College Football Friday: Week 13

Good morning Fackers. If you're like me, you're still shaking out the cobwebs from a gluttonous Turkey Day. If you're not, you've just returned from shopping at some ungodly hour just to save a few bucks. Either way, the good news is we have some college football to help while away the day. Without further ado, here's a special Friday edition of College Football Saturday, er, Friday:

Rutgers at Louisville, 11:00 ESPN2: Well, at least it beats what's usually on at 11:00 on a Friday. I'm in Jersey this morning, so I suppose I'm obligated to pull for the State University in this one.

Temple at Ohio, 11:00 ESPNU: Maybe you want to go back out and try to get some shopping done afterall

Illinois at #5 Cincinnati, 12:00 ABC: Sort of an odd match-up for a day like this. This is neither a conference game nor a rivalry game. But it's an important one. Cincy is still undefeated and needs to remain as such to keep alive whatever slim hope they have of reaching the BCS Championship Game. With a de facto Big East Championship game looming against Pitt next week, this one has the makings of a classic trap game.

#2 Alabama at Auburn, 3:00 CBS: The Iron Bowl. 'Bama has already clinched a berth in the SEC Title Game, but there's no way they're looking past this game. Rankings or no rankings, this is the only game of the year that matters in the state of Alabama. The rankings and Vegas both heavily favor the Crimson Tide. But rivalry games like this tend to be the ones to beat the odds. And recent history favors Auburn. Auburn has won seven of the last nine meetings, including six in a row from 2002 through 2007. Alabama holds the current bragging rights however, pitching a 36-0 shutout last year.

Nebraska at Colorado, 3:00 ABC: There was a time when this was a big game. This year is not one of those times. Both teams have been down from their previous lofty standards in recent years, but the Cornhuskers have rebounded this year. Nebraska already has an appointment to be annihilated by Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game. Colorado is finishing off a miserable season. This will be the final game for head coach Dan Hawkins and his benched QB son Cody.

#9 Pittsburgh at West Virginia, 7:00 ESPN2: The Backyard Brawl. I'll give this one a slight edge over the Iron Bowl as the game of the day. Pitt has a huge showdown looming with Cincy next weekend, but there's no way they overlook the Mountaineers - not just because this is their rivalry game. Pitt knows firsthand how this game can derail a season, as two years ago a poor Pitt team pulled off a stunning upset of a West Virginia team that was a win away from playing in the BCS Championship Game. The roles are reversed this time, and there isn't quite as much at stake, but 2009 Pitt isn't quite as good at 2007 WVU, and 2009 WVU is far, far better than 2007 Pitt. A Pitt win tonight means next week's game against Cincy is for the Big East title.

Nevada at #6 Boise State, 10:00 ESPN2: Another contender for game of the day. Boise St is one of six undefeated FBS teams, but is the only one that isn't close to a sure bet for a BCS game. Both teams are undefeated in the WAC. A Nevada win gives them the conference and ends the Broncos' BCS hopes. If Boise State can conquer the Wolf Pack's historic rushing attack, they'll win the conference and need only a win against lowly New Mexico St next week to ensure a perfect season and will likely be deserving of a BCS at large bid.

That's it for today's abbreviated slate. Enjoy the games Fackers. We'll be back tomorrow with the Saturday games.

Otto's Pimp Hand Is Strong

That was honestly the greatest college basketball...check that, basketball game I have ever seen. What more can you ask for? 6OTs, back and forth all night, long range 3s, big dunks, walk-ons getting huge rebounds (Thomas), etc.

I am a huge Cuse fan as many of you know, so this will sound homeresque, but refs don't call shit on UConn, not just in this game but all season. Thabeet especially, he gets a lot of blocks but he fouls with the body every fucking time. That asshole should have fouled out in the first half.

This game was way to long to recap the entire thing, but here are some take-aways for the kids taking notes at home:

*Devendorf's 3 at the end of regulation was after the buzzer, but it was so fucking close and he got fouled on that shit.

*Stanley Robinson fucking sucks and has sucked all year, but had the best game of his career last night, which seems to happen an awful lot against Cuse.

*Paul Harris and Eric Devendorf seemed to pull their heads out of each others asses and realized you can't drive on Thabeet.

*Syracuse shot 78.4% FT as a team. WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?!?!?!

*16:27 was the Cuse:UConn turnover ratio, enough said.

*I know it was 6OTs but Paul Harris had 22 rebounds, 4 players has over 20pts, and Flynn was 16-16 from the line.

The game changer was when Thabeet fouled out. AJ Price is really good, but he can't guard Johnny Flynn and with out the shot blocking threat he had an open lane to the hoop on every possession. If you were at the Washington Tavern (WTs or Ts) you would know this cause i was screaming it. I am not sure who the player of the game was but it had to be Flynn. Here is his line:

67 minutes, 16-16 FT, 11Ast, 7 TO, 6 Stl, 34 Pts

As such, I have officially assigned the new entry music that should be played as Johnny steps on to the court at all games at the Dome and the Garden ('Cuses' home away from home).



As for tonight, I think it will be tough because they are so tired, but on the other hand WVU isn't very good against the zone. No matter what happens Cuse just played themselves into a 3, possibly a 2 seed. So I ask you this, all homerism aside, do you really want to see your team in the same bracket as Syracuse?

As mentioned before we were watching this at WTs, which was awesome, except for the length of this game. This is because when your at a bar watching a 2 hour game that becomes a 4 hour game in the middle of a DWI blanket patrol, you could run into some problems.



(Everyone got home ok, please drink responsibly)

Ending Fuck You's
-John Cahill (head ref)
-The entire University of Connecticut
-The entire State of Connecticut
-Announcers, even though I couldn't hear them, I could sense the awfulness
-Duke
-Youk
-You and you motherfuckin' mama

7ZZZzzzzzz

F___ing SIX?????

Five

4?

00.0

Yeessssssssssss!
Yeeeesss?

Ummm...
No?

Fuck.

1-18!

DePaul, owners of a 0-18 conference record heading into the Big East Tournament just took down the #9 seed Cincinnati in the first round 67-57.

Piggy back rides for everyone!

If all goes well, I will be making a trip to one or more of the sessions of the Tournament this weekend and documenting the experience via the blurry digital camera pictures and ex-post facto snark that you have come to expect from this establishment.

Syracuse Plays Great, Gets Blown Out

Well, Fuck!!!



Syracuse put up a gutty, inspiring showing against Georgetown Wednesday night (sarcasm for those who didn't see it.) Maybe its that I just ran out of children's Tylenol but I am really fucking pissed about that game. Here is how I saw it (in list form!!):

1. It takes Boeheim a fucking lustrum to realize that 2-3 zone doesn't work against teams that can shoot the 3.

2. FUCKING FREE THROW SHOOTING. They shot 43.5%, brought down by Rick Jackson who was 1-8...ONE FOR FUCKING EIGHT!

3. Andy (Leo) Routins banged up the same knee that he tore his ACL in last year. The announcers said he would be ok, but if he is done for the season (Oh God please no) disregard everything I said here. That would eliminate the vast majority of 'Cuse's 3pt game and they would be done.

4a. "WE-ARE! GEORGE-TOWN!" Let me say that is a very creative chant you all have there. That is truly the chant of a student body that knows how to get the most for their money.

4b. Can Georgetown's shitty band play "We Fly High" by Jim Jones a few more times? THAT SONG IS OVER TWO YEARS OLD YOU FUCKS! You should be playing whatever piece of shit song Akon put out last week.

We got Notre Dame on Saturday at 12PM, so get your shit together.

'Cuse in da House OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!

I am well aware that the College Basketball regular season is half over, but for the #8 ranked Syracuse Orange it's just getting started.

'Cuse is currently 16-1 and has played anything but their normal early season cupcake schedule so far. They have actually started traveling outside of New York State before Big East play, and within a three week period have had three big early season wins over #18 Florida and #22 Kansas on consecutive nights followed a few weeks later by a win over #22 Memphis. I would also like to point out that the Florida game was played on a neutral site, the Kansas game was too (but anyone that watched it knows it was basically a Kansas home game) and the Memphis game was played in Memphis.

Sandwiched in between these games, was a match-up against Cleveland St. in the Carrier Dome. This is one of the few games that I didn't watch, but lucky me, I will get to see highlights all fucking season. For those of you with your head up your ass, Cleveland St. won this game at the buzzer with a 60 ft. prayer. I would be unbelievably pissed off if it weren't for these other wins because this is the type of early season BS that could have potentially fucked 'Cuse out of the NCAA Tourney for a 3rd consecutive year. Fortunately, those other wins and the way in which they lost to Cleveland St. should prevent that buzzer beater from having much bearing on their NCAA bid.

As for the upcoming schedule, 8 out of the next 10 games are against top 25 teams. I don't know of any other team ever playing against that level of competition, but that is the nature of Big East basketball this year. With that being said, I think 'Cuse creates match-up problems all over the floor (mainly Johnny Flynn and Arinze Onuaku) giving them the ability to beat anyone in the country. I predict they will go 7-3 over the next 10, with the three losses coming at Pitt, at UConn, and home against G'Town.

'Cuse will most likely be a #2 or #3 seed in the NCAA Tournament and maybe a #1 if they can win the Big East Tournament. It is way to early to predict how this will shake out, but I will tell you this:

Syracuse will lose pivotal games and get bounced from the NCAA tournament because of their poor free throw shooting.

Every team, every year has games that they win or lose at the free throw line. It hasn't come down to it yet, but it's going to come back and bite 'Cuse in the ass at some point. They shoot 63.32% as a team which is just not good enough. They have always been a poor FT shooting team, but this year is especially bad. Why they can't make uncontested, stationary 15 footers is fucking beyond me. Arinze Onuaku shoots 100 FTs every day, yet is 41.2% on the year, which is historically, mindbendingly awful (significantly worse than Shaq, Wilt or Ben Wallace).

All I hope is that 'Cuse makes a run at the title, I get to see Johnny Flynn posterize some more people this year and that everyone comes back so that we can make another run next year.

Hello....and Goodbye

That is what BC said to the top 25 this week with a win over #1 UNC followed up by a truly uninspired showing at home against Harvard.

(Cliff beat me too this, but as Fack Youk's expert on BC hate, I will follow up)

Harvard walked into whatever shit hole BC plays at and smoked them by 12, 82-70 (Note: Harvard has never beat a ranked team before tonight and lost 15 of their last 16 against BC.) This will surely fuel the inferiority complex throughout BC's faggy student body.

I think this is could stand out on BC's record come tourney time (obviously depending on how the rest of the season shakes out). Laying down to Harvard after beating #1 in the country is pathetic. I am not downplaying beating a #1 team, but when they are in your conference it is a little less impressive because you play them so often and anything can and does happen in conference play.

Now, to preemptively shut everyone (Joe) up about Cuse losing to Cleveland State, which I do admit that this was also pathetic.

1. It is Cuse's fault for it being that close, but CSU won on a fucking prayer 60 footer at the buzzer.

2. That loss means absolutely nothing because it is overshadowed by the 3 wins over top 25 teams within a week of that game (1 on the road, 1 at neutral site, and 1 "neutral site" against Kansas).

BC Is Gay

As you may know, I fucking hate Boston College with a passion. I have hated them long before Joe even thought about joining the inner circle of fagdom that is the BC student body.

It all started about 16 years ago when I was 8 and my father decided to get the family season tickets to Syracuse Football. We held on to these tickets for about 8 years, until my father decided to stop getting them the season after McNabb graduated (what a fucking brilliant move that was). The point is that since I was a young lad I have watched Cuse v. BC, both in Cuse and Boston and have a built in hatred for BC. This hatred dates back to before I even started hating the Red Sox.

In 2004, BC (along with a few others the year before) decided to leave the Big East to go to the ACC. What a fucking terrible move this was on their part. Granted Big East football isn't that good right now, but 3 of our 4 best football programs went to the ACC and look at what they are doing: Shitting the bed left and right (see: The U).

At this point I would like to un-misremember BC's last Big East football game in 2004. They were a power house in the Big East that year and all they had to do was beat lowly little Syracuse University at home to win the Big East and go on to a BCS game. In true Boston fashion, they came in and got fucking worked by Cuse the entire game and lost 43-17 and the Big East ended in a 4 way tie. So instead of going to a BCS Game, BC had the privilege of going to the Continental Tire Bowl.

Now, in my opinion the ACC was the best conference in basketball before this move, but the times they are a changing. The ACC is still pretty good, but in no way compares to the Big East. Yes I know there are 16 teams, BUT 9 OF THEM ARE IN THE TOP 25!!!

I have some more points but I am sick of thinking about this fucking awful city, fan base, and student body. And you know what, fuck their academic departments too. I am sure they have wonderful, highly ranked programs, but who really gives a fuck.

Also, as I write, Cuse is ranked #9 in NCAAM.