Twas the week before Madness

Hello Cintuckians. Enjoying March so far? Thought so. That is unless you’re a Dayton fan, but we’ll get to that in a little bit. Due to me being in the middle of nowhere camping for the past 2 days, and Greg being in Florida with his future mother-in-law (insert own joke here) we were unable to post our thoughts on the conference tournaments over the weekend. Better late than never, however, so for one last look at the 2010 regular season and conference tourneys enjoy the following….

The Week Before Madness

Twas the week before Madness, when all through the house,
Fans gazed in amazement, at Erin Andrews’ tight blouse;
The 65 have been decided, by the committee with care,
And now we have learned, 3 of our teams will be there;

The Cards, Cats, and Xavier lay snug in their beds,
While visions of Final Fours dance in their heads;
And the Flyers and Bearcats will have to watch from home,
As their collective fan bases’ let out a large groan;

When over on ESPN there arose such a clatter,
Turned out to be Dicky V with more mindless chatter;
He could not believe it is time for the tourney,
So lets take a look at the Cintucky journey;

Always successful Xavier showed more of the same,
As Jordan Crawford jacked up 30 a game;
Love roamed the paint with furry and aggression,
The A-10 sure felt the Musketeers impression;

Pitino started the year battling a woman’s extortion,
After knocking her up and paying for her abortion;
As one would expect, the Cards had an up and down year,
But they sent off Freedom Hall with one last loud cheer;

Sosa and Samuels will try to lead the way,
Past the Bears of Cal, and then hated Coach K;
The South region is soft, and UL could make a run,
Or Sosa could be Sosa causing a one and done;

Lexington has been rocking since last September,
And Cal and his boys have delivered a season to remember;
The SEC Champ has returned to its crown,
After this season not even Cousins can frown;

Thirty Two and Two, and a number one seed,
Cal delivered on his promise of glory indeed;
We watched Cousins dunk, Bledsoe shoot, and John Wall create,
And sent off Patrick Patterson, a UK all-time great;

Only three days left until X and the Cards take their shot,
These coaches and players will give it all that they got;
But come Thursday at 7 all eyes in the state,
Will be on the Kentucky Wildcats and their start for number 8!!!


Stay tuned all week as the Cintucky Zone gets ready for the tournament, and be sure to come by Thursday and Friday for complete first round coverage throughout the day by yours truely.

All Things Cintucky and Making Fun of Big Ben

Lots going on in the world of Cintucky these days. Lets take a look:

Most importantly, today is the 27th birthday of Cintucky favorite Carrie Underwood. Happy Birthday Carrie!
March Madness is gearing up and the local Cintucky teams are already squaring off against each other. UC and UL are playing as I type this with UL having an early 9-5 lead. As expected, Edgar Sosa has made 1 shot and thinks he is the biggest badass that the game of basketball has ever seen. I hope Kyle Kuric punches him in the face. Actually, I hope Jerry Smith hurt his hand from punching Sosa in the face.

At this point UL is a lock to make the tournament but they will be fighting hard to improve their seed. UC on the other hand finally won it's first game in March under head coach Mick Cronin yesterday by beating Rutgers. Last I heard, thugs out of NYC do not like playing for someone who looks like he should have a career creating computer programming codes.

Oh what's that Mick? You're coming after me? I'm shaking in my boots...

But hey UC athletic director Mike Thomas must be scared of firing Mick because he proclaimed he will be back next year.

The Dayton Flyers finally managed to win an A-10 game knocking off George Washington yesterday. They will battle I-75 rival Xavier Friday @ 6:30 in Atlantic City. I'm sure Xavier will be seeking revenge after an embarrassing 25 point loss to Dayton Feb 6th. Since that time the two teams have been on diverging paths. Xavier has not lost and UD has gone 4-5 to find themselves on the outside looking in for The Big Dance.

Xavier coach Chris Mack told 1530am host Mo Egger today he expects the Muskies to get seeded somewhere between the 4-6 seed depending on their performance in the A-10 tournament and how other teams in that range perform in their tournament. Right now, ESPN Bracketologist (it's science) Joe Lunardi has Xavier as a 6 seed and UD being the 5th team out (I personally think he's crazy for saying Dayton is still that close). Dayton needs to basically win the A10 tourny to make it. Maybe an OT loss in the championship game and they still get in.

Selection Sunday is coming up this Sunday. There is a lot to be determined before that time. We've offered predicted seeds for our Cintucky teams in the past. However, it looks like only 3 out of 5 will make it. Right now I'd predict UK as 1 seed obviously, UL as 7 seed, and XU as 6 seed.

Lets Talk Football

Switching sports, the Bengals made a move today in an attempt to shore up the wide receiver situation by signing free agent (from the Bucs) Antonio Bryant to a 4 year $28 million deal. This deal is basically identical in length and amount to the Laveranues Coles deal. However they have not released the details of the contract (whether it's front loaded or back loaded or even), I'm hoping the Bengals learned their lesson from the Coles deal and did not front load it in case the same thing happens with Bryant that happened with Coles. As a side note @Coles: shut the f*ck up. Marvin praised your senior leadership all season and said your professionalism was unparalleled. And now after getting cut for MASSIVELY under-performing to a contract you should have made half the amount, you continue to run your mouth. Latest comment: "I didn't have a great year if you just look at my stats, but I think in the situation I was in, I did a pretty good job." YES BECAUSE YOU WEREN'T ON A TEAM THAT WAS ABSOLUTELY JUST BEGGING SOMEONE TO FILL THE VOID AT SECOND, THIRD, & FOURTH RECEIVER. brilliant.

Ok anyways, back to Antonio Bryant. I have more hope for Bryant that I did for Coles. I honestly was surprised that Coles played all of last year, I assumed he would get hurt early and not make it back, so I guess he kind of did exceed expectations in my eyes. I just never would have paid 7 million for him in the first place. Ok seriously back to Bryant. Antonio turned 29 yesterday actually and is 2 years removed from an outstanding year (83 catches, 1248 yards, 7 TD, 15.0 ypc) with the Buccaneers. However the Bucs decided to cut the QB from 2008, Jeff Gaycia-excuse me Garcia- and went with the Cleveland Brown approach of QB carousel. Bryant wasn't too happy with this and many of the concerns about his character or team playerness stem from this. Bryant should be able to stretch the field for the Bengals and take some heat off Chad. The only thing that concerns me about this is that Bryant missed time last year with a torn knee meniscus and had some post-surgery complications and swelling. I hope the fact that the Buccaneers did not make an attempt to resign him does not mean they know something about his knee. And we all know the Bengals training staff and doctors handle injuries so well. Can you really see Mike Brown doing his due diligence on this? I doubt Mikey boy even knows about his knee injury.

Terrell "The Plague" Owens was in town today visiting the team, however with the Bryant signing it would seem unlikely that Owens will end up joining The Ocho in stripes.
Breaking Update (true story also): I just got off the phone with one of my rather brash contacts (coworkers) who just flew out to LA for vacation. He called when he got there because T.O. was on his flight out there. When they got off the plane (since TO was obviously in first class), my coworker (not knowing of the Bryant signing) asked T.O. if he was going to be a Bengal next year. He said T.O. responded pretty angrily, "no it doesn't look like it now." My coworker continued, "Oh so who are you gonna end up playing for next year then?" T.O. replied again irritated, "I don't know man, I don't know." My coworker then told me he asked T.O. of a picture with him and when T.O. said no and turned to walk away, he snapped a picture of him anyways. Now this is a fantastic event since the downheartedness of T.O. probably means that there are no other teams expressing interest in him. Nothing would make me happier than T.O. being out of a job. Although that would probably mean I would see him nightly on MTV which I am NOT ok with. (See my sign-off for a situation where that WOULD be ok).

Now onto the most important subject. Ben "If I'm so Big then why do I need to assault women to get any?" Roethlisberger has been accused AGAIN of sexually assaulting a female. This time down in a Georgia nightclub, a 20 year old college student says Ben sexually assaulted her in the VIP area. Where there is smoke there is usually fire. Where there is double smoke, there is most certainly fire. I've been saying that Big Ben is a Big Douche for years. I had a friend that went to Miami U when Big Ben was there and he said Ben would walk into bars and proclaim, "GOD IS HERE!" Sounds like a wonderfully humble individual huh? I can only hope they gather enough evidence in this case to press chargers, which lead to him being suspended from the NFL and thrown in jail, which leads to him being sexually assaulted by his jail cellmate Bubba.



Alright that's all I got for tonight. Enjoy the conference tournaments this weekend everyone, we are getting close to the craziness of March!

Greg "heres an idea for an MTV show: Put Big Ben and T.O. on an island with Sarah Palin and see who will come out alive. When the last person is declared winner, blowup the island." R.

March Madness Baby!!!

I don't know about you, but after an extremely wild weekend on the hardwood, I am exhausted.

To bring you up to speed:
- UL upsets #1 Syracuse in the last UL game Freedom Hall will see. Kyle Kuric reveals self to be Superman.
- UK sends off seniors Ramon Harris, Mark Krebs, Perry Stevenson, and all-time great Patrick Patterson in style with a victory over Flordia. The Cats go 18-0 at Rupp on the season.
- Xavier wins its 8th straight positioning itself for a solid tourney seed. Jordan Crawford still hasn't seen a shot he doesn't love.
- UC drops another one making them 2-7 in their last nine games. It will take a Big East miracle for them to make the tournament.
- Dayton loses its 4th in its last 5 dropping to 19-11 on the year and 8-8 in the A10. A trip to the A10 tourney championship might not even be enough at this point. A win may be their only hope.

And no disrespect to Ohio State's Evan Turner, but if you're wondering who the CintuckyZone pick for NCAA Player of the Year is...

Bengals Updates!

There was big news out of Bengaldom today as the team has decided to part ways with "huge free agent" signing from last year Lavernueus Coles. I don't really feel like getting into how much Coles was not worth the $7 million he made last year; you all watched the games, you know he wasn't worth it. Coles being cut today is fabulous news because it should mean that the Bengals will be going after another free agent this year. At the very least it means that they have (done the first step in solving a problem) admitted that they have a problem at wide receiver and that Matt Jones is not the answer.

Even more optimistic news if you are a Bengals fan: yesterday the Denver Broncos tendered Brandon Marshall with a first round pick only. This means that if he ends up signing with another team (Bengals! Bengals!) then that team owes the Broncos a first round pick. Many had thought they would tender Marshall with a first AND third round pick. It doesn't take a genius at Offensive Coordinate like Bob Bratkowski to realize that there is no possible way they could get a first round WR/TE this year that would have the impact that Brandon Marshall would with the Bengals. Even if a miracle happened and Oklahoma State WR Dez Bryant fell to them at #21, he still wouldn't have a huge impact until next year. Not only that, but with the Bengals horrible history of draft picks, they would probably end up with a bust, whereas if they give up the pick this year for Marshall they know they have a stud. And he's 25.

Now I would assume that the Bengals will not be the only team going after Marshall, but hopefully Marshall's questionable character scares a few teams off (obviously not the Bengals), and maybe he would be more attracted to the Bengals since he knows they had no passing threat last year but still have a quality QB throwing to him.

Unfortunately, Bengals beat writer Joe Reedy believes the Bengals have no interest in Marshall, and in all likelihood he is correct. Since Mikey Brown thinks he is a genius in the combined draft/scouting/janitor's room, he won't be willing to part ways with a first round pick.

Also of rumor news, is that the Arizona Cardinals may be willing to trade Anquan Boldin for a 3rd round pick. While Boldin is probably not as impressive of a receiver as Marshall is, and seems to be fragile, I certainly would not be upset if he landed with the Bengals. Since the Bengals have two 3rd round picks this year, it would make sense to trade one for Boldin. But we think logically around here, thus why we don't work for the Bengals.

But here's to hoping they do something productive with the money they will be saving by cutting Coles.


Greg "Go after Marshall first then Boldin" R.

Cincinnati Reds 2010 Season Preview - Relief Pitchers

(Read on and you'll understand what this is all about.)

A bullpen is a lot like the cast of a movie. Everyone has their roles. Some people are funny, some serious, some use power, some finesse. Ultimately though, the success of a bullpen, or a movie, is all a direct reflection of the lead, or in the case of the bullpen, the closer. If your closer is Tom Hanks you get 6 Academy Awards and a shot at the playoffs. If it is Tom Cruise you get a lot of pissed off moviegoers demanding their money back.

I would say the Reds' Francisco "Coco" Cordero is somewhere around Philip Seymour Hoffman. And I don't just say that because they both eat a lot of pork. Both have had surprisingly successful careers (Cordero: Lifetime 3.18 ERA, 250 saves; Hoffman: The Big Lebowski, Along Came Polly, Charlie Wilson's War, Capote, Patch Adams, etc.), but the issue is both have dealt some real crap too (Cordero: 11 blown saves out of 33 chances in 2006, 5.35 ERA in 77 innings in 2000; Hoffman: Twister, Red Dragon). What is the point of all this you ask? Well rather than predict Cordero's performance this season with "numbers" and "statistics" all I have to do now is ask: If a movie came out staring Philip Seymour Hoffman would I want to see it? Answer: Hell yes. Sure the price tag (Coco's insane salary) is a little high but it is what it is.

Lets take a look at the supporting cast shall we. Since I'm left handed and lefties are better than righties at all things in life we'll start with the southpaws. 19 year veteran, 40 year old (yes thats older than most people... younger than a lot of buildings though) Arthur Rhodes will be the leading arm from the left side. Despite needing a cane to return to the dugout after long innings, Rhodes posted a 2.53 ERA in 66 appearances and was the most consistent middle reliever on the staff. Daniel Herrera pitched 61.2 innings last season with an ERA just above 3. That should only improve as he gets more mature and stronger. I am expecting big things out of you Herrera. I am not alone.

The righties will be anchored by Nick Masset. In his 4th year in the majors Masset posted a 2.37 ERA in 76 innings. I'll take seconds this season please. Jared Burton is an interesting pitcher as he showed the talent and potential in 2008 that had the Reds excited about the prospect of a right handed bullpen staple for years. Unfortunately Burton regressed last year as his ERA increased by 1.2. Here's to hoping he can get it back on track. Mike Lincoln had a rough go around last year. Lincoln spent a lot of time in the minors in Louisville, and he has his 8.22 ERA to thank him for the trip. Nagging injuries can be attributed to that, but the fact is his lowest season ERA in the past 4 years is a 4.48. He'll get his shot again; now he just has to take advantage of it.

I would like to point out that no where in there do you see the names Gary Majewski or Bill Bray. For those that have forgotten we gave away our starting shortstop (Lopez), and starting outfielder (Kearns) for two players that aren't even on the roster 2 years later. Ahh the joy of being a Reds fan.

All and all though that's not a bad supporting cast. It has solid veteran leadership, young talent, and a few guys hoping to put together a season to build on. While it is certainly not The Departed, it is definitely better than The Fast and the Furious.

For those of you die-hards that follow the Reds as closely as we here at the CintuckyZone do you're probably asking yourself, wait.. he's already done the starters, and has now done the relievers and has yet to mention Micah Owings who will most certainly be on the starting day roster in some form or another. What gives? Well Owings holds a special place in our movie metaphor fun. Remember the movie Jerry Maguire? It had a "loaded" cast of Cruise, Renee Zellweger, Cuba Gooding Jr., Bonnie Hunt, Jay Mohr (okay now I'm reaching but you get my point). Who stole the show in that movie? The kid with the big head and round glasses! He was all anyone could talk about and is still the glue that holds that movie together. Well Micah Owings you are my big headed kid with glasses. Please steal the Reds show in one way or another.

Brian "Underrated movie? The Big Chill" Reinhart