March Madness is Here!

My trip to Arizona for Spring Training was a great trip (thanks, Dad). I had originally planned to post pictures and a trip report from it today, but there is a more pressing major sports event beginning today: March Madness College Basketball!

First, a gripe with the NCAA Selection Committee. Why did the Arizona State Sun Devils get passed up in favor of the Arizona Wildcats? ASU beat Xavier, a number 3 seed in the NCAA tournament, by 20 points, beat Stanford, another 3 seed, beat USC, a 6 seed, beat Coppin St., who was the 65th team selected for the tournament, beat Oregon, a number 9 seed, and most importantly, swept U of A (beat them twice)! The Sun Devils finished with a better overall record than Oregon and Arizona. As for the U of A Wildcats, their only notable wins are against Texas A&M, USC, and a sweep against Washington State. In addition, U of A has lost 8 of their last 13 games and their has been turmoil in the coaching staff. With these records side by side, I still don't get how U of A got in, let alone as a number 10 seed!

As for the actual NCAA tournament, do you have your brackets set? Do you think Coach Bruce Pearl (pictured above) and his Tennessee Volunteers can win in the East region? Will UCLA add another championship banner to the rafters in Westwood? Or will the powerhouse North Carolina Tar Heels celebrate another championship?

For the record, here are my Final Four picks: the Georgetown Hoyas (number 2 seed in the Midwest region), the North Carolina Tar Heels (number 1 seed overall), the Texas Longhorns (number 2 seed in the South region), and the UCLA Bruins (number 1 seed in the West region). As for the National Championship, two powerhouses collide with North Carolina going against UCLA with UCLA bringing the championship back to LA for the first time since 1995.

To view my entire predicted bracket, go here.

As a side note, I've written a few posts on Florida coach Billy Donovan and the Florida Gators basketball team. The Gators won back-to-back national championships in '06 and '07 and did not get into the NCAA tournament this year. They are, however, in the NIT, considered the consolation prize for teams turned down from the NCAA. The NIT is also where the Sun Devils are playing (instead of the NCAA where they belong).

Housekeeping Items

Hi all,

I didn't realize until recently that I didn't put up an "away message" for the blog while school started. Lots of stuff has been going on (NFL free agency, NBA trade deadline, etc.) and I'll be commenting on some of it in the next few weeks. This weekend, I'll be flying out to Phoenix, Arizona for one of Spring's best moments: baseball spring training. I'll be bringing my camera and posting pictures here on FTRS in the following weeks.

Some of this delay has involved school, but more importantly, I've just been one distracted guy recently. So I'm looking to get back on the saddle here in the coming days. And if school permits, posts will be happening much more frequently.

Upcoming sports events include the aforementioned spring training, March Madness, baseball's Opening Day, the NFL Draft in late April, and late-breaking news. I'll also be looking to do more player spotlights and finally finish my ballpark series.

They say blogs need to generate content, so here's where you, my reader, gets to come in. If you see something that you'd like to see featured here on the blog and I haven't covered it, send me an email and you might see it on an upcoming post.