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College Basketball Pre Season Tournaments

By M. Lynch - NovaFantasySports Correspondent

Every college basketball (NCAA) fan anticipates the beginning of the season for one reason: great teams matched up against small schools that watch selection Sunday to see if they can make get asked to “dance” in the NIT. These power house teams build these weaker non-conference schedules to build their record and, more importantly, get their rhythm on the court. However, over the past few seasons, the NCAA world has grown exponentially in talent, in direct reflection of the NBA implementing the one year rule. Last year, when (14) Oklahoma was building it’s schedule, it eyeballed little (21) Davidson. Joe Castiglione, OU Athletic Director, then proceeded to the head of the Geography department and asked the dean, “Can you tell me where Davidson is?”
When the dean’s face went pale white and he broke into a cold sweat, OU scheduled Davidson as one of it’s early season opponents. However, the Oklahoma vs. Davidson match up turned out not to be an easy win for Oklahoma in which they could retool their offense, but the first match up of the year between ranked teams

You are probably all wondering how many BIG EAST teams will make the tournament this year, and who will fall short. It seems that there are at least seven BIG EAST teams in it year after year… except for this one. If anyone at work questions the BIG EAST conference superiority in the future, tell them to watch some NCAA hoops this year. I feel that there are nine BIG EAST teams capable of being in the Top 50

Will The Top Twenty-Five (25) Contend For This Years Title?
By R. Johnsen
#1 KU (35-3)
Kansas, after winning last years NCAA tourney in OT against a tough Memphis squad, shows that they were a team of undisputed talent, but may struggle this season. For Kansas to bring home the title for a consecutive year, or to [...]

Week Ten (10) of the 2008 college football season and we find this week’s PBTN column revealing some rather ghoulish figures on Ohio State’s offensive production, a nightmarish possibility for the University of Michigan, a Cinderella-like tale of success for a walk-on Texas Tech placekicker, a monstrous turnover margin being formulated by the Minnesota [...]

Week Ten of the college football season and we find lots of options – both in non-keeper and keeper leagues – emerging out of the Big XII. Nate Swift and R.J. Sumrall offer great numbers at wide receiver this late in the year in regular fantasy leagues, while Colorado’s Tyler Hansen and Jamie McCoy [...]

Hey, we’re a huge fan of fantasy sports – college fantasy football in particular. And we think it’s great that so many sites like NovaFantasySports.com exist out there to provide the average fan / fantasy participant plenty of insight into the players and matchups that on a week-to-week basis might serve as the storylines [...]

We venture into bigger and deeper ponds this Tuesday, October 21, 2008, scouring the BCS conferences for a few (and far-between) solid options to assist fantasy owners get through the final quarter of play for the regular fantasy season; playoffs are lurking in the near-distance and a solid free agency acquisition can truly make all [...]

In our introductory article on college fantasy football for NovaFantasySports.com, we take a closer look at players lesser known to the average collegiate team owner in hopes of identifying which ones at each key position – quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight end, and kicker – might make for worthwhile acquisitions through respective league free [...]

The New York Football Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg on Friday night, not long after being ruled out of week 13’s game against the Redskins with a hamstring injury. He spent the night in the hospital and the injuries are not believed to be life-threatening. The team is still trying to gather further information on the incident. This has been a troubled year for Burress, who opened the season with a lengthy contract dispute. He was also suspended one game in October for violating team rules, benched during another game and hit with a series of fines. The Giants are atop the NFC standings with a 10-1 record and are vying for their seventh straight win Sunday when they face Washington. Burress initially pulled his injured hamstring in the Giants’ win over Baltimore on Nov. 16. He then aggravated the injury in the opening series last Sunday against Arizona, and then sat out the rest of that game. Domenik Hixon, who is dealing with an ankle injury, will start in Burress’ place and is a terrific pickup for week 13 and beyond is Burress will miss significant time.

Eddie Royal (toe) was limited in Broncos practice again Friday and is listed as questionable on the Week 13 injury report.

The Denver beat reporters tentatively expect Royal to be out there on Sunday, but the extent of the rookie wideout’s injury is unknown and it’s possible he’s battling turf toe. Because Royal will probably be at less than full speed if he plays and the Jets-Broncos game doesn’t start until 4:15PM, it’s time to consider other options. He’ll likely be a game-time decision.

Marion Barber suffered a dislocated pinkie toe Thursday. The Cowboys don’t believe it is serious. The year of the pinkie in Dallas. “I’m optimistic about both of them,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said after the game, referring to Barber and DeMarcus Ware, who had a minor knee injury. “They’re thumbs up.” We’d still grab Tashard [...]

Redskins coach Jim Zorn considers Clinton Portis (knee, oblique) “50-50″ to play in Week 13 against the Giants. Zorn has called Portis 50-50 for the last three weeks, but he has yet to miss a game this year. Owners need to check the inactives before Sunday’s 1PM ET game against the Giants, but our guess [...]

Steven Jackson (quadriceps, questionable) was limited in Rams practice again Friday and will be a game-day decision in Week 13.

S-Jax didn’t put in a full workout all week, but the Belleville News-Democrat thinks he’ll play. “I thought he did OK,” coach Jim Haslett said. “I thought he got better as the week went on. We’ll [...]

Reggie Bush (knee) practiced on a limited basis Wednesday and reiterated that he fully anticipates facing the Bucs on Sunday.Bush says he’s cutting at full speed and was emphatic about his status for Week 13. “I’m definitely a go this week,” he said. “I know I said that last week, but…I felt good today. [...]

Playoffs start this week in many leagues, but for those of you who have yet to sew up a playoff birth, this week is equally important. The Love em Hate em column has gotten back on track going 16 for 20 last week including nailing some big games from guys like Chris Johnson, and DeAngelo [...]

Week 13 Injury Report:

Plaxico Burress (NYG) – Plax goes from a hamstring injury to a gun shot wound.  He was place on the Non-Football Injury list by the Giants ending his 2008 season and likely his tenure with the Giants.  There is a possibility that Burress could join Michael Vick in the slammer.

   Swanson’s Advice: [...]

As the first week of December is underway, the Hockey Gods, have not pulled any punches when it comes to the injuries striking our beloved NHL  franchises.News has not been good for many teams as of late, will talk about that and other teams going into thanksgiving week:

The Anaheim Ducks, only have one current injury, [...]

NHL Fantasy Hockey Player Analysis:

By: Jeremy Peterman - NovaFantasySports, NHL Correspondent

The lakes are finally starting freeze over which means it’s time to lace up those skates, re-tape your stick and head out for a competitive game up pick up with your buddies.  We head into December with the Rangers and Bruins pacing the East along [...]

By: Anthony M. Blake

The putrid Lions and delicious turkey… is there anything better than that? Not if your fantasy roster has a bunch of Titans on it this week. Of course everything at dinner will be much more appealing than the product put on the field by the Lions in recent years and 2008 is [...]

If you are interested in doing a link exchange with our website, please let us know. For a limited time only we are offering a free link exchange for all wesbites regardless of page rank. This is a great opportunity for your wesbite to be featured on a high traffic fantasy sports website with a thousands of daily viewers.

The 2008 MLB Season:  Lessons Learned — Part Five

By Jay Airheart

Hey, Happy Thanksgiving to all of you baseball fans out there, and that includes our servicemen and women around the world who are doing a lot of dirty work so that you and me don’t have to. Well, today we visit the nation’s heartland. Here, [...]

THE 2008 MLB SEASON: Lessons Learned — Part Four
By: Jay Airheart, NovaFantasySports

Today we take a look back at what is, arguably, the best division in baseball, the American League East, or should we call them the American League Beast? The only team in this division which can be labeled a “dog” is [...]

The most disturbing stat though, related to Street’s fall from grace is the decline of his K/BB ratio. From K/BB ratios of 5.2 and 5.3 in 2006 and 2007 respectively, Street posted an ugly 2.6 in 2008. He walked 3.4 batters per nine innings, which is unacceptable for a closer. You don’t want your closer having control problems. You want the ninth inning as smooth and stress-free as possible.Street is still young though, only 25 years old, and he may hold some value once Francisco Rodriguez, Brian Fuentes, and Trevor Hoffman are all gone. I presume Rockies GM Dan O’Dowd plans to flip him when the free agent closer options are gone

Today we take a look at the MLB division that confounded the so-called experts the most during 2008, the National League West. With only two teams finishing with winning records, we could call this the National League Worst, but I’ll hold off on that for now. No need for name-calling, the holiday season is rapidly approaching, after all. As soon as the turkey is consumed and the presents unwrapped, then is the time for name-calling

This probably isn’t news to anyone now, unless you haven’t been following baseball headlines. Matt Holliday has been traded to the Oakland Athletics for three players: Huston Street, Greg Smith, and Carlos Gonzales. Let’s take a look at all the players involved in this deal.
Let’s begin with the biggest name in this trade. None other than the slugger Matt Holliday. Holliday moves away from the bandbox known as Coors Park and moves to cavernous McAffee Coliseum

This week in the NBA Sunday 11/23-Saturday 11/29

By: Andrew Fabitz, NovaFantasySports

Sunday was a great start to this week in the NBA. The Celtics improved to 13-2 overall as they beat the Raptors 118-103. Ray Allen led the Celtics with 21 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and hitting 5 of 7 from three-point range. [...]

With the first month of the season in the books, there is enough of a sample to project productivity throughout the year. In this case I present to you the All-Pacific Division Fantasy Team of the Season. This will be in the standard 10 player format. Like many people, whether it is head-to-head or rotisserie leagues, I subscribe to the point guards-power forwards mantra made famous by Matthew Berry. This is why my team will include five big men and four point guards along with a small forward. My principal aim is to try to target the four rare categories of assists, three, steals and blocks and fortify these by position.

1) Devin Harris

Harris’s quickness and speed has been wide-known for years in Dallas and the Dallas management always insisted he was brimming with potential-most people just didn’t see it, considering he was about the fourth scoring option on the team (behind Dirk, Howard, and Terry). He was the only player of much value traded for [...]

Last Friday the New York Knicks made two trades designed to clear cap space for their 2010 pursuit of Lebron James. In their haste to shift long-term contacts the Knicks gave up two potential twenty point per-game scorers in Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph.

Tuesday night was a thrilling night of NBA basketball. Danny Granger led the Pacers with 34 points to help the Pacers take a victory from the Hawks 113-96. After a 6-0 start, the Hawks have lost their last 4 games to fall to 6-4. The Magic overcame Chris Bosh’s 40 points and 18 rebounds to claim a 103-90 victory in Orlando. The Heat beat the struggling Wizards, 94-87, as Dwayne Wade and Udonis Haslem both had double-doubles to lead the Heat. Wade had 19 points and 10 assists, while Haslem had 12 points and 11 rebounds for his third straight double-double. Dirk Nowitzi was hot once again scoring 32 points as the Mavericks beat up on the Bobcats 100-83. The Celtics won 110-101 over the Knicks, despite not having suspended Kevin Garnett. Garnett was suspended one game for hitting Bucks center Andrew Bogut in the face Saturday night. Lebron James led the Cavaliers with 31 points over the Nets 106-82 to improve to 9-2 overall. James became the youngest player in NBA history to reach the 11,000 point mark as the Cavaliers won their 8th game in a row.

Steve Slaton (chest) was limited in Wednesday’s practice.

The Texans will have Slaton take limited practice reps for the foreseeable future. Slaton should see upwards of 25 touches on Monday Night Football.

Browns placed QB Brady Quinn (broken finger) on injured reserve, ending his season.

Quinn finished his second NFL season having completed 45-of-89 passes with two touchdowns and two interceptions. He will be at the helm to start the 2009 season and, according to Pro Football Talk, will need to take 70 percent of the Browns’ snaps [...]

Jaguars RB Fred Taylor hinted Wednesday that he’s anticipating playing for a different team next season.”You do the math,” Taylor said. “If you were on the outside looking in, you would think a change was coming.” If Taylor leaves Jacksonville, it could mean big things for Maurice Jones-Drew in ‘09.

Tom Brady is injured, the NFL’s 2007 MVP will miss the entire 2008-2009 season as he has suffered what is being called an ACL injury. The Patriots, typically quiet about injuries held a 3pm press conference today to announce that they have placed Brady on IR, effectively ending his season

Eagles cut McDougle:
By: Joey Savino, NFS
Over the past two days NFL teams have begun submitting their final rosters. On Saturday we saw the Bengals steal the early headlines by cutting running back Rudi Johnson. Johnson was rumored to be on the bubble with the Bengals, and Cincy did him no favors by waiting [...]

On August 28th NovaFantasySports conducted its inaugural Fantasy Football Expert League draft. The league is a PPR league which features 12 of the biggest names within the fantasy sports industry. Below NovaFantasySports profiles each of the this year’s fantasy football experts who participated in this year’s fantasy football expert league draft .

NovaFantasySports hosted its first ever fantasy football expert league on August 28, 2008 by special invite only to the industry’s top owners and executives. Competition was fierce in this fantasy football expert league and below are the draft results with analysis by NovaFantasySports. Keep in mind this is a point per reception (PPR) league as are most expert leagues.

Do you have what it takes to beat the best in the business? Are you ready to stop beating up on the bush league players you have been sticking it to year in and year out? Then you have come to the right place.
The crew here at NovaFantasySports is doing something different this [...]

Over-Rated, Under-Delivering Goalies:

By Brandon C. Schwab

Questions, Comments, Concerns - leave me a comment

Marty Turco: A pathetic season so far, but he may have some upside, but I have not seen it yet.  You probably have him on your team because you drafted him in the first four rounds.  You can cut him loose; There [...]

Get them while their Hot!

By Brandon C. Schwab

For Questions, Comments or Advice - leave a comment below and I will reply

I bet you are kicking yourself for not acting on a few early season sleepers such as Devin Setoguchi, Ryan Clowe, Shea Weber, Mikko Koivu.  You even passed up a few players that may are [...]

Surfing the Internet this past Sunday, I stumbled upon a fascinating discussion from a fellow blogger.  It gave me the inspiration for this article.

There is a link to You Tube included in the blog this week for our readers and fellow bloggers to enjoy.  Perhaps they too will find their inner spirit to become one [...]

Who needs a number 1 goaltender anyway?

By Brandon C. Schwab

With some major impact goaltenders going down in the past few weeks and some stinking up their respected arenas, many fantasy hockey teams have been either scrambling around or just packed up shop for the year.  Hold on just yet, there is [...]

Fall Has Gone, But Again The Leafs Are Changing 

 By: Phil Seeto - NovaFantasySports Correspondent

I’m sure, in fact I know, that I am not the first person to be writing an article on the worst-kept secret in the NHL, the imminent hiring of Brian Burke as the Toronto Maple Leafs President and General Manager [...]

Fantasy football guru Danny Rogers will appear Live on NovaSportsPicks.com live show this morning at 11:30am EST to preview Week 4 in the NFL.
Danny will tell give you the most up to date news about possible injuries, and will then field LIVE CALLERS and answer all their questions about how to start and [...]

Fantasy Football expert Danny Rogers appears on the show each and every Saturday morning at 11:30Am EST and answers questions from callers about who to sit, who to start, and who to avoid for Week 3 in the NFL. Do not miss the show each and every week. All you need is a telephone to get your fantasy football questions answered. This week Danny Rogers answers questions about the injuries surrounding fantasy stars such as Darren McFadden, LaDainian Tomlinson, Braylon Edwards and more.

Fantasy football guru Danny Rogers appears on NovaSportsPicks.com and recaps Week 2 in the NFL. Danny appeared on the show on Saturday and gave his analysis on a number of games and J Diggs from NovaSportsPicks.com runs through a few of the games with Danny and asks him for his Monday Night football analysis.

Danny Rogers of NovaFantasySports gives his fantasy football week 2 start em sit em live on novasportspicks fantasy football podcast

The Reds have had a slow start to the campaign, but everything is coming together for them. I can only see the reigning champions at home and on the continent continuing to improve over the next few months. Both Carrick and Hargreaves are back in contention after recovering from injuries. I will tip Carrick to start in a strong midfield. Berbatov is beginning to show how tricky he can be as a player, and Wayne Rooney is in simply blistering form. Add Ronaldo, Tevez, and old man Giggs to the mix and you have a recipe for annihilation. I would strongly recommend having Edwin Van der Sar in your team as I sense that United will pick up a clean sheet playing at home

Lets face it, international football (the World Cup and Euros apart) is far less interesting than the frantic pace of the Premier League. But for fantasy football, paying attention to international matchups is extremely important for several reasons. Of utmost importance is to watch out for any long term injuries to your players. Second, you have to think about player fatigue. Although many top players are involved in international qualification, they usually return to their clubs quite weary. You have to realize that their productivity is likely to be temporarily stalled at club level.