Saturday, March 22, 2008

Wanna Make Some Easy Dough? Here's A Hint: Bet The Habs Tonight

Get used to this sight. When the B's play the Habs, the end result is never in doubt.

I generally don't advocate betting on NHL for a couple reasons. One reason being that you can't find it on TV so you can't really watch as your money is on the line; and two being that the second half of the season is played with such a greater intensity than the first half that often times you can throw out the records when a team scratching to get into the playoffs is playing a team at the top of the division, especially if the scratching team has a hot goalie. But tonight, your money is safe. The Canadiens have topped the Bruins in all 7 meetings this year and won the last 11 overall. And it's not like the Canadiens are running away with the division and the B's are holding down the rear. The B's have won just 4 fewer games than the Habs and are presently a playoff team. The domination is unreal and at this point the advantage is purely psychological (stemming from several gut wrenching playoff defeats, including an 8 seed over the B's 1 seed). So while I'm not advocating gambling on hockey, I will say that if you've ever considered it, this would be a good entry point.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Why Isn't Donte' Greene A Marlyand Terrapin? Because Gary Williams Blew It

Don't get so down, Gar. It's not like your team needed a 6'11" three point shooting NBA Lottery pick anyway.

College basketball recruiting is a fickle business. Unlike college football where a recruit usually doesn't develop physically until about sophomore or junior year of high school, college basketball recruiting begins around 8th grade and gets progressively more aggressive as the player matures. These kids are pampered and told how great they are years before they are ready to accept the responsibility of leading a lucrative NCAA basketball program. And it's because of this immaturity and enhanced self-image that it has to be hard as hell to sell your program to 4-8 kids a year who all believe that they are the best player going without pissing one of them off. Gary Williams ran into this issue and unfortunately for him, 45 minutes was the difference between landing a top 5 recruit and watching him walk:
"Maryland recruited me when I was a sophomore, before anybody was recruiting me," Greene said. "I was waiting for them to call and they called. (Maryland assistant) Keith Booth came up to me and was talking to me and I was on my way to Maryland."

Greene took an unofficial visit to see the Maryland campus, but when he arrived in the basketball office, Maryland coach Gary Williams was with Julian Vaughn, a recruit from Vienna, Va., who is now at Florida State.

"Coach Williams had him in his office, talking for a while, for like 45 to an hour," Greene said. "Then he brought me in there and only said a couple words. I felt like I was disrespected and Gary Williams didn't really want to recruit me."

Greene said he told Booth he should stop recruiting him.

"It ended quick," Greene said. "But I would've definitely loved to go to Maryland."
It's amazing to me that the difference between landing and losing a future lottery pick and potential program changing player is an extra 45 minutes with a 15 year-old kid. Then again it's amazing that these coaches can even carry a conversation with these kids.

Sports Illustrated Cover Jnix

DaJuan Summers must be so proud to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and so annoyed that the idiots couldn't spell his name correctly.

The cover of this week's issue of Sports Illustrated features a fairly glaring typo (if you haven't figured it out yet, the error appears in DaJuan's first name. Larger image can be found here). It's not as though there are a ton of words on the cover that the editor had to review before the issue went out, yet here we are and this is what's on the stands this week. Now I do have to give the guy(s) whose fault this is a little bit of a break considering they routinely run into names like Dwyane and Cletidius, but a misspelling on the cover? That is really bad. What I really don't get is why they didn't just choose a player from Georgetown with a normal name. I mean, was Johnathan Wallace not available?*

*You see, that's funny because Wallace's real first name is spelled "Jonathan." Get it? Whatever. You try being f'n hysterical.