Unprecedented

The Final Four is all #1 seeds. This has never happened, which seems odd to me. Why did it take 40+ years for the four best teams to all make it to the final rounds? All this does it prove to me that there is no perfect system for determining the best sports team when you do a one-and-done style tournament.

The NBA and MLB have it right...best of 5 or 7 game series' almost always has the best team moving forward. One game head-to-head matchups do not. When structured like the men's college basketball tournament, the hottest and luckiest teams advance...not always the best. If things fall the right way, just about any college team can beat another college team on any given night (Davidson vs. Georgetown in basketball or App. St. vs Michigan in football).

All this does is convince me that, though flawed, the BCS bowl system in college football is no more egregious than March Madness. They give us an idea of who peaked / got hot / rode a lucky streak at the right time...which is not to be confused with determining who is the BEST.

"They're All Good Teams"

March 31 marks the end of my first year in sports-fan purgatory. 3/31/07 was the date the Ulle family decided to disable the cable and dust off the rabbit ears. That's right, I've lasted one year on six (6) network stations. It hasn't been easy, but I am living proof that you can still follow sports without ten (or more) 24-hour sports stations. Thank God for the Internet!

One of the ways I stay connected with sports is on-line radio streaming. While at "work" I can tap in to just about any major market's sports talk radio stations and see what's going on. Consider it my own private "Around the Horn"...only without Woody Paige's incoherent ramblings and bad dentures.

The most common exchange I've heard this week between NCAA men's basketball coaches and an interviewer goes something like this:

Interviewer - Coach, who do you think is the best team in the Sweet 16?

Coach - Well, you know, they're all good at this point. If you make it this far, you've got just as good of a chance as any.

To which I say, "MULARKEY!!!"

Here is the margin of victory from the eight Sweet 16 games...

Texas d. Stanford - 20
Davidson d. Wisconsin - 17
Kansas d. Villanova - 15
North Carolina d. Washington St. - 21
Louisville d. Tennessee - 19
Xavier d. West Virginia - 4
UCLA d. Western Kentucky - 10
Memphis d. Michigan St. - 18

Seven of eight games were blowouts. Clearly not all of the teams in the Sweet 16 were good...half of them were absolutely AWFUL! Hopefully the Saturday / Sunday games are better. Oh wait...nevermind...I have to miss all 4 weekend games.

Coaching Styles

I really thought Tennessee vs. Louisville was going to be a good game. Looks like I'm wrong again. Louisville got out to an early double-digit lead and didn't really look back. Tennessee made a few runs to get it close, but there wasn't much doubt that Louisville was going to win the game handily...and they did.

Here's the thing:
There was no doubt that Tennessee was significantly more talented than Louisville. UL's starting 5 was weaker at every position than UT's...by a long shot. And yet UT lost by 20. The reason for the defeat can be summed up in one word -- COACHING.

Everyone (except for University of Illinois boosters) loves Bruce Pearl. He's a personable guy...he's a great motivator...he occasionally shows up at women's games sans shirt...and he's single-handedly built UT into a basketball force to be reckoned with by his aggressive recruiting powerful motivational techniques.

But he can't coach.

Tennessee wins their games by being faster, stronger, higher jumpers, and better shooters. Their offense (if you can call it that) consists of 4 guys standing around while 1 guy does a little shake-n-bake. The guy with the ball either shoots or kicks it to one of the other guys standing around who repeats the shake-n-bake. They get a bunch of second-chance points off of offensive rebound tip-ins (aka "garbage points") and difficult shots (see: Smith, Tyler).

Their defense is relatively unimpressive as well. They don't switch on screens. They don't rotate or play team defense. It's just man-to-man or a simple 2-3 zone. Their defensive philosophy seems to be "let them score less than we do".

Pearl doesn't make in-game adjustments. He doesn't call many (any?) plays during time outs. He functions as a middle-aged cheerleader / father-his-players-never-had. Not that this is a bad thing - as I said, Tennessee has one of the more successful basketball programs in the country thanks in large part to Bruce Pearl. He will, no doubt, be a hot commodity this off-season when schools are looking to hire a new coach. In most cases, Pearl is an upgrade as a head basketball coach. Just don't expect him to win any games against Rick Pitino, Roy Williams, Coach K, or Keno Davis.

(That's right...I went there.)

Opening Day?

I'm told the 2008 Major League Baseball season opened today in Tokyo, Japan. I think this is dumb. The rest of the league, who are still playing exhibition games, doesn't start playing real games for another 10 days. Dumb. Our national pastime was played while most of the US was sleeping (opening pitch at 5:00 AM CST). Really dumb. What ever happened to Opening Day starting on a Saturday / Sunday afternoon so the whole country can tune in?

I have no problem with MLB regular season games being played in other countries. But the first game of the season? Dumb.

Since the other half of the not-so-great-debate seems to be on indefinite leave, I'll open it up to you, our vast reading audience. What do you think of MLB starting the season in Japan?

Cloning Gone Awry

I thought this page from ESPN1000 Chicago Sports Radio was hilarious.


And the awards go to:

Julius Peppers
It Sucks to Be You Award

Lee Corso & Mel Brooks
Separated At Birth Award
(Runner up - Stan Van Gundy & Ron Jeremy)

Count Chocula & Joey Buttafuco
Least Likely Couple

Bruce Pearl --> Wayne Fontes & Lou Ferrigno
Most Haunting Resemblance

Matthew McConaughey
Person Most Resembling a 1970s Cartoon Character

Gary Bettman
He Should Be So Lucky Award

Jim Thome --> Mr. Incredible & Jonathan Banks
Most Creative Lovechild

Dennis Green
Damned For All Eternity

Day 2 - Providence

Be careful what you wish for...you might get it.

Yesterday I complained that the first day of the NCAA tourney was boring. I expressed a desire for more entertaining (read: close) games. I certainly got them. Two 12-seeds and two 13-seeds won. There were 3 games that went to overtime. More underdogs won than favorites. It was exactly what you hope for on March Madness weekend.

Normally, I'd be excited about all these upsets, nail-biters, and OT games...but my day was ruined early on by Drake's OT loss to Western Kentucky in the first game of the day. Don't get me wrong, it was an awesome game to watch. Contrasting basketball styles, lots of points scored, one team overcoming a 16-point 2nd half deficit, incredible shots, bad officiating - what more could you want?

I'll tell ya what I wanted - I wanted Drake to win, dammit.

P-sus & I enjoyed the game at a local establishment (read: bar on Court Ave.). Our lunch hour turned into three hours. One beer turned into more-than-one. We ate so much food we thought our bellies would burst. It was a guy's paradise, except for the crazy finish.

As I was driving back to "work" I wondered if it would be better to have Drake lose by 15+ points, or to have them come all the way back only to lose on a last-second heave in OT. Normally, as an overly-invested fan, I would prefer to not expend the emotional energy of seeing my team claw it's way back and lose. This was certainly the case in watching the Alford-era Hawks, the Eustachy & Morgan-era Cyclones, and even (to an extent) the McDermott-era Panthers (who always seemed a little too cocky for their own good).

However, for this year and this team, I have to say I was happy to see them go down fighting. Quality student-athletes, excellent coaching, against-all-odds story...it's a group of young men anyone could be proud of.

Even if my lunch buddy could have cared less who won the game...

Day 1 - Ho Hum

In between my honey-do list and high-maintenance children, I was able to catch a few games on Day 1 of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. Two words for ya...bo ring. No upsets - both KSU and USC had 20 wins playing in tough conferences. Only one dramatic game - Duke v. Belmont - and even that game had a sense of inevitability to it. Duke led for most of the game and were clearly the most athletic, best coached, and most cohesive team on the floor. Most of the afternoon games were blow-outs, which made me reluctant to bother staying up for the night games. Hopefully Day 2 will have more excitement, close games, upsets, and maybe even an OT or 2OT for good measure...as long as Drake wins.