Monday Morning Mehta 3/14/05

Edition # 110
March 14, 2005

****MONDAY UPDATE - SEE BELOW FOR SURA'S COLUMN****

For those of you getting all cushy with these early morning MMM's, let this be a reality check to you. It's "Monday MORNING" Mehta, not crack of dawn Mehta.

Derreck Sura is taking a sick day today. If you heard what he sounded like at 1am on Saturday night you'd realize why.

March Madness

Offices all over the country will be filling out their brackets for the next 3 days. I for one will fill out multiple brackets, hand over a lot of money to various people, and will probably be seen ripping up and throwing out my brackets by about 4:30pm next Saturday. Nonetheless, you should read what I have to say...

Chicago Region

Everyone under the sun is picking Illinois to win this bracket. The Illini's run to the final four will take them to Indianapolis and Chicago, which means they'll essentially be playing in front of their home crowds the whole time. But they've also got a very angry Oklahoma St. team, which feels as though it should've gotten a # 1 seed for the 2nd straight year. Arizona, was also in contention for a one seed but lost to Washington in the Pac-10 finals. Both these teams are more than capable of beating Illinois, but the Illini will only have to face one of them (or none).

Final 4 pick from Chicago bracket: I think it'll be the Oklahoma St. Cowboys. Some would argue this is a better team than last years which went to the Final 4. I like their experience, I like Eddie Sutton, and I don't like the way Illinois has played the last week or so under pressure. This team can be clipped.

Albuquerque Bracket

Washington is the controversial # 1 pick from this region. Follow me on this one, I am always scared of teams that get higher seeds than they're supposed to because they got hot and won their conference tournament. It's a confidence type thing. Oklahoma St. was pretty much a # 2 seed everywhere so it doesn't apply to them. If Pitt gets hot, which they can, they'll give Washington all they can handle.

Final 4 pick from Albuquerque bracket: Wake Forest. Really by default. It's a shame this bracket is so weak, but I really like Chris Paul and thinks he makes a big name for himself in this tournament.

Syracuse Bracket

To me, this is the 2nd toughest bracket, most experts will tell you it is the toughest. There are some powerful # 5 seeds this year and Villanova may be the best (G Tech, Alabama, Michigan St.). North Carolina, UConn, and Kansas in the same bracket is awesome. But I don't think these are your classic UConn or Kansas teams. Neither of those can challenge UNC too much in my opinion. There will be some incredible games in this bracket though. The much hyped Florida vs. Villanova matchup for Sunday will be a barnburner. But both teams face tough matchups as 5 vs. 12 and 4 vs. 13 always produces many upsets in March. I think Villanova will make it to the Sweet 16 and give UNC all it can handle, but in the end their run will end there.

Final 4 pick from Syracuse: North Carolina. The talent is unquestionable on this team. But the consistency has been lacking. It's the chalk pick but I think many people will also go with UConn.

Austin Bracket

I'm going to say this is the toughest bracket. Duke, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Syracuse and Michigan St. are beasts. I really don't know how to call this bracket. Syracuse is deserving of a much higher bracket than they got if you ask me. When looking at the tournament you have to look at individual players. Hakim Warrick is probably the best 'inside' option in this bracket. I love the athleticism of Kentucky's Azubuike (and love his name) but the offensive inside game is just lacking around the NCAA in general.

Final 4 pick from Austin Bracket: Syracuse. The experience, the inside/outside game, and the fact that this isn't your fathers Duke team, they have a lot of holes and if JJ Reddick's shot isn't falling (it rarely isn't though) they are in deep trouble.

Bracket Breakers!

My world famous Bracket Breakers are back. These are games that if you are a betting man, BET THE HOUSE with the points!

One thing I love to look at are the Vegas lines. Particularly in games pitting the 4 seed vs. the 13 seed, and the 5/12 matchups. They should be consistent but sometimes they're huge variances which tell me something. Lets take a look this year...

4 Florida (-10.5) vs. 13 Ohio
4 Syracuse (-10.5) vs. 13 Vermont
4 Louisville (-11.5) vs. 13 UL Lafayette
4 Boston College (-6.5) vs. 13 Penn

Bracket Breaker # 1 - Penn upsets BC. Don't love this Penn team but the line is telling me something. BC definitely won't make the Sweet 16 as they'd have to face a tough Alabama team.

5 Alabama (-5.5) vs. 12 Wisc-Milwaukee
5 Georgia Tech (-5.5) vs. 12 GW
5 Villanova (-5.5) vs. New Mexico
5 Michigan St. (-9.5) vs. Old Dominon

Bracket Breaker # 2 - Old Dominion beats Michigan St. This is a scary one but I think Vegas has goofed this line up. MSU isn't 10 points better than Old Dom.

Bracket Breaker # 3 - Washington goes down to Pitt.

Bracket Breaker # 4 - Wisconsin in the Elite 8. I just think the style that they play will screw people up bigtime. They also have a very winnable half bracket.

The Winner: I think it's finally time for Roy Williams to win the big one. He has the team, he has the talent, the bracket is completely in his favor, and it's his time. North Carolina Tar Heels will be your 2005 National Champions...

NFL/Eagles

Free Agency begins to wind down in the NFL as most of the big name players are signed. The Eagles have had a slow start to the offseason but that had to be expected.

The deal the Raiders gave Derrick Burgess ($6 mill signing bonus) is ridiculous. Just think the Eagles gave Trotter $4 million SB. Whose worth more?

The Plaxico Burress situation is crazy. Burress has now fired his agent. I predict he'll sign with the Giants once the mandatory 5 day waiting period after changing agents ends.

Shaun Alexander and Edgerrin James are both unhappy and have requested trades. Whether or not Seattle and Indy oblige their requests is a different story but whoever gets the Edge will be in great shape, whoever gets Shaun A. will get an overrated RB.

Hollis Thomas requested the Eagles trade him. Two words for Hollis. Shut up.

Golf

Not a great field for the Honda Classic but a decent end to the tourney. Vijay Singh and Paddy Harrington fought on the 2nd hole of the playoff and Singh's putter let him down. Vijay's putting is a huge problem going into Bay Hill, TPC, and the Masters on CBS.

One takeaway from the Honda Classic is how weak the field was. Vijay and Paddy shouldn't have even been in contention on Sunday. But nobody took control of the tourney and some of the better players decided to start playing on Sunday, and ended up being right there. Bad choke job by Brian Wetterich.

Two great tourney's the next two weeks, a week off, then the Masters on CBS.

NHL Week in Review By: Ed Wasser

- There's more activity by people trying to reunite the of duo Buckner and Garcia (Pac Man Fever!!) then there is in the NHL lockout right now. Nothing to report.

- In very sad news Purdue University's Gene Keady retired from college basketball after 25 years of Big 10 coaching ending the reign of the greatest comb over in hair styling history. Keady's hair should have it's own wing in the Hair Cuttery Hall Of Fame. For those that do not know Keady suffers from the scourge that is male pattern baldness yet like Corky in 'Life Goes On' he was able to turn his malady into nothing short of a triumph!! Keady's hair looked like a black swimming cap because it was doused so heavily with mousse, gel, and spray that it glistened in the arena lights. The students and players at Purdue didn't look at Keady's hair as an ozone eating mess, they saw it as a shining beacon of hope. I for one salute Coach Keady!! (Wiping away tears)Thanks for the great coaching and great combing my brave brother!!

- The Phillies have been in the news lately. Before I tell everyone what Phillies GM Ed Wade said I'm just going to state this fact, the Philadelphia Phillies are the losingest franchise in pro sports history. (Wait a minute, they have more franchise losses than the Cubs?) Yes, way more. (There's no way the Phillies have more franchise losses than the Red Sox.) Oh yes they do! The Phillies are 119 years old and they have one, uno, eine, 1 World Series title. Just to put this into perspective...the Phillies were born in 1886. At that time a great number of their fans probably fought in the civil war, some probably owned slaves, and most probably voted for Abraham Lincoln. You got it? So the stage is set. Ed Wade actually said (with a straight face) "the problem with Phillies fans is they expect instant gratification". Still with me? It'll be OK. Just dab the vomit off your keyboard, it should still work. You know what, before you read this next thing grab a bucket because Dave Montgomery's quote may cause the type of projectile vomiting last seen on the set of 'The Exorcist'. Also make sure you clear away the furniture because you may go into seizures. Allright here we go...Dave Montgomery, the President of the losingest franchise in pro sports history and one of the people responsible for making zero, none, nada major off season acquisitions last winter said of the Yankees, a team that has won more World Series titles since Britney Spears put out her first album then the Phillies have won since 1886, that "I want to win more than George Steinbrenner". And yes, that is an exact quote.

- Brace yourself, I'm actually going to defend Temple University. By last week the whole John Chaney mess had finally died and everyone had pretty much moved on. Then, out of the clear blue sky, the Atlantic 10's president and resident blithering idiot, Linda Bruno, sends a letter to Temple saying that goon and John Bryant arm breaker, Nehemiah Ingram, is not invited to the Atlantic 10 Post Season Awards banquet. What did the Atlantic 10 think would happen? The Temple players were left with no option but to say that if he doesn't go, we don't go. How could you blame them? This is the Jason Voorhees of PR messes, it never dies.

- Clemente ran yesterday, the race he was supposed to run in last Tuesday was canceled because of the weather. David Mello was in the irons, starting from the 7th position in a 12 horse race. It was a 6 furlong race so the starting gate was clear across the track so it's hard to get a good look at the start. When the gates opened up I could see that Clemente had an issue, he made some sort of misstep, which caused him to break in dead last place. As the race went on he got his act together but he had too much ground to make up, he finished 8th. Watching the head on replay I saw that when the gates opened up Clemente made a hard left turn and bumped the 6 horse. Even if Clemente had finished in the money he probably would have been disqualified for bumping. Former Fairway Miss jockey Ryan Barber was riding the 6 horse. As if he wasn't upset with us enough for giving all of our mounts to David Mello now he's getting rammed by our horses during the race. Fairway Miss runs today in the 8th race, goes off around 3:20. Go to www.philadelphiapark.com and click on 'live video' if you're interested in watching the race. Either way I'll have a recap in next week's MMM.

NBA - Derreck Sura

- The Sixers played as bad as I feel last week. They went 1-3 to drop their record to 30-33. Philly now sits 2 losses out of the 8th seed, and 4 losses behind Boston for the Atlantic Division. This week brings the Sixers: Lakers, @Cleveland & Chicago (back to back). All of those games should be intense, by NBA standards anyway, because all three of those teams are battling for playoff positioning. 0-3 is certainly possible. 1-2 seems most likely. 2-1 or better would be great.

- I had originally planned on giving some in depth court side analysis of the Memphis-Portland game I attended on Saturday night, but since it was just such a TERRIBLE game to watch in person, this will have to do. The Grizzlies seemed lost after PG Jason Williams sprained his right ankle 9 minutes into the game. Memphis never scored above 18 points in a quarter for the whole game. The Blazers were really no better either (11 point 1st quarter), and pretty much won the game by default (80-66 final). Portland shot 44.3%, and the Griz 36.5% from the field. The game was so boring that I took to rooting (yelling like a moron/maniac) for Richie Frahm to entertain myself. Every time he touched the ball, "You're the man Frahm, SHOOT IT!". When he didn't have the ball, "Give it to FRAHM!" It must've worked too, because he had season high's in points (14) and rebounds (5).

Top 10
1. Miami (3)
2. Phoenix (2)
3. San Antonio (1)
4. Dallas (6)
5. Detroit (5)
6. Houston (8)
7. Seattle (4)
8. Sacramento (9)
9. Boston (-)
10. Memphis (7)