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Lehigh/American... and Super Bowl Sunday

Though I haven't a copy of this literary masterpiece, somehow I doubt that the press gaggle bothered to check this out before interviewing former Saints QB Archie Manning and his son (who happens to be the QB for the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl this weekend). Supposedly written by Archie himself (though the credits include "with John Underwood", legendary ghost-writer for athletes such as Ted Williams), Archie pontificates about how messy Peyton was as a kid, raising kids who are now in the "family business" as NFL QBs, and his personal history.

This book has a lot more facts than the "puff pieces" being written about the lead-up to the Super Bowl, which is becoming even more comical than ever this year. You know there's a problem when few people are talking about the Super Bowl around here, or about Peyton Manning, or about Tank Johnson, or anything. Without a doubt the best Super Bowl pieces are coming from the ESPN Sports Guy, my favorite Holy Cross alumnus who is covering pretty much everything about Miami except for the game.

Yeah, I'm a bitter Saints fan that can't get out of his head how this game on Sunday will likely go down. Of course the buzz around an Indy/New Orleans Super Bowl would have been a hundred times more entertaining for America (and about a thousand times more entertaining for me), but that wasn't meant to be. (Besides, as a result you probably missed about 27 blog postings about "Marques Colston: Fantasy Football Savior, and Great American".)

To me, the Super Bowl will probably go to the Bears. Yes, I know, I could do a better job at QB than Rex Grossman, and five years from now we'll all be hard-pressed to name a single member of this Bear squad. But they way the Bears beat the Seahawks and Saints was just too fishy. Somebody in the NFL officiating crew loves the Bears (or is well-paid by a bunch of hoodlums in Vegas - I'm still waiting for the new congress to start that inquiry on the Bears' march through the playoffs). I just have a feeling, with everyone and their mother picking against the 16-2 Bears, that somehow Chicago is going to mug their way to a Super Bowl ring - and that there will be a lot of rich bookies in Vegas come Monday. When the Bears win this Super Bowl 34-17, don't come crying to me.

Closer to home, with the Lehigh wresting team off this week, Lehigh's men's and women's basketball teams play a big doubleheader in Maryland this weekend as both squads face off against American. The men (9-14, 4-3) can get a great jump on the second half of the season with another desperately-needed road win against the Eagles (11-11, 3-5) at 7:30 Saturday night. With the Eagles losing at home to Holy Cross on Wednesday, a Mountain Hawk squad with a full week's rest could be in a good position to get to 5-3 in the conference and have an outside chance at getting to the #2 spot for the tournament. Barring that, they could get to a solid #3 with a win.

Last week, as expected, Lehigh fell to Holy Cross 64-53 in Worcester. With senior C Jason Mgebroff still out with a leg injury, Lehihg closed the gap to 54-51 before the Crusaders pulled away at the end. Familiarly, Lehigh was victimized by turnovers as Holy Cross had 16 steals on the day. That's the difference between Lehigh and the elite teams in our league - they play more sound basketball.

As for the ladies, their loss to Holy Cross put us at 7-14, 2-5 on the year. After putting up 41 first half-points, the Lady Hawks allowed 41 to the Crusaders in a 75-61 defeat. It's underneath where the Crusaders killed us, where Crusader C Kaytlin Foley scored a whopping 24 points in 30 minutes.

Although we're at #7, all is not lost yet if the Lady Hawks can get a run together and get back in the pack. A win over American (9-13, 4-3) would put them right back in the thick of things, where two games separate the #3 and #7 teams. At Stabler, American squeaked by us 55-52 as G Liz Hayes got 15 points, including a key 3-pointer late. Like the men, key will be better protection of the ball and perimeter defense.

All these games will be available on AM 1230 and 1320 in the Lehigh Valley, and will be available on Lehighsports.com over the internet via Patriot League All-Access.
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