We'll it's that time of the year again.  It's time for Scrooge to battle Santa in the ring to see who the king of Christmas will be, but for some reason some of you out there don't like X-mas so we'll just have WWE superstar Triple H interrupt the match beating both men down with a sledgehammer.  Happy now?

Yours truly loves this time of the year.  No it's not March Madness yet, but it's getting close. The winter break offers a variety of college basketball tournaments, the BCS (Bull Crap Standings) bowl games, and...Oh yeah! Those pro sports will have games too, but who cares about them.

So, in honor of the New Year's resolution tradition, I have compiled resolutions for some specific teams as well as myself.

• The VT Chokies:  It looks like these gobble heads just won't be home for Thanksgiving dinner.  They'll be home for New Years too.  Hell, losses to Virginia and Miami are likely to happen; with the way the Hokies have been playing. There is no real solution for the Hokies since they have no shot at winning it all, something that looked possible in the beginning of the season.  For next season VT needs to come out strong like they did this year, but then they can't lose three in a row.  I hate inconsistent teams. For the rest of this year, well they really need to find their identity. Sure the absence of Kevin Jones has played a big factor into their down play, but they do have a certain Lee Suggs, and guys like DeAngelo Hall, Ronyell Whitaker, and even Bryan Randall can make a play once or twice.  VT has lost their past three games by a touchdown or less, which shows fans they can't win when the game is on the line.  Something needs to change for the Hokies.  If you have to: put Marcus Vick in the game.

• Your Starting Quarterback is a guy who wears a glove on his hand:  Yes, it's true. The new starting quarterback for the Washington Redskins, sadly I'd have to say, is none other than Danny Wuerffel.  And yes, he wears a glove on his hand.  You ask why, and I couldn't give you an answer.  The skins are done for this year, but there new years resolution can start now. For once they need to get a good quarterback.  So I'm going to write a "Dear Snyder" letter and it goes a little something like this:

  Dear Snyder,   I like your money, not you.  You have bought so many great athletes and treated them like kings in Washington.  But you really have to be dumb to realize after all these years you haven't shopped for a good quarterback. Sure Patrick Ramsay could be the future of the skins, but that's years from now.  He needs someone that can show him the ways of the NFL, not what it takes to be a former great Florida Gator.  For your Holiday shopping list, make sure you put a quarterback on there.  PLEASE.
  With lots of love,
  The Fresh Prince of Sports

• High Hopes for Highlander Hoops:  For once, please Highlander basketball team--win it all.  I don't want to have to go through what my sports Jedi master, Dave Betancourt, did.  Don't do it to me.  You guys haven't been to the Big Dance since 1998, and I think Byron Samuels has what it takes to lead RU back into it.  You have to admit, college basketball is the most important sport at RU.  If you look at it, the hoops team is our football team to tailgate to. The attendence and the support is terrible, but RU hoops still gets the most recognition.  So with that said, the resolution I have to offer to the team is to continue to recruit and try and play your best, but also to the student body: WAKE UP! It's embarrassing to see only 1,000-2,000 people attending these games. We have over 9,000 students at this school and we can't even fit 3,000 in a gym that seats 5,000.  When you see a basketball player walking around campus (trust me you will know what he looks like) go up and say great game or ask him how their away game went. Hey, if we win a few games this year we'll be on ESPN during the Big South playoffs, not to mention if we win the Big South, we can get a big group to travel to the Big Dance (NCAA tournament for you non hoop fans) and represent RU on CBS!  Hey, it could happen.

• Pick your Poison: This resolution goes to myself.  I will try hard next semester not to talk about the Maryland Terrapins all the time... yeah right.  I'm loving this.  Maryland is riding on more success than any other program right now, with a Top 25 basketball team and football team (and a few other sports ranked), the Terps are continuing what they did last year, in both basketball and football.  Like I always say, I am the biggest MD fan in Virginia, but take this from a journalist's perspective, you have to give it up: the Terps are good.  Damn good.  So this resolution goes out to all other coaches and players out there--does your school want to lose to Maryland in football or in basketball?  Pick your poison!

  Have a safe and happy Holladays,
  With lots of sports love,
  The Fresh Prince