the mad sports man

 NC State just beat Duke 76-64 and will play Purdue, who beat Tennessee 72-66.  NC State vs Purdue and UConn vs Alabama play next Saturday in the semis. Stay tuned. 

 It will be UConn vs Alabama next Saturday. Alabama just beat Clemson 89-82 and UConn bezy Illinois 73-52. The rest of the final four will be set tomorrow with Duke vs NC State and Purdue vs Tennessee. Stay tuned 

 The 2024 season began in earnest today with almost all teams playing today.  2 games rained out. The Dodgers and Padres had already began in South Korea last week. Here's to 6 months of of speed pitches and homers

 The team of Rachel Homan, Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew, Sarah Wilkes and alternate Rachelle Brown are your 2024 world curling champions, defeating Switzerland 7-5. Quite a performance by this team.  First Canadian team to win it since 2018. Congrats to team Canada. 

 The big upset of the day so far had #13 Yale beat #4 Auburn 78-76. Uuf. The other one had #10 Colorado beat #7 Florida 102-100 (I wonder if a 10 seed over a 7 seed is an upset).  Question now is how many brackets have been busted. Probably loads. 

 This tournament went by quietly.  Kadriana and Colton Lott just beat Laura Walker and Kirk Muyres 7-5 and will represent Canada at the world mixed doubles curling championships in Ostersund Sweden from April 20-27.

 This has #14 Oakland beat #3 Kentucky 80-76. Bang. 4 left tonight. Who is next?

 So far only two minor upsets. Both 11 over 6. Oregon beat South Carolina 87-77 and Duquesne beat BYU 71-67.  8 games down and 8 to go tonight, then day 2 tomorrow. 

 Spring begins at 9:06pm Prince Albert time tonight. We're in the last hours of winter. Supposed to be -5c today and that temperature the rest of the week. It was really a mild winter. Only one or two serious cold snaps and one major snow storm. Most of the snow from that is almost melted. 

  It's St Patrick's day.  The one day of the year where we're Irish for a day. Time of the year where we wear green, or drink green beer (although I won't). It's green time for a day. Cheers.

 Brad Gushue, Mark Nichols, Geoff Walker, and E.J. Harden has won the 2024 Montana's Brier, and third in a row. For Gushue, Nichols and Walker, it's their 6th. Wow. Kudos for Mike McEwen for battling. Congrats to Gushue and the b'yes from Newfoundland. 

 From what I heard, Mike McEwen put on a clinic in beating Brendan Bottcher 7-3.  McEwen vs Gushue in the championship game. Can McEwen end Saskatchewan 44 year drought or will Gushue win another? Stay tuned 

 First the Brier Mike McEwen beat Matt Dunstone 6-5 in the 3vs4 page game. McEwen will play the liser of the Bottcher vs Gushue game tonight.  Speaking of tonight is the springtime reminder to move your clocks FORWARD an hour. Certain parts of North America won't have to do so. (One advantage of living in Saskatchewan).

 Sooo.... Matt Dunstone beat Mike Carruthers 6-2 and Mike McEwen beat Jamie Koe 7-0. McEwen had 6 steals in this game, which tied a Brier record for most steals in a game. McEwen plays Dunstone in the 3/4 game tomorrow afternoon (winner to semi, loser out), while Brendan Bottcher plays Brad Gushue win the 1/2 game tomorrow night (winner to final, lower to semi). The end is nigh.

 The 1/2 page playoff qualifier just wrapped up. Brendan Bottcher just beat Mike McEwen 9-7 and Brad Gushue beat Mike Carruthers by the same score.  It will be Bottcher vs Gushue in the 1/2 page game Saturday night, while tonight has Carruthers vs Matt Dunstone and McEwen plays Jamie Koe in the 3/4 page qualifiers tonight. Stay tuned.

 Had a pretty good snowstorm that started Saturday night and ended Sunday night.  Not sure how much Prince Albert got, but places between the Battlefords and Saskatoon got as much as 30cm or a foot of snow.  It's deep enough that the alleyways were plowed.  My room is next to an alley. I heard a plow go by. It's crazy that it was the first snowstorm of the season. I mean, we got dumps of 2 to 4 cm a couple of times. So that happened. 

 The Paris 2024 summer Olympics posters came out yesterday. Looks pretty neat. Here is one. What do you think?

 Happy birthday to this blog. This blog has turned 20. 20 years of hockey, baseball, football, Olympics, Nascar and other wild and wacky shenanigans.  Plus loads of fun facts somewhere. Here's to 20 more years.