Bleacher Report - Articles by Matt Marchesky

Super Bowl XLII: What We Thought, What We Learned, and How We Feel About It

Matt Marchesky — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 04:27:37 -0500

As a 25-year old football fan, I haven’t been around for many big games.

Last night's battle between the Giants and Patriots was the best one I’ve ever seen. It was a war, the way it should be.

Perhaps what impressed me most about the game was the fact that after it was over, I wasn’t pissed at the refs for making bad calls, or the coaches for making poor play calls (although Belicheck electing not to kick the field goal was dumb).

Near the end of the game, when I was standing up in my living room, pacing back and forth with excitement, my cousin, who does not watch any football, said “this is more like a soap opera than a football game,” and he was right.

It’s like when you watch a television series, and halfway through season one, a good character does something that completely changes your mind about them, and you end up hating that person, and wanting them to die.

That’s how I felt about the Patriots last night.

Let me interject here to add that I had 200 dollars on the Patriots. And not only did I take them -12, I got crazy about it, and took a prop that had them at -21.5.

By the end of the third quarter, I was willing to take the financial hit to see the Giants pull it off.

I was not let down, because the fourth quarter that I witnessed, in what I thought had already been a great football game, was the best period of play I’ve seen in any sport during my short life.

I will always remember how I felt when David Tyree made the catch of the century and my cousin and I, who care nothing about the Giants or the Patriots, hugged each other for having seen it together.

When Plaxico Burress sealed the deal, burning Ellis Hobbs to make the winning catch in the endzone, all I could do was bow my head and smile.

This was a game that movies are made about. Then again, movies are fake, and this was as real as it gets.

Congratulations to the Giants, and thanks for reminding us what this game is really all about.

Fall From Grace: The 2007-2008 Pittsburgh Panthers

Matt Marchesky — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 07:03:36 -0500

The beginning of the '07-'08 campaign looked bright for Jamie Dixon and the Pittsburgh Panthers.

They began the season 10-0, earned a well-fought road win at Washington, and blew out Oklahoma State before heading on the road for their first real test of the year.

Then, on December 20th, the Panthers went into MSG and pulled off a major upset—a 65-64 victory over the seventh-ranked Duke Blue Devils, improving their record to an impressive 11-0 and vaulting them to sixth in both the ESPN and AP rankings. Star guard Levance Fields was the hero, hitting the game-winning three-pointer in overtime.

During the battle with Duke, Mike Cook, one of the Panthers’ starting forwards and team leaders, tore his ACL, knocking him out for the season. Nine days later against the Dayton Flyers, Fields broke his left foot, and the Panthers lost by 25 points, falling to 11-1.

It was the beginning of the end.

With Cook out for the season, and Fields out eight to twelve weeks, the Panthers have struggled, losing on the road at Cincinnati and then at home at the Zoo against Rutgers by double digits.

In the game against the Scarlet Knights, the Panthers were outscored by 20 in the second half. Keep in mind they were at home, and playing against one of the worst teams in the Big East (2-7 conference, 10-11 overall). It became clear that the losses of Cook down low and Fields running the point had become major factors.

The fact is that the end of an era at Pittsburgh is upon us. Ben Howland built up the program’s reputation from 2000 to 2003 before leaving for UCLA, but the tides have begun to turn.

Ronald Ramon and the injured Mike Cook are seniors. Juniors Levance Fields and Sam Young will be coveted draft picks this spring. The Panthers will have a new leader next year, likely young rebounding specialist DeJuan Blair, and he will certainly have a heavy load to carry.

The Panthers will undoubtedly make the tournament. They are 16-4 and have only one ranked team left on their schedule for the season. Their lucky number is 65—the number of teams that make the dance.

It is the years to come that Panther fans should be concerned about.

Arizona Basketball: Lute-less Wildcats Heating Up

Matt Marchesky — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:53:05 -0500

After a convincing win against No. 6 Washington State on Thursday night, the Arizona Wildcats are riding high.

Star sophomore Chase Budinger said after the game, “I think we can beat anyone in the country right now.”

He may be right.

Arizona has shown signs of life off-and-on throughout the season, but it seems that here at the end of January, they’re learning who they are as a team, and beginning to play their roles to a tee.

After they lost a close one in overtime in Lawrence, Kansas at the hands of the Jayhawks, the 'Cats managed to earn difficult road wins against Illinois, Houston and California.

As they enter the heart of their Pac-10 schedule, they now have two double-digit wins against top ten teams—Texas A&M and Washington State.

Freshman-phenom point guard Jerryd Bayless has risen to the role of team leader in Tucson, averaging a team-high 19.5 points and 4.5 assists per game, as Chase Budinger, Jordan Hill, Jawaan McClellan and Nick Wise have all stepped up to assume their roles on this young squad.

As an Arizona fan and recent graduate, it is much too early to get excited about the tournament in Tucson, but this team is showing signs of new life.

Hopefully it will last.

NHL First Half Summary: Beware the Sleepers

Matt Marchesky — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 08:39:16 -0500

There is great parity in the league today.

One of the reasons for this newfound equanimity may be the revamped point system, in which a team receives a point simply by making it to overtime.

As of January 19, three of the NHL’s six conferences have first-place and last-place teams within 10 points of each other, which should prove to make the second half of the NHL season very competitive.

The most impressive team in the first half of the season in the East is clearly the Ottawa Senators, who have posted 62 points, and have six of the top eight Eastern Conference players in plus-minus through the first 45 games.

As for the West, it is hard to argue with the accomplishments of the Detroit Red Wings, who have racked up 70 points in their first 47 games. Goaltender Chris Osgood leads the league with the only goals-against-average under 2.00, and Nicklas Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk are two of the top three leaders in the NHL with plus-minus scores of 35 and 31 respectively.

However, there are other teams not to be slept on.

The two hottest teams in the NHL right now are the two teams from Pennsylvania, both playing in the Atlantic Division. The Penguins and Flyers are a combined 16-2-2 in their last 20 games, and the Penguins haven’t lost since before Christmas.

The Anaheim Ducks have won 12 out of their last 15 and have taken over the Pacific Division.

As for our Canadian brethren: Calgary and Vancouver in the West, and Ottawa and Montreal in the East, should all make the playoffs this year.

Every team in the league still has a chance to make the playoffs, and it is likely that the final seeding will not be determined until the end of March.

The simple fact of the matter is that the NHL is back, and better than ever. Sit back and enjoy.

College FB Overkill: Wait...There Are Bowl Games On?

Matt Marchesky — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 07:39:57 -0500

So it looks like there might finally be some interesting and "meaningful" college football games on the way as we enter 2008.

Getting excited?

Neither am I.

In the only bowl game so far pitting ranked teams against each other, Texas finished off Arizona State 13 minutes into the Pacific Life Please-God-Let-Christmas-Be-Over-Soon Bowl.

The Longhorns went up 21-0 early and never looked back.

In the other 13 bowl games played to date, the best team we’ve seen is arguably the Cincinnati Bearcats. Okay, okay...maybe Brigham Young

Let me ask you, honestly: Wouldn’t you rather spend your holiday season watching games between teams that are actually playing for something?

There have been close games in this year’s bowl season, but does it matter?

Like most fans out there, I think it’s time for a college football playoff. Unfortunately, until that happens, we're stuck with Alabama v. Colorado in the Battle for the City of Shreveport.

In truth, there are only four games that have any bearing on how we'll all remember the 2007 college football season:

Hawaii v. Georgia and Illinois v. USC, both on January 1st; Kansas v. Virginia Tech on January 3rd; and OSU v. LSU on January 7th.

(For those of you who feel like arguing, I like Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, and Ohio State.)

If you’re like me, you’ve already got these dates circled on the calendar, and are excited about seeing the results.

But if you’re like me, your TV is off until then.