slynch's blog

Merced College (4-12) enters the start of Central Valley Conference play coming off of a two-week break. Coach Bill Russell's squad completed its nonconference season having lost 11 of its last 12 games. To be fair, the Blue Devils' record should probably be much closer to .500, but not many things have gone their way to this point.

Russell is still looking for chemistry on the court and the team's shooting percentages (41 percent from the floor, 30 percent from behind the arc and 63 percent from the free throw line) need to improve. MC also needs improved production from its bench. The Blue Devils' starters are accounting for right around 48 points per game, leaving the rest of the team contributing just about 18 points.

Much like Charlie Brown thinking this won't be the time Lucy pulls the football back at the last second, the sports desk just doesn't learn.

The college football bowl season provided yet another opportunity for competition amongst us would-be experts. And like all our other pools, we welcomed all comers into the fray.

Enter Kate Shipley.

The copy-desk queen -- as some of you may recall -- shocked the local sports community by winning the NCAA basketball pool. Shipley rode he alma mater Kansas straight to the title, ending Le Grand girls basketball coach Danny Crosby's two-year run.

With Mike Singletary in place as head coach and the team likely bringing in an offensive coordinator that won't get its quarterbacks hit 50 times a game, its time for the 49ers to decide what direction they wish to go at the QB position.

I still believe Alex Smith can be a quality quarterback in the NFL. Unfortunately, I also believe that ship has sailed and San Francisco should just let him go. There are too many hurt feelings there, and let's face it, the fan base has turned on him.

2008 was like the year of the quarterback in the colleg football. Case in point, the all QB party invited to the Heisman ceremony. There are a number of others that could have made the trip as well. So, there are bound to be a number of tempting gun slingers in the NFL draft. The problem with that is that most of the time a team goes to a rookie quarterback, it's like starting over. Sure, there are aberrations like Matt Ryan in Atlanta this year, but most play out like the Raiders and JaMarcus Russell.

Let's face it. High School basketball can be hit or miss.

Good teams tend to be rare. Sure, there are almost always a few outstanding players that keep teams competitive, but good teams -- top to bottom -- tend to be spotted less than Bigfoot.

This year might be the exception and I for one am excited.

The CCC seems like the logical place to start. Based off of early non-league results, the CCC boys look like a could be a wild season.

As of Tuesday afternoon, four of the seven teams had winning percentages of .750 or better. Pitman (8-1), Golden Valley (6-1), Turlock (5-1) and Buhach Colony (6-2) have all had outstanding starts to the season.

In one of my favorite Kevin Smith movies -- Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back -- Ben Affleck's character jokes that the internet was created so people can anonymously bash one another.

It's a funny line in a movie, not so much when it's done in reality. In recent weeks the comment boxes under our sports stories online have been plastered with a number of hurtful and likely inaccurate things about local players and teams.

This is not acceptable, which is why several posters and comments have been banned or deleted. Putting high school kids on blast on the internet with libelous claims -- whether true or not -- is as classless as a person can get. Those who have participated in such activities are the equivalent of cyber-bullies and you should hang your heads in shame.

Quarterbacks get entirely too much credit when a team is successful and too much blame when they aren't. More players suit up for football than any other major team sport, so it's a bit silly to put the onus entirely on one player.

That being said, a quarterback often has as much opportunity to be a difference maker as any player on the field. It has something to do with touching the ball on every offensive play.

This is particularly true in the playoffs.

Whether you're a team that controls the clock by pounding it out on the ground, or one that lets it fly on every single play, playoff games tend to come down to a few crucial plays.