You may have noticed that I no longer sell selections on any web sites (more on the reasons for that soon), and that we’ve been doing no advertising during the hoops season. Our entire focus is on analyzing games and serving our customers. The only way to get this package of freebies is through the office. This is a special 3-day offer. All the free stuff goes away if you call after Thursday, so call us in the office at 1-770-649-1078 and you’ll get everything we do in basketball until April 15th for less than some other services get for a week. Remember that this offer is only available through this Thursday, after that we won’t be taking any new customers until the conference tourneys kick in, and by then the free service offer will be long gone.

On to some basketball. I love how back when he was on ESPN and now on NBA-TV they call Fred Carter “The Coach”. Carter has a sub .300-career record as a head coach in a no-chance stint in Philly in the early 90’s. But still, he’s “The Coach.”

I can just envision the scene at an NBA cocktail party during All Star weekend. A respectful hush envelops the room as Fred Carter walks in. A reverential Hubie Brown whispers "wow, The Coach is here” to his awestruck companions Avery Johnson and Gregg Popovich.

After a court date earlier this month troubled Tennessee Titan PacMan Jones insisted that he was toning down his nightlife. “If I’m going to go out, I’m going to have to be at a little private spot. Maybe I’ll chill out at a jazz bar or something with some older folks,” Jones declared.

Needless to say, he was at the NBA All Star weekend and was questioned by Las Vegas detectives after being at the scene of a triple shooting at the Minxx nightclub, which doesn’t quite sound like chilling out at a jazz bar with some older folks. The Minxx is a strip club and the trouble apparently started when attendees threw money on the stage and the dancers fought over it.

Jones was far from the only person in Sin City last weekend. News reports had the Southwest Airline check-in line being a mile long on Monday morning. No exaggeration, apparently the line was really a mile long. The number of individuals missing flights was supposedly in the thousands.

Southern Illinois’ win over Butler at sold out Hinkle Fieldhouse (the Fenway/Wrigley of college hoops) made the rest of the less attractive BracketBuster games worth the exercise. It was a great game despite the fact that the tightly whistled contest had a remarkable 34 fouls in the second half, and the game saw zero fast break points. An S&G News reader at the game reports that the nearly a third of the crowd was comprised of Saluki partisans who made the 4 hour drive from Carbondale.
Despite the win by SIU, it was a tough Saturday for the tournament chances of some Missouri Valley Conference clubs. As handicappers, a lot of us like the Missouri Valley Conference. I know I've done well in it over the years and it has been a mainstay for November/December profits, as these clubs get up for the BCS conference schools and cover a lot of pointspreads. But that appears to have turned around against them last week with three key losses to schools from lesser conferences in Bracket Buster action, with all three losses occurring at home for the Valley clubs. Winthrop won at Missouri State, Drexel won at Creighton, and Appalachian State won at Wichita State. Creighton is all but in the tourney, one would think, but the losses for Missouri State and Wichita State could be critical for their NCAA hopes.
It is interesting to see that the Valley schools, weary from the battles in their own conference, let down against hard-charging, ascendant mid-major programs. MVC schools appear to be falling victim to the same dynamic that has served them so well in non-conference play in recent years. Moving away from being a true "mid-major" conference for a couple of years now, the MVC is now a juicy target for the real mid-majors.
Remember when the rule was that 20 wins would earn you an NCAA berth if you were in a BCS conference? That isn’t the case any more. With teams now allowed to play extra games early in the season, and regular season and conference tourneys still to be played for almost everyone, there are an incredible 80 teams that have won 18 games or more. Those with incomplete resumes like Illinois, Syracuse, and Georgia still have work to do or they may be in for a rude awakening come Selection Sunday, particularly with the respect people have for mid-majors at a well-deserved all-time high.

Five days before Christmas, Utah mounted a huge comeback in a 112-106 road win over Atlanta. The Jazz outscored the Hawks 40-13 in the 4th quarter. Then on February 12th, Utah got off to a 79-50 lead after 3 quarters in a cakewalk over Atlanta. Take the 4th quarter in Atlanta and the first 3 quarters in Utah and you have the Jazz outscoring the Hawks 119-63 over 4 consecutive quarters. That qualifies as dominance, doesn’t it?

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Thanks for reading Sports & Gaming News this week. Good luck and be careful.