Week 10 Column: Real Estate Plea, College Hoops, NL Rookie of the Year, MLB Free Agency, BCS, and an NFL Round-up

As anybody who does not live in a cave knows, the real estate market is as bad as it has ever been with no signs of getting better. For me, this sucks! We have three communities actively for sale, and there are just no buyers out there. We have tried every promotion in the book, including a 10% off sale at one point. No bites. Consumer confidence is low, many people that want to buy can no longer qualify for mortgages with the overly stringent requirements now in place, and people that do qualify still don't buy because of fears that they cannot sell their existing home. We have a great promotion in place to combat the latter: Live Free for a Year. If you buy a Dilsheimer home, we will pay your mortgage for the first year (principal and interest). If you have any interest in buying a home in Coastal North Carolina (half hour North of Wilmington or halfway between Wilmington and Myrtle Beach) or Delaware, click here for more information on our company and these jobs. Or tell your friends. PLEASE! We need some sales.

Now back to our regularly scheduled column....

College hoops is back and it looks like this season will be great. While last year was dominated by Greg Oden and Kevin Durant, this year looks to have a more talented and deeper freshman class. Michael Beasley at Kansas State has averaged 31 points and 18 boards in his first two games as a collegian), O.J. Mayo is the real deal at USC, and Kevin Love a monster cross town for the Bruins. Across the country, Derrick Rose may be as good as any of them for Memphis, while Kyle Singler is the best freshman to call Cameron Indoor home in a long time (probably since the Laettner/Hurley/Hill days). Eric Gordon looks to be the real deal in Bloomington, while Ohio State and Syracuse are also getting big boosts from the dandies. Bottom line is that college basketball has great depth and talent this year, and there should be as many as 8 to 10 teams with legitimate shots to go to the Final 4.

The Dukies look like they are back this year. They have three freshman who all bring different skill sets to the table. Nolan Smith is a combination guard who plays defense as well as any freshman perimeter player to come along in a while. Taylor King brings J.J. Redick-like range to Cameron since #4 left for the NBA (although not quite the consistency yet), and Kyle Singler brings an incredibly sound overall game in which he excels at the fundamentals. Combine that with the returning talent, and Coach K goes 11 deep. This is a huge change from the past few years when he has used a 6 or 7 man rotation (we will see if he can keep using this depth all season), and will enable the Devils to run and pressure the basketball with much more frequency and success. Greg Paulus is healthy and seems to be playing at a higher level both defensively and as a distributor of the basketball than was the case last season. One of the keys to Duke this year is the play of Brian Zoubek, who provides Duke's only real post presence, and will be a key factor in Duke's ability to handle teams like North Carolina with talented bigs. It appears that despite missing most of the summer, Zoubek has increased strength and better footwork than a year ago. In my warped opinion, Duke has a legitimate chance to compete this year, but we will know more in the next several weeks as the Devils will get tough tests from Wisconsin, Pittsburgh, and likely Marquette before the ACC schedule starts.

Ryan Braun won the NL Rookie of the Year in a close vote over Troy Tulowitzky. Braun had a nice season, putting up great numbers (.324-34-97) in only 113 games. However, Braun is a horrible fielder, making 26 errors in the 2/3 of a season he played, and having a fielding percentage of below 90% (that is awful!). In contrast, Tulo had strong offensive numbers (.291-24-99), but plays a magnificent shortstop, with only 11 errors in 155 games at a much more demanding position. His fielding percentage was 98.7%. Finally, Tulowitzky was clearly a huge leader and clubhouse presence for the Rocks despite his youth and was a big reason they made the playoffs. To me, Braun had a very nice season and will be a force for years to come, but voting for him over the Rockies SS just shows how many media people that vote for these award do not truly understand the game. Because Tulowitzky should have been Rookie of the Year. And it should not have been close.

Speaking of baseball, free agents are really free agents today, and can sign with any team. Look for several starting pitchers to get way, way, way more money than they deserve (notably Carlos Silva, Kyle Lohse, Josh Fogg, Livan Hernandez). These guys are all 4th or 5th starters, but because of the dearth of pitching talent, someone will pay them close to $10 million per year each. Ugh. Why couldn't I have thrown a curve ball for strikes? The Phillies, who need pitching help, made a bold move by trading for the talented but enigmatic Brad Lidge as their new closer, and moved Brett Myers back to the rotation. I, and most people, believe that Myers could be a great closer. However, this move was a good one, as Lidge, if he can keep his head straight, can do fine, and Myers, while not as dominant as a starter as he could be as a closer, is a better starter than any of the free agents out there. Look for the Phillies to try to add more bullpen deprth (Rno Mahay?) and a 4th outfielder behind Burrell, Victorino, and Werth. They should make a run at Mike Lowell but won't, and Aaron Rowand's career in Philly is over.

As for A-Fraud, he will get his money, continue to pile up stats, and never win anything except a bankbook contest. Look for the Angels to waste their money on him, and Artie Moreno should then officially be known as this decade's Peter Angelos.

If you listen carefully enough, you can practically hear the folks in Eugene, OR (led by Phil Knight and Dils blog reader Duckboy) getting very antsy about how this BCS is shaking out. While Oregon is sitting in the coveted #2 spot as of now, they do not play any more glamour games, and could easily be passed in the BCS standings by the Big 12 champ (Kansas, Oklahoma or possibly even Missouri). Bottom line is this: about 80% of the time, the BCS has enough controversy to PROVE that we NEED a playoff system (8 teams). That way the best can settle it on the field. If Kansas runs the table, how can you leave them out? LSU, Oregon, West Virginia, Ohio State (if they beat Michigan), and Notre Dame (just kidding!) can all make a completely valid case that they belong. Why is this so hard. It will generate money for the schools and the NCAA, the fans would love it. Every other NCAA sport is settled with a tournament. The time has come. Otherwise, people in places like Eugene will continue to get screwed unnecessarily.

Last week, the Vikings beat the Chargers handily. This week, the Chargers beat the Colts, one of the league's two best teams, and the Vikings lost by 34 to the Packers. This just shows that the league is weird and that truly any team can beat any other on any given day (except, apparently, the Dolphins and 49ers, who may never win again). Another thing: clearly the Packers are better than I think they are, or there is a whole lot of money to be made by betting against them down the stretch and in the playoffs. Clearly I am rooting for the latter.

In Cleveland, the Browns look like they really may be a young and improving team, with a nice offense and really good special teams. I guess we can officially remove Romeo Crennel from the hot seat that he was burning his bottom on after the debacle in week 1. It will be interesting to watch what happens next season. The brownies clearly have invested their future in Brady Quinn, but Derek Anderson is proving himself as a better than average (as Larry David might say, Pretty...PRETTY GOOD) quarterback, and they will likely take a step back when in all likelihood they hand the reigns to Quinn after this season. If I am Crennel, I fight like hell to keep Anderson as my guy as long as this team continues to progess.

The Eagles are in no man's land. They won Sunday just as I was ready to begin rooting for draft position. The problem is that the Eagles are not good enough to go to and/or win the Super Bowl, so limping to an 8-8 season really does them no good. They get to play the hapless Dolophins at home, which should bring them back to .500 if they can win 2 in a row for the first time this season. Whoop-ee! Being mediocre I think sometimes is worse than being pitiful.

On that note, I am going to get my hair cut....