What is Mike Conley Jr.?

I guess I need to say from the jump that I never liked the draft pick. I was convinced that if Xavier fouls when they should have against Ohio St. in the tournament that there was no way Mike Conley Jr. was gonna be a lottery pick (much less a top 5 pick). In fact, he probably goes back to school. His stock went crazy after his team went to the championship game. Beware of the guy who's stock was dependent on the tournament. I was hoping I would be wrong about this, but I wasn't.

With that being said, the same people that wanted to max-out Pau Gasol, build around Pau Gasol, and keep Pau Gasol are the same that love Mike Conley. This is no coincidence. Conley has a lot of the same characteristics. He is smart, he is nice, he is weak.
Everyone else around these type of players will get blamed for what they are. The other players, the coach, the media, whatever.

Guys with supreme talent can overcome not having any "dog" in them (see: Pau Gasol), and guys with the "dog" in them can overcome not being supremely talented (see: Shane Battier).
Conley has no "dog" in him, and he is not supremely talented. This is a problem, and it is already easy to identify. This does not change with time, this is not about coaching, this is not about the other players on the team.

Hopefully the Grizzlies can get something for him before everyone in the world realizes the truth.

You mess with the bull...

you get the horns. You knock Vinnie down, you better kill him. Vinnie Verno comes back blazin, going 4-1 on the day. Philanthropy season record moves to 37-20 (65%) on the year. We also gave you the 3 games to run away from (the traps)- AZ State, Kansas, and Rice (update: AZ St pulled out cover). You can't stop this train now. Merry Christmas.

Philanthropy (The Picks)

The record now stands at 33-19 (63%) after getting beat up last week. But Vinnie Verno ain't no punk and we are comin back swingin. Here are the picks for the weekend...

Alabama -3.5 over LSU (LSU is a fraud, we have been talking about it all season. Bama is 8-2 ats in last 10 road games. Road team is 10-1-1 ats in this matchup in last 12)

Penn St. -7.5 over Iowa (Not buying an upset or close loss for Iowa. Penn St is 7-1-1 ats in last 9 games. Penn St has 6th ranked D and Iowa can only run.)

Ohio St. -10.5 over Northwestern (Mike Kafka, your time has expired. This is revenge for NWestern beating us when we had Minny. The nerds stink. I watched them. Ohio St drills them every single year., they drill em again)

Michigan St. -9 over Purdue (Purdue is trash. 89th against the rush, 85th in overall D. Helllloo Ringer. Purdue has scored 6,3,6, and 26 in Big Ten games against teams not named Michigan)

Air Force -10 over Colorado St (People are on the Rams jock because the played BYU close. So what, they stink. We love Air Force and they are 7-1 ats in last 8 at home, 13-3 ats in last 16 overall. Colorado St. cannot stop the run. Bad news for the Rams.)

NFL Overdog Parlay of the Year!
Miami -8.5 over Seattle
Tenn -3 over Chicago
Carolina -9.5 over Oakland

Clay Travis and Chris Wallace (The Audio)

Clay Travis writes for deadspin.com, and is also writing a book about the Tennessee Vols season. He joined us the day that Fulmer stepped down to talk about the decision, and where UT goes from here.

Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace joined us for the weekly segment live from Sacramento.
Both are loaded in the player.

What is it with that town?

The Grizzlies cannot win in Sacramento (that is 20 in a row now). I hope my grandchildren will get to see a Memphis Grizzlies team win in that town. Sac had been getting beaten to death by teams coming into this game (which I should know does not matter) and then...
Kevin Martin goes ballistic
OJ and Rudy get in foul trouble
Sac doubles the ball constantly
Marc Gasol rendered ineffective after monster game
At least the Grizzlies fought and made it interesting in the 4th, after being horrific to start the last frame (they had a chance...Ross missed FT's, OJ losin ball on break, those hurt)

By the way, people always fancy Conley as a "Tony Parker type" which always makes me shutter/ laugh. Parker had 55 tonight. 55! There is only one Parker, he is insanely rare in what he brings to the table. There are virtually zero players you could even compare him to.
If Mike Conley ever scores 55 in a game in his career I will cut off both of my ears. I would be amazed if he ever gets half of that in a game.

Chris Wallace and Jimmy Denunzio (The Audio)

I loaded up the segments with Wallace and Denunzio from last week. Wallace joined us for the weekly segment to talk about where he watches the games, etc. His impression of the Philly fans during the playoffs is priceless.
Denunzio was in rare form, and brought to the table some terrible Halloween jokes with his picks.

Oh what a day, what a day

How was I supposed to know that the white Vince Young was the second string QB for Northwestern? Holy crap, I have never seen a slow white guy tear off more 40 yd runs in my life. I now hate Minnesota. Why are you throwing from your own 15 with no time to do anything? They got what they deserved. I deserved better. The gopher is a stupid animal too.

Florida trashed Georgia, that is about the only thing I got right.

Texas did not even show up in the first half, they were great in the second half, and then got beat on one of the best plays in college football history. Texas Tech gets respect.

Missouri was putting it on Baylor and then must have played their cheerleaders in the second half. Nice 3 pt win over Baylor, Misouri. Geez. That is terrible. I know, I know, Baylor is a tough place to play. Muahhahaa.

And the Oregon St. game is still going on but I am sure they will lose now.

Vinnie Verno apologizes to his followers. It is unacceptable to lose.

Philanthropy (The Picks)

The documented Philanthropy record for the season stands at 32-15 (68%).

This is so easy. Here are the games...

Florida -6 over Georgia (Georgia gave up almost 500 yds against LSU last week. Florida is 6-1 ats in last 7 SEC games, after losing to Ole Miss they are on a mission. Florida rolls here.)

Texas -4 over Texas Tech (I have no idea why so many people like Tech in this game. Texas has taken on the giants and punished them. 8-1 ats in last 9 games. McCoy completes 82% of his passes, and I watched Tech struggle with Nebraska. Texas covers 4 easy.)

Missouri -20 over Baylor (I thought this line would be 35. We get it at less than 3 td's. Missouri 8-1 ats in last 9 road games. They have only lost to Ok St and Texas but they beat the crap out of bad teams. Baylor is 85th in total d and 87th passing d. Bad news. Missouri in a romp)

Oregon St -15 over Arizona St (Arizona St is trash. They came off a bye and lost by 5 tds at home to Oregon. Oregon St is a covering machine at home over the years. 38-18-1 ats in last 57. Oregon St 10-1 in last 11 on turf (turf team!). Az State is 0-6 ats on turf. 15 not enough.

Minnesota -6 over Northwestern (I love this game and am counting on it. We find a team and ride them, and Minny has been good to us. Like the QB Weber. Minny is 6-0 ats in conference, 6-1 ats overall this year. Northwestern nerds have 1 win over semi-decent team, it was Iowa, and Iowa turned it over 5 times and still barely lost to them. The nerds are banged up, including their QB and they catch a beat down early in the morning on Saturday, making it for a fun rest of the day for us.

Have a great weekend, you should all be billionaires by now.

Mic Check this week

Mic Check was based on the article below.

Who the Vols should hire...

I believe Phil Fulmer is a great football coach who is a victim of his own success. I think he is judged against his own record, when he was winning 85% of his games. I think that is totally unrealistic and I think the Tennessee job is, at best, the 4th best job in the conference. But none of that matters. I may think the fan base is stupid, but I cannot deny that they have turned on him. It appears inevitable that Fulmer will be gone at the end of the year.

So we move on to who to hire if you are Tennessee. Most of the names that have come up regarding the job are hilarious to me. If you replace one of the most successful coaches ever in a conference where it is very hard to win, you better think long and hard about who that is.

Who could you hire that would leave their current job?
Who is a great coach at a place where the UT job would be an upgrade?
Who is a guy that has competed against and defeated teams in the conference?
Who is a guy with recruiting ties in the South?
Who is a guy that nobody could ever say is a worse coach than Fulmer?
Who is a guy that you would feel comfortable coaching against Saban, Meyer, and Richt?

In my opinion, you have to go get somebody proven to be better than Fulmer if you are gonna fire him. That list is very short in terms of record.

The perfect choice for the Vols is the man that will stand across the field from them in their next game... Darth Visor himself.... back up the Brinks and get Steve Spurrier. He is so competitive and realizes that it is freaking impossible to win big at South Carolina.
There is your huge name that makes sense. If he failed for some reason, nobody could ever say it was a bad hire.
Hey, and he is a Tennessee native.

That is what I would do. Steve Spurrier. I don't buy for a second that he has lost the fire or the desire to be great, I think he is at a tough place to win.

Grizzlies Roundtable w/ 3 Shades of Blue

3 Shades of Blue put together a Grizzlies roundtable about the upcoming season at the end of last week. I was part of the roundtable, along with Geoff Calkins, Chris Herrington, and Eli Savoie. The discussion covered just about every topic you can imagine regarding the team this year.
Here it is (podcast form)...
Grizzlies roundtable discussion (3 Shades of Blue)

I will never trust Joe Lee Dunn again...

3-2 on the philanthropy picks this week. The season record is now 32-15 (68%). Ole Miss gave up a late TD to Arkansas and I still cannot believe that Idaho won a game, those were our two losses. Thanks for holding the Idaho potatoes to 271 yds rushing Joe Lee Dunn. I should have known better than to trust that dude. New Mexico State should shut down their program. I am serious. Got Georgia, Minny, and Troy... but 3-2 is totally unacceptable.

Philanthropy (The Picks)

Philanthropy record for the season (documented) 29-13 (69%)

Troy -24 over North Texas (116th ranked d in the nation for N Texas, bad news. N. Texas is absolute trash. 2-12 ats vs. winning team. Troy is 14-5 ats in last 19. Rice beat N Texas 77-20.

Ole Miss -6 over Arkansas (Revenge game for Houston. Ole Miss is 7-2 ats in last 9. 3-0 ats on the road. Arkansas 2-5 ats in last 7. Ole Miss kills them this weekend.)

Minnesota +1 over Purdue (Minn is 11-2 ats vs. teams with a winning record. Purdue 2-6-1 ats in last 9 games. Minnesota QB Adam Weber is the deal. Minn--sssttttraiiiight up!)

Georgia +1.5 over LSU (LSU is a phony. Georgia is 6-2 ats vs. teams with winning record. LSU has played 1 good team this year, they lost by 30. LSU 2-6-1 ats in last 9 at home. Georgia-- stttrrraight up!)

N Mex. St. -13 over Idaho (This is the insult of all insults. Idaho is the worst team in the history of western civilization. They cannot cover anything under 30. The spread in all of their games should be 3td's and then go from there. This is insane. N Mx St by at least 20)

Mic Check (TV bit) from this week

Mic Check: Return of Houston Nutt

Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace (The Audio)

Wallace was on for the weekly segment live from Orlando today. We talked about how the team has looked so far, the roster, etc. Have you ever wondered who the Grizzlies would have taken if they would have gotten the #1 pick? Wallace told us. Check it.

It finally happened...

We took our first losing week on the Philanthropy picks this week as I just watched Air Force get stopped at the 2 yd line and kick a field goal when a TD would have covered it for us. Heartbreak. Ole Miss we got, and we got Kansas, but Miss. St. threw two pick 6's in a row to blow that game open for UT, and I have no idea about Wake. So we ended 2-3 on the day, moving the season record to 29-13 (69%) . Unacceptable. The rest of the season is free. Muhahahahahaha.

Surprise guest Kelly Pavlik

Weekly regular Bert Sugar was on the show from Atlantic City on Friday. While we were talking he gave the phone to none other than Kelly Pavlik. Here is what happened if you missed it...

Philanthropy (The Picks)

Philanthropy season record stands at 27-10 for the season (every pick documented every week on cvernon.com). That is 73% this season. You roll with Vinnie Verno or you don't roll.

Here are the picks for this weekend...

Ole Miss +13 over Alabama (Alabama has punked out teams that have weak interior play. This will not be the case with the Rebels. Ole Miss gives Bama all they want.)

Miss St +7.5 over Tennessee (Holy crap, UT is over a TD favorite in a game. Insulting. I won't be surprised if the Bullies take them down and it gets Phil fired. Miss. St is 3rd in the nation against the pass, and UT thinks they are a passing team. The 104th ranked offense should not be giving over a TD to anyone)

Wake -1.5 over Maryland (The last time we saw Maryland they were getting crushed by Virginia 31-0. I think Wake is gonna win the ACC. Their defense is great. They are 5-1 ats on the road, 8-2 ats against winning teams, 10-3 ats in last 13 games, Maryland has 92nd ranked D in the nation and 96th ranked D against the pass. Is this enough to convince you?)

Air Force -4.5 over UNLV (This seems to be like an absolute mortal lock. You know I love Air Force and I still have no idea how they get no respect on these lines. The last 2 weeks we have seen UNLV get beat by 2td's by Colorado St, and lose by 3td's to Nevada. They cannot stop the run. In fact, they are 110th in the nation against it. Bad, bad news when you face the 5th ranked running team in the nation. Air Force is a covering machine. I hope they never get respect, they make us rich)

Kansas +20 over Oklahoma (20? what the heck is going on here? 20? Kansas is again one of our favorite teams to roll with as Mangino is a covering machine. Kansas is 6-1 ats on the road in last 7, 20-6 ats in their last 26 games, and let me remind you that they are 17-2 in their last 19 games overall. Now I get 3 tds? Crazy. I'll take it.)

Dan Wetzel gets down with Thursday underdogs, mentions show

Dan Wetzel was here yesterday for CUSA Media day because Yahoo is doing a Hard Knocks type show about the Tigers for their website. He told me that he was going to be flying out of Memphis to get to the TCU/BYU game and then I told him what was going to happen in the game. Ha! Anyway, Wetzel wrote his article about the concept today with some great research included.
He wrote...
"My friend Chris Vernon gave me the Thursday night home dog one. Vernon hosts a radio show in Memphis – which is not located in Nevada and, as a result, is a place where no gambling occurs. If he happens to buy a new HD television set anytime soon, it’s solely because of the big ratings his show gets.
However, upon hearing I was covering the game he said he felt bad for BYU for purely journalistic reasons. The Cougars were a heck of a story that unfortunately had to end because TCU was a home underdog and all of that."

Here is the whole article... BYU buried by Thursday trouble
Big thanks to Dan for mentioning the show.