Author: Wagon

Edmonton comes back to Raleigh tonight to face the Hurricanes in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Edmonton brings the series back to Raleigh after completely dominating the Canes in Game 6. Choking seems to be the rave of late in sports, see Phil and the Mavs, so hopefully the Canes can put an end to this. After the Canes performance in Game 6, I’m guessing the Cup goes back to Edmonton, but that’s just my opinion (I’m a State fan, we’re negative by nature).

If the Canes win, it’ll be the first professional sports championship for the state of NC, if they lose, everyone goes back to waiting for ACC Football and Basketball.

The US Open got underway yesterday and half way though todays play the biggest story has got to be that unless something crazy happens Tiger will miss his first cut at a major since turning pro. Tiger is coming off of a nine week layoff after his fathers death and his rust has shown. Phil was able to shoot and even par round yesterday and only trailed the leader by a shot as only one player was able to better par, Colin Montgomerie.

Edmonton was able to come to Raleigh and win game 5 on Wednesday night. The game went into overtime where Edmonton was able to score a short handed goal to send the series back to Edmonton. Game 6 is set for Saturday night.

The Heat have tied up the series with the Maverics at two games a piece after two great performances from Dwyane Wade and Shaq. Wade has finally realized that nobody on the Maverics team can stop him and he’s been taking complete advantage of the fact. The series remains in Miami with this stupid 2-3-2 format for game 5 and then will move back to Dallas for the remaining two possible games.

There have been some great games in the World Cup over the past week but the most important thing is that England has advanced to the second round with their 2-0 win over Trinidad & Tobago. The win wasn’t pretty but it got them through to the elimination round. Another spot of good news was the Rooney finally was able to play again for the first time since breaking his foot. With him on the pitch England is a different and much more effective team.

The Wufpack got their season started last night with a big come from behind win. They put together a run in the second half to get back into the game after being down eight points and with the help of the Grizzlies poor free throw shooting were able to get the game tied with 19 seconds left. Scott Frank got the ball up the floor and found Chris Hasse in the post where he was able to work one on one against his man and scored the winning basket with one second left on the clock. The Grizzlies missed a shot from half court and the Wufpack started the season 1-0.

MJ has become part owner of the Bobcats. I’m not sure what to make of this, I just hope he doesn’t lose the team in a card game.

The Hurricanes are now only one win away from winning the Stanley Cup! After taking one of two games in Edmonton the Canes are coming back to Raleigh with a shot to win the Cup on home ice. No NHL team has ever come back from a 3-1 deficit in a finals series to win and the leading team are 19-7 all time in game 5’s. Hopefully the Canes can follow suit and take care of business on Wednesday night.

The World Cup is under way now and both England and the USA played poorly. However, England was able to walk away with a very important 3 points with the help of an own goal to take a 1-0 victory, while the USA took a 3-0 beating by the Czech Republic. Both teams are going to have to play much better if they hope to move on past group play but the USA is definitely going to need some help. Cup favorite Brazil finally takes the pitch today against Croatia, which should be an easy victory for them. If you want to watch the worlds best you should definitely watch this match.

The Miami Heat look to be in some serious trouble in the NBA finals. They lost a close one in game 1 and then got absolutely destroyed in game 2. Shaq managed all of 5 points in game two and is now making a scorching 12% of his free throws. I said earlier in the playoffs that Shaq was done and then he came back with a 30 and 20 game to shut me up, for the Heat to do anything in the next couple of games he’s going to need a similar type of performance. While Shaq is fading, Dirk is becoming one of the top players in the league right now. You could easily make an argument that he’s one of the top 5 players in the league now, a big change from even the beginning of the playoffs. One more thing about the playoffs, does anyone else thing this 2-3-2 series format is completely stupid?

The US Open starts on Thursday from Wingedfoot Golf Club in NY. Tiger is making his return to playing after his fathers death and Phil is going for his third major in a row after winning the PGA last year and the Masters earlier this year. Will have more on this later in the week.

Glad to hear that Ben Roethlisberger is OK after his crash but seriously, WEAR A DAMN HELMET! Much easier to get up after a wreck when your face isn’t broken. Hope he’ll be OK for the start of the season.

The World Cup 2006 from Germany gets under way today when the host nation takes on Costa Rica in the opener from Berlin. The World Cup is the largest sporting event in the world and one billion people are expected to watch the opening match around the world. However, most of those viewers will be outside of the USA.

It’s a shame that more people in the USA don’t understand the magnitude of the World Cup because the US team could be considered one of the 5 favorites to win the Cup this year. They’re actually ranked in the top 5 in the world at the moment. Which is much higher than they are historically. They did get a tough group draw with the Czech Republic but they should be able to at least finish second in the group which is good enough to advance to the next round.

Since none of the other authors here give a damn about the World Cup, Section30 will be routing on England who’s also one of the favorites to win the Cup. It’s been 40 years since they won their first and only Cup so hopefully they can play up to their potential.

Standing in their way is perennial Cup favorites Brazil who’re in search of their record sixth Cup. Brazil is by far the favorite to win the Cup again but after the group matches it’s lose and you’re out so anything can happen.

Stay tuned for more.

Raleigh, NC – With the summer season getting ready to tip off in the next week the Wufpack have finally got their roster set. With the loss of Kirk Kruger for the season, due to his hiatus to finally try and pass the NC bar, there was an opening for GM Scott Frank to fill. After much deliberation Frank finally decided to sign free agent Chris Hasse. Frank said that “Chris was just the perfect fit for what we were looking to accomplish with this team.” Frank failed to mention that Chris was the only available option as he was the last remaining free agent in the pool.

With the addition of Chris there will have to be some position changes to make room for the addition. The most noticeable moves will be Shawn Willams to small forward, Scott Frank (player) to shooting guard, and Matt Edwards to point guard. Frank (GM) thinks that the moves might put a burden on the teams ball handling but he feels that Matt will be up to the challenge – “If Matt can handle the ball the way he has been making layups we have nothing to worry about.” Williams and Frank (player) will be able to help with the ball handling as long as they remember to pass the ball, look up, and not dribble into triple teams.

Rounding out the team this season are some familiar faces with some new looks. Geary Knapp is up in weight and has added a mullet in homage of the Carolina Hurricanes quest for the Stanley Cup. Ben Crawford is back but has his changed his nick name from Big Slow to Medium Fast after his wife stopped feeding him and he lost 50lbs. Shooting guard Shaun Taylor discovered that guards could go past the three point line in the offseason and hopes to add this to his game. Chris Langdale was unable to be reached by the time this article ran we can only assume he’ll be playing because he’s still on the roster.

All Wufpack games will be played at the JC Community Park off of Wade Avenue this summer. Please come and show your support.

Last night the Carolina Hurricanes advanced to their second Stanley Cup Finals since their move to Raleigh 10 years ago by becoming the Eastern Conference Champions. Behind Rod Brind’Amour’s game winning goal, adding another late in regulation, the Hurricanes finished off the Sabres in game 7 with a score of 4-2.

It’s the start of Hurricane season and it seems that it’s taken over the city of Raleigh. You can’t drive anywhere in the city without seeing cars with flags flying. Maybe if they continue to play well and win the cup they will develop more of a core following that can help them really sustain their presence here in Raleigh.

It’s definitely been exciting watching the run to the finals. Now bring home the cup!

Welcome to the new home of the Section30 blog.  Decided that it was time that Section30 had it’s own home on the web.  Things will continue as they have done in the past but will now be at this new location.

Coach Cal,

Let me start by thanking you for getting the Wolfpack nation excited about basketball unlike we have been for 20 years. Your flirtation with becoming the next NC State head coach awakened a spirit in us that only a coach of your caliber could. You could have come here and been king. The press conference to announce your hiring would probably have been standing room only, every home game would have been packed, and we’d have hung on your every word. You could have come and competed against the best coaches in the country night after night in the ACC. You could have proved yourself to be one of the best coaches in the country on a national stage.

Unfortunately for you, you chose to stay at Memphis. You chose to stay in the comfortable confines of Conference USA where you battle against the likes of UAB. You chose to have people question if you could ever hack it in a major conference, well, I guess we’ll never know. I hope that you’re comfortable there because after this past weekend you’ll never be able to leave.

Most of all I’d like to thank you for not becoming our next coach. We don’t need someone to come here with any kind of second thoughts. We need someone who wants to compete against the best and isn’t scared to do so on a nightly basis. Basically we need someone who isn’t you.

I’m sure our new coach, whoever he may be, will thank you for awakening the spirit and passion that we’ll follow him with. Just think: if you weren’t scared it could have been you.

Wagon.

I’d like to announce that I’m officially changing my name. From this moment on I will be simply known as “Wagon.” If you cannot simply call me “Wagon” please feel free to substitute the article “The” for “Chuck.”

I feel it is necessary for me to drop “Chuck,” and all variations of said name, after the events that transpired this past weekend. I no longer wish to share the same name as, or be associated in any way with, The Clown Coach, who also goes by the name of “Chuck.” I’m sure you’ve seen him on Saturdays wielding around his prized Circus Monkey in front “you people.”