I know, I know: the season has already started.  How can these predictions now be valid?  Well, I didn’t have the Mets going undefeated so I think I am ok.

Let’s start with the National League.  SU can barely find room on the Mets’ bandwagon.  Way too crowded and everyone is picking them to win the NL East.  SU is not so sure.  Some teams play better under the radar and have a harder time coping with expectations.  On paper, the young pitchers have more experience under their belts and the young hitters should be that much better.  But….sometimes young players take a step back before they are ready to make the big step forward.  SU believes the Nationals will be a worthy adversary in the East but of course, having Stephen Drew on the roster will ultimately bring them down.  He is a difference maker.  The Mets will win the East but it will go into September and be closer than you think.

Lots of love out there for the Cubs to take the next step and win it all.  SU will agree on that one but the SF Giants win their world championships in the even years and last time I checked, it’s 2016.  Giants win the West, Cubs in the Central and the Nationals and Cardinals take the wild cards.

In the American League, the AL East is a toss-up.  Many predict the Toronto Blue Jays will win the division and the World Series this year.  SU disagrees.  The Jose Bautista contract will become a bigger and bigger distraction as the season unfolds and if any of their starters goes down, they are just a good hitting team with limited pitching.  They may win the East but they won’t make it to the World Series.  Btw, former Yankee phenom Jesus Montero is now in their farm system.  How the mighty have fallen.

The Yankees will contend but YES ratings will be way down along with attendance.  This roster is a snoozefest.  All 5 starters will find their way to the DL during the course of the year.  Texeiria is in his walk year (and he will walk with Greg Bird ready to assume 1st base next season) and he should be motivated for that reason.  Expect harder outs into the shift this year as opposed to softer outs in the past.  Castro will be a guy to watch along with Hicks in the outfield.  He is going to take at bats away from both Ellsbury and Gardner.  The Yankees will make one of the Wild Cards.  The Royals are still in good shape but getting to the World Series 3 years in a row is very hard.  Texas wins the West and the Royals and  Yankees are the Wild Cards. Watch out for Detroit to make a comeback this year and get to the World Series where they lose to the Giants in 6 games.

As always, SU is interested in what the subscriber base is thinking.  Feel free to weigh in.

Finally, great NCAA championship game last night with such a high quality last 10 minutes.  Look for a lot of college coaches incorporating Villanova’s last second full court play into their playbook next season.  That was executed perfectly.  It wasn’t a great tourney and a lousy Final Four but exciting finale.

SU has put its game face on for the 2016 MLB season.  I even tuned in for a half hour of the Yankees’ exhibition game last Sunday with their likely opening day line-up.  I’m sorry: it’s as boring as I feared it would be.  I already miss Greg Bird.  They are just oppressively dull – it’s like the air is sucked out of the atmosphere.  Hicks will add some spice in the outfield and Castro hit .400 in spring training.  A-Rod is still must see tv but as long as Chase Headley is on the team, this will be painful.

By the way, too, too much is made about who will be in the starting rotation come opening day.  Sabathia?  Nova?  Hey, it does not matter.  The Yankee pitchers go down with injuries and tight forearms so often, as long as you are in the top 7 you will get plenty of starts.  If Miller ends up missing substantial time, SU says put Nova in the Phil Hughes role from 2009 and have him be a super set-up guy.  Girardi will go with CC as the 5th starter as he probably just can’t loosen up his body in time to be a reliever.  SU will release its fearless baseball predictions this weekend.  Unlike the NCAAs, I actually have a decent track record with baseball.

SU caught the UConn women’s game last Saturday with long-time subscriber M. Levine up in Bridgeport.  Total beatdown: 61 – 12 at half-time.  You have to love the UConn women’s team fans who average about 63 years of age and are trying to jinx the opposing team’s foul shooters in the 2nd half when they are leading by 60 points.  Too funny.  The UConn women are the best basketball viewing around and contrary to some sports writers, they are great for women’s basketball.  It puts them on the map.  Once their 3 seniors graduate this year, they will not be as dominant next season which will also be good for women’s basketball.

Busy week for SU.  Caught the Westchester Knicks’ game last night with long-time subscriber, A. Grossman.  Courtside seats – very cool.  Truth be told, any seat at the Westchester County Center is a good seat and the quality of play is very good.  For the true NBA and college hoops fans, you get to see a lot of guys who you watched on tv in college but who will likely never get their shot in the NBA, e.g., CJ Fair from Syracuse, Jimmer Fredette, Rakeem Christmas from Syracuse.  SU would highly recommend the experience and you even get to watch them run the triangle offense which of course is a special treat.  Last night, the triangle produced a 5 for 16 night from Cleanthony Early playing the Carmelo Anthony role.  He is NOT good.

For the few of us who watch the Tennis Channel and men’s tennis, Novak Djokovic continues to have an impressive run carrying over from last year.  He now has the largest point differential between the #1 and #2 men’s players in the ATP Tour in its history in an era with Murray, Nadal and Federer.  It’s hard to stay healthy and in a year with the Olympics and playing Davis Cup, it will be hard for him to sustain it.  But SU believes he is solidly in the conversation now for Greatest of All Time right with Federer.

Finally, the D’Angelo Russell – Nick Young situation is an embarrassment.  What a bozo.  The good news for Russell is that as crazy as it may seem now, these things do blow over and the public is very forgiving.  Ask A-Rod.

Let me start with Jeremy Lin, a long-time SU fave.  On Monday night, he torched the San Antonio Spurs for 29 points including 15 in the 4th quarter as Charlotte came from 23 points back to beat the Spurs.  As SU is an NBA Season Pass subscriber, I am able to follow teams that I actually care about and enjoy watching (which I can count on one hand).  Lin has had a solid year coming off the bench for Charlotte and they are now surging.  It was interesting on Monday night to see Kemba Walker re-enter the game in the 4th quarter having a terrible game and after throwing up a couple of forced shots, he actually deferred to Lin who clearly had the hot hand.  Note: this rarely happens in the NBA.  Guys that are scorers always believe they will regain the hot hand and are committed to filling up the scoring line no matter the flow of the game.  SU gives Walker a lot of credit to see what was happening in the game and make that determination.  I mean, you are sitting on the bench and watching – it’s not rocket science here.  But so many big ego NBA players do not get this at all.  In fact, one plays in NY.

Lin, followed up the next night with 21 points in a win over the Nets.  There is plenty of time and room to get on the Hornets’ band wagon.  Team owner Michael Jordan will save you a seat.

Time to get pumped for the Sweet Sixteen.  There is still not a clear favorite to win it all this year which is great for the tournament.  SU says do not sleep on Texas A&M – could be a team of destiny now after the comeback over Northern Iowa.  Or they could not be that good and lose easily tonight.  Maryland finally has a chance to show the world that they are not an overrated team.  Time to make a statement against Kansas.  They have underachieved all year.  Will they seize the moment?

SU is starting to pay attention to spring training.  Stephen Drew hit a homerun off of Tanaka yesterday and is hitting about .350 this spring.  I still believe his over/under this year with the Nationals is .205 based on a huge September surge in his walk year.  Tanaka has gotten rocked his last 2 outings but hey, it’s spring training, no need to panic.  We can do that in 3 weeks in April.  Sabathia also pitching poorly but SU says he will definitely start in the rotation out of respect. But Nova will replace him by late April.  Girardi will give him a shot despite a poor spring.

For the record, SU is a major Michigan fan as both kids are recent graduates.  However, I put that aside to make an objective selection for this year’s NCAA Tournament.  After all, I know that thousands of people are counting on SU to do its homework and make its picks as fairly as possible.  While the Spartans’ loss knocked me out of the running, I am THRILLED that they did lose.  And it wasn’t like they shot horribly – they just couldn’t stop Middle Tennessee State defensively.  Too bad (ha ha ha).

Meanwhile, SU caught its first NCAA Tournament game ever last night in Brooklyn in the company of long-time SU subscribers S. Levine and S. Fink.  What a great experience – so much fun.  As I have said before, college games do not have the same level of cursing and bad behavior that we see at the professional level.  Now, some of that no doubt is the result of the no beer sold policy that the NCAA enforces at its tournament games (who knew?).  One benefit of that was shorter lines in the men’s room.

And by the way, a note to the MTA: run some extra subway trains back into Manhattan from Brooklyn after the games let out late at night.  This is not a difficult concept.  The huge swarm of people descending into the subway stop at 12:15 am was a little scary and then a couple of lines were not even running.  Bad situation.  If Barclays’ wants to attract fans from the suburbs, they need to make it easier for them to catch their late night trains with some expectation that the trains will be running often.  Bad job MTA.  Get with the program.  SU has spoken.

West Virginia plays just like Mt. Vernon High School.  Throw up a shot and get about 7 offensive rebounds until you score.  They were in the double bonus shooting foul shots for the last 15 minutes of the 2nd half and still could not win that game.  It’s losses like this one that make the NCAAs the best sports event of the year.  Rarely plays out as you expect.

Finally, as predicted by SU, the Pac 12 Conference was vastly overrated by the NCAA Committee.  Going down one after another.

It’s time.  SU has instructed the research staff to stop running the predictive models for the NCAA Tournament (I mean I thought 25,000 scenarios was sufficient).  We are ready to boldly make our predictions for this year’s games and provide expert commentary to the intergalactic subscriber base as they rush to fill out their brackets.  Here is what you need to know and keep in mind:

• The PAC 12 got a lot of love from the NCAA Committee but SU is not feeling it.  I saw Oregon play at the Barclay’s Center just a year ago. Unimpressive.  And now they are a #1 seed?  Hard to believe.
• Watch out for Wichita State.  Well-coached, have been there before and many will be sleeping on them this year.  I think they will make it through for the first few rounds.
• Many are high on Kansas.  SU has never been a Bill Self fan – his teams often find a way to disappoint and being the #1 overall seed is too much pressure for them.  But they should make it to the Final Four.
• The same is true for North Carolina although I like Roy Williams and feel he is a good coach.  But they usually fall short.  They were the preseason #1 team but will fall to Providence in the 2nd round.
• Kentucky was dis-respected as a #4 seed and Coach Calipari will ride that “diss” all the way to the bank with his team.  They are Final Four bound.
• SU saw a snippet of an ESPN 30 for 30 show on the Texas A&M coach who has Parkinson’s Disease.  It’s a nice story and the guy is a fighter.  They are an experienced team and for no particular reason, SU says they make it to Houston because the coach’s story is inspirational.
• Teams that win their conference tournament often tire themselves out.  This will be a factor for UConn – beware of picking them.
• Michigan State is still the best team and while SU hates them, they will be the last team standing come April.
• I think Purdue is a tough match-up for many teams with their large front line and will make a deep run.  Iowa is over-rated and will depart early.  Same with Maryland.

SU Final Four: Kentucky; Texas A&M; Michigan State; and Kansas.  Michigan State wins it all.

Care to weigh in with your overall championship prediction and be admired by thousands if you are right and ridiculed if you’re wrong?  This is the place to do it!

First of all, the CBS Selection Show is awful.  2 hours for this?  A joke.  Plus, apparently the full bracket has been leaked and is already on Twitter.  Do we need to watch Charles Barkley who doesn’t even follow much of college basketball?

SU will be sure to make its fearless predictions in the next couple of days but how Michigan State is not a #1 seed is beyond me.  North Carolina and Kansas always go out early, and Virginia didn’t even win its conference tournament or league.  The experts on CBS only see a few teams being capable of winning it all but SU believes that is wrong.

Oregon State is in at 19-12?  I admit I don’t watch much of the PAC 12 but that is a low win total to get in.

More to come in the next day or so.  Let the games begin!

OK, Knick fans, here is something for you.  Today, SU is acting like the back page of the New York Post.  Sit around, make up a story out of nothing and pretend it has legs.

Kyrie Irving is unhappy in Cleveland.  He had bed bugs in Oklahoma City, he keeps getting hurt and the new coach there, Tyronn Lue, does not love him.  Carmelo Anthony is aging and wants his ring.  He is best friends with LeBron.  All the talk has been about moving Kevin Love but why not swap Irving for Carmelo?  They are probably close enough in salary that you can throw in another player (Richard Jefferson?  Make my day) and equalize salaries.  Irving is a great talent.  Paired with Porzingis and you have something there.

No one is talking about it.  You heard it here first.  Thoughts?

SU has been quiet for some time now.  Let’s face it: not a whole lot going on in the sports world of late.  But here’s what’s on my mind today:

• I am having A LOT of trouble getting excited about the Yankees for 2016.  With Greg Bird going down, there really is no young player to follow.  It sounds like minor league slugger Aaron Judge will start in Scranton for sure.  That leaves Brett Gardner (nursing a sore wrist), Jacoby Ellsbury (already planning which month he will get hurt in 2016) and Carlos Beltran in his final season roaming the outfield.  SU will be interested to see if this new guy Hicks is any good.  On the infield, Starlin Castro is a fresh face but as long as Chase Headley is at 3rd base, it just feels like more of the same of what we’ve seen the last few years.  My only hope is that Headley is ultimately replaced by Castro and Refsnyder gets to play 2nd base.  The starting pitchers are all injury-prone.  The bullpen is stacked but as of now, SU is unimpressed and unexcited.
• I believe the Mets will own New York for 2016 hands  down, and will push them on attendance.  And that has not been the case for about 20 – 25 years.  SU is not on the Mets band wagon but will be paying attention.
• On the other hand, March Madness is just around the corner and that does excite me.  Especially this year where about 15 teams have what it takes to win it all.  SU is already running the numbers and will come out with its predictions once the brackets are filled.  As much as I hate to say it (and believe me I hate to say this), Michigan State may be peaking at the right time.
• Carmelo Anthony is going to go down as the Adrian Dantley of his generation.  A one-dimensional talented scorer who never really won over the course of his career.  Melo really should remove the trade veto and allow the Knicks to find him a new home where he can get his ring.  I suppose it’s admirable that he wants to win in New York but this roster is far, far away from contending and they don’t have the draft picks or the cap room for a quick change (Kevin Durant is not coming here).  SU turned on the game last night in the late 2nd quarter where the Knicks were blowing out the Magic by 20.  I believe Anthony shot the ball on about 6 possessions in a row.  I was doing my triangulations and somehow that did not compute in terms of ball movement.  He finished 7 for 22 in a blowout win where everyone else shot well.  I just don’t think he is having any fun out there.  Perhaps in the off-season some deal will come his way and he will allow them to move him.  I believe this is very possible.

Anyone want to weigh in with an early NCAA prediction?

SU stumbled across the Peyton Manning story from the late 1990s while he was at the University of Tennessee over the holiday weekend.  I must admit that I have been a Peyton fan throughout his NFL career – he comes across as a good guy, has his head on straight, gracious when he wins and in defeat.  As the story goes, as a sophomore, he allegedly placed his genitals on a woman trainer’s head who was checking his foot for a stress fracture.  He claims he was mooning a teammate.  The teammate denied it and even wrote Manning a letter to ask him to man up and admit the truth.  This guy ultimately lost his scholarship.  The woman pressed charges and the case was settled.  OK, guys are young and do stupid things.

But then the Mannings (Archie and Peyton) wrote a book together in 2003 and went after this woman again in the book. She was no longer at Tennessee and pressed charges again.  Seems odd that he found the need to bad-mouth her several years later.  Apparently, there is now some new law suit and the legal records have been unsealed.  That’s why this has come up after 17 years.  I have never been one to place any player on a pedestal – you only get disappointed.  Hey, I like A-Rod – what can I say, and I always liked Tiger Woods.  The HGH story was never fully put to bed re Manning and now this.  Some are saying that he might now come back for another couple of years to take the attention off of this story and ensure he has the media focus to defend himself.  Anyway, I think it will be interesting to see how this plays out.  We go after guys like Cam Newton for less offensive things.  Does Manning deserve a pass?  Just a young guy making a mistake?

Don’t know if you saw it last night but ESPN decided to broadcast the Michigan – Ohio State game only using cameras at courtside.  The idea was to give the viewer a sense of the athleticism of the players.  SU says that anyone who has watched their share of kids’ games over the year sitting along the court knows that as they get taller, it becomes harder to see over them.  It’s not a great view.  I watched for about 12 minutes of the game.  Awful.  The ref blocks your view about half the time and you can’t see any of the flow of the offense and lose depth perception.  I mean, didn’t anyone at ESPN test this?  Someone on Twitter joked that they should have switched to the camera angle behind the tall guy sitting in front of you.  For basketball, the traditional view is just fine.  Back to the drawing board.

Finally, too bad Carmelo shot down the latest trade rumors.  It’s only been a year and a half and everyone now sees that the re-signing of Melo by the Knicks was a disaster.  Readers of SU knew this right away.  I think he becomes more and more untradeable as his health deteriorates with his knees.  He will fulfill the length of his deal and it will take that much longer for the Knicks to find a way to become contenders.  It’s their own fault.

SU made an appearance at MSG last night with long-time SU subscriber, J. Levine, to check out your New York Knicks.  I must say the fans do show up every night.  Kurt Rambis made his coaching debut.  The guy’s been around the block with the Lakers and the T’Wolves, and he’s also been an assistant for a number of years.  I am not saying being an NBA coach is the easiest job out there (although with 5 assistant coaches for 12 players, you do certainly have some coverage there).  But to the average fan like SU, there are times when it’s not that hard.

Case in point: in the first half, he benched Porzingis (who is the only player I want to see) mid-way through the 2nd quarter, and let him stew for a while at the end of the bench.  OK, he’s the coach – that’s his prerogative.  Porzingis then burns it up in the 3rd quarter: 14 points scoring every which way.  A couple of 3-pointers, lefty drive, post-ups, spin move for a dunk.  Knicks tie it up after 3 quarters.  But then, he sits Porzingis until there are less than 6 minutes left in the game.

Note to Coach Rambis: the Knicks are offensively challenged.  Porzingis, while a rookie, is one of your 3 players who can score and he is a fan fave.  PUT HIM BACK IN THE GAME.  Let him rest a couple of minutes but what are you doing?  He played 29 minutes in total.  Either Porzingis is now on a 30-minute pitch count per game (which could be true), or Rambis has no feel for the game and who to play.  Very frustrating.

SU is warming up in the bullpen.  Give me 5 assistants and I am there.