UFC 171 has come and gone.
The event was a huge success for the UFC and for the city of Dallas. The attendance and gate announced at the post-fight
press conference was 19,324 for a live gate of $2.6 million. The attendance was
the largest in U.S. UFC history. Now for the breakdown of the fights and what’s
next.
Dallas native Johny
Hendricks won the Welterweight title by defeating Robbie Lawler in one of the
best fights of the last decade. Lawler and Hendricks engaged in a stand-up
battle for the better part of 5 rounds. Henricks came out early and landed some
big shots on Lawler, who didn't back down and answered right back with crisp right hooks and stiff jabs to counter the aggressive Hendricks.
It was back and forth for the first four rounds, Hendricks taking
the first two and Lawler taking the next two. The fifth and final round would
decide the next Welterweight Champion of the world. Both fighters left it all on the table in the
fifth and with just over one minute left in the final round Johny Hendricks
secured a takedown on Robbie Lawler solidifying round five and a victory. When the final totals were read, Johny
Hendricks was overcome by emotion, dropping to his knees and the crowd erupted
for their hometown hero.
Neither fighter had anything but praise for the other
after the fight, a sign of class from two of the toughest fighters in the
world. I can’t help but hope for a rematch, and soon.
The night wasn’t near as
good for the other Welterweight fighters on the card. #2 ranked welterweight
Carlos Condit was defeated by #10 Tyron Woodley when Condit tore his MCL and
ACL in the second round of the Co-Main Event.
#6 Jake Shields lost a unanimous
decision to #11 Hector Lombard. Lombard came out early and landed bombs right
on Shields’ chin.
Lombard easily controlled Shields for 3 rounds but couldn’t
finish him. Both Woodley and Lombard feel they did enough to warrant a title
shot with wins, but neither was overly impressive in their respective fights. Although they are teammates I
would like to see Woodley vs. Lombard next.
Stay tuned for updates on
the Welterweight title picture here on the Riff Ram Sports Blog.
The playoff race is only continuing
to heat up and, unfortunately for some teams, the long season is starting to
wear on certain players.The Dallas
Stars are one of those clubs that has been hit by the injury bug at a very
inopportune time.With injuries to Kari
Lehtonen, Cody Eakin, Shawn Horcoff, and, most noteworthy, Rich Peverley; the
Stars have suddenly found themselves thin at certain positions.Missing just Lehtonen and Peverley on Tuesday
night in St. Louis, the Stars found something extra deep within themselves and
sprung the mammoth upset of the Blues in overtime by a score of 3-2.However, after Eakin and Horcoff were
announced as unfit for Friday’s contest against Calgary, Dallas looked out of
sorts for long stretches of play and ultimately fell to the Flames in a
shootout for a final score of 4-3.As
they begin a three-game road trip to Winnipeg, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia;
the Stars will need to get healthy as quick as possible if they are to maintain
their slight hold on the final wild card spot in the Western Conference.Here’s the latest on the players currently
injured for the Stars:
Rich
Peverley
– In the wake of his extremely frightening incident last Monday night, the
highly-skilled veteran will sit out the remainder of the season while he has a permanent
corrective procedure performed on his heart at a clinic in Cleveland.Peverley had hoped to delay this procedure
until the end of the season, but now must focus on salvaging his career as
former Red Wings defenseman Jiri Fischer was unable to do (an interesting read
about Fischer’s incident and recovery process can be found here).
NOTE:
I read in an article about the incident that everyone should learn how to use
an Automatic External Defibrillator.The
process takes about five minutes to comprehend and the devices are pretty much
“idiot-proof.”
Kari
Lehtonen
– The Big Finn will likely return much sooner from his concussion than many of
us expected, as beat writer Mike Heika reported Saturday that he will travel
with the team on the upcoming road trip.Lehtonen’s initial prognosis was not at all positive, which makes his
swift recovery all the more noteworthy.While Kari likely will not dress for Sunday’s contest in Winnipeg, he
could suit up in either Pittsburgh on Tuesday or Philadelphia on Thursday.
Cody
Eakin
– The Stars’ coaching staff was rather evasive in answering questions about Eakin’s
status prior to Friday night’s game against Calgary, which he sat out, but they
revealed Saturday that Eakin was hit in the foot by a shot in St. Louis on
Tuesday night.The Ginger Ninja
practiced on Saturday and is currently listed as probable to play on Sunday
against the Jets.If he does play, the
coaching staff will have to decide whether or not Chris Mueller or Travis Morin
is sent back to the Texas Stars.
Shawn
Horcoff
– The Stars’ fourth-line center was apparently struck on his hand by an errant
shot at practice on Thursday and could be out for an extended period.He will not travel with the team initially
this week, and Lindy Ruff was quoted as saying, “he might be a while.”
Mike Modano's #9 was safely in the rafters of the American Airlines Center, and it was time for the current Stars to set the festivities aside and focus on the task at hand.
Jamie Benn got things started quickly
with a lethal one-timer off a beautiful feed from Rich Peverley to put the good
guys on top just 31 seconds into the game.However, the Stars weren’t able to capitalize further on their early
momentum and Minnesota’s Erik Haula would make them pay as he sniped one past
Kari Lehtonen while the Wild were shorthanded.Haula would make an even greater impact later in the game, but it was
one that neither side would be thrilled with.
The second period was just as back
and forth as the first.Alex Chiasson
poked one home on the power play after a Tyler Seguin slap shot squirted
through Wild netminder Darcy Keumper and settled down just a few inches from
the goal line.However, Minnesota’s
Charlie Coyle responded with a power play tally of his own to tie the game off
a mad scramble in front of Lehtonen.Minnesota led by seven on the shot chart after two periods.
The Stars could not have picked a
worse way to start the third, as a bad pass off the stick of Brenden Dillon was
picked off and put home by Kyle Brodziak just 1:23 into the period.Unfortunately, things would quickly go from
bad to worse for the home side as Erik Haula came in alone on a breakaway just
under seven minutes in.He didn’t score,
but he was out of control and off balance so much that he went crashing into
Lehtonen, the crown of his helmet directly impacting Kari’s jaw.Lehtonen’s helmet then flew off as he fell
backwards; so that the back of his head directly struck the crossbar.The Dallas fans and players understandably
went ballistic, and the refs sympathized with them, giving Haula a five-minute
major for charging and a game misconduct.However, the damage was done, as Kari was forced to leave the game in
favor of newly-acquired backup Tim Thomas.
Dallas’ early-season woes on the power play
then seemed to reappear.That is, until
Tyler Seguin put the team on his back and drove Keumper’s net, collecting his
own rebound and tucking it five-hole to tie the game. With the crowd again
firmly behind the Green Machine, Erik Cole picked off a cross-ice pass at his
own blue line and skated in alone on Keumper, going stick-side and finding the
twine for a 4-3 lead that his team would never relinquish.It was a fitting ending to such a massive
night for this franchise and this city.Mike Modano certainly had to approve.
What the injury to Kari Lehtonen means to this team moving forward has yet to be fully determined, but there seems to be a consensus among fans that GM Jim Nill made a very good move in acquiring Tim Thomas at the trade deadline. The Green Machine now has a veteran netminder with two Vezina's a Conn Smythe, and a Stanley Cup under his belt to turn to until the Big Finn returns.
You
can view the full highlights of this game here with Stars Game Rewind:
Could any one night define a
player?Could any one week define a
franchise?For the Dallas Stars, the
answer to both of those questions might just be yes.After kicking off their most recent
home-stand with a convincing 6-1 win over the hopelessly lost Vancouver
Canucks, the stage was set for the biggest night for the Stars in at least four
seasons.I say that in reference to
April 8, 2010, the last home game in a Stars uniform for the greatest American
skater in NHL history, the one they simply called “Mo”.
I’ve only been a Stars fan for a
short while, so I never got to see Mike Modano skate in person, but I don’t
think that that detracted from my experience at his jersey retirement ceremony
this past Saturday.Believe me, for all
those years that I followed the sport, I knew his name.He was somewhat of a demigod for the two
decades that he played, but I think his legend has only grown since he hung up
his skates.I understood that fully as I
watched the green carpet parade.For all
these amazing men to be here, I knew that I was going to be a part of something
bigger than I could ever comprehend.The
images tell the story much better than I’ll ever be able to:
The view from my seat in Section 317
The curtain fell to reveal the entire 1999 Stanley Cup championship team
In my opinion, Modano made his best
quote as he was talking about the places that he has called home: Livonia,
Michigan; Prince Albert, Saskatchewan; and Minneapolis, among others.He claimed, “Now, when people ask me where
I’m from.I say I’m from Texas.”The crowd reacted as though we’d just won the
Cup.
No, I’m not talking about another
film about the Roman Empire; I’m talking about the legacy of TCU’s most
successful Head Coach. Nope, it’s not Gary Patterson either; I’m talking about
TCU Women’s Basketball Head Coach Jeff Mittie. With his win against Kansas
State on February 19th, Coach Mittie reached 300 wins as Head Coach
at TCU. Mittie joins fellow Big 12 coaches Kim Mulkey (Baylor), Bill Fennelly
(Iowa State), Sherri Coale (Oklahoma) and Deb Patterson (K-State) with 300 wins
at their current institution.
Appointed to the TCU post Aug. 19,
1999, Mittie is the sixth head coach to guide the Frog women's basketball
program since the 1977-78 season. Prior to Mittie's arrival, TCU owned a
208-402 (.340) mark. He is also the all-time winningest coach in program
history, a distinction he claimed with a 74-49 victory over UAB on Feb. 28,
2003. Remarkably, it took Mittie less than four seasons to better Hall of Famer
Fran Garmon, who spent 10 years at the helm.
How did he feel about getting his
300th victory?
"I'll be honest, 300 is a big
milestone to TCU, but 15 wins is bigger for us. That's the way it is. A lot of
people contributed to the 300."
Coach Mittie has never been one to
want to bask in the spotlight, this is exactly why he has flown under the radar
for so long at TCU. It’s about time the students and fans of TCU understood how
lucky they have been for the last 15 years. Here are some Coach Mittie’s
accomplishments since being hired back in ’99:
Guided TCU to 11
postseason appearances in 14 years
Nine NCAA Tournament
berths
TCU's leader in career
wins
Five-time Conference Coach
of the Year
Boasting one of the youngest and
most talented rosters he has ever had at TCU, look for Coach Mittie to continue
to add to these accolades in the near future. Congrats on win #300 Coach! Go
Frogs!
TCU Baseball is considered one of the best programs in the nation at the collegiate level. Despite having a subpar year in 2013, the Frogs are ranked in the top 25 for the 2014 campaign, and are 3-1 in their first 4 games. They head to Corpus Christi this weekend to play BYU, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, and UTSA.
But while the Frogs are a great baseball program, one of my favorite pastimes with some fellow friends was to discuss the concept that many people don't care about, but we as former baseball players used to spend hours on: Walkup songs.
Yeah it's a little silly to spend a bunch of time talking about this, but when you have nothing else to do for hours on a bus ride some interesting conversations jump up (I'll refrain from bringing up all of said talks...high schools boys, need I say more?). Baseball players get maybe 10-20 seconds of a song as they come up to the plate (pitchers might get half a song as they warm up) and that's all the time they have in order to express themselves. A guy's walkup song can tell you wonders about what he listens to, how he gets pumped, and even his style of play. For example...
Evan Longoria: Tantric- Down and Out
Evan Longoria, the stud 3rd baseman from Tampa Bay, chose this metal song (We're digging the electric violin at the beginning) as a suicide awareness message. That and a catchy beat. Anyways, Longoria's choice is not too shabby.
Mariano Rivera: Metallica-Enter Sandman
EVERYBODY knew this one. You hear those 6 strings at the beginning of this Metallica hit and everyone at Yankee Stadium knew it was lights out for the visiting team.
Ian Kinsler: Ram Jam- Black Betty
Now those of you that know me know that I am a DIEHARD Angels fan. It's hard for me to find nice things to say about the Rangers, or their former players. That being said, this isn't a bad choice for a walkup song. Doesn't really fit Kinsler's personality but hey, whatever works to get you focused at the plate.
So you get the idea. The TCU guys picked some of theirs with the same ideas in mind. I even had mine from high school which we may throw up at the end of the list. But here's my top 10 from my 3 years of watching/working TCU baseball games.
#10 Jerrick Suiter 2012
DJ Kool- Let Me Clear My Throat
#9 Josh Elander 2012
Kid Cudi- Alive
#8 Keaton Jones 2012-present
2Pac- California Love
#7 Alex Young 2013
Flux Pavilion- Gold Dust
#6 Kyle Von Tungeln 2012
Roy Jones Jr- Can't be touched
#5 Dylan Fitzgerald 2014
Bee Gees- Stayin' Alive
#4 Janzen Wittie 2012
Flux Pavilion- I Can't Stop
#3 Jordan Kipper 2014
Drake- Thank Me Now
And the Big guy gets the last 2....
#2 Kevin Cron 2013
Dr. Dre- Still Dre Instrumental
#1 Kevin Cron 2012
Tech N9ne- B. Boy
Cause if you listen to it, it sounds like he's saying Big Boy, and Cron's 6'4, 235lbs...get it? Get it? No? Anyways...
That's the top 10. I'm sure I've missed a few (Couldn't find that Zeppelin song Odel uses) But let me know what you think. If you find a TCU baseball player with a walkup song that deserves to be on the list, let me know!
I wasn't planning on poking fun at Ice Dancing this week. Figure Skating is a really difficult thing to do. Growing up in Texas I've never been on ice skates. I've been on rollerblades before which looked a lot like Bambi walking on the ice for the first time, so I imagine I would fare even worse on the ice. These pairs are jumping, lifting, and flying across the ice at high speeds, it's really a miracle there aren't a lot of significant injuries. Plus, they are trying to sell whatever story the dance is supposed to tell so it's both a very physically and emotionally demanding sport. For all these reasons I was going to leave Ice Dancing alone this week, but then this happened:
Just look at this picture of an amazing athletic achievement. It looks like she is trying to do the heimlich maneuver. If the story they are trying to capture is the walking dead then they were very successful. He's staring deep into your soul it looks like a cry for help. He's crying out to us saying "If I don't win gold I may never walk again".
Let's refocus there are plenty of weird photos across all sports. I'm sure if you look through a normal NFL or NBA game and snap a picture at the right time you can make those athletes look pretty silly too. These people are jumping around the ice all the time. They're doing triple axels, and other moves but the only one I know of is a triple axel. I was back to enjoying these brave ice dancers and admiring their athletic ability, but then this happened:
This is getting ridiculous. I'm trying to help these people out, but what is this? Is she the zombie now? Maybe she was infecting him in the first picture, and that's why his body looked so lifeless. He's just standing behind her like what's up? It's like he's daring me to say something about this pose. It looks like one of those weird paintings that you wouldn't understand because you haven't been through that type of pain before. If you showed this to someone, and said it was a sport they would laugh because it just looks like a bad photo shoot on ice.
Meryl Davis and Charlie White won the gold in Ice Dancing for the United States. Canada won silver, and was unhappy with the score the judges gave the Americans. I won't remember any of that though the two images that stick in my mind is the Ice Dancing duo in the pictures above. They left the biggest impression on me. Congrats you have left your mark on the ice dancing competition forever.
TCU Baseball is back and it didn't take long for fans to see what all of the excitement is about. The #14 Frogs are coming off of a disappointing (29-28, 13-12 Big 12) season which saw Sophomore Slumps from the heart of its order, Kevin Cron (.208 2 HR 20 RBI) and Jerrick Suiter (.186 0 HR 10 RBI).
TCU wasted no time reversing those fortunes behind Cody Jones, who set the tone going 3-3 with three singles and 2 stolen bases. The resurgence of Kevin Cron (1-2 2 RBI 2 HBP) and Jerrick Suiter (1-4 2 RBI) in the middle of the line-up gave All-American and Team USA pitcher Brandon Finnegan all the help he needed. Coming off of a season where he didn't win a game (0-8), but was still named Big 12 Honorable Mention, Finnegan showed why he the Pre-Season Big 12 Pitcher of the Year by striking out 13 and allowing just 3 hits in 7 strong innings.
Things are looking up for The Frogs this year and they just showed the nation they are a team to reckon with.
The TCU men's team takes on the Jayhawks of Kansas tonight in the DMC at 8 pm. But don't expect to see any miracles similar to last years matchup here in Fort Worth.
Statistically speaking, it was more likely for a 16 seed team to beat a #1 seed in the Big Dance than for the Froggies to knock off Bill Self and the #5 Jayhawks on February 6th, 2013. We, the students, didn't think we had a prayer, but still packed the Daniel Meyer Coliseum, hoping for a miracle but planning on leaving round halftime (It's a TCU tradition for students to leave events at halftime. See my rant from the Riff Ram Sports Show Season 1, Episode 3).
-Most of our fans come dressed as purple seats
When Garlon Green hit the first bucket of the day at the 16 minute mark, we were in uproar. I still have a picture on my computer from us taking snapshots of the scoreboard, just to say we were beating the #5 team in the nation at 2-0. Three minutes later TCU led 8-0. Pandemonium ensued. Everyone in the building had the same question on their mind: "What the hell is going on?"
-Yeah something like that
I swear Super Frog had put a lid on the basket the Jayhawks we're shooting at in that first half. Even the kid during the timeout free throw game couldn't make a shot. Jamari Traylor finally broke the ice with 12 left in the first half, and somehow ended the curse. At halftime the Frogs were up 22-13, and the students in the sold out DMC weren't going anywhere. TCU never gave up the lead in the 2nd half, leading by more than 15 points at one point. The Frogs ended up winning, 62-55.
Of course, when a team shoots 18-61from the floor and .136 from 3 point land, if you make anything you're going to win. Come on now. I'm sure Hickory high school, under the guidance of Gene Hackman, could've beaten that Jayhawks team that night. KU head coach Bill Self ridiculed his squad after that game, saying his group was "The worst team that Kansas ever put on the floor since Dr. Naismith
was there". Ouch.
-At least the kid who shot granny style could hit his free throws
That being said, there is no way KU loses against the Frogs tonight. And I love my school, I'm not a hater. I'm very good friends with a handful of gentleman on our Basketball team. But you take a KU team that is playing lights out defense against a 0-6 in the Big 12 TCU, multiply by the fact they remember their embarrassing performance last season when they came to Fort Worth, and it could get U G L Y in this one. But hey, that's what we said last year. Look how that turned out.
Trust the process. This is what Jason Garrett
preaches every week in press conferences whatever the result – win by 20 or
lose by 20. Get better each day.Don’t
get caught up in results. The Cowboys need a new process to trust in. This one
has only led to mediocrity.
After a surprising Eagles loss to the lowly Vikings,
and Dallas jumping out to a 26-3 halftime lead over a Packers team without
Aaron Rodgers, Dallas was in prime position to retake the lead in the NFC East.
However, the team collapsed in the second half and lost 37-36. This loss had
everything America’s team has become known for: an injury riddled defense that
has made Josh McCown and Matt Flynn look like Dan Marino and John Elway, in
consecutive weeks, gave up 5 touchdowns on 5 possessions. The coaching staff
made the questionable decision to throw the football while they were leading
36-31 late in the fourth quarter in one of the few games this season where
Demarco Muarry and the offensive line had established the run game. Muarry
piled up 134 yards on 18 carries, averaging 7.4 yards per carry. Tony Romo
threw two late fourth quarter interceptions.There were even off the field distractions with Dez Bryant walking to
the locker room before the Packers took a knee to end the game. The usually
predictable Garrett called out his quarterback in the post-game press conference
saying Tony changed the play to a throw on the critical interception that led
to the Packers go-ahead touchdown. Both
of these issues will be talked about at length on ESPN this week with the
headline “Trouble in Big D?”. The national media will question the maturity of
Dez Bryant, and the leadership of Tony Romo all week. Those are the least of
the Cowboy’s worries though.
Maybe it’s a Thanksgiving hangover, or the spirit of
giving during the holidays that makes Dallas so generous to their opponents
late in the year. The Cowboys are 7-10 in the months of December and January
under Jason Garrett. Even with all the turmoil of the past two weeks the Cowboys
still control their own destiny in the playoff race. If they win their last two
games they would get to host a wild-card playoff game in Jerry World.They travel to Washington next week to face
another backup quarterback in Kirk Cousins, and a coach in Mike Shanahan who
seems to be doing everything in his power to get fired at the end of the year.
The season will probably come down to another winner-take-all division game
this time against the Eagles at home. Based on what’s happened the last few
weeks, and the last few years, there isn’t much reason to have confidence in
this team making the playoffs. Garett calling out Romo is uncharacteristic of
him, and it’s indicative of a coach who is worried about his job. Jerry Jones
said Garett was safe next year, but that doesn’t mean anything. If he really
wanted to give him a sense of security, he would have given him a contract
extension. There is a lot on the line for Dallas in their last two games, and
for the sake of Garrett’s job, they better trust the process extra hard these
next two weeks.
