Well, it has been a couple of weeks since I have posted a blog. It’s not that I have been lazy, but busy traveling. One week was for work, and since Dook won the ACC Tournament, I had nothing to say. Last week was the annual March trip to Vegas for the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Let me start by recommending Mandalay Bay as a great place to stay (Guys, check out the pool area.) in Vegas. They also have one of the largest and most efficient sportsbooks in town. The only time the lines got a little out of control were one morning when the entire sportsbook for the strip shut down at 7:30 local time for about 45 minutes with games starting at 9 AM local time.
One word that best describes how anyone would have done well last weekend: UNDERDOG. It took me about half a day and a few hundred dollars to realize this, but fortunately I did. Some of the teams, like Cornell, did not surprise me, but Ohio’s upset of Georgetown was a genuine upset. Numerous buzzer beaters and close calls have made this one of the best tournaments of recent memory. As with anything in sports these days, the, “what have you done for me lately,” mentality kicks in and all anyone remembers is last year’s tournament, which was a North Carolina runaway. There has not been a dominant team in this year’s tournament, and that seems to be bringing more people to the party. Hopefully things continue this weekend, as they did last, and we have a Cinderella or two in the final four. Many want to see the Power Conferences only represented in the final four, but having a mid-major win a National Championship could do nothing but boost college basketball. Come Monday, we will now if Butler and St. Mary’s are still playing or if it will be Kentucky and Duke.
OTHER THOUGHTS
UFC 111 is taking place this weekend in New Jersey. Look for GSP to defend his title and the most interesting fight in a while, for me personally, will be the Frank Mir-Shane Carwin bout. Mir has shown an edge to his personality that we have not seen before, while Carwin’s much anticipated bout with Brock Lesnar was postponed after Lesnar’s illness. I keep going back and forth on this one in my prediction, but feel like Carwin has to beat Mir, not necessarily the other way around. We have seen what happens when guys put it in the judge’s hands.
UFC Fight Night will be in Charlotte Wednesday evening and I will be blogging live from the event. If you are unable to watch or want to know what it is like in the arena, catch up with me here. If you have any questions for any of the fighters, submit them to
ben@southernsportsjournal.net and check back next week to see if yours made the cut.
Looking forward to this event as it has a PPV caliber card. There are some tickets still available, so if you have been trying to decide if it is worth your time, I honestly can say that I feel it is.