Im not sure about anyone else, but this is my favorite time of year.  Football season.  And with that comes all the fantasy drafts you can handle… having so many fantasy teams that you dont even remember who you have on your team anymore.  Ill only be doing 3 leagues this year, 2 head to head and 1 rotisserie scoring, but im on the fence with what kind of drafting strategy I want to go with.  In the past I normally went with the “best availabe” strategy and just ran straight down the cheat sheet I printed off ESPN.  However this year I really am convinced that getting a RB1 and WR1 is really important.  For me I really believe that the dropoff between the “top 5″ running backs and the rest of the field is a dramatic drop.  On the other hand, I believe that you can find some really great QB’s (fantasy-wise) in the later rounds.  In terms of total fantasy points, I think the upside on guys such as Matt Schaub, Matt Ryan, maybe even Matthew Stafford could propel them into top 6 or 7 fantasy wise QB’s.  So I really think waiting until later rounds to draft a QB could be the way to go this year.  At least thats how I plan on going about it, but once you get into the draft things can change and my strategy goes right out the door.  Whats your draft day strategy? I’d love to hear some feedback on different ways to go about drafting

According to New York Knicks head coach Mike D’Antoni the fans at MSG chanting the words Melo, Melo, Melo (in reference to bringing Carmelo Anthony to NY) have distracted the Knicks and made it tough for them to play.  Message to coach D’Antoni: The crowds chanting Melo is not the problem with the Knicks.  How about the fact that in their last 10 games the knicks have given up 100+ points in 9 of them.  The problem, coach D’Antoni, is that your team can’t stop anyone.  After being torched by Randy Foye just a few days ago they now have to face the Lakers and Kobe Bryant who just happens to play quite well at MSG.  Its time for D’Antoni to stop making excuses to cover the fact that he doesnt stress defense enough, and thinks his team can just outscore anybody.  These are professional atheletes getting paid millions of dollars, they can block out the crowd and get the job done.  D’Antoni needs to start having his team prepared and not settling for guys standing around playing no help defense and not hustling for loose balls.  So coach, please stop making excuses for your players.  The reason they are chanting Melo is because the team out there on the court right now isnt getting the job done.  Period.

Well the calendar has just turned to February but its beginning to feel a lot like March Madness to me.  Last week marked an unbelievable week full of upsets in NCAA basketball.  Of the top 25 teams, 17 of them lost last week, including 7 out of the top 10.  One of the biggest upsets in my mind was Duke going into MSG to play St Johns and getting run off the court.  You also have Syracuse in the midst of a 4 game losing streak (the last time they lost 4 games in a row was back in 2006) and will face a tough Uconn team coming off a home loss on Wednesday night.  That should be a pretty good indicator of which direction those teams are heading.  You have a sizzling Univertsity of Texas rising up to #3 in the country, and you have the one constant still at #1 and that is Ohio State who almost lost to Northwestern on Saturday and have won 4 games in January by 5 points or less.  My question is, are there are “dominant” teams this year?  It seems to me there is a ton of parody and the title is completely up for grabs.  Is this the year we see a mid-major team take home the hardware?  Only time will tell 

On monday night David Stern once again reiterated that he would like to see Lebron James re-sign with Cleveland this offseason.  Stern was quoted as saying “I hope he’ll stay, thats the way the system is designed”.  The system which Stern is referring to is one where small market teams have had much success in the past retaining their superstar players after competing in the playoffs and championships.  See David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Karl Malone, etc.  Lebron James has repeatedly said that he will decide what to do based upon which team gives him the best chance to win multiple NBA Championships.  But which team do you think he will end up with come this summer when free agency begins.  Cleveland? New York? New Jersey?  Do you think it depends on how Cleveland ends up doing this postseason?  And do you think Stern is secretly hoping that Lebron will come to New York or does he really want him staying in Cleveland.

The Minnesota Twins are off to a blazing start this season thanks in part to the comeback of Francisco Liriano.  After having Tommy John surgery in 2006 and having a rough couple of years after that Francisco Liriano is back to his old ways.  Through his first 4 starts Liriano is 3-0 with an ERA of 0.93 and a WHIP of 0.97 and has 27 strikeouts in only 29 innings.  Opponenets are only batting .180 off of him and he now has run up 23 consecutive innings without allowing a single run.  As of right now he has to be considered in AL Cy Young talk, but can he keep this up? Can he take the twins on his back and carry them deep into the postseason?  Only time will tell

Its time to give credit where credit is due.  Greg Monroe has the hoyas playing some big time basketball when it matters the most.   In making picks the other night I predicted Marquette would win a close one over Georgetown, but I couldnt have been any farther off.  Monroe poured in 23 points, 13 rebounds and 7 assists in Friday’s first semifinal game, nearly missing out on a triple double.  He will look to show up big again Saturday night in the finals against a strong West Virginia team.  With the conference tournaments pretty much wrapping up tonight, and only a few championships tomorrow before Selection Sunday, who is everyones picks for the 4 #1 seeds? And who is going to take home the national title? lets hear some predictions

There is an old saying that “It’s hard to beat a team three times in a row”  And that rang true on Thursday as Georgetown took it to the Syracuse Orange.  Syracuse goes 1 and done in the big east tournament and are now possibly looking at losing their #1 seed in the NCAA tournament.  Even more damaging could be the loss of Arinze Onuaku, Syracuse’s big man, as he went out of the game with a knee injury.  Chris Wright shined for the Hoyas as he poured in 27 pts, 6 rebounds and 6 assists, and toss in yet another double-double from Greg Monroe who had 15 pts and 10 rebounds.  The Hoyas are now poised to make a run deep into the big east tourney as they have a date with Marquette who pulled another upset today taking out 10th ranked Villanova.  You gotta love conference tourney time!

With the regular season over its time for the best part of the year in my opinion…Conference Tournament time and then straight into the NCAA tourney.  The Big East tournament is one of the premier if not the most anticpated conference tournament every year and this year especially.   With a #1 seed in the big dance on the line who is going to come up big and take down the Big East championship trophy?  Will it be Syracuse whos looked great all season except against Louisville?  Is Georgetown primed to make a run deep into the tournament? With my Uconn huskies pretty much done I am looking forward to watching some great basketball over the next 5 days.  Who does everyone have their money on??

Before he heads to New York to join the jets, Antonio Cromartie has one more thing to tend to.  Hes got a court date in San Diego to discuss some $25,000 in unpaid child support.  The New York Jets for the 2nd time in a few months have signed a player who has more than his fair share of legal issues (see Braylon Edwards).  Cromartie has acknowledged that he has 7 kids with 6 different women living in 5 different states.  Theres no denying that Cromartie who had a phenominal start to his career has phenominal man to man coverage skills.  The Jets only had to give up a 2011 3rd round pick so even if it doesnt work out it’s not as if the Jets had to give up a lot…I think this could be a big time success or a big time failure.  Are the Jets turning into the Cincinnati Bengals from a few years ago with a number of guys who have legal issues?  Or was this a good gamble?? 

File this one under “shocker”.  The New Jersey Nets go in to Boston and beat the slumping Celtics on their home floor.  After the game Kevin Garnett said he was flat out disgusted, and for good reason.  The Nets began the day 5-52 a win percentage of .088. The Celtics % was .643. That’s a difference of .555. Over the past 15 seasons, this was only the fifth time that a team beat an opponent that had a win percentage at least .550 better than its own at least 50 games into a season.  Can the Celtics rebound from this horrible loss and get back on track? Or are they slowing down and headed toward an early exit in the playoffs?  Lets hear some thoughts!