Bryan the Intern's Picks to Click

Here is the recap of the "Games of Importance" from the week behind us:  Kentucky (65) beat Ole Miss by 4 Virginia Tech (64) beat Boston College by 19 Houston (63) beat Southern Miss by 28 Wake Forest (62) lost to Maryland by 3  Davidson (61) beat Appalachain St. by 13 Florida (60) beat Georgia by 13 Ohio (59) does not play during week Oral Roberts (58) beat South Dakota St. by 15 Oregon (57) does not play during week Rhode Island (56) lost to George Washington by 17 Texas Tech (55) lost to Texas A&M by 44!!!!! That means the games of note of the past 5 days went 3-6 for the Cats.  The Cats have now moved up to 56 in RPI, putting them VERY close to the necessary 40's for a comfortable RPI.  Here are the "Games to Watch For" this weekend: Kentucky (56) on the road against Tennessee (Sunday) St. Josephs's (55) at home against Temple (Sunday) UAB (54) at home against Tulane Western Kentucky (53) on the road against Florida Atlantic Creighton (52) at home against Bradley Syracuse (51) at home against Pittsburgh Florida (50) at home against Mississippi St. Ohio St. (49) on the road against Minnesota Mississippi (48) at home against Alabama Stephen F. Austin (47) at home against Texas Arlington VCU (46) on the road against William & Mary 1. Continuing the recap of the 2007 NCAA Tournament to get you excited for March: (1) Florida-112 vs. (16) Jackson St.-69 (9) Purdue-72 vs. (8) Arizona-63 (5) Butler-53 vs. (12) Old Dominion-42 (4) Maryland-82 vs. (13) Davidson-70 2. Let's assume that UK and Vandy finished tied for second in the SEC East, with UK losing to Tennessee and winning their other two games and Vandy sweeping their last 3 games.  Emphasis on assuming that last sentence, as no game UK plays is a guarentee and Vandy has fairly difficult stretch left as well.  But, if they do finish tied, lots of people have asked what are the tie breakers and who would get the #2 seed.  Well, here is the link to the SEC Tournament tiebreakers.  But, for the sake of you reading all that crap, here is the deal: 1) Vandy and Kentucky split their season series. 2) Each team would have gone 7-3 against Eastern division opponents. 3) vs. Tennessee: each went 1-1   vs. Florida: each went 1-1   vs. South Carolina: each went 2-0   vs. Georgia: each went 2-0 4) Each team went 5-1 against Western Division opponents 5) vs. Mississippi St.: Kentucky lost, under this scenario Vandy would have won, earning them the tiebreak So, if you are a Kentucky fan, you badly WANT Vandy to lose any game left on their schedule, but if you had to pick one it would be against Mississippi St.  To recap it all, IF Vandy beats Mississippi St., they will have an edge on UK in tiebreakers.  Of course, anything can happen these last 3 games for each team.  But, that is how the tiebreakers go. Now, why is this important? One, for the obvious reason that you would have to win 3 games instead of 4 the win the SEC Title.  But, also the path is much easier from the #2 seed spot than the #3 seed.  If the standings hold steady, the #2 seed would get the winner of Mississippi/Georgia in the quarterfinals, followed by Mississippi St./Florida/Alabama survivor in the semis.  But, from the #3 seed spot, you would play LSU in the first round, Arkansas in the quarterfinals, then the Tennessee/Auburn/South Carolina survivor in the semis.  As of right now, the #2 seed road is MUCH easier.  But, keep in mind that Auburn/Alabama/LSU/Mississippi ALL have 4-8 conference records, so still ALOT to be decided out west. 3. Jody Demling gives you a Top 10 list of in state recruits for 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011.  Kentucky has 2008 #2 Darius Miller and 2010 #1 Dakotah Euton wrapped up with 2008 #1 Scotty Hopson, 2009 #1 Jon Hood, and 2010 #2 Chad Jackson all on the radar.  4. You already saw Greg Doyel's article about Billy Gillispie yesterday, but another cbssportsline.com writer, Gary Parrish, takes his internet space to compare Gillispie to John Travolta.  Amazing what some wins does for you image with the media. 5. The baseball Cats won AGAIN yesterday, thrashing Oakland 12-2.  Boy, the Athletics really have declined since the Bash Brothers.  I guess once Dave Stewart left the pitching staff has been terrible.  So far this year UK has won 5 games by scores of 10-1, 10-3, 13-3, 15-5, and 12-2.  Thats a 60-14 scoring advantage.  It would be good to be able to match Louisville's World Series berth this year.  UK goes for 6-0 against Butler at 4PM. 6. Mark Story compares Bruce Pearl and his style of play and coaching and compares it to the good ol' days of Rick Pitino roaming the sidelines of Lexington. 7. Top 10 Erin Andrews moments!!! No extra commentary needed. 8. Speaking of Erin Andrews, NASCAR is trying to challenge the Queen of Commentary with their own hot woman.  Well played NASCAR!!  But, you just can't beat the Queen. 9. One of the most underated sports movies in history is Blue Chips.  Nick Nolte at his best (pre-crack), Shaq at his acting best (pre-Kazzam), Penny Hardaway at his best (pre-Lil Penny), and that white dude that played the Larry Bird figure was also at his best in his only big screen appearance.  Anyway, tiricosuave.com has spliced together clips from that movie and Dwayne Wade's embarassing performance at the All-Star weekend, proving Wade threw the competition. 10. You wanna take a quiz about old-school WWF wrestlers by looking at their toy action figures?  Who wouldn't?  Anyway, for all you wrestling fans, here is something to send you back to a better time. 11. Shaq-Suns Update: Pheonix moved to 2-3 with Shaq, getting slammed by 17 to the Hornets.  It's still early in this experiment, but the Suns have played 4 of the best teams in the league(Lakers, Celtics, Pistons, and Hornets) and went 1-3.  Not a good start.  The problem has been (as I said) that they were a poor defensive team and gave up their best defensive player.  Average opponents PPG with Shaq: 111.2 PPG (HORRIBLE!!!).