No Surprise Here, My Bracket's Busted!

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Wikimedia

randomduck under CC BY-SA 2.0 License

It only took one week but like many of you, my bracket is officially busted.

Thank you for not cooperating Wichita State!  At least Michigan State is still alive.

As the Sweet Sixteen gets underway here are my revised picks.

In the South Regional in Memphis, I'll go with the Florida Gators to survive and make it to Arlington.  They will beat Stanford in the Elite Eight.  

In the East Regional in New York City, I'll take my pick for tournament winners the Michigan State Spartans. They will beat Iowa State in the Elite Eight.  

In the Midwest Regional in Indianapolis, the Louisville Cardinals will be victorious in the battle of Kentucky.  They will beat the Michigan Wolverines in the Elite Eight.

In the West Regional in Anaheim, the Arizona Wildcats will reign supreme!  They will oust the Badgers of Wisconsin in the Elite Eight.

That means my new Final Four teams are Florida, Michigan State, Louisville and Arizona with Michigan State still winning it all!

Tim Musick
Copyright 2014
All Rights Reserved

March Madness 2014 Is Here!

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Mahanga under CC BY 3.0 License 

For all you college basketball fans out there, the real fun has just begun.  Now I know today is officially the start of the second round of the tournament, but to me the first Thursday of the tournament will always symbolize the beginning of March Madness.

My picks for the Final Four are as follows. I have Florida facing Michigan State in one national semifinal and Wichita State facing Arizona in the other semifinal.  I have Michigan State beating Florida and Wichita State beating Arizona to reach the National Championship.

Drum roll please!  In the National Championship I have the Spartans of Michigan State coming out on top beating the Shockers of Wichita State.  This is a departure from how I usually fill out my bracket because I tend to go all chalk with my picks.  I just don't think Wichita State's magical run will be enough to finish with a perfect record at the end of the tournament.  I also fill out only one bracket for the whole tournament.

In any case, by the time we get to Arlington many brackets will have probably been busted (mine included), but as is the case each year, we look forward to those big upsets where a 13 seed beats a 4, a 12 bests a 5 or by some miracle a 16 ousts a 1.  Good luck to all of you and enjoy the Madness that March has to offer.

Tim Musick
Copyright 2014
All Rights Reserved.

Small Ball Report-December 24

Men's Basketball:

Only one score from last night.
Pasadena City College 97, Long Beach 87 (OT)

After the Christmas holiday break, college action will resume on December 28.

The Ontario Reign of the ECHL will be in Las Vegas Saturday to take on the Wranglers.

Tim's Two Cents-December 23

While I was watching SportsCenter Monday, they were showing highlights of college basketball action from that night.  There was one game that dominated the headlines.

Kentucky Wins 2,000 Game in It's School's History.  After beating Drexel 88 to 44 on Monday, Kentucky became the first NCAA team to reach the milestone.  That's something you definitely don't see everyday.  For one thing, a program or team would have to exist long enough to have a chance to do something like this.  In professional sports, the Celtics of the NBA, the Canadiens of the NHL and the Yankees of MLB are some of the top winning teams in their respective sports.  To be in the same class as them is something very special.

In terms of the Wildcats season so far, they are among the top programs this season in college basketball.  Their in the conversation quite often when March Madness comes around.  They are having a heck of a season so far under first year coach John Calipari at 12-0 so far.  They have beaten their opponents fairly easily and John Wall is this year's breakout Freshman who is sure to be among the top picks in next year's draft.    I'm somewhat surprised that they were the first team in NCAA history to reach 2,000 victories.  I would have thought it would be someone like Duke or North Carolina.  Looking into the near future, Kentucky will be a top favorite to reach the Final Four in March, along with North Carolina.

Tim's Two Cents-December 20

Yesterday while I was flipping through my television channels, I came across a college basketball game between the Texas Longhorns and North Carolina Tarheels in Texas.  Texas was victorious over North Carolina 103 to 90, but that's not why this game was so noteworthy.  The theme of this was all about location, location, location.  Yes indeed.  That's because it was played at the big behemoth that is Cowboys Stadium.  You heard correctly.  Cowboys Stadium!

Try to picture a basketball court underneath THAT video monitor!

Now I'm used to seeing the Final Four each year at a domed stadium throughout the country, but not a measily regular season contest.  The high-definition big screen videoboard in the center of the stadium towered over everything else and made the court look microscopic in size.  There didn't look to be very many, if any, people seated in the upper deck.  Now I guess the obvious reasons for doing something like this would be to have more people attend the game as well as create more buzz for the new stadium.  God knows they need it with the joke of a team the Cowboys are these days.  For a regular season game, however, I don't think something like this is worth it when I can just watch it from the comfort of my own couch.

Photo coutesy: Wikimedia Commons and Mahanga under the GNU Free Documentation License 

Tim's Two Cents December 17-Bonus Edition

With Christmas nearly upon us, tis the season of giving and give I shall.  In this special bonus edition of Tim's Two Cents, I discuss a couple stories from college sports in Division I as well as more on Tiger Woods.

1. The Big Ten Conference Adding Another Football Team?  Word is that the Big Ten, which currently has 11 teams, is exploring the possibility of adding another team.  First, explain to me how a conference with 11 teams is still called the Big Ten?  Second, the discussion of further expansion shows that the conference is only interested in one thing: making money.  Rumor is Rutgers is the early favorite to join.  This is not the only issue college football has.  Need I remind you about the joke that is the BCS system.  Overall, this is not a good idea for a conference that already has enough exposure right now.

2. NCAA March Madness Expanding?  The NCAA could also be looking into expanding March Madness from 65 teams to 96.  The proposed plan would give the top 32 teams a bye and add an additional weekend to the event.  March Madness is a great event which involves many teams from across the country.  It is the true definition of a playoff system in college sports.  So NCAA, please don't fix what isn't broken.  There are already enough schools involved to begin with.  In addition, most of those new schools who would get in would probably lose in the first round anyway.  Leave the tournament as it is.

3. Tiger Woods Update.  The Tiger Woods story continues to unravel.  In the midst of being named AP Athlete of the Decade, we continue to learn more about Tiger Woods personal life.  Woods has now reportedly been connected with Canadian doctor Anthony Galea, who specializes in sports medicine.  Galea, who treated many high profile patients, including Woods, was formally charged yesterday over unapproved drug sales, including human growth hormone and conspiring to export and smuggle them out of the country.  Sources also are now saying that Tiger's wife, Elin Nordegren is going to file for a divorce.  As the saga unfolds, the one thing I keep thinking about is how far Tiger has fallen in the past few weeks.