How I'm entertaining myself in this sports depression

This is the absolute worst time of the year for a sports fan. Football is over. Baseball is still months away. Basketball is in its mid-season lull and ESPN starts showing indoor high school track meets.

So I've been passing the time doing these things.

1. Rooting against Gonzaga. After squeaking by San Francisco (a team that has only one win in the WCC Conference) by five points, I've decided that if I wanted to root for a team that's uninspired, unathletic and going to lose in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, I'll become a Duke Fan.

(By the way, last night at the All-Star bar in the Spokane Valley, some of my friends and I were taking in the NBA Skills Competition on the 20+ big screens at the establishment. One thing about the NBA is they certainly know how to do All-Star weekend, better than football and baseball, and the dunk contest was absolutely amazing.

First, we had Dwight Howard dunking on an 11-foot hoop after changing into a cape and small jersey in a phone booth, and then we had for UW star Nate Robinson don a green jersey, shoes and basketball to dunk over Howard and win the slam dunk competition. Wow. What a show.

However, midway through the competition, the bar changed the channel over on most of the screens they had to the game before the Gonzaga-USF matchup. That would Texas State vs. Lamar. This was a good 15 minutes before the Zag game started, obviously a ploy to appease the Gonzaga fans gathering in the bar. We were forced to the "small" flat screen in the corner of the bar to watch the dunk contest. We eventually started rooting for Texas State and Lamar to go into overtime just to piss off Gonzaga fans. It was close but Texas State edged Lamar 71-67 in regulation.

And then once the Zag game started, my friends and I started rooting for USF because Gonzaga fans feel the need to clap, cheer and whoop everytime their team scored points a few minutes into the game against one of the worst team in the WCC. They're hopeless. They're pathetic. They don't realize their team is bad.)

2. Reading Spring Training Tid Bits like this... "New closer Francisco Rodriguez arrived Saturday and jumped right into the Mets-Phillies rivalry, proclaiming New York "the team to beat" this year thanks to a revamped bullpen that includes setup man J.J. Putz, an All-Star closer in 2007 with Seattle." - ESPN.com

AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA... K-Rob is going to have some issues picking up all those saves when his team trails by three runs thanks to the middle relief of Putz. Did the Mets watch any film of Putz in 2008? Guess not.

3. Getting ready for a tryout with the Spokane Shock. Remember a couple days ago when I said I hated has-been high school athletes who complain about the professionals. Well, this is all you guys' chances to prove me wrong by trying to make the roster of an af2 team. What's that? You don't like Arena Football? It's more athletic than sitting on the couch complaining about Shaq's free throw form.

4. Paying respect to the WSU Cougars season. After their loss to the Oregon State Beavers last night its going to be tough for them to make it to the post-season outside of the Pac-10 Tournament. Which stinks, because I'd rather watch them than Gonzaga.