The Dish: Lullaby Time For North American Sports

Lull, lull, lull. The North American sports landscape has the post-Super-Bowl blues, which is kind of funny considering how many sports there are on TV just now. Tune to any NBC-owned station and you're bound to see people who call themselves athletes who engage in what other people call sports. But pardon me if I don't get all that stoked about half-pipe snowboarding. "Today on NBC! Half-pipe snowboarding! All the annoying arbitrariness of figure skating, without the sequins! Or the possibility of some woman cracking her skull wide open!" Any sport that requires judges to determine the outcome isn't a sport. It's vaudeville. As for curling, well, yeah, I've played shufflepuck in American bars. I guess it's kinda cool. But I don't recall the matches taking three hours. However, if U.S. captain Cassie Johnson happens to be reading (a likely event): Cassie, I would be honored to marry you. As for NBA All-Star weekend...yawn. They might really have something if the superstars would dunk. But they won't, presumably because they are wusses. The game is dreadful. The "skills" competition has all the drama of biathlon. March Madness cannot come soon enough. Oh, and the Daytona 500 is this weekend. If you're into the whole fossil-fuel-guzzling, metaphor-for-everything-that's-wrong-with-America kind of thing. Now that our attention is shifting to March Madness, did UConn's loss last Monday at Villanova shake your confidence in them? Do the Wildcats now deserve consideration as the nation's #1 team? Greg Jorssen, BoDog.com: If the Wildcats can do the same thing in Hartford in a couple of weeks, then I would say unequivocally that Nova deserves consideration as the #1 ranked team in the nation. They should be 12-1 in the Big East and UConn should be 11-2 when these two teams face each other again, and that game should be the decider as to who will be not only the Big East champion heading into the tournament, but also may determine who is the top in the nation. But let's not count out the Blue Devils. They are sitting pretty right now with a 23-1 record and they really do not face a tough opponent until the final week of the season when they take on the Tar Heels. Unless they are upset over the next couple of weeks, it's doubtful that any team can knock them off the top spot heading into March Madness. As for UConn, I believe this is a minor setback. They will have an opportunity to redeem themselves on Saturday when they take on #11 West Virginia, and with such a deep front line and with Rudy Gay the talent that he is, UConn will be a power to be reckoned with in March. The Wildcats in my opinion are undersized, and if the guards are not firing on all cylinders, they may suffer. Which perennial powerhouse in college hoops do you think is most at risk of missing the Tournament: Kentucky, Louisville, Maryland or Stanford? GJ, BoDog.com: I think Kentucky will make it despite their disappointing season, though they won't be seeded as highly as they're used to. Stanford is coming together, winning 8 of their last 11, and are only 1