EPL Preview

Sausages,

Sorry I didn't do this yesterday but here is a quick preview of the EPL games this weekend.

Last Week: 4-6
Season: 18-22

Saturday:

Bolton v. Tottenham
Pick: Tottenham

Birmingham v. West Ham
Pick: Birmingham

Blackburn v. Wigan
Pick: Draw

Blackpool v. Everton
Pick: Everton

Fulham v. Aston Villa
Pick: Fulham

Man Utd v. Wolves
Pick: Man Utd

Sunderland v. Stoke City
Pick: Draw

Sunday:

Arsenal v. Newcastle
Pick: Arsenal

WBA v. Man City
Pick: Draw

Liverpool v. Chelsea (Match of the Week)
Pick: Chelsea

TSR'S College Picks

Sorry sausages, I had a busy week. Here's a quick post of my picks for today. Would've gone perfect last week if the Vols hadn't lost to the gas pumpers.

Last week: 9-1. Season: 36-14 (Home team in CAPS)

MICHIGAN over Illinois

CLEMSON over #25 NC State

#21 Baylor over OKLAHOMA STATE

#24 FLORIDA STATE over North Carolina

PENN STATE over Northwestern

#6 Alabama over #10 LSU

#18 Arkansas over #19 SOUTH CAROLINA

#13 STANFORD over #15 Arizona

#12 MIZZOU over Texas Tech

Game of the week:

#3 Tcu over #5 UTAH

Greatest Commercial EVER

I simply can't describe how this commercial dramatically altered the course of my day, hell, even my life. Sausages, just take a look and begin laughing hysterically.



- KA

Smartest Athletes

Sports fans love to compare themselves to pro athletes. Are these comparisons legitimate? No, of course not. But we do it anyways and we justify this practice with some pretty strange theories. When we are young one can simply say "well those guys are way older than me, they have had more time to develop physically. Once I get big and strong I will be in the league and then I will show them what's up."

Now that I'm 23 I can't justify my rants with the peer comparison anymore (apparently being a decent DII club baseball pitcher doesn't get you a shot at the bigs?). What's next? Criticizing bad athletes shields the youth from playing poorly? They might try to emulate a player like Rex Grossman! How about "Well at least I'm way smarter than those big oafs in professional sports. Most of them couldn't pass college without the massive academic support systems that universities provide!"

Well sporting news has foiled me on that one as well. Check out the list they put together of the smartest guys in pro sports. At least some of them are no good at their respective sport!

http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/feed/2010-09/smart-athletes

Review of Xavier vs NKU scrimmage

The Xavier scrimmage was not on TV last night so I figured I would post some thoughts for the XU faithful who read TSR. NKU wasn't bad, they have a couple DI transfers. They spread the floor and bombed up 3's. I'll post in the same format I used for muskie madness, "who looked good, who looked average and who looked bad"

Who looked good - Kenny Frease, Jamel McLean, Jay Canty. Frease's offseason conditioning is evident as he put up 17 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocks. He is leaner and quicker on defense and is able to move around enough to get some offensive boards. Granted NKU was a small team but Frease dominated the paint like a 7 footer should against a smaller opponent. McLean finished in the paint twice for 'and 1" opportunities, he will be solid all year long and will probably increase his production slightly from last year. With Redford and Martin out Canty will need to step in. He looked capable last night especially in the rebounding category grabbing nine boards. He made two three pointers. His shot doesn't look pretty but if he can knock em down at ~35% that will be enough to make opponents respect him, creating space in the paint for Kenny, Jamel and Lyons.  

Who looked average - Mark Lyons, Tu Holloway, Dante Jackson, Jeff Robinson, WBWOS. Lyons dropped 13 but on 6-14 shooting with 4 TOs. He takes it to the rack strong but sometimes he doesn't set himself up to make a pass out of his dribble drives. It is either score or throw up some shot that only Jordan Crawford can make consistently. Holloway looked like last year, good ball handler decent shooter. He didn't try to do too much, but he will be called on to save us some games this year. Dante Jackson is Dante Jackson. he made a few threes but his offensive game is limited. Hopefully he can step it up and play awesome defense. Jeff Robinson still doesn't know how to use his size and athleticism but shows flashes of decency. Hopefully he can mature as McLean's backup. WBWOS (white boy walk on squad) was solid in their timeout handshakes. I swear Feeney shakes every players hand every time there is a break in the action.

Who looked bad - Andy Taylor, Jordan Latham, Griffin McKenzie. A Tay either had four fouls or fouled out. He had some open mid range looks but only took one of them which didn't fall. If his offensive game is limited to lay ups and his only defense if hacking than I would rather see Robinson in their to get some experience. Jordan Latham still needs some time to catch up to the college game but he seems to have good size and strength for a frosh. Ditto for McKenzie, he didn't get in much and often looked confused.

Outlook -Right now I see Xavier going with an 8 man rotation, Holloway, Lyons, Jackson, Canty, Frease, McLean, Robinson/Taylor. They could be really good on defense/rebounding especially the starters Holloway, Lyons, Jackson, McLean and Frease. I'm a bit concerned with the scoring though. No dead eye three point shooters, Lyons taking it to the rack and sometimes making bad decisions might be Xavier's best offensive option. Anyways I'll do another write up after the next scrimmage on Saturday vs Bellarmine.

TSR Favorite Brian Wilson

Yes, Brian please rage...RIGHT NOW.



- KA

Poster - Ized

This video is legit. Top 50 NCAA dunks of all time!