Madness 2008

Crap, everything that's going on - Spitzer, Wright/Obama, Paterson - can distract us from the really important things. March Madness is back, Baby!

As usual, I have been following basketball fairly closely this year, but I find myself in a very different camp then most of the sportwriters. Stewart Mandel says, this is the year of the favorite. The ESPN guys average Final Four Rank is 1.29 and no one has anyone seeded lower than 2. And even Dickie V. says no chance a 5 seed or lower makes the Final Four.

Hmmmm.

Okay, now I admit I always pick conservatively, but my humble opinion is that ANYONE can lose in the second round. Sure, I think UNC and UCLA are tough, but not unstoppable. And the teams ranked 3 through 6 have some solid players who can pull of the "upset." UConn got torched by Providence and WV (curse you, Joe Alexander), but have an outstanding point guard, a shot blocking god and two very strong forwards. Xavier, USC, Pittsburgh, Clemson, Louisville can all make a case that on any given day, they can win against anyone even if things don't go perfectly. Most importantly, all the top seeds have looked very vulnerable at times.

This may be the Year of the Favorite. More likely, it will come down to the point guard and great defense.

That said, Mr. Wimp picks:

UNC, Kansas, Texas, UCLA with UCLA beating UNC 82-75...

That is Why I am Not on ESPN

I could not have been more wrong if I tried. The Florida-OSU game was over by half-time...just like the BCS Championship. Ohio State might be getting a complex.

All that said, this is how it should have been. The fact that Florida lost some "easy" games shows, in retrospect, a loss of focus, not talent. Hat's off to them.

In other sports news:

1. Yankees bats and bullpen saved Pavano. But A-Rod's error and all the "boos" in the top of the first was the highlight of the game. Good of Jeter to throw one away to make A-Rod feel better.

2. Schilling had a rough go. His control....well, let him tell you. Maybe I am just nuts, but reading him recap a game is like watching 24. Riveting. (Okay, I am officially in complete baseball crazy mode.)

3. Barry Bonds. He will break the record, probably in late-June. Too bad.

4. Back to NCAA Hoops. Billy Donovan becomes one of only four active coaches to have one more then one title. The others: Bobby Knight, Coach K and Jim Calhoun.

5. Peter Crouch scores a "perfect" hat trick for Liverpool against the Arses...I mean Gunners. A perfect hat trick is a left foot, right foot and header. Given the stinginess of goals and the opponent (Arsenal is not some "soon to be regulated" squad), kudos to Crouch.

Fantastic Final Four

In my two ESPN brackets, I had UNC and Georgetown as winning it all. I guess I liked the East.

Two Number 1s and two Number 2s. That hasn't happened in over 10 years. The Elite 8 had no one lower then a 7 seed; which I am certain does not count as Cinderella. The games have been generally close (even the UNC-G'Town game went OT before the Hoyas took over).

And there is a possibility of a Florida-OSU championship again!

This has been an outstanding tournament.

My quick predictions: I will stick with G'Town over Florida. As I said below, Florida should take the championship, but I like these Hoyas. I also like UCLA, who I think will have the heart to beat OSU, though I am nervous after the way OSU played against Memphis.

Finally, I see a championship for another Thompson-Ewing combo.

Around the Horn

Okay, my take on things:

Politics:
-Scooter Libby. Scooter got convicted of the same thing Martha Stewart got convicted of. But on (arguably) less solid evidence. I am not partisan enough to say he should get off any less or that Bush should pardon him now. Was it a political show trial? Sure, but that is Washington right now. And he is a Republican. Democrat and Clintonista Sandy Berger got off with a slap on the wrist for destroying classified material (which he lied about), but he is a Democrat.

Unfair? Certainly, but that is the way the media and Washington work.

-Iraq. The current conditions seem to be affecting the situation positively. (I don't thing the "surge" can take all the credit.) Iraq will be a mess for years, our job is to get the mess to a level manageable by the Iraqis themselves.

-Dems 2008. Anyone who thinks Obama has a shot is smoking something. Hillary will be the nominee. Barack has too much baggage that is only trickling out. The Clinton op-force is patient and will strike fast and brutally when the time is right. The Clintons INVENTED the politics of personal destruction.

-Attorney Firings. More political hay. Dems and Repubs are shocked (SHOCKED) that this sort of thing goes on. (Hillary also fired 93 attorneys when the Clintons came to town. But, claim Democrats, that was DIFFERENT! Of course, it was. ) I simply do not see the problem with firing a political appointee if that appointee is not carrying on the administration's wishes. NEXT!

-GOP 2008. I am not sure any of the current Big 3 will be nominated. McCain does not want to make nice with the more conservative wing, Romney still makes people uneasy with his flip-flops and religion, and Gulianni has appeared too many times in a dress.

Two words: Fred Thompson.

Sports:
-UConn. I weep. Nothin'. Not even an NIT bid. I think the this might mark a real transition year in NCAA Hoops. Calhoun (and every other DI coach) will need to understand how to work with very talented freshman/sophomores and mid-level upperclassman that do not have the talent to go early. But Calhoun will clean house in the off-season.

-Tournament Time. Wow. Who knows? I would think that UNC should walk away with it. Or Florida. But I like Kansas (who has the hardest road) and UCLA is a legitimate contender. I am still down on the Big 10, but I think Maryland has a real shot if they can stay up for the games. (But then everyone who can stay up for the games does.)

My choice right now: UNC.

-38 Pitches. Love him or hate him, Curt Schilling is a worthy read. He has a blog, 38 Pitches, that I have added on the left. Check it out.

-Cleats. Okay, so I am in a sports shop looking at the clearance rack and I find these Kelme cleats. For $29! One slight problem is the biggest size they have is an 8, which I passed long ago. But a deal is deal, so I make like freakin' Drizella trying to cram her doggies in that glass slipper before Cinderella gets a shot. With about as much luck. Damn, so close.

-The Kids. Youth sports starts soon. My eldest has his first lacrosse practice tonight, Little League tryout are in a few weeks and spring soccer starts soon. More observations on the insanity that are kids' sports leagues to follow.

PTI or Pardon Tilam's Idiocy

Various and sundry from the sports world:

1) There is talk that Duke may not make the NCAA tournament. I suspect they will be in, but the outrage is how any team in the middle of their division can be ranked in the Top 25 at all. Prior to the rose color glasses being knocked off, Duke was ranked 16th while being .500 in the ACC. Of course, readers of TvT heard of Duke's woes early.

2) The USMNT beat Mexico 2 - 0 in Arizona. The US did not play particularly well, but they also did not have their first team. Mexico had their first team and could not put the ball in the net. Overall, my thought is that the USMNT needs more games like this where mental toughness helps win. Now the US is playing in Copa America against Argentina in late June. That will be more of a metric on how the team will fair in the future.

3) Lefty wins Pebble Beach. Good to have you back, Phil.

4) Boston University wins the Beanpot Championship and college hockey is ruled by Notre Dame. Mrs. Tilam's alma mater is ranked seventh in the nation, but she does not give a whit.

5) Speaking about alma mater's, mine is ranked 14th in DIII hoops. Go Maroons!

6) Marty S. is out as coach of San Diego. I am taking bets on whether the Bolts will be in the playoffs next year.

7) Dodge is coming out with a very nice roadster called the Demon. (Okay, sports to cars as follows: Daytona 500 to NASCAR to fast cars to the Demon.) Nice.

8) My 8 years olds are 2 - 2 in their indoor league this year. While we are nearly an all-girls team, they are playing in a boys league. Not bad, but the difference between the sexes is starting to show.

9) It is snowing and I am smiling. Because next week the Tilam clan will be skiing at Stowe. No cellphones, no e-mail just a few feet of powder (and me trying to keep up with the little Tilams).

Ta-ta.

As If on Queue

UConn and Duke both got beat last night. UConn by Marquette, a decent conference opponent (73-69) and Duke by Georgia Tech, a decent conference opponent (74-63). If you read ESPN today, you will find out that Duke is a young team looking for leadership.

Of course, you could have read Tilam v. Thew yesterday...

U-Con

I have been silent about the UConn Huskies, but I can't simply whistle past the graveyard. While I would like to write, "They Suck" or some such, that would be wrong. They do not suck, in fact, they are very good.

But they are leaderless and soulless right now. There is no Rip Hamilton or Ben Gordon or even a Rashad Anderson or Denham Brown to look for leadership. While this is not unique in today's college game (Duke is suffering the same problem), it is particularly acute in UConn's case.

Coupled with Calhoun's soft scheduling in November and December, this is a team that will have to mature late, if at all. They have Marquette (who humiliated them last year), St. John's at MSG and then Pittsburgh at Pitt. This stretch will go along way to determine NCAA or NIT.

Finally, I just look at UNC and wonder how anyone will knock them off with Tyler Hansbrough? It is certainly possible as Gonzaga showed, but they are the team to beat this year.

Greators!

I can't say that I am surprised, though I did not have the balls to predict it. Like the basketball team last spring, Florida "snuck" up on the world and took home a Championship. Now, there is no shortage of adulation.

I will say that until the Michigan/USC game, I felt that OSU was the favorite. The Michigan game exposed the top part of the Big Ten as mostly hype. Yes, they beat Texas early, but Texas was #2 based on the past not the present and ended up 10-3. Beating Michigan by 3 at home was not the win it seemed like at the time.

Florida's only loss was to a strong Auburn team. (Auburn had also beat LSU early in the season.) And given LSU's performance, maybe the SEC was disrespected a bit. Of course, looking at Jeff Saragin's conference rankings, the SEC was the top ranked conference while the Big Ten ranked 5th.

All this just SCREAMS for a play-off. Sure, you will still get complaints from the last team left off the 8 or 10 team playoff list, but the BSC ranking system is just a piece of junk. Further, each team had nearly a month lay-off prior. How does that promote the best game? Was Troy Smith a bit rusty? Would he have played better if he had to face Louisville or California in the prior weeks?

Just asking...