And yes...that wrestling wrap-up is coming...it just takes time to sit down and do a little research...time I just do not seem to have these days. I cannot tell if it is 6:15 a.m. work mornings or the wedding in nine weeks. Either way...yeah...it is coming.
So I had the chance to go to the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 games this past weekend in the Edwards Jones Dome here in STL. This also completed my seeing at least one game of each round of the NCAA tourney...which was not even something I grew up thinking I could do. Saw three pretty decent games...at least no blowouts. We got really decent seats...front row of the upper deck. . To be honest, there are not too many other seats I would want in that place. Needless to say, the Dome does not provide that cozy feeling that college basketball tends to feed off of. Speaking of what the Dome and the NCAA also does not provide...
- Length of time outs is at a epidemic duration. Talk about sucking the life out of a building with basically an almost four minute break each time. Any time a college basketball game that does not go into overtime lasts almost as long as a hockey games means you have problems.
- I don't know if Florida has played a full 40 minutes yet or not, but I am to the point where I really do not want them to (or believe they will) advance any further. Butler and Oregon combined for a grand total of 55 fouls against Florida. Now, yes, there were a few of those which came at a point in the game where the team had to foul them, but in both games, Florida received just about every last call, and seemed to need them to pull off their victory, especially against a very game Butler.
- Speaking of Butler, I did witness an interesting feat performed by their fans on Friday night. At the under 12 timeout in the 2nd half, the Butler fans managed to recruit both the Oregon AND UNLV fans to cheer for them during the timeout.
- The NCAA should try to maybe do a little better job in terms of regional seeding in future years. How dumb is it for Kansas and SIU to play in a 2/3 empty arena in San Jose at 4:00 p.m. local time? STL was in the same boat, with no regional anchor this past weekend (Wisconsin bowed out early).
- What a job by G'Town to make the Final Four (and give me three of four teams this weekend with aTm letting me down). Overcoming UNC's ridiculous advantage at the free throw line and basically crushing them down the stretch was really fun to see. Jeff Green is an absolute freak of an athlete.
- For my Final Four prediction, I will go ahead and stick to my guns with UCLA beating Florida and G'town taking down Ohio State (I did have G'town beating UT to get there, and had aTm beating Ohio State) and UCAL beating G'town in what will likely go down as one of the unprettiest and exciting games in a long time.
Alright...time to turn the steaks...Nice job by Mizzou baseball this past weekend to take two of three on the road at Nebraska to open the season. I am thinking (hoping) trrip will have more on that this week, but that is how you LOVE to start the conference season.
Until next time....hopefully that wrestling article that I promised to write....
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