No Wonder Why It's Called March Madness

What a great weekend of college basketball in the NCAA Tournament. There were more upsets, more surprising victories and much more. Many people had their brackets busted by the lowly 10 seed Davidson upsetting a 7,2,3 and nearly a #1 seed. Finally the Kansas Jayhawks held off the Davidson Wildcats and there was a lot of tension with Davidson missing a shot at the buzzer to go to the Final four. The biggest surprise was all four #1 seeds making the Final Four. The North Carolina Tar Heels, the Kansas Jayhawks, the UCLA Bruins, and the Memphis Tigers became the first four #1 seeds to all make the Final Four in the entire history of the NCAA Tournament. Every year there is always the sleeper team that beats one of the #1 seeds. This year a couple of teams came close but the four best teams prevailed. There can be no argument of the selection committee as they got the four number one seeds right. I am rooting for the two underdogs Kansas and UCLA as I am in a couple of brackets and both have them in the championship game. Honestly I believe that North Carolina and Memphis have better chances to win but you never know what could happen. All of these teams are extremely talented and all have incredible coaches that will benefit each team.

2008 MLB Preview

In this blog I will write about the upcoming season of baseball and my predictions for each division winner and who will be in and who will win the 2008 World Series. Although the baseball season has officially started with the two games the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics played overseas in Japan, the games were filled with minor league players. Starting with the AL East I think the New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays will give the Red Sox a run for their money but in the end the Red Sox will prevail in the East. In the AL Central the battle will be intense between the Cleveland Indians and the Detroit Tigers but pitching will help the Indians prevail in the end. In the AL West I believe the Seattle Mariners will be very good but will not be able to match up with Anaheim Angels offense and the Angels will prevail. I think that the Red Sox will once again come out of the AL for the second straight year to make the World Series. In the NL East I believe that the New York Mets will coast with the addition of ace Johan Santana. The Phillies will contest but will be no match for the Mets. In the NL Central I believe it is the Chicago Cubs year to win the division and will get little to no competition. In the NL West I believe that the Arizona Diamonbacks and their starting pitching will lead them to a division crown. I believe the World Series will be a rematch of the 1986 World Series and once again the New York Mets will be World Champions

2008 NCAA Tournament: Bracket Busters Galore!

The first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament have come and gone. Many teams expected to be in the Sweet 16 are still around while there are many teams that nobody could have guessed would be here. there are teams that should be here but heading home instead of sticking around. All of the #1 seeded teams are still around whom are North Carolina, UCLA, Kansas, and Memphis. Very surprisingly two #2 seeds have been sent home prematurely and they are Georgetown and Duke, respectively. The other two #2 seeds Texas and Tennessee are still going strong. All four of the #3 seeds are around and this includes Wisconsin, Stanford, Xavier, and Louisville. Only one #4 seed is left and that is Washington State. Only one # seed as well in Michigan State. Now come the teams that nobody expected to even win their first game. They are Villanova, Western Kentucky, West Virginia, and finally Davidson. Davidson perhaps the slimmest of them all of making it this far. You can see a picture of their star player Stephen Curry above. I feel that the rest of the tournament will be extremely interesting and I will cover more as we go along.

Houston Rockets 22-0 and still counting?

The Houston Rockets have won twenty two games in a row. They have won 13 games without arguably their best player Center Yao Ming. Nobody could have ever pictured this after the day everyone found out that Yao would be out for the rest of the season. They have played great team basketball and each one of their role players have stepped up huge since the absence of Yao. Rafer Alston, Shane Battier, Chuck Hayes, Dikembe Mutombo and rookie Luis Scola have all helped star Tracy McGrady fill in for the absence of Yao Ming. Many people have questioned their wins since they have beat good teams also missing many of their star players. This has included Pau Gasol of the Lakers, David West of the Hornets, and many others. Even tonight they face the league best Boston Celtics without Ray Allen in which figures to be another great game.

NFL Free Agency Roundup

NFL Free Agency has been going on for nearly two weeks now and many major moves have been made. Most of the moves made involved a lot of teams resigning their own players due to the increase in the salary cap. Some notable players who either resigned or received a franchise tag include Randy Moss, Jared Allen, Albert Haynesworth, Terrell Suggs, Lance Briggs, Marcus Trufant, and Nnamdi Asomugha. In recent years this may not have happened but since more teams have a lot of cap room they feel that they would rather contain their own players. Some big name players moving to other teams either through free agency include CB Asante Samuel to the Philadelphia Eagles, G Alan Faneca to the New York Jets, RB Michael Turner to the Atlanta Falcons, WR Bernard Berrian to the Minnesota Vikings, WR Javon Walker to the Oakland Raiders. Also there a ton of trades involving many impact players and they include Shaun Rogers, Marcus Stroud, Jonathan Vilma, Corey Williams, Kris Jenkins, Leigh Bodden, Brian Griese, Troy Williamson. All of these moves will affect the upcoming NFL Draft.

Big Saturday in Basketball

Today was a huge day in the wide world of basketball. On the NCAA front Duke faced off with North Carolina in the most heated rivalry in all of sports. North Carolina led by All-Pro foward Tyler Hansbrough won on Senior Night in Cameron for the third straight year. Duke played with a high intensity but North Carolina prevailed in the end. Georgetown wrapped up the Big East with a win over Louisville. Next Sunday is Selection Sunday and we will see the outcomes of the conference tournaments this week.
On the NBA front the Houston Rockets won their 18th game in a row despite the season ending injury to Yao Ming 2 weeks ago. They beat another very hot Western Conference team in the New Orleans Hornets. Also Jason Kidd faced his former team in the New Jersey Nets. Despite Kidd's 3 points he had 13 assists leading the Dallas Mavericks to the easy win. The New York Knicks lost again as usual to the Portland Trail Blazers. Despite Nate Robinson's career high 45 points the Knicks were no match while missing stars Jamal Crawford, Zach Randolph, and Eddy Curry.

Brett Favre: The Epitome of Class

Brett Favre hands down is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all-time. Also he is probably the classiest quarterback to ever step onto a football field. On March 4th, 2008 after seventeen years in the NFL Brett Favre walked away and retired. There has been retirement speculation for the past couple of seasons. I truly thought Favre would play one more year considering how close he was to the Super Bowl last year. The Green Bay Packers now will finally hand the reigns to young quarterback Aaron Rodgers who was drafted a couple of years ago to be Favre's successor in time. Aaron Rodgers has some giant shoes to fill in Green Bay. Favre will walk away with many records including the most Passing Yards, most Touchdown Passes, the wins by a QB starter and the most interceptions. He also has the most memorable Monday Night Football performance of all time. Favre played less than 24 hours after his father suddenly died in a car accident, and had probably his best and most emotional game in his career. This showed the class that he had and he will truly be missed by all NFL fans. You can watch the press conference below.