NBA All Stars

         The NBA All-Star Weekend is coming up in February, and the All-Star votes are being tallied up week by week. The most surprising thing to almost everyone, is that Kobe Bryant, who is retiring at season's end, is the leading vote receiver in the NBA. I was surprised hearing this, because he isn't having a great season so far, but the fans need to see Kobe in an All-Star game one last time. One bad thing is about fans choosing the players is that Kyrie Irving, who has only played five games this season, is most likely going to make it in. As much as I enjoy watching Kyrie play, he doesn't deserve to be an all star at the moment, and will take away a spot from a a more deserving player. The last thing I have to say is that, the fans voted in Draymond Green, of the Golden State Warriors when I don't think he  is completely deserving of a spot. He is just getting hyped up by the media because his team is 33-2.

Rose Bowl

     The Rose Bowl was kind of a disappointment this year. Stanford scored on the first play of the game on a long pass to Christian McCaffery and they didn't slow down from there. They returned a punt for a touchdown, ran trick plays, and just dominated the Hawkeyes for the first half when they were up 35-0. The second half however was a different story. The Hawks out scored Stanford 16-10 in the second half and only lost by 29. The Hawkeyes has a great season this year and was definitely one of the best seasons Iowa has ever had.

Rose Bowl Preview

      This year, the Iowa Hawkeyes made it back to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The Rose Bowl is arguably the best bow that a team can go to besides the National Championship. This year, the Stanford Cardinal are back in it for the third time in four years and look to bring a trophy back to the Pac-12. This should be a great game between the fifth and sixth ranked teams in the country. The Hawkeyes are 12-1 and had a perfect regular season before falling to the Michigan State Spartans I the Big Ten Championship. The Cardinal lost their first game of the season to Northwestern and have been perfect ever since. Stanford has one of the best players in the nation, in running back Christian McCaffery who is the most all-purpose yards in college football history so he'll be a big factor that Iowa will have to stop. I hope Iowa wins this game, but they will have their hands full.

Big Ten Championship

    The Big Ten Championship game was last weekend and two great football teams squared off. The Iowa Hawkeyes played the Mkchigan State Spartans at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indainapolis, Indiana. This game was highly anticipated because of all of the similarities between both teams. Both teams are phenomenal on defense and are some of the best in the country. They both have offensive lines that were nominated for the best in the country as well. This game was as good as it was advertised too. It was a hard-nosed, grind-it-out football with great defense and trench play. It took until the third quarter before either team scored a touchdown and it was Iowa on an 85 yard bomb to Tevaun Smith. However, the Spartans spent almost the entire fourth quarter driving the ball downfield and ran it in from one yard out with 27 seconds left to seal the game. Although the Hawkeyes didn't win they had a great season and now play Stanford in the Rose Bowl.

Colts Struggling

    Recently, the Indianapolis Colts have been playing football like some elementary school kids. They just lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Seriously this is not a joke, they actually lost to the Jaguars. Not only did they lose, but they got completely blown out and lost 51-13. There is so much wrong with what I just said I don't know where to begin. The Jaguars are one of the worst teams in the league, and to get blown out to them is flat out embarrassing. This loss breaks their streak of 17 straight wins versus teams in their division. As a Colts fan, I think we should just tank the rest of the season and try to get a high draft pick and just come back next season.

NBA MVP Predictions

      The NBA has seen some great talent so far this year and I'm going to give my predictions for my favorites to win the MVP award this year. 

     Stephen Curry has played great this season and is on pace to make history with his 3-point shooting. Steph has played lights out this year and has his Warriors on an 18 game winning streak to start the season. He is averaging 32 points per game this season which leads the NBA, but he doesn't get enough rebounds or assists as an MVP should get. He also doesn't play great defense which makes is case for MVP go down in my opinion.

     My fourth favorite for MVP this year is Sacramento Kings center, DeMarcus Cousins. He is the best center in the league I my opinion and has had a stellar year thus far. He is averaging 27 points per game as 11 rebounds per game. The only reason he isn't higher on the list is because of his team's record. If he led his team to more wins, I would definatley have him higher up. 

    Andre Drummond is my third favorite MVP candidate. Drummond has played well throughout his career, but this season he has gone absolutely bonkers. He is a rebounding machine, with multiple 20 rebound games this season and many more to come. He averages 18 points per game and 17 rebounds per game this season. Another crazy stat is that he averages about five more rebounds per game than the next closest player. 

 

    My runner up prediction so far is Oklahoma City point guard, Russell Westbrook. I believe he was snubbed of the award last season and is looking to win the award this season. He got his best teammate, Kevin Durant back from injury and this has been helping him put up crazy numbers this year. He leads the league in triple doubles, and averages 27 points/game, 10 assists/game and 6 rebounds/ game. 

   I'm probably being biased right now because he is my favorite player, but my favorite to win MVP this season is none other than LeBron James. James is leading the Cavaliers to a 13-4 record so far and has played great so far averaging 26 points/game, 8 rebounds/game, and 7 assists/game. I feel like people overlook James as an MVP candidate every year because he puts up insane numbers every season. These offensive numbers are great from LeBron, but his defense has been outstanding. When LeBron is the closest defender to a shooter this season, they only shoot 27%, the lowest shooting percentage from any defender. 

Thanksgiving Football

L       Week 11 was a great week of football mostly because there was lots of football on Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving, the Detroit Lions manhandled the Philadelphia Eagles in a 45-14 victory. Calvin Johnson has played well this season but nowhere near where he is used to. In this matchup against the Eagles, he returned to his old self and caught three touchdowns form quarterback, Matthew Stafford, who is also looking a lot better from the earlier portion of the season. In the second Thanksgiving game, the Carolina Panthers faced off against the Dallas Cowboys. The Panthers easily won the game  and became 11-0, but the big dea about this game was the season ending injury to Cowboys quarterback, Tony Romo. Romo fractured his collarbone and is out for the remainder of the season. This is huge for the Dallas Cowboys as they were looking to go on a late season run and potentially make the playoffs with Romo, but instead they will probably not be playoff contenders. In the final game of Thanksgiving, the Chicago Bears surprisingly bear their rivals in their division, the Green Bay Packers. This was a big win for the Bears, but also a huge loss for the Packers as they are hopeful Super Bowl contenders, they have lost four of their last five games and aren't on track offensively the past few weeks.