What's Your Final Four (II)?

As we did last year, the four blog contributors will post their final four picks here. Our readers are invited to post their picks in the comments. Closest to the pin gets bragging rights and our respect (not really).

Side Bar's Final Four:

Kansas, Kentucky, Villanova, Pitt
Kansas over Kentucky in the final

Cinderella: Montana, San Diego St.

Earlier-than-expected exits: Syracuse, Georgetown

Open Bar's Final Four:

Kansas, Kentucky, Syracuse, ???
Kansas over Kentucky in the final

Cinderella: UTEP, Siena

Earlier-than-expected exits: Purdue, Villanova

I'm having more trouble with this year's bracket than I have with any in recent memory. For God's sake, man, I'm about to put freakin' Baylor in the Final Four. That just can't be right. All my above picks are subject to change, btw.

ChuckJerry's Final Four
Kansas, Syracuse, Wisconsin, Baylor
Kansas over Wisconsin in the final.
Cinderella: If Cornell can win their first round game (they got hosed on that matchup. Their former coach is the coach of Temple), then they could make a run at Kentucky in the third round.
Cinderella 2: OK St. I think Ohio State and G'Town are overrated. Also Siena I think will win a couple games. They lucked out getting Purdue in the first round.
Early exit: Kentucky (free throws will kill them. Write it down (I just did)), Maryland just isn't that good.

That Duke, Villanova, Baylor bracket is really weak. Baylor seems like the only logical choice. I feel you, Open Bar.

The Notorious LJT's Final Four
Kansas, Syracuse, Villanova, West Virginia
Syracuse over Villanova
Cinderella: Azmagoots & Chizzlewinks

The BCS And The Cop Out Hall Of Fame

Tonight at 8pm Boise State will take on TCU in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. This is the biggest cop out in the history of the NCAA (I hope that was an appropriate level of obligatory internet hyperbole). All season the argument was whether or not the mid-major teams deserved their high rankings. These two teams were at the center of the discussion as to whether or not either of them deserved to be in the top 10 based on the fact that they didn't play in a conference with an automatic BCS bowl bid and the competition in their respective leagues was supposedly inferior. Boise State is the Western Athletic Conference (the WAC, best conference name) and TCU is in the Mountain West Conference. There were other teams in these conferences, the Mountain West in particular with ranked teams who took shit all year about being ranked too high. BYU and Utah were both ranked relatively high for the whole season.

The whole argument was based on the fact that the competition in these leagues in inferior, whereas these conferences argue that they also have good records outside their divisions and that their bowl records are all very good. The latter argument was borne out this year when BYU smoked Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl (gotta love the irony of BYU playing in the Vegas Bowl) and also when Utah beat Cal in the Poinsettia Bowl. Similarly, Air Force (Mountain West) beat Houston in the Armed Forces Bowl and Wyoming (Mountain West) beat Fresno State in the New Mexico Bowl.

So the mid-major conferences, the Mountain West in particular had a hell of a bowl season. Boise State has been wreaking havoc on bowl day for the past several years. This year the NCAA had a chance to really let these mid-majors prove themselves in some real BCS bowls and instead they take the two mid-majors who rpresent the best of what they ahve to offer and pit them against each other. This will prove absolutely nothing. One of them will win, the other will lose and in the end we won't be able to argue either way about whether they were ranked too highly or not.

Given that Ohio State and Oregon were locked into the Rose Bowl, the NCAA should have let TCU play Florida and Boise State play Cincinnati. That way when TCU would have gotten smoked by Florida (just like Cincinnati did) and Boise State would have probably beaten Cincinnati it would have been a good argument that the mid-majors were essentially as good as all the other conferences except for the SEC which is far and away the best conference (incidentally, Alabama is going to destroy Texas in the national championship game, thus proving that Florida is the clear #2 team in the country).

For the record the Big 10, which currently has 11 teams, and is soon going to have 12, is the most overrated conference. Ohio State is the only good team in that conference and they have consistently been destroyed in national championship games by teams from the SEC in the recent past. The Big Ten desperately needs to have a conference championship game, and the only reason they don't is because of the Ohio State / Michigan game. The people with the money want that to be the last game of the season every year, instead of just having a real championship like every other conference does. Big Ten = Wack. And not good like the WAC conference, but bad like in wiggety wiggety wiggety wack.

Also clearly they should just have a playoff system to determine the national championship. Notice how no one is arguing this year about who should play in the national championship game after the Alabama / Florida SEC championship game. If they would just have the top 4 teams they could determine a national champion in the span of 2 rounds totalling 3 games. If they had done that this year, they would have given TCU a chance to simply prove themselves in the playoff against Alabama, Texas, and Cincinnati.

What's Your Final Four?

I'm inviting all of my blog mates to post their Final Four selections so then someone will have bragging rights at the end of the tournament (probably Open Bar, who's got far more time to handicap this stuff).

ChuckJerry's Final Four
Louisville, Memphis, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma
Pitt over Memphis in the final
Cinderella team: USC I'm going with VCU aka Virginia Commonwealth (I wanted to pick Gonzaga, but they're a 4 seed, and 10th in the nation)

Open Bar's Final Four
Um, weird, but Louisville, Memphis, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma (though until the first game begins, I'll be checking espn.com constantly for updates on Ty Lawson, which may alter my fourth choice)
Pitt over Louisville in the final
Cinderella team: Western Kentucky

Notorious LJT's Final Four
Kansas, UConn, UNC and Duke
Duke over UConn in the Final
Cinderella Team: The Teaneck Highwaymen

Side Bar's Final Four
Pitt, UConn, Kansas, UNC
Pitt over UConn in the final
Cinderella Team: Marlyand

Here's to the Most Boring NCAA Tournament in Years!

Is it me, or has this been the absolute most boring NCAA tournament in a long frickin' time? Even as big a Mets fan as I am, I really think the most exciting post-season tournament in all of sports (professional and amateur) is the NCAA's. But this year -- and I'm not even that upset that there isn't a "George Mason" team -- not only did the favorites win way too frequently, there really aren't any truly memorable teams. No truly memorable finishes -- no amazing buzzer-beaters, no huge comebacks, and -- maybe most important -- no really loveable players leading loveable teams.

Last year, I admit, I kind of drank the Florida Kool-Aid. Regrettably, I must confess I liked Joakim Noah. Now, I can't stand that way-too-easily-excited, inbred-looking bastard. Jesus, if this guy gets a wide-open fast-break dunk in practice, does he scream and pump his arms as he runs back down the court? Settle down, buddy.



And this championship game? Florida vs. Ohio State? Does anyone whose NCAA pool doesn't turn on the outcome really give a shit who wins? Are people even going to watch? Why would you?

Greg Oden will be a great NBA player, but he's really not all that inspiring, is he? Not that that's his job, but it's just symptomatic of the whole tournament this year. No inspiration. No team to get behind. No players left to love and follow and hope they get a chance to hit that last-minute shot that will stick in all of our memories for years.

Right now, the only thing I care about is that baseball is back. My New York Mets need to finish off a nice three-game sweep of the St. Louis Shitbirds, then we can all focus on that. Yeah, there's the whole NBA and NHL playoffs, but really, are you gonna watch?

I guess I'll subject myself to the NCAA final, but I'm sure I'll be enjoying the beers I drink during it far more than the countless Joakim Noah "explosions of emotion" I'm sure to endure over the next two hours. Hey, maybe it'll be a great game, go into triple-overtime, leaving some random white loser at the end of the bench to shoot the last shot because all the "stars" have fouled out.

Let's go Mets!

Weekend Sports Recap

So here are the things that happened in sports this weekend that I care about (and therefore you should care about):

1. Hoya Saxa!!! Far and away the biggest news of the weekend was the stunning come from behind victory posted by Georgetown over the still-shaking-their-heads UNC Tarheels. UNC missed something on the order of 17 of their last 18 shots in regulation, and then scored basically no points in overtime (they didn't score any until the game was out of reach)

The three pointer hit by Georgetown's John Wallace at the end of regulation is an instant NCAA tournament classic. GTown was my pick to win the tourney, and given my miserable performance in both pools to date, it would be nice at least to say that I picked the winner.

(side note: to add injury to insult for snake-bitten UNC, the team mascot, played by 21 year-old senior Jason Ray, died today from injuries sustained when he was hit by a car in Fort Lee over the weekend. I know nothing about this other than what I have read on a few random news sites, but it seems like an absolute tragedy and a freak accident).

2. Mike Pelfrey. The Mets named highly-touted prospect Mike Pelfrey as the number 5 starter, setting their rotation for the year (Glavine, El Duque, John Maine, and Oliver Perez at 1-4). This hardly comes off as a particularly formidable rotation, but all five have looked very good in spring training, and Pedro might be able to give us a few quality starts down the stretch. The bigger concern is that but for a few bright spots (Lastings Milledge and Jose Reyes most noticeably) the Mets have looked anemic on offense, with THREE of the projected starting eight batting under .200 for the spring (Paul LoDuca, Shawn Green, and newcomer Moises Alou). The offense should be fine, and if Milledege steals the spot from Green on merit then all the better, but it would be great to bang out a few 10+ games in St. Louis just to silence the whispers.

3. Theismann Sacked Again (but not as badly as the first time). ESPN is reporting that Joe Theismann is out as part of the triad calling Monday Night Football games . . . . Mike Tirico and Tony Kornheiser will be joined this year by ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski.

Umm . . . . what? I feel like I came down on Christmas morning, unwrapped the biggest present, and it was my old bike that I really didn't like that much with a new coat of paint on it.

Theismann is terrible, yes, and it was time for the last remnants of that Sunday Night Football crew to go (Paul Maguire and Mike Patrick were awful, too, and perhaps even worse), but Jaworski? Come on. This guy has made a career on ESPN talking about how the Saints are really tailored to play a nickel defense, and the Eagles dime will give them trouble (side note: it is ALWAYS about the Eagles with Jaworski). Besides, at least with Theismann we got to listen to Tony Kornheiser just murder him for the entire broadcast for all the ridiculous things he says (TK (incredulous after Theismann screams about what a great job the Bears are doing on offense): "Joe, you just said they were doing a lousy job thirty seconds ago!!" JT (defeated): "well, that was before." Priceless).

Kornheiser needs a patsy to be funny. It isn't Tirico, who has Pat Summerall greatness written all over him (just you wait), and Jaws isn't dumb enough to be the patsy. So instead of the combo of: solid sportscaster who will do the straight stuff, comedian and fall guy; now you've got: the straight guy, a comedian with no one to make fun of, and a washed up QB who knows too much about football to be laughed at, too little about football to be interesting, and just enough about football to be boring. Ugh.