Thursday, March 27, 2008

March Greatness

Last couple of weeks have been a busy time in my life. Couldn't blog about the March Madness last weekend as much as I would have liked to. The first weekend of the tournament is the best weekend, may be of the entire year, because of the sheer volume of the games and the unique single-elimination drama of it all. A BIG upset on the first day was averted as Duke almost lost to Belmont. I am sure a 71-70 win against a 15-Th seed was not what coach-K was looking for. Right there you knew Duke was in trouble the rest of the way. They lost to West Virginia the very next round. Friday was more spectacular than Thursday. 12-Th and 13-Th seeds this year won all over the place. Western Kentucky beat Drake. San Diego eliminated Connecticut and Villanova took care of Clemson. Davidson and Gonzaga played a beauty and Davidson went on to beat no-2 Georgetown in the second round. Davidson is the official cinderella team. They are in the sweet-16 as a 10-Th seed and are now waiting for Wisconsin. Should be a great game.

As for the big names and superstars, North Carolina has looked real unbeatable so far. Kansas is not too shabby either. Memphis had a tough time against Mississippi state and UCLA had to struggle a bit against Texas A&M. Michael Beasley and OJ Mayo for Kansas State and USC didn't do much. They played each other in round 1 and USC and Mayo were disappointing. Kansas State was not much better in round 2 against Wisconsin. The other great game of the first weekend was Marquette-Stanford. Stanford's coach got kicked out on Ts and the Cardinals still figured out a way to win at the end. Now they have to face Texas in the sweet-16. Many great match-ups coming up this weekend and I just love this time of the year. I don't know whether to pick Memphis-Michigan State or Louisville-Tennessee or Davidson-Wisconsin as the best game. I wish I sit at home and watch all of them.

The star of the tourney so far has been Stephen Curry. He is Dell Curry's son and is averaging 35 points in the first 2 games. Impressive! He is a little under-sized but can shoot lights-out like his old man. He will be one of the main attractions at the sweet-16 as the 10-Th seed Davidson try to keep dancing. Plus the TV cameras are all over his mom Sonya Curry, who is not too bad to look at. As for upsets, I know there will be some, but hard to pick the right one. I am never super lucky, but my worst performance is always with the NCAA bracket. I rarely do well and this year is no different. I don't follow the NCAA as closely as the NBA and with my shaky luck, it's just not a great combo for bracket success. Lets see how the rest of the tournament goes. It should be a lot of fun.

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