THE END OF MARCH, BUT NOT THE MADNESS

I've been really slack on blogging the NCAA Tourney this year. Let's fact it, I've been really slack on blogging anything. I'm not much of a blogger anymore. My workday is full and efficient and I share a community comuter with the rest of the office, so I'm not very connected to my online life. However, we begin filming the season finale of Will & Grace this evening and my cush gig here will be ending next week. So, that means that if I so desire, I will have the time to blog in the near future. But, in all honesty, I'm not that into it anymore. I know some people have been incredibly loyal readers (or at least they've come by to check to see if I posted anything knew, even though most days I haven't), but most of the time I feel like I'm really just doing it for myself. Does anyone really care what I have to say about the NCAA Tourney? I'm not sure. But I'm also not sure I care. I once thought of this site as an place to exercise my writing. I have to get back to thinking of it that way. I'm going to start now.

On this final day of one of my favorite months, I find myself looking forward to a phenomenal Final Four and looking back on an exciting tournament. Last weekend in particular offered two excellent games and one for the ages. Duke/Xavier was a tight contest throughout and played at a very high level, with Luol Deng coming up with two huge plays down the stretch to secure the victory for Duke and send them to antoher Final Four. Georgia Tech/Kansas was a much scrappier game, but equally as competitive and gripping. Surprisingly, Kansas failed to utilize their star Wayne Simian when it mattered and Georgia Tech pulled it out to make two ACC teams in the Final Four. UConn blew out Alabama with a flawless performance which suggested that the Huskies could take it all. And then there was St. Joseph's/Oklahoma State. What a game. Cleanly played by a collection of talented players and several legitimate stars. John Lucas stepped up and hit two huge shots after a horrible shooting spell in the first half. Jameer Nelson showed great body control and a deep knowledge of the game in carrying his undersized team as far as they could go. Both teams played unyielding defense and left it all on the court, showing so much combined heart that the end of game had a heavy sadness that one team had to lose. And what a shame that Jameer's college career had to end that way, with his fallback jumper to tie it falling short at the buzzer. Heartbreaking. I expect Oklahoma State to beat Georgia Tech soundly and advance to the Final Game against the winner of the Duke/UConn game. I'd give a slight edge to UConn in matchups, but something tells me it's going to be Duke and OK State in the final. We'll see how it plays out.