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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.”

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!!!

Members are you smiling today after yesterdays winners? What a fantastic Sunday in sports, with the plays that we lined up for you. Most of you took full advantage of our offer, buy two guaranteed plays and receive the total in the Superbowl for free. We not only won the under 57 pick in the Super Bowl, but we had the under dog New Orleans Saints plus 4, winning outright 31-17. We have many members that purchase the weekly NBA and College Hoops packages, but I want to also stress we post our winning and losing percentages on our site and our NHL games are doing exceptionally well.  The question that I ask alot of our members is are you in it for the action and excitement, or are you looking to make some money and enjoy the action? Yesterday in the NBA they were not barn burners, but they were winners and thats what we strive for. The first game, we took the over 218 in Toronto Raptors hosting the Kings which one 219. The other game we had was the Magic at home playing the Celtics under 188, which finished at 185. As nerve racking as it was, the outcomes were successful. In the NHL, we played The Bruins/Canadiens under 5, which resulted in a winner 3-0.  I am also going to mention the game we lost, it was in college hoops UNC at Maryland, we took the under 157 and the game ended a total of 163. Maryland game out lighting up the net scoring a total of 92 points while UNC scored 71. Action packed week starts tonight. I have posted 4 games guaranteed on the home page. Take a look, order your plays for only $24.95, and enjoy the games. Our policy is if you do not win, you do not pay! So hold on to your socks, and stop guessing on your games, or getting sold a song and dance by some fast talking wanna be gangsters. Making it a SURE CALL!

After rebounding from a horrible night before, we have regained our spot in the winners circle, by covering the spread on the Wichita State/Northern Iowa game.

The Panthers insisted its win over Wichita State on Wednesday night was just another game, one Northern Iowa will quickly put behind them.  Taking a commanding three-game lead atop the Missouri Valley Conference,.Kwadzo Ahelegbe scored 18 points, 15 in the second half, and Northern Iowa (No. 22 ESPN/USA Today, No. 24 AP) hung on to beat the Shockers 59-56.

Avenging a 60-51 loss in Wichita on Jan. 19 and put the second-place Shockers in a hole that might be too deep to climb out of, Jordan Eglseder added 15 points for the Panthers (20-2, 11-1),

“I don’t talk about that with our guys. I really don’t,” stated Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson. “We talked about being tougher than we were at their place on the defensive end of the floor, being tougher on the offensive end of the floor, finishing plays.”

It might have been a good thing that the Northern Iowa coach did not bring up all the benefits of a victory, because it almost didn’t happen. Wichita State (19-5, 8-4) buried consecutive 3-pointers to pull within 58-56 with 1:54 left, then with only 31 seconds left, got the ball back. Clevin Hannah’s desperation heave bounced off the rim. and Toure’ Murry missed a 3 from the elbow, ouch!

With having 17 points to lead Wichita State, Murry came in ranked ninth in the nation in free-throw percentage but shot just 10 of 17 from the line. “We had our chances. We just couldn’t make the plays at the end, those shots at the end,” Gregg Marshall, Wichita State coach said.

The game was a typical Valley slugfest, with style points and baskets in short supply. Of course, that is exactly the kind of play the pesky Panthers excel at. Also, it didn’t hurt that Ahelegbe shook off a terrible first half and carried the Panthers offense down the stretch.

Ahelegbe muscled a tough layup in traffic to put Northern Iowa ahead 44-41 with 8:34 left, and drilled a pull-up 15-footer. Eglseder’s three-point play off a steal by Ali Farokhmanesh gave the Panthers a 47-41 lead. Wichita State quickly cut the score to one. With just under 4 minutes left, Ahelegbe followed a 3 with yet another mid-range jumper to give Northern Iowa a 53-46 lead.

In the first half, Ahelegbe was 1 of 9 from the field, but finished 8 of 18, helping rescue an offense that shot just 38 percent from the field. But Jacobson also pointed to the contributions of reserve forward Lucas O’Rear, who finished with nine rebounds — five offensives — and helped set the tone in the paint.

“I thought [O'Rear] was probably the difference,” said Jacobson. “He’s a worker. He finds a way to come up with loose balls, come up with rebounds.”

Gabe Blair contributed 12 points for the Shockers, who fell to 5-4 on the road.  The Panthers fell behind by as much as 18-10 and missed 12 of their first 15 shots. After a hot start, Wichita State could only muster four points during a 9 1/2-minute stretch late in the first half, allowing rival Northern Iowa to jump ahead 25-22.

Hannah and Murry responded with 3s in the final 1:18 to give the Shockers a 28-27 halftime lead — despite the fact that Northern Iowa outrebounded them 10-0 on the offensive glass.
So far for the Panthers, the loss at Wichita State is the only hiccup in the Valley, who now seem poised to run away with the league title.

Northern Iowa hasn’t been flashy in anyway; in fact, it needed a late rally to steal a 55-54 win at Missouri State last weekend,  but its unstoppable defense was once again enough to help the Panthers survive.

In scoring defense at 55.1 points per game, Northern Iowa entered play second in the nation.

“We just talk about being more aggressive in everything we do,” Jacobson said. “I just thought we were a much more aggressive team [Wednesday] than we were at Wichita.”
Still lacking a road win, Wichita State has rattled off one of the better starts in school history. Happening at home, its biggest wins to date, was against Northern Iowa and Texas Tech.

There is still a chance for the Shockers to finish strong. They play four of their final six conference games at home and have two games left against last-place Evansville.
“We’re going to try and win games and do what we can do,” said Marshall. “Obviously we need a lot of help at this point.”

Last night we finished 1-3 in our guaranteed games which was very upsetting, but as you have seen when your on the bottom there is only once place to go and that is up. We played 4 totals last night, the under 6 in the NHL game between Tampa at Atlanta, which was the only winner of the night. What was very surprising was that we were 0-2 in NBA totals, losing the over 201 in the Milwaukee Bucks at Cleveland Cavs and the Memphis Grizzlies at the Orlando Magic over 194. These are days that anyone great is going to have but from experiance the one thing I know is that the next ten to fourteen days is going to be AMAZING ! The last time we went 1-3 in a guaranteed game day we went on to finish 22-6 for the 11 days. As our dedicated members know we make no excuses, we put our plays where most put there stories. Tonight is going to be well worth playing because we have a lot of big things taking place. We look forward to seeing your pockets get fat.

Wichita State guard JT Durley walked off the Koch Arena Court and made a bold statement, moments after scoring 19 points in his team’s upset of 20th-ranked Northern Iowa on Tuesday night. We’re back in the race,” he said. Durley may have been talking about more than just the battle for a Missouri Valley Conference championship.

The Shockers greatly enhanced their chances of receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, by ending Northern Iowa’s 15-game winning streak – if, of course, they don’t qualify automatically by winning the MVC tournament.

Over the years its MVC brethren and Wichita Stat have learned not to get their hopes up. It is a shame that a team with a 17-3 record in mid-January can not feel good about its chances of making the Big Dance, as beneficial as the victory could end up being,.

Since they were automatic qualifiers, Northern Iowa (2009) and Drake (2008) represented the MVC in the NCAA tournament the past two years. Not one at-large invitation was extended to an MVC school either season, and the league only received one such bid in 2007.

“We’re probably all biased,” stated Illinois State coach Tim Jankovich  “but we [league coaches] feel like we’ve been cheated pretty hard the last couple of years. Right now we’re just crossing our fingers that it doesn’t happen again.”

It should not.

Even though it isn’t quite the Conference USA or the Atlantic 10, the MVC is proving to be one of the top non-power conferences in the country this season.

MVC tournament championship squad and Northern Iowa (16-2) returns its top six players from last year’s regular-season. Adding a strong player in East Carolina transfer Gabe Blair, Wichita State (17-3) brought back all of its key pieces.

Missouri State is off to a 14-5 start under second-year coach Cuonzo Martin and Illinois State (13-5) touts one of the country’s better guards in Osiris Eldridge.

No one is expecting MVC to place four teams in the bracket, as it did in 2006. It does certainly deserve to send more than one. The bottom line is it is looking more and more as if the Missouri Valley Conference should receive multiple NCAA tournament bids.

Schools from non-Big Six leagues received eight at-large bids to the NCAA tournament, in 2007. That number was dropped to six in 2008 and, last year, only four non-Big Six schools received at-large bids.

That is a far cry from the 12 at-large invitations mid-major schools received in 2006.

“That was the year [the MVC] got four bids – and it was also the year George Mason made it to the Final Four,” said Jankovich  “Television ratings were lower than usual during the tournament that year. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but ever since that time, the number of at-large bids to non-Big Six schools has gone down and down and down.

“No one likes to talk about it, but we just don’t want to get the short end of the stick again. I mean, non-Big Six schools got four at-large bids last year. That just isn’t right.”

At least not when it comes to leagues such as the MVC.

Here is a perfect example that took place today which we wrote in black and white for our members. Chad and myself always recommend our members take advantage of the entire board in the guaranteed game, because usually we will hit well over 65 percent on the card that day or night. We constantly see the same members, laughing all the way to the bank, by expanding there bank roll while others will pick one or two games. Typically, if you were playing by yourself or using over hyped services, I would suggest maybe playing  a maximum of two games a night, but as you have seen the percentages stay consistent, do not hold yourself from making big profits.

In the NFL we ended up going 1-1, with a lop sided blowout winner with the Minnesota Vikings laying only 2 1/2 points at home against the Cowboys and losing the over 42 1/2 in the New York Jets at San Diego game. Now if all you do is watch the NFL and are not interested in the dollar than you go 50% with us on the day. But this is where again on average around 60 to 70 members cash in with a winner in college basketball Marquette minus 9 1/2 winning by 30 points over Providence. The NBA came in a winner with the under 206 1/2 in the Mavs vs Raptors game with a final, 88-110. The point that I’m trying to make is simple but this is where a lot of players miss the boat. I always stress we will not win every game we play every night, and we do not feed you bullshit stories but ride the trends and I promise you will not be disappointed. And of course our record in the NHL speaks for itself we had the Rangers minus 140 vs the Canadians and this was a great way to wrap up our week for a members with a 6-2 winner. Thank you to all our loyal members we said it at the end of 2009, your going to be very happy with us in 2010.