Ok i was impressed when i saw Pitt manhadle Georgetown, but tonights Ohio State v. Purdue was slightly more impressive to me, tonight was the first time i have seen them play and granted they played near perfect and i know that they wont perform at that high of a level every night, but obviously they play well enough to be unebaten and show they deserve that #1 spot, i honestly thought that if a team had a chance to beat them it would have been Illinois only cause they can kill you from beyond the arc as well but they are suspect inside i know Tisdale is good but obviously Sullinger is better, they thought that Purdue would give OSU more of a challange because of JaJuan Johnson, who was about the only positive tonight for the Boilermakers, he had 22 points 2 blocks 1 steal 1 dime and 7 boards, but he was one of two players in double figures for the Boilermakers, the other was E'Twuan Moore who had 16 points 3 dimes and 3 boards. What really killed Purdue from the start was not just OSU's defense but the fact that i dont think they missed a 3 in the whole first half, acutally if im not mistaken they went 6-9 from beyond the arc in the first half, since i didnt see most of the first half i think that Purdue was more focused on stopping Sullinger down low which gave people open looks from beyond the arc and with their shooters they will hurt you, then in the second half Sullinger got a little more involved in the offense ending the game with 17 points 2 dimes 2 steals and 7 boards, even hitting a 3 pointer in the second half, Ohio State just dominated this game in all areas, another big reason for the win not just that they shot 55% from the field and 57% beyond the arc but the fact that the Buckeyes out rebounded the Boilermakers by 13, given them at least 13 more chances to score then the Boilermakers. The game before this one the one between Florida and George was the game of the night. The more i watch this Florida team the more i like their guard Erving Walker he finds a way to score it seems everytime, he is only 5'8 but yet everytime he drives into the heart of the defense he somehow puts just enough on it to where it goes over the guy guarding him and in the hoop or off the tip top of the backboard and in he can also shoot the 3 from pretty much anywhere on the floor i think he showed that tonight with 2 super deep 3's one of which came in OT with 1 second left to send the game into double OT where the Gators eventually took care of bussiness. Florida has the potential to be a good team, they have a great point guard in Walker and a knock down shooter in Parsons a decent big man win Macklin, they dont have much depth in the big man area, although they do have Tyus who can shoot a pretty decent mid range shot, im not saying they will make it to the final four or anything like that but they are a good team, i think they didnt rebound well in at the start which is a big reason Georgia was able to stay in it, Georgia played great other then the turnovers which really ended up killing them in the end. The bulldogs didnt play bad obviously with the game going into double OT, but if the Gators hit their free throws (i know it was Walker that missed a few down the stretch there but he made up for it if you ask me.)
Finally a good day for me as far as my NBA picks go, i have been struggling as of late with my picks but today was a great day for me going 5-0, it looked like the Mav's might let me down early but Dirk heated up in the second period but it was the rest of the team finally providing the offense i have been hoping for all season Jason Terry with 28 and Tyson Chandler with 21 both of those season high's for them. The starters didnt do that great for the Mav's but playing less then 20 minutes hardly qualifies you as a starter in my eyes i mean sure your in there to start the game but if your playing 17 minutes and the guy coming off the bench is playing in the 30 minute mark, but thats how the Mav's do it and i like it. I thought the Mav's length would trouble Griffin and while he scored 22 points and grab 11 boards that is a sub par outting for him, especially on a night when they didnt have Eric Gordon who is a huge part of their offense...meaning with him out Blake should score roughly 30 a night, only cause he will get that many more looks then he was before with a hot Gordon in the line up, granted teams now can only focus on defending Griffin but i look for Blake to figure out how to deal with the length issue and i look for him to explode in this second half in these 3 or so weeks with out Gordon on the floor, i think the Clippers had a shot at making the 8 spot for the playoff with Gordon now that he is out i dont see it happening i know they are playing much better then they were at the start of the season but the hole they dug themselves was to big. I knew the Jazz were a different team on the road but the past 5 games have shown that they maybe arent the team we thought they were early on in the season with all those impressive vicories beating the Heat, Thunder, Magic, and the Hawks all on the road, but we have seen them kinda even out as the season moves on, granted they arent getting the great performances from Millsap, Williams, and Jefferson and i think that is really why they are struggling, obviously they will make the playoffs unless the bottom really falls out, but unless those guys can get red hot i dont see them making any noise in the post season.
After hearing all the people the Rangers were looking at to add another bat to the lineup i think they got the best person for the job, with Manny, Damon, or Jones all you pretty much get is a bat and sure a guy to play the field if needed but the Rangers are pretty strong at the outfield position, and still have Young who i am sure could play the out field if need be, they were talking about him playing more 1B this season if they picked up an extra bat such as Man-Ram or the other OF's i mentioned, but instead they pick up 1B/C Mike Napoli which was a perfect pick up cause not only do they not have a fully proven 1B, although i am on the record saying i think Moreland will continue right where he left off in the post season and have a great year, but still he is unproven and hasnt played much 1B for the Rangers just in case he cant handle it we have Napoli, and another position we were soft in was the Catcher position since they lost Molina but have since picked up Yorvit Torrealba who is obviously the starter but now they have some depth at the position with Torrealba, Treanor, and Napoli i think this was a much better pick up then any of the others they were looking at with the exception of MAYBE Thome but still i love this move and think it just makes the Rangers that much better and now i am starting to agree with Nolan Ryans prediction of 90-95 wins for the Rangers this year, but that is all hanging on their pitching staff and if Wilson and Lewis can have season like they did last year, and hope that Webb will bounce back good from injury i think the Rangers will have another good year, but with all the moves this offseason i cant wait for baseball season to start. O snap i almost forgot!!! I was reading in ESPN.com that Pujols wants 30 million a year for 10 years from the Cardinals, can you believe that, a $300 million contract would be the biggest ever second to Pay-Rods $252 million deal. I would not be surprised if that deal got done but i agree with what they said on ESPN.com if they sign him for 10 years he would be 41 at the end of the deal and obviously the way power hitters have been declining in their old age doesnt help his case although Pujols is a different bread then anyone of those power hitters and i think a lot of the declining numbers had more to do with no more roids for those guys and now that they dont have them their bodies are even older then what they should be. That being said i think they sign him for 7-8 years at his asking price of 30 mill a year though ending up with $240 million guarantee money.
I was going to break down the Superbowl and both teams season and break down the 2 teams against each other but i dont feel like i am on top of my game tonight and i wanna make sure that my mind is straight for that and for my NBA picks so i will be on tomorrow when i wake up to give my NBA picks and do a whole superbowl post so catch ya tomorrow! Dont forget to check out SDSU v. BYU which i think will be the college game of the week. Jimmer averaged 29.5 points on SDSU last year but they are clearly a different team this year so we will see what goes down, i am not 100% on this yet but i look for BYU to hand SDSU their first loss.
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