Tuesday, October 26, 2010

The Buck Starts Here

This weekend, the unthinkable happened. No, I'm not talking about the Badgers winning in Iowa City. I'm not even talking about the Packers gritty performance on Sunday night. I went above .500 with my NFL picks this weekend! Can you believe it? Of course Kyle found a way to beat me again but I'll take any small victory that I can get. I'm still way below .500 overall, so I'll spare you my analysis for now, but I'll show you how it happened and then talk about some other less important things. By the way, me picking against the Packers two weeks in a row truly is a sign of the apocalypse.

Week 7: (DAVE) (KYLE)

Cincinnati @ ATLANTA (-3.5)
WASHINGTON @ Chicago (-2.5)
PHILADELPHIA @ TENNESSEE (-3.5)
Jacksonville @ KANSAS CITY (-5.5)
PITTSBURGH @ MIAMI (+3.5)
CLEVELAND @ NEW ORLEANS (-13.5)
ST. LOUIS @ TAMPA BAY (-2.5)
SAN FRANSISCO @ Carolina (+3.5)
Buffalo @ BALTIMORE (-13.5)
Arizona @ SEATTLE (-5.5)
NEW ENGLAND @ San Diego (-2.5)
OAKLAND @ Denver (-6.5)
MINNESOTA @ GREEN BAY (-2.5)
NY GIANTS @ DALLAS (-3.5)

This week/Overall:
Kyle: 10-4/55-49 (5-0-2)
Dave: 8-6/49-55 (0-5-2)

*NOTE - I realize that I made a mistake in my last post and forgot to account for the week 5 picks, so I edited the prior post and it should be accurate now. Usually my Mom picks up on my mistakes but it looks like that one slipped by her...

Alright. There's a lot to get to in Wisconsin sports, including a smashing weekend of football where the Badgers and Packers did the unthinkable and actually both finished a game! Let's start with Wisconsin, who I predicted in the beginning of the year to lose two games, one of them being Iowa. Therefore, I didn't really expect the Badgers to walk into the heartland and come back to the real world with a victory. Once again, Bret Bielema proved all of us wrong and led the now 10 ranked Wisconsin Badgers to a heart-stopping 31-30 victory behind some huge 4th down conversions. I still believe that there are some issues on defense excluding J.J. Watt, but to able to survive such a tough game on the road without guys like Chris Borland, James White, Lance Kendricks and Nick Toon is astounding. It also took some massive cojones to call that fake punt, but Iowa made it pretty easy by basically only rushing two men. Since Wisconsin had three blockers staying back, punter Brad Nortman followed the unoccupied linemen down the field for the first down. The Badgers never looked back, and now they are set up nicely for the rest of the season, with the only challenge in my mind to be the game at Michigan on November 20th. Read more about what I had to say about the game over at the Badgers Blog on jsonline if you please.

So kind of like the week before, I would have been totally fine escaping the weekend with Badgers victory and a Packers loss. Ha! Yeah right! The Vikqueens were comin' to town, and we all know what that means. That's right: Ryan Longwell was back yet again ready to try and lead Minnesota to victory. Now I'm not really sure what the Packers did to deserve winning this game, but some guy wearing number 4 on the other team used just enough wrapping paper and the Packers pulled out a HUGE HUGE HUGE win, 28-24. That puts Green Bay in a tie for first place...really? Seems impossible the way we've been playing lately, but I guess I'll take it. With the Bears playing even worse than the Packers and the Vikings quarterback left with a fractured ankle, things don't really look all that bad. The Jets will be quite a test in week 8, but if the Pack by some miracle squeeze one out in New York and then take out a Romo-less Cowboy team, I would be ecstatic with a 6-3 record going into the bye week. Realistically, I'll take 5-4 and then gear up for the home stretch with as many healthy bodies as we can muster (Bigby, Harris, Pickett).

Enough football...the NBA is starting back up! You know what that means. It's time for the Milwaukee Bucks season preview (I told you there was a lot to get to in this post). This is the first year in awhile where fans have something to get excited for when it comes to Bucks basketball. Fans have to be pleased about what the organization did over the off-season. They re-signed some key players involved with last year's playoff run in John Salmons and Carlos Delfino. They addressed their frontcourt issues through the draft, trade and free agency by drafting Larry Sanders from VCU and Darington Hobson from New Mexico, trading for Jon Brockman (the Brockness monster and the white guy seen here) and signing Drew Gooden. Finally, a back up point guard had to be acquired after the loss of Luke Ridnour via free agency, so Milwaukee went out and signed Keyon Dooling (good size, experience). And this doesn't even cover all the moves! Earl Boykins is making his second go-around in Milwaukee, Corey Maggette arrived after the Bucks shipped out Charlie Bell and the flying Dutchman, and Chris Douglas-Roberts (out for a few games with an eye problem) was traded for. You might be wondering who else could possibly be on the Bucks' roster...

The main attraction:
PG - Brandon Jennings

The rookie sensation from a year ago is back for at least two more years after the Bucks picked up his 2011-2012 option. This guy is fun to watch and a good enough reason by himself to tune in and watch the Bucks. Hopefully the sophomore slump can be avoided and Jennings will grow from the playoff experience he received to help lead Milwaukee back to the post-season.

The thunder from down under:
C - Andrew Bogut

Things were rolling for the Bucks last season...the John Salmons trade jump-started the season, Jennings was doing more than expected as a rookie and Bogut was having the best year of his career...until this happened (warning: it's gross). When I saw this happen live, I got pretty squeamish for a couple of reasons. Besides the obvious one, I knew the Bucks no longer had any shot at making a deep playoff run. Thankfully, the big Australian is back and healthy, so now it's just a matter of duplicating his numbers from a year ago...and AVOIDING INJURY.

Eastern hemisphere role players:
PF - Ersan Ilyasova

My favorite Buck. Why? He can hit the trey ball and he's an awkward looking white guy like me. But that's not all...his ceiling is high and his development is coming along nicely. Definitely played a key role last season and hopefully he's in Milwaukee for a long time to come.

PF - Luc Richard Mbah a Moute

The prince's role (yes, he's actually a prince) may be diminished this season because of all the additions to the frontcourt, but you know you're going to get 100% from Luc each and every night. I don't expect him to be back after this season, but don't be surprised to see Mbah a Moute to step up when he's needed.

Yup. He's still here:
SG - Michael Redd

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

*NOTE - Redd is out until at least February. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!

Now you know your 2010-2011 Milwaukee Bucks. Last season, the Bucks went 46-36, which was good for 6th place in the East. With the Eastern Conference being completely loaded now that LeBron and Chris Bosh joined Wade in Miami, Boston looking stronger than ever, Amar'e coming to New York and Carlos Boozer joining Chicago, things won't be any easier for Milwaukee, even with the strong additions. However, now that the Bucks have so much depth and the most talent they've had since the big 3, I'm predicting a fifth place finish in the Eastern Conference as well as a run at 50 wins. Speaking of LeBron, I'll see him at the Bradley Center up close and personal on December 6th, so I'll be losing my 'seeing LeBron live' virginity. I wish you could be as excited as I am. Go Pack, On Wisconsin, and Fear the Deer!

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