NCAA Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous March Madness thoughts and observations.

Georgetown's sports teams are called the Hoyas which is Greek for "what rocks!" Given their performance on Thursday maybe the nickname should be changed to "what bricks!"... Every year I say that I'll bet every single underdog in the first round. You would have done pretty good this year if you used that strategy. Instead I picked individual games and went 0-5 until I had Syracuse over Vermont last night... The joke is already old but is Murray State one of those 57 states that Barack Obama claimed to have campaigned in?... I'm in a knockout pool where I have Kentucky and Northern Iowa. Root for those two teams to continue to cover the spread. Can you do that for me? Thanks... St. John's should hire Mark Jackson as their next coach. Then Jackson should hire an up and coming recruiting coach and a veteran bench coach. St. John's should be one of the better programs in the country given their location and history...

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

On one hand you have to feel for Patriots back-up QB Matt Cassel because he's always a bridesmaid and never a bride. Cassel was a back-up in college (at USC to Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart) and now he's a back-up to Tom Brady. You know the guy wants a shot to show people what he can do. On the other hand - being back-up to Tom Brady has to be a great gig to have... Today would have been Jackie Robinson's 89th birthday... Plaxico Burress's prediction of a 23-17 Giants victory will help the Patriots in a subtle way. I'm thinking that the Patriots will make it a point to bump, push, and shove Burress at every opportunity. This extra contact could wear down the receiver just enough so that he's slow on a route or maybe drops a pass. The refs will probably let the Patriots get away with a little extra because subconsciously they might think that Burress brought it on himself... Today is Nolan Ryan's 61st birthday.. Professional back-up Matt Cassel should take comfort in having a better pro career than Heisman Trophy winners Danny Wuerffel - 1996, Chris Weinke - 2000 (who holds the NFL record for most consecutive losses by a quarterback in a season at 14), Eric Crouch - 2001 and Jason White - 2003 (who never even got a regular season snap in the NFL)... I played cards last night and a guy at my table saw the Georgetown / St. John's halftime score and said "Wow - St. John's is getting beat 41-14." Another guy at the table asked, "Is that a women's game?" The first guy then shouted over to a friend at the next table, "Hey Joe - did you see the St. John's score? They're getting beat 41-14." A guy at the second table asked, "Is that a women's game?" The final score ended up being 74-42. St. John's should have kept Kevin Clark as coach.