Turn Up The Heat! Flanagan’s Thoughts From The Week
Mar 24, 2013; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Florida Gulf Coast Eagles guard Sherwood Brown (25) celebrates after defeating the San Diego State Aztecs during the third round of the NCAA basketball tournament at Wells Fargo Center. Florida Gulf Coast defeated San Diego State 81-71. Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Follow Hook’em Headlines On Twitter!
Texas Longhorns thoughts:
– Stewart Mandel interviewed Mack Brown this week about being “re-energized” going into this season. I get Mack Brown is always trying to spin things into his favor and he does a great job at polishing that turd. But if you have been frustrated with the past 3 seasons, Mandel indicated in his article that change from the top is unlikely. So that would be on Mack to step away. Yeah that’s not gonna happen. Longhorn fans just have to hope that Mack Brown can get this team back to an elite level because it looks like Mack Brown is here to stay.
– Spring game is this Saturday. I am excited to see what progress the defense has made and what Tyrone Swoopes does with over 25,000 people watching him. We’ll have updates throughout the week and the weekend.
– Seeing Vince Young in burnt orange was awesome. I don’t think he looks that much different from when he played at UT. He should get a backup job in the NFL.
– Texas baseball is frustrating sometimes. Parker French will start on Thursday against Oklahoma State as the Longhorns will begin conference play once again. The Longhorns did lose their series with Texas Tech but they still have time to be in a good position so they can make the NCAA tournament but they need to win this series.
March Madness thoughts:
– Florida Gulf Coast. We should’ve known. They did beat Miami to begin the season but like most everyone else, I thought Georgetown was too strong. We were wrong. San Diego State was no match as well. I want to believe that Florida can beat them, but I really can’t say that with certainty. This team feels like the 2006 George Mason to me.
– I picked Michigan State to win the NCAA title this year. I know their record against Duke. It’s not good but this tournament is unpredictable so I went with an unpredictable national champion. 1997 Arizona was the last team to win the National title without winning their conference’s regular season or tournament title. I think Michigan State is good enough to win the NCAA tournament even though they didn’t win the Big 10 title.
– Shaka Smart not going to UCLA is a bit surprising but that just goes to show you the parity in college basketball that a guy like Shaka Smart (who is getting paid $1.6 mil/year) can be more successful at a small school like VCU and not have to go to a powerhouse college basketball program to prove their worth.
Major League Baseball thoughts:
Here is who I predict to win their respective division this season of Major League Baseball:
American League:
East: Baltimore Orioles
Central: Detroit Tigers
West: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Wild Cards: Texas Rangers and New York Yankees
National League:
East: Atlanta Braves
Central: Cincinnati Reds
West: San Francisco Giants
Wild Cards: St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers
I see a LA Dodgers – Baltimore Orioles World Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers winning it all. The NL West will be real tight in my opinion so either the Giants or Dodgers will win the NL West.
Miami Heat thoughts:
– The winning streak is over and looking back at it, I think it’s pretty impressive. I know the haters are out in full force this morning talking about how the 2012-2013 Miami Heat don’t compare to the “Bad Boys” Pistons in the late 80s or the Bulls in the 1990s but that is to be expected. But I think if this Miami Heat finish this season with a title, they will be one of the great NBA dynasties that will talked about for generations to come.
Follow Hook’em Headlines On Twitter! You can contact Chris Flanagan at hookemheadlines@gmail.com