Monday Grab Bag: Final Fours all around

While I continue to cope with the fact that I won't be able to make it to NYC to watch the Buffs take on Alabama, check out today's bag where I talk hoops, both men's and women's, and look ahead to baseball on Friday.


Click below for this week's bag


Buffs in NYC -After stopping by the women's NIT game Sunday afternoon (more on that later), the Buffs boarded their plane for the Big Apple, and are now deep in game prep for Alabama. The team gets a great opportunity to get a feel for the city, having scored accommodations at the Marriott Marquis (in the heart of Times Square) and the opportunity to practice at the famed New York Athletic Club (which, despite what some would have you believe, isn't the one where the Heisman was handed out).

I hope the team isn't too caught up in the bright lights of the big city as they have a job to do.  The Crimson Tide will be a bear of a challenge, and, with Nate Tomlinson still questionable for Tuesday night, might still be shorthanded.  I'll have my full preview up tomorrow morning.



Not the Final Four anyone expected - For only the 3rd time ever, and the first time in five years, our national semi-finals will include no #1 seeds.  #3 UCONN claims the lowest seed, while the rest of the field is made up by #4 Kentucky (which many people thought highly of prior to the Dance), returning underdogs #8 Butler, and the shocking black sheep appearance of #11 VCU.  This may be an unconventional Final Four, with the highest total of seeds ever, but that just underlines the beauty of the Tournament, and underscores why every basketball geek continues to fall in love with it every year.  Anyone has a chance.

Even with as good of basketball as they are playing, if VCU can make a Final Four, then anyone can.

Coincidentally, that last time in '06 also featured an 11 seed from the CAA who many had thought didn't deserve to even be in the tournament.  George Mason was the surprise entrant then, but they didn't dominate their in-bracket competition the way VCU has.  The Rams have outscored opponents by an average of 12 points in their 5 games so far in the tournament, while George Mason won their 4 games in 2006 by over 5 points per game.  The VCU Rams have come out and beaten the snot out of 5 big conference opponents, and have played some near-flawless basketball at times.  I still don't think they deserve to be in the tournament, as performance after the fact is only justification for juveniles, but no one can argue that they haven't proved within the  flighty confines of Tournament play that they belong in this year's Final Four.



Brad Stevens is one of the best coaches in America -  Butler coach Brad Stevens has taken the small school of barely 4,000 kids to the Final Four for the second straight year.  I don't care who you are or who you coach, that's damn impressive.  Making one Final Four could be considered a fluke, making 2 consecutive proves you to be truly a master of the game. Sure, there is some talent on the roster, but this is still a team that started 5-5 in the Horizon League.  That Coach Stevens has been able to rally the troops, and reel off 13 straight wins in the process, to make the national semi-finals only speaks to his ability.

Who's one of the best coaches in America?  This guy!

How is it that Indiana hasn't shit-canned Tom Crean to pave the way for Stevens, an Indiana native, to take over the program?  Crean has been a massive disappointment in Bloomington, going 28-66 in 3 years with the program and only grabbing 8 conference victories.  He's obviously not getting the job done for the Hoosiers, and that once proud program would do itself some good by backing up a Brinks truck to poach Stevens.



Women's team ends season in NIT quarters - I have to give a shout out to the CU women whose incredible run to the NIT quarterfinals ended with an 97-70 loss to future conference opponents USC yesterday afternoon.  They've suffered through too many up and down seasons in the years since CU coaching legend Ceal Barry retired (filled with more down than up), but I think Coach Lappe might just have the Buffs moving slowly in the right direction if this NIT run is any indication.

Brittany has meant everything to the program over the last four years, and it's a shame to see her career end.  From: the BDC

The problem is that the program is losing 3 quality seniors, including the program's all-time leading scorer Brittany Spears, to graduation (and probably the WNBA in Spears' case).  In a year when both the women and the men will be scrambling to replace big-time production from exiting players, it'll be interesting to see how Coach Lappe fills in the scoring and rebounding gap left by Spears to keep the program moving forward next season.  



Women's NCAA Tournament - Yawn.  Only one team given a 1 or a 2 seed failed to find its way to the Elite 8.  The gap between the haves and the have-nots in the women's game is so vast that it kills any prospect for drama.  While the men's Tournament routinely gives us upsets and Cinderellas, the women's Tournament is a annual chalk convention.  You want to know why I don't pay more attention to women's basketball?  It's not the lack of dunking or any of the other lame excuses many people throw out there (although I play along for masculinity sake).  It's because there are only one or two teams every year who can reasonably claim to have a shot at the title.

The men's game was at it's worst, in my opinion, when John Wooden was running the table to win a title in 10 years out of 12 from 1964-75, only losing 10 games in those years.  We can all marvel at the genius of the Wizard of Westwood, teaching kids to tie their shoes and put on their socks, but that shit must have been incredibly boring to watch after the first 5 or so years.  Call me when you get some parody.


Opening day Friday - By this time Friday, CU's basketball season will have ended and I'll have lost my mind in the throes of the opening day of baseball season (it's a quick gear-shift, but I think I can handle it.)  Opening day is, by my estimation, the 3rd best sports day on the calendar (#'s 1 and 2 are the first two days of the Tournament).  My Sox will be in Cleveland (sad trombone sound) while the Rox will start the year at home against Arizona.  If only I could skip out to Coors on Friday.  I guess Saturday will have to suffice.

I have a few yearly traditions that I use to prime myself for baseball.  One includes copious amounts of polish sausages, grilled onions, and Miller Lites; can't start the year without them.  Another is my annual viewing of Ken Burn's Baseball.  Nothing gets me ready for a 162-game marathon quite like 20 hours of sappy, over-wrought musings on baseball's place in our culture.

I know Colorado is rather new to the whole "baseball" thing, but are there any opening day traditions you guys have?


Happy Monday!