Dear Basketball Gods,

Can I PLEASE see a competitive game tonight?

Sincerely,

Mike

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First off, I should apologize for my abcense last week.  Between work and entertaining visitors, it was a busy week, and believe it or not, I put my paying job above this.  I know, crazy, huh?

Anyways, we had a pretty entertaining week on the hardwood.  We learned a lot in the past 10 days.  The first, and most painfully obvious thing we learned was that while I am apparently pretty good at seeding teams in the bracket, I can’t pick the games worth a damn.  It’s alright, I’ve never claimed to be a predictor, and this spring’s tournament will keep me from ever claiming to be one. 

We also learned that even the most unstopable cinderellas fall short, as Davidson was a missed three pointer away from making it to San Antonio and ending Kansas’ title hopes.  Instead, for the first time in history, all four #1 seeds won thier regions, leaving us to a series of heavyweight battles in San Antonio.  Kansas shocked everyone, including themselves when they jumped out to a monsterous lead on North Carolina.  Thankfully for the sake of Bill Self’s ability to sleep at night, the Jayhawks left just enough in the tank to stave off a mega-impressive comeback effort by the Tar Heels.

On the other hand, Memphis continues to ride the dominent guard play of Chris Douglas-Roberts and Derrick Rose to the championship game.  The two just toyed with the UCLA backcourt, getting to the rim with ease in Saturday night’s semi-final contest.  Whether or not they can repeat that tonight will be a major key into who walks away into the San Antonio night with championship hardware in towe. 

There will be a lot more, literally, standing between the Memphis guards and the rim then there was on Saturday night.  Rose was obviously too much of a physical specimen for UCLA’s Darren Collison (generously listed) 6 foot frame to keep in check.  Tonight though, Kansas will throw longer, more athletic gauards in teh way of Memphis, and the Tigers stars will have to adjust.  This one should be high-paced and higher excitement, and hopefully will live up to the hype. 

Since the Davidson upset on Easter Sunday, this tournament has been exceptionally boring compared to those in years past, even with the Wildcat’s run to the Elite 8.  TV rating are down compared to years past, and rightfully so.  I’ve even caught myself channel suffering towards the end of some of these snoozers.  The one thing we do know, though, is that tonight’s game will have a tennis-match like back and forth pace, which should result in some interesting mock props, like:

- Number of times the ball is walked up the floor – Over/Under 10.5

- Number of shots taken in the last 11 seconds of the shot clock – Over/Under 19.5

- Number of total possessions – Over/Under 115.5

All I know is that come 11 o’clock tonight, I hope that finally, after weeks of waiting, I’ll be on the edge of my seat, instead of fighting off sleep.

Tomorrow I’ll post my tournament re-cap, complete with my All Tournament Team.