I almost forgot I had this thing. I have a 5 page paper to write, and I thought this would be a good way to warm up for it/ put it off.

  I'm gonna try and go a different direction with this. Instead of writing about things going on in my life, (like I did like a year ago. And I might still do that occasionally.) I've decided to try my hand at a sports blog. I will talk about some going-ons in the world of sports and give my opinion on them. My hope is to model this after the Sports Guy, Bill Simmons. If you've never read anything by him, go to espn.com and look him up. He provides an excellent look at sports with a lot of humor and not too much bias. So here it goes....

    It's early March and that pretty much means on one thing is going on that matters: the NCAA tournament. Unless you are a diehard baseball fan and care that your favorite teams' split squad beat another team made up of a bunch of guys who will probably be in the minors in a month or intrested in watching the NHL and NBA playoff pictures develop over the next month or so, this is number one on every sports fans priority list. I'd say it's one of three sporting events (the Super Bowl and the Olympics being the others) that eveyone watches even if they have no interest in the sport. The tourney is different because of it's involvement. With the Super Bowl, may watch to see the new commercials, and national pride is the basis for the Olympics viewing audience. Only with March Madness do people have an interest in who wins and who loses. Maybe it's because their alma mater or current school is in the tourney, or it might be they just want to see their big first round upset pick fulfilled. Whatever the case, very rarely in sports is there an all-inclusive event like this.

   So what is this years tourney like? Let's just say, if you thought last years brackets were a mess, just wait until this year. While I don't think there will be another George Mason in this years tourney, I don't think there is a clear cut favorite to win this year. Many of the top teams have been inconsistant this year, rattling off a couple wins, then dropping a game to a team they shouldn't.(Kansas, UCLA, and Florida being the main examples of this) This, along with last years tourney surprises, is a sign of the new found parody in the college game. This years tournament features former lower level teams like Southern Illinois, Butler, and Vanderbilt as 4, 5, and 6 seeds, respectively. Maybe more shocking is perrenial powerhouses like Duke (6 seed) and Kentucky (8 seed) with lower seeds, and others like UConn and Syracuse (more on some of these teams later), missing the tournament all together.

   So why is this happening? Are these mid-major teams actually as good as the powerhouse teams they beat? Maybe. Is the coaching throughout the NCAA getting better? That's also possible. But I think the biggest factor in the leveling of the playing field in college basketball was actually brought on by the NBA. During last season, the NBA made a ruling that said high schooler could no longer enter the draft and had to play at least one year of college. Despite expert opinion, I agree with this rule. In fact, I was an advocate of it in high school and even wrote about it in the school newspaper. (I just wish I could find the article as proof) This was the exact reason why I thought it would be a great idea. It would make both the college and pro games better. While it will take a little time to affect the pro game, it's paying dividends in college right now.

  But you may be thinking, "If all high schoolers have to play in college, wouldn't the best players go to the best programs, therefore making those programs even better?" The answer to that is yes, but to an extent. Yes, these players will be going to the UNC's, UCLA's, and Florida's of the college basketball world, and yes those teams probably will get better. But that's not the big picture. With roster spots filling up on the powerhouse teams with kids who would normally be in the NBA, what happens to the blue chippers who get left out of that becasue of full rosters. They are able to take their services elsewhere. So while the big programs are still getting the best players, some of the up and coming programs are able to get the guys that "would have" been the best players.

   So here's a couple points about this years tourney (many of whcih were discussed with my friend Aaron):

1. A rule of thumb in the tourney is youth usually doesn't fare well. Keep this in mind before automatically move teams like UNC (starts 3 freshmen and a sophmore) and Texas (starts 4 freshman and a sophmore) into your Elite 8 or further.

2. Was I the only person on the planet who didn't think Duke should be in the tournament? I mean, obviously they were going to be in becasue they are Duke and did have some good wins, but consider this: They were 22-10 overall with an 8-8 conference record. They played 3 ranked non-conference team and beat 2 of them. But one of those was Gonzaga who A. was only ranked 24th and B. was over ranked. If you give that record to a mid level team in another big conference, they probably get snubbed. In fact it happened to Syracuse, who not only play in a harder conference, but had a better conference record.

3. Aaron and I were talking today and I noticed the "Worst-game-that-usually-is-a-good-game" game. #5 Butler vs. #12 Old Dominion. This matchup usually puts a big conference's #3 or 4 team vs. a mid-major, usually conference champion. This year it pits two mid major teams against each other, so if ODU can pull of the upset, it won't make that big of a splash. (more on the 5-12 game: a 12 seed has beaten a 5 seed in the last 5 touneys.

4. The best "good team you are just now realizing is good": The Memphis Tigers. Have won 22 straight games coming into the tourney as a 2 seed. Won this years C-USA title with an undefeated conference record. Doesn't have the same allure as it did 2 years ago, before Cincinatti, Louisville, and DePaul jumped ship to the Big East, but still very impressive.

Currently Listening SPRING BREAK By Kilauea see related

 So it's been awhile since I last posted, but I felt the need to do so. Spring Break was amazing! I had an absolute blast. Here was the basic schedule for the week:

  11:00-12:00   Wake up, eat some lunch

  12:00-3:00      Hang out on the beach, throw the football around

   3:00-5:00       Watch the 3:00 dance party out on the beach.

   5:00-7:00        Pre-game, eat some dinner, hang out on the balcony, get ready to go out

   7:00-1:00/2:00  Go out to the clubs

   1:00/2:00-3:00  Go for a late night swim/ hot tub.

    3:00                 sleep

   The weather was perfect pretty much the whole week. It was a little chilly the day we got there and it rained for a little bit one day, but the rest of the days were sunny and 70's or 80's. Here are a couple pics from the trip:

 The guys I went with at a club called Spinnaker's

 The view from our balcony

 Our hotel

 Me buried in the sand.

 Me being forced to drink while buried in the sand.

 So that's pretty much it. We are already trying to make plans for next years Spring Break. Hopefully we can get more people to go.

 This weekend I'm going home for Easter. I finally get to see some people I haven't seen since winter break, so I'm excited for that. Also, there is only like 3 weeks of school left. But probably better than that is my birthday is in a month and 8 days!

Currently Listening Beach Boys - Vol. 1-Greatest Hits By The Beach Boys see related

 I know it's late and I haven't posted in nearly 5 months, but I thought I'd let you all know that in 36 short hours, I will be laying on a beach in Panama City Beach, Florida.

   DON'T ACT LIKE YOU'RE NOT IMPRESSED!!

Currently Watching Family Guy, Vol. 3 see related

 Supposedly people actually read this and enjoy hearing about my life so I guess it's time for an update.

 Everything is pretty much the same as always. Class, work, hang out with friends. Football has played a large part of the interesting things that have gone on lately. 7-on-7 season fininshed a long time ago. We lost to the Over the Top team I mentioned in an earlier post, but don't worry, we would have our revenge. Spencer, Carlos, Matt, Aaron, Brad and I played 4-on-4 flag football this year as well. The season pretty much played out like our 7-on-7 season. We had our good games and bad games and had to win our last game to make the playoffs, which we did. Once we got to the playoffs, we caught fire. In our first game, we ended up mercy ruling the team we played. I caught 2 TDs and ran for another. I also had 3 INTs that game. My third one was the most impressive..and painful. I was running back in coverage, guarding my guy. The QB threw the ball to the guy I was guarding. I jumped in the air, did a little 1/4 turn to square my shoulders to ball and caught it. On the way down, I somehow lost my feet from under me and I landed on my back. Doing this caused my head to whip back and slam my head on the turf. I'm not positive, but I maight have had a minor concussion, because I was out of it for the rest of the night. But that didn't stop me from playing. We had our 2nd playoff game right after that, which we also won by mercy rule. Our next game was against Over the Top, the team that ended our season in 7-on-7. The game was close through out the game, but in the 2nd half, they went up by 2 TDs. So we score, putting us down by 7. We stop them on defense to get the ball back with about 2:00 left in the game. We go down the field and score. But we aren't going for the tie. We decide to go for 2 to put us up by 1. We score the 2 points with less than a minute left, and then stop them from scoring and win the game. It was quite exciting. Our next playoff game was against a team called X-Rated. They are made up of a couple of guys I work with so I was looking forward to playing them because I knew it would probably be fun. As the week went on, I also thought that we might be able to beat them. This was going to be a challenge because these guys are good. In fact, if you go to www.flagmag.com/2005/Rankings/College.html, you will see that they are the #1 ranked 7-on-7 team in the country. So I knew we would have our work cut out for us. Well things didn't really go well for us and we ended up losing big. I had an awful game, in whcih I got beat for a TD in 2 straight possesions and attempeted a forward lateral, knowing full well that that is illegal. That game was on Wednesday, but our football was not done for the week. About 2 inches of snow fell that night, which made for some snow football on Thursday night. I didn't really want to play because I had had enough football in cold weather the night before, but I ended up playing. If I knew what was going to happen, I probably would have stayed home. Since it's snow football, we obviously are going to play tackle. Well on one play I get the ball and start running. I get tackle, but my right knee gets caught underneath me and gets twisted wierd. I'm in a lot of pain, but figure I wll keep playing and the pain will go away. Well it didn't and I ended up going to the hospital to get it checked out. Well they took some x-rays, but said they couldn't tell if anything was strained or torn because of the internal sweeling. So now I am wearing a large "knee immobalizer" just in case anything is wrong so I don't make it worse. That's no fun because, as you can assume from the name "knee immobalizer", I can't bend my knee. I have to wear it for at least a week, or until I can get my knee looked at again. So this should be a fun week becasue of that, and oh yeah, finals WOOOHOO!! I think only one thing could cheer me up at this time.................

  IT'S PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME!! PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME!! PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME!! WHERE HE AT?! WHERE HE AT?! THERE HE GO!! THERE HE GO!! PEANUTBUTTERJELLY!! PEANUTBUTTERJELLY!! PEANUTBUTTERJELLY WITH A BASEBALLBAT!!

Currently Listening Very Best of By Prince see related

 So I believe I left off with the Kanye concert. It was, as I expected, amazing. He performs with so much energy and did just about every song I thought he would. He did most of the songs from his new CD and a lot from his old one.

 The next highlighted event was the Nebraska game. The game was not quite as exciting as the game against them 2 years ago, but it ended in the same result. The exact same result. Two years ago Mizzou won 41-24. This year we won 41-24. Wierd huh? And as we did 2 years ago, we rushed the field and tore down the goal posts.

 Holloween weekend was also great. The plans we had to go as the Village People fell through but I still had a great time. I went out as Prince instead and it was still pretty rediculous looking. I wore a purple crushed velvet jumpsuit, with lace cuffs. I also made a pendent of Prince's symbol, which was also pretty amazing.

 Holloween night I went to the Guster concert at the Blue Note. This concert was a lot different from Kanye's because it was different music and a much smaller venue. This was cool because they interact with the crowd a lot. They played a great show and I like them even more now than I did before. They said they have a new CD coming out soon that I will sure to get.

  That weekend I also drove over to Edwardsville to watch the cross country team run at Sectionals. It was really cool to see the team again and was even cooler to see Adam, Doty and Brian. Both teams ran great and the guys qualified for state as a team. Summer Jensen and Marissa also qualified individually. So congrats to all them.

 Well I think thats about it. I'm excited for Thanksgiving break and can't wait to see everyone again.