Manny almost done?, Coast Guard Search Ends, etc....

Straight in....

• First of all....I wanna express that thoughts and prayers are with the families of the 3 current and former football players who have been lost at sea with the Coast Guard suspending its full search efforts....The story will fade away from the national consciousness, but not from their families hearts...

To sports...

• Manny set to sign a 2 year, 45 million dollar deal....at least we think he is....We've been here before but it's being reported as "agreed to terms" so that's what I'll go on.....Huge for LA....they have to have him in camp
• 2 NBA Signings....Joe Smith to Cleveland and Drew Gooden to San Antonio....Gooden is the better player at this stage, but has a health issue that he's been battling.....Smith has been to the buyout table before, and should contribute right away (especially since he's already been in Cleveland), but Gooden is a bigger flier that could pay huge for SA
• On the same night....ranked teams Washington and Gonzaga played Seattle and USC-Upstate respectively....in the middle/end of their conference slate....how does that even happen?
• Duke takes care of Florida State at home to set up the all-encompassing regular season ending tilt with UNC for the regular season crown....as it should be....
• Nothing too absurd in the NBA last night....so that gives me an opportunity to shamelessly plug 2 of my favorite young players in Kevin Love (18 and 14) and Brook Lopez (24 and 12)...but while we're here in the Association...
• What has gotten into Detroit? I know the Iverson injury has sort of forced Michael Curry's hand on the rotation....but they're beating good teams suddenly....I'm not gonna blame AI because there are other issues in Detroit (Sheed's decline, Stuckey's over-ratedness, lack of offensive identity, etc.), but they are playing infinitely better when the rotation forces itself
• I could watch Kevin Martin shoot free throws all day and night....

What to watch for this evening:

• UNC @ Va Tech ESPN 7:00.....Way bigger for VT than it is for UNC at this point
• Marquette @ Pitt ESPN2 7:30....I have NO idea why this is the ESPN2 game and not the ESPN game....
• San Antonio @ Dallas ESPN 9:00
• Hawks @ Knicks SportSouth 7:30....This is the type of road game the Hawks shouldn't lose but they often do...