Poof: My Final Four and National Champion Picks Disappeared. How did your picks go?

Well the Final Four is set in Mens College Basketball next weekend at Detroit’s Ford Field and like a lot of people your bracket is probably busted unless you were wise and lucky enough to pick Michigan State, Villanova, Connecticut and North Carolina. I only got North Carolina who beat Oklahoma right as I had them losing to #1 overall seed Louisville in the national title game. I also lost with another #1 seed Pittsburgh to Villanova . Finally I lost with my darkhorse pick #3 Missouri which lost in it’s fifth regional final game ever coming up one game short against very talented and number 1 seed Connecticut which has become the dragon and most viiilified team both on the court and off the court with their alleged recruiting violations.

So that’s my almost complete bracket blowup as we head to the Final Four next weekend. I almost picked Michigan State as a darkhorse to best Louisville and they were inspired to play the Final Four in their home state at Detroit, Michigan. Villanova is a very good and well prepared team and Connecticut overcame injuries which I thought might do them in. North Carolina might be the best team overall and I’m sure the experts will have them against Connecticut in the national title game. Michigan State and Villanova are good teams and glad to be there, but I’ll go with North Carolina over Connecticut in the title game. Enjoy the games and talk to you soon. Best wishes. badgerbratwurst

Badger Bratwurst: My NCAA Picks through second round. Badgers and Marquette lose in second round and Wisconsin wins third NCAA title in women’s hockey.

So how are your NCAA tournament picks going?  I badgerbratwurst went 22-10 in the first round, 13-3 in the second round and have all of my final eight including my final four of Louisville my NCAA champion, North Carolina my runner up and Pittsburgh& Missouri my semifinal Final Four losers.

Meanwhile this weekend it was a tough weekend for the Wisconsin teams, Wisconsin and Marquette in the second round after exciting wins in the first round. Both teams played in Boise, Idaho ironically although they were in different brackets. Marquette lost 83-79 to Missouri after getting by Utah State 58-57 in the first round. Wisconsin lost to Xavier 60-49 after beating Florida State 61-59 in overtime in the first round.

Both teams played well, but not good enough to advance to the Sweet 16. Wisconsin couldn’t hold a seven point lead in the second half against Xavier while a Marquette player stepped inbounds and had a crucial turnover in the final moments against Missouri. One positive note for Marquette’s point guard Dominic James who was thought to have a season ending foot injury three weeks ago, healed fast enough after surgery to play some minutes and the senior player was able to end his career in a fairly healthy state on the basketball court which many were happy to see.

Finally not a lot of attention is paid to Wisconsin’s womens hockey team as some other sports, but they won their third NCAA title in the last four years by beating Mercyhurst 5-0. The Badgers who finished their season with a 34-2-5 record were lead by coach Mark Johnson a former Badger mens hockey player and more famously from the 1980 Miracle on Ice team that defeated the Soviet Union and won the gold medal. The Badger players were led by a senior dominated team that included goalie Jessie Vester who had 37 saves in the title game. Look for several women’s Badgers to appear in the 2010 Winter Olympics, next February in Vancouver, Canada. It was Wisconsin’s ninth hockey championship overall with three by the women and six by the men which last won the NCAA title in 2006. The men’s Badger hockey team finished in third place in their league and failed to make the 16 team NCAA tournament this season. Still the championships are a tremendous accomplishment and should be noticed so in Wisconsin sports even though they don’t always get the same popularity as other sports.

Please share your NCAA picks with me and let me know how you’re doing. Thanks for reading take care and best wishes. Talk to you soon. badgerbratwurst

NCAA Tournament Selection Sunday with my picks and thoughts. Also my favorite NBA teams the Spurs and Bucks head into the NBA regular season stretch with less than 20 games to go until the playoffs.

Tonight Sunday March 15 was Selection Sunday for the Men’s NCAA Tournament. These are a few of my picks and thoughts and what I think about Wisconsin and Marquette’s chances as well. For my Final Four I picked Number 1 Louisville in a close pick over Michigan State to make the Final Four. I have #3 Missouri beating out Connecticut to get to the Final Four. UConn has looked sluggish and injured when I’ve seen them play. I like #1 Pittsburgh to get by Duke to get to the Final Four and #1 North Carolina to been upstart and PAC 10 champion Arizona State to reach the Final Four after they upset #2 seed Oklahoma in their region. I like Arizona State as a darkhorse to reach the Elite 8 and I am picking #12 Northern Iowa to upset Purdue and reach the Sweet 16.

Those are my picks and upsets so we’ll see what happens. As for Wisconsin how ironic is it that they play the same school Florida State that beat their football team 42-13 in the Champs Bowl this past season. In the basketball matchup I have #5 Florida State who beat North Carolina in the ACC Tournament beating a slow and sluggish #12 Wisconsin team that is fortunate to make this years NCAA Tournament with an 18-12 record. As for Marquette they had a tough one point loss at the buzzer to Villanova in the Big East Tournament. In the NCAA’s Marquette as the 6th seed will play an upset minded #11 Utah State team that could give them trouble from what I’ve read. If Marquette happens to win without injured point guard Dominic James I have them losing to Missouri in the second round who I have reaching the Final Four. So lets get the ball rolling Thursday and we’ll see what Happens. In the Final Four I have Louisville beating Missouri, North Carolina beating Pittsburgh and Louisville winning the national championship over North Carolina by a score of 75-67.

In the NBA they are heading into the home stretch of the regular season with less than 20 games to go. My favorite teams the San Antonio Spurs and Milwaukee Bucks suffered tough losses this past week. The Spurs lost to the LA Lakers at home and the Bucks lost a tough game to All Star guard Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets. but then the Spurs rebounded by beating a tough Houston Rockets team in Houston while the Bucks rebounded by beating the Boston Celtics in Milwaukee and hanging onto eighth place in the Eastern Conference .

In conclusion it should be another exciting and unpredictable NCAA Tournament and I wish you luck with your teams and picks as well. As for the NBA we’ll see what happens down the stretch as we near the playoffs in late April. Take care, best wishes and talk to you soon. Please let me know your thoughts and thanks always for reading. badgerbratwurst

NHL Hockey. Why hockey fighting should be allowed and my views on the sport of professional hockey in general.

It’s officially March Madness and almost everyone is talking college basketball, basketball in general and the NCAA tournament. But another sport that I like and an underappreciated sport in my opinion NHL/professional hockey is in the sports news this week and not surprisingly it has to do with fighting. A lot of people don’t like hockey, think it is boring and too violent.

But let me explain why I think that fighting in hockey is different from fighting in other sports and should be allowed. Hockey is played on a circular ice rink with skating and sticks and a lot of close and continuous action and contact.  All the other major sports go play to play(football), pitch by pitch(baseball)  or posession to possesion in basketball. Hockey does go shift to shift but few people notice other than hockey experts because of the continous action.

If fighting is taken away from the NHL/professional version of hockey, we will likely see more cheap shots, cuts and slashing which is different from fighting, a lot more dangerous and often confused. While I don’t agree with fighting in any sport, I do see how it happens more in hockey because of the close and continuous contact and I do accept it as long as it doesn’t turn into ugly cheap shots which should be severly reprimanded because they promte injury. Fighting also helps to protect the major stars of the sport from getting hurt or attacked as much as the so called goons or enforcers go at it. The 1977 movie Slap Shot with Paul Newmann and the Hanson Brothers popularized this aspect of hockey.

Personally I love the skating, the action and hard hitting, the fighting over the puck and crashing into the boards as the teams fight over the puck and the ice to score a goal. I kind of compare it to playing a pinball game on a pinball machine. You never know with the constant action when a goal will be scored and that is magnified in the ever so fierce Stanley Cup playoffs in the spring. No trophy in sports is so revered and fought for as the Stanley Cup and the winning players on the championship team get to spend some time with it that following summer after winning the Cup.

I think a 1-0 or low scoring game is one of the most exciting things in sports especially if it goes to sudden death overtime where play is continued until the winning goal is scored. It is really appreciated and loved in Canada, Europe and Russia, but not as much in the United States where it is always thrown into the sports landscape with football, baseball and basketball.  But in conclusion just as much as I think hockey fighting should be seen differently than fighting in other sports, I also think hockey should be seen differently than those other sports. Then maybe sports fans will see the uniquenesss of the sport which is played with a puck and not a ball, and I also believe it should be seen for its differences from the other sports. Hockey fans already see and appreciate this. Hopefully you will see it as well the next time you watch a hockey game especially at the professional/NHL ranks. It is some of the fastest and hardest hitting action you will ever see in sports and fighting helps to keep it fair as it polices the action among the players. Give hockey a chance and let me know what you think. Take care and best wishes. badgerbratwurst

7 foot Nets center Brook Lopez could have been drafted by the Bucks but wasn’t. Why I think that decision might hurt the Bucks playoff chances. Also Marquette and Wisconsin lose big games as NCAA Tournament gets closer.

The Milwaukee Bucks are battling for the eighth playoff spot in the Eastern Conference but lost tough games to the New Jersey Nets who they are competing for that spot as well as to Lebron James and the East leading Cleveland Cavaliers. Also #13 Marquette lost to #3 Pittsburgh 90-75 and Wisconsin lost 51-46 to Minnesota which really hurts their NCAA tournament hopes unless they win the Big Ten Tournament.

Back to the Bucks though and why I think they made a mistake not drafting 7 foot center Brook Lopez. He and the Nets beat the Bucks 99-95 in Milwaukee Tuesday night and Lopez scored 24 points and 12 rebounds. Funny I didn’t see the Bucks last year top draft choice Joe Alexander in the box score.  2007 Bucks #1 draft choice Yi Jinalian was unhappy in Milwaukee and now plays in New Jersey with Lopez and he scored four points. And the Bucks biggest draft choice in recent years Andrew Bogut who they got with the #1 pick in the draft is now injured and has been relatively speaking a bust or disappiontment as a player in my opinion. When you consider that the Bucks could have picked an NBA all Star like Chris Paul or Deron Williams, that year you have to conclude that the Bucks have made poor draft choices and that is why they are struggling.

On the other hand you have to admire the job that first year Bucks coach Scott Skiles has done keeping the 29-35 Bucks in playoff position in the weaker Eastern Conference. However they would be nowhere near the playoffs in the more talented and competitive Western Conference. And they’ve fought through the season ending injuries to former All Star Michael Redd and Andrew Bogut who’s still a decent big man.

The trade for Richard Jefferson was big and  Charlie Villeneuva and Ramon Sessions have been productive as well. But not having a quality big man like Brook Lopez or an All Star point guard like Chris Paul hurts the Bucks in talent and experience. Just imagine where this team could be with great players like that. Perhaps that’s why Milwaukee either hasn’t made the playoffs or advanced beyond the first round in 20 of the last 21 seasons with the exception being their trip to the 2001 Eastern Conference Finals when they lost in seven games to the Philadelphia 76ers missing the NBA Finals by one game. They haven’t been that close before or since in over 20 years. It’s time to find their way back or a struggling financial situation in Milwaukee who is also looking for a new arena, could lose it’s way both on and off the court. Lets hope the Bucks don’t become the next Seattle Sonics who couldn’t find an arena in Seattle and after leaving Seattle they continue to struggle on the court in Oklahoma City. The Bucks have a proud basketball history and I hope it gets restored before it’s too late. Let me know what you think, best wishes and talk soon. badgerbratwurst

March Madness is here in basketball and other sports too.

March Madness is mainly about basketball, the NCAA and NIT Tournaments and all the state high school and small college championships. But it is also about spring training in baseball and this year the second World Baseball Classic, if we can try to temporarily put the steroids talk behind us. It’s also the stretch run before the playoffs in the NBA and NHL when there are trading deadlines and teams are fighting for playoff position. The NFL is busy with the off season and free agency signings and the NFL Draft is weeks away in late April. In golf Tiger Woods has returned from injury and is getting ready with the other golfers for the Masters in April. And NASCAR is off to a fast start with the first three races of the season so far. VROOM.

The NCAA tournament should be great as usual with Selection Sunday March 15 and the tournament begins Thursday March 19. In baseball I’m looking forward to a good and unpredictable season and the action on the field will take over the off field problems somewhat once they get playing the games. The Stanley Cup/NHL and NBA playoffs are my favorite two playoff months of the year and all the other sports I mentioned plus other offer flavor and drama to the sports world as well.  So pick your excitement in sports, try to do it in moderation yeah right and have a great March Madness in sports. Best wishes and talk soon. badgerbratwurst

In conclusion, I would like to add that our hearts and prayers go out to the family members of the two NFL players and college player who were lost and now presumed dead as the search has been called off in the fishing boat accident off of Florida’s Gulf Coast area.  A fourth player from the University of South Florida was found clinging to the boat and is now recovering so our prayers go out to him as well.  It is a terribly tragic thing to have to report but I just wanted to sympathize for those families.