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John Pudner

John Pudner

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Wayne Selden Jr., Perry Ellis, Denzel Valentine

Breakthrough Analytics Allow Fans to Project Hoops Upset Margins

Newly created Value Add 3.0 Basketball now creates the equivalent of a Sagarin Projection Rating for all 4000 basketball players to enable quick projections on final scores in light of basketball players being injured or returning. DonBest updates injury status on all teams here.

Darrelle Revis, Rob Ninkovich, Matthew Slater, Calvin Pryor

By Giving Jets the Ball and the Wind, the Patriots Blew It

The Patriots wanted to kick the ball south to have the wind at their back the entire period. To do that, Matthew Slater had to simply point south and say, “We want to go that way,” and at that point the Jets would have most likely chosen to receive the ball and would have had to battle the wind while going right to left on your TV screen.

Jordan McLaughlin AP

USC’s Jordan McLaughlin Tops 1st Value Add Rankings

The top-ranked Value Add player in the country signed with USC six months after USA Today splashed a picture of USC Song Girls welcoming coach Andy Enfield as their new head basketball coach accompanied by these words: “Andy Enfield’s model wife, Amanda Marcum was there. As were the USC Song Girls. If ever there was a single image that could help USC recruit star high school basketball players, this is it.”

AP Photo

50 Most Valuable College Players Out on Opening Day

Duke and Oregon are about 20 points better than opening day opponents Siena and Jackson State according to www.kenpom.com, but they are the two teams that could be hurt by up to 10 points a game by injuries. The table below shows the 50 best players on the bench for opening day, and how many points they are typically worth to their team based on www.valueaddbasketball.com.

rhode-island-kris-dunn-of-providence-ap-photo-sized

Breitbart Sports All-Conference Basketball Teams

Four All-Americans give the Big Ten the toughest All-Conference team, led by Melo Trimble who hopes to lead Maryland to a Big Ten and national title. Most of the talent is concentrated in the 10 preseason All-Conference teams listed below, but All-Americans Fred VanVleet and Ron Baker of Wichita State lead the “best of the rest” from the other 23 conferences.

Steve Spurrier, Les Miles

Even at Duke, Steve Spurrier Made Opponents Quake

Steve Spurrier’s first words to me were: “Well, I know the boys at Clemson are shaking in their boots after watching that display!” Everyone within earshot burst out laughing, imagining the Duke defense, that had just lost 49-28 to the University of Virginia, against No. 7 Clemson the next week.

Brendan McGowan

Why Not an 8-Team Playoffs for College Football?

The American Athletic Conference champion should compete in the playoffs. Cincinnati entered Thursday’s game as the 6th best team in the American Athletic Conference. They missed their starting quarterback and beat a Miami team that entered as 6th in the ACC. In a fair match of conferences, Cincinnati won 34-23.

Josh Rosen

UCLA-Arizona, Utah-Oregon Highlight Saturday Schedule

Unless West Virginia suffers a major upset to Maryland, the Big 12 likely stays in 1st place (+11 above average) until season finales. Few meaningful inter-conference games remain for the Pac-12 and SEC (tied in 2nd at +10). The ACC (+8) and Big Ten (+7) could move up or down from 4th and 5th with many big games, and the American Athletic (+0, 6th) could surge if East Carolina and Central Florida can pull upsets of Power 5 teams.

USC UCLA

2-0 Starts Prompt Dreams of Undefeated USC-UCLA Matchup

USC tries to wrest the Victory Bell from UCLA two months from now. But both teams finding themselves ranked in the top 10 compels fan dreams of a matchup of undefeated squads adding drama to a game already bursting with history and meaning.

new-jersey-bobby-hurley-st-anthony-ap-photo-sized

New Jersey: Home of First Collegiate Football Game Produces Stars

Donald Trump promoted the New Jersey Generals 30 years before running for president, Adrian Wojnarowski wrote the New York Times bestseller The Miracle of St. Anthony about the school with two big-time prospects, Hoboken boasts claims to the first baseball game, and New Brunswick hosted the first college football game between the College of New Jersey (Princeton) and Rutgers in 1869.

Royce Freeman

College Football Saturday Preview

Conference USA surged to just three points below the FBS average (-3, 6th of 10), while the Pac-12 plummeted (+3). If they really rank that good and bad respectively, CUSA could sneak out a 7-6 record this week and the Pac-12’s Oregon could lose at Michigan State.