Championship week has arrived ...

As the regular season comes to a close this past week, we’ll now be treated to conference playoffs featuring the country’s best college basketball teams. In many cases, championship week is not for the faint of heart. Season changing, and season ending, upsets will occur. Teams that for weeks have dominated their regions will become also rans while teams who have wallowed in mediocrity will rise to the occasion and begin a run in the NCAA tournament. In short, championship week can and will change everything. It can make you or break you.

For years now college basketball has been dominated by teams many have labeled The Blue Bloods, the premier teams of college basketball. The University of Kentucky, Duke University, The University of North Carolina, Kansas, Arizona and UConn have been the perennial power houses. They’ve dominated the tournament year end and year out. These teams and several others I failed to mention (sorry) seem to always end up being half or three quarters of The Final Four. Fans that know absolutely zero about college basketball have been placing them on their tournament brackets winning slots with impartiality and abandon. For me it’s gotten boring. It’s time for a changing of the guard, it’s time for some new blood.

Over the past couple months several teams have been flip flopping back and forth from the number one ranking in college basketball. Perdue University, The University of Alabama (yes the play basketball as well), Kansas and Houston have all attained the top spot yet seem to loose it by being beaten the following week. As of the 5th of March the top 5 teams remain as 1.Houston, 2.Alabama, 3.Kansas 4.UCLA 5.Purdue. Just this past weekend both Kansas and Alabama lost with Purdue and Houston squeezing bye in a couple of nail biters. At this point it’s any ones guess who will prevail but much like in most collegiate sports the teams get better as the season drags on. As usual, West Coast teams like UCLA, Arizona and a few others get zero love from the national media as most of us on the east coast are asleep in bed when they are playing. Look for a couple of sleepers to squeeze into the tournament and make a run for it this year. It’s anyone’s ball game at this point. It’s at this point in the season that I start considering my final teams. I like to pick eight teams that I think will be there towards the end. The rest are just cannon fodder. From those eight, I can usually pick the final four and from that the Championship ship team. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I like to keep things interesting and keep my friends and coworkers guessing.

I’m sure that many of you out there have been transfixed by watching the NFL combine. I know I have been, kind of. The fact that it gets so much air time on TV and social media has begun to vex me as I personally see it as nothing more then a media created talent show contest designed to boost ratings and sell advertising space. To me it means absolutely zero but if the NFL can make it work then more power to them. In the end, it’s important to remember that Tom Brady was an unknown drafted in the 4th round and San Francisco Wonder Boy Brock Purdy was drafted absolutely last, so go figure. I suppose it’s always fun to generate some trash talk and speculation during the off season but discussing a players hand size to me is kinda wacky and a little bit creepy too. I’m a realist at heart, and I also  remember that they said Joe Burrow’s hands were too small and Lamar Jackson would be better at running back or slot receiver. To make it simple, I’m not a believer.

 I will say however that I’ll play the game and in a couple of weeks, just before the real NFL draft I’ll be publishing “Kev’s Mock Draft 2023”. You don’t want to miss it because it will be epic. For many fans and many fantasy teams it could be season changing. Yes, I’m going to discuss individual player skill sets, yes I’m going to predict who will go where and why and yes I’ll take time to discuss future stars and past flops according to my own research. For me it’s more then just about stats like hand sizes and vertical leaps. I mean seriously, things are quite a bit different when you’re face to face with a 6 ft. 5 inch 340 pound opposing player who wants to level you. Next year they should just surround the ball carriers with a bunch of baseball bat wielding volunteers to see who can withstand the worst beating and still hold on to the ball! Anyone can throw a football in an arena unopposed, doing it in action is another thing entirely. Meanwhile we’ll have to suffer through another week or two of uncomfortable media interviews with barely known players who sit star struck and wide eyed as the first and second round favorites play on their phones and make Tik Tok videos.

 In the end I figure the experts and draft advisers don’t get their picks right any more then you or I do. A quick look at some of the recent draft busts will tell you that. Kyler Murray, Josh Rosen, Justin Fields, Jon Ross lll, EJ Manuel were all fist rounders that never even came close to making the grade. What about that guy from BYU that went to the Jets? Zach Wilson? Like a lot of things in life the NFL draft is a gamble. Take a chance and roll the dice, just make sure you show up with your wallet.

          Till next week sports fans!!