Six From The A-10, Six From The Big East

That's the roll call from Joe Lunardi's latest bracketology. He projects Xavier, Charlotte, Dayton, Rhode Island, Richmond, and Temple from the Atlantic 10. Villanova, Syracuse, West Virginia, Georgetown, Pitt, and Louisville from the Big East. That should spark some decent debate in this part of the country. If you look at the resumes of the A-10 teams, you can't deny them their spots. The resumes are very similar, but have enough of the kind of wins to get into the tourney. Lunardi has U.C. as his second team out, behind Marquette. In fact, his first five out all come from the Big East. Marquette, UC, Notre Dame, South Florida, and UConn. If this comes to pass, it's time for the Big East to come up with a solution. The football schools will probably be forced to form their own conference, and add 2 to 4 teams in the process. Do I know who those teams are? Nope. But if they want me to go to work on it, I will. I would start by working on some schools that would probably have no interest, but I'd start there anyway. Realistically, it would probably come down to the likes of East Carolina, Central Florida, Memphis, and UAB from CUSA. Perhaps Akron, or Toledo from the MAC, or independent Navy. But back to the reason for this post. The 16 Big East teams beating up one another during the conference season is not working for the teams in the middle of the pack. I firmly believe UC would be in good shape to make the tournament if the Cats still played in CUSA. There were enough quality wins before the conference schedule cranked up. I'm sure the brackets will change quite a bit, and any team with a winning record in Big East play will make the tournament. But that is a tough, almost impossible task, for U.C. at this point. Will a 9-9 Big East record be enough? Yes, especially with a Big East tourney win, or two. But getting to 9-9 is asking a lot at this point. They might have to make it by winning the next four. The schedule ends like this: at UConn, at South Florida, Marquette, DePaul, at West Virginia, Villanova, at Georgetown.

Man, I blew the Super Bowl pick. I didn't think Pierre Garcon's drop in the second quarter would prove to be so costly. That, and the Colts going conservative deep in their own territory late in the first half, after stopping the Saints on fourth down. They should have let Peyton wing it on third down. But that said, give the Saints all of the credit for flashing some major brass ones with the onside kick and picking their spots to bring the heat on defense. This was a game the Saints won, not a game the Colts lost.

In the latest issue of the Sporting News, Tampa Bay slugger Carlos Pena said his favorite teammate of all-time is Jonny Gomes. He referred to Gomes charging in from right field and jumping on Yankee Shelly Duncan after an extra hard slide into second base DURING A SPRING TRAINING GAME! The Rays considered the slide dirty. At the time Gomes said, "I've never played for the Yankees; I've played against them and I watched them growing up, but I know that's not the Yankee way. That's not how they play. Those guys are athletes, they're clean-shaven; you rarely see the Yankees do stuff like that."
Yeah, the Reds should sign this guy. I'm a big fan of binging Gomes back.