As we near the announcement of who will advance to Week 3, here are the judges' comments on some of the work done in Week 2.

Received highest scores from judges

HiPlainsDrifter
Peter: Well-researched, light-hearted, and thoroughly enjoyable. I specifically enjoyed the internal war against making the lame Bruce Dickinson "Cowbell" jokes. Very original topic. Great job.
Dime: When I opened his "Best/Worst" entry and saw the Disco Demolition Night pic I was disappointed because I thought it was going to be the same old predictable thing. It ended up being really creative and entertaining.
Tom: Very enjoyable read. Strong from start to finish.

joshhoskins55
Peter: Again, a unique look at something many might not know much about. Passion for the A's, good writing, and solid research all made this a terrific piece to read. "All the ambiance of a proctologist's office" is a phenomenal line.
Dime: Really good. This entry not as good as the last one, but still strong.
Tom: I agree that this wasn't as good as his Week 1 effort, but still a solid read. I felt it got a little grandiose at points ("second base apex"), including the lead which struck me as a little "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ..." And while photos are certainly not required or even part of our judging process, the use of the before/after photos in this piece was a great service to the reader.

nappytemple
Peter: Seems like an episode of "Around the Horn" in article form -- a little too jokey for me. But that's fine. You tried something new, and a less critical reader would probably enjoy this thoroughly. I commend you on the risk-taking.
Dime: Good stuff this week, but not great.
Tom: This was an odd piece, but I really enjoyed it. Loved the lines about Shaq's blue sweater and the Bilas line about Adam Morrison.

Received lowest scores from judges

MooreSports
Peter: An ode to the three-point shot? Not sure I loved the topic here -- and the entire Back to The Future theme seemed like a forced pop culture reference. Was this supposed to be a funny, light-hearted article or a hard-nosed, fact-based one? I still don't know.
Dime: This piece was reaching with the Back to the Future thing, forcing creativity. And the piece was a little all over the place.
Tom: The Back to the Future thing seemed really forced, especially considering the movie is about 20 years old at this point. And then an NBA piece focusing a lot on David Stern and Bird/Magic/Jordan? Not very original.

ShooterB
Peter: Intro could have been tightened a bit (Why not go Horry, who also has 6 rings?), and this goes on and on. However, I like the use of the sidebar, and the research is there.
Dime: No new ground was covered here and I don't feel like much creativity went into this one. The piece could have been more interesting if Shooter injected a little more personality into it, but as it is, it is not a very interesting read.
Tom: This starts off well, but deteriorates as it goes and has a very odd ending.

tjw118
Peter: I dreaded reading this topic, thinking I'd seen all these on cheesy SportsCenter montages throughout the year. But you went with some random events -- the Japan Cup and the NY Marathon -- which made it a bit different. Even still, this reads like a summary of events, not an opinion. Your other posts this week were all a LOT more entertaining.
Dime: I like some of the selections (NY Marathon), but in general I feel like this piece just missed the mark.
Tom: Seems like a random timeframe to choose and somewhat lazy. Why not just talk about the unheralded best finishes like Japan Cup and NY Marathon and make that the entire focus instead of just choosing a random "of the past few months." Couple things also just struck me as being off in the piece: saying Leinart scored the game-winning "goal" instead of just calling it a touchdown, Belmont was misspelled, calling the Rose Bowl Vince Young's coming out party (I'd argue that he was already "out" and that this was simply him stepping onto the biggest stage) and then not mentioning that the Suns and Nash ultimately beat Kobe and the Lakers in that series. 

Other comments

DrMidnight
Dime: I enjoyed the D'Antoni entry, but this piece was a little too long and could have used some cutting down. Couple misspellings and typos too.
Tom: A decent read, but is a little too long and talking about the column in the column just makes me cringe, for example this line: "That and his rather colorful-sounding interviews could have made Avery the subject of this column."

Dudski
Peter: What's Charlie Weis the best at, exactly? Is he the best leader of young men? The best patriotic coach for a Top 25 team? Nice story and all, but what was this? Surely not a response to the topic at hand.
Tom: A little too fawning, but not bad.

Gbrent
Dime: I liked his piece on Andrew Morbitzer much more than the piece on Worst Sports Fan Behavior. The latter was too easy of a topic and it wasn't very creative. Just way too easy and obvious to write about Philly fans.
Tom: Didn't quite understand how this was a "lighthearted" look as the headline states, but then gets all high-handed at the end about the "travesty" of it all. Really liked the headline for the Lakers entry though "Only in Cali, where we riot, not rally" (and yes, I know what it's from.)

edhardiman
Peter: Lame analogy to start it off. Really lame. Pretty much the anti-grabber. But you really rebound. And the research adds to the piece. I laughed out loud at the Juan Lebron stuff.
Tom: I liked this piece, with some very good lines about how "Rome wasn't burnt in a day" and the "meat-and-potatoes fundamentals". The LeBron wordplay was clever too. Didn't like the lead though because I just don't think it's true. I haven't gotten the impression that the media has been slobbering over Bonds at all lately, in fact maybe the opposite and knocking him at every turn.

Elizabeth_Bennet
Peter: Read like a high school graduation speech. Felt like someone was preaching to me. About what? I'm not sure.
Tom: Takes a big swing at this topic and not sure she connects. A little too high-fallutin' at points.

rivjo
Peter: Fun piece. Not the best written -- as there are grammatical errors all over -- but very fun. What was Gastineau the best at? I'm not sure exactly. But you picked an angle and ran with it. Pretty good effort. Drags a bit, but enjoyable.
Dime: I love the choice of writing about Mark Gastineau for the assignment. Totally not expecting that at all ... which is great. But unfortunately the writing does live up to the topic choice.

 -Tom