Sleepwalking in Seattle

Jet lag is a terrible thing. It confuses the mind and screws up the body. You get tired when you shouldn’t and find yourself awake at odd hours of the night. There’s no real way to combat it, you just have to let your body adjust and tough it out.

Hopefully, that’s what the Raptors can do on this road trip.

They opened this four-game swing to the west coast with a close win over the LA Clippers. Then came two straight losses to Portland and Seattle, the two teams with lottery picks last year.

In each of those two games the Raptors were leading fairly late in the game, and although they kept it close, they tired down the stretch and lost.

Take the Seattle game, for instance. The Raps for most of the game, until halfway thorugh the third quarter took the lead on a 6 point run. By the end of the third, they had scored 36 points and led by nine.

Once again, the Raptors made a run, scoring 15 and holding the Sonics to just two points. And a late three by Carlos Delfino would have made it a two-point game with 31 seconds left.

But he had stepped out of bounds, and the shot was reversed.

It was typical of this Raptors road trip, which has seen two leads trickle away late in the game, and another they barely held onto. And while it’d be easy to blame this on such maladies as jet lag, it’s perhaps a sign of a Raptors problem: depth.

The Raptors are missing two key players from last season’s division championship: Jorge Garbojosa, who is out for the season, and TJ Ford, whose career is rumoured to be over. And now that players such as Andrea Barngani and Chris Bosh aren’t playing well, there’s nobody on the bench who can step in and replace them.

This means that players like Kris Humphries, Delfino and Kopono are coming off the bench for major minutes and Joey Graham and Juan Dixon are suiting up.

However, give the Raps some credit. In his replacement of Ford, Jose Calderon has been great, perhaps even better then Ford. Jamario Moon has come out of seemingly nowhere to become a core part of the Raptors, showing skill at both ends of the court.

But that might not be enough to make the playoffs this year. Teams like Boston and Orlando are much, much better then last season. In the absence of Gilbert Arenas, the Wizards are staying a .500 team and can sneak up on somebody when he comes back. Both Detroit and Cleveland are obviously playing well.

While they are not likely to beat Boston, Toronto needs to start beating teams like Seattle, Washington and Milwaukee if they want to see the postseason again.

Of course, beating New Orleans, San Antonio or Houston would be nice, too.

Call it a late Christmas present.

Or an early taste of late April.

Mark's BCS Bowl Selections

It’ll be announced later today, but this is what the BCS should look like.

By staying idle, and getting a few lucky breaks, Ohio State was able to reclaim the number one ranking in the country. Likewise, LSU was able to launch themselves to the number two spot thanks to a big win and some luck. They should now meet in the BCS title game.

This means that both the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl will get an extra at-large bid. Let’s look at the Rose Bowl first, since Ohio State was ranked number one.

The Rose Bowl is supposed to take the winners of the Pac-10 and the Big 10 divisions. The winner of the Pac-10 was USC, so they get in – and since Ohio can’t, the Rose Bowl gets to choose from an at-large team. For my at-large selections, I went by the AP Top 25, which is what I expect the BCS Rankings to look like.

I suspect they’ll choose Oklahoma, the number 3 ranked team in the country.

The Sugar Bowl is supposed to get the winner of the SEC, but LSU is likely going to the BCS game. Therefore, they get to choose an at-large team – but after the Rose Bowl choose theirs. I think they’ll take the number four team in the country, Georgia. They get to choose another at-large team but go last, since the game is so far from the BCS game. They’ll take Hawaii, who should be left by then.

Let’s go to the Orange Bowl. They get the winner of the ACC and an at-large team. This means that they get Virginia Tech, who won on Saturday, and get the first choice of an at-large, since they’re so close to the BCS. I think they’ll take Missouri.

Finally, the last major bowl game: the Fiesta Bowl. They get the winner of the Big 12 conference and an at-large team. Kansas won the Big 12, so they’re in and I suspect that for an at-large team they’ll choose Florida, the number nine-ranked team in the country.

Just to recap, here are my bowl selections:

Rose Bowl: Oklahoma vs USC
Sugar Bowl: Georgia vs Hawaii
Fiesta Bowl: Kansas vs Florida
Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech vs Missouri
BCS Title Game: Ohio State vs LSU