Welcome back to The Weekend That Will Be… where I, Bearcat, crank out the toughest post of the week here on DSB by peering into the near future and telling you all the important stuff that is going to happen this weekend so that you can focus on what is really important: avoiding your family, training to ACTUALLY MURDER an man in the octagon, and drinking until you are black out drunk… 
 
Kind of in a time crunch so I shortened this weeks prognostications just a bit…

Movies:

                    
        Not only does this kid have two dads but he is also being raised as a Trekkie...
                                  Some handicaps really are too big to overcome.

Two movies open to wide release this weekend: Cop Out the buddy cop movie starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan and The Crazies.  I like Bruce Willis and I like Tracy Morgan so I think I will be checking this one out.  I certainly have more interest in seeing it than the biotoxin made zombie-fest The Crazies.  Although I would rather watch The Crazies then be forced to sit through The Tooth Fairy staring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson… If you need to spend you hard earned dollars at the movie theater and you have not seen Shutter Island yet then that is most likely your best bet.  Planning on taking Mrs. Bearcat there and word is that twist at the end is amazing.

Prediction:  Shutter Island first in ticket sales followed by Cop Out and The Crazies

College Basketball:

                

#2 Kentucky at #17 Tennessee (Saturday 12:00pm CBS)
Tennessee (20-7) is coming off a loss at Florida and lost at Kentucky the day before Valentine’s Day.  The Vols lost by 11 but it was not even that close. Kentucky wins this one as well.  Tennessee's loss to Florida is far more troubling than either loss to the Wildcats. Not sure I can trust them come the big dance. (Ed. Note: How I want Bearcat to pick a team into the Final Four that he doesn't trust)

Prediction: Wildcats 70, Volunteers 64

#8 Villanova at #4 Syracuse (Saturday 9:00pm ESPN)
After back-to-back losses to UConn and Pitt, Villanova got back in the win column by delivering a beat down on USF on Wednesday.  Nova now has a chance to take the Big East regular season title in its visit to Syracuse.  If Syracuse wins this one, the Big East regular season and a number 1 selection are locked up with games at St. John’s and Louisville following Saturday. The Boeheim 2-3 zone will be too much for ‘Nova.  Got to go with the Orangemen in this one.

Prediction: Orangeman 65 Wildcats 60

Other top 25 match ups
#12 New Mexico at #11 BYU and
#21 Texas at #23 Texas A&M (Saturday 4:00pm ESPN)

Motorsports:

                

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series travels to Las Vegas for the third race of the season.  I wonder if you can bet on the number or the intensity of the wrecks in a Vegas sports book?  I would drop a C-note on that prop bet.  Would be fun cheering for a multi-car mash up with a double barrel roll…  I assume this would pay 25-1. 

Prediction: Wrecks!

Baseball:

*ZJ genuflects
                      

With Spring Training alive and well it is time to for every fan to start their annual “Is my rotation a mess?” or “What do you mean they sent our starter for X-rays!” panic.  As a Pirate fan I never really run in to these problems.  There is a certain freedom in reaching rock bottom.  But for you fans of other teams you have to worry about pitchers or stars players breaking down before the season even starts.  “Surprise Brian Giles is not reporting due to injury… Again!” or “Josh Hamilton has a sore shoulder? WTF! It’s not even March yet.”  This is always fun to watch… especially when it happens to a Cubs or Mets fan.

Prediction: I expect one season ending injury due to a pick up basketball game or the like to be reported as a guy falling in the shower or down his front steps.  I look forward to that.

Olympics:

                                                

Sunday is the closing ceremony for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Disaster Games. Not sure how they can screw this up but I am pretty sure that they will.  Maybe when they go to put out the torch it will explode.  Of course NBC will show it on tape delay.

Prediction: You will not watch… you are bored with it all already.

Hockey:

Once again we turn to DSB resident hockey expert Plain White TS to break down the what is happening on the ice... Take it away Plain White!
                                               
                                             I wonder who Don Cherry is rooting for this weekend...

Olympic Hockey:  Since we have no NHL hockey to speak of until next week I figured I would give a quick rundown of today’s semifinals in Olympic Hockey.

The Final Four leaves us with #1 seed USA taking on Finland at 3pm today, and the #2 seed Canada taking on Slovakia at 9:30pm this evening.  The winners of each game will face one another Sunday afternoon at 3:30pm to decide the Gold and Silver Medal winners.  The losers of each game will face Saturday evening at 10pm to decide who comes away with the Bronze medal.   Tournament hockey is awesome to watch, as you never know when you see an upset.  No one expected #7 seed Slovakia to get to the Semi-finals over Sweden, and while I expected Canada to win over Russia, I didn’t see the blow out coming.  Finland flying in under the radar to face the US is just as much of a surprise, you never know what to expect.

Predictions: I am seeing the stage being set for another Sunday of great hockey.  I expect USA to win over Finland, and Canada to overtake Slovakia.  Having the Bronze game set for Finland and Slovakia, and the Gold/Silver game set for USA and Canada.  Even though I am now a stone’s throw from Canada, this town is all USA, with Buffalo’s own Ryan Miller in between the pipes.  And I guess if I must give my predictions on medals it would go something like this. Gold – US Silver – Canada Bronze-Finland

B-E-A-R-S Bears, Bears, Bears, Woooo!!!! While the upper class has had a bit of a break the minors have continued on.  Hershey continues on with their outstanding season.  Last weekend they broke yet another record, taking the AHL consecutive home win streak to 20.  This weekend they will look for number 21 at home Saturday evening against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.  This is the first meeting of two this season for these teams, and they won’t have much downtime before the second meeting as Hershey will travel to Bridgeport Tuesday.  I would not expect much of a match from the Sound Tigers as they are floating right around 500 in their last ten games.  The Chocolate and White continue their league dominance heading all teams by eight points.  Sunday the Bears hope aboard the bus for the ride up 81 to face conference rivals the WB/Scranton Penguins.  In the last meeting the Baby Birds were able to finally crack the” Chocolate Machine” shutting them out 5-0.  I would expect Hershey to be looking for some payback this weekend.  All and all expect some great AHL hockey this weekend.

Predictions: Saturday the Bears will continue their home streak, finding another W.  Sunday I see a good game of hockey, however I think the Pens will win again. Hershey splits the weekend 1-1. 

Shout Outs:

                                             
                                      Anne Hathaway would like to make 
                                    some announcements on behalf of DSB...

Thanks for coming and suckling on Daddy's Sugar Ball...
Bearcat