Monday 1/7

Only two games on the calendar tonight as college football plays its last game of the 2007-08 season, the national title between Ohio State and Louisiana State. If you're a college football fan, you might be looking towards next season already or towards the NFL draft. Well, there is some exciting news out of college football and the BCS as they will look at a +1 system for deciding a national champion. I personally have been rather indifferent over the system in place, but I can sympathize with the cons more than the pros. Before getting to basketball, I'll give some of my thoughts on this year's NFL Draft and how I expect the top of fantasy football to happen.

I'm not Mel Kiper Jr. but I know that Run DMC is a top prospect and I can't see Miami passing him up at number one even if they do have a great running back already in Ronnie Brown, but he's dealing with a pretty serious injury and it's going to take him a while to get back. Glenn Dorsey's the other guy. He is going to be a game-changer on defense with his size, speed and strength. If Miami passes on McFadden, they better take Dorsey. Bill Parcells is a smart guy, he'll do the right thing. Another thing about the draft is the QB's. Normally, there's always a top quarterback prospect that at least might go number one. That guy was supposed to be Brian Brohm preseason, but Louisville had a terribly disappointing season and now the top prospect is Matt Ryan out of Boston College. This might only be me, but I don't believe he's going to be enough of a wow-player to go number one.

As for fantasy, McFadden's got a shot to be a factor. He won't be Adrian Peterson, but he could rush for 1000 yards and get 5-6 TD's in limited starts. Anyways, my top five picks for next season would be:

1. LaDainian Tomlinson - He gets 15 TD's year in, year out. How can you possibly pass on him.

2. Adrian Peterson - He's amazing. I'm wowed by his raw ability, but if I get the second pick, I'd rather trade it. I just don't trust his durability.

3. Brian Westbrook - Not underrated anymore, although I disagree with what all the experts say. I never drafted him early because he's never stayed healthy, but he showed he could last season and was ridiculous.

4. Steven Jackson - He's almost like the Gilbert Arenas of the NFL. He loves to talk and set high expectations for himself. The second part is what's important, especially if all that talent arount him stays healthy.

5. Tom Brady - Randy Moss would probably be number 6 on my list, but both these guys move down if they split up, which is all up to Moss.

Honestly, even though quarterbacks and wide receivers were so productive this season, I'm going to go running back-running back next season in the first two rounds. People are going rank Tom Brady and Tony Romo 1-2 in the QB rankings and I won't get either of them, but if Peyton Manning or Carson Palmer drops to the third round, I'll have myself a sick team already. It is too early to speculate though because this NFL season isn't even over yet.

So I'll move onto Monday night's basketball games, Denver @ Phoenix and San Antonio @ Golden State:

The first game was DEN@PHX and honestly nothing was too new in this game. As expected, the game was ridiculously high scoring with Phoenix leading 46-34 after one and it was 106-90 after three. In the first half the story was Marion, who had five 3's and 23 pts, 9 rebs and AI who had 17 pts in the first quarter. I was going to drop Nene after this contest, but in garbage time, he upped his game numbers to 12-9, which is solid considering he's getting 20 min/game consistently right now. Not really anyone you could pick up from these two teams since most the important players should be owned.

The other game was THE game of the night. Golden State pulled out the narrow victory at home in OT against the San Antonio Spurs. Before getting to the fantasy aspect of this game, I got to say that Baron Davis went completely unconscious down the stretch in this game. He's big game and took it to another level when it counted. He made all the big plays for his team by passing and hitting shots late in the shot clock. San Antonio showed their poise, pushing the game to OT, but lost it late as they just couldn't keep up with the explosive Warrior team.

Finally, Tim Duncan started this game, which is good since he's been a bit injury-prone in his career. As for Finley, it's probably time to drop him. Manu's coming off the bench, but he's getting more minutes and more into the offense, which diminishes Finley's role. Finley will play his 25-30 minutes, but his production will be erratic so it's tough to say when to start him or not. He had a decent game with double digit scoring, but scoring is probably all he'll give you most nights. He's still a decent option, but if there's someone better on waivers, go ahead and use Finley as your drop. I will probably wait for a down night before I drop him though. Bench players on the GS provided a boost in this game, but none of those swingmen among Matt Barnes, Kelenna Azubuikke and Mickael Pietrus have been consistent enough to own except in the deepest leagues. If you're desperate for a SG/SF position player, look for the hottest of those three and grab him for a spot start, but don't expect him to be a long term option.