College Basketball Picks

It is getting pretty obvious now that Phil Jackson is on his last legs, quite literally, and a replacement will be needed within the next couple of seasons. The obvious choices for a replacement are on Jackson's coaching staff, most notably Kurt Rambis or Brian Shaw, but some people believe Kobe Bryant will want hall of fame college basketball icon Coach K to take over once Phil Jackson calls it quits.

Even though that sounds like a great idea, especially since Kobe feels incredibly comfortable with the Mike Krzyzewski, Coach K sees it differently as says he has no plans of joining the Los Angeles Lakers coaching staff anytime soon.

Personally, I think that is all BS as I really can't think of a better destination for the hall famer after Duke. Not saying he will want to leave Duke, but the Lakers might have the money to make the move irresistable for Coach K.

A one handed player in college basketball is pretty ridiculous, but Manhattan College is taking a chance on center Kevin Laue out of Amador Valley High School.

How ridiculous is this really? Can Laue be capable of keeping up with Division I talent? How do you guard an one armed man?

"It's a business," the 6-foot-10 Laue said. "Their jobs are all on the line. It's much safer to take a two-handed guy my size that got beat by me."

First of all, I have never heard of Manhattan College so this looks like a publicity stunt to me, but I am glad that college team would take a chance on the one armed kid even if it is to get Manhattan College back on the map in the college basketball world.

UConn will win it all!

Lets just get that out of the way first. Now as for this upcoming Saturday in Detroit here is how I see it going.

Right now the spread for the games is as follows:

-7.5 North Carolina and -4 UConn

I do believe the Tar Heels will beat the Villanova Wildcats, but not by almost 8 points. The Wildcats have done nothing, but destroy point spreads and pull off upsets in the tournament so far and I don't think that trend will stop here.

As for the Huskies, they will absolutely destroy Tom Izzo's Spartans. I really can't believe the spread is only 4 points. That is a sports bettor's wet dream!! Take UConn to cover the spread for sure!

There are only 16 college basketball teams left in the Big Dance and most of them were predicted to be there.

So far we haven't seen any real upsets or and Cinderella stories emerging, but there have been some pretty entertaining basketball games in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament.

All four number one seeds are still hanging around, but two of them have already been tested. Both Pittsburgh and Louisville have already faced elimination in the first two rounds as they went up against teams that seemed determined to do the impossible.

As for UConn and UNC it has been smooth sailing thus far as neither one of their opponents put up much of a challenge for these two number one seeds.

Here are the last 16 teams left in the Big Dance and their match ups in the Sweet 16:

UConn vs. Purdue- expect the Huskies to roll over Purdue and head straight for the Final Four

Pitt vs. Xavier- coming into the tournament I would have put my money on Pitt to win the whole thing, but they have struggled all the way so I see the Panthers losing in either this round or the next

Villanova vs. Duke- the Wildcats should beat the Blue Devils here

North Carolina vs. Gonzaga- expect UNC to destroy the Zags

Syracuse vs. Oklahoma- best match up of the Sweet 16, the Orangemen are red hot and the Sooners have Blake Griffin so this is anybodies game

Louisville vs. Arizona- Cardinals defense will be the story here

Kansas vs. Michigan State- another good match up, but the Jayhawks will advance

Missouri vs. Memphis- battle of the Tigers! I see Memphis moving on

There is definitely no shortage of great college basketball teams that will participate in the NCAA tournament this season, but which team has the best chance of winning the Big Dance.

The Big East conference will most likely be heavily involved in this conversation, but there are few more teams in different conferences that will give them a run for their money.

In the Big 12 you have Blake Griffin's Oklahoma Sooners and the defending champion Kansas Jayhawks. In the Pac 10 there are the UCLA Bruins and the Washington Huskies along with a Arizona St. Sun Devils team that could surprise people. And then finally you have the two heavyweight conferences in the ACC and Big East.

The Big East is full of great teams in Louisville, UConn, Villanova and Pitt. Any of those teams could easily be in the Final Four conversation. In the ACC there is Duke, Wake Forest and of course North Carolina.

In my opinion, the Tar Heels will win the whole thing. For one they are due for a championship and secondly they come into the tourney as the top team in the country. The Big East will compete, but North Carolina will be the champ when it is all said and done.

The UCLA Bruins have arguably been the best team in the Pac-10 conference and on the West coast for the quite some time, but times might be changing as Arizona State has now beaten the Bruins twice so far this season.

Although teams like Arizona State and Washington have always been considered a second rate teams compared to UCLA, this season they might be making a push for the Pac-10 title after the Bruins dropped another to the Sun Devils.

It will be a close race as we head closer and closer to March in the Pac-10, but this is the first time is a few years the Bruins finally have some legit competition in their own conference.

Ok we have started out the season very good with our college basketball picks. ( 4 - 1 ) record to start off the basketball season.

We have one play today. Take Michigan to the bank... Michigan is a much improved team this basketball season, they wins over Duke and UCLA. They take on Wisconsin squad that is really looking for a idenity. Take the much improved Michigan team big today. You won't be sorry. $$$$$$$$$$$

Michigan - 3

Ok we are ( 2 - 1 )  on our college basketball picks. I plan on starting the season off slow with the amount of picks we will gear up towards January.

We have a few picks on Saturday.

Ok... here we go ... everyone is inlove with Davidson/Curry... well were not buying it Purdue is a very good team that plays great defense. They will stiffle Curry and should have no problem covering the small line.

Purdue - 4.5

Ok Arizona is in a a state of transition ... not sure what they are up to as far as productivity. What I do is this line stinks... they are baiting you to take Arizona and we arent going for it. UNLV + 2 at home ... they get the W.

UNLV + 2

I am picking Wake -7.5 against Richmond who has won only one game this year.  Wake should take this one pretty easily.   This is just a gut feeling.  Early yet for basketball for me, still into football.  I will post games I really have confidence in the win.   Gotta go with Wake tonight

This is a great game to bet on.  One of the best road teams in basketball.   They are a much better team in shooting and rebounding.   Will win big.  Take  Providence - 15.5 over Brown