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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2009 > November > 16 > Entry
Bengals, UD, OSU Wright State and Manny — The Awards
This is one of my favorite times of the sporting year.
College football is getting into its most meaningful games, NFL teams are beginning to position themselves for the postseason, the college hoops season has begun — not to mention the NBA and NHL — and then, as a bonus, you get a big-time prizefight like the one Saturday night in Las Vegas featuring Manny Pacquiao, a once-in-a-lifetime fighter out of the Philippines.
So with that in mind here are a few — strictly personal — awards from a great weekend of sports.
MOST IMPRESSIVE KNOCK-OUT:
1 — Cincinnati Bengals — Thumped the Pittsburgh Steelers for second time this season. In the 18-12 victory, the stripes defense — a bunch of cast-offs who have forged themselves into the backbone of this team — kept Ben Roethlisberger in the pocket, sacked him four times, batted down a few of his passes, held the Steelers to just three third-down conversions in 15 attempts and didn’t allow a touchdown.
2 — UD Women’s Basketball — Dominated No. 10 Michigan State the entire game Friday night, winning 77-74 in a game that wasn’t quite that close.
3 — Manny Pacquiao — Showed why he’s the best pound-for-pound fighter in boxing, throwing a whopping 780 punches and landing 336, nearly twice as many as his rugged opponen, two time world champt Miguel Cotto, who Pacquiao stopped in 12 rounds.
4 — UD Men’s Basketball —Although its 90-80 victory over Creighton was impressive, UD didn’t crack the top three only because the under-manned Blue Jays were missing their top rebounder and two key frontcourt back-ups and still managed to control the first half with a compact 2-3 zone defense. And here’s a fact not brought up around here, Creighton has now lost 25 in a row when it’s played ranked teams on the road. And because the Flyers are a nationally ranked team now — and a very good one at that — the bar is a little higher for them.
BEST INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE:
1 — Bernard Scott — Bengals back-up tailback and new kick returner, scored the games only TD with a 96-yard KO return in the first quarter and then filled in admirably for Cedric Benson, who left the game in the second quarter with a hip flexor.
2 — Devin Barclay — Ohio State’s 26-year-old kicker — a former pro soccer player who is filling in for injured Buck Aaron Pettrey — booted the pressure-packed, 39-yard field goal in overtime to give OSU the 27-24 victory over Iowa and send his team to the Rose Bowl.
3 — Todd Brown — Wright State’s senior forward scored 57 points in three games and showed he’s ready to lead his team this season as the Raiders won two of three games in the Athletes in Action Tournament in Seattle.
4 — Chris Johnson — UD sophomore forward came off the bench to score 18 points and grab 15 rebounds against Creighton.
5 — Tie — UD’s Chris Wright had 25 points and eight rebounds against Creighton AND Jonathan Fanene, the Bengals defensive lineman, who sacked Roethlisberger twice. harassed him in the backfield a lot more and batted down one of his passes.
BEST COACHING JOB:
1 — Jim Jabir — UD women’s coach has rebuilt the Flyers women’s hoops program, has a team with depth and enough toughness that this weekend it showed it can contend — in back to back games, no less — with some of the best teams in the nation, MSU Friday and Louisville ( a 2-point UD loss) Sunday.
2 — Marvin Lewis — Right now he’s my pick for NFL Coach of the Year. He’s taken a team populated by other teams’ rejects, he’s turned some problem children like Bernard Scott (whose college rap sheet was as long as his stat sheet) into keeping-their-nose-clean, team-first guys and because of it, a Bengals bunch that won just 4 games last year is now 7-2 and has become the talk of the NFL.
MOST COLORFUL ENTERTAINER:
1 — Manny Pacquiao — The Filipino superstar with the massive global following is running for Congress back home, just starred in a superhero movie called “WaPakman” in which he wore a tight red and yellow suit and, after Saturday night’s victory — with his right ear bandaged, but partially hidden by a fedora — he headed to the Mandalay Bay to join his band and sing eight songs on stage.
2 — Chris Wright — UD dunk machine
3 — Chad Ochocinco — Gets a rankling on his body of work though Sunday’s two catches didn’t give him much of a stage.
BEST TEAM TO LOSE:
1 — UD Women’s Soccer — Fell for the first time in 22 games this season, a 3-1 loss to Virginia Tech in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Speaking of another great coaching job, the Flyers Mike Tucker is one of the best in the women’s game.
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