SCOTT JACOBS

Starting this week and continuing throughout the season longtime ESPN Play by Play guy Dave LaMont, who will be calling the LSU-Mississippi State game tonight on ESPN3D, will join us on Juiced Sports radio to talk college football, the big games, the big stories, and the fluid situation that is conference alignment.  Dave has been involved with college football for a long time, and has also been the voice of Florida Atlantic’s football team.  He also does play by play in college basketball and bowling amongst others.

Today on the show:

Oklahoma-FSU: Sooners are a totally different team on the road; Is EJ Manuel ready for his close up? Ohio State-Miami: One year later the matchup looks a whole lot different. Big name schools and non-conference schedules: a 101 on how to play the system. Super conferences and the money driving them: Why hoops isn’t helping Kansas, because they’re not a big money school in football and how historic rivalries are in danger of falling through the cracks. College football’s popularity: could conference alignment really hurt it?  Previewing LSU-Mississippi State: the biggest game in Starkville in a long time and why LSU doesn’t need great QB play to be a great team. Notre Dame-Michigan: was it an instant classic despite the lack of defense?  Is Brian Kelly on the hot seat if Notre Dame loses to Michigan State this week? Joe Paterno: Is it time for a change in Happy Valley, and is the Penn State job a top 10 job in college football?

Photo: AP

SCOTT JACOBS

If you could capture a moment in Super Bowl XLIV and frame it, a mere definition of the Saints cinderella rise from have nots to Super Bowl champions, Tracy Porter’s unforgettable run to the races has to be it.  The little known– at least to the casual sports fan– Saints cornerback, was an afterthought before kickoff, just another guy on a team run by offensive superstars.  But it was Porter, who intercepted Peyton Manning as the Colts were driving towards a game tying score, and got to make the mad dash of a lifetime– not only into Super Bowl lore, but into New Orleans infamy.

As Porter raced down the sidelines, his Saints teamates racing on the endlines along with him– what could possibly have been going through his mind?  “I just won the Super Bowl?”  “Take that Hurricane Katrina?”  “Who dat gonna beat those Saints?” “I’m going to DisneyWorld?”  “O my God, O my God, O my God?”

Porter’s stunning interception tilted a very even game in favor of the sentimental favorite Saints, and bursted Indianapolis’ bid for a second Super Bowl in four years– a shocking culmination to a game dominated by clock control and up until then, no turnovers.

It wasn’t just Porter.  He just happened to be the one who got to light the torch.  It was the Saints.  From the ground up all the way to the top, the Saints marched from mediocrity into the history books and into the hearts of their battered but never broken city.  From the day Drew Brees signed, to the goose-bump inducing re-opening of the Superdome, even to the NFC Championship game, where Brett Favre panicked and threw a horrible interception keeping their super season alive, the Saints have done this as a collective group.

O what a run that must have been.  I’ve been to New Orleans, and it is a wild city.  I can’t even begin to imagine how Bourbon Street reacted as he picked Manning’s pass off en route to the greatest daylight he had ever seen.  I can’t imagine what all those Saints fans, who for years watched their team fail and fail miserably, felt.  In 43 seasons the closest New Orleans came to a Super Bowl was hosting one.  Before this year they had never won the NFC, never even hosted an NFC Championship game.  This is the same team whose head coach Jim More said in 1996, “We suck!”  The same team that went 1-15 in

1980.  The same team that had never had a single player inducted into the Hall of Fame until this past Saturday.

This is the same franchise that traded away their entire draft for Ricky Williams.  New Orleans played their first home game in 2005 at the Meadowlands because of Hurricane Katrina.  Then they played in San Antonio and Baton Rouge.  Who dat was more like where Dey at now?  Rumors swirled that owner Tom Benson was looking for a way to get out of his Superdome lease so the Saints could bolt for a city that could support them.  People demanded that he sell the team and that a real New Orleans fan save them from moving.

And now they’re Super Bowl Champions.

Who dat could have seen that coming?

I can’t even begin to imagine how Bourbon Street reacted as Porter  picked Manning’s pass off en route to the greatest daylight he had ever seen.  I can’t imagine what all those Saints fans, who for years watched their team fail and fail miserably, felt.

How fitting is it that their franchise quarterback, left for dead by his first choice the Dolphins, instead went to the Saints and won the Super Bowl in Miami?  How fitting is it that a team that could not stop anyone for years and was nothing more than an offensive freakshow with no defensive substance would clinch their berth as champions of the NFL stratosphere with two incredible defensive stands.  How unbelievable is it that their rookie kicker made three fields goals of 40 yards or more, while the steely veteran on the other end couldn’t even make one?

The Saints are more than just a name.  They’re an identity in New Orleans.  The fleur-de-lis is everywhere in the Crescent City, and I’m not just talking about the football team.  It is a fabric of that city and I can say that because I have been there.

The Saints are not your average football team.  Their namesake, Saints,came about because New Orleans was granted an NFL team on the Roman Catholic Holiday All Saints Day.

But the Saints never fit the bill of being conventional.  Their dome, maybe the ugliest on earth, is also the loudest.  Today, coming out of halftime trailing 10-6 the Saints made the unbelievably gutsy call of onside kicking the ball to open the second half.  It completely caught the Colts off guard.  From there New Orleans rolled.

Spotting the Colts 10-0 after one, the Saints outscored Indianapolis 31-7 the rest of the night.  It wasn’t dominant, it was methodical: but for Saints fans it was perfect.  Drew Brees was dead on sharp after an inconsistent first quarter, earning Super Bowl MVP honors after finishing the game a calm, cool, collective 32-39 for 288 yards and two scores.  But it was the fantastic contributions from guys like Pierre Thomas who was effective on the ground and catching the ball and the ballsy bounce back effort of superstar in waiting Marquis Colston that really put the Saints over the top.  Thomas had just 30 yards rushing, but also had 55 yards receiving and one touchdown.  His efforts should not be overlooked.  And Colston, who had an awful drop early on, battled back to make great catch after catch, finishing with 83 yards.

“I knew it was going to come,” said once annointed franchise savior Reggie Bush (who had a mediocre game), about his team winning their first ever Super Bowl.  How many others foresaw it though?

I remember watching news coverage of Hurricane Katrina back in 2005 and wondering not how the Saints would bounce back, but if the city would ever come back.  The Big Easy is not perfect, even after this unbelievable win, but it feels a heck of a lot better for those who latched onto the Saints for comfort.

The team that was once nicknamed the ‘Aints, the same team that stumbled into this post-season having lost three straight and being written off despite the fact that they won their first 13, came into the Big Game as the Big Question mark.  Many, including myself doubted them aloud, and whether they truly even belonged here. I guess we were wrong.  Very wrong.

But New Orleans is used to many, many wrong things happening to their city: a city that was nearly written off a few years ago after the worst natural disaster this country had ever seen.

So it feels o so right that the Saints are now Super Bowl Champions.  The ‘Aints.  The team that made paper bags a fashion statement. Who could have seen dat coming?

Photo: Reuters

SCOTT JACOBS

Chumps. Losers. Degenerates. D-Leaguers. No namers.

Your 2007-2008 Miami Heat!

For the worst team in basketball, not even two years removed from its first and only championship, the Heat have suffered through their worst season of basketball ever. Nope, not even their innaugural year, in which they lost 17 games in a row can top this nightmare, because people were just happy to see a pro basketball team in South Florida. Now, 20 years into what has been a rocky, wild, up and down run, the Miami Heat have hit rock bottom.

It’s not just their record, which is the worst in basketball. It’s not the fact that Shaquille O’Neal, now rejuvenated with the Phoenix Suns is completely defacing the franchise and the likes of Ricky Davis and Chris Quinn. It’s not the fact that Miami’s 54 points against Toronto were the lowest put up since the shot clock era. No, it’s all of that and so much more.

Miami’s season was almost predictable. Okay, so no one could have expected this, but the signs were there. During the off-season, Riley was unable to lure a pair of Milwaukee Bucks free agents to South Beach (Of course the irony is that the Bucks have lost to the Heat twice, the only team in basketball to do so). Miami lost James Posey, Eddie Jones, and Jason Kapono to free agency and got NOTHING in return. Miami’s free agent signings of note: Penny Hardaway (eventually cut) and Smush Parker (an expensive buy out) were morbid failures in every sense of the word.

The ship was sailing. The championship team was just a shell of itself.

D-Wade didn’t get into the action until eight games into the season. By that time, Miami was already five feet under. Shaq played half asleep when he was in, although he mostly just found really nice suits to wear when he didn’t feel like playing, on the bench. Pat Riley took a ton of heat (pun intended) for his team’s lack of heart, killer instinct, lack of continuity.

A few days before the season Riles shipped out disgruntled Antoine Walker to Minnesota for Ricky Davis and Mark Blount. The idea was to give the team some life. In some respects it worked: Davis is the only player to play every game for the Heat this year. But the problems really came when injuries starting attacking this team like the plague: Wade came back and was oft-injured, playing through pain, clearly not the same player he was in those NBA Finals in 2006. Shaq was a no show, half hurt, half gone. Alonzo Mourning was lost for the season in a heartbreaking way.

Since then? Well, Wade is out for the year. Shaq is gone to the Suns. Shawn Marion has missed 7 of his last 8 games, Udonis Haslem is hurt, Alexander Johnson is hurt, Jason Williams, Dorrell Wright is hurt. The list just goes on forever.

It’s weird too. I was interviewing the Heat back on November 16, 2006, a few months after their championship run, and I remember a reporter asking Riley what he was most thankful for: “having 15 healthy players” was his response. Two days later Shaq got hurt, and the downward spiral has continued ever since.

Why did Miami score 54 points against the Raptors? Well, for one they trotted out seven players. Bobby Jones and Joel Anthony (No, not Billy Joel) made up their bench. Ricky Davis, Earl Barron, Chris Quinn, Daequan Cook, oooh does it even matter?

Miami had a team of all D-Leaguers on the court at one point in a recent loss. Seriously, who is Kasib Powell?

Riley took his much publicized scouting trip to see Derick Rose and Michael Beasley, and Eric Gordon, and all those fun faces. They would all look good in a Heat uniform. Here’s the thing though: Don’t you just get that gut feeling that Miami will somehow get the 4th pick. Like this season has been so bad, that the odds will somehow bite Miami in the backside? And outside of Beasley and Rose who else will help the Heat right away? That was a trick question: anybody.

Finally, this was Miami’s first four subs off their bench against the Knicks (who are actually not as pathetic right now thanks to the Heat): Joel Anthony, Stephane Lasme, Kasib Powell, and Blake Ahearn. O Miami, the season is almost over. Hang in there for a handful more of games and this nightmare will soon be over. And heck, maybe Kevin McHale will jump from the T-Wolves to the Lakers and dump Kobe Bryant in your lap. Well, someone has to dream. Right?

A hearty congratulations goes out to Shaquille O’Neal. You’ve done what once seemed impossible: bring down my two favorite teams and bring them down hard. No, no, it wasn’t enough to watch your $20 million blob sleep in the paint and do nothing. Instead, the Heat had to trade you (just fine with me), but their partner, the Phoenix Suns just made it seem like a cruel joke. And yet, after a couple days I bought into the trade. “O yeah, this can work,” I wrote. “Phoenix can win a title with Shaq.”

True or false: I actually believed what I was saying? True, with huge hints of optimism.
True or false: Shaq has killed two franchises with one monstrous contract and an inability to say, alright, I quit? True.

After Denver ran Phoenix off of the court, dropping the new look Suns to 3-5 since his arrival, or for those of you keeping score at home: from 1st to 6th in a matter of weeks, it was clear this massive experiment has a long ways to go. And by the time it works (if it ever works) Phoenix may astonishingly find its way out of the playoffs. Yeah, the uber competitive Western Conference is that good. And the sketchy as heck Suns look that shaky.

Steve Nash is playing like he’s aged 3 years since Shaq arrived. Amare is getting his, but has also managed to somehow get worse defensively. Gordon Giricek has been brought in as a shooter, and all I saw him shoot yesterday was bricks. Raja Bell is a shell of the player he was a few years ago. Grant Hill gives it everything he’s got, but he simply can’t replace Marion. Boris Diaw plays with unchartered inconsistency, so much so that most Suns want to run him and his $45 million contract out of town.

Suns fans are fed up with Mike D’Antoni. His team has shown no defensive toughness or improvement since Shaq, and a lot of people are starting to think he’s a one trick offensive pony. The guy is a mastermind offensively, but bringing in Shaq was a big mistake. Even if Marion wasn’t good enough to win a title, the Suns could have been patient and tried to trade him for someone young with a much more flexible contract.

Unless Shaq miraculously retires in the off-season (not happening, with $20 million coming for two more years after this) Phoenix will probably go down with him. The most entertaining team the NBA has seen in years is looking older and less of a contender by the day. Trading Kurt Thomas looks dumber every minute. Ditching James Jones was a dud. Selling off a 2010 first rounder to Seattle could cause a nightmare in, well, 2010.

But the biggest deal, is that they have no bench. Playing 7 or 8 has worn down this team. Players are opting not to come here because they know that there are no minutes for them. Starters are getting worn down because they have nothing left for the playoffs. This is an old team, second oldest in the NBA. Things aren’t looking good.

And two more years of Shaq: well, let’s just say, he’s done it.

His contract screwed over the Heat. And how his contract and oldness is going to haunt the Suns.

Thanks Shaq.

For nothing!