're praying that it is no big deal, and at this point it doesn't appear to be. She was able to get to the ER because Madison, her daughter, found her and dialed 911 on her cell phone. Everything ended okay because Madison had the presence of mind to calmly pick up the phone and do what she had been taught.

The night in the emergency room was absolutely bizarre. If you've never been inside an ER on a Saturday night, its like an ER reality show. I arrived at the Baylor ER around 1:30 to find Allison and Jevanna in the waiting room (By the way- a big Thanks to Jevanna for helping out with whole situation). Allison and I then went in and sat with Lindsay to offer some company. FIVE and HALF HOURS later, they told us that there was nothing wrong with her and that we could go.

We saw it all. Well, not really, but we saw A LOT of gross stuff. The man one curtain over was in a motorcycle accident and was not wearing a helmet when his face hit the pavement. He was unrecognizable. We sat and watched for 4 hours while a plastic surgeon sewed and stapled up his face. (He had been there for over 12 hours) The woman two curtains down had apparently been in a fight with another woman who had bitten her bottom lip off.

The most bizarre part of the whole night was the fact that we were able to just sit there and watch it all going on. All the sewing, and bleeding and screaming was happening with us three just sitting there taking it all in. And no one really seemed to mind.

The plastic surgeon deserves every dime they pay him. Several other employees of that hospital- not so much. It seemed like every time I walked past the desk, the nurses and several doctors were just talking about the latest Grey's Anatomy episode instead of checking on patients. (especially Lindsay) The excuse all night (for not getting anything done) was "well- you know, there's more serious patients" and "its really busy". I feel worse for those "serious patients" who were moaning all night while the staff was catching up on their tv talk. We saw several more victims of car crashes, failed suicide attempts, and bar fights.

It was a very interesting night, and now I believe my dad was right all those years when he said, "Not much good happens after midnight". More on the hospital trip tomorrow.

You may eliminate Allen.

Glass of fat?

The State Fair of Texas is once again making headlines for it's fried creations. This year's creative food category winner was concessionaire Abel Gonzales Jr. for his invention of fried Coke. Yes, that's right, fried Coke. Many have said the creation tastes like Coke-flavored homemade doughnuts.

Every year this happens. Contestants attempt to shove as many calories as possible into a deep fryer and sell it for 12 tickets a piece. You can currently find snickers, pickles, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, twinkies, and now coke that's been deep fried for your pleasure. I still stick with the Fletcher's corndog. What will they come up with next?

Here is my early prediction for next year's winner:



Any Predictions on what they will fry next?

You may eliminate Bob. Sorry Matt. And while you're at it go ahead and scratch off Bud and Barry too.

A Hard Fall

There's no big mystery that these past few months have been a pretty rough time to be a Sooner's fan. At some point during our recent Big XII south reign, Sooners had to expect these types of seasons would occur, I just didn't expect it to hit this hard.

Last year was a completely different story. I was okay with losing last year. Everyone knew what to expect after losing 11 players to the NFL. We were paying our dues for what seemed to be a very promising 2006 season. A very young team did a lot of growing up in one year and everything seemed to be leading upward. Heading into summer practices, OU was ranked in the top 5 of every poll and as high as #1 in several. Anchored by what was supposed to be one of the nation's best defenses, everyone had high hopes. Boy, did it turn south in a hurry. Lets recap shall we?

-Shocking news out of Norman revealed that starting QB Rhett Bomar had taken large amounts of money for work he didn't do at a local car dealership. He was shortly thereafter cut from the team. At this point, many among Sooner nation (including myself) still had pretty high hopes for the season.

-After two games, our touted defense appeared to have several holes- including the inability to stop the run. Even so, a 2-0 start had allowed some growth- especially with the offense.

-The epic Oregon referee collapse helped to hand the Sooners their first loss of the season. Although they shouldn't have had the opportunity, the defense gave up 500 yards and blew a 13 point lead in last 2 minutes. This collapse came minutes after a 200 yard day by AD and an overall outstanding offensive performance. The loss and the call seemed to totally deflate and distract Sooner players, coaches, and fans.

-Three weeks later the Sooners commit 11 penalties and create 5 turnovers on their way to their second straight loss to Texas. Several missed opportunities and terribly sloppy play had many questioning the coaching staff.

-In a good showing against Iowa State, Heisman hopeful and Sooner great, Adrian Peterson breaks his collar bone after landing awkwardly at the end of a 53 yd td run. The injury puts him out a minimum of five weeks, giving him a chance to return for the OSU game or perhaps a bowl game. Depending on his ability to run, he'll possibly end up a few yards shy of Billy Sims' all-time OU rushing record.

-Early Sunday morning, OU's leading tackler and co-captain Rufus Alexander was arrested for disturbing the peace. No word yet on a suspension.

Don't get me wrong, there is still hope for the season. A good run will land the Sooners perhaps in the cotton bowl and the year will give many young players a chance to get some good experience. But that was supposed to be last season. And now, thanks to an idiot named Rhett and a lot of bad luck, it seems that we have at least another few years as number 2 in the Big XII south. At best.

I promise not to make all of the posts this long.

You may eliminate Rhett. And Rufus.

Welcome to Awesometown

Don't expect greatness.

Simply titling my blog "Awesometown" does not imply that you're going find extraordinary insight, life changing advice, or even anything that should be dubbed "Awesome". You should however expect some luke-warm sports opinions, mild humor, updates on baby-boy Ellis, and perhaps even a few guest visits from Momma Ellis herself (Allison).

I've held out from becoming part of the blog community long enough and finally I've given in to creating my own. At this point I feel confident enough that I can at least keep a reader informed of the things going on in my life. I know updates can get a little boring, so along the way I'll attempt to add a little more than just family news.

If you haven't heard by now, Allison and I are expecting a little baby boy (a real-live human) in December. The 27th to be exact. We couldn't be more happy, and its really gearing up to be an incredible holiday season. Allison is doing great, I can already tell she's going to be the best mother. You've probably also heard that we've picked out a name and we're keeping it a complete secret until he arrives. To promote reader loyalty, I've decided to eliminate one name per post from your list of guesses. This should make things interesting down the stretch. I promise not to throw out names like "Zeke" every day. These will be names people have actually guessed or that we've considered.

Thanks for reading,

First name: Adrian