Fill Out Your Brackets

Two nights ago Sula and I filled out our NCAA Tournament brackets:

TC3MD's Final Four:

Oregon (3 seed, Midwest)
UCLA (2, West)
Texas (4, East)
Ohio State (1, South)

Sula's Final Four:

Wisconsin (2, Midwest)
Pittsburgh (3, West)
Boston College (7, East)
Ohio State (1, South)

Championship game picks:

TC3MD -- OSU 66, UCLA 63
Sula -- OSU 89, Wisconsin 88

Of note: Sula also picked 13th-seeded Holy Cross to fall in a tight game against Pitt in the Elite Eight. I love you, babe, but it ain't happening!

Both brackets include a Sweet Sixteen matchup of 5th-seeded Tennessee against Ohio State. If this happens, I see OSU dominating the paint and Oden pouring in at least 27 points.

Surprise, surprise that at least half the sports writers on CNNsi.com, ESPN.com, and cbs.sportsline.com are picking the Florida Gators to bring home the hardware on April 2. My bold prediction is that Florida doesn't make it past the Elite Eight.

Two years ago I correctly picked the national championship game (North Carolina over Illinois), but last year's tourney busted my bracket after the first weekend. Never, ever, ever will I pick Florida to win any sort of championship, not even if my mortgage or school loans were on the line. My upbringing as a die-hard Vols fan surely prevents it, and I'm pretty sure my dad would hemorrhage out if I ever tried such a thing.

I think we'll try to keep the old man around a few more years before attempting anything risky ...

OSU Wins Big Ten Tournament!

The rubber match between #1 Ohio State and #3 Wisconsin left no doubt as to the identity of the better team this time -- after splitting two games with the Badgers by a total of four points, Ohio State steamrolled to a 66-49 victory in the championship game of the Big Ten Tournament.

Curiously, #5 Florida -- a 21-point winner over Arkansas in the SEC tourney -- secured the top overall seed in the NCAA tournament, which begins this Thursday. When did the NCAA basketball selection committee start rewarding teams of one sport based on the championship game successes (or, in the Buckeyes' case, failures) of their football teams?

Hat Trick

Conference freshman of the year and defensive player of the year Greg Oden scored 22 points, grabbed 8 rebounds, and blocked 4 shots in leading #1 Ohio State to a 72-62 victory over Michigan in the quarterfinals of the Big 10 basketball tournament earlier this afternoon. The win caps a 3-0 season against UM in men's basketball and means Ohio State will finish the 2006-2007 academic year without a loss in the three major sports against its arch rival.

Ohio State Beats Michigan ... Again

Since I've been at Ohio State, the three major varsity sports -- football and men's & women's basketball -- have beaten the University of Michigan like there's no tomorrow. This afternoon was no different. The #1 Ohio State men's basketball team came from behind to win its 14th consecutive game, this time over Michigan 65-61 in front of a loud and supportive crowd in Ann Arbor to finish 15-1 in conference play (the lone loss coming Jan. 9 at Wisconsin) and with a final regular season record of 27-3. The other two losses were at North Carolina (without then-injured superstar center Greg Oden) and at Florida (in one of Oden's first games back).

The question of Ohio State's recent sporting dominance over UM is starting to pop up in local indie newspapers -- "Has this gotten old yet? CAN this ever get old?" Both can be summed up quite succinctly: No. During the '90s Michigan owned OSU in football, and until the latter part of the decade the same could be said for men's basketball as well. Now the pendulum is in full swing back toward Columbus, and most sports fans in town couldn't be happier.

It would be ludicrous to expect such good fortune to last forever (next year's football game, in addition to be played in Ann Arbor, will be OSU's first without Wolverine-killer QB Troy Smith since 2003 [perhaps not so ironically, the year of Ohio State's last loss to Michigan]), but rest assured the entire state is enjoying what has been a long time in the making.

Hey Coach Amaker ... Shutup!

Michigan coach Tommy Amaker was called for a 2nd-half technical foul in this afternoon's Ohio State v. Michigan basketball game; apparently Amaker was incensed that OSU center Greg Oden was not called for a foul on the other end.

First of all, if there was a foul committed, it would've been ticky-tacky at best. Second, Amaker's goons were all over Oden the entire game: he ended up with four fouls simply for playing in the same way Michigan's hackers were doing.

Next time, Tommy Amaker, do yourself a favor and keep your mouth shut. Until your verbal diarrhea, you benefited from some major home cooking and were on your way to an upset of #1 OSU. Now you find yourself not only the loser of a game you should have won, but you quite possibly cost your team a spot in the NCAA tournament. Way to go!