Welcome to week two, in which we find out who will be joining Team U.S. coached by Dan Henderson.

Right away team U.S. looks foolish in comparison with Team U.K. when Jason Pierce faints during Dana’s initial speech. This wasn’t the result of simple overwhelming excitement; Pierce had just cut down from 180lbs to 169lbs.

Christian Fulgium is forced to quit before he even gets near the octagon when he is unable to make weight, which Dana kindly lets him know he will regret forever.

However the most unfortunate setback is for David Shackleford who has a herpes legion on his forehead and is sent home by the doctor.

The fights begin once Dana White gives a final angry and bewildered speech about not being prepared and how hungry the U.K. guys are.
More after the jump!

With all of the cash the Yankees forked out this offseason, it’s hard to believe that they lost their first game of the season on Monday to the Baltimore Orioles. The $161 million spent on starting pitcher CC Sabathia didn’t seem worth much after the team’s 10-5 loss.

This was supposed to be a solid pitching rotation, at least four-deep with Sabathia, Burnett, Pettitte and Wang, plus Rivera closing. So, was it A-Rod’s absence that caused the team to falter? Or could it be the number of past-their-prime players? Or did the boys of summer just simply have a weak opening game?

Despite the economic upheaval in the US, the Yankees have managed to spend over $200 million on their payroll this season. After all, splurging is what the Yankees are good at.
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Yeah, and you thought Trev would let the Tar Heels’ National Championship victory roll by with just one article? Your ass must be crazy. As usual, it’s a good read.

Check it out.

On a snowy April night in the lately-drab sports city of Toronto, the Blue Jays gave the city a night of hope that has been long overdue.

Buoyed by 6 RBI from too-young-to-DH Adam Lind and a strong all-around offensive performance, the Jays gave 48,027 live and more watching at home a glimpse of what this team could be like if all of the ‘what ifs’ fall their way. 12 runs, 15 hits, 7 for extra bases, and only a solitary 1-2-3 inning, with big hits from youngsters Alex Rios, Adam Lind, and Travis Snider (whose opposite field home run, strictly power, was a thing of beauty).

Fittingly, Roy Halladay, making his franchise record 7th straight opening day start, went into Jack Morris mode, copying the MLB record-holder for consecutive opening day starts (14) by easing up and allowing a few runs with a big lead. It was meaningless, as Halladay probably cares little about his pitching line beyond the W, and the bullpen came in and cleaned up nicely (especially Brandon League, whose stuff looked live).
More after the jump!

Last night was the reason my heart belongs on Tobacco Road.

Last night was the type of mastery that demanded I paint my bedroom walls Tar Heel Blue as a child.

Last night was why I have read “A Coach’s Life” and “The Carolina Way” over and over as though they contained within them the secret to life’s journey.

Last night was why I brought my Joe Forte jersey to work at a management consulting firm yesterday.

Last night was why I still carry my copy of “500 Reasons I Hate Duke” with me on road trips.
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I think you all know it doesn’t take much to get me ranting about Kevin Love. I’ve wrote about it before, but Trev, as usual, one-ups anything I could produce, with a piece on Kev-Love over at Hoops Addict.

Check. It. Out.

As a sports fan, nothing is quite as depressing as when your local team publicly concedes that it has no realistic shot at winning before its season even begin. Even when it is true and meant to cushion fans by hedging their expectations, it is still a repugnant maneuver because it violates the basic decree that fan-team relations are built upon: you have got to give them hope.

Sports are a form of entertainment, a means of distraction for the every-man that hates his job and his mortgage payment. He wants to escape to a simpler time and place for a few hours a night and it is the team’s position to provide that. Certainly they should provide it at least before Opening Day.

That is what “There is always next year,” is built upon: the idea that something better lies ahead.

One look at the Rogers Centre in downtown Toronto though shows evidence of a team that is not offering hope, that is not vending optimism.

In fact, it would be hard to even suggest they are selling a pipe dream given their marketing campaign.
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Hey, it’s been a while. Get ready to sit down with me for the 9^th season of The Ultimate Fighter. The spin this season is based in some good old-fashioned nationalism. I say if it is good enough to start a couple of World Wars, it should be enough to get us all fired up.

This season, lightweights and welterweights from Team America (coached by the man of many nicknames) “Dangerous,” “Hollywood,” Dan “Hendo” Henderson will square off against Team UK, coached by season 3 winner Michael “The Count” Bisping.

Our first episode is set inside the Wolfslair, Michael Bisping’s gym, where 16 men fight for a spot on Team UK. With 8 fights and only one shown in montage, it was an entertaining episode.

We start with Andre Winner (9-2-1) beating Gary Kelly (2-1-1) with a big knee from the clinch 2:45 into the first round. Poor Gary Kelly was not only the first man to lose a fight on the episode; he was also the first guy to be subtitled while speaking English.

He definitely was not the last though.
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I haven’t written anything for The On Deck Circle in a long time. After this weekend’s Pitt-Villanova game I had to once again fire up MS Word and let the Internet, and more specifically Scottie Reynolds, know how I feel.

Before you read my letter to Scottie, know that I am a Pitt basketball fan. I went to high school in Pittsburgh and started following them when they were a Big East also-ran playing in the pressure cooker known as Fitzgerald Fieldhouse. The turning point for the program was the 2001 Big East tournament, when Brandin Knight, Ricardo Greer, and Issac Hawkins led the Panthers on a surprising run to the championship game (where they were pumped by Troy Bell’s Boston College Eagles).

I remember that run because we were vacationing in Mexico at the time, and whenever Pitt was on my Dad and I would desperately scour Playa del Carmen for a bar showing ESPN’s coverage of the tourney. Whenever you’re turning down sunny beaches for very unspectacular sports bars to watch a team in the bottom third of the Big East, you might just be a Pitt fan.

That run in the Big East tournament set the stage for the program’s success in this decade. This year was supposed to be the culmination of that success. Pitt had two excellent senior leaders at key positions and one of the nation’s best big men. They were built for tournament success and battle tested in the Big East all year. They achieved their first ever number one ranking during the season.

This was the year for Pitt, and then Scottie Reynolds and Villanova happened. Let’s just say that I wish American could have finished them off.
More after the jump!

As all basketball fans realize, the past decade of NCAA basketball has given us an overabundance of incredible finishes, groundbreaking plays, and historically great teams. We as fans have been spoiled by the exceedingly talented players that have descended on the college hoops landscape, and we have but one man to thank: Kevin Garnett.It was Garnett who, back in 1995, chose to bypass the college experiment altogether in favor of bumrushing the Association.

The move forced David Stern’s hand and changed the college game forever. Stern worried that Garnett would serve as a blueprint every prep star would try and emulate. These high-schoolers would not be physically or emotionally mature enough to handle life in the NBA, which would hurt his company’s market offering and their bottom-line.

Instead of an awe-inspiring young talent entering the NBA primed and ready for greatness, Stern saw that he would have been forced to promote a league whose talent level was watered-down and whose youngsters did not understand fundamental aspects of the game. He simply would not stand for this reduced level of play and the impact it might have.

What followed of course was am infamous and lengthy legal showdown, as the league sought to impose an age requirement on the Draft that restricted players under 20 from consideration. The Players Union and a group of prep stars fought the motion’s validity tirelessly on the grounds of antitrust and competition laws, but ultimately they were ignored.

The two season requirement in college ushered in a new period for the Association, now full of known-commodity veterans and more fundamentally sound play. It also created the Golden Era of College Basketball.

More after the jump!