Thank You

To the NBC and affiliated networks broadcasting the Olympic games. Why? Because when you show basketball, at least the men's basketball, you use the greatest sports theme of all time.

Game update: Team USA Basketball is dominating Angola at the half.

If you remember back to the REAL Dream Team of 1992, Angola is the team that had a team member get an elbow in the chest from Charles Barkley. The ensuing foul shots for Angola ended a 40-2 run by the Americans in that game.

Best. Team. Ever.



EVER!

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Phillies Baseball?

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

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Who Ya Got??? Sweet Sixteen

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.

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NCAA Pool Update

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!

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March Madness Status Update

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?

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Who Ya Got??? Second Round

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)

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Who Ya Got???

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!

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Final Four: Early Thoughts

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.

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PSU Tournament Bound!

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.

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Big East Tournament

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?

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College Basketball Tournament Pool

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.

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