Tuesday Notes

News broke a few hours ago that the Coast Guard will officially call of their search for 3 missing people in the Gulf of Mexico at sundown. NFL Players' Marquis Cooper and Corey Smith along with former South Florida football player William Bleakley have not been found after an extensive search by the Coast Guard. The only survivor from this fishing trip that contained Cooper, Smith and Bleakley was Nick Schuyler, who was found yesterday clinging to the overturned 21 foot boat. This is a very sad story and you have to feel for the families in this situation. I've been in a situation where I almost drowned in the ocean and it was a terrifying experience, one can only hope for a miracle now, like the one that happend to me almost ten years ago.

Now the stuff that is far less important, the sports.

-According to reports the Broncos will not trade QB Jay Cutler. Cutler and Head Coach Josh McDaniels will meet next week. Smart move on the Broncos part, I might still be a fan.

-This is a critical time for the Arizona Cardinals to step up and show the world that they are no longer the cheap Cardinals of the past. After visiting the 49'ers yesterday, QB Kurt Warner has said that he would stay with Arizona at the price of 2 years and 23 million. Warner also said that he would give back money from that contract if the team can work out a new contract that would keep WR Anquan Boldin in Arizona. If Cardinal's ownership can't get this done, they will officially sink below the Los Angeles Clippers on my list of the worst ownerships in professional sports.

-WR TJ Houshmandzadeh to the Seahawks, interesting. With a healthy Matt Hasselbeck at QB and Arizona undecided about their future, Seattle can be a player in the NFC West in '09.

-Nuggets @ Pistons tonight. No Melo and No Allen Iverson. "The Answer" is off in D.C. getting his injured back looked at, and Carmelo Anthony is suspended for the game for refusing to come out of Denver's last game at Indiana, at the request of his coach George Karl. This just is what it is, Karl had to throw down the suspension otherwise he would lose all credibility and Carmelo was caught up in the heat of the moment wanting to help his team win. Carmelo is truly a good guy that means well, but he just continues to make mistakes. Carmelo's decison to not go out of the game will probably cost Denver 2 wins. They ended up losing in Indiana, Melo was not on his game that night and the Nuggets, due to Melo's suspension are underdogs tonight in Detroit. This is a minor set back for the Nuggets and it won't affect them the rest of the season. Oh by the way, Chauncey Billups comes back to Detroit for the first time since the trade. I think the Detroit fans will give him a standing-o. Looking back on the trade, it may have been the worst all time if you are a Piston fan.

-Barry Bonds wants back in the MLB. His agent is set to contact all 30 MLB teams, due to the delay of his perjury trial, which won't be heard until 2010. If I'm an American League GM, I sign the guy. Why not, if it is all about winning? Bonds would make a great DH.

-College Hoops-The mid-major conference tournaments begin tonight. This is when the "bubble teams" need to scoreboard watch. All the Maryland's and Providence's of the world want no part of upsets. "Bubble Teams" need the best regular season team from the lower ranked conferences to win their conference tournaments for them to have any chance at making the dance.

-Your #1 seeds in the tourny as of right now in my opinion-Pitt, UCONN, UNC and Oklahoma

-NHL News-Sean Avery is back with the Rangers. This is the guy who shot his mouth off about other NHL players dating his ex-girlfriends in a rather crude fashion. Dallas released him after that and now he's back in NYC. Looking at the NHL, Boston is slipping a little bit, Calgary and New Jersey are hot. Here are my top 5.

1. Detroit
2. Boston
3. Calgary
4. San Jose
5. Washington

Recent talk on this blog has been about how competitive the West is in the NBA, look at the West in the NHL. Did you ever think that you would see the Colorado Avalanche dead last? On top of that, there are only 3 teams in the entire conference under .500, incredible.

Anyway, I'm done. Here are the picks tonight, I'm 52-32-1 ATS after going 1-1 last night.

NBA

@Minnesota +1 Golden State
Chicago @ Charlotte-UNDER 193

NCAAM

Florida State + 12 1/2 @ Duke