Madness Time!

I'll do a post on the Big Dance next week after the matchups are released, but I figured I'd throw up a conference tourney prediction post for fun. Here's how I see the major six conferences playing out this weekend.

ACC
Thursday -
8. Florida St. over 9. Clemson
5. Maryland over 12. Miami
6. Georgia Tech over 11. Wake Forest
7. Duke over 10. NC State.

Friday -
1. North Carolina over 8. FSU
5. Maryland over 4. Boston College
6. Georgia Tech over 3. Virginia Tech
7. Duke over 2. Virginia.

Saturday -
1. North Carolina over 5. Maryland
6. Georgia Tech over 7. Duke

Sunday - 1. North Carolina over 6. Georgia Tech
Champion - UNC

Big Ten
Thursday -
8. Michigan over 9. Minnesota
7. Michigan St. over Northwestern
6. Illinois over 11. Penn St.

Friday -
1. Ohio St. over Michigan
4. Iowa over 5. Purdue
6. Illinois over 3. Indiana
2. Wisconsin over 7. Michigan St.

Saturday -
1. Ohio St. over 4. Iowa
2. Wisconsin over 6. Illinois

Sunday - 1. Ohio St. over 2. Wisconsin
Champion - OSU

Big 12
Thursday -
9. Oklahoma over 8. Iowa State
5. Texas Tech over 12. Colorado
7. Oklahoma St. over 10. Nebraska
6. Missouri over 11. Baylor

Friday -
1. Kansas over 9. OU
5. Texas Tech over 4. Kansas St.
3. Texas over 6. Missouri
2. Texas A&M over Oklahoma St.

Saturday -
1. Kansas over 5. Texas Tech
2. Texas A&M over 3. Texas

Sunday - 1. Kansas over 2. Texas A&M
Champion - Kansas

Big East
Wednesday -
8. Depaul over 9. Villanova
5. Syracuse over 12. UConn
6. Marquette over 11. St. John's
10. Providence over 7. West Virginia

Thursday -
1. Georgetown over 8. Depaul
4. Notre Dame over 5. Syracuse
6. Marquette over 3. Pittsburgh
2. Louisville over 10. Providence

Friday -
1. G'town over 4. Notre Dame
2. Louisville over 6. Marquette

Saturday - 2. Louisville over 1. Georgetown
Champion - Louisville

Pac-10
Wednesday -
8. Cal over 9. Oregon St.
7. Washington over 10. Arizona St.

Thursday -
1. UCLA over 8. Cal
5. Arizona over 4. Oregon
6. Stanford over 3. USC
7. Washington over 2. Washington St.

Friday -
1. UCLA over 5. Arizona
7. Washington over 6. Stanford

Saturday - 1. UCLA over 7. Washington
Champion - UCLA

SEC
Thursday -
5w. Alabama over 4e. Kentucky
3w. Arkansas over 6e. South Carolina
3e. Tennessee over 6w. LSU
5e. Georgia over 4w. Auburn

Friday -
1w. Miss St. over 5w. Alabama
3w. Arkansas over 2e. Vanderbilt
3e. Tennessee over 2w. Mississippi
1e. Florida over 5e. Georgia

Saturday -
3w. Arkansas over 1w. Miss St.
1e. Florida over 3e. Tennessee

Sunday - 1e. Florida over 3w. Arkansas
Champion - Florida

BBL

New Tunes

Well it has been forever since we've posted here and this isn't a great first post back, but figured I'd give it a shot with another look at some new bands. Here are some good ones to try out:

The Subways - Great new British band. I've found that I like almost all rock coming out of England, so this is no surprise. Rock n' Roll Queen is the first single and probably the best song, but the whole album is fantastic. Album is call Young for Eternity.

The Kooks - Another Brit band with a great first album "Inside In, Inside Out". Pretty much every song is great.

Teddybears - Kind of a weird Swedish group that writes the beats and then has a well-known singer sing the lyrics. You might have heard the single Punkrocker with Iggy Pop at some point. Check out "Soft Machine" if you get a chance and see if you like it.

The Black Keys - Straight out of Akron, OH, but has a bit of a British feel with its great guitar riffs. The have three albums out now that I know of and all of them are amazing. The Big Come Up, Rubber Factory, and Magic Potion are the albums.

The Sounds - Another Swedish group that has a female lead singer that is a bit lighter, but still a great rock group. I'm Dying to Say this to You is the name of the album. Tony the Beat is the song that introduced me to them and is very good.

Flyleaf - Hardest rocking group on this list and not typically what I enjoy, but for some reason it is an excellent group. It has another female lead singer that really lets it wail on many songs. Their self-titled album should be listened to if you can get it downloaded.

That is all I have for right now. Some of these groups I've been listening to for many months, but just haven't blogged about them and others I just discovered, but all are great. If you have any recommendations for me that you think I might like, bring them on. Especially any British groups.

BBL

You Piss Me Off Rococo Theater

Let me preface this post by saying I love the Rococo Theater in Lincoln, Nebraska. It's a beautiful place and I almost decided to have my wedding there. The acoustics are great and it's a lot of fun to see a band or comedian there. That being said, who in the world is running this place? Lincoln is a town of about 230,000 and we get worse shows than Lawrence, Kansas. I point to you Rococo. You are the premiere venue in town, so let's look at your event schedule for the next two months:

December 16 WEDDING

December 31 "FIRE & ICE" NEW YEARS EVE CELEBRATION NEW YEARS EVE

January 13 RIMINGTON TROPHY PRESENTATION Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

January 21 Campus Life YFC

January 23 PRIVATE EVENT

February 3 ADDY AWARDS

February 8 Association of General Contractors Private Event

February 10 JACK'S MANNEQUIN CONCERT

February 24 PETE YORN CONCERT

Do you understand why this frustrates me Rococo? Who in the world are these people? I've looked up Pete Yorn and Jack's Mannequin and they seem intereting. Yet, I consider myself a relatively knowledgable music consumer and I haven't heard of these guys. The ONLY excuse for not having more concerts and comedians could be complaints from your upstairs neighbors. That would be tough to get around. But why aren't there more comedians? I've seen Louis Black and Stephen Wright there and they were both great. There was a big crowd and everyone went home happy. How in the world aren't you making money off these kind of shows? You used to bring in big time shows, what happened? Let's get it together. Here's what we need to do:

GET SOME GOOD SHOWS: There are plenty of bands who play Rococo-sized venues. Plenty of those bands have name recognition among college students and other Lincoln residents. We need groups people have heard of and could get excited about.

ADVERTISE: Seriously guys, having a mediocre lightboard above your door should not be your entire advertising budget. People really like TV and they'll listen to radio when they're in the car, you can use this to your advantage.

HAVE MORE SHOWS: There are a lot of people who have never been to the Rococo. Some don't even know that you guys are even open. There are such gaps between your shows that people forget about the Rococo, which is a shame.

Come on guys, you have a ton of potential down there, let's step it up and get something good done.

Don't become stupid, baseball

Okay, I'll preface this post by admitting I have a vendetta against the Cardinals. They have knocked out my favorite team, the Padres, from the playoffs each of the last two years. However, now that they are headed to the World Series, it's not just that they beat the Padres that is making me angry.

The Cardinals finished 83-78 during the regular season. That's five games above .500. Now, they are four wins away from being the "best team" in baseball for the year. How their bullpen magically became awesome in two weeks after being absolutely atrocious down the stretch is beyond me.

There were twelve teams that had better records than St. Louis in the regular season. That's 40% of baseball that was better than them during over a 162 (0r 161 game, maybe that's why they have been so good, they're less tired!) game schedule. They won the worst division in baseball by 1.5 games. The collective win percentage of the NL Central was .467. The next worst division, the AL East, was .495, so it wasn't really even that close.

Now, one might say that I am hypocritical b/c I did not complain when the Padres were 82-80 as division champs of maybe the worst division ever in the 2005 N.L. West. That's true, but they also got swept in the playoffs. Would I have been happy had they gone to the World Series? Of course, but it would have been cheap.

I know it is often popular to cheer for the underdog, but the Cardinals have had far superior teams in the last two years and at best, will do at least as well as the much more talented 2004 team that got swept by the Red Sox.

Now, the regular season of course shouldn't dictate who always wins. There are so many variables that make a long season tick. The team with the best record in the regular season doesn't always win and they shouldn't necessarily. They could feed off a terrible division all year long or have a slightly better record than another team who may have had key injuries for most of the year. However, the Cardinals didn't really deserve any of these accolades. In a normal season they wouldn't have even made the playoffs. They were terrible in the second half of the season and did not play in a difficult division.

That's why the baseball Gods must smile upon the Tigers come Saturday. They were good almost all year. They did falter down the stretch, but seemingly due to perhaps their best offensive player and catalyst, Placido Polanco, being hurt. They played in a division with two other teams who played above .550 ball, including the defending world champions.

The idea behind "that's why they play the game" is what makes sports so exciting. But sometimes playing the games brings injustice to the game as a whole. Or maybe this is the baseball Gods revenge for 1985.

J.H. Naners

October is upon us!

Hear that Bud? That sound is the Awesome Inc. train rolling back into town!

Alright people, the plan is to get this blog revived. It's been somewhat tough with Husker football starting (should just write about that) and other things in everybody's life, but I think it's mostly laziness. I've been blogging about my own personal stuff over on MySpace , but definitely been lacking here. Hell we're so lazy that we only managed to preview one conference of the NFL season!
To get things started, I'll give you all an old reliable: postseason predictions! The MLB playoffs are upon us starting today and they need some predicting. So here we go....

ALDS - Wild Card Detroit vs. AL East champ New York

The Tigers are the suprise team of the year, but were caught on the last day of the year by the redhot Twins. It is still an amazing story and Jim Leyland should be commended for his job with this team of mostly no-names. The Yankees on the other hand have all the stars with Jeter, Abreu, Giambi, Arod, Matsui, Sheffield, etc..., but their pitching is suspect after Wang and Mussina with the Big Unit questionable for the playoffs. The Tigers are a scrappy bunch, but I'm not sure those young arms can keep the Yanks offense down enough to win. And even if they do, I would not trust Todd Jones with a lead in the 9th despite his solid saves total this year.

Yankees in 3

ALDS - AL West champ Oakland vs. AL Central champ Minnesota

The A's have kind of flown under the radar out west as they have steadily rolled along and winning their division rather easily. They've got the very good pitching, probably the best in the playoffs if Harden is healthy, and will have to rely on that in this series. Zito, Harden, and Haren will need to keep the Twins down to allow the suspect A's offense a chance to get some runs on the board. Can Frank Thomas continue his torrid hitting into the postseason where he has disappeared many other times? The Twins have been on fire for months now after starting out terribly. They have the AL batting champ in Joe Mauer, AL MVP candidate Justin Morneau, and AL Cy Young lock Johan Santana, so things are looking mighty good in the Twin Cities. I question the offense some outside of Mauer and Morneau, but they seem to have about 20 guys who all hit over .300 sans power that score just enough to win. With Santana being able to start twice, the Twins will prevail in a tight one.

Twins in 5


NLDS - NL Central champs St. Louis vs. NL West champs San Diego

Only a handful of teams have had a worst record than STL and still made the playoffs (one being SD last year), so things do not look pretty on the surface for this team heading to Petco. The pitching staff is in shambles, the offense is Pujols only, and Tony LaRussa always seems to find a way to underachieve in the playoffs. The Padres will have a healthy Jake Peavy this year (although he's been worse than normal), a slightly better offense than last year's, and Cy Young candidate Trevor Hoffman in the bullpen. All signs point to SD taking this one with ease on paper, but I'm not so sure. I'm sure being a Cardinals fan is affecting this prediction, but having Carp available for two starts and the best hitter in baseball gives me a lot of hope.

Cardinals in 4 or 5 depending on when Carpenter makes his second start.

NLDS - NL Wild Card Los Angeles vs. NL East champs New York

The Dodgers have been wild this year. Solid early, Cardinal-like after the all-star break, and then extra hot down the stretch. They've got a good rotation, clutch hitting, and an excellent bullpen. The Mets have been the best team in the NL most of the season and come into the playoffs with that title, but without Pedro Martinez for the whole postseason it will not be a run away to the World Series. The offense is fantastic, the bullpen is solid with Billy Wagner, but I'm not sure how much you can depend on Glavine, Trachsel, and El Duque to carry you on the mound. I think they'll be just good enough thanks to Reyes, Delgado, Beltran, and Wright killing the ball.

Mets in 4

Then to finish off the predictions I'll go with the following:

ALCS

Twins over Yankees in 7 - Santana gets three starts and Morneau goes crazy on the righty dominated NY pitching staff.

NLCS

Mets over Cardinals in 5 - Carp will be spent from the NLDS and Jeff Weaver and others will be torched by the Mets vast array of lefties in their lineup. If the NL was any better, the Mets would have more trouble than I'm predicting.

World Series
Twins over Mets in 6 - The Metrodome will be rocking a la 1987 and 1991 and the Twins will win it all for Kirby Puckett as Torii Hunter robs David Wright of a homer in Game 6 to secure the title. Jack Morris, Kent Hrbek, Tom Brunansky, Gary Gaetti and others will all be on hand to celebrate.
Side prediction - Prince sings the National Anthem in Game 1.

It should be exciting!!
BBL

Going to Football Games Sucks According to Dirty Laundry

There's a guy who writes a blog called "Dirty Laundry." For some unholy reason the good people at Deadspin.com let him speak for all Nebraska fans despite the fact that his finger is farther off the pulse of Husker Nation than Rhett Bomar is from the Heisman. Let's review his latest attempt at reporting the situation in Lincoln.

-"It is much more enjoyable to watch a football game on television than in person." Really? You must be a pretty big football fan to say something like that. Why tailgate and then enter the stadium to cheer on your team with your fellow fans when you can watch it in your basement drinking warm Beast Light with your three cats?

-"The student section, which is still prominent in places like South Bend and definitely down at Texas A & M, just aint what she used to be. The University has priced out most students from even having a chance at going to a game." There is a waiting list to get student tickets. The students were as loud at the first game of the season as I've ever heard them.

-"No matter how many times you hear it, Nebraska fans are NOT the most friendly and courteous in all of college football. In fact, they're not friendly to the opposition at all. The only time they even give that "standing ovation" to the opposing team is when they annihilate them. Think they gave Texas Tech one of those standing O's last year? Ask Kansas State fans about how they were treated in 2003. " Yes, we did give the Raiders a standing O last year, because it was a great game and that's what we do. You would probably know that, but it's so much more fun watching the game on TV you probably weren't at the game. The terrible terrible 2003 Kansas State game resulted in 75,000 very depressed Husker fans who weren't talking shit to anyone. On the few occasions where a Husker fans treats a visitor badly other Nebraska fans correct him, or apologize for him.

There are lots of great places to watch a college football games. And I'm not saying that Nebraska can match the intensity of an SEC night game, the tradition of Notre Dame, or the rivalry of Ohio State/Michigan, but if you'd rather watch Nebraska play Texas on TV later this year than being at Memorial Stadium in person, it's your loss.

2006 NFL Preview

I was right on in my baseball preview, probably the only expert to predict the Tigers as the best team in MLB, so my NFL preview has been much anticipated. Well, seeing as we're less than 18 hours until kickoff, here are my NFL Picks.

AFC-We'll start with the boring conference.

AFC WEST
Chargers 11-5: They should have made the playoffs last year if not for a brutal schedule. This year they get TN, SF, BUFF, and CLE. Philip Rivers will be fine and they will get a first round bye.
Broncos 10-6: Every year they are favored to win the division and possibly go to the Super Bowl. Their quarterback is Jake Plummer. Their best wideout barely has a knee. Their second best wideout is 78 years old. They'll be leaning on the D to finish this high.
Chiefs 9-7: I worry about the loss of Willie Roaf on that line. Don't fool yourself, their O-line is why they could always run the ball, not the backs. I always thought Herm Edwards was a good coach, now we'll see if I was right or all the dumb Jets fans were right.
Raiders 3-13: Aaron Brooks is terrible, you heard it here first. Art Shell got fired for a reason, he couldn't get to the Super Bowl with the greatest Tecmo Bowl team ever (if only they had Christian Okoye)

AFC SOUTH
Colts 13-3: The same as last year but without Edge. RBs can be replaced. I don't care how many "Top 5 Reasons you Can't Blame Peyton Manning for Never Winning the Big Game" but this guy seriously never wins the big game.
Jaquars 10-6: A solid team that will win a bunch of games in the last seconds, as usual. It will be interesting to see if Leftwich steps up or if Gerrard takes his job.
Texans 5-11: They were a trendy pick last year, but that lasted as long as snap bracelets. I think they'll be better this year, but not as good as they would have been if they had Reggie Bush. Oh well, at least they have Dominick Dav.......oh shit.
Titans 4-12: Jeff Fischer is the man. I feel like if he was on a gold mining trip in Alaska he would be awesome, but when you have the worst QB in the NFL you won't strike it rich. Kerry Collins is really bad.

AFC NORTH
Bengals 12-4: They are good. I love big Sam Adams clogging up the middle for an improving defense.
Steelers 9-7: Seems like too much is going wrong. Very Eagles-esque from last year, Hopefully they can overcome all the bad offseason karma.
Ravens 8-8: They are the definition of a mediocre team. A burned out QB, a defense that is very good but not dominant enough. Remember when they won a SB with Qudry Ismael as their best WR?
Browns4-12: Poor, poor Romeo Crennel. He looks like a great coach just holding this mess together. Losing LaCharles and the #2 center is a big blow. Hopefully they get a mature performance from Charlie Frye and great leadership from Willie McGinest.

AFC EAST
Patriots 12-4: Did they outsmart themselves in their latest veteran purge? Losing Vinitieri, McGinest and Branch could be too much, but I'll believe in Brady and Coach Hoodie until further notice.
Dolphins 11-5: An easy schedule will guarantee them a good season. How does Nick Saban do an awesome job in the NFL and other college guys fail miserably?
NY Jets 4-12: Ugh...the most boring team in the NFL. Watching their offense will be worse than sitting through the drivel that is Grey's Anatomy and that girl who never changes her facial expression.
Buffalo Bills 4-12: Really? Dick Jauron? Would he even be in the NFL if the Bears didn't have that lucky season a few years ago where Mike Brown won 7 games in overtime?

DIVISION WINNERS: Chargers, Colts, Bengals, Patriots WILD CARD: Jaguars, Dolphins

AFC Championship: Chargers v. Jaguars: I love the Chargers offense and opportunistic defense. The Jags will have a suffocating defense and a mistake free offense.

AFC Champion: Chargers. Yes, they are coached by the venerable Marty Schottenheimer, but I think this is their year. They had some really bad luck last year, and even though Rivers is a new QB he's experienced in the system which should make him comfortable enough to win.

By the way, isn't it weird how awesome defensive coordinators go to teams to be head coaches and they have great defenses and terrible defenses? (Dungy, Lewis etc.) And the opposite happens also (Billick) How does this happen?

The NFC Tomorrow