2021 NCAA Bracket

 We didn't get this last year, so glad we get it this year.  

Best and Worst of the Weekend

BEST – We finally got outside and played in the yard and busted out Brayden’s wiffle ball and t set.  He did pretty good, and so did Addy.  Then I unleashed some warning track power on the balls too.  Those big bats are pretty fun to swing around.  All was great till Addy lined a shot off her brother’s head.  He got right back up.  The weather for the most part was great, and I got to break out the shorts.  Hell it was 87 on Sunday.  My stop at the grocery store included brats, shrimp and Old Style…a nice ole middle finger to Old Man Winter!  The old style was pretty tasty.  I also went to work out Saturday and ran again, and I can definitely feel it on my ass and legs.

WORST – Needing a break!  Damn I know I take a lot on my shoulders and know I can usually handle it.  Lately things have been mounting and maybe getting outside more and running will help.  I know crushing some softballs will help and also kids listening would always help more too!

This weekend took the kids to go see HOP.  The Easter bunny movie.  It was cute for a kid move, Addy loved it, Brady I think got tired a little bit after half way through as we had to walk about half way through as we had to walk out of the theater.  But as for the movie.  I didn’t realize Russell Brand was E.B., he is hella annoying to me, but as a fluffy rabbit, his voice is ok.  Kelly Cucao (Big Bang Theory) did really well in her role, but James Mardsen, what happened?  His roles seems to be changing after he was cast as Cyclops in the first X-Men movie.  He should have complained more and had his Cyclops role expanded as much as Wolverine.  Both are great XMen characters but Cyclops seemed to be minimized and then his roles have not been the same, IMO.  And since when does the Easter Bunny have a sleigh and ride around like Santa?  That is another thing I didn’t like.  The kids will like the movie, but I give it about 2 stars out of 5. 



NCAA Championship Game

For the second year in a row the Butler Bulldogs are in the championship game, this time vs the UConn Huskies.  Jim Calhoun is going for his third title as the top dog in Storrs.  Butler has taken the reigns from Gonzaga as the best mid-major program and it’s not even close anymore.  Connecticut is on a run like no other.  5 straight wins in the Big East tournament verse ranked teams to win the Big East Crown, now 5 wins in the NCAA tournament. 

I’m picking (and cheering) for Butler to win, but I think if I was a betting man I would put money on UConn.  If UConn wins I think that Calhoun walks into the sunset and retires.  But here’s to a good game and go Butler.

Best and Worst of the Weekend…Cinderella Story!

BEST – The weekend was really pretty good overall starting with Friday.  Earlier in the week I won 2 tickets from 97.3 for the Iowa Barnstormers home opener for the 2011 Arena football season.  I couldn’t find a sitter for the wife to go, so offered the ticket to a buddy and he and I went.  Before the game got a couple Grainbelts and bacon wrapped tator tots at the Highlife, and those beers went down good and easy!  

The Stormer game was my first in 2 years, they added a couple local stars, Iowa’s 2002 Heisman runner up Brad Banks and ISU’s Todd Blythe.  Those 2 will probably help them sell tickets a bit this year, along with winning.  The game was really good, you can read Quentin’s (@thewood31) write up here.  Summing it up, Banks had some good plays, including a 22 yard draw that ended up being a TD, Blythe had a nice game.  The offensive line needs to improve though for the Stormers, and they need a kicker.  1-7 on PATs isn’t good.  In the end the Stormers won 43-42.  @thecooler had a couple tweets of the night at the game about the game, well crowd, around the 5 yard line too!

Saturday Addy had girl scouts in the morning,  and then in the afternoon we were going to go to the Shriners Circus at the Iowa State Fairgrounds at the new Jacobsen Building.  We get to the fairgrounds and well there were two lines out the building of about 100 people each, and I’m thinking no way, someone will get snapped.  So ending up skipping that and going to Monkey Joe’s to let the kids play.  They loved the inflatables and ran off some energy.   

Saturday night, with the help of some vodka, :), my headache from Monkey Joe’s was gone and rented a movie, How Do You Know.  It’s not an Oscar worthy movie, a chick flick comedy starring Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd and Jack Nicholson.  This was not one of Jack’s best acting jobs.  I hope he has one good movie left in him, but otherwise he might want to just ride off into the sunset.  Really weird to see Reese as an athlete, I don’t see her as a stud softball player.  Owen Wilson as a MLB pitcher?  Didn’t fit either.  Paul Rudd did a really good job though as he usually does.  About 2/5 stars, it’s worth a $1 rental.  Get some vodka to go with it!

Sunday Addy had a play date with a friend and they went to a Mad Hatter tea party and had tea with the characters from Alice in Wonderland.  Brayden and I played at home, can’t wait for next weekend when its warmer, but I love playing with his toys, thankfully I have a boy!  Barbie’s aren’t that much fun to play with. 

WORST – Well other than the mass chaos at Monkey Joe’s and all the kids, Cinderella was my worst.  My NCAA tournament bracket didn’t look to bad going into the weekend, then Cinderella decided to BUST IT.  Butler and VCU are having amazing runs in the tournament.  VCU beat my champion in Kansas and Butler has made another amazing run to reach back to back Final Fours.  One of those teams ins going to play for the National Championship. 

Tiger Woods 2012 comes this week, I’m going for the green jacket!  Will post a review of the game when it comes!  Looking forward to it.

NCAA Tournament Thoughts

I didn’t know how the whole four network thing was going to work when they first announced it but after 1 night, it’s a success in my opinion.  I really like that I have all 4 channels in HD on Mediacom.  Love how CBS has the logos of the stations each game are on at the top of the screen.  Made it easier to navigate to all the games. 

I wonder how ESPN/Disney would have accommodated this?  ESPN & ESPN2 are really the only accessible HD channels they have that are freely available.  Would they have made ESPNU and Classic more readily available or put a marquee game on ABC?  ESPN needs to step up their college studio experience I think to get the big dance, or really open their wallet.  CBS does it right, right now. 

I still think that somehow, someway, some day that ESPN is big enough and has enough clout that you will see more major sports and sporting events being broadcast on ESPN.  How much does CBS and Turner really lose in showcasing the games for what they pay?  Sure they get to promote their other shows, but other than that, you got to think they lose more than they gain, money wise.

One negative, to me, is the infusion of NBA talent from Turner to the NCAA.  I don’t need Charles Barkley, Marv Albert or Craig Sager (and his suits) for a quick dip into pool and then back after a week or so run.  Give me Jay Bilas and Seth Davis.  Jay Bilas by the way had a great read posted yesterday you can read here.

The biggest negative is the First Four…really do we need them?  In a word, NO.  It’s confusing to us as fans and to the non-fans who just want to do the brackets.  Go back to 64 or expand it all to 96 and dump the NIT.

My other big negative on the NCAA is the locations.  Look at the empty seats in the arenas.  Hello NCAA!  Go to some new sites!  Des Moines would SELL OUT!  Quit going to these same towns over and over.  Does St. Petersburg or Greensboro need a regional every other year.  Rotate these things more and incorporate new cities and venues.  And for the Final Four do we always have to be in a football stadium?  Go to these great arenas in the nation.  Madison Square Garden is getting a million dollar make over, get the Final Four there.  Put a Final Four in Chicago’s United Center instead of a regional.  Not to mention these great cities with actual basketball arenas, but for a player, shooting with a football stadium backdrop is a hell of a lot different than shooting in a basketball arena. 

The games the first day were amazing.  For all the flack that the selection committee has got (and seems to always get every year) day 1 was really entertaining.  Hopefully Day 2 and the rest of the days keep it up.

I mostly have chalk today, minus the 8/9 or 7/10 games which I don’t consider upsets, to evenly matched, other than Oakland over Texas.  (Texas up 10+ as I write this).  My son and wife are on top of the Wide Right pool after day 1 too, so good for them.  My bracket I went 10-6 yesterday, I hope I can at least match that today.  So enjoy the games, enjoy the weekend!

State Boys Basketball Picks

Obviously my girls picks weren’t great….hopefully I do better with the boys this week.  32 teams at the Well, 8 per class all seeded to try to set up a 1 vs 2 championship game.  But this is March Madness, who’s going to win?  Here’s my picks for all 4 classes.

NCAA Tournament Challenge

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2010 Year in Review - Top 5 Sports Moments

I did this for my Sports Moments of the Decade last December and had fun with this, so I'm going to go ahead and do this for the year.  Now again these are what I think, so there will be a local flair and national flair. 

1-Northern Iowa upsets Kansas - The #1 seed gets sunk by Farokmanesh!  The Panthers were the best team in the State for the 2nd year in a row.  2 years ago Drake's Cinderella run was sunk on a last second 3.  Last year Northern Iowa was beat by Purdue in a close 1st round matchup.  In 2010 the Panthers beat UNLV in the first round to set up a matchup with #1 Kansas and lead damn near the whole game.  Ali sank a 3 and the rest is MARCH MADNESS HISTORY!  

They even landed on the cover of SI and even an ESPY.

2-Duke beats Butler in the Championship game after last second shot misses.  In the best championship game in memory.  The team that only had to go 5-15 mins from campus had a chance to win it all (hello college football) and missed out on beating one of the best programs in the world by an inch.  This is what makes sports great!

3-The Thomas family at the ESPYs  --  Ed Thomas was shot and killed by former player Mark Becker in 2009, but in 2010 ESPN honored his family and him and his legacy with the 2010 Arthur Ashe Award at the annual ESPY's.  Great moment for a great family.  Really shows what small town Iowa is.










4-Iowa State wins AT TEXAS - Yea it happened.  What Paul Rhoads has done with road wins at Nebraska last year and now Texas this year.  ISU has found a good coach.  Just needs talent.

5.  Iowa wins the 2010 Orange Bowl - Yea it seems like a year ago, it happened int he 2009 season, but still was in 2010. And it built up the hype machine for the 2010 season that has gone to 7-5 and an Insight Bowl Bid vs Missouri instead of a dream that many fans had of the National Championship or Rose Bowl.









So these are my moments from 2010, what are yours?

Tickets? Who needs tickets?

Anyone else notice the empty seats in all the tournament games yesterday? New Orleans hardly had anyone on the upper bowl. Oklahoma City had a lot of empties. How many times have cities hosted the first round that keep getting bids from the NCAA? It's almost like the Braves fans who don't show up for 1st round games after 15 straight playoff appearances. Then there's cities like Omaha that sell it out. Why does the NCAA have to be so snobby about what towns get bids? Give it to some fresh blood. Des Moines has a great facility in Wells Fargo Arena, that would sell out for a 1st Round NCAA tourney site and a Wrestling National Championships easy. C'mon, NCAA, pull your head...or do you need to see more pictures like the one above?

NCAA Tournament Picks

Ok....Madness is here. 65 teams are ready to tip it off. Thursday and Friday are quite possibly the 2 best days in a sports fans life. And then in 3 weeks we'll have our National Champion. March Madness and the brackets are so big and popular that last year even President Obama got in on the act. Web sites from ESPN to Yahoo to CBS all have the games on their site.

So I've have made my first (initial picks-subj to change) and here is my Final Four.

Out of the Midwest I have Kansas. Out of the East I have Kentucky. From the South I have Baylor and from the West I have Syracuse.

From there I have Kansas beating Kentucky for the 2010 National Championship.