What Is Your Alma Mater Doing?

Besse's is in the NCAA Tournament as a #14 seed getting set to face #3 Notre Dame on Thursday (12:15pm)

My father's is also in the NCAA Tournament as a #12 seed getting set to face #5 Northern Iowa on Friday (1:40pm)

Mine?  Well, we're not in the tournament, but for the first time ever they will have a player drafted in the NFL this April (or May).

How about you?

I will not be winning any bracket pools this year

I just did my first walk through of the NCAA Tournament bracket on ESPN. My final four was Ohio State, Syracuse, Marquette and Notre Dame...with Ohio State defeating ND 66-60 in the championship. Safe to say I'll need to go back through and re-evaluate some terrible decisions I've obviously made along the way. Admittedly, I'm a huge ND and Marquette fan, and incorrectly predicted they would play each other in the Big East and National Championship games. Although I came surprisingly close with the Big East tournament.

Later today I'll post some quick hits and thoughts on the brackets released last night. But please note my alma mater Northeastern will be traveling to Storrs, CT tomorrow night to take on UConn in a battle of Huskies in the first round of the NIT. The game will be shown on ESPN2 at 7pm. The Huskies (NU) are a #5 seed, while the Huskies (CT) are the #4 seed in their bracket.

-Bess

Jimmy the Greek's Week 7 NFL picks

The Greek is about to head off and work the Northeastern football game. For those of you that haven't been following, The Greek's alma maters, both Northeastern and St. Paul's, are in the midst of seasons of futility. The Huskies are 0-6 and have been outscored 241-70. For those of you keeping score at home, that's an average of about 40-10. In fact they've lost a couple games 54-0 and 56-7 to B.C. and Villanova, respectively. Just awful. But equally as awful have been the Fighting Pelicans of St. Paul's, who stand at 0-4 and have been outscored 101-26, including back-to-back shutouts to start the season. So I'm gonna release a couple lines of my own today...who will lose by a bigger margin? NU plays Hofstra while SPS takes on St. George's. Both games are at their respective home fields, but let's be honest, that won't help anyone. They practically play all road games with the rabid fan bases they're bringing in at home.

In other news, BJal continues to suck at picking games, going back to his losing ways with an embarrassing loss last night. I hope to God he is right with his ND pick today, but I can't handle back-to-back Irish losses, especially the latter to B.C. But let's face it, BJal picking your favorite team is like the kiss of death.

Onto The Greek's Week 7 NFL picks...I'm just giving you the picks this week, no breakdowns. As always, lines are courtesy of the elder Greek's office pool on CBS Sports...

Vikings (+4.5) over Steelers
49ers (+3.5) over Texans
Chargers (-4.5) over Chiefs
Colts (-13.5) over Rams
Pats (-14.5) over Bucs
Packers (-6.5) over Browns
Jets (-6.5) over Raiders
Panthers (-6.5) over Bills
Falcons (+3.5) over Cowboys
Dolphins (+6.5) over Saints
Bears (+1.5) over Bengals
Cardinals (+6.5) over Giants
Eagles (-7.5) over Redskins

-The Greek

BJal's Lock du Jour - Friday, October 9

Last night's Missouri loss, at home against Nebraska, ran the season record to 0-3. At this point you have to wonder if BJal could even pick his nose. This is getting bad. Vegas is about to run out odds as to whether BJal will lose more picks in a row than the Lions did games. Could he possibly do it? I almost feel like he should make his pick, then do the complete opposite. Maybe BJal should syndicate this column across all the major papers, websites and betting prognosticators. Once he makes his pick, hardcore gamblers from afar would flock to the casinos or call their bookies and bet their kid's college fund on exact opposite of what he picked with the utmost confidence. I thought about taking up gambling again a few nights ago when he started this. I'd probably be out of debt by now. Instead, I'm sitting here trying to figure when I can make the next payment on my college loan.

But thus, without further ado, Bjal's pick for tonight is Nevada giving up 10.5 to Louisiana Tech. Nevada is 1-3 and I know them for getting shutout and demolished by my Irish back in early September. I know nothing about La Tech except a kid from there transferred to Northeastern a few years ago to play quarterback. They hyped him up like the kid never had to take a shit, and then he threw three picks in the spring game and never saw the field. He transferred out that same year. And they wonder why NU won't win a game this year. It's because they bring in losers like that.

BJal's Lock du Jour: Nevada (-10.5)
Overall record: 0-3

NU Baseball makes ESPN's Top Plays

As you may or may not know, I was a five year member and senior captain of the Northeastern Baseball program. And so it was a great pleasure to watch today's Top Plays on Sportscenter and see Northeastern involved in the #2 play, despite the fact they were on the wrong end of it. Senior Mike Tamsin, who is the all-time hits leader and currently poised to finish with the highest career average in program history, hit a tremendously deep fly to left center field. URI center fielder Kenny Burns (no relation to the documentary guy, I don't think) tracked it to the wall, then proceeded to not only rob Tamsin of a homerun, but plow THROUGH the fence as well. Enjoy the clip of the play and the ridiculously long time it took for them to close the gate. High comedy.

Also, let it be noted that JT Ross tossed a complete game 1-hitter in this contest. No walks and like 12 K's. Apparently the only hit came after a dropped foul pop up. I bet someone is on suicide watch today...way to ruin a perfect game.



And for the record, the #1 play on this countdown? Ray Allen's game winning jumper against the Bulls. Well deserved. C's will win this series because of that shot.
-Bess

Brutal white boy dunk

And this is one reason why there shouldn't be this many postseason tournaments in college basketball. Don't get me wrong, I'm as excited as any proud Husky alum that Northeastern captured it's first postseason win in school history last night. But it came at the expense of the Wyoming Cowboys (my apologies to Keefe's dad, a proud Cowboy alum), and also bore witness to one of the most horrific, comedic dunks in basketball history. Adam Waddell stole a pass on the defensive end and took it coast to coast. Understandably, he was pretty jacked up, whether it was the fact that he stole the ball and had the whole floor wide open or that he was able to rise up that high and throw it down. But he held onto the rim too long, and with his momentum carrying the rest of his body forward, he swung like a pendulum and then flipped (acrobatically?) to the floor. Not sure what they gave him for a score, but check it out below, this guy is lucky he isn't paralyzed in a hospital bed somewhere right now:



-Bess