Sunday, March 21, 2010

Oh How Sweet It Is!!

The Sweet Sixteen is set after a wild weekend of basketball and although my brackets, just like many others around the world (4 million+ brackets on ESPN's Tourney Challenge), were upended when the consensus favourite (40% of the Brackets on ESPN's Tourney Challenge) to win it all, Kansas Jayhawks, got "rock chalked" by the Cinderella that is the University of Northern Iowa Panthers, my brackets have fared pretty well. My "official" bracket stands at #331 out of approximately 9 million brackets on ESPN's Tourney Challenge while my "what I want to happen" bracket stands at the slightly lower position of #558,244.
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The Sweet 16 includes teams from the Atlantic 10, Horizon League, Ivy League, Missouri Valley Conference and West Coast Conference. And there's one team from the Pac-10, which only looked like a mid-major conference this season. Conclusion: year of the Cinderellas.

Now the tournament takes a three-day hiatus before regional semifinals begin Thursday in Salt Lake City and Syracuse, New York. And college basketball fans can probably use a break after watching one of, if not the most, entertaining opening weekends in NCAA tournament history.

Cornell becomes the first Ivy League team to reach the regional semifinals since Penn advanced to the 1979 Final Four, where the Quakers lost to Michigan State led by some guy named Earvin "Magic" Johnson in the national semifinals. After going 4-63 all-time against teams ranked in The AP Top 25 poll, the Big Red upset No. 12-ranked Temple and No. 16-ranked Wisconsin in their last two games. Up next for the Big Red? Kentucky and freshman sensation John Wall (I can already see Ashley Judd doing the John Wall dance).

Michigan State is the only team alive from last year's final 4 and their journey is nearly as remarkable as Cornell's. In a game that saw four lead-changes in the final 39 seconds, the 5th-seeded Spartans beat 4-seed Maryland 85-83 on Korie Lucious' 3-pointer at the buzzer in a second-round game in Spokane, Washington, on Sunday. Michigan State won after losing star guard Kalin Lucas with about 2½ minutes left in the first half. Tom Izzo told reporters after the game that Lucas, a two-time All-Big Ten selection, probably tore the Achilles tendon in his left leg and will miss the rest of the tournament. The Spartans will play 9-seed and "giant killer" Northern Iowa next. Without Kalin Lucas in the game for the Spartans UNI might just move on to the elite 8 but there is no doubt the Spartans will be fighting the whole game.

The Spartans weren't the only Big Ten team playing short-handed on Sunday. Purdue, which lost star forward Robbie Hummel to a season-ending knee injury on Feb. 24, defeated Texas A&M 63-61 in overtime in Spokane as well (the fourth time in five years the Aggies have lost in the NCAA tourney by two points or less). Senior guard Chris Kramer scored six of the No. 4-seeded Boilermakers' eight points in overtime, including the winning layup with 4.2 seconds to play. They'll have to get past 1-seed Duke (my pick to win the tourney) to keep their hopes alive. The Blue Devils reached the Sweet 16 for the 25th time on Sunday by routing No. 8-seeded California 68-53 in a second-round game in Jacksonville.

Syracuse, the No. 1 seed in the West Regional, didn't have any problems reaching the Sweet 16, either. The Orange routed 8-seed Gonzaga 87-65 in the second round on Sunday, after beating No. 16-seeded Vermont by 23 points in the first round on Friday. Syracuse forward Wesley Johnson went off for 31 points and grabbed 14 rebounds against the Zags. The Orange play No. 5-seed Butler in Salt Lake City next. The Orange should be able to dominate that game as well but don't be surprised if Butler makes it close or pulls off the upset.

With its 71-68 win over No. 3-seed Pittsburgh Sunday night, Xavier became one of two programs in the entire country to advance to the Sweet 16 the past three years and are demanding some respect. The other is Michigan State. They're labeled as a "mid-major" but this is a team with major talent that could go to the Final Four. They'll be in tough though as they go up against that other Kansas team that plays in "the little apple" the 2-seed Kansas State Wildcats from Manhattan who would have been a #1 seed had they not lost to their in-state rivals, the Kansas Jayhawks, 3 times this year including in the Big 12 tourney final.

Saint Mary’s, a tiny Catholic school of fewer than 5,000 students, led by big man Omar Samhan, has moved past the first round of the NCAA tournament only once before. The Gaels made the Elite Eight in 1959 when only 23 teams were in the field. They'll try to do it a second time behind their big man Samhan, who is averaging 30.5 ppg and 9.5 rpg for the tourney, when they face a high octane offense in 3-seed Baylor. It'll be a matchup of an uptempo offense (Baylor) versus half court sets (St. Mary's).

2-seed West Virginia also advanced on Sunday to face 11-seed Washington in Syracuse. It marks the fifth time the Mountaineers reached the final 16, and first since 2008. Don't be fooled by UW's ranking, they are a much better team than an 11th seed and although they disappointed this year in terms of not being a top 3 seed they are playing their best basketball down the stretch led by Pac-10 tournament MVP 5'9" Isaiah Thomas. WVU will have to limit their turnovers like they did against Missouri on Sunday if they want to win or else UW and it's plethora of "freak" athletes will run them out of the gym.

In the first half, Ohio State looked average. Then the Buckeyes decided to run. That change in mindset led to an 18-6 run in the first seven minutes of the first half that extended Ohio State's lead to 46-32. Rather than settling for challenged jump shots, Ohio State led off the 2nd half with three dunks and several layups on their way to a 75-66 win over a disappointing Georgia Tech squad. The Buckeyes will now take on 6-seeded Tennessee, if they play the whole game like they played the 2nd half in the GT game they should cruise past the Vols. However, Tennessee is a tough minded team that just seems to grind out wins so they most likely won't go down easy if they go down at all.

Those are all the matchups and we can only hope the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight are as exciting as the first two rounds. That might be asking for a lot though after what we all witnessed this past weekend. There was heart and heartbreak, ultimate joy and ultimate dissappointment, tears and smiles. All in all it has been everything that the NCAA tourney is about and college basketball fans would have it no other way.

Peace and Much Love to Ya :)

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Let The Madness Consume You!!!!

It's official the field of 64 is almost set and March Madness is set to begin!!! In order to become the last seed into the NCAA tourney Arkansas - Pine Bluff and Winthrop will battle each other in the play-in game on March 16th. The winner will face #1 seed Duke on the second day of the tourney (March 19th). So fill out your brackets ladies and gentlemen!! I already have. Check them out below, just click on them to enlarge them:

My dream, and uber prejudiced, bracket:




My very professional, official and objective bracket:



Peace and Much Love to Ya :)

*Note: share your brackets with us or your final 4 picks in the comments section!!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

R.I.P. Theodore C. Olbermann 1929-2010.

After a long and brave fight, Mr. Theodore Olbermann, father and hero to a man I look up to passed away today in New York City. May he Rest In Peace.

A link to Keith's post about his father: http://bit.ly/duL6Cf

May our thoughts and prayers be with the Olbermann family.

- Franny.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Unfortunately All Good Things Come To An End

The Vancouver 2010 Olympics were 17 days of pure fun and enjoyment and I'm sad to see them go. I remember cheering in the 7th grade when it was announced that the 21st Winter Olympics would be held in Vancouver. Being the nerd I am I understood the ramifications of hosting an Olympics but I did not care, I felt what happened to Montreal after '76 and Calgary after '88 could never happen to Vancouver in 2010.

VANOC should be proud of themselves. Although the games started with the tragic death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili just hours away from the opening ceremonies, Canadians did not let that spoil the festive atmosphere but everyone was still grieving as life intervened on what was supposed to be a dreamlike opening ceremony.

Then there was the international media (I'm looking at you Great Britain) that labeled the games as the "Glitch Games" after a pillar of the indoor Olympic Cauldron malfunctioned, and numerous reschedulings up in Whistler due to bad weather (which no one has control over or can accuractly predict) despite forgetting that most Olympics have their "glitches".

Did they forget the Salt Lake City bid scandal and figure skating scandal in 2002? or the fact that it seemed no one showed up to watch the Athens Games early on in 2004? (seriously I've seen more people in the stands at Marlins' games when they suck, but in fairness the games were somewhat successful) or the same thing happening in Turin in 2006 along with all it's other problems? or about all the myriad of problems at the Beijing games in 2008?

The 2010 Vancouver games might have had its "glitches" but they were over-scrutinized because lets face it, they all happened early on and at the time there was nothing else to really report about the games. Plus, and this is just my personal theory, the British media by bashing the Vancouver games was trying to create a cushion so that if something went wrong in London in 2012 they could just say "well we're not worse than Vancouver".

Other than that the games were the most successful Winter Games by far and also one of the most successful Olympic games despite taking place after the phenomenal games in Beijing. And the reason they were so much more successful than Montreal's or Calgary's games was because of five factors:

1. The reputation of Vancouver as a tourist city. Honestly, most people around the world had heard of Vancouver before these games and most people knew it is one of the top 5 most beautiful cities in the world and the most beautiful city in North America. The same thing was a factor for Beijing in 2008 and probably explains why Salt Lake City and Turin weren't too successful. In their respective countries there are way more well-known cities internationally whereas Canada only has 3 (Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver). And if Sochi doesn't have a successful winter games in 2014 this could be the number 1 reason why, no one really has heard of it or knows where it is on the map.

2. The Digital Age. This is why the '08 and 2010 games have been so successful and the '76 games in Montreal were such a disaster. Viewers were constantly bombarded with beautiful images of the cities and also of their respective countries. People couldn't get enough of the images of China's historical Great Wall or other culturally significant monuments in '08 and in 2010 they couldn't get enough of Vancouver's and Canada's natural beauty especially Americans who are only used to seeing giant skyscrapers in their big cities. Also everything about the games is viewable on the internet thus allowing billions of people around the world to watch events. Montreal, despite being a fantastically well-known city, unfortunately took place at the wrong time.

3. Pacific Coast Time. The two major markets that these games were catered to was the U.S. and Canada itself. Events were scheduled at times that were convenient for people on the west coast and especially the east coast. With the scheduling the bigger TV markets on the East Coast were able to broadcast events live in prime time. While on the West Coast people were able to watch events the whole day as they were repeated in prime time, so if anyone missed events in the morning due to work or school they were able to watch the repeat once they got home.

4. Owning The Podium. It was scrutinized after the first week when Canada only had about 7-9 medals and looked on course to fall below even 20 medals. But the best was yet to come, and Canadians were finally relieved to have something to celebrate as the medals came pouring in for Canada in the final two weeks, capturing a total of 26 medals (a Canadian record). 14 of which were Gold making Canada, a nation that had no Gold medals at home before, now the country with the most Gold medals of any Winter Olympic games let alone a host country. Also the U.S. took home 37 medals (the most ever in any Winter Games) giving many Americans a reason to tune in to watch the games. So overall North America took home 63 medals between the two neighbours.

5. Canadians Embracing The Games. From the first day the Olympic torch arrived in Canada and began its relay across this great nation, Canadians everwhere came out to see the flame. Even from the outset Canadians could tell that these would be an Olympics to remember. And they were, all the venues were packed as it literally seemed that the whole world had flocked to Vancouver for 17 magical days, virtually every event was sold out and although I don't know the official ticket numbers or the revenue numbers I predict they'll be huge. It was a block party and everyone was invited and I'm sad that its ended but I will never forget these Olympics as long as I live. I am proud to be a Vancouverite and I am even prouder to be Canadian.

Peace and Much Love to Ya :)

**share your memories and thoughts with us in the comments section!!**