With the NBA Playoffs now more than a week old, here are some initial reactions from the first round matchups:

In their final home game of the season, the AU women’s lacrosse team went out with a bang.

In back-and-forth games like the one between AU and the Navy Midshipmen, the team with the ball last usually wins.

After being named the 2011 National Wrestling Coaches Association Coach of the Year, Mark Cody has left the AU wrestling program and been named the head wrestling coach at the University of Oklahoma.

While agonizing over my busted bracket, I decided to compile a list of ways to make sports better.

With the Final Four this weekend, the NBA playoffs approaching and WrestleMania on Sunday, now is a great time to be a sports fan! And what makes it even better is that MLB Opening Day is this Thursday, meaning this is the perfect time to forecast the win totals for a couple of teams (because everyone knows how accurate these predictions always are).

As someone who knows way too much about people like Michael Pineda and Mike Minor, I feel I am the perfect person to talk about the upcoming fantasy baseball season.

The Navy Midshipmen rallied from a 30-18 halftime deficit to defeat the AU women’s basketball team 47-40 Saturday.

There is a player revolt in Detroit, Minn. has Eddy Curry, Darko Milicic and Sebastian Telfair on its roster and Baron Davis has been reunited with a coach he hates. I love the NBA trade deadline!

The AU women’s basketball team exploded for 50 second-half points en route to a 73-62 come-from-behind victory over the Holy Cross Crusaders Saturday in Worcester, Mass. Two wins in the team’s final two contests will now clinch the No. 1 seed in the Patriot League Tournament for the Eagles.

The dead period in sports that follows the Super Bowl can only mean one thing: it’s time for an NBA column that answers the league’s burning questions at the All-Star break.

What’s the best way to recap the Green Bay Packers 31-25 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV, you ask? With a 700-word “Winners and Losers” column, of course!

Winners

FOX Sports

The last four Super Bowls broadcast on Fox have each been decided by six points or less. Included in this stretch has been a game between two of the NFL’s top fan bases (Pittsburgh and Green Bay), two of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history (New York over New England and New England over St. Louis) and the culmination of the Patriots dynasty (New England over Philadelphia).

Is this simply a stroke of good luck? Absolutely! Up until 2006, the game rotated among the…

Stephanie Anya and Nicole Ryan both had memorable afternoons when the AU women’s basketball team defeated the Lafayette Leopards 66-51 on Saturday in Easton, Pa.

The Pittsburgh Steelers will hold a two-win advantage over the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys with seven Super Bowl victories after this Sunday, and here’s why.

Aaron Rodgers has made the jump from “really good” to “elite” quarterback this postseason. And I think every San Francisco 49ers fan just threw this paper (or their computer) against the wall after reading that last sentence.

The women’s basketball team notched its ninth consecutive victory by defeating the two-time defending conference champion Lehigh University Mountain Hawks 64-51 Saturday at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa.

ATV’s weekly sports program, “SportsZone,” ends every episode with a “Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down” segment, so I decided to borrow this idea when recapping the 2010 sports year. Let’s start by getting the negative out of the way first.

The Eagles beat the Owls 82-72 for another men’s basketball win on Saturday.

The Eagles beat the University of Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks for their third straight win of the season.

The AU men’s basketball team used a strong second half to overcome a lackluster opening 20 minutes and defeat the St. Francis University Red Flash 62-52 Friday night at Bender Arena in their season opener.

The AU volleyball team defeated both the College of the Holy Cross and Army this weekend to improve to 12-0 in Patriot League play, extending their win streak to 19 games and clinching the top seed in the Patriot League Tournament.

Kristin Piorun and Samantha Trotta each scored a late second-half goal as the AU women’s soccer team erased a 2-1 deficit and defeated the Navy Midshipmen 3-2 in Saturday’s season finale on the road.

The AU men’s soccer team remained undefeated in Patriot League play after defeating the Lafayette College Leopards on the road 2-1 in double overtime.

The NFL is entering Week 5, the college football title race is heating up and the MLB playoffs are set to begin, which means now is the perfect time for an NBA column!

The AU volleyball team got off to a great start in Patriot League play this past week by going on the road and defeating both the Bucknell University Bison and the Colgate University Raiders in its first two conference clashes.

As usual, I’m as excited as ever for the first NFL Sunday of the season. But instead of penning an NFL preview column, I decided to celebrate my 10-year relationship with fantasy football by listing the reasons why I’ll be forever hooked on the game.

The Draft

Some may argue this is the best part of the fantasy football season, even though it just kicks off the year. I like to think of the fantasy draft, usually held in August, as the unofficial start of the NFL season.

It also shows which owners have absolutely no idea what they’re doing. This year, someone took the New York Jets defense in the third round. Truly a draft day blunder for the…

The AU volleyball team defeated Siena College on Saturday night, as the Eagles smoked the Saints in straight sets by scores of 25-14, 25-8 and 25-17.

AU volleyball beat George Mason in the annual Bender Blue Out match, drawing record-breaking attendance.

Need a change of scenery from Bender Arena or Reeves Field? Maybe you just want to see non-AU sports like baseball and football. Here’s a quick guide to D.C.’s major sports venues.

The 2010 NFL Draft is three days away, and here are three teams worth keeping an eye on come draft time.

Heading into this year’s hoops season, the AU men’s basketball team garnered all the attention because of their back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances. Two straight Patriot League tournament titles and a near upset of the nationally ranked Villanova Wildcats will naturally thrust a program into the spotlight.

The NBA Playoffs start in less than a month, and it looks like the Los Angeles Lakers will enter as the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference for the third consecutive year.

The AU women’s basketball team saw its comeback attempt fall short, as the Old Dominion University Lady Monarchs defeated the Eagles 63-55 in the first round of the Women’s National Invitational Tournament on Wednesday.

The AU women’s basketball team was never able to recover from an early deficit, as the Lehigh Mountain Hawks defeated the Eagles 58-42 in the Patriot League Championship Game on Saturday.

The AU women’s basketball team advanced to the Patriot League tourment finals, with victories over Navy and Lafayette over the weekend.

Raven Harris poured in a career-high 21 points, and the AU women’s basketball team pulled away from Lafayette College in the second half to defeat the Leopards 68-47 Saturday in Easton, Pa.

The women’s basketball team toppled the Navy in a home game Wednesday night. The Eagles won by almost 30 points.

AU’s women’s basketball team beat the Holy Cross Crusaders by nine points on Saturday. The Eagles will play their last home game of the regular season Wednesday.

The AU women’s basketball team had no trouble defeating the Colgate University Raiders for the second time this season as they coasted to an 82-47 victory on Saturday at the annual Phil Bender event.

On a night when Liz Leer shattered the school’s career blocks record, the AU women’s basketball team saw their seven-game conference winning streak snapped by a 53-46 loss to the Lehigh Mountain Hawks in Bethlehem, Pa., Saturday night.

Eagle columnists face off and debate who will win Super Bowl XLIV.

Michelle Kirk became the 12th women’s basketball player at AU to join the 1,000 point club, while the Eagles defeated the Lafayette University Leopards 53-31 Saturday at Bender Arena.

Michelle Kirk, Liz Leer and Raven Harris all scored in double digits and the AU women’s basketball team held off a second-half Holy Cross rally to defeat the Crusaders 64-51 on Sunday.

Behind a strong effort from Michelle Kirk and a solid second-half performance, the AU women’s basketball team defeated the Colgate Raiders 80-58 last Sunday and notched their fourth consecutive victory.

The AU women’s basketball team used a strong defensive effort and sizzling three-point shooting to defeat the Bucknell Bison 63-51 on Wednesday night at Bender Arena.

The struggles continued for the AU men’s basketball team over the Thanksgiving break, as they lost all three games to the Fairfield University Stags, the University of Manhattan Jaspers and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks.

When Notre Dame University graduate Charlie Weis was hired as its football coach, it seemed like a perfect fit, but his unsuccessful attempts at bringing the Fighting Irish back to national prominence may cost him his job.

The AU men’s basketball team let an 11 point halftime lead slip away as they lost to St. Francis University in Pennsylvania, while the women used a strong second half to defeat Howard in the regular season openers for both teams.

With the NFL season passing the halfway point after this week’s games, it’s time to take a look at each division and see who is positioning themselves for a playoff run.

The AU volleyball team continued their winning ways last Thursday with a 3-0 victory against Navy, giving the team its fourth win in a row.

Complaints about the BCS are being heard across the country, which can only mean one thing: college football is entering the stretch run. Several questions will be answered as the season draws to a close, but many will also emerge. It is gearing up to be a tight race to the finish, one no one will be able to predict.

The Oakland Raiders are a mess both on and off the field. JaMarcus Russell has not turned into the franchise quarterback that management thought he would be. Russell has a career quarterback rating of 47.1 and is completing well under 50 percent of his passes. On top of that, his throws miss wide-open receivers by about 15 yards.

Barring injury, you can always count on Tom Brady or Peyton Manning to be at the top of the passing statistics, but the same cannot be said for NFL as a whole, as almost no team is the same every year.

Bender Arena was the location of the fifth day of training camp for the USA Basketball Women’s National Team’s Fall Showcase this past Sunday.

The AU women’s volleyball team had no trouble disposing of the Morgan State Bears on Tuesday, winning 3-0.

This time last year, the New York Yankees were closing their historic stadium on a sad note. They did not qualify for the playoffs for the first time in 13 seasons. On top of that, they were forced to watch the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays battle for a trip to the World Series.

Perhaps the hardest thing to do in sports is play quarterback in the NFL, and several young quarterbacks are attempting to do the unthinkable and lead their teams to winning seasons.

Thursday marks the kickoff of many football fans favorite part of the year: the beginning of the college football season. Kickoff day is highlighted by a clash between No. 16 Oregon and No. 14 Boise State on blue turf. The season begins this Saturday, with over 60 games scheduled to fill the football fan’s appetite.

AU men’s soccer had a major moral victory Sunday, tying the Maryland Terrapins, last year’s national champions, 1-1.