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Final Four Picks?
Normally in this situation I would just copy down the Final Four I originally picked in my bracket. But, thanks to Georgetown I cannot do that this year, so I am forced to alter my picks. In place of Georgetown from the midwest region I will choose Kansas to advance to the Final Four. North Carolina has rolled through the east region and will continue to do so. Texas and their guards will beat Memphis in the Elite Eight from the south region. Rounding out the Final Four will be UCLA from the west bracket. That would place three No. 1s in the Final Four and one No. 2 seed, which is a pretty safe bet.
Most impressive team?
After the games last week, North Carolina looked the most impressive. You can make good arguments for some of the cinderella teams but I think the Tar Heels played in a way that leaves little doubt that they will be the toughest team to beat. Scoring more than 100 points in both games, North Carolina has been able to do whatever they have wanted. They have proved they deserved the overall No. 1 seed. About the only thing at this point that will stop the Tar Heels is a freak storm similar to the one that hit Atlanta and postponed the SEC tournament.
Upset of the Sweet 16
Davidson is my pick for the upset of the Sweet 16. I think that out of all of the higher-seeded teams, they have upset the best teams. In the opening round they took out Gonzaga and then came from behind to beat a tough Georgetown team. Some of the other high-seeded teams in the Sweet 16-namely Villanova and Western Kentucky-beat a tough opening-round team, but then matched up and beat other high-seed teams, Sienna and San Diego, in the second round. Davidson has a super star in Curry and they have showed that they can come back against a tough team.
Baseball starting up in Japan, a good idea?
Okay. I see a few things wrong with this. The first of which is the start time was 6 a.m. here in the United States. Isn’t opening day and the opening game supposed to be a big deal in this country? How many fans actually woke up early to catch the opening pitch? Another thing that bothers me about this is that baseball is America’s past time. Key word there is America. Why is Major League Baseball starting the season in a different country?
Rant?
You always read feature stories on ESPN about athletes falling into problems with drugs, alcohol and steroids, but every once in a while you see a story that actually makes you…well…feel good. I guess that’s why they call them feel-good stories. Imagine that. ESPN.com’s first page carried a feature on Texas guard D.J. Augustin, who grew up in New Orleans untill he and his family were displaced by hurricane Katrina. As a young man he could have chose to go a number of different ways. Augustin chose to start new in Houston and finished out his senior year of high school by being named a McDonald’s All-American. He now attends the University of Texas and as a sophomore and leads the team in scoring and assists. Not only that, but he also carries a 3.6 GPA. Now there’s a story you can get behind.