Archive for January, 2014

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Answers to the Super Bowl Trivia

January 30th, 2014 by Emily Phung | Comments Off on Answers to the Super Bowl Trivia | Filed in Football, NFL, Sports, Trivia

Here are the answers to the Super Bowl Trivia  :-) . Hope you scored a  TOUCHDOWN by guessing correctly on all of them!

1) What NFL team has won the most Super Bowl games to date? 

  • Pittsburgh Steelers

2) Which NFL franchise is the last Wild Card team to win a Super Bowl?

  • NY Giants beat the NE Patriots in 2007.

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Should the NBA switch, per conference, from 8 playoff teams to 6?

January 28th, 2014 by Kyle Lutz | Comments Off on Should the NBA switch, per conference, from 8 playoff teams to 6? | Filed in Basketball, General, Sports

There has been a ton of talk over the years from sports fans and analysts on whether or not NBA commissioner David Stern should/will switch the league’s playoff format from 8 teams per conference getting in to 6. I, for one, am all for the latter proposal, and here’s why.

Poor lower seeded teams

First and foremost, and most importantly, the reason why I’m in favor of switching the format again, this time filing it down a bit from eight teams to six, is because most of the time the 7 and 8 seeds in each conference are horrible teams with below .500 records. Thus, due to their win-loss records, team rosters and the way their team is constructed, they’re not realistically a playoff team in any sense of the term. When I think of an NBA playoff team, I think of at least 42/43 wins, at worst, with a balanced lineup, or at least one superstar on the team. Most teams either have a Lebron, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Kobe or Tim Duncan on their team, but some have more well balanced lineups with or without a superstar at the helm, like Portland. Of course, there’s one problem/flaw that presents itself logically within my first point, and that’s conference depth.

Some years, in any sport- but especially within the NBA (at least currently), one conference/league within a sport is significantly better on and off paper than the other league. This year thus far, for the NBA, is a perfect example of that. To shed some more light on that, for example, if the playoffs started today (with my ideal format in mind, not under the current one), in the West, Phoenix with a 24-18 record, and Dallas with a 25-20 record, respectively, would miss the playoffs as #7 and 8 seeds. Compare that to the bottom two teams in the East, and it’s drastically different. Among the conference standings, the Nets are the seventh best team at just 19-22, even though they’ve been hot as of late, while Charlotte rounds out the top eight with a record of 19-27. Two winning teams in the West wouldn’t, and the same outcome would occur for the East, except with two teams under .500 at the moment. To give you an idea of the West’s dominance this season, overall this season, the Western Conference has an incredible 74 more total wins (363 to 289) than the East does (as of Sunday, Jan. 27th), in four more total games played (654 to 650).

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Superbowl Trivia Questions for those who think they know football

January 27th, 2014 by Emily Phung | Comments Off on Superbowl Trivia Questions for those who think they know football | Filed in Football, General, Sports, Trivia

So do you think you are a football trivia fanatic? If so, I challenge you to answer these 15 questions. I will post the answers up on Tuesday morning so you can see how well you fared. Enjoy :-).

1) What NFL team has won the most Super Bowl games to date?

2) Which NFL franchise is the last Wild Card team to win a Super Bowl?

3) Which city has hosted the NFL Super Bowl more than any other city in the US?

4) What NFL teams have never played in the Super Bowl?

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Sixers at the Halfway Point: Better Than Expected, But Still a Long Way to Go

January 23rd, 2014 by Jim Chesko | Comments Off on Sixers at the Halfway Point: Better Than Expected, But Still a Long Way to Go | Filed in Basketball, General, Sixers

sixers

The 76ers open the second half of their 2013-14 season Wednesday night, and it will be very interesting to see what happens over the next three months, both on and off the court.

They’ve dropped seven of their last eight games, and several recent losses have been a bit ugly, but otherwise, the Sixers have exceeded almost everyone’s expectations over the first half of the season. The won-lost record at the midpoint stands at 13-28. While that’s not great, a lot of the team’s fans and several of us in the media wondered if they’d win that many games over the entire first season of the Brett Brown era.

For fans hoping to see the Sixers get two lottery picks in the June draft, the season is working out just the way they’d want. At this writing, the 76ers own the NBA’s third-worst record (behind only Milwaukee and Orlando), while the New Orleans Pelicans are seventh-worst. As you may recall, the 2013 draft-day deal that sent Jrue Holiday to the Big Easy landed Philadelphia another first-round pick, as long as the Pelicans don’t make the playoffs and the pick isn’t among the top five. So, if the Sixers and Pelicans continue on their current course – and the ping-pong balls cooperate – your hometown team would have two high picks in what’s supposed to be a pretty deep draft, even if Duke’s Jabari Parker decides to stay put for another year of seasoning.

Bright spots over the first half: Obviously, the major positive has been the speedy development of rookie point guard Michael Carter-Williams. MCW is averaging 17.5 points and 6.7 assists through the first half of the campaign, and already has the poise of a veteran. He’s 22 years old, and should only get better over the next decade. Carter-Williams’ backup, Tony Wroten, has also been a pleasant surprise, averaging 13.0 points and 3.3 assists off the bench. Wroten, who suffered a right-ankle sprain last weekend in a loss to the Bulls, is still a kid at age 20.

The Sixers have also been getting career years out of both Evan Turner and Spencer Hawes, who are averaging 18.3 and 14.1 points, respectively. The 7-foot Hawes has even become a solid three-point shooter, at 41.3%. Still, it remains a good bet that Turner or Hawes (or both) will be sent packing before the NBA’s Feb. 20 trade deadline.

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Back To The Phuture

January 22nd, 2014 by Mike H. | Comments Off on Back To The Phuture | Filed in Baseball, General, Phillies

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Apparently, Ruben Amaro Jr is a lot smarter than I give him credit for. It appears that he has found enough plutonium to power Emmet Brown’s flux capacitor (because we all know how hard it is to predict a non-clock tower lightning strike). That is the only reason I can imagine why signing Abreu seemed like a good idea. I’m happy that Abreu put up good regular season numbers (.322/.416/.461) and murdered post season pitching (.464/.549/1.214), but take it for what it’s worth. Abreu succeeded in the Venezuelan Winter League. Abreu may see stiffer competition during Spring Training.

I’m getting worried that Amaro is trying to substitute Asche for Bell, Brown for Burrell, and Byrd for Rowand. If that’s the case, he’s essentially brought the 2006 Phillies back together. Maybe it’s a precursor to adding Lieberthal to the booth? Maybe Amaro is going to trade Abreu and a starting pitcher at the trade deadline with the hopes it sparks the beginning of a five-year run? Ultimately, we can only hope when opposing pitchers hit 88 miles per hour on the radar gun, we’ll see some serious [stuff].

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TalkSportsPhilly Podcast: Phillies and Flyers

January 22nd, 2014 by PhillyMary | Comments Off on TalkSportsPhilly Podcast: Phillies and Flyers | Filed in General, TalkSportsPhilly, TSP Radio

tspradio
PODCAST:

“TSP Roundtable: Leo, Chet, Kyle, and Philly Pressbox talk Phillies and Flyers” on “TalkSportsPhilly” is airing 01/22/2014 on BlogTalkRadio. See the details and set a reminder at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/talksportsphilly/2014/01/22/tsp-roundtable-leo-chet-kyle-and-philly-pressbox-talk-phillies-and-flyers.

Make sure to listen in live at 12:30 pm or listen at your leisure.

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Looking Ahead: Philadelphia Eagles

January 21st, 2014 by Sam Shipley | Comments Off on Looking Ahead: Philadelphia Eagles | Filed in Eagles, Football, General

eagles

The Philadelphia Eagles are coming off their best season since winning the NFC East back in the 2010 season. It was a very exciting year from day one way back on January 16th of last season, when the Eagles made the “big splash” by hiring Chip Kelly.

Kelly made the leap from Oregon to the NFL, and it was a leap that many people were very interested in watching. However, the reaction wasn’t exactly all positive at first, as some thought that Kelly and his “college offense”, which was very fast would struggle in the NFL. Or that Kelly was just the wrong hire for this team, as some wanted now Jacksonville coach Gus Bradley.

One year and four days later, I think those negative comments are now put to bed.

After winning just 12 games the previous two seasons combined, Kelly led the Eagles to a 10-6 season in his first go around as head coach in the NFL. However, it was a much more fun and exciting 10-6 season than previous years or even for other teams. Kelly’s new offense was for real right from the start, as the Eagles scored 33 points in each of their first two games against the Redskins and Chargers.

That same offense would end up finishing 2nd in yards per game and 4th in points per game in the NFL this season.

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