Some Saturday afternoon college basketball!

How about some Saturday afternoon college basketball scores!  Beginning in the ACC, let’s start with Georgia Tech!Cool  The Jackets won another ACC road game defeating Wake Forest in a thriller, 57 – 56.  Freshman center/forward Marcus Georges-Hunt lead GT with 16 points and center Daniel Miller added 13 points, 6 assists and 5 blocked shots.  Tough day for Kammeron Holsey as he missed a number of shots as well as put back opportunities, very uncharacteristic.  Jackets are now 5 – 8 in ACC play.  One glaring problem for this young Georgia Tech team is free throw shooting.  They are at the bottom of the ACC in free throw shooting with not one player shooting over 70%.  Need to work on that!  Still, nice road win for GT in the ACC.

North Carolina rebounded nicely from their loss to Duke earlier this week, taking care of Virginia, 93 – 81.  Tyler Zeller had his jersey retired.  FSU narrowly avoided losing to BC at home, prevailing 69 – 66.  It was reunion weekend in Tallahassee so it would not have been good for the Noles to drop this one.

Over in the SEC, Kentucky (currently at #25 but likely to drop out of this Monday’s polls) suffered a bad loss playing in their first game without the services of injured forward Nerlens Noel, as they were routed on the road at Tennessee, 88 – 58.  #7 Florida bounced back nicely from their loss last week with a thumping of Auburn 83 – 52.

2 Duke is in action now on ESPN on the road at Maryland.


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NBA All Star Rising Stars Game

Last night we were treated to the NBA Rising Stars Game, composed of rookies and second year players.  The teams were coached by “Chuck” and “Shaq”.  Chuck’s team beat Shaq’s team, 159 – 131.  Yep, you saw it right, not much defense in this sort of game!  Actually, a new scoring record for this game.  Big stars were Kenneth Faried with 40 points and Kyrie Irving (former point guard from Duke).  A whole lot of showboating goes on in these sorts of entertainment games. Tonight we will have the Dunk Contest, 3 point shooting contest and others.  Looking forward to the actual game on Sunday evening.  Gotta wonder, will Kobe try and make a statement and go for it, try to be the MVP?  Or will it be the LeBron James show?  Perhaps someone else will step up and be the star? Stay tuned…and look for all the action on TNT.


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Surviving “Paradise” update

In the interest of providing you all with the best reading experience possible, I have been hard at work reformatting my book Surviving “Paradise”.  I worked with my computer partner, Chris Rains, to give you the best ebook possible and have uploaded what is hopefully a flawless version into Amazon kindle and Barnes and Noble nook.  I have also worked tirelessly to re-upload a new and improved paperback edition into Amazon.com and it should all be available tomorrow and/or the next day at the very latest.  Please check out this book, it is a very funny and entertaining read.  Paperback is $9.99, kindle version is $3.03 and nook version is $4.99.  Thanks guys!


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Good news for Atlanta Falcons

Atlanta Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff has been quoted as indicating that it is by no means a given that all world TE Tony Gonzalez will retire.  Dimitroff says that unlike the 90% certainty that has been rumored regarding his decision, he would give it  50 – 50 odds that Tony may in fact come back and play another year.  Hey, he is in great shape, still at the top of his game, why not go one more year?


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Down goes Federer in Rotterdam

Here the big THUD!  I did, and I did not enjoy hearing it.  That was the sound of Roger Federer falling to Julien Benneteau in straight sets in Rotterdam, 3 – 6, 5 – 7.  This is the second time the 31 year old Frenchman has defeated Roger.  Fed was decidedly off his game and with a dismal second serve percentage, well, let’s just say that is going to need to get corrected before the Paribas Open in Indian Well, CA where all of the big four will be in attendance.  Disappointed, I never enjoy seeing Roger Federer lose.

In WTA news, Serena William has regained the world #1 ranking.  She came from one set down to defeat Petra Kvitova, 3 – 6, 6- 3, 7 -5 at the Qatar Open.  She now heads into the semifinals knowing no matter what, she will once again be the #1 women’s player in the world.  Well deserved…


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MJ says give me Kobe

In the week long celebration of Michael Jordan’s 50th birthday this Sunday, which also happens to be the day the NBA All Star game will take place, MJ was asked if he had a fantasy pick to build a team around, who would he take, Kobe or LeBron?  Jordan said Kobe!  Five rings trumps one ring every time.  Gotta say, that is true!  LeBron still has plenty of time to win more rings, only having been in the league ten years, whereas Kobe is at seventeen years and counting.  Still, interesting choice by Mr. Jordan!


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Heat win, Lakers lose

The Miami Heat defeated the OKC Thunder in Oklahoma last night, 110 – 100.  LeBron scored 39 points, pulled down 12 rebounds and had 7 assists.  Alas, he only shot 58% (not 60%) so the unbelievable streak has ended.  Kevin Durant threw in 40 points for OKC in a losing effort.  Now we head into All Star weekend…

But, first let’s look at the Lakers who suffered a bad loss to the other LA team, the Clippers last night at the Staples Center, 125 – 101.  This really stings as the Lakers head to the All Star break still four games out of the 8th playoff spot and Pau Gasol not set to return until early April.  I really think they are a better team with Gasol in the post, Howard at forward.  Antawn Jamison is really doing a terrific job for the Lakers, and Clark is filling in adequately for Gasol.  Not the same team we saw a couple of weeks ago with Gasol, however.  Kobe had 20 points, 5 rebounds and 11 assists.  Lakers better regroup and come out strong after the break, figure out something because the loss to the Clippers was a step backwards!

The NBA All Star game airs Sunday evening (February 17th) at 8:00 pm EST on TNT. (From Houston, Texas)


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Nashville recap

Our favorite new show, Nashville was on last night.  This show is in some ways like a nighttime soap opera, but better!  Maybe reminiscent of Dallas how many years ago?  OK, now I am just dating myself.  Let’s see…Gunnar’s brother who is in violation of his parole shows up and ends up staying with Gunnar and Scarlett, against Scarlett’s better judgement.  Somehow, I think his presence is going to lead to some big problems.  Juliette and Rayna are wrapping up the first leg of their tour.  Rayna is dreading going home and facing telling her daughters about their parents getting a divorce.  Her former potential business partner and guitarist, Liam, shows up in Atlanta and she embarks on a night of drinking and sobbing with him, baring her soul but fortunately, nothing else.  Deacon is of course not happy with what he sees but Rayna is not ready to talk with Deacon about their kiss in the elevator and what is going on in her life.  She will be, but I foresee a rocky road ahead with those two, perhaps leading to something, but still, the drama must continue.  Teddy is in touch with Peggy, and the oldest daughter overhears their phone conversation and later tells Rayna.  Teddy also appears to grow a pair when he tells Rayna’s sister and Lamar’s “spy” that who he talks to and what is going on in his personal life is none of their business.  Good for Teddy, but will he really become his own person or does Lamar own him?  Juliette, in one of her uber drama queen moments, fires her long time manager Glenn, and then returns to an empty and lonely house.  She invites her mother to come and live with her for awhile when she gets out of rehab.  Avery gets away from the witch of a  woman trying to manage him and his music career and goes with the gal who was previously linked to Gunnar.  So what is next??  Gee, a whole lot I imagine.  Teddy and Rayna will divorce and it will not go smoothly.  Gunnar is going to open himself up to a boat load of  trouble by believing he can give his brother another chance and perhaps drag Scarlett into the mess. And what is going to ultimately happen between Rayna and Deacon?  Well, we will just have to watch and see…Stay tuned, same time, same day next week! (Wednesday, 10:00 pm EST ABC)

Gotta say, that was exhausting!  Last night’s episode was good, but not as good as some have been.  Hopefully, it picks back up!


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Safe Haven

Happy Valentine’s Day!  Saw the movie Safe Haven!  This movie is based on the best selling novel by Nicholas Sparks and is advertised as the best romance movies since The Notebook.  Well, I saw both movies and read both books.  This is a sweet and poignant movie but I don’t think it is the equivalent of The Notebook.  That being said, Julianne Hough is great in her role as a young woman fleeing an abusive husband who is a alcoholic cop and seems to be able to get away with anything.  Josh Duhamel as a widower and father of two young children is his usual charming, sexy, dorky self.  I love Josh Duhamel!  It is a good movie, I recommend it as a sweet date night movie.  I enjoyed it although I was a bit confused by the role of her friend and neighbor “Jo”.  I think there were some liberties taken with that character in the movie vs. the book.  Jo is played by Colbie Smulders of How I Met Your Mother.  Anyhow, a nice couple of hours watching these two fall in love.


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Federer in action today

Happy Valentines Day to me (and everyone else!).  Roger Federer was in action today in the ABN AMRO Tournament in Rotterdam, Netherlands.  He defeated T. de Bakker (from the Netherlands), 6 -3 , 6 -4.  Fed will face J. Benneteau tomorrow in quarterfinal action.  GO ROGER!


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