Weekend Observations

For all of you that are nursing St. Patricks Day hangovers pop some aleve and keep it moving.  There's no time for excuses or explanations.  March Madness us upon us and for the next few weeks it's all about the brackets.  Sure there's a few interesting sports stories here or there, but the focus is on the college hoopers.  As always the selection committee faced some scrutiny for seeding and geographic placement.  Still the brackets look pretty fair in my opinion and no one has an easy path to the championship.  The Big East and the Big 10 got lots of love, but so did the mid majors.  It's time to see who can really ball and who just has nice uniforms and a cool logo.  Reputation and tradition don't carry teams as far as it used to.  There are too many Butlers, Gonzagas, and Bucknells running around to think you can just show up and strike fear in your opponent.  The key to staying alive in the tournament is free throws and guard play.  Whoever takes advantage of those elements of the game has a good chance to win.  Can't wait to see how the whole thing unfolds.  Rest assured I'll help you fill out your brackets a little later in the week.  Here are some observations over the weekend.

Elvis Dumervil may have cost himself $8,000,000 playing chicken with the Denver Broncos.  After going back and forth trying to decide whether or not to accept the team's offer he made his decision to accept 6 minutes after the deadline and had to be released.  It's safe to say he and his agent are no longer on speaking terms.  In fact if I was his agent I would probably leave the country until Dumervil signed with someone else. 

Rafael Nadal returned to the court in tremendous shape winning the Indian Wells tournament with a victory over Juan Martin del Potro in the finals.  With the French Open right around the corner it's good to see he will be in prime shape as he attempts to defend his title.  It hard to bet against Novak Djokovic right now, but Nadal may have something for him when it's all said and done.

The Miami Heat win streak remains intact and their next 4 opponents (Boston, Charlotte, Detroit, Orlando) will most likely roll over and play dead.  I said I wouldn't start talking about this until they were much closer to the record of 33 games so I won't get too in depth about this other than to say they're on my radar.

Kentucky will not get a chance to defend their title this year and the basketball factory in Lexington may have to cancel some of its draft day plans.  Not sure we'll see the entire starting line up go pro as it has in years past.  Given their recent success I'm sure they will return to dominant form next year, but it will be strange to watch the tourney without the Wildcats participating.

Bill Walton shouldn't be in front of a microphone.  It's almost mandatory to watch the game on mut when he is the color commentator.  Why do people continue to give him a job?