Browns still not done?
March 14, 2008Fantasy Baseball Primer, Part I: The Cleveland Indians
March 15, 2008Everywhere you look these days, it’s NCAA hoops. You cannot help but to catch some of the MAC Tournament action, given that it’s in our back yard. It’s looking like a Kent State University versus Akron University finals, which is more than sure to draw a solid crowd today. Neither team had a cakewalk to get where they are at this point. KSU needed a buzzer-beater by MAC standout Al Fisher, and a few Akron ballers have some bumps and bruises to deal with as well. Personally, I’m a bit glad I’m not downtown today as parking would be a disaster for us working folk. However, you can’t deny the atmosphere is going to be amazing. Flannery’s Pub will likely be able to pay their rent for the month of March on today alone…
The sad truth to all of this is that us Clevelander’s will have to be pulling for the winner of this tournament game, possibly along with Xavier, as the “Ohio” plays given last night’s Ohio State loss to Michigan State. It’s going to take quite a bit of luck and/or reputation for the Buckeyes to get in to the Big Dance this year – unless the committee opts for five Big Ten teams, yet again. Losing to Minnesota, Michigan and Iowa are going to hurt. Big time. Wisconsin, Purdue, Indiana and Michigan State are pretty much locks to get in. Matta and Company could definitely be on the outside looking in come tomorrow night.
Speaking of Xavier, a big upset by St. Joe’s yesterday meaning that we’ll be seeing more than one A-10 team this year. Unfortunately, one of them will not likely be the University of Dayton.
I’m not sure if any of you caught any of the action on ESPN last night, but with about three seconds left, they turned their live coverage to the Mississippi State/Alabama game, with MSU up three. ‘Bama inbounded the ball and hurled a prayer, and drained it. And then in OT, a tornado came – delaying the play. You can’t make this kind of stuff up! It was pretty crazy, and it looks like they’ll be forcing the winner of UG and UK to play twice today. Interesting to say the least.
And, finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the Houston Rockets and their 21st straight victory last night. Many thought that Yao Ming going down would mean the end of Houston’s playoff hopes. And personally, I think it’s awesome that Dikembe Mutombo is one of the big influences on this run. Four more blocked shots for the veteran last night. Waive that finger, big man!
And if you’re wondering, the answer is yes. I’m still pulling for Dallas to fall out of the playoff picture completely. If anything will quiet the “we should have traded for Kidd” bandwagon, it will be that. Currently, they’re the seven-seed. Two games ahead of Golden State.
Have a great weekend, all.
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Speaking of buzzer beaters, did you see the Indiana-Minnesota game? With 5 seconds left, and Indiana down 2, Eric Gordon goes to the line. He misses the first, so he intentionally misses the 2nd one, and DJ White gets the rebound and puts the ball back up and in and gets fouled for the ‘and one’ try with the game now tied. He misses the free throw, but somehow gets his own rebound and gets fouled again with 1.8 seconds left. He misses the first, but hits the 2nd to put Indiana up one. Minnesota then inbounds the ball 3/4 of the court a la the Christian Laettner play. Sure enough, dude from Minnesota catches the ball, spins around, and shot puts up a left handed shot and drains it for the win.
Then, today, I watch SportsCenter and as it turns out, the dude who hit that shot was the same kid who in high school threw in that game winning shot while lying on his back. That play won an ESPY for play of the year. Now he’s got a great chance of winning another one. Unreal. Sports are so great sometimes.
This all brings a question to my mind. Who do you all think should be the four #1 seeds?
Living just south of Knoxville I think that Memphis, UNC and Tenn are all locks with UCLA/Texas depending on who wins thier conf tourneys.
Kansas looked pretty good today as well. Will be tough to actually put some of these teams as “2’s” given the talent out there right now…