TGIF

Thank goodness for Fridays. Looking forward to the weekend always adds a little pep in your step and this weekend comes after a short 4 day week (off for Prez's Day).

This week was one to forget in college basketball because last week was so entertaining (rivalry week). This weekend continues the trend. There are only two matchups of Top 25 teams, Villanova @ Syracuse and Wake Forest @ Duke. There are some other intriguing matchups, but many of those are part of Bracketbuster weekend (as ESPN calls it) involving Midmajor teams, so the matchups of the BCS conferences are not that great.

On Wednesday, I made one of the worse picks I have made all year. Purdue trounced Michigan State in West Lafayette and made me look silly. My record for the year: 18-11

Let's crack open another Friday six pack of picks (Officially, Friday = six pack of picks day)

First off, the two games featuring Top 25 teams (I know there are differences in the polls, but I am using the ESPN polls because that's what I read the most). Both these games are on Sunday and both are mandatory selections for the six pack.

Villanova has been one of the hotter teams in the Big East, until last Friday when they lost by 21 points to an unranked West Virginia team. Syracuse has lost 6 of their last 9 only managing to beat Georgetown by 4 at home in overtime, West Virginia at home and Notre Dame at home. All teams that are unranked, and West Virginia is the only one of the three with a winning conference record (7-6 with only 2 wins coming against the top half of the conference).

Enough jibber jabber, get to the pick already!

Villanova takes this one in a big matchup and big letdown for the Orange.

Our other matchup features a game with more implications for conference rankings and NCAA seeding. Duke welcomes Wake to Cameron Indoor in a game that features 2 of the 4 teams in a log jam at second place in the ACC. Since attaining the number one ranking in the country, Wake has beaten ranked teams Duke and Florida State, but also lost to 3 of the bottom 4 teams in the conference (Georgia Tech, Miami and NC State).

Since Duke attained the number one ranking (just after Wake) they have lost 4 of 7, but have lost to good teams (BC, UNC, Wake, and Clemson). They have played themselves out of 1 seed discussions for the NCAA tournament, but are still a good team.

I look for Duke to get back on track against a good team, just because the game is at home.

My other five picks are:

(2) Oklahoma @ Texas: Leading off with my upset special. Texas takes the rematch (OU won in Norman 78-63) with a much needed win. This puts OU in striking distance of either KU or MU for the conference crown. This also make OU either ticked off or completely lost leading into their matchup Monday against the Jayhawks.

(22) Butler @ Davidson: The key to this game is Stephen Curry. He is questionable for the game, and if he doesn't play look for Butler to take care of business. Heck, Davidson just lost to the Citadel at home Wednesday without Curry. If he is healthy, I think Davidson plays its way back in to the at-large bid discussion, not just mandating a win in their conference tourney.

(23) Utah State @ St. Mary's: St. Mary's is still without Patrick Mills, their Australian national team member and starting point guard, and I look for them to struggle. Mills is a difference maker and Player of the Year candidate in the WCC and without him, the Gaels have not been the same. The Aggies win.

Nebraska @ (18) Kansas: What? Am I not allowed to pick my own team? KU wins against a scrappy Husker team. I just needed a short entry for your reading pleasure.

(16) Illinois @ Ohio State: Big Ten teams this year are not very good on the road. Combined they are 37-47. Ten of those wins have come from the top two teams (Michigan State and Purdue, the only teams with winning conference records on the road). Illinois is not one of those two teams and Ohio State is 5-1 @ home in conference. The Buckeyes get their sixth win against a Top 25 opponent this year, a highly misleading stat considering the only team still ranked of the previous five is Purdue and at the time the Boilermakers were without (insert buzzword) *Playmaker* Robbie Hummel.


I would talk about how disappointed I am in the NBA trade deadline, but I haven't had time to fully evaluate all the trades. Somethings I do know are that the biggest deals include Rafer Alston, the Sacramento Kings, Thabo Sefolosha (who has probably the coolest name in the NBA) and Calvin Booth.

The best trade of the deadline went to the Lakers, who traded Chris Mihm for....


Are you ready for this?


Thabo...


The former Longhorn Center averaging 2 points and 1.9 rebounds a game was traded for...


...Sefolosha!



Are you sure you're ready for this?



Thabo....



Mihm was traded, with cash (enough to pay his salary for the year) to the Memphis Grizzlies...



...Sefolosha!!!



I don't think you're ready for this.


Really.


It's too silly to write.....


Mihm was traded (with salary paid by the Lakers) for a conditional second round pick in 2013. 2013!!!! And it's a conditional pick!!! That means there is a chance the Lakers won't even get the pick! The NBA is just ridiculous.


That's all for today; now I just have to think of a way to convince my loving, caring, understanding wife who gave our dog the middle name of Jabbar, to give our first son the middle name Thabo!

Yep.

DDSF