Hello my Friends,

It’s been a long season thus far my fair Bears fans. When I called my father yesterday he swore up and down that the Bears season is over and that Bilecheck and the Pat’s are heartless cheaters who deserve to lose every game this season as well. I disagree in two ways. Firstly, /we all know/ that the season is over because of the Patriots recent dominance. The WWL has spoken so it must be true. However, I disagree because there is a certain team, from a certain town that starts with a C, ends with an O, and has a “hicag” in the middle… who am I kidding I can’t do this. *Takes off Superfan Hat* I love the Superfans, and I know I have a slight Chicago accent, but someone please shoot me in the face if I ever sound this obnoxious.

On a serious note. I am doing a new series over the next few days highlighting most of the Bear players. I really want to get a chance to break down the positions and talk about the two sides of the ball later in the week as we anticipate the second half of the season. The reviews will be slightly in depth, but I encourage you all to put your own rankings of the same players in the comments. Alternatively, you can just tear my grading apart. For now we are going to start with the Wide Receivers. Catch the grades after the jump.

Chicago Sports are dissapointing...

I am not gonna lie. They are. The Bears had high expectations and failed to live up to them by coming through @ the SB. The Bulls were poised to take the Leastern Conference this year and failed at the end of the season and forfeited an easy road. Baseball is an all in all disaster at this point in the city, and Hockey doesn't exist here anymore.

I will continue to blog about sports as I deem necessary (meaning probably not until football/basketball season), but that will not be the focus of the blog from now on. It will be about me and my adventures. About my reserved obsession with sports and how that relates to my life, but also about how Noah LaPorte a young whip of a man who dreams in Chi when it comes to his life. So far my experiences have always been centered around Chicago and most recently shaped by Moody Bible Institute. I have just graduated, but I am still living in the city and the Chi is my home and has led em to all the places and people that have shaped my life. Weather it be my transformation at a young age in the South Side at Ashburn Baptist, or more recently at Moody Bible Institute. It has been in this city that I have undergone the greatest transformation of coming to a greater understanding of my faith in Christ. THis will be my attempt to record my story.

NOOOOO, the Wolfpack won!!!!

Wow, this is crazy. Someone needs to adress these things in thier families so that no child gets hurt.

Tyrus Thomas looks good in green.

I like Tyrus, I especially like him when he scores a career high 26 points, grabs 9 rebs, and is dunking on the opposition in multiple ways. This was a good win for the Bulls, but... I had one issue. That is, how does Ben Wallace attempt 21 shots and BG only gets 7?!? I mean I know Rondo made it his mission to make BG miserable, and I am cool withthe distribution, and Big Ben also got the Rebs(16) Asts(4) Blks(3) and a Steal to go with it. But 21 FGA? That is very surprising to me.

In any case, we won. We are now 10 games above .500 and have something like the 3rd best record in the east, but I am so confused by the standings. Look...

1. Detroit 40-22
2. Cleveland 39-25
3. Washington 34-28
4. Toronto 35-29
5. Chicago 38-28
6. Miami 34-29
7. NJ 30-35
8. Indy 29-34

I know that we have a better record than Toronto. I know we should be listed ahead of them. Further, I know we have the same amount of losses as Washington, but we have 4 more wins. How does that work. These are the things that keep me up at night, however, I can sleep easy because the Knicks are not in the playoffs, they are back in the lottery where they belong. All that to say, this is what the standings should look like in my mind.

1. Detroit 40-22
2. Cleveland 39-25
3. Chicago 38-28
4. Washington 34-28
5. Toronto 35-29
6. Miami 34-29
7. NJ 30-35
8. Indy 29-34

This is proof that as much as people claim the East stinks, the central is by far the hardest division.

I do have one final thought to ponder. Apparently, Loul Deng believes we can win the rest of our games.

I will miss days like these when I graduate

This is great, but I wonder how long it took them to make this. I love the attitude throughout the video.

I dream about March Madness

(Yes, this is a shameless plug of what used to be...)

It's that time of the year again!

That time when the local news papers print extra copies for all the fanatics and general productivity grinds to a halt at jobs around the country.

This year is unlike any year I have seen before. Last year there were clear cut #1 favorites but they were downed. This year we obviously have #1's, but they come in dispute. Here are the teams.

• OSU is the only one that is solid in my mind right now, and even they have shown signs of weakness.
  
• Florida totally coasted throughout this year, and I don't like that. Don't get me wrong, they are great, but there are other teams and players that are hungrier.
• UNC is really overrated in my opinion and Psycho T or what ever they call the masked man is not liking playing with his mask. Best Player not playing @ 100%=not so good.
• Kansas is good. I like them alot, but Self has exploded this team so many times in big games. I know they won the Big-12 and they deserve the seed, but they have scared me on several occasions and almost lost to Texas (ohandbytheway, where would Texas have been seeded if they beat Kansas? Discuss...)

This is an odd year, but I am excited for many reasons. Here are my predictions and my reasons

UPSETS:

• Old Dominion downing Butler and Maryland en route to the Sweet 16
• Notre Dame Overtaking Oregon in the second round
• Georgia Tech over UNLV
  
• Illinois over VTech
• Texas Tech over BC
• Texas A&M over Memphis en route to the Elite Eight
  
• Texas winning it all.

Yes you heard me. I believe Texas is going to win it all. This is a crazy year, and unlike 2005 (UNC, Illinois) there are no clear cut Juggernauts. There are several powerful teams who could win, OSU, Kansas, Florida, UNC, Georgetown, UCLA. However every one has their fair share of holes. Texas has its share of holes as well, but the key is that they had KD. KD is sick and will take over games. He is the missing link.

Look at some of the recent champs (This excludes last year, because then everyone talked about J.J. and 'the Stashe' and neither could come through although JJ was good for mocking and 'the Stashe' was good for crying).

1. 2005 - UNC and Illinois are a great examples of having a dominating players. They both great as teams, but Illinois could rain the threes (Head, Brown, Williams) and we saw them beat teams just like that. When they were on they were dominant. UNC was full of dominant players and even had one on the bench (Williams) and May willed them to victory against Illinois.
2. 2004 - UConn also gave us Ben Gordon and Emeka Okafor who are currently playing great in the NBA as well.
3. 2003 - The Orange men had 'Melo. This is where the shoe drops because this is my point. I freshman PG (G MAC) and 'Melo teamed up and led their team to the title. I see alot of similarities to this and KD is phenomenal. Bill Simmons touches on this by speaking about how Texas fought through the Big-12 (A very hard conference)
   

The list could keep going, but the point is that having that dominant play can make all the differences.

Further, I just adore KD. This kid is sick, and I believe that he is one of the few players who can DOMINATE and take over a game. I have seen him do it. weeks ago he was leading a whipping of Kansas... and then he rolled the ankle and Kansas came back. This past weekend Texas almost beat Kansas in the Big-12 Tourney, and because of stupid coaching he didn't get a chance to take over in overtime.

Seriously though! Did you see that? Durant was scoring and being himself and in overtime he only shot the ball twice. TWICE! His coach heralded KD as the best player in college BEFORE THE SEASON BEGAN. Really? You don't say, in fact I believe you. However, if this is the case then why isn't he bombing it at the end of the game? This kid shoots threes lights out and has phenomenal swag, so why isn't he taking over? These are questions I lose sleep over, and I know there is a chance Texas can lose because of this, but I still think they will pull it out.

Further, I get to see Greg Oden dunk on people and scream like the cookie monster. I get to see Acie Law IV (seriously he has Law IV on his uniform, how awesome is that!) lead A&M and get drafted way to late and be a stud in the NBA. I get to see great freshman PG's (Conley Jr. OSU, Augustin TEX) and watch their fans pray that they don't bolt to the NBA, which won't be talked nearly as much as their respective teammates (Oden, Durant) will be talked about. Florida will be ranted and raved about for the next couple of weeks. Truth be told I really don't like them that much and I would much rather see Tex or OSU win. Both have a great shot of it in my opinion, and I would rather see them win any day of the week, because of my odd basketball centered man-crushes on Oden and Durant.

Shaq is eating teams

Look at the facts, or so called facts given by the media...

• Without Wade the Heat are Lottery bound
• Shaq is old
• Shaq isn't what he used to be
• Riley will take another break
• and etc.

However since wade has been hurt on 2/21...

• 2/22 They lose to Dallas, but who doesn't.
  
• 2/25 Beat Cavs (Shaq: 29min 19pts 11reb 3ast 1blk)
  
• 2/26 Lose to Kincks
  
• 2/28 Beats Wash by 9, it was never close (Shaq: 37 min 23pts 10 reb 4ast 3blk)
  
• 3/2 Beats Detroit by 3, BUT (Shaq: 36 min 12-16 Fg %500 ft 31pts 16rebs 6asts 1blk) He handled the Favorites to win the east.
  
• 3/5 Beats Hawks by 7 Nothing special, but it was just the hawks.
  
• 3/7 Beats Chicago by 33 (Shaq: 32 min. 24pts 9rebs 8asts 1blk) Destroys the team taht has beat the Heat 3 times this year.
• 3/9 Beat Twolves by 14 (Shaq: 35 min 13-16fg 6-11ft 32pnts 9reb 2ast)
  

The Dallas loss is understandable, the knicks is unacceptable. However, They beat division rival Washington and Shaq literally ate the Pistons and Bulls into submission. Without the Flash they are 6 for 8 riding a 5 game winning streak. Much has been made of Shaq coasting through the season or being hurt, but Shaq is healthy, Shaq is hungry, and Shaq is eating teams.

Greg Oden is intense

The biggest knock on Oden thus far is that he isn't intense enough, or he is too passive. Minutes before this scene I was just debating with someone about this very topic. Well my friend left and then Oden got all primeval and yelled like the cookie monster after he dunked (GAHHHHHH, D is for dunking, thats good enough for me!). I was quite pleased with this.

*Update* Here it is,

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WhloKgJ-PhA


The exact dunk I am reffering to is at 3:45... listen closley you can hear him scream like he is a cookie monster who just found his cookies...

Welcome

Welcome to my sports blog. As the title states, I dream in Chi when it comes to sports. The conglomeration of colors on the page represents the teams I support. While we are on the topic, here are the teams...

• The Bulls - I have always loved the Bulls. Not only did I grow up in the Chicago area, but it was during the Jordan era... it was over. I remember going to games in 92 and 93 and watching games from the 92 series against the Lakers. I did not forsake them during the dark ages of Jabba the Krause's reign. I understand he did a decent during the Jordan years, but he destroyed the team... he made it explode... he told Phil "I don't care if you win 82 games, your F***ing gone" or something like that. I couldn't be happier when Pax and Skiles took over. I never lost my devotion, but in recent years I have fallen for the Bulls in a new way.

• The White Sox - I have always been a White Sox fan. My father was a Sox fan, my fathers father was a Sox fan. Some of my earliest memories as a child involve spots. I remember going to a game at old Comiskey Park when I was 4, the year before it was torn down. I have always loved the Sox. However, please note that I am a White Sox fan. I do not like the cubs, in fact, I despise/highly-dislike the cubs. I do not cheer for them, I am not Bi-soxual. I do not wish harm on their players, because I am not vicious like that. However, I will not support them in any way. Now that we got that out of the way we can move on.

• The Bears - Again, another example of my love for Chicago sports. I have pictures of me watching the Bears in the 85 Super bowl with my dad. Awesome. They said I was captivated and actually watched large portions of the game. More Awesome. I care bout this team, don't get me wrong, but it is going to be a while before I can talk about them again...

• The Notre Dame Fighting Irish - OK, so I know that this isn't a Chicago team, but this is my College team. Why? Well it started like this... my grandparents are Notre Dame freaks. Ever since I was in junior high I have been going to games or practice games. I have been to so many games and I didn't have a college team I rooted for, or a team in the area (and my alum doesn't even have sports), so as hated as ND may be they are my team.

As much as I enjoy my teams I am a fan of sports in general. As a result, this site will look at my home teams, but also at any other topics in sports that intrigue me. If you have gotten this far, thanks for reading, leave me a comment and let me know what you think.