What a Weekend

Since so much happened this weekend, especially between 2 and 9pm yesterday, I will be spitting out some short little bits we have all come to know as the ramblings. Some may be a little longer than normal, but that's how it goes.

The stat of the weekend: The last three teams in college basketball to have their first loss of the season on the final day of the regular season have not made it to the sweet sixteen in the NCAA Tournament, including Stanford last season, who lost to Alabama in the second round.

Speaking of the Illinois loss at Ohio State yesterday, I was watching that game unitl Illinois went up 6 with under 4 minutes to go. I thought, here we go again, Illinois is about to pull away. I didn't even know what happened in the game until a friend called and told me. Congratulations to Ohio State for being the team to finally defeat Illinois, and also to the Fighting Illini who have had and still will have a great season.

More on Illinois... I am so sick of hearing people say things like, "This is the best thing which could have happened to this team", "the loss is a blessing in disguise", "they might have tanked this game on purpose". All of this is crap. No one, no team ever has wanted to lose a game. As Herm Edwards once said, "You play to win the game!" Why on Earth would Illinois want to lose this game? It doesn't make any sense. They were 10 games away from history, there is no reason this loss is a blessing in disguise. For once I agreed with Woody Paige who basically said the same thing today. There is one goal for every team in every game, and that is to WIN.

Can you say SI cover jinx Illinois?

The golf on Sunday was awesome. Just indredible golf. My television was focused on what I will be speaking of next, but Tiger vs. Phil was outstanding and I watched it during commercials of the Duke game. Usually Tiger would go up 2 on anyone after the 12th hole, and the other person would fold. Not Phil, he came back and tied Woods, and if not for a weekend warrior-esque type putt, he would have had the lead going into 17. Instead, the two were tied, and Phil darn near brought the tournament to a playoff with a great chip shot on 18. A little too much energy for Phil on his putt on 16 and approach on 18, otherwise he probably would have won. Congratulations to Tiger, though who regained his number one ranking in the world. Hopefully the Doral will give us a glimpse as to what we can expect for the rest of the season; the two most popular players in golf playing together in the final pairing. This is a great rivalry. While it isn't Duke/UNC, Texas/OU, Red Sox/Yankees, or even Gonzaga Pepperdine, it is still an outstanding rivalry. These two men bring out the best golf in each other, and the fans are the winners. I would compare Phil vs. Tiger and the two of them playing in the final pairing on Sunday's all summer would be like if Gary Cooper and John Wayne were in the same western, two great actors, not friends, not enemies, bringing out the best in each other.

What I watched mostly while the golf was on was Duke at UNC. There really aren't any words which can be written about this series which would do the level of competition justice. Duke had a big lead, then Carolina had a big lead, then it was close, then it was halftime, then Carolina had a lead, then Duke had a big lead, then Carolina scored the final 11 points in the game and won by 2. You don't even need to have a vested interest in either of these teams to enjoy the games when they play. Sean May had one of the best games I've seen out of a big man in a while with 26 points and 24 rebounds. Unfortunately for UNC, I am still going to hold by my statement that Roy Williams won't win a National Championship until Martin Scorsese wins a Best Director Oscar, so they won't win the title again this year (I may be ammending this statement on April 4. I am not writing any more about the game because I wouldn't be able to express the greatness which was displayed in it.

Duke looks like a team which could make a run all the way to the title, or could lose in the second round. If they play a team with great guard play and hustling defense (Louisville) in the second round, they could be in trouble.

Wake Forest came back and won by two points on a buzzer beater by Chris Paul last night. Another great game on a great day of college basketball. Unfortunately Paul has been suspended by Wake Forest for a low blow he threw on North Carolina State's Julius Hodge.

Kansas lost again and people are beginning to seriously doubt how far this team can go in the tournament. However, you must remember that teams do well in the tournament with seniors, good guards, and an inside presence; this is Kansas. That being said, they haven't played like a senior led team in about 2 weeks. Aaron Miles and Keith Langford aren't playing particularily well right now. The Big XII tournament will tell a lot about this team and if they are ready for another Final Four run.

I was up early this morning and was able to listen to a morning radio show for the first time in a long, long while. I was listening to Bob & Brian on Lazer 103. The time I was listening to the show allowed me to listen to their sports segment with sports "expert" Steve Czaben. I used to love the show and especially when Czaben came on. However, over the years I began to grow tired of their schtick. Bob & Brian and hard-core Republicans, and while I have no problem with anyone's political views, they don't even want to hear anything about what the left thinks. Anything the left thinks is automatically wrong, anything either of them says is law, Republicans don't do wrong, and anyone who didn't vote for Bush is a donkey. I can't stand people who don't appreciate what a democracy is. Czaben is the same way, and aside from their political views, they think anything they say about sports is right and funny. This morning I almost drove my car off the road when Bob suggested that Illinois tanked the game on purpose and that it was the best thing which could have happened to them going into the tournament and wouldn't get off the subject about how great a loss this was. I have already been over this and you know my feelings. After this, when talking about the Carolina game he didn't know anything about it, other than the fact the Tar Heels won. Bob mentioned he couldn't watch any of the golf becuase he had projects to do, so how could he have possibly seen the UNC/Duke game? He said that UNC's only lead of the game was when they went up 75-73 to win, and everyone agreed with him! Anyone who watched the game knows the Tar Heels had the lead with about 3:40 to go in the first half and held it until about 11:00 left in the second half. A small detail, but know what you're talking about.

I was able to watch the Cubs' preseason game today and I'm now officially ready for the season to begin.

This week:

NL West Preview
Words on some boys basketball teams
Conference Tourney words
Anything else I feel like writing

-Until next time...