Hey ladies… so the deadline is here, you need to have those NCAA brackets handed out and your money turned in ASAP… what, you haven’t been paying the slightest bit of attention to college hoops?  First of all, its all good even the most dedicated college basketball guys can’t get all of the games right?  Second of all, I’m here to help… keep these few rules in mind and you’re guaranteed success.  And if you weren’t considering joining the office pool…rethink this…it will keep you up to speed in all of the office talk and some of the best social gatherings take places at the bars over the next three weeks as the games are telecasted on a multitude of screens. 

Ok, back to my rules…

Rule #1:  If you’ve never heard of the school, you have no business picking them… North Dakota State?  Umm, no… Morehead State?  Who?  Exactly….its not like going shopping at boutique shopes where the up and coming name is a sure pick…  Stick with what you know, and you’ll be successful.  The only schools this year that you may not have heard of…but may want to consider picking in the early rounds are Marquette (a #6 seed), Gonzaga (a #4 seed) and Xavier (another #4 seed). 

Rule #2:  No #1 seed has EVER lost in the first round.  Thats right, EVER!  So unless you are a die-hard, hopeless romantic who always picks the underdog and don’t feel like collecting four free points in the first round, do NOT pick a #16 seed to win a game.

Rule #3:  Google ‘Images’ is your friend.  Why’s this?  Well, that leads me to…

Rule #4:  The better dressed coach is usually victorius… dapper coaches like Louisville’s Rick Pitino and Villanova’s Jay Wright seem to be more adept than others who aren’t quite as stylish.   And if not?  Hey, at least you looked good going down, right?  Now there isn’t technically anything scientific about this rule, however my feeling is…you if the coach looks good, he probably slept well enough not to worry about the success of his team. 

Jay Wright...I say pick him even for the hope you can see him week after week....

Rule #5:  When in doubt, go with the better nickname.  Wildcats?  Strong, confident.  Utes?  What the hell is that?  Stay with what you know.

Rule #6:  Team colors are your friend.  No girl would ever choose something with bad style… Carolina blue is an absolute classic.  Siena’s Green and Gold…?  Ehh, not so much (and I love the color green…just not with gold…unless its a big emerald rock with a gold band).

Keep these rules in mind and you’re bound to be successful in your tournament pool.  And remember, no matter what happens, enjoy the next three weeks, they are the absolute best time of the year for sports, there’s nothing like it.  And when its over, you can reward yourself at the mall!  Good luck ladies, enjoy the games!

-sportsgirl

So ladies, the Madness has officially started with Sunday night’s unveiling of the 65 team field for this year’s NCAA Tournament.  What does that mean for us?  A few things, a few verrry important things:  First, it means that you have a choice… for the next three weekends you can either get angry at your significant other for NEVER taking his attention away from the tournament, or you can embrace it and learn to love one of the best events of the year.  Personally, I choose to embrace it, mainly because of the possibility for shopping.  Thats right, I said shopping… that “just for fun” NCAA Tournament pool in your office?  All of those $10 or $20 entry fees add up quickly, if you have been paying attention like I’ve been telling you too throughout the season now is the time to turn that knowledge into some serious cash, which will translate to serious shopping (OK, I know we’re in a recession, so maybe you’ll do some serious saving instead, but hey, its still free money!) 

Whats that you say?  You haven’t been following the teams closely enough over the past few months?  Have no fear, sportsgirl is here to guide you to bracket success… full guide to come tomorrow, but for now here are a few interesting tidbits to get you started:

• Three of the four #1 seeds are from the Big East conference (Pitt, Louisville, and UConn).  The only #1 from another conference is North Carolina… But, did you know that if all three of those Big East teams made it to the Final Four it wouldn’t be the first time that three teams from the conference made it to the Final Four in the same year?  Thats right, in 1985 Georgetown, Villanova, and St. John’s were in the Final Four along with Memphis, and Villanova eventually won the championship over Georgetown (as a #8 seed!)
• Everyone who tells you that “Cinderella” rules the dance couldn’t be more wrong.  In fact, Cinderella routinely gets her glass slipper trounced on by the big, bad power teams… in fact, last year all four of the #1 seeds made it to the Final Four.  The defending champ (Kansas) and defending runner-up (Memphis) both have pretty high seeds this year, and it wouldn’t be a complete shock to see either of them in the Final Four again.
• Starting on Thursday at noon, the best 4 days in sports begin:  48 games will be played between then and early Sunday evening, filtering the field down to the Sweet 16 headed into next weekend.  There’s never a shortage of buzzer beaters, great finishes, unlikely heroes, and “ONIONS!”.  Not picking up the “ONIONS!” reference?  Apparently you wouldn’t get along with my husband… its one of his favorite college basketball announcer’s (Bill Raftery’s) catch phrases, and its a classic.  Check out the video below (at 0:08 and then again at 0:39), maybe you’ll fall in love too…  “Billy Raf” will be calling games over the next two weekends, and he makes everything more entertaining.

So, like I said I’ll be back tomorrow with some more tournament advice, and maybe a few other exciting tournament video links to get you excited… this really is the best event in sports, make sure you enjoy the next three weeks.  Talk to you tomorrow!

-sportsgirl

Hey ladies.  I think most of us feel that the first weekend of the NCAA tournament (next weekend) is probably the best sports weekend of the year… yes, there are a few other contenders (Final 4/Baseball Opening Day weekend, Nordstroms Half-Yearly Sale, etc), but Im going to add an unexpected wrinkle to the mix.  This weekend, which is home to most of the major college basketball conference tournaments, might top them all.  Teams are playing to stay alive and achieve their dream of making it to the Dance, bubbles are bursting and millions of fans are treated to the occasional “Instant Classic”.  Thursday night’s BigEast quarterfinal between Syracuse and Connecticut was a prime example of why so many of us love college basketball.

Syracuse 127, Connecticut 117… seems like just a rare high scoring Big East game until you see the rest of the summary:  6 OT’s.  Yes, that’s correct, it took 6 overtimes to come up with a winner in this one, and each one got better than the last.  Both teams are comfortably in the NCAA Tournament, however each squad played with a determination that would make you think they wouldn’t be allowed to come home without a win.  Numerous players fouled out, and Syracuse ended up with a walk-on player having a significant role in the 5th and 6th overtime periods.  Do you realize how long 6 overtimes is?  They basically played three 20 minute halves plus another 10 minutes!  Almost two entire games.  The game ended after 1:20 AM Eastern time, and there weren’t many empty seats in Madison Square Garden at the time, everyone stayed, knowing they were watching something special.  The moral of the story?  Next time you’re stuck watching a game that you’re not really into, pay a little bit of extra attention, it could end up becoming the next “Instant Classic”… you just never know, and thats what makes sports so great.

In other news bubble teams are keeping a close eye on tournaments such as the Atlantic 10, the Big 12 and Conference USA.  Why? Each of these tournaments have at least one surprise team in the finals (a team that would otherwise not be selected for the NCAA tournament).  If one of these teams wins their tournament and the resulting automatic bid it will take away a spot for a bubble team..for example if Memphis (a lock for the tournament) loses the Conference USA championship they will have to take one of the “at large” positions that would have otherwise gone to a bubble teams…leaving a bubble team (like Virginia Tech) out of the tournament.  

Here are a few of the key games for you to see on Saturday…

The A10 Championship Game (Temple vs. Duquense)…both of these teams are in Pennsylvania…neither were predicted to make it to the NCAA tournament…but now one of them will prevent one of those bubble teams to make it (could it be PennState…after their loss to Purdue on Friday night who knows?)

The Big East Championship – Louisville will try to win their first Big East tournament against either Syracuse or West Virginia

The Big 12 Championship  - Upstart Baylor (ladies…my husband tells me that upstart means that Baylor is a surprise) tries to complete a comeback from numerous scandals like murder (dead serious…one player murdered another player a few years ago….)

Pac 10 Championship – The LA fan base will have to decide their rooting interest between whichever hometown school makes it (USC or UCLA) and Arizona State, which has several LA area starters….

So, as you can see…there is drama in the world of sports…I promise, even I can tolerate game after game….Enjoy the rest of conference championship weekend, keep studying, the brackets will come out on Sunday at 6 PM Eastern!

-sportsgirl

Hey ladies… so, we’ve entered the last regular season weekend of college basketball, and in fact some of the leagues around the country have already started their conference tournaments.  What does this mean?  Well, it means a couple of things… first of all, the calendar has turned to March, which means the month of the madness is upon us, and the next few weeks are some of the most exciting weeks of the sports year…I have to admit…as bored as I’ve been with sports all winter…I even get excited…maybe that’s because when the brackets come out money is involved…and I like a good competition….but who knows…it could be the start of warm weather.  I digress…the  second thing it means is that over the next week you’ll be hearing a lot about this concept called “the bubble”, which I thought I’d explain to you a little bit today.

A college basketball team that is “on the bubble” is one that is right on the edge of whether they will get selected as one of the 65 teams to play in the NCAA Tournament (the Big Dance).  Here’s how the tournament selection works:  there are 31 automatic bids that teams get from winning their conference tournaments (or regular season title, in the case of the Ivy League:  Cornell is already in).  That leaves 34 “at-large” bids that the Selection Committee can give out… that seems like a lot, but you have to remember that there are a lot of teams that are “locks” to get in who don’t win their conference tournaments, so they take up a good deal of those 34 spots… the teams that are right on the edge of getting one of those spots are known as “bubble” teams….a few examples to impress people with are University of Minnesota, University of Cincinnati, University if Kentucky…just a few. 

Think about it this way ladies:  you have $300 to go shopping with, and you know that you need a new pair of jeans, maybe a top or two for a coming occasion, and these things together will cost you about $225 (I am assuming there is a jeans sale).  So you have $75 left, but there are 3 pairs of earrings that you want, a cute sun dress, and maybe a great pair of shoes… total cost?  $175.  So you can’t buy all of them, only one or two of them will make it into your shopping bag.  The items that you’re considering are “on the bubble”… got it?  Good.  Enjoy the big college hoops weekend, start getting yourselves familiar with the teams and players so you can impress as March Madness kicks off soon, you don’t want to be coming in last place in that office pool!  

Talk to you soon.

-sportsgirl

PS..with March Madness in front of us…expect a lot more from me!!!

Family time is over, Tiger is back to work...

Hey ladies… Not sure how many of you out there follow golf, or are even interested in golf at all, but this will be one of the few times per year that I’ll even touch on the subject (the others probably being the 4 major tournaments).  In case you haven’t heard, Tiger Woods is coming back to the PGA Tour on Wednesday after an 8 month break to recover from knee surgery.  I mean seriously, have you ever seen so much excitement about someone just entering a tournament?  Well, as you may have figured out, Tiger isn’t just any normal golfer.  And by the way, have you seen the new pictures of him with his new son and the rest of his family?  Pretty cute, I must admit.

Tiger’s participation in a tournament makes golf “mainstream”… people who don’t usually care about who’s winning the Bob Hope Desert Classic or the Northern Trust Open will tune in if they know that Tiger is participating.  He is one of those elite athletes who transcends popular culture, people who don’t know the difference between a driver and a 9-iron (me being one of them) will tune in to watch the back 9 (that’s the last 9 holes of the round) on Sunday if Tiger is in the hunt.  So, with that being said, keep an eye out for Tiger starting on Wednesday as he participates in the Match Play Championship (Match Play means you just play against one player…not the entire field of participants)  in Tucson, AZ… the ratings will increase, attendance will increase, and the lead story on Sportscenter may just be about a golf tournament… all because one guy decided to tee it up.  He may not win this week, but I’m told he will be getting his game ready for the Masters, which is the first major tournament of the four, held the second weekend in April.

More info to come on the golf later ladies, will be back soon with some more timely info!

-sportsgirl

Hey ladies… on this weekend where so much of the country is focused on love, I decided to discuss a matter of the heart:  the old saying that absence (or distance) makes the heart grow fonder.  Hopefully this is the case with my excellent writing.. since I’ve been away for a bit I hope that you’re all aching for another informative, quirky, and highly original post.  Well, if thats the case, here I am.  Lucky (or unlucky, as some may see it) for you, I’m not the only thing returning from a lengthy absence this weekend:  many of the 30 major league baseball teams start Spring Training this weekend, which is the first sure sign that warm weather is returning (or at least my husband likes to think so).  Apparently I’m one of those people who just doesn’t understand how “meaningful” this day is… this is a great day for baseball fans, probably running a close second to Opening Day (just wait until my blog post for that one…seeing as my husband already has a countdown going…I should have a lot of information)…  

For weeks now, maybe even months, my husband has been counting down with his Dad, his good friends, and basically anyone else who will listen to him, which isn’t really many people:  Pitchers and Catchers report in 5,4,3,2 days!  What is so special about pitchers and catchers, they’re only two of the nine players on the baseball field at any given time?  Well, it turns out that in the world of baseball the pitchers and catchers are required to report to Spring Training a few days before the rest of the team, usually 5-7 days, to give them time to build familiarity with one another and start getting their arms and bodies in shape for the season.  Apparently this is mainly for the pitchers, but they wouldn’t have anyone to throw to if the catchers didn’t show up too.  And this used to be a much bigger issue in decades gone by, when players typically didn’t work out in the offseason and commonly showed up to Spring Training 20-40 pounds heavier than the last time we saw them in the fall (rumor has it that Ryan Howard of the Phillies will be appearing 20 lbs lighter…look at him).

So, now that you know why they’re required to show up at camp before everyone else, my question is, why wouldn’t everyone show up as early as possible?  All of these teams train at luxurious complexes in Florida and Arizona, spending 6-7 weeks in great weather getting ready for the season, and also working on their golf games and their tans… I’d be there the first day I was allowed to show up!  The World Champion Philadelphia Phillies (wow, that phrase looks weird… and great) started Spring Training on Saturday, and I’m sure their long absence from the sporting landscape in Philadelphia (it has been about 15 weeks since the parade!) has made a lot of hearts grow fonder, and ready for the 2008 season.  So ladies, keep an eye out on the TV for glimpses of palm trees swaying in the breeze and catchers mitts popping with good fastballs, baseball is back, and that means warm weather can’t be far behind…damn groundhog!!

Alright..here’s to motivation that I can get my act together this week…I am just particularly bored with sports right now…but I don’t want to let any of you down….I’ll be back

-sportsgirl

Well ladies… despite the unfavorable outcome from my perspective, after a very exciting finish to the Super Bowl we have finally reached the first weekend of AFT (After Football Time).  OK, well technically the ProBowl is this weekend, but according to my husband, this really doesn’t matter or mean anything….I know, I know, you can stop cheering now.  Just because football is over doesn’t mean that there aren’t any “great” sporting events to watch on TV this weekend… and even if you’re not interested, at least you can make your significant other happy by recommending them to him and then sneaking out to the mall after he dozes off on the sofa!  Here’s a quick look at a couple of events on tap for the weekend:

• The PGA Tour is holding what is usually its first ‘big-name tournament’ (aka Tiger participates) of the year, at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, CA.  Well, Tiger isn’t back from his knee surgery yet… this week he said that he is close to returning but he’s waiting until after his second child is born, which should be very soon.  So, in the absence of Tiger you still get Phil Mickelson and the incredible views of La Jolla and the Pacific Ocean in HD.  Hey, if its freezing where you live, at least watching golf will help you feel warm!
• Two good non-conference college basketball games on Saturday to go along with the usual strong Saturday slate of conference games.  First, #1 UConn is hosting Michigan at 6:00 PM (ESPN), and then later on Sunday Memphis is traveling out west to take on Gonzaga.  Two good matchups among teams that don’t get together too often (or, so I’ve heard).

Lets be honest here… hopefully you are able to get away from watching sports this weekend, especially since most of you have been stuck watching football every single weekend since September.  If not, keep in mind the couple of ideas I gave you above, and enjoy the weekend! 

-sportsgirl

I always find the Super Bowl to be a hilarious event…there are usually a bunch of guys gathered to see a good football game and then a bunch of girls who are there to watch funny commercials and the half time act….therefore it is hard to determine when talking is allowed.  I root for talking during the actual playing of the game…you don’t have to hear anything to see a bunch of guys running and tackling each other.  But, like usual, I digress…now onto the game. 

First of all, whats up with the Roman numerals?  Does the NFL think that they’re so cool that they’re above just calling it Super Bowl 43?  How hard would that be?  I mean, the one good thing is that it keeps me practicing the Roman numerals….Anyway, I digress.  The “Big Game” is finally here, and since the two teams who are playing on Sunday are rather understated and modest, there hasn’t been too much of the usual over the top hype for the game.  Well, I am here to change that.  How, by giving you some of the unrelentless hype that you’ve come to expect from the Super Bowl?  Of course not, who do you think I am, ESPN?  I’m here to tell you the important things, aka how to look good at your Super Bowl party on Sunday.

That being said, here are  a couple of key storylines that you need to know:

• The Cardinals head coach, Ken Whisenhunt, used to be the offensive coordinator for the Steelers.  He was passed over, along with Russ Grimm, one of his assistants, when the Steelers hired Mike Tomlin as their head coach a few years ago.  Both coaches are in their second season, and both teams are happy with their decisions.  It will be interesting to see if Whisenhunt’s experience with the Steelers will give the Cardinals an edge on Sunday.
• The Cardinals quarterback, Kurt Warner, will be starting his third Super Bowl game.  He is 1-1 in his first two, both as QB of the Rams,  having beaten the Titans in Super Bowl XXIV and losing to the Patriots in Super Bowl XXVI. 
• Two of the Steelers best offensive players,their QB Ben Roethlisberger and WR Hines Ward, are battling injuries coming in to the game… Roethlisberger has a sore shoulder and ribs, while Ward has a sprained MCL. 
• In case you were wondering, the Steelers have won 5 Super Bowls in their history, while the Cardinals have never won one.  In fact the Cardinals have the second longest title drought of any team in pro sports (60 years), behind only the Chicago Cubs (100 years). 
• Larry Fitzgerald, the wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals played college football for Pittsburgh…talk about the irony….

Hopefully you’re going to be watching the game with family or friends on Sunday, and by the way, this girl will be rooting for the Cardinals… remember my post about Larry Fitzgerald…well it wasn’t too hard to pick after that…hopefully you have the “Cardinals 1, Steelers 0″ block in your block pool, because the Cardinals are going to pull the upset:  Cardinals 31, Steelers 20 (this part is my husband’s prediction…I think it is a high score, but we will see who is right. 

Now, if you are going to be hanging out with a bunch of people for the game and want to wear the colors of one of the teams…go with red & white for the Cardinals and black and gold for the Steelers (as I’ve noted before, who really wants to look like a bumble bee?)

Enjoy the game, I’ll be back with some non-football posts during the week!

-sportsgirl

PS…sorry girls, I haven’t heard much excitement about the commercials this year, but at least we have Bruce Springsteen to look forward to at half time.  Oh..and if you are a fan of “The Office” then you have an hour episode after the game as well….Monday could be a good “personal day.”  This sportsgirl already took the day off..not for the game, but because I am away for the weekend….enjoy

So ladies, Wednesday night marks another milestone in the history of Philadelphia sports.  Or so I’m told.  Villanova is hosting Pitt on Wednesday night, in what will be the last ever college basketball game at Philadelphia’s legendary Spectrum.  The old arena, which opened in 1967, will be demolished next year to make way for a new entertainment complex and hotel.  But, here’s what I don’t get… who cares? 

When they knock down an old Nordstrom’s to build a brand new one with nice lighting, plush carpeting, and luxurious wood paneling, do you hear me reminiscing about all the good times I had in the old one?  Didn’t think so…I mean, a more modern shopping experience, what girl wouldn’t want it?   Guys are just strange with these things… most of them wouldn’t cry at an emotional family wedding or a movie like Steel Magnolias, yet put them in the Spectrum on a Wednesday night in January and there will be onions everywhere.

Doesn't look like anything special, right?

Anyway, while you’re watching #21 Villanova and #3 Pitt battle it out tomorrow night, you can impress the guy in your life with your formidable knowledge of Spectrum college basketball history.  Here’s a couple of tidbits for you:

-  The Spectrum hosted what many people consider the greatest college basketball game ever played:  Duke 104, Kentucky 103, in the 1992 NCAA Tournament East Regional Final…  remember when Christian Laettner was every girls dream?  Remember when he caught that incredible full court inbounds pass from Thomas Hill, then spun at the free throw line to hit the jumper with no time left on the clock?  OK…I don’t remember this at all, but my husband told me all about it and some of you may remember…nice name though…That was at the Spectrum.

-  Two Final Fours were played at the Spectrum, and get this… both of them were won by the same team!  Indiana won the NCAA Tournament at the Spectrum in both 1976 and 1981, under coach Bobby Knight.  I’m pretty sure he is a tough coach…that is something that would make ME cry (LOL).

Philadelphia is a city that loves its college basketball, and although it won’t be the last event in the old building, it will be a sad day for many who hate that it was ever replaced by the Wachovia Center (I guess the soon to be Wells Fargo Center???)  across the parking lot.  A lot of history in the building I guess, but this girl still doesn’t get the nostalgia…I mean I did see the Harlem Globetrotters there and a few Disney on Ice type events as a kid, but just not getting it….give me the nice new Nordstrom’s (marble flooring, 360 degree mirrors and automatic papertowel dispensers)!  Look out for a lot more Spectrum info when the Sixers play their last game there in March, use your fun facts wisely!

-sportsgirl

So ladies, I’ve been telling you for a while that I’m going to start writing about some college basketball.  Most of you are probably thinking North Carolina, Duke, UConn, maybe UCLA?  How about NJIT?  Who?  NJIT?  Thats right.  I must admit that when I heard this news story earlier this week, I had absolutely no idea what NJIT was, in fact I had to go look it up ( I thought it had something to do with the NJ transit system…sort of).  NJIT is New Jersey Institute of Technology, located in Newark NJ, and one of the newest entrants to the world of Division I-A college basketball.  Since you’ve never heard of them, and now knowing that they are one of the newest teams at the highest level of competition, you probably have some idea where this is going.  

Up until this week, NJIT had lost 51 straight basketball games.  Their last win was all the way back on February 19, 2007, until they defeated Bryant College this past Wednesday night.  From reading these news stories and seeing the clips online, you would think they had just reached the Final Four from the way that they celebrated…craziness.  Personally, this girl is wondering whats the benefit of being in Division I-A if you’re going to lose all the time?  The only press you’re going to receive is pure ridicule, and your players can’t be in a great mood (but hey, at least they’re getting a scholarship and they’re only a 15 minute train ride from Manhattan… shopping ladies, shopping).  They should have just stayed down in the “minor” leagues, but now every school thinks they can be the next Gonzaga.  If you are wondering who Gonzaga is, well there this small school in Spokane, WA and they make it to the March Madness of the Final 64 teams every once and awhile and most recently they made it to the elite 8…so, as I am saying…these small schools are trying to go Gonzaga-style…Oh well.

On a more serious note, and in keeping with the ‘female’ theme of this blog, the longtime head women’s basketball coach at NC State, Kay Yow, passed away this morning after a long battle with breast cancer.  She originally got into coaching just so she could secure a job as a high school teacher, she knew nothing about basketball and took the women’s coaching job at the school and ended up learning from the men’s coach during their practices.  Pretty impressive that she made it as far as she did, she is a legendary coach in women’s college basketball, and the basketball world will definitely miss her…. hey, I don’t know much about basketball, maybe I’ll be the head coach at UConn someday.  Well, maybe not….let’s be serious….I would have absolutely no interest in the job…but good for her.  Get your pink ribbons out ladies and show some respect…she is in the Hall of Fame for a women’s basketball coach and won more than 700 games as the coach at NC State…pretty impressive.  

Nike even created baksetball sneakers in honor of Kay Yow

Alright, well I didn’t mean to end on a low note…I am going for a glass of vino now…and remember that anything is possible…look at Kay Yow’s success and NJIT!  Have a fantastic rest of the weekend and I will be back…

-sportsgirl