JStarr

Actually, it was supposed to be Dragsy's pick, then Eddie's.

And also for future reference, knock off the PM's. I'm checking back often enough that they're more an annoyance than anything. (Y)

C/1B Mike Napoli

They seem to be trying to clean the decks and start rebuilding with players in Chuck Pagano's image. So, the cap room is likely going to be used more on the kind of O-linemen they've never had (Carl Nicks?) and defensive players (Mario Williams?). Of course, those names represent the optimistic Colts fan in me talking, as these guys will obviously just be chasing paper if they come to a total rebuilding project. The new possibility is that Freeney might get straight-up released, since they're not getting any good offers for him. Makes sense, since why would anyone pony up for a guy on a team that's obviously purging? This is like a dude buying his woman a shiny trinket after he's been caught trying to bring another woman home from the bar. I find it hilarious that this extension was announced on a conference call at 10:30 PM on a Friday night, when it would be the quietest it would ever get.

Well, damn, and here I thought we were still sticking with our one-pick-every-six-days pace. I wasn't planning on being back until St. Patrick's Day. CF Curtis Granderson

There were a couple of years at the start of the 2000's where centers certainly were optional. Michigan State had Morris Peterson as their second-leading rebounder in 2000. Andre Hutson and A.J. Granger were their main big men. Syracuse in '03 had Hakim Warrick as the only option down low, but Melo was so All-Everything that it didn't matter. We could say that UNC in '09 didn't have a "true center," because Ed Davis and Tyler Hansbrough were their options. Still, who was stopping those two inside? Other than those, the rest of the NCAA champions had Carlos Boozer, Chris Wilcox/Lonny Baxter, Emeka Okafor, Sean May, Joakim Noah/Al Horford, Cole Aldrich/Darrell Arthur, Brian Zoubek (certainly had size, if not much else), and Alex Oriakhi. The Plumlees can handle most of the big guys they're going to see in the first couple of rounds, although if Lunardi's current projection is right and they face Iowa State in the second round, Royce White could go nuts. If they get to the Sweet 16 and run into a Baylor (big if that they make it that far right now) or Ohio State, or even a Missouri with dynamic guards who can penetrate, it's a shaky matchup for sure.

Creighton getting left out anyway would be a bit of a travishamockery. If Creighton had lost to Evansville (which would have made my wife's day, since UE is her alma mater), they'd be looking at three bids and some bubble team would be hanging themselves.

https://apps.facebook.com/cbssports/groups/group/251197 Bracket group on Facebook sponsored by my radio show. If enough participants are brought in, then the show's "Likers" have prize opportunities. Check it.

Well, that's certainly better than Urine Trouble.

If Michigan State had beaten Indiana tonight, they'd have the one earmarked for Duke/UNC. Since they didn't, their failure. Missouri could steal one if they win the Big 12 tourney.

So if all those teams above were in, that would give 64. But, there's still some multi-bid mid-majors. West Coast has to get Gonzaga in, and BYU is a solid bet as well. VCU could make a case from the Colonial. Conference USA could get Southern Miss in. Missouri Valley definitely has Creighton in. Colorado State's record isn't sexy, but their RPI and SOS numbers are strong. If they get in, the committee can never use the "RPI is only one of our tools" excuse, because that team has very little else going for it. 6-8 against the Top 100, 2-5 against the Top 50 with UNLV tomorrow night. Bad losses at Boise State and Stanford. Think I'd rather see South Dakota State get in from the Summit than some team like UConn. They've been back and forth with Oral Roberts all season, but they've just got too many ugly losses. Three outside the Top 100, and two to North and South Dakota, who are both in the 270-290 range. Not helpful. Oral Roberts may have a better at-large chance, but even then, it's not promising. If those top 5 get in and UConn gets left aside, that's a full 68. Like damshow said, there's just kind of a blah bubble this year. Teams I'd like to see in, like Miami and Northwestern and Xavier, are probably the most likely to get left out.

SS Troy Tulowitzki.

Since when has anyone given a shit what the NCAA thinks? Especially basketball, being dragged around by its collective hair while the football cavemen stagger toward the biggest pile of money to burn. They'd have to raise the NBDL salaries considerably. Remember, minor leaguers get huge signing bonuses which helps make the decision easy. Not sure if the owners would be willing to pay for that, especially with high school players being pretty hit or miss. That's the point though, they can either enter the draft and play basketball for two years for dirt cheap, and then jump into the NBA after facing considerably weaker talent, or prove themselves in college for two years against legit competition (not to mention gain national exposure) and probably get paid more. (I'm looking at you Kentucky.) The idea isn't really to make going from high school to the NBA easy, it's to push players to play in college and refine their skills. However, every once in awhile there's that player like LeBron or Dwight that you KNOW is going to be a monster in the league. You can draft him, have him under team control, and ride your luck that you can improve the team enough in two years to make noise when the player arrives after his NBDL time. If you don't, he'll probably end up bolting for a bigger market once he's a free agent. What Blitz is proposing is similar to where I've been the past several years. Players need to understand there's an opportunity cost to either choice. Owners would probably be okay with paying for a hefty signing bonus if they think there's a chance to groom a player the way they want to for two seasons. The only problem is that some teams would be angry that their players aren't being used the way they want them to be, since you'd have players under rights to several different teams playing on a single NBDL team. Only way around that is for each NBA team to have its own D-League affiliate, and that is definitely a major hurdle, probably too big to get over.

The terms "Josh Freeman" and "weapons" in the same sentence always make me chuckle after his shooting range misadventures.

4 Quarters Mafia.

If I can't get any interest for a league sponsored by my radio show (surprisingly, baseball doesn't move the needle in Tennessee, who knew?), then I'd be down to be part of an EWB league. Been several years since I dealt with fantasy baseball.

Jason "The Whole World Is Racist Except Me, I Just Keep It Real" Whitlock had himself a Linsanity moment, tweeting out "Some lucky lady in NYC is gonna feel a couple inches of pain tonight," and it seems the world is taking it as a racist shot at Jeremy Lin.

When I first saw him, I thought "Iron Sheik + Poofy Wig."

I find the Raji one funnier than the first. Now, once it gets shown 8,436 times by the end of games tomorrow, that opinion may differ.

As I said to a couple of my fellow Big Ten supporters on Twitter: Purdue football don't do much, but damn, it can turn out some QB's. Nobody better to break Marino's record.

Hell of an improbable title, but I'm glad to get it. Good season, all. (Well, most. ) Got another one to finish off tonight, and with a $70 prize to boot. Just need Jimmy Graham to haul in another score and Michael Turner to stay in his bottle.

He will crown the Jets the 4-time reigning and defending preseason Super Bowl Champs. He'll guarantee the Jets will wipe the course with every other team's offseason golfers.

I don't ever want to root for Charlie Weis, but if he can drag that program back from the dead and ensure that one of the nation's best basketball programs isn't left out in the cold when the next round of Realignment Apocalypse Roulette starts up...meh. Rock Chalk like a mofo.

Yeah, I can't really complain. If it wasn't for the ESPN Bottom Line during a college hoop game, I would have missed the draft totally. It was just senility, rather than any problem with the game. Besides, I've puked and rallied from worse.

That's assuming the Colts don't beat Jax. Even with Peyton, Jacksonville always seemed to hang tougher than they ever should against the Colts, so it's not exactly a foregone conclusion, no matter how crap the Jags might be. Rich Eisen and the boys repeatedly alluded to the Colts locking up No. 1 if they finished tied with the Lambs or Viqueens. This article, obviously written before tonight's game, talks about each team's strength of schedule in case of a three-way tie. The Rams still have the Steelers and 49ers, so it'll be hard for them to pass the Colts for worst SoS. Vikings maybe, but it's iffy.