Happy Friday! Links, Thoughts, Picks, Etc.

Former dazzler Erin Andrews will be honored today as an Alumni of Distinction at UF’s College of Journalism and Communications.

Published on Friday, 4/20/18, at 11:58 a.m. Eastern.

Let’s jump around and hit on multiple sports today…

I enjoyed Chris Harry’s interview with Erin Andrews before she’s honored today in Gainesville as an Alumni of Distinction by the UF College of Journalism & Communications.

–UF beat writer Thomas Goldkamp posed a question on Twitter on Thursday. Who should the Gators schedule a home-and-home series with in football? I say it’s way past time for a rematch of the “Tommy Frazier’s still running Game.” I had to sit through that assbeating, and we were on a bus with a big group and couldn’t leave early.

–Kyle Trask is going to be Florida’s QB in 2018.

–After injuring his shoulder in the first half of this past Saturday’s spring game, Florida star DE CeCe Jefferson had surgery earlier this week and is expected to be out for four months. Fortunately for the Gators, they play host to Charleston Southern, Kentucky and Colorado St. in the first three weeks of the season.

–Alabama QB Jalen Hurts’ father spoke with Matt Hayes of Bleacher Report earlier today and had a lot to say. “Coach Saban’s job is to do what’s best for his team. I have no problem with that,” Averion Hurts said. “My job is to do what’s best for Jalen — and make no mistake, Jalen is a quarterback, and he wants to play quarterback. He loves Alabama, loves Coach Saban and everything about that place. But he wants to play, and he will play…”

Then he was asked what if Jalen doesn’t win the job?

Averion Hurts responded with this gem, “Well, he’d be the biggest free agent in college football history.” Hurts has a 26-2 record in 28 career starts for the Crimson Tide. If he transfers, he could use 2018 as his redshirt year and have two seasons of eligibility remaining at another school.

The Ole Miss-Shea Patterson Divorce is starting to get ugly. You have to love this quote from Patterson in his letter to the NCAA: “It doesn’t seem fair to me that the only thing standing in the way of Coach Freeze making $5 million a year at another school was the discovery that he wasn’t the trustworthy, straight-laced role model that he claimed to be.”

–The defending Super Bowl champs will host my Falcons to open Week 1 on a Thursday night in Philadelphia. This will be a rematch of the NFC semifinals when the Eagles captured a 15-10 win over Atlanta as home underdogs. These rivals will collide on my birthday (9/6) at 8:20 p.m. Eastern on NBC. The Falcons will host the Panthers and Saints in their first two home games.

–The 76ers are going to win the East. Most of the value has been sucked dry out of this potential wager, as it’s around +275ish at most spots. More than anything, I’m just making a prediction.

–ICYMI: BetDSI released season win totals for all 14 SEC schools this week. I already like South Carolina ‘over’ seven wins. Georgia better be on Upset Alert when it visits Williams-Brice Stadium in Week 2. With that said, I’ll note that Will Muschamp is 1-5 in six games as a head coach versus his alma mater.

–My NBA picks are on a nice roll after I went 2-0 last night. I’m 7-3 in the playoffs, 21-11-2 (65.6%, +9.97 Units) since March 21 and 41-26-2 (61.2%) since Feb. 13 for 14.03 units of profit. My plays for tonight are here. You can get my Saturday selections here and, even better, just sign up for my entire postseason package.

–Alabama’s Braxton Key has been granted his release to transfer out of the program. Key led the Crimson Tide in scoring as a true freshman. He is a rising junior who will have to sit out next year and will then have two seasons of eligibility remaining at his new school.

–Baylor picked up a huge grad transfer Thursday in Makai Mason, who dropped 31 points on the Bears and sent them packing from the 2016 NCAA Tournament when he was in a starring role for Yale. He was injured the next season and nearly all of this past year. An archaic Ivy League rule only allows athletes to compete for four years, so Mason had no choice other than to transfer if he wanted to play college hoops in 2018-19.

–Kevin Lee missed weight this morning, tipping the scales at 157 pounds (one pound too heavy). His headlining fight in Atlantic City vs. Edson Barboza is still on, with Barboza getting 20 percent of Lee’s purse. I liked Barboza as a +130 underdog anyway. Now I like him even more.

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