Badger updates

This past week has been a pretty quiet one for Badger athletics, but there have been a couple of bright notes for UW over the past few days.

Men's track sophomore Robert Dehn made the second best javelin throw in UW history, and in the process qualified for the NCAA Mideast regional in Louisville, KY. The Wisconsin State Journal has a pretty interesting feature story on the Owatonna, Min. native, following his athletic career. Check out Andy Baggot's story here.

The women's rowing team also gave us some good news, as they qualified for the NCAA finals. The Badger women notched the best time of the remaining boats. In fact, they were leading throughout the entire race. The Badgers finished with a time of seven minutes and 15.35 seconds. They will face Stanford, UC-Berkeley, Clemson, Yale and Virginia in the final.

Mallards first win, preview for Brainerd

The Mallards barely held on last night to beat Alexandria, 7-6 at Knute Nelson Park. Tonight, the Mallards play Brainerd in the first game of a two game set before returning to Madison. Here are the stories:

• Channing's three-run double pushes Mallards past Alexandria, 7-6
• Mallards head to Brainerd for two game set

Season opener recap & Alexandria preview

Sorry I didn't post these earlier. Mallards play again tonight, then head to Rochester tomorrow for a two game set before the home opener on Monday.

• Season opener recap
• Alexandria Preview

Swedish game recap and Alexandria preview

Click here for the recap of the Mallards vs. Sweden game.

Here is the preview for the season opener against Alexandria.

Not exactly sports, but really funny

Anyone see highlights from the Cubs game the other day? If you did, you probably saw that Freddy Sanchez went 6-for-6. Not bad for the shortstop. Regardless, that performance wasn't the one you missed out on.

Mr. T, who threw out the opening pitch, also sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." Wow, what a performance. I implore you to watch this video.

The Mallards have their first game tonight against the Swedish national team. Should be pretty fun. I'll post the game recap when it's all over.

Mallards to take on Swedish national team

The Mallards open their preseason with an exhibition game against the Swedish national team. Pretty funny, I know.

Read my story on the Mallards Web site here

Quick thoughts about the weekend and what's coming up

I'd like to focus on what the Lakers should do tonight to get prepared to take on the Nuggets, but I'm also not a big fan of overkill, so I'll steer away from that for now. However, I will say that I'm really excited for the game tonight. I don't know if Kobe is stoppable right now, even if Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups are at the top of their game, so it should be a fun game to watch.

Now on to some other stuff:

• Did you watch the Indianapolis 500? I didn't, but I kind of wish I did. After seeing the highlights, I came to a brief realization that Indy car racing is pretty cool. Those cars go super fast and there were some pretty cool crashes mixed in. My disappointment from missing the race soon vanished when I saw that it took Helio Castroneves over three hours to finish his 200 laps. Oh well, it was worth a try.
  
  
• The Angels took two of three from the Dodgers, leaving the blue crew at 4-2 last week after they swept the Mets at Dodger Stadium. Now, the Dodgers play a three game series in Colorado to start off a long stretch of 17 straight games without a day off. This is the second such streak for the Dodgers - Their first one was 20 games and they went 12-8 during that stretch.
  
  
• There is literally nothing going on in the Badger world today, so I thought I'd highlight a pretty big transfer for the women's basketball team. Tiera Stephen, a point guard who started for Louisville in the National Championship game last year, will be coming over to play for Lisa Stone's squad, hopefully providing a nice set of fresh legs off the bench for Alyssa Karel and Rae Lin D'Alie, both of whom were pretty solid last season. Check out the full Capital Times story here.
  
  
• Rafael Nadal won again in the French Open, setting a new record for consecutive wins in the Major tournament. Roger Federer beat him on clay last week, so I'm pretty excited to see what's in store for the final. Can Federer beat Nadal at his own game? I doubt it.

Players for the Mallards report today, and the first exhibition game is on Wednesday, so look out for some more articles from me. I'll make sure to post them here.

What I'm doing this summer

I've written several entries so far, but as the summer really gets underway this week (for me, anyway), the full length posts might be a bit more scarce. Instead, I'll be posting my many Mallards articles that I'll be writing this summer. For those of you who don't know, aside from being the sports editor at the Badger Herald, I was hired as the public relations intern for the Madison Mallards, a summer collegiate baseball team.

Right now, my work hours are ridiculous (12-15 hours a day), but I've still had time to write about the Lakers and Dodgers. Once the Lakers are done in the playoffs, however, I'll probably stick to just Mallards stuff, with some Badgers updates and Dodger thoughts mixed in.

So, if you are for some reason interested in the Northwoods League, check in to the blog, where you'll find some pretty interesting features, game recaps, previews, and hopefully some fun stories too.

--Jonah

Thoughts on Kobe

I shouldn't be in awe because I've seen him do it so many times, but when Kobe Bryant hit that deep three pointer from the left wing over J.R. Smith last night, I couldn't help but jump for joy. A night after LeBron James hit a game-winner at the buzzer, Kobe obviously had to show him up — and he didn't fail.

Now, the Lakers clearly have an edge up in the series. Aside from being up 2-1, they stole two games from the Nuggets because Denver made bonehead plays. Say what you will about how the Nuggets have the ability to beat L.A., but when it's all said and done, the Lakers are much smarter than the Nuggets.

For example, I noticed (as I'm sure everyone has) that J.R. Smith loves to shoot, even when nothing is going in. He made a lucky three pointer over Sasha, then made one of several stupid plays for Denver — he jawed at Vujacic, prompting a technical foul and taking some momentum away from the Nuggets.

Again, with the passing. I don't understand why the Nuggets can't draft up a play to get the ball inbounded to...well anybody. That's the second time this series that they effectively blew a game because they were incapable of doing something as simple as inbounding a pass.

But more importantly, the Lakers started making smarter decisions in the fourth quarter of game three. Instead of keeping the ball around the perimeter, they stuck it in to Pau Gasol, who scored eight points in the fourth, dominating Chris Andersen and Nene, who was in foul trouble.

And, when all else fails, Kobe Bryant was there to save the day. Again. He may not have been as flashy as LeBron was the other night, but after the game, I thought that was one of the best performances Kobe has ever had. For one of the first times since Shaq's departure, I really feel that Kobe knows the capabilities of his teammates, and finally trusts the players around him.

OK, but will the Lakers win the series? I think so, but I can't really say. The way these playoffs are going, anything coul happen. I expect them to lose game four from sheer fatigue, but I hope I'm proven wrong. With Kobe, you never know, and if role players like Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza keep playing as well as they have been, it should be a good showing for the Lake Show.

Mase in the Face on MLB.com

My former sports editor at the Badger Herald, Tyler Mason, got an awesome internship this summer writing for the Minnesota Twins for MLB.com. He had his first story online very early this morning, so I'm sorry I didn't post it earlier.

His story covers the Twins' victory over the Brewers last night, including Michael Cuddyer's cycle. Really nice job by Mase, so make sure you check out the article.

His story can be found here

LeBron does it again, will Kobe respond?

Last night, I raced home to see the end of the Dodger game, which turned out to be a huge disappointment. The Dodgers blew yet another strong start from Kershaw, losing to the Angels 3-1.

But that disappointment soon turned into glee. Right after the game, I switched over to ESPN, where I saw LeBron's game-winning shot at the buzzer to beat the Magic. That brought back some Robert Horry memories (game-winner over the Kings in 03) - I can relate to the way Cavalier fans feel right now. If they lost that game, Orlando probably would have won the series. Now however, it's any team's series, and you could even say the Cavs have a momentum edge right now.

I'm not going to talk about LeBron being better than Kobe, because I think it's irrelevant right now. I will however, say that James is growing on me. I never really liked the way he couldn't spot up like Kobe, but last night, he showed similar drive and passion that Kobe's had over the past several seasons.

What will be interesting to see is whether or not Kobe does something similar in game 3 tonight against the Nuggets. Now I know the Lakers aren't playing the Cavs and Lebron's shot probably doesn't mean anything to Bryant, but ever since Jerry West said James surpassed Kobe, it seems like Kobe has been playing with an unmatchable drive.

The Lakers need a win tonight. If they don't get it, the Nuggets will have a huge advantage in the series, and they might even win it. Hopefully they won't need Kobe's heroics, but if he can do what LeBron did last night, nobody would be complaining.

Mike Bleach on Cap Times!

My boy Mike Bleach nabbed the Capital Times sports internship, which is a pretty sweet deal. He had (to my knowledge) his first story online today, which highlights the upcoming men's hockey season.

The men's hockey team will be playing eight of their first 10 games at home, which is very good news for the Badgers. Last season, UW went 0-6-1 before finally winning its first game against North Dakota on Nov. 1.

Check out Bleach's story here

Orlando Hudson on Rome is Burning

I love the O-Dawg. What a great signing by the Dodgers - he's been solid all season long and his defense has been outstanding. I just found this video on Youtube of him being interviewed by Jim Rome.

Hudson talks about the Manny situation and about how the Dodger players aren't mad at Ramirez. Instead, they understand that things happen in players' lives, and they just have to push it aside. He also talks about his serious hand injury that almost made him quit baseball, something I didn't really know much about.

I remember interviewing Hudson last summer when he was still on the D-Backs and when I worked for NBC - it was also the day Manny got traded to the Dodgers. He was one of the nicest players I talked to all summer. He didn't want to talk about Manny, but he loved talking about baseball and it's pretty clear how much he loves the sport and how happy he is to be playing for the Dodgers.

Dodgers hosting the Angels this weekend...

After dropping four of their first five games after losing Manny Ramirez for 50 games, it looks like the Dodgers are back in business after a three game sweep of the Mets this week. I know they didn't have to face Johan Santana and Carlos Delgado was injured, but I think it's about time people give the boys in blue some credit. They've won seven of their last eight games and still have the best record in the MLB at 29-13. Also, they're not just beating up on the lowly NL West (which is really, really bad) anymore, and this upcoming series win against the Angels should be a good way for the Dodgers to establish their presence in the National League.

In game one of the series, Clayton Kershaw faces off against Jered Weaver in a battle of the youngsters. Kershaw is coming off one of his best starts of the season when he took a no hitter into the eight inning. Weaver, on the other hand, has been great all season, posting a 2.59 ERA for the Angels.

I'm excited to see if Kershaw can withstand the powerful Angels bats. Chone Figgins, Torii Hunter and Bobby Abreu should give the 22-year-old a bit of trouble, but I think Kershaw will respond nicely to his great start last time out, especially if the Dodgers give him similar run support.

It will also be interesting to see how much longer the young studs on the Dodgers can keep up their strong hitting. There has been a significant decrease in production since Manny's suspension, but luckily Juan Pierre has come into the picture to become a more-than-satisfactory left fielder. Casey Blake is still tearing it up, but I'd really like to see Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, James Loney and Russell Martin step it up. Regardless, I expect a pretty fun series. These are two very young teams competing for division crowns, so I'd imagine it will be an entertaining weekend - that is if the Lakers can pull one out too...

Finding Dodger fans in the Midwest

The thing I love about Dodger baseball is that no matter where you go, you'll almost always find someone who loves the boys in blue as much as you do. As I was sitting in the Madison Mallards press box in Wisconsin, a man maybe 50 years old asked me where I was from. I told him I grew up in L.A., and he looked at me, smiled, and told me his favorite NBA team plays in the Staples Center. I asked him if it was the Clippers — he laughed.

After shortly discussing whether or not the Lakers would beat the Nuggets (we agreed, they will), he told me about how he first became a Dodger fan back in 1971, a full 18 years before I could even see the color blue.

He said it was the unity of the infield - Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Wes Parker, Maury Wills and Bill Russell - that made him become a fan of the Dodgers. He tried to make it out to some games, but being from Madison, WI, he found it rather difficult. When he finally was able to make a trip to Los Angeles in 1990, he bought a ticket for opening day at Dodger Stadium. Unfortunately, the players had their first strike of the 90s that year, meaning that he couldn't attend the game. He did however, get to see the stadium with his own eyes - he loved it.

It's times like these that, even when the Dodgers' best player gets caught for taking steroids, remind me why I love baseball so much. For real baseball fans, it's not about the players, it's about a team and a tradition.

Hopefully this Wisconsinite will be able to see a Dodger game some time soon. Hopefully when he does, that tradition of winning and unity will be back in true Dodger blue form.

Vander Blue decommits

Just as Max predicted, Vander Blue announced in a press conference yesterday that he is decommitting from UW. Last year, he made a verbal commitment to Bo Ryan's squad, but after averaging 17 points and 5.5 rebounds per game this season, along with a state championship, Blue made the decision to hear from other schools.

Like I said yesterday, I'm pretty upset about all of this. I know Blue can do what he wants, and it's very likely he will receive offers from other top programs. But I'll also reiterate what I asked yesterday: Why wouldn't Blue want to play for UW? It's been one of the most consistent basketball programs since 2000, has an incredible coach, and some of the best fans in the country.

Still, Blue said he hasn't ruled out coming to Wisconsin. In Rob Schultz's article in the Wisconsin State Journal, he says, "The 6-foot-4 junior guard from Madison Memorial said during a news conference Tuesday that he wants to take "'a step back and see what else is out there for me.'"

He might say he's still considering Wisconsin, but with programs now in the running for the high school star, I'm willing to bet he won't be donning Badger red next year.

Check out Schultz's article here.

Vander Blue to decommit?

My buddy Max Henson informed me that later today, Madison Memorial high school star junior Vander Blue will be holding a press conference. Henson, who I will henceforth deem "The Recruit Master," told me that he expects Blue to officially decommit from UW-Madison. This comes after many reports over the past week that he is currently shopping himself to other schools. I've heard Minnesota (kill me now), Marquette (bury me), and Louisville.

Now I understand Blue's reasoning. When he committed to UW, he wasn't in the state spotlight, or better yet, the national spotlight at this point. He basically led Memorial to a state championship single handedly, and surely he's gotten calls from many coaches around the state and country.

Still, I can't stand players that don't keep their word. He verbally committed to UW, and even though this whole thing is a business, I don't understand how or why a player would leave his home state, play for one of the best coaches in college basketball, and leave the chance to become the face of Wisconsin basketball.

Well, the press conference is at 5:30 central time, so check it out, and we'll see if Blue will turn our Badger eyes red.

Lakers need some heart

So the Rockets pushed their second round series with the Lakers to seven games. It wasn't like the incredible Celtics-Bulls series that featured seven overtimes or even the Celtics-Magic set, which turned out some pretty nice games.

For the Lakers, it was either win big, or lose big. In the situation where they had to win or go home, they won, but I'm still not very impressed. Most people would be pretty satisfied with a 19-point victory in a game 7, but as far as I'm concerned, there was something the Lakers were missing throughout the entire series.

Something both the Rockets and the Jazz exhibited throughout each of their series' and something almost every other team in the NBA has shown in the playoffs. I'm talking about heart.

It's actually a bit surprising to see. You would think a team that was humiliated in the NBA Finals last year would come back to prove to everybody it could compete. Well, they can compete, but that isn't good enough.

If the Rockets were at full strength, I could understand a seven games series. But, already without Tracy McGrady, and then losing Yao Ming after game 3? It just doesn't make sense.

There has to be something more to the Lakers underperformance against the Rockets. Maybe they need a wakeup call, or maybe it's as simple as it looked. As of now, I have no idea.

What I do know, however, is that if Kobe and the Lakers think they can play that poorly against the Nuggets and still make the NBA Finals, then they're in for a rude awakening.

Unlike LA, Denver has been rolling over their opponents like a monster truck runs over a Volkswagen bug. Carmelo Anthony, Kenyon Martin have teamed up with Chauncey Billups to put together quite a formidable opponent for the Lakers.

So, will we see a repeat of 2000 or 2002? Will the Nuggets be as good as opponent as were the Blazers and the Kings? Well, right now we don’t know, but if the Lakers don’t start playing with some heart quickly, they might be on the wrong side of history.