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On the first day of the spring signing period, it has been a foregone conclusion for weeks that Gatorade national player of the year Brandon Knight would don a Kentucky cap when he announced his college choice.

A far bigger surprise is the timing of highly touted junior Michael Gilchrist’s commitment.

Wildcats coach John Calipari has pulled off a basketball and PR masterstroke, the very same day he persuaded both Rivals.com’s top-ranked recruits in the class of 2010 and 2011 to pledge to Kentucky in nationally televised announcements.

Kentucky adds two potential cornerstones of future title runs, on the court. Off the court, the Wildcats’ Elite Eight loss to West Virginia and the likely departure of five NBA-bound underclassmen suddenly become old news, replaced by a celebration of the imminent arrival of the program’s next two stars.

A 6-foot-3 point guard, Knight,  who averaged 31.9 points and 8.6 rebounds per game for Pine Crest High School in Florida, chose Kentucky over Kansas, Syracuse, UConn and Florida. Gilchrist, a 6-foot-6 wing from Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick High School, spurned Villanova and Oregon, following through on a promise he made as early as eighth grade to attend college wherever Calipari was coaching.

“I like Coach Cal a lot, I like his staff and i like the fans there are lot,” said Gilchrist. “They have a lot of energy. It’s really crazy there.”

Even though it is certainly possible that Kentucky’s incoming class will not immediately elevate the Wildcats to the heights that John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins did, it is also tough to imagine the program slipping too far. Adding point guard Knight to a 2010 class that already includes highly touted Turkish big man Enes Kanter and forward Stacey Poole gives Kentucky three potential immediate contributors for next season, while Gilchrist provides the foundation for 2011.

Wednesday, Knight made his announcement  in a packed auditorium at Pine Crest. Asked which school he was selecting, the 6-foot-3 point guard paused for dramatic effect, reached into a bag underneath the table and donned a blue UK hat to a thunderous ovation from his classmates.

“I felt it was the place that had great players, great environment and just a place where I can elevate my game,” said Knight. “It came down to being comfortable there when I went on my visit and feeling I could get better at Kentucky.”

Considering Calipari’s track record with elite point guards in recent years, it is easy to see why Knight would be enamored with Kentucky Derrick Rose is an NBA all-star, Tyreke Evans is the favorite for rookie of the year and Wall is the leading contender to be selected No. 1 in the draft.

With that said Knight is no lock to be one and done — whether his play next season warrants it or not. This highly gifted student reportedly has a 4.3 GPA and has yet to receive anything less than an A in high school.

The Wildcat’s are still very involved with a handful of other elite unsigned recruits in the class of 2010 including guard Josh Selby and forwards Terrence Jones and C.J. Leslie, so Knight will do his part to recruit them.

“There’s a lot of great players out there,” he said. “Whoever wants to come, I’m going to try to get them to come.”

Since the the beginning of sports gambling and sports betting, players have been looking for ways and strategies they can find to help them get an edge on the sports books or sports bookies. Season after season we see the same players make the same mistake by trying to pick the winner of the contest by themselves or they end up calling a highly aggressive, sales pushy touts that are flipping a coin to figure out the outcome. This sports service is designed to give you the edge for pennies on the dollar. We are making money by volume and winning which we have an ridiculous return rate. Most serious players that are not just throwing darts at a board are calling us each week and thanking us for the ways we conduct business and for the winning percentages we produce.

Playing games each and every night in the main leagues we are averaging in the mid 60 percentages, anywhere from 63% to as high as 68 %. Occasionally this year we have been over 70% in college basketball and in the NHL but over the last 2 weeks have fallen back a bit on a few of our games. The NCAA March Madness package has done extremely well for our members and we also through in NIT games, CBI games and CIT games which have done 69 % for the month. Myself and Chad look forward to delivering for you week in and week out. Upcoming specials will be in thNBA playoffs and starting off with a Special MLB package and opening day Package to get you off and running.

On Saturday, Stephen Strasburg was sent to the minor leagues by the Washington Nationals, who told baseball’s top pitching prospect he needed to slow down his delivery from the stretch in order to speed up his arrival in the majors.

“I’m not a believer that a player can come from amateur baseball and step right into the major leagues,” Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said. “I’ve seen terrific prospects attempt it and the failure rate is too great. This is a prized asset.”

The top overall pick in June’s draft, the Nationals optioned the 21-year-old Strasburg, to Double-A Harrisburg. For Washington, Strasburg is easily the best pitcher in spring training. Strasburg got the news when he reported to Space Coast Stadium the morning after his most impressive spring outing.

Striking out eight St. Louis batters in four innings Friday night in his third spring start, Strasburg, who signed a record $15.1 million contract in August, allowed two first-inning home runs, then settled down and took command.

“It’s all about confidence—confidence in the pitches, confidence going out there That’s the bottom line,” Strasburg said after clearing out his locker and packing his equipment bag. “The knock that people have on me is that I don’t have experience and you’re only going to get experience with time.”

Displaying a 98 mph fastball  and a slider-curve hybrid that hitters had trouble reading out of his hand, Strasburg went 1-0 with a 2.00 ERA, allowing eight hits, walked one and struck out 12 in nine innings.

“What he did out there just verified what everybody had been saying. … He did everything you wanted him to do. I don’t think camp could have gone any better for him,” manager Jim Riggleman said.

Strasburg’s propensity to rush his delivery out of the stretch was the only flaw the Nationals saw. Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland said after watching Strasburg that the right-hander’s velocity dropped several miles an hour when he had runners on base, making it easier for hitters to catch up to his fastball.

“If they tell me what to do, I’m going to do it,” Strasburg said. “Sometimes it won’t make sense, but more times than not, it’s going to work out in the long run. I trust what they’re doing with me.”

Strasburg would be in line to start Harrisburg’s Eastern League opener April 8 at Altoona, if he stays on his current pitching schedule,. Rizzo wouldn’t rule out summoning Strasburg to pitch April 3, when Washington hosts the Boston Red Sox in an exhibition game at Nationals Park.

The Nationals led the majors with 103 losses last season.When Strasburg will make his big league debut remains to be seen.

With the left-hander John Lannan, the presumed opening day starter, and right-hander Jason Marquis, a free-agent acquisition, the Nationals’ rotation is unsettled. By  keeping Strasburg in the minors until late May or early June could save the Nationals a sizable sum of money, since it would delay Strasburg’s eligibility for salary arbitration and free agency.

“It’s his developmental schedule—that’s the only prerequisite I have as far as a time frame,” Rizzo said. “What’s in his best interest, to develop the player at the fullest, not only for now but for long term.”

Added Strasburg: “Hopefully I impressed the people that make the decisions and hopefully I’ll be back here soon.”

Taking his shot at history, Farokhmanesh let fly from the wing.

Ali Farokhmanesh stood at the 3-point line, leading by just one against the colossus of the bracket, with no one around. Pull it out, burn some clock. No way…..SWISH!!

The biggest upset in a tournament was already done. Northern Iowa had taken down the big, bad,  mighty Kansas.

With another big 3-pointer from Farokhmanesh, along with playing with poise down the stretch, Northern Iowa pulled off one of the biggest NCAA upsets in years by knocking No. 1 overall seed Kansas from the bracket with a program-defining 69-67 win on Saturday.

“If anybody’s going to shoot that shot, I want it to be Ali,” UNI’s stated Jake Koch.

The NCAA tournament this year has been defined by its upsets. Eight double-digit seeds got through the first round. No. 10 Saint Mary’s beating Villanova on Saturday, and shoving aside New Mexico was  No. 11 Washington.

That was definitely the biggest shocker!

Northern Iowa (30-4) grounded the high-flying Jayhawks with in-their-jersey defense. On top of that, they withstood a furious rally for the first win over a No. 1 seed in the second round since UAB and Alabama did it to Kentucky and Stanford in 2004.

Farokhmanesh, the First-round hero, had the biggest play of all.

With Kansas fans roaring and the team charging,  the fearless son of an Iranian Olympic volleyball player caught the ball on the wing after the Panthers broke Kansas’ press. With the shot clock still in the 30s, he hesitated  only for  an instant, then cast his bracket-busting shot with 34 seconds left in the game.

Kansas had one last chance, Trailing 66-62,  but Tyrel Reed was called for an offensive foul and Farokhmanesh sealed it with two free throws with only 5 seconds left, which for the first time sent  the Panthers to the round of 16.

Next up is the Michigan State-Maryland winner in St. Louis and another chance to make history.

“This team has done such a great job of turning the page to what’s next, and this would be the biggest challenge of the year,” Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson said. “A lot of positive things have happened because of the way these guys played.”

Falling behind early, Kansas (33-3), came up just short on one of its anticipated runs, ending a season of national-title aspirations with another disappointing NCAA loss to a mid-major.

Trailing by as many as 12 points, the Jayhawks used defense to pull within one with 44 seconds left, but let Farokhmanesh sneak out for the deciding 3 to go down for the mid-major count like they did to Bradley in 2006 and Bucknell the year before, also in Oklahoma City.

Cole Aldrich had 10 rebound and 13 points,, Marcus Morris added 16 points and Sherron Collins ended his phenomenal  KU career with 10 points on 4-of-15 shooting.

“Obviously, everybody is disappointed on our team,” Aldrich said. “To work so hard and to go through so much adversity … it’s disappointing that we couldn’t have let Sherron go out in a better way.”

The post-game celebration told the story.

Jumping into a hudle of teammates, Farokhmanesh, who finished with 16 points, and Koch embraced older brother Adam to a chant of “U-N-I!” At the other end, with tears streaming down their faces when they finally rose were Jayhawks Morris and redshirt senior Mario Little.

This was sure monumental.

“We never doubted we could play with them at all,” senior Adam Koch said.

Using a spirit-crushing run to turn a scare into a 16-point win, Kansas sneaked by Lehigh in the first round.

In the opener, Northern Iowa had to fight through its three-point win over UNLV, breaking a 20-year NCAA winless drought on Farokhmanesh’s 25-footer with 4.9 seconds left.

This game was like comparing apples to oranges; One of the nation’s highest-scoring teams against Northern Iowa’s stuck-in-the-mud mentality.

No one from its conference had beaten one since 1962 and UNI had never played a No. 1-ranked team. Also, UNI seemed to be overmatched against KU’s lineup of pros-in-waiting. Farokhmanesh and Adam Koch gave an uncomfortable laugh, when they were asked if any of their players could start for Kansas,

One thing about the Panthers is they know defensive positioning as well as any team in the country, moving in a symphonic dance of denial. In its state, Northern Iowa has become the best team, along with  reaching the NCAA tournament five of the past seven years to shake the underdog tag.

From the start, the Panthers went right at Kansas, leading all but 56 seconds of the first half to go up by eight.

“There were some things that happened during the game that I felt like wasn’t poor play by us, more so Northern Iowa making plays,” Kansas coach Bill Self said.

But the Panthers were not fazed, answering every challenge for the monster upset.

“We knew they were going to turn up the pressure,” Adam Koch said. “In this kind of environment, where this could be your last game, you’re going to come at it with everything.”

This is such an incredible month of college basketball and I really want to drive home the value that we are and have offered to our members. I am going to cut to the chase and welcome the 127 other members that latched on to this way to cheap value, to get any of our March Madness games that we are playing day in and day out.

Over the last several weeks in college basketball we have increased our percentage 14% and our members are making money. Making money is most of the reason why you are here reading this post. Stop wasting your time and effort trying to figure out the lock of the day, and leave it to professionals in this industry. I have an accountant do my taxes because that’s what they specialize in. Why would I try and figure them out?  That’s not my position. Before you start chasing your hard earned dollars, put your pride aside and get involved with this package deal for only $69.95 . I repeat you are going to lose on your own this month playing on your own over 4-5 hundred. Get in the game today and lets lock arms and see the brighter side of  money!!!

We know all of our college players are very ecstatic with the last 21 games we have put out for your winning. Mike and Chad at Sure Call have gone 18-3. We have gotten so much incredible positive feedback thanking us, but I want to write this to thank all of you for giving us the opportunity to show you that there are services that can win. Winning is something Chad and I pride ourself on and a good portion of you have been there with us when we have had some tough luck. But, the one thing is we always bounce back to the extreme where you can build a bank roll. The game of the year for us was a total upset taking Northern Iowa +11 over the number ranked team in the country, Kansas Jayhawks. Going into the game we had spoken to many professionals in the industry and we kept hearing all the reasons why we took Northern Iowa. Huge upset with winning outright the Jayhawks lost, but I personally spoke with many of you and you cleaned up well into the thousands. There is still time left for you to get on the train, but if its not us here at Sure Call, find someone that can help you make money and stop losing.

This is such an incredible month of college basketball and I really want to drive home the value that we are and have offered to our members. I am going to cut to the chase and welcome the 127other members that latched on to this way to cheap value, to get any of our March Madness games that we are playing day in and day out. Over the last several weeks in college basketball we have increased our percentage 14% and our members are making money. Making money is most of the reasons why you are here reading this post. Stop wasting you time and effort trying to figure out the lock of the day, and leave it to professional in this industry. I have an accountant due my taxes because that’s what they specialize in. Why would I try and figure them out, that’s not my position. Before you start chasing you hard earned dollars, put your pride aside and get involved with this package deal for only $69.95 . I repeat you are going to lose on your own this month playing on your own over 4-5 hundred. Get in the game today and lets lock arms and see the brighter side of  money!!!

The end of 2010 may be a sad year for all the Josh Beckett fans out there. The 29 year old hurler, who has won 106 games and lost only 68 since his big league debut in 2001, will become a free agent at year’s end.  According to the Boston Globe, the Boston Red Sox are doing all they can to keep that from happening.

It is likely that Beckett will have to agree to some kind of medical language in the contract to protect the Boston Red Sox from losing him to a bad right shoulder.  This offseason, when the Red Sox signed John Lackey, for five years and $82 million, they threw in a provision that Lackey will have to pitch a sixth year at the league-minimum salary if he gets Tommy John surgery at some point in the first five years of the deal.  Also, J.D. Drew apparently has sort of the same deal with the Sox if he hurts his shoulder and supposedly Jason Bay was not signed by the team, because he would not sign a deal with any kind of medical limits in it.

Hopefully everyone stays well and off the disabled list this season.

$4 million dollars in debt….OUCH! That was the last we heard about Antoine Walker and nothing since.  Walker hasn’t played in the NBA for more than two years, and the last transaction involving the former Celtic star was a buyout after not playing a minute for the Memphis Grizzlies.

The latest news is Walker is kind of playing professional basketball again. The strange this is that Walker has a profile on LatinBasket, so there is something happening there. Oddly enough, there are no stats or really anything except a headshot. Very weird.

According to reports by May, Walker tried to land a deal in the Chinese Basketball Association, which is the new home of Stephon Marbury. The Chinese Basketball Association would have been a perfect fit for Walker, with their inflated statistics and hefty paychecks.

Instead of doing that, Walker will have to prove he is in basketball condition, which has never been his specialty. Just playing for a month at $7,000 a week will leave him only $3.95 million short of repaying his debts.  On top of that, he still has a DUI case against him and is awaiting trial for his arrest for writing bad checks at casinos.

Lets all hope that ‘Toine will be able to turn his life around .