the mad sports man

semi final saturday first semi final ended with kentucky beating louisville 69-61.  quite a close one.  even though kentucky owned the game, louisville hung in there and kept it close.  next up is ohio state vs kansas. update:  after tailing at halftime by 9, and at one point down by 13, the kansas jayhawks beat ohio state 64-62 to go to monday's championship game againts kentucky.  wow.  tipoff monday is 7:13

end of march already.  wow. can't believe its the end pf march already.  had some snow and had it melt away.  baseball started in japan, nhl is in playoff chase mode, nascar season is in full swing and march madness is nearing the end.  tonight is the semi finals in new orleans.  and earth hour is tonight from 8:30 to 9:30pm.  april brings more baseball as the regular season resumes on wednesday, the nhl ends the regular season and begins the playoffs (should i grow a playoff beard or no) and more nascar.  and easter is next weekend.

2012 baseball season under way the 2012 season has begun with the seattle mariners and the oakland a's starting in japan this morning  seattle opened with a 3-1 win in 11 innings.  they will play tomorrow as well then begin play stateside.  lets play ball

then there were four, rain shortens auto club 400 we have our final four.  with kentucky beating baylor 82-70 and kansas beating north carolina 80-67,  our final four has kentucky playing louisville and kansas playing ohio state.  both games are this coming saturday. meanwhile in fontana, tony stewart wins a rain shortened race. he moves up three spots to third in the points 18 points behind greg biffle, who finished 4th.  kevin harvick is second in the points, seven behind.  jimmie johnson, who this past tuesday won his appeal, got his 25 points back putting him 11th, finished 10th and now is 8th in the points, 39 back.  next race is april 1st in martinsville and the goody's fast relief 500.

elite eight part one in the west region, louisville beat florida 72-68 and is in the final four and will face either kentucky or baylor.  they play tomorrow.  and in the east region, ohio state beat syracuse 77-70 and will face either north carolina or kansas.  they also play tomorrow.  the semi finals are next saturday and the championship game is april 2.

sweet sixteen part two. in the south, kentucky beat indiana 102-90 to go to the elite eight,  kentucky will face baylor, who beat xavier 75-70.  kentucky vs baylor is sunday. meanwhile in the midwest, north carolina survived a close one against ohio, winning 73-65 in overtime. the tar heels will face kansas, who beat a scrappy n.c. state 60-57.  north carolina vs kansas is sunday as well.  tomorrow is louisville vs florida and syracuse vs ohio state.

sweet 16 part one in the east region, #1 syracuse hung on to beat #4 wisconsin 64-63, while #2 ohio state beat #6 cincinnati 81-66.  so on saturday it will be syracuse vs ohio state.  meanwhile in the west region, #4 louisville beat #1 michigan state 57-44, while #7 florida beat #3 marquette 68-58.  florida will play louisville on saturday.  tomorrow in the south, #1 kentucky will face #4 indiana while #3 baylor will face #10 xavier.  tomorrow in the midwest will have#1 north carolina facing #13 ohio and #2 kansas facing #11 north carolina state.  who will advance?  find out tomorrow.

its spring at 11:14 pm here, spring officially arrived.  of course try telling that to southern and eastern alberta.  theyre getting dumped on my snow.  i heard 30 cm already fell ar about to fall when its done.  oy. happy spring.

keselowski takes bristol brad keselowski on on the worlds fastest chort track in bristol in the blue deuce.  jimmie johnson finished 9th and moved up to 17th in the points.  greg biffle still leads the points after finishing 13th.  tony stewart finished one spot behind biffle and sits 7th in the points.  next race is next sunday in fontana and the auto club 400.

happy st. patrick's day happy st. patricks day.  the time of year where we all wear green.   even drink some green beer.  the chicago river (i think its that one)  is green.  lots of green dye gets put into the river for the day.  on an unrelated note, heather nedohin and her team is representing canada at teh women's world curling championship in lethbridge.  she definitely will represent alberta and canada well.

day two pruduces major upset halfway through day two of march madness, #15 norfolk state battled and beat #2 missouri 86-84.  it was quite an entertaining game.  only the fifth time a 15 seed beat a two seed.  last time was 2001 when hampton beat iowa.  wow. update:  2 anda half hours after one fifteen seed wins, #15 lehigh upsets #2 duke 75-70.  two in the same day after four in 27 years  yikes.  plus #13 ohio upset #4 michigan 65-60,  you can call today the upset special.

a stunner and an upset. first the stunner.  the defending champs are out as uconn lost to iowa state 77-64.  conneticut was the 9 seed as well.   the upset was #12 vcu beat #5 witchita state 62-59.  wow already here.  so obviously we will have new champs this year.  and its only day one. update.  minor upset has #11 colorado beat #6 UNLV 68-64.  earlier #1 syracuse survived a close one against #16 unc-ashville 72-60.  unc-ashville was actually leading for awhile.  thats it for day one.  rest of the first round games are tomorrow.

march madness has begun the ncaa basketball tournament has begun in earnest today.  the four play-in games actually started it over tuesday and yesterday.  as always, it should be a fun tourney, and the chance of a few upsets is always there.  who will win it this year?  stay tuned.

steven stamkos 50th in exclusive company earlier tonight in a 6-1 win over boston, tampa bay lightning forward steven stamkos scored two goals, including #50 becoming the 6th player to have two 50 goal seasons before turning 23.  he joins wayne gretzky (with 4), mike bossy (2), mario lemieux (2), joe nieuwendyk (2), and alexander ovechkin (2) on that list.  pretty damn good i say

nascar las vegas style tony stewart held off jimmie johnson to win the kobalt tools 500.  stewart held them all off on restart after restart.  stewart moved to 7th in the points with the win, while johnson moved to 23rd in the points.  should he win an appeal on tuesday, he gets the 25 points back and will end up 13th.  greg biffle is the new points leader with a third place finish today.  next race is in bristol and the food city 500.

time change in the works tonight is the night most of north america changes their clocks ahead an hour.  be sure to do so before you go to bed.  the change happens at 2am everywhere, except in saskatchewan, arizona, and parts of indiana.  not sure where else the change doesn't happen.

tim hortons brier springing into the final weekend the tim hortons brier is into the final weekend with ontario, with glenn howard skipping, finishing first, manitoba's rob fowler finishing second, alberta's kevin koe in third and the territories jamie koe (yes kevins brother) in fourth.  making the page playoff system featuring glenn howard playing rob fowler in the 1st vs second game and the 3 vs four game featuring the koe's.  gonna be a good one there meanwhile spring is here bigtime  supposed to get to  above tomorrow and the seven day forecast shows above freezing temps, so the snow is going to melt.  its been a mild winter.  march isnt over yet.  oh yeah,  this weekend is when almost everyone changes their clocks AHEAD one hour.

subway fresh fit 500 denny hamlin won today in phoenix and is sitting in the points lead as a result.  greg biffle is second in the points after a second 3rd place finish.  jimmie johnson, aftera  miserable daytona 500 where finished close to the back plus had a fine, loss of points and lost crew chief chad knaus for six racesafter an "illegal" part in the car, finished 4th.  the loss of points and suspension is being appealed.  current champ tony stewart is 15th in the points after finishing 22nd.  next race is in las vegas next week.

a hello to march after leap day with the leap day yesterday (made no difference), march is here and the fun begins.  with the playoff run in the nhl, baseball preseason around the corner, march madness a.k.a the ncaa basketball tournament, nascar gets into full swing and the oil kings is in the playoffs in the western hockey league.  and maybe some snow melting away and maybe some snow falling.  its going to be a good march.