From Bubble Team to Bracket Busters

VCU outscored opponents by 60 on their way to the Final Four

VCU is this years Cinderella with-out a doubt, even though many argue that Butler is also a Cinderella, I argue back that a team that made it to the Championship the year before is not a Cinderella, no matter what seed they are.

The big question now is, who will win the championship? So far what we have learned in this sports year is nothing goes according to plan. Ever since LeBron made his "Decision" the entire sports world has been thrown off its axis. After that nothing has been right. The Giants won the World Series after getting into the playoffs by a couple games, thanks to a Padres meltdown. What was supposed to happen? The Yankee's run through the playoffs and repeat as champs... That worked out well as the Rangers mollywhomped the Yankee's. (Mollywhomp, verb; To dominate, throttle, or embarrass mercilessly with millions of people watching.)

The Packers won it all as a Wild Card

The Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl XLV as a 6 seed, after winning 5 straight elimination games. What was supposed to happen? The Pats were going to route every team on their way to yet another Super Bowl... That ended quickly as Rex Ryan literally talked his way to the AFC Championship. Even in the Super Bowl, you have a proven two time SB QB in Big Ben who had made countless 4th quarter game winning drives, what does he do? He chokes as Green Bay brings home the Lombardi Trophy.

In the NBA- we will see what WILL happen, but right now, a team that made no off season moves (Spurs) has the best record in the NBA... After an entire year of big trades and huge free agents, the teams that sat tight are looking pretty good. My guess is the teams that aren't supposed to win it all, will... (Thunder)

My Point? This year is one of the craziest sports year, and no matter how you try to spin it, who you think will win won't and the team you count out will take it all... So throw out all reasoning, stats, numbers, and Logic, the VCU Rams with an 11 seed could very well win the 2011 NCAA Tournament... Rock on Shaka Smart and welcome to March Madness.

8 Simple rules to the new NFL season

The NFL owners voted in new rules that will go into effect into the next NFL season (when ever that is). So lets go over the rules that every one is talking about.

Rule #1-Teams are now allowed to challenge the coin toss.

Rule #2- Coaches can only prove the ref's wrong 3 times during a game.

Rule #3- The Quarterback is considered "a defenseless player" at all times.

Rule #4- Each team's highest paid player will now be given a penalty flag of their own to throw during the game.

Rule #5- Kickers are given a mulligan each game.

Rule #6- Players that make helmet-to-helmet hits will serve a 5 minute time-out during the game.

Rule #7- Smiling after a touchdown is considered excessive celebration.

Rule #8- The Quarterback will wear flags around his waist.

Top 10 Reasons: Why the NCAA Tournament is the best thing in sports

Nothing can come close to March Madness. Literally nothing in life compares to the big dance. Yeah, your wedding and birth of your child are great and all, but do you call it Wedding-Madness? Or Baby-Madness? No, those are just special days, not entire months. Not only that, but its so amazing, that March itself cannot even contain it's madness, so it spills into April.

In honor of the greatest month and 4 days of 2011, here are 10 reasons why March Madness is the greatest thing sports has to offer.

10: Alex Rodriguez does not participate in March Madness.

9: LeBron got an hour to make his selection, March Madness gets an entire Sunday.

8: March Madness took something good in the NIT, sabotaged the entire thing, and claimed it as its own. Just like America did 250 years ago.

7: The Dallas Cowboys L.A. Lakers, and New York Yankees will never win.

6: TCU and Boise State can't get screwed over by March Madness.

5: The estimated $1.8 Billion in unproductive wages during March Madness.

4: Sales of paper, sharpies, and white out triple during March Madness.

3: There is no BCS in March Madness.

2: Jim Valvano.

1: Grown men putting on the proverbial glass slipper.

I can promise there is nothing better in sports than the big dance. If you can show me something that is better than the NCAA Tournament, I will show you a college football playoff system. May your bracket be accurate, may the upsets be plenty. Enjoy March Madness.

Referee's not at fault

Wednesday night St. Johns University and Rutgers went head to head in a Big East tournament battle that went down to the wire, before St. Johns advanced after the 65-63 win. Many are talking about the controversial ending as St. Johns' Justin Brownlee clearly stepped out of bounds, and threw the ball into the stands with nearly 2 seconds left on the clock.

But the Big East referee's are not at fault, they really didn't see anything at all.

The three officials -- Jim Burr, Tim Higgins and Earl Walton, didn't even see the final play of the game.

Jim Burr said in an interview Thursday "I missed the whole thing, I was actually telling (Steve) Lavin how good he looked during the game, and congratulating him on the win."

"Huh? What play?" Higgins said "We blew the whistle a lot, they all kinda seem to blur together in my head." Higgins said when asked about the final play of the game. "We were really tired, but it was such a good game though, right?"

Burr, who has worked 16 Final Fours in his career, felt bad after watching the replay. "Man I
feel bad, I really missed that one, oh well" Burr said before taking a bite of his hot dog "I
mean a lot of ref's would have missed it too, but no biggie."

Earl Walton was on the sideline where the final play took place "I mean yeah, he was on the sideline a little bit, but it was like half his shoe though. If I would have seen that in the first place I would not make a ticky-tack call to change the game with 2 seconds left."

The three referee's walked out immediately after the buzzer sounded, not realizing what had happened. The clock operator James Cardon tried to tell the officials to review the play "...But they pointed to the expired clock and mentioned something about dinner getting cold."

"Look, relax guys" John Adams, the NCAA's national coordinator of men's basketball officiating said "they made a mistake, but that's a tough one to call. Will we suspend them? Sure, but not until next season. It's too late now so it's not like we can do anything."

Steve Lavin quickly ran across the court to shake hands with Rutgers head coach Mike Rice. Lavin was also seen with the referee's in the parking lot after the game, laughing and joking. Before they went home, Lavin gave Higgins a small envelope, shook hands and left. Lavin declined to comment on the parking lot meeting.

Tears aside, El Heat aren't finished... Yet.

After another loss for the Miami Heat (4 in a row) who lost to the Chicago Bulls 87-86, people are starting to worry about LeBron and Co. The Bulls finished a 3 game regular season sweep of the Heat in an interesting fashion, Luol Deng hit 3 of 4 free throws in the matter of about 2 seconds. Then came along the NBA's worst team when it comes to hitting game tying or winning shots with 10 seconds or less. (1-16 on the year) James and Wade each had a chance to win the game and couldn't get the job done despite rocking "El Heat" Jerseys on Latino Night.

I understand that the Heat have been awful against the NBA's best teams, which right now that doesn't bode well for the Heat in the playoffs. But there are a few things people forget about this team that will give them an advantage in the post season.

In order to advance, you have to beat the Heat 4 times... Beating them once is one thing, beating them 3 times during the season is another, but beating them 4 out of 7 is a whole different animal. People forget that in a series there is an ebb and flow, and playing LeBron and Dwayne 7 times takes a massive toll on teams.

With Wade and James, you have two players that have proven they can take over an entire series. Remember when LeBron went off for 40+ against the Pistons way back when both the Cavs and Pistons were good? Then he busted up the Bad Boys 2.0 again to take over the series and eventually go to the finals? Remember when Wade couldn't be stopped in Marquette, and in Miami even when his team was notably worse then the opponents and he still got them to the next round? Something about their killer instinct kicks in during the post season and they take over... Maybe they are just like Charlie Sheen and have Tiger Blood. I don't know what it is but both of these guys step it up in the post season. Lets just hope they don't have to take a game winner in game 7.

I'm not saying they will go and sweep through the playoffs and win the title, but I'm not ready to write them off just yet. Until they actually are knocked out of the playoffs they are still a very dangerous team with two guys that can take over an entire series. Just remember this Heat team is losing to top teams by 1, 2, 3 points, not getting blown out by 30 points in the 2nd quarter (cough cough, Spurs, cough). Until then, let the mocking begin for the crying in the locker room after the loss.

NBA lockout looming? No basketball, no problem.

With the NFL close to locking out the 2011 season, and the NBA no where near coming to terms with a new CBA, we very well could have the MLB be the only (relevant) pro sport on TV this next year. But for the NBA, this might not be the worst of things.

The NBA had a half season lockout in the 1998-99 season, it lasted 204 days and the season was shortened to 50 games. This hurt the NBA's ratings, ticket sales, and interest for the seasons after that. But lets be honest, even if there was no lockout that year, those same things would have happened any way because of the (2nd) retirement of Michael Jordan.

But if you think about it, the whole premise for these pro sports lockouts is a battle of millions, and even billions of dollars. Side A, the owners, want x-amount of their share of the billion dollar pie. Side B, the players also want their share of the billion dollar pie. Well since the Players are the one's selling the tickets, bringing fans in, they do deserve their "share". But how much is too much? in the NFL, the players union wants 50%. If I went to my boss today, asked for 50% of the revenue we bring in on our sports show, he would laugh, and point me to the door.

For the fans, you have to side with the owners. It does you no good to have your super star make $5 million more each season. If LeBron made $5 million extra, he gets to throw more parties, and buy more cars, which translates to a whopping whole-lotta-nothing on the basketball court. If your teams owner gets more money, it means he will be more willing to spend the money to go out and get your city a super star. Example A-Phoenix spent the $20 million that Amare wanted, and threw it at He-don't-wanna-play Turkoglu, Josh Childress, and Hakim Warrick. That played itself out real well, Hedu-gone, Childress keeps the bench warm when he never plays, and Warrick is the only guy that is worth his contract. If they had the extra cash in a new CBA, the Suns would have gone out to get a Carmelo, Amare type talent to keep the suns relevant in the west.

So if the NBA does have a work stoppage next year, it could be a healthy rebuilding period for the L. We watched the NHL completely skip a season a few years back, but they came back revamped and ready to go, but with hockey being the red-headed step child of the four major sports, it took a harder hit than the NFL or NBA would if there was no season. Say the NBA condenses to 50 games after another 200 days work stoppage, or an entire season, we could see the NBA go through a metamorphosis that would forever change the game. With a shorter season, many teams in the NBA would fail to make a profit and could possibly go under. So you lose the Hornets, T-Wolves, Bucks, and Pacers. At this point you have 4 less teams, you have to redo the conferences, and divisions, which would be a good thing for the NBA.

With a lockout we could see a few (positive) things-

1. Shorter NBA season
2. A few less teams in the NBA
3. Reform for the game, small rule changes, contracts aren't so massive (no more T-Macs)
4. New found love for the game (how many people would be chomping at the bit to see LeBron after a year of work stoppage) Besides, man can't live on baseball alone.
5. New draft rules-possibly changing the 1 and done rule

If I am David Stern, my first priority is playing a full season next year, but if we see a lockout, its not the end of the world. Handling this in the right way could pay big dividends down the road for the NBA. Right now the NBA, along with the MLB, is slipping far behind the NFL, so revamping the format wouldn't be a half bad attempt to get back to the glory days. 

At the end of the day, 3 simple equations can sum up the current state of the NBA.

• 82 game season + 4 rounds of best of 7 playoff series = 70% of the season is meaningless
• Bobcats + Wizards x 4 meetings a year = 60,000 empty seats
• $891,000,000 - $249,000,000 = Work Stoppage

 I would love to know the difference between making  $19-million dollars, and $21-million dollars a year. But since I'm not 6'9" 240 lbs with a 40 inch vertical and an impeccable jumper I will never get that pleasure.


To wrap it up, the NBA is in danger of a lot more than just missing part of a season, if the NBA doesn't change with the times, we will leave it behind. Change is needed in the league and a lockout might be the best thing to bring that on. The NFL is the new standard and the NBA is falling far below. A new look league would bring back old fans and get interest from new ones. Here we are on the cusp of a sporting revolution and we have millionaires arguing over millions- really?

As a sports fan, please NBA, please don't screw this up.