March's Biggest Winner

Oh my dear lord, after I ripped the SEC a new rim, I get another chance to slam it down their basket holes again. If not being able to produce a sweet 16 team was enough, your best and biggest basketball team f*%$ed up ( no other words sorry).

This is a perfect example of why this is called the "Down South Report", I am here to tie two regions together with "unbiased" sports reporting. If you laughed at the unbiased reporting, so did I as UK explained their firing of Gillispe.

I admit, if State lost to VMI, Ole Miss, UGA (this year and prior to last years miracle on hardwood), Gardner -Webb, Houston and then follow up last years 11 seed with an non-invite to the dance I'd be pissed too.

However, UK, it's your own damn fault.

Even in this bad economy you hear crickets chirping. Your best candidates are either staying at current jobs or taking other jobs in the sec. Monster Jobs.com can't even find an app. for you.

UK, or maybe, UKKK, oh I went there! Tubby leave!

If you haven't and I am sure you didn't, listen to the UK Ad. explain this firing. It's great, he said everything right besides, opps I f*$%ed up by not keeping Tubby. I should of put out the fire with Tubby and made it right a couple years ago. If he had done that, I am sure Kentucky would have beat VMI in its opener this year and Gardner - Webb in its opener last year. I am sure if they were a 11 seed last year, they'd be a better 5 seed this year like LSU. Why you ask?

Well, he took a bottom feeder Minn. and grabbed the nation by it's balls. Opps, I did it again. Yes, he did, it started last year when he knocked Indiana off it's basketball pedestal in the big ten tourney. Then he came around with a hard jab and took UMinn to the the tourney, while UK went to the NIT. Trust me, I'd take that Meeks kid in a minute over...ummm...that one kid...oh yeah, I don't know any kid on Minn. Oh, Wait! I do! Ralph Sampson the III.

Shut up if you argue that Tucky went farther in the NIT then Minn did in the dance. Nobody cares about the NIT unless you're a mid major, a smaller power conference school ( UofM, Penn St., Auburn, Baylor), or a New York college. Point being, since UK doesn't fit those, they fired their coach, highlighting my point.

Tubby is ranked higher then Kevin McHale in Minn. and Kentucky can only name their football coach as a more famous person in their state. Why is that bad? Well, Kentucky is the SEC's door mate to greatness and their coach has a football field in Oregon named after him.

Besides that, Tubby took this often over looked big ten team to Arizona and beat number 1 seed L'ville, he wonda national championship in '06, six years after Izzo (or any other Big Ten coach) and he won 2 more games then Gillispie in their compared last seasons.

So why is Tubby the biggest winner. He's been rumored as a coach at a crappy ACC team, to do what he did at Minn., his former school lost in the NIT and he lost in the actual dance, he didn't loose to VMI and Gardner-Webb, he beat L'ville, oh and he still has a job!

Tucky, good luck! The coach you wanted, again, is staying put. The coach you wanted next took the Bama job (ps: left a VCU job better then yours) and despite Gus Johnson's great reporting of Izzo's unhappiness, you're not that lucky to get another good coach! Mizzou's coach would rather go to UGA then you guys.

I hope Tubby is sitting in a chillful 40's Minn. night, smoking a fine cigar, with a nice warming drink in hand (tobacco from a nice southern state and sipping on Kentucky's finest whiskey fielding calls) as Kentucky scrambles for shelter from this cold chilly coach hunt.

PS: I have nothing going on!

Round 2 EVE

Yikes! Like Hanukkah, the first two nights have been crazy! Full of surprises, locks (haha) and shining moments. So where does your bracket sit right now, in the trash? Back pocket, ready to be pulled out and placed in your co-worker's, friend's, brother's, grandmothers' face? Does your bracket compare to the presidents ( I wonder if Bush has knocking off Duke too)? Better yet, how is it doing compared to Mine?

I went 6-2 in the East. I missed the 7-10 and assumed to much on Portland St. However, I had Ok. St. and Wisconsin, not to mention UCLA over "sleeper" VCU.

I went 6-2 in the West. I missed WKU but my other loss I said you could split that game. Clemson loss to UofM, which is a big win for the B10, especially against an ACC team (2-0 in the tourney).

I went 7-1 in the West. The game I missed I said was a split, Cal lost to Maryland. I had AM and everything else was pretty easy.

Then there was the Mid-West, 3-5. However, I said you could split 2 of those 5 games. I just picked the other. I did say Cleveland State would chase Wake, I just didn't think they'd catch them, tie their shoes together and play monkey in the middle with them.

Round 2:
Despite my 10 misses, 14 of my sweet 16 are still alive. Wake's beating and my belief that Portland State fans would have should up in Boise like Michigan fans, Sienna fans, North Dakota fans and Cleveland State fans did, it's not all bad.

With that I am not going to change much. In the back of my head I didn't trust Wake and assumed that many people picked them to go as far if not farther then what I had. That's why I had L'ville taking them down. If anything, the path for L'ville is more golden then Dorthy's path to OZ. Wisconsin played a good FSU team, and I look for them to carry the torch for Portland State and knock the X-men out! Yes Jordie, In Bo I Trust!

For those people playing round by round brackets here is something I noticed.

East: Ok St. lives by the 3 and could die by the 3. Pitt lives inside, so that could play a factor. Experience and leadership is a big factor so don't be surprised if UCLA knocks Nova off at home.

South: Harden has a big game they knock off the Orangemen. WKU could see their way into another sweet 16.

West: This region will play out as is. Marq. would and could be the biggest "upset" as long as they don't fall into the Mizzou style of play.

MW: Kansas, L'ville and MSU are very excited! The only team who could have and issue is STATE, yes, I said it.

Hopefully, Saturday and Sunday will play out like a nice round of dreidel and my picks don't fall on Nun and lands with Gimel!

final 4

MSU vs Uconn

Duke vs Sooners

Here I am stuck with 3 2 seeds and 1 1 seed:

Uconn knocks out Msu because I am not going to Michigan that Monday of the Championship. Sooners knock out Duke and Blake does what Sam Bradford didn't do and Courtney Paris couldn't do, win a national championship!

Final $

best for last

HAHAH pistons loss and you will get that once you finish this blog

MIDWEST

L'Ville
OSU ( who doesn't love an upset but it's basically at OSU)

Utah ( you could split this pick)
Wake ( but Cleveland state chases them down)

WVA
Kansas (However, if any 3 seed goes its here based on location)

BC (split pick )
MSU

Sweet 16

L'ville ( very hot right now, but its in Ohio and they lost to Minn in Arizona, I am putting it into writing that if OSU wins it wouldn't surprise me, tickets are like 250 right now)
Wake

Kansas
Msu ( yes we do it again, Jayhawks are young)


Elite 8:

L'ville (osu if they happen to make it)
MSU

Region:

MSU ( had L'ville lost some time prior to the tourney then L'ville)

west

Rockets are up 10 and you are reading the blog in reverse order

West

Conn
AM (based on stats and location doesn't matter)

Purdue
Wash

Marq
Mizzou

Cal ( you can split this but stats show Cal, location shows Maryland)
Memphis

Sweet 16

Conn
Purdue ( you can split this pick, stats say Purdue but location says Wash but I. Thomas is to young and Kramer is a better defender)

Mizzou (lock down d)
memphis

Elite 8

Conn
Mizzou (seriously Memphis is going to go 31-0 to win it at all since their last loss?)

Regional Winner

Uconn

South

now the Pistons have reached double overtime and another "great" Q~use Uconn reference!

time for the South

Unc
Lsu (location and stats)

Ill (Chester is hurt but he only puts about 5 pts a game up, WKU beat 5 seed last yr. named Drake, who aren't even in this year)
Zags

ASU
Orangemen

Clem (its a split on this, stats, location, split your brackets)
Sooners

Sweet 16

Unc (home sweet home
Zags

Asu (you can go either way but Big East Tourney is fools gold for Q~use)
sooners

Elite 8

UNC
Sooners

Regional winner

Sooners (based on a toe )

Tourney!

As of 12:13 am, with the Pistons toying with my heart with a OT game against the Rockets ( AI, Sheed and RTPless team) I am waving my white flag. I am writing in my picks! Those with financial outcoming riding on this with me, we'll debate before 11am.

EAST ( I am starting in 2nd round)

Pitt
Okl St

Wisconsin (FSU is the worse 5 seed and farthest from home)
Portland St. ( Same applies to X-men)

UCLA ( Despite being far from home their stats make them the best 6 seed, also if they discuss your team prior to the tourney you aren't a sleeper team sorry VCU)
Nova (home sweet, home)

Minn (stats rank them higher then texas)
Duke (like nova)

East Sweet 16:
pitt
portland state

Nova (thanks to home sweet home, UCLA will make it close)
Duke (thanks to home sweet home)

Elite 8 East

Pitt
Duke

Regional winner

Duke

Thanks SEC

****

Pop! You hear that? Well, I did! It's a bubble being busted! No, not St. Mary's or Va. Tech or Penn St. It's the bubble surrounding the SEC!

SEC, the captain of the BCS. Georgia, LSU, Gators, Bama! Tim the Tool Man Taylor is perking his lips going " Ughh-Ohhhh." Lsu, Gators, Dawgs, Tenn. all have big BCS football wins! I hear it all the time, from everyone down here, we are football nation!, we produce great athletes. ESPN should have game down here every week, even if its Miss. State vs Vandy. It's the BCS power house. It's a good debate and I am sure ESPN (which is great for football coverage) would agree, however, BCS has its name attached to basketball. They measure SOS and RPI basically based on BCS conferences, because they are the conferences with the deepest talent. Well, almost all of them.

Well, SEC, you messed that up! No it wasn't Bama losing to the Utah or the Heisman winner losing to Michigan in the Capital One Bowl two seasons ago. It was the claim of Basketball to BCS conferences.

SEC you put one more team into the big dance this year then the Horizon (some of those schools don't even have football teams), yeah Cleveland knocked Butler off to give them two. Well, Miss. State won your conference tourney, to get get your third spot. Actually you may have knocked one of your own top teams out with Miss State's win. Miss St. finished behind the University of South Carolina, which shared a Co-Championship with Tenn ( Gamecocks didn't make it and get a spot in the NIT because they won a share regular season championship, of the EAST). Miss St. finished behind Auburn which came out of no where (there isn't a comparison for it that's how far they came) and didn't make the big dance!

Stop! Don't Give me the We won Back to Back with the Gators. All I have to say is that your Tourney champions from last year were Cinderella's cousins and finished 3-13 this year (in the sec). Come on! Your days of Kentucky rich tradition are gone, oh by they way, you let that coach go and he's got a team Minn. (big ten, ouch) in the tourney.

Back to the point. An area proud in athleticism, talent, and such lacks that in basketball now. The SEC doesn't even have it's team richest in basketball tradition in the dance, the regular season champs are seeded 9 and 8 ( Gamecocks split a championship with Tenn and didn't get the invite). Seina (MAAC) are ranked as high as of your East SEC champs/ tourney runner ups. Again, defending tourney champs from the prior year finished 3-13 and were knocked out in the first round. What's worst about that is their in-state rivials beat a top 10 team in their tourney (GT beat Clemson and almost beat FSU, ACC runner up).

If I were the MWAC, WAC, MAC and other football conferences which has a possible two or three teams out of all the mid-level conferences threaten the BCS each year. I'd use this as a point to break up the system or idea how BCS are power conferences. The point of the fact that the conference with the "choke hold" on the BCS can't produce a powerful consistent basketball team. Utah and BYU, teams that were the mainstream of opponents of the monolopizims of BCS conferences have teams ranked higher then the SEC or as high as one of its regular season champs.

So basically my rant is to say thank you! Thanks for taking Penn State out of the tourney! Your mid-level basketball conference took a decent team out of the tourney. Your conference is so good that your top two teams, if they win their first game will play number 1 seeds day 2. Then your tourney winner is a 13 seed! Which actually has the best chance of an uspet!

Heal-Toe, Heal-Toe- Docey- Doe

Less then a month ago I made my field of 64 (not 65). I debated on doing the Joe L. (espn) way and updating my bracket daily and hourly as tournaments played out. Then I remembered I had a family and a brother visiting for NASCAR, plus a glimpse of sprummer (spring and summer) so going outside was mandatory and oh and I am not paid.
Well, Sunday is here and the results are in. Remember the predications were based on pre-tournaments games, before Pitt beat U-Conn twice, Auburn made us realize the SEC is horrible, and well Senior Night. My Big Dance picks were also predicting conference tournaments.

My Teams in: 46
Number of Correct Teams in Region: 14
Number of Correct Seeds: 8
+/- seeding: 18

PS:
-I had Binghamton in
- Oakland had a lead over North Dakota till about 10 seconds left
- Cleveland State beat Butler not Green-Bay
-Buff lost to Akron (yes, I had 2 MAC teams in I am a from there)
- Citadel was my winner of SoCon tourn. (that's Davidson's Conf)
- ****SEC Gamecocks, Gators, and Kentucky folded, thanks A**holes! So did Tenn, which let Miss State knock out Penn St.
-If the big east was as strong as they said Cincy and Providence would have made something at the end! Then we could of heard Dicky V cry for four days!
- Miami and Va Tech missing it proves that the ACC is better then the Big East ( DePaul didn't win a regular season Big East game knocked out a bubble team from the conference, that's not strong, ask Indiana)

**** see previous blog!

Sorry Mr. Big Shot

A possible Outright Regular Season Big Ten Championship on the line tonight for my beloved Spartans, so of course my focus is turned to ESPN. Then the time for Tip-Off drew closer. Much to my surprise I found myself pondering and focusing on the weight of the Pistons game. The D's beloved point guard comes home, well not really home, the other D is his home. Anyway, Chauncey made his return, and many fans focused on this game for a couple reason. One reason was to as Sheed put it, "Pay homage," and the other to see how the Pistons would play. A possible 3 game win streak sparks some interest.

If the Pistons had not beat the Magic and Celtics on the road as apart of that streak I imagine that whole Denver team would have felt like it was return "home". A Palace full of jerseys with the number 1 on them, but with Billups stitched above it and jerseys with number one and Iverson would be missing, just like A.I. I had to listen to the game so I wasn't able to see but I am sure there were plenty of Billups jerseys none the less.

This game meant something, the Stones just beat 2 of the top 3 teams in the East and on the road (yes, in the lost to LeBron and Wade early in the week). Now they are home, where they were under .500, to play against the West's 3rd best team (standings). A game that would be full of emotion, for a team that lacked that for a long time.

So, to me this was a big game for the Stones. Would they show up to make a statement they can win without their leader and against him? Would they show up and win 3 in a row? Could they win at home? Could they win 3 in a row against 3 top teams in the league? Would they regain confidence in themselves and with their fans?

Well, not only did they answer all those questions with a win. They overcame a 10 point deficit at halftime, which showed guts that had been missing. As I listened more closely after the Spartans grabbed another banner, I got a the sense that the fans were in it also, something I hadn't heard and seen in the last few games.

Now, hopefully the Stones can take this confidence into the next few games and make another mini-statement . To do that they can't sleep on a bottom dweller in the West, Golden State. Then they need to come down here to ATLANTA for a meaningful game against the Hawks (wow, I just said meaningful game against the Hawks). Win here and go back home to play the Magic again, now we are talking playoffs more seriously!

To say they "have" to go 3-0 in that span is a little much, but they should go at least 2-3. By the way that 2-3 needs to be wins against Atl and GS.