Prospects Plus: North Carolina's J.B. Bukauskas

 
Name: J.B. Bukauskas

Team: North Carolina 

Position: Pitcher

Rank:  #2 ranked college player for the 2017 draft

Friday vs Clemson: 5 + innings, 5 hits, 2 earned runs, no walks,  7 strikeouts.

Positives: During the 2014 MLB Draft, Bukauskas was one of my favorite players. He had a live arm and was going to be a top round draft pick. But instead of heading to the draft out of high school, JB told teams not to draft him so he could head to North Carolina. During the game on Friday afternoon, Bukauskas showed a great fastball as well as a wipe out change up. During the game he topped out at 95 mph, his change, which showed great movement was around 84 mph. Looked extremely polished for a young college pitcher. 

Negative: He's got a reliever's delivery with a lot of effort and inconsistent command; small frame inhibits ability to drive with the leg, putting more stress on the arm, and lack of finish could cause problems in the future. Big effort in the delivery will always limit the command upside, but there are flashes that he can at least be average placing the ball where he needs to against advanced hitters.

A tale of two brackets

This year I allowed my 5-year old son to fill out his first bracket for March Madness. He went with SMU, he has a thing for Larry Brown.

While I went with the Big Blue Nation capping a perfect season. 

RIP Dean

Dean Smith was the reason I fell in love with North Carolina Basketball. He was the God father. I'm just happy I've been able to read about his life over the years. 

The Cover Story: Selection Sunday

Here is a look  at how newspapers around the country covered Selection Sunday. 

It's tourney time

After months of waiting the NCAA Lacrosse tournament is set to start. Here are our picks for the opening round of the tournament:

• Lehigh (12-4) at No. 5 North Carolina (12-3): North Carolina 
• Yale (11-4) at No. 8 Penn State (12-4):  Yale 
• Detroit (5-9) at No. 2 Notre Dame (10-4): Notre Dame
• Albany (13-4) at No. 4 Denver (12-4): Albany  
• Towson (10-7) at No. 3 Ohio State (12-3): Ohio State 
• Loyola (Md.) (11-4) at No. 7 Duke (12-5): Loyola 
• Bryant (8-10) at No. 1 Syracuse (13-3): Cuse 
• Cornell (12-3) at No. 6 Maryland (10-3): Cornell  

Prospects Plus: Colin Moran

Name: Colin Moran
School: North Carolina
Prospect Status: 2013 draft eligible
Position: 3B
Monday night vs. Clemson: 1 for 4 with a home run and 3 RBI

Positives: Watched him during his game against Clemson on Monday night. During his first at bat Moran showed a good eye in drawing a walk. During his second at bat Moran hit an opposite field home run, nice powering going the other way. If a team drafts him, they are drafting a bat. Moran is one of the best pure hitters in his class and his bat has the potential to carry him a long way at the next level. While power development will eventually play a large role in how successful he is as a hitter, the pure hitting tools are evident and he has the statistics to back them up

Weakness: Moran isn't exceptional defensively and he won't be anything more than average at third base at the next level. 

It will never be the same

For all of the talk last week of Big East Tournament ending as we know it. The grand daddy of them all, The ACC Tournament, is set to go through changes that will change it forever. With all of the talk of the possibly moving the ACC tournament to NYC, Greensboro and ACC are at a crossroads. As a fan of the ACC, the last place that I want to see the tournament its home is in Greensboro. Yes Greensboro.

Once a Heel always a Heel

So it did not go the way of the Tar Heels in the ACC final.
Despite the loss this team continues to grow and one of those in particular that has grown is freshman point guard Marcus Paige. After the game Paige tweeted about the loss and former Heels All American Sean May was quick to offer so positive words for the point guard. It's good to see a former Heel supporting a current one

OTWT NCAA Selection Committee Thoughts

So we have our field of 68 for the NCAA Tournament and for the most part you can't argue with the teams selections. The biggest issue I have with this committee is the seeding of the teams that they selected.

Here are some quick thoughts about the field:

• How is Miami not a number 1 seed. They won the ACC regular season and tournament title and they are only a 2 seed. Would that have happened if this was UNC or Duke.
• The committee must hate Larry Scott the Pac 12. How does the Pac 12 tournament champion, Oregon, ended up with a 12 seed. A 12 seed from a power conference is usually saved for one of the last at-large bids from a power league, not a tournament champion that was ranked for most of the year. 
• A couple of upsets: Colorado over Illinois; Ole Miss over Wisconsin; and Oregon over Okie State.
• Players that America will get to know: Colorado guard Spencer Dinwiddie and Ole Miss guard Marshall Henderson. 

Cover Story: The Final Four

Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio State and Louisville are headed for the Big Easy for the Final Four this weekend. Here is how some of the newspapers around the country cover the Elite Eight this weekend.

Kendall Marshall's wrist is a social media star

While North Carolina fans continue to hold their breathes over Kendall Marshall wrist. The injury has become famous on social medial. Around the country people are supporting Marshall on twitter with the hashtag #PassFir5t.

Cover Story: Selection Sunday

Selection Sunday is one of the most stressful days for a college basketball program and this years was no different. A couple of years ago, we posted front pages from around the country detailing Selection Sunday, today we revisit that idea.

Its move in day in Bracketville

In honor of the field of 68 being announced, here is my favorite ad campaign developed for the NCAA Tournament. In 2000, Nike developed the concept of Bracketville and I loved it.It's a whole town dedicated to March Madness

 


The Bracketville Fruit Stand.
 

The Bracketville Hardware Stand

Now this is old school

A shirt I found in my closet. The shirt is now 14 years old, I have no idea why I still have it. Go Heels.

This Map Explains Everything

This map breaks down all that is good with America.

Live Blogging: Duke vs. North Carolina Round 1

College Basketball: The Cover Story

The college basketball season is here and here are the Sporting News covers for their college basketball preview issues.

OTWT Mock MLB Draft

The Scouting Staff of OTWT has been locked away in the its bunker for the last couple of days, going over the top prospects in the upcoming baseball draft and coming up with its annual mock draft. Last year, we did it and it did not turn out that well. So here goes.

1 Pittsburgh Pirates: Gerrit Cole, RHP, UCLA

2 Seattle Mariners: Danny Hultzen, LHP, UVa

3 Arizona Diamondbacks: Anthony Rendon, 3B, Rice

4 Baltimore Orioles: Sonny Gray, RHP, Vanderbilt

5 Kansas City Royals: Tyler Jungmann, RHP, Texas

6 Washington Nationals: Alex Meyers, RHP, Kentucky

7 Arizona Diamondbacks: Dylan Bundy, RHP, Owasso (Oklahoma) HS

8 Cleveland Indians: Jed Bradley, LHP, Georgia Tech

9 Chicago Cubs: Bubba Sterling, OF, Gardner-Edgerton (Oklahoma) HS

10 San Diego Padres: Trevor Bauer, RHP, UCLA

11 Houston Astros: Francisco Lindor, SS, Montverde Academy (Fla)

12 Milwaukee Brewers: Taylor Guerrieri, RHP, Spring Valley HS (SC)

13 New York Mets: George Springer, OF, UConn

14: Florida Marlins: Archie Bradley, RHP, Broken Arrow HS (Okalahoma)

15 Milwaukee Brewers: Larry Green, OF, Berrien County HS (Georgia)

16 Los Angeles Dodgers: Tyler Anderson, LHP, Oregon

17 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim: Brandon Nimmo, OF, East HS (Wyo)

18 Oakland Athletics: Mikie Mahtook, OF, LSU

19 Boston Red Sox: Matt Barnes, RHP, UConn

20 Colorado Rockies: Kolten Wong, 2B, Hawaii

21 Toronto Blue Jays: Josh Bell, OF, Dallas Jesuit HS (TX)

22 St. Louis Cardinals: Javier Baez, SS, Arlington Country Day HS (Fla)

23 Washington Nationals: CJ Cron, 1B, Utah

OTWT Draft Predictions

Everyone does it so why not OTWT, so here is our Top 10 NFL Mock Draft:

1. Carolina (2-14): Cam Newton, QB, Auburn

2. Denver (4-12):  Marcell Dareus, DT, Alabama

3. Buffalo (4-12): Von Miller, DE, Texas A&M

4. Cincinnati (4-12): AJ Green, WR, Georgia

5. Arizona (5-11): Patrick Peterson, DB, LSU

6. Cleveland (5-11): Julio Jones, WR, Alabama

7. San Francisco (6-10): Blaine Gabbert, QB, Missouri

8. Tennessee (6-10): Jake Locker, QB, Washington

9. Dallas (6-10): Tyron Smith, OL, USC

10. Washington (6-10): Robert Quinn, DE, North Carolina

Land of the Children

The old saying goes: "and a child shall lead them", well at North Carolina that has been the case on the both the basketball court and the lacrosse field. Both teams have been lead by a freshman that are well beyond their years. In basketball the team was carried in the second half of the season by Harrison Barnes (above), while on the lacrosse field the team has been lead by Nicky Galasso (below).

The pair both have a ton in common. Barnes came to North Carolina as the number one player in high school basketball, while Galasso showed up on campus as the best high school lacrosse player in the counry. The two have also fit in really well with their teams. Barnes, after a slow start, came on as the season went on as other members of the teams started to see the skill set that he had. The same is true with Galasso, as the year has gone on he has become a focal point of the offense with his goal scoring and playmaking skills.

While freshman are making an impact at a variety of sports across the board, its rare to see two that are this good, playing this well at the same school. North Carolina has truely become the Land of the Children