By JIMMY D / Chicken Jimmy still leads the bracket game | Jimmy's archive

Bock bock bock bock….

Jimmy heeded some of his own best advice and then chickened out some other the other nuggets of wisdom.

The result was a stellar – but less-than-perfect – first two rounds in his college basketball bracket game.

Jimmy plucked the lead in his league and sits in the top five percentile of the millions of Yahoo! players, but imagine how much better it would be if those damn 12 seeds actually pulled off a few upsets like they usually do (they were 0-4 this year).

In the East and South regions, Jimmy is perfect through two rounds, except for those two No. 5s – Tennessee and USC – both of whom Jimmy pegged as upset victims.

Long Beach State was fried by Tennessee and Arkansas was unable to hatch a plan to beat USC. Those are Jimmy’s only losses on that side. In the West and Midwest, Jimmy lost Wisconsin to UNLV in an otherwise 8-for-8 showing.

But, Jimmy chickened out on Winthrop and VCU, both of whom pulled off semi-predictable upsets. Jimmy mentioned both these games last week, but didn’t pull the trigger when it mattered. Silly Jimmy should read his own hen-scratch.
If Jimmy’s bracket plays out the right away this weekend, three top seeds will have fallen by Sunday, leaving Florida, Georgetown, Memphis and UCLA for the Final Four.

The prediction calls for the seasoned Gators to win back-to-back (or should that be bock-to-bock for chicken Jimmy?) titles for the first time since Duke did it 1991-92.

Oh-han, 0-han Santana

As in, “Oh my, can that guy ever pitch!” or as in “0 - the number of runs opposing teams can expect to get off him.”

The Twins lefty is showing this spring that his gaudy 2006 numbers could be improved upon in 2007. After five innings of one-hit, shutout ball Sunday, Santana’s spring ERA is 0.62.

After winning the Cy Young award, leading the league in wins, ERA and strikeouts, we wondered what he could do for a fantasy encore. He nudges even higher on your draft board with a stellar spring.

High hopes in hoops

OK, it’s safe to brag now. After trailing in his NBA head-to-head league by 20 games in January, Jimmy completed a remarkable and improbable rally to overtake the stacked Torn Labrums.

After some nifty roster manoevring to ensure maximum games played, the Jackals defeated the Labrums 6-3 last week to move 3.5 games ahead with only two weeks left in the pool regular season.

Jimmy milked little-known Net Mikki Moore for some rebounds, scoring and blocks, plucked up Sonic point guard Earl Watson for a few productive games and even managed to win while stupidly having Cuttino Mobley on his bench Sunday (the Clipper swingman went 9-for-20 with four treys and 27 points).
Next up are the Injured Losers, who hopefully remain true to their namesake against Jimmy’s Jackals this week.

Oden vs. Durant

Bracket watchers had a chance this weekend to see the future of their NBA fantasy rosters. The projected top picks in the draft – Ohio State’s 7-footer Greg Oden and Texas Longhorn high-flyer Kevin Durant – both got primetime exposure. But only Oden, who fouled out in the Buckeyes’ improbably rally to beat Xavier, gets more TV time this weekend.

Durant, likened by some to Tracy McGrady and Kevin Garnett, couldn’t get Texas past USC. There are rumours that Durant has a $50-million contract with his name on it ready to be signed by Nike if he turns pro. Hmmmm, tough decision….

The stunned 76ers, who were in line to select one of these players until an ill-advised seven-game winning streak, were destroyed at home by 50 points Sunday. They came to their senses in the ugly display against Houston, but they probably ruined their shot at a high lottery pick.
Silly Sixers.

OVER-whelming Sunday

Jimmy still gets the occasional request for sports lottery advice and there was a doozy Sunday night for players of these longshot parlays.

Betting OVER on all six NHL games would have nailed a tremendous payday. There were at least seven goals scored in each game.

If you are looking for an angle that goes the other way, the Flyers have played six straight UNDERs with Marty Biron getting the bulk of time in net and with Simon Gagne and others on the shelf with injury.

Good luck.

Stay busy and stay lucky with baseball drafts looming next week. Jimmy will provide some insights next week.

Get busy and get lucky.

Jimmy D