Wooooooooooooooo! I hope you saw some of the MADNESS this past weekend. It was sure MADNESS! If you did not see or follow the games this past weekend, I’m here with an exciting recap.
Day one (Thursday) there were no major upsets, Duke had a scare with a one point win over Belmont. This was a sign of things to come.
My upset pick, Georgia, went out to Xavier in round one; this is why I did not make any more picks.
On day two (Friday) the MADNESS was in full force. Tampa was ground zero for the upsets; this was the first time since 1973 (first time the tournament was seeded) all four double-digit seeds won at the same site. To top it all off two of the four games went into overtime. This included UCONN being eliminated by San Diego. At this point my bracket was intact.
Day three (Saturday) started with number two seed Duke losing to West Virginia in the second round. My bracket was in the trash can. That was the upset of the day but there were a lot of close games and that is what makes the tournament great. As Bob Wenzel, one of the CBS’ announcers said, “No one what’s to go home from the NCAA tournament”. This day included one overtime-game with Stanford beating Marquette by one point.
Day four (Sunday) included number two seed Georgetown going down to another double-digit seed, Davidson. At the same time this upset was going on, Tennessee a two seed was in overtime with Butler. Tennessee did survive and advance. Forty-eight games in four days, now you know why they call it MARCH MADNESS.
This coming weekend is the regional semi-finals and regional finals, with a berth in the Final Four if you win these two games.
Enjoy the regional games; I will talk to you next week with a report and my own personal critique on the announcers.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
I love the madness of March
I love March madness. This is the best month of the year. It is the month of the NCAA Tournament and all the conference tournaments. The NCAA Tournament is the greatest sports event known to man. The conference tournaments are important because the winner of all 30 tournaments get an automatic bid to the field of 65. Only the Ivy League awards its regular season champion the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The rest of the field is the 34 best at-large teams sectioned by the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee. Just to let you know that there are 341 Division I schools for the committee to chose from. The very best thing about the NCAA tournament is the upsets that can happen. Any thing can happen. Just think about George Mason getting to the Final Four in 2006. Any one can win on any given day. It’s one game not a best-of-three or best-of-seven series. As Dick Vitale says it’s “survive and advance”. There is nothing like it in the world. Also I like that the hype lasts only three days and Tuesday you get a taste of things to come with the Opening Round game between the two worst teams with. The winner of this game moving on to face number one seed overall North Carolina in the First Round. The main course starts at noon on Thursday and goes all night and we do it all over again on Friday. The second round on the weekend is the same thing.
This maybe the most balanced field in a long time. Any of about ten teams can win this tournament. I will not pick a winner because of all the variables I mentioned above and the fact that I’m not very good at that. One of my brackets is always a mess after this weekend. A few thoughts on this year’s tournament are: Why is Kentucky in the field of 65? They were 18-12 overall, 12-4 in the SEC, lost in the Quarterfinal to Georgia in the Conference tournament. One of their loses was to Gardner-Webb. I know this loss was early in the season but come on; I thought the committee looks at non-conference games a little more then this. This has to be one of the most interesting decisions in a while. I don’t see them getting past Marquette in the first round. The game in the Midwest regional between USC and Kansas State will feature two of the most talked about freshman in the country: O.J Mayo from USC and Michael Beasley from Kansas State. My sleeper pick for the whole tournament is Georiga. After winning the SEC tournament and playing four games in three days because of a tornado hitting Atlanta and postponing their Quarterfinal until Saturday, they had to play two games in one day; won them both and then won the final on Sunday to get in to the NCAA tournament. Just remarkable!
I will write on Monday a post first and second round review.
This maybe the most balanced field in a long time. Any of about ten teams can win this tournament. I will not pick a winner because of all the variables I mentioned above and the fact that I’m not very good at that. One of my brackets is always a mess after this weekend. A few thoughts on this year’s tournament are: Why is Kentucky in the field of 65? They were 18-12 overall, 12-4 in the SEC, lost in the Quarterfinal to Georgia in the Conference tournament. One of their loses was to Gardner-Webb. I know this loss was early in the season but come on; I thought the committee looks at non-conference games a little more then this. This has to be one of the most interesting decisions in a while. I don’t see them getting past Marquette in the first round. The game in the Midwest regional between USC and Kansas State will feature two of the most talked about freshman in the country: O.J Mayo from USC and Michael Beasley from Kansas State. My sleeper pick for the whole tournament is Georiga. After winning the SEC tournament and playing four games in three days because of a tornado hitting Atlanta and postponing their Quarterfinal until Saturday, they had to play two games in one day; won them both and then won the final on Sunday to get in to the NCAA tournament. Just remarkable!
I will write on Monday a post first and second round review.
Friday, March 7, 2008
This week in sports
Sorry I have not written in a while. Last week I was in not so sunny San Diego for a Special Olympics meeting. This past week the flu bug hit me. But now I’M back and better than ever.
Saturday February 16, 2008 was the re-air of the 2007 Ironman Triathlon World Championship from Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. For those of you who do not know the Ironman consist of a 2.4-mile swim then a 112-mile bike ride and finally they finish off with a full 26.2-mile marathon run. The Ironman is the greatest test of an athlete, but the real story is the average Joe that comes from all walks for life to cross the finish line. You see, you have to get to the finish line before the course is closed at midnight to be an Ironman. This year the show focused on four remarkable stories, one person with Cystic fibrosis, a person who is blind, and a person that was born with no feet. The last person was a young man that was in a car accident and was on the brink of death to come back to become an Ironman. The Ironman is the best-written event all year and has won 14 sports Emmy awards over the years. As I said in this column before, I cry each year and it gives me more motivation than any other event watch each and every year.
The NBA slam-dunk contest is back! Dwight Howard and Gerald Green put on a show. Green’s birthday dunk were he put a cup cake with a lit candle on the back on the rim and then blew the candle out before doing a dunk was so creative. I though it was a 10! Howard is a man beast, the superman dunk was just so awesome that he did not even dunk the ball; he threw it in, he jumped so high. This was the best dunk contest in many years, you have to go back to the late ‘80’s with Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins and Spud Webb for the glory years of the slam dunk contest at NBA all-star weekend. I hope these kids come back next year to put on an even better show.
Breaking News: Brett Favre of the Green Bay Packers is retiring after 13 seasons and 3 MVP awards. Brett Favre is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Will have more on this later.
The question on ESPN last week was: If you were a NFL GM would you build your team through the draft or free agency? I would build through free agency because the draft is such a crapshoot. The NFL draft is the biggest unknown in sports. You can evaluate players all you want but no one knows how good a player will be as a pro. There are so many stories of first round draft busts that I would trade all my first day picks to get more on the second day. Remember, Tom Brady was a fifth round pick. On a side note here, good to see Randy Moss resign with the Pats. He and Brady have unfinished business. Like winning a championship.
Thats my take, I like to hear yours
Jamie Lazaroff
Saturday February 16, 2008 was the re-air of the 2007 Ironman Triathlon World Championship from Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. For those of you who do not know the Ironman consist of a 2.4-mile swim then a 112-mile bike ride and finally they finish off with a full 26.2-mile marathon run. The Ironman is the greatest test of an athlete, but the real story is the average Joe that comes from all walks for life to cross the finish line. You see, you have to get to the finish line before the course is closed at midnight to be an Ironman. This year the show focused on four remarkable stories, one person with Cystic fibrosis, a person who is blind, and a person that was born with no feet. The last person was a young man that was in a car accident and was on the brink of death to come back to become an Ironman. The Ironman is the best-written event all year and has won 14 sports Emmy awards over the years. As I said in this column before, I cry each year and it gives me more motivation than any other event watch each and every year.
The NBA slam-dunk contest is back! Dwight Howard and Gerald Green put on a show. Green’s birthday dunk were he put a cup cake with a lit candle on the back on the rim and then blew the candle out before doing a dunk was so creative. I though it was a 10! Howard is a man beast, the superman dunk was just so awesome that he did not even dunk the ball; he threw it in, he jumped so high. This was the best dunk contest in many years, you have to go back to the late ‘80’s with Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins and Spud Webb for the glory years of the slam dunk contest at NBA all-star weekend. I hope these kids come back next year to put on an even better show.
Breaking News: Brett Favre of the Green Bay Packers is retiring after 13 seasons and 3 MVP awards. Brett Favre is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Will have more on this later.
The question on ESPN last week was: If you were a NFL GM would you build your team through the draft or free agency? I would build through free agency because the draft is such a crapshoot. The NFL draft is the biggest unknown in sports. You can evaluate players all you want but no one knows how good a player will be as a pro. There are so many stories of first round draft busts that I would trade all my first day picks to get more on the second day. Remember, Tom Brady was a fifth round pick. On a side note here, good to see Randy Moss resign with the Pats. He and Brady have unfinished business. Like winning a championship.
Thats my take, I like to hear yours
Jamie Lazaroff
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