Coyotes end February with an 12 game point streak, beat the Canucks, 2-1 SO

The Coyotes have a knack for making February runs. This year is no different. The Phoenix Coyotes avenged their lone loss (in OT) against the Vancouver Canucks by returning the favor on Tuesday night. The Canucks would show they were one of the NHL's best by jumping out to an early lead in the first period. However, the Coyotes would show they were one of the NHL's hottest by tying the game late. The game would then go to OT and then to a SO, where the Coyotes would win off of a Mikkel Boedker goal past Cory Schneider. This caps off one of the greatest months of hockey for a team as Phoenix earned 23 of the 24 possible points in February.

Jeremy Evans wins a boring dunk contest

I really thought that Derrick Williams should have won this. Instead, it was the last-minute Iman Shumpert sub in Jeremy Evans who won the dunk-contest. I thought that it would've come down to Paul George from the Pacers and Derrick Williams from the T'Wolves, since Budinger is just a tall white boy with hops and Shumpert was a bit too short, however, I did like the Diddy hop and Linsane hop idea. Anyways, I posted my first video to show you what went down in Orlando on Saturday night. I hope you enjoy.

Cats top the Bruins on Senior Day, 65-63

This picture shows why Arizona is better than UCLA: Nike vs. Adidas

The Cats could ill-afford another loss in the regular season. They showed off their unconventional grey unis on CBS as they played a close game against UCLA in a red-out Mckale Center. It was a rugged game that did not have many outstanding offensive performances as both teams went hard to the rack. Joshua Smith, one of UCLA's big men continued committing fouls, which kept him off of the court. Arizona was then able to take adavantage of the size match-up and the two-starting seniors, Kyle Fogg and Jesse Perry combined for a good inside and outside threat on offense. Foggy would hit a key 3-pointer to put the Cats up by three late in the game, a lead they would not let up.

Sports Illustrated jinxes the team (player) on the cover, It's true!!!

Sports Illustrated is a good magazine, don't get me wrong. But there's a problem with releasing weekly magazines for sports: sports headlines are always changing. Just look at Yahoo! Sports. Their front page changes several times each day. Why? Because sports are constantly changing. Just look at this week's cover: It's the rising sensation for the New York Knicks, Jeremy Lin. Lin is a great basketball story and he's been a reason for the Knicks recent success, but today against the Heat, Linsanity was hushed and held to only a sniffle as Miami ran them out of the building, 102-88. Lin was Linane as he went 1-11 shooting. Why? For many reasons: the Heat are a good team, he was probably sick, and because he made Sports Illustrated's cover for the second week in a row! This is what SI does. Since a magazine is obviously not the internet, there is no constant feed of information to change what's been done. Once a magazine is printed, those headlines have been set in stone (or ink). Here are a few jinxes from SI in recent memory.

No other sporting event has more coverage than the Super Bowl and no other team had more SI coverage than the New England Patriots. During the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, the New England Patriots made the SI cover, twice. One with Tom Brady and one with Robert Kraft. The Patriots ended up losing by a few inches when they had a great chance to win the game. Why? As Eli Manning said: "I'm not superstitious, but I am a little-stitious."

I was surprised when the 49ers beat the Saints in the Divisional round of this year's playoffs, but I wasn't surprised when the 49ers lost to the Giants for the right to go to the Super Bowl. Why? Cause San Francisco was picked to lose to the New Orleans Saints, but they did not because they pulled off one of the more memorable playoff come-backs. The problem is, the 49ers lost that surprise factor the very next week. They were picked to go to the Super Bowl over the eventual Super Bowl champs, the New York Giants, but they lost the game in devastating fashion. The 49ers were in a position to win the game, but they let that opportunity slip through their fingers. I guess I'm just a little-stitious...

The Green Bay Packers... now they're a team that could handle all the hype about being undefeated, but wait a second they went 15-1... well they were a team that could handle the playoff pressure, but wait they lost in the first round to Eli Manning's Giants... Well they certainly did live up to the hype of an explosive regular season offense after the SI preseason NFL preview magazine that featured the Packers on the cover. They carried that hype all the way to Kansas City, where they suffered their first loss. But hey, no jinx, right? Wrong! They made the cover for the NFL playoff preview issue and ended up losing to the New York Football Giants, the eventual Super Bowl champs. I guess you can see why I'm a little-stitious, right?

You're probably starting to think one of two things: this is kinda like the Madden curse, or Eli Manning is always involved in these issues. Well, it's kinda like the Madden curse and I only wrote this post because everyone in sports is a "little-stitious". Just look at Tim Tebow. That throwing motion screams "losing!", but Timothy managed to pull off a few miracles with that south-paw sling. One miracle includes the Chicago Bears win where Tebow led the Broncos to FG range twice and won 13-10 OT after being down 10-0 late in the 4th quarter. Once the Tebow train picked up speed with this winning streak, it was slammed to a sudden halt by the Brady bunch. Pray that you don't make the cover of Sports Illustrated.

The now-evident Sports Illustrated curse differs from the Madden curse for one reason: SI covers all sports. This includes a curse for the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox were a victim of one of the greatest collapses in regular season sports as they choked towards the end of their season and let the Tampa Bay Rays miraculously leap-frog them in the Wild Card standings. The collapse was so dramatic that a week before, poster and bus signs were put up for the Red Sox in the post season on TBS. They lost their slipping hold on the Wild Card berth as Jonathon Papelbon, the beloved closer of the BoSox, blew a save to the lowly Baltimore Orioles on the last day of the regular season. That blown save capped off one of the greatest collapses in all of sports.

This one is my favorite. As an Arizona Wildcats fan, I was shocked to see the Bruins on the cover instead of the Wildcats. However, as the season rolled by, I saw it as a blessing in disguise: UCLA was crushed by Loyola Marymount and Middle Tennessee State and stumbled to a 2-5 start instead of a predicted 6-1 start. Things got so bad for the Bruins that Reeves Nelson, their star player on the cover, was dismissed from the team. He always gave me the creeps cause of his tattoo sleeves (not that there's anything wrong with tattoos), but things got so bad that his mother even called him out for his bad behavior. I just hope the Cats can pull this thing out and sneak into the NCAA Tournament with as little coverage as possible...

Cats roll the Trojans, 70-54

The Tree finally got into my blog

The Cats took care of business on Saturday night as they took apart the Trojans for a relatively easy win. Arizona got off to a slow start as they trailed for a majority of the first half. However, they were always a bucket or two from making a big run, which they did as they had a 12-0 run to close out the first half. The Cats would continue attacking and scoring with the help of Josiah Turner, who had 15 points and 6 assists on the night to help Arizona build a safe and comfortable lead. Sean Miller would then put in a few bench players for clean-up duty which included The Tree (as seen above) and Jordin Mayes, who say his first action after coming back from a foot injury. 

The Coyotes come back to beat Calgary, 4-3 SO

The Coyotes continued with their winning ways as they haven't lost in their past ten games. Going into Calgary, they had to play another team also battling for a playoff spot. Watching the game, it seemed like only one of the teams was actually playing for something as Calgary jumped to an early two goal lead in the first period. After battling back and scoring two goals in the third period, the Coyotes forced a shootout. Ray Whitney would then score the lone goal in the SO and Phoenix left with a win.

Tattoos on NBA players

Chris Andersen, you make Denver colorful once again. There's nothing wrong with tattoos, but you can't help but notice the ridiculous tat sleeves on "Birdman". Andersen only stands out cause he... well he's white. Due to his lighter complexion, he can get colored ink; whereas the only black player with colored ink is Deron Williams. Here's a look at some NBA players with a bunch of tattoos (and maybe why they have them...)

Nate Robinson is one of the smallest dunkers in the NBA, but his tattoos are as impressive as his dunks and as big as his attitude. Robinson has always been known for that small guy that can dunk like a beast, the only problem is that he's also an annoying little dude. That is why he's been jumping from place to place, team to team, for the past few years. But, coming from a depressing place like Seattle, Washington doesn't seem like you would have ink upbringings, but Lorenzo Romar has always had athletic, misfit squads. He even looks like a 5-9 Fifty-Cent.

 Melo was never a guy who would pass the ball to another guy for the final shot of the game. He's more like a guy that will try to get 40+ points even if it takes him 40+ attempts. That's probably because of his street ball mentality and his New York origins. That's why Melo is Melo. He'll score the points, but shoot a lot. He is still an All-Star even though he is by no means the most efficient basketball player in the NBA. He is brilliant, yet selfish. New Yorkers may love him for his NY swagger, but it's time to face facts: how will he mesh with the Asian boy?

I wouldn't go as far as saying I like this tattoo, but I see where Monta Ellis is coming from: A family tree (his son's face is over his heart). The Warriors guard is from Jackson, Mississippi, where people appreciate their unique roots (literally...)

 I gotta give some love to my boy, Gilbert Arenas (as you can see from the heart tattoos on his chest), but he hasn't been doing himself any favors recently. First off, he's another street baller from LA, which could explain why he has a lion on his belly. Secondly, he had some weapons ordeal in his locker room, which is one of the dumbest things a guy can do. At least he felt like he shouldn't put tattoos on his arms, you know just in case people think less of him (which I doubt). Take those tats to LA, GA!

I'm sorry Andrei Kirilenko, but this one was just tasteless. I don't know what made you think you should get a red demon dragon permanently inked into your back, but I guess you have to live with it. Kirilenko is from Moscow, so I'm not to sure if they love dragons over there or not. (Who knows, maybe one day Jeremy Lin will step into MSG with a big Chinese dragon sleeve... you never know). Kirilenko already looks like that Russian guy from Rocky IV, so I don't think he needs another intimidation factor in the form of a demon dragon. A square jaw and a bad haircut will do.

I would never have guessed this: the Durantula has ink! Kevin Durant seems like such a nice boy, and I do mean boy. The back-to-back NBA scoring champion has yet to break through in the playoffs, making him the equivalent of a teenager admiring his peach fuzz, hoping that it will one day be like James Harden's beard. It's okay KD35, you still have a long ways to go and tattoos won't change our opinion of you, you're still a very nice boy. At least the kid felt like he should hide his tattoos from the public. But, like I said there's nothing wrong with tattoos. It's just whether or not you want to show off your true colors (Andersen), show off your roots (Ellis), show off your dragon fantasy (Kirilenko), or maybe you don't want to show them off; they're just a fun thing to look at when your shooting free throws.

Phoenix comes back to beat the Kings, 5-4 SO

The Coyotes have been hot recently and it was only a matter of time till they would cool down, right? Wrong. Even though it seemed as if their unbeaten streak would come to an end as the visiting LA Kings shot out to a quick 3-0 lead in the first period, Phoenix answered with three goals of their own in the second period. With 2:27 left in the hockey game, Radim Vrbata would score his 30th goal of the season and give Phoenix a chance to win in OT. Neither team would score in the OT period, leading to a shootout. Phoenix would win the SO 2-1, giving them two points instead of one and a win over the rival Kings.

Suns hold off the Lakers, 102-90

The Suns haven't been playing too well this year, but it's always great when you get to hand Kobe and the Lakers a loss. The Suns would leap to a 35-19 lead after the first quarter, a lot like a vintage Suns basketball team. After a 61-40 halftime lead, the Lakers could only chip away at the lead and eventually lose. Like I said, the Suns haven't been playing well since their record is only 13-19, but this game showed that Steve Nash can still pass (14 assists) and Jared Dudley can be a solid scorer for this team (25 points).

Lin led Knicks beat the defending champ Mavericks, 104-97

The Knicks met .500 as they topped the Mavericks on national TV. Jeremy Lin once again showed why so many are buying into Linsanity as he matched up and out-played future HOF in Jason Kidd. The Knicks came out hot as they scored 32 first quarter points, but then return to the court cold, only scoring 16 points in the second quarter. Dallas would hold onto the lead for a while, only to face a furious Knicks rally led by Lin. Lin would provide the energy to power 32 fourth quarter points and eventually lead New York to .500

The Cats come up short against the Huskies, lose 79-70

This was a key game for the Cats since they had to return the favor to the Huskies for the White-Out game in Tucson. Sadly, things didn't work out that way. I've always thought that  for many years, the Huskies had one of the most (if not the most) athletic basketball squads in the Pac 12. It's just that Lorenzo Romar never coached them to their fullest potential. Well this time around, the Huskies did out-muscle the Cats as this game had no down to the wire finish. The lack of depth showed for Arizona as they looked tired and just a step behind Washington. Arizona would hang around in the first half as they trailed only 39-37 at halftime. However, star frosh Tony Wroten would show why he'll win Pac 12 Freshmen of the Year instead of Nick Johnson as he led the Huskies on a run that the Wildcats would ultimately fail to answer.

Cats survive the Cougars in Pullman, 76-72

The Cats have been playing well by winning games, however they had to avoid another disastrous upset as they pulled away from the Washington State Cougars late in the game on Thursday night. The Cats would be closely followed by the Cougs for a majority of the game as the double-digit scoring efforts of Kyle Fogg, Solomon Hill, Jesse Perry, and Brendan Lavender were countered by a 21 point performance by Reggie Moore and a 28 point performance from the Pac 12's most improved player, Brock Motum. It took the enter game, but Jesse Perry would score two key buckets near the end of the game as the Cats hung on for a win in Pullman.

Coyotes shut-out the Blackhawks, 3-0

The Phoenix Coyotes are fighting for their third consecutive playoff berth, but right now, they're finding themselves on the wrong side of 8. However, they're on 5-game winning streak and beating a pretty good Chicago team always helps your chances. Especially when you shut them out at their home. That's what the 'Yotes did as Mike Smith stopped all 38 shots on the night, giving the Coyotes another convincing win over a Stanley Cup contender.

Cats squeak by the Utes, 70-61

The Cats came into the game playing for a Pac 12 lead, but left the game holding their breaths. The Utes really gave them a scare as they started shooting lights out in the first half while the Cats were still trying to rub the sleep out of their eyes.After facing a 33-25 deficit at halftime, the Cats would slowly claw at the Utes lead by shooting treys. Brendan Lavender, Nick Johnson, and Kyle Fogg combined for a hot 11-22 beyond the arc. The Cats eventually would take the lead and hold onto it as a sigh of relief left the McKale Center.

Linsanity is Linsane!!!

In case you haven't heard of him yet, Jeremy Lin is the first Asian-American to play in the NBA. He is an undrafted point guard from Harvard University. He played for the Golden State Warriors near his home town Palo Alto, but was released after his rookie season. What makes Lin stand out is that... well... he's Asian. He's also steady at running the point, which is why the New York Knicks took a gamble on him and put him in the starting line-up. Lin is also the key to the Knick's four game winning streak as they topped the Lakers, 92-85 on ESPN. Lin scored 38 points- 4 more than the infamously selfish Kobe Bryant (or Kobe Bryanl in China). Lin's rise to the top was extremely rapid, but for a reason. First off: again he's Asian, secondly it's a New York team that's supposed to break through this year, thirdly he's doing it without Melo and Amare, and lastly he's an Asian that's not named Yao Ming who can dunk. I don't see the Lin hype slowing down anytime soon, because he's what the NBA needs: a feel-good story that has tremendous marketing value for a struggling big market team in a conference that is owned by the Miami Heat. Jeremy Lin, best of luck.

Cats top the Buffs on ESPN, 71-57

Foggy the Frog drives in the lane against Colorado

The Cats got a crucial win against the Buffaloes of Colorado on Thursday night on ESPN. The Cats came off an emotional high in the bay area last week, making it extremely important to ride that momentum for the next few games. The only true obstacle in their way was a winnable game against the 3rd place Buffs on ESPN. The Cats went up by 6 at the half, but viewers missed the first five minutes of the second half. By then,the Buffs had gone on a little run and narrowed the margin. The Cats would then take over as Jesse Perry scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half. The Cats are now tied with the Buffs for third place in the PAC 12. They should look to capitalize on this with their next game against the Utah Utes at the McKale on Saturday.

The Rematch with the same conclusion: the New York Football Giants are once again Super Bowl champs

The New York Football Giants upset the New England Patriots in the game of the year once again, after hanging on to a 21-17 win. Super Bowl XLVI was a rematch of one of the greatest upsets in a championship game in sports history as Eli Manning willed the Giants to a last minute victory against Tom Brady and the Patriots. Four years later doesn't make much of a difference... The Patriots were once again the favorites, but not by 12 points. This time they were only favored by a 3-point margin. New England won the coin-toss and elected to differ, letting America see the Giants take the ball first in this year's Super Bowl. The Giants came out of the gates with a healthy dose of running and passing,  but their drive halted at midfield. Scott Weatherford came on to punt for the Giants and ended up pinning the Patriots deep. On the ensuing play, Tom Brady was flagged for intentional grounding as he threw the ball away just as Justin Tuck slammed him to the ground. With two-points for the Giants, they would receive the ball and capitalize on a short Victor Cruz TD catch. The first quarter came winding to a close, but in the second quarter, Tom Brady lit up Lucas Oil Stadium. The Patriots would put together two long drives in a short amount of time to go up 17-9 at the half. After Madonna's half-time performance, the two teams would return to the field. Brady tweaked his shoulder on a play and would never be the same as the Giants capitalized. Lawrence Tynes would kick two field goals to draw the margin to only two points. Needing only the ball and a field goal to win, New York was desperate to get a stop on defense. Just then, Wes Welker dropped a key first down pass that would have iced the game. The Giants got the ball back and would do what they did four years ago: score a TD after a miraculous catch. That is just what Mario Manningham did as he caught a 38 yard pass and tapped his toes in bounds to get the Giants at midfield. Bill Belichick would challenge the play, but ended up losing a key time out. Before you knew it, the Giants were already in field goal range and trying to eat up the clock. Belichick would let Ahmad Bradshaw score with about a minute to go and only one timeout. But even Tom Terrific can't make miracles happen as his Hail Mary fell to ground, incomplete in front of his biggest play-maker, Rob Gronkowski.

Cats complete the sweep of the bay schools, top the Cardinal 56-43

Passion. Passion in basketball is only seen in college. College basketball is defined by effort. Effort is defined by solid defense. That's what the Cats demonstrated on Saturday as they saved themselves from a poor shooting performance by dominating Stanford on defense. Arizona was up by only one at halftime, but pulled away late with a few key baskets. The Wildcats shot a poor .383 (18-47), but the Cardinal shot much worse .254 (16-63). Just when Cats fans were ready to wait for next season, the Cats have swept the bay area on a key weekend. Unfortunately, sophomore guard Jordin Mayes broke his foot and will not return to the line-up anytime soon, so the Cats will have to win their next game without one of their strengths: depth.

Cats top Cal at Haas Pavilion, 78-74

The Cats finally won a game in their red Nike Hyper Elite unis as they upset the Pac 12 leading Golden Bears. The Cats were down early by a growing deficit as the crowd at Haas began chanting "over-rated", but they clawed back as they went on a scoring tear to pull ahead by 11 at the half. However, the Golden Bears would wake up from their shooting hibernation as they slew together a series of possessions for three-point plays and eventually tied the game. With the game knotted up down the stretch, Kyle Fogg would nail a key three-pointer with about a minute to go. Cal would then foul to get the ball back, but it wasn't enough as the Cats earned a key Pac12 victory. Also, to Jorge Gutierrez, flopping and shooting free throws doesn't count as balling hard and knocking down J's.