[govchristie]

he's gotta be on Pitt, it's a real no brainer. Hope you guys enjoyed my Rutgers pick, even if Malinsky didn't. That was a real rocking chair win. Pitt will exploit the o-line issues at WV and shut them down, and move the ball at will against a weak secondary. Like a 24-13 final. It's a real play on combined with a play against. Trust the gov on this one

In addition to Pitt, I bet he's on Navy. That's my Sat night Independent GOY. Those Navy boys will buckle down, using their insane conditioning to beat the lazy surf hounds. 2nd half even bigger play.

I'm good at this stuff, I spend my enire day at work analyzing CF trends and numbers

Good luck everyone - as the gov says, "it's funner to win than lose"

[NCAACapper]

"it's funner to win than lose"

Grammar Fail.

[bustabook]

"it's runner to win than lose"

Punctuation Fail.

[Ericg320]

Malinsky doen't have play tonight

[Joe Sharp]

are you really 'guessing' what a capper is on? this is just DUMB. go to the ncaaf thread and post your plays.

[govchristie]

only thing worse than being a degenerate gambler trolling this site for free posts is a degenerate gambler trolling this site for free posts who corrects grammer. Aren't i right fellas?

I guess adults who go by the nickname Joey are just as annoying. This ain't the playground

[joey]

Malinsky has no play tonight in Football he is done
after his two early 4*'s

Alabama and tulsa

but has a 6* and 2 4*'s in college hoops tonight

[KongKiller]

[goceltics]

So help us poor bastards out joey/stu. I miss getting all his plays and analysis.... as playing the same amount on every game payed great dividends for years. My bankroll is chump change so it makes no sense anymore to pay since covers no longer offers the annual subscription.

[joey]

4* Tennessee -23
6* Bradley -6.5
4* Minny -7.5

[joey]

4* Tennessee -23
6* Bradley -6.5
4* Minny -7.5

4* portland under 194.5

[joey]

4* #750 MINNESOTA over PORTLAND

We are not sure that thumping U.C.L.A. by 27 points necessarily means
all that much right now. But the Portland Pilots do not know that,
and neither do the betting markets, which enables us to play this one
in such a short price range. Because beating Butler by nine points,
allowing 33 percent shooting and forcing 21 turnovers, really does
mean something. And that is the Minnesota story.

Tubby Smith has size, athleticism and depth galore, and the Gophers
are buying into his defensive schemes. The 21-9 turnover to assist
count forced vs. Butler was a thing of beauty, and with so many
interchangeable parts, playing back-to-back nights can be a plus
instead of a hindrance ? only Blake Hoffarber went more than 28
minutes on Thursday, and the ?bench? was credited with 46 points, 17
rebounds and seven assists. There is not much distinction between the
starters and the reserves with this bunch. And now they come out
hungry and forewarned as well, the combination of having the tourney
championship game in sight, and last night?s Portland result having
them alert.

For the Pilots it is difficult to not consider this trip already as
?mission accomplished?. That was a heady win for their level of
program (from Athletic Director Larry Williams - <i>"It's huge for
us. They wouldn't have recruited a single player off our roster, but
we would have taken all of theirs.?</i>). This is a well-coached team
that brings a lot of basketball skills to the table, but not size or
athleticism. They rely far too much on perimeter shooting to be
successful against this class of defense, with 19 of their 48 FG
attempts last night coming from beyond the arc, and even against a
weak U.C.L.A. defense they had 17 turnovers. They are not accustomed
to facing the tenacity that they will see from Minnesota tonight, and
over the course of 40 minutes of that pressure we will see them wilt.



6* #752 BUTLER over U.C.L.A.

Yes, they really are that bad. That is the best that we can say about
U.C.L.A. right now, and it is an awkward acceptance, because backing
Ben Howland has been so good to our pockets through the years. So we
had anxiously been waiting for this particular night, with the
over-matched Bruins having to go up against either Butler or
Minnesota, as our first step-in. Then we cringed at how easily
Portland dominated them last night, expecting it to ruin the value.
It did not. This is more than a fair price to back not only the far
superior team, but also one that will bring a chip on their shoulder
to make it happen easily.

What went wrong in Westwood? It has been one of those ?perfect
storms? in which the early departures of Kevin Love, Russell
Westbrook and Jrue Holiday the past two years took away what was to
have been an outstanding cast for this season, and losing long-time
mainstays Darren Collison, Josh Shipp and Alfred Aboya all at once
takes a great deal of leadership and chemistry away. But this is not
just a young team that is going to develop, it is actually a bad one.
SR Starters James Keefe and Michael Roll are little more than role
players that would fit better coming off the bench, and are not the
veteran leaders their years with the program should make them. Fellow
SR Nikola Dragovic may be back in the starting lineup tonight, and we
can classify him the same way. Jerime Anderson and Malcolm Lee are at
least real U.C.L.A. players in terms of talent, but neither brings
much experience to the table, and the best player on the roster,
Tyler Honeycutt, is a long way from being ready to return after
suffering a stress fracture in his back this summer. The home loss to
Fullerton State was not a fluke, and last night they were out-played
in every aspect by Portland, including a 34-25 drubbing on the
boards. There is nothing special about that Portland team, yet it
matched the lowest point count for U.C.L.A. in this Millennium, and
the 27-point margin of victory matched the largest <i>ever</i> vs. an
unranked opponent (the other being a 1964 loss at Illinois).

Now the Bruins have to step up in class for the first time this
season, and they are particularly vulnerable against the precision
that Butler brings, especially in this setting. Brad Stevens and his
team will be in a particular hurry to get back on the court after an
uncharacteristic 21 turnovers last night (their most in over three
seasons), but we credit much of that to an excellent Minnesota
defense that had the depth and athleticism to keep the pressure on.
U.C.L.A. does not have that, and there are no shot blockers around
the basket. And note that even despite the miscues the Bulldogs were
still in a tie game with 14:00 remaining when Matt Howard drew his
4th foul and had to sit out. Minnesota then went on a quick 9-1 run
to take command, and Howard was limited to just 22 floor minutes (a
span in which he still scored 23 points).

We will call for a major bounce-back here by a savvy team (all five
starters are back from LY?s 26-win squad) that will relish the
ability to beat this kind of program, even though this is U.C.L.A. in
name only right now. The Butler precision should mean countless easy
scoring opportunities, and the Bruins lack the offensive punch to
counter.




4* #794 TENNESSEE over COLLEGE of CHARLESTON

Many times the first game back after a tournament trip is a soft spot
for a team, with a little bit of travel lag and a difficulty getting
the proper mental focus. That is not the case with Tennessee at all
in this one. Bruce Pearl and his team came back frustrated after
losing that title tilt to Purdue in San Juan on Monday night, and
that puts Bobby Cremins and his Cougars in the wrong place at the
wrong time here.

How did Tennessee celebrate Thanksgiving yesterday? With a 2.5 hour
practice, before later sitting down to the table. From Pearl -
<i>"They understand it's not personal, it's business. We're
practicing much more physically.''</i> And comments from the players
were of a similar nature, sitting this up as a spot to go for the
jugular. With nothing on deck until a home game vs. East Tennessee
State on Wednesday, that means 40 minutes of tenacious basketball
from a team that does not know how to play it any other way.

Cremins has some legitimate talent at the guard spots but his
front-court is woefully overmatched here. In losing at Coastal
Carolina and East Tennessee State in their only road games they were
out-rebounded by an ugly 87-58 count, a frightful 40 percent grab
rate for them. Now they step way in up class to expose those issues,
and in playing their second road game in three nights we can expect
fatigue to be a major factor in the latter stages. Considering that
their bench only supplied five points in Wednesday?s loss at E.T.S.,
it can lead to some crescendo-type Volunteer runs as this one breaks
wide open.

[goceltics]

WoW!, Thanks joey/stu for the plays. That is some real holiday spirit. I agree it is awkward to "play against" Ben Howland but having watched ucla play several times...it is the right move to should be kind to our wallets. TC and thanks again...GoCeltics

[joey]

4* portland under 194.5

Dave is shitting himself again, not even close in any of the games



none of these guys ever win but when they lose , the bury the world

[joey]

<b>4* #722 PORTLAND/MEMPHIS Under</b>

Nate McMillan?s patterns are becoming pretty clear now that he has a
full stock of talent to work with ? in games in which his team can
take care of business, they do it by grinding away and locking down
on defense.
( He must be talking about Portand taking care of business. No comment in
this writing if memphis is up by 25 in the 3rd quarter ) guess that wasnt an
option LOL
The past two seasons the Trail Blazers have been home
favorites of -10 or more 15 times, and played at a 10-4-1 clip to eh
Under in those games. Now we have a schedule setting in which he is
called to focus on that kind of flow even more, with a trip to Utah
on Saturday, with his team both losing an hour in the time zone
transition, and also having to play at the altitude of Salt Lake
City. So he tightens the focus even more, and also gets the perfect
opponent to manage the game against. When you are #3 in the NBA on
our best defensive charts, and #29 in pace, it falls into place
easily.

The Trail Blazers and Grizzlies have played five times the past two
seasons, finishing at counts of 172, 189, 152, 195 and 184, and the
152 and 184 came on this court. They played to a 172 in Memphis a
couple of weeks ago. The best way to handle the Grizzlies is to keep
them out of the open court and force them to run their sets, with the
half-court offense often breaking down into individual one-on-one
moves (they had only 11 assists in that earlier home loss). And
Memphis is not good enough to force the pace against a superior
opponent, which puts McMillan in control all the way.

[Scorpion]

0-2 so far

this guy is awful

[joey]

0-6 Black Friday from Dave Malinsky

cant wait to read the writeup at covers tonight

two saturdays ago he had " worst day of his life " this must a been

the sequal.

[joey]

he is as good if not better then brandon lang when he goes bad.


i have tracked him for 5 years in all sports.

he is in meltdown mode right now

and this usually last quite a while....two weeks running