Survivor winner can't make fire

Oh how embarassing would that be! I've watched some of the finale tonight in between Indiana/Southern Illinois and I caught the part where 2 of the final 4 contestants had to make fire in order to stay in the game. After an hour, neither had been able to start their fire, so they were given matches to help them out. Are you kidding? Oh, but it only got better. One of the contestants ran out of matches without their fire!!! Finally, the other of the two got her fire going and snapped the rope over the fire to end the tiebreaker but my goodness. I think it's fair to say she's not going to win. If she did, Survivor would lose all credibility.

Anyway, some thoughts from the weekend:

• Pittsburgh's lack of defense against Wisconsin surprised me. Granted, Wisconsin was on fire. First Alando Tucker, then Brian Butch, and finally Cammron Taylor. But they got good shots and Pitt didn't seem to have much intensity defensively. Another problem I see Pitt having in the future is their lack of true point guard depth. When Levance Fields got in foul trouble, Pitt had no other true point guard. Now Ronald Ramon played well, but he needs to play off the ball so he can get his jumper going. Aaron Gray was impressive despite having strep throat. Brian Butch, you've made a believer out of me. I've ridden you hard in the past for your habit of hanging around the perimeter and chucking 3s. But you established yourself on the block, then expanded your game. Butch is finally living up to his McD's All-American status.
• Butler/Purdue was the best game I saw this weekend. Purdue played well, having to deal with Carl Landry in foul trouble. Purdue came at Butler with spurt after spurt and it looked in the last 5 minutes or so Butler was worn out. But Butler was gritty, they kept fighting back and ironically it was Brandon Krone, who was 1/12, made a driving layup and got fouled, the grittiest play of the game. That gave Butler the lead for good. Butler will need to have a miserable Horizon league performance to not make the NCAAs. While Wisconsin and Ohio St. are definitely the top 2 of the Big 11, Purdue will be in the mix for the #3 spot.
• Kentucky's young players are starting to play better. Jodie Meeks made some big shots and provided the offense for UK as Joe Crawford struggled and Randolph Morris was in foul trouble. Louisville was not impressive at all. Ugly shooting to say the least. They're going to struggle in the Big East, more than I thought.
• Don't overlook Texas Tech in the Big 12. With Kansas's inconsistent play and Texas's youth, Tech could be the #2 team in the Big 12. Good guard play, good defense, and you'll know they'll be well-prepared. The first 10 minutes against Arkansas was a clinic.
• Ohio St. dominated Cincinnati, and they probably could've played better. I thought they sleptwalked through most of the game, they didn't look into it. But they were solid defensively and efficient offensively. Plus it doesn't help when you have the second coming of Patrick Ewing in the paint intimidating the opposition. And, UC was so cold they almost lowered the windchill in Indianapolis themselves.
• Indiana/Southern Illinois was even uglier than I thought it would be. SIU can't afford to have the refs call the game tightly, which they did, limiting the effectiveness of SIU's aggressive man defense. Another thing SIU can't afford is to see a 1-3-1 defense. 1-3-1s are easier than 2-3s and matchup zones in my opinion. Flash high/low, then the weak side wing player back cuts to make the back side defensive wing player play somebody, then swing the ball. The funny thing about this game was, Indiana needed it more than SIU.
• While shopping for Christmas presents, I stumbled upon two interesting things. First, you can now practice your putting while sitting on the toilet. No kidding, front of the box is a guy sitting on the toilet, pants down while putting on a very small putting green into the hole. I should've asked how many of these have been sold? I mean, one part of your body leaning over the putt while the other is about to umm, deposit a package going the other way. I think about golf all the time, but while I'm on the toilet is not one of those times. Second, you can now buy your very own Luke Skywalker or Darth Maul lightsaber. When I saw these, I instantly thought of the video of Star Wars kid hehe.
• Oh, and the Santa Claus at the mall was way too skinny. Plus, his hair was hanging out of his hat, he didn't look very believable.
• Ok, what would you do in this situation. Packers up on the Lions 10-6, about 7 minutes left in the game. Lions have 4th and 3 on the Packer 5, closest Lions have been to the end zone. So what does Rod Marinelli (head coach) do? He kicks the field goal?!?!?! Dude, you're 2-11, what do you have to lose? Maybe he is really playing to keep the #1 pick so he can choose Brady Quinn. (Packers won 17-9)
• What other sport goes to commercial when there are 50 seconds left in a quarter. NFL games are just one long commercial I swear. And unless you get DirecTV, you can't flip to another game when your hometown team is playing. Annoying.

Last week before Christmas vacation!!!!

"Fragile, must be Italian."

Watched A Christmas Story for the first time this year. I've watched it so many times, but it's still fresh. Speaking of Italian, some of us from work ate at the Roma Cafe near downtown after work tonight. Wow, was it good! Healthy portions, to say the least. My salad was as big as my dinner plate. The tortellini went 2 deep. And my ice cream sundae was a great way to top it all off. We had a little gift exchange and I received a $10 gift certificate to Coldstone Creamery. I haven't been there in a little while, so I'm looking forward to going back.

Ok, here are my bowl game picks. Some of the reasoning is fact and football-based, and some of it isn't. So there's your warning:

• Poinsettia Bowl: Northern Illinois over TCU. Here's an example of basing my pick on things other than what took place on the football field this year. 3 years ago, Miami should've played TCU in the GMAC bowl, but because the bowl game would interfere with final exams, TCU instead decided to play in their Ft. Worth bowl (in their home stadium) vs. Boise St., which they lost. Miami had final exams that week of the game as well and still played. So I root against TCU because it appears they dodged Miami. TCU is the better team, they went 10-2, but no matter. Go Huskies!
• Las Vegas Bowl: BYU over Oregon. BYU had a good season while Oregon slipped toward the end of the year. I think BYU will stop Oregon a couple more times than Oregon will stop BYU. John Beck is a good quarterback.
• New Orleans Bowl: Rice over Troy. I know 2 things about this game: it's the first bowl game for Rice in 45 years and they have the leading receiver in the country. I know nothing about Troy, so I'll go with Rice.
• Papajohns.com Bowl: South Florida over East Carolina. South Florida played in the Big East, they won at West Virginia and almost beat Rutgers. Matt Groethe is a tough QB.
• New Mexico Bowl: New Mexico over San Jose St. Upset pick here. Game at New Mexico's stadium, I'll go with the Lobos.
• Armed Forces Bowl: Utah over Tulsa. Truthfully, I didn't see either team play this year. Utah has had the better program recently, I'll go with the Utes.
• Hawaii Bowl: Hawaii over Arizona St. ASU fired their coach. Hawaii is tough to beat at Aloha Stadium. Colt Brennan & Co. will put some points.
• Motor City Bowl: Central Michigan over Middle Tennessee St. Central has a great, young quarterback. The Chips have a lot of skill on offense. They were far and away the best team in the MAC. Plus, they'll have the crowd behind them at Ford Field.
• Emerald Bowl: UCLA over Florida St. The Bruins are riding high after beating USC. If UCLA's defense can stop USC, they should certainly be able to stop FSU's non-existant offense. I don't think the Noles will be particularly fired up to play in a non New Year's Day bowl game.
• Independence Bowl: Oklahoma St. over Alabama. Bama fired their coach, and they don't have a permanent head coach yet. OSU has a prolific offense with Bobby Reid at QB. I think they'll want to be there more.
• Texas Bowl: Rutgers over Kansas St. Rutgers was more consistent. K St. played a great game vs. Texas, then played poorly the next week at Kansas. Ray Rice will take over in the 4th quarter, and the defense will get pressure against Josh Freeman.
• Holiday Bowl: Texas A&M over California. Cal went from preseason national championship contender to the Holiday Bowl. A&M went from almost losing to Army and firing their coach to beating Texas in Austin. A&M's losses were all close games, I think they'll pull off the mild upset.
• Music City Bowl: Clemson over Kentucky. Tempted to take UK for the upset, but I can't pick against James Davis and CJ Spiller. As inconsistent as Clemson was, those two are two of the best in college football.
• Sun Bowl: Oregon St. over Missouri. Oregon St. won at Hawaii, which is tough to do. Missouri slipped toward the end of the year. Mike Riley does more with less at Oregon St.
• Liberty Bowl: South Carolina over Houston. Houston has a tricky offense and an experienced QB, but that's not enough to make me pick against Spurrier.
• Insight Bowl: Texas Tech over Minnesota. Minnesota made a bowl game? This could be ugly. As much as I don't like Tech and Mike Leach, I don't think the Gophers can stop them.
• Champs Sports Bowl: Maryland over Purdue. Maryland is more balanced on offense and has a better, faster defense.
• Meineke Car Care Bowl: Boston College over Navy. I think this will be a close game. Navy has the athletes to be able to compete with BC, but BC will pull it out in the end.
• Alamo Bowl: Texas over Iowa. Tough to pick against the Longhorns in San Antonio and considering how bad Iowa played at the end of the year. But, if Colt McCoy gets hurt, Texas has no proven backup QB since Jevan Snead transferred. Still, Horns win.
• Chick-fil-a Bowl: Georgia over Virginia Tech. I like the Dawgs in a defensive struggle.
• MPC Computers Bowl: Nevada over Miami(FL). Nevada knows where Boise is and they know what the blue turf is.
• Outback Bowl: Tennessee over Penn St. Tennessee has a better offense. They'll win 24-10. I don't see Anthony Morelli and the PSU offense doing much against UT's defense.
• Cotton Bowl: Nebraska over Auburn. Nebraska plays good defense, they'll force Brandon Cox to beat them. I didn't think Bill Callahan would be as successful as he has been in Lincoln. He's done a great job so far.
• Gator Bowl: West Virginia over Georgia Tech. I think West Virginia's offense can score on anybody. I don't think the same can be said for Georgia Tech's offense.
• Capital One Bowl: Wisconsin over Arkansas. The difference will be Wisconsin's quarterback play. As good as McFadden and Jones are, I think Wisconsin can match up in the trenches with Arkansas.
• Rose Bowl: Michigan over USC. Michigan is the 2nd best team in the country. They're physical, fast, and they'll be motivated. I don't think USC will be able to run the ball against Michigan's front 7, and John David Booty will start to hear their footsteps and become inaccurate.
• Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma over Boise St. I'll be rooting for the Broncos, but Oklahoma's offensive and defensive lines have played really well since the Texas loss. I don't think Boise St. will be able to handle them for 4 quarters.
• Orange Bowl: Louisville over Wake Forest. As great a story as Wake Forest has been, I don't think their defense has seen an offense like Louisville's.
• Sugar Bowl: LSU over Notre Dame. Notre Dame doesn't have the size, strength, and speed that LSU has. Plus, playing in the Superdome, I don't think so.
• International Bowl: Cincinnati over Western Michigan. I'd love to pick the MAC team, but UC has a great front 7 and will stop Western's run game. UC will do enough on offense to win the game, but it'll be their defense that puts them in position to win.
• GMAC Bowl: Southern Miss over Ohio. I haven't seen Southern Miss play, but they usually are a good defensive team. OU still relies heavily on the run. I don't think the Bobcats are balanced enough to hurt Southern Miss.
• National Championship: See previous post.

There are some good college hoops games tomorrow: Pitt/Wisconsin, Purdue/Butler, UK/Louisville, Texas Tech/Arkansas, Ohio St./UC just to name a few. I have to admit, I hope the OSU/UC game is televised up here so I can watch Greg Oden. I hope I can get myself to workout in the morning so I can relax and watch hoops the rest of the day.

Ohio State 35, Florida 17

That's my pick and I'm sticking to it. I know, I was wayyyy off last year (I had USC by a lot), but for Florida to win, Ohio St. is going to have to help them by turning the ball over. The bigger the game, the bigger Troy Smith plays, and as good and fast as Florida's defense is, how will they account for all of Ohio St.'s offensive weapons. I'm just not talking about Ginn, Gonzalez, and Pittman. How will they cover Robiskie, Hartline, Hall, 3rd, 4th, and 5th receivers that contribute in major ways. Or Nicol and White, both tight ends, and of course Wells, the backup running back. You have to cover EVERYBODY, which is what Michigan found out. Smith will spread the ball around to all of them. Florida hasn't seen an offensive line like Ohio St.'s, an offensive line that goes 2-deep at every position for that matter.

Florida's offense will be shut down. Chris Leak will be Gator Bait and he will turn the ball over. He has every week, what's going to stop him in a month or so. If anyone will shut down Tebow left, it will be Ohio St. The only chance Florida's offense has is if he gets time to throw and find holes in an Ohio St. secondary that's good, but not great.

And special teams haha. Not even close, advantage Buckeyes.

This is also Ohio St.'s 4th trip in 5 years to the desert, so they'll be comfortable, they know the routine. And they have a coach who's 9-2 combined in Michigan and bowl games, and his only bowl loss came with Steve Bellisari at quarterback so that explains that.

One more thing about the vote today, I heard an argument that, "Well, Ohio St. won ugly in 2002-03, the same as Florida this year." This year, Florida committed 24 turnovers and had a turnover margin of +3. The national championship team from Ohio St. committed 17 turnovers and had a turnover margin of +13.

Oh, and (sorry, one more thing haha), don't give me, "Well, Florida played Alabama, Michigan played Iowa and they ended up not being any good." Last time I checked, Alabama and Iowa went 6-6, and Alabama fired their coach, so by their own admission, they weren't very good. So don't include Alabama as one of the tough teams Florida played.

And the thing is, I'm not a fan of either school (especially the Buckeyes). You know where my allegiance lies. Yes, even though they only went 2-10, Go Redhawks!

Well, tonight wasn't all good for Florida. On the basketball court (where they have this thing called a tournament, works pretty well), they lost to Florida St. in Tallahassee 70-66. Florida is not healthy right now, Corey Brewer is out with mono and Joakim Noah saw limited minutes due to an upper respiratory infection that clearly affected him. Then Al Horford got in foul trouble, so at one point in the 2nd half, Florida had 4 freshmen and 1 sophomore on the floor. Down 15 in the 2nd half, the Gators got within 2 with less than a minute left, but Taurean Green took a bad shot (maybe got fouled) and that was it. Al Thornton was huuuge down the stretch, ending the Gator spurt with spectacular individual play. He finished with 27 points. Florida committed 19 turnovers, way too many.

I can't wait to see how all the coaches voted in their respective poll. USA Today will have them tomorrow.

Rematch?

If you haven't figured it out already, I root for upsets (unless it involves my team of course) and chaos, especially when it comes to college football. And we have some chaos. USC was stymied by UCLA's fast defense and John David Booty heard their footsteps. Booty was unable to get the ball to his playmakers and USC will be going to the Rose Bowl after losing 13-9.

Meanwhile in a wild and wacky game, Florida won the SEC Championship 38-28 over Arkansas. The Gators jumped out to a 17-0 lead, then Arkansas came back to go up 21-17. After forcing Florida to call their last timeout with 4 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, Arkansas muffed a punt inside their 5 which Florida recovered for a touchdown. Momentum shift, game pretty much over.

So who is Ohio St. going to play: Florida or Michigan? Unless the voters consciously vote for Florida over Michigan, it will be Michigan. Florida won't be able to make up the deficit they face in the computers alone I don't think. Here's how I break down the argument:

For Florida:

• If you believe the SEC is the toughest conference, then Florida played the toughest schedule. The Big 10 isn't as tough top to bottom as the SEC.
• Florida won a conference championship whereas Michigan didn't.
• Florida's loss came in a game where there was a controversial call against them and they didn't give up an offensive touchdown.
• Michigan had their chance, why should they get to play Ohio St. again?

For Michigan:

• They played a tougher non-conference schedule: Central Michigan (MAC champs), at Notre Dame (10-2, a dominating 26 point win), Ball St. and Vanderbilt was a tougher slate than Central Florida, Western Carolina, Florida St. and Southern Mississippi.
• Michigan's one loss was at the #1 ranked team by just 3 points, Florida's loss came against a team currently unranked
• Visually, Michigan looks more dominant. They dominated everyone else in their conference whereas Florida had too many close calls against mediocre teams.

I'm a little biased I admit it. I think it should be Ohio St./Michigan again. Florida hasn't impressed me. Every game, they have at least one bad turnover in their own territory that costs them a touchdown. Tonight, it was the intercepted Chris Leak shovel pass that was returned for a touchdown. Michigan doesn't make those mistakes. Florida's only offense is Percy Harvin. Chris Leak can't seem to make big plays unless Harvin is involved. Defensively, I think Florida and Michigan are even. Special teams, not even close. Edge: Michigan. When your kicker is 4/13 with a season long of 34, that's not good.

If Florida plays Ohio St., I think it could get ugly, I really do. Think about it, has Florida played a diverse offense like Ohio St. that can run and pass? Let's see: Auburn (heck no), LSU (getting warmer, but no), Florida St. (haha no), Arkansas (great running team, little passing), Tennessee (probably the closest thing, but Tennessee is no Ohio St.). Ohio St. has the speed to run by and stop Florida.

If Michigan plays Ohio St., I still think Ohio St. wins, but in a closer game, 10 to 14 point margin. Michigan played a great 2nd half 2 weeks ago. The only bad thing about that is now Tressel & Co. can study those adjustments for the next month and be ready for them. I don't know if Michigan can play any better against Ohio St. than they did in that 2nd half. They got 3 turnovers, and still couldn't win (only scored 10 points off those turnovers).

I'm one of those in favor of a playoff. The people (like John Saunders) who say these games wouldn't mean as much are wrong. USC/UCLA wouldn't have as much riding on it as USC would've been in say an 8-team playoff, but Louisville/UConn would've meant more as would have Rutgers/West Virginia. And if Arkansas beat Florida, maybe Arkansas makes the 8-team playoff and Florida doesn't? Plus, you get 3 straight weeks of single-elimination playoffs, why wouldn't you want that? I'm not going to get into the economics of college sports, but basically the reason we won't and probably will never have a playoff is money, pure and simple.

There were some hoops too:

• N. Carolina 75, Kentucky 63. I really, really like Wayne Ellington as a player. He displays great shooting fundamentals. Notice when he catches the ball, the ball never drops below his waist when he goes to shoot. Every young player should watch a tape of him catch and shoot the ball, it's textbook. Reyshawn Terry stepped up his game, making some big jumpers in the 2nd half. Kentucky played a pretty good game, they slowed the tempo and were able to get Randolph Morris involved, and he responded playing a great game. But outside of him and Joe Crawford, UK has no offense. Bobby Perry is inconsistent, Ramel Bradley is not a point guard, and there's no scoring off the bench.
• DePaul 64, Kansas 57. Who said look out for DePaul??? Hehe, I'm bound to be right on one team. Sammy Mejia was 8/16 from the floor, scored 23 points. DePaul was more aggressive. Free throws: KU 9/14, DePaul 19/26. Kansas has to learn to show up every night like they did against Florida. Brandon Rush, 1/7 shooting, 3 turnovers, 3 points, won't get it done. I think he'll be running on the treadmill some this week for Bill Self.
• Gonzaga 87, Texas 77. Derek Raivio 27 points, 4 assists. Pargo added 18 points and 6 assists. Heytvelt had 13 points and 12 boards. Gonzaga shot 50% as a team and outrebounded Texas by 4, really good effort by the Zags. And, AJ Abrams only shot 3/17 tonight, negating the 2 in the 1-2 punch of Kevin Durant (29 points) and Abrams. Texas is going to struggle, they are really young.
• Ohio St. 78, Valparaiso 58. In his first 23 minutes at Ohio St., Greg Oden scored 14, grabbed 10 boards and blocked 5 shots. Not too shabby.
• Arizona 84, Illinois 72. Arizona's offense is as good as anyone in the country. After the first 15 minutes, they picked up their defensive intensity and Illinois cooled off after their hot start. All 5 Arizona starters were in double figures, and it looks like Mustafa Shakur has learned to balance scoring and play-making. 16 points and 8 assists are great numbers for him. Illinois really needs Jamar Smith back. Brian Randle will certainly help, but Smith will take away minutes from Rich McBride, who is still nothing more than a catch and shoot guy. He can't handle the ball and he can't defend anyone.
• Duke 61, Georgetown 52. Good to see Josh McRoberts a little more assertive offensively. But Duke still needs more from him than 15 points and 5 boards. Georgetown is only as good as their shooting. 43%, including 2/14 from 3 point range isn't good enough.
• Wichita St. 64, Syracuse 61. At the Carrier Dome, the Shockers shocked the Orange, jumping out to a big lead, then held on for dear life in the 2nd half. Despite only 3 points from PJ Cousinard, Kyle Wilson scored 17 and Ogirri added 16. The defense held Syracuse to 36% shooting and the Valley has another big win. Syracuse usually doesn't lose in December because they don't leave New York until Big East play starts. So this is a really big win for Wichita St.
• Butler is still undefeated.
• And North Dakota St. won at Marquette tonight. Last year, the Bison won at Wisconsin. North Dakota St., a program on the rise.

Lastly, if you get a chance, try and find the story about the University of Louisville marching band member who is blind. He was born with no eyes and can't extend his arms, so he's confined to a wheelchair. But he's an unbelievable musician (piano and trumpet). His dad wheels him around in his wheelchair on the field, during games and practices while working the 3rd shift at UPS. A great story, you should check it out.