Pepsi Center meltdowns and the Final Four crown

Anyone else disgusted watching the two teams playing out of the

Pepsi Center these days?

The Avalanche looked more pathetic than it has all year Saturday

in a 2-0 loss to the Red Wings, the second loss in a row to our

hated rival. Subtract the first two periods of goaltending from

Tommy Salo and the Avalanche played like crap in every facet of the

game.

Peter Forsberg has looked flat since coming back, Joe Sakic has

stopped scoring since Alex Tanguay got hurt, Rob Blake has not been

getting shots on net and Tony Granato has changed line combinations

more times than Condoleezza Rice has cited executive privilege for

not appearing publicly under oath before the Sept. 11, 2001,

commission.

I have been the biggest Pierre Lacroix fan since the Avs came to

Denver. But he may have pulled too many triggers this year, namely

the Derrick Morris trade. It seems like the first year the Avs have

believed they could win games just because of the names on the back

of their sweaters. Hopefully they will turn it around, but this

type of play will lead to a quick first-round exit…

After one of the greatest turnarounds in NBA history, the

Nuggets are laying a golden egg of their own right now.

A month ago we were talking of the Nuggets possibly moving up to

a four or five seed in the Western Conference. After Saturday’s

85-83 loss to the Utah Jazz, the Nuggets were one game behind the

Jazz and Trailblazers for the eighth and final playoff spot.

The problems with Carmelo quitting in Minnesota after teammates

questioned his shot selection seem to be over, but the incident is

a microcosm of what’s happening with the Nuggets recently. They

don’t have the flow and confidence they had early in the

season.

I’m still amazed at the job the rich and creamy Nougats have

done this year, but that doesn’t mean they’re excused from blowing

it…

I’ve been filling out NCAA Tournament brackets for more than 10

years now, and this is the first year I picked the Final Four

exactly correct. Three of the four Elite Eight games over the

weekend show why the NCAA Tournament rivals the NHL playoffs as the

best tournament of the year.

I’ve got Oklahoma State winning it all, beating Connecticut in

the championship.

It may be false-thinking on my part that the ‘Pokes of the

Panhandle can beat UCONN, who has blown everyone out, or Duke, who

has the most tourney experience, but long-time Cowboy coach Eddie

Sutton is looking for his first title just as Jim Boeheim of

Syracuse was last year…

Spring football fever has hit campus and the Rams have a lot of

question marks to answer in their lineup.

The best news to come out of practice is that running back

Tristan Walker will stay on and is about 75 percent recovered from

a season-ending knee injury. Walker has been on the sidelines

almost his entire college career, suffering season-ending knee

injuries in both of his first two seasons.

There were rumors he thought about transferring or quitting the

team, but he has been participating in some drills and is holding

out hope of playing in the Green-and-Gold Scrimmage at the end of

spring practice.

Walker arguably has as much if not more talent than any of the

CSU running backs and should be in the thick of another competition

for the starting job.