NBA
STAR COMMITS ROYAL FOUL, STIRS BRITISH ANGST
BROOKLYN,
New York (BBC)…It was a harmless photo-op. One LeBron
James has done countless times. But a collective gasp was heard from across the
Atlantic when, ahead of the Cavs’ game vs. the Nets, James put his arm around
Kate Middleton, who was in town with her royal hubby, Prince William, and
thereby violating some unwritten English-equivalent to the NFL’s old “halo”
rule. Princess Kate appeared unfazed, while the prince tried to maintain his
composure but was caught on microphone mumbling something about landing one of
his search-and-rescue helicopters on the court in the midst of LeBron’s next
pre-game shoot-around.
Likely to create our own international incident, it’s…
THE
WEBER KID’S 2014 ARMY-NAVY FORECAST
Army-Navy
“over” 57 (@Baltimore, MD): While our one concern
for this selection is Army’s mere six-point production at home vs. an Air Force
team that otherwise yielded an average of 26.8 ppg., the Cadets overall allowed
more than 33 ppg (not including 49 to Yale), and the Midshipmen gave up an
average of 31.5 ppg. We’ll pass on
choosing a side, but here’s how it breaks down: Army looked good on paper with
16 returning starters and 59 lettermen. Scoring D improved from 35 to 31 ppg
last year and the turnover margin went from minus-8 to 0 in 2013. Phil Steele made West Point his #10 Most-Improved
Team, led by 1st year head coach Jeff Monken, who probably wishes he’d
stayed at now 9-3 Sun Belt champion Joja’ Southern, where he coached for the
previous four seasons. Not to say there wasn’t some improvement. Soldiers’ SU
win totals were 3, 2 and 3 coming into this campaign. Army has put 5 games in the win-column thus far (but is
assured of a losing season with 7 defeats already, including an OT loss at I-AA
Yale). One of the wins came recently vs. I-AA Fordham, who at least made the
second-round of the FCS playoffs. As usual, two of the top six rushing attacks
will square-off, which of course, means the country’s two worst passing games
meet as well. Navy shows an edge on defense, giving up just 17 rushing scores.
Army’s version of the passing game is an average of 4 throws per contest.
Neither side will put a lot of faith in their FG units (54.5% success rate for
Amy, 58.3% for Navy). Both teams lost to Air Force (Navy by 9 at Ft. Collins,
Army by 17 at home), who owns the Commander-in-Chief trophy. Swabbies qualified
for the Poinsettia Bowl with six SU victories and went 5-5 ATS vs. FBS
competition. Middies are 1-4 ATS in their five tries as double-digit chalk over
the past three-plus seasons, with the only spread-dubya coming in last year’s
34-7 romp over…Army. Navy beat only I-AA VMI and Georgia Southern by more than
15 this season, both in the home-harbor. Long Fitty Shades of Grey Line gets spanked (Oh my!), but we’ll say…Boat
People 38 Ground-Pounders 24
BETWEEN
THE HASHMARKS
BTW, it coulda’ been worse. The NBA baller coulda’ dipped the princess fer a smooch,
channeled his inner-Elvis or inner-Ash
(for fans of “Army of Darkness”) and said, “Hail to the King, baby!” James was ultimately whistled for the contact and Kate
subsequently air-balled a pair of shots from the charity-stripe, while LeBron
went to the bench with four fouls and returned to action with just three
minutes remaining in the royal visit!
Given the QB issues in Cleveland, LeBron will stay
loose on the Browns sideline in case of injury to Johnny Manziel this Sunday,
with lame-duck Brian Moyer gettin’ demoted to third-string!
Our Week 15 picks went 2-1, with nice covers by
Weeziana Tech (+13 ½), who beat Marshall outright and cashed our only wager on
the week, and Fresno State (+20 ½) over Boise State. The lone miss came by
Houston (+6 ½) who lost by 7 at Cincinnati, robbing us of the hat-trick
yet-again!
Then-#18 Oklahoma lost to unranked rival Oklahoma
State last weekend, 38-35 in the extra-frame. Two words…”Boomer Shroomer!”
If ya listen closely, Peyton Manning, in a certain currently-running
car-insurance commercial, is actually humming “Vinnn-dy’s Picks are on your siiiiiiide.”
Next week….more LeBron, and some analysis and
predictions for a few of the early bowl games!
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