Blowin' Smoke Presented by Weston Tobacco

What's more fun than us giving you a chance to mock us every single week? In our new feature, Blowin' Smoke presented by Weston Tobacco, we will do that each and every Thursday. Gabe DeArmond and Mitchell Forde will make five predictions almost sure to go wrong every week in this space. These will range from big games to big picture predictions with a bit of the comedic and absurd mixed in most weeks as well. On to this week's predictions.

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Mitchell: Missouri and Arkansas could not be moving in much different directions from a momentum standpoint. The Tigers have won three of four, including beating Arkansas, while the Razorbacks have lost five in a row with Isaiah Joe out of the lineup. Still, it's hard for me to pick Mizzou here. For one, the Tigers have yet to win a road game since SEC play kicked off. Two, I think it was written somewhere in James Naismith's founding rules of basketball that Missouri isn't allowed to win in Bud Walton Arena. It's only happened once in seven tries. I'll take Arkansas 69-68.

Gabe: Everything above is right. It's accurate. It makes sense. But Missouri is playing well. Arkansas is leaking oil. The Tigers have passed the Razorbacks in the standings and the days when Eric Musselman's team was unbeaten and pushing for a spot in the national polls seem distant. Missouri has confidence. It hasn't had that in a while. It hasn't won in Fayetteville in a while either. Why not this weekend? Mizzou 74, Arkansas 71 with 49 free throw attempts combined.

Mitchell: With LSU struggling of late, I think it's pretty much a two-horse race at this point between Auburn and Kentucky (although Florida has turned it around and is only a game back of the Wildcats). The Wildcats and Tigers will face off in Rupp Arena on Feb. 29 in what might wind up a de-facto regular season championship game. My money is on Kentucky to win that game and the league. As usual, John Calipari's team is playing its best basketball of the season down the stretch, and Kentucky will want revenge for a close loss at Auburn earlier this season.

Gabe: I really want to say someone other Kentucky. I really, really want to. But who? Missouri just beat Auburn and the Tigers have gotten by on a serious amount of good fortune this season. LSU lost to Vandy and could have lost to Mizzou and just lost to Kentucky. The Wildcats will win because they're used to big games and they win big games and they take care of business when they're supposed to. So, grudgingly, I agree.

Gabe: It's definitely two. The question becomes whether Castillo, Durant or Acy gets picked or if someone takes a flyer on Cale Garrett. I don't think anybody's going to draft Garrett. But I probably would. Weird things happen on the third day of the draft. I'd set the over/under at 2.5 but I'm actually going to say four...I just don't know which four.

Mitchell: I'll say three. Jordan Elliott and Albert Okwuegbunam are pretty much locks. After that, there are several players who I think have an outside shot in Trystan Colon-Castillo, Yasir Durant and DeMarkus Acy (although he didn't get invited to the Combine, so maybe I should change my stance there). I say one of them sneaks into the late rounds. My money is on Durant.

Mitchell: Well, let's see. He's making $5.5 million a year (insane). I know little to nothing about the talent Michigan State is bringing back, but the Spartans' schedule is tough. At BYU and versus Miami in the non-conference, then at Iowa and Penn State and home against Michigan, Ohio State and Minnesota in Big Ten play. I think they'd do well to get to five wins, which comes out to $1.1 million per victory for Mel. Not bad.

Gabe: Mel Tucker already has the only win he needs. Michigan State blew its coaching search to the point it paid a guy who has one season as a head coach and went 5-7 in a bad PAC-12 $5.5 million. I assume he's going to be the coach for at least three years. That means he's going to pocket $16.5 million. I don't care if he ever wins a game. He's a winner in my book.

Gabe: Jose Altuve is kind of the face of the franchise, but assuming the buzzer story isn't true, he seems to be escaping most of the criticism as a guy who didn't like the trash can very much. Personally, I'd throw at him so he'd charge the mound and I would have a guy whose sole job it was to rip Altuve's jersey off therefore exposing his hideous half done tattoo for the entire world to see. In looking at the roster, it will probably be Carlos Correa because he's a very good player and Michael Brantley and Alex Bregman don't strike me as guys I hate. The other thing I just saw in looking at the roster is that this is the team that employs Roberto Ozuna so, yeah, baseball's got a clear villain this year.

Mitchell: Carlos Correa seems to have incurred the ire of most of the league with his recent comments about the sign-stealing, but I'm going to go with George Springer. My in-depth research tells me he heard the second most trash can bangs of anyone on the roster in 2017 with 140 (an incredible statistic), and the bangs leader, Marwin Gonzalez, is no longer an Astro. Also, Springer has never seemed like a very likeable player to me, probably because he once got suspended for using a homophobic slur.