After my 'Bookies Best Friend' showing last weekend, barely going 2-for-7, I've had to re-evaluate my thought process when it comes to picking these games. Yep, to quote an expert, there was just 'too much chalk' in my selections, and there was no way that all of those favorites were going to cover the huge spreads.
Some lessons take longer to stick than others.
Hopefully, the following picks have been made using a little more head, a little less heart, and will cost a little less wallet:
1) Georgia +2.5 over Tennessee. If Georgia weren't my 'homey' team in the pool, I'd avoid this game like a scrawny prisoner avoids the shower room. But I am obligated, so here's hoping I don't drop the proverbial soap. Yes, the Dawgs are about the softest 5-0 team in recent memory, but now we've got our quarterback back in the lineup and are playing at home. I'll take the points, but I will admit that I spent way too much time yesterday afternoon debating whether or not I should use my patented 'Ohio State Logic' and choose the Vols, make it a pick of the week, and no matter what the outcome was, I could find a reason to be happy about it. But instead I've decided that I'm just gonna stick with my (under) Dawgs.
2) South Carolina -6.5 over Kentucky. **Pick of the Week** The Ol' Ball coach will have his team ready to thrash a weaker conference opponent, and although the 'Cocks aren't an SEC powerhouse yet, I'm guessing that someday soon they will be. And now that the calendar has turned to October, most of the Wildcat fans in the stands will be reading their media guides for the upcoming hoop season, anyways. Besides, a game featuring a team named the Cocks playing against a state who's initials are the same as everyone's favorite personal lubricant, my inner Beavis is giddy with anticipation. I just wish Dick Enberg were calling the game, if only for the inevitable malapropisms.
3) Northern Illinois -10.5 over Miami of Ohio. I would've taken the Huskies in this game even if were against that *other* Miami team--you know, that one down in Coral Gables led by the only coach on a hotter seat than the one in East Lansing. But the 'Huskies' are playing a team from Miami and I've got money on the line? Could it be for a controversial National Championship? Pinch me, I think it's 1991 again! Oh, and since it's 1991 again, somebody better do something about that hillbilly governor down in Arkansas. I don't like his political aspirations. Or his wife.
4) Air Force -2.5 over Navy. I'm only picking them because the Marines don't have a football team. If they did, Coach Ermey would be undefeated for four years straight and the Michigan State faithful would be trying to lure him away with Bob Stoops-like money.
5) Rice -2 over Tulane. Houston exacts a little payback on New Orleans for sending over all of it's upstanding citizens when Katrina & The Waves performed their smash hit on the Crescent City last year. Besides, after seeing what the Owls did to Army last weekend, I've got to take a chance on them. And history is on their side--back when I was in college, one summer I had a Japanese roommate named Yoshi who spoke very little Engrish. One day I asked him--Yoshi, what's your favorite food? His answer wasn't 'Tulane'.
6) Vanderbilt -1.5 over Ole Miss. In a classic case of 'dancing with who ya brung', I'm picking Vandy again, over the Rebs. One could point out the fallacy of this, reminding me that Ole Miss played an undefeated (but injury-riddled) Georgia team almost to a standstill last weekend. But I would remind them that Vandy beat down Temple by 29 points that same day, and certainly Old Miss is closer to Temple, talent-wise, than it is to Georgia. At least that's the logic I'm going with.
Those are the picks for week six, although the entire slate of games looks exceptionally juicy this weekend. I may be able to actually win a parlay this time around. But regardless, I'd like to wish everyone in my pool 'Good Luck', except, of course, for all you chumps in first thru eleventh place...
Mikey
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