Why I love March Madness

For any kind of college basketball fan out there, March is an amazing month.  It brings the casual and hardcore basketball fan together for a few weeks. While reading this I hope you get a sense of why I love march.

1-Championship Week

Yes championship week is a week created by ESPN but it is still exciting nonetheless. It shows all the ups and downs from the power conferences to the smaller conferences. I do not feel as bad when big teams from power conferences get eliminated. I do however feel for the smaller conferences that will get only one team in. Watching the games in the smaller conferences seems so much more exciting for some reason. These guys play so hard only to know their season is likely done after a loss. Even though I feel bad, it does not mean I endorse expanding the tournament. sixty-five teams is plenty enough. Having ninety-six teams in the tournament would kill the excitement of the tournament. It also would allow a lot of bad teams in.

2-Bracketolotgy

Bracketology is Joe Lunardi using some crazy science Lunardu knows, which somehow allows him to accurately figure out which teams are in the tournament. Each of the last couple of years I believe he has only missed out on two teams, which is outrageous. It really only matters however in March. Even if your team is in, you are constantly looking to see what seed they are unless you know they will be a one seed.  It is exciting to see where your team might go and who they might play and predict how far they might go. Its hard to have a team that is considered a bubble team and not be in his bracket. If your team is not in his bracket, good luck getting in.

3-Filling out a bracket(s)

This is self-explanatory.  It is equally frustrating and exciting watching games with bracket(s) in hand trying to figure out where you stand in your pool. Its crazy to find yourself rooting for teams that you may have never even seen before. In your head you someone how think that random team from the MAAC will come down from fifteen points and upset that five seed. March does crazy things to people who will out brackets, but it also makes the tournament so exciting.

4-The tournament itself

It is a fun filled couple of weeks for all involved even if your favorite team is not involved. Who does not love hearing Gus Johnson yell, "RISE AND FIRE..... BANG!"  Everything is ratcheted up for these two weeks. Every game is like watching a game seven of the NHL playoffs that is in OT. Every team playing knows whats a stake.

5-One shining moment

Such a great song. I just heard today that Jennifer Hudson is the new voice of one shining moment. I will not be happy if she ruins it. Luther Vandross is the version I have known and loved for my whole life.

-Mike Moreau

Rrandom thoughts

     Hello all. It has been a little while since the last twitter style update or any update at all.  I blame this on the winter Olympics. The winter Olympics has had most of my attention. I can not put my finger on it but for some reason the winter Olympics are much more interesting to me than the summer Olympics. I tried to explain to someone the other day but I could not. On that note, I will jump into some thoughts about the Olympics and other thoughts I have.

NBC's coverage of Olympics

     If anybody reading this did not know this, the winter Olympics are in Vancouver. It is annoying the amount of tape delayed events I have seen. Vancouver is only two hours behind the central time zone and it seems hard to get any live coverage of the events. It really killed the excitement of Shani Davis and Bode Miller winning gold knowing that I had already heard they won their races.
   
     The next thing that has been annoying is the coverage of the biggest USA hockey game in years against Canada. How could they place that game on MSNBC? Over ice dancing? Poor choice. The people who want to watch ice dancing will watch ice dancing wherever it is on. Skating is not as popular as it use to be in the mid-90's. The hockey game would have been ratings gold for NBC that night, but also for future NHL hockey games on NBC.  The USA vs. Canada match-up is highly possible and hopefully NBC gets it right this time.


Spring Training has started

     All Cubs fans are pumped about spring training. It is chance to believe the Cubs will actually do something this year. I do not get excited as I use to about because I have become a more realistic cubs fan. The Cubs really did not do a lot to improve the team except make moves that will hopefully improve their team. Xavier Nady could be a really big signing for the team, but again if he is healthy. How will his arm hold up in the outfield? How often will he play? There are so many questions with him, but also many other Cub players, i.e. Carlos Silva. Spring training should hopefully help answer some of them. There will be more Cubs thoughts during the year as spring training continues and it gets closer to the regular season.

March Madness

    It is about that time to start thinking if favorite team will make it into the tournament. Luckily for me, my favorite team, Mizzou, will be in this year. Mizzou clinched it with a 2-0 week by beating Texas and Nebraska. Unfortunately there is also the other side of things where your favorite team has a crushing lost that keeps them out. I feel for all the mid major teams that lost games during bracket buster Saturday or teams that have to win their tournaments to get in. Even if they are solid teams, getting solid win will always be tough because the bigger schools do not want to play them.  After watching lots of College basketball it will make me angry if the Pac-10 gets more than one team in or if the ACC gets more than four. Neither of those conferences really deserve more than that.

That is it for now.

-Mike Moreau

Twitter style updates #2

Not sure what is going on with Texas. They did not play well tonight and have not really played all that well in big 12 play period.

North Carolina could become only the third defending ntl. champ to not qualify for the tournament. The others are 2008 Fla. Gators and 89 KU

The Who looked old and stiff during the super bowl performance. Thank you Janet Jackson and JT for this. More current artist needed

Somewhat surprised to see the Super Bowl was most watched program ever. It must have helped the whole state of New Orleans was watching

Just finished reading the Blind side. I wish they would have played up Sean Touhy's role more. Touhy had a role in Oher's life as well

1/2 way through big 12 season for MIzzou (5-3). I expected them to be 6-2. The loss to A&M hurt. The Tigers still have work to do.

More on the Tigers. A win @ Baylor would be huge. Going 2-0 this week would be fantastic. Actually road wins in general would be nice.

Why did the Cubs sign Kevin Millar? What good does he have for this team? Maybe he recall his inner Gary Gaetti

I Almost forgot to mention something about the Boost Mobile shuffle; It sucked.

Now that the Super Bowl is over, we can focus on college basketball. March Madnss is on the way

Chase Daniel has a Super Bowl ring. That is pretty weird to say.

Bar goes crazy after pick 6.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0LEBo_4RUA I hope one day the Bears can get to this point again

The winter olympics start this week. GO TEAM USA. I am hoping for a good performance out of our Hockey team

The Big East is a mess. I still say the Big 12 gets more teams in (7) then the Big east (6) get. Joe Lunardi agrees with me. I hope ND is in

Can Tyrus Thomas stay a Bull? Can they trade him? His behavior is not helping either of those two questions. Tyrus get your head checked out

Trade deadline is approaching in the NBA. I wonder who on the Bulls will go. Deng? Salmons? Heinrich? Bard MIller? All for the hope of 2010

Speaking of the Big East. How does Georgetown lose to South Florida and then dominate a very good Villanova team. Hard to figure them out.

I think I am going to keep doing this. It is a good way to get a lot of thoughts out there quickly.

-Mike Moreau

Dear Kurt

An open letter from Brett Favre to Kurt Warner on retirement.

Dear Kurt,

    Hey Kurt! What is going on? Not too much going on with me. I am on the clock, and no not with the draft, it is my annual while I retire clock. Be sure to watch plenty of ESPN, they will definitely keep you

updated on the latest.

     I saw recently that you decided to retire, wow. Are you really doing? Are you really going to do it? Are you mad enough at the Cardinals to let that playboy Leinart? I imagine you have to be because he is the worst. Sorry I got a little sidetracked. It is still hard for me to imagine you retiring. I do not think you can do it. I think it is just a big April fools joke to mess with the Cardinals so you can retire as a Ram. I am totally right. I hope that you know that god does not like liars and I know how much enjoy the big man up stairs. 

     If you are serious, how could you not be having fun anymore? Have you not seen any of my games? I am always having fun, just ask Joe Buck (he loves me).  I tried that retirement thing before (I really just wanted the attention). Let me tell you, it is not fun.

     Every time you go hang out with some high schoolers, people think you are coming out of retirement. In my case it happened to be true but that is not my point. If you really want to people to leave you alone, do not pick up a football.  You do not want Ed Werder following you around. I could not make a move last off season with that man being around, and let me tell you, he is really creepy. One day I went to throw outthe garbage and there he was sleeping in my bushes. Although to be perfectly honest with you, I do not think ESPN loves you as much as they love me, so you probably do not have to worry about that. Wait till I actually retire; They will have multiple moments of silence in my honor. They would be better off just talking about me for an hour instead of showing the pro bowl. Who watches that?

     If you actually stay retired, I commend you. Maybe we can hang out while I am trying to decide to retire or not. The Vikings said they would not put a time table on my decision. Fools.I am going to leave them hanging right up until  he season starts and then make my decision (but do not tell them that). I guess they have not paid any attention to any of my last three seasons.

     Well anyways Kurt, good luck retiring(you can tell me anytime that you are not really retiring.I still do not really believe you are).Throw on a solid pair of wrangler jeans and just relax(I know you own some. How could you not? I am a great salesman).You better write back to me. If you are really retired, I know you will get back to me asap.

Your friend,

Brett # 4

Twitter style updates

Here goes nothing.  Trying something new here with twitter style length thoughts on Sports.

Raiders interviewing coaches in case they fire Cable? As much as Chicago has been a joke lately, they can't be as bad as the RAIDERS.

UNC is struggling now but Watch out for them tourney time. They could be a 8/9 that ends up in sweet 16

DePaul won a big east game for first time since 3/6/08. I wish people knew how big a deal this is. They should be better.

Another note on DePaul game. This game alone could keep Marquette out.  Who knows if DePaul will win another game

How many broken down guys can the Cubs try and sign? Calero and Sheets? Theres not much money, but can these guys help?

Notre Dame is in for a long season. They cant rebound or play defense is an amazingly tough Big East. Good luck.

I like the Winter Olympics better than Summer. Luge, hockey, speed skating, ski jump. More exciting sports I believe

Cristobal Huet annoys me. Niemi should see more time. Can he be the man?

Duke lost to NCState tonight. I predict Duke will be eliminated in first or second round of tourney. Need a solid big man.

The Big 12 is better than some people think. TX,KS,MIZZ,A&M,Baylor,OKst all should get in (as of right now). TTech needs to step up.

This was fun. I think I will do this more often if people like it

-Mike Moreau

Random thoughts

Here are some more random thoughts. Since there has not been an update in two weeks, I decided it was time to share some of those thoughts.

NFL playoffs

BORING! Wow have the games been boring. The best game happened to be Packers vs. Cardinals where absolutely no defense was played. Other than the Jets vs. Chargers (talked about in next point), all the games have been blowouts. With the Bears not in the playoffs, all one can hope for are good games and I have been severely disappointed. The Super Bowl with the exception of the last few years has rarely lived up to expectations. Hopefully as it was last year, there will be great moments to be talked about for years.

Jets vs. Chargers/Cowboys vs. Vikings

     Jets vs. Chargers actually ended being a good game. Out of all the games this past weekend, this was the last one that was expected to be that close. I tried to be impartial in this game but wound up rooting for Mark Sanchez. Despite Sanchez going to USC, he seems like a quality guys. Phillip Rivers could be a quality guy as well but he sure does a lot of talking for no reason (sorry about the rant there, it had to be said). Norv Turner despite having a great regular season record will not get much respect until he starts winning bigger games and making better calls. The on-side kick with a little over two minutes is an extremely questionable call. Rarely do people agree with Skip Bayless, but he is right in saying that if the on side kick does not happen, Rex Ryan does go for it on the Chargers 29 yard line. If you feel a little bad for the Chargers, watch this amazing video of LT, laugh, and learn the dance.
    
     Not much to be said on Cowboys vs. Vikings except the Cowboys looked like the team most thought would appear in December. The Cowboys did not do much of anything correct and Tony Romo looked very average. Many of the Cowboys complained about the Vikings running up the score, but it just looked liked Brett Favre having fun. I'm sure Cowboy fans were upset as I probably would have been but the Cowboys did not stop the Vikings all day.  Was it actually running up the score or the Cowboys just looking terrible? The latter seems to be the choice.

Intentional fouls
    
     There were a couple of college basketball games that I watched over the weekend and did not agree with the intentional fouls called. Here is the rule for an intentional foul,
     
        "A flagrant personal foul (or intentional foul) involves excessive or severe contact during a live ball."

     While watching the Duke vs. Wake Forest game yesterday, Miles Plumlee of Duke went up for a dunk on a fast break and Wake Forest player went to block the shot. Plumlee fell hard on his tail bone and the refs called an intentional foul. It did seem as if the Wake Forest player wanted to hurt Plumlee; He just wanted to block (And he almost did. He got him on the wrist)  and the shot and prevent an easy basket. The foul changed the game and Duke went from having a six point lead to a ten point lead.  Referees have to realize that basketball players nowadays are just freak athletes and can do things that many players in the past could not. Referees have to be able to tell when another player is trying to hurt another player.  Hopefully with instant replay in basketball, they can use replay to determine if that is the case. The game moves so fast now that technology should be allowed to help the referees make the right call.

Blackhawks vs. Redwings game on January 17th,2010

     Wow. What a great this turned out to be.  It just kept getting better as the game went along: regulation, OT, and then the shootout. Two of the Red Wings goals by Bertuzzi and Datsyuk were amazing. Even if the Red Wings are disliked in Chicago, they were both wow moments. However Antti Niemi and Patrick Sharp stepped up to help the Hawks finish off the Red Wings. Right now the Red Wings are the eight seed and slated to meet the Blackhawks if the playoffs were to start now. The Red Wings are starting to get healthy so it does not seem as if they will stay the eigth seed. The Hawks probably do not want to the Wings as a first round match-up. It may no tbe an issue now, but Niemi is playing very well so Cristobal Huet needs to step his game up.

-Mike Moreau

Sports resolutions (or goals)

          Resolutions are not usually my thing. A friend once told me she thought resolutions are dumb because she thought people can try and change anytime they want. After she brought that up, it totally made sense and also is true. Instead of making resolutions, sports goals for the year will be made and attempted. Hopefully they can be accomplished throughout the year.

Sports goals for the 2010 year

1- Going to a Blackhawks game

Yes it sounds very simple, but I have never been to a Blackhawks game. For most of my life as kid/teenager they were terrible. It also did not help that the majority of home games were blacked out, so even if I wanted to watch them, I could not. Now, not only can they be seen on television, the Hawks are very good. They could be the best team in the National Hockey League (NHL). People have always said Hockey games are fun to watch in person so that is something that will happen and hopefully sooner rather than later.

2-Travel to see Mizzou

 Anyone who reads this blog knows that I am a huge Mizzou fan, so it has been decided that going to a Mizzou road game will happen. It could be baseball, basketball, or football. Traveling to a Mizzou game will definitely happen. After attending the Mizzou vs. Kansas game last year, it has to become an annual trip. It helps having lots of friends down there that attend the game as well. It may be an early assumption but I will also attend the bowl game Mizzou goes to. I went to the 2006 Sun Bowl and even though it ended badly, the trip was fun and one I will always remember.  As long as there is a continuing money source in my life, money will be put aside every week to make this happen.

3-Attempt to go to more Cubs game

Why? Good question. I went to 13 games last year and saw more losses than wins. And more often than not the losses were very bad. The Cubs were so bad that I started turning down tickets. Loving the Cubs is a a hard thing to do, but someone has to do it. Summer baseball is a great thing and as long as I live in Chicago, it will include going to Cubs game, good or bad. Baseball is also my favorite sport even if people say it is slow to watch. Who knows  how many I will get to, but I will try to attend around 17-20.

 If I think of more sports goals for the year, the world will know. Until then, thats all I got and have time to accomplish all of those goals.

-Mike Moreau