NFL Predictions: Week 16

Fanbay.net Sports uses a computer model to forecast all regular season games and playoff games for the NFL. The predictions for the Week 16 games have been posted at NFL Picks. You can sign up to our mailing list for notification.

NBA Rookie Throws In 55!

Who is Brandon Jennings? Well, if you don't follow high school hoops, or basketball in Italy, you could be excused for not knowing. Heck, 9 NBA teams passed on him in the 2009 NBA Draft! The Milwaukee Bucks picked up the 6-1, 20-year old (born 9/23/89) point guard with the 10th pick. So, tonight, Jennings finished with 55 points in a 129-125 home win (recap here) over the Golden State Warriors. The last time any NBA rookie scored this many points was 1968. And the NBA record is 58 (twice) by Wilt Chamberlin in 1960. Jennings was too young to enter the 2008 NBA Draft right out of high school so he played last year in Rome. Full bio here.

Allen Iverson: Frustrated? Or is it just the media?

Here is Allen Iverson, in his own words, about his situation in Memphis and his dealings with the media. It's actually quite a well done piece. By Marc J Spears at Yahoo! Sports.

The Amtrak World Series

We've had the Subway Series and now we are on the verge of a New York vs Philadelphia World Series. It's a relatively short train trip from New York to Philadelphia. Its even quicker by the Acela Amtrak trains. So perhaps even more appropriately, the Acela World Series. New York is just a 1 hour and 15 minute ride from Philadelpia by Acela. However, by comparison Google Maps says you could drive by car the 108-mile trip from Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx in 1 hour and 44 minutes. Factoring in the taxi and/or subway trips between the train stations and the parks; and weighing the costs of train tickets versus the amount of traffic, driving is likely more efficient. Nevertheless, Amtrak at least has an angle to stake on this potential World Series.

New book co-authored by Magic Johnson and Larry Bird

There are only a few rare cases when two people are able to appropriately title a book "When the Game Was Ours" (Amazon link here just as an fyi as we don't have a pay agreement with them). Larry Bird and Magic Johnson are without question two of those players. In the mid-1980's, the NBA was theirs. And to get the two of them together for a book might make for one of the most interesting sports books in quite some time-- perhaps ever, especially for basketball. Let's not forget that the Michigan State vs Indiana State college basketball national championship in 1979 remains the highest watched nielson rated NCAA title game. Ever. By 1984, just 5 years later, they reinvented the NBA Finals for TV. Must watch games, recounted here. And beyond all that, the book has drama as Magic Johnson details the true break in his friendship toward Isiah Thomas, which went so far that Magic lobbied to keep Isiah off the 1992 Olympics basketball "Dream Team". Wow. And after you have read the book, next March, right around the time of 2010 March Madness, HBO will begin airing a documentary about Larry Bird and Magic Johnson (press release).

Fantasy Basketball 2009-2010 Season

Time to rank the players and sniff out the sleepers. The best site/reads are HoopsHype rumors, HoopsWorld Headlines, and RotoWorld player news. Of course visit CBS NBA and ESPN NBA... from here. Dime has the smack and check out FanHouse too.

Here at Fanbay.net Sports our NBA Fantasy Basketball page includes links to several rankings, depth charts, and statistics. And, we have our own NBA Fantasy "Draft Big" Board (PDF) ranking over 100 players with comments.

As for sleepers, try these links: Top 15 sleeper slideshow, RotoSynthesis, and FanHouse Sleepers.

NASCAR Points and Juan Pablo Montoya

Is there a loophole in the NASCAR Chase points format? Juan Pablo Montoya has been around NASCAR long enough (this is his 3rd full season and he is learning more every race) that he's a legitimate title contender. That's not the issue. The question is that Juan Montoya (official website) is currently ranked 3rd (NASCAR standings here) despite not really matching up in a number of categories.

Let's look. He has not even won 1 race all season. This by itself is not that unusual as 4 Chase contenders have not won. However, the point is that 13 other drivers have won a race. Also, its not the only Montoya weak spot statistically. He has finished in the Top 5 in a race only 6 times through 30 races. Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin have finished in the Top 5 twice as often. Tony Stewart has finished in the Top five 15 times and won 4 races and yet Montoya is ranked ahead of him? Not only this, Tony Stewart is even less bad than Montoya, finishing worst than 20th just 3 times versus Montoya's 5 bad finishes. So what is it that makes Montoya ranked so high?

The answer is the Chase. Standings are basically reset once the Chase starts (with 10 races to go the top 12 drivers in the standings all have their points reset to 5000 plus 10 for every race they have won-- so, essentially even). Four of Montoya's 7 Top 5 finishes have come in the last 4 races (the first 4 of the Chase). Pretty clutch performance. Still, Tony won 2 weeks ago, but his 14th and 9th finishes in the first two Chase races. If there is a loophole it is consistency. The NASCAR points formula penalizes a winner-take-all mentality. Some more recent chatter about the topic here.

(note Montoya finished 35th in last nights NASCAR race dropping him to 6th)

Denver Broncos 'Throw Them Back' Uniforms

Sadly, it was almost enough reason to justify flipping channels and watching just about anything else. Really, what is the point of the throwback uniform? Are fans supposed to buy them, thereby boosting sales, because people want to own different colored jerseys of their favorite team? The New England Patriots at Denver Broncos game brought throwback to a whole new level of stupidity-- with the multi-striped "jaundiced zebra" pants/sock stirrups?. But anyways, it may have worked by way of yet another win for the now 5-0 Broncos.

Meet Ray Lewis. Game Over.

Before we go off singing praises about how good a defensive football player Ray Lewis is, let's at least recall he was once charged with murder (recap and bio here). He was, of course, acquitted which is why he is back out playing football like he always has.

This past Sunday, at age 34, and with the clock winding down on the road at San Diego, the Chargers were closing in on the winning score but needed to clear a 4th and two. Enter Ray Lewis.



Wow. Out of all the defensive plays you will ever see in the NFL this one brought a game abruptly to a close. Game over.

It is the perfect highlight to sum up the unbelievably talented career of one of the NFL's best defensive players of all-time, the Baltimore Ravens #52. He has played with one NFL team his entire career. The Ravens won Super Bowl 35 and Lewis was named MVP. He is a 10-time Pro Bowl selection (every NFL season that he has started at least 14 games) including 1997 (his 2nd year in the NFL) and the last 3 seasons. He was picked #26 in the 1996 NFL Draft out of the University of Miami. Career stats here.

2009 U.S. Open

This year, the U.S. Open has gone all out in promotion via ESPN coverage and a path-breaking web site that features interactive draws, printable draws, and the ability to watch tennis live online. Top Men's seeds are Roger Federer (Switzerland), Rafael Nadal (Argentina), Andy Murray (Britain), and Novac Djokovic (Serbia). The top Women's seeds are Dinara Safina (Russia), Serena Williams (USA), Venus Williams (USA), and Elena Dementieva (Russia). Official U.S. Open website here. ESPN coverage here. The Men's Final is Sunday September 13 at 4pm on CBS (TV schedule). The Women's Final is Saturday night 9/12/09 at 8pm also on CBS. If Serena and Venus advance to the semifinals they would play each other on Friday afternoon 9/11 with the winner advancing to the final. Roger Federer has won the last 5 men's singles titles (beating Andy Murray last year). Complete U.S. Open winners list here. Serena Williams won the women's title last year (list here).

Fantasy Football

NFL Training Camps have opened. Time to start thinking about your upcoming 2009 fantasy football draft. CBS Sports has position-by-position player rankings here, and a Top 200 here. Brad Funston's Big Board here and ESPN's full rankings here. Yahoo! position rankings here. Deeper analysis at sites like FFToolbox which has a helpful RB bye week back-ups list here. For a list of top leagues visit our fantasy football tips. If you want to be a real player, consider the Vegas drafts: WCOFF and FFPC. More fantasy football links at NFL Stats.

Rickey Henderson into the Hall of Fame

By a long shot, Rickey Henderson is the fastest player in Major League Baseball history: 1,406 stolen bases. The next best on the list is Lou Brock at 938 (record list here). Take a look at the career year-by-year numbers for Rickey here. Most people remember Rickey as an Oakland A and a New York Yankee, but he played for 9 different teams! Consider that he stole 3 bases for the Red Sox in 2003-- a full 22 years after he had his career high 130 stolen bases in 1982 for the A's. His first stolen base was in 1979 (the start of a 25-season career). See Rickey's career in video from MLB.com here.

MLB: Perfect Game from Mark Buehrle

For only the 18th time in baseball history, a perfect game (see the list of past perfect games here>)! The last time was just over 5 years ago by Randy Johnson. A perfect game is facing the minimum 27 batters without allowing a hit or walk or anyone on base-- quite an accomplishment. MLB has AWESOME video coverage here, including the saving catch in the 9th inning by CF Dewayne Wise.

Where in the world is Quentin Richardson

The 29-year old 6-6 G-F has been traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves-- his 4th team in just the last month. He was traded by the Knicks to Memphis; then from Memphis to the L.A. Clippers. And now from L.A. to Minnesota. Story.

Is the Tour de France over?

Stage 15 was the first big mountain test. Lance Armstrong was strong. But his teammate, Spain's Alberto Contador was better. And, as we all learned from Lance year-after-year, the best rider in the mountains usually wins. Lance basically acknowledges that he won't be able to chase down Contador. Video below, and for overall standings and official Tour de France coverage here.

59-year old Tom Watson ahead at British Open

Can Tom Watson win another British Open, securing a place as a true legend of the game (his bio and history here)? We will all find out tomorrow on ABC at Turnberry in Scotland. He leads by one (leaderboard). Tiger Woods is already gone having missed the cut so a comeback will have to come from somewhere else. Watson has already won the British Open 5 times (1977, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1983). The most famous was his first, the "Duel in the Sun" over Jack Nichlaus.

NFL 2009 Training Camp

Time is getting toward the middle of July. Time to start thinking NFL training camp. Coverage here. Training camp calendars team-by-team here. Cleveland Browns rookies get to show up first, Friday July 24th (two weeks from today). The rest kick in over the following week or so. Also visit our NFL Stats season preview and fantasy football coverage.

Roger Federer Wins Again

The king of tennis, Roger Federer, beat Andy Roddick, to win his 6th Wimbledon title and 15th Slam title overall-- a record that now surpasses the 14 Slam's won by Pete Sampras. Federer's other Slam titles include the French Open only once; the last 5 U.S. Open's; and the Australian Open twice. History of slam winners here. Federer-Roddick recap. Winners of the most slams here. Federer emerged on the scene in part from this win (video) over Sampras back in 2001 at Wimbledon.

NBA Draft 2009

Will the Clippers ever catch a break? Honestly, not sure if Blake Griffin is the best year to have the #1 draft pick. Yeah, he can dunk a lot in college. On the plus side he does have an NBA frame. So, we shall see. This draft likely to be more about the diamonds in the rough. Live chat coverage at Sporting News here. ESPN DraftCast coverage here, plus analysis. Official NBA Draft 2009 here.

Grandpa Phil gets #10

Like it or not, Phil Jackson has the most coaching world championship titles in the history of the NBA. Read up at NBA.com here. His 10 championships (6 with the Chicago Bulls and 4 with the L.A. Lakers) could stand for all-time. By luck, or zen forces, Phil managed to have Michael Jordan around for all 6 in Chicago, then Kobe and Shaq together for 3 of them in L.A., and finally a focused and determined Kobe this year. The talent is definitely a key reason for Phil's ten titles. However, his unique triangle offense and zen coaching style work well for execution on offense and keeping his players level-headed and in line toward the prize. And for that, Phil Jackson is a legend.

Luis Castillo reminds sports fans of 1986

The Mets were ahead 8-7 with 2 on and 2 out in the bottom of the ninth when Alex Rodriguez popped up to short left field. Mets 2B Luis Castillo back peddled under the ball as A-Rod chucked his bat; and why not when you get paid that much with 2 on and 2 out you need a game winner. Well, saved by an error. Castillo dropped the pop up and the Yankees walked off as 9-8 winners.



Flash back to 1986. World Series: Mets beat the Red Sox on Bill Buckner's error. Much better to lose a regular season game, even against the Yanks, on an error, and win during the World Series. You can see the 86 World Series video clip here. We will leave the common denominator in this post unsaid.

Tiger Roars Back

Tiger Woods, just 2 weeks before this years U.S. Open, is back on top, finishing with a birdie-birdie that stole the show and won the Memorial tournament by 1 stroke (final leaderboard here). Recap stories here and here. Woods has managed to put golf right back on the national stage just in time for the 2009 U.S. Open at the Bethpage State Park black course in Farmingdale, NY June 18-21. Official site here. Watch his approach shot on 18. Wow.

Superman: the road to the Finals

Thinking about Dwight Howard and his journey to the NBA Finals, two things come to mind: the 2008 NBA Slam Dunk contest and the 2007 and 2008 playoffs. Both of Howard's only other trips to the playoffs ended against Detroit. However, in 2008, Orlando actually won one of the games. And the Magic had a 15-point lead in Game 4 which would have evened the series. They ended up losing that game by 1 and went down in the series 4-1 (background here). But the point was made in our opinion: Dwight could compete. And a couple months before that, Dwight arrived on the scene as an entertainment force. There was Michael Jordan vs Dominique Wilkins in 1988 (watch it here). And there was Vince Carter in 2000 (video here). The 2008 Slam Dunk Contest can be thrown in that category. Dwight Howard stole the show from the opening bell, throwing down a dunk from behind the basket after tossing the ball against the backside of the board. That got the crowd behind him. It didn't matter that Gerald Green blew out a candle on a cupcake while dunking, because Dwight came back with a Superman cape to, literally, throw the ball threw the hoop.

Patrick Ewing and the Finals

Patrick Ewing won an NCAA Championship with the Georgetown Hoyas back in 1984. However, his 17-year NBA career (stats here) ended after the 2001-2002 without a world championship ring. Though his Knicks did play in the NBA Finals. Twice (1994, lost to Houston, and 1999, lost to the Spurs). Now on the bench as an assistant coach for the Orlando Magic, Ewing says "Hopefully, I'll get a ring this time" (story). Besides being an 11 time all-star, Ewing played over 80 games in 6 straight seasons, and played in over 76 games for 4 straight seasons after that. His work ethic is a sign of his determination. It is in part because of his work ethic that we shouldn't count out his influence on the bench for the Orlando Magic. The New York City media is all over the story tracking Ewing's elusive quest for a ring. The NY Post here. If you don't think it matters, they asked Ewing. Straight away he says, "It means a lot. A player, coach, winning a championship means a lot. That will shut everybody up. Everyone who says I don't have one, it will shut them up when I do have one."

Patrick Ewing and Coaching

Ewing never thought he would be coaching. He (career) was brought in the same year the Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy, prior to the 2007-2008 season. Now that he is an assistant (and the evidence would say, a successful one at that) his vision of the future has changed, "I enjoy it" he told the NY Daily News recently. And now, Ewing even envisions one day he will be a head coach. Story.