Phillies

Your Monday Morning Roundup: Nothing Happened Edition

By Kyle Scott

Published: Oct 22nd, 2012 · 9:14 AM EDT

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To give you an idea of what a horrible local sports weekend it was, check out the cover of today’s Daily News. Nate Allen? High school? A Mark Kram styling? Yeah, it's that bad. [Read those stories here.]

By my unofficial count, the last time there was a full weekend without a Philly sports team playing was New Year’s weekend this year. Of course, that weekend saw the Winter Classic Alumni game and the Classic itself on Monday, which was an off day for most people.

Let’s hit it.

 

But first, a word from our sponsors:

– Tomorrow night. 8 p.m. Drinker’s West (39th and Chestnut). The second meeting of our Lockout Support Group. NHL 94 tournament. The first time was so much fun, we had to do it again.

Just show up before 8 p.m. to sign up. It’s FREE to play and we’ll have prizes  for the winners.

Thanks to our friends from Play-N-Trade in Lansdale, where you can buy, sell and trade new and old games. A must-see selection of classic video games alone is worth stopping by for.

– Sports Vault is your exclusive provider of signed Brian Dawkins memorabilia. Shop here.

– Grab a t-shirt from Philly’s leading apparel provider, Philly Phaithful. All shirts our printed on high-quality American Apparel material. Get one, or eight, here.

 

The roundup:

– Let’s talk about Maalik Wayns. He’s getting a ton of pub in the pre-season for the Sixers, but I’m not I'm even a little bit sold. As a Villanova grad, I spent the past three years waiting for Wayns to turn into Kyle Lowry or Randy Foye– the best guards of the Jay Wright era. 

I’m not sure it ever happened.

Yes, Wayns had a great season last year on a horrible team– 17.6 PPG, 4.6 AST, 3.8 RB. But he never developed the all-around game that was expected. Despite his blazing speed, which rightfully drew comparisons to Lowry, Wayns struggles to finish around the basket, takes poor shots, and is not a good three-point shooter (he shot under 30% from behind the arc in his sophomore and junior seasons). He has the speed of Lowry (maybe), but doesn’t have the same finishing ability, defensive prowess, or rebounding skills. He’s a nice change of pace type of player, but nothing I saw in three years at Villanova that told me Wayns was going to be a consistent NBA scorer. I think what we’re seeing here is a highly skilled and athletic rookie making the most of nonsensical pre-season basketball. 

I hate to write that, too, because no one is more excited to see a Villanova guy play for the Sixers. I just don’t think Maalik is anything more than a deep bench player in the NBA who will eventually earn a solid living in Europe (see also: Allan Ray).

– Deadspin’s Week 6 NFL GIFs are always worth checking out. 

– Iowa fans showed up to their game against Penn State wearing prison garb, an unexpected and extremely classy move.

- Terry Bradshaw thinks Andy Reid is gone after the season.

– Kyle Lohse – yeah, the guy who gave up back-breaking home runs in the opening round of the Postseason in 2007, 2011 and 2012 – will start Game 7 of the NLCS for the Cardinals tonight. Before Game 6, he seemingly forgot that time his former team won the World Series and got back there the next year:

“Well, yeah, it is a big deal.  I don't know the history of it, but I don't know when the last time a team's gone back to the World Series after having won it.  It doesn't happen too often.”

 

It happened in 2008 and 2009, no thanks to you, Kyle.

– A 12-year-old girl from Clayton, New Jersey is missing. Find her.

Hunter Pence and his soothsaying had this quote before Game 5 on Friday:

Yeah, Catwoman said that. Hunter Pence is quoting Catwoman.