Thursday, October 05, 2006

Ivy brawlers, 103 mph heaters and football picks

No changes or surprises coming out of Randy Edsall's Thursday teleconference, so I'll take the slow news day as another opportunity to go completely off-topic before I get to my weekly picks.

  • Two Yale football players, including the starting quarterback, were arrested early Sunday morning after a brawl with three Yale hockey players at Gourmet Heaven on Broadway in New Haven that eventually broke the storefront window. No word if the fight began after an argument over recent developments in the Middle East, non-euclidean geometry or whether an Oregon pinot noir or classy chardonnay better complements a dinner of sea bass and asparagus.

  • Joel Zumaya was consistently hitting 103 mph on the radar gun against the Yankees today. That is ungodly. But he was a little too pleased with himself trotting off the field after striking out three in his inning-plus. The Yanks will make him pay for that.

  • One of my many, many, many pet peeves is that the workers at Starbucks (I refuse to refer to them as baristas) ask for your name when you order coffee. So I spend my time in line thinking of false names to give them. I've been sticking with "Jerametrius" lately. Always good for a chuckle. From me, at least. I implore you all to try this. Fun times.

  • I talked about wanting to see more non-conference games against non-ACC opponents for UConn in the future. I found out they have secured or are working on home-and-home's with Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Iowa and Baylor. Hey Jeff Hathaway and Randy Edsall...don't forget to look into Hawaii and UNLV -- (there are no ulterior motives from the traveling beat writers, I swear).

On to the weekly picks. Let me first pat myself on the back by saying I wiped the floor with all challengers last weekend with a sparkling 6-4-1 record., bringing my season record to 21-21-5. I will brush past the fact that only four of you had the guts to challenge me. It's OK, I'm not one to gloat.......

Game 1: Louisville (-31) over MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE: Spud, my keystone combo partner from high school who used to call everyone "Hank", played baseball at MTSU. That's about all I know about them.

Game 2: SYRACUSE (+7) over Pittsburgh: The Orange have been a royal pain in the posterior to everyone this season.

Game 3: West Virginia (-21.5) over MISSISSIPPI STATE: How great for the Big East if Steve Slaton wins the Heisman, and the Mountaineers make it to the national championship game in Glendale, Ariz. this season?

Game 4: CINCINNATI (+6.5) over Akron: Bearcats seem to be much improved. And doing well against the spread, I might add.

Game 5: SOUTH FLORIDA (-6.5) over UConn: Hate to do it, but I'm just feeling 28-14 at RayJay.

And for the non-Big East games

Game 6: Penn State (-3) over MINNESOTA: JoePa also gets through the game without making a third-quarter dash for the crapper.

Game 7: Navy (+2.5) over AIR FORCE: This is going to be a hell of a game.

Game 8: LSU (+1.5) over FLORIDA

Game 9: TEXAS (-4.5) over Oklahoma

Game 10: Missouri (+4) over TEXAS TECH

Game 11: GEORGIA (+3) over Tennessee

Game 12: Yale (-4) over DARTMOUTH

I'm off to Tampa in the morning, where I plan to spend as much time as possible in the hotel swimming pool. I love my job.

And don't forget to make your picks. The field is thinning by the week! Click "comments" below to enter.

5 Comments:

Blogger Chip Malafronte said...

chip's picks

Game 1: Louisville (-31) over MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE
Game 2: SYRACUSE (+7) over Pittsburgh
Game 3: West Virginia (-21.5) over MISSISSIPPI STATE
Game 4: CINCINNATI (+6.5) over Akron
Game 5: SOUTH FLORIDA (-6.5) over UConn
Game 6: Penn State (-3) over MINNESOTA
Game 7: Navy (+2.5) over AIR FORCE
Game 8: LSU (+1.5) over FLORIDA
Game 9: TEXAS (-4.5) over Oklahoma
Game 10: Missouri (+4) over TEXAS TECH
Game 11: GEORGIA (+3) over Tennessee
Game 12: Yale (-4) over DARTMOUTH

October 05, 2006 10:38 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's great to see we have the following home-homegames look like they're set up:

Iowa
Iowa State (return game)
NCSU
UNC
Maryland
Duke (return-ok, they stink)
Virginia
Northwestern
Vandy
Baylor
Ohio (return, they will be good by 2009)
Navy (4 more games with them)
Army (WAAAYYY off into the future-2015)

Don't see UConn winning, but we may because USF's rushing attack is as inept as IU's.

October 05, 2006 10:46 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Go Syracuse!!

Lookign for that first Big East win!!

October 06, 2006 12:49 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

1. MTSU
2. Pitt
3. Miss St
4. Cincy
5. USF
6. Minnesota
7. Navy
8. Florida
9. Oklahoma
10. TT
11. Tenn
12. Yale

-- Manny

October 06, 2006 3:23 PM 
Blogger DetroitTigersHater said...

I will submit my own picks this week.

L'Ville
Pitt
W Va
Cinci
S Fla (kills me to go against the Huskies)
Minn
Air Force
Florida
Texas
Tenn
Yale

Is it just me or do some of the recent postings reek of UConn Athletic Department insiders trying to push their propaganda. Reminds me of the time they called in to Mike and the Mad Dog last year to spout off when they shouldn't have.

I am a life long season ticket holder that loves my school and my team but the bottom line is that we stink right now and shouldn't be glossing it over and pretending that everything is ok. Things will progress in time just like they did in hoops when I sat through years of misery until Calhoun finally delivered. In the meantime, we stink and as fans should not accept that as ok and defend it at all costs. We refused to settle in hoops, found the right guy, and persevered. Have patience, but at the same time, stop pretending we are something we are not. If Edsall is the guy, he'll get us there. If not, we'll eventually find the football version of Calhoun.

Bottom line, BC is better than us right now and will be FOR A WHILE. We will eventually catch and pass them like we did in hoops. But they aren't ducking us. We need them and they don't need us in football. They are just paying us back for Calhoun saying he would never play them again.

I also don't beleive Vinny is a BC fan or a UConn hater. I beleive he is a realist.

P.S. Vinny, any bullpen with Mariano is the one I want. C'mon, man.

October 06, 2006 7:31 PM 

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