week 8 preview

It's hard to believe it's week 8 already, but here we are. Just a few more weeks until we decide who's in the playoffs and who's not, so it's crunch time. There's a lot of big-time games coming up soon, but on paper this is a pretty laid back weekend. The top playoff contenders have it fairly easy.
As for me, I'll be working a bit overtime with three games in three days. I'll be traveling out to East Hartford on Thursday for Southington's game. Then I'll be covering Platt at Newington on Friday and Wethersfield at Weaver on Saturday. Should be fun.
Let's get straight on to the picks.

Friday
Manchester at New Britain, 7 p.m.: This is probably the biggest matchup on the schedule. But, as we've seen in the last couple weeks, the Indians are pretenders. Their 5-0 start was merely coincidence of a weak schedule, and now they are struggling against good teams.
New Britain certainly qualifies as a good team, and I think the 'Canes can overpower Manchester up front and win this fairly easily.
Windsor at Farmington, 7 p.m.: Windsor's been kind of a weird team this season, looking really strong one week and then pretty mediocre the next. But they can easily handle Farmington.
Hang in there, Indians fans.
Plainville at Cheney Tech, 7 p.m.: Usually if the word "Tech" is involved it means an easy win for the opponent, barring some sort of co-op team. This is not your ordinary tech school. Cheney is well on its way to the Class M playoffs, and while I still very much doubt their ability to win there, they can certainly beat teams outside their own conference.
Plainville could compete in this one, but to be honest, I'm guessing Cheney is quite a bit better at this point, and will come out victorious.
Saturday:
Middletown at St. Paul, 2:30 p.m.: The Falcons need a bounce-back game, and this should provide the opportunity. Middletown is clearly a few steps below where it has been for several years now.
But look out. Middletown comes off a somewhat solid performance against Northwest Catholic, so the Blue Dragons might be growing up a bit. This probably won't be a complete cakewalk for St. Paul.
Then again, with that offense, they could post 50 points at any time. St. Paul comfortably.
Berlin at Enfield, 7 p.m.: Believe me, Berlin's offensive line will push the Raiders in whichever direction they want, sometimes in both. There is simply no way Enfield can slow down Berlin on offense, and I don't see Enfield, even with very good running back Walter Moon and receiver Pascious Mink (the greatest high school name I've ever seen) putting up more than a few points.
Rocky Hill at Prince Tech, 6:30 p.m.: See above rule about tech schools. It applies here. This will be a nice breather for Rocky Hill after a pair of very tough games in the middle of the schedule. In fact, most of the remaining games should be a breather.
STATE GAME OF THE WEEK
Hillhouse at Shelton, Friday, 7 p.m.: Talk about an overloaded bracket, one could make the argument that the top three teams in the state are all in Class MM. New Canaan and Darien are getting top votes from some pollsters and Hillhouse is also unbeaten.
This is the toughest game remaining for the Academics until Thanksgiving when they face Wilbur Cross. So a win here and their playoff spot should be very secure (which I already think it is).
Meanwhile Shelton has lost to two very good teams (Hamden and Xavier) and by close margins. The Gaels are very good, and appear to be on a completely different level from anybody Hillhouse has played yet. Plus, Shelton needs the win to keep alive any slim playoff hopes. A third loss and they can forget about it.
I think Shelton will surprise Hillhouse with the home field advantage and will sneak out with a big win. But Hillhouse will still have quite a bit of leeway in Class MM, which thins out a lot after the top three teams.

Happy Halloween, everyone! Remember, get your trick-or-treating done early so you can get out to the games, preferably in costume. If I see any good costumes, I'll be sure to share them here.
Don't be too scared.

NBA preview

It's time to kick off another NBA season, and as a lifelong Lakers fan, I'm somewhat excited. I still have trouble taking the league seriously. I think the game is played at a much purer level in college, mostly because the players in the NBA are too good offensively to need to play team ball. The best offense, as I'm sure most of you can see, is often just to give it to your best player and let him do the work.
But the league seems to be getting back to basics a bit in recent years, and not like the one-on-one driven slugfest it was in the late 90s.
I'd say things look very good for my purple and gold. If everything goes well, in fact, I think they could match the Bulls' record of 72 wins. But obviously, that would take a LOT of things going perfectly for the whole season and is far in the future.
Here are my picks for the league, and my thoughts on each team.
EASTERN CONFERENCE
1. Boston- I could actually envision this team finishing as low as fourth or fifth if A) Ray Allen is just a bit too old, B) Garnett is just not quite as energetic from start to finish, and C) guys like Rondo and the rest of the bench don't keep getting better. But, on paper, this is still easily the best team in the East, and should win the regular season again.
2. Cleveland- LeBron is reaching another level, and the Olympics showed that. He's the most well-rounded player in the game and has a better supporting cast than before. This could be Cleveland's big year.
3. Miami- Watch out for Dwyane Wade. Nobody has been more critical of him than me, but his summer proved to me he's better than I thought. Add in Beasley and if Marion keeps his head on straight this is a very good team in the still subpar East.
4. Detroit- Age is catching up to this team. New coach. Billups and Hamilton are starting to get a bit older. And the inside defense just isn't what it used to be. Still dangerous come playoff time though.
5. Orlando- Dwight Howard is a beast. Enough said.
6. Philly- After the stunt that Elton Brand pulled I would love to see this team flop. But he and Andre Miller combined are a very dangerous team.
7. Atlanta- This team seems headed up. Last year's playoffs could be a springboard to even better things. But still can't predict higher than this for them.
8. Toronto- I don't buy the addition of Jermaine O'Neal making this team much better, no matter how good Chris Bosh is (and he is).
9. Chicago- The baby Bulls never really developed and I don't see Ben Gordon liking his diminished role at all. Give it a few years for Derrick Rose to completely take over, add a couple pieces and they are serious contenders.
10. Washington- I love Caron. I don't think much of anybody else on this roster.
11. New York- D'Antoni will change the atmosphere enough to bring 30 wins. I guess that's something.
12. Charlotte- More potential than people realize. But the pieces just don't seem to add up to anything greater.
13. Milwaukee- Can Michael Redd average 40 a night? He might need to. I didn't think so either.
14. New Jersey- Let the Josh Boone era begin. Sorry, Jersey.
15. Indiana- I'm not sure how many people can even name a player on this roster anymore.

WESTERN CONFERENCE
1. Los Angeles Lakers- What's the worry about Bynum coming back? These players all proved to be very unselfish last year. For all the talk about Houston's new trio being great, why isn't Kobe, Bynum, Gasol in the mix with the Rockets and Celtics? C'mon. This team could win 70 games if healthy, particularly if Lamar Odom likes his bench role (he's be the best sixth man in the league, maybe ever), Jordan Farmar improves and Trevor Ariza returns healthy to greatly bolster the defense.
2. New Orleans- This team is getting scary good. They're good enough to win a championship, and Chris Paul is one of the most genuinely likable players in the game, skills and attitude combined. I'm going to grow to hate this team, which is unfortunate, cause otherwise they could be lovable.
3. Houston- Before I get too excited, let me see Artest actually stay in check. And for that matter, let McGrady prove he's more than a prolific regular season scorer. I still question whether Yao is the type of player to take control with those two guys around, and this should be Yao's team.
4. Utah- Say what you want about Jerry Sloan's personality (and in my opinion he's one of the least likable men in sports), but he sure can coach. Deron Williams is a star too, so this team is in the mix for a title.
5. San Antonio- This is another year that we will have to worry until this team draws it's last breath, cause with Duncan you always have a chance. But I don't see Ginobili ever being completely healthy for long, and Parker isn't exactly unbreakable.
6. Portland- One year away from truly contending, it will be interesting to see how good this young team can be.
7. Dallas- On the decline. The J-Kidd trade was worth the risk, but will start proving to be a bad decision ultimately. Still a playoff team though.
8. Los Angeles Clippers- I'm not sure why. Maybe out of spite for what Brand did to them. Maybe because Baron Davis is much better than anybody realizes. And Camby is the type of guy who makes a difference between missing the playoffs and sneaking in. I think they will, and look, that would make an all Staples Center playoff round.
9. Phoenix- You read it here. Shaq and Nash cannot play together effectively. It's not a personality thing. By most accounts both are great teammates (most of the time). It's a style of play thing. This team will get more and more frustrated by bad losses as the season wears on and will miss the playoffs.
10. Denver- This is the personality problem. Iverson, Carmelo and K-Mart can't make this happen again. Not without Camby.
11. Golden State- I don't even know why. I lied. I have nothing to say about this team.
12. Memphis- Gay and Mayo may prove to be the most overrated combo of players in history. But they both have a lot of athleticism. That doesn't win games in the long run. Poise and true skill do.
13. Seattle, er... Oklahoma City- That joke is already getting old. I hope this team fails, miserably. But I feel bad for the players, who will take the heat for what management did to a good city. Durant makes me think this team can be OK.
14. Minnesota- They've still got the guy who was traded for Garnett, right? So they can finish out of last.
15. Sacramento- Quick. Name a Sacramento player. Yeah. I know. It's tough.

Playoffs
EASTERN FINALS
Cleveland over Boston
WESTERN FINALS
Lakers over Hornets
NBA FINALS
Lakers over Cleveland, by a landslide. I'm telling you. This is potentially one of the 10 best teams of all time, thanks to that goofy Gasol trade last year. How again did that happen? I'll just sit back and enjoy the ride.

In conclusion, the top teams in the East are closing the conference gap, but after the Celtics, I truly believe the next four best teams are all in the West, and I wouldn't say the Celtics are the best overall. San Antonio might even be better than the next best the East has to offer. But Miami, Cleveland and Philly are headed in the right direction, and if the Bulls do anything right they could be there soon.
But again, nothing and nobody are beating the Lakers except injuries.

Week 7 in review

I must be butter, because I'm on a roll. Last year I never had a perfect week making my football predictions. Now, I just had my second perfect week in the last three after going 8-0 last week.
The main thing is local teams are making it easy to be right. The top teams are doing little other than winning, and the bottom teams, sadly, are doing the opposite. There seem to be only a couple matchups each week that are hard to predict at times.
It was nice to see Rocky Hill finally get some votes this week in the state polls after knocking off previously unbeaten St. Paul a week after beating Berlin. That puts the Terriers in essentially a four-way tie for the Nutmeg League with those teams and Northwest Catholic (one of the Indians' two losses was a non-conference game). The difference is, Rocky Hill has played all three. The others still have to face off. Berlin still will face both St. Paul and Northwest.
The impressive thing about the Terriers' win is that they had to score points to do it. As a defense-first team, Rocky Hill can usually count on a win if it scores 20. But the Falcons had the firepower to frustrate that defense and Rocky Hill's offense went out and won it with the running attack.
Southington took care of business against Manchester. It's safe to say Manchester is a big step behind the other top teams in the CCC North and not the title contender some thought they might be after their 4-0 start.
Newington, New Britain and Berlin all had easy wins over outmatched opponents. There wasn't much question that would happen.
After seeing Plainville there's some hope for the future. The Devils have some young talent, they just need experience and a growth spurt to be competitive again. That should be coming next year and after. Keep working, guys. It will pay off.
With the perfect week, my record for the year is up to 43-8, and 6-1 in non-local games. I correctly guessed that Masuk was much better than Bunnell despite state rankings.

spirit of the game

I was at Wethersfield High yesterday for the big conference championship battle between Farmington and Wethersfield in boys soccer. I have to say that the Wethersfield fans never cease to amuse me. OK, I have to admit that there are times they stretch sportsmanship to the brink, and probably even go beyond that. I don't support mocking opponents for the way they look or their names.
But the Wethersfield fans have a playfulness to most of what they do that tells you it's not malicious. That doesn't stop it from getting under the skins of opposing fans and players, which is part of the home field advantage.
Yesterday, and most of this season in fact, their favorite thing to do is the "roll call". They will chant a player's name until that player acknowledges them from the field. At that point they let out a big cheer for that player and go on to the next guy. This, we decided, is something that works in only a handful of sports where the action is less than constant.
They do this starting with warmups and continuing through most of the game. Yesterday, the fans got through most of the players and continued on. They chanted "Robby Jachym" until the longtime coach waved. They chanted "Hami Kara" until last year's goalie and the current volunteer assistant coach signaled them. Next was "Scott the Trainer" and Scott Applebaum took the applause.
Then it continued. But the referees either didn't hear them or wouldn't oblige. It stopped at that. I assume had any of them known my name, I would have been the next one to get chanted, standing on the sidelines at midfield, and then maybe they would have gone on to calling out the sideline runners and finish up with the opposing fans. But they lost interest before it got to that.
The other thing I like is that they may be the only fans I know who cheer the warmups. As Wethersfield went through the motions on its standard passing and shooting drill, the fans seemed legitimately upset when the Eagles would miss a shot off the post or entirely off net. They would likewise cheer when keeper Dillon Walsh made a save on his own teammate.
It's fair to say some of this enthusiasm is forced, but not entirely fake. There's a genuine excitement from these fans towards their classmates. And so long as it doesn't cross the line to being unsportsmanlike, which at times it does, I love it.
They'll need to do it without the drums at the state tournament, though. The CIAC doesn't allow noisemakers or signs of any kind at those games.