Weekend thoughts

As a nice follow up to my last post about March Madness, it is now in full swing. It was an exciting weekend of action and these are just a few things that come to mind.

- Owning up to the fact that you mismanaged the game does not take away the poor taste in my mouth from that mismanagement, Coach Skinner. With 17 seconds to play, BC trailed by one point to Duke. They had fouled Jon Scheyer (one of the best free throw shooters in the country) and were given a gift with he missed the front end of the one and one. Instead of an immediate time out with the rebound they try to bring the ball up and when it looks like they have a lane to at least get it over half court, time out is inexplicably called before crossing half court. Now with 10 seconds left they have to get it in and struggle over half court and call another time out. Now with only 5 seconds left (wasting the precious 12 before), Duke smartly denies Tyrese Rice any chance of getting the ball and Sanders is forced to heave a prayer (though he did have a chance to dish to the red-hot Biko Paris) and they lose by one. It was a terrible display of clock management worthy of the Andy Reid/Donovan McNabb Hall of Fame. They have to get their act together if they are going to beat USC on Friday as the Trojans are coming off an incredible run through the Pac-10 tournament.

- Let's roll right into the NCAA tournament. As usual there are complaints all around and it will be endlessly dissected and probed until Thursday when job productivity takes a dive country wide as the tournament gets under way in earnest (The Rant will be watching what he can though the big NY boss will be in town that day). I only have a few gripes...
1) I know they don't play the hardest schedule and their league is weak (no matter what Calipari may say about ConferenceUSA - its a weak league) but Memphis deserved the number 1 seed. They have proven themselves for years now that they are a top flight program. They dominated their league (not losing one game) and played some decent out of conference opponents early. In addition, they made a key personnel change for which they have gone 25-0 since. I know UConn is good. I know they are a dominant team but Memphis earned that spot and they should be rewarded with it.
2) BC does not deserve a 7 seed. I love my school and will support them to the death but a #7? The committee is saying that they are as good a Clemson (a team they lost to), California, and Texas. Either Clemson is getting hosed or BC is getting overrated because there is no way that these two teams should be equal. All I can guess is that the win over UNC in Chapel Hill and the win over Duke carried more weight than I thought. Mr. Bracketology, Joe Lunardi hasn't had them higher than a 9 in recent brackets. That seemed like a fair seeing to me. When BC is off, let's face it, they are a terrible team. But when they are on, they have proven on the court that they can beat almost anyone. I guess that's what mattered.
3) St. Mary's should be in this tournament. No disrespect meant to Wisconsin or Arizona or Maryland but St. Mary's was one of the best teams in the country when they were 100% healthy. They still played fairly well even when their best player was hurt. They gave Gonzaga a run for their money twice this year and almost beat them without Patty Mills. The mid-majors need to get more respect than this considering the success that they have had in the tournament in recent years and the quality of the basketball played across the country regardless of league.

- Speaking of tourneys, college hockey provided some excitement this weekend as well. Bemidji State returns to the tournament as the first automatic bid(perhaps for the last time as they will be a part of the WCHA soon and will most likely have no prayer of seeing the tourney again) and those who had high hopes have seen them dashed (Ohio State) or at least put themselves out on a limb (Miami) by failing to come through in their conference tourneys. Boston College is clinging to a slim chance as they pulled off the surprising upset of UNH with two straight wins in Durham. The Eagles had won only 3 times in their last 19 opportunities at the Whittemore Center so you cannot downplay the significance of these victories. The reward, a date with BU on Friday. BU has lost once since November 22nd. It's not quite for all the marbles but considering the position they are in, the rest of the season is win or go home for BC as it was for BU last year. It should be a raucous Garden this weekend. Unfortunately, the Rant will be in Virginia Beach for Mrs. Pike's brother's wedding. Thank you DVR!

- On a somber note, wrestler Andrew "Test" Martin was found dead in his home this weekend. I don't bring this up because it's yet another wrestler dying at a young age but rather because I found out in a headline on CNN that referred to Test as a "former WWE wrestler". While this is true I think it portrays this in the wrong light. Test was all but fired from WWE for his steroid and other drug use. He went to TNA but quickly fell out of favor there as he continued using steroids. There are some stories saying he was in rehab last year and had a significant drug problem. Test has not worked for the WWE in years and certainly not since the Wellness policy was strongly enforced after the deaths of Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit. To simply paint Test as a "former WWE wrestler" as CNN did (or the source of their story did) allows the connection to be made to the WWE and early wrestler deaths. Vince McMahon has put a lot of time and money into cleaning up the company and removing the rampant drug and steroid use. Will the WWE ever be clean? Of course not but neither will pro baseball. But not every wrestling death should be associated with the WWE. Lets face it, almost every wrestler of stature can be considered a "former WWE wrestler", but each of these deaths that happen should not be pointed at the WWE.

That's all I have for now. Here's hoping for a little celebration next weekend - and I'm not talking about the wedding.