Final Four

Who would’ve expected a final four like this? No number one seeds, an eleventh seed and an eighth seed. Eleventh seed Virginia Commonwealth will face eighth seed Butler in one of the Final Four matchups. The other will be played between fourth seeded Kentucky Wildcats against the third seeded UConn Huskies. No one anticipated Butler making it back to the Final Four after losing their top player to the NBA last year and being seeded so low in their region. They lost 7 out of their last 11 conference games to end the season so no one really anticipated clutch performances by the Butler Bulldogs when crunch time rolls around allows them to advance to the Final Four in back to back seasons.

                Virginia Commonwealth is the biggest surprise in all of March Madness this season. The eleventh seeded VCU Rams will Face the Butler bulldogs in their Final Four matchup which should be a great game given the circumstances, and adrenaline from all of the players. This is the lowest seeded Final Four game in NCAA tournament history. Combined, their seeds equal 19, before this game, the highest was only 14, surpassing that by 5.

                Kentucky Wildcats are the fourth seed in their region and knocked off number one Ohio State Buckeyes and number two UNC Tar Heels to reach their Final Four. The crazy thing about Kentucky is the amount of nails biters that they have been in this years tournament, which allowed their stand-out freshman guard Brandon Knight to really shine. UConn has their own stand-out point guard, Kemba Walker. Walker has lead the Huskies to five wins in five days to win the Big East Championship. Now he has taken his game to a whole nother level in order to bring his Huskies to the Final Four. I always have to root for the underdogs, GO VCU!

Sweet 16

The Ohio State Buckeyes basketball team was the number one overall ranking when the seedings came out for the March Madness tournament. With the number one overall seed and number one spot in the East bracket, the buckeyes still have a tough road into the Final Four and to the National Championship.

                In the first round of the tournament they faced the University of Texas- San Antonio with an obliterating win over the 16^th seed Road Runners. They weren’t fast enough to out run the Ohio State Buckeyes fast, up-tempo pace. They were physically over powered by the buckeyes and overall beat in every aspect of the game. The Buckeyes advance to the second round.

                Against George Mason, the Ohio State University Buckeyes got off to a slow start but that was seemingly erased when the buckeyes hit a couple of key three pointers and some easy fast break dunks. The Buckeyes, lead by senior David Lighty, was  7 for 7 from beyond the three point arc which was one away from setting the record for the NCAA tournament. The buckeyes ended up with a blow out win over George Mason and moved on to the Sweet 16. The Sweet 16 is the elite of the elite, only 16 teams remain in their stride for glory and the right to be crowned a National Champion.

                The Buckeyes face the Kentucky Wildcats tonight for the right to be in the elite 8. Only 4 more wins for the Buckeyes until they can be the National Champion. If the Buckeyes happen to win tonight, they will play the winner of the Marquette and North Carolina game that will be okayed tonight also, in the elite games that will be played later this weekend. Hopefully everyone’s bracket will take another turn for the worst and North Carolina will lose tonight to the Marquette Golden Eagles, but everyone will be right in the pick of the Ohio State Buckeyes. Go Buckeyes!

Miami Heat Losing Streak

Miami Heat. The “dream team” of the NBA, lately has fallen apart into a slump that has all of Florida scared, but the rest of the NBA fans jumping for joy. LeBron James ditches Cleveland to “take his talents to South Beach” and Chris Bosh departed his lovely Canadian friends up in Toronto for a beach house and a Heat jersey. Dwayne Wade stays in Miami because he is a faithful player who loves where he plays. Its not his fault that the two best free agents of all time happened to come down and play with him, he was probably loving every minute of it. Until they started to lose. They lost their opening game to Boston Celtics in a miserable game. And lately they’ve lost 5 straight games.

It all started with a loss to the new-look New York Knicks. They blew what was at one point a 16 point lead, and ended up losing the game. Then they blew a 24 point half time lead too the Orlando Magic. And to top it all off, they lost by 30 to the San Antonio Spurs two nights later. Chicago Bulls beat them by one point the next night after blowing a lead, the Portland Trailblazers two nights later. so over a span of about a week, they have lost 5 games, and all in miserable fashion. Tonight they play the Los Angeles Lakers and hopefully will get dumped just to show them that because you have three superstars on one team, doesn’t mean your always going to win.

I hope LeBron feels terrible for leaving the city of Cleveland the way that he did and loses in the playoffs to a sub-par team. Kobe will win another NBA Finals and have another Finals MVP under his belt. That will solidify his greatness in the NBA as on of the greatest players to ever play this game. Suck is LeBron.

The "New" New York Knicks

                New York Knicks make the biggest blockbuster deal in recent years right at the trade deadline. Negotiations about where Carmelo Anthony would end up calling “home” was under speculation for a couple of weeks. After long negotiations and meetings with several teams, Carmelo was traded to the New York Knicks.

                Carmelo wasn’t the only new face joining the New Yorker’s. Chauncey Billups was also traded to the Knicks for a large amount of many, several players, and two first round draft picks. The nuggets will be good in years upcoming due to the new talent added to their team and the money they have to get good quality players into their organization.

                The Knicks are sitting pretty right now with two all-stars and a handful of could-be all-stars. Amare Stoudemire is one of the most dominating big men in the league with shooting skills like a guard and the post presence of a big man. He is an all around gifted player and is one of the front runners for this years NBA MVP award. With Carmelo and Chauncey added to his side, the Knicks will be running down the Miami Heat, Boston Celtics, and Chicago Bulls’ throats with intentions of reaching this years NBA Finals. The Eastern Conference has gotten much stronger this year and can handle the Western Conference’s style of play.

                A few nights ago, in Miami, the New York Knicks beat the Miami Heat, even though they were down by 16 at one point. With a 15-2 run to close out the second quarter, it boosted their moral with a buzzer beater to go into half time. The ended each quarter from there on out strong and topped the Heat by 4. It was only Carmelo’s second game in New York and it made a big statement to the rest of the league that the Knicks are a force to be reconed with.