Mel Kiper

Do you think it pisses Mel Kiper off that Todd McShay is the next Mel Kiper? I think it does... at least a little bit...

Baseball Season...

Well, it's the start of baseball season once again... what does this mean? In my mind, it means that there are at least 4 more months until I can truly justify paying close attention to baseball. Sure, if the teams I like to follow are doing well, I'll be much more likely to watch games regularly, but I have always felt that the regular season in baseball is way too long. That's not to say that I won't enjoy watching any early regular season games or that they can't be exciting. It can still be enjoyable to watch, especially if it is the only option for a sport on TV, which is often the case during baseball season. In general though, I won't go out of my way to pay a lot of attention to regular season baseball. Baseball would be a whole lot better if a couple things happened: 1) The season was cut in half to about 80 games. This would ensure that just about every game truly mattered right from the start and 2) They added 2 more rounds of playoffs as a result of have the extra time after the shortened season. With only 8 teams total making the playoffs, there are a lot of pretty good teams that miss out on the playoffs each year. I think it would enhance the excitement level around post-season baseball if those teams were able to get in.

Top 20 Most Loved Teams

1. KU Basketball


2. St. Louis Rams


3. 3a) Any team that has ever beaten the Texas Longhorns in football 3b) Any team that has ever beaten UNC in basketball


4. KU Football


5. St. Louis Cardinals


6. LA Lakers


7. OU Football


8. Manchester City F.C.


9. Any team playing the Miami Heat (unless it's the San Antonio Spurs... in that case, I'd rather gouge my eyes out than have to think about choosing a team to root for...)


10. Sporting KC


11. U.S. Men's National Team Soccer


12. Florida Gators Dazzlers dance squad - circa 1997-2000 (This has to do with Erin Andrews... if my girlfriend finds out this is on my list, she will have a fit.... If she does, well..at least they didn't crack my top 10.)


13. Spot being held for which ever future NBA team moves to Kansas City... (if it actually happened, they would probably be higher on this list...)


14. Chicago Bulls


15. Centenary College Athletics (just a sentimental pick here...)


16. Oakland Raiders (That's right... I just said that...)


17. England Men's National Team Soccer


18. Kansas City Royals


19. St. John's Basketball


20. New York Football Giants

Mike Anderson to Arkansas

Let's just first clear the air for one thing. Arkansas is a definite step up from Missouri for Mike Anderson.

All Time:

Mizzou - 22 NCAA Tournament Appearances, 0 Final Fours, 0 National Championships

Arkansas - 29 NCAA Tournament Appearances, 6 Final Fours, 1 National Championship

Historically, there's no doubt that Arkansas is the better program. Mike Anderson was also an assistant coach at Arkansas for 17 years and was part of 3 Final Four teams there as well as the National Championship winning team in the 1994-1995 season. Being there that long, it's also the easy homecoming choice for Anderson. He probably lived there longer than anywhere else he's lived since he's been involved with basketball, so I'm sure he has tons of friends, family, and contacts in the area. The question will be, how will his style of play translate to the present day SEC. I have no doubt that Anderson can get Arkansas consistently on the second tier behind Kentucky and Florida in that conference, but I question whether he'll be able to ever compete with them for SEC titles. We'll certainly see. He should definitely have them as a program on the rise over the next few years.

Winning NIT vs. just being in NCAA Tournament

Is there any scenario at all where winning the NIT is better than just appearing in the NCAA Tournament? I always ask myself this particular week each year when there are NIT games on, and I am reluctantly paying attention to them while I wait for the games that really matter to start on Thursday.

My conclusion on this question is that there is one possibility. If you have a really young team that is pretty talented, but inconsistent throughout the year... and who misses the NCAA Tournament by a decent measure, then I think you could say that winning the NIT was about the best thing that could happen to them in that year. Since the team is young, they have a lot of (albeit water-down) post-season success to spring board their confidence on for the next season or two. Had they made the tournament, they likely would have lost in the 1st round, but since they were so inconsistent throughout the year, they didn't give themselves a chance anyhow. That's the only scenario I can think of where winning the NIT might mean more. However, if this team is a usual power house like the KU's, Duke's, UNC's, Kentucky's of the world, then I think the NIT is always a disappointment, no matter how young and inexperienced you are. The scenario I described above would only make sense if it's a team that generally finishes middle to slightly above average in their conference.

...The more I think about this post though, I wonder why I'm even trying to defend the NIT. The NIT is like that smelly, unkept little kid who shits on the back of the school bus on a field trip to the zoo and thinks it's funny. As much as he tries to impress people, he will always have that hanging over his head.

...Who was I kidding? The NIT is March Sadness to the NCAA Tourney's March Madness.

Big East Tournament

UConn just won the Big East Tournament. That's not a huge surprise. What's surprising is that they did not have one of the single or double-byes and had to win games for 5 straight days in the best conference in college basketball in order to win it.

Bob Knight, the other day, said that he thought that winning the Big East tournament might actually be more impressive than winning the National Championship given the level of competition in that conference. I happen to agree with him in this year's case with UConn winning it. To win the National Championship, you have to win 6 games over a stretch of about 3 weeks. If you are a good team - a higher seed -then you might be able to get to the Sweet 16 before you meet another team close to your skill level. Since UConn played on the first day of the Big East Tournament, in theory they were playing teams better than them on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th days of the Tournament, all in consecutive days... and were still able to win each game. That's pretty amazing. If you compare whomever wins the National Championship's round-by-round games versus the round-by-round games that UConn just won and also consider that UConn did it in 5 consecutive days with no rest, I do think that UConn's run may prove to be harder based on level of competition faced and stamina.

Now before anyone calls me crazy, understand that I'm not saying that it's better to win the Big East Tournament than the National Championship...that's not even close to what I'm saying. Obviously the stakes are much higher in the NCAA Tournament and there is much more pressure on each and every team to elevate their game. Obviously, winning the National Championship means infinitely more than winning a conference tournament. It's almost a joke to compare the two feats in the same sentence. If you win the National Championship, no one will ever talk about whether or not you won the conference tournament that year. I get all of that. For UConn, it'll actually be quite an anticlimactic season for them because they likely won't win the National Championship. They'll then be relegated as the team that couldn't perform in the NCAA Tournament because they wore themselves out in the Big East Tournament. So, not only will it not mean as much that they only won the Big East Tournament, but they will actually be condemned to an extent for doing so.

Scott Drew

I'm just going to go out on a limb (sarcasm) and say Scott Drew's post-game comments, after Baylor's loss to OU, related to Perry Jones were a little over the top. If you aren't sure what I'm talking about, I would suggest looking it up.

SELECTION SUNDAY IS A WEEK AWAY!!!

I FREAKING LOVE SELECTION SUNDAY!

Who will get the 4th 1-seed?

KU, Ohio St., and Pitt are all virtual locks to get #1 seeds in the NCAA tournament at this point. Who will get the 4th 1-seed?

My guess is at this point in time, it would go to Notre Dame, but that it will go to Duke in the end. I think Notre Dame is more likely to slip up early in their conference tournament than Duke is, and I think that is what the deciding factor might be.

However, I guess UNC could be a sleeper for the last 1-seed, if they win the ACC tournament, since they also already won the ACC regular season title. If all of those teams slip up, then who does it go to? Texas would probably be back in the discussion, but only if they win the Big 12 tournament probably. BYU could still be there, but I think they would have to easily win their conference tournament to do so... which is less likely after Brandon Davies got kicked off the team.

The race for the last 1-seed will be interesting to watch unfold because it will all depend on the conference tournaments.

Top 20 most hated sports teams...

I was gonna do my top 10, but pushed it to 20 because I strongly dislike more than 10 teams.

This is in order of most-hated. #1 is most hated, #2 second most, and so on.

1. Texas Longhorns Football
2. Mizzou Tigers (anything)
3. North Carolina Tar Heels Basketball
4. New York Yankees
5. Dallas Cowboys
6. Seattle Seahawks
7. Notre Dame Football
8. San Antonio Spurs
9. Chelsea F.C.
10. Kansas State Football
11. Pittsburgh Steelers
12. Denver Broncos
13. Duke Basketball
14. Green Bay Packers
15. Manchester United
16. Cincinnati Reds
17. Miami Heat (only after they signed LeBron)
18. San Francisco 49ers
19. Florida Football
20. USC Football

Purdue

Would Purdue be the #1 team in the nation right now if Robbie Hummel hadn't gotten hurt? They are currently, arguably playing better than anyone the last few weeks, are ranked in the Top 6, they only have one bad loss, and most of their losses were close. The question might be how far ahead of the #2 team are they right now if Robbie Hummel is healthy? Now, I'm not gonna brag too much on Purdue because I don't really like them, but I'm just giving them the respect that I think they deserve right now. They've become almost as good without Robbie Hummel as some people thought they could ahve been with him. I'm pretty sure I saw some early Final Four projections that had them in there before Hummel had gotten hurt.

I do think that Hummel being out has enabled E'twaun Moore, JaJuan Johnson, and Lewis Jackson to elevate their games and show what they can do, so you can also argue that they may not have had as much of a chance to do that with Hummel in the line-up, but damn... if he was in the lineup right now, you might have the best 4 players that any one team can throw out at once.

San Diego State

At this point in time, I think San Diego State should be no higher than a 3 seed in the tournament and more likely a 4 seed. They've lost the only two games they played to another current top 25 team, BYU. This tells me that there is no reason to believe that they could be another top 25 team. OK, so maybe BYU is just better and it shouldn't mean that much and maybe BYU is just a bad matchup for them, but you certainly can't reward them too much for having their best win of the season against a Gonzaga team who is probably Gonzaga's worst team in years.

Bottom line: Just give the two and three seeds to teams in bigger conferences that actually deserve it.

What Means More??? Making the National Championship Game, or Making the Final Four?

At the request of Drew and Linz Fell (real names censored for privacy), I am blogging on the topic of what is more important, making the the National Championship game or simply making the Final Four.

Well, the problem with this argument is how it's interpreted and what the original question actually is.

A.) If you interpret it as what is the better accomplishment for a team, then of course making the Championship game is. Of course it's better to win 5 games in the NCAA tournament instead of 4, and of course every team wants to try to win a game when they get to the Final Four. In the words of Herm Edwards, "you play to win the game... you don't play just to play!". No team should be satisfied coming that far and just "making" the Final Four.

B.) However, secondly and potentially more relevant, if the question is what will teams be remembered for and/or how will the media portray a team's success... then hands down, it's making the Final Four, not making the National Championship game. There are two things that you hear about in Division 1 college basketball. Those are making the Final Four and winning a National Championship. Making the National Championship game is not mentioned. The term "Final Four" is synonymous with glory and accomplishment in college basketball in the words of the media, and this is what we see and hear about everyday. Two observations support this theory: 1) Allen Fieldhouse - you only see Final Four and National Championship banners, and the pre-game video only talks about how many Final Fours and National Championships KU has, not how many Championship game appearances, and 2) the aforementioned media portrayal and remembrance of what's important. Here's an espn.com link to show what I mean: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/_/id/2305/kansas-jayhawks

If you scroll down and look to a right, highlighted under NCAA tournament history is Final Fours and Championship seasons, with no mention of National Championship appearances. This is what the media spoon feeds us, so this is what we remember as significant.

So, that's a long-winded answer, but in short...first decide what the original question is and then apply either option A or B above as needed.

That's just my two cents of course. But, some people pay a nickel for my two cents...

Trevor Bayne

I don't know anything about this guy's story (I'm sure everyone will learn it now) other than he just won the Daytona 500 at the incredibly young age of 20. Also, knowing little to nothing about NASCAR, I don't know what the normal entry age of NASCAR drivers is... nor do I know what exactly you have to do to be able to drive in the Daytona 500, but it seems pretty ridiculous to me that he was recognized to the point where he was even racing the Daytona 500, let alone able to win it. How young was this guy when his racing team realized that they wanted to put stock in him and make him one of their guys? I mean for God's sake the kid just learned to drive at all a few years ago. He must have really been on a fast track to learning the sport of car racing through family and/or other connections. That's all I can think of.... well either way it looks like he certainly made the best of it.

State of the Big 12

So the happenings this week with KU and Texas both losing prove me slightly wrong for saying how much worse the rest of the Big 12 is than Texas and KU. However, I still don't think I'm that far off because both KU's loss to K-State and Texas' loss to Nebraska could be categorized as flukes where the better team would have probably won 8 or 9 times out of 10.

What's more interesting this week is that 3 out of the top 4 teams have lost since the last poll, and Ohio State plays at Purdue tomorrow, so that's also a chance for them to lose. Wow, if all 4 of the top 4 teams lost this week, you might actually see KU stay at #1 even with their loss to K-State. However, you might also see Duke jump everyone from #5, although that would be a huge jump. In any case, it'll be interesting. I'm definitely thinking that the way things are going, the tournament committee may have a hard time picking a number 1 overall seed for the NCAA tournament.

Who is #1???

Now that Ohio State lost... who is the new #1 in college basketball? It's certainly been a widely discussed topic ever since Ohio State lost yesterday.

Well, here's how I expect the polls to look like when they are released tomorrow.

1. KU
2. Texas
3. Ohio St.
4. Pitt
5. Duke

Here's some further analysis on each team and their case to call themselves number 1 at this point in the season. Bear with me here, I am trying to be unbiased.

KU -
Case for them: With the way the poll voting has always gone in the past, KU should move up into that number 1 spot. If the team ahead of you loses and you don't, you move up... that's just how it usually works. They've also done nothing but play well since their only loss of the season against Texas. They've even looked particularly good with key players (Robinson and Selby) injured for the last couple of games. They are also one of only 3 teams with only one loss on the season, and we know San Diego State isn't getting any #1 love.

Case against them: This one is obvious, but since Texas beat KU by 11 points on the road, there is definitely the case to have Texas ranked ahead of them. Furthermore, Texas still maintains an undefeated record in the conference, so there's the argument that a team who doesn't lead their conference shouldn't be ranked #1 in the nation. Also, all other teams in the top 5 have had much tougher schedules than KU this year. KU's best win of the season is a neutral court win over Arizona. That is a solid win over a top 20 team, but every other team in the top 5 has had a much tougher road to hoe thus far, due in heavy part to the mediocre Big 12. Playing in the Big 12 unfortunately inflates KU's record at least a bit.

Texas -
Case for them: They beat KU on the road, and 2 of their 3 losses are very close losses to good Big East teams. They are one of only 3 teams in the nation still undefeated in their conference. They played a very tough non-conference schedule and have wins over UNC and Michigan State. (I know Michigan State sucks, but at the time they were still ranked pretty high.)

Case against them: They lost to USC. They struggled yesterday against Baylor, almost blowing a huge lead. They have 3 overall losses on the year, whereas KU and Ohio State only have 1. If you argue that they should be ranked ahead of KU because they beat KU, you can also argue that Pitt should be ranked ahead of Texas, since they beat Texas.

Ohio State -
Case for them: They just lost a tough game on the road, and that was expected to eventually happen by a lot of people. That still only gives them one loss, and all other teams have at least 1. They have had a pretty tough schedule this year, so their body of work is probably better than the team that would likely jump them (KU). They are still winning their conference handily, which is a pretty good conference.

Case against them: They just lost, and by all indications, that means they should move down. As I mentioned before, that's just the way the polls usually work. If you lose, and teams behind you don't, it's your turn to move down. Also, the game they just lost was a devastating loss. They blew a 15 point second half lead. That is grounds for moving down, if anything is.

Pitt -
Case for them: All the talk still seems to be about KU, Ohio State, or Texas for number 1, but Pitt may have a strong case here. Namely, they beat Texas. They also beat UConn who has also beaten Texas. They play the toughest schedule of any team in the top 5 since they are in the Big East, and they are still 11-1 in their conference. Like KU and Texas, they have also been only getting better since their last loss. They just won a very tough road game against Villanova, and their only Big East loss was to the 2nd best team in the Big East, Notre Dame.

Case against them: They have two losses, which is more than KU and Ohio State. If their only loss on the season was to Notre Dame, I'd say they are the easy #1 choice in the polls tomorrow... but since they have also lost to very inconsistent Tennessee, it will be a tougher argument for them.

Duke -
Case for them: Not much of a case for them at this point. There are too many teams ahead of them.

Case against them: They recently had a BAD loss to St. John's, and they were lucky to recover and beat UNC at home. With Kyrie Irving, they were the best team in the nation. Without him, they are just a top 5 team.

Ohio State/Wisconsin In-Game analysis

Currently watching the Ohio State/Wisconsin college basketball game.

Here's some in game analysis. The score is currently 13-13. To win the game, I think Wisconsin will have to establish a 10-12 point lead at some point in the game. This may be tough for them because apparently they love to play slow as they always have, so the number of positions will be limited and thus the chance to grab a lead like that will be limited as well.

The problem is, I don't think Wisconsin can win a back and forth close game as it is looking right now. I feel like if Ohio State keeps it close, their talent will eventually take over and they will show that they are the better team.

We'll see what happens though...

Manchester Derby

Tough loss for Man City today in the Manchester derby. They didn't play that well, but still had a chance to salvage a draw after a somewhat lucky equalizing goal off of David Silva's back.

Two things I don't understand about this game is why Man City didn't start Edin Dzeko and why Man United didn't start Berbatov.

The Dzeko question is more of a second guessing affair on my part, as Man City seemed to be better on the attack after he came in the game. Early on, it was difficult for Tevez to do anything on his own, and he never really had any good moments in the game at all. Why not start Dzeko and put more pressure on the Man United back line to start the game?

For Berbatov, apparently he didn't start because Alex Ferguson likes to start more midfielders against better teams, which I didn't know until today. But, if the person you are sending to the bench is the leading goal scorer in the Premier League, does this theory still make sense? It seems like you would want to start Berbatov and try to establish an early lead and then switch to more midfielders after you get a lead.

In any case, this loss probably takes Man City out of the running to win the Premier League. Hopefully they can still maintain enough focus to keep a spot in the top 4 teams.

Blake Griffin

Blake Griffin is already an amazing NBA player evidenced solely by the fact that he has done the unthinkable... he's gotten espn to talk about the Clippers on a daily basis. Ok... Ok... maybe that's a stretch, but they do show a highlight of the Clippers every time they play now...which I know they didn't do before he was on that team. Even if they do only show Blake Griffin dunks and talk about him the entire highlight, it's at least a start for the Clippers.

KU/Mizzou Game

Very good win for KU in the rivalry game with Mizzou last night. Given how bad Mizzou has been on the road this year, it's just about the result I expected, although I did not think the game would be that high scoring. Although they played hard and were fairly impressive in the first half, Mizzou definitely lived up to the billing of their defense being 180 degrees worse on the road from how they play at home. They couldn't handle KU inside and were slow on following ball rotations, although I must admit KU looks like they are the best team in the nation at rotating the basketball... and that isn't being biased, that's just a fact.

This game brought the question to my mind of who exactly is the 3rd best team in the Big 12? Is there one? Currently, Baylor is in 3rd place, with a conference record of 5-4, every team below them has a worse conference record than that. Not very impressive. Is it K-State? Is is still Mizzou? Is it A&M or OSU? Hell, is it OU or Colorado? It looks like the only teams we know it's not are Texas Tech and Iowa State. Hard to tell, as all of these teams have had equally bad losses against each other and no truly impressive wins. It's like a revolving door.

Oh well, as long as KU and/or Texas have some degree of success in the tournament, no one will remember how mediocre their conference was. My personal opinion has always been to not worry that much about where the Big 12 standings fall anyways. Sure, it's nice to win the Big 12 several times in a row, but the first thing that comes to everyone's mind is how many National Championships you've won in the stretch.

So, KU certainly needs to focus on every game, taking them one at a time as Coach Self would say. But personally, as fans, I think it's OK for us to start putting our eye on the big prize of the National Championship. The tournament is right around the corner.

Dear Lord, the Cavs are bad

So, the Cleveland Cavaliers just set the record for the most consecutive NBA losses at 25.



If you think that's bad, trust me, they are worse than you think. You see, before their 25 game losing streak started, they won 1 game in overtime (which means they almost lost), and before that they lost 10 games in a row. So barring one overtime win in their last 36 games, they could be 0-36 in that stretch.



This just goes to show you how important confidence and individual talent are in basketball, particularly the NBA. LeBron meant everything to this team from a confidence and talent perspective. Now, I know they have some other guys who have gotten hurt, but there are still a lot of the same players out there who were with LeBron and are now helpless without him. They are somewhat mediocre role players by NBA standards who no longer have a super star to feed off of.

I would like to say that I feel sorry for this team, but because of their owner's complete ass-holism, I don't think that I can.

Let's revisit Dan Gilbert's absurd rallying cry, shall we?

"Dear Cleveland, All Of Northeast Ohio and Cleveland Cavaliers Supporters Wherever You May Be Tonight;
As you now know, our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier.
This was announced with a several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his "decision" unlike anything ever "witnessed" in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment.
Clearly, this is bitterly disappointing to all of us.
The good news is that the ownership team and the rest of the hard-working, loyal, and driven staff over here at your hometown Cavaliers have not betrayed you nor NEVER will betray you.
There is so much more to tell you about the events of the recent past and our more than exciting future. Over the next several days and weeks, we will be communicating much of that to you.
You simply don't deserve this kind of cowardly betrayal.
You have given so much and deserve so much more.
In the meantime, I want to make one statement to you tonight:
"I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER 'KING' WINS ONE"
You can take it to the bank.
If you thought we were motivated before tonight to bring the hardware to Cleveland, I can tell you that this shameful display of selfishness and betrayal by one of our very own has shifted our "motivation" to previously unknown and previously never experienced levels.
Some people think they should go to heaven but NOT have to die to get there.
Sorry, but that's simply not how it works.
This shocking act of disloyalty from our home grown "chosen one" sends the exact opposite lesson of what we would want our children to learn. And "who" we would want them to grow-up to become.
But the good news is that this heartless and callous action can only serve as the antidote to the so-called "curse" on Cleveland, Ohio.
The self-declared former "King" will be taking the "curse" with him down south. And until he does "right" by Cleveland and Ohio, James (and the town where he plays) will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma.
Just watch.
Sleep well, Cleveland.
Tomorrow is a new and much brighter day....
I PROMISE you that our energy, focus, capital, knowledge and experience will be directed at one thing and one thing only:
DELIVERING YOU the championship you have long deserved and is long overdue....
Dan Gilbert Majority Owner Cleveland Cavaliers"

Congratulations - Marshall Faulk

I'd like to post a congratulations to Marshall Faulk for being selected for the NFL Hall of Fame today.

Here's a crazy stat, in addition to being a great running back, Marshall Faulk has more career receptions than 18 Hall of Fame wide receivers. And he was a running back!

In his prime, truly one of the great offensive talents the game has seen in the last 20 years.

Bracketology with Joe Lunardi

What is Joe Lunardi's fetish with the Kansas State Wildcats? In January 31st Bracketology, he had KState as an 11 seed. Mind you, this bracket was released after KState fell to 2-5 in the Big 12 after they just got spanked by KU. I always thought Bracketology was supposed to be a reflection of "what if the season ended today", where would the teams fall. That's obviously not the case because there's no way KState would not have gotten in the tournament after falling to 2-5 in the conference at that moment. He's got to be looking ahead with this seeding, saying that KState will get it turned around and sneak in the tournament.

Now that they have won 2 games in a row, I can only guess that he will leave them in the field and keep moving them up.

What's next? He puts Michigan State as a 2 seed?

In all seriousness, I love bracketology and like Joe Lunardi, but having KState in as an 11 seed at that particular point in time was a joke.

Thoughts on the 2010-2011 College Basketball Season

Now that we are deep in the heart of college basketball season, I thought I would offer some thoughts on where we are at so far, conference by conference, and where things will all shake out come tournament time.

1.) The ACC, Big 12, SEC, and Pac 10 are all really bad, minus a couple teams in each conference.

In the ACC, Duke and UNC are the only teams that should scare people. UNC has not been consistent and are still finding their chemistry, but some of their McDonald's All Americans are actually starting to play well, so they will be a tough matchup in the tournament for anyone, as much as I hate to say it. Florida State and Va Tech could win one game in the tournament, key words "could" and "one". I don't think those teams should scare anyone.

The Big 12 is interesting, as there are at least 3 teams who were supposed to be good-to-very good, which have really hit the shitter as of late. KState, A&M, and Mizzou would be those 3. Don't be fooled by Mizzou's ranking either. They don't play well at all on the road. They are just 3-4 in the Big 12, and you should expect several more road L's before the season is over for them. And don't look now, but OU currently sits 4th in the Big 12 in conference wins. Wow. That should tell you how bad it is, as OU is only 12-9 overall on the season and lost some bad non-con games. Kansas and Texas are both legit, final four caliber teams that should both go to at least the Elite 8, but as of this moment you can't convince me that the Big 12 deserves more than 3 teams in the tournament. In fact, the overall crappiness of the conference could end up costing KU or Texas a one seed because of RPI and strength of schedule. That would be unfortunate. Some of the middle of the pack teams will really need to turn it on.

I don't have as much background on the SEC, but I do know that it looks like Kentucky's trio of soon-to-be NBA lottery picks don't look quite as good as last year's version. Other than Kentucky, it looks like Florida and Tennessee have potential, but that's as far as I'll take it. (Yes, I think Alabama 7-1 in the conference is fool's gold, as I can't name a single player on their roster.) Tennessee has really struggled with consistency. Florida might be the team to watch. I think only 1 SEC team makes it to the Sweet 16 though.

The Pac 10 seems to struggle with consistency as a conference. Only two teams in the top 25 right now, and they are towards the lower end of the 25 (Arizona and Washington). Other than those teams, UCLA is in 3rd in the conference and definitely has the talent, they just need the consistency to go with it. I could actually see one of these teams sneaking as far as the Elite 8, but they might be the only 3 in the tournament.

2.) The Big East is great, as usual, and the Big 10 is pretty good.

The Big East has 7 teams in the top 25 and one of them is #7 Connecticut, who is only 5-4 in the conference. That should tell you something about the depth of the conference. If the Big East doesn't end up with two 1 seeds in the big dance, I will be very surprised. The tournament committee will also likely look past the fact that some of these teams don't have great records since they beat each other up, and still put at least 10 of them in the tournament. This is due in large part to the unimpressiveness that some of the other conferences that I mentioned are displaying. I honestly think that if KU or Texas were in the Big East, they'd each have at least two more losses right now. Believe it or not, both teams have weaknesses that no other Big 12 teams are able to exploit. In fact, two of Texas' three losses on the season are to Big East teams (Pitt and UConn). That's not to say that KU and/or Texas wouldn't do well or be one seeds if they were in the Big East, but it would definitely be a lot harder road, as this conference is good.

In the Big 10, I think you have 5 teams that could make some noise. Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin, Illinois, and if they ever turn things around, Michigan State. Besides Ohio State, I'm not sure if anyone can make an Elite 8 type run out of this group, but they all deserve to at least be in the tournament right now. Minnesota may sneak in there too. From what I've seen from Ohio State, Sullinger is an absolute beast, but we all know that guards are often more important in the tournament, so we'll see what happens.

3.) I think mid-majors will have a decent shot again this year.

With some teams struggling and being inconsistent in the top conferences, I think the good mid-major teams that get in the tournament will have a real shot to win some games. Good mid-major teams will be able to beat middle of the pack ACC, Big 12, SEC, Pac 10, and Big 10 teams that get in as at-large bids. That's been the case in the past, and might be true more than ever this year. It would not surprise me if up to two mid-majors make a run for the Elite 8 and 1 makes the Final Four. Now, I'm not saying we have another Butler on our hands this year, but then again, who knows.

2008 Final Four

Earlier tonight, I was reminiscing about how awesome the 2008 Final Four was. One thing that made it so great was that all 4 one seed's were in it, for the first time ever.

I realize that it's easy to say that, being a fan of KU - who was one of the four one seeds, as the average college basketball fan would probably like to see more upsets and would have liked to see an underdog sneak in there (aka Davidson). But, there's just something special about knowing KU won the only final four where you legitimately had the best four teams in the nation there, which no one can really argue.

What a great National Championship run that was...

Super Bowl pick

For my first post, I'm going to keep it simple and give my Super Bowl pick. I'm going with Packers 26 - Steelers 20. I think it's a pretty even match up to be honest, so it could be a very good game. My problem is... I don't like either team at all, but I will reluctantly root for the Packers. These two teams are easily in my top 5 most-disliked teams in the league.

I feel like the average football fan doesn't like either one of these teams unless they are a fan of them, so I don't think I'm the only one in this spot.

However, I also think the average neutral fan will root for the Packers because the Steelers are approaching 'dynasty' status if they win, and people tend to like to see the underdog knock the king off of their thrown. Based on talent, the Packers probably aren't actually the underdog, but based on current reputation they are. Plus, people tend to like Aaron Rodgers more than Ben Roethlisberger... for obvious reasons.

Welcome to my sports blog...

Here, I will blog on a variety of sports topics now and again when I think of them. I have invited a number of you that I think would be interested in following the blog. I hope you enjoy.

For now, I'm going to limit all of my posts to just sports topics, unless I get requests for others...

Thanks -
Grant