Whether you have realized it or not, the NCAA tournament is right around the corner. Here at Drake, our men's team is already in St. Louis preparing to make a cinderella run and claim an automatic bid. After all, the women's team did it in '06-'07, so get to it! (I'm looking at you, Ben Simons).
While Drake is needing a string of upsets to go dancing, Iowa State is in a much better position. Forget the fact that they lost to Texas Tech, Iowa and two heartbreak losses against Kansas (I'm a Drake student with an Iowa alum for a dad, and those losses killed me). The Cyclones more than likely punched their ticket to the Big Dance with last night's rather convincing upset of #13 Oklahoma State. I didn't expect anything less on senior night, with Cyclone Alley raring to go. The win was much needed after back to back losses and the seniors made their impact. They will be missed, but I'm sure OSU would've liked to...I don't know...play a little defense? Enter CHRIS BABB! His dunk here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBif_bvR0Z4) shows what ISU is capable of when their game is on. Drain the 3's, then penetrate when the defense tightens up. A foolproof plan no doubt. I'm excited to see what they can do to finish up this year, starting with the regular season finale on the road against a mediocre to bad West Virginia squad (13-17 overall, 6-11 in Big 12 play).
Unless I'm not reading the standings or the Big 12 bracket setup right, the 'Clones will play Oklahoma in the first round of the Big 12 tourney no matter what. It's a 4/5 seed matchup so it's basically a wash. Assuming ISU takes down the Sooner, there would be a potential matchup with the #1 seed: Kansas or Kansas State. We'll say Kansas for the sake of mob-rising and pitchfork-raising. Either way, March is certainly going to be fun to watch.
Other News and Notes
-The Miami Heat are on a 16 game winning streak. I never would've thought, considering they have the best player in the game in LeBron James, the best shooter in the game in Ray Allen and of course: Snoop Bosh Chris Lion. I think I got that right.... (http://static.foxsports.com/content/fscom/images/20027/NBA_player_Chri_9336328_0_0.JPG
-Spring Training for the MLB is in full swing and my Yankees are dead in the water already. Nick Swisher and Raul Ibanez left in the offseason, we did nothing but re-sign players that are now a year older and significant injuries are creeping in. Derek Jeter is working his way back but Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira will both miss quite a bit of time. My verdict: Yanks will place either third or fourth. Mostly because I want to see the Blue Jays be the opposite of the Marlins, the Rays will always be consistent AND young and the Red Sox should bounce back.
-Joe Flacco signed his mega-contract, to the tune of 6 years/$120.6 million. That's over $20 million a year. And we wonder why our debt keeps growing. Oh well.
That's all for now. Thanks for reading!
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