It's a Saturday in February

.... and there are about 10 million college basketball games being played today, 9 million of which are bet on at the Las Vegas Hilton SuperBook. And instead of watching college hoops like most people, I am watching NASCAR Sprint Cup practice. When Cup practice ends, I will be watching the Busch race. And on Sunday, I will not only be watching the Cup race, I'll be at it. Aside from concerns that The H may be too delicate to deal with the noise coming from the track, I am very excited for my first Cup race. I'm especially looking forward to being around so many people like the ones I grow up with in Virginia. You know - inbred rednecks.

My watching NASCAR instead of college hoops today has more to do with my current disgust over college basketball than anything else. Between Georgetown's dismal season, my not having any good future tickets on a team to win it all, and the work that goes along with booking every stupid college basketball game we can think of, side and total, first half and second half, I just can't wait for this crap to be over. I just want baseball season to be here so I can read Hoffy's highly anticipated new blog, bet games, and pocket money.

I guess I am supposed to talk about the Redskins and their wild spending on the first day of the NFL's free agency period so I'll start with that:

* I didn't want them to sign Albert Haynesworth because I thought he would cost too much money. This isn't baseball where teams like the Yankees and Red Sox can just buy up all the players they want and have no serious repercussions to deal with if it doesn't work out. (All they have to do is throw a pile of money at someone else.) The Redskins have holes all over the field. Sure, they swept The Highest Power Rated Team of All Time in 2008, but they are a very mediocre team with an aging roster. I'd love to see them build through the draft but they are simply too dumb to even try that and insist on going the free agent route. In that case, I would've preferred that they spread the wealth around and try to fill their holes at DT, LB, and all along the offensive line. Instead, they decided to just spend it all on one guy.

The guy they got was clearly the most dominant defensive player in the NFL last season. He was double-teamed on every play, freeing up all his teammates to make plays for one of the top defenses in the NFL, and he still managed to rack up 8.5 sacks, a very high number for a defensive tackle. At 27 years old, he should have at least 4-5 years of good football ahead of him. If any other team in the NFL had signed Haynesworth yesterday, all we'd be hearing about is what a dominant player he is and how signing him was going to make their defense that much better. But since it was the Redskins and Dan Snyder who came in with the biggest offer, well then it must be stupid. Because Dan Snyder is an idiot. Right?

While I do agree that Snyder is a moron and seems to have learned nothing from his past failures in the free agent market, I think it's ridiculous to lump the Haynesworth signing in with past failures on guys like Deion Sanders or Bruce Smith. Those guys were well past their primes when they came to Washington, whereas Haynesworth seems to be right in the middle of his. It's also worth noting that the number of $100M is very misleading. As with most NFL contracts, Haynesworth's is heavily backloaded with money that he knows he will never receive. This way Haynesworth's agent can tell potential clients how he got the DT $100M from the Redskins, when in reality it is unlikely he will see even half that much.

The Redskins just get ripped because they are the Redskins. No one has said anything yet about the Broncos giving a washed-up 35-year-old safety a huge contract. And people probably won't make a peep when some dumb team pays Ray Lewis way too much in the next few weeks. At least the guys the Skins signed this week are still in the primes of their careers.

Aside from signing Corenlius Griffin away from the Giants a few years ago, the Redskins have ignored the defensive tackle position for years and haven't had a dominant player there since they traded Sean Gilbert to the Panthers for two 1st round picks in the late 1990s. You don't need to know much about football to realize how important that position is and maybe the Skins brass finally figured it out. Still, the Redskins are a lot more than one player away from being a Super Bowl team so I would've preferred to see them sign Chris Canty away from the Cowboys, and use the money they saved to go after a LB (Crowell? Boley?) and get some much needed help along the OL. But they went this way instead. I'm not thrilled about this move but I do think Haynesworth is a great player. Besides, I have to love any guy who would do this to a Dallas Cowboy.

* This town amazes me sometimes. The other day there was a book who put up a college basketball total that was 6 points off market. Presumably, someone else noticed that and bet it because they moved the juice to -120. I ambled in there and played it for the Hilton limit on college totals. The bet shot right through without a key. I told Ross that I was able to play it without any problems and he went and did the same. The number never moved. No one there seemed to care at all what we bet or for how much, even though the number was clearly a mistake. But try betting $100 on anything at the Palms and you can expect to be glared at by every employee they have and deal with the supervisor muttering under his breath while he keys in your tiny bet.

The people at Harrah's might be the dumbest of all. On Thursday there were 10 games in the NHL and they put up the salami for 11 games. So I tried to bet the under for as much as I thought I could get away with. After the writer, 2 supervisors, and a guy whose name tag read "Manager" talked it over, the manager himself typed in what they would let me bet: $300. I accepted and walked over to another Harrah's property, 10 feet down the strip and bet it again (At the same number mind you) and actually ended up with more than I had asked for at the first place. What a town.

* This incident at Harrah's came just two days after they put out possibly the worst baseball win total numbers in the history of the world. You know a number is bad when a sharp like CB gets there so late that a number has been bet up 5.5 games and he STILL bets the over because it's still such a good bet. There is someone out there with bets on Nationals Over 61.5 wins and Padres Over 61.5 wins. In other words, those teams could lose 100 games this season and the person with OVER tickets on them would WIN his bets.

I've been told that the reason for Harrah's ridiculously bad win total numbers was that they were following some odds service that came up with them and similarly bad numbers at the Wynn and at Lucky's. Perhaps those books should.... Now call me crazy here.... Train people to make odds themselves! Even an idiot like me could've done a better job than the Harrah's crew did. Perhaps for next season they should borrow a page out of the Venetian's book and get themselves a copy of Baseball Prospectus. Or follow the model of the Steeley-Eyed one at the Mirage and just put nothing up. Both are actually better options than what they chose.

* Was anyone else surprised that J.S. and the Big Guy weren't court side at the Lakers game the other night? When I heard they were going to the Suns-Lakers game, I just assumed that meant they would be jockeying for the arm rest with Jack Nicholson and Tobey Maguire. Actually, I figured Matt would be sitting right in the middle of the floor, forcing The (Alleged) Rapist and Co. to dribble around him. (At least Matt could've offered more resistance than the Suns "Defense" did.)

* Speaking of Metcalf, he turned me on to a terrific movie, Over the Top, starring Sylvester Stallone and an incredibly annoying little kid. I can't believe I had never seen this movie, as it had a lot of what I look for in a film: Terrible acting, an impossibly thin plot, stupid character names, gambling references, and a predictable and unrealistic climax. If they had thrown in a hot chick or two, Over the Top would have been Oscar worthy.

I'm actually not done with this topic. I took away a lot from this movie.

- Why did Lincoln Hawk only have to beat Bull Hurley once to win the title? I thought it was supposed to be a double-elimination format?

- Why did some of the characters seem to refer to him as Lincoln HawkS?

- Who was the super aggressive bookie that allowed Hawk(s) to plunk down $7,000 on himself to win the event at 20-1? I guess the write on a Arm Wrestling Championship would be so great that it wouldn't create too much of a liability.

- More importantly, who would hang 20-1 on a guy with a name like "Lincoln Hawk"? I would think the easiest way to book that event would be by looking at the guys names. Okay, "Bull Hurley" should have very low odds. "Lincoln Hawk" should be minus money. Throw in the fact that he drives trucks (Which evidently all top arm wrestlers do) and that his whiny brat of a kid is in the crowd watching him, Hawk should be off the board.

- Speaking of the kid, how exactly is he better off with Hawk than he would have been with his incredibly rich grandfather who loved him? Before Hawk came into his life, the kid was attending top boarding schools and well on his way to making something of himself. Now he's going to be riding around in the passenger seat of his Dad's rig and challenging annoying stereotypical 80's kids to arm wrestling matches in random arcades in the middle of nowhere. Plus Hawk is basically 'Pick' to abandon the kid again at any time. I did not interpret that as a happy ending.

- And speaking of the grandfather, at what point does Robert Loggia receive some kind of Lifetime Achievement award? In addition to his role as Jason Cutler, Loggia also turned in memorable performances as Frank Lopez and as Feech La Manna, among many others. What a career.


Trivia Question for Saturday - Who won the first Cup race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway?


Blogging is such a chore at this point. I only did it today because people kept bitching at me for not doing recently and I was in a good mood after the Hoyas upset Villanova. Speaking of the Hoyas, it looks like they will finish 8-10 in the Big East with wins @ UConn, @ Villanova, and vs. Memphis and Syracuse on their resume. Will that get them into the Big Dance? Probably not. Should it? No. They have given away too many games this season to deserve a bid unless they make a real deep run in the Big East tournament.

But it does bother me that teams that are going to finish 1 game over .500 in crap conferences like the Big 12 and Big 10 will punch tickets to the Dance instead. The committee says it doesn't try to just fill a quota from each conference but it clearly does. Teams like Oklahoma State and Wisconsin would be lucky to go 6-12 in the Big East with Georgetown's schedule. And while I'm too lazy to check their schedules out, I find it hard to believe they have wins over two Top 5 teams like the Hoyas do. I won't even mention the SEC. That conference is an embarassment this season and I'm prepared to complain when 5-6 of their crap teams get in over the Hoyas.

Kyle Busch just wrecked himself out of the Busch race. I'm done.



Enjoy the game.