The Daily Roundup: 4/26/16 - McGregor vs UFC, Chris Paul injured, KD calls Mark Cuban an idiot, NCAA vs North Carolina, etc

Yesterday, Conor McGregor tweeted that he's back on UFC 200... and then, a few hours later, Dana White comes out and says that's not true, and he's not sure why Conor would tweet that.

So what happened?  Well, here's my thought process.  Conor's manager spoke with someone in UFC who told him they are gonna get this done, but Dana never had any intention of doing it.  Basically, Conor embarrassed the organization last week, and the organization embarrassed Conor this week.  An eye for an eye.

The question remains, what does this mean for Conor McGregor and the UFC going forward?

What are Conor McGregor & Nate Diaz doing?

Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz both announced on Twitter yesterday that they are retiring.  Within about an hour of each other.  Which is beyond interesting for 2 guys that were supposed to be the headline fight for UFC 200, which, in turn, was supposed to be the biggest PPV event in UFC's history.

We're talking about 2 guys in their prime.  Who just headlined the 2nd biggest fight in the history of UFC at the beginning of 2016.  Why the hell isn't anyone digging any deeper into this?

Dana White, owner of the UFC, stated yesterday, after the 2 fighters announced they were "retiring" that, in actuality, "the decision was made by the promotion after McGregor informed UFC officials that he would not participate in any promotional activities, including a commercial shoot and press conferences."

UFC 196 drew over 1.5 million PPVs, according to White (http://www.mmafighting.com/2016/3/11/11208196/dana-white-claims-mcgregor-vs-diaz-did-1-5-million-pay-per-view-buys).  The biggest was UFC 100 with Lesnar, GSP, and whole cast of characters, which turned 1.6M PPVs.

Best bet for College Football's national title (continued)

Today we'll dig a little deeper into the best odds for a futures bet on this year's National Championship.

Last week we looked at strength of schedule for the 13 schools that have the best odds of winning the national championship, based on recruiting rankings.  These schools all have had at least 2 top 10 recruiting classes in the past four years prior to this year.  In the past 20 years, only one team has won a national championship without that as a precursor.

The Daily Roundup: 4/18/16 - NBA Playoff blowouts, Titans & Sprinklers, Cardale don't do school, etc.

Gotta start off this morning with how mostly terrible the opening round of the NBA playoffs have started.  Out of 8 playoff games this weekend, we had 6 double digit games, with 5 by at least 20, and 3 of those were by more than 30.  And these were not flukes. 

The only 13 College Football teams that can win the 2016 National Championship

College football prowess is based on recruiting.  Top 10 recruiting classes, to be exact.

Since 1996, there's only been one team to win a national championship without having at least 2 Top 10 recruiting classes in the 4 years leading up to their national championship.  That was Bob Stoops' 2000 Oklahoma team, who had 3 Top 25 classes, but no Top 10 classes. 

There are only 13 teams that, according to recent history, can win the 2016 National Championship.  There's been a ton of articles about this fact.  If you're looking for futures bets, this is the way to look into it.  If you want to bet on the other 12 teams listed, that's on you.  But you'll be betting on something that's only happened one time in 20 years.  That's it...

The Daily Roundup: 4/14/16 - Tubby to Memphis, Rams trade for #1 pick, Kobe lit it up, Warriors hit 73...

Tubby Smith to Memphis is a done deal, as reported by Gary Parrish early this morning.  He flew back to Lubbock, slept on it, and let the University of Memphis know this morning.  As has been stated before... he's doing this because last year, he was voted National Coach of the Year at Texas Tech after finishing 19-13, and 7th in the Big 12.  That's about as reasonably well as you can do at that job. 

Tubby Smith in Memphis?

Is this real life?  Y'know, I'm ok with this, if it happens.

The current news is that Tubby Smith, head coach of Texas Tech, is in Memphis, and will be announced as the head coach soon.

Tubby Smith has literally won everywhere that he's been.  He's proven that he knows what he's doing.  If you can get Tulsa, Georgia, Minnesota, and Texas Tech to the NCAA tournament, then you know what you're doing.  He's won a national championship (granted, it was 1998 at Kentucky), and he done more with less pretty much everywhere he's gone.

At Kentucky, he wasn't heralded as a big time recruiter, but the guy got players, even at Minnesota, and has some players at Texas Tech.  He'll be able to get players at Memphis like he hasn't gotten in the past decade.  He'll be back to having one of the top jobs in a conference, as opposed to the bottom.  When Tubby was coach at Kentucky, over 10 seasons, he never missed the NCAA tournament, never got knocked out in the first round, made the Elite Eight 4 times, made the Final Four and won a national championship once, made the sweet sixteen 6 times.  Numbers like that would have him a statue at Memphis...

The Daily Roundup: 4/13/16 - Harbaugh tees off, Memphis coaching search, LeBron & them DMs...

 Gooooood morning.  Sakes alive, there was a lot going on yesterday that I feel like chiming in on, so we'll go ahead and get to it.

First off - the Gregg Marshall to Memphis stuff is dead, and has been since right off the bat.  It's going to take too much for Memphis to get that guy to come down here.  He wants more than the University can, or wants to, offer.

Buzz Williams is still an option, and I'd throw everything I had at that one to make sure it happens.  The other option that I'm fixated on right now is Mike Anderson at Arkansas...

The Daily Roundup: 4/12/16 Stanford Coach Throws Shade & Satellite Camps...

David Shaw, Stanford's football coach, absolutely went ham on the South yesterday.  When asked about holding Satellite Camps in the SEC region of the country, he said "It doesn't make sense for us to go hold a camp some place where there might be one person in the entire state that's eligible to get into Stanford."

Talk about throwing shade.

The secret to a good coaching hire

The University of Memphis is in the middle of a coaching search for a new men's basketball coach, now that Josh Pastner, who they were hoping to get rid of, but couldn't afford to pay him AND a new basketball coach, has taken the Georgia Tech job.

The Memphis job is considered, by most, to be a top 20 job in the country.  There is considerable history in the program, it's a proven winner, the talent stable in just the city alone is enough to win for years and years.  And you're in a strong, but winnable conference.  There's a reason that other coaches think highly of the position.

The question is... what hire will work?

The Daily Roundup: 4/8/16 - Pastner to Georgia Tech, SEC favorites, Els 7 putts, Bomani's shirt...

Yesterday, when I was putting together what I wanted to write about this morning, I figured I would start out with simple stuff, such as Bomani Jones's shirt choice on Mike and Mike yesterday, or Ernie Els having to 7-putt on the first hole at Augusta (yes... 7-putt)... but then news broke late last night that Georgia Tech and Josh Pastner are in negotiations to bring the embattled Memphis coach to Atlanta...

... and in the city of Memphis, everything changed overnight... 

The rebirth! Masters picks, etc...

Welcome in to the official rebirth of Winning Cures Everything.  I've been planning to do this blog for quite some time, and we're looking to start some new things - facebook live videos, podcasts, gambling picks, etc.  Basically, just a way to get out there and spew some opinions.  Sports is my biggest hobby - mostly football and basketball, but I chime in on all sorts of topics from time to time, whether it's politics, golf, women's basketball, gambling, social issues, or anything else happening in the world that seems to be interesting.

Let's start off with my Master's picks for this year...