Bowl picks to avoid

after my performance yesterday, i would suggest the picking the opposite of my selections:

International Bowl

South Fla 24, Nor. Illinois 21 (take N.Ill. +7)

If you saw South Fla play in November (or specifically, against Rutgers) you simply cannot pick them. I am cheesing out and picking them to win, but not cover. It's just too hard to pick teams from the MAC.

PapaJohns.com Bowl

South Carolina 27, UConn 17 (take South Carolina, -4)

Big East vs. SEC? Next question.

Cotton Bowl

Ok. State 23, Ole Miss 17 (take Ok. St., +3)

I gotta go coach a basketball game. Otherwise I'd explain this.

Nate!

After watching most of my picks go down in flames - EXCEPT that Florida-Cincy game where I nearly nailed the final score EXACTLY - I flipped over to the end of the Knicks game just in time to see the final 3 minutes of regulation and all of OT.

Nate Robinson? I saw him out on the court and immediately thought that the rest of the Knicks must have been ejected in some kind of Heats-Knicks 90's-style fight. Then I watched the ending, and saw every single play run the way Rutgers men run their offense (5 guys spread out, and wait to see if anything happens... post-Douby this simply winds up being a shot-clock violation, although Rosario is trying his best to be a mini-q) - except the kicker is that the Knicks had Nate Robinson and the guy simply drove to the basket and scored at will (except for the 3 he drilles in OT from the top of the key, cross-legged, with a hand in his face and the shot clock winding down). Nate hadn't played in over a month - was sat out by the coach for 14 straight games - and stepped right in to produce as memorable an NBA-moment as I have seen all year (the Brandon Jennings 51 would have topped it if I had lived in Milwaulkee... how do you spell Milwaulkee???)

youtube some of this game - especially the underhanded scoop layup that he tosses 15-feet in the air as he is getting fouled - after he somehow fakes a jump shot mid-dribble and gets his defender to bite... how did that even happen?!?

More Bowl Picks!

Gator Bowl

West Virginia 37, Florida State 17 (take WVU, -3)

This is an even game if Florida State has its QB (Ponder) healthy. They do not. I don't think WVU is that good - but they will roll in the Bowden Bowl.

Capital One Bowl

LSU 27, Penn State 20 (take LSU, pick 'em)

PSU was my pre-season selection to win the BCS championship - that probably tells you about my skill at picking games. I am picking angry, and picking against them. Also, my SEC-over-Big 10 bias is in play again.

Rose Bowl (or the Bowl to blame for not having a playoff)

Oregon 38, Ohio State 12 (take Oregon, -5)

Ohio State is boring. Oregon's uniforms are not.

Sugar Bowl

Florida 52, Cincinnatti 21 (take Fla, -13)

I have never spelled Cincinatti correct on the first try. And seriously, is anyone outside of Ohio actually picking the Bearcats?

I also take this as a bad sign: when you click on the "preview" on ESPN.COM for this game, the following headline greets you:

No. 4 Cincinnati starts practice for Sugar Bowl

I know that it's probably a dated headline, but it does kinda make you wonder exactly WHEN (and IF) they are in any way ready for this game after the coaching situation.

Resolution!

I have several resolutions that I am planning on (resolving/achieving/completing?) this year - and I am sure most will not last the week.

Posting on this blog is one of them!

College football prediction:

Outback Bowl

Auburn 30, Northwestern 17 (take Auburn, -9)

This is a typical pick-the-SEC selection, though the Big 10 has already made a nice statement with Wisconsin's win over Miami.

Did anyone see "The U" - the documentary on the University of Miami football program? It's a wonderful look at the most recent era of college football - I am considering that the mid 80's through the early 2000's - an era from which I can see highlights and actually remember the games and the emotions connected to those moments as they unfolded.

Time to post this blog entry before the game begins!

the broken Mets at the break

first, an obvious declaration: the Mets cannot survive another two weeks without their key players on the field. reyes and beltran need to be back before the calendar hits August, or the playoffs are unreachable.

the Phillies are done treading water, as they did for all of June - and have begun to play very well. Ibanez is back, Pedro (who will win more games than any other option they had on the roster) is coming, and Lidge will be better in the second half. The Phils gave the Mets a chance to hang around, but by next weekend there is a good chance the Mets will be 10 back.

David Wright continues his season of anomalies - high average, high strikeouts, low home runs. I have no explanation; it's gotta be more than Citi Field. Wright is a doubles machine, and that has continued, but no one could have foreseen a year of single-digit home runs this season.

Luis Castillo, second on the Mets in games started, has had a better year than anyone would have predicted - even though his numbers don't tell the whole story. Anyone who watches every game knows that there is no player more likely to pop out to the second baseman when you really need an RBI base hit. Still, a .289 average is nothing to throw away, considering the performance of...

Daniel Murphy. This is not fair, because he is so young, but the one player (if we throw out injuries) most responsible for the Mets failure this season is Murphy. He was simply a horror show in the outfield. He has been better at first base, but think about this: a non-power hitting first baseman who is now hitting .248. Simply unacceptable. I don't fault the player as much as I do the Mets' management which put a player who isn't ready - or isn't good enough - into an impossible position. The misread on Murphy has cost the Mets dearly.

it feels worse than this, doesn't it?

As the Mets reach the 40-game mark, the team finds itself at an interesting crossroads. After winning 12-of-15 to vault themselves into first place, they have dropped four straight to sit just 2 over .500, at 21-19 at the quarter-pole.

A new slew of problems have arisen, though, and these are not quite as easy to joke about as Murphy's failure to catch a fly ball. Delgado is lost for awhile - perhaps the season - and Reyes hasn't really played in a week. Without either, the offense could survive. Without both, it simply can't. Add to this the fact that with below-par fielders at first base and left field, and who-knows at shortstop, even more stress is placed on an offense that cannot take it.

Getting back from a 10-game road trip should help. Getting Reyes to play will help. But neither of these will happen before the Mets go to Fenway to face the red hot Sox. Let's not get buried here, and emerge on the other side with a much more favorable schedule as the calender turns towards June.

Worth noting: Wright, on a 12-game hitting streak, has picked his average up from a better-then-it-seemed .271 on April 26th to an incendiary .362 as play begins tonight.

help from the farm?

At the 20-game mark, it is time to figure out exactly how to fix this Mets team...

The main culprit has been the non-Santana starting pitchers, and I'm going to isolate Oliver Perez - probably because when I went to Citi field last week, he was "pitching" - by that I mean walking every other batter and giving up extra-base hits to the #7 and #8 batters...

So how to fix this? It's major league baseball, so simply look to the farm!

I looked up the Mets AAA team, the Buffalo Bisons, figuring Jonathan Niese or Dillon Gee (honestly I hadn't even heard of this guy before spring training) might be ready to come up and spark the team.

As I looked up the pitching stats, I noticed something curious - there were not many Bisons' pitchers with any victories. To verify, I decided to look at the AAA standings page, and lo and behold I saw it: Buffalo Bisons, 2-17, last place.

2-17???

Ah, the future is bright, Mets fans!

(and in case you were wondering: Niese, 0-2, 6.55; Gee, 0-3, 5.40 - and these are the TOP TWO pitchers in Buffalo...)