It turned out to be another great Super Bowl for The Crew, who hit with the Giants +3 as well as three of five prop bets -- which is a story all by itself. Now we turn our full attention to hoops. The Crew is, of course, on record thinking college basketball is miserable, but there's some opportunity there, so it would be foolish to ignore it. NBA plays will be few and far between. We love it, but it's simply too hard to handicap, especially with the condensed schedule this season.
A couple thoughts/stats before The Super Play of the Day...
The national media has decided to give Knicks guard Jeremy Lin the small-scall version of the Tebow treatment, meaning they've gone all in on him while other worthy story lines largely fade into the background. Whereas, however, the non-stop coverage of Tim Tebow was thrust upon us unwittingly by ESPN and their shameless programming department, Lin's rise has been genuinely entertaining, and perhaps most importantly, not manufactured.
Born Taiwanese parents, Lin looks more like a biology doctoral student than an NBA player. He went undrafted a year ago out of Harvard (considered by most to be the Arizona State of the Ivy League), caught on with Golden State but played sparingly. He currently sleeps on his brother's couch because after being waived by both the Warriors and Rockets earlier this season, his contract to serve as what was expected to be New York's fourth-string point guard wasn't guaranteed past last Tuesday. If reports are accurate, in fact, the Knicks mulled releasing him last week in favor of journeyman Mike James.
Then Lin morphed into Oscar Robertson. In his first four games as a starter he averaged 28.5 points, eight assists and nearly four rebounds. He scored a total of 109 points in those games, the most by any player in his first four starts since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976, according to ESPN Stats, Inc. To put that in perspective, he scored a total of 76 all of last season. For the Knicks, who have been dreadful for most of this season, Lin's presence has been a God send, as they have reeled off five in a row since he became a regular.
Still, everyone needs to calm down a bit. As good a story as it is, it's five games, a sample size much too small to make any definitive conclusions. Dude turns it over far to too often and needs considerable work on his outside shot. It is, however, pretty clear from watching him that he has an innate feel for the game, able to get most anywhere he wants on the court, all without possessing elite athleticism or quickness...
News broke last Sunday that the Seattle mayor Mike McGinn has been working behind the scenes with billionaire hedge fund manager and Seattle native Chris Hansen (not the dude from To Catch a Predator on 'Dateline NBC') to build an downtown arena in hopes of luring the NBA back to town.
The speculation has been focused on the Sacramento Kings, who are up against a deadline to produce an arena plan of their own that would keep the team in California. There's still a lot to be hashed out and it's far from a done deal, but it's good news for those of us who would like to see the NBA return.
In light of this, The Crew has taken in a couple Kings games to see what we may be in for if they were indeed to make a move. We have come to the unanimous conclusion that they should stay in Sacramento. Please don't bring that garbage up here. We'll try to rip someone else's team, thank you.
Super Play of the Day
Washington-Oregon St under 154.5
Again, check The Crew's record out on Wagerminds.com. We are off to a good start since becoming monitored.
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