Sorry to Disappoint.

Sorry to disappoint my 3 or 4 loyal readers, but I have decided that all of sport is far too broad a topic for me to cover without going insane.  Thus, I have established a Manchester United blog so I could focus in on something a little more narrow.  For those of you who care, it is called RedsUnite.  Stop by and see what you think.

The Paint: NBA Knowledge

• Boston beat Sacramento 89-69 to kick off its west coast swing.  The Celtics are now 23-3 for the fourth time in team history.  Apparently, last night was the first time in ELEVEN years the Celtics have beaten the Kings.  (The Coffin Corner)
• Chris Paul gave the Grizzlies the business.  40 points, 5 rebs, 9 assists and 5 steals.  (Give Me The Rock)
• The Hawks are now officially done rebuilding.  They’ve won five straight for the first time since ‘99.  (The Big Lead)
• The Miami heat are G-A-R-B-A-G-E.  They lost by 11 to the laughable Sixers last night.  The Heat are the worst team in the east, looking up at the Knicks.  Shaq put up 5 points and 10 boards and Wade got blown by like Greg Paulus last night.  J-Will said he’s a high priced prostitute.  It’s rebuilding time in Miami.  (Depressed Fan)
• New coach, same team.  Chicago Interim coach Pete Myers’ first assignment was a tough one.  Bulls lose to the Spurs 94-79.

The Year in Sports: 2007

• Yahoo! 2007 Top Trends–Sports
• Sports Business Digest’s 2007 Sports Recap (as told by 100 posts by the best sports bloggers)
• Busted Coverage’s 2007 Sports Blog of the Year Tournament
• AOL Sports–Super Bowl Commercials 2007
• Associated Content’s Top Sports Teams of 2007
• Newsweek’s Biggest Sports Stories of 2007
• Los Angeles Times’ Best of 2007: Sports
• Time Magazine’s Top 10 Sports Matches of 2007 and Top 10 Sports Moments of 2007
• FanHouse’s Top 8 Spectacular NASCAR Crashes of 2007
  
• Sports Illustrated’s 2007 Year in Pictures, 2007 Sportsman of the Year, Best Trades of 2007 and 2007 Turkeys of the Year
• Guardian Unlimited’s US Sports Highlights of 2007
• KDKA.com’s 2007 Sports Scandals
• The Austin American-Statesman’s Year In Sports Stupidity
• 4thegame.com’s The Year That Was.

Once you are fully saturated, take a trip over to Fimoculous. They have more “best of” lists than you’ll know what to do with.
You’re Welcome.

Jingle Bells

Hat tip: Ryan

Water Cooler Knowledge

What you need to know this morning:

• Green Bay’s path to the Super Bowl will be warmer now. They’ll say that’s bad news. (NFL Gridiron Gab)
• The Vikings path to the Super Bowl is non-existent if they keep playing like they did yesterday. (Daily Norseman)
• The Patriots are better than the Miami Dolphins.
• Kobe is the youngest to 20,000. I wonder if he was the fastest to however many FGA’s that took? (LAist)
• Tracy Mcgrady and Yao Ming are hurt….again. Rockets lose to Pistons. (Slam Dunk Central)
• Roger Clemens had this to say:

A Map Of Questionable Import

The folks at CommonCensus have undertaken the task of “producing maps that show exactly where the fans for each team are located, based on the geographic votes of Internet users.” They are still looking for more contributors to their survey, so, if you have loads of spare time, help them out.

Their preliminary results prove what no one could have guessed:

• Teams largest fan support comes from their geographical surroundings.
• Older teams and successful franchises have fan support around the country.
• The Arizona Cardinals, Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Los Angeles Clippers have barely existant fan support.

Polls Are Still Open

Busted Coverage is conducting their 2007 Sports Blog of the Year Tournament and it’s down to the Sweet 16. I guess I will forgive them for not including The Impregnable Pundit; the blog was started 8 days ago. But if you want to vote for the second best blog of 2007, head on over.

Weekend Primer

Saturday

College Football

• Papajohns.com Bowl: Southern Mississippi vs. Cincinnati, ESPN2, 1 p.m.
• New Mexico Bowl, Nevada at New Mexico, ESPN, 4:30 p.m.
• Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl, UCLA vs. Brigham Young, ESPN, 8 p.m.

College Basketball

• Georgetown at Memphis, ESPN, noon;
• UCLA at Michigan, CBS, 2 p.m.;
• Tennessee at Xavier, ESPN, 2 p.m.;
• Florida at Ohio State, CBS, 4 p.m.;
• Stanford vs. Texas Tech, at Dallas, ESPN2, 4:30 p.m.;
• Texas vs. Michigan State, at Auburn Hills, Mich., ESPN2, 6:30 p.m.;
• Illinois vs. Missouri, at St. Louis, ESPN2, 8:30 p.m.

NFL

• Dallas Cowboys at Carolina Panthers, NFL Network, 8 p.m.

Sunday

College Football

• Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, Boise State vs. East Carolina, ESPN, 8 p.m.

College basketball

• Virginia Tech at Wake Forest, FSN, 5:30 p.m.
• Cincinnati at North Carolina State, FSN, 7:30 p.m.

NFL

• Washington at Minnesota, NBC, 8:15 p.m.
• Whatever games your geographically forced to watch.

Water Cooler Knowldege

So you don’t embarrass yourself this weekend:

• The Blazers are doin’ work. 10 in a row. (Blazers Blog)
• Tom Brady is the AP Male Athlete of the Year. (Pats Pulpit)
• Joe Johnson’s got his swagger back. (FanHouse)
• MANUCHO! The Louis Saha era may be over at Old Trafford. (The Soccer Blog)
• Larry Johnson helps Tark’s graduation rate. (FanHouse)

Liverpool’s Season Just Got Worse

The draw for the UEFA Champions League Playoff was conducted today. In a draw full of compelling match-ups, TIP will be anxiously awaiting:

• Arsenal v. AC Milan
• Manchester United v. Lyon
• Liverpool v. Inter Milan
• AS Roma v. Real Madrid

The good folks at SoccerLens were good enough to liveblog it.