I'm heading to an exhibition Phillies game this afternoon at Citizens Bank Park.
I hope it takes my mind off of dropping to fifth place in the basketball pool after last night's debacle of a bracket for me. Kansas destroyed Villanova but I picked Kansas. Bittersweet.
Stanford though, killed me.
Final Four: North Carolina, Stanford, UCLA, Kansas
With Louisville knocking off Tennessee last night in the NCAA Tournament, I move into a tie for first place in the pool! I also have the most possible points remaining, but let's see where everything stands after tonight's games.
You know some Villanova fan who is a Red Sox fan came up with this idea.How is your bracket holding up? Here are my Sweet Sixteen picks and a look at the games I predicted to be taking place in this round.
East Region
North Carolina over Washington State
Louisville over Tennessee
Midwest Region
Kansas over Villanova
Wisconsin over Davidson (I originally picked Wisconsin over Georgetown)
South Region
Memphis over Michigan State (Oregon over Pitt)
Stanford over Texas
West Region
UCLA over Western Kentucky (UCLA over UConn)
West Virginia over Xavier (Duke over Xavier)
There you have it! Enjoy the Sweet Sixteen round. Elite Eight picks will be updated Saturday morning.
So now we have two rounds in the books and the Sweet 16 is set. As for the basketball pool, I am feeling pretty good as we head into this round, but that good feeling does come with a good amount of nervousness.
Here are the standings so far;
Matt has the overall lead but has some trouble to overcome with Georgetown falling to Davidson (Matt has Georgetown in the championship game). I can get ahead of everybody in the battle for the top spot if North Carolina beats Tennessee in the next round (assuming they both win; Louisville beating Tennessee helps me even more!) as Matt, Jon, Jill and Dave all picked the Volunteers while I picked the Tar Heels.
Dave, last year's champion, has dropped to a tie for fourth place. Paul is clearly in the worst shape with only 73 possible points remaining. His downfall? His blind faith in his beloved Duke (picked to win it all of course). The fact that he only has one team remaining in his Final Four has to hurt this early (Georgetown, Duke, and Kentucky), a pain I had last year. Sorry Paul. Thanks for playing!
Mike and Paul Hartman failed to fill out their brackets. What happened there guys?
How am I doing? I only have eleven teams left in the Sweet 16 with my East region being the only one with each Sweet 16 team correctly picked. Davidson ruined my Midwest region, while the right side of my bracket is a mess with no Duke, UConn, Pitt or my under the radar squad Oregon.
Final Four: North Carolina, UCLA, Kansas, Stanford
Nationally I am in the 86 percentile which isn't terrible, but not great by any means.
Predicted and adjusted picks to come Thursday before the games start up again!
...but I feel as if I have seen this design before.
Anybody recognize it?
Above is the new sansa Fuze Series MP3 Player from SanDisk. It holds 2 GB and costs $79.99 for the black version, or $99.99 for a 4 GB player in black, blue, red, or pink version. An 8GB version is available in silver for $129.99.
It looks like the headphone jack is on the front of the unit as well, which would just be too strange to comprehend.
As a baseball fan first and foremost March has always meant spring training to me. Of course there is some tournament thing going on in the world of college athletics that I have discussed from time to time, and I am not even referring to this tournament.
This time next week though my fellow Phillies fans will be discussing the Opening Day gem, solid effort, or debacle and either pencil ourselves in for the World Series or start counting down to training camp. I know I am not alone.
The folks over at CNBC have been running their own March Bracket Tournament of minor league baseball logos and the newly formed Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs (the Phillies' new AAA franchise) are pulling a Davidson-esque run as of late. Today the #14 seeded Iron Pigs are fighting to pull ahead of the #2 seed Clinton Lumberjacks. Vote here!
The winner clinches a spot in the Final Four!
In the previous post I made my second round choices, as well as told you who I had originally picked.
Here are just a couple more updates I forgot to add into that post.
Final Four Teams: North Carolina, Kansas, UCLA, Stanford
Still going strong there as none of those teams had much trouble in round one. My sweet 16 took a hit though with Oregon going down, but luckily that was my only casualty that deep so far.
Stef on the other hand is beating me by one game after round one, but she took some devastating blows to the bracket in round one to pretty much assure me I'll beat here this year. Her national champ went down in the first round (UConn), as well as a second Final Four selection (Oregon).
My best region after one round was a tie between the East and South. I missed two games in each region (Oregon, Temple, Indiana, George Mason).
Anybody out there ready to redo their bracket already?
I didn't have a terrible first round, but I did take some blows (Oregon). The only one that could hurt me badly is the Oregon pick, who I picked going to the Elite Eight.
So here are the games I originally picked, followed by a correction if needed.
EAST REGION
North Carolina over Indiana (UNC over Arkansas)
Washington State over George Mason (WSU over Notre Dame)
Louisville over Oklahoma
Tennessee over Butler
MIDWEST REGION
Kansas over Kent State (Kansas over UNLV)
Villanova over Vanderbilt (Nova over Sienna)
Wisconsin over USC (Wisconsin over Kansas State)
Georgetown over Davidson
SOUTH REGION
Oregon over Memphis (Memphis over Mississippi State)
Pitt over Temple (Pitt over Michigan State)
Stanford over Marquette
Texas over St. Mary's (Texas over Miami)
WEST REGION
UCLA over Texas A&M
UConn over Drake (Oops! San Diego over Western Kentucky)
Xavier over Purdue
Duke over Arizona (West Virginia over Duke)
Quick post before heading off for a job interview and then West Chester for a rehearsal...
Many people may have a problem tonight. Do you watch the NCAA Tournament or Lost? I'll be watching Lost when it is on, especially with none of the local teams playing tonight. So here we go, the now weekly feature here at Ramblings 1.5, the weekly Lost Open Thread. Leave your thoughts on Lost in the comments.
Updated Lost Podcast Questions:
1. Will we find out who is in the coffin? No.
2. Will we find out who Kate had to get back to? No. (confirmed by producers it was Aaron)
3. How many episodes will it take before Locke blows something up? Won't happen.
4. Will Jack kill anyone during season four? No.
5. Will Hurley have a flash forward or flashback in season four? Yes.
6. How many episodes will Danielle appear in? Three.
7. Will Kate kiss anyone other than Sawyer or Jack? No.
8. Who will be the first one Sawyer gives a nickname to? Jack.
9. Will Juliet and Jack kiss? No.
10. How many episodes will Jin appear in? Eight (all of them).
11. Will we see the four-toed statue? No.
12. Is Kate pregnant? Yes.
13. Who will be the first person to talk to Michael? Walt.
14. Will Sawyer "do the dishes" with anyone that he hasn't done them with already? No.
15. Will Sun have a miscarriage? No.
16. Will we see Boone this season? Yes.
17. How many episodes will Hurley appear in? Eight (all of them)
18. Who will be the first survivor to die? Jin - Do I get credit for this one???
19. Will Claire and Desmond get romantic? No.
20. Who will be the first person to talk to Walt? Michael.
Confirmed Oceanic Six:
Jack
Sayid
Kate
Hurley
In Kevin's Six Pack of Picks for the Weekend fashion, here are my winners for the first round of the NCAA Tournament, which gets underway today.
EAST REGION
North Carolina over Mt. St. Mary's
Indiana over Arkansas
George Mason over Notre Dame
Washington State over Winthrop
Oklahoma over St. Joe's
Louisville over Boise St.
Butler over South Alabama
Tennessee over American
MIDWEST REGION
Kansas over Portland State
Kent State over UNLV
Villanova over Clemson
Vanderbilt over Siena
USC over Kansas State
Wisconsin over Cal State Fullerton
Davidson over Gonzaga
Georgetown over UMBC
SOUTH REGION
Memphis over UT - Arlington
Oregon over Mississippi State
Temple over Michigan State
Pittsburgh over Oral Roberts
Marquette over Kentucky
Stanford over Cornell
St. Mary's over Miami
Texas over Austin Peay
WEST REGION
UCLA over Mississippi Valley
Texas A&M over BYU
Drake over Western Kentucky
UConn over San Diego
Purdue over Baylor
Xavier over Georgia
Arizona over West Virginia
Duke over Belmont
There you have it folks! The first round winners! I'll check back for round two with my picked winners (and games) and adjusted picks for actual games. You know, just in case for some weird reason one of my picks doesn't turn out to be right!
By far the best game is USC-Kansas State with O.J. Mayo and Michael Beaseley. The smartest game has to be Stanford-Cornell.
Go Villanova, St. Joe's and Temple! Represent the Big Five!!!
As for the Final Four, my picks are North Carolina, Kansas, Stanford and UCLA. My national champion is UCLA over Kansas.
We'll keep track after each round like this:
Final Four: UNC, Kansas, UCLA, Stanford
National Champ: UCLA
Green means I'm still alive and red will mean I am out!
For online pools I may have made a pick or two that is different than the picks above, but you can hold me accountable for these decisions right here! Don't forget to join my pool today! Do it soon!
I don't know if I'll be placing a bid on any of these, but I thought these were some pretty cool items. I started off casually browsing for some Matt Schaub items, but drifted to these tidbits.
1993 Philadelphia Phillies Team Signed Baseball - The 1993 Phillies are the team I credit with getting me into following sports. Many good memories (and one really bad memory) stem to that team and ever since then I have grown into somewhat of a sports guru. at the time of typing this the ball was up to $10.50 after six bids.
Mike Schmidt 1984 Ralston Card#22 / Graded Mint 9 - I realize a bunch of the title for this item is hobby mumbo jumbo, but what it means is this card is in really good condition. Plus it's Mike Schmidt. How can you go wrong? For $.99 this is a steal. We'll see what it is like on Thursday.
After penciling in my bracket (keyword is "penciled"), my Final Four is;
Of course, I reserve the right to change this before Thursday's games begin, so check back later.
As for the local teams, I am happy to see Temple, St. Joe's and Villanova all being invited to the tournament. Congratulations. Again with the first thoughts, I see Villanova going the deepest between the three, but they have a very tough first game against Clemson. Temple got the worst draw, although they can beat Michigan State. St. Joe's will have a tough time with Oklahoma but I can see them pulling out a victory.
Where are the NITtany Lions??? I thought for sure they would make THIS tournament. It wasn't meant to be I suppose.
Yep, I did it. I found all 120 stars and beat the game (I'm a loser like that). Now that I have unlocked Luigi I suppose I should go ahead and do it all over again.
I also have 2,000 Wii Points I have yet to use, so maybe I'll download an old game from the Turbo Grafix or Sega Genesis.
I didn't record this, but thought I'd share the ending for anyone who really cares for whatever reason. Behold, the end of the game:
I got a message asking for permission to use a couple of my Flickr photos for a story focusing on the way advertisers target children with junk food.
Read it here and look for my photos of cupcakes and a Shamrock Shake!
PSU is going to the NCAA tournament after winning their conference's automatic bid!
GO! STATE! BEAT! TBA!
As for the real PSU (THE Penn State University), they lost a heart breaker to Illinois in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. Sure, the season seemed lost when Geary Claxton went down, but this team showed some heart lately. Tough break.
NITtany Lions.
It seems that somebody in the graphics department at Comcast Sportsnet needs to take the There/They're/Their quiz.
Feel free to leave your thoughts on Lost in the comments. As for me, I'll be updating this thread as I see fit with my running thoughts on tonight's episode of Lost before and after it airs.
Apparently we find out another member of the Oceanic 6 tonight. For review here is who we have already;
Jack
Sayid
Kate
Hurley
Aaron and Ben are also seen off the island, but I don't think either count.
As for tonight the commercials continue to say we'll see somebody we never expected to see again. Well if it isn't Michael, and maybe to a lesser extend Walt, than I would be surprised. The credits have been showing Harold Perrineau's name the whole season and info has already leaked out that Michael comes back this season. Part of me is hoping that it isn't him, likely on the boat, but all signs point to it being him. At this point it wouldn't be a surprise really and I'll feel let down if it is.
And now the obligatory, updated, Lost Podcast questions.
1. Will we find out who is in the coffin? No.
2. Will we find out who Kate had to get back to? No. (confirmed by producers it was Aaron)
3. How many episodes will it take before Locke blows something up? Won't happen.
4. Will Jack kill anyone during season four? No.
5. Will Hurley have a flash forward or flashback in season four? Yes.
6. How many episodes will Danielle appear in? Three.
7. Will Kate kiss anyone other than Sawyer or Jack? No.
8. Who will be the first one Sawyer gives a nickname to? Jack.
9. Will Juliet and Jack kiss? No.
10. How many episodes will Jin appear in? Eight (all of them).
11. Will we see the four-toed statue? No.
12. Is Kate pregnant? Yes.
13. Who will be the first person to talk to Michael? Walt.
14. Will Sawyer "do the dishes" with anyone that he hasn't done them with already? No.
15. Will Sun have a miscarriage? No.
16. Will we see Boone this season? Yes.
17. How many episodes will Hurley appear in? Eight (all of them)
18. Who will be the first survivor to die? Jin - Do I get credit for this one???
19. Will Claire and Desmond get romantic? No.
20. Who will be the first person to talk to Walt? Michael.
And this week's Lost video for enjoyment, especially for those of you who liked The A Team.
I'm a Villanova fan. Actually I'm a fan of all of the Philadelphia schools but I probably root for Villanova with the most enthusiasm. I also hate Syracuse. I mean I HATE them! Some people hate Duke, but I hate Syracuse. I think I got it from my dad.
So with yesterday's opening game in the Big East tournament between Syracuse and Villanova I was naturally elated with the outcome. If nothing else it likely slams the door on any talk about Syracuse making the tournament on Sunday. Of course, ESPN is all over the story, as they seem to be every year with the Orangemen. Thankfully now our Jim Boeheim interviews will be kept to a minimum.
Nova takes on #1 seed Georgetown this afternoon. Nova plays G'Town tough every time so I would expect to see another close game, especially since the Hoyas rarely blow anyone out. I think The Hoyas win the game, but Villanova is very capable of winning. If Villanova wins today, they are in the tournament for sure.
Heck I think right now they are in, assuming some upsets don't occur in the other conference tournaments.
Speaking of which, young Penn State starts their Big Ten tournament run today against Illinois. I would take the Nittany Lions in this one. GO! STATE! BEAT! ILLINI!
Penn State's only chance at making the tournament is by going on a miracle run through the Big Ten tournament and winning it all.
That's not going to happen. Although at 15-15 they might be thinking of some post season tournament. After all you can't spell Nittany Lions without N-I-T, right?
Is it just me or does the Big Ten tournament logo look like it should an Olympic logo?
One comedic pet peeve of mine is when people impersonate Jerry Seinfeld. Nobody can do a good Seinfeld. Nobody. I am convinced. Every time somebody tries they go way over board and resort to the classic "What's the deal..." question and annoyingly whine his voice.
This guy, though, I will let slide.
So nobody out there joined in on my Arena Football League Pick 'Em. Ok, fine whatever. So I feel like a loser. I won't hold any of that against you now that I have opened up a college basketball tournament on Yahoo! Sports!
Want to join? Join in now!
All are welcome to join. Even you.
At the time of typing this there is a little more than 24 hours left to place a bid on a pair of binoculars I have up on ebay. To check the auction out, click here.
In preparation for the upcoming release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl let us take a trip down memory lane for one of the characters in the game, Sonic the Hedgehog.
As a Nintendo player growing up I took allegiance to Mario and detested Sonic and everything he stood for. My first encounter with Sonic was Thanksgiving of the year the Sega Genesis came out. My family went over to Aunt Helen and Uncle Vaughn's place, where my cousin Lee had brought and hooked up his Genesis so we could all watch him play Sonic, gloat about how good he is, and marvel at the 16 bits of fury and "blast processing" Sonic would demonstrate for us. Now my cousin was one I looked up to when it came to video games. He practically taught me everything he knew about Nintendo back in the day. So I was somewhat miffed when he started praising Sonic as the best and deemed him superior to my beloved Mario.
I was shown how Sonic needs to find air bubbles when under water...
I was shown how fast Sonic can run and I was shown the different bosses...
Still though, I stayed true to the plumber and eventually bought a Super Nintendo. Since then the feud between Mario and Sonic has died down. Never mind the fact that Sega eventually lost out in the hardware race, Sonic now graces the consoles by Nintendo and of course now acts as a co-star with Mario in video games. Hell must have frozen over.
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