Recently by Dr. Gonzo

Flipping Out:

Does anyone else find it unfair that Flip Saunders gets relieved of his coaching duties, basically giving him an opportunity to distance himself from a joke of a team and a franchise, while we're left to wallow in another lost season and watch a team of knuckle heads play what they think is basketball, but in reality is really some jumbled mess of street ball mixed with rec center pick up? Is it fair that Ernie Grunfield, possibly the worst GM in the history of the world, still has a job? Does anyone else pine for the days of the Big Three, a time when no defense was played, a time when 'Dagger' calls rained down from on high, a time when the Wiz were just a few pieces away?

Those memories weren't very long ago and even though the Wizards organization would like you to act as if you had your mind erased (Men in Black Style), those were much better days. Just to re-cap, the Wiz, were close, real close, close enough to trade a Ricky Rubio draft spot to the T-Wolves for Mike Miller and Randy Foye. Then Gil lost his cool and started threatening to cap a fool and all the good will, the game winners, the back to back to back to back playoff appearances, it was all gone, poof!

Here we stand January 25, 2012, Flip Saunders, the one-time answer to solving the Wizards post-season iniquities; the man that replaced a pretty successful Eddie Jordan is gone. Saunders deserved better, and by that I mean talent-wise. It was unfair that he had to deal with the Gilbert Arenas fiasco and the blowing up of the big three. It wasn't a good fit to have him saddled with such a young, ignorant team, but it doesn't totally excuse his 51-130 record with the team. Saunders 'pedigree' means he should have done something, he needed to change his coaching style to fit his awful situation, but he didn't. He could have played more young guys, but instead kept putting that rotting corpse Rashard Lewis in the starting five each night. How will we remember Flip? Somewhere close to how the Wizards organization want us to remember the 'Big 3' and the 'Hibachi'......IT NEVER HAPPENED!!

Welcome to the first installment of 'Pick n Pop,' a weekly/bi-weekly look at all things hardwood! A back-door pass of basketball coverage spanning, local NBA, College and other NBA news all brought to yours truly by Dr. Gonzo and The DC Sports Page. Lace up your sneaks, pound the floor and get ready for some up-tempo full court trapping coverage of the Wiz, Terps and everything else NBA.

Opening tip: The Wizards began their 66-game season this past Monday with a new red, white and blue jerseys and a brand new motto 'New Traditions.' Only someone forgot to tell the team that they had changed their motto, instead the Wiz blew a 21 point lead and fell to the underwhelming New Jersey Nets 90-84.

I was in attendance for this game and was hyped up after having a couple happy hour beers and half price apps at Bar Louie. From my perch in the 400 section, I had a great view spanning the entire stadium. After a spirited player introduction I was ready to start the season, ready for something fresh, ready for something to cheer about, and then it happened. Andre Blatche grabbed the mic before tip-off and thanked the fans in attendance and said that he was the Wizards new captain. WHAT? That was no typo. Is model citizen Andre Blatche is finally getting the respect he deserves?

After the Wiz choked away a sure thing, Blatche showed his real colors and blamed everyone but himself complaining about the play calling and the fact that he isn't getting the ball on the block enough. Great, one game in, already one collapse and the so-called 'Captain' was already creating problems. Are we in the twilight zone here? Can we just bring Gil back; at least he made game-winners.

John Wall must have been relived that Blatche spouted off. If not most of the focus would have been on the poor defense Wall played against Derron Williams and his decision to drive on four Nets in the final minute instead of feeding a wide-open Jordan Crawford for a three. Even more concerning is the fact that this Wizards team appear to have no one to go to when they needed any easy basket, Nick Young made some nice shots down the stretch, but you never felt like he could take over. Crowd favorite Kris Humphries, made matters worse by embarrassing the Wizards front court while registering 21 points and a game high 16 rebounds.

It seems that for now we're looking at the same ole same ole in Chinatown!

The Wizards get a chance to make good on their 'New Traditions' motto tonight as they take on the Hawks in Atlanta. Tip-off 7:30.

Three days and counting until the best Christmas present of all time!! No it's not a cabbage patch doll, not a tickle-me-Elmo, no Beanie Babies and not even a Furby. We're getting a giant package filled with a day of jam-packed NBA action. The NBA is back baby, its back! In the immortal words of Steve Buckhantz, 'How do you like that?"
Well Buck, I LOVE IT!

To jump start the season, I've decided to take a different approach to a season preview. I'm getting out ahead of ESPN and all the TV pundits to answer everyone's favorite hypothetical, What if the playoffs started today? Preposterous I know, but nothing about this season is conventional so deal with it.

We'll start with the East and run down the Top Eight Teams, and a few on the-Cusp teams:
1.) Miami - A 66 game season will really help the Heat, not to mention during the offseason they improved their bench. Battier is a solid addition, Haslem is back and healthy and LeBron has a new and improved post game, scary. The X-Factor here, will the Heat rest guys for the playoff run? If so they may swap Chicago for the two spot, but no lower.

2.) Chicago - The Bulls made two solid moves so far, 1.) Signing Rose to an extension and 2.) The signing of Rip Hamilton. Let us not forget that Chicago was a beast of a defensive team last year, but when it came down to crunch time and they needed a basket, they had nothing. They were too easy to stop when Rose was their only option, now they have a knock down scorer with a championship pedigree.

3.) Knicks - So the Knicks were trying to get Chris Paul, amnestied Chauncey Billups, signed Tyson Chandler and Baron Davis. Chandler will help out on defense and allow Amare to focus even less on defending the basket. The big question mark is the point guard spot. May be the New York spotlight will rejuvenate Davis, but can he last? The Knicks aren't a deep team and D'Antoni loves to run his teams in to the ground, but they do have Melo.

4.) Indiana - This is my big surprise team of the season. The Pacers snuck in to the playoffs last year as an 8 seed and gave the Bulls fits. In the offseason they signed David West and looked poised to make the jump to actual contender. I was hesitant to pick the Knicks ahead of the Pacers, but the Pacers lack that superstar. Granger is great, but he's not Melo. Look for the Pacers to hustle hard, play smart and actually try for the entire 66 games.

5.) Boston - Old, decaying, decrepit on life support. Not sold on this Celtics team, plus an injury to KG, Pierce or Allen could be catastrophic. The Celts lost Big Baby to Orlando, Jeff Green is out for the season with heart problems and they really have no depth at all. This could be a really long season for the Celts.

6.) Orlando - The Magic are skating on thin ice, if Dwight does get traded at any point this season, then you can take them out of the 6 spot and put them on the couch for the playoffs.

7.) Atlanta - The Hawks lost Crawford and replaced him with Tracy Magrady. Tisk, Tisk. Also Josh Howard is good trade bait.

8.) Philadelphia - The Sixers made the playoffs last season and have a great young team. If Brand stays healthy, that gives the Sixers a legit post presence and Evan Turner was impressive last season as a rookie.

On the Cusp:
ALERT, ALERT, ALERT....HOMER PICK: 9.) Washington - I was at the first pre-season game and I saw the Wiz take it on the chin, and I know that Nick Young is our best scorer. Man that last part was scary to write. If Wall can improve and Javale McGee finally comes around (Contract year) may be we get in as an eight, but I doubt it.

10.) Bucks - I don't know a lot about the Bucks, but they have a great point guard in Brandon Jennings, sorry. Fear the deer?
I'm dusting off my floppy disk and taking the Oregon Trail over to the West to pick my top 8.

A vast majority of the Sporting fan landscape is dotted with miserable lemmings who are forced in to an inherited fandom. Not one of choice, because like myself, most of us are born in to our rooting interests. We latch on to the team that our fathers followed or the team that we grew up around. During one of our most naïve periods of life, we make a choice or a choice is made for us and the rest is history.

Growing up, and to this day, I'm a diehard Redskins, Terps (Hoops), Wizards and DC United fan. I love the Caps, but my family wasn't a hockey family, so to claim to be a fan of the Capitals leaves me feeling a little off. Baseball was a little more difficult, my father hated the Orioles. Something to do with the Senators moving away and the Orioles being the only show in town, this somehow made him a full-fledged Orioles hater. As you may have guessed, innocent, sponge like me soaked up this hatred and wanted nothing to do with anything from Baltimore (That hatred has spawned to include the Ravens).

Left without a baseball team to root for, a young impressionable seven year old me (Imaging shorter, but same large head, and a bowl cut) did what most misguided fans do, I picked a winner! The winners at the time were the Toronto Blue Jays, and I was hooked. I watched all of their playoff games, then World Series number one. I memorized the lineup from top to bottom, I knew the pitching staff like the inside of my catcher's mitt and I was there, well on my couch anyway, when Joe Carter snuck a World Series winning homer over the left-field wall. That was me, future Red Sox fan, unaware of the fandom laws I was breaking as I ran around my living room fist pumping in stride with Joe.

After a few season of bad Toronto baseball I began to forget about my love for our neighbors to the North. So having only one other option since proximity was out, I chose to follow my father's team once again, I became a fan of Red Sox nation in 1995.
From my early days as a Blue Jay junkie, up until 2003, I started to get burnt out on the games I loved as a child. It had to do with consuming the same type of stats, seeing the same type of highlights every night and being that I was starting College at the time, I craved a new experience. Enter the 'Beautiful Game.'

I must be attracted to blue or teams from outside the USA because I was once again enthralled with a winning team in blue, but this time it was a soccer team, Chelsea FC. Over the past eight years I denounced my pledge to Chelsea FC and moved across London to my beloved Gunners of Arsenal. I also follow Ajax FC of Amsterdam. (Took a trip to Amsterdam after College, fell in love with the City)

As we rapidly approach the dying hours of the NBA labor negotiations, the outlook is grim my friends. The reality is that it appears almost certain that the NBA will not take place this season. No backdoor passes, no alley oops, no final two minutes that last 45, no surprising rookies, no buzzer beaters, no LeBron hating, no Kobe worship and no hope of the Wizards 'Finally turning this thing around.'

It will truly be the winter of my discontent, just cold weather, piles of brown snow and no hoops. To most of America, this isn't a problem. Most people gave up on the NBA a long time ago. We've all encountered said cynics, the older gents who can't fathom why these players are paid so much, the same guys who think the players show boat too much and the same guys who pine for the days of yore. I will agree, players being paid too much is kind of how we go to this point in the first place, but it's not always their fault. I mean they have agents and those agents have a job, to get them paid. If the owners paid too much, that's on them. I paid too much for my car four years ago and guess what? I still have to pay for it, I can't lock out. I just have to suck it up.

Regardless of whose side you choose in these ridiculous labor negotiations, let's remember one thing, the fans suffer. Now as I sit here thinking about my first fall and winter without pro hoops since 1998-1999, I have become utterly depressed. Here's what I'm going to miss the most:

Posterizing: Nothing makes me happier than the humiliating sight of one man putting his testicles on another man's head and emphatically dunking a ball through a hoop. It's the same reaction we all get when you see a big hit in football, you know the one where you jump up from the couch and say 'OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, SH*T.'

To ease my pain I'm going to watch a clip of a young Shaq Diesel 'Posterizing' the legendary Bullets center Gheorghe Muresan, won't you join me.

Sorry Gheorghie boy, I'm a fan, but I just need something to take off the edge.

Surprise Teams: Marv Albert: 'Can you believe it, the Minnesota Timberwolves have defied the odds and erased an 11 game deficit to make the playoffs and are now on the verge of upsetting the Los Angeles Lakers."

Damn, I would pay to see that. Who can forget how the Grizzles captured our hearts last season or that time the Warriors upset the top seeded Mavs in the first round. Take a look at some of the teams that may have taken over the role of spoilers this season, but now are set back even further:

Minnesota: Great intangibles guy in Kevin Love, Crazy guy who could turn it around and be good in Michael Beasley, High draft pick with great talent and huge upside in Derrick Williams and total WILDCARD in point guard Ricky Rubio.

Opening Kick: Where do we go from here?
It's over, ring the bell throw in the towel, it's all over. It started with a bang, a convincing 3-0 victory over the Columbus Crew, and it ended with a whimper, a 1-0 loss at home to Sporting Kansas City. The DC United playoff push that was, never seemed to materialize and as the MLS season reached the most pivotal point it became painfully clear that United were far from fixed. Now that the season is over, we need to take time to reflect and figure out where the hell United goes from here.

Let start with the positive: Best trade ever! The mid-season swap of Dax McCarty for Dwayne De'Rosario will go down as one of the savviest moves in MLS history. De'Ro, as he will now be referred to, scored 13 goals and added seven assists in 18 games for United. That torrid pace was just enough to give De'Ro the 2011 MLS Golden Boot Award. His dramatic impact on United may even lead to an MLS MVP award, which would be an astonishing feet for someone who was traded twice in the same season. De'Ro playing on a hurt ankle in a must win 1-1 tie with Portland this past Wednesday was inspiring, too bad it inspired a guy on his couch and not his teammates.

Bill Hamid, Perry Kitchen, Andy Najar: One thing United have in their corner is youth. Hamid was solid in goal all season, parlaying his form in to a National team call up. Kitchen was a revelation at right back, even if he did feature on one of the worst defenses in recent memory. Najar was solid and gave me the sense that this guy is destine for Europe. Najar and Kitchen tied for most games played for United each featuring in 31. Take solid youth, pepper in some veterans, shore up the defense, have a solid keeper and find a reliable forward and you have a winning formula. United currently has two out five of those characteristics, now sign De'Ro to an extension and you have three out of five, and according to my math, that ain't bad. Oh, and I almost forgot about Chris Pontius, who like Hamid was in the National team conversation before a season ending injury during a game at Chivas USA late in the season. If Pontius can return to full strength for the season opener, and can stay healthy, this team will thrive. The loss of Pontius was evident as it turned DC's budding attack in to a land of confusion.

Now the Negative: How does a team move forward, with no forward? Identical to the problem that plagued the USA at the World Cup in 2010, DC has no strikers. We thought Charlie Davies was the guy, his 11 goals are nothing to scoff at, but at times he disappeared, completely. It was frustrating to watch, I've been routing for Davies to make a full recovery from that horrific car crash in 2009, but something isn't right. His play is erratic, and the quickness that used to define his game seems all but lost. It appears that the Davies' experience is over in DC.

This just in, Josh Wolff you suck, but good news you don't suck nearly as much as Joseph Ngwenya. I was horrified to see that DC has signed Ngwenya in the offseason and even more horrified when I saw him on the season opening roster. How bad is he? How about zero goals this season? Still not convinced, let me paint a vivid picture for you: Last Wednesday, during United's must win game against the Portland Timbers, at home; DC was all tied at 1-1. They needed to win to keep their slim playoff hopes alive. During stoppage time, De'Ro sent a beautiful low pass across the face of goal, and Ngwenya came streaking through the box. For a professional soccer play the degree of difficulty for this shot was zero, but just as the ball met his foot, he missed the point blank open net. No goal, season over. Pathetic!

Bring on 2012, but don't you dare bring on Ngwenya.

It's chilly out and the beer store is packed with 900 different varieties of Oktoberfest/Pumpkin beer (Ummmmm Beer), which can mean only one thing ----- Post-season Baseball time!

Facts are facts, the post-season has already started, so I can't really make bold predictions, but I will try to give my honest opinion about the four Divisional Series currently underway. To put it in other terms, here comes the Yankee bashing.

Writers Disclaimer: When approached by my colleagues at the dcsportspage.com to do a baseball article, at first I wanted no part of it. As a lifelong Red Sox fan, I was still dealing with the worst September Collapse in the History of Baseball, but then I thought hey if Francona gets to move on, then so do I. Plus who deserves to be in the playoffs when you have John Lackey as your number three, who plays more like 'number 2' and you paid an obscene amount for a guy who doesn't like to bat where you tell him to bat or play where to tell him to play. Damn, I'm ranting, let's get to the playoffs.

Yankees v. Tigers: Let's start with the obvious. I'm all in on the Tigers, actually enter any name v. the Yankees and I'm pulling for them. Even if you choose team Iceland from Mighty Ducks 2, I'm taking them over the Yankees.

Observations: The Tigers got eight innings and 11 strikeouts from Verlander last night and currently hold a 2-1 lead over the Yanks. Guess what? Verlander throws really, really hard. The gun read 100 in the 7th and 8th inning. I love that, in the era of pitchers being praised for giving the team a solid six innings, Verlander is going 8, sometimes 9 and still pitching at 100mph, that's unreal. I was flipping between the game and WWE Raw and I swear that Tigers crowd chanting MVP while Verlander was throwing bullets reminded me of the old E-C-W chants!

Final thoughts: Miguel Cabrera got faaaaaaaaaaattttttt! Seriously, I was watching the Bartman 30 for 30 on ESPN last week, and I'm almost positive that 2011 Cabrera went back in time and ate 2003 Cabrera and was still hungry.

Opening Kick: Bittersweet

Regular readers of Set Pieces will remember the Rust vs. Rest quagmire that was looming for DC United this weekend. Well just the people that actually read my articles, which I heard as of now has grown to three, me my fiancé and some guy in New York. That's right, what up New York? Anyways, Rest vs. Rust refers to the fact that DC United had nearly three weeks off following hurricane Irene.

Those twenty days off seemed to rejuvenate United as they turned in one of their most complete performances of the season defeating Chivas USA 3-0. I actually saw rust chipping off of Andy Najar as he menaced the Chivas defense bolting down the right flank time after time. United improved their stellar road record to 5-4-4 on the season and gave the United faithful reason to belief that a three year playoff drought may be over.

Now we get to the bittersweet portion of Set Pieces. First the sweet, remember that guy who was re-writing his redemption story after a near fatal car crash near RFK? You know he used to play for the National team and came to DC seeking a fresh start? It's okay if you don't, because the Charlie Davies that started the season scoring eight goals seemed to disappear as of late. Davies has been hampered with reoccurring injuries for much of the season and at times seemed to not have his head where his heart was. That all changed on Saturday as Davies reminded us just how deadly he can be scoring a hat trick and jumping to third place in the race for golden boot. (Author's Note: Golden Boot refers to the guy who scores the most goals in a season).

Before I could even text my buddy about the Davies 'hatty', something bitter crept into my mouth. Chris Pontius, who notched two assists in the game, and who was recently training with the US National team, suffered a season ending leg injury. I know, I know, just when you think it safe to talk playoffs, enter the jinx. Seeing Pontius stretchered off the field really bothered me, here was a guy who was finally blossoming in to a top notch player and it's all over, at least for this year. Initially my gut reaction is to panic, the seasons over, no playoffs, but then I let it marinate a bit. This United team is pretty deep; on the attacking side we still have Najar, Santino Quaranta, Dwayne De, Davies and Josh Wolff. The defense seeming to finally be jelling and Bill Hamid is a solid number one keeper. We'll miss you Pontius, but what doesn't kill, makes you stronger.

United sits in 5th place in the East, but has only played 25 games, two and in some cases three less games than the rest of the East. So there is plenty of time to make up points and move up the conference ladder.

NEXT UP: This Saturday, September 17, in another roadie against the Seattle Sounders (2nd in the West).

At the half: EPL TIME!

It's only week four of the EPL season and I'm already starting to come to some solid conclusions:

Opening Kick: Rust vs. Rest

DC United will make their return to the pitch after three weeks with little time to shake the cobwebs off. With only nine games remaining, United find themselves in a log jammed Eastern Conference sitting in the six spot only nine points behind Conference leaders Columbus. DC faces each of the top three teams in the East during the final two months of the season giving them ample opportunity to make up points. The key to United making a strong playoff push comes down to the age old debate of REST vs. RUST.

Three weeks is a long time off, especially in a sport dominated by fitness and endurance. A few of the players got a chance to play internationally over this past week, but for the most part the core of United's lineup has been playing tiddlywinks. Coming down the stretch it's good to have fresh legs, but soccer like all teams sports thrives on continuity and repetition. Another thing to think about is going from 0-90 could lead to some pulls and strains, and injuries during the final two months would no doubt finish off any playoff hopes.

NEXT GAME: Saturday 10pm DC UNITED vs. SAN JOSE COMCAST SPORTSNET

At the Half: Baby Come Back

Who makes the schedule for the EPL? It's so erratic. First they start the season in mid-August with the transfer window closing at the end of the month. So for about two weeks we think we know the teams we are routing for, but then two weeks later right before the window closes everyone makes moves. In some cases you have completely different teams then the ones you had two weeks ago. Hang on, here comes the weirdest part. So you have all these new guys coming in, they have a new system to learn, new teammates to meet and new digs to navigate, and all the sudden it's International Break Time. So all those new players, most of which play on their respective National teams, don't even play for another full week.

I mean just writing all of this is giving me a headache. It makes no sense to cram all of this in at once, why not close the transfer window the day before the season starts. Right now the first two weeks of the season have somewhat of a pre-season feel, but they count as real games. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills or maybe it's that I'm not thinking EUROPEAN.

Like most public school kids in this country, I have experienced my fair share of time
capsules over the years. In elementary school we crammed that thing full or Pogs (Microsoft Word doesn't recognize Pogs), Goosebumps books, a copy of Jurassic Park on VHS and a DARE t-shirt. As time went on we pretty much forgot where these time capsules went. One day they will be uncovered, and analyzed as a snap shot of that time period. What would a time capsule tell us about the summer of 2011 and the state of the Washington Redskins? (Insert dream sequence......)

Imagine if you will, a hundred years from now when someone digs up the time capsule from the summer of 2011 and inside they find a copy of the WashingtonPost sports section. Their first reaction will no doubt be confusion, since by that time a Newspaper will be looked at the way we currently look at cave drawings today, extinct.

After the initial moment of confusion passes, someone will read that sports section and what they see we should all fear, because it is so embarrassing. Right there above the fold, "Beck v. Grossman." Guess what, even 100 years from now people will still find it hard to believe that someone would allow one of these two bums to actually lead an NFL team.

As embarrassing as it will be in the future, the reality of today is even more depressing. When you turn on local sports talk or even look at ESPN.com, the main storylines involving the Washington Redskins are about two guys battling for a job neither deserves. Grossman or Beck, I mean honestly who cares? It's like asking lima beans or cauliflower, even the family dog doesn't want that decision. What else you got? Kellen Clemens. Oh, man I think I'm allergic to that.

Another year is rapidly approaching, but somehow I get that same sinking feeling I do every season, except that sinking feeling usually comes around week six, but this time it's not even week two of the preseason. WE ARE F'ED.

May be I'm being too critical. It's possible that Beck could be the guy, but it's not possible that either one of the two should really be starting in the NFL, a quarterback driven league. Notice how I said it's possible that Beck could be the guy and didn't mention Grossman being the guy? There is a reason for that, and it's this, you have to be on some kind of excellent psychedelic drugs to really think that "Sexy Rexy" has somehow put it all together after ten seasons in the league. I mean really high.