MURPHY’S LAW: Game 5, Freshman Phenoms, Zach Explodes

By Chris Hassel

Game 5 of the NBA Finals tonight. I think it ends tonight. I hope it doesn’t. No team has ever come back from a 3-games-to-1 deficit in the NBA Finals. It would be interesting to see it go back to OKC with the Thunder trailing 3-2. The pressure on LeBron would be out of this world.

We could see this, tonight.

It’s hard to know what to make of college basketball summer leagues, but Iowa and ISU’s incoming freshman look pretty darn good. Iowa State’s Georges Niang scored 35 points against Craig Brackins in the YMCA Capital City League. Meanwhile, Iowa’s Mike Gesell scored 27 points in his Primetime League debut in North Liberty. Adam Woodbury only scored 2 points. I think it’s going to take him a while to get acclimated, but when he does, he should be a great player. North Carolina doesn’t offer up full rides to everyone (although it kind of seems that way living in Iowa).

Lolo Jones runs in the first of what she hopes is 3 qualifying heats for the US Olympic Team, Friday. It’s possible that her Olympic dream ends tomorrow. Lolo needs to finish all three races, and place in the top 3 in the final. That won’t be easy for someone carrying as much pressure as she is. It will be interesting to hear what she has to say to Keith Murphy whether she makes it or not — if she actually talks.

I’m glad we’re heading for a 4-team playoff in college football. Sure I would like to see an 8-team, or even a 16-team playoff, but 4 is better than 2. It would be neat to see the semifinal round games played on college campuses, but I think that’s highly unlikely. It’s not a done deal yet, but it will be soon.

It was an awful day for Zach Johnson. ZJ was 3-under in the opening round of the Travelers Championship, until he blew up on the final three holes. Zach played the last three holes at 5-over, with a double and a triple. Ouchy. I guess he can take solace in the fact that he’s already made $3,072,341, this season. He can keep the $3m, I’ll take the 72K.

I guess I’m not at naive as Keith and Andy think I am. I challenged Chris Williams to a game of “How Naive is Chris” on Murph n Andy, and I smoked him. No, I couldn’t name all four members of The Beatles, but I sure as heck knew a lot more than my co-host.