NCAA Tournament Games and More

Tis that time of year that ESPN puts out a lot of games!  And well I'm playing in most of them.  If anyone else wants to join, all these groups are FREE!  Yes I said the magic word, free.  If you are interested in a money pool for the NCAA, I can get you the info for that too.  Here are all the games!

NCAA Tournament Challenge - Classic Bracket

Group: Wide Right

Password: beer

NCAA Women's Tournament Challenge - Classic Bracket

Group: Wide Right

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NCAA Tournament Round By Round Pick'em - Pick each game every round

Group: Wide Right
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NCAA Tournament HardCourt Challenge 

Pick players from NCAA Tourney Teams, get pts by their performance

Group: Wide Right
Password: beer

MLB Baseball Challenge

Group: Major League
Password: beer

Big Ten Tournament Predictions

It’s that time of year, gotta love brackets!  Big Ten tourney time in Indianapolis.  I think this will be mostly chalk and Ohio State will hang 2 Big Ten Championship Banners this season.  I wouldn’t be surprised though to see Purdue pull it out though (but I do have them losing to Wisconsin).  I think we are safe this year with the top being heavy enough you wont see a 6 or 7 seed in the championship game, and Ohio State I think has smooth sailing to Sunday.  Should be fun though. 

Who do you got?

Rango

Sunday I took the kids to see Rango, the new film starring Johnny Depp’s voice about a  lizard who becomes a cop in an old west town where water is like money.  I was hoping with a few of the shots in the trailer that it might be good.  It started off ok, and liked a few scenes later in the movie, but as a whole it just wasn’t that entertaining that I could hold me for 90 minutes or so.  Rattle Snake Jake also may haunt a few kids for a few nights after seeing it.  My daughter clenched to my arm every time he was on, and my son said he was outside his window last night.  The 4 animated movies from last year (Toy Story 3, How to Train a Dragon, MegaMind, Despicable Me) all blow this one out of the water.

1.5 Stars – Should be a Redbox or Netflix rental..highly disappointed in it.

Another thing that sucked was that my son spilled my drink all over, without anyone taking a drink, as soon as we sat down.  $5 bucks down the drain.  Overall a $30 trip to the movie with the 2 older kids.  Not too bad I guess with 3 of us, but I won’t be getting drinks again.  And probably not going to southridge many more time with kids.  Probably head to Indianola, may take 10 more minutes to get there but it’s less expensive.

Celebrity Apprentice 4 prediction

Ok, so I should have done this before but I wanted to get a feeling of how the players acted in show 1.  This seasons cast is interesting.  I think you have a bunch of egos that are going to conflict with each other, which makes for good tv. 

I think of the guys Cassidy was the weakest link and he had to go.  I don’t think Jose will bring in the $ since he’s burned his baseball bridges to win and like Hatch said, I don’t think he’s bright enough to win.  Of the guys I think John Rich (Big & Rich) has the best chance to succeed and lead.  Of the women I think it will come down to Lisa Rinna and Star Jones, Nikki Taylor maybe a dark horse candidate.  It looks like the women don’t like Lisa Rinna, but she reminds me of the Rivers combo a couple years ago.  I think she has too much to fail.  Really don’t think there is a Pierse Morgan, Joan Rivers or Bret Michaels in this group yet. 

I’ll pick John Rich to win it all.

Best and Worst of the Weekend

Well I'm starting to wonder what the hell weekends are for?  Yes I know just had a new born and been waiting for a new born, but it seems like the weekends have been just little breaks from going to work.  Can't wait for the warm weather and getting out and about more.

Best - HAWKEYE BASKETBALL.  Yes you heard it right.  Iowa Basketball is my leadoff best.  Fran lead the team to a 67-65 win in (a rocking) Carver over #6 Purdue.  Now Iowa's had wins over a top ten team under Lickliter (2008 vs #6 Mich State) but for some reason this one felt different.  Does it feel like Kirk Ferentz's 2000 win over Penn State, I think we need next year to know that, but it felt really good being a Hawk basketball fan.  When the game was over I called my dad and we had our normal 30 sec conversation after Iowa games.

Another best, Sunday morning I got german pancakes for breakfast.  A birthday weekend norm from my wife.  Usually only get them a few times a year and well I usually eat to many.  My kids love them too.

Worst - The weekend just seems to be over to quick and be nothing like they are in the summer/fall.  I dread this time of year.  The weather is 20 degrees difference it seems every other day, and it messes with my kids health.  I wish it would just be 70 and mostly sunny all year round.

Monday is my 33rd birthday.  I have my 15 year class reunion this summer.  Where the hell did the time go?  I remember being 25 like 10 minutes ago.  Now I have 3 kids, a dog and a mortgage and (gulp) a will.  Well I didn't go out this year for my birthday.  No prairie fire shots (thanks Mike!) and no grainbelt at the high life or running into my college buddies at the bar.  This year what I asked for is time.  Time to go golfing this summer.  Time to go to Kinnick on April 16 with the kids.  Time to get back there this fall.  Time to hang out with friends more.  So come Monday I'll be 33, here's to another great year.

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

NCAA TOURNAMENT CHALLENGE - Free

http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/en/group?groupID=1412

Group: Wide Right
Password: beer