Okay...so the latest hype is that Ohio State is the unanimous #1 team in the ESPN/USA Today Poll. Don't buy into it!!! Sadly they have no one on their regular season schedule to prove it, but they're really not that good. The only way this team is winning the national championship is if they're given a bracket as easy as Duke's last year. And even then I think they'd have to slip the refs a few extra bucks. Anyone remember the last basketball championship for the Buckeyes? 1960? Yeah, they just don't matter. Sidenote: I wasn't impressed with Texas yet, but the win over Kansas has helped shape my opinion. They're moving up in my Big 12 rankings, but I still think Kansas is the best in the conference. Let's not forget Texas lost 73-56 to USC. The same USC who lost to Bradley (6-14 record). (yeah yeah, some of you may remind me that Kansas only beat USC by 2 - but at least they did beat USC.)
More importantly, the Gators are back in the top 25 after an impressive win over Arkansas! That game against South Carolina was most disappointing. Unfortunately the Gators only felt like playing for the last 5 minutes of the game, and it was too little too late. A focus on defense made the Florida-Auburn game reminiscent of a Big Ten match-up, and thus was nearly unwatchable. 45-40? No, that wasn't the halftime score. But a win is a win. Gators have a big one at Georgia tonight. GO GATORS!! Also, as much as I think Purdue is overrated...Go Boilermakers. Beat the buckeyes!!!
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
The 25-game win streak is over...
Before Florida found its identity as a team this season, the Gators beat FSU on the road. Because the Gators did not seem ready for the season yet and still won the game, I didn't see FSU as a threat to many teams. I knew the ACC was down this year, but I originally said that did not apply to Duke. I guess Duke didn't get the memo, because they played like an ACC team last night. Congrats to Derwin Kitchen and Chris Singleton on strong individual performances. As thrilling as it is to see the #1 team fall in college basketball, I am upset for 2 reasons this morning. 1: FSU won a game last night. 2: Ohio State will likely be #1 in the next poll. So on Saturday...come on, Nittany Lions....you got this!!! And I was actually slightly excited to see the next set of polls because as many of you saw Tuesday, the Gators won a thriller in overtime on the road, and some are projecting the Gators to creep back into the top 25. Wisconsin should drop out after its choke at Michigan State, but the polls just seem to love the Big Ten so much this season, I wouldn't even be surprised if they and the Spartans both jump. Illinois, too. Still waiting for an explanation on how Purdue is ranked ahead of UConn. Anyway, Gators have another tough East game Saturday (the SEC East is for real in basketball this season! gotta make up for football somewhere, I guess...) Go Gators! Beat the gamecocks!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
1-11-11
Worst group of BCS Bowls in the history of the BCS - hands down. Oklahoma beat an unranked team. Stanford beat a team who even James Madison beat. TCU showed that even the "best" of the big ten is just not good. Ohio State paid Arkansas to lose at the end of the Sugar Bowl. Seriously...no one was near the guy who recovered the blocked punt...easy run in for the score...and first interception of the game coming in the last minute for Arkansas? I'm not buying it. Hope it was worth the money, Tressel. Especially since 5 of your guys shouldn't have been playing in that game anyway. Bunch of dirty cheaters, if you ask me. And last night's game? What happened to the explosive offenses I heard about for over a month? Game almost put me to sleep. That game showed that football was just not very good this season...but even in a down year, the SEC came out on top. 5 years in a row. Congrats to Gator Gene Chizik on the national championship!
On to more important things, the Gators play at Tennessee tonight. This would be a big road win against the insanely inconsistent Vols. Really not sure how a team can beat Pitt and Villanova but lose to CofC, Oakland and Charleston. Rutgers has a very tough game tonight at UConn. Not at all excited for Wisconsin-Michigan State. Not sure why Michigan State is still ranked in one poll. Pitt-Georgetown and Louisville-Villanova tomorrow will be some good Big East matchups. I'm interested to see how 13-2 Nebraska will hold up against Missouri. Missouri-Texas A&M this weekend should be a good one. Purdue vs Minnesota will get no hype from me. Purdue is hanging on to a top-10 ranking despite having played absolutely no one. Oh, the overhyped big ten...what would college basketball (or football) be without you? ...good, maybe? The big east should dominate basketball this season. Kansas and Duke should make some noise. Still waiting for Ohio State to play someone and prove itself. Oh wait, what's that? They only have their weak conference games left until the NCAA tournament? Not surprised...
GO GATORS! Go Scarlet Knights! Go Huskers!
On to more important things, the Gators play at Tennessee tonight. This would be a big road win against the insanely inconsistent Vols. Really not sure how a team can beat Pitt and Villanova but lose to CofC, Oakland and Charleston. Rutgers has a very tough game tonight at UConn. Not at all excited for Wisconsin-Michigan State. Not sure why Michigan State is still ranked in one poll. Pitt-Georgetown and Louisville-Villanova tomorrow will be some good Big East matchups. I'm interested to see how 13-2 Nebraska will hold up against Missouri. Missouri-Texas A&M this weekend should be a good one. Purdue vs Minnesota will get no hype from me. Purdue is hanging on to a top-10 ranking despite having played absolutely no one. Oh, the overhyped big ten...what would college basketball (or football) be without you? ...good, maybe? The big east should dominate basketball this season. Kansas and Duke should make some noise. Still waiting for Ohio State to play someone and prove itself. Oh wait, what's that? They only have their weak conference games left until the NCAA tournament? Not surprised...
GO GATORS! Go Scarlet Knights! Go Huskers!
Monday, January 3, 2011
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to all!
Well, my bowl picks may not be great - but I was right about one thing I said all season: the big ten is an embarrassment. I mean really. Terrible and overrated Iowa & Zook's fighting Illini were able to pull off wins over mediocre Big 12 teams. Also, for all you haters and buckeye fans...remember when I guaranteed Pryor wouldn't win the Heisman and Ohio State wouldn't win the national championship? I think I forgot to say "told you so" - but better late than never. so I'm saying it now. The biggest disappointment so far in a bowl game was Nebraska. I mean, come on, Bo. I know you don't care about the Big 12 anymore...but the Huskers had absolutely no energy in that game and it was pathetic - especially since they really should have been playing UConn in the Fiesta Bowl. But to lose on a neutral field to a team you already embarrassed on their home field? Not cool, Nebraska. But in fairness to the Huskers, they probably want to fit in with the teams in their new conference, and well, the big ten is embarrassing itself. So maybe the Huskers just wanted to follow suit. As some of you know, my brother is a Wisconsin alum. Because of this, he is always telling me how any and every team in the big ten could beat any and every team in the SEC. Well, Florida beat Penn State. Mississippi State beat Michigan. Alabama beat Michigan State. ...I'm just not seeing my brother's logic. I'm still sticking with my pick of Arkansas over Ohio State. Let's face it, the SEC is better than the Big Ten. (And the SEC is the best conference in the country)
As far as the Gator coaching situation, I'm still not sure how I feel about Muschamp. And Charlie Weis? Well, I've never been a big fan. Hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised. But he can't be worse than Addazio! And hopefully Brantley won't set foot on the field. Thanks again to Urban Meyer for the 2 national championships!
Gator Men's basketball had a nice outing at Xavier. Don't let us down tonight boys!! Looking forward to another win over the Atlantic 10. Other than tonight's Gator game, other upcoming games I'm looking forward to are UConn-Notre Dame, Arkansas-Texas, BYU-UNLV, UConn-Texas and Minnesota-Ohio State. (Let's go Golden Gophers!) Duke has looked good early with a couple of impressive wins. Ohio State has yet to play a competitive team, so I stand by my belief that the buckeyes are overrated as usual. Kansas hasn't played many tough games yet either, but they look pretty good. I'm undecided on the Big 12 so far, but the Huskers are off to a nice start at 10-2 even though they've played no one. We'll see how they play against Kansas, Kansas State, Baylor, Texas A&M, Missouri...the Big 12 may be the 2nd best conference this year behind the Big East. The Big East in general is looking strong. Definitely stronger than any other conference this year. The ACC is largely disappointing for hoops this season. The Big Ten, as with every sport, is overrated. None of their "fantastic" teams have played anyone yet. Except Michigan State. And they lost to UConn, Duke, Syracuse and Texas. And what gets me is this...later in the season, they will be credited for their fantastic out-of-conference schedule strength even though they lost every tough game. Their most impressive out-of-conference win so far was over no-longer-ranked Washington from the still-down Pac 10 who has zero ranked teams. I'll repeat what I said the last 2 years: Michigan State is overrated. I'm sorry, but if you can't beat Dan Werner, you don't belong in the final four. End of story. The Big East remains my favorite basketball conference. Rutgers was off to a decent start before playing UNC and then beginning its Big East schedule. Pitt, UConn, Syracuse, Villanova, Georgetown, Notre Dame and Louisville are all looking competitive. Although Louisville couldn't quite handle the SEC on New Year's Eve! The SEC seems extremely inconsistent, and I cannot explain the Tennessee Volunteers at all. They can beat Pitt and Villanova, but can't handle Oakland, CofC or Charlotte? I want to credit San Diego State for its 15-0 start, but the toughest team SDSU played is awful Gonzaga. I'm not saying SDSU is bad - I'm just saying I'll withhold my judgment till later in the season. So happy it's basketball season!!
Go Gators!! Go Scarlet Knights!! Go Huskers!!
Well, my bowl picks may not be great - but I was right about one thing I said all season: the big ten is an embarrassment. I mean really. Terrible and overrated Iowa & Zook's fighting Illini were able to pull off wins over mediocre Big 12 teams. Also, for all you haters and buckeye fans...remember when I guaranteed Pryor wouldn't win the Heisman and Ohio State wouldn't win the national championship? I think I forgot to say "told you so" - but better late than never. so I'm saying it now. The biggest disappointment so far in a bowl game was Nebraska. I mean, come on, Bo. I know you don't care about the Big 12 anymore...but the Huskers had absolutely no energy in that game and it was pathetic - especially since they really should have been playing UConn in the Fiesta Bowl. But to lose on a neutral field to a team you already embarrassed on their home field? Not cool, Nebraska. But in fairness to the Huskers, they probably want to fit in with the teams in their new conference, and well, the big ten is embarrassing itself. So maybe the Huskers just wanted to follow suit. As some of you know, my brother is a Wisconsin alum. Because of this, he is always telling me how any and every team in the big ten could beat any and every team in the SEC. Well, Florida beat Penn State. Mississippi State beat Michigan. Alabama beat Michigan State. ...I'm just not seeing my brother's logic. I'm still sticking with my pick of Arkansas over Ohio State. Let's face it, the SEC is better than the Big Ten. (And the SEC is the best conference in the country)
As far as the Gator coaching situation, I'm still not sure how I feel about Muschamp. And Charlie Weis? Well, I've never been a big fan. Hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised. But he can't be worse than Addazio! And hopefully Brantley won't set foot on the field. Thanks again to Urban Meyer for the 2 national championships!
Gator Men's basketball had a nice outing at Xavier. Don't let us down tonight boys!! Looking forward to another win over the Atlantic 10. Other than tonight's Gator game, other upcoming games I'm looking forward to are UConn-Notre Dame, Arkansas-Texas, BYU-UNLV, UConn-Texas and Minnesota-Ohio State. (Let's go Golden Gophers!) Duke has looked good early with a couple of impressive wins. Ohio State has yet to play a competitive team, so I stand by my belief that the buckeyes are overrated as usual. Kansas hasn't played many tough games yet either, but they look pretty good. I'm undecided on the Big 12 so far, but the Huskers are off to a nice start at 10-2 even though they've played no one. We'll see how they play against Kansas, Kansas State, Baylor, Texas A&M, Missouri...the Big 12 may be the 2nd best conference this year behind the Big East. The Big East in general is looking strong. Definitely stronger than any other conference this year. The ACC is largely disappointing for hoops this season. The Big Ten, as with every sport, is overrated. None of their "fantastic" teams have played anyone yet. Except Michigan State. And they lost to UConn, Duke, Syracuse and Texas. And what gets me is this...later in the season, they will be credited for their fantastic out-of-conference schedule strength even though they lost every tough game. Their most impressive out-of-conference win so far was over no-longer-ranked Washington from the still-down Pac 10 who has zero ranked teams. I'll repeat what I said the last 2 years: Michigan State is overrated. I'm sorry, but if you can't beat Dan Werner, you don't belong in the final four. End of story. The Big East remains my favorite basketball conference. Rutgers was off to a decent start before playing UNC and then beginning its Big East schedule. Pitt, UConn, Syracuse, Villanova, Georgetown, Notre Dame and Louisville are all looking competitive. Although Louisville couldn't quite handle the SEC on New Year's Eve! The SEC seems extremely inconsistent, and I cannot explain the Tennessee Volunteers at all. They can beat Pitt and Villanova, but can't handle Oakland, CofC or Charlotte? I want to credit San Diego State for its 15-0 start, but the toughest team SDSU played is awful Gonzaga. I'm not saying SDSU is bad - I'm just saying I'll withhold my judgment till later in the season. So happy it's basketball season!!
Go Gators!! Go Scarlet Knights!! Go Huskers!!
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