Beware March Sickness

I sometimes forget in the heat of all that is March Madness that there are, indeed, other sports out there in the universe besides college basketball.  In fact, sometimes I even hear news stories from other sports and like to completely overvalue the significance of said news stories.  I fear that others fall into this side effect of the Madness as well (from this point on, it will be contrasted as “March Sickness”), so without further ado, a quick jaunt around the world of sports:

-A Wide Receiver out of Virginia Tech has been arrested and charged with Child Abuse.  He has been released on bail, but because of Virginia Tech’s policy on players that have been charged with felonies, he will now be barred from participating in spring practice.  The player, Xavier Boyce, isn't exactly a first string receiver.  Still, it takes away from the depth of a team that’s losing a lot of skill players.  Perhaps the most significant impact is that of public opinion.  Virginia Tech is at least regionally known for recruiting quite a few shady individuals (Marcus Vick, anyone?) and this latest incident is just another log on the fire.

-If you’re a hockey fan, there have been a couple huge games this week.  The Caps played the Flyers in Philly in an absolute classic Tuesday night.  The caps opened up an early 3-0 lead but Philly came back to actually lead 4-3 half way through the third period.  The caps tied it, and the score remained 4-4 through regulation and overtime.  The shootout featured some amazing shooting from both teams, but Washington couldn’t miss a shot and the Caps took it 5-4.  After that game, Philly retains its overall 1^st place seed in the East as we move closer to the NHL playoffs, but Washington is only a point behind them now.  Washington plays the Senators tomorrow night in Ottawa in what could likely be easy points for the Caps with the way they’re playing right now. 

Meanwhile, the NHL-leading Canucks took their game to Detroit Wednesday night in a could-have-been-but-wasn’t-a-classic game.  The Canucks won in regulation, bringing the series this year to an even
2-2 split.  A little series called the 2010 Sharks-Blackhawks looks and awful lot like this year’s Vancouver-Detroit matchups.  Did they play for something important last year?  I feel like they did, I just can’t seem to remember… yeah, that’s right.  I’m calling it today.  Seven games between the Canucks and the Red Wings will decide the West’s representative in the Stanley Cup.  The east?  It’s a little more jumbled than the west at the top, but if you forced me to pick, I’m thinking maybe Flyers and Canadiens.  The Capitals are an obvious choice, but they seem to choke a lot (to my extreme dismay).  Add the fact that Carey Price is having a very good year and elevates himself in the playoffs, and you’ve got the makings of a repeat from last year’s Eastern Final.  Stanley Cup prediction?  Canucks-Flyers.  How’s that prediction for being a little sick in March?  I’m not just picking the teams, I’m forecasting brackets!  I’m like Joe Lunardi but with ice skates.

-Every year, in an effort to make it seem like they don’t just do work for three to four months out of the year, ESPN college football bloggers and analysts make up random lists and mini-series revolving around random offseason topics.  An annual staple is the preseason darkhorse Heisman list, which features players who have been good but not great and are the most likely candidates to elevate their game the next year, should a favorite like Stanford’s Andrew Luck fail to live up to the extremely high preseason expectations.  At the top of This year's list is none other than WVU quarterback Geno Smith, a never-redshirted junior who is starting for his second year this fall.  I’m just going to come out and say it- even as a fan, this is a little ridiculous.  Sure, Geno Smith engineered one of the most epic comebacks last year I’ve ever seen in college football and against a semi-rival, no less.  (Sorry, Marshall friends and family, but it’s not a real rivalry when the team you’re playing has never actually beaten you.)  But here are my reasons for why Geno, while he is a sound quarterback who will lead us to a great season yet again, should not be on any Heisman watch list just yet.

If you’re not a WVU fan:  Unless whatever team you cheer for has a bona fide Heisman candidate, you probably are highly emotionally invested in the actual best player winning the Heisman trophy.  Do you care about some guy you’ve never heard of from West Virginia who hasn’t even started 15 games in his career?  I’m guessing not.  You want the best players to be receiving attention, and Geno Smith is a regionally known player at best.  Let’s be honest, the only reason Geno Smith is on this list is because Holgorsen is coming to Morgantown, and he is an offensive mastermind.  The Heisman trophy should be about what a player does over a year, not what player has the potential to do the most under the right tutelage.

If you are a WVU fan:  Have you ever actually seen a “Darkhorse Heisman Candidate” actually win the Heisman?  I’ve never even seen one get invited to New York.  This is more of a curse than anything else, an affirmation that Geno will not exceed our own typically high expectations.  Don’t get me wrong- I hope Geno does throw for a million yards and 18,000 touchdowns.  It would definitely make my year.  But what happens when everything goes right?  Dana Holgorsen comes to town and makes Geno Smith into a superstar.  Does anyone outside of Big East fans know it?  Probably not.  The only thing most people know about Heisman candidates is what the media tells them.  So if the lasting impression inside the minds of the general public is that Geno Smith was an overhyped media darling from day 1, very few people are actually going to get behind him as a Heisman candidate.

So why does Feldman and co feel the need to make something out of nothing?  I’m not sure, readers.  That’s a great question.  I’m going to go ahead and blame March Sickness.

-Don’t crown the Phillies as runaway favorites in the MLB just yet.  After acquiring an absolutely amazing bullpen rotation, injuries have started taking giant chunks out of their lineup.  Chase Utley (my favorite baseball player, for your information- not only because he has a great name, but also because he plays second base) has been nagged by injuries.  Now it seems the Phillies won’t have ace closer Brad Lidge for Opening Day either.

-Don’t put too much stock in the Knick’s recent “skid.”  TV media has been pretty quick to call the Knicks out as a postseason pretender and have even gone so far as to already start calling the Carmelo trade a failure 16 games later (they have had a 7-9 record since the trade).  While I have already been on the record saying that I thought the trade favored Denver in the long term, I certainly still think that the Knicks are a playoff-caliber team capable of winning multiple series in the postseason.  The Heat, Magic, Celtics, Lakers, and Spurs have all had notable skids throughout the course of the season.  These losing streaks certainly don’t mean that the teams mentioned above aren’t postseason contenders- it simply means that it’s pretty much impossible to keep a good momentum going over the course of a season that spans more than half of the calendar year.  The only real implication the Knicks’ slide has is an effect on their Eastern playoff seeding, which has since dropped below the 76’ers.  Don’t panic New York fans.  You’re team is fine.  As for the media, they’re just suffering from a good old case of the March Sickness.