Derrick Rose was whistled for a charge on this play.

So I went to last night’s game with my 80+ year old grandmother.  I figured I’d recap the game through her eyes.

• Oh, I don’t follow these guys like I used to. I don’t know half of them.

To be fair, there has been some significant roster turnover since the beginning of the season. What was more interesting in last night’s win was VDN’s willingness to play with his lineups. The Rockets are an unorthodox team starting a 6′6″ center and a generously listed 6′0″ point guard but seem to make it work. James Johnson started and seemed to be more comfortable focusing on his defense and just running the floor, rather than trying to stand out on the second squad.  And on several occasions, Vinny countered the Rocket’s small lineup of only Luis Scola in the middle with a big lineup with Brad Miller and Joakim Noah on the floor. This led to interesting results as Trevor Ariza blew past Noah on one end, but then Miller responded by driving on Ariza and drawing a foul.  Apparently, no one told Brad of the mismatch.

• Come on guys, play some defense!

She shouted this early and often as the Bulls gave up a number of open looks in the first half. Luis Scola exhibited some crazy Hakeem the Dream up and under moves and Ariza and Kevin Martin had a number of uncontested jump shots.

I’m not sure if the Bulls were completely responsible for the Rockets’ shooting woes in the second half (Chase Budinger did nearly airball two straight wide-open three-point attempts) but they did obviously frustrate the Rockets, particularly denying Kevin Martin and Aaron Brooks the ball in the open floor. Before Brooks nailed a few shots late in the fourth quarter, he was staring at a box score with 1 point from the FT-line despite playing 35 minutes.

A lot of people writing today are crediting Derrick Rose for his improved defense, but I also think some credit has to go to Jannero Pargo and Flip Murray for recognizing that their minutes could disappear to Acie Law at any time and to stay on the floor they have to bring some defensive intensity. They truly seemed to be laboring out there on getting up in Brooks and Lowry’s faces and funneling them into Noah and Gibson (6 blocks combined).

• Three Blind Mice, Three Blind Mice!

The refs were just plain terrible and the Rockets exacerbated the problem. Luis Scola must have taught them a class in Argentinian flopping over the All-Star Break because they perfected standing right at the edge of the circle under the basket and then pretending they had been shot by a cannon ball when a Bulls player drove the lane. The Bulls were whistled for 7 offensive fouls throughout the game.

Aaron Brooks, taking a page from Reggie Miller’s playbook, routinely attempted to draw fouls on every three-pointer he attempted. It worked once, and the rest of the time he just looked ridiculous flailing backwards sliding on his backside after bricking another attempt.

Woah, woah Vinny. Listen, I can't hear you from all the way over here but I'm going to T' you up for being Italian. Two Times!

At one point, the Bulls were up 13 and looked like they could put away the Rockets but a series of one-sided calls seemed to kill any momentum the Bulls had leading to a 9-0 run by the Rockets bridging the 3rd and 4th quarters. This was what led to Vinny getting thrown out of the game. Which was ridiculous in itself because the ref who gave him both technicals remained 50 feet away on the far end of the court. I did appreciate Vinny’s anger because it prevented Brad Miller or Kirk Hinrich from getting involved and risking another costly suspension.

• I can’t stand it. Derrick Rose gets the ball and everybody just goes to their spots and stands around.

She said this towards the end of the 4th quarter when the Bulls players obviously looked for Derrick Rose to finish the game. While the first place I would look is to blame Vinny, he had already been kicked out of the game by this point. So this falls squarely on Bernie Bickerstaff, just kidding. The Bulls players need to be able to run some semblance of an offense late in games. My grandma was right to say that the Bulls just parked three players in the corners around the three point line, and just relied on the pick and roll with Brad Miller in on offensive possessions. The problem with this strategy is that the Rockets just hedged into the lane, preventing any real penetration and forcing the Bulls’ jump shooters to beat them. Last night, it worked to mild success, but on an off night the Bulls will need to do better.

Now it’s on to St. Louis for a three game series against the Cardinals.  Pujols and company are just a half game behind the Cubs for second in the division with Chris Carpenter coming back.  The Cards’ ace will pitch the middle game of the series against Ryan Dempster.

The Cubs and Cards should set up to be a great match-up being so close in the division.  The teams have exactly the same amount of runs scored and runs allowed, so I’m predicting three ties.

Really though, the Cubs are lucky to be where they are considering some of the rough times they’ve gone through thus far.  With Soto, Lee, and Bradley struggling at the dish and all missing time with injuries, the run production should have plummeted.  With Ramirez spending time on the DL it should have gotten worse.  Worse is a word that would not describe a lot of bullpens in their relation to the Cubs pen.

Injuries and slumps are more common in baseball than rotund relievers or scrawny hitters with no power for the Giants, but the Cubs have had more than their share to start the year.  Still, winning seven of ten has gotten them back to six games over .500 in a short time and with Zambrano likely to return this week a series win against the Cards would be huge.

Todd Helton 1B Rockies - After spending almost half of last season on the DL, this lifetime .329 hitter is once again healthy and has been quite productive so far in 2009. In 89 AB, Helton’s stat line look like such – 13 R, 3 HR, 17 RBI, and a .360 BA, not bad at all for someone that most likely went undrafted in the majority of leagues. At the age of 35, Helton is a pretty decent injury risk, but when he’s in the lineup and playing half his games at Coors field, he should definitely be given some fantasy consideration. Helton sometimes gets overlooked as the power he displayed earlier in his career seems to be gone, but people don’t seem to realize how valuable his insanely high average can be. If the five time All Star is still available in your leagues, go out and snatch him up.

Juan Pierre OF Dodgers -With the news that Manny Ramirez will be suspended for 50 games, no one’s value increases more then that of veteran Juan Pierre, as he is expected to take over the vacated OF position. It has yet to be determined where Joe Torre will bat Pierre in the lineup, but that really shouldn’t be of any concern, as you are going to use him for one thing and one thing only – stolen bases. With his new everyday role, we can only assume that we will see plenty of “Juan being Juan”, and if you are in need of some speed, he makes for a great waiver pickup . He obviously brings absolutely no power to the table, but could easily steal 20 bases while Manny is out.

Justin Upton OF Diamondbacks -This one is an exception, as Upton is owned in 60% of Yahoo! leagues, but I still felt the need to mention him as that number is still way too low. After getting off to a very slow start, B.J.’s younger brother has been absolutely killing the ball, crushing six homers and driving in 14 runs in his past 12 games, all while raising his batting average from .190 to .285. He hit third in the lineup for the first time Wednesday night, and while he might not stay there all season, it just goes to show how much confidence Arizona manger Bob Melvin has in the future stud. Upton had a crazy hot streak at the beginning of last season as well but cooled off immensely and was eventually sent back down to the minors. With a year of experience under his belt though, Upton should be able to stay productive throughout the season, and should definitely be owned in all leagues.

Tommy Hanson SP Braves - The best pitching prospect in all of baseball is owned in a mere 14% of Yahoo! leagues, a number that is sure to rise with the anticipation that Hanson’s call up could be drawing near. The future ace has been lights out in the minors, and he’s just too good to be kept down there much longer – he currently holds a 1.65 ERA in six AAA starts to go along with 48 strikeouts in just over 32 innings. The fact that he has yet to be called up has nothing to do with Hanson’s stuff, but instead finding room for him in the Braves’ rotation, as all of Atlanta’s starters have been more or less decent. If you have some room on your team, The Bad Guy suggests grabbing Hanson asap – you’ll regret it if you don’t.

Nothing like a little sacrilege to sell some video games.  Still, pretty sweet.  Tiger is -2 and five shots off the lead going into today.

Tiger tees of at 1:52 ET today in the second to last group.  You’ll probably be able to catch some of the action on the Golf Channel if you’re so inclined, until ESPN picks up at 4 ET.

The San Francisco Giants have kicked off quite the ad campaign.  Haha, balls. [Deadspin]

The White Sox only managed three hits last night as they got shut out by the Royals.  Zack Greinke looked real good with seven Ks; I even thought I saw him smile.  [ESPN]

The bats showed up for the Cubs last night as they blasted 16 hits.  Kosuke even had four hits, which I think is more than his second half total from last year.  They won 11-6.  [MLB.com]

The Braves were up 10-3 on the Phillies in the 7th last night.  Then the Phils had an eight-run inning, four of which were walked in, to go on to win 12-11.  [ESPN]

An Angels fan died after getting into a fight at the ballpark on opening day.  I know we’ve all seen our share of fights at the park, just be careful out there and remember a well placed insult is always preferred to physical violence.  [FanHouse]

Here’s a yes vote for the Bears to get Plaxico.  Insert joke about shooting Bears in the thigh here.  [Zoner]

As Jim Nantz told you many times in the last few weeks, the Masters starts today.  It’s actually on ESPN today, starting at 3PM I believe.  Here are five players to watch.  [Devil Ball Golf]

1. Grady Sizemore OF Indians - If you look up stud in the dictionary, you should find a picture of the 26 year-old all star. Grady is the definition of a five tool player, he simply does it all. His low average (.268 in 2008) holds him back from being absolutely unreal, and is the only reason why he is considered a second tier first round pick. If he can somehow manage to get his average back up to around  .290 like he did back in 2006, then there would be no other player in baseball that I would rather have on my team then #24. ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian is quoted as saying that he believes Sizemore could hit 45 HR and steal 45 bases in 2009. Even though those projections have been made by someone at ESPN (ESPN has some of the worst projections/draft kit material that I have ever seen) and are most likely not going to hit, they still show how much ridiculous potential Mr. Sizemore possesses.

2. Ryan Braun OF Brewers – Like Grady, Braun could be absolutely ridiculous in 2009. It would not be surprising at all to see the Milwaukee OF put up a stat line that looked something like 100 R, 40 HR, 100 RBI, 15 SB, and a .300+ average. With the OF position being somewhat shallow this season, Braun makes for a great pick anywhere from 6-9 in the first round -  anything after that should be considered a steal. There are only a handful of guys that have the potential to hit 40 HRs and steal 15+ or so bases, which is one of the reasons that Braun is so valuable and gets drafted so high. If you have the chance to grab the 25 year old phenom, don’t let him get away.

3. Alfonso Soriano OF Cubs - This one time member of the 40-40 club has come out and said that he hopes to steal 30 bases this season IF he can stay healthy. Soriano has missed 80 games combined over the past two seasons, almost half of which have stemmed from leg/calf muscle issues which have ultimately limited his ability to steal bases (He did miss 34 games with a broken hand in 2008 after getting hit by a pitch). Soriano seems to be 100% healthy entering spring training this year, meaning that a huge season might be around the corner IF (there’s that word again) he can manage to avoid injury. At 33 though, age is definitely not on Soriano’s side, but if you can get 140 games or so out of the seven time all star, he should still be able to put up real solid numbers across the board.

4. Matt Kemp OF Dodgers - Kemp is someone that I have had my eye on ever since he  was called up from AAA in 2006. After putting up a line of 93 R, 18 HR, 76 RBI, 35 SB, and a .290 average in2008, everyone seems to have their eye on him now. His average draft position is just about 40 on Mockdraftcentral.com and about 46 on Yahoo!, meaning he is getting drafted in the beginning to middle of the fourth round in 12 team leagues, which seems a little late considering how good he could be in 2009. The potential for a 30/30 season is definitely there, although realistically he still might be a couple years away from reaching 30 HR. Kemp has yet to solidify himself in any one slot in the Dodgers lineup as he had more then 130 AB hitting first, second, and sixth, but no matter where he is hitting, he should still be a reliable source in all five  standard categories.

5. Carl Crawford OF Rays – People seem to have totally written off the former first round fantasy lock, as his ADP on Yahoo! is almost 34 – more or less the end of the third round in 12 team leagues. He could turn out to be the steal of your draft with an ADP like that, as there is no reason to think that he won’t reach the 50 SB plateau that he attained in both 2006 and 2007. Experts used to project Craw to hit for power year after year, and it seemed like they were finally right when he hit 18 HR in 2006, but he went on to only hit 18 HR combined over the next two seasons (252 games). At the age of 27 though, The Tampa Bay OF is finally in his prime power years, and if he can somehow manage to get to that 15-18 level again, he could again be one of the top fantasy studs in 2009.

6. Jay Bruce OF Reds – Bruuuuuuuce is the talk of the fantasy town, as he has just about as much potential as any of the other guys listed above him. Cinci’s top prospect was called up in late May of 2008 and simply started killing the ball – he was hitting .382 with 15 R, 4 HR, 12 RBI, and 2 SB through his first 18 games – just ridiculous numbers. Soon after though, pitchers started catching on to him, and he struggled through the rest of his rookie campaign. Besides crushing 15 homers over the last two months of the season, Bruce didn’t do very much at all, and most likely could have been found on waivers towards the end of the year. Expectations for Bruce vary in 2009, as some seem to think that the 21 year old is ready to be an All Star, while others are concerned that at such a young age, he won’t be able to make enough of an adjustment to major league pitching – The Bad Guy says he  winds up somewhere in the middle.

7. Jason Bay OF Red Sox - If you take Jason Bay’s numbers from the time he was traded to Boston and span them out over 162 games, you’re looking at MVP type stats – he would have put up a line of 128 R, 30 HR, 122 RBI, and 10 SB, all while hitting .290+. With a full season ahead of him playing at Fenway in that potent Red Sox lineup, it would not be surprising to see him put produce those kind of numbers again. If you can steal him somewhere around his Yahoo! ADP of 35, you could be looking at the bargain of your draft.

*Can’t miss

Saturday

11:00 AM [NCAAB] (22) Butler at Davidson- ESPN

1:00 PM [NCAAB] (11) Marquette at Georgetown- ESPN

1:00 PM [NHL] Chicago at Dallas- WGN

*8:00 PM [NCAAB] (2) Oklahoma at Texas- ESPN

Sunday

11:00 AM [NBA] Chicago at Indiana- CSN

11:30 AM [NHL] Pittsburgh at Washington- NBC

*12:00 PM [NCAAB] (16) Illinois at Ohio State- CBS

2:00 PM [NCAAB] Wisconsin at (5) Michigan State- ESPN

4:00 PM [NCAAB] Michigan at Iowa- BTN

6:00 PM [NHL] Minnesota at Chicago- WGN

6:00 PM [NCAAB] Northwestern at Minnesota- BTN

7:00 PM [NBA] Detroit at Cleveland- ESPN

If they didn’t it was damn close.  Illinois had an awful night shooting the basketball, making just 15 of its 50 shots.  In a contest between Illinois shooting regular shots and me shooting free throws with my left foot, it would not be a blowout.

The first half saw Illinois score 15 points, but it couldn’t get worse than that in the second half, right?  It didn’t get worse, but things didn’t get much better as the Illini followed up with 18 points for a total of 33 points.  I bet that girls basketball team that lost 100-0 has scored 33 points in a game this season!

Sometimes when your shots aren’t falling, it’s nice to take a trip to the free throw line to find your rhythm, but the Illini went to the charity stripe a total of zero times.  Zero!  None of those 35 misses involved some contact on the shot?  Damn.

At least that means free throws were the only shots Illinois couldn’t manage to miss.  Layups, jumpers, threes, layups….they missed them all.  Of course when you lose like this, the stats abound such as the lowest scoring game since Monmouth beat Princeton 41-21 in 2005; you remember that Monmouth defense!  It was the first time in the 46 year history of Assembly Hall that one team failed to shoot a free throw.

When Illinois and Penn State met in football this year, the two teams combined for just seven points less than the basketball teams.  Zook’s team managed to put up more than 33 points four times.

Anyway, that’s it for the bad stats.  Illinois actually held a seven point lead with just over six minutes to go, but the Nittany Lions ended the game on a 14-2 run to steal the game.  The loss comes at a terrible time for Illinois with Michigan State losing Tuesday night.  A regular season Big Ten Championship seems unlikely now, but the Illini have to get it together to secure the best seeds possible for both the Big Ten Tournament and the Big Dance.  A win at Ohio State on Sunday would be a nice step in the right direction.

The Bulls couldn’t lure Amare or Bosh to Chicago, but they made the move for Brad Miller and gave up much less than we were hearing in the process.  Here’s a little taste of how the blog world is reacting…

Tom Ziller at Fanhouse (Kings Fan): The Nocioni acquisition is odd at best for Sacramento; Andres is 29 years old, getting worse every year, and signed above the midlevel until 2012. He might fit better in Sacramento than Salmons did, but Salmons is cheaper and less likely to eat children. We like our children in Sacramento, and we like our children to have heads.

The Bulls should certainly make the playoffs now. Salmons could very well start in front of Ben Gordon (and make him expendable this summer). I imagine Vinny Del Negro will start Miller; it’s plausible that Tyrus Thomas or Joakim Noah could be involved in some trade talks, as well. (Who knows?)

The Big Lead: The Bulls send Andres Nocioni, Drew Gooden and Cedric Simmons to the Kings in exchange for Brad Miller and John Salmons. Knee-jerk: Uh … the Kings get the better talent here, and the Bulls get another big man without a back-to-the-basket game, a SF who is expected to steal minutes from … Luol Deng?

Ball Don’t Lie: Beyond that, it’s hard to see what the Kings actually are expecting from Nocioni. He’s a crowd favorite because he works his tail off and provides obvious hustle, but he’s a low efficiency performer on offense, and a poor defender at both forward spots despite his energy and effort.

In the meantime, Miller gives the team a solid offensive option at center, and Salmons gives the Bulls that size in the backcourt that will make the talk radio types happy, even if John doesn’t have anything close to Ben Gordon’s abilities.

Thank You Isiah: Miller is both a nice complimentary piece to Ty and Noah, and an expiring deal in the much-anticipated “Summer of ‘10″ (TM). Salmons is having a career year this season, and will likely never play this well again, but as a backup to Deng and possible 1-year Gordon insurance, he’s fine. What’s more, he’s owed considerably less than Noce, which is fantastic. Plus, I’m obviously pleased that I don’t have to watch Gooden and Noce any more.

StevieY19: Man the Pistons really suck this year!

NQTC is now a WordPress blog, which is awesome!  Right?  We think so anyway and are very excited about the change.  Again, nothing will change with the content, just the dramatic change in the way the site looks.  It’s a little more organized now as Nels from GMTR took charge of the HTML.  Stormin’ Norman and I don’t even know what that stands for.  Are they Roman numerals?

Just because we’re best buds with a fantasy basketball blog, doesn’t mean I’ll stop complaining about the NBA, which Stormin’ Norman will continue to keep you posted on.  With baseball season around the corner we’ll absolutely be pouring on the Cubs and Sox coverage, probably pissing off even more Sox fans this year than last.  Nothing personal. Expect more great stuff from The Bad Guy on the fantasy baseball front, as I’m hoping he’ll pull my team out of the cellar this year.

March Madness is right around the corner and I’ll obviously be covering the Illini and their fantastic season, then comes the draft and Stormin’ Norman will have all your Bears info while I complain about how terrible the Lions are at everything.

So there is a little news on the change and an idea of what’s coming up.  We want to thank everyone for all the support, the time you take to read, and the comments on the posts (especially the mean ones).  I know I said this last week, but this has been amazingly fun so far and we don’t see that changing anytime soon.  Things may be a little glitchy as we adjust to the new system, but we’ll try our best.

We would also like to invite Barack Obama to come and see our new site!