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A crazy weekend where the Potato has a lot of things to say about a lot of different things. Where do we start of course – basketball!?

WEMBY'S WORLD

If you don't know who Victor Wembanyama is, you will very soon. The #1 pick in the NBA draft will be the greatest player to ever play the game of basketball. Yep, I said it. Or, Roy Hobbs.

The 7'4” Frenchman is the most incredible specimen of talent, size, athleticism, and coordination (crazy rare for a big guy) that has EVER existed. These are big statements, but they're all going to be true - if he stays healthy.

And, 7'4” big men don't usually stay healthy.

Just watch these highlights in his preseason game this week. He's 7'4” shooting 3s like they are lay-ups. Jumpers, dunks, cross-overs, blocks, and he's not even 20 years old yet!

And, he appears humble, hungry, and down to earth. I like this kid already.

I'm not saying anything revolutionary here either in my opinion which is nuts - many others feel the same way.

Let's just hope the injury bug doesn't get him as we'll all be missing out not on a generational talent, but once-in-a-lifetime.

THE BATTLE FOR THE NORTHWEST

Back to football. The Oregon vs. Washington game lived up to the hype! Wow, what a contest that went down to literally the very end. Tons of swings, tons of missed 4th down plays, and the drama was just incredible. Football at its best.

But, not at its best was the poor coaching management at the end which the Potato will start to analyze a bit more often these days.

I'm not going to nitpick everything here, but two things from both sides were just really bad decisions that did or could have cost their team the game.

Washington Coach

They get the ball back down 4 with 1:49 left, so they need to be very aware of the time with no timeouts. But, then Washington quickly makes a huge long throw down to the 20 yard line with about 1:40 to go. Now, “time” flips in that they don’t need to rush at all… Oregon is the team where time matters!

Once the WR caught the ball with 1:40 left Washington should have milked the clock down to about 1 minute and ran the ball (force Oregon to use their last timeout, too).

That would have made it extremely difficult for Oregon to have any chance to score, and Washington would still have had likely 2nd and 6 at the 20 with 1 minute left - a perfect situation.

What actually happens… they go fast, throw it in the end zone for the TD. Great news, till Oregon gets the ball back with a ton of time!

As a coach you need to be thinking both sides, especially when Oregon was moving the ball at will. It was a HUGE mistake by the Washington coach but he got away with it only because the Oregon kicker missed!

And, why did he miss… because the Oregon coach blew it a bit, too!

The Oregon coach on the play before the field goal made a bonehead decision. There were really two options: 1. go end zone for the WIN, or 2. run it (best option) or a quick throw in the middle of the field to get like 5-10 yards to make the kick easier and then use your timeout.

Instead, he did a throw away sideline pass that made no sense.

Those 5-10 yards would have made the kick so much easier – it was from 43 yards – not a gimmie at all. These are college kids. Besides not being as good of kickers as the pros (obviously), the pressure is relentless. Five more yards would have made that kick good as it just missed.

The Washington coach got away with it, but the Oregon coach didn't!

COLLEGE IN A BREEZE

Penn St vs. Ohio St. - 4.5 The monster game of the week this time moves to the Big 10 where Penn St. visits Ohio St.. While the Northwest shootout was crazy, this one's going to feel a bit more like your classic old school NFL style football game.

I've been down on Ohio State all year, and Penn St. has looked really really good. The line even says so being so low at -4.5, not much faith on the Buckeyes in Vegas. Normally, this would be in the 7-10 range. So, what happens?

Ohio State squeezes out a victory somehow as they always do in a 27-24 tight battle that comes down to the very end.

The rest of the games are thin out the playoff race games.

Tennessee vs Alabama - 9.5 - seems like a lot of points but Tennessee won't show up on the road. Take Bama.

Duke vs Florida St. - 13.5 - Duke's good, maybe even really good. But, without their quarterback – I’m not sure of his status - this is a hard one to know. If he's there, def take Duke. If not, take Duke and pray.

Utah vs USC - 5 - Pretty low line, and USC folded last week as the Potato expected to Notre Dame (my mortal lock of the week). Utah is another bad matchup for USC with their physical nature, but Utah has its own issues still. I'm not high on Utah this year either, but I'll take the points.

MICHIGAN -24.5 vs MICHIGAN ST. PREDICTION: (6-0-1 so far) Another victory on the Michigan front. Jump on the bandwagon! This week we’re 24.5 favs at East Lansing. WOW! That's a ton for a rivalry game. I hate taking the Spartans and the points here, but I am. Michigan wins comfortably 34-13 but doesn’t cover.

MORTAL LOCK (4-3 so far): Back on track. Notre Dame was a gift I gave to my readers. This week give me Iowa -5 against Minnesota. Iowa is that perfect team that can’t compete against the best teams, but can cover against the bad teams!