Magby's Sports Review

[Ryan Magby]

I have got to say, congrats to the Univeristy of Florida for winning the BCS National Championship. They played Oklahoma last night in the title game and won 24-14. The game was no where near the game it was expected to be, with OU averaging over 50 points per game (best offense statisically ever) and Florida was averaging 45 points per game. I still believe that Texas is the best team in the country, but because there is no playoff system, we will never know. Just wait until next season, 9 months away. HOOK 'EM HORNS!

Days until President Elect Obama gets sworn into the White House: 11

[Ryan Magby]

Time to say congrats to another team that won a championship.... This time it is the Pittsburgh Steelers who won SuperBowl XLIII (43) on sunday... The game was a great one that ended 27-23 with the steelers getting a touchdown with 35 seconds left in the game on an amazing catch in the endzone by Santonio Homes..... I was going for the steelers but sadly there was one thing that kinda made me think i didnt want them to win... By winning on sunday they won their 6th superbowl, the first ever team to win 6... America's team, the Dallas Cowboys, have won 5.... they were tied with the most with the Steelers and the San Fransisco 49ers, but not anymore.... This year will bring a new stadium into the historic francise of the Dallas Cowboys, who really don't play in Dallas... Starting this year they play in my hometown, Arlington, and in 2 years the Superbowl comes here for SuperBowl XLV, and hopefully the Cowboys will be good enough to make it in that one.

So the football season is over, and still two major sports are going right now, with hockey and basketball in the middle of their seasons, and just 12 days until pitchers and catchers report for spring training in baseball (YAY!). The Dallas Stars have picked up the pace lately, they have won their last 4 games and are 6-2-2 in their last 10... They have climbed out of the basement of the Western Conference and into a playoff spot in 7th place... As long as the stars keep playing like they have been for the last month, they will easily make it into the playoffs and they will be a hard team to knock out.

[Ryan Magby]

Sorry for being long gone and swamped with things to do but I am back just in time. Today is the start of one of the biggest sports events in the states, commonly known as "March Madness", it is the men's college basketball tournement. The first games start in about 3 hours and my realism actually overtakes my obsession of the Texas Longhorns. Most people who follow college basketball fill out their own bracket and make predictions, well i have made 2... 1 is my Texas bracket, where i have texas going all the way... the other is my realistic bracket, where i have Texas getting knocked out in the 2nd round by 2 seed Duke... In my realistic bracket i have my final 4 as: 1 seed North Carolina vs. 2 seed Duke, and 1 seed Conneticut vs. 2 seed Michigan State... I have Michigan State and North Carolina in the final with North Carolina winning it all.... Good luck to anyone who filled out a bracket for the tournament, and if you have leave some comments on who you picked.

[Ryan Magby]

It has been a long year in sports.... Spain are the champions of world soccer, the Rangers faded again in late September, only to be in a much better spot a year later looking forward to the playoffs, Manchester United fell 1 point short of their 4th straight Premier League title, the Texas Longhorns were in the National Title game, just to have their quarterback (one of the best in the country) get hurt in the first quarter and end up losing because of it... This summer has been a very exciting one for me, as the Texas Rangers are in a very unlikely spot.

TEXAS RANGERS

So this season started back in April, and I was happy to be able to be their on opening day (At the time I was working for the team in the stores), it was a great game that saw the Rangers making a comeback win in the 9th inning. After that though, the rest of the month was kinda rough, and the Rangers finished April with 11 wins and 12 losses. Since then though, the Rangers have been the best team in baseball, and are now sitting at 67 wins and 50 losses, and they are 8 games ahead of the 2nd place team in the AL West, which is the largest division lead in the MLB.... With 45 games left, and the way the Rangers are playing, they are almost assured a spot in the playoffs, and I really like their chances to win their first playoff series in franchise history. This will be a great final month and a half of the season, hopefully leading into a deep playoff run late into October.

EPL

It is Premier League time again, and I was up early (6:45 am my time) to watch the opening game between Man City and Tottenham... Spurs completely dominated that game, but couldn't get past the amazing Joe Hart... He made some unbelievable saves in that game. My first pick of the season was on the Aston Villa vs West Ham game. Robert Green will probably get booed in every stadium he plays in for the next 2 months after the performance that he put on at the World Cup in South Africa. My pick was on Aston Villa to win, which easily came through 3-0, in a game that could have been a lot worse. Chelsea and Man United kept up their winning ways, 6-0 and 3-0 respectively, but the biggest shock of the first week was Blackpool. The team that most experts picked as the odds on favorite to finish in last place, went to Wigan and stunned the league, winning 4-0 in their first Premier League game in over 40 years, and for about 3 hours held the top spot in England for the first time in over 50 years. As far as my team goes, Man U, they won 3-0, but looked pretty shaky in doing so. Rooney looked well off his game, although I have heard he has been kinda sick. Many chances missed in that game, and it should have been at least 5 or 6 goals for Man U, but I will take it... Looking forward to that December 18th game against Chelsea... GLORY GLORY MAN UNITED! GLORY GLORY MAN UNITED! GLORY GLORY MAN UNITED, AND THE REDS GO MARCHING ON, ON ,ON!!!!

Mike Modano

The saddest part of the last few month is no contest. One of the best hockey players of all time, and easily the best American hockey players of all time, Mike Modano, is no longer a Dallas Star.... This past season was his 20th season, all of them with the Stars franchise, dating back to when the team was the Minnesota North Stars, and then moved to Dallas in 1993. After 20 seasons with the team, he considered retirement, but felt like playing one more year, the only problem is that because the owner (Tom Hicks) ran his business into the ground, he has to sell all his teams. He finally completed the sale of the Texas Rangers about a week ago, but the Stars have taken a back seat, and they don't have a lot of money. They ended up not having enough money to resign Modano, and because he still wanted to play, he has now gone to one of the biggest rivals of any NHL team, the Detroit Red Wings... Seeing him at the press conference wearing that jersey was heart breaking.


Ok, so that is about all I can think to write right now. I will come up with another one (sooner than next year) when I can think of one.

[Ryan Magby]

QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP VI DRAW

Ok, this will not really be an article yet, I will post an article soon with analysis and predictions for the WC, as well as other things from sports around the world. A quick note about the way the WC will work. The first day will be all of pool play, with each team playing 4 games. The top 2 from each pool, as well as the four best 3 seeds (28 teams), will move on to the round of 32 automatically, and the other eight 3 seeds will be paired off into play in games, with the four winners rounding out the final teams for the round of 32.

Pool 1

#6 Baylor University

#19 University of Kansas

#33 University of California, Berkeley

#48 Virginia Commonwealth University

Qwertyrians Tijuana

Pool 2

#12 Silicon Valley Skrewts

#25 Pennsylvania State University

#41 Rochester Institute of Technology

#44 University of Florida

#83 Loyola University Chicago

Pool 3

#1 Texas A&M University

#20 University of Michigan

#35 Johns Hopkins University

#50 New York University

#67 Fleming College

Pool 4

#7 Emerson College

#18 University of Southern California

#30 University of South Florida

#42 University of Minnesota

#69 Roadrunner Quidditch

Pool 5

#3 University of California, Los Angeles

#22 Bowling Green State University

#41 University of Rochester

#54 Oklahoma State University

#78 Paris Phénix

Pool 6

#16 Marquette University

#28 University of Ottawa

#36 Northern Arizona University

#55 Florida State University

#74 Boston Riot

Pool 7

#14 Texas State University

#24 Michigan State University

#31 University of Pittsburgh

#43 SUNY Geneseo

#168 University of Toronto

Pool 8

#5 Boston University

#23 Villanova University

#37 Central Michigan University

#45 Austin Quidditch

Tec Quidditch

Pool 9

#9 Hofstra University

#17 Ball State University

#39 Tennessee Tech University

#65 QC Carolinas

#80 Silver Phoenixes

Pool 10

#2 University of Texas

#21 Tufts University

#40 Ohio State University

#49 University of Richmond

#94 University of Southern Mississippi

Pool 11

#4 University of Maryland

#27 Lost Boys

#29 University of Arkansas

#60 Macaulay Honors College

#91 Illinois State University

Pool 12

#11 Miami University

#26 Arizona State University

#34 Louisiana State University

#51 Purdue University

#66 University of Massachusetts Amherst