Mid-Major Madness, Part 1

Well it's finally February and that means that Madness in getting closer, especially for the smaller conferences. The Big South Conference and the Horizon League tip off their conference tournaments on March 1st to start almost two weeks of "Championship Week." With ESPN announcing the Bracket Buster match ups, it's a great time to start Mid-Major Madness. It's a four part series that points out some games that you will want to check out to see some mid-major teams before they surprise you in the Big Dance. Everyone knows the Big East is loaded, hell the experts say the whole conference should be in the NCAA Tournament. We've all watched Ohio St, Texas, and Kansas pummel folks. Now is when you find that George Mason, Northern Iowa, or Davidson team that is going to be this year's Cinderella. Here's 5 games worth checking out and why...

Today
Wichita St (9-2) @ Indiana St (7-4)
This is a rematch of a 3 ot thriller 10 days ago. The Shockers, the pre-season pick the win the Valley, won and started Indiana St.'s current 3 game skid. Wichita St is a strong candidate for an at large bid in March with their only non conference losses to UConn and San Diego St. The over achieving Sycamores have already beat co-leader Missouri St and Northern Iowa.

Wednesday
Hofstra (8-3) @ George Mason (9-2)
The Colonial Athletic Association has 4 teams within 2 games of the conference lead. Hofstra is lead by Charles Jenkins who averages 23.3 ppg and he lit up George Mason for 32 in their last meeting, a 13 point win for the Pride. George Mason is riding a 7 game win streak in which the Patriots have by an average of 18 points.

Thursday
Liberty (10-1) @ Coastal Carolina (11-0)
The top 2 teams in the Big South by a wide margin. Coastal Carolina won the first battle 70-67. The Chanticleers are one of the top shooting (49%) and scoring (79.4 ppg) teams in basketball. The Chanticleers have an 18 game winning streak and haven't lost since Georgetown defeated them way back on November 18th. John Brown stars at guard for the Flames averaging a double-double, and that's rebounds not assists.

Saturday
Oakland (11-0) @ IUPUI (7-3)
Oakland could make some noise if they can avoid an upset in the Summit League tournament. The Golden Grizzlies are ranked in the top 10 in the NCAA in scoring (84 ppg) and shooting (49%) with one of the toughest schedules. They took on Purdue, Ohio St, Illinois, Michigan St, West Virginia, and Tennessee in non conference action so the Grizzles should be battle tested. The Jaguars have the leading scorer in the conference, forward Alex Smith and it fun to say IUPUI, pronounced oo-wee-poo-wee (at least by me).

Murray St (7-3) @ Austin Peay (8-3)
The Ohio Valley Conference race is a mess right now. Five teams are within a game of the lead and another is 2 back. Murray St was our pick to take the OVC crown after their run in last year's NCAA Tournament. Austin Peay boasts the league's leading scorer in TyShwan Edmonson at almost 19 ppg.

Other games....
Wed, Feb 2
San Diego St @ Colorado St
Thur, Feb 3
Wofford @ Charleston
Valparaiso @ Cleveland St
Belmont @ Jacksonville
Murray St @ Tennessee St
Fri, Feb 4
Iona @ Fairfield
Sat, Feb 5
Old Dominion @ George Mason
VCU @ James Madison
Buffalo @ Ball St

NFL Awards

The NFL season is down to the grand finale, the enchilada grande, the whole ball of yarn, or as some call it, the Super Bowl. We’ll spend the off week looking back at the season, not wasting time with an exhibition game that most of the players don’t even want to go to. Hooray Pro-Bowl. It was a great season in the NFL in 2010. Some surprising teams, spectacular plays, and tremendous performances made each week seem like you couldn’t miss it. And who can forget the scandals. The season was like a soap opera but was actually cool to watch the storyline unfold. The SportStew enjoyed the season and we wanted to announce our award recipients for the season. Here’s who we like...

MVP: Tom Brady
Why? Brady tossed 36 touchdown passes, only 4 interceptions, and led the NFL with a QB Rating of 111. He’s married to a super model, Gisele, who’s PFH. That’s TLA for “pretty hot.” Plus, Brady is growing his hair out for his starring role in the reboot of Hanson’s MMMBop.

Best Offensive Player: Arian Foster
Why? Foster scored 18 touchdowns (16 rushing and 2 receiving) and led the NFL with 1616 yards rushing. He was mostly ignored in the preseason fantasy football drafts but was the biggest fantasy football pickup after his Week 1 performance.

Best Defensive Player: Clay Matthews
Why? Matthews tallied 13.5 sacks, 5 tackles for loss, 2 forced fumbles, and an interception, which he returned for a score, on the season. Matthews got the nod over guys like Harrison and Mayo, because he is the best candidate to team up with the Rams’ James Laurinaitis to form the New Age Road Warriors and win the WWE title. And his hair even has a twitter account.

Dynamic Offensive Rookie: Sam Bradford
Why? Bradford kept the Rams in the playoff hunt until the final week while throwing for over 3500 yards and 18 touchdowns. Really there wasn't anybody else.

Dynamic Defensive Rookie: Ndamukong Suh
Why? Suh attempted an extra point for the Lions, due to an injury, but missed. Actually Suh led all rookies with 10 sacks. He also amassed 66 tackles, an interception, and found the end zone on a fumble return. Ndamukong means “House of Spears.”

Coach of the Year: Raheem Morris
Why? The Buccaneers almost snuck into the playoffs from a division that had three 10 win teams. Morris had 10 rookies that started a game this season. "Stats are for losers, so you keep looking at stats and we'll keep looking at wins."

Only one more week until the eight hour pregame show is on. Enjoy the game.

NFL Championship Game Picks

We have 4 teams left in this game of musical chairs. Who's going to punch their tickets for Super Bowl XLV in Dallas? Well, let me tell you.

Lets start in the AFC where the Rex Ryan's visit Pittsburgh. As entertaining as Ryan is, he sure can be a jackass. The Jets have really stepped up the past two weeks and knocked out two of the top quarterbacks in the game with their upset wins over the Colts and Patriots. Can the defense continue? Can you underdog pull off three in a row? I'm not sure if the Jets can get up for this one. After two weeks of "We hate these guys" and tons of trash talk, the Jets are actually showing the Steelers respect. Speaking of the Steelers, Big Ben's face has packed on a ton of weight. Reminds me of how Barry Bonds' head grew to enormous proportions. Not that I'm implying anything. The Steelers' defense is loaded also and leads the league in fines. That's definitely gonna help. The defenses will cancel each other out in this matchup and the Steelers have a better and more balanced offense. Look for the Steel Curtain to force some turnovers by Sanchez and the Steelers should be able to control the clock with their running game. Pittsburgh is favored by 3.5 point, take them to cover.

That brings us to the NFC. A legendary battle between the Packers and the Bears. This is another matchup of some great defenses and talented quarterbacks, Aaron Rodgers and Jay Cutler. Ha ha, I just called Cutler a talented quarterback. Cutler is also an inconsistent, whiny crybaby. When comparing these teams, the defenses stand out on both. Clay Matthews is awesome and someone I would love to drink beers with. The guy doesn't quit. The Bears will need Forte and the rushing game to help control the clock and help take the pressure off of Cutler. The Bears get the nod on special teams too. In the end, Cutler folds like a lawn chair and makes the game deciding mistake. It kills me, but the Pack wins by 10, covers, and makes reservations in Dallas.

Enjoy the games, the beers, and the tailgate food!

UFC 125 Picks

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is getting ready for their big New Year’s Day event, are you? UFC 125: Resolution is set for this weekend at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Vegas. The fight card has a lot of fan favorites and some great matchmaking. Seems like something is missing with no HW bouts but with exciting fighters like Chris Leben, Clay Guida, and Nate Diaz complementing the title fight, I’m pumped. Even the under card is loaded with Josh Grispi and Mike Thomas Brown making the move from the WEC and Stephens-Davis should be a slug fest. What’s with the UFC choosing Resolution for this event though? Resolution seems like the ending of a trilogy or a controversial ending. Whatever? The UFC creative department has always failed when coming up with event names anyway. While the card is stacked, the main event for the Lightweight Title is a fight I could miss and it wouldn’t pain me. Here's my predictions of UFC 125 and enjoy the fights...

UFC Lightweight Championship.
Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard. Maynard has handed Edgar his only loss. Edgar is making his 2nd title defense and has been the underdog in both, as well as when he won the title. Look for Maynard to his his superior wrestling to take down Edgar and control the fight. We'll hear many boos form the crowd and Maynard will win a boring decision.

Chris Leben vs. Brian Stann. Both fighters like to throw lumber and this will be fun to watch. Leben is more the more rounded fighter and uses one of my favorite moves, the foot stomp. That has got to hurt. Look for a late TKO for Leben after Stann tuckers out.

Thiago Silva def. Brandon Vera by TKO
Clay Guida def. Takanori Gomi by decision
Nate Diaz def. Dong Hyun Kim by controversial decision
Josh Grispi def. Dustin Poirier by submission (RNC)
Jacob Volkmann def. Antonio McKee by submission (armbar)
Jeremy Stephens def. Marcus Davis by decision
Mike Thomas Brown def. Diego Nunes by TKO
Daniel Roberts def. Greg Soto by decision
Brad Tavares def. Phil Baroni by submission (RNC)

Championship Week

The season is winding down. This is the last week with a good slate of games before bowl season. On one hand, why would we need to gamble on games that are already some of the most exciting of the year? But on the other hand, we need to pad the bank account going into bowl season. Because if you aren't gambling on the The Human Fund Bowl presented by Wireless Pros's and brought to you by SMAC Inc, then why the hell would you be watching it. So take these 4 games and then get ready for bowl season...which starts in about 2 weeks!

Virginaia Tech -3.5 Talk about what might have been. Call it the curse of Boise St. Lose a close opening game to Boise, then get beat by a school from a smaller division, but then win the rest of the games on your schedule. Sound familar Oregon (does this make Va Tech the favorite for next year...remember this)? Va Tech seems to be snake bitten by Florida St recently, but this is the season they seem to put all that behind them. Va Tech wins, then wins thier bowl game, thus leaving fans wondering just what the fuck happened in week 2.

Oklahoma -4 It's kind of cool as a child of the 80's to see this game on championship week again. A classic rivalry. However talk about lesser of two evils. I'm so sick of Bob Stoops and bitching, that I could almost root for Nebraska....until you meet thier fans. And coach Bo is no picnic either. Nebrask hasn't shown up in a big game yet, so take the Sooners to cover this one and probably big time.

Auburn -4.5 After last week how can we doubt this team? The Ole BAll Coach has a knack for keeping these games close, but in the 4th expect to see Auburn run away with it. As a side note, the only thing that could screw this up would be Auburn just not caring since they should be into the BCS game regardless.

Oregon -16.5 I'm going reverse psychology on this one. 16 points is a lot for ther Civil War but this isn't your typical Ducks team. They light it the Hell up! I'm dying for one of these teams to lose and get TCU into the BSc title game only because this is what will change the system. And between the 2 this is the game more likely for an upset in my opinion. But evey time I have thought that this year, the Ducks come out quackin and kickin ass.

So there it is. I like these picks so don't be afraid to go with a 3 team parlay then use the 4th game to hedge your bets. See ua in the Bowl Season!