This Week in Sports

Week of November 12, 2012

What a week for sports last week!  The #1 ranked team in college football was upset, there was a tie in the NFL, and Phil Jackson is the new coach of the Lakers! Mike D'Antoni is no longer unemployed.  But the past is the past, I made some good picks last week, so let's again look ahead to the upcoming week in sports.

NBA

 

Heat at Clippers, Tonight 10:30
Once again, I've got a Miami Heat game on the set of games to look out for this week.  Last week they destroyed Brooklyn, and they look to do the same against the Clips.  The Heat (6-2) and Clippers (5-2) meet in LA tonight in what should be, if nothing else, full of some highlight dunks.  But let's take a look at the matchup.

Miami has the clear advantage on the wing, as they usually do with Wade and LBJ, but here's an interesting stat: LeBron is averaging just 23 points a game in 17 career games against the Clippers, his lowest output against any team in the league.  Caron Butler is a decent defender, but I wouldn't expect he and Willie Green (who?) to stop James and Wade by themselves.

Thankfully, they don't have to.  The Clippers aren't equipped to handle the Big 2 on the perimeter, but that's not where they like to play either.  The Dynamic Duo will try and take it to the paint against Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan.  While Griffin is not a spectacular defender, Jordan is just that, and he has shown much improvement this season-- even offensively upping his points per game by 4 points so far this year.

For those of you keeping score, that's advantage Heat on the perimeter and advantage Clippers down low, so what's it come down to? Point guard play.  And LA just so happens to have one of the best in the league at that spot.  While Mario Chalmers has shown he can handle the job of PG for the Heat and has actually played rather well this season, I'm still taking CP3 everyday of the week.  Advantage at the point plus playing in the Staples Center, I'll take the Clippers in this one.  NBA games are tough to predict and can usually go either way, but I think an exciting game will end in the Clippers' favor tonight. 

Here's the rest of the games this week.  

Another one to keep an eye on, Knicks vs. Spurs on Thursday night.  Knicks looking to stay undefeated will have a very tough test against Parker and company.  Loving the Knicks chemistry so far this season, but they've gotta lose at some point; I'm gonna say Spurs win that one.

College Football

 

Geez, I thought last week was gonna be a snoozer for college football; this week, not much better.  The entire SEC schedule is laughable (be careful, Gators...), but there are some good games outside of the SEC this weekend.  Let's see what we got.

Rutgers (22) at Cincinnati
Sticking with last week's theme of picking a random Big East matchup, I'll take Cinci in the upset.  Rutgers has only lost one game, but they have only beaten a bunch of High School JV teams, plus they lost to Kent St.  Cinci, on the other hand, has had some impressive victories (VT) and some close losses (Louisville).  Plus Munchie Legaux, owner of the best name in college football, can really make things happen.  Cincinnati is at home, I'll take them over the overrated Rutgers bunch.

Oklahoma (12) at West Virginia
If you're a fan of defense, you might wanna skip out on this one.  Oklahoma, at times, has shown that their offense can really score some points.  West Virginia has this guy named Geno Smith on their team, remember?  He was the can't miss, without a doubt Heisman winner after five games this season; they gave him the trophy and everything!  But after four consecutive losses, I haven't heard Geno Smith's name in weeks and the Mountaineers are just hoping to be bowl eligible now.  This one could provide some fireworks, but I think defenses are beginning to figure out how to stop this WVU offense (that and they started playing teams that are worth a shit).  I really wanna see Oklahoma get upset, but I just don't see it.  Not this week.

USC (18) at UCLA (17)
How does this game not have a cool nickname? The schools are twelve miles apart, in the same conference, in Los Angeles, but no cool rivalry name? I'll call it Battlefield LA for the time being, but someone should definitely get on top of that.  Anyway.  This game will basically decide who plays Oregon in the Pac 12 championship game.  USC has shown throughout the season that, while their offense can flat out ball, they are not big on that whole defense thing.  That said, Jim Mora has those guys a UCLA playing very well, definitely over achieving this year.  Both offenses are good, but the Bruins have the edge on D (hell, Jackson High School's defense might be better than the Trojans).  I think Barkley and Lee put up ridiculous numbers, but in the end, the more physical style of UCLA prevails. 41-35 Bruins.

Stanford (13) at Oregon (2)

Now, the game of the week in Eugene, Oregon.  Everyone knows what the Ducks bring to the table offensively.  Chip Kelly's system has to be the most exciting in the nation, but Oregon's defense really doesn't get enough credit.  Those guys ain't afraid to hit somebody, and on top of that, they cause turnovers.  That said, Oregon hasn't played anyone quite like Stanford.  The Cardinal want to pound the rock, all game long.  Add that to a few injuries on the Duck's defense, and don't look now but Oregon may just be the next undefeated to bite the dust (says the hopeful SEC fan).  I think this is a bad time for the Ducks to play Stanford and it might be a little closer than they'd like, BUT this game is at Autzen Stadium in Oregon and that place gets crazy.  This one is gonna be the steady, persistent Stanford against the explosive Oregon. Big plays are gonna be the difference in this one.  Ducks win.

 NFL

Injuries to quarterbacks have absolutely killed all the good NFL matchups this week.  Steelers vs. Ravens and Bears vs. 49ers would have been awesome matchups.  But no Big Ben and both Jay Cutler and Alex Smith still questionable, those matchps just won't be the same. 
All the same, here's some picks.


Cowboys over Browns
Cam over Josh Freeman and the Bucs
Lions shock the Packers
Rams beat the Jets, Sanchez plays horribly and Tebow still sits
Falcons redeem themselves against the Cards (Rise Up!)




That pretty much sums up this week in sports. Not the best week, but hey it could always be worse.  At least no teams decided to hire Mike D'Antoni over Phil Jackson...wait what?


Have a good week. Go Dawgs!