ScottJax gives some advice to Danica, NBA, MLB and more in this weeks edition of…

This and That

I don't know about you, but I am not that good in playing the Lottery. I figure that since the computer picks the numbers that win, okay its the balls that do it, still there has to be a connection between the balls and the computers. Thats why I have the computer pick the numbers for me. Ah, someday the computer will get it right!!

Wow, I have jury duty and have been assigned to a case, with 13 other jurors. It has been interesting so far. Now on with the show.

 The most unbelievable basketball shot, a front-flip half court shot was performed by Ashlee Arnau, a cheerleader at William Carey University in Hattiesburg, Miss. The shot is a take-off on the front-flip throw-in that soccer players do. For the record Ashlee plays soccer and runs track for the college.

And to prove it was no fluke she did it again the next day:

In front a Harlem Globetrotter basketball player.

Awesome!!

2 year old shoots hoops. His name is Titus and he has already appeared on Jimmy Kimmel show, ABC, and Fox News.

When is it too early for a college to offer a football scholarship to a player?

Alabama gave a scholarship offer to Dylan Moses, a 2017 prospect from Baton Rouge, La, He is an eight-grader who measured in at 6-foot-1, 215 pounds.

Funny thing, or maybe its not too funny, is that LSU offered Moses a scholarship last year. I even mentioned it last year on the Gab.

It looks like QB Matt Cassel of the Kansas City Chiefs is on the way out as the Chiefs will be trading for 49ers QB Alex Smith. San Francisco will get a second round pick in this years draft and a 2014 conditional pick.

Are the biggest disappointments in the NBA, The Lakers or The Mavericks? Do you have any suggestions?

What about the surprise team in the NBA? Memphis? Golden State?

Since the NHL has resumed, I am not ashamed to admit it, but I have been watching some games this year. Attendance has been up and the Black Hawks are tearing up the league#

So the mighty NHL Rangers have fallen# Its great to see that they are right above my lowly New York Islanders at the bottom of the Division.

Will bringing in the fence in Seattle help the Mariners??

I like the Washington Nationals, so far, to win it all.

I hope both MLB teams from Los Angeles fall on their faces#

After watching The Oscars I have to buy Lincoln when it comes out on DVD. I very rarely go to the movies# I usually wait til the movies come on cable since I pay an arm and two legs for it.

Just a little observation from this past Sunday Daytona 500. Danica you should have taken the lower track with 5 laps to go# You could have won it. You say you were afraid you were going to get crushed, but that didn’t faze Jimmy Johnson did it???

You have to be aggressive sometimes!!!

Til Next Time

Scott

The basic idea of my computer ratings is to be a better version of the BCS standings, where the focus is on the top teams and having the correct top 2.

For the first few years, my top 2 agreed with the BCS top 2 with the BCS Champion finishing #1 in my final rankings. That changed last year when I had Oklahoma St. #2 going into the bowls and then LSU stayed #1 despite the loss to Alabama.

Once again this season, my top 2 was different from the BCS top 2. I had Notre Dame #1 going in, but Alabama was down at #4, below Florida and Ohio St.

Some might scoff at Florida, which didn’t even win its division, but neither did last year’s pre-bowl #3. Florida also managed to beat both LSU and Texas A&M, which Alabama could not do, and the Tide didn’t even face one of the top 3 teams of the other division until the SEC Championship game.

As for Ohio St., let’s face it: If they weren’t on probation, they would have been in the title game against Notre Dame.

Since I’m about to paste my top 25 below anyway, I’ll give it away. Alabama did finish as #1 in the final rankings this year, the second year in a row my (completely subjective) preseason #1 ended #1. And if we were to look at the top 2 now, what happens? Rematch! Alabama should have to beat them again. It would be even better if they had to beat Georgia again though. In addition, Alabama should also have to travel back in time and beat Texas a second time in 2009.

I’ll be really annoyed if Alabama has a November loss next year and ends up in the title game again anyway, especially being that their SEC East opponents in the regular season will be Tennessee and Kentucky while LSU, for instance, will play Florida and Georgia.

Top 25

rank / team / prior

1 Alabama 4

2 Notre Dame 1

3 Ohio St. 2

4 Oregon 6

5 Stanford 5

6 Florida 3

7 S Carolina 8

8 Georgia 10

9 TX A&M 12

10 Kansas St. 7

11 Clemson 15

12 Florida St. 16

13 SJSU 14

14 LSU 9

15 Oklahoma 11

Continue to full blog.

As we wallow our way into mid-January we leave college football behind. This may be, though I doubt, one of the last chances for any of us to belly-ache about the BCS. I intend to use it to the fullest. I love college football. I love the game and all that comes with it. There’s so much pageantry and heart. I still remember walking to our field in Albion, Michigan over the train tracks and past countless tailgaters. I remember the joy of running through the band. I can still watch the game and love every aspect of it, even if I don’t have a rooting interest.

The problem is that after 14 weeks, everything crashes to a halt. (Aside, of course, from the annual Army-Navy game which is always a treat.) As of December 1st, all the leagues and divisions were decided and the game we love stopped. The teams were given two weeks at the least to rest up and get ready for a new challenge and match-ups that are supposed to be exciting and new for the fans. Instead, we get what has become an increasingly lackluster bowl season.

 I’ll concede that fact that I missed a lot of bowl games this year, but from what I’ve heard, read, and seen on highlights I’ve missed little to nothing. The first day of bowls kinda shows the point in micro detail. You’re bound to get some games that are surprisingly more interesting than you’d figure. This year, Arizona paired up with Nevada and staged a brilliant 49-48 point contest. Granted, play was sloppy, but it was fun to watch and what most expect from a bowl game. It’s the kind of thing that was generally delivered on a fairly consistent basis. The late game showed the other result, a 41-15 drubbing of Toledo served up by Utah State at the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. In grand total, 24 of the 35 bowl games were decided by at least two scores. A great deal were outright blow-outs.

To me, it boils down to one thing: the extreme length of time between the end of the season and the bowls. Granted, the so-called playoffs will completely change the elements of the season, but bear with me. Ideally, each team is given at least two weeks. The season for these guys starts in late August so far as game play. Beforehand, teams have winter workouts, spring ball, over summer workouts, and camp. These guys train year round, still giving guys this age, most of whom will be done with the sport shortly after their bowl game, is just too much.

I get that teams want to be prepared and coaches want to earn their keep, but the gap between the end of the season and the bowls is a bit ridiculous. We all know the game play really suffers. I’m not saying Notre Dame against Bama would have had a different outcome if they’d just played earlier, I just think it would have been much more watchable. There’s no need for such a long break. Teams that make bowls and are not in conference championship games can just as easily start their bowls off in week 15.

The NCAA can’t try to say they do this so as not to interfere with finals. Let’s face it, the only reason Collegiate appears in that institutions name is so they can avoid having to pay the players. If the collegiate aspect of the game meant anything, they’d have more players attend classes and make tutors more readily available. Education is completely kept separate from football and basketball in the NCAA. It’s also laughable to think that any players from Notre Dame or Alabama had half a chance to do much in terms of finals. They had some time to study and were able to take the final, but otherwise they were on a practice field, conditioning, or in the film room. The break for finals was a huge cram session for bowl week and nothing more.

I know things should be somewhat different when the NCAA has playoffs in all its divisions, but as of right now the time schedule is really hurting their product. Yes, teams are given more time to study final and prepare. They have scout teams. They have film. They don’t have game speed. Few, if any, coaches probably push their squads much at this juncture in the season. If anything, practices tend to shorten up as the year moves on.

Time spent away from the actual physicality and speed of the game can be detrimental. Notre Dame played its last game November 24 against USC. They sat out a little more than 8 weeks before the National Championship Game. Of course they were out of it. They hadn’t seen anything close to what they were playing against in 8 weeks. A lot of it is their fault for not being in a conference. They lost a week or so by not having a conference championship to play for. Even the Big Ten learned that lesson over the years. Alabama sat only two weeks less. Though they didn’t look it, they were probably less than full go Monday. If the wait time could be cut by putting more bowls together and eliminating an off week, the games we saw could have been a lot better because players would be in better game shape.

I’m also highly amused by the people who are pretending to be shocked that Nick Saban is staying put at Alabama. You think those college coaches didn’t catch the news on Black Monday this past week? Why would any sane college coach want to move up? Much less Nick Saban. He’s been there and done that. How could these media hubs forget his 2005 and 2006 season in Miami? Saban had already hopped around a lot in college; starting in Toledo, moving to Michigan State, and then winning it all with LSU. He was adored in all these college towns.

Saban incorrectly assumed he’d get the same worship in Miami, which he did at the press conference after they hired him and after he opened with a 34-10 win over Denver in 05. Then he finished 9-7 and missed the playoffs. Missing the playoffs means you are done in the NFL, no Thanks for Trying Bowl. People had hope, but many were starting to wonder. The next season, Saban went 6-10. The colleges came courting and he did the wise thing: he ran right back to them.

He’s won 3 National Championships and is more or less a god on earth. Saban is all too comfortable right now. He will enjoy his time on top until he starts to lose grip. At that point he may move back down like other greats before him. For now, I know he’s smart enough to stay put. More and more college coaches are seeing this and getting wise. I predict the NFL is going to have to stick to hiring assistant NFL coaches or lesser college coaches. The guys on top of the NCAA know it’s too comfortable. No sane man would chose to be mortal again in the NFL.

Well, that’s it for me this week. I’m looking forward to the divisional round of the NFL playoffs. So far, I like Denver and Houston in the AFL. I like the 49ers and Falcons out west. I just think the Falcons are due. I have a bit of a rest before finding out about my teaching assignment. Gonna use that time to catch up on laundry and hopefully figure out why the universe hates my Jeep. Jeepus has a tendency to choke up and stall on me after I fill him up. The current idea is to replace the fuel pump. I got someone to do it for a good price, so hopefully that solves it. Thanks as always for stopping in. Feel free to comment and by all means leave me some car advice. I could use any and all suggestions, especially if the fuel filter doesn’t help. I leave you with your words of the week.
 

Going commandtoe
Going commandtoe is when you wear shoes without socks. Often done in the summer or if no socks are available.
Does not apply to when wearing sandals/flip-flops because socks in that context would just be wrong anyway.
Ray saw it was a bit of a scorcher outside so he decided to get some air between his toes by going commandtoe

Porm, noun
You meant to search porn but you made a typo and searched porm on google. You saw this on urbandictionary and it made you curious so you clicked this. now you are here.
lets jerk it to some porm.

Listen, I can at least start this post with something worth looking at...Something positive, and Notre Dame related...

Yes, I was wrong...I thought the ND/Alabama BCS Championship game would be close...I said it would be a good game...I said Notre Dame would win...I was wrong...

Alabama dominated Notre Dame in the trenches...The Irish defense that played so well all season, played awful...Missed tackles....Bad angles...and flat out over-powered...As much as people talk about "SEC speed," it was brute stregnth more then speed in this one...

And then there was coaching...Brian Kelly and his staff were totally out coached by Nick Saban and his staff...Nobody expected the Irish to score tons of points...The defense had to do what they have done all year, and they couldn't...Manti Te'o, who always seems to be in the right spot...Always seems to anticipate the play...Without a doubt, he played the worst game of his career...

Alabama was the better team...I was wrong...

This doesn't change a thing...My loyalty for Notre Dame is still strong...Hopefully this season is something to build from...I still hate the ND haters...I respect Saban and wish he was coaching the Browns...But why would anyone want that job over what he has...I still hate Alabama...I still hate rednecks...I still don't like what I feel is the over-hyping of the SEC...Fuck LSU, those overrated shit-stains...

As far as tonight, I was wrong...Feel free to pile on...I'm a big boy, I can take it...

Big Hockey game Tuesday...#2 Notre Dame at #1 Minnesota...It's on NESN...Go Irish!

The Beeze.