Crazy Weekend

There are only 3 certainties in life - death, taxes and my bracket getting busted after just a week of tournament play. The only difference this year is that most people's brackets are busted and I am not alone. It was an weekend of awesome games and amazing upsets in the NCAA tournament. The tourney has been up and down a little bit the last couple of years. But this first weekend this March has been great. The sweet 16 features a 9-Th seed that upset the big, bad Kansas. It also features a 10-Th, 11-Th and 12-Th seeds. The first round also featured a 13-Th and 14-Th seeded teams that upset Georgetown and Vanderbilt. The theory has always been that there is always a 12 over 5 upset in the first round and I called the Cornell over Temple game correctly. But I didn't think Cornell will also dump Wisconsin and go to the sweet 16. I also didn't know there would be a 13 over 4 and a 14 over 3. Amazing! The talk of the nation now is Northern Iowa, who beat Kansas and St. Mary's, who beat Villanova - 2 teams responsible for my brackets being in the state they are. But I can't complain. Don't we all love the underdogs!

It's not just about the upsets. The games have been awesome and a lot of close finishes as well. Both Northern Iowa and Michigan State have played 2 nail-baiters and now they have to play each other. Should be fun. Surprisingly, Cornell has had no problems with their comfortable upsets. Not since Penn made the Final Four in 1979 has an Ivy League team won two games in the NCAA tournament. Cornell has done it by averaging 82.5 points a game. They now have to play Kentucky, the clear favorites to win it all now that Kansas is back home. Kentucky, Duke, Syracuse and Ohio State are the big-names still left in the tournament and have looked decent. It should be fun watching them fight it out with the little guys next weekend. It's time now to follow the NBA for a couple of days before the gang reconvenes for the tournament on Thursday. NBA is heating up too with everybody on top of the conference standings winning and refusing to lose. The Phoenix Suns are playing great, but they cannot close the gap in the standings. Lets save that story for another day.