No. 1 Kentucky dominates No. 5 Kansas

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The #1 ranked team in the Nation the Kentucky Wildcats blew out the #5 ranked team in the Nation the Kansas Jayhawks 72-40 on Tuesday night in the State Farm Champions Classic. The Kentucky Wildcats roster consists of nine McDonald's All-Americans and ten NBA prospects this season. The Wildcats have six would-be NBA draft picks returning from last year's national runner-ups team and four talented freshman recruits joining them making the Wildcats the heavily favorites to win it all this year. The Wildcats have ten players that are least 6' 6" or taller which resulted in 11 blocks and made it very difficult for the Jayhawk players to ever get in the game. Kentucky's largest lead in the first half was 18, but Kansas cut the lead down to 10 before halftime. In the second half it was still all Kentucky as their defense picked up and smothered the Kansas players with their height advantage and quickness. It's too early to say that Kentucky will go undefeated this season as they've only played 3 games so far but they have a favorable schedule because they play in the SEC and as of right now they only play five teams that are ranked top ten in the nation including the Kansas Jayhawks. They came up short last year losing to the Connecticut Huskies in the National Championship game so this year they are confident they can win it all with such a deep and talented team.

Alabama No. 1 in CFP

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On Tuesday night the College Football Playoff rankings were released and as everyone expected Alabama made the biggest jump from fifth to first after knocking off the number one ranked team in the nation, Mississippi Sate on Saturday night. This year the FBS ( Football Bowl Subdivision) decided to begin a four-team tournament to determine its National champion after many years of having the top two teams finishing in the FBS rankings and having them play for the BSC National Championship game. They decided that this would give schools a better chance of playing for the National title and also give schools who went undefeated to actually contend for a National Championship as some schools who went undefeated in the past didn't get a chance to do so. 

The top four teams consist of #1 Alabama followed by Oregon, Florida State, and Mississippi State as number 2, 3, and 4 respectively. Coming in at #5 was TCU, #6 Ohio St., #7 Baylor, #8 Ole Miss, #9 UCLA, and closing out at #10 is Georgia. These teams still have a chance to get into the top 4 teams in the Nation if they win out the rest of their games and if a couple of the top 4 teams right now lose a game or two. The final rankings that the committee will release will be on December 7, the day after most of the conference championship games are played. Of course the top four teams Alabama, Oregon, Florida St, and Mississippi St. control their own destiny and would advance to the playoffs if they win the rest of their remaining games. Until then we have to wait and see which teams fall and which teams are deserving of playing in the first four-team tournament to decide a National Champion.

Derrick Rose suffers another injury

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Stop me if you heard this before, Derrick Rose suffers another injury. On thursday night the Bulls visited the Raptors in Toronto and believe it or not Rose suffered another injury during the game. This injury thank god isn't that severe, depending on who you ask. Rose strained his left hamstring late in the fourth quarter in Toronto and fans are tired of hearing the same story over and over. About a week ago Rose sprained his ankles and missed a few games due to his injury now he is listed as day-to-day and the Bulls will see how he is doing on Saturday and go from there. Derrick Rose just can't seem to catch a break, but Rose said "This is going to happen," referring to the setbacks. "Talking to a lot of people that had surgeries, my agent [B.J. Armstrong] had five or six surgeries. It's just going to happen, especially when you miss two years." 

A couple of Derrick's teammates came to his defense as people were lashing out at Rose for comments he made a few days ago and of his injuries. One of them being Joakim Noah who has always had Derrick Rose's back and there was no surprise this time when he stood up for Rose on Thursday after their win in Toronto. " This is not a one-man team," Noah said. "But at the end of the day we need him, we need him and I don't want to see him down. I know sometimes it's frustrating, you've got injuries, you've got tweak. Every time something happens to him people act like it's the end of the world and that's f---ing so lame to me...So everybody needs to chill the f--- out." Noah has always been outspoken throughout his career and he's been even more protective when it comes to their star player Derrick Rose. He knows the only way the Bulls will win a championship this season or any other season is if Rose is healthy and is physically able to play.

Chicago Cubs hire Maddon as new manager

The Chicago Cubs hired former Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon days after Maddon opted out of his contract with the Rays. Joe Maddon is considered to be a top 5 manager in Major League Baseball and the Cubs were desperate to find a coach of his caliber after 5 consecutive losing seasons and over a century without a World Series. Joe Maddon was the Rays manager from 2006-2014 and led them to their first World Series appearance as an organization in 2008 but lost against the Philadelphia Phillies. The Cubs have a lot of young talent mostly because of team president Theo Epstein who was the youngest General Manager in MLB history at the age of 28 when he was hired by the Boston Red Sox in 2002. He was a big part of the Red Sox first World Series title in over 86 years when they won it in 2004 and again in 2007. Epstein was hired in 2011 as team president for the Cubs and he's been trading the best talented players in order to have a strong farm system; which according to MLB.com the Chicago Cubs had the best farm system since July of this year. But after promoting a few talented prospects to the big leagues during this season like Javier Baez and Jorge Soler the Cubs are now ranked #6. With the addition of GM Maddon and the Cubs looking to pursue top free agents in the off season along with their young talented prospects the Cubs are looking to make a push for the playoffs this upcoming season. The goal is obviously to win a World Series and by signing Maddon to a long-term deal the Chicago Cubs are serious about contending. 

Bears travel to Green Bay to keep playoff hopes alive

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The 3-5 Chicago Bears will play the Green Bay Packers who are 5-3 on Sunday Night Football. The Bears have missed the playoffs the last 3 seasons and would be in trouble if they lose this Sunday night at Lambeau field. The Bears defense is really bad this year again they are giving up 27.8 points per game and are ranked 23rd on pass defending giving up 262.3 yards per game. Chicago needs to win this game in order to have a chance to make it to the playoffs, meanwhile the Packers are in good position. They are just one game behind the Detroit Lions in the NFC North and four of their next five games are at Lambeau field, which they are a hard team to beat at home. Even though the Packers are favored over the Bears this Sunday night the Bears have a favorite matchup in the running game because Green Bay is the worst defending team in the NFL in terms of stopping the run, letting opponents run for an average of 153.5 yards per game. Matt Forte is ranked 7th in rushing yards per game amongst running backs in the league and should be able to move the ball against a weak rushing defense. 

The real question is, which Jay Cutler will we see this Sunday night? Will we see the efficient and safe Cutler who can make plays with his arm and be smart with the football or the old gunslinger Cutler who tries to force the ball into double coverage and getting picked off? Jay Cutler is 1-9 in his career against the Green Bay Packers, while Aaron Rodgers is 8-2 vs the Bears in the regular season with a quarterback rating of 102.7. Rodgers has definitely had his way vs the Bears since he became the starting quarterback in Green Bay including a postseason win in the NFC Championship game at Soldier Field. This will be the 190th time these two teams have faced each other, which is also the oldest rivalry in the NFL. The Bears definitely need to come up with a win in order to keep their playoff hopes alive and also break their streak of missing the playoffs for a fourth consecutive year.

Derrick Rose returns vs Bucks after missing two games

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Derrick Rose returned Wednesday night to play the Milwaukee Bucks after missing two games due to ankle sprains. Rose sprained his ankles on October 31st against the Cleveland Cavaliers in which he didn't play in the fourth quarter or overtime in that game. Why is this a big deal you might ask? Well the last couple of years hasn't been the best for Rose or Chicago Bulls fans due to the fact that Rose has had two season ending injuries. So when Derrick Rose got hurt in the Cleveland game, every Bulls fan held their breath including yours truly. Rose went to the locker room and didn't return, but the good news was that he (Rose) just sprained his ankles, which every Bulls fan can agree because it's a whole lot better than losing him for the entire season. Of course many Chicago Bulls fans are tired of hearing the same song over and over with Rose, but truth of the matter is without Derrick Rose the Bulls are not a Championship caliber team and we all know that. The Bulls won the game 95-86, Rose played 31 minutes the most so far this season and ended up with 13 points and seven assists. After the game Rose was asked about his sprained ankles and if he could ever be the same player he once was before his injuries. 

"I can't pay no attention to it," he said. "It's going to always be there. Even if I make it through the season healthy, my first playoff game is going to be like, 'OK, this is a new journey. Is he going to be healthy through the playoffs?' So it's fine. Even if i play the whole year and I don't get injured again, next year it's going to be the same thing. So I can't get mad at it; it's just the way people think. Just people's opinions about the situation." Of course everyone wants to see the old Derrick Rose, but the reality is that Rose is injury prone and anything that happens to him will be blown out of proportion. He knows that and so do his teammates and coaches, all they can do is ignore the media/people keep playing and looking forward to their next opponent. 

2014 NFL Power Rankings: Week 10

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We are a week over the halfway point through the 2014-2015 NFL season and the rankings keep changing from week to week. This past sunday the New England Patriots hosted the #1 ranked team in the NFL, the Denver Broncos. The Broncos had been on a roll going 6-1 and winning 4 in a row with their only loss coming in overtime to the defending champions the Seattle Seahawks, but the Patriots were also on a 4-game winning streak of their own. The New England Patriots dominated the Broncos leading 27-7 at halftime before blowing them out 43-21. Many NFL analysts have both of these two teams playing for the AFC Championship with the winner going on and playing in Super Bowl XLIX. Other important games that had a playoff atmosphere was between the Arizona Cardinals and the Dallas Cowboys both ranked in the top 5 teams in the NFL. The Cardinals defense came up huge in the game and secured a victory in Dallas winning 28-17 and are now 6-1 in the season. 

Week 10 rankings have the New England Patriots as the #1 ranked team in the NFL, up two spots from last week. While the Arizona Cardinals stay at the #2 spot, while the Broncos drop 2 spots to the #3 spot. Rounding up the top five are the Philadelphia Eagles (6-2) and the Indianapolis Colts (6-3) #4 and #5 respectively. To see the top 10 teams and the rest of the league, I posted a link above so you can see how the other teams are doing.