rawaction

Tim's Johnson also has a mullet and a porn-stache. I don't have a Johnson, but I've got more size.

I picked Nova to beat Kansas in one of my brackets just to be different. I picked a Stanford vs. Nevada Sweet 16 matchup in one, and Stanford vs. Creighton in the other.

fantastic. we need more of that witty banter between you, he and raw on here. My banter is the wittiest.

I seem to be the only one that thinks this is gonna be as straight forward a tourney as we've seen in a while. Sure, I'm sure there will be a lot of minor upsets, but I wouldn't be surprised to see all the #1s in the final four. At worse, maybe a couple 2 seeds. The top teams are all hot right now. Florida has dominated completely since back-to-back losses. Ohio St. hasn't lost since January. G'town has won 15 of 16. UNC breezed thru the ACC. Kansas has lost, what once since January? I don't see much stopping Ohio St. in the South. I don't see anyone in their pod stopping Florida from the Elite 8. Wisconsin doesn't have an easy road, but them playing in Chicago probably gives them the edge if they face Oregon. In the west, Kansas has a tough team in Villanova, but that's really the only team that I can see even having a shot to stop them from the Elite 8. In the other half, I see UCLA having their toughest time with Gonzaga (in world beater mode again) or IU (best defensive team they will probably have seen to that point all year) in the 2nd round. But they should breeze thru Pitt or Duke if they come out. The East is obviously tough throughout. And the bottom of the South has a bunch of decent teams, and I could see all but Penn and North Texas coming out of that pod. Funny, because this was supposed to be the year for parity.

Yeah, what the hell is that? Always the 9:55 start. And they seem to always be among the top 5 teams in distance traveled to their first round game.

You are very wrong. G'town is one of the more underrated defensive teams in the NCAA. They brought everyone back from the team that took Florida to the wire last year (I believe they lost by 1 or lost in OT). Jeff Green is one of the top 5 players in the country. Hibbard is a game-changer when he can stay on the court.

What happens today if Wisconsin, UNC, Florida and Kansas all win today? I think OSU is the only #1 that is locked in. Wisconsin having 2 wins over OSU would have to put them as a #1 right? UNC and Florida have also beaten OSU this year. Both play in conferences that are down, but winning the SEC and ACC almost always = #1 seed, right? Well, then what about Kansas? A win and OSU loss would, for whatever it's worth, make them the #1 team in the nation in the new rankings. And they would go into the tourney with 11 straight wins. If all 4 of these teams win, I'd say no way you could deny them. Ohio St. has to be a lock. Kansas has to be as close to a lock as there is, and they have a win over Florida. North Carolina is probably the longest shot if they all win. They have a couple bad losses, and NC St today wouldn't be nearly as good of a win as the other teams would have today. Then, where does Georgetown come in? Won regular and conference title (in easy fashion) in the toughest conference in the country. Won 15 of 16. Great wins in conference, but they don't have the non-conf wins that the other teams have. Sorry Raisin, but I don't think UCLA has much of a shot to be a #1. They've lost 2 in a row, and no team coming off 2 losses has been a #1 seed since 1991.

I'm guessing he's really, really fast. If not for the fact that he's Devin Hester's cousing.....at least for the fact that he is from Compton.

IU should shoot more 2 pointers. Oh yeah, and DJ White should get more than 9 shot attempts, you know, being the best player on the team and all. Especially since he drew like 19 fouls last night.

Musicallly, Beyonce is much better. She can sing better. She writes her own songs, for the most part. Shakira doesn't have a good voice, but she is probably the better all-around entertainer. I voted based on looks/sex appeal though. Both have 1 negative going for them, and it's the same.....the hair. Both have bad hair. Shakira's is big and frilly. Beyonce's is big and ratty. From the waist down, it's almost impossible to put one above the other. Both are beautiful. But I picked Shakira based on the way she moves. Everything about her dancing is sensual.

Also if you extend it out, the same thing happened to one of the participants in the conference championship with the Patriots when Dillon left. Addai and Maroney got a little more time than Benson did though last year as well (Rhodes for example was starter in name only till the postseason, when Addai became the starter) but you're right, the situations are very similar. The Saints should trade Deuce.

The amazing thing is that nobody knew it-Conley was seen as good, but really just a throw-in. He is much, much better than I expected as a freshman from reading about him during his high school days. He was that good in HS too. I saw one of their games on TV last year, and he was more impressive than Oden to me. Oden obviously looked dominant, but when you are 7'1" going against guys 6'8" and smaller, that's usually how it works. Conley played guys who were at least his peer athletically, but he was just much better than them.

Bold Prediction: Mike Conley Jr, if he comes back to school, will be the National Player of the Year. He's like Jason Kidd was at Cal, but with a midrange jumper. He's the reason OSU has a legit shot to be national champions this year, not Oden.

The ACC will get exactly 0 teams to the Sweet 16.

A passed ball that allows a run to score that wouldn't have otherwise scored is NOT an error, but the run is unearned.

I see the Jones/Benson situation as similar to the Brees/Rivers situation in SD. Except that SD had more invested in Rivers and that Brees was a much bigger loss than Thomas Jones. San Diego improved without getting anything for Brees. The Bears will be similar and they get to move up 26 picks in the draft.

He wasnt as rated as high as he is now because of his recent combine. This draft was done before the combine and i dont think accurately projects what his value is now, running a 4.53 helped out a lot. Lotsa good LB no doubt in this draft. Timmons would be a fantastic pick if he slips. I don't see Timmons making it that far, but that would be a no-brainer at 31, not to mention 37. Really? I'd like to see Angelo avoid replacing Briggs with first-round money, especially since he's going to lose Briggs over money. As long as we're cutting a guy because we aren't going to pay him, it seems to make more sense to try to replace him with the same sort of high-value, low cost player. I said "no-brainer" because at 31, he would most likely be the best player available at that point.

He wasnt as rated as high as he is now because of his recent combine. This draft was done before the combine and i dont think accurately projects what his value is now, running a 4.53 helped out a lot. Lotsa good LB no doubt in this draft. Timmons would be a fantastic pick if he slips. I don't see Timmons making it that far, but that would be a no-brainer at 31, not to mention 37.

Big winner: Baltimore also changes the assumed "AP to CLE" draft pick at #3. Do they trade down now? I'd think they'd trade down. I don't see them going crazy for Calvin Johnson. They could take Brady Quinn. But they could get a couple great picks for the #3 (NE trade up to get Johnson for their 2 firsts?), and pick up Stanton/Smith for QB and can pick up a decent RB prospect and help out the OL. Of course, it would take a wise team to do that.....Cleveland is not that type of team.

The Jamal Lewis fallout is complete. Lewis to Cleveland. Bills trade McGahee to Baltimore for a 2007 3rd and 7th rounder, and a 2008 3rd rounder. Bills sign Corey Dillon.

Bracketology is wrong. No way ND is below a 5 if they win today against Cuse IMO. Their RPI is 33, but just about every other ratings system known to man has them in the top 20. Well, since they will lose to the Cuse, they'll end up as a 6 or 7.

Vuk was a former Cubs coach. He was a good guy from all accounts, and a pretty good coach.

Wow. This is a huge boost in his stock. I didn't put Nelson into my top 25, but this probably makes him a legit top 15.

Agreed. I think the Bears goal this offseason should be making the pass game better and making the defensive depth better. If the Bears are gonna stay with Grossman (which I think they should), he is the key to the offense. They gotta make him consistently better. The best way to make that happen is to give him protection, as he was mostly great with pass protection. The 2nd best way is to give him better weapons in the middle of the field. I see Olsen as similar to Dallas Clark. He's big and can run. Clark was the Colts #3 WR. Sure, Rashied Davis made some big plays in 2006 as the 3, and Mark Bradley has amazing talent, but Olsen is about 8 inches taller than Davis, and most likely will be a lot more reliable target in the middle of the field than Bradley, who hasn't shown much other than being a speed guy. (wow, that's a run-on sentence) As for the WR, I wouldn't mind another guy being brought in. Berrian could be gone after this year. Moose could be gone period. Bradley hasn't stepped up, and Davis isn't that great. I wouldn't trade up to get a 1st round WR, but if a guy like Steve Smith or Anthony Gonzalez slips to the end of the 2nd round, they would be worth a look. 3rd and 4th round, I would look for a value pick at WR. The Bears were in the position last year of having no glaring holes. Now, they have no major holes, except for depth. There's not a single position that is off limits in this draft, IMO, except for possibly CB. (that does not include K or P)

I'm not sold on the Brewers. I'm not the biggest Weeks fan, but he is really the only OBP they have going for them. Could be a typical Cubs offensive team with a lot of power and nobody on base. Fielder and Hall don't get on base enought for middle of the order hitters. They have the potential to have sub .350 OBPs from every position but 2B, depending on what they do with Jenkins. Pitching is gonna be good, but overrated. Sheets is gonna have a huge year. Capuano is overrated. Bush was a lot better than his ERA last year and could be an All-Star this year. Suppan and their #5 will be below league average.