Sports Weekly:February 4th

Lets get down to business

Superbowl XLI was played today as the Indianapolis Colts defeated the Chicago Bears 29-17.Peyton Manning finally wins the big one and gets the MVP Honors in the process.Now the game itself was alright(Still doesn't top SB 34(gee I wonder why?)but it was better than last years schmoz)but too many dumb plays(Grossman fumbling worse than Jordan Palmer in the Senior Bowl last week)and miscues(the botched extra point)somewhat hurt the quality of the game.It was practically all Chicago in the 1st Quarter as Devin Hester returned a kick return for 92 yards(first man to return the opening kick)to put Chi-Town up 7-0.A Manning INT courtesy of "The Wildcat" Chris Harris(5 points to whoever gets the reference).But Indy rebounded to make it 7-6 following a botch PAT.By the end of the quarter it was 14-6 Chicago.

From there,however everything just went in Indy's favor as they took a 16-14 lead at halftime,killed half the 3rd quarter and won the game 29-17.Overall I believe what killed the Bears the most was the inability to stop Manning on passing and Rex Grossman's bobbled snaps and INTs in the 2nd half.What helped the Colts was a tough defense and perfect passing by Manning(besides the INT in the first quarter).Overall congratulations Indy and good luck for next year.

Now moving onto Men's College Basketball which will be the main focus of Sports Weekly starting with next week's issue.Our first highlight of the week occured on Monday as the Kansas Jayhawks jumped out to a 27-0 lead on Nebraska and went on to win 76-56.On Tuesday,Notre Dame scored 61 points in the first half en route to a 103-91 win in the Carrierdome(first road team to do that)against Syracuse and the No.25 Indiana Hoosiers beat the No.2 Badgers of Wisconsin 71-66 ending the 17 game win streak of the Badgers.On Thursday three Top 25 schools fell as UCLA beat Oregon 69-57,unranked Virginia beat No.10 Duke 68-66 and Washington State knocked off Arizona 72-66.

Finally,this weekend TEN Top 25 teams fell(9 of them on Saturday)as NC State beat state rival North Carolina 83-79,Texas A&M FINALLY beat Kansas(first win ever against KU)69-66,USC beat Oregon 71-68,Colorado beat Oklahoma State 89-77,Boston College destroyed Virginia Tech 80-59,South Florida beat Notre Dame 69-63,Georgia Tech beat Clemson 80-62,Kansas State beat Texas 73-72,Iowa beat Indiana 81-75,and finally Florida State FINALLY beats Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium 68-67.It'll be quite interesting what tomorrows Top 25 will look like.
Now onto the ladies.On Monday in a Big Ten matchup Ohio State beat Purdue 64-55 in West Lafeyette.Tuesday featured a Big East battle as Rutgers beat Marquette 66-56.Wednesday proved to be a major shake-up as unranked Texas beat No.8 Oklahoma 67-62 in a Rivalry game.Thursday turned out being a night of TWO major upsets as Georgia Tech beat No.4 Maryland 77-72 in Atlanta while Georgia beat LSU in a Top 15 battle 53-51.Finally,this weekend UCONN beat Marquette 52-48,Nebraska beat Baylor 76-67,and Cal beat Stanford 72-57.
While we're at hoops lets head to the NBA.This week in the NBA the T-Wolves ended the Suns streak winning 121-112 at home.In a battle for Eastern Conference supremacy the Wiz beat the Pistons 104-99.The win was so big for Washington they forgot they had a game the next night and lost to Toronto 119-109.That night(Wednesday)also featured Utah beating San Antonio in a Western Conference War 97-93.Thing didn't get better for the Spurs the next night as they lost to the Suns 103-87.

This weekend featured Bryant/Arenas II(this year at least) as the Lakers beat the Wizards 118-102 with Bryant winning 39-37 in scoring.Another big game occured as Utah beat Phoenix 108-105 thus being 7 games closer to them(good luck covering THAT).Finally this weekend the
Pistons beat the Cavs 90-78.The main story,however,in the NBA this week was Kobe Bryant's suspension.Now I know your all going to call me bias considering I'm a Lakers fan BUT allow me to note I HATE Kobe Bryant mainly for the schtick he pulled in 2004 starting with the rape case.Despite hating Bryant I highly disagree with the suspension mainly because from the looks of the tape it appeared that it was accidental as Bryants arm was going down when it hit the Spurs player following a shot.The bad part was though that it wasn't even called in the game so go figure right?

Now we move onto the Weekly Awards

Player of the Week(January 29th-February 4th):Peyton Manning

Game of the Week:NC State vs North Carolina(Men's Basketball)

Team of the Week:The Indianapolis Colts

Now we move onto the Monthly awards for the month of January(winner of Game of the Month advances to the 2nd round of the End of the Year Awards tournament)

Player of the Month:Peyton Manning

Team of the Month:Indianapolis Colts

Game of the Month:Boise State vs Oklahoma

For recommendations I recommend you watch the Pro Bowl on Saturday(6pm on CBS)but if Football ain't your thing than I suggest watching Duke vs North Carolina on Wednesday Night at 9pm on ESPN.Speaking of Wednesday I suggest you tune in whenever you get home that day to ESPN or ESPN News or(if you have it)ESPNU where its signing day for College Football featuring players such as Joe McNight(No.1 on ESPN),Noel Devine,Terry Toliver,Marvin Austin,and Allen Bailey commit to the College they will be attending starting next season.

Thank you and have a wonderful week,there will be a 2nd edition BTW of Sports Weekly out tomorrow that documents the career of Ricky Proehl who retired today as a Super Bowl champion.