The Week That Was for Georgia Tech's Pros

As many of you hopefully noticed, the weekly pros report has been absent from the site for the last few weeks. With a new job, midterms and some personal matters to attend to, keeping up with this series has been difficult. I am now ready to resume my posts, however, and provide everyone with the best coverage possible. There have been some great moments and some depressing ones in recent weeks for Georgia Tech in pro sports, so here's a synopsis of what you may have missed.

If you're a sports fan, you heard about the NBA Finals. The Miami Heat, down 3 games to 2 in the Finals, came back to win Game 6, thanks to a clutch Ray Allen three in the final seconds of the game to send it into overtime. Chris Bosh made defensive plays throughout Game 6 and sealed the game with a block (it might have been a foul) on Danny Green. Game 7 was a different story for Bosh though, as he managed to post a goose egg in the biggest game of his career. Although he played excellent defense on Tim Duncan throughout the series, his disappearances offensively have to be worrisome for the Heat going forward. They may choose to keep the team in tact (a bad idea in my opinion), but Bosh will need to refine his game in the offseason and either fix or eliminate his jump shot from his game.

In NFL news (finally something relevant), Daryl Smith signed with the Baltimore Ravens earlier this month. Smith was great during his tenure at Tech and continued his success into the NFL, but was unable to get the recognition he deserved since he played in Jacksonville. After suffering a groin injury at the beginning of last season, he missed 14 games for the Jaguars and lost the major contract he was expecting to sign. The Ravens are getting great value for Smith, and if he is healthy next season, expect to hear his name often. He should thrive playing with Ngata, Suggs, and Dumervil and should become a successful investment for Baltimore.

While the NBA provided arguably the greatest Finals in history, the U.S. Open failed to match the same expectations. Heading into the tournament, experts and players were talking about how low to par the course would play, but after watching the tournament, it was clear the course was too hard. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy seeing professionals challenged on the course, but when the entire field is over par and genuinely can't figure the course out, it makes for poor television. Golf already has an image problem with a large portion of the U.S. and watching the pros consistently double and triple bogey holes surely didn't help. And in case you missed it, Matt Kuchar, who was playing some great golf heading into the U.S. Open, finished at +12 for the tournament. That ended up being good enough to earn him a Top 30 finish though, and a nice $60,000 check. The only other Tech pro to make the cut was Nicholas Thompson, who finished at +18 and a tie for 56th place.

This past weekend Thompson continued his solid play and finished at -4 for the Travelers Championship. Bryce Molder was right behind him at -3 and they both finished in the Top 30. Cink, Tringale, Matteson, and Castro all competed in the Travelers, but they struggled and haven't played well in recent weeks. Cink has had arguably the toughest time, after starting off the season playing so well. There's still time for someone to get hot, but as of right now, there hasn't been much news for GT in the golf world.

This season has also been tough for Georgia Tech's pros in baseball. Not much has changed since the last pros post, since everyone is still struggling and having trouble making contact. Matt Wieters seems to have fallen back into a mini slump after looking rejuvenated for a two or three week stretch. Derek Dietrich has completely fallen apart since his impressive start for the Marlins and may not see much playing time going forward if he can't turn it around. His batting average and on base percentage are plummeting now that pitchers are figuring out his weaknesses. Charlie Blackmon hasn't seen a plate appearance in recent weeks and Tyler Greene isn't even in the majors anymore. It's been a rough couple of weeks and things are bound to get better, but it may take some time. Mark Teixeira is back on the disable list with further complications to his wrist, while Blake Wood is about ready to come off of the 60-day DL for the Royals. He had a very good season last year and the Royals are hoping he can reproduce that success. The lone bright spot for Tech right now seems to be Brandon Cumpton, who has seen two spot starts for the Pirates. He pitched five innings in both starts and gave up four earned runs over those two outings combined. The Pirates' rotation is healthy again, so he won't be starting any time soon, but he made the most out of his opportunities. Hopefully we can see more of that from everyone in the majors leading into the all star break.

In other sports news, Sasha Goodlett and the Indiana Fever have struggled out of the gates to start this season (they're 1-6) in the WNBA. Although she's receiving 10 minutes per game, she hasn't shot well from the field and is only averaging 2 points per game. She'll need to improve on her .333 shooting percentage if she expects to see more playing time. The Fever play the LEAGUE LEADNG Atlanta Dream today at noon, so try and catch some of the game if you can.

The last few weeks have been a roller coaster for many of GT's pros, but things should pick up heading into July. The MLB All-Star break will be a tremendous help for all of the MLB pros and there's a few weeks until the Open Championship in golf. The next few weeks of posts should be short and simple (especially now that the NBA playoffs are over), but there's always a chance someone gets hot. Make sure to check back next week and don't forget about the NBA Draft, which starts on Thursday!