Certainly, Duke is Duke...

This time the Butler didn’t do it! Itwas the little Devils from Duke that have once again climbed to the top of the Mountain, but it wasn’t without a lot of drama. It came down to the wire and down to the last 3.6 seconds and a Hail Mary half court shot that just rimmed out and was mere inches from rattling in and taking over the video of "The Shot" that CBS would play every March of Christian Laettner taking that in bound pass from Grant Hill in the 1992 NCAA Tournament vs Kentucky.

The National Championship game was one of the best finals that has been played in recent memory. Not only was it a close game but it was also a well played game. There was offence, defence and grit. If you look at the game from just a seedings point of view this was a mismatch but Butler came into the game with a win streak in the high 20’s and were the hottest team in the nation..Butler. The coach looked younger then half the players on his team, he makes a respectable $400,000 a year but put up vs Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s $4.4 Million there is a slight discrepancy. In that same light Duke spends $400k per player on the basketball team, Butler spends $400k for their entire team. I think coach may be in for a bit of a raise in the very near future. The good thing for Butler going as far as they did is all the good coaching vacancy’s are filled so they shouldn’t have to worry about loosing theirs...at least this season. I am guessing a 33 year old who just took a "Small" school to the finals would and will be in high demand.

Kyle Singler was the difference in the game offensively and it was the contributions that Zoubek gave as the big man in the middle for Duke that clogged things up and changed the game in Duke’s favour. What Butler has going for it is that they can return a majority of their team and if Hayward stays they may be even better next year. A scary thought even if the tournament expands to the proposed 96 teams next season.

I guess that there now has to be a question to the average fan: What will you remember the national title game for? Duke winning their 4th title or Butler losing?

Either way this was one of the best tournaments in recent memory. It is always great but this one seemed to be a bit of a topper. This is why it is the greatest self contained tournament/sporting event.

Day 1 - Let The Madness Begin

Day 1 of March Madness is now in full force and many of the games have been played with just the late games left to be played. There was little in the way of major upsets so far. There were a couple of 7-10 games that went the way of the 10 seeds but none more impressive then those feisty boys from Ann Arbor. Yes that is right, my Michigan Wolverines managed to pull off the upset over Clemson in a tight hard fought game that Michigan managed just to hang on to win. 1 win in the first round shouldn’t make me that happy but for this Michigan team it is huge. I don’t expect them to win another in the tournament, and in fact I am just happy that they finally made it back. It has been 11 years since the Wolverines have even qualified for the big dance. Sure there may have been some NCAA discipline that may have prevented them for a few of those but now they are in. This is no Fab Five for sure but it is a start.I would have liked to see them in the classic yellow or white jerseys not the navy but maybe next game.

As for the rest of the day thus far, games were what we should expect, some blowouts from the #1-16 games and some very close games that went down to the wire.

I had the set up going- 1 game on the TV and used the March Madness on Demand to get 2 others streaming on the computer. It was a great set up and allowed me to stay on top of 3 games at the same time. Madness times call for Madness measures I guess. I did have to break that a bit and throw up the Senators-Canadiens game but had the Michigan game on the computer, so all was good.

I know all about the close games as I decided to play a few tickets on Proline even broke down some games and hedged my bets to cover myself and ensure even just a small payout and.....well lets just say... that needless 3 pointers late in a game that you are clearly going to loose helps NO ONE! Win by 6, tell that to the players, it is like that useless field goal in a football game. It just leaves a bad taste in your mouth, like kissing your sister (I know your sister, and that would not be a cause for celebration for sure). My great plan was crushed and that was some well wasted money. So outside of the 4 brackets that I filled out that is where my outside interest stops. I will watch the games for entertainment and the fun of the brackets but no more Proline. Apparently I have done something to anger the OLG (Ontario Lottery and Gaming).

Time now for the late games! OOHHH, look who we have up....Duke and as we all know “Certainly Duke is Duke. They're on TV more than Leave it to Beaver reruns” - Former Providence coach Pete Gillen