Happy Thanksgiving! NFL Picks and More

Houston Texans vs. Detroit Lions

The Lions have lost their last eight Thanksgiving games. Well, it's about to be nine. It's not going to be the blowout everyone is projecting though. Sure, the Texans are 9-1, but they just escaped the pitiful Jaguars by a six point margin. The Lions, though vastly underachieving expectations thus far, are eons better than the Jags. And they're fighting for their playoff hopes, something the Texans have essentially locked up already. This game is going to be a barn burner, and the only way the Lions come out victorious is if Matt Stafford protects the football and connects with Megatron multiple times. Prediction: Texans 27, Lions 24


Washington Redskins vs. Dallas Cowboys

At just 5-5, the Cowboys sit just one game behind the Giants in the disappointing NFC East. They've beaten all the teams they should have (Tampa Bay, Carolina, Philly, Cleveland) and lost to the NFL's more impressive teams (Seattle, Chicago, Baltimore, Atlanta). The Redskins fall into the first category. On Washington's side, Robert Griffin III is coming off a game in which he posted a perfect 158.3 QB rating, albeit against an Eagles D in shambles. Neither of these two teams have been impressive, but someone has to win. I'll go out on a limb and predict Washington on a game winning drive. Tony Romo will do his team in with one too many turnovers, nothing new. Prediction: Redskins 24, Cowboys 20

New England Patriots vs. New York Jets

I'm going to be watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving during this game. The Jets aren't even worth writing about. They're the only team you're going to hear about in all three games' pregame shows. And the Patriots are going to trash them. Prediction: Patriots 34, Jets 13

And in other NFL news: All this San Francisco QB controversy business may be true, but I'm of the opinion Jim Harbaugh is just claiming he's unsure of his starter so the Saints spend half of their walkthroughs preparing for Colin Kaepernick, when Alex Smith is going to be the one playing.

Changing gears to college basketball, here is the box score of the game in which Division III Grinnell College's Jack Taylor scored 138 points. Look up Grinnell's offensive philosophy if you want to know how this was possible. Basically, coach David Arseneault runs a system in which he expects his team to pop fifty threes a game, and he recruits almost entirely sharpshooting guards. But still, 138 points is 138 points.

For your enjoyment, if you haven't watched the entire version yet and have only seen the TV version, here is the full Uncle Drew Pepsi MAX commercial. There's a part two that features Kevin Love.

Have a happy Thanksgiving. Here's a suggestion: put chocolate chips in the pumpkin bread. Trust me.

2011-2012 NBA Preview (Part 4)

Continued from Part 3, which was written on December 22.

9) Houston Rockets

David Stern stalled their rebuilding process by vetoing the Chris Paul trade. Now the Rockets will settle for a season with a similar winning percentage as last year, and probably narrowly missing the postseason. Houston has a pair of all-star caliber talents in Luis Scola and Kevin Martin, but will need continued development from Kyle Lowry and improved team defense if it is serious about playing past the regular season.


10) New Orleans Hornets

The Hornets got plenty of compensation for having to cut ties with Chris Paul. With Eric Gordon and additional first round picks, this team has an extremely bright future. Success might even come in the short term; Chris Kaman's arrival means a solid, rebounding frontcourt with Emeka Okafor. Trevor Ariza is an excellent defender, and I can see Gordon can putting up in the area of 25 a night. They'll probably take their point guard of the future in this year's draft, and be on their way.


11) Minnesota Timberwolves

This team is built for success in two or three years. If they can come together as a team, they can possibly push for the eighth spot in this competitive West, but I don't see that happening. They are set for the next decade with Kevin Love and Michael Beasley, Beasley being a guy who could morph into a superstar. Ricky Rubio, in my mind, is overhyped: he will likely not be the all-star many predict him to be, but more like a Jose Calderon. The center position is what needs fixing: while Darko Milicic is improving gradually, he is still not an NBA starter.


12) Golden State Warriors

This is an interesting group. For their diehard fans, probably a very frustrating one. They have the talent on one end of the floor to win a championship, but don't even show up on the other one. Simply playing defense is all this team needs. Easier said than done, but the effort is just not there. An upgrade at center would do wonders as well. Stephen Curry may develop into Derrick Rose in a season or two, but it won't matter if the Warriors don't play on both sides of the floor.


 13) Utah Jazz

It seems so odd to be putting the Utah Jazz, a model of consistency for all these years, down so low in the rankings. Paul Millsap, Al Jefferson and Devin Harris give this team a solid core, but the team's overall talent isn't quite there. A few minor personnel tweaks could return this team to the postseason after missing out a year ago. Derrick Favors' development would be huge, as it would allow the team to trade Millsap, a guy with high value Utah could get a lot for.


14) Phoenix Suns

Phoenix would probably be better off trading Steve Nash to a contender that needs a point guard (Heat or Lakers, maybe) than keeping him. Salary cap implications and what not could prevent this from happening. But the Suns know they need to build for the future, and Nash won't be in the league for it, so they might as well try to get something for him while he's still valuable. They wouldn't mind Shannon Brown developing into a twenty point scorer; outside of Nash, he's the only guy capable of creating his own shot.


15) Sacramento Kings

Let the NBA edition of the Jimmer show begin. I'm not on his bandwagon however: in the NBA he won't have the same permission to fire away, and he can't play defense to save his life. He might become decent, but his best days will be his college ones. DeMarcus Cousins, if he can keep his personality in check, can be something special. Tyreke Evans and J.J. Hickson bring potential as well. As for this season? Expect it to be a long one.

Enough is Enough

"Breaking news," reports the SportsCenter broadcast from the living room, "After coming in 44th yesterday at (insert random golf tournament no one cares about here), Tiger Woods decided that he just doesn't play very well when he's single. So this morning he announced he will be joining the dating site eHarmony. Unfortunately, he soon realized this wasn't the type of dating site he was looking for." We also can't forget spending five minutes analyzing each hole he played in his 44th-place finish, the clips of his now slightly subdued antics of disgust included.

Or, five minutes later: "After eating eggs and toast for breakfast, Brett Favre decided to go out hunting earlier today. He came back empty-handed, possibly because he was too busy texting..."

Okay, these aren't real SportsCenter reports (what I wrote actually sounds more like the Comedy Central show Onion SportsDome, a show you should really check out), but my point here is that some athletes are just covered way too much by ESPN. I am tired of their love, or at least excessive coverage of Tiger Woods, Brett Favre, the Miami Heat, and some others. I doubt I'm alone.

I'm not much of a golf fan. I don't know who number one in the world is. I wouldn't unless I was a follower of the sport. I certainly know who No. 3 is, though (Tiger Woods). And I know who Phil Mickelson is, even though he is ranked like a hundred something. Why? Because I watch SportsCenter. And regardless of how they do, all of the coverage and analysis is of their play, even if Bubba Watson or some other unknown wins the tournament. Maybe the only reason the casual sports fan only knows of a few golfers is because only a few of them are covered. Golf relies so much on Tiger Woods, because he gets five times more coverage than every other golfer combined.

Brett Favre. I don't even want to talk about him, but I will. Now that he's actually retired, hopefully for sure this time, one would assume the coverage of him would finally come to an end. Yeah right. Instead he has to remain in the spotlight, because he's fallen ill with the Tiger Woods Syndrome. His "sexting" hasn't been proven, but until someone figures this out, he'll remain in the news. Thankfully, there hasn't been much talk about him lately, but it'll surely return.

There are the guys that do deserve the attention they've been receiving, such as Shaun White, Blake Griffin, and Kevin Love. Theirs certainly hasn't been to the extent of the aforementioned, not even close. But their dominance of their sport makes them more than worthy of it, and constant talk of them I could withstand for a little while, to take away the attention of the guys far past their prime.

Kevin Love is a Beast

Is Kevin Love the next Kevin Garnett? Or better? Love has emerged this year as an early-season MVP candidate, a 22-year-old who is one of the few bright spots on a struggling Timberwolves roster.

Love's rebounding this year, over 15 and a half a night, is better than Garnett's career high of 13.9 back in his 04-05 MVP year. And in December, Love is scoring 24 per game while pulling down an astronomical 17 boards. He put up a 30-30 game against Amare Stoudemire and the Knicks November 12.

Right now, the only thing separating Love from being the best big man in the game is the fact that he plays for the lowly T'Wolves. He isn't yet at the level of Dwight Howard quite yet because Howard leads the now perennial contender Orlando, as well as the fact this is Love's breakout year, so he isn't established yet like Howard.

Will Love play the role Garnett did for the main part of his career as the standout PF for the Timberwolves, the face of a basement team? Their paths could end up being virtually the same if in the later part of his career leaves for a contender and gets a ring.  It doesn't look like he'll get one in Minnesota anytime soon, but what the young rising star guarantees every night is a 20-15 performance.