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Von Miller and Rahim Moore were the highlights of a defense-heavy draft engineered by the new John Elway/John Fox regime in Dove Valley.  Listen in as Ian Cerveny and Dan Olson review the Denver Broncos’ 2011 NFL Draft picks.

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The CU Buffs have been the subject of an epic snub.

The Buffaloes men’s basketball team was locked out of NCAA Selection Sunday while lesser schools like UAB, Clemson, Michigan State, Michigan and VCU made the NCAA Tournament.

The fix is on.  The snub is in.  Boycott the NCAA First Round this week.

Instead the Buffs are NIT-bound.  An insulting consolation prize for a scrappy, overachieving team.  CU will run as a #1 seed in the National Invitation Tournament starting this Wednesday, March 16^th at 9pm EST.  The CU Buffaloes will play Texas Southern.

Meanwhile in the NCAA Tournament, inferior teams will be playing first-round games to determine who will move on to face higher seeds in the larger Tournament bracket.  In honor of this most heinous snub of CU Basketball, be sure to snub the NCAA back and skip those four first-round games.

NCAA Tourney games featuring schools that made it in at CU’s expense will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 15^th & 16^th.  Watch CU take on the NIT on the 16^th instead.  Hit the gym and read a book on the 15^th.  Screw the NCAA’s crooked reach for first-round TV ratings.

Of the teams selected ahead of CU, Clemson, UAB and VCU represent the worst burns.  Clemson and UAB have one Top 50 win between them.  The Buffalos have six against the Top 50 on their own to go with four wins against the Top 25.  VCU had just three Top 50 wins.

Conference Tournament winners (below) are a shoe-in for the first round of the NCAA Tournament.  They represent the product of the long regular season/conference tournament process that decides automatic players in the Big Dance.  Schools like UAB, Clemson and Colorado have to rely on a crooked selection committee, and marketability plays a larger role than team ability.

For instance, Memphis beat Eastern Carolina University by 20 in the Conference USA Tournament on their way to an auto bid.  UAB was downed in its first conference tourney game by that same ECU team, seeded 8^th in the 10-team tournament.

The Buffaloes, playing in the stacked Big 12, managed three wins over Kansas State.  KSU started the year ranked #3, and the Buffaloes beat them twice when the Wildcats were ranked in the Top 25.  Including a hard-fought game in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament.

The Buffs had a better regular season and a better conference tournament than either UAB or Clemson, and played a much tougher schedule than VCU while having more success.  Yet CU missed out on playing in the NCAA Tournament despite beating seven tourney teams over the course of this season.

Colorado lost out to Virginia Commonwealth University despite VCU’s 3-5 record to close out its season and three losses to teams outside of the nation’s top 150 schools.  The Rams played just two teams in the Top 25 (both at home), beating #25 George Mason and losing to #24 Tennessee.  Worse, Virginia already had four representatives in the NCAA Tournament, and will now send a state-record five schools.

Teams playing in Round One of the NCAA Tournament for the honor of joining the larger tournament field:

Conference Winner Automatic Bids:

Texas San Antonio, Southland Conference

Alabama State, Southwestern Athletic Conference

University of North Carolina at Asheville, Big South Conference

Arkansas-Little Rock, Sun Belt Conference

At Large Selections:

Clemson, Atlantic Coast Conference

University of Alabama at Birmingham, Conference USA

Virginia Commonwealth University, Colonial Athletic Association

University of Southern California, Pacific Athletic Conference

Schools from the Eastern Half of the United States’ population divide were clearly favored over the Buffaloes because they were way out west, not because they had better basketball teams.  The NCAA selection committee is far more interested in TV ratings and catering to a school’s perceived market value than they are in measuring the actual skill level of teams selected for its tournament.

Even USC, the one team from the West that was selected for the main tourney, was a questionable choice over CU.  The Trojans, like the Buffs, had two early-season losses to lesser teams that marred an otherwise successful season.  At least in the case of USC, the Buffaloes will have a chance to prove their greater work in conference competition when they join the Trojans in the PAC-10 next season.

This snub of the CU Buffaloes will go down in Colorado history as one of the two most egregious snubs in favor of Eastern sports.  Only the Colorado Rockies’ lack of a Gold Glove winner in 2007 is worse.  (Those Rockies sported the best defense by percentage of plays defended in the long, long history of Major League Baseball.)

The true tragedy here is that, while many of those 2007 Rockies are still playing baseball and have a chance to land their deserved Gold Gloves eventually, CU seniors like Cory Higgins and Levi Knutson will never have another chance to go to the Big Dance.  Troy Tulowitzki and Todd Helton are perennial Gold Glove candidates.  Higgins and Knutson will move on, with Cory having a chance to play in the NBA and Knutson heading for a career in finance, his college major.

Sophomore Alec Burks has an opportunity to end up a draft pick as well, likely a first-rounder.  If Burks declares for this summer’s NBA Draft, he will also miss out on the singular experience of playing in the NCAA Tournament.

The rest of the Buffs will return next year for their first season as members of the Pacific Athletic Conference to try their luck again.  Perhaps the heightened media exposure afforded CU along the West Coast, plus another magical season, will land the Buffaloes in the NCAA Selection Committee’s good graces.  Only time (and TV money) will tell.

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Although we’re all fans of lacrosse, I think in general, players and those involved on the business side tend to forget what it’s like to be a fan.  (You can replace lacrosse with your favorite sport, but for ease, it will be my preferred reference.)

Fans feel a sense of ownership and even protectiveness over their teams and players, even if it’s completely irrational.

Just like a parent, they see everything through a skewed lens. They will cheer and stand up for a player against his detractors simply because he’s on their team but put that same player on the other team and their tune will probably change.

Recently I had an interesting discussion on Twitter with Andrew McKay and Teddy Jenner* about this concept.  To them, it’s very strange and even frustrating how fans can hold grudges against players long after the players themselves have moved on.  Or how fans make broad assumptions about the players based on their limited information.

For a lot of the players, they have played on the same teams or against one another in different leagues over several years and have built camaraderie on and off the field.  You might find players who had a tussle on the field chatting over a beer afterwards.  For the players, they can go all out during the game and leave it on the field.

But as fans, our only real involvement in the game is our emotion.  We cheer.  We jeer. We celebrate. We get angry.  We get upset. We feel the excitement of a win.  We feel the pain of a loss.

But whereas a player can work out their frustrations on the field, telling a fan to rein in their emotion and get over it can be a whole other story.

When a fan sees a player on their team on the receiving end of a cheap shot, just like a protective sibling, they get upset and more than likely develop a dislike for the instigating player.

Off the field, the instigating player might be the nicest guy in the world, volunteering for local charities and giving back to the community.  But to that fan, he’s just a dirty player.

Is it right? Does it even make sense? No, of course it doesn’t.

But fans are given very limited information in emotional situations and as humans they try to process that limited information and expand on it to obtain a bigger view.  This generalization and assumption is actually common enough to have a name.  It’s called the Halo Effect and no, I’m not referring to the Bungie video game.

Dictionary.com defines the Halo effect as a potential inaccuracy in observation, as of a person, due to overgeneralization from a limited amount of evidence or the influence of preconceived beliefs or a prior hypothese.

While some players seem to enjoy their reputations, good or bad, others find it frustrating.  Some don’t want to be viewed as a role model, up on a pedestal.  Others don’t want to be viewed as a villain.  In the major sports, most players have very little if any interaction with their fans.  But in professional lacrosse, that dividing line is much thinner.

Fans can talk to players after the game and interact with them on Twitter and on Facebook.  As you’d expect, some players are certainly more open and receptive than others to this interaction.  Even though quite a few players are on Twitter, not all of them are responsive.

How does this interaction change a fan’s view?  It probably reinforces some views and possibly changes others.  I wouldn’t be surprised if in some ways this interaction actually increases some fans ownership of a team’s players.  But in general, I think it’s a good thing as it helps fans to see players as people too and get a different view of them beside what they see on the field.

What do you think?

*(On a side note, if you’re a lacrosse fan and you’re not already following them on the net, you’re missing out. Check out The Laxist and IL Indoor)

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In Part One of this Season Preview, I predicted the Broncos starting 5-3.

Losses in four of their five close games mucked that up royally…

Denver sucked in the Red Zone at Jacksonville, sucked in the Red Zone versus Indianapolis, and committed Hara-Kiri at the end of the game versus the Jersey Jets.  The Broncos were, however, successful in proving that they could perform at the same level on an International stage by sucking in the Red Zone against San Francisco in London’s Wembley Stadium.

And now for the Broncos’ epic second half comeback to… finish third in the division?

(Not bloody likely.)

2010 First Half of Season Broncos Record: 2-6

Week Ten

Denver Broncos vs Kansas City Chiefs

Sunday, November 14^th @ 2:05pm MST

Kansas City leads the division at 5-3 but will need to beat the Broncos in Denver to hold the top of the trash heap.  Oakland is on a Bye, but at 5-4 and 3-0 in the division the Raiders are the current “favorites” to win the AFC West.

Now, just because the Chiefs have the best view on the compost pile doesn’t mean that they will beat the Broncos at Mile High.  McDaniels & Co are coming off a timely Bye.  Hopefully Big Josh used the free time to pound some sense & discipline into his team, his coaching staff, and most especially himself.  Expect some new offensive wrinkles.

The Denver D will come back healthier with Brian Dawkins returning to shore up the Broncos’ shoddy secondary.  KC’s pass defense is mostly overrated, so Kyle Orton and his cadre of talented wide receivers should carve up the Chiefs to the tune of 300+ yards.

Silly as it sounds, the clumsy 2-6 Broncos will take out a division leader on a crisp autumn Sunday in Denver.

BRONCOS WIN: 3-6

Week Eleven

Denver Broncos @ San Diego Chargers

Monday, November 22^nd @ 6:30pm MST

Philip Rivers is a very talented quarterback with a winning instinct & a competitive edge that makes him difficult to beat.  That said, Phil is also an incredible jagoff reviled by a majority of the league for his arrogant frat boy demeanor and shmarmy butthole grin.

Unfortunately for the Broncos, that whole ‘winning instinct & competitive edge’ thing will probably be the more relevant fact.  Norv Turner will select healthy receivers from the side of the road at an Escondido Freeway off ramp, and Bitchmade Rivers will still carve up the Broncos for 30+ points.

BRONCOS LOSE: 3-7

Week Twelve

Denver Broncos vs St Louis Rams

Sunday, November 28^th @ 2:15pm MST

In the Rams the Broncos have the perfect foil…

St Louis is an overachiever after three terrible seasons put them at the bottom of the league.  Denver is an underachiever after three terrible seasons knocked them from the NFL’s upper echelon.  Both are struggling to compete in bad divisions.  Both hired new head coaches to stem the bleeding before the 2009 Season.

The plot brings these two teams, one trending up the other trending down, to Mile High Stadium for a Death Match to determine the ultimate fate of their seasons.

The Rams have gotten by so far on a stout run defense and balanced offense.  But the Broncos couldn’t run the ball against a soccer team right now.  In fact their only real strength is their prolific passing game, and the Rams’ corners are imminently exploitable.  Plus, everybody scores on the Denver D so balance is an unnecessary offensive asset.

The Broncos win a thriller that features at least one exciting young quarterback putting on a showcase.  (Do not miss Sam Bradford in his first trip to Denver, otherwise you will have to wait eight years for another chance to see this future All-Pro QB in live action.)

BRONCOS WIN: 4-7

Week Thirteen

Denver Broncos @ Kansas City Chiefs

Sunday, December 5^th @ 11:00pm MST

The Broncos always lose at Arrowhead in December unless the game falls on my birthday (December 6^th.)  It’s a well-noted fact.  Look it up.

On this wind-blown December 5^th morning the Broncos will take the field in Kansas City sure losers.  That afternoon they will walk off the Arrowhead turf surer losers.  The only consolation will be that the Broncos get to go home afterwards while the Chiefs have to stick it out in the grey, dreary, lifeless landscape that is Kansas in the wintertime.

BRONCOS LOSE: 4-8

Week Fourteen

Denver Broncos @ Arizona Cardinals

Sunday, December 12^th @ 2:15pm MST

The Cardinals are pretty bad on both sides of the ball.  But what they lack in defensive competence, they make up in play-making ability.  And their special teams units are second to none right now.

Arizona has scored touchdowns via their Defense/Special Teams in all but three games this season, even going to the house twice against New Orleans & Minnesota.  Not only has that made the Cardinals D/ST fantasy football gold, it has also masked the epic decline of their offense from Kurt Warner & the Unstoppables to Derek Anderson & the Three ‘n Outs.

The Broncos are the better team so they should win this game, but do not be surprised when the score is tight in the fourth quarter and the AZ O has under 200 total yards.

BRONCOS WIN: 5-8

Week Fifteen

Denver Broncos @ Oakland Raiders

Sunday, December 19^th @ 2:15pm MST

Denver was given the football equivalent of a wedgie highlight reel by the Raiders in Week 7.

That 59-14 crusher was predicated on two matchup facts: 1) Oakland has a very good run game but cannot stop opposing rushing attacks and 2) Denver lacks a rushing attack to take advantage of Oakland’s suspect run defense.

More of the same Week 15 in Oaktown.

BRONCOS LOSE: 5-9

Week Sixteen

Denver Broncos vs Houston Texans

Sunday, December 26^th @ 2:05pm MST

Returning home from three consecutive road games, the Broncos welcome the enigmatic Houston Texans to town.  Former Denver offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak is now head coach in Houston.  Kubiak’s new unit is defensively-challenged, but no doubt The Koob still remembers how to light up the Mile High City with a balanced offensive attack.

Kyle Orton will expose the Texans’ abysmal secondary, but the game will come down to time of possession.  Arian Foster will ensure that Houston wins that battle, rushing for 120+ yards behind a horrifyingly familiar zone-blocking scheme that leaves Broncos fans sucking their thumbs, clutching their blankies, closing their eyes real tight and thinking back on the good ol’ days.

BRONCOS LOSE: 5-10

Week Seventeen

Denver Broncos vs San Diego Chargers

Sunday, January 2^nd @ 2:15pm MST

After another atrociously lame start the Chargers will once again be in position to win the AFC West via the final game of the regular season.

This tired script always ends the same way:

Broncos come in pumped, have one good series, then pooch the rest of the game behind a suddenly transparent secondary and randomly damaging incompetence.

We all know it’s going to happen, so why not take the kids sledding?  Get a tune-up on your car?  Run butt-naked down the 16^th Street Mall disguised as Slick Willy Clinton?  Do anything but watch this game.  No need to torture yourself at the end of an already torturous season.

Besides, we will each need all of our strength & mental fortitude when Josh “Angry Emoticon” McDaniels drafts a quarterback with a top-five pick in the 2011 NFL Draft.

BRONCOS LOSE: 5-11

See you next year!!  It can only get better from here, right?  Right!?

Read 2010 Season Preview PART ONE

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Carmelo Anthony has been spoken for at length in recent months.  To quote numerous media sources, Melo has been “on the brink” of being sent East on the trade winds since early August. But none among those purportedly in-the-know have anything better than unnamed sources to back up their claims.

Well, Carmelo finally had his say on Wednesday…

To be sure, the Summer of 2010 took a turn for the worse in Nuggetsland after Lebron James announced his defection from the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Melo was keeping his contract extension in the back of a drawer, the Lebron/Bosh/Stoudemire Sweepstakes had wound down, and baseball had turned to a pitcher-dominated steroid-free snoozer.  With the Carmelo-LaLa wedding rising on the horizon, the craven sports media gravitated zombie-like towards the Next Big Story.

For his part, Carmelo Anthony played it all in character; cool as ice.

Even when anxious guests pressed the issue at the Melo-LaLa wedding reception, Anthony just laughed it off.  He assured interviewers that he was a Denver Nugget, that he was looking forward to training camp, that he didn’t want to be traded.

So, as the Great Media Monster pressed on with speculation, NBA fans were left to wonder what was true and what was so much blown smoke.

Carmelo Himself shed some light on the situation in his first direct response to the trade rumors.  In his comments we can see Anthony in a clear light, especially by comparison to the murky details rendered from imagined sources “close to the situation”.

“If they come to me and say they want to trade me to a team we’ll discuss it at that time. Right now they haven’t come to me and said that.”  Anthony went on, “What they’re doing in the front office is letting me go through training camp and not worry about that type of stuff.”

I know, sounds like Melo has one foot out the door right?

“I’m going to work hard regardless, whether there’s a deal on the table or the deal’s not on the table… I’m here, man. This ain’t offseason. The season has started. I’m not a free agent yet. If it comes down to it at the end of the season and I haven’t signed the extension, then we’ll sit down.”

After months of anonymous sources cooked up a half-dozen “just a matter of time” exit plans for Carmelo Anthony, we see a different tone in the man’s own words.

We see a player who very much wants to take his Nuggets into the 2010-2011 NBA Season.  We see a guy who is torn between starting from scratch on one of basketball’s biggest stages, and hunkering down in a market that thrives almost exclusively on his name.  We see everything that ESPN’s guesswork didn’t care to.

In short, we see a man carefully making a decision.

And THAT may be the mainstream media’s biggest miss in its assessment of Carmelo Anthony’s basketball future.  It is so much easier to write about a player who has made up his mind, as Lebron James likely did weeks or months before he took his (overrated) talents to South Beach.  But Melo has played it cool.  And where Lebron took his cues from “Worldwide Wes” and a host of other confidants, Carmelo has taken the decision entirely upon himself.

“My wife is rolling with me… She’s leaving the decision up to me. I’m the one out here shooting jump shots, running up and down the court. She understands what’s going on. Of course there’s pressure for her because she don’t really know what’s going on right now, a lot of speculation and rumors.

“She’s the star, she’s in Hollywood, she’s acting, she’s got her own show, that’s what she does. She’s been doing that before she even met me. She’s with me.”

So with the support of his long-time love and recent wife behind him, Carmelo has deftly navigated the Summer Seas and still come out with a decision to make.

No pressure.  Just a choice.

And how cool is Melo?  Really?

So cool that he is willing to wait to see what kind of team the 2010-2011 Nuggets are with a healthy George Karl at the helm and Big Al Harrington manning the opposite post. Carmelo is willing to risk losing out on the big payday provided by the current (and expiring) Collective Bargaining Agreement just to better inform his decision.

After a summer of being compared to the egocentric circus that was once Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony has proven himself less than a mirror.  Instead, Melo waiting out the storm and then stood above it all to tell the world that he hadn’t made up his mind yet, that he loves where he plays basketball, and that the decision is his alone.

Said Anthony, “I think everybody has a little bit of an opinion of what happened in Miami, some good, some bad… I think it definitely had a little bit of an impact… It had a little bit of an impact on how people think.”

Props to Melo for being his own man even under the reflected lights of Lebrongate.

And as unlikely as it still is, here’s hoping that Denver is Carmelo’s basketball home for many more years to come.  What did Melo have to say about that?

“My options will be open.”

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Given to the team that most heinously overpays for draft talent, this year’s dubious selection goes to the Jacksonville ‘It’s in Florida’ Jaguars.

With their first-round selection of Cal DL Tyson Alualu, the Jags pulled the trigger on a guy that most likely would have been there much later in the draft.  And even if you sidestep the whole value issue, you run smack into the fact that the Jags have about as much fan support as the Seattle Supersonics.  They needed a splash and got a 295 lb. trickle instead.   The bitch of it is that he may actually be a fantastic player – in L.A.

Tyson Alualu Fans

The Larry Craig Award

Named after the famous Senatorial airport-bathroom diddler, this award goes to Steelers signal-caller Ben ‘Go Deep‘ Roethlisberger.

After a drunken nightclub-bathroom liaison with a 20-year-old Georgia co-ed devolved into a vicious he-said-she-said sexual assault charge, the Steel City QB was suspended for a minimum of 4 games by NFL Commish Roger ‘Bitchsmack’ Goodell.  The real victims here are the kids who look up to NFL QBs as role models.  Role models that abuse their status and money by getting freaky with really hot girls are celebrated.  Roethlisberger got busy in a bathroom with a drunken, chipmunk-faced debutant.   At least the kiddies still have Reggie Bush.

Chipmunk Face

Kim Kardashian’s Ass (feat. Reggie Bush)

The Mancrush Award

Given to the most ardent relationship in the NFL, this award goes to Josh ‘Have It My Way’ McDaniels, whose mancrush on Florida stud Tim ‘Post-Fetus’ Tebow prompted the Broncos to draft the QB 25^th overall.

While there are serious doubts about Tebow’s skill set, his ‘intangibles’ must have touched Coach McDaniels in just the right way, because the Broncos gave up 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th round picks to move up get the Florida product.  From here on out, the careers of these two squeaky-clean, all-American boys are joined at the hip, which will suit them both just fine.

Wally...

...and The Beaver

The Alimony Award

Given to reward the most cold-blooded heartbreaker of the offseason, this award goes to Andy ‘Quarter-Pounder’ Reid and the Philadelphia Eagles.

First, the pass-happy West Coast guru let beat-up workhorse Brian Westbrook leave town for greener pastures (or maybe the glue factory).  Then he traded perennially maligned QB Donovan ‘Super 5’ McNabb to the division-rival Redskins.  Now that’s gangster.  As we all know, there’s only one thing worse than seeing your ex with someone else:  seeing them twice a year in a tight division with a new partner who’s wearing two Super Bowl rings.  True, Reid has legit young talent in ‘The Real’ Shady McCoy and Kevin Kolb, but…damn!  That’s some straight gangsta shit! Let’s hope those kids can ball.  ‘Cuz if not, Reid will be the next one to get served.

‘Honey, we have to talk.’

The Ryan Leaf Award

This is a prestigious award, and the qualifications are strenuous.  Not only must the candidate be the top overall pick, he has to fail even more spectacularly than Leaf, whose tempestuous time in the NFL  was marked by fights, malingering, lawsuits, and ineptitude.   None so far were equal to the task.  Not until Jamarcus ‘Let Me Eat Cake’ Russell.

Consider this: Leaf was a second overall pick.  Russell was the first.  Leaf was fined for missing a mandatory rookie symposium. Russell answered by skipping his whole rookie offseason and a couple of games.  Leaf was so inept he got benched for Craig Whelihan.  Russell answered by getting benched for Bruce Gradkowski and Charlie Frye.  Leaf escaped San Diego with 11.25 million dollars, while Russell jacked Al ‘Skeletor’ Davis for an eye-popping 32 million FU’s.   Game, set, match Russell.  Word is that Russell is moving on.  He’s getting back in shape and will soon be trying out for a Chinese Buffet near you.

The Man Who Ate Lane Kiffen

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Troy Tulowitzki strikes out with vigor in his first return to the plate since suffering a broken wrist in June

In order to understand the Colorado Rockies you need to have been there in 2007 when Todd Helton and Troy Tulowitzki willed their team to the playoffs.

To really get the depth of suffering in Colorado baseballand you will have waded through an abysmal 2008.  You would remember watching, helpless, as every dependable player from that magical ’07 run declined, even the ones that went to other teams (Fogg, Taveras & Matsui.)

You will have stared blankly at a post-All Star Break club that has sucked in every conceivable way that a baseball team can suck, rolled snake-eyes in every conceivable situation that requires luck, and lost eight straight games, alternately in gut-wrenching blowout fashion and then with fist-pounding inadequacy in close contests.

And the only reason you believe that there is a ghost of a chance that the Rockies can make up 9 games in their remaining 55 is that you saw them charge back in two of the last three seasons after everybody, including you, had written them off as well done… cooked.

But you will have also watched this Colorado team repeatedly threatened with its postseason life in the last week respond by committing a litany of mistakes; from formerly dependable starters to typically shutdown fielders to otherwise intelligent management.

And you will believe again, as I do, that the Rockies’ season is finished before its time.

Oddly, though, it would seem that this team thrives on its own dysfunctional countenance.

The Rockies are deeply, characteristically humanistic in their approach to baseball.  Even by comparison to similarly streaky teams.

What I mean here is that the Rockies feel like they’re on an epic losing streak right now, and it shows in every movement, every anxious swing.  Each driving hit straight into a defender’s glove seems scripted by the very demeanor of the club, and the only way out is an equal, opposite and, yea, inevitable resurgence in the opposite direction.

The Colorado Rockies are a team of players whose most defining attribute is their inherently natural approach to the game.  Brad Hawpe, Carlos Gonzalez, Ubaldo Jimenez and Troy Tulowitzki, the Rockies’ youth core, are very simply a band of gifted naturals.

Hawpe has one of the most beautiful swings ever created by the baseball gods, but struggles mightily to control its intricacies.

Gonzalez is so intensely gifted at finding ways to drive a baseball thrown anywhere near the strike zone that he dooms himself to low-percentage, awkward swings in high-pressure situations.

Jimenez didn’t start playing baseball until his teens, and his otherworldly physical talents still seem underdeveloped at times.  His incapability to cope with a mechanical glitch, in fact his tendency to exaggerate the motion that is blowing his pitches off-course, is sophomoric by comparison to his level of experience in the major leagues.

And poor Troy Tulowitzki had gotten it all figured out after two years of struggle when a brush-back pitch broke his wrist in mid-June.

Before that injury, Tulo had finally found a way to harness his obvious natural skills, to take advantage of his de-facto confidence, and to do so while still allowing the game to come to him.  In his two games back, Troy has been wound so tight trying to make plays that he has committed a fielding error and a major base-running gaffe, and frustratingly driven the ball hard straight at opposing fielders.  (He has also struck out dramatically– see picture above.)

But where they Rockies have a tendency to perpetuate their own bad fortunes, they are also capable of waking into a flurry of ferocious winning at any time.

Those ’07 & ’09 teams needed catalysts in the form of an emotional game-winning home run by Helton for the former and an intensely personal managerial change for the latter.

The Rockies’ front office has very publicly pursued not just good, natural baseball players, but also good, natural human beings.  We’re talking good people here, with strong morals and well-developed character.  The result has been a team that moves as one through the season, sometimes slipping into a self-perpetuated depression, and sometimes rising to unbelievable heights of excellence.

The Colorado Rockies are a family unit with well-defined roles, desire and passion throughout.  Their collectivism is their greatest strength and most damning weakness.

So even if I have to believe, statistically… rationally, that the Rockies are done in 2010, there is still a chance for resurrection.  And even if the ’10 Rocks don’t make it rain, the ’11 Rocks look mighty potent given a healthy pitching staff.

Even as we give up on the boys in purple pinstripes, they are yet a dynamic ball club full of potential for greatness.  Even if the season fades to an untimely black, it is still good to be a baseball fan in Colorado.

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All hands on deck!  After a poor game that the Jazz won by three, the Nuggets put up one their worst performances of year and the postseason is in jeopardy.  This is now a must win game on the road.  If the Nuggets can’t find it tonight, they probably won’t find it.  And Energy Solutions Arena is a tough place for any team save the Jazz to play.

I won’t lie; it’s tough to root for the Nuggets after the lackluster performance on Friday night.  The team played just about the laziest game I’ve ever seen a contender play and it makes me wonder if they ever were truly a contender.  The only cure is a high-energy, high-effort win on the road.

1^st Quarter

5:46 Nuggets get the early lead on the shooting of Carmelo Anthony, but so far the game has looked much like the previous three strategically.  The Jazz are running their dribble drives and pick and rolls.  The Nuggets are working the isolations and looking for mistakes in the Jazz defense under the hoop.

2:28 The Jazz have clawed back in by dominating down low for a solid 3 minutes.  Paul Millsap has come into the game and Nene can’t deal with him.  Nene has got to step up both defensively and offensively against Millsap, because if things continue as they are the Nuggets are looking at a long game and short season.

End Quarter Jazz 31-25

The Nuggets’ offense left the building for a few minutes and the Jazz pulled away.  It happens.   A missed layup by Nene here and missed wide open 3 Pointer by Chauncey Billups there and you only score 4 points in the final 4 minutes of a quarter.

The Jazz are simply getting too close to the basket.  They’re shooting 60% and it’s because the vast majority of shots they’re taking are from within the restricted area.  The Nuggets have got to find a way to keep the ball on the perimeter.

2^nd Quarter

7:57 Millsap has left the floor and the Nuggets are chipping away at the lead (was at its highest at 8, now down to 5).   Looking at the stats, the Nuggets’ shooting is a little low (42%).  That needs to come up.

5:04 The Nuggets are battling.  At times today, they’ve looked like they have no idea what to do and at others are showing the toughness that got them here.  J.R. Smith has been the best defender so far with a pair of steals and 2 rebounds.

3:21 The Nuggets have abandoned the paint and their post players are taking stupid jump shots.  The Nuggets’ shooting is down to 39%.  Worse, look at the shooting from the Nuggets bigs:

Kenyon Martin 1-7

Nene 1-2

Chris Anderson 1-3

Martin has been exceptionally bad.  He can’t make layups or jump shots.

2:16 Martin just got his third foul and will have to sit on the bench.  Considering the way he’s played, good riddance.

End Half Jazz 54-45

The shot selection for the Nuggets is the culprit tonight (37% FG, 1-7 3 Pt).  Even Anthony’s numbers have slumped (7-15 FG, although he has picked up 3 of his own rebounds).  Only Aaron Afflalo is making more than 50% of his shots (3-5 FG).  Adrian Dantley needs to be yelling at his low percentage shooter (Kenyon & Anderson specifically) and telling them they’re not allowed to take any low percentage shots.

On the other end, the Jazz shooters are having an off night, but they are still shooting 56% because the bigs are finding easy paths to the basket.

3^rd Quarter

7:41 Even when the Jazz try to help the Nuggets out, Denver gives the ball right back.  On a bad pass by Afflalo, Wesley Matthews takes the ball the other way and misses a dunk.  I’m feeling like this could be the Nuggets’ time, and Melo steps out of bounds on the drive.  The Nuggets look dead in the water down by 15.

3:10  Denver has taken a game they were in only down by 9, and with lazy play (especially on the defensive side) have turned it into an asskicking.  There is only one way to describe the Nuggets’ second half performance; shameful.  This team has gone from being a contender to win a championship and in one month turned into a team that may need to be blown up.

End Quarter Jazz 86-68

The Nuggets have given themselves a tall order to keep their season going.  They pretty much have to play perfect basketball in order to win this game and I don’t need to remind you that this game is the playoffs.  I think Basketball season may be over.

4^th Quarter

9:40  Well the good news is the Jazz have started launching stupid shots.  If this continues and the Nuggets have someone get hot the game might not be over.  I’m not holding my breath.

6:04 The Nuggets closed the lead to 11 from 20 in half the quarter.  A few more minutes like this and I might be wrong about the Nuggets season.

2:36 The Jazz make their clutch shots and the Nuggets need 2 and a half minutes of absolutely perfect basketball to win.

0:54 After closing it to 7, Melo misses a 14 footer and the Jazz are into foul shots.

End Game

The Nuggets could have won this game (and this series) with consistent effort.  When they played hard at both ends they were clearly the beater team.  But Utah simply out worked them.   Melo was the only one who played hard all the way through (et to Billups?) and he missed time with foul trouble again.

And now the Nuggets must win 3 in a row with the middle one on the road.   That’s probably out of the question for this team.  Next time I’m scheduled to write for the Nuggets will be game 7…  so I don’t expect to write about them again this season.

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The Colorado Avalanche stole Game 1 in San Jose on a Chris Stewart shot that deflected off Sharks defenseman Rob Blake’s skate with 49.3 seconds left in the final period.

Game 2’s scoring began on a high, arcing bounce shot credited to Avalanche defender Kyle Cumiskey just over a minute in.  The Avalanche would go on to lose in Overtime, but San Jose never led until that sudden death game-winner.

Then we have Sunday night’s Game 3.

Avalanche goalie Craig Anderson stopped all 50 shots faced in the first three periods of play.  Andy would only need to withstand one more shot in Overtime before a bizarre goal credited to the poke-checking stick of Avalanche center Ryan O’Reilly ended the game.  Colorado scraped by with a 1-0 win for a 2-1 series lead over San Jose.

It was O’Reilly’s first postseason goal in a stellar rookie season, but the force of the ‘shot’ came from San Jose defenseman Dan Boyle.  Boyle attempted a clear around the end boards behind Sharks’ goaltender Evgeni Nabokov.  Working from the side boards to Nabokov’s right, Boyle tried to throw the puck around behind his own net to clear the zone.  O’Reilly, who had chased a TJ Galiardi dump into the Sharks’ zone, got a sliver of his stick on either Boyle’s stick, the puck, or both.  The puck sailed hard behind the bend in Nabokov’s right knee, the only place his leg pad was not set firmly against the post.

O’Reilly looked to the Pepsi Center’s vaulted ceiling, threw up his hands, and dropped his eyes back to ice-level in time to get mobbed by Avalanche teammates.

But the real story of the game was Craig Anderson.

Anderson’s performance on Sunday mirrored cross-town counterpart Ubaldo Jimenez’ no-hitter for the Colorado Rockies in Atlanta on Saturday.  Both men play the highest stress positions in their respective sport, and both tossed up shutout gems this weekend.

Craig stopped 8 shots in the 1^st, when the Avalanche were taking the play at the Sharks hard.  Periods 2 & 3 were all San Jose, though, and Anderson had to turn away 21 shots in each of the final two frames.  The Sharks came at Andy from every direction, using every trick in their extensive, possession-heavy book of attacks.  Anderson stopped 51 of 51 on the game before O’Reilly’s game-winning goal at 0:51 of the extra period.

When all was said and done, the rink clear except for an Altitude Sports reporter, Craig skated back onto the ice to accept his 1^st Star nod.  Instead of an interview, we got a solid minute of standing ovation as the best postseason goaltender to lock down the Pepsi Center since Avalanche legend Patrick Roy stood awkwardly, an enormous grin stretched across his face.

For those who have not had the pleasure of watching Andy work this season, Craig Anderson has arrived.

And for the Avalanche faithful who watched Andy carry this team from the season’s opener versus these Sharks at Pepsi Center (a 5-2 win) all the way to a playoff birth, through two epic games in San Jose, and back to Pepsi Center for a crucial Game 3 win, Craig Anderson has come full circle.

A career backup before coming to Colorado, Craig Anderson is a recognized hero at last.

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The Colorado Avalanche had the worst record in the Western Conference in 2009.  Now they have the worst record of the 8 West contenders for Lord Stanley’s Cup.  That is an impressive leap for one of the youngest teams in the league.

But can Colorado manufacture a first-round upset in hockey’s second season?

Starting this Wednesday, April 14^th the Avalanche will travel to San Jose to open their 12^th trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  Colorado began their surprise season with a 5-2 thumping of the Sharks on the same night that the Avalanche retired Joe Sakic’s #19 to the Pepsi Center rafters.

In fact, Colorado split the season series with San Jose 2-2 on the strength of that opening win and a 5-4 OT victory on April 4^th.  The two games between were tight, evenly-matched affairs that ended in 1-3 & 3-4 losses at San Jose.

The top-seeded Sharks play incredibly well in San Jose, and the Colorado Avalanche will need to find a way to win a close game at the Shark Tank to steal the series.  For all the Sharks’ regular season success in San Jose, playoff demons lurk there as well…

San Jose Sharks recent playoff history

San Jose has made an early exit from the playoffs every year since their ascension to NHL elite status during the 2003-2004 season.

2003-2004 the Sharks upended the Avalanche on their way to the Western Conference Finals.  San Jose lost that series in 6 games to the Calgary Flames, and their playoff troubles have been well documented ever since.

2004-2005 season was cancelled due to a league-wide lockout.  The Sharks would have had considerable momentum going into that season, and the labor dispute definitely played a part in killing San Jose’s newfound playoff mojo.

2005-2006 ended with a 6-game loss to the Edmonton Oilers in the second round after the Sharks took a 2-0 series lead.  The Oilers would go on to play in the Cup Finals.

2006-2007 fizzled as well, as the Sharks dominated the Nashville Predators for the second consecutive season with a 4-1 first round domination, only to give up a 2-1 series lead to the Detroit Red Wings in a 6-game series loss.

2007-2008 was another disappointment with the Sharks ceding to the middling Dallas Stars in another second round fade that carried on the home-ice killing tradition of losing in 6 games to lesser teams.  Head Coach Ron Wilson was fired as a result, and Todd McLellan took over in the offseason.

2008-2009 may have been the most damaging playoff series in San Jose’s history (remarkable considering the history) as the Sharks dropped another 6-game series on the road to the division rival Anaheim Ducks.  That loss to the 8^th-seeded Ducks came after winning the President’s Trophy for the best regular season record in the NHL.

Upset Special, Made to Order

The Colorado Avalanche are a matchup nightmare for the Sharks for a lot of reasons.  Chief among them is San Jose’s propensity for losing to scrappy young opponents in the playoffs, but just as important is Colorado’s offensive depth.

Because of a season filled with injuries that have effected every single scoring line, the Avalanche can roll out a wide assortment of forwards that have well-established chemistry.  Each line is capable of rolling through the neutral zone with incredible speed, and even the team’s muckers sport a surprising scoring touch.

The Avalanche have nowhere near the defensive fortitude that the Sharks have, but they can score on anybody.

The Avs can throw their own recent playoff history out the window.

This Avalanche squad bears only a vague resemblance to teams of playoffs past.  And that resemblance is born out only in the grizzled visage of veteran blue-liner Adam Foote, and the still-youthful speed of Milan Hejduk.  Even with the re-acquisition of former Colorado stalwart Stephane Yelle, the new Avalanche are young to the core.

The Avs’ Centers read like a who’s who of North American Junior & College Hockey over the last 5 seasons.

Matt Duchene, Ryan O’Reilly, Kevin Porter, Paul Stastny & Ryan Stoa are all under 25 years old.  Only Chris Durno (mucker), Matt Hendricks (hammer) and Yelle are older.

The Youth Movement extends through the team’s wingers as well.

Cody McLeod & David Jones toe the line at 25 years old, while TJ Galiardi, Peter Mueller, Chris Stewart & Brandon Yip are younger.  The rarely-used David Koci is 28 and speed-demon Marek Svatos is 27.  Only Darcy Tucker (35) and Hejduk (34) could truly be considered veterans out of the team’s 10 wing-men.

And while the Avalanche defense is thick with veterans, three of eight defenders stand out as shockingly young.  Kyle Cumiskey (23), Kyle Quincey (24) & Ryan Wilson (23) each skate in a defensive pairing with a much older teammate, and they facilitate the speed-first attitude of this Colorado team.

Which brings us to the #1 reason why the Avalanche have a very viable opportunity to upset the San Jose Sharks.

Colorado is fast.  Really fast.  And the Sharks are slow.  Really slow.

San Jose predicates its game on disciplined movement out of their defensive zone, and methodical, cycling hockey in the offensive zone.  The Sharks are a hulking team that prefers to set up screened shots high and post mammoth centers up front.

But the Avalanche have within them two great assets against such a strategy: dedicated shot-blockers that have the speed and gall to disrupt up high, and a quick, agile goalie that, at his best, sees the puck through screens and eats up rebounds with regularity.

Now, Avalanche goaltender Craig Anderson has had a rough time over the last 15 games, and there is very real possibility that he carried too much of a burden through the regular season (most ice-time and most shots faced in the league).  No doubt, Colorado will need Andy to be at the top of his game against the Sharks, or San Jose’s superior puck control and defense will steamroll the Avalanche into submission.

But the ingredients are all there for Colorado to extend San Jose’s playoff woes.  If Peter Mueller can come back healthy at 100% for this series, and Anderson can step up the way he did in the first half of the season, then the Avalanche could be looking at Saturday, April 24^th at Pepsi Center (Game 6) as the day they swallowed the Sharks.

COLORADO AVALANCHE VS SAN JOSE SHARKS SERIES SCHEDULE

Wed, Apr 14 @ San Jose 8:30 PM MST on Versus

Fri, Apr 16 @ San Jose 8:30 PM MST on Versus

Sun, Apr 18 @ Colorado 7:30 PM MST on Versus

Tue, Apr 20 @ Colorado 8:00 PM MST on Versus

Thu, Apr 22 @ San Jose 8:30 PM MST on Versus

Sat, Apr 24 @ Colorado TBA

Mon, Apr 26 @ San Jose TBA

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