NCAAM Championship Week Finale

March Madness Baby!!!

New York- Welcome to the best non game sports day outside of the NFL draft, welcome to Selection Sunday ladies an gentlemen. Today is the day we separate the dancers from the also rans. With a hearty list of bubble teams, including 2 from the Big East in USF and Seton Hall, as well as the Pac 12 Regular Season Champion Washington. I'm not gonna step in and try to tell you who's gonna end up in and out, mainly cause I don't care. My call to win the Tourney is Marquette, but mainly because I am a degenerate gambler and I saw the 2nd best team in the Big East at 70-1. I'm here to worry about the list of championship games today. I'm gonna save you some reading time and tell you I'm riding the dogs hard today.

Quick Note, all games are played at a neutral site, the home and away is decided by conference seeding.

Bad Blood

FSU @ UNC (-6)

Gotta love a rivalry game in a championship. UNC and Duke have run the ACC for years now. See right there when you read the word ACC the only things that came to mind were those two teams. FSU is tired of living in the shadow plain and simple. They're 3-1 this year against ACC royalty, with 1 extremely tough loss at home to Duke. Today I see them getting 6 points on a neutral floor with UNC's best defensive player is questionable at best. Lets set aside the fact that the refs were half blind in yesterdays semi final game vs a less talented NC State Wolf Pack. Lets set aside the fact that FSU wiped the floor with the Tar Heels last time they met. Its simple, FSU is a damn talented squad, and 6 is too many for any team other than maybe Cuse or Kentucky to be giving on a neutral floor. Case Closed, Lock of the Day.

FSU to cover with the 6 (And a damn good chance to win outright.)

One of these does not belong

Vanderbilt @ Kentucky (-8)

Look there's no need for a write up here, Kentucky is the class of the SEC. A lot of people will be gun shy laying near double digits on a team that barely beat out Florida yesterday. Those people are idiots. Florida was the only team all year that would have had a shot at giving an L to Kentucky in the regular season. Kentucky was good enough to be the 1st or 2nd best team in my choice for the #2 overall conference this year in the Big 10. Vandy does not belong on the court with the Wild Cats, done and done.

Kentucky Laying 8.

1 point would be too many

St. Bonnies @ Xavier (-4)

The swan song for Atlantic City as the Mid Major that's a lil too good to be a Mid Major, the A-10 moves its conference tourney to Jay-Z's new palace in Brooklyn next year. This year the conference has done the boardwalk justice with one hell of a tournament. At no point of any of the 6 games so far in the tourney has there been a lead over 8 points. This is a conference based on the most over used phrase in sports, parity. I have been riding Xavier hard to this point in the tournament, because like Iona in the Maac or Belmont in the A-Sun, I think they are the only special team in their conference. But with both teams likely in the expanded field of 68 at the least, The only thing leading my decision today though is the spread. 4 points is two baskets, and to be honest I wouldn't be surprised if this game came down to a one or two free throws. Take the points and enjoy one hell of a close game.

St. Bonnies +4 and who knows about an ML win.

The Ohio State @ Michigan St. (-2) 

If the Big 10 wasn't crazy slow paced, low scoring and frankly boring basketball they would be the best conference in the country. At any point this year 3-4 teams could have been considered the no doubt best team in the conference, and honestly, I could see a number of these teams doing real damage in the dance. What this comes down to is pre-conceived notions. Coming into the year I thought Ohio State was the far and away class of the conference and I will stick with them to get the win here. I will be staying away from this one myself and just enjoying great defensive basketball and make sure to watch Jared Sullinger so you can tell younger folks about how good you knew he was going to be in the NBA way before he got there. Put that young man on the right squad and hes a 22-15 guy with a very high celling. The wrong team (like hes been with most of this year) he will be a sulking baby (like hes been most of this year)... Yup Demarcus Cousins 2.0 ladies and gentlemen. 

Ohio State Laying the 2 and I hope everyone wakes up in time to see Dicky V's head explode during the first ever 1-68 selection Sunday results show. 

John Wodden

Success is never final; failure is never fatal. 

It's courage that counts."-John Wooden

Cheds daily mantra, John Wodden swag.

Ched, Swaggin

New York- Swag just stepped out of the on deck circle and up to the plate. Get ready to step your game up. Welcome to Swag by Ched.

Ghost of Tyree

New York- WOW. I can't believe how crazy this is right now, called the Giants win but to go into the half with a 10 point lead after embarrassing the Packers D is beyond imagination. 30 minutes from a trip to San Fran in January, if we could all be so lucky. Enjoy the 2nd half.

G-MEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNN

New York- Yeah I know I haven't posted a damn thing this weekend going into round 2 of the NFL Playoffs. Normally this would be an issue of laziness. But I say to you that is only half the case here. I've been hesitant to make a play on the Giants Packers game. No game has left me thinking more. Lets get real, 4 points was too much for the 9ers to be getting at home with that defense,  Tebow didn't have a prayer and T.J. Yates is still a rookie on the road vs a defense lead by a felon. The only game that made me wonder against the spread was Packers Giants.

Classic nobody believed in us game last week by the boys in blue, now with the ghost of 07 rearing its head, nobody can ignore these Giants. In a surprise turn of events, people have forgotten the 15-1 defending Super Bowl Champion Packers. What in Gods name do you do with that when the Giants are getting 9 points?

I have no clue whats gonna happen here, but I know that when the weather gets cold and Tom Coughlins face turns red like a decrepit old Red Skull, the New York Football Giants do WORK. The Packers are built for a dome an they're playing in open air in the Midwest. The Packers don't have a real run game which should allow the Giants edge rushers to hammer Rodgers.

Handle Bar Stache: Not creepy since 1973

Rogers on the other hand is mobile in the pocket enough to avoid the rush just long enough. He's done it on the road in January an hes getting his first shot a doing it at home. Add to the mix that the Packers come in healthier than they've been in quite some time and this one is a real head scratcher. 

 07 and 05 Division Rd Flop Honoree
The Manning Face

Really this all comes down to one thing. Its gotta happen to someone. For the last 5-6 years we've had a Heavily favored Rd. 2 home team coming off a bye losing that no one ever sees coming. Since we already covered it wont be any of the other 3 teams this Divisional Round Playoff weekend. I'm going for it here with the G-Men getting the 9 (down from 12 points) at the time of this post.

Prediction: I know I'm getting 9 but you dont take a Road Dog in the Playoffs unless you think u've got it outright.

Giants 37 Packers 30

To take the +260 ML at 38.45 to win 100, get that line here Bovada

Bru-Tang Clan aint nutin to...

New York- Keeping with my promise from yesterday I'm talking Bruins here folks, and By Gosh We've got a slober knocker in Bean Town tonight. The same team that stopped many a Bruins run and denied the greatest hockey player of all time (Blow me Gretzky) from his fair share Stanley Cup glory enters the TD Garden for a showdown with the 2nd place Bruins. Look, I know next to nothing about hockey, but I do know the Bruins beating the Habs in game 7 last year almost a year to the day after the most epic collapse in NHL history was enough for me to ride the bandwagon to pay dirt. The Habs come into tonight last place in the conference, and are making a bid for the worst team in hockey. But just like the Chiefs beating the Packers (had to reference a sport people watch) anything can happen on the ice. Should be a hell of a game with Marchand out for the 2nd of 5 suspended games look for the young man Senguin to up his team leading goal total of 17. Above all look for Tim Thomas to find and excuse to recreate one of the coolest fights in recent NHL memory.  

Prediction: 4-1 Bruins

Fact: Gentlemen prefer blondes

Bru-Tang Clan

New York- Okay so for those who don't know, I'm an outcast in New York. Dear readers, you are talking to one of a few chosen people who claim allegiance to The Red Sox Nation while residing in enemy territory. Ill give you time to pick your jaw up off the floor. Done? Good. Now this leads to many questions so let me rip through the easy one. I am a die hard Jets fan to the point where I'd like to make Fireman Ed the God Father to my first son.

My son is gonna be a BOSS!

The question of basketball is a touchy subject, my allegiance goes to the Knicks not by default, but because Reggie Miller is up there with The Dark and Nap Time as things I most feared and hated as a child. I still root for the Celtics when the Knicks are out but I think that's because KG is just a beast, Scalabrine made me believe white boys can ball and cause they're so hardcore Irish.

Hockey is the one sport I flip flop on hardcore. I've been to one Rangers game in my life. I was too young for the 94 team to have a real impact on my life and didn't care enough when we got Gretzky. I liked the idea of Avery's Army but they dumped him. I still root hard for the Rangers in the playoffs, but I can't name 5 players. On the flip side Tim Thomas is my personal hockey hero.

Dude with the beard in the background, so Epic.

Look I'm not a self hating New Yorker, it just that a guy like Tim Thomas can come out of nowhere, a career backup and run shit through the Stanley Cup right down to crushing his Save Percentage prop. I love the Bruins for the same reason the Oklahoma City Thunder will hold a special place in my heart for eternity, because when they brought on the duck boats last year I cashed in for around 3 grand. Their Stanley Cup run last year was akin to a Disney Movie for a gambling junky like myself and for that I still play Dropkick Murphys version of Nutty as my wake up alarm to get me fired up for my day.

This song made Paint Ball played by others cool, just saying.

Add in one of the most fun lines in hockey between Bergeron, Marchand and Seguin and you've got my new favorite hockey team. The one thing I can't stand about dynasties in sports is that the team gets lazy. Look at Kobe, Derek Fisher and Pau Gasol last year, tell me they were motivated for a single game of the Mavs series and you sir or madam are a liar. Same thing with the 07 Pats, they had the champagne on ice starting in mid November than this happened. 

I will use any excuse I can to play this clip.

The three guys on the Bruins second line treat the game with child like excitement. Gotta love that. Marchand recently had his first hat trick, Seguin is a ballsy young prick who's already won a cup but couldn't legally drink the champagne and Bergeron is the leader of the bunch putting his mates above himself to tally up wins. These guys play like young kids out on a pond, looking to have fun and win above all else. I know the Rangers are on a hot streak and this Broadway Fedora thing seems to have legs, but they just don't have a Bru-Tang Clan bunch and that sucks. For more proof on how awesome the New England members of the Original 6 are check out Marchands  Running Diary of the Season.

I rooted for the Blue Shirts in The Winter Classic, which was glorious, and I will jump back on the band wagon if the Brown Bears collapse, but as of right now, if for no other reason than to bust Matt's Balls, this blog reports from Bruin Country. Old Time Hockey baby!

Creepin Up The Chart!

P.S. I added two more items to my Christmas/Birthday (Whichever comes first) List. 

Mitchell and Ness, just try and hate on that.

This should appeal to any hockey fan or guy with fashion sense.