Sweet 16 picks, and then some

Alright, time to get down to business today. I'm puppy-sitting, which has been kind of fun. It's snowing crazy here in the south suburbs of Denver, so I might as well make my picks and get some company research done today. Productivity is the name of the game. Staying focused will be the other issue to take care of today.

The Picks:
UConn vs. Purdue
Look, I don't care about this supposed text message 'scandal' that Yahoo! Sports reported about yesterday. I don't even think this will distract the kids from UConn. In fact, I think this makes them more focused. I think this will be a damn good game and kind of hope it turns into a running game for a bit. I think UConn wins, but it will be a game that goes down to the last possession or two.

Pittsburgh vs. Xavier
This game should be in the low 60's, and I wouldn't be shocked at all if Xavier wins. I just think Pittsburgh gets over the hump of not beating a team better than a 6 seed, and it happens tonight. Watch for all the fun on rebounds, this is going to be 'man country' type stuff.

Memphis vs. Missouri
Now this should be a track meet, both teams pressing and running. I wouldn't be shocked to see a game in the 80's with a ton of turnovers for each team. So, who to pick? I'm taking Memphis, on the simple fact that a lot of guys on this team played in the national championship game last year and know how to get things done.

Duke vs. Villanova
This will be interesting for Villanova, since they won't be playing in front of a home crowd, like they had in the first two rounds. Side note here, how is it remotely fair to not only put Villanova in Philly, but their 2nd round game vs. UCLA had what equaled a 10 AM tipoff time for the kids from Westwood? I'm just sayin'. Regardless, this is the marquee game of today, and I think the kids from Duke pull it off. But they better contain Dante Cunningham, otherwise he's bound to end up with 22 & 12.

So someone wants me to explain why they should keep watching this tournament. Well, first, the format. I love the one and done aspect of this stuff. Second, the stories some of these kids have. I know everyone has a story, heck, I've even sprinkled mine in here from time to time-ok, fine, all the time, but it's my blog, so there. Third, there's money involved. Not mine this year, but other people have plenty of money on this stuff. Best time I've ever had watching this stuff was Vegas a couple of years ago, to feel the swing of a game amongst 400 of your closest non-friends was fun. And face it, I rarely use that word, so you can figure out what it meant to me. Fourth, you're getting to see these kids at their highest level of performance. If their team loses, it won't be due to lack of effort. And finally, cuz I said so-does that count?
I wish the NCAA hockey tournament had this much publicity, because that would kick ass too. I think some major network is missing the boat by not really getting this on TV like they do a spring training baseball game. I love baseball, but I really could care less at this point in time, not when the brackets are revealed. So much fun to read up on this stuff. Fine, I'm a sports dork. But I don't care. It's not that hard to pull me in to something to watch it. Hell, I watched 'Tough Love' on VH1 the other night because the guy who runs the show was zapping women on dates when they went down the wrong conversation path. Calling that display fantastic just doesn't do it justice.

Now, on a completely different note, I swear I want this guy to become a citizen of this country and do this to our Congress:



If only someone could get their head from out of a)their own or b)someone else's rear end, maybe we could get someone to answer some questions about this tyranny running amok with citizens funding all sorts of crappy ideas.

On to the job search and staying warm inside.

Happy Thursday!