I was fortunate enough to be able to attend my first professional basketball game this evening. It was a game between the Orlando Magic and the Chicago Bulls at the United Center in Chicago. A couple of things about the atmosphere before I get to the game. First of all the halftime entertainment by “Kenya Boyz African Acrobats” (I believe this was the name of their group) was outstanding. It was a combination of dance, and acrobatics. If you get a chance, check these guys out. Second, I just have to say that I really enjoy the United Center venue. It’s always kept very clean, and it’s very easy to navigate.

Now, onto the game. The Bulls came out and were shooting the ball really well. Andres Nocioni had a career night, pouring in 26 pts and 10 rebounds. He went off, early and often. It was good to see. I haven’t watched too much basketball in the last few years, but what I have seen of the Andres Nocioni, I really like. He’s gritty and not afraid to mix it up. So early on it was pretty much Nocioni and Kirk Hinrich for the Bulls offense. Luol Deng was a strong contributor as the game went on.

There were a couple things that just didn’t make sense to me.

1. Early on the Bulls were getting dominated on the glass. They would allow the Magic to easily get offensive rebounds. This must have lead to about 3 or 4 easy baskets.
2. What happened in the 4th quarter? The Bulls shooting went south… way south.

They ended the game shooting 42.4% from the floor. Most of those misses came in the 3rd and 4th quarters when Ben Gordon (5-17) was throwing up ill-advised threes, and everyone else seemed to be just settling for midrange jumpshots that just weren’t falling. Finally as the Magic got back into it and the game clock wound down, Kirk Hinrich decided to take it to basket, and he drew a foul. That dribble penetration was there for Hinrich, Gordon, and Deng all night. Rarely did they pursue it. Nocioni repeatedly took the ball to the hoop and was rewarded with foul shots and a couple of rim-rattling dunks.

I’m not sure why the Bulls went cold. It seemed like there was a lack of discipline out there. I’m a huge fan of Coach Skiles, but he’s got to get these guys focused if they’re still planning on landing the 8th spot in the NBA playoffs.

Besides the disappointing finish, my first NBA experience was definitely a good one.

What are the most intriguing storylines for the upcoming season? -Bonds use of the juice Whether we like it or not, this is a big issue coming into the season. Will there be suspensions, will records be erased, will Barry face legal retribution, will fans embrace his pursuit of the records, will the Giants win the West? All of these connect with Bonds and Steroids. -Impact of the WBC on the regular season There has been a lot of talk that the WBC will have a negative effect on the pitchers during the regular season. Will we see a fall-out late in the season because of lack of conditioning? Is this a non-issue, and the season will go on as normal? -Will the White Sox repeat The White Sox seemed to improve their team in the off-season. Will they repeat as champs? Will they even win the central (Indians/Twins)? -Will the best team money can buy finish their World Series drought Can the Boss handle another season without a ring? Will their pitching staff hold-up so they can make a run? What stories are missing from this list?

With UConn losing, the door to my brackets has re-opened. If Florida beats George Mason I will be victorious in the First Annual Vigilante Sports NCAA Bracket Challenge. At first glance I like my chances. However, I like Michigan State’s chances (as much as that kills me to say), I liked North Carolina’s chances. I didn’t know how to feel about the Wichita State game, but Wichita State was a 7 seed so I’d expect them to beat an 11 seed. And I certainly felt that UConn would be able to take care of the Colonial League champs. But… George Mason has written the most unlikely Cinderella story.

They didn’t just coast into the Final Four. They have beaten four teams to get to the Final Four, 3 of whom have won national championships since 2000 (Michigan State, UConn, and UNC). That is just outrageous. I’m trying to think of some similar situation to compare this too, but I’m unable to. They have toppled 3 of the most recently successful basketball programs in the country. If they do indeed go ahead and beat Florida on saturday, that would add the runner-up from MSU’s title game to the list of powerhouses defeated. If we then look forward to the final game against either LSU or UCLA (two other strong programs) they could move into a whole new category of underdog. I have a feeling that George Mason’s streak will end on saturday, and if it does, congratulations to the Patriots of George Mason for getting to the Final Four, but if they prevail and take one step closer to a National Championship, I think that there will a whole lot of interest in the final game.

I had Duke. I’m done. My bracket is officially busted. As of tonight I have one of my Final Four teams left (Florida). So I will just have to try and enjoy the rest of the games.

I’m starting to sense a theme in the results of the First Annual Vigilante Sports NCAA Bracket Challenge. PWill21 still holds the lead after the first day of the Regional Semifinals. He has picked 36 of the games played. tkyman has picked 35 games correctly, but he has Duke winning the final so he probably won’t be there in the end.

I have to mention the end of the Texas v. West Virginia game. I can’t imagine the feelings that the WVU players felt. They sink a 3 pointer to tie only to have Texas bring the ball in with 5 seconds left, drive the length of the court and drain a 3 as time runs out to win a spot in the Elite 8. Amazing.

Congratulations to the teams that have made it this far.

Spring is in the air, and Fantasy Baseball has started. On Sunday our league had it’s draft. I was fortunate/unfortunate to have the last pick in the draft (I won the league last year). As usual it’s a snake-style draft so I had the 12th and 13th pick. In the first round I went with, by far the best catcher in the MLB, Victor Martinez, and I followed that pick with one of the top 2 SS, Michael Young. Here’s where the waiting begins.

Now normally, being the nerd that I am, I have a pretty well laid out draft strategy. I usually look at last years standings to see what type of team (ie. great pitching v. great hitting) did the best. Of course last year, I won, and had an all around fantastic team, so looking back at that probably wasn’t going to help. Also, this year the draft kind of snuck up on me, and I wasn’t able to do too much prep. All that to say… I didn’t have a great strategy in place.

So the draft rolls back to me, I figure I’ll try and round out my hitters first… There seemed to be enough adequate pitching to go around (time will tell on that). So in the 3rd round I selected Morgan Ensberg. I am a little nervous about this pick just because he’s a younger guy coming off a career year. Does that mean that he’s on the way up, or was it a flash in the pan? Turn right around for round 4, Jason Bay. Looking at Sports Illustrated’s Fantasy Baseball preview, they have Jason Bay listed as the #3 outfielder, and there were 8 OF taken before I got Bay. I’d say that’s a pretty good value.

I won’t go round by round for the full 20 rounds but I will say that drafting my fantasy team is both super exciting, and terribly stressful. I know that it’s ridiculous to get stressed out about fantasy baseball, but there is always the “Should I have picked someone else?” feeling that just gnaws at you. And then in round 17 when someone picks up Rickie Weeks who is rated top 5 for 2B in SI, it really makes my Jason Bay value look pretty low. Oh well. I’ll take Jason Bay over Rickie Weeks any day.

Pitching took a back seat in my draft but I feel like I have a pretty good squad (Mark Buehrle, Barry Zito, Kenny Rogers, Mark Mulder, Chris Capuano, Dontrelle Willis, Chris R. Young, Derek Lowe, and Bob Wickman in the pen). And rounding out my hitters (Ivan Rodriguez, Jim Thome, Jorge Cantu, Jonny Gomes, Matt Holliday, Jay Gibbons, and Matt Murton). Overall I think it could be a solid squad, my one fear is that I don’t have a bona fide MVP candidate. Someone who will consistently get me a ton of points. At the same time, I know that I have a solid team who could really make some things happen this year.

So it turns out there were upsets. And damn it if one of them didn’t knock one of my Final Four teams out (UNC). Of course Bradley, George Mason, and Wichtita State are great stories. They are teams that probably shouldn’t have gotten out of the first round and here they are in the Sweet 16. So what are the other big stories of the tournament besides the upsets? Well, i’d have to say that the utter failure of the Big Ten is pretty big. Kansas getting bounced in the first round, that’s pretty big because they came into the tourney as one of the hottest teams.

I’m starting to get worried that this is going to be a very vanilla NCAA tournament. That will be too bad. I think there are potentially some really interesting angles. For one, JJ Redick and Adam Morrison could meet (of course I mean their team’s could meet) at the Final Four. I think it’s fairly rare to have the 2 best players in the country meet at the Final Four. I think that would be fun. What are some of the story lines or players that you think will have a big impact on the rest of the tournament?

BTW. The rest of my Final Four (previously mentioned: Duke, UNC) is Florida and Gonzaga. We’ll see how that goes. Yikes.

As for the First Annual Vigilante Sports NCAA Bracket Challenge, heading into the Sweet 16, PWill21 is still in the lead (34 correct games). He has quite a few people right on his heels. It should all come down to the finals. So, PWill21, hold on tight, I think there are some folks knocking at the door.

I know, I’ve been lax on posting about the NCAA tournament. And I will continue on that hiatus. I have to take a moment to post about the NIT. Now I know that they weren’t playing a team with any basketball tradition at all, but it was good to see the Maize and Blue pull out that victory at home last night. They folded down the stretch in the Big Ten but, I think that this win is a huge stepping stone as Tommy Amaker rebuilds the Men’s basketball program in Ann Arbor. GO BLUE! Feel free to sing along:

Hail! to the victors valiant
Hail! to the conqu’ring heroes
Hail! Hail! to Michigan
the leaders and best

Hail! to the victors valiant
Hail! to the conqu’ring heroes
Hail! Hail! to Michigan,
the Champions of the West!

Day One of the 2006 NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament has come to a close. A great start to what promises to be a very interesting tournament. There were upsets, and there was overtime. They say that every year, at least one 12 seed will beat a 5 seed (in the last 20 years there have only been 2 years where this didn’t happen). This year is no different. Two number 5 seeds fell on the first day of this years tournament. The Montana Grizzlies gave Nevada more than they could handle. Montana never trailed as they beat Nevada 87-79. The bigger suprise was that Texas A&M was able to stop the streaking Orange from Syracuse. It seemed like Gerry McNamara had his team rolling and was ready to make a strong push in the tournament. Apparently they ran out of steam.

As for the First Annual Vigilante Sports NCAA Bracket Challenge, the leader after day one is PWill21. He has only missed 2 games today (Wichita St. and Montana). So congrats to PWill21.

I on the other hand have had a terrible day of picks. I nearly crapped my pants when it took BC 2 overtimes to handle Pacific. They take Duke down to the wire in the ACC Championship game and then 4 days later, need 2 overtimes to take care of Pacific? I don’t think that bodes well for them in this tournament, unfortunately for me. I already lost 2 Sweet Sixteen teams today (Marquette and Syracuse), so I really needed Boston College to come through.

I’ll give you one of my Final Four teams each night of this first weekend of the tournament. I hope that all of the teams will at least make it out of this weekend. Duke is the Final Four team from the Atlanta region. They have been at the top of the polls all year. They have very strong senior leadership. And, while watching the ACC Championship Game, I wondered to myself, “Will J.J. Redick ever miss a shot?” Love him or hate him, he’s a gifted player. So I think Duke will make another run to the Final Four.

Just as a reminder to those who may have seen the original post but haven’t decided to act on the spectacular fun that will take place by joining the First Annual Vigilante Sports NCAA Bracket Challenge. We have had 9 people sign up via this site and about 10 others from other forms of communication. The more people we have involved will make this thing so much more fun. So if you haven’t already please post a comment and i’ll send you an invitation.

Trust me. I know numbers. And Billy Packer doesn’t. Last Sunday when BP started spouting stats as if they were toasts at a wedding just about every one was misused.
It started when he started blathering on about how many more wins ACC, Big East, and Big Ten teams had in the Sweet 16 vs wins by teams in the MVC. Well, gee Billy, maybe they have more wins because they always get more teams in the tourney! That just might influence that stat a bit huh? If you want to compare them and do it fairly try by percentage.

Also, stop complaining about RPI and number of teams from the ACC. The ACC was down this year…when Boston College can come in to your conference and contend, you know it’s a down year. The RPI isn’t the end all be all. Besides, when power conference teams don’t get in they complain that they played in a tougher conference and that’s why their RPI is low. Then if they do get in with a 18-11 record they say it’s because their RPI is so good. Can’t have it both ways boys.

later.