Rob Q. Ink - A Philly Sports Blog

“March Madness” is right around the corner and I’m diving in with two picks today. The University of Connecticut has been dominating all season, and I expect them to bounce back big time today after a loss to Creighton earlier in the week. Unfortunately, Villanova is in the way, but you don’t bet with your heart. I don’t like giving 12 points in basketball, but I think this gets ugly. I’m taking Connecticut -12 (-107) versus the Wildcats for $20 to win $18.80. I’m also taking the Huskies to win the Men’s NCAA Tournament at +500. I was shocked this number was so high, and I think it will drop. So, I grabbed it early. I took Connecticut +500 to win the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship for $100 to win $500. These are both “gut feels” and a bit aggressive for my bank roll, but I did pretty well with the college football and NFL playoffs. So, I’m taking a shot.

Jon Marks recently left his role as part of an afternoon drive time sports talk duo with former Eagles player Ike Reese on 94.1 WIP, a role Mike Missanelli called one that everybody in the field aspires to get. Jon Marks doing his YouTube show. So, when I asked Marks for an interview on the topic of a shift in the sports media, I had to ask about his decision to leave WIP. He was emphatic about his reasons. “The reasons I left WIP, in order: 1. Quality of life, 2. Burned out on the job, 3. Financial reasons,” he said , responding via e-mail . “The long commute and hours took its toll on my quality of life. Plain and simple. As my kids are getting older, I was missing out on activities during the week. I missed dinner every Monday to Friday. . . . Unless they paid me considerable more for my misery, I was going to leave.” I couldn’t resist asking if the constant Eagles talk – a pet peeve of mine – influenced his decision. Re-emphasizing his top reasons, he admitted it could be a gr

I knew I needed to do a Quinn’s Quickies after watching just a few minutes of last night’s so-called game.   ·          Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game should be the last one to be played for a long time. I stomached about five minutes of the fourth quarter. Guys literally walked up and down the court – ALL OF ‘EM! They didn’t even pretend to play defense. They really weren’t even playing offense. They were just chucking up “3s.” Being that one team – I don’t even care enough to check which team – scored more than 200 points, they were obviously doing that all night. I’ve already heard the nonsense that they’re paid too much to risk injury playing hard. Stop. No one’s played hard in the NBA All-Star Game in years. It became a status symbol to sit out of the game for a while. This isn’t the All-Pro Game in the NFL. You can at least go half speed and put on a show without getting hurt. The NBA is becoming a joke. They have to throw extra money at players with the bogus In-Season Tournament

I had questions. So, I started asking them. Newspapers used to be the  source of news for many. What is it going to be in the future? Sports is a billion-dollar industry. Yet, local coverage seems to be evaporating. In Philadelphia, we’ve seen Comcast SportsNet dwindle to pretty much airing games along with pre- and post-game shows, along with a couple original shows. The local news gives sports about 3 minutes most nights. I’ve watched the core of hosts from both sports radio stations in town go to podcasting. Assuming these guys aren’t trying to “break the bank,” what is going on? Is this just the corporate world saying, “We know we can pay the next guy less?” Are national outlets making local media irrelevant? Or is it that there are so many digital outlets that it’s hard to find enough of an audience to make money? Or is it something else? “I think what is going on with the sports coverage is the same thing that is happening to news coverage: all the social-media algorithms drive

It’s been a while since I did a Quinn’s Quickies, but I had a few thoughts as we bid adieu to the NFL season. ·          Kansas City’s overtime win over San Francisco in Super Bowl LVIII put me in the black for the season on my football picks on the blog. I finished 31-52-3 for +$210.98. That total includes a $5 loss on a college basketball pick. More on picks shortly. ·          San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan has to defer (read: kick) after winning the coin flip to start overtime given the new rules. You’re giving Kansas City, which gets the ball unless they score on defense, the benefit of knowing what they need to do by getting the ball second. San Francisco kicked a field goal. Kansas City knew they had four downs to get a first down until they’re in field goal range. Need a touchdown? Keep going on fourth down, which they did. As I said last week, I’ll take Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes all day in that situation. ·          I’ve been working a lot on an article

  It’s the Super Bowl so I had to try something special. Check out my pick for the game on video! Closed captions available. (Did my best on new systems!) I had a rough Championship weekend going 0-2 for -$200, plus -$5 on a college hoops parlay. My overall record fell to 30-52-3 for -$56.52.