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!

Barry Bonds used Steriods???

Many baseball fans and players looked up to Bonds, not only as an idle but the best hitter in MLB. With 762 career home-runs, running and walking 762 times around the diamond must have taken but a lot of hard work, but now they are finding out that the star Barry Bonds had used steroids during his career? Tests has shown that Bonds had indeed took three types of performance-enhancing drugs. Bonds has admitted to using these drugs himself but said that his personal "misled him into believing it was flaxseed oil." Whether this is true or not, Bonds’s home-runs were not legit ones, and should affect how others look at him.

Currently Bonds is involved in a perjury trial that accuses Bonds of lying to a federal grand jury in 2003 when he claimed that  he never knowingly took steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs. The prosecutors (government) need to prove that Bonds was indeed lying, and that he knew he was taking steroids. Bonds’s former personal trainer Greg Anderson has been refusing to testify, and has been jailed for doing that. This will harm the prosecutors’ case, but it is still possible for them to win. The trial is expected to last three to four weeks.

So not only has Bonds been using Steroids during his brilliant career, but they are now trying to prove that he was lying about having used the drugs. This will probably make a difference when Bonds is being admitted into the baseball hall of fame, and many voters think twice before voting him into baseball’s hall of highest honors.

-- Bikramjit

Websites that were used are:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/sports/baseball/24bonds.html?_r=2&ref=sports

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/03/24/sports/baseball/AP-BBO-Bonds-Trial.html?_r=1

Texas Loses Early Once Again

Last year in the NCAA Men's basketball tournament, Texas lost in the first round to 9th seed Wake Forest by the score of 81-80. This year, with the help of Freshman Forward Tristan Thompson and the scoring of Jordan Hamilton, the longhorns managed to get a successful 28-8 regular season record while making it to the Big 12 championship where they lost to the 2nd overall ranked team, Kansas.
As Texas came into the NCAA tournament this year, many expected them to make it to the sweet sixteen. Some even believed that Texas will be able to defeat Duke, the number one seed in the region, and advance to the elite eight and possibly the championship game. In the first round, Texas lead 78-63 going into the final five minutes, and allowed Oakland to make a come back, ending the game with the score of 85-81, a mere 4 point victory. According to sportspicksforum.com, 83% of the nation favored Texas to come out as the winner against 5th seed Arizona. It was not the case. Texas, having enjoyed double digit leads through most of the season, was down 36-25 at the half, due to the inability to score by Jordan Hamilton and Tristan Thompson's foul trouble. As the game starts to wind down to its final minutes, J'Covan Brown made some clutch free throws (he was 13 for 13 on the line for the game) to get Texas the 69-67 lead with 14.5 seconds left. As Cory Joseph attempted an inbound pass to Brown and was unsuccessful, he appeared to call a timeout, but that was when the referee called a 5 second violation. After the call Arizona 's star player Derrick Williams drove to the basket for a score and the foul, and that got Arizona up 70-69, which was the final score.
Now the problem is, WAS that a 5 second violation by Cory Joseph?
See for yourself.

-- Brian Chen

Cricket Club?

Is LASA ready for another sport? Students are trying to make a club for cricket, which is like baseball. Danish Hussain (10th grader) and Aniket Patel (9th grader) are putting forth much effort in order to get the club going. Right now they play on the tennis courts during lunch and they have all the supplies they need; a bat, a ball, and wickets (which are used to get a person out because there aren't really strikes in cricket). The sponsor I believe is Mr. Scaccia and right now, all they need is a signature from the principal and/or vice-principal and then the club will be official! Currently there are about 15 people on average who come outside to play everyday that all the supplies are present and so far it's looking like all the people are having much fun out there.
And, is it coincidence that this club is being formed at about the exact same time as the 2011 Cricket World cup is going on? It is being held in India and there are many great games that have gone on. as of March 11, 2011, the team that is ranked number one is Australia, number two is India, and third is Sri Lanka. In all, there are 13 teams playing in the World Cup and I'm sure that the students who are making cricket club possible watch this and try not to miss a match.

-- Bikramjit

Heat Loses 5th Straight

The NBA's most talented, and probably the most exciting team to watch, the Miami Heat, loses their 5th straight game to the Portland Trailblazers, 96-105. Just one day ago, the Heat coach had leaked information that some of the players were weeping in the locker room after the loss against the Chicago Bulls, with both Lebron James and Dwayne Wade, two major stars of the league, missing possible game winning shots in the final seconds. Although later the coach explained that there were just glossy eyes and downed players, this has caused laughter among the league, including Amar'e Stoudamire and Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks.
In the last 5 games, the Heat had lost to the opposing team by an average of 9.6 pts per game, with their worst lost being the game against the spurs, where they lost by 30 pts. What's wrong with Heat? Their bench. In this five game losing streak, the Heat bench have been outscored 168 to 66. Especially in the last game, the Heat bench scored merely 8 points while Portland's bench scored 41 points. With the bench unable to score, even if both Lebron James and Dwayne Wade are playing well (Lebron scored 31 pts, Wade scored 38 pts), it will be very difficult for the team to win a game. The reason that the Miami bench is not scoring could be because that there are too many superstars on the team (Wade, James, Bosh), and that the rest of the team are trying to feed THEM the ball, instead of taking some quality shots that some of them could make. This is one of the cons for teams with superstars, because then the rest of the team will just be depending them to score a lot of points, and there will be less team work and more indivudual play making, and that is what's happening with the Miami Heat right now.

-- Brian