My Sports Bucket List

Sorry for the recent hiatus, but BGMVP.blogspot.com is back, at least for the moment. Wednesday night I attended the URI/Dayton game, which at the moment one of the Top 3 sporting events I've been to in my life (the other being the Home-Run Derby and the David Lee Tip-In Game). After blowing a large lead again in the 2nd half, Dayton forced the game into overtime. In overtime URI had a lead of 3 with 30 seconds left when Dayton's Chris Wright (not positive on that) hit a 3 to tie it at 91. Marquis Jones then pulled every trick out of his sleeve and got a left-handed, falling backwards lay-up to go at the buzzer. Before any chance to review the shot myself and about every fan on the floor rushed the court. URI improved to 21-8 and 3rd place in the A-10, but aside from that, storming the court in a college basketball win is something I've always wanted to do. Which got me to thinking what other things I'd love to do in my life before I don't have the chance.

- Go to NBA All-Star Weekend
- Watch a Knick Playoff Game at The Garden (I'm looking at you LeBron)
- Go to a NHL game
- Playoff Game at Yankee Stadium
- Go to a World Cup Game
- Go to the Daytona 500 (only kidding)

I'm sure there's more but that's all I can think of off the top of my head right now. Hopefully I can try and keep up with this god dam blog, and look to BGMVP for some more NCAA updates along with his progression as spring training for WB is right around the corner. Go Rhody!

February Madness?

Forget about March, so far in February there has been a huge shake up in the top teams of college basketball. The only place that hasn't seen a change is the top 2 teams, being UConn and Oklahoma. Other then that though, the rest of the rankings have been a crapshoot. February started with (at the time) #9 Michigan St. being upset at home by Penn St. (a team URI beat at Penn St. this year). The next day another top 25 team would be upset when #11 Butler lost at Green Bay by 9. The big game that day though was UConn rolling through Louisville at Louisville. This was all followed by #13 Purdue losing to unranked Ohio St. by 8 in overtime. And we can't forget February 4th which really shook up the rankings when # 3 Duke traveled to Clemson and # 6 Wake Forest went to Miami, and both were upset by 27 points. On the same night unranked (now ranked) Missouri went to #17 Texas and upset them. The next night, 2 more upsets when Wisconson knocked off #21 Illinois and Cal beat # 25 Washington. Possibly one of the bigger upsets happened on the 6th when #8 Marquette went to South Florida and lost by 1. 7 days into the month you think we could go upset free, then Nebraska hands #17 Texas their 3rd straight loss, #9 Xavier losses to Duquesne, (now ranked) Florida St. goes to # 10 Clemson and beats them, and Ohio St. upsets another Top 25 team when it beats #19 Minnesota.

So here were are a full week into February and there have already 13 upsets in the Top 25. Of course it wouldn't stop there though as in the next few nights #21 Illinois would beat #13 Purdue, #19 Missouri beat #16 Kansas, #13 Villanova beat #12 Marquette, unranked Dayton knocked off #14 Xavier, and unranked N.C. State beat #8 Wake Forest. So forget about March Madness, February has been crazy already and it's only going to get better as teams start to step their game up in search for an NCAA tournament bid. As for tonights Top 25 games, look for freshly ranked Arizona St. to upset #6 UCLA (who has been flying under the radar) at home to keep the February trend going.

Steroids and Professional Sports

I know I'm not the only person that feels this way, but has anyone else had enough of hearing about positive steroid test results for professional athletes these days? The ongoing story of steroids in professional sports has completely tainted all sports as a whole. The leaked positive test of A-Rod back in 2003 doesn't surprise me. You can tell me just about any professional athlete has tested positive for steroids these days and you just wouldn't evoke a reaction from me that makes me seem shocked that its happened. As a fan I almost feel robbed that I've paid so much money to watch these "athletes" perform at a level that isn't capable without taking steroids. Sure it's awesome to watch a 500 foot homerun, or a ridiculous hit on a wide reciever coming across the middle, but are these performances really true? Finding out all these players taking steroids is almost like when I found out as a kid that wrestling was fake, you don't want to believe it but you know its true. Whatever happened to natural talent? And I think it's even more ridiculous that people are going to forgive players like A-Rod, Pettite, and Giambi after they apoligized for taking steroids and realizing they did something wrong. If you get caught smoking weed or drinking underage, usually an apology and realizing you made a mistake doesn't cut it. Regardless of the fact that back in 2003 there was no penalty for taking steroids, you should still have to face a penalty. Sure you can argue that his performances in the playoffs are a great example of karma biting him in the ass, but I would love to see anyone caught with taking steroids in the past or present punished for it.

And I personally feel steroids don't stop in baseball. If you can tell me that you honestly believe Ray Lewis or any other NFL player hasn't done a sort of performance enhancing drug in their life, then you must be blind. How come when Rodney Harrison and Shawn Merrimen were caught doing HGH there was no deep search in the NFL for players who've taken steroids. I think the list of steroid abusers in the NFL is so deep that no one wants to come out and tell the truth. And what about the NBA? I bet you there are some players out there who take some perfromance enhancers to keep them fresh and healthy when maybe they're body is beginning to feel the pain of running up and down a court for 82 plus games a year. I might not be happy until all sports are cleaned out and everything starts fresh again, even if it has to go that far.

Superbowl, Gambling, and Rambling

Sorry I haven't updated in the past few days, the college life is busy (insert your OW in the comment section). I'll start off with the Superbowl, which I believe was almost just as good as last year's game. James Harrison's INT return was ridiculous and basically won the game for the Steelers. What I didn't notice at the time which was brought up on SportsCenter, if you go back to that play and look at Larry Fitzgerald running down Harrison, Antrle Rolle gets in his way on the sidelines and slows down Fitz, allowing Harrison to get into the endzone. How you get into your own players way on the sidelines confuses the hell out of me, but Rolle did and the result was game changing. Speaking of Larry Fitzgerald, he was unhuman like during the playoffs, like Frank Luongo when put up to an eating challenge. You can't believe it's happening, and when it's over you wonder how and why it happened. You can't hate on Santonio Holmes either, who even though was a huge bust in the fantasy season stepped his game up and was huge in the playoffs.

This brings me to my next topic, gambling. As you may remember my "lock" of the night a few nights ago was Illinois over Minnesota. That obviously didn't work out so well, along with my bet on Cleveland over the Magic, and loving Phoenix over San Antonio. 0-3 that night, but I remdeemed myself come Superbowl time. I felt that betting on just the Superbowl wasn't enough for me, so I took Cleveland (-4) at Detroit. I figured I've lost $65 on LeBron, he has to pay me back eventually, and he did. So after asking around I found out that the biggest jinx next to myself is Mellea, so after hearing he was taking the Steelers, the under, and Big Ben as MVP, I knew I should probably take the Cards (+7). And it finally paid off, 2-2 on the Superbowl and out of debt. I don't have a lock of the night for tonight cause I'm taking a day or two off of betting. That's a lie. I like San Antonio (-4) at Golden State tonight. Get ready for the Knicks starting off "Dream Week" against the Bynum-less Lakers tonight.

NEW York Knicks

Notice the emphasis on the NEW in New York. That's right, the Knicks are back baby and playing better then ever right now. Who knows how long until they decide to break our hearts again and go back to their old ways, but we might as well enjoy the moment while we can. The Knicks are currently tied for the 8th spot with Milwaukee, but trail by a few percentage points. They've won 5 out of their past 6 games over three potential playoff teams in Phoenix, Houston, and Atlanta. The schedule gets rough in the next 4 games though, at Indiana, followed by a three game home stand of Cleveland, LA, and Boston, basically the three best teams in the NBA. Hopefully the Knicks can ride this high streak right now and keep playing the type of basketball to make the sport relevant again in New York.

Another part of this blog as I mentioned will be gambling, so at the end of every post I'll give my "Lock" of the day in betting, or in my case the "Bust" of the day. Tomorrow I'm feeling Illinois going into Minnesota and taking down the 24th ranked team nationally. Illinois is only giving 1 to a team that has a very similar win resume. The two factors that made my choice though were that Illinois is only giving up 56.6 points a game, and they are averaging 4 players in double figure points, compared to Minnesota which only averages 2. We'll see how well I think I know betting compared to my actual knowledge of betting.

Intro

What's up to everyone following this brand new blog, BGMVP.blogspot.com, courtesy of BG. This site was created for two reasons: To accept the challenge of fellow blogger, AllDayMellea, and to inform some of the readers on topics regarding sports, gambling, fantasy, and who knows, maybe something that actually regards what's going on around the world (don't count on it though). It's also worth mentioning that you should go check out alldaymellea.blogspot.com and hockeylawyer.blogspot.com, two other blogs that can almost tie into what this blog is all about. For those who are wondering why the name BGMVP? Simple answer, I plan to dominate the SLWBL this season and every season after (refer to alldaymellea.blogspot.com to fully understand the SLWBL). But this site won't be dedicated towards Wiffle Ball. I'm here to share my knowledge on things you might or not be interested in, and to show AllDayMellea that he isn't the only clown who can run a blog. I'll most likely be posting every night so make sure to check the site daily. BG for MVP 09!