No More Cricket on The Tennis Courts...

Recently, Mr. Lipton (the current principal of LASA High School) came out to the tennis court on Wednesday at lunch time during a game. He spoke to Aniket Patel and told him that by playing crickt on the courts, we [cricket players] are harming the courts somehow. So now, we have to move on to the fields right next to the courts but they are not all that smooth to play on. When you bounce the ball, it jumps up and goes in a totally different direction because of the ground not being smooth. The balls that are used during lunch are TENNIS BALLS and not even realy cricket balls (which are much harder) and the bats that are used barely ever hit the ground and they are only scraped on the ground rarely. I think that this is really unfair that he is making us move from the tennis courts. Even though Mr. Lipton said that he might pay for someone to make a cricket field or atleast the middle pitch where the ball is thrown, it will cost a FORTUNE for the school and so he will (in the end) find some excuse and back out from doing this. And because of all this, my lead for my FEATURE STORY IS RUINED... so like I will either find a new lead or just you know, keep it as such.

NBA Playoffs

As we begin to approach the end of April no other sports event is attracting more attention than the NBA playoffs. Most of the teams that have entered the post-season are no surprises, with the Bulls leading the Eastern Conference and the San Antonio Spurs on top in the West.

West

Spurs-Grizzlies (Series tied 1-1):

Although the Spurs are the number 1 seed in the west, they have been playing badly throughout the 2nd half of the season, losing their best-record-in-the-league to the Chicago Bulls. The Grizzlies, on the other hand, fought through a tough competition against the Houston Rockets and the Phoenix Suns to get to the playoffs, and many believe that they will give the Spurs lots of trouble. 

Lakers-Hornets (Series tied 1-1):
The two time defending-champs are in the playoffs again, sitting comfortably near the top of the conference. The Lakers had been playing while after the All-Star break, and managed to put together some big win streaks throughout the 2nd half of the season. Although at the end of the Regular Season they had slipped a little, this is the exact same team that had won the championship last year, and they will fight strong and hard to make it to the finals again. On the other hand, the hornets, having suffered a somewhat disappointing season, are not going down without giving their best against this very big Lakers team. This team lead by Chris Paul could just surprise you the the things they can achieve.
Mavericks-TrailBlazers (Mavs Lead Series 2-1):
This is one of the close match-ups of the first round, with an experienced Dallas Mavericks team containing Dirk Nowitzski and Jason Kidd facing against a high-scoring Portland TrailBlazers team, lead by LaMarcus Aldridge. This will be a very difficult series, and it might just be one of those that will not get decided until Game 7.
Thunder-Nuggets (OKC Lead Series 2-0):
Even if this is a 4-seed vs 5-seed match-up many believe that it won't be very close, since the Nuggets had traded their star player, Carmelo Anthony, along with the Veteran, Chauncy Billups.
But this Nuggets team have surprised a lot of people. With the team's leading scorer traded away, the rest of the squad have seemed to pull something together, and won many games after the Melo-trade. Overall though, this seemed like it will be a overpowering series by the young Thunders team, with Kevin Durant and Russel Westbrook being the leaders, each scoring over 20 pts a game.

East
Bulls-Pacers (Bulls Lead Series 3-0):
This seems like an easy match-up for the Bulls, who had a terrific second half of the season and claimed the number-1 seed in the East against other tough teams such as the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics. Although the Pacers have put up a fight throughout the series, it looks like the Bulls will be finishing them off rather quickly.
Heat-76ers (Heat Lead Series 3-0):
With all the talk throughout the regular season about the Big-3 of the Heat not being able to play cooperatively together, nonetheless they have made the playoffs in rather good position, and it looks like their star players have each found their role in the team. With Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh, it seems like the Heat will defeat the hard fighting 76ers and move on to the 2nd round.
Celtics-Knicks (Celtics Lead Series 2-0):
This is a match-up the many considers as the toughest one in the first round. The Celtics seems to be getting old, but players are stepping up towards the end of the season, and the 3 main pieces of the team, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett, have been playing well, and added to that is Rajon Rondo, who, having been playing worse and worse after the magnificent start of the season, will have to play really well for the Celtics to make it to the finals again. The Knicks, however, will not be going down easily either. Having acquired Carmelo Anthony through the big trade, the team is determined to compete in this very competitive Eastern Conference. But after the first two games of the series, Amar'e Stoudamire, along with Chauncy Billups are both injured, and it seems like Carmelo will have to carry this team by himself and try to defeat Doc Rivers and the Celtics.
Magic-Hawks (Series Tied 1-1):
Dwight Howard and the 3-point shooting Magic team will be taking on a really tough Atlanta Hawks team, who seems to be doing quite well in both the offense and the defense. With a deep bench including Jamal Crawford, this Hawks team might just surprise everyone and defeat this Magic team that falls and rises according to their 3-point shooting.

-Brian Chen

Bikramjit's Leads for Feature Story

Descriptive:
Aniket Patel bowls the ball to Danish Hussain, he hits it and it flies over the fence. "A six he shouted," and his whole team came by to congratulate him putting their hands up for high-fives. Everyday, Cricket is played at lunch on the tennis courts. Many freshmen and sophomores come out and play usually and sometimes even juniors and seniors come out. Many people try out their batting skills, while others start to learn the correct way and practice on bowling.


Compare/Contrast:
Two weeks ago when Cricket Club was first starting off, only Freshmen came out to play. As anouncements came on about the club and when the club got their own bulletin board, many people came out to learn about the club and play the sport.


Startling Statement:
Cricket Club on a tennis court?

Brian's Feature Leads

Descriptive:

Twenty bikes flew across the horizon charging into the wind, every rider pedalling hard. “CAR BACK!!” one of the people in the back shouted as he hears a car approaching in the back of the group. The whole group slid to their right, allowing the car to go by, then immediately leaned to their left, retaking the road. Another five minutes quickly ran by and the two people in the front each slid to their left or right to drop back to the rear of the group, allowing the next two bikers to come up and take the “pole”.  

Compare and Contrast:
Thirty years ago this group had been a young and talented bike group in Austin. The young fellows in their twenties and thirties were just starting to learn how to ride. They were entering races, and riding hard. Now, although they are many of them are in their fifties, some in their sixties, they aren’t backing down. Most of them still go out every weekend, riding either fifty miles on Sundays, ninety miles on Saturdays, or even both. But even so, many are growing weaker and weaker as time goes by, and some are thinking about not biking anymore. Although their bodies aren’t supporting them to keep doing this competitive sport anymore, none of them are willing to leave their belovin’ biking.

Narrative:

“City of the Violet Crown.” This was how the writer O’Henry described Austin with its beautiful sunset. This is also how this thirty year-old bike club got its name. “It describes the purplish light at sunset, and I liked it, so we chose the name for the club.” says Jay Bond, one of the oldest members of the club. The Violet Crown Sports Association, or commonly called the Violet Crown bike club, was created in 1981, and is one of the oldest bike clubs in the city of Austin, which has grown to be a city full of biking-loving people since then.

Is You-Know-Who BACK?

After the incident with his personal life, Tiger Woods hasn't been playing well in the sport he is known for. In fact, he hasn't won a tournament since the incident where he crashed into the fire hydrant. In this past week's Masters tournament, he showed signs that he is coming back. Although he did not win, he showed his best playing during the Masters, scoring one of his best rounds for the tournament with a 66 in the second round. A two above par third round practically ended his chances of winning, but he was still in there. On Sunday during the final round of the tournament, he, again, showed his posture of the former No. 1 in the world, and scored a stunning -5 for the first 9 holes. He finished ten under par for the tournament, and tied for 4.
Even if he didn't win, this has been the best he's played since the horrific incident that affected his life entirely. With the strong playing he had shown at the Masters, many are saying that he is back, and will start winning again to reclaim his No.1 spot in the world.

My AWFUL Interview Experience

I put on my helmet, gloves, and cleats, checked if the recorder is in my pocket, and hopped on my bike. I clipped the cleats onto the pedals, and began to peddle my way towards the interview twelve miles away. I biked fast, knowing that I only had forty-five minutes to get in the twelve miles, and hard work payed off. In a mere twenty minutes I had biked nearly eight miles. As I was waiting at a light, the sun shining on my face, my sweat dripping down onto the ground, I put my hand into my other pocket, and realized that I had forgotten to print out my Interview questions. I looked at the time. About thirty minutes left. If I went back right now, I would most definitely be late to the interview. I considered my options. Without the questions, I would look really stupid during the interview, like an unprepared little freshman thinking for five minutes every time I need a question. So I turned my bike around, and started speeding my way back. I have to admit, I did run some lights, but I thought, what the heck, I'm on a bike. After I reached home, I threw the bike onto the ground, and rushed into the house. I printed out the questions, folded it in half a couple of times, stuffed it into my pocket, and ran outside again. I quickly got on my bike, and began speeding my way through the wild traffic of Austin at 6 P.M. I looked at the time again, already time for the interview, and I still have ten miles to go. With a loud sigh, I pedaled as hard as I can and finally arrived at the interview location, thirty minutes late. It was a cafe, apparently a rather popular cafe. I scanned the crowd, trying to find Jay Bond, my interviewee, and finally found him sitting at a table. I rushed to him, and apologized for being late. Luckily, I had known him for a while because I had biked with him and his bike club for the past year, and he didn't display any anger or annoyance against my tardiness.
So we sat down, and started the interview. First, I just asked him about how long and since when the club has been in Austin, and after that, the words were just flowing out of his mouth. I barely had to ask any questions since he was answering all of them, and probably the only times I had to ask questions were follow-up questions that gave me more detail on specific subjects. Since I had biked with the club before, I had already known a lot of the background information of it, and was quick to understand everything Jay had to say. Although there were a lot of useful things he had said, there was also some things that were interesting, but just doesn't fit into my feature story. But overall interview went pretty smooth, and after that we just sat at the table discussing about other stuff.
As the conversation came to an end, I got up to shake his hand, thanked him for letting me interview him, and hopped on my bike again. As I started to climb up the hill leading to the road, I could feel my legs starting to ache. I decided to take my time biking bake to my house, taking that I had no other event planned. Forty-five minutes later, I dragged my tired body into my room, dropped onto the bed, and laid there... just... there.

Distance Biked : 24 (original) + 16 (extra :( ) = 40 miles.......
Interview : Successful!

-Brian

Interview --- Bikramjit Lubana

 I interview Aniket Patel on the topic of the new Cricket Club. I interviewed him mostly on Google Docs and finished up some questions at school. It was an interesting interview because I didn't have to transcribe anything because Aniket was typing up his answers as I asked them to him. So, overall it wasn't much work because the answers were to the point, not like in interviews where you get a lot of side information which can be both, good and bad, so I will figure that part out as I start writing up my whole feature story. The interview procedure was okay, Aniket answered all the questions and had some really nice answers which I can use as quotes which will help out in the story a lot. Overall, this interview went pretty smooth and that is what will help me write a good story! For pictures, I took them during lunch while we were actually playing cricket and got nice pictures of Aniket and Danish (the two main starters of the club) bowling and batting.

Aggies Wins Championship!

Texas A&M wins the NCAA Womens Basketball Championship, defeating Notre Dame by the score of 76-70.

UConn Win NCAA Men's Basketball Championship!

After a very physical game where all throughout the game guys were hustling onto the floors to fight for loose balls, Kemba Walker and the UConn Huskies managed to hold of the Butler Bulldogs to a 53-41 victory for the school's third national title. Although it was an impressive feat the Huskies have pulled off at Houston Texas, it was truly a very sloppy game played by both teams. The Bulldogs had only 2 points in the paint throughout the whole game and shot for 18% on the field, which is the second lowest by a team at the championship. That being said, the Huskies didn't shoot quiet as well as they had been expected to either. The team lead by Kemba Walker and Jeremy Lamb, along with the big guy in the middle Alex Oriakhi only shot 30% from the field and making only one out of fourteen from outside the arc. Kemba Walker, predicted to have a great game tonight, only made 5 out of 21 shots and ended with a mere 16 points. In the first half, both teams were horrendous on offense, partly because of the defensive efforts given by both teams, but mostly because, well, guys just couldn't bank the shots. Butler could do nothing inside against the size of UConn, and suffered from the inability to score inside the paint. This eventually lead to the second half, where UConn ran off with the lead, mostly because freshman Jeremy Lamb played especially well, scoring 12 of the Huskies' 34 points in the half.
All in all, the championship game was filled with missed layups, miscommunication by both teams, and was just not the game everyone expected by two teams who made it through the elite teams in the nation to gain the chance to at this final game of the season.

-Brian Chen

A New Season

A new season of baseball was kicked off on the last day of March. As each team starts the 162 game season,  many analysts are already predicting which teams are going to make the post season, and which team has the fire power or the pitching staff to win it all. 

Many want the San Francisco Giants to redo the feat and defeat all the other strong teams again to win the trophy. Sadly, there is only a small chance of this. With all the other strong teams in the National League, such as the Philadelphia Phillies and the Milwaukee Brewers, which owns a very strong starting pitching rotation and a very strong hitting line up, respectively.

The Philadelphia Phillies have been stirring up big news all throughout last season and during the off season. The acquisition of Cliff Lee during the off season made the already ace-filled rotation even more solid. Now the Phillies have their ace Roy Halladay, the previous Astros ace Roy Oswalt, the young pitcher Cole Hamels, and the killer left hander Cliff Lee. The only pitcher that the Phillies are worried about is Joe Blanton, who is also a very strong pitcher. As the Phillies come into this season with their strong rotation, many are expecting low scores being allowed by them. 

The Milwaukee Brewers is another team that is expected to play good this year. With the acquisition of Zack Greinke, former ace for the Kansas City Royals, and the 2009 season Cy Young winner, he gives the Brewers and their powerful line-up more than enough reason to be a serious contender in the National League.   

In the American League, it is still the American East that will probably dominate, even with the losses in last year's post-season for both the Rays, and the Yankees. 

Many expect the Red Sox to comeback from the injury-filled season from last year and win the American East, arguably the most difficult division in the whole MLB. Last year, an insane number players on the Boston Red Sox got hurt, including their ace, Josh Beckett, who missed some games during the season, and second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who only played less than half of the the last season. Now with Adrian Gonzalez in their line-up to accompany Big Pappy David Ortiz, the Red Sox have more than enough power hitters to score many runs a game. Along with the potentially dominant pitching staff, the Red Sox could be the team to win the World Series this year.

And don't forget the New York Yankees. Being the richest team in the league, they still have the powerful slugger, Alex Rodriguez, the rising new star, Robinson Cano, their ace, CC Sabathia, the ultimate closer, Mariano Rivera, and last but not least, the captain, Derek Jeter. Although the Yank's starting rotation is still questionable from losing Andy Pettitte during the off-season, the New Yorkers can only hope that A.J. Burnett will get his stuff back together from his awful season last year, and that the young pitcher Phil Hughes could continue his dominance that was seen during the first half of the season before. With their experience, new power, and strong bullpen, the Yankees could easily make another magnificent run to another World Championship. 

-- Brian Chen   

India Won the Cricket World Cup Semi-Finals

After a long hard match, India came out victorious with a score of 260/9 in 50 overs and Pakistan had 231/10 in 49.5 Overs. India and Pakistan have had a long rivalry in the world of cricket. In all of the World Cup matches that India and Pakistan have played against each other, India has always been triumphant with a total of 5/5 wins and matches.
So far, India has played a total of 6 games in which they won 4, tied 1, and lost 1. Their opponent in the Finals for the 2011 World Cup is Sri Lanka which has 4 wins, 1 tied and 1 game where their were no runs. Now, with 1 more game left for India to become the World Cup Champs, they are probably going to try very hard.
India has won the Cricket World Cup only once in the year 1983 and has been the runner-up once in 2003. In the years 1987 and 1996 they were semi-finalists. So coming to the final stages of the World Cup is such a great accomplishment. In the year of 1996, Sri Lanka won the Cricket World Cup which was hosted by India and in the previous World Cup (2007) they were the runner-up. Overall both teams have much experience and are doing exceptionally good at this World Cup. This world cup will be one great match for the fans.

Many people aren't aware of how you actually play the sport. The game is played on an oval field and the middle of the field known as pitch is the most important. The cricket match is played between 2 teams, each team has 11 players. Each team gets one chance to bat and one chance to field for 50 overs, each over has 6 balls (after the 50 overs, the team switch sides). Another way to switch sides is if all players of the batting team are out. There are two sets of wickets, one behind the batsman and one near the bowler.  On the fielding team there is one bowler (the person who throws the ball to the batsmen), and obviously on the batting team there is one person who is batting and in order to make runs, there is another person on the other side of the pitch. When the ball is hit and it flies over the boundary the batting team is awarded six points and if the ball is hit and it rolls over the boundary then the team gets four points. If the batsman hits the ball and it stays inside the boundary, then the batsman and the runner have to run back and forth in between the wickets in order to make runs. At the end of 50 overs, who ever has more points, wins the game!