pick 'em round 3 champ: geoffrey miller

the standings.

after round 3 of 36 (UAW Daimler Chrysler 400, Las Vegas)

1. 25 points - trevor sager (1 pick 'em win)
2. 20 points - geoffrey miller (2 - Top 5s)
2. 10 points - drew owen (1 - Top 5, 1 - Top 10)

Well, your rough clarity host took his first overall victory in the NASCAR pick 'em contest with Jeff Gordon's 2nd place finish Sunday at Las Vegas. I took the 24 car for the second straight week, and the bet paid off, as Gordon had his 3rd top-ten finish of the year, placing him 2nd in points, 6 behind Mark Martin. As for the rest of the pick 'em contenders, Trevor had a a good day at the beginning, but Kurt Busch really faltered late and wound up 26th. Drew would have taken the 5 points from Trev, but Kasey Kahne wrecked his second race car of the weekend with less than 30 laps to go, leaving Drew with second goose egg.

Next week: The NNS visits Atlanta for a 500 mile event. Eat a peach.

welcome to the wreckfest.

just a quick race update with 237 to go.

1) Robby Gordon is a moron.
what was he thinking? three-wide into turn one early in the race? mor-on.

2) We've had 3 cautions in the first 20 laps. 3.
yep, the tire issue isn't gonna matter today. we have a caution before the tires ever get hot.

and now, we just our fourth caution. aric almirola spun it on the frontstretch.

this race could be over by 10pm est. if we're lucky.

UAW Daimler-Chrysler 400 pick 'em

After a week off for a visit south of the border by the Busch Series, the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series roars back to life this weekend in what can best be described as a crapshoot -- and no pun intended. Sure, the race is at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but luck will definitely play into determining who makes the trip to Victory Lane. The track has been completely reconfigured with more banking, the pit road entry has drastically changed, and the tires -- in the mind of the drivers -- are horrendous. So what's that mean for this week's pick 'em? We'll be extremely lucky to come up with a driver that doesn't end up in the wall.

trevor sager (20 points) - kurt busch.
pick 'em leader sager goes with the hometown boy this weekend at Vegas, as he expects the #2 Miller Lite Dodge to be near the front. Busch starts 10th on Sunday.

drew owen (10 points) - kasey kahne.
drew hopes to get back in the points this weekend by picking Kasey Kahne, Sunday's polesitter for the 400. it would be a fitting pick, have a daimler-chrysler company vehicle take home the trophy.

geoffrey miller (10 points) - jeff gordon.
"Cliche or not, I'm gonna stick with my driver for the second-straight week. Last year, this would have been a different story due to the 24's struggles on the 1.5 milers, but I see a new consistency in this team during the first two races. It's going to pay off again on Sunday -- with quite a bit of luck, obviously."

the standings.

after round 2 of 36

1. 20 points - trevor sager (1 pick 'em win)
2. 10 points - drew owen* (1 - Top 5, 1 - Top 10)
3. 10 points - geoffrey miller* (1 - Top 5)

* = standings were decided by tiebreaker rule.

btt: iu v. illinois halftime

As they headed to the locker room for the break, the Hoosiers lead the Illini by 3, 24-21. Leading scorers are Shaun Pruitt with 8 for Illinois and DJ White and Armon Bassett of the Hoosiers with 7 apiece.

The crowd? Mostly orange. However, the IU contingent is definitely heard. The Hoosiers could play much, much better still. And AJ Ratliff may have injured his hand. It seems OK for now, but we'll hear about that after the game.

Erin Andrews report: She has left the building. Tear.

on to the 2nd half on espn+!

15:55 left

Just to recap, our Big Ten winners so far today include Ohio State and Purdue. Right now, 2-seed Wisconsin leads 36-28 over Michigan State, who has started a small comeback. We'll see what happens there. Go Michigan State, i think.

As for, of course, the important game today, the Hoosiers are expected to start Armon Bassett, Earl Calloway, Roderick Wilmont, Mike White and DJ White. It seems Kelvin wants to come out with a very strong inside presence to get the 3-point shot open for Wilmont and AJ Ratliff. The Hoosiers need a strong, smart effort from the two players down low becaue foul trouble has been a huge hinderence for IU this year.

Right now, Wisconsin has the overwhelming fan support here, although a few Michigan State fans are coming out of the woodwork as the Spartans stage their modest comeback here. Unfortunetly, a large number of Illinois shirts are starting to appear...

See you at halftime, hopefully. Wisconsin leads 38-33 with 13:41 to go.

welcome to the big show (well, kinda)

I come to you now live from the United Center in Chicago courtside for the 207 Big Ten Tournament. Yeah, i'm excited.

Right now, Ohio State and Michigan ar battling it out early in the 2nd half, and I am yet to see how Ohio State can ever be ranked number one in the country. They lead by 8 over a terrible Michigan team. Well, maybe not terrible but they are pretty damn bad.

On to more important things. The apartment here is splendiferous and the Erin Andrews is 12 times that. Maybe 13.

We had Rock Bottom for dinner last night, because, well, it was right next to the apartment.

Ending this post, OSU is up 46-39 with 12:47 to play. Go wolverines.

more updates whenver.

weekend happenins'

As IU heads into Spring Break on Friday (Thursday at 11am for me!), here's a quick idea of what's going to be showcased on rough clarity in the next few days.

1) IU Men's Big Ten Basketball Coverage live from the United Center. The Hoosiers tip off at 9pm in Chicago as the 3rd seed in the 2007 Men's Big Ten Basketball Tournament. Look for me on ESPN+ and possible game updates here at half time.

2) The NASCAR Nextel Cup Series returns to action this weekend in Las Vegas. After a week hiatus to let the Busch guys and Buschwackers dance around in Mexico, they return to action at the newly configured LVMS. That means we'll have the race preview, race recap, and race rewind all in the next few days.

3)Chicago. Being in town for the Big Ten Tourney, I'll likely post a little bit about my adventures around the windy city, and recaps of other games. I expect to have some good eatins this weekend.

over and out.

out of left field: caught with his pants down

This week's edition of left field comes at us again with a similar topic -- people getting get caught with drugs in awkward situations. That leads me to believe that there is a strong possibility that getting caught with drugs generally comes at awkward moments, likely due to the offenders trying to hide them.

But I digress. This week's left field offender comes at us from Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Quite frankly, I'm impressed the someone can write Sheboygan in the date line (that little phrase at the start of the story that tells where it is set) and not truly laugh about it. Can anyone take these Sheboygan folks seriously? I thought "sheboygans!" was some kind of term used by the people who find it inappropriate to ever cuss. Apparently, I'm wrong, because someone named a town after it.

Anyways, our offender had a little mishap today and managed to get his car stuck in a ditch. When the police arrived, our fellow, only known as a 22-year-old Sheboygan man, had his jeans unzipped. One police officer -- with obvious wandering eyes -- noticed this and questioned the man on whether he had anything illegal on him. Maybe it went something like "Sir, what's the bulge in your underwear?". Who knows? That just had to be awkward. As it turned out, the Sheboygan man had a small amount of marijuana and a pipe on him, causing police to make the bust.

This situation was obviously a little weird for all parties involved, I'd assumed. Not only would the officer have to head home and tell the "so guess where I found mary-jane TODAY!" over the dinner table, but the arrestee certainly will have some interesting explaining to do to that judge.

Moral of the story? Keep the "barn door" closed. Especially if you've got illicit activities going on down there.