After two weeks worth of great Olympics betting action, the festivities in Vancouver have finally come to a close. There’s plenty left to rant and rave about in the American sports scene, none of which have anything to do with the efforts of the US hockey team, which claimed silver medals after losing in overtime to the Canadians in Sunday’s gold medal game.

Rap Sheet Picture of the Week
Purdue Boilermakers F Robbie Hummel, who suffered a season-ending injury in the same week that his team lost any hope of a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Last week, we took some time to rant about how poorly the Villanova Wildcats played against bubble teams in the Big East. Now, it’s time for the Georgetown Hoyas to step up and face the music. C’mon guys… Losing at home to Notre Dame, playing without its stud F Luke Harangody? That makes two completely inexcusable and embarrassing losses at home on the season, with the other coming at home against South Florida back on February 3rd. Only managing 15 rebounds as a team against the Irish was quite disgusting, and the end result was just as repulsive for a team that once upon a time believed it was good enough to be on the #1 line in the NCAA Tournament.

Don’t think that you’re getting away from this one, Boston Celtics. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hear you complaining now that you were playing without your best player, F Paul Pierce against the New Jersey Nets on Saturday night. No offense, but if you took your entire regular starting five out of the lineup, you’d still have a squad that was lined at -4 at home against the Nets. Oh, you don’t believe me? Tell me that you’d rather have Devin Harris, Courtney Lee, Yi Jianlian, Trenton Hassell, and Brook Lopez over Marquis Daniels, Nate Robinson, Glen Davis, Rasheed Wallace, and Tony Allen. Get real fellas. If your boy Ray Allen keeps putting up 3/11 shooting nights, you won’t even survive the first round of the playoffs let alone make a run at the NBA title.

The New Mexico Lobos got arguably their biggest win of the season on Saturday when they knocked off BYU in the closing moments of their game 83-81 to clinch up the Mountain West regular season title. However, that’s not what we’re ranting about. We’re ranting about that ridiculous postgame altercation that HC Steve Alford had with one of the Cougars. Hey Coach, you know better than this. You can’t sit there and yell at a player on the opposing team (or your own team for that matter), “I’m going to tell you real clear… You’re an [expletive]!” That marred a big win for your team, Alford, and you owe your guys a heck of a lot better than that.

As an American, it’s really easy to rant on the Russians, but in this case, there were two boneheads that deserve it. Alexander Ovechkin decided that it was a great idea to bust up a camera after his hockey team was bounced from the Olympics. A great display of sportsmanship in an athletic event that is designed to promote the essence of being a good sport in representing your nation.

However, that wasn’t nearly the funniest, yet disgraceful Russian moment of the Olympics. President Dmitry Medvedev demanded that all of the Russian sports officials that were responsible for the debacle that was the country’s dismal 15 medal performance in the Winter Olympics to resign their posts. He claimed, “I think that the individuals responsible, or several of them, who answer for these preparations, should take the courageous decision to hand in their notice. If we don’t see such decisiveness, we will help them.”

So let’s get this straight, el presidente… You’re going to force out all of your Olympic coaching representatives right after the Vancouver games?

Man, are things going to be difficult for the other countries coming onto Russian soil for the 2014 Games in Sochi…

Any time you can say that you’re in line to set all-time records in a league that has been around for over 60 years, you’ve truly done something special… unless you’re the New Jersey Nets…

Yep, that pretty well sums it up. Is there any other way to watch a game at the IZOD Center than with a bag over your head right now unless you’re cheering for the other team? Remember when this team was competing for Eastern Conference crowns and NBA Championships? But the days of Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, Richard Jefferson, Kenyon Martin, and Kerry Kittles are long since gone.

Ever since getting rid of G Jason Kidd, everything has seemed to be all downhill for this once-proud franchise. Kidd was dealt right at the ’08 trade deadline for what amounted to be a bag full of peanuts to the Dallas Mavericks. Even then, keeping together the tandem of Carter and Jefferson appeared like it had the potential to be exciting in ’09-’10. Aside from that, the hopes of building a new stadium in Brooklyn gave Nets fans from the Big Apple something to possibly be excited about.

But coming into this year, there was no stadium. There was no Jefferson. There was no Carter. And basically, there was no hope.

Just check out what this lineup looks like on a regular basis… G Devin Harris is probably the only player on the team that might have a chance of cracking the starting five on another NBA roster. Jarvis Hayes, Yi Jianlian, Brook Lopez, Courtney Lee, Kris Humphries… Who are these guys???

So why should we be so surprised that this team is off to a 4-43 start to the NBA betting season coming into Wednesday night? Jersey’s offense ranks dead last in the league in points per game (89.8) and shooting percentage (42.2%), and it is getting outrebounded by a pitiful 5.6 boards per contest. The Nets put together a very impressive 19-game losing streak to start the season, which ultimately cost HC Lawrence Frank his job. To Frank, it must’ve felt like a blessing to be exiled from hell on earth.

The ’72 Philadelphia 76ers set an NBA record for futility with just nine wins on the season. Not only are the Nets on a pace to beat that mark, but they could legitimately obliterate it if they don’t figure out how to string some ‘W’s together in the weeks to come.

What’s worse is how little it appears as though anyone on this team really cares. It feels like every time you look up at the New Jersey bench, guys are cracking jokes or have their heads hung down. The boys just don’t play hard, and it’s really telling on the NBA wagering lines. Just look at some of these spreads this year that the Nets have had on their side! Recently, they were whopping 16.5-point underdogs in Utah, and they lost 116-83, failing to come anywhere near that hefty number.

If you’ve been betting on the Nets every night at JustBet Sportsbook, you’ve only gone a miserable 16-31 ATS. If that keeps up over the remaining 35 games of the season, Jersey is looking at finishing just 28-54 ATS. There’s only one team in the last 14 years that has put up a worse ATS record in basketball betting action, and that was the ’03-’04 Orlando Magic, who went just 27-54-1 ATS in the year before they landed C Dwight Howard with the #1 pick in the NBA Draft.

One thing is for certain, and that’s that the Nets can’t go anywhere but up. The new hope is that F LeBron James or one of the other high-priced free agents to be ultimately signs in New Jersey and starts to resurrect the franchise.

But if things for Jersey fans go as well next year as they have this year, another season of futility is in the cards.