NCAA Tourney Round 2 - Day 1 - Picks!

First time I'm posting re: college basketball, all year. I miss the old days when I could post everyday on these games. Anyway -- here are my picks. Hoping for some more madness today.

I am leaning in one direction on 6 of the 8 games today. The other two, I will not be putting action on. Here are my picks, listed by confidence level (top ones being my most confident).

Gonzaga +7.5 -- They beat West Virginia by 25 and are HOT.

Louisville -1.5 -- Ride Pitino. They won the Big East Championship and might be able to pull off what UConn did last year.

K State +4.5 today... @ 12:15, against Cuse. I actually have K State outright in most brackets. They are a 8 seed and cuse is a 1 seed -- the line is low because Cuse' best player in ineligible for the tourney.

Iowa State +11.5 -- This team is too good to lose by double digits... even against Tucky.

Marquette -5.5 -- Big East is hot.

Wisconsin +1 -- Badgers are underrated, and Vandy is overrated.

Week 4 Picks

OK. I won't miss another week. Or at least I'll do my best.

Pick of the week

Atlanta -4.5 over Seattle - You have to like the Falcons here over Seattle by less than a touchdown. They're coming off a tough loss against the Bucs in the final minutes of the game. The Seahawks are riding a high and are going to have a rude wake up call when Matt Ryan and the rest of Arthur Blanks' crew comes running into Seattle.

SC Picks of the Week

Washington -2 @ St Louis

Saints -7 @ Jacksonville

49ers +9 vs. Eagles

Giants -1 @ Arizona

Indy +10.5 @ TB

Dolphins +7 @ SD

Ravens -4 vs. NYJ

Picks of the Week

Minnesota -2 @ KC

Panthers +7 @ Chicago

Texans -4 vs. Pittsburgh

Raiders +5 vs. Pats

Bills -3 @ Cincy

Lions +1 @ Dallas

Week 2 Record... Surprisingly I was able to get over .500 for the week with the help of my regular pick pool after struggling with my more confident picks. I'll take it.

Pick of the Week - 0-1

SC Picks - 2-3

Picks - 6-3-1

Overall - 8-7-1

NFL Picks - Week 2 - 2011

It's about time I start writing again..
Without delving too much into the detail of why I've had 2 posts in the past 2 years (we'll go into that in a later post), I'm going to try and make picks against-the-spread every week this year and track my record against all these other 'Professionals' who charge hundreds of dollars a week. Let's see how we do... (please ignore the fact that I completely missed Week 1).

How it's going to work: I'm going to make a pick for every game, every week (from here on out). I'll then put my pick into three categories, the titles of which should make them self-explanatory.
1) Pick of the Week
2) Semi-Confident Picks of the Week (SC Picks)
3) I had to pick someone Picks of the Week (Picks)
Note: My picks will be based off of Bodog at whatever point in the week I make the picks (shown by the date of my post, obviously). I'll also include some commentary for my pick of the week and sporatically for my semi-confident picks.

That being said, here are my Week 2 picks;

Pick of the Week
Washington -4 vs. Arizona

Grossman vs. Kolb -- the matchup of two quarterbacks who are starting to get passed around the NFL like Grandma's Fruitcake. I think they both remind me of younger Kerry Collins'... I will however say that I think the Skins are a little underrated going into this game... They hadn't beaten the Giants in 5 years and they are at Home, again. Granted the Giants were beat up, I would take that beat-up Giants team over the Cards, any day. That being said, they Skins were able to capitalize on the Giants miscues and I highly doubt that a below average Cards team will come into DC against a confident Skins team and be able to win. I'm predicting a 27-13 win by the Skins.

Semi-Confident Picks

Kansas City +8 @ Detroit - Detroit and 8 point favorite? Is this a mistake?
Baltimore -6 @ Tennessee - Titans suck
Pittsburgh -14.5 vs. Seattle - I'd say Seattle sucks, which they do... but add Pitt being nasty (and at home) - they should win by 20. Biggest NFL line I've seen in a while, but it's justified.
Tampa Bay +3 @ Minnesota - Minnesota struggles ATS as a favorite. Plus the Bucs are underrated.
Indianpolis +3 vs. Cleveland - Again, seems like a mistake, right? The Colts as underdogs at Home, against the Browns. Seems odd. I'm not jumping on the bandwagon and I'm going with the historical #'s here.

Picks

Carolina +10 vs. Green Bay
Dallas -3 @ San Francisco
Miami +3 vs. Houston
New England -7 vs. San Diego
Cincinnati +3.5 @ Denver
NY Jets -9 vs. Jacksonville
Buffalo -3.5 @ Oakland
Atlanta +3 vs. Philadelphia
NY Giants -4.5 @ St. Louis
Chicago +7 @ New Orleans


So happy football season is back.

lets be more hypocritical about small biz, washington

The government pushes all this talk about how the sign of the true economic recovery will be the recovery of the small biz. How is the small biz supposed to compete with the mid-size and larger companies when its practically impossible to get any type of small business loan??These small companies got had to take massive write offs from other small companies that either went bankrupt during the past 2-3 years or just completely dissolved.Let's not even address the fact that todays business world is essentially structured for the small business to fail with the amount of M&A and economies of scale that occur in the overall market with mid-size to larger sized business.If the government wants to see a recovery of the small business and they have the leverage of already 'bailing-out' a series of banks, how come they cant create regulation to push for loans for small businesses. I'm sick and tired of hearing about how there is too much risk around a loan to a small business. Thank you captain obvious -- I think its natural to have more risk around a business that has less cash flow and a small revenue stream with less clients... That's why they are a small business!! There needs be some more intelligent finance folks behind the credit process of assessing a loan application at these banks (big banks). Many will argue the root issue here is the poor performance of the smaller banks -- especially as they acted as the creditors for many of these small businesses. We need to not keep this going in circles. The government (state and federal) need to act fast. If they claim no method of forcing more granular analysis of loan applications, then start giving tax breaks for amount of small loans given out or something. No more excuses. I'm sick of reading articles about how bad the small banks and small businesses are doing while we just sit here and say how they are the heart of our economy and we watch them slowly deteriorate.The only positive thing about this slight economic recovery on an overall basis is the more prevalent return of angel investors for the small start ups. Even then, the exisiting small businesses aren't going to get the time of day when they need a loan for some normal operating expenses they can expect to pay back in one year... Banks would have never thought twice prior to 2007 about giving out these loans.Let's wake up people. Small businesses are the heart and soul of the american economy and american dream.

Where have the past 4 months gone?

This whole work thing reallly cramps my style. I can't believe I haven't made a post since Jan. It's been one year since I graduated and I still haven't unpacked everything from babo... that takes skill.

Ah.. so. finally a summer without worries about internships, classes or exams (hopefully) or any more bullshit...

I'm ready for the best summer of my life. Are you?

Isles win.

What a freaking win. Isles take down the Sabres in an 8 round shootout. WhAT A WIN!!!!!!!!!! DiPi!!!!!!!!

Five out of the next six games for the Islanders are against the Top 4 teams in the Eastern Conference. The only team that isn't the top 4 are the Florida Panthers whom the Islanders are battling with for playoff contention.

The Isles are coming of a huge win this past Monday night against the Red Wings. That's all history now as the Islanders set up for perhaps their hardest stretch of games this season. If the Islanders are able to walk away with 6 points or more out of the stretch they could call it a success and stay in playoff contention. If they're unable to grab at least 6 points, they will be forced to dig themselves out of a hole.

On another note. Rick Dipietro is in net tonight after Dwayne Roloson has been 7-0-1 in his last 8 games. It's quite an awkward situation here... but Ricky is the "star" of the franchise. I really hope his does well tonight as all the players are really behind him. Hard to imagine what Roli is thinking... Undefeated in 8 games and not getting the nod. This is about building the franchise though and they need Ricky back in the long run. If they don't start him tonight - his confidence could keep dropping and hurt his chances of being able to return as the star of the team as he once was.

Buffalo @ New York Islanders - 7pm.