The Respect List

G-MAN'S WEEKLY POWER RANKING
1/21/08 – 1/27/08

1.) New England Patriots – Stop and think for a second before you go around telling people this week that the Giants are going to beat the Patriots! In fact, if you’re even conjuring this thought up in the first place, you must be from some alternate universe, known to the rest of the world as the New York metropolitan area. Teams that would have a chance in this game would be the ’88 49ers, ’75 Steelers or the ’92 Cowboys, but certainly not the ’07 Giants. Now the ’86 Giants would make this a football game, bottom-line. The ’90 Giants probably would, too. This ’07 version? Please!! These are the ’07 Patriots we’re talking about, right?

What do you get for being the #1 team in the inaugural ‘G-Man’s Weekly Power Ranking’?
An extra paragraph of me telling everybody how good you are!

I recently spoke with a good friend from Boston, who brought this nugget of information to my attention: What do the last 5 Patriot games have in common? They were all played in the cold Northeast winter of either New York or Boston, in conditions that could slow down even the best of offenses. The Super Bowl in contrast will be played indoors, on turf, completely removing weather from the equation. My guess is that this is music to the ears of Patriot fans and something New Yorkers would rather place in the fogedaboutit category.

2.) New York Giants – The New York Giants picked the right time to start playing their best football, winning road playoff games against all three NFC division champs. The Gints now find themselves with one more hurdle to climb, and that hurdle is the size of Everest (see above). Despite their odds, the Giants are positioned where the other 30 teams in the league would love to be, 60 minutes away from a Super Bowl title.

3.) Novak Djokovic – After two years of solid showings in major championships, including two semi-finals (’07 French, ’07 Wimbledon) and one final (’07 US Open), this 20-year-old Serb has finally emerged from the Federer/Nadal stranglehold on the sport. His rise to #3 in the world (or in other words, the next best player not named Federer or Nadal) has been impressive. A player who excels on all surfaces, Djkovic now turns his sights to The French Open, where he has bowed out in each of the last two years at the hands of two-time defending champ Rafael Nadal. If seeding holds true, these two would meet in the semi-finals at Roland Garos come June, in what could be the best match of the ATP season.

4.) Detroit Redwings – How does a team lead the entire NHL by 12 points and their own conference by 17 at the All-Star break? Go look at the Detroit Redwings roster and you will quickly find your answer. We all know about the Zetterbergs, Datsyuks and Lidstroms of the world, but take a closer look and you will see what makes this team great: it’s Daniel Cleary’s 18 goals and 19 assists, Brian Rafalski’s blue-line presence and Jiri Hudler and Tomas Holmstrom’s 30 combined goals. Add in the likes of Kronwall, Lebda, Lilja and Chelios on defense with Chris Osgood (20-3) and Dominick Hasek (17-7) between the pipes and it all starts to make sense. Hockeytown is alive and well, primed for the real fun to begin — the Stanley Cup playoffs!


5.) Maria Sharapova – Anna Kournikova made a career out of her good looks; Maria Sharapova is accumulating major championships to go along with hers. The Russian bombshell added the Australian Open to her growing list of on-court accomplishments. She easily cruised past three of the top four seeds, including Justine Henin-Hardenne who was in the midst of a 32-match unbeaten streak. With her third major in tow (’04 Wimbledon, ’06 US Open, ’08 Australian Open), a 21-year-old Sharapova will head to the French Open, looking to finish off her career grand slam and reaffirm to the tennis world that we have officially entered the World of Sharapova.

6.) Memphis Tigers – John Calipari’s Memphis Tigers entered the week as the #1 team in the country for the first time this season. One staple of a Coach Cal team is a willingness to play anybody, anywhere. This has never been more evident than this season’s schedule to date. The Tiger’s are 19-0 compiling numerous non-conference victories. The hit list includes Oklahoma, Uconn, USC, Cincinnati, Georgetown, Arizona and Gonzaga. They now enter the Conference USA portion of their schedule and have designs on being the first team to enter March Madness undefeated since the 1991 Running Rebels.

7.) Tiger Woods - In his first appearance on the PGA TOUR this season, Tiger Woods murdered the field at the Buick Invitational. He shot 65, 67, 66 and 71 to go 19 under par on the weekend, winning by eight shots. His $938,000 take-home prize is more money than most golfers on tour will gross over the entire season. With his game already in top form and Augusta still two and a half months away, the only question that remains to be seen is not if Tiger Woods will win another major this year, but just how many?


8.) New Orleans Hornets – Hello, America, we are the New Orleans Hornets. You might remember us as the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets, or maybe you know us as the Charlotte Hornets, where we called home until the end of the 2001-02 season. Now that we finally found a permanent resting place, things have settled in quite nicely. We lead the Western Conference with a 31-12 record. We have bona fide league MVP candidate in Chris Paul. We are 8-1 in 2008; 9-1 in our last 10 and have won our last six games by 14 or more points. Oh yeah, that includes the throbbing we gave the World Champion Spurs on Saturday night (102-78) at the Alamo Dome. Once again, allow us to introduce ourselves, we are the New Orleans Hornets, and you can find us at the top of the Western Conference standings!

9.) Boston Celtics - The Celtics were the talk of the league during the first third of the NBA season as they started their campaign 29-3. In fact, they were winning games in such a dominating fashion that Boston fans were having flashbacks of Bird, McHale and Parrish. Now let’s not hit the panic button or anything, but Garnett, Allen, Pierce and company have gone 5-5 in their last 10. Still, they have the best record in the NBA, and help might be on the way in the form of the 13-year veteran point guard Damon Stoudamire — stay tuned!

10.) Uconn Huskies Women’s Basketball – If it’s not Pat Summitt’s Tennessee Volunteers, it’s Geno Auriemma’s Uconn Huskies atop the women’s college basketball rankings these days, as is the case this season. The women Huskies are a perfect 19-0 with a tremendous comeback win over #3 ranked UNC this week. Down by 11 at the half, Uconn saved their best basketball of the season for the second half, outscoring the Tar Heels 49-27 to rally for the win. With five more ranked opponents remaining on their schedule, Uconn is sure to be tested down the stretch. Then there are the aforementioned Tennessee Volunteers, who are ranked #2 in the country and will most likely be the biggest March roadblock between Uconn and a sixth national championship.

By Nick Giarrusso

Super Bowl XLII Preview

New York Giants vs. New England Patriots
Super Bowl XLII
Glendale, AZ

The pursuit of perfection continues on Sunday night for the 2007 New England Patriots. After compiling an undefeated 16-0 regular season in which they disposed of all comers, followed by two successful playoff victories, the Pats must now gear up for the grand daddy of them all — Super Bowl XLII. If successful, they will achieve the season’s main goal and hoist the Lombardi Trophy for the fourth time this decade. With the weight of history firmly on their shoulders, the New York Giants will be waiting for them in Arizona and will be coming to The University of Phoenix Stadium with upset on the mind.

Teams have been able to travel down the path towards beating the 2007 Patriots, but none of them have been able to finish the job. In week six, the undefeated Dallas Cowboys were leading in the third quarter before being outscored 27-3 in the game’s final 20 minutes. The 7-0 Super Bowl Champion Colts followed; they were up by ten points in the fourth quarter at the RCA Dome and still came up on the short end of a 24-20 final. Both the Eagles and Ravens in back to back weeks gave the Patriots all they could handle, but despite their efforts both lost by a field goal. The season concluded with another scare — this time on a cold December evening in front of a raucous Giant Stadium crowd. Trailing the Giants 28-16 deep in the second half, New England’s offense finally came alive as they pulled out a 38-35 nail biter.

In the playoffs, both Jacksonville and San Diego managed to hang around for the first half. New England was tied with the Jaguars at 14, and then a week later led by the narrowest 14-12 margin against a game Chargers team. Despite not being at their desired best, both second half performances allowed them to escape the early rounds unscathed. Perfection has been the name of the game this season for New England, even in the face of some serious opposition.

So what’s the point?

Well, maybe this shows us that the Patriots are more vulnerable then most people think. If New York can somehow play near perfect football while taking advantage of these few areas of vulnerability they might be in a position to survive Sunday night. If not, close your eyes because as New England has shown us many times this season, things can get ugly quick.

The Patriots have scored at least 20 points in every game they’ve played, and over 30 points 12 times, en route to breaking the NFL single-season scoring record. Right off the bat, one would assume that the Giants would need to score in the high 20’s, low 30’s, at a minimum to have a chance of winning. Getting to this total is a very reasonable expectation for New York, as six different teams have scored 24 or more points against New England’s defense this year. As for the Giants, they’re offense has been explosive in their own right at times, scoring over 30 points on six different occasions. And let’s not forget they haven’t lost away from Giant Stadium since September 9, that’s ten in a row on the road, with their last loss virtually occurring in the pre-season.

The harder part of this equation is stopping Tom Brady and the most potent offense in league history. Just like most great teams, New England has one of the NFL’s most impressive offensive lines. Tom Brady had an ungodly year, throwing for 4,800 yards and an NFL single-season-best 50 touchdowns. Randy Moss has broken multiple records, including Jerry Rice’s single-season touchdown record with 23. Lost in this ‘Brady to Moss’ aerial barrage was Wes Welker. Since coming over from Miami he’s hauled in 112 regular-season balls, while becoming the NFL’s top slot receiver. Donte Stallworth can stretch you deep; Ben Watson has always been a Brady favorite; and the backfield averages 4.4 yards per carry. By the way, they don’t throw interceptions or fumble or commit costly penalties. Though they have been controlled for stretches of games, they have never been defused for a full 60 minutes. It’s now New York’s task to try and control the uncontrollable and limit the Patriot’s offense to simply having a good showing, instead of a great one.

Will February 3 be the day when the 2007 New York Giants become remembered forever? A day when the names Manning, Strahan, Toomer and Burress become as synonymous as Gifford, Huff, Taylor and Simms? Or will it be the day when the 2007 New England Patriots finally complete their unblemished voyage, and claim the unquestioned label of the best team of all-time? They have managed to avoid all of the potential bombs in their way up to this point. Will one finally detonate this Sunday in Arizona?

By Nick Giarrusso