It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Winter is my favorite time for sports. Double doses of football with a dash of wacky baseball trades, free agent signings, etc. While I don't have anything to say about baseball, there's definately a lot to discuss elsewhere ... like my bad predictions.

NCAA Bball

I didn’t do a NCAA preview because it’s pointless. 1. The real season starts in March. 2. With the new(ish) NBA rules, each college season is essentially unpredictable.

There’s an influx of freshman stars who may come and go, struggle early then flourish later on in their careers, or just flame out all together. Regardless, from about 96 until the rule was implemented, most of the Derrick Rose, O.J. Mayo, Eric Gordon types would’ve been on some NBA team’s bench right now.

That said, I think the media has it right with the early favorites of UCLA, UNC, and Memphis.

NBA

LOL at my NBA predictions. I definitely underestimated the surges Dwight Howard and Chris Paul would have this season. They are now in the top 10, as far as players in the league go.

I also underestimated the smarts of Bulls GM John Paxson, and the effects a non-Kobe trade would have on the Bulls.

I overestimated the Hawks young nucleus coming together.

Enough about me. This season has been very exciting so far, the NBA is in great shape. There really isn’t a team in the league without a star, except maybe Charlotte, but they have a good nucleus of young players.

If you’re sleeping on the NBA, wake up. This year has the potential to be one of the best years in recent memory.

NCAA Fball

It’s been hard for me to write about NCAA football since Dennis Dixon is done for the season. I talked him up for the Heisman early in the game, and he was poised to be the best prediction in the almost 1 year history of Sportsology. DAMMIT!

Now it should go to Tim Tebow. I was watching ESPN today and they were hyping up the QB’s from Kansas and Missouri, who are admittedly decent. However, if you were to give it to one of them over Tebow then you might as well give it to Dennis. The biggest benefactor of Kansas and Missouri’s “surprising” runs has been weak scheduling.

Speaking of which, one of those two teams making the national championship game would be a disaster. In the original BCS formula, I’d be surprised if West VA wouldn’t be ahead of them anyway, or maybe even Ohio State. The Big 12 is so suspect, as always, and it would be a shame if LSU didn’t square off with West Virginia or Ohio State at this point.

(Although I still say Michigan would’ve knocked them off with a healthy Hart and Henne. Another one of my predictions bites the dust)

NFL

All of the talk has been about the historic runs of New England and Miami. That’s understandable. However, I think three things are getting lost in the mix.

1. There isn’t really a dominant running back in the league besides Adrian Peterson. By that I mean a traditional power running back. LaDainian is perhaps a victim of poor coaching, a little bit of age, or maybe a combination of the two. Willie Parker is good, but they can’t trust him around the endzone. Brian Westbrook is having a crazy season, but that’s because he’s a combo back. The leader in rushing yards this season may not even crack 1,400 yards.

2. Tom Brady is having one of the greatest seasons in NFL history. This isn’t talked about enough, I don’t think. However, number 2 is only possible because of number 3.

3. Randy Moss is the MVP of the league, and is having one of the greatest seasons any athlete has ever had in any sport. He’s literally unstoppable. He’s making Brady look like a God and making his opponents look second class. When you look at many of his touchdown catches, a lot of them were either bad passes or very questionable decisions that he cashed in on anyway. You can say Brady wouldn’t have thrown those passes to anybody but Moss, but you can also say Brady wouldn’t be this good, this year, if it wasn’t Randy and company at wide out.