iggymcfly

I was just thinking, wouldn't it have done an even stronger rating if they just spoiled that Batista would drop the title and that they were going to have a 20-man Battle Royal to determine a new World Champion? I'd think that fans would be more likely to tune in to see who wins the title than to tune in just to see Kurt win it.

"North Carolina loses" doesn't really capture it. Try North Carolina loses at home to Miami. Now that's embarrassing.

My point was just that at this point of the season, 2005 Duke's ahead of where 1996 Kentucky was. They both played tough schedules, Duke went undefeated in the early part of the season and Kentucky lost an early game to UMass. As for the Mashburn thing, I was ten years old at the time, and I didn't recheck the roster like I did the schedule before posting. I remembered they had a big-time scoring forward who did well in the NBA, and I was thought it was Mashburn, but I guess I was actually thinking of Antoine Walker. I think that my comments on Duke might have been misconstrued a little bit. I wasn't saying that they've solidifed themselves as the best team of the last two decades or anything like that. I was just saying that I haven't seen a team look this dominating at this point of the season. They were the consensus most talented team going into the year, they've played an extremely tough schedule, and they're undefeated, winning by huge blowouts against some of their toughest competition.

Seattle's going to have at least one really good playoff game. There's no way they lose to no-offense Washington. My predictions are: Seahawks 31 Redskins 6 Panthers 20 Bears 13 Colts 31 Steelers 17 Patriots 24 Broncos 17

I told you that I didn't start really following college basketball until 1994 or 1995. The first tourney I remember is the one with the Webber game, but I wasn't exactly an authority then. As for the Virginia Tech game, Duke was fucking around. They didn't think VT had a chance, and they played like it. Coming off tough wins over Indiana and Memphis, you can't expect them to get up for the Hokies. In games they've taken seriously this year, they've been awesome. They destroyed Maryland and Texas, and beat Wake really solidly on the road. Memphis is still a really good win even if it was a close game; I could see the Tigers in the Final Four this year. The top criterion for a great team isn't how much they blow out the jobbers by, it's how they do against good teams in big games. That '96 Kentucky team split with UMass, and lost to Mississippi State with the SEC Championship on the line. That keeps them from being the best as far as I'm concerned. The image everyone has in their mind is of Mashburn dunking all over an overmatched Syracuse team, but that doesn't express their dominance through the whole season. If the Wildcats had faced a better challenger in the title game, I'm not sure they'd be remembered so well.

Nice win for the Sixers there. They're not my team or anything, but I've always liked AI, and I'd like to see them make the playoffs at least. That steal by Webber at the end of the 3rd OT was just classic.

Really good game going between the 76ers and the Celtics right now on ESPN2. Korver hit a 3 to tie at the end of the 2nd OT, and the Celts are up in the 3rd OT right now.

What were his top conferences, out of curiosity? The way I see it this year, we have: ACC: Way down, nobody's very good after Duke Big XII: Way down, nobody's very good after Texas C-USA: Way down, nobody's very good after Memphis SEC: Way down, nobody's very good after Florida Pac-Ten: Down, Washington and UCLA look decent, but after that, there's nobody. Big East: Way way way up. Far and away the best conference in America. Big Ten: Actually, they're having a pretty good year too. I almost forgot about them, but they look to be the only other top-level conference this year. After the Big Ten and Big East though, I can't imagine any other major conference getting a positive review. If I was forced to pick a third best conference this year, I'd probably still go with the ACC. Duke's pretty damn good for a #1, and Wake, NC State, and UNC are all solid mid-level teams as well.

Definitely a good episode last night. I think The Office has actually surpassed Lost as the show that I enjoy the most each week. The only thing I hate is that it's so damn short. It seems like they don't even fill their half hour each week. It seems like most comedies nowadays either go for subtle humor, or just do really bad, broad jokes that aren't really funny at all. The Office is the only show that really does over-the-top comedy right. I usually end up spending about half the episode laughing out loud.

When did the Bucs come into existence? They were one of the worst teams in the league for a while there weren't they? I'm sure that turned out good for him. Ha ha. Dama can't read. He's stupid.

1. Weed- probably the most fun for me, although I never did it too regularly. Never smoked more than about once or twice a week, and I smoke a lot less than that now. 2. Alcohol- Tons of fun. Kind of mundane when you do it all the time, but still quite enjoyable. 3. Cocaine- I have a feeling that I never really did enough to get the full sense of this. It was kind of fun, but nothing special for the amount of money that it costs. 4. Vicodin- Overrated as shit. Puts you in kind of a happy mood if you take three pills, but that's about it. 5. Nicotine- Good for a little buzz occasionally. 6. DXM- I only did it once, but it made me never want to do it again. First I felt sick, and then I was absolutely exhausted for about two or three days. Felt a little buzz, but nothing that would even be comparable to alcohol.

Duke's the shit this year. I don't want to jinx them with any USC-type hyperbole, but they look like the best college basketball team I've ever seen. I've only followed college basketball for ten years, but still, his Duke team is the most dominant team I've seen over that time period. I could easily see them going undefeated this year.

No way. Montana's the shit this year. Best they've been in decades. As for favorite time of year, it's got to be the NCAA tourney. The actual tournament's more pure fun than any other two events combined.

Are you sure they didn't just want to see the first main event confrontation segment with the new champ? That was enough to keep me a lot more interested in Raw than usual. No matter how they billed it, it was the segment that set up the main event on Raw for the next month or so.

I disagree. I think Ohio State's going to be the consensus #1 coming off the Fiesta Bowl with most of their talent intact. Notre Dame should be a solid #2 though. If I were to guess, I'd say the rest of the Top Ten goes something like: 3. USC 4. LSU 5. Texas 6. West Virginia 7. Florida 8. Florida State 9. Oklahoma 10. Michigan

For comparison's sake, here's the new coaches poll: 1. Duke (31) 14-0 775 2. Florida 14-0 739 3. Villanova 10-1 672 4. Connecticut 12-1 662 5. Memphis 13-2 653 6. Illinois 15-1 604 7. Gonzaga 11-3 556 8. Indiana 10-2 499 9. Texas 12-2 490 10. Louisville 12-2 463 11. Pittsburgh 12-0 404 12. UCLA 13-2 396 13. Washington 12-2 356 14. Boston College 11-3 309 15. Michigan State 12-4 287 16. Ohio State 11-1 275 17. Wisconsin 12-2 256 18. N.C. State 12-2 251 19. George Washington 10-1 218 20. North Carolina 9-2 192 21. Maryland 11-3 174 22. Oklahoma 9-3 173 23. West Virginia 10-3 131 24. Syracuse 13-2 96 25. Arizona 10-4 77 I see Ohio State's still getting hosed here. There's no way in hell that they should be behind a four loss Michigan State team or a three loss Boston College team who's best win on the year was over Oklahoma State. Also, even though Texas is now widely accepted as a Top Ten team, the one-loss Tennessee team that beat them can't even crack the Top 25. Of course, that Tennessee game was something like three weeks ago, I can see how it's completely off the radar.

OK, Marcus Vick's getting a lot harder to defend now. Got caught smoking weed? No biggie. Got caught giving underage girls alcohol? Bad luck. It happens. Stomped a defensive player's leg? Heat of the moment; probably didn't mean to hurt the guy. Got caught speeding with a suspended license? Just a driving infraction, nothing serious. Pulled a gun on some 17 year olds at a McDonalds, just because he's badass Marcus Vick and he can shoot whoever he wants? That's just fucking dumb. I mean, why would you do that? Are you really that insecure that you need to feel tough by pulling a gun on high school kids? I'm turning in my Marcus Vick apologist card.

I'd forgotten that there was a PPV tonight, and just glanced at the WWE forum because I was bored. Well, wow, I'm very surprised to say the least. Even when I remembered there was a PPV, I was thinking that NYR would just be another throwaway show where nothing much was accomplished. Edge winning the title was the furthest thing from my mind. As it is, this development has me (for the first time in 6 months or so) interested to see what happens on Raw. I think I'll definitely tune in for a while tomorrow night to see how Edge works out as champion. Cena was boring me to death, but Edge is fresh enough that I'll at least give him a try.

Experimented with just putting the rankings in with the college basketball thread, but they kinda get lost there, and I figured that will all the shakeups this week, a thread for reranking the teams was pretty easily justified. NCAA Basketball Rankings for 01/09/06 Duke 14-0 (1) Florida 14-0 (4) Villanova 10-1 (3) Memphis 11-2 (5) Connecticut 12-1 (2) Texas 12-2 (19) Ohio State 11-1 (8) Indiana 10-2 (17) Illinois 15-1 (6) UCLA 13-2 (16) Gonzaga 11-3 (9) Pittsburgh 12-0 (14) Tennessee 10-1 (18) Louisville 12-2 (15) North Carolina 9-2 (NR) Washington 12-2 (7) NC State 12-2 (12) Wisconsin 12-2 (NR) West Virginia 10-3 (NR) George Washington 10-1 (24) Wake Forest 11-3 (NR) Michigan State 12-4 (10) Iowa 12-4 (NR) Boston College 11-3 (11) Michigan 11-2 (22) Narrowly missing the cut: Northern Iowa (14-2), Arizona (10-4), Cincinnatti (13-2), Maryland (11-3), Air Force (14-1) Dropped out: Maryland (13), Oklahoma (20), Kentucky (21), Arizona (23), Wichita State (25)

God, I'm so fucking mad about basketball tonight. I had planned to set aside my night to watch the Cougs play the Huskies. Double-checked the time and everything. Well, I got kind of busy and I thought to myself, "oh well, we never even come close to beating the Huskies. We'll just get blown out playing in Seattle anyway." So I don't watch it and what happens? The Cougs get their first road win over a Top 10 team ever! I'm still glad they won, but I'm really pissed at myself right now.

Do you really need to ask? It's Damaramu. Just let him babble until the thread falls off the page. (iggymcfly notices that this is his football ranking thread which gives him a sexual thrill every time it gets a reply.) I mean, umm, why did you repeat that story Dama?

So basically, Tubby Smith doesn't measure up to Pitino and Rupp, (two of the greatest college coaches of all time), because he only went to one Final Four? Wow, Tubby's really EMBARRASSING THE PROGRAM. I mean honestly, "final four drought"? Who ever heard of such a silly term? You sound like one of the Nebraska fans that forced out Solich so that they could go 5-6 the following year. Get some perspective. Tubby Smith is a very good coach, and if Kentucky gets rid of him, it's only going to set the program back. EDIT: Well, not that you're a UK fan, but you know what I mean. Very unrealistic to expect a coach to get to multiple Final Fours in ten years.

I know. You're right though, there isn't anything really left to be said. Except that it looks like all signs are pointing towards Bush still going #1 and Leinart going #2. It'd be a monumentally stupid decision for Houston to take Young anyway when they have a decent QB in David Carr. It would be a monumentally stupid decision for the Texans to take Bush so that he can average 2.0 ypc next year behind that shitty O-line. What they need to do is trade down, get a decent OT in the trade, and then take Lutui in the first round. That guy's a fucking HOSS.

Hmm, why does this not surprise me. I wish I still had money in my sports betting account this morning, because asking "will Chris Simms lose his first playoff game" is like asking "will the sun come up tomorrow". Might have been the biggest lock in NFL history.

How the fuck is Orton/Benoit more of a long shot than Finlay/Regal? We have no reason whatsoever to even think that Finlay will even have a match this year. Orton/Benoit could easily be a big Mania match.