New Duke Football Coach, Disappointing College Hoops Teams, Mark Prior, Win or Die Picks

It appears as though Duke is going to introduce David Cutcliffe as its next Head Football Coach as early as today. While people say he is an offensive guru who developed both Manning boys (if you buy into the argument that Eli Manning has actually been developed), I could counter by saying in my opinion Eric Ainge, his latest project, has had a somewhat disappointing career at Tennessee. My buddy Uncle Charlie thinks that if the Blue Devils could not get Paul Johnson, "Cutcliffe seemed to me to be the best choice of the names that have been in the mix. I like the fact that Cutcliffe put some pretty good teams on the field at Ole Miss, which is not an easy place to win." He also did not like my choice of Rod Broad for an understandable reason: "I really have a problem with the idea of a UNC grad being the coach at Duke." Fair enough. Anyway, it will be interesting to see if Cutcliffe, who had open heart surgery last year, can win on the gridiron at Duke.

Now that we are a good month and change into the college hoops season, it is time to point out a couple of programs that have been disappointing to date:

• Louisville has to be far and away the biggest disappointment. Not only was Louisville in the Top 10 in everyone's pre-season poll, I truly thought they were one team that had a legitimate chance to cut down the Nets this year in San Antonio. Now they have lost David Padgett for the year and Derek Caracter has been suspended indefinitely for missing curfew. Edgar Sosa has performed very inconsistently and is averaging only 7 ppg and barely hitting better than one out of every three 3-pointers he is throwing up there.
• I really thought Maryland would emerge and be the 3rd best team in the ACC this season behind Duke and Carolina. Their all-sophomore backcourt has good size and I felt showed great flashed last year. Also, I felt James Gist would become an All-ACC type player. So far, the Terps are 6-5, including home losses to Ohio University and Boston College, who I watched lose at home to UMASS and look absolutely brutal. My guess is if the Terps do not pick it up, Gary Williams will start to hear real calls for his job. Of course, I still expect Maryland to turn it around, and you know they will give Duke all they can handle (if not more) the two times they hook up this season.
• Souhern Illinois. It is not so much that the Salukis are only 4-3, or the fact that they lost to some pretty good teams, but rather the manner in which they lost to USC, Indiana and Charlotte that has me concerned. This team played lock down defense last year and would not have lost to anyone by 25 the way they did to USC, and certainly would not have lost to Charlotte by 15. Southern Illinois won a huge game in Carbondale the other night against undefeated and ranked St. Mary's so maybe all is not lost.

Note to the Phillies: Since you are budget strapped, why not go take a flyer on an incentive-laden deal for Mark Prior? Huge upside, and if you can get out with base salaries in the $2-3 million range, what is there to lose? OK , onto the win or die picks....

Pick Breakdown:

Baltimore 1
Cincinnati 1
Green Bay 1
Indianapolis 2
Minnesota 2
San Diego 3
Tampa Bay 12

Individual Picks:

Angel San Diego
Chris Nangle 1 Tampa Bay
CP 2 Indianapolis
D Froney 1 Tampa Bay
Dan/Steve Gold 6 Tampa Bay
David Louis Stitzer Minnesota
Ed Ramirez 2 Tampa Bay
Eric Meyers 3 Tampa Bay
Gary Jonas 1 Tampa Bay
Gregg 2 Tampa Bay
How Goldberg…NOW BYRON Indianapolis
Joe Pucillo 2 Tampa Bay
M Lacerenza…NOW BYRON Tampa Bay
May Lee 6 San Diego
Pierre Brown 1 Tampa Bay
Ray Attiyah 1 Tampa Bay
Ryan Carey 2 Cincinnati
Ryan Doheny 7 Baltimore
Steven Immergut 1 San Diego
Stuart Erickson 2 Minnesota
Todd & Regan 4 Green Bay
WJO 4 Tampa Bay