Street-wise

It's the third Friday in October, and for that reason, most Chicago sports fans are presumably thinking about how Illinois managed to recruit an African American quarterback with the last name Scheelhasse (sounds like a member of the Gestapo), why Northwestern lacrosse players aren't half as lewd as Duke lacrosse players, and how is it that the Texas Rangers can have a skipper who got caught with coke yet they make it to the LCS and neither Chi-town club can sniff (no pun intended) an October baseball game. While all those were interesting story lines sometime this fall, the first cool breeze of October may remind us of a few things: it's not windbreaker weather anymore (put away your track jackets Pulse Man), and college basketball season is lurking in the near future. During these next few days in mid-October is generally when teams begin to participate in organized practice. What a great time of year--3 hours in Assembly Hall listening to Bruce Webers strangled voice..ehh, not for me. A little pre-season trash talk between the new coaches from Chi-State and UIC..ok, let's get this thing going.

Normally, I would reference the point that both Chicago St. and UIC are meaningless programs to me. Neither school has been relevant since pogs and beanie babies controlled my life in the mid 90's and Chicago St. making fun of UIC is like Creed calling Nickelback lame or Snooki telling Jessica Simpson to "go read a book". But, with 3 of the 4 city slickers (DePaul, UIC, Chicago St./ No Loyola) under new winter management, I suppose we can entertain the idea that a rivalry could be a good thing and a little bad blood is just what the doctor ordered (once again, no pun intended).

Chicago St.'s new coach, Tracy Dildy was once a player at UIC himself and then went on to be an assistant coach for the Flames for a few seasons. However, somewhere during his "educational career" someone forget to explain the theory of logical rationale to T. Diddy. He recently made the brash presumption that "UIC is scared to play Chicago St." and that is why they took the mighty green Cougars who were perennially one of the worst D-1 schools in the country not long ago, off the schedule this year. First of all, the two teams haven't met since the 2005-06 season and even then, it was a meaningless game between 2 sub .500 teams. Also, that game generated less buzz than a public intox ticket in Old Town. You couldn't have given Sweet Dick Willie from "Do the Right Thing" a free 40 oz Camo Ice to attend that game. Perhaps with both teams trying to rebuild a new face for their program, it would have been nice to see the rivalry restored but to tell UIC that they're 'scared' of Chicago St.'s talented bunch that went a whopping (9-23) last year and last to Olivet Nazarene AT HOME...I don't think so T. Diddy. Maybe you wanted to settle an old score with Howard Moore, or wanted a chance to get back at your alma mater. But publicly calling out UIC has a better chance of getting settled in a back alley off Diversey Parkway rather than at the Pavilion or the Jones Center.

As for Pick of the Day, K-State made a statement in Lawrence last night beating their in-state rivals 59-7 giving Pulse Man his 24th win. It's Friday again, and that means its time for the Pulse Man to drain the contents of another Saturday 6 pack and fall asleep on his parent's couch while leaving the oven on again. The picks of the week are posted below.

Saturday 6 Pack:

2 Team Parlay:
1. NC State @ East Carolina (+7.5), ECU
2. Arkansas @ Auburn, Total Points (60.5)-UNDER


3 Team Parlay:
1. Iowa @ Michigan- IOWA, moneyline
2. Ohio St. (-4) @ Wisconsin- OSU
3. Air Force (-1) @ San Diego St.- AIR FORCE

'Big Ticket' Pick of the Day:
SMU (+1.5) @ Navy- SMU

Now I'm done. Rack me

Frost