My apologies, health reasons....

To the few that read my ramblings here.

Due to some ongoing health reasons, I will have to suspend this blog site for a while. I hope this is just a temporary measure.

Please bear with me. It may be several weeks before I actually take up writing on a consistent basis, and I appreciate all the interest you have given me.

Thank you,

NCAA final four...yawner or great viewing?

I have to admit, I am not much of a basketball fan to begin with. No surprise there for people who have read my posts before. But this final four matchup between all four #1 seeds has to be one of the most boring set of game matchups in recent history. NOT because the talent and level of play will not be good, and NOT because the game will be lacking in competitiveness. I think all of that will be extremely good. But honestly, there just is not much there that is intriguing or interesting.

Without question, there will be a LOT of future NBA talent on the floor this weekend. And the styles of play, along with the execution will be at a very high level. So, if you are a purist of the game of basketball, and just love the game itself, this weekend will be very interesting for you. And very fun to watch. Because these four teams have a great deal of talent.

But if you are just a leisure fan of the game of basketball, and are not a fan of any of the schools that are in the final four, this weekend holds very little interest for you.

I mean really, UNC vs KU and Memphis vs UCLA. Ho hum. In all fairness, because I am in an online bracket game, I will definitely find out what the outcomes of those games are, but I will not be watching. I just have no interest in those 4 teams, and because of this being the first full weekend of major league baseball, I will be occupied watching those games.

I think from the NCAA's point of view, and the point of view of many sports wonks, these matchups fall into the category of "great for college basketball". Ok, I will give them that, considering I have no idea what "great for college basketball" really means. That they were right in picking the 4 teams seeded #1 to get to the final four? So, "great" means they are "great" at picking winners?

All I can say is that there is very little interest because most people, who are not afficionado's of the game of college basketball, only will watch when there is some type of "underdog" chance of making it into the championship game. Otherwise, it is the "cast of usual suspects". And that just has not real interest for most of us.

Now, having said all of that, I would have been ecstatic to see Lousville in the final four...absolutely! That is the team I cheer for. But once they were bounced, and I saw the other 3 teams matched up, I just lost interest.

In any case, I am sure it will be a very competitive and exciting tournament for the sports wonks, fans of the teams, and the college basketball fan who can not get enough, but for the rest of us, this weekend holds a LOT more options. Not just baseball, but also two of the major Derby prep races are going on this weekend. The Wood and the Santa Anita.

So, enjoy the games if you are going to watch, but if you are not interested, take refuge in the fact that there are other sporting events that you can get into.

Quick post-mortem on UL, and Opening Day in MLB

First, UL's Elite 8 performance vs UNC last saturday night was all you could have wanted from this team. They played very well, only falling in the late minutes to a superior "team", in UNC, which had one of the best players in the nation making plays in those final minutes to take the Cards down.

I, for one, and many other UL fans have expressed similar sentiments, think this team did exceptionally well. If you had asked someone in January, after UL had dropped a home court game to lowly Cincinnatti, if UL would make the Elite 8 of the NCAA tournament, most people would have laughed. But at the end of the season, this team started putting all of the pieces together to have a very good run.

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Secondly, now that basekball is over, it is now "officially" Opening Day for Major League Baseball.

Last night the Washington Nationals hosted the Atlanta Braves, and the Nat's won in a bottom of the ninth walk-off homer fashion, 3-2 over the Braves.

Today the Cubs take on intra-divisional rival Brewers.

Finally baseball is being played again.

As noted, in my other post about the NL Central, here is my prediction for the NL-East.

NL-East

This might be one of the best divisional races to watch come September, if everything works out right. The Mets have all of the talent and pitching staff, but BOTH the Braves and the Phillies have a ton of talent and all of the pieces to contend for the title.

For the Braves, I think their season will all hinge around "health". They, (like the Yankees), have a lot of veteran players that need to do it this year. I would not say this is a "do or die" year for the Braves, but it is close. Two key things for the Braves must happen though. They must get production out of Hamilton in their starting rotation, and Chipper Jones must stay healthy. Considering Jones has not had a full season healthy over the last few, the chances of that are slim. And unlike other NL divisions, a small losing streak in this division could end playoff hopes.

I think this division will come down to a fight, (just like last season), between the Phillies and the Mets. And honestly, I think with the off-season acquisition of Santana by the Mets, I will give the edge to the Mets. Unlike the Braves, while the Mets do have a few key veteran players, (like aging 1st baseman Carlos Delgado), they are not dependant on them for success.

So my pick for the NL-East champs is the NY Mets.

(note, I do think that the Phillies will end up with the NL-Wildcard spot.)

Back in town....after my personal March Madness

After traveling all week, I am back in town today, after taking my own version of March Madness.

Every year, I take week, head off to Florida for a week of fishing and spring baseball. With a lot of drinking in the mix. This year was a little later than I normally go, but still a great time.

I know that most who would read this are very much caught up in Louisville's run in the NCAA tournament. And rightly so.

But this weekend ends the regular spring training and begins the regular major league baseball season.

After watching some teams in Florida I have some predictions for the MLB season.

To keep things simple, I will start with my overall predictions for the season division winners, and then break the divisions down a little more in seperate blog entries.

Since many in our area are Cincinnati Reds fans, let's start with the NL Central.

NL Central

The Chicago Cubs are the favorites to repeat as the NL Central champs. Despite some very big question marks about Rich Hill's control. Jason Marquis will get the starting nod over Hill, and Hill will head to Iowa for more development. Kerry Woods is tagged as the closer now, and you have to wonder if that might create some bullpen hard feelings with Carlos Marmol, who was easily the best closer in the NL last year. But if anyone can handle clubhouse issues, it is Lou Pinella.

The Brewers still have a very good pitching staff, with Sheets and Suppan, but Sheets must stay healthy, because Gagne has not been good at all. Still, they have a very powerful lineup. But I think they are in for some "clubhouse" problems, with some of their off-season trades.

The surprise in the NL Central will be the Cincinnati Reds I think. Unknown pitchers before the spring season started of Volquez and Cueto have been EXTREMELY good. So good that up and coming phenom Homer Bailey, who has struggled a bit adjusting to MLB hitters, has been optioned down to the Bats, to let him continue to develop. Which just shows how deep that rotation could be.

The Cardinals, Astros and Pirates will fight for the basement in the NL Central, and I think the winner, (or loser), for last place will again be the Pirates. They have looked really bad in spring.

My prediction for the NL Central Winner: Chicago Cubs!!!

It is opening day for MLB!...well, kinda...

VERY early this morning was opening day for MLB...in Japan. Not that anyone noticed. Even if you are a huge RedSox and you thought you might be able to get up around 6am EST to watch your team open the season was a "good idea", then you were doubly ticked off, when you found out that through some fluke technical screwup, most of the NE did not receive the transmission.

The only saving grace? ESPN2 did replay the game at 2pm today.

(BTW, I am traveling this week, and will not be able to post much. But will get on it with my predictions of the MLB division and pennant races later this week. However, until then, here is a little taste......Go Cubs!)

2nd round NCAA thoughts...

After the 1st round of the NCAA tourney, I maintained that the Big East has proven that it is the best conference in the nation. Primarily on the strength of the Be going 7-1 in the first round. While the 2nd round of the tourney saw four of those teams fall, including both the BE tourney champions Pittsburgh, and the regular season champs Georgetown, I still believe that. Only the PAC-10, which is now tied with the BE in terms of teams heading into the round of 16 has any other claim to that statement.

But even with that, I still contend the Big East is the better conference. Marquette was a defensive stop or a missed front end of a 1&1, or a missed layup away from taking down the #2 PAC-10 team, Stanford, and the Golden Eagles finished 5th in the Big East conference.

However, I will say that the top of the PAC-10 is looking much stronger and better than the top 2-5 of the Big East, because of the two head to head matchups, where while Stanford just squeeked by Marquette, Washington State just destroyed Notre Dame.

At the same time, some local sports wonks have been touting the Big-12 as being much stronger.

And yet in the head to head matchups in that regard between the BE and the B12, the BE has destroyed their one opponent. And while there is another chance to see that matchup, it is extremely doubtful whether a Villanova team that just barely made it into the tourney will be able to knock off the B12 champion in Kansas.

But, then again, not many people nationwide would have ever picked Davidson over Georgetown, or WKU over UConn, either.

But one thing we do know for sure, and most would agree with: the ACC and the SEC are just AWFUL; and have been all year, despite what "Dookie" V and Jay Bilas have to say about it.

1st round of NCAA tourney over...BE big winner

Here is the fact. The current field of 65 teams in the NCAA tournament have been whittled down over 4 days to just 32, and after today and tomorrow that will be down to just 16.

Of those 32 still standing, 7 of those teams are from the Big East conference. The best winning percentage of all of the conferences. And were it not for a late overtime last second shot, the Big East might have had all 8 of their 8 teams move into the 2nd round.

And what is even more impressive is that the Big East teams are doing it the way they have done it all year in the conference. With NASTY, stifling, suffocating defense that just grinds opponents down and into confusion, and dominating the backboards.

Without question the Big East has proven that it is THE best college basketball conference in the nation. Bar none.

Fans of opposing conferences and sports media wonks nationwide can talk about conference RPI and Sagarin ratings all they want, and how the PAC-10 was a 'better' conference, or that the ACC had the 'best' two teams. The Big East has proven it where it matters most. On the court, against the best competition in the nation.

Will the Big East continue to do that? Honestly, probably not. But when one conference makes up almost 25% of the TOTAL top 32 teams in the nation, can anyone deny that the Big East is THE best conference in the nation?

The facts do not lie. Especially when you consider how close, tight, lucky, or downright awful, some of the other conferences teams have played against competition that they were supposedly much better than. I.e. Duke vs Belmont, Vanderbuilt vs Siena.

Again, I doubt whether the Big East will be able to continue that pace, primarily because the competition against some of the more elite "teams" in the nation will force that number down. But that does not dilute the fact of how strong the Big East conference has proven itself. And that was proven by the fact that all but one of the game that Big East teams played were really even close. (Sorry UK fans, but without a superman effort by ONE player, (Joe Crawford), that game against Marquette was not even close.)

The Big East IS the BEAST of college basketball, and no one can deny that now.