College Football Championship Highlights Stump the Stiffs This Week

First things first, last week in StS Coach Gibson Pyper of the Stiffs Staff went 5-0.

We’ve been telling you all season that is was just a matter of time until the Stiffs Staff went on their run, and now the day has come. This week I won’t lie, the NBA schedule is a bit rough. Most of the match ups look pretty one sided but luckily the stronger teams are in general on the road so that should hopefully provide for a few upsets. Our special pick this week is the College Football National Championship. Now in it’s second year, the college football playoff system pits the winners of two previous match ups against one another to determine the champion. While the selection process, in my opinion, is pretty much a joke and completely designed to drum up ratings as much as possible for the championship game, this year the committee did pretty good in setting up Clemson vs Alabama.

As for this weeks combatants, from our Stiffs Staff side we have yours truly. While I have terrible luck with the games that I preview (still only one victory on the season…against the 76ers) I’d like to think I am decent enough at making the StS picks. From the Stiffs Commenters we have the boy who became a man here on the site, It’s the LAW SON. Finally representing the Nuggets subreddit we have /u/theheffalump. Pick time!

Zach Mikash: Given that the Grizzlies will be sans their starting back court while the Nuggets could have the full roster, I like Denver in the match up. The Pacers are playing some of the best basketball in the league right now, and while I'm not sold on the Pelicans being as bad as their record indicates, I still don't think they have the fire power to overcome Indiana. The Mavericks have owned the Bucks recently and plenty of their players got to rest up on their previous match up, give me the Mavs. The Wizards have played Toronto tough in both of their previous match ups and it took a buzzer beater from the Raptors to win the last time the game was played in D.C. a bit of an underdog pick but I'll take the Wizards. Clemson has been a great story all season and DeShaun Watson is an excellent college quarterback. The problem is Alabama is superior in talent at virtually every other position. Watson would need an epic performance a la Vince Young vs USC to overcome the Crimson Tide and I just don't see it happening.

It’s the LAW SON: I will start with the Nuggets, who need to get off this skid at some point, and what better way to do it than against a Memphis team that keeps playing its starters heavy minutes over and over again. This game won’t be played on a back to back either, so I really do like the Nuggets in this game, especially because we will likely see Jusuf Nurkic and Marc Gasol go toe to toe! In the other games, I like the Pacers to be a fast paced mismatch against the Pelicans and their awful defense. Paul George is still Paul George, and the Pelicans don’t have anyone to guard him unless they stick Anthony Davis on him, which then opens up the lane completely. The Mavericks will beat the Bucks because they beat them last match up while Dirk shot 3/15. That will likely not happen again. The Raptors win the next game because they won’t be fresh off of a demoralizing loss to the Cavaliers like the Wizards will be. Kyle Lowry bests John Wall, and Demar Derozan continues to prove he’s a top 5 SG against Bradley Beal. Finally, I’m going with the First Order…..I mean Alabama, against Clemson. Their defense is simply too dominant on all three levels, and while Clemson is very talented and has Watson, Derrick Henry is the Heisman winner for good reason, and he will either rush for 150+ or the Tigers over commit to him, leaving Calvin Ridley one on one outside. Alabama wins handily.

/u/theheffalump: The Milwaukee Bucks have gone from NBA darlings to NBA who ‘gives-a-shit’s in less than one calendar year. After trading away key rotation players Zaza Pachulia and Jared Dudley and signing Greg Monroe this off season the Bucks have performed poorly. To top it all off the Bucks have recently lost head coach Jason Kidd to injury. Speaking of Zaza, he now starts for the Mavericks who will beat the Bucks in Milwaukee. The Nuggets and the Grizzlies expect to have their starting point guards Emmanuel Mudiay and Mike Conley returning to their lineups. I think the Nuggets bigs will hold their own against Gasol and the Griz front court, but ultimately the turnovers committed by Mudiay and the Denver back court will doom the Nuggets, so being the reasonable fan I am, I pick the Nuggets to win. With DeMarre Carroll out for 6-8 weeks the Toronto Raptors will fall to the Washington Wizards led by John Wall and the newly ‘healthy’ Nene. It is tough to put much faith in a team that has Alonzo Gee and Omer Asik in its starting lineup. Davis is a great player but he needs help. George and the Pacers take this one from the Pelicans with ease. I don’t watch a lot of football, but that Nick Saban fellow seems to know a thing or two about tossin’ the ol’ pigskin, So I am picking Alabama 27-24.

So basically everyone agrees this week with the exception of the Wizards/Raptors game. Perhaps next week we'll start picking against the spread. If you'd like to get involved, please reach out to Russ Hamilton (@rscotham) on the Stiffs Commenter side or Alec Gwin (@alecgwin) on the Nuggets Subreddit side.

If you're keeping score:

Stiffs Staff: 21-29

Stiffs Commenters: 22-28

Nuggets Subreddit: 29-21

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