Back from Vegas

Still exhausted from the trip but I had a great time meeting up with all the boys again. Luckily on Friday I got off a little early and headed out with Marcus but still didn't make it into Vegas until about midnight where we met up with Richie since Mike, Nima and the rest of them went out to the club. Hung out with Richie for a while then me and Marcus went down to the poker room to play some 100 NL, I sat in seat 9 with Marcus in Seat 10 and we played for a few hours, details in poker blog. Then got tired of playing so I went over to see Mike shooting craps by himself, since I had never played before I decided to give it a shot, we were doing ok until other people saw me and Mike doing well and they jumped in and killed out table, walked away from that with a very small win.

Woke up Saturday morning and headed to the Bellagio to catch the basketball games but I was the only one in the front corner watching a small TV as I found the Regional Final of the Michigan-Colorado College Hockey game. We started out great and took a 3 goal lead in the middle of the 2nd period and then everything fell apart, we lost 4-3, the only time this entire season losing when scoring 3 goals. I was at a loss for words as this was supposed to be the year but that's how it seems it always is for Michigan. This year is always our year and we end up blowing it.

After the devastation of losing in hockey I went back to Aladdin and played some craps with Mike and we hit a good table winning a little bit but had a great time with a bunch of funny characters at the table most notably some white guy from H-town that had a shirt that said "Everything's dirtier in the South" and called himself "Spice" and a Chinese guy who just called himself the Wingman since that's what his shirt said. The table broke and we were told that Arizona-Illinois was tight so me and Mike headed to Blackjack to catch the rest of the game. I won a little bit, the story of my trip and then we went to dinner. Arizona ended up blowing the game and all our bets since we had AZ on the ML which was paying at +200.

Went to Blondie's in the Desert Passage at Aladdin and it was a great meal where I had a huge chicken which they said was 3 lbs, not sure if it was that big but was pretty damn big. After dinner Richie headed home. I played some Pai Gow Poker but it got real boring after a while, can't compare to the rush of craps. Won a little there and found a blackjack table that Mike and Pasha were playing at so I joined in, everyone else lost but I won a small amount then Mike and I decided to head back to craps. This time we hit the best table of the weekend, everyone was doing well and having a good time. There was a high roller that was betting minimum 100-200 per bet and a lot of points were hit, mostly the hard way which won a lot more money for the table. Cashed in black chip and left with a purple chip plus change, that was pretty cool. Although not as cool as the high roller which probably made about at least 10 G's during our streak.

Omar went crazy at roulette and lost all his money and the other guys didn't want to stay the night so everyone except me and Marcus left on Sunday morning which was like 4 am. Woke up on Sunday and then played a little bit and gave back some of the craps money from the night before and decided to take off. We hadn't eaten yet and it was about 2:30 so we decided to stop at state line and grab lunch. As we're taking off a guy tells us my back right tire seems to be a little flat so we fill it up with air and take off again. Then while in traffic while I'm merging lanes I hear something and Marcus looks back to tell me that the tire is flat. Great, sitting in traffic and we pick up a flat. Changing the flat was a chore in itself as it took forever to just get the spare tire out from underneath the car, terrible design by GMC. Finally we get the tire off and I start jacking it up only to find that Marcus told me the wrong spot and I had to do it again. Luckily we had a good laugh about it and were finally on our way only to encounter major traffic. All in all took about 7 hours to get home, what a nightmare. Luckily I came back from Vegas a winner for the first time ever and it was a great weekend. Can't wait to do it again, minus the flat and 7 hour drive home.

Also Final 4 set with Carolina vs state and Louisville vs Illinois. I like Carolina and Louisville in these matchups but wouldn't mind seeing Carolina and Illinois in the final. Carolina hopefully will be cutting down the nets, the only part of the Final Four I've gotten right this year. Let's Go Heels!

Great Game, Terrible Outcome

Watched the Oklahoma St-Arizona game yesterday, it was a great game to watch but I needed the Cowboys to win for my bets and they didn't come though. Gotta go with the Wildcats now to beat the Illini because I think both of the teams match up very well with Illinois. Salim Stoudamire hit the GW jumper with 2.8 to play and Zona pulled it out. There's not many other players in college basketball I like watching play than Hassan Adams. He can do it all take it to the rack and bomb from downtown and he's so athletic he just makes plays.

Going to Vegas for the weekend hope I can carve the town up, considering I've never come back from Vegas a winner so I'm due right? Probably going to try craps for the first time and will hit up my new favorite game Pai Gow Poker, most people don't like it but I do because it suits my style more, its a slower game so I can't lose everything in one shot like other games. Will definitely try to get in some Poker cause we're at the Aladdin and I heard some good things about their games. Hope this time I will make it back in the black.

Crazy Games

The first weekend of March Madness has come and gone and it was insane, some huge upsets and brackets are busted all over the country. I know mine is messed up as 2 of my final four teams Gonzaga and Syracuse are out. Didn't end up too bad on the betting side thanks to Pacific, UAB and most importantly UW-Milwaukee. Since I have work now I missed a lot of games and it sucked. In addition I had a workshop for work on Saturday all day and night so I missed what many are calling one of the best tourney games in 20 years in the Wake Forest-West Virginia game that took place.

Going to Vegas this weekend so I can watch the Elite Eight and hopefully make some money there. Obviously I still like two of my original four in Oklahoma St and North Carolina, both looked impressive. What I especially liked about Ok St. performance was their best player Joey Graham was in foul trouble most of the game but Ivan McFarlain (sp?) stepped up huge and put up 29 or so. Southern Illinois played a great game and my hat's off to them. I found out while I was watching that Randy decided to go to Southern Illinois and start playing ball there, he did very well, everyone's new favorite player Randal Falker.

Hockey did pull it out and won the CCHA tournament as well as the regular season title. We did end up the #2 seed in Grand Rapids which is all we could have asked for. We are in the same bracket as Colorado College, many experts' pick to win it all but our semi-home ice advantage at Yost West should hopefully work out. I still like our chances to bring home another NC back to Yost. We open up with Wisconsin who did beat us early in the year but without a couple of our key guys. I expect us to move on the Frozen Four, this year in Columbus and bring back the title. How funny would that be to win the NCAA title in Columbus with all those stupid Buckeyes rooting against us, it would be sweet.

March Madness Day 1

Pretty good day for the first day. Three of my upsets came through making me some good money so thanks to Pacific, UW-Milwaukee and UAB. Winthrop held tight against Gonzaga most of the night giving me a scare but the zags pulled it out at the end. Did pretty well in my brackets only missing 1 or 2 so far so it's a good start. Hope to see some more upsets today to win some more money. Big one is Charlotte as the 7 seed is a dog to NC State. If ODU could beat those sParties that would be good too, and Ohio over Florida, just need a couple more of these upsets to pull through and I'll have made money this year on the tourney bets.

Michigan starts in the semis of the Super Six today against Alaska Fairbanks and will play the winner of Ohio St-Michigan St. Can't go wrong either way as Saturday will be sweet as long as we can get by the red hot Nanooks tonight. Also congratulations to T.J. Hensick who was named as one of the 10 semi-finalists for the Hobey Baker Award, College Hockey's version of the Heisman. Go Blue!

Checkmate

Checkmate is right, Jada killed 50 on this track and this is just the initial response, there's supposed to be another official response on Styles album. Here's a taste for those who haven't heard it:

"Most likely your new CD is a weed plate
Bunch of love songs, 100% pure garbage
Just somethin' to break up buds on
You should just sell clothes and sneakers
Cause outta your whole camp your flow's the weakest"

For those of you that haven't heard it need to download it, I need to find a copy myself, it's a dope ass beat on it as well.

One Day til Tourney Time

We've got one day until the Madness begins. Still going back and forth between Wake and Gonzaga in the Albuquerque region. I like both teams a lot this year and if that game takes place it would be unbelievable to watch. I started out with Wake but I am leaning towards the Zags now because they have as much big game experience as anyone this year already having defeated Georgia Tech, Washington and Oklahoma St. this year. Turiaf is a monster inside and Morrison can take you off the dribble or with his J. So my Final Four is now amended to include Syracuse, North Carolina, Oklahoma St. and Gonzaga.

The Lakers, after looking like they were gonna get a run together have another bad loss, last night to the Sixers, this team is too inconsisent to get anything done and I still stand by the fact that they would be better off getting some lottery help this year.

Michigan Hockey swept Notre Dame over the weekend and is now on to the Super 6. Friday's game wasn't on TV but it was ridiculous as we won 10-1. Saturday was exciting as ND's goalie was standing on his head as I caught the 3rd period and overtime. This is the year we make our run at another NC to make an even 10 for the program. Montoya is starting to get his shit together and I think we'll be all right. Brackets for hockey will be out on Sunday I believe so hopefully we can stay in Grand Rapids, which it looks like will happen as a #2 seed. Go Blue!

Speakin of The Game and 50

Bracket Time!

One of the best times of the year March Madness is upon us. Brackets released yesterday and there were a couple surprises but nothing that big. First I don't believe Washington deserves a #1, I think Oklahoma St after winning the Big XII Tournament should have been given a #1. The committee seems to overvalue the tournament for some teams, ie Iowa, Duke while undervaluing for others ie Oklahoma St.

Where will the upsets come from? Here are a couple I like: UTEP over Utah, New Mexico over Villanova and Penn over BC, I've got a couple more but I'm saving them for my brackets, because I have a low seeded team I like to go to the Sweet 16. For the Final 4, I like Syracuse, North Carolina, Wake Forest and Oklahoma St. My pick isn't that out on the limb but I like North Carolina to win, they are well balanced with inside and outside they run the floor extremely well and the kids are finally mature with McCants, Felton and May all juniors now and add in the super frosh Marvin Williams that's my pick to win it all this year.

Jadakiss challenges 50

Jadakiss has challenged 50 to a battle for $1 million to be seen on PPV. Don't think there's really a market for it to be that much but I definitely would love to see it. The name of the track is "Checkmate" that Jadakiss released through mixtapes last week and it's hot. The official response "Shots Fired" will be put on Styles album pumping up sales for that. Jadakiss was right all this is gonna do is help D-Block back considering Jada's the only one with skills in that crew.

Spittin Fire

On the way home last night was listenin to 93.5 KDAY, the original hip-hop station in Los Angeles and they played Jadakiss' diss/response to 50 cent and it was straight fire. Beats were on point and the rhymes were dope as hell. Wonder how/if 50's gonna respond now because that track was hot.

Also the John Legend CD is real nice, if you're a fan of R&B you should go cop it. As a whole I like the album better than the Anthony Hamilton CD, the track with Kanye is hilarious and the best on the album IMO. Only a few more hours to the weekend, gonna go get a couple of PS2 games for the first time in a while, probably will grab Gran Turismo 4 and FIFA Street hope they're as good as they look.

Season's Over

The nightmare season of the 2004-05 Michigan basketball team is over after a 2 point loss to Northwestern in the first round of the Big Ten Tourney. I thought we were gonna pull this one out but much like the entire season we just came up short. I know I've been saying it over and over but next year is the year we make our run back at the elite. I expect us to be in the top 3 of the Big Ten, ranked in the top 25 at some point and should make the Sweet 16, I know it's a lot but I believe in this team and these players still. With Horton back along with Lester at full speed and the majority of our players will be upperclassmen. We also add much needed depth with Jarrett Smith, Jevohn Sheperd and Kendric Price coming in, we sure could've used them this year considering John Andrews was getting major minutes.

With that said I cannot wait until this tourney starts, since Michigan is out I go to my next favorite school the University of North Carolina Tar Heels. Let's Go Heels!

50's a hypocrite, and beef being squashed

For those of you that didn't hear, 50 tried to punk R. Kelly at a concert and said that he has nothing against R. Kelly but since he did a song with Ja Rule he was gonna go after him. In that case he shouldn't have any dealings with Scott Stortz, the producer of among other songs "Candy Shop" and the song with Jamie Foxx on his new album. Stortz, produced "Clap Back" from Ja Rule as well as some other songs of his. So if 50 says anyone affiliated in any way with Ja he's going after then what the fuck is that shit? 50's just being a hypocrite. He's gonna take production from Stortz after all this, that's bullshit.

Supposedly, there's supposed to be a press conference in NY today because they're supposed to squash the beef, I bet it's because Dre and Em sat 50 down and told him to stop acting like damn fool. Hopefully it's true because it's gonna be Pac/Biggie part II if it keeps escalating and I'd be 50'd be the first one shot with Game's connections with the bloods.

Don't know if it's getting much airtime on the radio but everyone needs to go listen to Cam'ron and Kanye West - Down. It's some more Kanye production that's on fire, although I don't really like Cam'ron he does a decent job on this track.

Big Weekend

Had a great weekend on all fronts, started on Friday hung out with a bunch of my boys I hadn't seen in a while, went to TGI with Jeff, Marcus, Nima and Noah and had a great beer the Sam Adams White Ale, definitely recommended. After hangin out there for a while we decide to have one of our old school card games and it was dope. The 5 of us and my brother came back to my house and played all our old games, in addition to Hold 'Em we played some Screw Your Neighbor, Guts, Challenge, fun times and we ended it at 4 am.

Woke up Saturday early since I had to go play golf with my parents and considering this was my 2nd round since mid-October wasn't a bad showing. Then with my mom going out with her friends my dad and I had a good dinner of sashimi and soju. Then we went home and dusted off a bottle of Chivas Special Reserve or something like that, all I know is that it was 21 years and tasted great. We watched a couple of boxing matches while we were drinking and then it was like 10:30 or 11 and I tried to get another poker game going but that failed so I ended up just passing out.

Slept forever on Sunday until about noon and then headed out to Best Buy real quick with Randy and BJ and picked up the ESPN 2k5 baseball game and the new 50. So far the 50 sounds whatever, nothing new, same old junk recycled, hope the 2nd half is better otherwise it's gonna be a waste of the $9.99 I bought it for. At least it came with a $20 off coupon to Foot Locker in it so that should come in handy.

Hell of a game by Carolina yesterday, what a way to end it with 11 straight to win by 2. Way to step up by Marvin Williams, a true freshman makin the rebound put back and 1 to seal the deal. Sean May was an absolute beast with his 26 points and 24 rebounds. It was a great game to watch as both teams played their hearts out, especially on the defensive end. The defense was unbelievable and I'm glad I was able to watch it. Selection Sunday is next week and although Michigan still has to wait another year I can't wait for it to all start.

With Illinois, Kentucky and Kansas all losing it was a big weekend for upsets. Illinois, although a very good team, I don't think can go all the way, I can see them in the Final Four but they haven't really played anyone tough this year considering the Big Ten is so down. They did beat Wake at home early but that's about it for their quality wins out of conference.

The Lakers look to be putting it together after back to back wins over Dallas and Indiana, unless this sort of improvement continues and the Lakers start putting some longer winning streaks together I still think this team is better off taking a lottery pick this year and getting some help, rather than sneaking in as the 8 seed and then getting beaten by San Antonio in 5 games. This is a very promising team and I think they can win a title with Kobe as the leader but Lamar has to step it up and we need some more help up front and could use a PG, I'd love to have Raymond Felton or Chris Paul helping us out, or if we could somehow get into the top spot and take Andrew Bogut from Utah, that would be a great lineup to have with Mihm, Bogut and Odom up front with Kobe and Chucky/Sasha.

Finally, great job Hockey for bringing home another CCHA Regular Season Championship, this is just the beginning, we should bring home an NC this year, Let's Go Blue!

G Unit Beef

Morning has been busy as hell and doesn't look like it's gonna slow down. Well the news of the hip-hop world yesterday was that 50 said he's kickin The Game out of G-Unit. 50 needs to grow the fuck up. It was one thing as he was tryin to come up and startin shit with people but now that he's on top he's gotta keep fightin with everyone? Here's the line from the story

"50 announced that he was kicking The Game out of his G-Unit clique because of disloyalty — for refusing to take 50's side in his latest battles with high-profile rappers."

It says he's starting shit with Fat Joe, Nas and Jadakiss, it's retarded and it has to stop. The Game wouldn't support him in his beef because he's tight with Nas and Jadakiss and wasn't gonna turn on them so 50 got all upset and says he's throwing him out. There's no point in this, he's going out of his way to start shit, probably because he sees that The Game put out a hotter album than his and is worried. But I guess it's like they say you can take the boy out the hood but you can't take the hood out the homeboy. He still acts like he doesn't have anything so he's gonna try to bring other people down and it's unnecessary because there's a huge market out there for hip-hop so you don't have to go one way or the other and pick sides. I'm a give his new album a listen cause Disco Inferno was hot but Candy Shop is just stupid, more bullshit to feed to MTV.

Combine thoughts

The NFL Combine started over the weekend and NFL channel has great coverage of it every night until Wednesday when it ends. Saturday started off with the OL and the RB's. David Baas looked very good as his bench numbers were solid as was his 5.02 40 time. He helped himself, I think he should be an early 2nd round pick, I would love for the Raiders to get him.

The news of Saturday was Maurice Clarett, who looked so good the first few days in interviews and looked more cut than last year went out and pretty much lost everything by running a 4.8 40 and then quitting the rest of the drills. Ronnie Brown and Cadillac Williams have both surpassed Cedric Benson and are the top 2 RB's in the draft. Brown and Williams looked very impressive in the footage that I saw. Ronnie ran 4.40 and then a 4.32, just ridiculous and at 233 lbs and can catch the ball, should be a lock at a top 10 pick. Some sleepers I want the Raiders to keep an eye on at the 2nd round if they decide to go RB, Vernand Morency from Oklahoma St and the guy that carried my college fantasy football team last year Ryan Moats from Louisiana Tech.

Sunday was a big day with RB's finishing up along with WR's. Braylon Edwards didn't work out but he didn't need to. The WR's ran a drill called the gauntlet which is fun to watch, each WR starts at one sideline facing one endzone and there are QB's on each side of him as he faces one, then they say ball and he jumps 180 to catch a ball from the first QB and then jumps again to catch from the other one. He then must sprint across the field catching balls that are coming from both sides and at the end is thrown one and must attempt to catch and keep 2 feet in bounds. The two Georgia WR's Reggie Brown and Fred Gibson looked pretty good and the sleeper of the bunch is Vincent Jackson a big 6'5" wideout from Northern Colorado. A kid from Hampton, forgot his name ran a blazing 40 that some coaches including Parcells reportedly, clocked at a 4.25 40 putting him in the Deion range, makes sense considering he was an All-American sprinter.

Didn't get to watch Monday's footage and will probably just skim through it since it is TE's and DL. Today is DE's and DB's so there's a lot to be seen. Marlin Jackson needs a good showing and by all reports he did running a 4.59 40 and 23 reps of 225 putting him at the top of the group. Reports say he looked very good in the drills as well so I hope his stock rises. I believe he can be a late 1st round pick but if he can be had in the 2nd he would be a steal. The Raiders may be in the market for a corner considering Woodson may be traded and if we're moving Woodson I'd love nothing more than to replace him with another Michigan Man.

Quiz I got from the Michigan board, not for all you west coasters.

Which Big Ten school fits you? Michigan Wolverines People think you're arrogant, but it's just a result of years and years of success.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Starting to get hectic

Work's been pretty slow for the past few weeks, it was about time for it to pick up which it has in a big way this week. It sucks but at least it makes the days go by quicker. Where do we start from the weekend, Michigan basketball lost again badly, I can't wait til this season ends and we can get it done next year. The hockey team won, barely, over the U.S. National Development team 6-5, which has 5 players that will be suiting up for the Maize and Blue next year, hockey has its final weekend vs Bowling Green and can clinch the CCHA Regular season with one win or one Ohio State loss.

The Lakers look like garbage keep losing to awful teams such as the Knicks and the Raptors, not making a move looks like it definitely hurt us. I think I'd rather take my chances in the lottery this year because we need some help. If we make the playoffs our first round pick goes to Boston and we're only left with a 2nd, maybe 2 from another trade.

Shout out goes to the University of Pacific Tigers who helped me win my first sports bet in a while, thanks to Randy for giving me the tip, parlaying UOP and UNLV to win on Saturday. UOP looks real good and they seem to cover every time they play. March Madness is closing in and I still like Carolina, Illinois is a very good team but I don't think any team this day in age can go the entire season unbeaten but they could prove me wrong. I think Carolina has all it needs to go out and win it all, the only problem being Roy Williams could never win the big one but maybe going back to his alma mater with all that talent puts him over the top. Carolina-Duke on Sunday, 2nd best rivalry in all of college sports, probably 3rd overall in my opinion behind the Dodgers-Giants, Let's Go Heels, fuck those stupid dookies.