Apparently Joakim and his Gator buddies are still celebrating their National Championships, except now, Joakim, everyone knows about. The guy who has done nothing but disappoint and piss off his teammates will apparently now have to deal with some legal issues due to his arrest for having a open alcohol container and possession of marijuana.

Now that the Bulls have the number one pick in the upcoming draft, Noah will need to be on his best behavior. He’s not going to be the hot commodity (not that he ever was). Whoever the Bulls pick will have to remember that they can call Noah to score some dope. I’m not sure he’d share with someone who’s not in “Gator Nation”.

When one takes a look at the Eastern and Western playoff picture, it is easy to see that there are a host of differences between them.  The end of this season will contain a wide array of games between powerhouses in the East as well as a more level playing field in the West.

West:

The West is wide open. The top 6 seeds’ records are within 3 games of each other and any one of 4 teams could still win the conference before the regular season is said and done. All current 8 seeds have winning records by 16 games or more, and Golden State, who is next in line, is also 16 games over .500.

Although there will be higher and lower seeds in the West, you can’t really base many predictions based on seeds.  Although second seed New Orleans has been solid through the season, they have also been questioned all season and conditions may be ripe for New Orleans to fall early in playoffs.  The top 7 seeds are of similar quality in the West, and the 6 or 7 seed team may be on same level in terms of talent as a a 1 or 2 seed.

East:

Meanwhile in the East, the story is a complete opposite. Teams are much more staggered, with Detroit and Boston standing a level above the rest. All but the top 3 seeds (Boston, Detroit and Orlando) are less than 10 games above .500, and Atlanta, the 8^th seed, is 6 games under .500.

Despite the atrocious nature of the Eastern Conference this year, don’t count out Boston or Detroit if they get to the finals. This year each team has had considerable success against the top 9 teams in the West. Boston is 13-5 against the 9 possible playoff teams in the west, including a spotless 2-0 record against the top seeded Lakers. The biggest obstacle in the East which may give Boston trouble would be if they played the Washington Wizards, who match up with them well and have managed to beat Boston in all three meetings during the regular season. Detroit has also has good success against the West, also earning a 13-5 record when playing possible Western playoff teams.

All this hoopla about the Kansas football team last fall, and now KU’s incredible comeback victory in the NCAA tournament, the phrase ‘Rock Chalk Jayhawk’ has been thrown around a ton.

In an effort to educate myself, I visited Wikipedia (where else would I go for that type of information?) and found that there is a lot of tradition and cool back story to the chant.

I’m still not totally sure I know what it means, or why commentators insist on show-horning it into every other sentence that deals with the University of Kansas. I’m all for school spirit but things are a bit out of whack when Jim Nantz’s championship call is “Rock Chalk Championship”.

There is some good news and some bad news.

Good news first:

• If Memphis could hit free throws, I would have locked up my second consecutive Vigilante Sports contests

Now for the Bad news:

• Memphis cannot in fact hit free throws when it counts
• Mario Chalmers can drain a prayer of 3 pointer to tie the game

All that to say (through gritted teeth), congratulations to the Kansas Jayhawks who picked up the 2008 NCAA National Championship. Also congratulations to Mark Smith, who bested everyone in the 2008 Vigilante Sports NCAA Bracket Challenge.

I do have to say that Mark and I both picked 45 games correctly. His counted for more and he picked up the win. I will definitely be back to bring the still non-existent trophy back to it’s rightful owner… ME!

It’s Mid-March and the brackets were released today. It’s time for the Third Annual Vigilante Sports NCAA Bracket Challenge. We’ve have 2 great years, let’s make it 3. Last year we doubled the amount of entries in our Challenge. Let’s do that again. If you’re interested please post a comment. It will submit your email address to me, but not show it to the public. I’ll take care of your email address (ie. not share it with anyone else). So, submit a comment and I’ll get you an invite to the greatest (or at least the most fun) bracket challenge around.

There hasn’t been any money on the line and there still won’t be… but fame and glory will be yours as you might add your name next to mine on the non-existent Vigilante Sports NCAA Bracket Challenge Championship Trophy. And that’s not too bad.

If you participated last year, you should have already received an email inviting you back.

The dust has settled on this years Bracket Challenge and my sister Mara was victorious. She picked a total of 51 games correctly, bettering James by just one game. Congratulations Mara, and thanks to all who played this year.

As for the actual game, Florida took control early and didn’t let up. Corey Brewer and Lee Humphrey were shooting the lights out in the first half, and Ohio State couldn’t buy a bucket (although I’m sure their boosters tried). Of course Greg Oden played like a superstar. One can only hope we have the chance to see him and his game continue to evolve. The college life seems to suit him and frankly college basketball could use another superstar who will stay for more than 1 or 2 years. Asking for more than that is probably just silly, but I for one hope Oden stays. Along those same lines, I hope that the kids from Florida stick around to try and do something truly exceptional, win 3 in a row. Obviously a lot to ask, but they really seem to enjoy themselves, and we can only guess what Joakim Noah has the Gator Boys doing, that we don’t know about, but they do.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a two horse race. Not only for the NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship, but also for the Second Annual Vigilante Sports NCAA Bracket Challenge. Through 4 rounds of up and down and back and forth, James and Mara emerge as the possible champions of the this years Bracket Challenge. Last year I took top honors (no applause please), but I was knocked out of this years contest when Memphis was bounced by Ohio State.

Now Ohio State will take on Florida Monday night to see who takes home all the marbles. Mara is hoping that the Gators will go back-to-back with their National Championships and therefore keep the Vigilante Sports NCAA Bracket Challenge Trophy in the family (Mara is my sister). On the other hand James has picked the Buckeyes.

Personally I’d like to see Florida win (and not just to keep it in the fam). It would be great to see a team that stayed in school and returned all 5 starters make good on that commitment to each other. They have had a target on their backs all season and they’ve now made it. All that’s left is to win the game. Greg Oden is standing in their way. Of course the Buckeyes are not a one-dimensional team. They have Mike Conley Jr, Daequan Cook, and Ron Lewis. Conley and Lewis were named to the South Regional All-Tournament team along with Greg Oden.

Congratulations to Ohio State, Florida, James, and Mara. It’s been a fun tournament. Best of luck Monday night.

The first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament went, for the most part as planned. Of course there were upsets, players coming into their own, and cinderellas, but people looking for “this year’s George
Mason” have been sorely disappointed. They’ve been disappointed for precisely the reason that George Mason was such a story last year… it doesn’t happen very often.

All of the prognosticators would love for you to think that something like that happens all the time, I know CBS would love it. If that did happen, we all would surely tune in to every game to be sure we didn’t miss that one shining moment.

Every March, I make out my brackets, just like everyone else, but just once. It’s what the folks on the Mike & Mike Show call their “Sheet of Integrity”. That sounded good to me. So I started doing this last year. First of all, it’s definitely less confusing. You have one pick. You don’t have to remember all 20 brackets you filled out. You have a clear rooting interest.

Here’s the thing. I’m sort of a fan of Duke, and definitely a fan of Coach K, but I also know that this year, the Greg Paulus led Dukies were not their usual selves. It was an off year. Every program can have those once every, oh I don’t know, say, 20 years.

They seemed ripe for the picking. Or should I say, the NOT picking.
All of that being said, of course I picked Virginia Commonwealth to upset the vaunted Blue Devils of Duke. I know it’s heresy among the basketball gods to have Duke bow out in the first round. Of course, up until today, Michigan State hadn’t won a first round tournament game since their run to the National Championship in 2000. By the way, I’ll take any chance I can get to rag on Michigan State (especially since Michigan lost tonight in the second round of the NIT).

What this also means is that I will again be a force to be reckoned with in the Second Annual Vigilante Sports NCAA Bracket Challenge. I am currently in second place behind John. We’ll see how tomorrow shakes out. 2 upsets to look for tomorrow are in the 5-12 games. I think that Illinois, and Arkansas will both win. What are some of your upsets for Friday or for the other matchups this weekend?