ESPN is totally not the Eastcoast Sports Propaganda Network

Anybody out there see what was on ESPN during primetime last night. Boston Celtics vs the Orlando Magic on ESPN and Boston Red Sox vs Texas Rangers. “

Don’t worry, we are biased, we are just showing two Boston games cause………”

I understand ESPN is in the Business of making money and these two Boston teams draw ratings, but come on. Thankfully Hockey was on my new favorite network, NBC Sports.

Monday Trivia. NBA MVPs

Welcome back to Monday Trivia. As always, the answers will be up in the comments on Thursday.


Since 1990, 4 NBA teams have had 2 different players win the MVP award. Name the 4 teams and the 8 players who won the awards.

MLB Preview and Predictions

Time to fire up the old Laptop and do some MLB predicting based on my extensive baseball knowledge.


Before we get into the predicting, let’s quickly discuss the biggest offseason news. The addition of a 2nd Wild Card team. I am not sure if I am a fan of this or not. I understand it keeps teams competitive longer, and can make for exciting races toward the end. But the MLB Playoffs already drag on so much which causes the games to be played differently than regular season. I think that adding additional games and days off will make this worse.

The story line that is being told over and over again is How the Blue Jays and Orioles now have a chance to make the playoffs since there’s two wild card spots! It’s impossible for the Yankees and Red Sox to take all three spots. First off, I don’t hear the Rays complaining about the old system. Even though they play in the same division as the Blue Jays and Orioles, they’ve still managed to make the playoffs 3 of the past 4 seasons. Secondly, Boston and New York have only both made the playoffs in the same season 1 time in the past 4 years. So just stop this stupid story line now.

As you know this is a very pro White Sox site and I believe we all predicted they would win the World Series last year. As amazing as this sounds, I am predicting the White Sox will have a losing season and finish 4th in the AL central.

There has been a lot of turnover on the south side with the departure of Ozzie, Mark Buehrle taking their talents to south beach, Carlos Quentin heading back to the NL among others. This season will be about whether there is any life left in Adam Dunn & Alex Rios and if the young guys, Viciedo and Flowers can become regulars in the lineup. I think Dunn has a bounce back year, not to his peak numbers but hits around 30 HR and that Viciedo becomes a ROY candidate.

The pitching staff will need Peavy to stay healthy as the White Sox really don’t have another pitcher ready to be an every day starter. Danks and Flloyd should have solid years and it should be interesting to see how Chris Sale works as an every day starter.

White Sox record: 74-88


The rest of the League with some commentary.


AL East: Tampa Bay Rays

Joe Madden just keeps his team going. How they got into the playoffs last year shows they will always keep fighting. Red Sox and Yankees will still have good seasons and will make it to the Wild Card game. I think the Blue Jays will have a good year as well, but ultimately finish somewhere around 500

AL Central: Detroit Tigers

Everyone is picking the Tigers to win the division. As Mike Greenberg said, “Is there a more overwhelming favorite then Detroit to win their division?” Because of this, part of me thinks something wacky might happen and the Twins will somehow find a way to win the Division. Maybe the Royals will be so excited by the All-Star game coming to KC that they’ll play awesome and win the Division. That’s only a half joke, the Royals have a lot of young talent, if that talent plays well and they mature early, they could make some noise this season.

AL West: Rangers

I think this race will be the best in baseball. The Angels made a lot of offseason moves included stealing CJ Wilson from the Rangers. This one will come down to the wire. Also, look for Josh Hamilton to have a monster year in a contract year.


Wild Card Game

Angels over Yankees

ALDS

Angels over Tigers
Rangers over Rays

ALCS

Rangers over Angels


MVP: Jose Bautista, Blue Jays
Cy Young: Jered Weaver, Angels
ROY: Matt Moore, Rays


NL East: Marlins

There’s too much excitement in Miami for the Marlins not to have a good year. New stadium that everyone is raving about with Fish Tanks, and Nightclubs inside. They brought in a ton of free agents and of course the always colorful Ozzie.

NL Central: Brewers

The BeerMakers did lose Prince Fielder, but return much of their playoff team from last year. I look for Zack Grienke to have a good year.

NL West: Giants

Big Time Timmy Jim and co. should have another good year, but the team’s success will be based of whether they can score any runs. The Diamandbacks have a good year, but only make the wild card. Dodgers are in too much limbo with the ownership situation to compete,

Wild Card Game

Diamondbacks over Phillies

NLDS

Marlins over Diamondbacks
Giants over Brewers

NLCS

Marlins over Giants


MVP: Joey Votto, Reds
Cy Young: Tim Lincecum, Giants
ROY: Bryce Harpe, Nationals


Finally

World Series Champion…………….Texas Rangers

Big Ten Bracket Challenge Winner!

After a great weekend of basketball it’s time to declare a winner for Mine and Fodor’s bracket challenge. To the surprise to no one who saw Fodor pick Indiana over Northwestern in the championship, I rolled to victory. I double his score and won 12-6.

Here is the break down.


Round 1 2 3 4 Total
Noffke 2 6 4 0 12
Fodor 2 4 0 0 6


Amazingly, there was only 1 time a lower ranked team defeated the higher ranked team which was when Ohio State beat Michigan in the semi-finals. I picked this right and got the lone bonus point for the tourney. According to CBS’ broadcast, this was the first time in Big Ten Tourney history that the 4 top teams all made it to the semi-finals.

Indianapolis Day One

Dearest Readers,

I write to you as a (partially) broken man. The Northwestern Wildcats could have punched their ticket to the schools' FIRST EVER NCAA Tournament today by beating Minnesota. Granted, Minnesota had the advantage of missing Ralph Sampson III (secretly, that dude is terrible), and getting Julian Welch back from injury (secretly, that dude is good). But this was the game for John Shurna to make himself a legend. This was the goddamned game for Northwestern to make The Leap.

Of course, it didn't happen. To quote some of my own text messages, being a Wildcats basketball fan is like being in an abusive relationship; every time the thing goes wrong, you know it's coming, you expect it, and yet you keep coming back for one more shot. You think this time, the f'ing thing will go right, everything will be okay, you'll get over the hump...

Northwestern made ONE field goal in the last NINE minutes of this game, including overtime. I don't blame Dave Sobelewski for missing his runner at the buzzer that would have won the game. It was a decent shot. I can't even really blame John Shurna for looking absolutely exhausted for the last twelve to fifteen minutes, because the whole game was on his shoulders and Rodney Williams is an extremely athletic defender who did a great job on the Big Ten's leading scorer today.

I don't even know what to do or say with this team. The NU part of my heart is broken tonight. Lucky for me, I'm a duplicitous bastard, and there are several other heart-parts to report on. So, enough Cat angst for the moment. To quote another text message: "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck."

How 'bout them Hoosiers? I think the first and most important thing is Verdell Jones. VJ3 has been a touchy subject for a lot of IU fans, including myself. His tendency to turn it over has been well documented. But then again, so has his ability to be a calming influence on this young team. So has his tendency, down the stretch, to hit huge shots and salt away big games.

Tom Crean in tears says a lot. This is a big loss for Indiana and we all wish the best for Verdell. He deserves to experience the tournament. He's been a huge part of the rebuilding process.

That being said, Indiana played really well today. Huge games from Christian Watford and Cody Zeller, who combined for twenty rebounds and over thirty points. If they can do that with regularity, IU is going to go deep in both this conference tournament and the NCAA's.

Jordan Hulls absolutely carried IU through a bad dry spell in the first and matched Tim Frazier, who is first team All Big Ten, shot for shot. That's also awesome. Oh, and Vic played fine. And the bench played well.

Tomorrow's slate of games is looking good. We start out with Michigan State vs. Iowa at noon. I'm a huge Draymond Green fan, but I've also been impressed with Iowa's improvement over the course of the season. They lost to Campbell in November. Uh, who? Campbell? Northern Iowa beat Iowa by twenty in December. They're not even making the NIT.

Yet Iowa pulled themselves together down the stretch and beat Indiana and Wisconsin at home, adding to a win over Michigan. 8-10 isn't bad at all in the Big Ten. Ask Northwestern how hard it is to have that kind of record this year. I think MSU is going to win tomorrow, but I would not be shocked if Matt Gatens, Aaron White, and the Hawkeyes made things extremely interesting.

Indiana-Wisconsin is a matter of pacing. If Wisconsin dictates the pace, expect a boring game with Cody Zeller contained. If Indiana can do their thing, they absolutely outclass the Badgers at this point in the season. Better offense, better depth, almost a wash on D, and Indiana is way hotter. I'm obviously hoping for an Indiana win and will be doing my best to be just a small part of The Sixth Man. Go Hoosiers. This game will kind of make or break our Big Tens experience this year as fans.

Michigan-Minnesota shoulda been Michigan-NU Round III. Damn it. I don't even want to talk about this. I'll watch the game. These teams are well coached and have good players. Yeah.

Ohio State-Purdue will draw almost as big of a crowd as IU-Wisco. I expect Conseco to be rowdy for this one, with OSU also adding the advantage of a loud and possibly drunken IU fanbase rooting for them for once. We tried to will Nebraska to victory today. It was like adopting a crippled puppy. Bo Spencer made things cute, for a little bit. Ultimately it was hopeless.

I rather expect that Purdue will be in the hopeless puppy role tomorrow against a motivated Ohio State team. William Buford needs to act like a senior, because he IS a senior. Sullinger doesn't have a lot of challenges in the post against the Boilers.

Revised picks? MSU over Iowa in OT, Indiana over Wisconsin, Minnesota over Michigan (hell, why not?), and Ohio State over Purdue. Sorry for no pictures, thanks for reading. I love you all.

Signing off from Indianapolis,

MF

The Cubs Win the World Series.....via PS3

Amazing how good CGI is, you can now make the Cubs look like a good team and actually believe it.

Big Ten Tourney Picks

Okay, I'm going to do this very quickly, because I haven't read the below article yet and I don't want it to influence my picks.

ROUND ONE:

IOWA over Illinois

INDIANA over Penn State

NORTHWESTERN over Minnesota

NEBRASKA over Purdue

ROUND TWO:

MICHIGAN STATE over Iowa

INDIANA over Wisconsin

NORTHWESTERN over Michigan

OHIO STATE over Nebraska

SEMIFINALS:

INDIANA over Michigan State

NORTHWESTERN over Ohio State

FINALS:

INDIANA over Northwestern.

...ya know, they say not to gamble on the teams you love, but screw it, it's the Big Ten Tournament! So there you have it. Hell, Snuffles, I was goanna buy a bottle for that weekend anyway.

Big Ten Tourny Bracket

I am finally making my glorious return to the Website. Why is that? It’s March Madness BABY! March is my 2nd favorite month of the year, mainly for the madness. I have already enjoyed some of the mid major brackets, 2 OT games last night and there’s a W. Kentucky blog sighting on ESPN2 right now. I am looking forward to Valparaiso Detriot tonight and pretty much any other action I can watch.

The main reason for this article though is, BIG TEN TOURNY!

Fodor and I are going head to head (If other ACSS writers want in cough Ryan cough cough Tim) we’d be down too.


Scoring is as follows.

Round 1: 1 Point
Round 2: 2 Points
Semi: 3 Points
Champions: 4 Points

1 Bonus point for correct upset picks.


Game 1.

#8 Iowa vs #9 Illinois

The Pick: Illinois

The Reason: I actually think Iowa will win this game, but I’m making this pick for 3 reasons.

1. The whole Leornard Meyers and his brother’s surprise story (http://deadspin.com/5890234/illinois-sophomore-meyers-leonard-gets-surprise-visit-from-marine-brother
2. Illinois’ campus is actually pretty close to Indy, so they should have a decent showing of support
3. This game is kind of a tossup in my mind, so I’ll take the bonus point for picking the upset.

#5 Indiana vs #12 Penn State

The Pick: Indiana

The Reason: Hoosier biased pick here. Penn State could give the Hoosiers some headaches and it is really hard to beat 1 team in the same season 3 times. Saying that, this is practically a home game and Indiana is way better.

#7 Northwestern vs #10 Minnesota

The Pick: Northwestern

The Reason: Part of me really wants to pick Minnesota, but Northwestern needs a win or two in this tourney to get their first ever ticket punched. What more motivation then that.

#6 Purdue vs #11 Nebraska

The Reason: Practically a home game for Purdue, Hummel will be motivated after fouling out in his last Big Ten regular season game. Also does anyone in Nebraska even know their team is playing? Purdue wins big


Round 2

#1 Michigan State vs #9 Illinois

The Pick: Michigan State

The Reason: Day Day is the best player in this game and won’t let his team lose their opening round game. Izzo excels in the tournaments. Just don’t see how Illinois wins

#4 Wisconsin vs #5 Indiana

The Pick:

The Reason: I actually think Indiana is the better team even though they are the lower ranked team. Wisconsin did better in the Big Ten but Indiana has the better overall resume. Indiana did lose to Wisconsin earlier in the year in Madison. Bo Ryan does get his team to play very smart and make no mistakes, but I don’t see them winning this game.

#2 Michigan vs #7 Northwestern

The Pick: Michigan

The Reason: I do feel Northwestern is a tournament team, but Michigan is the better overall team. I love watching Novak and Hardway Jr play and think they take care of business here.

#3 Ohio State vs #6 Purude

The Pick Ohio State

The Reason: Jared Sullinger. Purdue doesn’t match up well against Ohio State. They have no one who can really guard Sulligner and aren’t nearly as deep as the Buckeyes.


Round 3

#1 Michigan State vs #5 Indiana

The Pick: Indiana

The Reason: I think Indiana is going to play MSU the same way they did the last time they played each other. They will let Day Day get his, but play lock down defense on every other Michigan State player. The Hooisers have been playing with a little bit of swager lately and will use the friend neutral court crowd to advance to the Big Ten Finals

#2 Michigan vs # 3 Ohio State

The Pick: Ohio State

The Reason: Despite the fact Ohio State lost the last game of the season and finished last in the 3 way tie for first, I still think they are the most complete team in the Big Ten and that is why I’m picking them to win this game and…..

#3 Ohio State vs #5 Indiana

The Pick: Ohio Sate

Saturday With the Ocho

Caught three good games online today, thanks to ESPN3 ("The Ocho"). West Virginia-Syracuse from the Carrier Dome, followed by Freddy Hoiberg's Iowa State Cyclones upsetting Kansas in Ames, and then back home to the Big Ten for Purdue-Northwestern. Here's a few thoughts on each before I preview the Indiana-Iowa matchup tomorrow and maybe write about some other stuff.

West Virginia - Syracuse

The ending of this game was extremely controversial, as officials missed what appeared to be a clear goaltending call that would have tied the score with five seconds to play. After further examination... yep, that was definitely a goaltend. 'Cuse escapes.

The Mountaineers have always been one of those programs that I have a random soft spot for, since the days of the legendary Kevin Pittsnogle, back when John Beilein was coaching there instead of at Michigan. This year's team looks pretty good.

Senior forward Kevin Jones is a beast and will be in the POY conversation for the entire country (Pomeroy has him ranked at #9 overall right now). Truck Bryant is a streaky but entertaining point guard. So I like those guys. I think West Virginia's Euro guy with the beard needs to learn how to pass the ball in the post.

Big win for 'Cuse at home. That's a deep team. Are they title contenders? Of course. Do I think they're goanna win? Not really. Too reliant on that 2-3 zone, and no superstar, though Dion Waiters comes close.

Iowa State - Kansas

Ames, Iowa is upset city! The kids stormed the court after the Cyclones beat Kansas today. Iowa State has been getting a lot of attention on ESPN.com recently, with profiles on Fred Hoiberg and his rebuilding job as well as a puff piece on Minnesota transfer Royce White (I shouldn't hate, it's actually a pretty good read if you can stand the cheese.)

White is a star, no doubt, and this team looks well coached and well balanced. They made some serious clutch plays today and solidified their tournament resume.

Kansas doesn't have a whole lot to worry about from the loss. Iowa State is a good team, and they were at home with a raucous crowd. Tyshawn Taylor and POY frontrunner Thomas Robinson are still enough for Kansas to make a deep tourney run.

Scouting report extra: I think one HUGE factor in this game was Kansas center Jeff Withey sitting with foul trouble late. Iowa State may have provided the rest of the Big 12 (uhhh.. Big... how many teams do they have now?) with something of a blueprint.

Purdue - Northwestern

Robbie Hummel hit a leaner with eight seconds left that provided the margin in a typical low-scoring Big Ten nailbiter. Huge shot for him. Isn't his back supposed to have blown out by this point in the season?

On the other end, Northwestern couldn't get a clean shot off as John Shurna bricked a three at the buzzer that was reminiscent of the Bracey Wright era at IU - thirty feet deep, off glass, nowhere close. Oops.

Northwestern desperately needs to start winning some conference games. Purdue, like West Virginia and Iowa State, looks to be in decent shape for an at-large bid. Northwestern needs more players. I'm pretty sure they're going with a seven-man rotation, and that's just not goanna get it done. Luka Mirkovic, Jer'shon Cobb, where are you guys?

Previewing Indiana-Iowa

Let's keep this short and sweet. Iowa has not sucked too badly this year. They have already beaten Wisconsin and Minnesota on the road, and Michigan at home. Indiana must not overlook this team.

The Hawkeyes' weakness is their defense. Indiana is at their best when they score the ball. They managed to score 70+ points on some of the best defenses in the nation in Kentucky and Ohio State earlier this season, so you know they have firepower. It's time to rediscover it.

Our team defense isn't bad, but this is an Indiana team that should be scoring a lot of points every single game. If Iowa's weak sauce D (Pomeroy has them rated 183rd in the country) causes the Hoosiers any trouble tomorrow, we're in for a looooong second half of the season in Bloomington. Just make some shots and run away from the Hawks.

Like the Penn State game last week, this is an absolute must win for Crean, Cody, and the rest of the Hoosiers.

News/Notes

The Bears hired a new GM in Phil Emery. He was the clubhouse favorite to get the job. I'm not covering the NFL until March Madness is over, dammit. Noffke?

The Bulls got a huge game out of Derrick Rose and beat Milwaukee to move to 17-5 on the season. This team is just grinding in a tough year for the entire NBA. The playoffs are going to be nuts. I'm expecting injuries to play a huge role in who goes deep - the favorites are the Bulls, Heat, and Thunder, but with games almost every day, staying healthy seems like a crapshoot.

Indiana-Wisconsin was decided, in my mind, by Cody Zeller's foul-plagued evening. It's too bad he didn't do better, because his brother Tyler put up 21pts/17rebs as UNC smacked NC State in the mouth Thursday. Woulda been cool to have a double Zeller showcase. T. Zeller and John Henson are a terrifying frontcourt if you're a smaller team. I'm pencilling them into the Elite Eight, at least.

Don't Call It a Comeback (Please)

I finally caved and bought a yearlong subscription to Ken Pomeroy's genius college basketball website, www.kenpom.com. It's possible I may have mentioned this advanced stats site to some of you before.

So in order to make my $19.99 pay for itself, it's about damn time to get back to AMATEUR SPORTSWRITING! Wahoo! (You can call it a comeback when I manage to stick to a writing schedule for more than one day.)

It also helps that the Big Ten is having the most exciting men's college hoops season I can remember, and that Indiana is back in the mix. Here's the plan. I'm going to try to write an article at least once per off-day (Saturday, Monday, Thursday), focusing mostly on this incredibly awesome basketball season, and of course the Hoosiers, Northwestern Wildcats, the Big Ten, and maybe even the Bulls in particular.

Enough jibber jabber. I'm shakin' the rust off, baby. Indiana gets Wisconsin at the Kohl Center tonight at 9, which means it's Yogi's Time (gunning for a corporate sponsorship by March...). Here's a little preview. Inside the Hall does a better job of these things than me, by the way, and you can check them out at their FREE site. Take that, peegs.

KEYS TO THE GAME

1. Oladipo's defense on Jordan Taylor. Taylor killed us last year - courtesy ITH's Justin Albers, "the Wisconsin guard ruined two upset attempts by scoring a combined 67 points in two meetings last season." If he goes off again, we're in some trouble. However, Victor has had to guard Bo Spencer and Tim Frazier now in the last two games, who happen to be the conference's other undersized do-everything guards.

If he's learned anything from the last two games, and can hold Taylor to under or around twenty, that's huge. 'Dipo doesn't need to force a lot of turnovers, just contest every shot and not foul much.

2. Cody Zeller needs to get Jared Berggren in foul trouble. Jared who? Berggren was a godawful reserve last year (think Capobianco level bad) but has turned into a solid scorer and inside presence as a junior. He's also the Badgers' only player over 6'6 other than freshman Frank Kaminsky. (That, by the way, is a CLASSIC Wisconsin name right there.)

I don't really need to spell this out. Do like Dicky V says and get Cody the damn ball. Wisco plays good team defense, but Cody can score at will over just about anybody smaller than him, and I think he can own Flat Top Ryan Evans and/or Bruesewitz in the paint if Berggren goes out and leaves them shorthanded.

3. Wake up Christian Watford on offense. Wat's been rebounding well, but not scoring like he's capable of doing. I think IU needs to get to around seventy points to win this game, and we need Christian to get at least 12-14 to get there. Now would be a great time to break out of this little mini-slump and get your name headed toward's people's All-Big Ten lists, buddy. I would say that you can't live off the Kentucky shot forever, but.... well, you can totally live off that shot forever. Please don't.

This is a pretty good Wisconsin team but I think with our superior size and scoring punch we match up surprisingly well. The Badgers are allowing the lowest 3pt percentage of any B10 team and the fifth lowest in the country at 26.4% (thanks, Pomeroy!). Is it the Kohl Center rims? Because if it's not, we may just mess that stat up for them pretty badly tonight.

Indiana 72 - Wisco 66

Random Notes:

Michigan vs. Michigan State last week was one of the best games I've seen all year, thanks to ESPN3 for televising (computering?) it and a great job by the ESPN crew catching Denard Robinson in the student section partying his ass off and having a blast like the star quarterback at a major state university ought to be doing. Oh, and supporting his fellow student-athletes, of course.

Draymond Green is my favorite non-Indiana player in the Big Ten. I love his attitude, I love watching him play. His court demeanor reminds me of DJ White as a senior. This is a Very Good Thing. It's been cool watching him grow into a leader at Michigan State. By the way, that braces picture? That's the #1 image result for "Draymond Green" on Google. Hah.

Northwestern, at 12-7 and having gotten shellacked by Minnesota, is probably looking at the NIT now. Hey, as long as they go to the NIT Final Four, I'm happy. This is Not Such a Good Thing.

Kenpom has this cool thing now where you can see a player's profile year by year, and also guys that have had similar stats throughout the years the site has been up. Will Sheehey's #1 parallel? This year's edition of UNC's Harrison Barnes. I know Barnes hasn't been quite as good as hyped, but he's still been The Guy for the #8 team in the country. That's pretty cool.

By the way, UNC vs. NC State starts at 7, and I'm goanna go watch it. Zeller double feature! (I stole that line). Also an important game for Indiana's NC SOS (that's non-conference strength of schedule).

Matt Roth's #1 parallel, by the way? '11 Jon Diebler. That's almost as good as Sheehey's. It's great to see Roth playing well as a senior.

Thanks for reading and I hope to have a lot more for you as the year goes on. Much love. Go Hoosiers!