John Wall is the truth

Now that Kentucky has played a good sample size of games, I think we can call John Wall the truth. He is averaging 19 points, 7 assists a game for the #4 team in the nation. Kentucky has posted back to back wins over UNC and Uconn and Ahley Judd has to be happy. Kentucky has slipped in the nations spotlight over the past couple years and has not been the powerhouse we are accustomed to. The failed Billy Gillespie era is over and Calipari has come in and landing the top recruit in JDub has helped out tremendously. It seemed ever since Kentucky was the #1 seed and lost in the second round to UAB they have never regained their mojo. Well Kentucky basketball is back, and its great for the SEC, and college hoops.

Speaking of the SEC. Billy Donovan and the forgotten gators are making a name for themselves. They lost stud PG Nick Calethes who left as a Sophomore to go over to Greece and make a quick 6 figures. Tonight they will look to avenge a loss last year when they match up against Syracuse in a battle of unbeatens in a "neutral" Tampa.

Cuse is looking to knock off its third major opponent this off season since it has already taken down a Pac-10 foe (Cal) and ACC contender (UNC). Outside of the Florida game tonight, the last remaining major game on their out of conference schedule is Memphis. Now ladies and gentlemen this is the second straight year Jimmy B has silenced the critics and played a tough out of conference schedule. You can't bash the man for playing Cal, UNC, Florida, Memphis all before he gets thrown ND, Cincy, Uconn, Pitt, Georgetown, Marq, Nova, etc I could go on.

Cuse has been drubbing their lousy out of conference games (101-55 vs Maine) which is a good sign because they usually barely slide against lousy teams, so its encouraging to see them handle these weaker teams. I am no doubt convinced this team is good this year, but I am very weary on judging them by the tourny wins vs Cal and UNC. All it takes is a team playing extremely hot back to back to make them look a lot better than they are. Do you recall just a few weeks ago the Portland Pilots getting hot and knocking off Oregon, UCLA, and Minnesota....now they have dropped their last three including games vs Portland st. and Idaho. Yuck.

In other college hoops news Greg Monroe is continuing the streak of great Hoya Big men. Great double double two nights ago took down a feisty Butler squad who was probably a bit over hyped going into the season. Butler will stick around the top 20ish of rankings since they will probably run house in conference. Georgetown will be right there in the end I feel. They were a very young team last year and Monroe is a beast, and if he gets more assertive its gonna cause major trouble.

UCLA, Ben Howland, can things get much worse?

Vegas Wagers

Want to share some recent wagers made for me from my sister who was recently in Vegas. Gave her $200 dollars to unload at the Hilton Sportsbook for some future bets. I did not want to bet on heavy favorites because if I was going to win at all I wanted it to be a good chunk of change. I took some squads that no doubt have a chance and have some heavy odds against them.

NFL:

Win 2010 SuperBowl @ Miami, FL

Philadelphia Eagles

30-1

$15.00.

Win $450

Analysis: Philly no doubt has a talented team. They always play some interesting defense schemes and they have offensive firepower. McNabb is a gamer and it will be interesting to see if Desean Jackson can come back healthy as he is a huge piece of this team. It appears Westbrook if he ever comes back will be fairly ineffective. Big win today over the Falcons who have probably knocked themselves out of the wildcard race with back to back losses to the Gmen and Philly. Big game next week against the Giants...and speaking of the Giants..

Win 2010 SuperBowl @ Miami, FL

New York Giants

30-1

$20.00

Win $600

Analysis: Giants are an interesting team. Started out extremely hot at 5-0, but once they started to play real NFL teams they lost something like 5 of their next 6. Brandom Jacobs has looked to be dead all season and Eli Manning's foot might fall off. They laid a stinker Thursday night against the Broncos and looked to be dead. Then today they come out and Beat the Cowboys for the season sweep and looked pretty sharp on both sides of the ball. Manning played solid and Jacobs had a long score. The win for the Giants was huge, and even bigger it knocked the Cowboys down a peg as win for them would have been a huge step to taking the division. My though on these two first bets is that they are both dangerous teams who are no doubt talented and we should see at least of them, if not both, in the playoffs this year.

Win 2010 SuperBowl @ Miami, FL

Cincinnati Bengals

9-1

$10.00

Win $90.00

Analysis: I guess the Bengals have to have pretty low odds on them since they are winning football games, but I don't think they can really contend. I pretty much had to fire a little on them since they were on Hard Knocks and I enjoy them. Who knows though, they are looking like they have a chance to take the 2 seed and have a bye...so stranger things have happened...

Win 2010 SuperBowl @ Miami, FL

San Diego Chargers

12-1

$20.00

Win $240.00

Analysis: Chargers pretty high odds and might end up taking the #2 seed themselves. I like them like the Bengals because they will get to the playoffs most likely then who knows what can happen. They have owned the Colts over the past several years so if the AFC goes through the Colts then it bodes well for the SuperChargers.

NBA:

Win 2009-2010 NBA Championship

Portland TrailBlazers

15-1

$20.00

Win $300.00

Analysis: Took a huge blow this weekend as Sam Bowie...I mean Greg Oden, is out for the season after his 44th leg injury in the past 3 years. Taking Oden over Durant is looking more and more like it was the wrong pick as we keep moving on. This was a mulldog pick as I don' t know how confident I am that the Blazers are true contenders in the West...but Brandon Roy is the truth no doubt.

Win 2009-2010 NBA Championship

Denver Nuggets

15-1

$25.00

Win $375.00

Analysis: We all saw what the Nuggets did last year in taking the Lakers to the brink in the West Finals. Carmelo looks hungry and they are my favorite team so I had to have some play here.

Win 2009 NBA Championship

Lebron Cavaliers

4-1

$50.00

Win $200.00

Analysis: Biggest single wager made. Figured the Cavs have a great chance to come out of the East as even though they will probably slug their way through the regular season, once they are in the playoff stage we can expect Bron to start stepping up. Bron has to win the big one pretty soon right?

NCAA Basketball:

Made a bunch of small plays on different teams to win the National Title. Gotta hope that some of these can make a run, but using the same formula I didn't take any heavy odd favorites.

Michigan Wolverines

75-1

$5 to win $375.00

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

20-1

$5 to win $100.00

Texas Longhorns

8-1

$5 to win $40.00

Butler Bulldogs

50-1

$5 to win $250.00

Oregon Ducks

300-1

$5 to win $1,500 (Lock City?)

West Virginia Mountaineers

20-1

$5 to win $100

Syracuse Orange
50-1

$5 to win $250 (thrilled to get this bet in before the Orange showed everyone they seem to be not pewch. What are the odds for them present day...without looking this up they have to be like 8-1 in the neighborhood of Texas right?)

Georgetown Hoyas

40-1

$5 to win $200

So that is it. Sorry if I wagered on any of your favorite teams as they have all been officially jinxed and have no shot of winning.

Jimmy V

One of the greatest speeches out there folks. Jimmy V week has begun and the Jimmy V Classic tips off tonight with a good Butler vs Georgetown matchup.

BCS Bowl Breakdown

Really interesting playoff breakdown provided by Dan Wetzel on Yahoo Sports today. The above picture is a format that he (and others) have come up with on how to solve the atrocious BCS problem. I for one love the idea. This formula pits a 16 team field comprised of 11 conference winners and 5 at large bids. How unbelievable would this be? You have the Cinderella stories in place with the chance for serious upsets. You have every deserving team (outside of a couple teams who feel they got shafted for an at-large bid) vying for a title. And those teams that feel they got hosed probably have 2-3 losses, not zero like TCU, Boise, and Cincy this year.

Boise and TCU have to be extremely disappointed that they are matched up in a bowl game this year. Both of these colleges, and non BCS schools in general would be much better served if they had a chance to knock off a big program. The winner of this game does nothing for small schools.

The Texas game was real good Saturday. Mack Brown should be instantly fired though for having a time out and almost squandering away a National championship shot by having Colt McCoy lob a Ball out of bounds with .5 seconds left. Can you imagine what happens if time runs off the clock there? I knew the kicker was going to nail that 46 yarder, even so confident to throw a quick 10 down against my buddy without hesitation.

Tim Tebow's legendary status as a college QB is over, tears and all. He will no longer have a chance to win Florida's 3rd National title in 4 years. Probably no Heisman, and all he can do is beat a weak Cincinnati team. Cincy is lights out on offense, but shouldn't Florida, the all powerful SEC team rout a Big east Squad. Absolutely huge game for Bearcats and the BIG east conference. A win over Florida would do wonders for the step-child of the BCS conferences.

Speaking of Cincy, how about that game against Pitt...Probably the best college football game of the year.

Did the BCS get it right? I guess they did, but every year without a playoff is a year wasted. How can you tell 3 undefeated teams they have no shot at the national title...what is the sense of playing? Are you telling me all five at-large bids in the diagram above wouldn't have a chance to make some noise? And how thrilling would watching central mich or Troy making a push in a game be. How cool would it be to see a warm SEC team have to play in snowy Michigan or Penn State one year with a Northern team having home field?

You also finally give reason for the non BCS schools to have meaningful regular season and conference championship games. Those teams outside of the 16 teams that make the playoffs could still play in the Heinke Midas Touch Outback Go daddy.com Bowl if they wanted.

Get it done. FYI its a pretty good read...here is the link to the Wetzel article if you want more details... http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news;_ylt=AnRXjAZcxZZWDqmjNQ.2xEg5nYcB?slug=dw-ncaafplayoff120709&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Looking to score some weed?

Just drive over to your local McDonalds.

Jarrett Jack is the man.

Purple Jesus Speeding?

I was away for a week and some seriously bizarre stories came out. The Millman already touched on JP Losman, champion quarterback. We had Tiger Woods being exploited as a phony and now being ripped to pieces all over the place by Jasper Parnevik of all people. And perhaps best of all was Adrian Peterson getting pulled over for going 109 in a 55 and commenting afterward that he "has to be more aware of the speed limit." More aware of the speed limit? What exactly did he think the speed limit just dropped from 100 to 55? Did he think he was cruising through Germany on the auto-bon? More aware of the speed limit, really? That's it? Just a simple misunderstanding of how fast he was allowed to go?

There have been some good college basketball and college football games of late, not to mention the NBA and NFL. I plan on getting to a full-blown basketball report card for college and NBA next week. For now, I must prepare to head down to New Jersey for the night as I will be attending the Rutgers-West Virginia game Saturday. Full report on that and the much anticipated Alabama-Florida matchup to come on Monday.