After a long week of looking at Excel spreadsheets and dealing with office politics, I needed a nice day of watching sports and eating junk food. I was looking forward to today since around this time of years there are great college basketball games and the college bowl seasons begins. I was very encouraged by the college basketball games, but extremely sad about the bowl games taking place today. First off let’s talk about the lackluster bowl games of the day.
Eagle Bank Bowl – Wake Forest vs. Navy – I’ve never heard of Eagle Bank and probably won’t after today. I predicted that Wake Forest would win this game and it wasn’t really much of a game. I turned away from the game after the first quarter.
New Mexico Bowl – Fresno State vs. Colorado State – This is a pretty sad name for the game, I guess the state of New Mexico needed to put their name on a Bowl game to boost tourism. I can’t think of one reason why I would want to visit New Mexico, even after I used wikipedia and google.
MagicJack St. Petersburg Bowl – South Florida vs. Memphis – First, MagicJack is a product that you see advertised around 2:30am on Sunday nights. You plug it in your computer and you suddenly have a landline phone, this product will be gone by this time next year. Secondly, this game was played at Tropicana Field, probably the worst place to play a baseball game and now probably the worst place to play a football game. I watched the first half of this game and kids were hitting the turf and coming away with knee injuries ever 5 minutes. The highlight of the game was the sideline reporting work of Rob Stone. I’ll take a dude sideline reporter instead of Erin Andrews if he brings the funny. Do you think George Selvie is a solid NFL prospect or just a product of playing B talent on a year-round basis? Just curious, discuss this with friends.
Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl – BYU vs. Arizona – This game hasn’t came on yet, but I will predict a blowout by BYU. Also, it has been snowing in Las Vegas, so sadly there will not be any showgirls on the sidelines.
After seeing those Bowl games, I instantly went to look at the college basketball schedule and same some gems. I thought that this day would be saved by some college hoops, but as of 6:30pm, it has been very bad. (Note: I didn’t get the Michigan State vs. Texas game in my region)
Duke vs. Xavier – This was supposed to be a marquee match-up with the number six team facing the number seven team in the country. Either Duke is the real deal or Xavier is horrible. This wasn’t even a game, I started watching the next game.
Minnesota vs. Louisville – This game was one of the best of the day. Louisville came into the game ranked #9 and Minnesota was undefeated, but haven’t played any elite teams. I like to think that this game was the battle of the ex-Kentucky coaches. I wanted to see Ralph Sampson’s kid, but he doesn’t play a lot, but the way Minnesota played, they didn’t really need him. It was a good game and both of these teams should have solid seasons.
Davidson vs. Purdue – I’m a big Stephen Curry fan, but maybe a bigger Sonya Curry fan, just kidding. I started this blog about the time that Curry was going off in the NCAA tournament last year. I haven’t had the chance to see him play this year and I was excited to see him play against Purdue…my excitement ended with a 21-0 Purdue run to begin the game. Davidson looked like a team undeserving of the hype and Purdue looked like a team finally “getting it.”
UConn vs. Gonzaga – I actually wasn’t supposed to get this game, but since the Davidson/Purdue game was a blow-out, they switched over to this game of a game. My favorite announcer, Gus Johnson, was on the mic and throwing down some memorable lines. He blamed the officials for being “overly-officious,” if that’s even a word, and he said that one of the players was a pitching prospect for the “Kansas City Chiefs,” clearly Gus Johnson doesn’t broadcast baseball. This game turned out to be the kind of game that I was waiting for all day. Gonzaga had the advantage throughout the game, but Jim Calhoun worked his magic and got the line-up in the game that got them back in it. After A.J. Price blew it on the free-throw line (I found out that he’s only a 37% free throw shooter, that’s worse than Shaq and Chris Dudley), he made an amazing 3-pointer to force the game into overtime. I need to find this moment on YouTube, because Gus Johnson blew a load. UConn dominated in overtime and they won the game, which was surprised me, the game was in Seattle and the Huskies had issues even getting there.
Memphis vs. Syracuse – I am watching this game now and it is a good one. I actually wanted to watch this game to see Tyreke Evans. He was supposed to go to Kentucky, but decided on Memphis. Memphis misses Derrick Rose and Joey Dorsey, but they are loaded with young talent again this season. These teams should both have decent seasons and make the NCAA tourney easily.
Oklahoma vs. VCU – This is the late game of the day, I want to see Eric Maynor and Blake Griffin, they are both going to be playing in the NBA next year. Griffin will most likely be a top three pick and Maynor will playing in the NBA somewhere, but his draft stock is still to be determined. Maynor has turned it up against talented teams and first made a name for himself a couple seasons ago in the NCAA tournament against Duke. VCU has a good team this year with a win against Kentucky under their belt. Oklahoma was my pre-season pick to make the Final Four this season, they probably won’t win it all with North Carolina looking unbeatable, but they will have a memorable season.
Since I do not have the NFL Network I will be unable to watch the Dallas Cowboys vs. Baltimore Ravens game. It will probably be a good game and I hope Tony Romo and Jason Witten have monster games, my fantasy football championship depends on it. I will probably end up watching some NHL hockey, the Columbus Blue Jackets play at the Phoenix Coyotes, I hope the Columbus BJs play well(something that I call them and hope it catches on). Here is to a weak Saturday of sports to all my fellow couch potatoes.
