Swick in The Midst of the Middleweight Mix

Mike Swick was on top of the world.Just a few weeks after scoring the biggest win of his mixed martial arts career by outpointing former world title challenger David Loiseau, the middleweight contender was ready and more than willing to take the next step in his career and he wasn’t shy about letting everyone know about it, even if that meant putting his usual laid-back demeanor to the side for one night.

That night was October 14, 2006, and the shock of Anderson Silva’s dominating UFC middleweight title winning effort over Rich Franklin was just starting to sink in. In fact, based on Silva’s performance that night, no 185-pound contender would be brash enough to call the new champion out.

Swick did at the UFC 64 post-fight press conference, and over the next couple of weeks, the Houston native made the media rounds, pleading his case as the next logical challenger for Silva.

It was all good stuff, but as the weeks went by, Swick’s name started to move further and further down the pecking order. ‘The Ultimate Fighter 4’ winner Travis Lutter would get the next shot at Silva in February; Nathan Marquardt is next in July, and Franklin will probably get a rematch before the end of the year.

Swick? He returns to the Octagon for the first time since last October to face Japan’s Yushin Okami on April 7th’s UFC 69 card.

“I’m not really focused on it right now,” said Swick when asked if it was a letdown to not get the immediate shot at the title. “At the time I was trying to get the shot – it seemed like a good fight, careerwise, for me right then. But right now I can only focus on the fight ahead, and that’s Okami. Without the win against Okami, nothing else really matters, so I’m focused on going down to Houston in front of my hometown crowd and putting on a great show and getting another win in the UFC.”

It’s the right thing to say, but is it really how Swick feels about the situation?

“I try not to think about it,” he admits. “Ideally, being in this sport and being a career fighter, you want to have a shot at the champ and you want to be the champ, but when you know it’s not gonna happen, you try not to think about it, and you do what you have to do to make sure that you deserve it and get it as soon as possible.”

To move forward and keep his name on the short list of title challengers at 185 pounds, Swick has a tough test coming up next week in the form of Okami, the last man to hold a win over Silva (albeit via disqualification in January of 2006), and a fighter who has put together three consecutive UFC victories without a loss. Even more telling is the fact that with each win, Okami has looked more and more impressive, decisioning Alan Belcher and then scoring third round stoppages of Kalib Starnes and Rory Singer. He’s one of the rare fighters that gets stronger as the fight goes on, and given Loiseau’s third round push against a tiring Swick in their fight last September, this bout becomes very interesting if it enters the third and final round. Swick doesn’t necessarily agree.

“There were definitely some reasons why I went downhill in the third against Loiseau and I won’t make those mistakes coming into this fight,” he said. “It was a bad fight for me, it was a bad fight for Loiseau as well, and it’s a lesson learned. I’m a lot more prepared for this fight than I was for Loiseau and I honestly don’t think it’s going to go to the third. If it does, I’ll be ready. I’m gonna put a different kind of pressure on him than he’s used to. He hasn’t fought anyone, especially in the UFC, that’s gonna put the pressure on that I’m gonna put, so we’ll see how he reacts.”

Unfortunately for Swick, who is 5-0 with three stoppages and two submissions in the UFC, a win over the largely unknown Kanagawa native won’t get him the same type of bump up in recognition a win over one of the bigger names at 185 pounds would get him.

“It’s always a concern when you fight someone who people don’t know, especially a guy who’s as tough as Okami and who has the record he has,” said Swick. “Then you tell people who you’re gonna fight and they look at you like ‘who’s that guy?’ In your mind, you know he’s a really talented fighter, so it stinks that everybody doesn’t know how good he really is and what you’re going up against. Again, there’s not much I can really do about it. I just want to go out there and get a good win and the people who do know Okami will know how tough he is and how legitimate an opponent he is.”

And despite Okami’s lack of a high-profile here in the United States, he is a legitimate middleweight contender and not the fighter most would want to face in their first bout off a six-month layoff, like Swick is after damaging ligaments in his left hand during the Loiseau bout. Swick doesn’t want any tune-up fights though, and he believes that with the high-impact training he does at the American Kickboxing Academy Gym in San Jose, ring rust won’t be a factor.

“We fight in the gym and there’s been plenty of times where I’ve had five or six months between fights, and even in the UFC, I was injured after the Gideon Ray fight and had a pretty big break, so it’s not a big concern about the ring rust,” said Swick. “When we fight in the gym, it’s like a fight. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we get in there and spar and it’s every bit as tough as when you’re fighting in the Octagon. I get punched, I get exhausted, I get worn out, and I dig deep. I fight different opponents at the gym every round. You’re not fighting one guy for three, four, or five rounds. And with training partners like Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck, Jake Shields, Gilbert Melendez, Cain Velasquez, Josh Thomson, and Bobby Southworth, that’s a lot of great talent jumping in on you, so when you go to the fight, you know you’re only fighting one guy.”

What about overtraining and leaving your fight in the gym, especially with an eight week camp under your belt?

“We’ve been monitoring to make sure that doesn’t become an issue,” said Swick, and luckily for him, training and preparing for the fight have been the only things he’s had to deal with, which is surprising since he is returning to fight in Texas for the first time since 1998.

“I haven’t been bombarded too bad about it,” he said. “A lot of people bought tickets and my mom has been my little spokesperson for Houston so she’s dealing with everything. All my friends and family go through her – she’s putting out bulletins and where everybody’s meeting for the weigh-ins and stuff like that. She’s my Team Swick representative (Laughs).”

Plus, given his unofficial role as UFC spokesman ever since ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ aired in 2005, Swick is more than ready for the media blitz that will hit him in Houston next week.

“I’m used to dealing with 50 things at one time,” he chuckles. “I’m not really comfortable unless I’m doing all these things at once, so it doesn’t really bother me. I lead a really busy life and I’m a multitasker, so it’s not a big deal. As far as the media is concerned, I think it (his past history dealing with the press) is gonna be very beneficial. Being on the Ultimate Fighter, since it was a TV show, we had to do a lot more media than normal fighters that are just coming into the UFC for their first fight. So right from the start we just got bombarded. It gave us a lot of experience with the media and I’ve just pursued it above and beyond everyone else because I know it’s hugely important for your career to be in front of the media, do the interviews, give back to the fans, and stuff like that.”

When it comes down to it though, Mike Swick is a fighter, and at 27, he’s approaching his prime and preparing for his assault on the elite of the division. So drawing the line between life as a fighter and life as a celebrity is no problem for him. He knows where his heart is.

“The competition aspect and the fighting is my true passion,” he said. “That’s what gets me up every morning. Of course the publicity and extracurricular activities are great and fun, but that’s not my passion. My passion is to be the best in the world. I’m very competitive, I love to train, I love to fight, and I won’t lose focus of that because without winning fights, everything else isn’t gonna be there.”

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Bob Geren has repeated it again and again: He has no plans to overhaul the way the Oakland Athletics go about winning each year with a small budget.
Why change things when the A’s won 93 games, the AL West and finally their first playoff series in 16 years?
Yet the team starts the season with a new manager, Geren. He replaces Ken Macha, whose trip to the AL championship series wasn’t enough to save his job.
Having a healthy Rich Harden and Bobby Crosby is another change the team would embrace. But Oakland is used to this, the team has spent the past two seasons finding ways to make up for the losses of key players to injury.
And speaking of filling holes, the A’s are minus Barry Zito and Frank Thomas as they begin 2007 trying to defend their division title and make another deep postseason run.
Zito, the 2002 AL Cy Young award winner and final member of the former Big Three to leave town , was a quirky left-hander and leader of the pitching staff, while the Big Hurt hit a team-leading 39 home runs during his only season in the East Bay.
General manager Billy Beane, always forced to be creative in putting a winning product on the field. He promoted his good friend Geren from bench coach to manager and brought in Mike Piazza to replace Thomas at DH. Piazza will shed his catcher’s gear for the first time in a 15-year big league career.
“He has a lot to offer. He’s been in both leagues and can help a lot of guys,” said Beane, who doesn’t intend to use Piazza as a catcher at all. “It’s more the value of Mike’s bat. We don’t want to risk losing it. He’s a valuable part of our lineup.”
A healthy Harden, joined by talented returners Dan Haren, Esteban Loaiza and Joe Blanton, should help take away the sting of losing Zito to the San Francisco Giants for $126 million over seven years.
Crosby and second baseman Mark Ellis also head into the year hoping to stay on the field and off the disabled list.
“Sure we lost Zito, sure we lost Thomas, sure we lost (Jay) Payton,” closer Huston Street said. “You can’t replace those guys. With a healthy Ellis, a healthy Crosby and Harden, and you look at our pitching staff, it’s about as good as there is, as long as we keep everybody healthy.”
The A’s lost in four games to the Detroit Tigers in the AL championship series last October after winning their first playoff series since 1990. Oakland had missed the postseason the previous two years after four straight first-round exits.
Piazza is committed to helping the A’s make another deep run, all the way to the World Series this club believes it has the talent to win.
“You can see why this has been a very successful organization,” Piazza said. “They treat you with a lot of respect. They treat you like an adult.” Piazza realizes he has his work cut out for him replacing Thomas at the DH spot.
Aside from his 39 homers, Thomas drove in a team-high 114 runs in 137 games in 2006, remaking himself with Oakland after two injury-shortened seasons with the Chicago White Sox. He homered twice in Game 1 of a division-series sweep of Minnesota last October — his first postseason homers since 1993 — and also had a hit in both Games 2 and 3 to finish the first round at .500
(5-for-10).
“It’s too much pressure,” Piazza joked about needing to produce even more. “I’m just as curious as anybody. … Obviously, Frank set an incredibly high bar here last year at the DH position. I really think it would be foolish of me to try to measure up to that. I feel like I have to be the hitter I am.”
The 25-year-old Harden, a hard-throwing right-hander, went 4-0 with a 4.24 ERA in only nine starts last season, spending two stints on the disabled list.
Harden, who won 10 games in 2005 and 11 in ‘04, missed more than five weeks with a back strain. On June 5, two days after he returned, he went back on the DL with a strained ligament in his right elbow.
He also missed more than two months in 2005. Harden returned for the ALCS and took a 3-0 loss as the starter
in Game 3.
“I think last year we showed how resilient we were without him,” reliever Justin Duchscherer said. “This is only a bonus. He can flat out dominate. He has so much potential and he hasn’t been able to reach it yet. If he can stay healthy, he’s as good as anyone.”
Already, though, the A’s are dealing with the injury bug. Center fielder Mark Kotsay could be sidelined until early June following arthroscopic surgery on his back March 8. Backup outfielder Bobby Kielty had a scope on his knee in early March.
Whatever happens with the roster, the A’s always seem to adapt.
“It’s weird, isn’t it? You don’t realize until the winter when you look back,” Ellis said. “We weren’t healthy at all and we played in the AL championship series. It’s remarkable really. It was a long year for us. I’m excited to play a full year with Bobby.”
Ellis, Crosby and Gold Glove third baseman Eric Chavez all dealt with injuries, though Chavez never spent time on the DL. Super-sub Marco Scutaro admirably picked up the slack as Crosby’s replacement for the second straight season.
Ellis and Crosby, the 2004 AL Rookie of the Year, had to get to know each other again on the field and regain their timing this spring. It didn’t take long.
“If the question-mark guys stay healthy, we’re going to be good,” Chavez said. “We have options, and those are a great thing to have.”

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During a quiet moment at Promises rehab center in Malibu, Britney Spears took some time to write down her innermost feelings about her struggle with addiction and her wild behavior in recent months, among other things. In fact, Britney’s been keeping a detailed diary of her days and nights at Promises since she arrived there on Feb. 21, reports Life & Style Weekly. In the cover story for this week the magazine notes that Britney’s ‘diary’ is how she is keeping herself together during rehab.“She’s been crying her eyes out as she writes,” says an industry insider. “She’s really baring her soul.” The report also notes that Britney is also writing letters of apology to all of those she has hurt. The letter have reportedly been penned to hubby Kevin Federline, ex Justin Timberlake her parents and her kids.But she doesn’t plan on sending out the letters. According to the report they are more for Brit’s ‘therapy.’ According to L&S an insider has dished on her diary and its innermost thoughts including her sexual confessions. First, she’s not gay. “Britney says she’s not a lesbian – she thinks women are beautiful, but she’s truly only attracted to men,” the chatty insider divulged to the magazine.The source adds, “Britney says she’s experimented a little with girls, but she’s not really into women in a sexual way.” Other tidbits of information from the alleged reading of Britney’s diary include that she misses her kids. One would guess that would be the hardest part of her treatment, being away from her kids

Love in Rehab

The “Toxic” singer is said to have fallen for Jason Filyaw, the 33-year-old lead guitarist of rock band Riva, who she met at her Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

A source told the National Enquirer magazine: “Britney adores Jason. He’s been a tower of strength for her at the lowest point in her life.”

“She’s convinced Jason can help her through rehab because, as an alcoholic, he’s been through the same thing.”

The 25-year-old singer is now planning to move in with the rocker when she leaves rehab, it has been claimed.

Britney reportedly emails and phones Jason constantly and the pair already have pet names for each other.

Britney Spears’ Divorce Settlement

Britney Spears will give Kevin Federline nearly $20 million in their divorce settlement.

The singer has agreed to give her estranged husband $1.9 million in cash, plus half her earnings from their two year marriage.

In the out of court settlement, Kevin will also receive half of the money made from selling their Malibu marital home.

A source said: “Everything changed when Britney went into rehab. She and Kevin started talking again and he proved to be a tower of strength for her.”

Britney and Kevin have also agreed to share custody of their two sons, 18-month-old Sean Preston and Jayden James, six months.

It has been reported the 25-year-old singer will eventually get primary custody, while Kevin, 29 will have visitation rights.

Britney’s sister Jamie Lynn and her mother Lynne have been staying at Kevin’s house helping to look after the children while Britney was in rehab.

The source added: “Her time in rehab showed Britney that Kevin loves his kids and is a good dad.”

Britney and Kevin reportedly had an “amazing” meeting on Sunday (03.18.07), where they hammered out the terms of their divorce.

Britney was released from rehab yesterday (03.20.07).

The “Toxic” singer has completed her almost one-month-long program at Malibu’s Promises Centre.

Her manager, Larry Rudolph, confirmed she left the centre yesterday, saying “she has successfully completed her therapy.”

Britney, 25, voluntarily checked herself into Promises on February 20 after a weekend of hard partying in Los Angeles during which she shocked the world by shaving her head.

She briefly left the program the next day but returned when estranged husband Kevin threatened a custody battle over their two sons.

The star has since attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Her one-month stay in rehab is unusually short. A typical stay at Promises lasts around 45 days.

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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s ten-month-old daughter plays Cate Blanchett as a baby in forthcoming Hollywood film “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”

A source told National Enquirer magazine: “Brad and Shiloh saved the day when twin sisters hired to take turns playing actress Cate Blanchett’s character as a baby wouldn’t settle down.”

“Everyone waited in vain while the babies were fed, changed and hugged – but nothing worked to calm them on the set in New Orleans.”

“Then quick-thinking Brad realized his daughter’s happy and mellow disposition made her a quick fix for the role.”

Shiloh, who had been playing in the on set day care center, was swiftly put in costume.

The source added: “She’s a natural. Shiloh did her scenes perfectly and was giggling and happy throughout her big day.”

Brad and Angelina also have an adopted son Maddox, five, and an adopted two-year-old daughter Zahara.

Angelina is in the process of adopting a Vietnamese boy aged between three and four.

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Celebrity heiress Paris Hilton was caught driving on a suspended license overnight and is to appear in court again — while her blue Bentley remains impounded, police said on Wednesday.

The 26-year-old socialite and reality TV star was pulled over on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood at 11 p.m. on Tuesday for driving without headlights, said Deputy Sheriff Oscar Butao from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The incident comes about five weeks after Hilton was sentenced to three years probation after pleading no contest to alcohol-related reckless driving stemming from a September arrest in Hollywood.

“Miss Paris Hilton was driving the vehicle. After investigating her license status it was determined that she was driving on a suspended license,” said Butao.

“Miss Hilton was cited for a suspended license violation and released in the field. Her 2007 blue Bentley Continental GTC was impounded.”

He said Hilton would appear in court for driving on a suspended license but could not say when.

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A real veiw to one of the most dangerous issues which is affecting people from all ages and from all social spheres, this documental (as all the HBO ones) is very very good to watch and discuss, and learn more about the effects that we may not know about this issue…

The Addiction Project is produced by HBO in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

http://www.hbo.com/addiction/

PREMIERE:
Thursday, March 15 9:00 PM HBO
Thursday, March 15 10:30 PM HBO2

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Cricket World Cup : Background
The first attempts to stage an international cricket tournament were made in 1912 when Australia and South Africa were invited to England to play in a triangular Test series. The weather and the weakness of South Africa made it a complete disaster and the concept was immediately shelved. It was not until the mid-1950s, when crowds noticeably started to decline that the idea of introducing one-day matches to revive flagging interest was seriously considered.

The conservative cricket establishment, however, were reluctant to embrace change and it was not until Australia and England hastily arranged a 40 eight-ball over game in Melbourne in 1971, when a Test match was washed out, that its potential was realised. The new format gradually gained a foothold and after the successful running of a women’s World Cup in 1973 – funded by the current benefactor of Wolves, Sir Jack Hayward – a first international tournament was arranged.

England 1975 : Winners – West Indies
That first tournament was known as the Prudential Cup due to cricket’s initial reluctance to embrace the term ‘World Cup’ but to all intents and purposes that was what it was and would later come to be called. With South Africa excluded, the remaining six Test nations England, Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, India and Pakistan were augmented by Sri Lanka, whose international status was about to be elevated, and East Africa (Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania and Uganda), who made up the numbers.

The tournament was blessed by good weather and the West Indies proved the class of the field, boasting players such as Clive Lloyd, Gordon Greenidge, Viv Richards and Andy Roberts. Other teams struggled with the new format, notably India, who in one game replied to England’s 334 for four with a pedestrian 132 for three with Sunil Gavaskar 36 not out from 60 overs.

West Indies and Australia served up a thrilling final at Lord’s, with Lloyd’s team prevailing by 17 runs on a balmy evening.

England 1979 : Winners – West Indies
The cricketing landscape had changed by 1979 due to the establishing of Kerry Packer’s rival World Series. A number of players signed up for it in 1977 but a truce was agreed before the World Cup and most countries, with the exception of Australia, were back to full strength.

Canada replaced East Africa but otherwise the tournament followed the same format as in 1975, although unlike four years earlier, the weather was far more of an issue. Attendances fell as a result but the West Indies once again dominated the competition.

England, led by Mike Brearley, reached the final but the West Indies proved too strong with Viv Richards hitting a brilliant 138. England, despite a 127-run opening stand between Brearley and Geoff Boycott, were dismissed for 194 with Joel Garner claiming five for 38.

England 1983 : Winners – India
With one-day cricket growing in popularity, the World Cup was expanded in 1983 and all teams played each other twice at the group stage. England, West Indies and Sri Lanka were weakened after some players joined rebel tours to South Africa but the tournament proved another success and grossed over £1million for the first time. The number of teams remained at eight, with Sri Lanka now included as of right as a Test nation and international newcomers Zimbabwe added as ICC Trophy winners.

Zimbabwe provided the first major shock with a Duncan Fletcher-inspired win over Australia while India finally got to grips with the one-day game.

The Indians started slowly but stunned England in the semi-finals and then repeated the feat with a surprise six-wicket success over West Indies in the final.

India & Pakistan 1987 : Winners – Australia
The World Cup was staged outside England for the first time and proved a success despite initial problems with the Indian government threatening to refuse visas to players who had toured South Africa.

Matches were reduced to the now standard 50-overs per side due to shorter daylight hours on the subcontinent and neutral umpires were introduced.

The West Indies failed to reach the final for the first time but Australia were on the rise and overcame Pakistan in the semis despite a brilliant 70 from Javed Miandad.

Graham Gooch hit 115 as England beat India in the other semi-final but they were to fall seven runs short in a tight final. They had seemed well placed at 135 for two chasing 256 but their reply was fatally undermined when Mike Gatting was dismissed attempting a now infamous reverse sweep.

Australia & New Zealand 1992 : Winners – Pakistan
The fifth World Cup was a spectacular affair featuring, for the first time, coloured clothing, day/night matches and, after a long period of isolation, South Africa. All nine teams played each other on a round-robin basis and the format, never since repeated, was hailed as a great success.

South Africa were impressive and beat Australia on the way to the semi-finals, only to lose controversially to England when complicated new rain rules ludicrously left them needing 22 off only one ball.

England were the best team throughout but Pakistan, put into the final by a brilliant 37-ball 60 from Inzamam-ul-Haq against New Zealand, were to deny them the trophy. Captain Imran Khan hit 72 and Wasim Akram produced some inspired reverse-swing bowling as Pakistan won by 22 runs in front of 87,000 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

India, Pakistan & Sri Lanka 1996 : Winners – Sri Lanka
The format was changed again as the World Cup returned to the subcontinent with 12 teams playing in two groups of six. Holland, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates bolstered the numbers.

Sri Lanka took the tournament by the scruff of the neck and thrilled audiences worldwide with an exciting brand of attacking cricket, led by the ‘pinch-hitting’ of Sanath Jayasuriya.

The refusal of Australia and the West Indies to play in Colombo due to a bomb blast helped Sri Lanka’s passage but there was nothing fortuitous about their eventual victory. They humiliated England in the quarter-finals and emphatically took out their frustrations on the Australians that snubbed their country in the final, with Aravinda da Silva hitting a superb century in a seven-wicket win.

The West Indies, despite their Colombo protest and a shock defeat by Kenya, actually went on to reach the semi-finals before being knocked out by the Aussies.

Great Britain & Holland 1999 : Winners – Australia
The seventh World Cup is remembered for the brilliance of Australia in coming back from the brink of elimination and the miserable failure of principal hosts England.

England were knocked out before the competition really got going, along with the minnows of Scotland, Bangladesh and Kenya. Australia would have joined them had they not beaten West Indies in their final group match.

Australia’s escape led to two superb encounters with South Africa. In the first, in the newly-created Super Six round, Steve Waugh hit a match-winning 120 after being dropped by a prematurely celebrating Herschelle Gibbs on 56. That error came back to haunt the Proteas as they contrived to tie their semi-final against the same opposition. In scenes of complete madness, Allan Donald was run out with just one run required and three balls remaining, allowing Australia to progress on Super Six superiority.

The final was nowhere near as dramatic, with Shane Warne restricting Pakistan to a lowly 132 by claiming four for 33. Australia needed only 20.1 overs to record an eight-wicket win.

South Africa, Zimbabwe & Kenya 2003 : Winners – Australia
The most recent World Cup was easily the least memorable; an overdrawn, poorly-organised event that featured too many mismatches among the 14 teams and was dominated by politics and scandal.

After a saga that had dragged on for months, England refused to play in Zimbabwe for political and security reasons while New Zealand also withdrew from a game in Kenya. India almost failed to turn up due to a sponsors’ dispute and the game’s premier spinner Shane Warne failed a drugs test on the eve of the event.

The presence of Holland, Namibia and Canada was well-intentioned but the group stages became almost interminable and the Super Six format was used again despite past criticism.

Hosts South Africa exited early after misreading their Duckworth/Lewis chart, robbing the tournament of some of its vitality, while Kenya benefited from good fortune and a shock win over Sri Lanka to reach the last four.

Australia, at least, were superb throughout and crushed India by 125 runs in the final after an outstanding 140 from Ricky Ponting.

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2007 March Madness – Click here for your printable brackets

The road to the Men’s NCAA final four gets underway this Thursday. The first round will be played this Thursday and Friday. On Thursday 32 teams in the East & West region will square off. Tip off will be at 12:20 pm. ET. On Friday the rest of the field in the South and Midwest region will do battle, early tip off will be at 12:15 pm. ET.

We have a full list of schedules and tools available in our March Madness information section on our site you can click here to take a look or select a link listed below.

Men’s Div 1 Men’s Div 2 Men’s Div 3

We have many ways you can bet on March Madness. We provide odd for all the tournaments including the NIT and the Men’s and Women’s NCAA Championship.
Currently the Florida Gators are slightly favored to repeat, the odds on UCLA, Ohio State, Kansas and North Carolina to dethrone them are not far behind.

Click on a link below to view all our live odds for the first round of games

Men’s NCAA Tournament Men’s NIT Tournament Women’s NCAA Tournament

Click on a link to below to view our futures and proposition odds for the Men’s NCAA

Odds to win tournament Odds to win each region Proposition betting

We also provide quite a few betting tools for our clients to make your betting experience with us more pleasant and convenient. We have a WAP service for cell phones and parlay calculators, betting guides and more. Click here to visit our tools page or select a link below to go directly to the pages.

Cell phone odds (WAP) www.wap.gamblerspalace.com

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We hope we made things a little for convenient and fun for all out customers. Best of luck and enjoy the MADNESS!

Roger

If you are not a member yet click here to register for your free membership. We offer daily payouts and first class customer service. Call us toll free at 1-800-535-8108 or click here to chat live with a customer service representative if you have any questions or concerns

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R.E.M. had a shiny, happy reunion for this headlining gig. Van Halen, not so much.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame swung open its doors Monday night to the latest batch of acts ticketed for music immortality, with the Georgia alt-rock icons and the dysfunctional Pasadena party band leading the way. They were joined by ’70s punk pioneer Patti Smith, ’60s girl group the Ronettes and the first hip-hop act to crash the party, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

The 22nd annual induction ceremony—which per tradition was held at New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria hotel—felt like an I Love the ’80s special, thanks to its two biggest inductees.

R.E.M. received a warm introduction from Eddie Vedder. The Pearl Jam frontman showered praise on bald-pated vocalist Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and ex-drummer Bill Berry for creating infectious pop with a conscience—even though, as Vedder joked, he had a hard time understanding Stipe’s often inscrutable lyrics.

“He’s a true poet. He can be direct, he can be abstract. He can hit an emotion with peak-point intensity,” added Vedder.

One of the highlights of the night was seeing the band reteam with Berry, who amicably quit the Athens-based quartet nearly a decade ago after suffering a near-fatal brain aneurysm.

“When we first put the band together, the only thing we really ever wanted to do is play New York City, and I would say we’ve done it tonight,” said a humbled Stipe.

R.E.M. played a solid set of classics, starting with “Begin the Begin,” flowing into “Gardening at Night” and ending with Vedder joining them on “Man on the Moon.”

But while Berry was back in the R.E.M. fold for at least one night, the VH contingent was seriously lacking as Eddie Van Halen, his brother, drummer Alex Van Halen, and original frontman David Lee Roth were all MIA.

Roth declined to attend after complaining that organizers wouldn’t let him sing “Jump” with Velvet Revolver, which had been tapped to induct Van Halen and perform three VH songs in tribute.

Rock Hall organizers on Monday said they offered Diamond Dave “opportunities” to perform with the house band (led by Late Show with David Letterman’s Paul Schaffer), his own guitarist or Velvet Revolver, but he refused.

As for Eddie Van Halen, he entered rehab last week shortly after news broke that his namesake group’s highly anticipated summer reunion tour, with Roth on vocals for the first time in more than two decades, had been postponed indefinitely due to contractual snafus and Eddie’s drinking. Alex Van Halen decided to skip the event to support his brother’s recovery efforts.

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