Bracket Madness

Well, when I first did my brackets for this years NCAA Tournament, I had a ton of upsets. I had #11 Baylor over #6 Purdue, I had #12 George Mason over #5 Notre Dame, and luckily I changed both of those before the deadline, and got them both right in my brackets. As of right now in my pool with Uncle Pat's work, I'm in 4th place out of 82 people... and the all-hailed Uncle Pat is in 80th place, haha. I made a few mistakes that I hurt myself with, like taking #11 St. Joe's over #6 Oklahoma, and I took #6 USC over #11 Kansas State when at first I actually had KSU winning. Actually, for alot of this tournament I was in first place in the big pool, most of the time sharing the first place with a few people, but when I went to bed last night after all the games in the first round were complete, I had first place all to myself. Today kinda hurt me though, because #7 West Virginia upset #2 Duke... who I had going to the Final Four at first, then changed it to them losing in the Elite Eight to #1 UCLA. I obviously have #1 North Carolina winning the whole thing, though I changed the loser from #2 Texas to UCLA. I have #2 Georgetown going to the Final Four over #1 Kansas, to shape up an Elite Eight rematch of last year between them and North Carolina. I have Texas beating #1 Memphis in the Elite Eight. One pretty big upset I took was #7 Butler over #2 Tennessee in the second round game that will take place tomorrow. In the last Elite Eight game, I had North Carolina over #3 Louisville. I didn't have very much confidence in #5 Drake, so their loss wasn't that shocking... though I didn't think that #4 Connecticut had any chance of losing because of my great confidence in the Big East, so their first round loss to #13 San Diego was pretty shocking. I knew that #12 Villanova had a good shot at an upset over #5 Clemson, though I decided to take Clemson because of what they showed me in the ACC Tournament, and of course Villanova won. Another game that just ended was #5 Michigan State beating #4 Pittsburgh in the second round. I had alot of confidence in Pittsburgh after they won the Big East Tournament, though Michigan State is a good team... And I just saw the ending of the UCLA vs #9 Texas AM game, and it had a pretty sweet finish with Collison hitting a layup with 9.5 seconds left, then the AM guy getting packing and UCLA's Westbrook with a run down the floor and a slam with the game ending. I kinda feel bad for AM, but it really would messed up my brackets, as well as alot of other peoples brackets had Texas AM won. Thats about it though brosifs... (Directly from ESPN blog)

Xaves

Alright, so today my boys, the Xavier Musketeers, play the Purdue Boilermakers in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. They beat Georgia in the first round to advance to this second round game, and if they can beat Purdue, they will advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2003. Truthfully, they should have been in the Sweet 16 last year, but they lost to Ohio State in overtime because of a last second three pointer in regulation hit by Dequan Cook. Though last year they were a 9 seed and were expected to lose to the likes of Greg Oden and Mike Conley Jr. after they knocked off the 8 seed BYU in the first round. After Ohio State pulled out the miracle against Xavier, they went all the way to the Championship Game before they lost to the two time champion Florida Gators. I think that they'll be able to knock off the 6th seeded Boilermakers, as long as they show ready to play a full 40 minutes of basketball, but I'll tell you what, if they show up and halfass it like they did for some of the game against 14th seeded Georgia, they won't be able to pull out a win against a much better 6th seeded Purdue team who destoyed Baylor in their opening round game. (Directly from Drake's ESPN Blog... I wrote it though, haha)

No Three-Peat

With that loss to Alabama in the SEC tourney, there is no way in my mind that Florida is getting into the tourney this year to attempt a three-peat. And with Arizona State losing a close one to USC, they now shouldn't really be in either. I now think that Ohio State deserves to get in, but if ASU is really close with a lesser qualified team for that last spot, I think they might deserve it, because I actually watched that game, and that was a clean dunk to tie the game with 17 seconds left, though the refs made a controversial call and called it no basket. Ohio State also plays Michigan State in the Big Ten Tourney tomorrow, which will be the first game in the tourney for each of them. If Ohio State does win tomorrow though against a ranked Michigan State team for the second time this season, then they undoubtedly deserve to be in the field of 65. Also, I definitely feel that St. Mary's deserves to get in as well due to their tremendous early season play against legit non-conference teams. Also, West Virginia cemented a place in the tourney today when they upset 15th ranked UConn in the second round of the Big East tournament. I'm not too sure about Baylor though, who at 21-10 lost in double OT to a below .500 Colorado team. And one last thing, I loved Michigan's "upset" win over Iowa and I hope they can keep the season going tomorrow vs Wisconsin at noon... and Illinois didn't show much promise either as they won their first round game against Penn State with a layup with 3 seconds left. Thats about it though. More to watch tomorrow. And my first ever fantasy baseball draft. Haha. Peace. (Directly from ESPN blog)

Bubble Busted

I really believe now, since they got thumped by 19 by Villanova in the first round of the Big East tourney, that Syracuse 100% does not belong in the NCAA Tournament... or at least not over the other on the bubble teams like Ohio State, VCU, St. Mary's, Southern Alabama, Florida, all the Pac-10 teams except Oregon State (haha), etc. Really, before I begin to make final judgments I want to see the confrence tournaments play out, though I really like Ohio State, Villanova and St. Mary's... though I'm not too sure about Florida and VCU, even though I completely loved and called that upset over Duke in the first round of the tourney last year. Sickkk. As for Southern Alambama, they have a pretty good record and some legit out of conference wins, though I haven't really seen them play that much, so I don't want to pass judgment... though not winning their weak confrence tournament looked kinda shady, though I think in the end the voters like the small conference team better than the large conference ones, especially after what George Mason did in 2006. But yeah, thats about all I have for now. More when the conference tournaments get into high gear. Peace. (Directly from ESPN blog)

Mean Joey Green

Joey Harrington is just one of those quarterbacks... picked third overall by the Detroit Lions in the 2002 NFL Draft out of Oregon, he showed great promise, though I think we all felt bad for him because of the team that selected him. He's not a real big interception thrower, and has steadily improved and managed his game over the years. In his third year in Detroit, he threw for 19 TDs and only 12 INTs and over 3000 yards for the first time in his career. He showed great progress, though he was fatefully let go by the Lions after a mediocre fourth season with 12 TDs and 12 INTs. After his departure he took a job in Miami as Daunte Culpepper's new backup, and after Culpepper went down with injuries for the second consecutive year, Joey was there for the below average Dolphins squad and threw for 12 TDs and 15 INTs, though he owned the Lions in a Thanksgiving Day game at Ford Field, with 3 TDs and 213 yards. After one year in Miami, Joey was let go due to salary cap issues. He was then signed by the Atlanta Falcons in the offseason for a replacement QB for the jailbroken Michael Vick. After playing with nearly zero talent around him, he was relplaced by Chris Redman with four games remaining. Just this week, the Falcons cut Joey from their roster... though just today the Falcons resigned him to a cheaper contract than the one they signed him to in the beginning of 2007, which was worth $6 million over two years. Anyways, in the end, I think that Joey really is a pretty good quarterback with alot of potential... though he has only played for terrible teams through his six year career. In my opinion, if you put him on say... Jacksonville or Clevland, he could play just as well as Anderson, and almost as well as Garrard. I mean, he wasn't picked third overall for nothing, and if he was a total bust, then he would be out of the league by now. I think teams like Arizona should definitely look into picking him up in the near future if Warner shows a decrease in prod uctivity. However, now he is stuck with the lowly Falcons. Maybe the addition of Michael Turner can open up the passing game for Joey, if he's lucky enough to get the chance to play. I by no means think that Joey is anywhere near the elite of NFL QBs like Manning (Peyton, not Eli), Brady, Romo, or used to be Favre... I'm just saying that he's still a young QB in this league, and I think that he deserves a chance to start on good team; and I'm implying that if he gets that chance, he would flourish with the opportunity. (Directly from ESPN blog)

George Mason

I'm happy to see George Mason back in the NCAA Tourney after making it to the Final Four in 2006, then not making the field of 65 last year. I know the chances are pretty much even slimmer than they were last time, but I think in the back of everybody's mind, they're going to be thinking about and dreaming about another George Mason upset run. When they did go to the Final Four in 2006, it's not like they had an easy road there. In their four tournament wins, they knocked off Michigan State, North Carolina, a good Witchita State team, and the #1 seed UConn Huskies. With the field of teams this year, I can see an underdog like GMU surviving up until the Elite Eight, such as Xavier did in 2003. Though, unlike last year, I really can see a somewhat underdog team advancing even farther than the Elite Eight. Not a complete underdog like GMU was and still is this year, but more of a team like Butler or this year's Xavier squad. As for Drake, I would love to see them get to the Final Four, but I really doubt that they'll even survive the first weekend, and I don't see them making the Sweet Sixteen. As for the bubble teams, I really would like to see Florida come back and try to defend its title, but I don't think that they're good enough to even win a game in the tourney, and the selection crew should therefore instead go with Ohio State or one of the Pac-10 teams like Arizona or Oregon. I also really think that St. Mary's deserves to get in, as does Ohio State if they can at least win a game or two in the Big 10 tournament, but really in the end, all of it is really irrelevant because North Carolina will be the team to take home the National Championship trophy. (Directly from ESPN blog)

Tar Heel Blue

Just watched the UNC-Duke game. It was pretty baller and had me on the edge of my seat until about the last minute, when I basically knew it was over. UNC showed their superiority on both sides of the ball, by being up a dozen at the Half, and then blanking Duke for the last 5:42. That win basically proved to me that UNC is the most superior team in the nation, and I am now convinced that they will win the National Championship this year. Their loss to Duke in Chapel Hill was only because they didn't have starting PG Ty Lawson, and as Dick Vitale says, "You must have elite PG play to win at the college level." This is absolutely true, and it was shown tonight when Lawson was back on the floor. As for the loss against Maryland, well, every team has a bad game or two. Another reason that I am convinced that UNC will win the tourney this year, is the fact that they are 13-0 on the road, which shows that they have the mental toughness and experience that it will take to win once they arrive in San Antonio for this years Final Four. Depending on how the brackets fill up, my other three teams to reach the Final Four this year are Memphis, UCLA, and Georgetown, with UNC beating UCLA in the Championship. Anyways, it was nice to see UNC take it to the Blue Devils, and I cant wait to watch them win the rest of their games, both in the ACC Tournament, and in the March Madness NCAA Tournament. Should be a fun one this year. Go Heels. (Directly from ESPN Blog)