It's time for Patrick to shut up and drive

Autoracing Betting Lines

05/25/2010 - Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Danica Patrick's faithful fans, "The Danica-Maniacs," are beside themselves right now after their celeb driver dissed her Andretti Autosport team following her less-than-stellar qualifying run for the Indianapolis 500 this past weekend.

IndyCar's golden child put her foot in her mouth big time when she publicly expressed her frustrations with the setup of her GoDaddy.com sponsored car during post-qualifying interviews last Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Patrick's four-lap average of 224.271 m.p.h. placed her 23rd on the starting grid, which by far was her worst qualifying effort at Indy.

"I think it was absolutely awful," Patrick said during an interview that was broadcast over the track's public address system. "I wasn't flat the last two laps, and I was scared to death flat the first two. And it didn't get better. The problem is that the car can be fast. You trim it out and it accelerates, so there's no issue there. It's just that the balance and the car itself is so bad. We can't even trim it out to go faster. By the sounds of the trim numbers, I think we're pretty excessive anyway.

"I'm very, very disappointed. I've never been bad here before. I've never been outside the top 10 on a finish or qualifying, so it's not my fault. This car is not good."

Patrick's comments led to a roar of boos from her disgruntled fans at the famed Brickyard, which at first, blind-sided the 28-year-old driver.

"I say one confident thing out there that it's not me, and everybody boos me," she said. "I'm blown away...I don't know, maybe they all booed me before. I would think that some of them have probably cheered for me before, and I'm not a different driver than I was five years ago. I don't know if those people were here five years ago."

Patrick has since come to her senses and been apologetic for her remarks. But that hasn't repaired the damaged she's done.

Teammate Tony Kanaan said he spoke with Patrick in length following Saturday's "Pole Day."

"I think she realized what she did, and we sometimes say things that we don't want to say and we regret," Kanaan said. "She definitely needs to change her attitude...She's not happy with herself right now."

The last thing team owner Michael Andretti needed was an outburst from Patrick. Kanaan barely made it into the Indy 500 after crashing in each of the two days of qualifying. He will start 32nd in the 33-car field. Andretti's other drivers struggled as well, with Mark Andretti starting 16th, Ryan Hunter-Reay 17th and John Andretti 28th.

Since her 2005 IndyCar rookie season, Patrick has been a fan favorite and one of motorsports' most marketable figures. She's been pretty superb at Indy as well, finishing third in last year's race and fourth in the '05 event.

Patrick has captured more attention lately than at any other time in her racing career. She made her foray into stock car racing earlier this year, competing in the ARCA Series season-opener at Daytona and then the first three NASCAR Nationwide Series races -- Daytona, California and Las Vegas.

But Patrick is dealing with a somewhat disappointing IndyCar season so far, as she currently sits 16th in points after finishing a career-best fifth last year.

Has her experimentation in NASCAR cut into her IndyCar efforts? Time will tell. Her next scheduled Nationwide start occurs the last weekend in June at New Hampshire.

For the moment, it's time for Patrick to stop with her whining and start focusing more on racing.

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Numerous College Basketball teams take final big step to March Madness betting

So, what turned on the lock spigot? Well, after what felt like weeks of teams treading water and slipping back into the bubble muck, a bunch of them finally decided to say "to heck with parity" and won games that should put them into the Big Dance.

Disagree with some of these? Then here's the challenge. Take all of the "should be ins" and make a legit case that each should be ahead of the team that's a lock. Then find 10 more teams that also should be placed in the bracket ahead of that lock team. Not so easy, is it?

If you want more evidence that these locks should be good to go, check out what our research department dug up. Since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, only six teams from a "big six" conference have had a record of 10-6 or better in conference play and not been selected: Colorado (2004) and Nebraska (1999) from the Big 12, Boston College and Seton Hall (both 2003) from the Big East, Indiana (2005) from the Big Ten and UCLA, which somehow went 12-6 in the Pac-10 in 1988 and still missed out. (Note: Five teams went 11-7 and didn't get in, the latest being last season's Stanford team, which had a brutal nonconference run.)

Yes, 10 conference wins doesn't always mean what it used to because of unbalanced schedules, but this season, it should be plenty good in all but the extreme cases (see: Iowa).

In a way, this is a welcome development, because this is a bubble watch, not a lock watch. We can finally be done with teams like Maryland and Virginia Tech and start really bearing down on at-large battles such as Syracuse-West Virginia and Appalachian State-Georgia Tech.

Interestingly, all the shifting of teams into lock status appears to be more administrative than impactful. The number of remaining available at-larges didn't change one iota. The only difference is that teams on the bubble now have a clearer idea of which team(s) they are competing with for those precious bids.

The Bubble Breakdown
CONFERENCE LOCKS SHOULD BE INS AT-LARGES TAKEN
(assuming no auto bid outlier)
ACC Betting Odds 6 0 5
Big East Betting Odds 5 0 4
Big Ten Betting Odds 2 2 3
Big 12 Betting Odds 3 0 2
Pac-10 Betting Odds 5 1 5
SEC Betting Odds 4 0 3
MVC Betting Odds 1 1 1
MWC Betting Odds 2 1 2
TOTAL 28 5 25

As always, I've tried to be as inclusive as possible while only including teams that would have a reasonable chance of at least being discussed if this were Selection Sunday. If your team's not on here, there's probably a good reason (or three) -- start with the RPI and SOS numbers and work your way down.

(Please remember, per selection committee criteria, that records displayed are Division I only. Next update: Feb. 28)

If you have a legitimate grievance, or just like talking bubble, send an e-mail. Polite ones with fact-based arguments have a much better chance of receiving a response. I apologize in advance if I can't get back to all of you.

Atlantic Coast Conference

Work left to do: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech

The ACC moves to six locks as BC, Va Tech and Virginia all got their 10th ACC wins, which should be more than enough this season, and Maryland rallied past North Carolina to get the final piece the Terps needed. After that? It could end there unless FSU, Ga Tech or Clemson picks things up in a hurry.

 

Work left to do:

Clemson [19-9 (5-9), RPI: 41, SOS: 42] The Tigers are closer to locking up the collapse of the year award (in a good battle with OK State) than they are to grabbing an at-large. Clemson's been very competitive, but there's no really positive way you can spin nine losses in 11 games. They now cannot get to .500 in ACC play and still must head to Virginia Tech in the season finale (after hosting Miami). Unless the Tigers win both and/or do some serious work in the ACC tourney, they very well could be left out. There are no great nonconference wins, but ODU, App State, Miss. State, South Carolina and Georgia are all respectable W's.

Florida State [18-11 (6-9), RPI: 48, SOS: 14] The Noles got thrashed at Maryland to run their losing streak to five, but then pounded NC State at home to set the table for what likely is an elimination game at Miami. You can at least make a case for the Seminoles at 7-9 in ACC play (and some work in the ACC tourney), but 6-10 is not going to cut it. Wins at Duke and over Florida will resonate, but the computer numbers remain questionable. Beyond Florida, FSU thrashed bubble buddy Providence, but there's not a ton beyond those two games that will help. They didn't show well in big-time opportunities against Pitt and Wisconsin (before the Florida win).

Georgia Tech [18-10 (6-8), RPI: 51, SOS: 46] The Jackets beat Wake on Wednesday but couldn't get it done at UVa on Saturday, which could be a crucial loss with UNC and BC (both at home) remaining and 8-8 almost a certain need for at-large consideration. A nonconference win over Memphis helps, but the RPI and SOS are not at-large quality right now; if you combine those with a sub-.500 ACC mark, that could spell NIT for GT.

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